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Chapter 55: Ruler
Nuada seemed to be in a good mood, thinking about returning to his village after a long time.
“Then let’s go!”
The journey into the mountains didn’t take long.
They only moved with a few dozen elite knights, and Nuada, who knew the mountain paths well, guided them.
There was no reason for their speed to be slow.
But Eurius had a rather embarrassing experience here.
“Let’s camp here.”
The problem was the field tents.
Coincidentally, there was one woman among them.
Actually, the problem was not that, but the reaction of the knights.
“You can share a tent with her, Your Majesty.”
Eurius made an awkward expression.
They seemed to misunderstand him.
“She will be assigned separately. This is an order.”
‘As expected, he doesn’t mix personal feelings with his mission.’
‘But he doesn’t have to hide it from us.’
As the days passed, he got used to their reactions.
‘It’s no use explaining anyway, they won’t believe me. I’ll just treat her casually.’
The journey went smoothly.
Eurius and his party were able to enter deep into the mountains in less than a week, unlike before.
“That’s our Thunder Rock tribe!”
Nuada’s voice was full of pride as he pointed with his finger.
‘It’s been a while.’
Eurius also felt nostalgic.
He had muttered to himself that this place was shabby when he came here before, but now he was different.
“It’s a wonderful village. It’s nice to see it so lively.”
He smiled warmly and replied to Nuada.
The village was full of life, with children playing warrior games with sticks, or young men who had not yet become warriors training and making loud noises.
Eurius’s main goal was the peaceful daily life of him and his followers, wasn’t it?
He couldn’t help but watch that scene with satisfaction for a while.
“…?”
Nuada looked at him with a curious expression, then shifted his gaze to his tribe.
He didn’t mind getting such an evaluation for his tribe as a chief.
“Hmm, then let’s go down. The guys who went ahead must be ready to greet us.”
Buzzing.
“The chief is back!”
“Let’s get ready to welcome him.”
Even if they were allies, Eurius and the knights he brought were the first foreigners to visit their village in hundreds of years.
Nuada led them in front, but they couldn’t completely let go of their guard.
‘I guess it’s too much to expect a warm welcome from the start?’
Eurius watched the scene with a bitter smile on his face.
But Nuada’s declaration changed the atmosphere.
“You must know that I brought some foreigners today. You must have been surprised by their appearance…”
What Nuada said was surprising.
“I will welcome them as brothers and guests who have done us a great favor. I hope you all follow my words.”
“Guests have arrived. Let’s get ready to greet them!”
In the north, the chief’s words were law. And Nuada was one of the strongest and wisest chiefs since their tribe was founded.
‘If the chief says so, they must be guests.’
‘We just have to follow him.’
“Thank you for welcoming us.”
“Don’t mention it. I still haven’t repaid you for saving my life.”
Nuada responded with a bright expression and started to guide them.
Eurius and the knights were taken to the chief’s house in the center of the village.
‘Huh, amazing. I never thought I would come this far into the mountains and stay in an immigrant tribe’s house.’
The knights were also somewhat nervous, but they relaxed a bit when they saw that they were quite welcomed.
That night, a grand feast was held in the Thunder Rock tribe’s village.
Alcohol and food were placed in front of Eurius and the knights who were taken to the chief’s house.
“This is pretty good?”
Various dishes like stew and meat started to appear in front of them.
Linfield cautiously tasted the food and gave an unexpectedly good evaluation.
They had been eating only hard rations and Mulligan stew for over a week, so it was natural.
‘You would be shocked if you knew what it was made of, Linfield?’
Eurius barely held back his laughter in his mind.
He had also been disgusted by the ingredients when he first ate this food in his previous life, but later he gave up and ate it diligently.
“Oh! Don’t tell my knights that most of the food ingredients are monster meat. I’ll tell them later.”
Eurius had already hinted at Nuada.
The tribes living deep in the mountains didn’t distinguish between monsters and livestock.
As long as they were not humanoid monsters like trolls or ogres, they ate anything that looked like a beast or a livestock, whether it was a spirit beast or a monster.
Anyway, the feast went on like that, and finally Eurius told Nuada his purpose.
“I came to these mountains to investigate a certain area, as I told you before.”
“As I said before, it’s not too difficult. But as I also said before, this area is hard to wander around alone, even for me.”
‘Now it begins.’
Eurius’s eyes sparkled.
