Free Web NovelThe only family that had ever succeeded in creating an army of the dead.
Unless we unraveled that secret and stopped their operation, we had no chance of winning.
At my declaration that I would go to the Aylos family, Margon puffed out his thick chest as if to say I could trust him completely.
Next was Noance. But he opened his mouth several times only to close it again, raking his fingers through his hair in irritation.
“Damn it... I have a goal, but no destination. I want to expand the rebels, but I don’t know how.”
In the end, he voiced the frustration that had no answer. At his words, each of us fell into thought.
The rebels currently numbered around a hundred. The soldiers guarding the royal palace were, at a rough estimate, over a thousand.
Even if dragons flew in from Beljena, the real problem was the mages guarding the palace. There were dozens of high-ranking mages there.
The gap in strength was like throwing eggs at a rock, but we couldn’t just inflate the rebels’ numbers recklessly. There was always the risk that one of the king’s close agents might slip in among new recruits.
Thoughts piled on top of one another. Morpha, perhaps having reached a similar conclusion, asked in a detached voice,
“Noance, what kind of force are you seeking?”
The newly declared leader looked momentarily flustered at the question, but he soon composed himself and began listing the conditions he wanted.
“At our current size, we might succeed in killing the king, but there’s no way we can bring down the entire royal palace. Lady Adeline’s dream wasn’t just to cut off the head of a puppet—it was to rip out the rotten root.”
“I agree. Killing a single human cannot overturn the world.”
Morpha nodded cleanly in agreement. Noance gave a small nod and continued.
“We need to remove King Laskar along with the senior members of the council. And our goal is to eliminate all the magical creature management facilities spread across the country.”
“Hm, so it’s not a matter of size, but of range.”
“Right. But it doesn’t have to be combat forces. As long as they can tie down the regional armies when we strike the capital, that’s enough.”
Based on Noance’s explanation, I began to map it out in my head.
This world didn’t have modern conveniences like the internet or telephones, but King Laskar had established a nationwide communication network through magic.
And real-time communication was an overwhelming advantage in a battle of information.
If the dragons flew from Beljena to the capital all at once, the king, upon receiving word, would set traps before they even arrived.
And once we began attacking the capital, the regional armies would all converge.
“We need... a force that’s spread across the entire country, but can move simultaneously...”
When I muttered that half to myself, Noance let out a deep sigh. He said he had reached the same conclusion, but hadn’t voiced it because it sounded impossible.
Same here. To organize such a force, several conditions were necessary.
A real-time communication network, a leader capable of adapting flexibly to unpredictable situations, and soldiers who had trained together over a long period.
It was a problem that couldn’t be solved in a short time. I pressed a hand to my forehead and groaned.
At that moment, Margon, who had just filled his empty cup and downed it in one go, burst into laughter.
“Gahahaha! If you’re talking about something that can stir up trouble across the whole country at once, there’s exactly one thing!”
Everyone sitting around the campfire turned to look at him at the same time. Not a trace of trust could be found in Noance’s gaze toward Margon.
Despite that, Margon grinned mischievously, rubbing his alcohol-soaked beard.
“Was it five years ago...? There was an incident that threw the entire country into chaos. Even new recruits were mobilized for a whole month to deal with it.”
“What was it?”
Impatient with the long lead-in, I asked. Margon lifted a finger and pointed at the sky, curling his lips into a grin.
“A great flood. The whole country turned into a sea. It was complete chaos.”
At his playful tone, Morpha immediately looked away, as if they hadn’t expected anything worthwhile to begin with.
Noance muttered under his breath and shook his head as if to say, Of course.
And I slowly replayed Margon’s words in my mind.
A great flood. Or something equivalent to a natural disaster.
Something that could strike the entire country simultaneously without the need for a real-time network, trained soldiers, or a commanding leader.
But natural phenomena couldn’t be controlled by human ability. Weak humans could only be swept away by what might as well be divine punishment.
But then, something Varen had told me not long ago suddenly came to mind.
“Varen, you said the sea spirit once caused a tremendous rain, right? Enough to ground even dragons.”
