The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations Chapter 760

Episode 760: I guess I’ll have to do that. (1)

There was a brief silence in the conference room.
The mayor opened his mouth with a polite smile.
“Is it… because of the recent rumors about the Salvation Church? We are aware of that.”
He waved his hand and smiled softly.
“That’s why the lord has decided to send more troops to this city. We are also paying close attention to maintaining the city’s security.”
At those words, Jiselle shook her head slightly.
“That’s not enough. We need to gather a large number of troops to this city as quickly as possible.”
“What on earth is the reason…?”
“The high priests of the Salvation Church will personally attack the dwarf fortress.”
Silence flowed again. Then the mayor laughed loudly as if he had heard a joke.
“As I said, I also know that the Salvation Church is causing trouble here and there. In some areas, they are colluding with black magicians and causing trouble, right? But….”
The mayor stood up, pointed to the large mountain range outside the window, and continued speaking.
“The dwarves built a fortress on the side of the mountain and then dug into it again to create a huge city. It can never be taken unless you lead a large number of monsters from the Demon Realm and attack them head-on.”
Jisel clicked her tongue. The mayor’s words were not wrong. He also knew well about the grandeur of Valscrum.
‘Impregnable,’ ‘a fortress of steel,’ ‘a kingdom that will not collapse.’ All those compliments were by no means exaggerations.
However… … .
In the future in Jisel’s memory, the dwarves no longer existed.
That great fortress, the strong warriors, and that splendid reputation had all disappeared without a trace.
And it was very likely because of this war. The Elven Forest would have disappeared if they had not intervened.
But words did not make sense. Jisel tried to push forward as he always did, but in this era, there were extremely limited things he could do.
Of course, the mayor had no desire to clash head-on with the envoy dispatched from the empire.
He nodded, still smiling kindly.
“I understand your concern. I will deliver the news to your lord.”
“…….”
Instead of answering, Giselle slowly inhaled.
Then, she clenched her fist and slammed it against the solid table in front of her.
Kwaang!
The table shattered into pieces.
In an instant, the knights waiting on one side of the conference room simultaneously drew their swords.
However, Giselle did not even glance at them. She looked at the mayor and spoke firmly.
“This is an order from the empire. Summon all troops from nearby territories here immediately.”
“…….”
The air in the conference room froze.
The mayor realized that no jokes, no laughter, no euphemisms would work.
Every kingdom has autonomy, but there are laws that must be followed when summoning an empire.
It may not be the authority that a single delegation can wield, but since it was an empire’s order, it was not something that she could resolve on her own.
The mayor said with a blank expression.
“Understood. I will deliver the order to your lord.”
Giselle slowly shook her head as she left the conference room. A short sigh escaped her lips.
“Everyone needs to get beaten up to come to their senses.”
It didn’t seem like the army would be called up easily this time either. The proud lords would obviously stall for time under the pretext of finding out the truth.
She looked around. The city seemed peaceful.
No one seemed to sense the impending catastrophe, and they were still busy going about their daily lives.
Giselle went straight to the dwarf’s external affairs officer.
The dwarf external affairs officer was a short man like any other dwarf, but his shoulders were as broad as a mountain.
His thick beard had several rings, and his sparkling eyes showed his characteristic stubbornness.
“Hmm, you’re the Pope’s envoy?”
Dwarf external affairs officer Dorgan asked as he looked over Giselle and his party.
“By any chance… have you come to request our ‘guardian stone’ again?”
As expected, each race had a different name for the holy stone. That could also be considered the pride of each race.
Giselle nodded briefly.
“Yes.”
Dorgan shook his shoulders and laughed. His forehead was wrinkled, and the laughter on his cheeks was rough and obvious.
“I’ve already rejected it. There’s no point in coming and nagging me again. Our dwarven decisions are as solid as stone and never change.”
His tone was firm, but not emotional like the elves. It was just a confirmation of the truth.
Giselle accepted it calmly.
She had expected to be rejected. The elves knew that too.
So she got straight to the point.
“Then I would like to see the king.”
Dorgan narrowed his eyes for a moment. Then he shook his head.
“It won’t be easy. Our king doesn’t like humans very much. The pope in particular is even more so.”
“Why?”
“He hates them because they are evil.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
The evaluation of the pope was harsher than expected. Well, Giselle agreed with that evaluation to some extent.
He was a man who covered himself with a curtain and didn’t even show his face.
However, he wasn’t getting the holy stone for the pope. He was only getting it for Deneb.
Dorgan took out a small metal seal from his pocket and handed it to her.
“This is a pass to enter Valskrum. It might be hard to meet the king, but since you’re here, take a look around our city. It’s really great.”
His words were full of pride in Valskrum.
Giselle bowed her head slightly and received the seal.
Fortunately, the dwarves were less insular than the elves.
The elf’s foreign affairs officer, Cylan, was extremely wary of humans. He even lied and said ‘male’ when asked about the chieftain’s gender.
It seems that dwarves traded with humans frequently. As much as he was arrogant, he also had a cheerful side.
Giselle, who received the seal, led the party that was resting up the mountain.
