Chapter 21: Silverna’s Recon Party (1)

There were exactly seven members in Silverna’s scouting party.

The captain: Silverna Caldias.

Her lieutenant: Anna.

Then there were three members from Helmut: Isaac, Sharen, and Jonathan.

Next was Melodic Drakemoor, who had once sparred with Silverna and learned the sword from Isaac.

Lastly, there was Pollu Blackthorn.

“Wh-Why am I even part of this group…?”

Pollu Blackthorn was one of the younger nobles dispatched.

He had only just turned 20 and felt uneasy, uncertain why he had been included.

‘Silverna made a pretty bold move.’

Isaac was skeptical of Silverna’s decision to add Pollu Blackthorn to the scouting party.

The Blackthorn family had been branded as traitors to the kingdom.

Not many people knew about it yet. Thanks to Uldiran’s report, the royal family was secretly investigating the Blackthorn family.

Isaac believed it would be best to just leave things alone until they received further information.

But Silverna, on the other hand, took the stance that it was better to keep dangerous individuals close by.

Both sides had their own logical reasons.

“A-A-At your service, Isaac-nim! Th-That person over there…!”

As Silverna was gathering everyone before they set out, Jonathan approached Isaac.

He pointed at Pollu, standing somewhat awkwardly beside Melodic. Jonathan’s voice trembled.

‘Oh, right.’

When Isaac revealed the truth about the transcendents and the Blackthorn family, Jonathan had been nearby.

“D-Don’t worry! I, Jonathan, will risk my life to protect you—!”

“Jonathan, don’t talk to him. You’ll give everything away.”

“Ah, yes sir.”

Jonathan looked relieved. He knew well enough that he had no talent for lying.

However, Jonathan seemed off.

His gait was strange, and the way he stood looked skewed.

“Take off your armor.”

“Pardon?”

“Hurry.”

Jonathan hesitated for a moment.

When he removed his armor, bruises and injuries underneath came into view.

It was clear that whoever beat him had targeted areas hidden by the armor. Seeing this, flames of anger ignited in Isaac’s eyes.

“This is insane—!”

When Helmut’s second dispatch arrived, some of its knights had come as well.

Isaac never imagined they would do something like this to Jonathan in just a single day.

He wanted to storm off immediately and confront them, but—

“A-Isaac-nim! It’s really okay! There’s no problem at all! My seniors just disciplined me because I’m lacking!”

“What do you mean ‘discipline’? We’re about to head outside the barrier. How are you supposed to manage in that condition?!”

“It’s fine! I can handle it! You don’t need to worry!”

Jonathan acted as if nothing was wrong, which made Isaac feel even more stifled.

But Jonathan grabbed onto Isaac, his voice trembling.

“Please, I beg you… If you insist on doing something, it’ll just make things harder for me later!”

“Jonathan…”

Isaac bit his lip hard.

Unfortunately, Jonathan was right.

Jonathan didn’t know about Isaac’s looming divorce, but Isaac was planning to leave Helmut in a month.

Even if he made a fuss now, as a mere son-in-law, there was no guarantee anyone would care.

Plenty of people had seen Isaac get beaten by Helmut’s direct family members. They probably wouldn’t be too concerned this time either.

“What’s going on?”

Just then, Sharen, arms crossed, looked at Jonathan and asked,

“Is he one of our knights too? Why do I feel like I’ve never seen him before? And what’s with all those injuries?”

“Mi-Miss Sharen!”

Jonathan saluted her.

Isaac let out a sigh and briefly explained the situation.

“Huh.”

Sharen raised one finger and stated succinctly,

“Tell all your superiors to gather—now.”

“…Pardon?”

“Gather them up. Right now.”

Jonathan just looked blankly at her.

Isaac smirked and gave him a gentle push on the back.

“Well? The second daughter of the direct family is ordering you. If you’re a Helmut knight, you better listen.”

They had arrived only yesterday, so none of the Helmut knights had official duties yet.

In other words, if there was ever a time to gather them, it was now.

Ten minutes later—

Knights in armor lined up in the drill yard.

Even though Sharen was only 17, she was still a direct descendant of the family.

None of them had ever seen her do something like this before, and they looked bewildered.

“Whoever beat this guy up yesterday—step forward.”

Sharen spoke in a sharp tone, keeping Jonathan at her side.

The knights started glancing at one another uncertainly.

“You’re not coming forward? Should I go straight to my father and tell him that Helmut’s knights ganged up like childish bullies on one man?!”

“M-Miss Sharen.”

Cautiously, one knight stepped forward.

He was among the veterans who had come on the dispatch, a slightly older knight with a distinguished beard.

“This is the Malidan Barrier. Such an incident could tarnish Helmut’s reputation if we blow it out of proportion—”

At his words, Sharen paused momentarily.

Does he have a point?

She tilted her head in thought, the resolute air she had shown just moments ago fading.

“It’s the opposite.”

Finally, Isaac stepped forward.

