Chapter 80: To the East! (2)
Chapter 80: To the East! (2)
Richard Burton couldn’t help but smile at Iron’s introduction.
“Oh! The 11th Sword… Are you going to introduce yourself properly from now on?”
“What do you mean…”
Iron looked at Richard Burton as if he couldn’t understand what he was saying. Richard laughed.
“That gentleman, he still hasn’t fixed his personality yet.”
Richard Burton looked at Iron as he spoke.
“Commander Crimson always does this. He never skipped that part. He was worried that I would always forgot about where you belonged.”
“…Yes?”
Iron looked at the Eastern Commander in confusion. Richard smiled when he saw Iron’s reaction.
“Everytime we saw each other, he would never skip the affiliation whenever he mentioned the ‘11th Sword’. This always happened without fail. I even doubted if he would ever let you leave the Northeast or the Ghost.”
“Ah…”
“The Center has been aiming for you recently, right? I guess that’s why he’s been anxious.”
Just like Richard Burton had said, it seemed like Crimson’s anxiety had risen because of that. But because he was temporarily moving to the East, Crimson’s anxiety had once again risen. For some reason, he heard that there had been an increase in the amount of curses that he heaped on the Central Military in recent years. In addition, Carl Gustav had strangely listed out the things that he wouldn’t normally say just to grab on to Iron. He even mobilized the Ghosts to pester him about the benefits of staying in the Northeast every day.
“Because of you, I received a lot of curses as soon as I personally asked for you.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“You shouldn’t be sorry.”
Richard Burton turned his head as he continued to speak.
“I’ll introduce you to the others.”
“I’m Captain Daniel Cevaior of the Eastern Command.”
“I’m Allan Reishor. I’m a member of the Southern Wizard Tower.”
“I’m Peter Marvio from the Central Wizard Tower.”
All of them were around 20 years old and were still quite young.
“Although they’re not as strong as you, these friends are still quite well-known. They’re all at the beggining of the 4th Stage or higher so they will be able to help.”
They were the new up and coming stars that were around the age of 19 and 20 years old. And all of these aces at the 4th Stage looked at Iron with vigilance.
The commander did not even block their force and momentum. He even stepped back as if he found the situation to be fun.
Then, the commander sighed lightly as he turned to his deputy commander.
“Is he not here yet?”
“…That’s right.”
Richard Burton sighed after hearing his deputy’s answer.
“In fact, the reason why I asked for you despite knowing that the Northeast would criticize and curse me was because… of the divine beast contractor that appeared in the East.”
“I heard that they’re an other-worlder.”
Hearing Iron’s words, the other youngsters turned to look at the commander. Their eyes were filled with curiosity and wonder. It seemed like they wanted to see an other-worlder divine beast contractor.
“Hoo…”
The Eastern Commander looked troubled by their stares.
“Is there a problem with the other-worlder?”
Richard Burton nodded his head in answer to Iron’s question.
“They’re quite arrogant.”
“You’re saying that they’re arrogant?”
The word arrogant was not something that would easily come out from the mouth of the Eastern Commander, a person at the core of the Imperial Military. After all, it was normal to at least crawl in front of the commander when they appeared in front of them.
However, based on the commander’s expression, it seemed like the other-worlder acted rudely in front of him.
“Reporting to the Commander, the other-worlder Kin Jwongtae has entered the command.”
Iron frowned when he heard the deputy’s report. It was not because his pronunciation was bad but it was because he felt suspicious about the name.
‘Kim Jungtae? No way… that psychotic bastard?’
Even before the beta testers had identified themselves back in their previous lives, there were a few idiots who willingly divulged their identities to the world. And one of them was none other than Kim Jungtae.
One of the monikers given to him was ‘Water Crazy Bastard’. He crazily wanted to see and learn any abilities related to water. He was a nutjob who did not care if he would dive into shit as long as he could learn about those abilities. He was also considered as one of the top five beta testers in the whole world. He did not know if he did have the ability but he was a man who was good with his head so there were quite a few people who followed him.
‘No way, right…’
Iron waited while thinking that he must have heard of it wrong.
Not long after, a man appeared after the door to the commander’s office opened.
“I was right.”
Iron mumbled to himself quietly. Although this was the first time that he had seen his appearance in the original world. So, Iron still couldn’t be sure right away.
The man that entered was deliberately revealing the image of his divine beast while letting water droplets spin around his body. He was showing off that he had learned magic.
‘Divine beasts and spirits? How the hell?’
The nutjob had a fish that seemed to be his divine beast with a small water spirit floating around at the same time.
Iron had never heard of any divine beast contractor having a deal with spirits.
