Chapter 109 – For Freedom (5)  

Juan raised his hand all the way. At the same time, the blade which had been barely maintaining its shape completely melted and flowed down Juan’s arm.

Everyone including the rebels and Horhell looked at the sight with a shocked look on their faces. Juan’s arm, which was covered in melted iron, glowed bright red. The blade in Juan’s hand wasn’t the only thing melting. All the metal objects in the valley were glowing red with heat and melting down. Some of the men in armor screamed and rolled around in pain, then bit their own tongues. There were also those who turned their backs without hesitation to run away from the valley.

The heat was hard to bear, even for Horhell. Horhell noticed that his armor, which Juan took off a moment ago to examine his wounds, was also melting down. It was an old armor, but now it was nothing more than melted iron.

Roar!

At that moment, the dragon roared. All the people crouched with their ears covered and widened their eyes as they tried to figure out what was going on.

Hundreds of metallic restraints that had been covering the dragon’s body were melting slowly while glowing red and flowing down its body. The dragon flapped its wings as if it wanted to move, but couldn’t fly as its wing was still broken from the crash. However, just the disappearance of the restraints already seemed to have made the dragon’s body much lighter.

“What… how… what kind of magic did he…” Horhell murmured to himself.

Horhell had never seen this kind of magic before, because the Church only allowed very limited magic to be used outside of the Church.

‘Besides, Juan is wearing handcuffs on his wrists that suppress his mana. So how is this possible?’

Then, Horhell noticed that only some of the many stones arranged on the ground to form the magic circle were emitting heat and glowing red.

‘That looks like… a bloodstain?’

Only then did Horhell realize that Juan had only picked out the stones that had the dragon’s blood on them to form a magic circle.

When the blade in Juan’s hand had melted completely, he swung his arm around to scatter the liquid metal into the surroundings. The enemies who got splattered by the liquid metal broke out in painful screams. Along with the scream, the enemies began to retreat one by one.

Then, the dragon roared once again—the enemies could no longer hold out. Juan laughed as he looked at the back of the rebels running away in a rush.

“So you used the blood of the dragon instead of your own mana…” Horhell said.

“A Dragon’s blood contains an enormous amount of mana. The mana in your dragon’s blood was especially rich, since it's never used magic before.”

Horhell saw that Juan no longer had handcuffs on his wrists; they too were melted by the heat. Horhell realized that this had been Juan’s plan all along. Horhell felt weird upon seeing the rebels running away from the valley. The number of enemies in the villages around this area was almost two thousand. And Juan had driven them all away by simply using one magic that melted iron. On the other hand, Horhell also felt regret; he thought Juan and the punishment unit could easily overpower the enemies at this moment, as the enemies were completely unarmed and had lost their will to fight.

“If you were able to stop the enemies this easily from the very beginning… why did you scare Ranhal like that? You told him that everyone will die if he doesn’t come back by the time the sun rises,” Horhell asked.

Juan pointed to the bottom of the mountain upon hearing Horhell’s question.

“Oh, that’s because we need to catch those guys that are running away.”

Horhell looked in the direction that Juan pointed, and he saw the troops of the fourth division approaching the bottom of the mountain. The troops seemed perplexed by the sudden influx of enemies, but soon noticed that the opponents were in a panic and completely unarmed. Duke Henna, who commanded the troops, was not a person to miss such an opportunity.

“Do not let a single enemy escape!”

The troops were outnumbered, but the guerrilla unit spread widely and crushed the enemies one by one.

Hury was left speechless upon seeing the enemies being crushed by the troops in an instant. The sight of two thousand men running away in fright and screaming as they were crushed was quite a disturbing view.

Then, Juan looked back at Hury.

“Why are you just standing there?”

“I’m sorry?” “Can’t you see that Duke Henna is coming to congratulate us on our victory? Get prepared to return,” Juan ordered.

Hury hesitated for a while, but soon gestured to the members of the punishment unit to follow Juan. It was Hury’s first time walking onto a battlefield in a calm manner without carrying a weapon in his hand while a battle took place right before his eyes.

Juan took the lead, while the dragon and Horhell limped behind him. The atmosphere became strange. Horhell looked at the dragon which was completely free of any restraints with unfamiliar eyes. Horhell couldn’t even recall the last time he had seen his dragon without restraints on its body. Only then did Horhell realize how cruel he had been toward the dragon. He could probably never repeat his mistakes ever again.