There were some differences from his expectations, but this was the opportunity to fix them!
“Is there a wild mountain with three pointed peaks lined up near your tribe? That’s where I’m looking for.”
Nuada’s face showed a big confusion for the first time.
“How do you know about that mountain?”
“As I said before, I was looking into the northern mountains and found some records that someone had investigated. They were very old.”
‘I knew it from my previous life, but you would think I’m crazy if I said that.’
Eurius vaguely answered and asked with a curious expression, seeing that Nuada’s reaction was more intense than he expected.
“I won’t ask your reason, but it seems that mountain is not ordinary to you either. Do you have a reason for that?”
“Hmm…”
Nuada seemed to hesitate for a moment.
That place was quite special to him. And it was also one of the most dangerous places in the mountains.
“We call that mountain the Needle Mountain. It’s a very dangerous place…”
At that moment, Eurius confirmed his guess.
‘Something must be blocking it, so no one has discovered what’s there yet.’
The Needle Mountain was the center of the Dite ore mine.
There were several peaks around the mountain where the mine was located.
He was surprised when he first came to this tribe that the Thunder Rock tribe used Dite ore as a toy for children.
But Nuada in this life said that it was a valuable item.
That was his biggest question.
Eurius decided to gamble on his trust that he had built up with him.
“Can you take me there without asking why?”
“…!”
“I found out that there is a key that is very valuable to our alliance there.”
“Huh…”
‘Does he know about its existence? But what does it have to do with our alliance?’
Nuada was also deep in thought. But Eurius had kept his promise and helped him drive away Gundar.
‘If he helps me in the Needle Mountain, I will owe him again. If he needs a favor too, it might be a golden opportunity.’
He made up his mind.
“You are a great benefactor to our tribe. It’s not hard to take you there.”
“I really appreciate it!”
It was almost done. But there must be some obstacle blocking the Needle Mountain.
Nuada spoke seriously about the main point.
“I know why you want to go there, but do you also know about the ruler of the Needle Mountain?”
Eurius looked confused. What was he talking about?
“Ruler? I’ve never seen such a record.”
Nuada lowered his voice and told him the secret of the Needle Mountain.
“Actually, there is an ancient silver snake living in the Needle Mountain. We call it the ruler of the mountain.”
Eurius finally felt like all the pieces fit together.
‘It must be a powerful spirit beast that even Superhumans have trouble dealing with.’
If such a spirit beast blocked it, it would make sense that no one knew about the Dite mine for hundreds of years.
“Wow, is it a monster that you can’t handle either?”
“That’s right, I still think I’m not strong enough to challenge the ruler.”
Eurius smiled slyly.
“But what if there are two of us?”
Nuada also smiled and clenched his fist.
They agreed with each other.
“Enough! You for your purpose and me for my tribe! How about we join forces?”
Thud!
They bumped their fists together.
Nuada felt relieved, as if he had pulled out a toothache.
Actually, the Needle Mountain was too close to his tribe.
The existence of such an old spirit beast itself was a big threat.
And the ruler had a very nasty temper. Whenever it got restless and flew around, it caused trouble.
In its territory, monsters and spirit beasts ran away from it and fled towards the tribe, and their migration was a disaster for his tribe.
If Breaking Rock was his childhood goal, then the silver snake was his new goal after becoming a Superhuman.
‘Someday I will twist that damn snake’s head off!’
But he wasn’t confident enough to beat the silver snake yet. But what if Eurius, who had defeated him, joined him?
‘It’s worth a try.’
‘Nuada in my previous life managed to beat that spirit beast alone somehow. If it’s so hard for a superhuman like him…’
“Then when should we leave?”
“Wait!”
Eurius quickly raised his hand to stop Nuada, who seemed ready to run to the Needle Mountain right away.
It was good to catch the spirit beast! But both he and Nuada had a lot of things to do.
He had to go back to the capital as soon as he finished his business in the Needle Mountain, and Nuada had to unite the remaining tribes in the north. If either of them got hurt badly, it would mess up their schedule.
“Tell me about the ruler’s movement patterns, appearance, attack methods, and so on!”
“You want to plan a hunt.”
“That’s right. We have a low chance of failing the hunt, but it would be troublesome if we suffered a lot of damage.”
Nuada seemed to agree with his logic and started to explain the ruler in detail to Eurius.
Eurius muttered in his mind.
‘Open help’
[Help – You can view the list of spirit beasts.]