Chapter 149 - Walking Fortress

"G-guard shift leader! Something seems to be coming this way!"

The gatekeepers immediately entered first-level alert status.

They drew their rifles and hid themselves behind cover.

A moment later, the source of the tremor emerged from the dense forest.

It was a huge boulder.

The boulder was moving.

That illusion lasted only a moment; as it drew closer and closer, they realized it was not a golem, but armor.

No, was it truly armor?

It was so heavy that every step sent tremors through the ground.

It was as if a golem one might only see underground were coming toward them.

It drew closer and closer.

Its body, roughly two meters tall, felt like a mountain.

As it drew closer and closer, the guard shift leader opened his mouth to carry out his duty.

"S-st..."

The man could not even properly get out the short word, stop.

Once he was close enough, the man stopped on his own and set his shield down in front of him.

THOOM!

With a deep rumble, the man ceased moving.

A gatekeeper cautiously approached and asked him,

"Wh-who are you?"

His tone naturally turned polite from the threat he felt to his life.

Then the armored man silently unfolded a sheet of paper that had been crumpled up and folded.

It was ragged beyond description, but the seal stamped on the document belonged to Count Concillus.

"This certifies an audience with Regent Ferda Valdrova as a knight who rendered distinguished service in this demonic creature subjugation... Hm?"

The gatekeepers looked at one another after seeing the document.

"That can't be... Isn't something wrong?"

"The armor knight who was supposed to come already entered, didn't he?"

"Yeah, and we were told he'd arrive around morning, and he did arrive in the morning..."

The guards looked troubled, since they could not refuse entry when he had a certificate.

"Y-you may pass."

When the guard shift leader returned the certificate, the armored man lifted his shield and began to walk.

His impossibly heavy footsteps headed toward Hestia village.

Meanwhile, Erica was pleased that the armor knight, Valdrova, had accepted her proposal.

'I thought this was something I would have to take more time to finish, but to think it would work out like this.'

Erica clenched her fist to stop the trembling born of accomplishment and expressed her gratitude to her.

"Ahem! Thank you very much. If the day comes when the Serdes Continent is saved, it will surely have been made possible thanks to your assistance, Sir Knight."

Riding the pleasant mood, Erica subtly asked another question.

"I will guarantee your anonymity, so might you be able to tell me even a little about who you are?"

Shake, shake, shake!

"Understood. It is a shame, but... I suppose it cannot be helped."

The defining trait of Iorga spawns was that if they were curious about something, they absolutely had to solve it.

Harboring a vow to one day confirm her identity, she brought the conversation to a close for now.

She released the blocking magic.

"Then tomorrow, please stop by the adventurer's guild first instead of this labor union. We will need to coordinate, and I also know that you are not simply working for money, so we will have to align your schedule."

Nod, nod.

With that, they wrapped things up, and Valdrova and Erica came outside.

Hanson, whom she had expected to be waiting by the door, was standing in front of the labor union lobby, floundering helplessly.

It was because of the statue standing before the door.

Hanson was speaking to that statue.

"Um, this is not the adventurer's guild, but the labor union. This is not where you should be, sir..."

No, it was not a statue.

It was a man armed in heavy armor so massive that calling him a fortress would not have been an exaggeration.

His armor and shield rippled as if they had melted and hardened again and again, and they looked so heavy that even taking a single step seemed difficult.

At the same time, by taking one step, he proved that he possessed such overwhelming strength that no one would dare block his path.

At the sight of him, so oppressive it stole the breath, Erica tilted her head slightly and asked Valdrova,

"Is he an acquaintance?"

Shake, shake.

If he were an acquaintance, it would only be among the dragons, and there was no dragon who would go around wearing armor like that.

Even if they were in human form, they would keep their own appearance, not wrap themselves up so completely like that.

The helmet of the knight, who had been standing still like a statue, shifted.

Valdrova felt a gaze from beyond the helmet.

He was looking at her.

"Is it... you?"

A rumble broke the deep silence.

"The shameless thief who steals another's achievement."

It was then.

To Valdrova, whose instincts for battle were sharper than anyone's, it was clearly visible.

She saw the precursor to his movement, the sign that he was about to bring his club down on her head.

The thick, solid club moved.

"What do you think you're doing...!"

Erica tried to respond quickly.

She bound his arm with magic and stopped the club.

SHATTER!

No, she failed.

Erica's intent shattered to pieces along with the chains of restraint she had cast.

"What the...?!"

Erica's magic was a 5th Circle defensive spell, an excellent spell capable of firmly binding even an ogre, which was difficult to confront with pure strength.

