Chapter 299.
When my dragon tooth soldiers came out of pocket space, I summoned a pair of skeleton horses and got on.
"Wow, looking at it like this, it looks just like the Demon King’s army in the legend. Don't you think so, Master?” Tristan jested.
I smiled. "I can't help it. I didn't have the money to cover the dragon tooth soldiers in human skin, so of course, the horses are skeletons."
Not only the skull horse's eyes and four hooves but also its entirety was covered in goblin fire making it look ghostly. It really did look like an army of the Demon King. But in fact, what was visible was just mana, which powered their movements, that I didn’t have enough money to cover up, along with their exteriors.
"But as long as there's no difference in performance."
Decorating the exterior to look decent was just like attaching accessories to avatars in a game. Just because there’s a blue light effect every time a character moves, doesn’t mean that the character is stronger. Honestly, it's also hard work to put skin on them one by one.
"Tristan, if Master says there's no problem, there's no problem.” Gwalchavad pointed out in a gentle voice.
Tristan flinched and laughed. "Ahahaha. Is that so? No, of course! If Master says so, then it's like that!"
For some reason, the knights were afraid of Gwalchavad even though the captain of the knights was Percival. Even the latter would always be busy running away if the former seemed to be angry.
"Let's end the small talk here. Tristan, Gwalchavad, take off."
At my command, the two knights knelt and bowed their heads.
"As your shield, I will protect Master. I will obey your orders."
"My arrow will be Master’s arrow. I will obey your orders."
Then, they immediately got up, summoned their own horses, and mounted. The horses of the knights were made with special care, so they had the appearance of a horse on the outside.
"Then I'll bring back Master’s mana stone! Hiya!"
Gwalchavad fired a sword aura, completely smashed the wall, and jumped off with the horse. The charger did not tumble down from the high spire but kicked vigorously through the air. Five thousand dragon tooth soldiers on skeleton horses galloped in the sky without hesitation, following him.
"Master, come after taking a break!"
Subsequently, three thousand dragon tooth soldiers followed as Tristan drove his horse outside. As a total of eight thousand dragon tooth soldiers poured out, a disturbance broke out from below.
"There might be a rumor that the empire might be on the same side as black magicians."
It was possible enough. Since just looking at it, as soon as the battle was over, undead people on skeleton horses suddenly poured out. Rumors would spread even if there were only imperial forces down there, but since there were a lot of prisoners, it would be impossible to block the spread.
"Well, it's none of my business. The competent prime minister will take care of it."
For cases like these, I had given ample stomach medicine, so there was no problem.
"Wow, I feel bad for the prime minister."
"As expected of Prince Crow, there's no mercy."
I gave the twins a whack on the heads.
"Ow! It hurts!"
"Are you afraid someone will think you aren’t a Crow?" I snorted at them holding their heads.
"This fortress belongs to the enemy country anyway, so we can fabricate and spread rumors that the dragon tooth soldiers are secret weapons of the enemy country."
Rather, these types of conspiracies were the prime minister's specialty than mine. It was essentially a gift since he would probably attack politically with much more weight than I could imagine.
"Wow, I feel bad for the enemy! As expected of Prince Crow!”
"He does things that we can't even imagine! That's why it's thrilling! It makes us admire him!" I sighed as I watched the twins making a fuss.
"Phew, fine, you guys talk about whatever you want."
At that time, Percival asked with a confused face, "But Master, no matter the fact that a great demon’s mana stone has been lost, is it necessary to mobilize so many dragon tooth soldiers?"
Caradoc answered instead of me.
"It's simple. It just means the power of those who are presumed to be enemies is that great."
"It’s that great?" Percival asked back. However, besides Caradoc, no one else seemed to understand either.
"Yes. The enemy is presumed to be a magician of skill equivalent to a great madosa of the party of heroes who subjugated the Demon King in the past."
Caradoc sighed and shook his head at the face that showed he still didn't understand.
"Phew, since you all woke up in modern times, read some history and check some public information. To explain simply, it means that the person is in the same class as a great warlock of the Giant tribe or the Seven Great Witches.” Caradoc explained.
With that, the playful expressions of the knights disappeared to be replaced with seriousness.
"In addition, the opponent is openly luring the Commander-in-Chief. It's highly likely that they’ve laid all kinds of traps."
As expected, it was convenient to have Caradoc since I didn't have to bother explaining.
I added a light comment to his explanation. "And the thief who provoked me this time might be Selina, the Witch of Greed."
As soon as I finished talking, the knights emitted a martial aura.
"Since she’s a shrew witch, you don't know what she’ll be up to, so you have to be careful."
Percival calmed down and let out his fighting spirit.
"That's why I only sent Gwalchavad and Tristan to start.”
I couldn't imagine that the traps created by the Witch of Greed would be small in size or small in power. So, the 3,000 dragon tooth soldiers led by Tristan were to be used as sacrificial pieces to confirm the size of the enemy.
It was a waste of 3,000 dragon tooth soldiers, but it was not very expensive if I considered it as the cost of recovering the mana stone of a great demon. After the confirmation, I planned to have Gwalchavad check the opponent's forces with his 5,000 dragon tooth soldiers.
"As soon as they finish grasping the situation, we will surround them. Get ready."
The knights answered in one voice.
"We receive your order!"
"I'll take a rest until I get a call from Tristan."