After climbing for a while, a castle wall that seemed to be one with the mountain appeared.
The outer wall was a part of nature, and the great power of the earth was the foundation of the fortress.
The walls and towers carved into the towering rocks looked more like fangs of rock growing from the heart of the mountain range than artificial structures.
“Wow…”
“This is really something to show confidence?”
“This time, even the Salvationists will have a hard time.”
The party was all stunned and looked at the huge castle.
Even Giselle couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.
“…The fortress itself is really a mountain.”
Valskrum was not just a city. It was a huge multi-layered city that had been carved into the cliffs and rocks, and had been carved into the entire mountain. It
would be easy to block any army that came. That was something they had to admit.
Even after entering Balskrum, the party had to walk a long way back to the royal palace. The party
kept exclaiming in admiration as they walked. This was because there were huge defensive walls erected every time they passed a few residential areas.
In other words, even if they managed to occupy the outskirts, they would have to break through several more defensive walls to get to the royal palace.
It wasn’t for nothing that Dorgan confidently handed them a pass and told them to go and look around.
Even though they had made it to the royal palace with difficulty, the dwarf king did not meet them right away.
He even told them that the Salvation Church was targeting this place, but he only gave them one lodging and told them to wait repeatedly.
“Whew… nothing is easy.”
Jisel let out a deep breath. As time passed, his worries deepened.
The party began to take notice of the situation as they watched.
‘Please don’t cause trouble here.’
‘It’s different from when we were elves. This fortress is no joke.’
‘If there’s no problem, let’s just live as it is.’
Contrary to the thoughts of the group, Giselle had no intention of causing trouble right away
. If it were up to him, he would have made another problem and arranged a negotiation. However, he couldn’t rashly cause trouble at a time when the Salvation Church’s attack was certain.
He never caused trouble without a reason, as people thought. He always had a reasonable reason and basis.
The group, who didn’t know that, were just worried.
Giselle continued to think and devise a solution.
‘They’re definitely coming soon… … . If we don’t know and get hit, the damage will be greater.’
Even now, we need to go into war mode and gather all the warriors as one. Only then will we be able to deal with the Salvation Church.
‘You’re overconfident.’
This wasn’t just the stubbornness of the king. The pride that flowed throughout the entire dwarf race was very strong.
They knew the dignity of the city they had built, and that belief was as heavy as a huge rock.
Giselle could understand that pride. In fact, even in his eyes, Valskrume was incredibly superior.
However, their opponent was the Salvation Church. There was no way they didn’t know how strong Valskrume was
. They were the ones who would come looking for a way to destroy this place.
‘If I were to plot this place… … .’
There were many ways. The easiest way was to sneak in using a hot air balloon.
Send out elite troops to make surprise attacks on various parts of the fortress first, and then secure the entrance. That way, the fortress’s strong defenses could be quickly neutralized.
There were many other ways. The dwarves would rely only on their own fortress, and they would be defeated one by one before they could even gather.
The Salvation Church was likely to use a similar method.
‘The dwarves have no intention of listening to me. We can’t force them to move. In the end, it means we have to buy them time.’
It was the same in the Elf Forest. The elves were able to gather thanks to Giselle’s time.
It’s no different than then. However, the enemy’s movements that they have to block will be different.
The Salvation Church cannot concentrate their power in one place like then and push forward in one breath. It was obvious that they would surprise attack several places and cause confusion.
However, they only have one body. Their colleagues are skilled, but they are very few in number.
“How can I buy them time…”
Giselle, who was worried, sat on the balcony of her quarters and looked down.
There were quite a few human merchants gathered in the commercial district. They had come all the way to this city to trade in the goods made by the dwarves.
‘Hmm… …’
Giselle continued to look at the scene. Several wagons loaded with goods were lined up, as if a fairly large merchant had arrived.
The person who seemed to be the highest at the top gave instructions to several people, and the people dispersed here and there.
They were carrying alcohol, gold coins, and other items and going to the dwarven shops. They
seemed to be moving to buy items from the dwarves.
Giselle, who had been watching them closely, nodded several times. A good idea came to mind.
“We should do that.”
Giselle muttered to herself and soon gathered the group.
He spoke with a serious expression, unusual for his usual self.
“I think we should prepare to fight among ourselves first. The dwarves are stubborn people who will only move if they see bloodshed.”
Giselle carefully told the group, who were puzzled, what she had in mind.
Everyone listened with a puzzled expression. This was because they couldn’t believe that Giselle’s plan was really feasible.
However, it had always been like that. They had no choice but to trust her and proceed.
“We have to get as many runestones as possible. Don’t spare any money and scrape them all together.”
The mercenaries who had followed Giselle dispersed, each holding their own money.
They stopped by several shops and bought as many runestones as they could. They went down to the trading city as well as Valscrum to buy them.
Giselle gave them all the money she had in the subspace. They bought so many runestones that the price of runestones in the trading city suddenly skyrocketed.
In addition, Giselle bought a lot of metal rods. Such rods were very easy to get in Valscrum.
Once she had some materials, Giselle rented an entire lodging with a very large open space.
Then she began drawing a huge magic circle in the open space.
