Novel Full Chapter 220 : Chapter 220
Chapter 220. That’s Enough, Isn’t It? (3)
Patrick returned for the time being.
Sanson and his subordinates were greatly surprised at the sight of Patrick, who had hunted monsters all day and returned covered in blood from head to toe.
“Young Master.”
“What on earth have you been doing?”
To his subordinates, Patrick said.
“What do you mean, what was I doing? I was fighting. Can’t you tell by looking?”
“……”
“I’m tired. Move aside so I can wash up and rest.”
And Patrick rinsed his body with river water and filled his stomach with a simple meal.
And as he relieved his fatigue, he thought.
“Kuuuh, isn’t there some kind of breakthrough method?”
Most of the world’s problems can be solved by smashing them.
That was Patrick’s motto.
But he also knew.
That sometimes, there were problems that couldn’t be solved even by smashing them.
That’s why he emphasized that it was most, not all.
Usually, in times like these, he asked for help from smart people.
For example….
“I miss you, my friend.”
“Why me?”
“Not you, the ugly friend.”
“…You had friends other than me?”
Matthew said as if he were genuinely surprised.
And Patrick just sighed.
‘What would you know? What…’
If The Ugly Dragon Scholar, Jaegal Hyeon, were here, he would have suggested some brilliant solution.
No, maybe this problem could be solved just with Jaegal Hyeon’s knowledge of mechanical formations and formation interpretation.
A guy like him could probably set up a large formation around this city to prevent monsters from entering.
Patrick suddenly thought.
“Hey, mage mister.”
“Did you call me, Double Dragon?”
Patrick stopped a passing mage.
The Ugly Dragon Scholar wasn’t here, but there were plenty of mages.
Aren’t mages considered the symbol of knowledge and wisdom in this world?
Patrick said with a sliver of hope.
“By any chance, can you guys set up something like a formation?”
“What is that?”
“Can’t you install a device around here that shows illusions with magic or makes one lose their sense of direction?”
“I have never heard of such a thing.”
“Tsk…”
So magic isn’t as all-powerful as I thought.
In the Central Plains, they say some guy named Zhuge Liang or something set up a few rocks and blocked an army of a million.
‘Well, it seems like an exaggeration to me.’
If that were possible, why would he have lost?
But the formations themselves were real.
‘Should I have learned some? No, that’s impossible.’
He had watched his friend do it hundreds of times from the side, but he just couldn’t understand it.
His friend would ramble on about the eight trigrams and the arrangement of the four symbols, but he couldn’t understand it at all.
“A method, a method, a novel solution like a strawberry-flavored cold mediciiiine!”
To Patrick, who was tearing his hair out and going crazy, the mage he had questioned said.
“If you don’t tell me what the problem is, I can’t find a solution, can I?”
“I’m looking for a way to guarantee the city’s safety by preventing monsters from approaching this area.”
“Ah, I see.”
Only then did the mage nod as if he understood the situation.
Patrick, who hadn’t expected much, felt a glimmer of hope.
And the nameless mage said.
“I do not know of such a thing.”
“…You don’t know?”
“Yes. I do not know.”
“……”
Then why did you talk like you knew?
Just as Patrick was slowly clenching his fist, the mage said.
“Well, the story would be different if a dragon were to step in, of course.”
“A dragon?”
“No matter how ferocious a monster is, they cannot carelessly invade a dragon’s territory.”
“Why is that?”
At Patrick’s words, who seemed to be hearing it for the first time, the mage said.
“That is because dragons can freely manipulate the killing intent that intimidates monsters. It is called Dragon Fear.”
“Dragon Fear…”
“And they are born as the top predators and reign at the pinnacle of the ecosystem. So, monsters instinctively avoid setting foot in their territory.”
“……”
Patrick pondered.
A dragon’s territory.
The pinnacle of the ecosystem that monsters instinctively avoid.
Yes.
That was the solution.
But there was a problem here.
“Where are the dragons?”
“Hahaha. Double Dragon. They left the middle realm long ago.”
“What? Why? With whose permission?”
Not yours, that’s for sure.
The mage said with a troubled expression.
“Well, there are various theories about that. The most prominent one is that the great race was exterminated after exhausting all their power in the war against the demons.”
“Ahem, what an absurd claim is that?”
At that moment, another passing mage interjected and said.