The appearance of this man who was letting out his water magic was strangely fascinating. The only problem was that he continued to maintain that despite being in the commander’s office. He used the excuse that they should always be together to increase their affinity but Iron wondered what in the hell did he really want to achieve with what he was doing. He should have known when and where he should hide them but he did not intend to do so. He was still just like himself in his previous life.
“Long time no see, Commander.”
“You… You…!”
The deputy commander couldn’t help but grab the back of his own neck in anger when he saw Kim Jungtae arrogantly asking for a handshake. The deputy commander wanted to angrily rebuke this arrogant other-worlder but the commander just smiled bitterly as he ordered him to step down with a slight gesture.
It seemed like the commander could still fully tolerate this kind of disrespect. After all, as long as the threat of the dimensional crack was still here, Kim Jungtae’s value would remain to be extremely high. So, the commander believed that his authority could be put down for a while.
“Nice to see you again, Mr. Kin Jwongtae.”
“It’s Kim Jungtae.”
Kim Jungtae frowned as he corrected the commander while looking around.
“More importantly, I heard that the divine beast contractor from the Northeast came.”
“I’m Lieutenant Colonel Iron Carter.”
“Nice to meetcha!”
Iron stepped up first on behalf of the troubled commander. He just smiled at Kim Jungtae who had been rude from the very beginning. After all, it would be unusual for him for someone to look at him in the eyes and remain quiet.
“I’ve seen this face somewhere…”
Kim Jungtae looked at Iron firmly as he said this.
‘What does this punk want to say…’
Since he had seen Iron’s face in his previous life, he would probably be fully aware of his status as Leonhardt’s eldest son. However, compared to his appearance back then, his hair and eye color had already changed. This was because his hair and eyes had both taken on a dark red hue after being sealed in the Black Forest. In addition, they had only met in his previous life after he had undergone all kinds of experiments like magic tattoos and shape changes. So, he wouldn’t be able to recognize him since his face shape was different from when they had met before.
“Hmm… Or not?”
As expected, Kim Jungtae failed to recognize him.
“You’re dealing with both divine beast and spirit?”
“Kgghk~ As expected of a divine beast contractor, you’re asking about this straight away. I had a hard time signing a contract with both of these guys.”
Kim Jungtae showed off his contracted divine beast and spirit as he stared at Iron with a smirk.
“It seems like you can’t understand. It’s possible because of my own abilities.”
Then, Kim Jungtae gathered the water around him.
‘It’s not magic.’
Iron looked seriously at the droplets of water clumping together in Kim Jungtae’s hands.
Everyone looked at Kim Jungtae as if he was someone amazing. This was because water itself, not mana, spiritual power, divine power or sorcery, was gathering at Kim Jungtae’s hands. No one has ever heard that this was something that was possible.
‘With an ability like this, his skills are definitely something to be coveted. It was more than enough to endure his rude behavior.’
Iron, who had experienced Kim Jungtae’s unique abilities before, nodded as if he only understood now.
If the others’ unique ability were at this level, then he believed that those in the Center would never ignore them. This was already the case now but if they were given the room to grow, they would likely become a huge figure in the future.
“But you don’t go around showing off your divine beast?”
“They’re currently sealed.”
“Sealed? Ah! Was it because you purified the contaminated mana in the Black Forest?”
Iron nodded at Kim Jungtae’s question. It seemed like he had heard the rumors so he was fully convinced with the authenticity of Iron’s words.
In their previous lives, Kim Jungtae was also someone who grew sick and tired of contaminated mana. So, he could understand the amount of power needed to purify it.
“Too bad. I heard that you signed a contract with a lot of divine beasts… Don’t you have an idea when your contractors will wake up?”
“Yes. That’s unfortunate…”
Kim Jungtae looked genuinely disappointed when he heard Iron’s answer.
“But still… All that matters is you’re connected. They’ll always wake up sooner or later…”
Iron smiled when Kim Jungtae consoled him while stroking the flying fish around him. Although he was a complete nutjob, it looked like he was sincere with his affections towards his divine beast.
The commander clapped his hands after watching Iron and Kim Jungtae talk.
“Since you’re all acquainted with each other, you can go back and take a rest. We’ll start explaining the team formation and operations tomorrow.”
Hearing the commander’s words, Iron, who came from the farthest location, left and followed the deputy commander out. Even Kim Jungtae left the commander’s office as if he had already finished his business there.
“Aren’t you going out?”
“I still have something to say.”
Allan Reishor, a member of the Southern Wizard Tower, looked at the Eastern Commander with a dissatisfied look on his face.
“Hmm… The others too?”
“That’s right.”
“Yes.”
The others answered with their heads down when the commander asked them.
“Let’s hear it.”
When Allan Reishor, the one who looked like he had the most complaints, was given the right to speak, he immediately opened his mouth.
“Isn’t there a problem if Lieutenant Colonel Iron Carter couldn’t even call out his divine beasts?”