Giselle didn’t draw the magic circle herself. She left the work to Astion and gave her body.
She could have done it herself, but Astion was the best for work that required meticulousness like a magic circle.
Astion, who had breathed fresh air for the first time in a while, seemed to know his friends.
“Julian! Deneb! Kyle! It’s me! Astion!”
But the three looked at Astion with suspicious eyes.
They had already been scolded by Giselle’s fishing.
“It’s the real me! I came out to draw a magic circle! Aren’t you happy?”
“Yeah… yeah. Nice… to meet you.”
Kyle answered as the representative, feeling very cautious. Giselle was very cautious, wondering what kind of prank she was playing.
Yulien and Deneve also smiled awkwardly and waved awkwardly.
The three of them gradually moved away from Astion. The other mercenaries also kept their distance.
“…….”
Astion remained still and quietly began to draw a magic circle.
“Sob… bad guys. Let’s wait and see.”
It seemed like tears were welling up for no reason. As Astion was sobbing and drawing a magic circle, Erenes approached him.
“Giselle?”
“Sister! It’s Astion!”
“…….”
Erenes took a step back with a trembling expression.
She could tell for sure. That being was really different from Giselle.
‘What is it? What is it? What happened? How can a person change so much?’
The atmosphere they gave off was completely different. In particular, since she dealt with spirits, she could sense changes in people faster than anyone else.
Sometimes, Jiselle showed a rough wildness like a wolf soaked in blood. But this Astion that I was seeing now… …
‘He’s like a total brat?’
He just seemed like a bright and cheerful child. He was really a different person from the Jiselle we usually saw.
Not knowing that, Astion started to chatter.
“Sister, I know you really well! I remember when you said you were dating me!”
Astion was anxious because it had been so long since he last saw you. That’s why he took a risk.
“…….”
Erenes didn’t remember saying that. She just said that he was her first human friend.
She backed away a little more at Astion’s excessive clamor and said,
“Focus on…work…. Mind your work…”
Erenes turned around and ran away after saying just that.
Her head was really complicated right now. She had to organize her thoughts about what was going on.
Astion sniffled again and focused on drawing a magic circle.
Dark clicked his tongue next to him and said something.
“I understand why you’re single. Who’s approaching you so hastily? There has to be rapport, right? A smart guy who doesn’t understand women’s hearts like that. Oh my.”
“Sniff, be quiet.”
Astion drew a magic circle with a gloomy face.
He didn’t just draw a magic circle in the empty lot. Astion’s hands touched dozens of metal rods.
Paaaaak!
Every time Astion waved his hand, beautiful and delicate golden lines continuously bloomed.
The golden lines extending from his fingertips began to carve intricate engravings on the surfaces of the rods floating in the air.
Straight lines and curves danced and woven together, ancient letters threaded through them, connecting them like intricate circuits.
The metal rods containing the glowing letters looked incredibly mysterious. They truly seemed like living, breathing magic.
The onlookers exclaimed in admiration.
“That’s right, he was a real wizard.”
“I think it was Astion?”
“I forgot. He wasn’t an idiot.”
Erenes also opened his eyes wide and looked surprised.
He seemed like a brat when he spoke, but his abilities were truly that of a great wizard.
She was curious this time too. What on earth was going on in his head?
Dark, who had sensed the atmosphere, whispered next to Astion.
“You see? Men are capable. Erenes is showing interest in you right now.”
“Really?”
Astion’s expression quickly turned pale. He concentrated on his work, drawing out his magic even more diligently to look good to Erenes.
Dark clicked his tongue when he saw that.
‘Oh my, you naive guy. Do you really want to date that much?’
He worked even harder to look good to Erenes at his own words. To be honest, it wasn’t a bad result.
Still, if he works this hard, dating won’t be hard. He’s a great magician of the 7th circle.
‘If he just shows off his abilities, many kingdoms will invite him. He’ll be very popular with the women. Tsk tsk tsk.’
Astion, who lacked confidence, didn’t know that Dark knew. It was partly because he had become timid due to not doing any external activities, but also because he had become so notorious that he was intimidated.
He even wished that Jiselle would date
him instead. That’s why he was trying to look good to the women around him. As
soon as he finished his work, Astion said with a gentle smile,
“Sister, have a cup of tea with me… Let’s start the operation.”
His expression changed in an instant. As soon as the work was over, Giselle took over the body again.
The group secretly sighed upon seeing that.
‘Ugh, I almost got fooled again.’ As expected,
they had to always stay alert.
Only Lionel kept tilting his head, not knowing what was going on.
Giselle divided the group into several groups. Then, she distributed metal rods and dispersed them to various parts of Valscrum. Since it
was a city frequented by human merchants and travelers, it was easy to obtain a simple map.
Giselle, who had dispersed the group widely, sat alone on the magic circle in the empty lot.
He did not eat and focused on meditation for several days with his eyes closed.
The dwarves who managed the inn came to visit, but they just left after seeing the sign that said ‘training in progress. ‘
They knew that meditation was important for a wizard.
After a whole week, Giselle slowly opened her eyes.
‘You’re finally here.’
From a very far away place that no one else could see,
a thick darkness was closing in.