“They are a race that served as the guardians of the middle realm. If they had truly disappeared, there would have been a word from the gods through an oracle. The extinction theory is a groundless delusion.”
At that, the mage who was originally talking with Patrick glared with fire in his eyes and said.
“A delusion? The claims of fools who vaguely imagine they exist somewhere without any basis are the real delusion.”
“What? Then where is the evidence that they went extinct? Where is it?”
“A being that held such immense mana disappeared without a trace, if this isn’t extinction, what is it?”
“You ignorant seed. Then…”
And the mages started fighting among themselves.
Other mages intervened to stop the fight….
“Of course, the extinction theory is the correct answer.”
“Ahem, you ignorant man. To assume something doesn’t exist just because you can’t see the answer. I am ashamed to be a fellow mage.”
“What? What school are you from? State your lineage (genealogy)!”
“Why is lineage coming up here?”
The fight, far from being stopped, only got more heated.
Mages pointing fingers at each other, even grabbing each other by the collar.
Seeing the scene that eventually led to a fistfight, Patrick said in a drained voice.
“I wish they would all just get lost.”
Symbol of wisdom and intellect, my ass….
* * *
As is the way of the world….
There isn’t always a clear-cut answer to every problem.
Patrick’s situation was the same right now.
A situation with no perfect answer.
In times like these, there are two answers.
One is to give up.
The other is….
“First, I’ll do the best I can.”
Do your best and leave the rest to heaven.
“If a man does all he can, even heaven will help. If not, heaven and everything else will die.”
[Cheon-ah, that’s not what it means.]
It’s a shame that the master of the Twin Dragon Sect, who would have said that, was absent.
In any case, giving up just because there was no answer was not the Radiant Dragon Great Master’s style.
Even if there was no answer, it was better to do one’s best in what could be done and aim for victory.
No matter how hard and difficult that process was.
“Elione, April, let’s go.”
“Yes. Young Master.”
“Understood.”
In the end, Patrick once again went around the pioneer city and carried out a large-scale monster extermination.
There were no tricks or anything.
He just persistently tracked down and cut down any monster that could be a threat within Elione’s reconnaissance range.
It was by no means easy.
The sight of Patrick returning covered in blood from head to toe every time he went out and came back sobered everyone in the pioneer city.
“Just how much is he fighting?”
“I don’t know. He goes out almost every day and comes back like that…”
Even April and Elione, who acted with him, had clear signs of fatigue.
But Patrick didn’t stop and went out every day.
Yes.
This might be no different from pouring water into a bottomless pit.
But if he didn’t pour the water, everyone in this city would be in danger.
Then, what could he do?
‘I have to do it.’
Patrick had never been second to anyone when it came to guts.
He went out every day and fought with the demonic beasts, and as a result, the pioneer city had been peaceful for the past several tens of days.
And Patrick had to bleed that much.
No matter how strong Patrick was, the monsters of the Great Forest were not to be trifled with.
There were times when Patrick was injured.
But before those injuries had fully healed, Patrick would go outside the wall again and fight with the monsters.
“Young Master, you are overexerting yourself too much.”
“What do you mean, overexerting…”
Unable to watch any longer, Sanson stepped forward.
But Patrick answered bluntly.
April was changing his bandages by his side, and the skin visible through them was covered with various wounds.
Seeing this, Sanson gritted his teeth and said.
“No matter how strong the Young Master is, fighting the monsters of the Great Forest every day is physically demanding.”
“So?”
“Please rest. If possible, take the next ship and go to the fief for now to recuperate…”
“Sanson Kainel.”
Patrick looked at Sanson with a serious expression and said.
“If I don’t do it here?”
“……?”
“What happens if I don’t fight?”
“That is…”
“Monsters will flock to the pioneer city, which is in the middle of construction. Among them, there will be some absurdly strong ones.”
“……”
“Then, you all will have to fight while protecting the laborers who are in the middle of construction.”
“……”
“In that process, if the combat range widens, there will be quite a few casualties. The city under construction will also be considerably destroyed.”
“……”
“And you’re telling me to rest because I’m tired? Because it’s tiring and difficult?”
“Young Master, what I mean is…”
“Wounds heal over time. They aren’t worth as much as the life of a single laborer mobilized for the city’s construction.”
“……”
Sanson had nothing to say.
Because Patrick’s words were right.
Sanson just lowered his head, and Patrick drank the liquor in his canteen.
