Chapter 172

“Isn’t the Turhel here?”

Gismond’s eyes widened.

The rank 2 monster wasn’t there. Only those ant-like bugs, Envif or whatever they were called, remained.

They said that in a place without tigers, the fox was king.
Without the monster called Turhel, all the monsters there were his prey.

─!

With that thought, he sliced through five Envif in a single blow. That’s when, for the first time, his sword was blocked.

“Kuh…?”

It wasn’t as solid as a Turhel, but it was like striking firm rock. The strong rebound made Gismond stifle a groan and take a couple of steps back.

“What the hell are you?!”

Black hair, a face pale as death, and a chilling magical energy.

It wasn’t human. Yet it spoke like one.

‘…No way.’

“A… demon?”

Gismond shouted. His body trembled like a leaf, but the confusion soon cleared.

“It’s a monster called Nasgrim. They’re the only ones with human-like intelligence, which is why demons often use them as intermediaries.”

At Fernan’s words, Gismond regained a bit of confidence.

“By the way, it’s rank 2. Same as the Turhel.”

“Help me!”

But he nearly lost it again.

“In terms of combat, it’s somewhere between rank 3 and 4. It was only classified as rank 2 because of its intellect.”

Monster classifications weren’t made by demons, but by humans.

It was said that the knights of the First Emperor fought them and set the scales.

“I still struggle with rank 5 monsters…”

Gismond muttered uncertainly.

He had shown good results against the Zikrik, but Nasgrim was different.

The fact that all the hair on his body stood on end meant this wasn’t just any enemy.

“Just buy time. I want to talk to him before he dies completely.”

“I asked who you were!”

“What if I die in the meantime…?”

“If you can’t even hold out, you’ll die instantly when the demons descend.”

“…Couldn’t I just flee somewhere without demons and live there?”

“Do you really think you could escape?”

“These bastards are underestimating me!”

Claaang!

Gismond clenched his teeth and burst his aura. A grey streak clashed against the descending black scythe.

“I’m the one who feels like crying!”

Gismond swung his sword again.

To survive.

***

More Envif emerged from the darkness. Fernan, instead of fighting them, raised a thick barrier to halt their advance.

That would be enough to buy some time.

Just enough to talk to a dying man.

“Captain Adguif.”

Leaving Nasgrim to Gismond, Fernan approached the fallen dwarf.

Leaning against the tunnel wall, he was in such a critical state that anyone would think he was already dead.

“In Pellenberg, we have a saying: whoever steals our money won’t escape even in the afterlife.”

Fernan uncorked a potion and poured it over his wounds.

“The mayor is looking forward to seeing you.”

“…That sounds terrifying.”

Adguif gave a bitter smile with his pale face.

“It’s pointless. I know my own body well.”

“It seems so.”

Even a top-grade potion wasn’t a miracle cure.

With over half a dozen holes through his body, Adguif was beyond any remedy.

“I should’ve arrived a little sooner.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Before you die, can you tell me why you betrayed the dwarves and joined the corrupt? Though it doesn’t seem like you actually became one of them.”

“Hahaha…”

Adguif laughed, spitting blood.

“Not a bad question. But first, can you promise me one thing?”

“A promise?”

“The dwarves will be a resource for you. Get them out of this damn underground city.”

Unexpected words. So he hadn’t betrayed out of hatred for his kin?

“That is, in fact, my greatest wish.”

“If you had come a little earlier, none of this would’ve happened.”

“And don’t you think it’s absurd to expect me to quickly find a hidden city deep underground?”

“That’s also true.”

Adguif nodded.

“I always insisted we had to abandon this city.”

For centuries, the dwarves had isolated themselves deep underground.

No enemies, safe beneath the earth.

Maybe it was satisfying at first, but in reality, they had only locked themselves in a well.

“The mines were running dry, and to avoid discovery by the elves, we couldn’t do anything serious. Humans dominate the continent, while we live cowering in this hole. Do you call that living?”

“We all knew there was a problem. But we pretended not to see it. Why? Out of fear!”

Somehow, Adguif summoned strength, the veins in his neck bulging.

“Fear of leaving the city! Fear of exploring something new! They said humans had already occupied all the land, and there was no place for us. Then we should’ve left sooner!”

For centuries they had made excuses, and the result was this.

“So you used the corrupt to provoke that change? To escape?”

“To bring about change, a shock is needed. Even more so for dwarves who are stagnant and rotting.”

“And giving hundreds of dwarves to the corrupt—do you think that’s justifiable?”

“Better to kill half and save the other than to wait, isolated, until we all rot.”

Perhaps thanks to the potion, Adguif’s eyes remained clear.

Even in his agony, he didn’t believe his conviction was wrong.

“But in the end, it all turned out like this.”

“That was my mistake. I knew the corrupt could betray us, but I didn’t expect them to act so fast.”

“So you broke ties with them? Why so suddenly?”

“Because of you, Fernan Pellenberg.”

Adguif bit his lips.