“Making trouble all the way here at the Malidan Barrier is disgraceful enough. Trying to cover it up would be even worse. That would be Helmut’s real shame.”

“Isaac-nim…”

“And do you really think this is just an internal Helmut matter?”

As if on cue, Silverna approached.

Her cold glare was like a northern gale, piercing the gaps of the knights’ armor.

“You beat up a member who’s supposed to head out on scouting today? Are you aware this could lead to a court-martial?”

“...!”

“Since you’re Helmut knights, I trusted you to handle this. But if you just sweep this under the rug, do you think we’ll stay quiet?”

Standing beside Jonathan, Silverna backed him up without hesitation.

Even Caldias was on his side, so Sharen seemed to have regained her momentum.

“How dare you disgrace Helmut like this?! Do I really have to run off and tell Father everything?! I’m dying to know how he’d react!”

From the moment Arandel was mentioned, the atmosphere changed drastically.

“I’m sorry!”

The senior knight bowed his head in apology.

“Where the hell did you sell off your chivalry?! You call yourselves proud Helmut knights, yet you pull this kind of disgusting stunt?!”

Sharen, still riding the momentum, shouted even more fiercely, berating them.

“M-My apologies, Jonathan.”

“We were wrong.”

“Please… forgive us.”

Three knights who had beaten Jonathan came forward, bowed deeply, and apologized.

It seemed too serious a matter to end just like that, but since Jonathan, the victim, didn’t want to drag it out any longer, they let it go.

After the knights who had been disciplined dispersed, Silverna looked worriedly at Jonathan.

“Jonathan, if you’re not feeling well, you can sit this one out.”

“No, I’m fine!”

“Hah… we do have a mage who can use healing magic, but we can’t waste it on trivial matters.”

They were practically in a wartime situation.

Such precious healing magic could not be squandered on something like this.

“I think Jonathan should stay behind today.”

With Isaac adding his voice, Jonathan finally had to back down.

He went to the infirmary for separate treatment and took the day off, leaving the scouting party to proceed with six members.

“If this happens again, I swear, I’ll go straight to Father—horde or no horde!”

A middle-aged knight was still standing there, alone, being scolded by Sharen.

He kept apologizing, saying he’d manage things better, and it was a bit pitiful to watch him grovel to someone younger than himself.

“May I ask something for a moment?”

Isaac suddenly joined in.

Sharen seemed displeased that he’d cut her off, but she closed her mouth.

“Yes, Isaac-nim!”

He looked at Isaac gratefully, relieved that Sharen had stopped her nagging.

Then Isaac, lowering his voice, asked bluntly:

“Helmut knights place great value on upholding chivalry, correct?”

“Y-Yes, of course. That’s why this whole incident has made me think hard about—”

Even if the direct family might behave like a mess, knights generally don’t do this sort of low-class thug behavior.

Ignoring the man’s earnest insistence that he had truly reflected on his actions, Isaac asked another question:

“Then why did you do it specifically to Jonathan?”

Why him, of all people?

Hesitating for a moment, the knight leaned in so no one else could overhear and explained only to Sharen and Isaac.

And once they had heard the whole story—

Sharen’s head slowly turned to look for Jonathan.

Watching him shuffle toward the infirmary, she shouted:

“That guy’s out of his mind!”

****

The scouting party set out beyond the barrier.

At the head of the group, Silverna moved forward calmly, spear in hand.

Before they knew it, it was already past noon—two in the afternoon.

Because of the commotion with Jonathan’s incident, they arrived at their planned point later than expected.

“If we stay here, we won’t be easily spotted. We call this place ‘Snowflower.’”

The area Silverna introduced as ‘Snowflower’ was a dense forest.

It was near the entrance to a mountain range where, supposedly, a horde of monsters had settled.

Because it was in the north, snow coated the trees like white blossoms in full bloom, with no sunlight reaching through.

“If any monsters come by here, we can spot them immediately thanks to the snow. We’ll see footprints, or notice where the snow on the branches has fallen, and figure out their location.”

“A northern tactic, I see.”

It was impressive how nature itself became a sort of security system.

And if there was an emergency, they could conceal themselves by burrowing into the snow.

“In a massive horde, there’s a good chance some of those monsters are highly intelligent. That’s why it’s important to give our base a name like this—so they can’t easily pinpoint it.”

“Alright, here.”

While Silverna was explaining, Anna retrieved a water bottle from her bag.

“Please put on those robes I handed out earlier. This is a strong deodorant—be careful not to get it on your clothes.”

“A deodorant? I don’t like it.”

“Monsters are exceptionally good at sniffing out human scent. So you really have to use it.”

Despite Sharen’s grumbling, Anna opened the bottle of deodorant.

They sprayed the fur-lined, brown robes with the deodorant to hide their scent from monsters sensitive to smells.

Each of them pulled a hood over their head, concealing their identities—thus the scouting party was prepared.

“H-Huff! H-Haaah!”

Pollu Blackthorn was more nervous than expected.

