The Mad Dog of the Duke's Estate

Chapter 90

Chapter 90

It had been four days since Caron and Utula crossed the border.

"...Is this even a real territory?" Caron wondered incredulously.

"Of course it is!" Utula replied proudly. "This is the Zion Kingdom! A land of humans!"

"That's not what I meant!" Caron snapped.

"Hmm, is it not?" Utula mused, unfazed.

So far, they had won twelve out of twelve encounters, all against so-called bandits who had attempted to ambush them. Caron sighed as he glanced at the latest bandit, who was lying unconscious and foaming at the mouth before him. These weren't ordinary bandits. The men brandished nothing but makeshift farm tools. If they were actual bandits, Caron would've had no qualms about taking their heads, but these people weren't true bandits.

"Why are people who've probably never held a weapon trying to rob travelers?" Caron muttered.

He grabbed the collar of the unconscious bandit and woke him up with a quick, forceful slap infused with mana. The man jolted awake, trembling and crying out, "P-please, spare me!"

Caron had lost count of how many times he'd heard pleas like this. Men who'd likely never harmed a soul trembled and charged him, only to beg for their lives after a few hits.

"We... We weren't trying to kill anyone..." the man stuttered, still shaking.

"...You weren't trying to kill me, just desperate for food, am I right?" Caron asked.

"Y-Yes... A-And my kids..." the man continued.

"...And you've got kids starving at home too, I assume?" Caron continued.

"How... How did you know?" the man asked, surprised.

Caron sighed and let go of the bandit's— no, the farmer's collar. He reached into his coat and tossed him a clump of jerky, then said, "Take this and get out of here. If I see you again, I'll kill you. Understood?"

The man clutched the jerky, his eyes filling with tears, then replied, "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

The farmer shoved the jerky into his coat, then turned and fled without glancing backward. As Caron watched him go, he sighed, taking in the man's figure. He'd heard rumors about the dire conditions in the southern kingdom, but seeing it firsthand was something else entirely.

During their four-day journey through what was supposed to be a breadbasket region, he'd passed through countless villages stricken with famine and decay. Many villages had no young men left, as they'd been conscripted into military service. That only left the elderly, women, and children to fend for themselves. He had gone into towns looking for supplies, only to end up giving his own rations to the desperate residents more often than not.

"Are you sparing this one too?" Utula asked, crossing his arms as he looked at Caron.

With another sigh, Caron nodded and replied, "Well, should I have killed him?"

"No," Utula said, shaking his head. "That would hardly be honorable."

They'd been ambushed twelve times already, and every single attacker had come at them trembling with fear. These men charged forward, knowing full well it could mean their deaths, yet driven by desperation in their eyes that Caron found hard to ignore. His brow furrowed as he remembered those haunted looks.

"If they were all scum like Leandro, I wouldn't have any guilt about this," Caron muttered.

He'd heard the rumors. They said that anyone capable of wielding a weapon had become either a soldier or a bandit. The endless wars had stripped away far too much from the people of this land. Caron bit his lip, recalling what his father, Fayle, had once told him.

"A true warrior never lets his tribe starve. Without food, the tribe fades. That's why no battle can take precedence over them. If the tribe disappears, who will the warriors even fight for?"

Utula, watching the shrinking figure of the retreating bandit, commented, "There is no honor here. Dying in this place means a dishonorable death."

Caron nodded in agreement and said, "Yes, this is a place where even honor has died. What a damned awful place."

Swearing under his breath, Caron sheathed Guillotine once more. They'd need at least another four days at this pace to cross into the Keath Kingdom. He wished they could use horses or even a wagon, but there was nowhere left to borrow any.

"I should've thought to bring horses from Reben," Caron grumbled.

Utula said reluctantly in response, "There was no horse in Reben big enough to carry me, Caron."

"You would have had to run. Besides, I suppose even if we had borrowed some, there's no hay to feed them," Caron said.

The country was funneling nearly all of its resources into maintaining its military, leaving the state's infrastructure in ruins and its people lawless and desperate. And the grim truth was that other kingdoms weren't much better off than the Zion Kingdom. Assuming that nothing went wrong, they had about fifteen more days to reach their destination at this rate.

"Even finding food has become a hassle," Caron said, glancing at their nearly empty rations in frustration.

"Sharing the food was your idea," Utula pointed out.

"Maybe you could just eat a little less," Caron retorted.

"...I apologize," Utula said.

"I guess we'll have to hunt as we go," Caron muttered.

"Leave that to me!" Utula thumped his chest. "I am Utula, the finest hunter of our tribe!"

Caron shook his head, doubtful. If conditions were this bleak everywhere, perhaps they wouldn't even find animals worth hunting. He said, "Let's go. We've got a long way ahead."

"Alright," Utula responded.

"Keep your eyes out for any animals along the way. You do know how to butcher, right?" Caron asked.

"I have even butchered an orc before. Have no worries," Utula reassured Caron.

"An orc? Why? Wait—never mind," Caron said, sighing.

With that, the two resumed their journey to the southern kingdoms, burdened by a sense of frustration and bitter resolve.

***

Meanwhile, near the Southern Great Forest in the southeastern region of the Keath Kingdom, a blond young man drenched in demonic monster blood swung his sword relentlessly.