I grabbed his arm urgently as I asked. Varen frowned slightly at the unpleasant memory but answered me nonetheless.
“Yes. But that’s an old story, passed down by word of mouth.”
“No. It’s possible.”
I shot to my feet without realizing it. Even as everyone’s attention turned to me, I gathered all the memories, knowledge, and experience I had.
“Spirits are nature itself... within their domain, they’re omnipotent. They just find it bothersome to interfere in human affairs.”
“Ceryl, calm down.”
“But not all of them are like that. Varen, remember the river spirit? It saved you and helped us.”
A few months ago, when Varen had been trapped in that basement and I needed to feed him, I had fished out every last red carp from the river governed by a spirit.
Yet the spirit had helped us readily, saying that I was a human who knew how to give thanks to nature just by offering a simple tribute.
It had healed Kallen and Ella, allowed fever-stricken Varen to rest, and even given us a gift for our long journey.
As my words sped up with excitement, Varen took my hand, urging me to stay calm.
“Ceryl, I understand what you’re saying. But the sea spirit is different. He has a terrible temperament. He hates both humans and dragons.”
“He doesn’t need to like us. Morpha said it, didn’t they? The basis of negotiation is exchanging what each side wants.”
What we wanted from the sea spirit was clear. And as if by fate, we had something the sea spirit wanted.
According to Varen, something like the spirit’s own child—
“Maril!!!”
I shouted her name like a thunderclap.
The mermaid princess, trapped in that small tank—someone who had been pushed so far down my priorities that I had nearly forgotten her entirely—finally came to mind.
I shook off Varen’s attempt to stop me and ran toward the tent like a madman. Now that the Drunkard had succeeded in freeing all the magical creatures, hundreds of empty cages were stacked inside.
I hurried to the corner of the tent. The moment I yanked open the thick, closed curtain, my heart dropped.
“Sniff... hic....”
I had expected her to scold me for coming so late, but the mermaid princess inside the narrow tank was crying, clear tears falling even in the water.
I approached Maril and dropped to my knees in front of the tank, bowing my head deeply.
“...Maril, I’m so sorry. Even if I had ten mouths, I’d have no excuse.”
“Sniff... hic....”
“I came too late, didn’t I? You must have been so lonely, stuck here in the dark...”
I slowly lifted my face, soaked in guilt. Maybe because her upper body was human and we could communicate, I kept forgetting that Maril was also a magical creature.
But something about her appearance was different from before. The chains that had once bound her slender neck and wrists were gone—she was free.
As I stared at her in surprise, Maril, still sniffling, asked in a trembling voice,
“S-sniff... th-that crazy old man... is he... gone...?”
If she meant a crazy old man in this tent, she had to be talking about the Drunkard.
A mermaid and the Drunkard. They didn’t seem to have any connection, but my mind began to piece things together quickly.
Bell had {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} hidden the tank behind a curtain because she froze whenever she made eye contact with Maril. And the chains binding Maril must have been removed by the Drunkard.
Ah... right. The Drunkard was blind. That meant he was unaffected by Maril’s magic.
I finished my quick deductions, but Maril’s reaction still felt off. She looked... frightened.
I glanced around the tent to confirm the Drunkard wasn’t there, then spoke again.
“Yes, the Drunkard isn’t here. Did something happen while I was gone?”
“S-sniff... th-that crazy old man... h-he... bullied me...”
“...He bullied you?”
“Y-yes... sniff... if I didn’t do what he said... hic...”
The trust I had built toward the Drunkard shattered instantly. I had known he was unstable when drunk, but I thought he was at least sincere when it came to magical creatures.
But to torment a helpless one that couldn’t even escape. I clenched my fist, imagining that shameless old man.
“Maril, don’t cry. Tell me—what did the Drunkard do to you?”
I barely held back my anger as I asked. The more I tried to comfort her, the harder Maril cried as she answered.
“S-sniff... h-he said... if I didn’t make it rain... h-he’d pour alcohol into the tank... hic....”