Melodic Drakemoor and Sharen, standing nearby, scolded him.

“Hey, don’t be so tense. It’s just a scouting mission.”

“Did we bring a kid along by mistake? Is he really going to fulfill his noble duty properly?”

For reference, Sharen was three years younger than Pollu Blackthorn.

Silverna also hadn’t expected Pollu to be so wound up.

It was almost embarrassing that she’d brought him to keep an eye on him, given the Blackthorn family’s traitorous background.

“Pollu, if you’re too anxious, you can wait here. We can leave at least one person behind to—”

A sudden whoosh sliced through the air.

Without a sound, something flew toward them—a piece of bone.

“Uuurgh!”

Blood stained the snow.

Pollu Blackthorn collapsed to his knees, coughing up dark red blood.

His trembling eyes stared at the ‘bone’—shaped like a spear—embedded in his chest.

“G-gah! Ugh…!”

“Pollu-nim!”

Anna, startled, frantically checked his condition.

Silverna and Sharen immediately drew their weapons, locking onto the direction from which the bone had flown.

“Cough– Cough….”

Thick hide and white fur.

A massive figure with muscles about to burst.

“Grrrrrr….”

On its back, it carried an assortment of makeshift weapons, fashioned from various beasts and animals.

It was a ‘Yeti,’ one of the most famous monsters of the North. But from its behavior, it was clear this was no ordinary Yeti.

“Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.”

Tapping its nose, the Yeti grinned wide, baring its sharp teeth.

“Human smell.”

“It’s remembered the scent of our deodorant,” Isaac muttered with a pained expression, prompting a startled reaction from Anna.

“Pardon? It recognized the deodorant’s smell?”

“Probably from another scouting party that got caught before us.”

“But that’s something they should have reported—!”

She tried to continue, but—

Crack!

Like a stone, another skull hurtled toward them, only to shatter against Silverna’s spear.

“Has there been a scouting party that never returned?”

In response to Silverna’s question, Anna answered urgently:

“Team 3, my lady. We were scheduled to relieve them—”

Hatred flooded Silverna’s eyes as she took her stance.

“Froxsa, Torvik, Calden, Irkasr?”

“Y-Yes, that’s them!”

“I see. This just made my day a whole lot worse.”

The Yeti clutched yet another skull in its hand. This time, it was distinctly human in shape. There were exactly three of them, meaning there had originally been four total—Silverna had just destroyed one.

“How’s Pollu?”

“He’s in danger. The bone’s still lodged in him, so he’s not bleeding too heavily, but he needs a mage’s healing right away.”

“Sharen, if you carry Pollu on your back and run, how long to the barrier?”

“If I ditch everything else... fifteen minutes.”

Sharen was already tossing her greatsword and other gear to the ground.

Gone was the carefree childlike air she’d once shown; in an instant, she became a true Helmut warrior, ready to dash off.

“Sharen, take Pollu and go first. The rest of us will cover you as we retreat.”

Grinding her teeth at the thought of failing on her very first mission, Silverna held her spear tight.

Isaac drew his sword, Falchion, and stood beside her.

“We know Team 3 was annihilated, and we’ve learned there’s a named monster out here. As far as recon goes, that’s a solid accomplishment.”

“Isaac…”

“If the fight drags on, every monster in the mountains will flock to us. Retreat is our best option, Silverna. We’ll settle this score next time.”

Though it left a bitter taste in her mouth, his words were right.

Taking a deep breath, Silverna nodded. Melodic and Anna also began to step back, preparing to withdraw, when—

“Kyahhhhh!”

All eyes turned at Sharen’s scream.

A sticky, dark fluid oozed from Pollu’s body—where blood should have been—and drenched Sharen.

“W-What is this?! What the hell?!”

Startled, Sharen dropped Pollu.

Unconscious, Pollu’s body kept seeping that black fluid, which now seemed to be trying to consume Sharen.

‘It’s ritual!’

Just as humans have magic, the transcendents have rituals.

Like magic, it’s not something you see every day.

In that instant, Isaac realized the transcendents had done something to Pollu and rushed to help Sharen—

Crack!

But there was a blow from the side.

“Grrk?!”

Another skull slammed into Silverna’s shoulder and shattered.

Reeling from the impact, Silverna’s face contorted with pain.

“Ugh– Ugh.”

With heavy, thudding footsteps, the Yeti started closing in.

– – – The End of The Chapter – – –

[TL: Magic & ritual- So, it might be confusing for Western audiences, but I am trying my best. Here, the author has used magic ‘마법’ for humans and ritual/incantation/witchcraft ‘주술,’ which may sound the same to many of us, as if it’s just magic again—but no, there’s a difference.

Magic is like something you might find in Western fantasy stories. On the other hand, rituals are more like ceremonial or spiritual practices—similar to how voodooists perform ceremonies, but not exactly the same. They’re more reminiscent of shamanistic or traditional spellcasting.

Different cultures perceive magical concepts differently, and here ritual is more rooted in Korean or Asian folklore. 

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