Radiant Dragon’s Otherworldly Reincarnation

Chapter 227. He Was Stronger Than Me (3)

It wasn’t that he hadn’t anticipated such a situation.

In fact, ever since he had indirectly experienced the Walking Calamity at the Tower of Truth, he had kept their existence in the back of his mind.

That’s why he had modified his goal.

He had decided to conduct his pioneering activities carefully, so as to avoid clashing with those called the Apostles of Kallaron as much as possible.

100 kilometers east of the Schneider fiefdom.

The reason he had established the pioneer city at that exact location was to avoid provoking those beings called the Apostles of Kallaron. However…

‘Even after taking such precautions, it still turned out like this?’

Patrick crossed his arms and closed his eyes.

Everyone silently watched Patrick.

And a short while later.

“Sages.”

“Speak.”

“With our current military power, it would be impossible to confront an Apostle of Kallaron, right?”

“I believe you know better than anyone.”

“Yes. Well, that’s true.”

Although it was a virtual world, Patrick was the only one who had fought against an Apostle of Kallaron.

So there was no need to ask anyone.

He knew better than anyone what had to be done.

“We will evacuate the city and all retreat.”

“Patrick.”

“Are you planning to abandon all of this?”

“Young Master.”

Many people objected.

Right now, the pioneer city Ava was undergoing continuous development.

The infrastructure was almost complete, and if the reclaimed farmland in the Moana River basin began to operate in earnest, it would bring in a massive harvest starting next year.

And to achieve all of this, everyone here had shed blood and sweat and worked hard.

Patrick was now saying to give up all those fruits and retreat.

“Young Master. Are you saying we should just retreat without even trying anything?”

“Yes.”

Sanson said, as if frustrated.

“Why are you acting so unlike yourself, Young Master? No matter what that thing is, isn’t it right for you to say that if you just beat it up, everything will be resolved?”

“Well, if you think about it normally, that’s true. But you see. Sanson.”

“What is it?”

“I only say that when the opponent is weaker than me.”

“……?!”

Sanson was shocked.

Interpreting what Patrick had just said, that meant…

“I experienced those things called the Apostles of Kallaron at the Tower of Truth. And I’m only saying this now, but…”

Patrick said, drawing everyone’s attention.

“He was stronger than me.”

That one sentence was enough.

It was reason enough for Patrick to decide to retreat.

* * *

There were three reasons why Patrick had constructed a waterway on the Moana River.

One was to facilitate the logistics between the Schneider fiefdom and the pioneer city Ava.

The second was to drive out the monsters in the Moana River basin and secure an area to use as farmland.

And the third, and final reason.

In the event of a one-in-a-million situation, it was to transport people to a safe place as quickly as possible.

And that third reason was now taking effect.

“Please board in order. In order!”

“There are enough boats. The next boat will arrive right away, so don’t push and please wait.”

“Depart! Tell them to bring the next boat quickly!”

People retreated quickly by boat, like an ebbing tide.

People were sad to abandon the city they had worked so hard to build and retreat, but they still obediently followed the controls.

It was better than dying, after all.

Of course, not everyone was like that.

“Mom, Dad, where are we going?”

“…We have to go home.”

“But our home is here? Our school and friends are here too?”

The mother held her child’s hand, a troubled expression on her face as the child didn’t understand what was happening.

She didn’t know how to explain this fact to her child. At that moment, the man who appeared to be the father explained the situation concisely.

“A dangerous monster has come, so we have to run away. So let’s go to a safe place, and when it’s safe again, we’ll come back.”

“Really? We can come back later?”

“…….”

The father closed his mouth.

He was at a loss as to how to explain.

He looked at the pioneer city Ava with sorrowful eyes.

‘To think we have to leave this place…’

Starving due to a poor harvest, he had left his hometown and settled in the Schneider fiefdom.

Leaving one’s hometown with the whole family was not an easy decision, but he had no choice in order to survive.

Since it was a city that was developing rapidly, he could find a job, but since he had left everything he had behind, he didn’t know if it would take decades to settle down again.

To him, the pioneer city Ava was a hope.

For the initial settlers, just by moving to the city, they were provided with a place to live for free and were given jobs in the city’s construction.

He was told that he would be given farmland after just three years, and most importantly, the five-year tax exemption was the biggest factor.

As the head of the family responsible for his family, he made a decision on this sweet offer.

If he just endured for five years, he could settle down.

For him, who had been prepared to suffer for over a decade, or perhaps for the rest of his life, this was a hope.