“When you entered and left the city, I misinterpreted the situation. I thought the mayor had rejected our last chance. So, in a fit of anger, I caused the disaster.”

That’s how the two incursions in the mines happened in just a few days, devouring hundreds of dwarves.

“I tried to fix things later. If you were to lead the dwarves, we wouldn’t need to rely on the corrupt anymore.”

“And that’s why all this happened?”

“Once I let go of their hand, they tried to take my life… ahh…”

At last, everything clicked into place for Fernan.

The reason why, years ahead of schedule, the dwarven city had fallen into chaos—it was all because of him.

But he didn’t see it as a bad thing.

In a few years, the city would have collapsed. Now, at least, they might endure with fewer losses.

“…A count. Daniel Kool, a count of the Empire. Be careful… the fourth abandoned mine…”

His voice cracked and went no further.

Adguif’s head tilted to the side.

“Whatever your conviction, in the end, you betrayed the dwarves. But I will give you my word on one thing.”

Fernan gently closed his eyes.

“I will make sure the dwarves reach the surface.”

Not for him, but for himself and for Pellenberg.

“Daniel Kool… him again.”

Was he in charge of dealing with other races? In Fridian, in the underground cities, he was always causing trouble.

Fernan stood up.

─!

──!

The battle between Gismond and Nasgrim was not yet over.

***

A tunnel crowded with corpses of dwarves and monsters.

“Damn it!”

Count Daniel, wounded, ruffled his hair in frustration.

“If I had known, I wouldn’t have used hypnosis…”

Unlike how confident he’d been at first, the battle hadn’t been one-sided.

The dwarves’ level—especially Adguif’s—had been much higher than expected.

If he still had the full book, it would’ve been easy to defeat them, but unfortunately it had all gone up in flames when he used it to hypnotize Fernan.

That’s why Adguif had managed to escape, and he himself ended up injured.

Even though they were fatal wounds that couldn’t be healed, he had sent the monsters to finish the job.

But that wasn’t the only urgent matter.

“What was that? Why did that guy suddenly change his mind?”

Until then, Adguif believed there was no choice but to use the monsters to sow panic in the city and force an escape to the surface.

And yet, now he was acting as if there were an alternative.

“He called him a savior.”

That meant someone had descended into the underground city.

Was that possible?

No one would have imagined that under the dominion of the elves, a dwarven city could exist.

Not even by accident could it be found—it wasn’t just a hundred or two hundred meters deep, but over a kilometer underground.

They themselves had only discovered it while transporting monsters as part of the collaboration with Adolf.

‘Who is it? What bastard dares interfere with our plans…?’

At that moment.

“Count, we have a problem!”

A shadow appeared hurriedly.

“What is it?”

“Fernan Pellenberg! That man is in the underground city! He’s killing the monsters and trying to save Adguif! Fyr is fighting him, but I came right away to inform you!”

Fyr was the name of the rank 2 monster, Nasgrim, who was fighting Gismond.

“…Fernan Pellenberg?”

Him?

Count Daniel’s eyes flew wide open.

“Why the hell is that man in the underground city?! Didn’t he return to Pellenberg?”

“That… I don’t know either…”

He’d heard Fernan had completed the marquis’ mission in Fridian and then left.

So why was he causing chaos here now?

He thought it over but found no answer.

Until he connected Fernan to the “savior” Adguif had mentioned.

Suddenly, everything made sense.

The reason Adguif—who had insisted until now that the only way out was to force things with the monsters—suddenly changed his mind as if a new option had appeared.

With Fernan and the Pellenbergs, the dwarves could indeed hope to reach the surface.

They valued the dwarves far too much to pass up the opportunity.

No matter what, they would end up taking them to the surface.

“Him again! That damn bastard again!”

In Valerich, in Fridian, and now here too.

Count Daniel’s face twisted in fury.

“And with the book destroyed, I can’t cast hypnosis again…”

The magical energy was still present, so he could attempt something—but the margin was extremely narrow.

Then, a thought more urgent than hypnosis made him go pale.

“The monsters…!”

With Adguif’s betrayal, he had sent nearly all the monsters against the city, except those left to deal with him.

The idea had been to attack before the dwarves could organize, cause maximum damage, and then use the corpses to summon more monsters.

It wouldn’t allow for a demon summoning, but at least he could create a monster army.

That had been the plan.

“But if Fernan is there, the story changes!”

Whether the monster assault succeeded or failed, there would be no next step.

Fernan would undoubtedly convince the dwarves to go to the surface.

That man would never leave the dwarves behind.

As a result, the monsters he had summoned over years would die in vain.

“But I can’t kill him either…!”

Before, he wouldn’t have hesitated to sacrifice all the monsters just to eliminate Fernan.

But now he couldn’t—it would be absurd to kill his best card, the man who was under hypnosis.

“Withdraw the monsters immediately!”

Before the losses grew even worse!

“And give the order that Adguif must self-destruct if necessary, rather than reveal any information to Fernan!”

Adguif knew his face and his true identity.

Count Daniel roared in rage.