“Kuhhh…”
And Patrick chuckled at the serious-faced Sanson and said.
“Hey, do you think I’m doing this because I like it?”
“……”
“I’d like to do it that way too if there was a good solution. I’d like to do it if there was an easy and convenient way. But there isn’t.”
“……”
“Then, what can I do? I have to do what I can right now. Isn’t that right?”
“Can’t you just give up this city? Is there a reason you have to go this far?”
“Of course, there is.”
“What is it?”
To Sanson, who asked as if he were arguing, Patrick said.
“I confirmed through communication, and thanks to us raising this ruckus here, there are no monster attacks in the fief now.”
“……”
“There are no more children who grieve after losing their families to monsters.”
“That…”
“That’s enough, isn’t it? Isn’t it?”
That’s right.
This Great Forest pioneering plan was started in the first place to protect people from the dangers of the Great Forest.
Sanson, too, was a man born and raised in the Schneider fief.
He grew up seeing countless bereaved families who shed tears due to monster attacks.
Putting everything aside, Sanson himself held the same pain.
“If you’ve said all you have to say, go. I need to rest a bit.”
And towards Patrick, who lay down with an expression as if his whole body was aching, Sanson bowed his waist with utmost politeness and retreated.
And then….
“Oliver.”
“Yes. Big Bro… Commander.”
“Summon the entire knightly order immediately.”
“Yes. Understood.”
And Sanson called his subordinates and told them the conversation he had with Patrick verbatim.
The Double Dragon Knightly Order, who heard his words, all clenched their fists.
Although it was a little better now, they also remembered.
Every month, every week, sometimes even every day.
A place where people died due to monster attacks.
That was their hometown.
Do you know what was the saddest thing?
That those days of growing up while losing family and neighbors were such a natural part of their daily lives.
They didn’t know when their turn might come.
Their own death.
The death of their family.
The death of their lover and friends.
They, who remembered the past where death was seeped into their daily lives, clenched their fists.
Patrick was trying to change that hellish daily life that everyone had given up on and just accepted.
By shedding blood with his whole body and swinging his sword at the forefront.
Sanson said.
“We cannot leave everything to the Young Master. We did not strive to become strong just to hide behind the Young Master and pick up scraps from behind him.”
“……”
“Let us also do what we can for our hometown. Whatever that may be.”
The expressions of the knights who heard Sanson’s words changed.
“Of course.”
“Naturally!”
“Damn it, what on earth have we been doing all this time!”
“Dammit, we’ve gotten slack…”
The knights, who were venting their anger, finally realized.
That the reason they had endured such hellish training to gain strength was to protect what they must protect with this strength.
The next day.
The Double Dragon Knightly Order, having regained their original intention, voluntarily and meticulously patrolled the area around the fortress.
“Troll pack discovered.”
“Track them! Do not let them escape!”
“Finish them!”
And with their venom raised, they struck down any monster they saw.
With their skills, it was impossible for them to face a national disaster-level demonic beast like Patrick.
But to alleviate Patrick’s burden even a little, they thoroughly searched the area around the fortress and exterminated the monsters.
The Double Dragon Knightly Order, who went out early in the morning and returned at dusk, came back carrying the byproducts of countless monsters on their backs.
And spurred on by this, the Orc warriors of the Red Rock Tribe also actively went out to hunt around the fortress.
“Do not fall behind the humans.”
“We are a race of warriors. Let us display our valor!”
“Uooooooh!”
They, who had been passively carrying out only the tasks Patrick ordered, became active.
They were desperately carrying out what they could for this pioneer city.
And spurred on by this, the mages did not remain still either.
“5th Sage. How about we install magical armaments for siege defense on the wall?”
“That is a good idea.”
“Of course, with the permission of the hypocri… huh?”
“Send a communication to the Tower of Truth right now and request the items. If they refuse, tell them to send it in my name.”
“Yes. Understood.”
And so, siege weapons for anti-monster use made by mages were placed on the wall.
On the outside, they were ordinary ballistas, but the arrows used in them were enchanted with magic.
It was a weapon with the destructive power to tear apart even an ogre if it hit properly.
And the elves diligently patrolled the area around the fortress and eliminated risk factors.
Everyone did their best.
A situation with no convenient and certain solution.
Yet, with everyone joining forces, the pioneer city was developing and taking shape, little by little.
With just the power of will and effort….