A chance to settle down as a proper resident and provide his children with an environment that was at least not lacking, even if not luxurious.

The migration to the pioneer city that he had decided on.

After coming here, he thought every single day.

That he had made a really good decision.

The residence given to his family was a unit in a five-story apartment building, but since it was a newly built building, there was no inconvenience at all.

There were enough jobs, and the wages were sufficient.

When he sent his child to the school the Young Master had built for the basic education of children, he was so happy that tears came to his eyes.

Watching the city develop day by day, he felt a sense of pride, thinking, ‘I am contributing to the development of this city.’

Hope, happiness, peace….

Everything he had wished for his whole life was here.

He had thought of this city as his second hometown and had vowed to live here, sweating and working, for the rest of his life. However….

“Damn it…”

He clenched his fists tightly.

Tears welled up in his eyes.

He knew he shouldn’t show a weak side as the head of a family, but…

In the reality where the hope he had built up and the daily happiness he thought would last a lifetime were collapsing, he was just an ordinary human being.

And he wasn’t the only one feeling that way.

The other people around him all had gloomy expressions with the same feeling.

* * *

On the outer wall of the port side of the Schneider fiefdom.

“…This sucks.”

There, Patrick was chugging liquor straight from the bottle.

In his eyes, he could see the refugees boarding the boats.

The head of a family shedding tears in helplessness.

A mother soothing a child who was throwing a tantrum, not wanting to go.

Even the elderly, who found it difficult to move, were forcing themselves to move with bundles in their hands….

All of this pissed Patrick off.

“XX, goddamn son of a…”

They were people who were living with hope for a new life in this pioneer city.

The fact that he couldn’t protect their daily lives irritated Patrick.

Not being able to protect people because he lacked power.

This was the fifth thing Patrick hated.

As he always said, from the single digits, it was no joke.

Patrick, whose anger had reached its peak.

But still, Patrick endured.

If he had his way, he wanted to draw his sword right now and run to the enemy threatening this city. However….

[Try to live with some thought. Th-ought!]

[Let me just split your head open once. You human, I’m curious if you have the same thing in there as others.]

[Brother, are you crazy?]

[You are… well…. hopeless.]

“I know. I know, you bastards!”

Patrick yelled.

He knew. He knew that the situation was very different from his days as the Radiant Dragon Great Master in his past life.

Radiant Dragon Great Master Jin Cheon.

He had gained fame for his actions that seemed like recklessness shaped into human form, but in fact, the reason he could act so recklessly was because he was a man of the Jianghu.

“Thinking about it now, those days were carefree and good.”

The current Patrick was not a man of the Jianghu.

He was the heir to the family that led the Schneider fiefdom.

At first, he didn’t know what this meant.

But after going to the Academy and learning a bit about the world, and gaining worldly experience through his knight’s training journey, he understood.

The weight of being the heir to a noble family.

Realizing that point, a sense of responsibility, different in kind from when he acted as a martial artist of the Jianghu, pressed down on his shoulders.

‘It’s different. It’s different, I tell you.’

To put it extremely, even if the Twin Dragon Sect were to fall, it wouldn’t have a major impact on the lives of the common people.

Of course, there would be some confusion in the power structure between the involved merchant guilds and nearby sects, but it would calm down soon.

Another sect would take a similar position and fulfill that role.

This wasn’t much different even for Shaolin, which was called the Taishan and Beidou of the Jianghu.

Shaolin falls?

It would be a major incident.

Limited to the martial world of the Jianghu, that is.

But from the perspective of ordinary people living their lives, it would be a hot topic for a while, but they would be able to live on, just thinking ‘so that happened.’

Basically, the Jianghu was a separate world, isolated from the Central Plains.

But the Schneider family was different.

If this family falls, the lives of everyone living on this land will become miserable.

Most of the fiefdom’s residents would die.

The survivors would also lose everything and become refugees, having to wander to other fiefdoms to beg for food.

That was the weight a noble responsible for a fiefdom had to bear.

“Ugh…. This noble life, now that I’m actually living it, it’s not as great as I thought.”

But what could he do?

Even if it was his second life, a human could not choose where and how they were born.

In the end, even Patrick couldn’t just charge in according to his temper.

“Hooo…. Let’s endure. For now, I must endure. That… who was it? There was a strange king who slept on firewood and liked gall so much he sucked on it. Let’s endure like him.”

It’s ‘Wòxīnchángdǎn,’ you bastard.