"Hey, Leon! Azureocean Castle sent reinforcements, right?" the man, Leo Leston asked in frustration as he cut down a demonic monster resembling a rabid dog. He raised his sword again as he shouted, "At this rate, when are we ever going to find and destroy the source of all this?!"

But the demonic monsters just kept coming. He'd lost track of how many he'd cut down in this battle alone.

From somewhere off in the distance, a high-pitched voice echoed back, "Are you still whining? You're nearly an adult! When you were around Caron, you didn't even dare to talk back!"

"Well, when are the reinforcements supposed to arrive?" Leo shouted back, slicing through yet another demonic monster.

"They sent them days ago! You think Azureocean Castle is just around the corner, or what?" Leon snapped, her irritation matching his own.

"We'll both be dead before they get here, Leon!" Leo yelled.

"If you're going to keep whining, then just go ahead and die already!" Leon hollered, cutting down another wave of attacking demonic monsters with a fierce cry.

For nearly thirty minutes, they fought non-stop, barely holding the line. At last, they killed the final demonic monster and were able to take a break.

"Hah... This is... This is going to kill me," Leo gasped, collapsing onto the bloody ground while surrounded by demonic monster corpses. He'd long since adapted to the stench. Given time, perhaps he'd even be able to sleep among the bodies.

"Here, drink some water," Leon muttered, tossing him a canteen.

Still lying flat, Leo caught it and uncapped it, then drank eagerly. Gulping it down, he let out a huge sigh.

"Ah, now I feel like I might live. Seriously... I thought I was actually going to die, Leon," Leo said.

"It's fine. This much won't kill you," Leon replied casually, sitting down beside him. Her long blond hair was as soaked with the blood of the demonic monsters as his. If they were ordinary people, the toxins would have killed them by now. But as direct blood relatives of the Leston family, they had a natural resistance to dark mana.

"Want some jerky?" Leon asked.

"Yes, please," Leo answered.

"Here you go," Leon said as she handed him a strip.

Leo chewed the jerky gratefully, savoring the rare peace after the battle. They had been here for a month already, tasked with locating and destroying the monsters' source. But progress was painfully slow. They spent nearly every waking moment fighting demonic monsters, leaving barely any time for rest. It was, without a doubt, a mission from hell.

As Leo chewed, he glanced at Leon and called, "Leon."

"Yeah?" Leon answered.

"Do you know the size of the reinforcement unit that's being sent?" Leo asked.

"They said they'd send what was needed. But wouldn't they send at least two squads?" Leon replied.

"Lately, I keep feeling this weird tension in my neck during fights. Do you think I'm sick? It feels a bit chilly too..." Leo said.

With a deadpan expression, Leon answered, "Didn't I tell you never to let your mind wander during battle? You'll end up with your throat torn out by one of these things. And if you die, it's just me here, so I'd have no choice but to bury you in a shallow grave."

"I'm just saying, Leon. Sheesh," Leo sighed, already feeling homesick for Azureocean Castle.

It had been nearly two years since Leo last visited Azureocean Castle. He barely got any news from there now, busy with one mission after another, and only managed to contact his parents on rare occasions. But ever since being deployed to the southern kingdom, even that had become difficult, because the communication orb frequently malfunctioned for unknown reasons. If he'd been assigned solo, he likely would have long since lost his sanity.

While Leo sat lost in thought during the break, Leon suddenly slapped her knee and said, "Now that I think about it, it's time."

"Huh? Time for what?" Leo asked.

"It's been four years," Leon answered.

"If you suddenly say something that vague, how am I supposed to know what you're taking about—" Then, Leo realized what had been bothering him. "...Caron's probation?"

"Yes, it should be over by now," Leon replied.

"Wow." Leo shuddered at the thought of his cousin.

It had been four years since Azureocean Castle's Mad Dog was locked away.

"So that's why I felt uneasy all day," Leo muttered.

"You really are terrified of Caron. He's actually a good kid. He puts up with me bugging him all the time," Leon said.

"That's because you're just as strange—Ah, no, no, don't draw your sword! Besides, you didn't grow up alongside him. You'd understand if you had," Leo said.

Caron was the one person Leo feared more than any demonic monster. Monsters charged at you mindlessly, but Caron was impossible to predict. The unpredictable ones were always the most terrifying.

"Do you think Azureocean Castle might have sent him?" Leon wondered nonchalantly.

Leo waved his hands vehemently and replied, "No way! They wouldn't send a walking bomb like him down south! Caron's the kind of guy who could start a war on his own."

The elders of the family knew well enough to keep tabs on Caron. The southern regions were like a lit powder keg right now. If they threw Caron into that mix, it'd be like dumping oil on a fire. Hell itself would descend on the world.

But Leon shrugged and replied, "Well, if you think about it, isn't he the best reinforcement we could get? He's a one-man army and would be solid backup."

"Still... He hasn't had any real combat experience in four years... He could have gotten weaker..." Leo muttered.

"Do you really think that?" Leon asked.

"...No," Leo responded. Monsters didn't stop being monsters just because time passed; they just grew stronger.

"Still, do you think they'd send a ticking bomb out right after his probation ended?" Leo asked.

"Well, the general rule with explosives is to get them removed as quickly as possible," Leon explained.

"Oh... Hmm... Yeah, no..." Leo clamped his mouth shut. Words had a way of turning into fate. And yet, unfortunately for him, fate was already in motion.

Azureocean Castle's ultimate bomb was already on its way.