“A problem?”
The Eastern Commander looked at them as if he couldn’t understand their words.
“What good will it do for our future plans to include someone who had their divine beasts sealed? Do we really need to include such a person in our team?”
After hearing Allan’s words, the Eastern Commander finally looked at him as if he understood what he wanted to say. Allan’s expression was clearly telling him that he found Iron useless without his divine beasts and that he would only be taking merits away from them. The others also had a similar expression as they spoke their own thoughts. It seemed like they wanted to persuade him to not bring him in.
“Hmm… I’ll still need his help as a divine beast contractor. Besides, he has already closed dimensional cracks twice so his experience will be of great help to the team.”
Peter Marvio, a member of the Central Wizard Tower, spoke up in response to the Eastern Commander’s words.
“His experiences in the Northeast are certainly great. But will he even be of help if his divine beasts are sealed?”
“Hmm…”
The commander pondered for a moment before turning to look at Daniel Cevaior.
“What about you?”
“I feel the same way. Lieutenant Colonel Iron Carter’s experiences might be great but using that as an excuse to make him fight in the field seems to be way too much. Why don’t we just leave him at Command and focus on planning operations based on his experience and information?”
The Eastern Commander turned to ask Daniel Cevaior upon hearing Peter Marvio’s words but it seemed like they were of the same mind. They all judged that Iron, with his divine beasts sealed, would have no significant contributions to the results of their operation in Ghost Island. What was worse was the fact that the three people left here were the people that each region had called aces.
The two were wizards affiliated with the Southern and Central Wizard Tower. They were also people who had contracted with the spirits. Even Daniel Cevaior had a contract with a water spirit and was an officer and an ace who obtained a navigator license that was extremely hard to complete. They were obviously thinking that they weren’t behind Iron in terms of skills.
Since it was possible for spiritualists to detect divine beasts, they believed that Iron and his sealed divine beasts were of no use. In addition, although Kim Jungtae was arrogant, he was still a divine beast contractor so they did not have a need to have two of them in their team. They thought that they would just be putting in useless people to decrease the merit distributions.
“Do you all believe the same?”
“That’s right.”
“Yes.”
“Yes!”
The commander looked troubled when all three of them answered in the affirmative at the same time.
Since they were still young, he thought that they would just be jealous of the person ahead of them and have a strong sense of competition. However, it was much worse than what he thought. If he knew this would happen, he would have just asked for more experienced spiritualists but he couldn’t do so anymore since they had been dispatched to other regions.
There were quite a few spiritualists, but those who had experience were rare and extremely hard to recruit. At the very least, he asked for these young new up and coming stars so they could build their merits and enhance their reputation while gaining experience.
“Go out for now.”
The commander said that. But once the youngsters went out, he clearly looked troubled.
He called for Iron despite his divine beasts being sealed since his experience would be of great help to the team. But if he forced him to lead the team, the team would definitely fall apart and crumble which would lead to a bigger problem.
“I’m having a headache.”
The Eastern Commander was at a loss on how to coax the young new stars.
Even if his divine beasts are sealed, he’s still a Ghost.
Due to the Ghost’s status, important information about their members, like their level and mana attribute even their small hobbies, were extremely confidential. But even if it was confidential, the Eastern Commander could roughly tell the extent of their strength.
Especially Iron. The Eastern Commander had seen the information about Iron that Crimson had handed over when he requested for Iron. So, he had no choice but to worry.
“If you make the wrong move, you’ll die…”
Daniel Cevaior, Allan Reishor and Peter Marvio were all at the 4th Stage. However, they were just at the beginning of the 4th Stage. However, the information had revealed that Iron’s strength was already at the peak of 4th Stage.
But based on what Crimson had told him, he was already at the beginning stage of the 5th Stage and although it was only a little, he could already use his ability to build up his own attribute in his sword.
Any information aside from that was confidential that even the Eastern Commander did not have the access to.
In other words, with the information he received alone, he knew that those three new stars would definitely be used to wipe the ground.
And because of that, he had no choice but to get worried.
Daniel could handle his own even if he got hit a few times but Peter Marvio and Allan Reishor were different. If they pick a fight for nothing, then they would probably be in a situation where they could die before even getting hit.
What if they crossed the line?
They would have a ticket reservation straight to the afterlife.
And there was also Kim Jungtae in the team. He was well-known for being arrogant.
In short, the team that he had just formed was already on the verge of being smashed to the ground.
“I sincerely hope that Lieutenant Colonel Iron Carter is a calm and collected person.”
***
TL’s Corner!
Yes. People will come to provoke. HEHEHEHE. Let’s see you getting trashed to the ground. I pity the Eastern Commander though. There, there. Iron would not kill them. He’ll just hit them where it hurts. Probably…