Cardboard Houses Do Not Tear

71 – Those who prolong life and those who die*

On top of the gray hills, only the chuckles of warlocks were filled with laughter.

Death Knight, Death Knight was just staring at us.

But everyone knew that the moment they moved carelessly, a battle would begin.

“The Death Knight is a high ranking undead. She cannot be born without numerous ghosts.”

Priest Rien whispered behind his back.

“Probably the totem behind it is the medium, so if you destroy that, the Death Knight will disappear as well.”

“Is the will that far?”

It started moving.

Your ears are also bright. Dog-like pups.

“Watch out!”

Starting with Priest Rien’s warning, the battle began.

The corpse stepped on the corpse and lunged at the living.

The knight with his sword raised was fast enough without a horse, and menacing enough to kill us all in close proximity.

-Tung!

The first thing I greeted him was a check shot.

A small bolt created a gap in the battered armor. But it wasn’t enough to stop the rush.

I ran forward, hoping that Priest Rien’s prayer would end in time.

Kaaang!

The two-hander that cut through the upper body horizontally and the longsword that cut through the head made a metallic sound.

What the sword needs to find is to cut through the opponent.

That’s why the blade that couldn’t find the answer continued to explore from different angles to come up with an answer.

For swords that cut diagonally, diagonally.

For the cross guard that holds the head upside down, hold the middle of the sword short.

When the arm, which felt no pain, tried to entangle the greatsword, it fell slightly backwards and struck.

The knight’s hand-to-hand combat, surrounded by steel, responded with steel loaded with distance and centrifugal force.

Amidst the sound of the elongated metal from above, below, they were trampling on the elongated flesh to balance themselves on the wobbly ground.

The sound of steel and flesh being crushed resonated in my ears.

I didn’t want to hear it, but it was a sound I wanted to hear.

The end of the metal-to-metal clash was the priest’s prayer.

“-We believe it is because he invigorates us!”

The power of the two-hander has become stronger. The bastard noticed it, and straightened the edge of his sword.

Because I can’t feel pain, I can exert super strength beyond the limit, and my strength, which was strengthened by Priest Rien’s buff, was equal.

But there was one thing I was better than he was, the centrifugal force from the greatsword’s reach.

―Kagagak!

Through the Death Knight’s guard, the two-hander scratched the armor in an oblique line, making the gap that had previously formed even larger.

It would have been a blow that would have killed an ordinary human, but the one in front of me was an undead.

And something was strange.

No.

It just felt like being greeted on purpose.

It’s like testing what level you’re at.

Just as I was about to hit it again, he muttered.

“This should have been a reasonable courtesy.”

“What?”

Kagagak…

The sword was blocked in the air.

Kagak.

And slowly, it began to push toward me.

“Now block it.”

With those words from the Death Knight, the atmosphere changed.

***

Kang! Kang! Kang!

The one who came into my attack range continued to aim only at his upper body.

I saw a certain pattern, but now I couldn’t do anything about it.

Kang!

It was difficult to see the effect of the greatsword on the short swings that flowed like water, and the one-handed sword at the waist could not be pulled out.

I helplessly let go of the sword attack, which flew like a blow to firewood, and repeated only avoiding it.

Abandoning the reach, giving up the attack.

The moment you give up once, many things are given up, and blood or flesh usually takes the place.

But fortunately, I was able to replace it with something else this time.

Zeuong!

Once again, Priest Rien’s shield flew in at just the right time.

“…You have to thank the priest behind your back, mercenary.”

-Tung!

“As a bonus, to that shooter.”

After avoiding the bolt, the Death Knight regained his posture and spoke in a gloomy voice.

“……”

But I couldn’t answer.

After the shield blocked his blow a while ago, I had a momentary severe headache.

If the dark magic that fills all sides is enough to affect it, there probably isn’t much holy power left for Rien Priest to use.

And if the Death Knight was well aware of that, he teased the hardened tongue.

“I don’t know how long I can last by relying on my modest divine power, but-”

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Shhh!

The guy who was talking while holding his form shut his mouth when a two-hander flew to his head.

Kaang!

After that, he didn’t say anything.

I just swung my sword in line with my vertical two-hander. It was like a knight teaching his servant swordsmanship.

The vertical line was blocked, and the diagonal line was missed.

Wrestling the undead was like suicide, so he had to fight in a slightly different way.

The greatsword he swung as if sweeping the floor was twisted by the strength of the undead and the skill of the corpse.