Saying so, I jumped down the spire. Because I was wearing the recognition interfering mask, no one noticed me coming down. After landing lightly on the ground, I headed to the medical camp where Uncle Bloody was lying down. As I entered the barracks, I took off my mask and asked after him.
"Uncle, are you okay?"
Instead of my uncle, Mac, who was lying on the bed next to him, jumped up and sat down.
"Oh, the Youngest Master is here? Iya! I saw you fighting and it was amazing. I felt like I was looking at the Boss!"
"Ayy, I’m a long way off compared to my father. How did Uncle end up like that when hyung was here?”
When I pointed to Uncle Bloody, he pretended to be in pain and made a crying face.
"Aigoo, I'm dying!"
In fact, having a hole through your stomach was a serious injury to the people of our hometown too. I smiled and took out a recovery potion from my pocket space.
"Really? I'll make it okay for you right now."
Pop!
When I opened the cap on the potion bottle, Uncle Bloody freaked out.
"No! I'm fine! So, get rid of that hideous thing!”
"What do you mean it's hideous?! Uncle, you were also very indebted to it when you were young. How sad would it be if it heard you?"
I stroked the potion bottle as if it were a living creature and smiled. As I approached with a smile, Uncle Bloody stood up with a seriously injured body and tried to run away.
"Get out of here!"
"Uh uh! Good medicine is supposed to be bitter!"
"That's not bitter. It hurts a lot! If you spit on this, it’ll be better in a week!"
No matter how good his self-healing power was, it was too much to heal an abdominal penetration in a week without medicine.
"Hyung! Catch him!"
"Yep! Stay still!"
Uncle Bloody resisted, but it was too much to get out of Mac's grasp with a seriously injured body.
"Kuaaaaaa!"
"I haven’t poured it yet."
When I put the bottle in front of him, my uncle smiled in embarrassment and tried to say something.
"Ahahaha, yeaAAAAAHHHHHH!"
What my uncle was trying to say turned into a scream as I poured on the medicine. Struggling in pain for a long time, Uncle Bloody shed a tear.
"For a man who doesn’t even scream when his limbs are broken, isn’t it too much to act like this?” I said.
Uncle Bloody cried out as if it was unfair. "You don't know this pain because you've never experienced it! It hurts a hundred times more when the wound is healed with that medicine than when the stomach was pierced through!"
"It's Uncle's fault in the first place for getting hurt and making this scenario necessary."
At my very natural words, Uncle Bloody nodded in agreement.
That was the general way of thinking of the people in our hometown. The one who lost the fight was at fault and the one who was injured was at fault.
"So how did you end up with a hole in your stomach? This isn’t the capital and it's not like your strength was sealed."
Although the great warriors of the Hunter Tribe were strong, they were not as strong as Uncle Bloody at full power. My uncle was a monster who used the extremes of martial arts to split the mountain-sized great demon in half in one blow. It made no sense to be seriously injured just because 25 people attacked him.
"Well, the great warriors were no problem, but I was attacked while dealing with the magic of a woman wearing a red mask. That green wolf guy must have thought this was his last chance and went all out."
"By that green wolf, you mean that one-armed one?" I asked.
Uncle Bloody nodded. "Yes. I destroyed his heart in return for him giving me a hole in my stomach, so we won't be seeing him again."
It seemed like there was a bitter aftertaste and Uncle Bloody didn't look so happy.
"I liked his younger brother and so wanted to save him somehow.”
"It happened on the battlefield, so there's nothing we can do about it. Rather, can you explain to me regarding the woman with the red mask?"
"Huh? What about her? She ran away right around when you finished fighting.”
I smiled deeply at my uncle's question.
"That ****... No, that red mask stole my mana stone of a great demon that was guarding the fortress."
Uncle Bloody trembled when he saw my smile. "What a crazy person. Of all the people, why did she steal your stuff?”
"I don't know about anything else, but the mana stone of a great demon is essential to me, so I have to recover it. So, let me borrow your hand."
When I asked Uncle Bloody for a favor, he readily nodded.
"Oh! Good! It's a revenge match!"
This is why I liked my uncle.
"It seems like it's going to be fun. Is it okay if I join you?” Mac hyung asked.
I readily nodded. Rather, it couldn't be better with him joining.
"So when should I lend you my hand?"
I smiled as I pondered over my uncle's question. "Now."
I just felt the dragon tooth mercenaries that Tristan led being smashed in large quantities. The Witch of Greed seemed to have dug a trap quite hard.
"Now?"
I nodded lightly and magically opened the tent of the medical office.
"It's quite far from here, so I'll give you a ride. Take it."
I took out a black bracelet from my pocket space and handed it over.
"What's this?" Uncle Bloody asked.
I took a green deer out of my pocket space, got on it and said, "The chant is the rest of the pitch darkness."
"The rest of the pitch darkness?” Uncle Bloody asked back.
The bracelet ate up my uncle's mana and summoned a magic circle in the air. Then a large black horse walked out of the magic circle.
"It's an alchemic life form that I made, and it was made using a dragon bone, so it should be quite useful."
"Ohh! I wanted something like this, too!" Uncle Bloody was excited with sparkling eyes like a child who received a gift.
"I'll give it to you if you help me."
"Really?!"
My uncle became motivated and took the lead on the horse.
"Let's go!"