That man had broken that magic.

She had guessed at his strength from the moment he wore that heavy armor, but even that now felt like an underestimate.

That strength came crashing down toward Valdrova's head.

THOOM!!

A shockwave burst out.

"Aaah!"

"Uwaaah!"

The people in the area fell flat on their backsides, and dust attached to the ceiling came raining down.

If the attack had landed head-on, her form would likely not have remained intact.

But that did not happen.

His club did not touch the floor and was stopped above the armor knight's head.

Just as he had swung the club with one hand, the armor knight was gripping the end of that club with one hand.

"Hmm..."

The man let out a breath.

"So you may be a thief, but you do have skill. Is that it?"

Still holding the club, Valdrova looked around.

People had fallen over, and the building had shaken violently.

'The building... almost collapsed.'

Emotion surged up.

'The building I built...'

It was anger, the first she had felt since the Godwin incident.

Just as that emotion was about to radiate from Valdrova's heart,

"What is this disturbance in someone else's territory?"

A young man's voice rang out.

It carried a weight hard to believe from a man not yet even twenty.

When she heard that voice, Valdrova's emotions evaporated like steam.

The voice that stepped between them belonged to someone Valdrova knew very well.

'Mr. Ferda...!'

It was her incredibly wonderful fiancé.

Before the incident occurred,

Ferda received a report from Isabella.

-An armor knight has already entered, but we have received word that another armor knight has entered as well.

Wondering what she was talking about, he asked her again.

-One is the armor knight who originally worked here, and the one who came later is said to be a man carrying Count Concillus's certificate.

"Is that so?"

The one who came first was the armor knight he knew well, and the one who entered afterward was undoubtedly Alberto, called the walking fortress.

If that had been all, he would have simply assumed there had been some mistake and let it pass.

And Isabella probably would not have gone out of her way to report it either.

But what came next was the problem.

-That man was heading not to Valdrova Castle, but to the labor union.

"Did that fellow say he wanted to do labor too?"

He wondered if that bastard was another strange breed like the armor knight.

-It does not seem so. I suspect he may be harboring resentment toward the armor knight who arrived first.

"Harboring resentment?"

-There is a theory that the people welcomed the armor knight who came today because they naturally assumed he was the one scheduled to arrive, and that this earned that man's resentment.

Isabella's words made sense.

The working oddball was probably the only armor knight of her kind, and if he was heading to a place completely unrelated to him, her guess fit.

-It seems something may happen, so I reported it in advance, and I intend to depart for the scene.

"I will go as well."

Two men of monstrous strength were gathering in one place.

Curious what might happen, Ferda decided to see it with his own eyes.

And when he arrived at the location, was something astonishing not already happening?

THOOM!

A terrifying shockwave burst out from the labor union.

Not only tables and chairs, but even the people were pushed back from the area.

'Impressive.'

Ferda had naturally assumed the armor knight would be the one forced back.

Even though the armor knight was also a possessor of monstrous strength, considering Alberto's reputation, he had thought that before him, she would be no more than a child showing off before a master.

But the scene unfolding before his eyes was different.

The armor knight who blocked the attack with one hand was no easy opponent either.

Because those two forces were evenly matched, a shockwave occurred, and the building shook.

Inwardly, he was curious who would be stronger if they fought in earnest.

But he could not leave them to it.

This was not a battlefield, but Hestia village.

He could not watch a building collapse.

"What are you doing in someone else's territory?"

When Ferda appeared, the atmosphere that had been turning vicious vanished.

Ferda stood between the two knights and turned toward Alberto.

He looked large even from afar, but seeing him up close, he was even larger.

Alberto handed the certificate to Ferda.

"I doubt the certificate allowing you to come here is a certificate allowing you to run wild."

"I was merely trying to catch a thief who coveted what belonged to another."

Seeing that, Ferda could not help being a little surprised.

'So he knows how to talk.'

The walking fortress, Alberto.

Ferda had never heard any stories of him speaking, so he had naturally assumed his tongue had been cut out.

But that was not the case.

It was merely that he had not gone around speaking because there was no need to speak.

Even that man opened his mouth, yet the armor behind Ferda still said nothing.

"That was probably not her intention."

Having no choice, Ferda defended her in her stead.

"She took a Vow of Silence and was swept along by the mood, so she likely had no chance to explain. The matter of stealing your achievement was only something that happened because people misunderstood. Is that not right?"

Ferda glanced at the armor knight.

She nodded her head quickly.

'Mr. Ferda...'

Valdrova was overjoyed by the fact that he had taken her side even though she was not in her original form.