I forcibly resumed the offensive while consuming the life span of my waist.

His longsword took all of that.

The Death Knight, who now has some time to spare, continued his words leisurely.

“I don’t know who the teacher is, but the skills he learned aren’t bad, and he even has talent. It would have been fun if we met a little later.”

The bastard paused his sword. As if hoping for an interesting answer.

He took a moment to catch his breath before coming up with an answer.

“Guess me and say that is cool, idiot.”

Even though I said that, I was literally dead.

At some point, Priest Rien exhausted himself and was exposed to his dark magic.

Seeing that her squad leader’s crossbow shots are flying sparsely unlike a moment ago, she must be at her limit too.

I thought it would be dangerous if I waited any longer.

I provoked him.

“Come in, it’s a baby who can’t decide on my life.”

“hehehe.”

The guy who laughed so hard, opened his mouth instead of running.

“Will it be different with you or the two people behind you?”

There is no reason to answer.

Kang!

“I am well aware that what I see in the distance is war magic.”

I know he’s doing that to buy time to be consumed by dark magic.

Kaaang!

“And I am well aware that it has already been cast.”

But even as he parried the attack, he continued to babble.

Not using war magic is a benign reason that he does not want to take responsibility for the massacre.

They don’t know why the knights they possess don’t come here.

It wasn’t worth listening to at all. Because I didn’t know that and came here.

But it was so irritating that it hovered around like an earworm.

“You were abandoned. Are you and me different? I think it’s the same that my colleagues don’t come to rescue me.”

“You’re f*cking-“

“Will you not be forgotten? Will that priest who collapsed behind his back with the burnt incense burner lifted be forgotten?”

It wasn’t worth listening to.

“Is it really worth coming to rescue you guys?”

Dude.

…Wasn’t worth it.

Something knocked on the ears and left the world in a daze.

Something knocked in the eye and made the world bloodshot red.

“No one will come to rescue you. They’ll just wait and wait until they fire their war magic first.”

The faceless Death Knight murmured.

“You too will be forgotten. No one will remember your face.”

But I could hear the bullsh*t he was talking about.

“You will also cool off. Like the two people who fell behind you.”

At those words, I inadvertently turned around.

Something with golden hair that didn’t let go of the incense burner until the end,

Then, something with red hair that was staring at me, aiming a crossbow, knelt down on his knees as if his legs were weak.

I remember their names, but I couldn’t remember their faces at all.

They looked at me, and the redhead opened its mouth.

“…..!”

But I didn’t hear it.

Continued, only Lee Myung-man was filled.

I couldn’t even see the faces of the corpses that I could see as I averted my gaze.

It was visible but invisible, only blurry noise filled this hill.

I erased the faces of thousands of people who had passed me by for five years and tried to add two of them to the erased list.

But I didn’t want to.

At least the thousands of people who passed before me were different from the two people behind me.

I don’t know why.

Because you are an employer and a superior?

Or something else?

However, there was one certain thing I had to protect those two people.

-I will go after taking care of the closest people first. I can’t reach them, but I can reach them.

I said that to the two just before, in front of the dark mage’s aisle.

So I had to keep my word.

Because honor dwells in action.

That moment.

I felt a fragrant scent in my nose.

It was the scent of cheap coffee that I drank to wake up from sleepiness during my graduate school days.

It was a scent I missed so much, and my body remembered it.

My headache subsided, and my heart started beating fast.

My whole body was filled with unknown vitality, and I began to see the world differently.

At my change, the Death Knight who had come closer stepped back and said.

“…Was awakened.”

I corrected that murmur.

“Awakening is correct, but it is not that kind of awakening.”

Graduate students’ coffee with half the water brought awakening in a realistic sense, not a fantasy one.

“It’s a joint prolongation, the kind that you can’t do.”

“What?”

The undead, who couldn’t even die on their own, asked that.

“You are prolonging life, but I am prolonging life. There is a definite difference between the two.”

“If you want to become undead that much, I will listen.”

He slowly raised his sword, realizing that he had been provoked.

As my mind cleared, one thing I had came to mind.

I immediately lifted the two-hander and hit it vertically.

The Death Knight blocked it by swinging his longsword horizontally.

He took a step back.

This time I swung it with a left oblique line, and it was full of metal sounds.

He blocked it by swinging it diagonally to the right.

Even in the midst of backtracking against my strength, the light in his helmet’s eyes conveyed the feeling of ridicule.

Kang!

Two swords confronted each other in the air.