And he didn’t do it because he liked it.

“I must endure. I must endure.”

Patrick controlled himself.

Even if the Rushing Death destroys the city after all the citizens have evacuated, he must endure.

He would endure for now, and then build a new pioneer city in a lower area.

Although the money invested in building this city would all be gone, he still had to endure. He had to endure….

“Aaargh…. To think I have to endure my money being blown away. How much money did I put into this city!”

Ah, that seemed to be the most infuriating part.

“My mooooneeeeeeey!”

* * *

The residents of the pioneer city Ava smoothly retreated to the rear.

It was thanks to Patrick’s order to prioritize people over any supplies for the retreat.

As a result, one place became busier.

It was the Schneider fiefdom.

As the refugees from the pioneer city flocked in all at once, it suddenly became busy to protect them.

The one commanding this work was Baron Schneider.

“My lord, it seems we will be short of temporary residences.”

“Prioritize the children and the elderly for housing. And if we’re short, let them stay in the rooms of the lord’s mansion.”

“My lord. If the Young Master finds out…”

To Chandler, who spoke with a troubled expression, Baron Schneider smiled faintly and said.

“I am still the lord for now.”

“Uh… that…”

As the trainee butler Chandler still hesitated, the butler Lawrence, who was watching from the side, bellowed.

“Did you not hear the lord’s command?!”

“My apologies. I will follow your command.”

Chandler hurriedly shouted, bowed his head, and left.

At that, Lawrence frowned with displeasure and said.

“My apologies. I will give him a stern scolding later.”

“Hahaha. Don’t do that. Lawrence. Don’t you understand Chandler’s position?”

“How could I possibly understand?”

“Hahaha….”

Unlike the carefree laughing Baron Schneider, Lawrence’s frowned brow did not smooth out.

The real power in the Schneider fiefdom was already Patrick.

There was no one who didn’t know this.

However.

“Even so. Prioritizing the Young Master over the lord is an unacceptable thing.”

The old butler Lawrence, who had dedicated his entire life to the Schneider fiefdom, said firmly.

There was no doubt about Patrick’s ability.

But, no, rather because of that, as someone who had been loyal to the Schneider family his whole life, he had to maintain the family’s structure properly.

Only then, when Patrick inherited the family in the future, wouldn’t the hierarchy be established smoothly?

As long as the person holding the family’s seal was Jaycall Schneider, his lord had to be Baron Schneider.

Naturally, the object of the family’s retainers’ loyalty had to be the same.

“Tsk, the young ones are too ignorant of their place.”

“Hahaha. It can be like that.”

Baron Schneider laughed.

In fact, even though he said this, Lawrence was also someone who cared for Patrick more than anyone else.

He had personally educated him since he was a child and had raised him practically like his own grandson.

And Patrick also thought of Lawrence in a special way.

The high-quality staff that Lawrence was holding in his hand now was a personal gift from Patrick.

It was a high-quality item that only a decent noble would use, but when he saw Butler Lawrence using a staff, he had personally bought it and gifted it to him.

People said his son was violent and rough, but Baron Schneider knew.

That he was a son with a warm heart who cared for his own people.

‘It seems it will be fine even without me now. No, it might be better if I’m not here.’

The young people of the fiefdom were secretly hoping for Patrick to inherit the fiefdom quickly.

Baron Schneider had decided to hand over the position of lord as soon as his son graduated from the Academy.

Although it seemed there was a slight problem now, his son would overcome it well.

All he had to do was to protect this position until then and hand it over.

‘That will probably be the last duty I can perform as a lord.’

And just as he was about to focus on the documents again….

A soldier hurriedly ran into the office of the Schneider fiefdom, opened the door, and shouted.

“My lord. It’s an emergency.”

“What is it?”

Baron Schneider’s expression hardened.

His experience from protecting this fiefdom for a long time was telling him.

Most of the time when soldiers came running in such a hurry without even a greeting, it was not good news. And….

“It’s a Monster Stampede.”

“…….”

“…….”

The faces of Baron Schneider and Butler Lawrence hardened at the same time. And the soldier continued his report with a pale face.

“We have confirmed that a monster legion of unidentifiable scale is advancing towards the fiefdom. We must respond quickly.”

The pen held in Baron Schneider’s hand broke. And he immediately shot up and shouted.

“Mobilize the entire military force of the fiefdom at once. We must protect the fiefdom!”

“Yes, sir!”

An unprecedented crisis was thus approaching the Schneider fiefdom.