Although she was larger because she was wearing armor, his back looked tremendously broad and dependable.

'Would that deficient fool really go out of her way to do something like that?'

That was what it had seemed like when she had been put forward at the labor union.

She must have stood there, knowing nothing, because she thought she had to do something.

Ferda merely thought of the armor knight as a fool so affectionate and honest that it bordered on stupidity.

Rather than trying to steal another's achievement, it was certain that this had begun from a misunderstanding.

"Hmm..."

Alberto let out a breath.

He seemed to be thinking, but his club was still pointed at his enemy.

"A person's inner thoughts are unknown even to themselves, so how would you know?"

"I agree with that part."

A consistent heart was difficult, which was why one came to admire it.

A person's heart could change as easily as flipping one's palm.

"Even so, since you have now declared to everyone with your own mouth that this was a misunderstanding, why not end this here after putting us in a difficult position by wielding force as you pleased?"

Ferda spoke solemnly.

This was Valdrova's territory, and he could not tolerate that territory being threatened.

If Alberto intended to cross the line any further, Ferda offered that proposal with the thought that he would fight outright.

"Understood."

Alberto withdrew obediently.

He had not come here to cause trouble in the first place, and his target had been Ferda.

It was fortunate he was not pointlessly aggressive.

"Follow me."

With Ferda going with him, the incident was settled for the moment.

Alberto slung the club over his shoulder.

At the end of that club were five finger marks.

Ferda held the conversation in the town hall, the largest building in Hestia village.

Since matters within the village sometimes required many people to gather, it also had a reception room, so he held the conversation there.

The reason he had not gone all the way to the castle was simple.

'Because of Luri.'

When knights entered the castle, the rule was that they had to be scrubbed down.

To do that, they had to undress, but Alberto did not remove his armor.

Even if he did not particularly smell bad or anything like that, it would be difficult for Luri, who still held a grudge against knights, to show flexibility toward Alberto.

So he held the conversation at the town hall from the start.

Alberto did not seem to mind either.

"So, what reward do you want?"

Ferda asked him for now, as written on the certificate.

"I do not need one."

It was as expected.

He had not been drawn here by simple material desire, but had come to see Ferda.

"Then what is your purpose in coming?"

"Do you know about the white Demon?"

The defining feature of Demons was that their skin was black.

But among them, there was one with unusually white skin.

Gokma was such a bastard.

"I know of him."

"I met that man."

It was not surprising.

If Alberto was a wandering knight who punished everything that threw the world into chaos, his first priority would be Demons.

If he kept doing that, he would naturally meet one.

'Is he trying to cooperate with this place in order to get rid of him?'

If so, that was good news for Ferda.

"He said something to me."

"What did he say?"

"That he had discovered the makings of a new Demon King."

Demon King.

Though the Black Dragon Godwin was the root of all evil, the Demon King was also someone who absolutely could not be underestimated.

The 12 Heroes had struggled to kill him, and in the end, a hero had died along with him in mutual destruction.

If Gokma had said that, then Alberto could simply have left to find this person called the Demon King.

However, Ferda could easily infer why he had deliberately come here.

"Are you saying that is me?"

"Yes."

"And you believe the words of that Demon?"

He asked the question in a roundabout way, meaning, are you an idiot?

"No, I do not believe him."

He was not an idiot.

"But I saw no reason to deliberately ignore those words."

Nor was he so careless as to ignore a warning.

Ferda threw himself back against the chair.

"If you confirm what I am like, and I truly am someone who could become the Demon King?"

"Everything is for the Serdes Continent."

That meant he would kill him.

"What is a Demon King?"

"An idiot who wants to reduce this continent to nothing."

"Are you saying I could become such an idiot?"

"Anyone can become such an idiot. Loss makes one hollow, and that hollow is filled with twisted emotions. That is what a Demon King is."

Ferda understood those words.

After his mother died, every bit of affection had vanished from him, and in the end, he had even been cast out.

Just like himself in the far future before he returned to this time.

The person he had been then was no different from a Demon King.

"Then I will ask. Are you certain that you will not become the Demon King?"

Ferda thought about those words.

For Valdrova's sake, he would do anything.

"No."

Therefore, he did not trust himself.

That willingness to do anything would change, and before long, even his original intention would become distorted.

That was what humans were, and Ferda was human too.

"Then allow me to make you one proposal."

Ferda extended his hand to him.

"Not far from here, there is a territory left abandoned."

The territory of the executed Thessalos Vulture.

The time had finally come for that territory to find its master.

"How about watching me from there?"