The Death Knight, who was in a relatively lowland, started laughing at me.

“Is this enough?”

From that appearance, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

Kagagak…

“This should have been a proper courtesy.”

So I said the same thing as the one before.

“…What?”

Kagak!

While the Death Knight panicked for a moment, I overpowered him by giving strength to both arms.

His back bent backwards.

In the meantime, while holding the two-hander with one hand, I pulled the back pocket of my waist with the other hand.

And I took out the ring engraved with the spell ‘Circular Shield’ and the incense that chased the monsters I received yesterday.

Being undead didn’t mean they could quickly recover their stance. Enough time.

I said as I put it in the gap in my armor that had been wide open after being hit with a two-hander earlier.

“Now stop it, idiot.”

The engraving on the ring given by Hwaran is activated when the wearer or the ring is shocked.

That’s why I was about to hit the armor with my fist to activate the ring.

-Tung!

Faster than my hand, the bolt flew through the gap in the armor behind my back and was inserted precisely, and I heard the sound of metal clashing.

“This…!”

The time he tried to hit me with his fist.

Thump!

The gauntlet wielded by the Death Knight was blocked somewhere in the air.

The protective shield was activated by the prianian squad leader matching the rings correctly.

“Oops…!”

“It would have been fun if we met a little earlier, right?”

I took what he said.

The protective film was protected on both sides. Either inside or outside.

Thump, boom.

The items Hwaran used himself were enough to withstand his punches.

“I will kill you. The moment this shield breaks-“

The figure of the guy who was talking like that was covered.

The incense, which was ignited by pulling the string earlier, rose from within the protective film and filled the inside.

“As expected, incense is the best for driving away demons.”

The slope behind the place where the Death Knight was pushed was steep. It was as I intended.

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So I fell back for a while and pushed the shield with all my might.

It rolled down there, thumping and thumping.

At that appearance, as if looking at a bubble chute at an amusement park, he spat out a word.

“Yeah. It blocks well.”

As I watched the creature roll comfortably from below, I heard the weak voice of the leader of the Prianian squad from behind.

“Mr. G-House! Run!!”

I scanned the floor for a weapon. Because you couldn’t kill a warlock with your bare hands.

Perhaps the two-hander was encased in a protective film and rolled together.

Still, we had something left.

“Mercenary, here…”

Priest Rien pulled out a wooden mallet from his waistband.

She was on the verge of exhaustion, so the squad leader decided to throw it instead.

“Mr. G-House! Take it!”

I picked up the mallet the squad leader had thrown and ran up the hill.

“Mercenary! I will kill you!!”

Ignoring the howling Death Knight below, I arrived in front of the totem.

The warlock, who had been laughing meanly all along, erased his smile and greeted me.

At that appearance, I happily smiled and said.

“Did I ask you to leave the room?”

“Sleep, hold on-”

Forty-ninth.

I put emphasis on his long, filthy life.

***

Me and the squad leader supported Priest Rien and went all the way to Earl Berrington’s camp.

Then priests, apparently brought from a nearby church, rushed to us with soldiers, and a brief examination was conducted.

The two moved to the tent first.

I showed the order in my arms and asked to see the Count.

After a while, I could see Earl Berrington inside the tent.

“I am an F-class mercenary, Golfian G-House. Your Excellency, Earl of Berrington.”

I politely greeted our water owner.

Death Knight belittled the two counts, but it was a lifesaver for me.

If either of them had fired their war magic, the other would have fired too.

Then we should have become Garrosh or Seonjibingsu by now.

“Originally, my superior was supposed to come, but I apologize for not being able to come in person due to an injury he received during the battle.”

He nodded.

“Yes. If it wasn’t for you, we would have shed more blood.”

There was good will in his voice.

Slightly passing the count’s appropriate congratulations, I took out the order and the feather pen that had been given to me by the black magician from my chest and held it out to the chamberlain next to me.

“I have completed the order to escort the priest and search the cave, so please sign to confirm this.”

Even if it was time to be evacuated, the additional income was unbearable.

The Count asked as he handed over the blood-stained paper from the chamberlain.

“Is there anything else you want besides that?”

Suddenly, my whole body started to get tired.

I said with a smile even on the verge of collapsing.

“It is enough for us to have a place to rest separately and sign the order that the mission has been completed.”

“Sure.”

“And I would be grateful if you could give me a strong gag or just a handkerchief…”

Despite the somewhat strange request, the Count nodded his head.

I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep without a gag tonight.