“Juan,” Horhell quietly called out to Juan.

“Yes?”

“My dragon has been released from the curse—you set him free. Now its name is no longer cursed,” Horhell muttered blankly.

Juan smiled.

“I’m not too fond of dragons. I bet your dragon won’t like the fact that I was the one to set him free.”

“That’s not true.”

Flop.

Then Juan heard a sound. He turned around to see Horhell kneeling with his forehead touching the ground.

As the members of the punishment unit watched in shock, Horhell spoke clearly while lying face down, almost as if he was worshiping Juan.

“Dragon Orca and I, Horhell Helmer, will serve you for the rest of our lives.”

***

“Well done, everyone. Now go and get some rest.”

Those were the only words Juan left for the punishment unit after returning to Beldeve after an all-night battle. Juan directly entered the castle without even bothering to check the number of the members from the punishment unit who managed to return.

Being extremely exhausted, the members of the punishment unit scattered. Meanwhile, the soldiers of the fourth division rushed to lock up the enemies who were captured in the battle at the valley; however, no one said anything to the members of the punishment unit who weren’t helping.

Everyone knew how hard the punishment unit had fought, and suppressing two thousand enemies with only a fifty men unit was an unprecedented achievement.

‘How many of our people were sacrificed for the sake of this achievement?’

Hury wondered as he looked around at the members of the punishment unit.

All the members of the punishment unit looked utterly tired. At that moment, Asha, who almost died in the face of Juan’s murderous intent, stood up and approached Hury with a pale complexion.

“Are you hurt anywhere, Mr. Hury?” Asha asked.

“I’m fine. It looks like you broke your ribs. Hurry up and head to the medical corps,” Hury answered while feeling concerned.

“My broken ribs aren’t that important right now. How many of our people were killed because of that little…”

Asha grumbled and looked over the members of the punishment unit. Hury also looked around and counted, trying to figure out how many from the punishment unit had died with a bitter look on his face.

Then, Hury’s expression stiffened. After counting the number of members from the punishment unit over and over again, Hury’s mouth dropped wide open.

“Mr. Hury?” Asha examined Hury’s expression with a puzzled look on her face.

“...No one died.”

“Excuse me?”

“I wasn’t able to properly count the numbers earlier, as it had been too dark, but not a single one of us died during the battle. Even the ones who were injured won’t suffer from any long-lasting disabilities. It makes sense that no one died, because at the last moment of the battle that guy used magic, but we had such fierce battles even before that…”

Hury’s body trembled at the sudden realization. It wasn’t that Juan left without even trying to figure out the number of people left in the punishment unit—he left because he wasn’t interested and felt indifferent toward them; he already knew that none of them had died. ‘I thought he was just pushing us to our deaths…’

Asha also looked surprised that everyone was safe after counting a few more times. She bit her lips and shook her head.

“It must be a coincidence… after all, we participated in a raid.”

“How many times have we participated in a raid, Asha? Has there ever been a case where everyone managed to survive and come back from such a mission?” Hury asked.

The answer was no. The punishment unit was always placed in the most difficult and dangerous places on the battlefield, and they would be the quickest to die. Often, only half of the troops returned alive, or they barely escaped annihilation in many cases. Moreover, the mission to save Horhell and his dragon had been a mission more dangerous than ever. Nevertheless, everyone managed to come back alive. Asha had no choice but to admit this truth.

“But how… just who is that guy?” Asha murmured.

“I have no idea. But I have a hunch that the eastern territory will go through a significant change very soon.”

***

The fact that the operation to rescue Horhell was successful quickly spread to both the northeastern rebels and the fourth division in just a few days.

“Hey, Mr. celebrity.”

Juan gnashed his teeth at the sound of Hela calling him a celebrity.

“What, has the rumor already spread? It hasn’t even been a few days,” Juan complained.

“Well, it's important that we spread a warm story to share around the fireplace, since winter is coming. Rumors often get more exaggerated during the winter, you know? I’m not popular with the people of the eastern territory, so I have to at least spread a story like this,” Hela said as she sat beside Juan, who was sitting on top of the wall.

There was a remote cliff underneath Juan’s feet where the waves hit against the rocks, and the view of the open sea was in front of Juan’s eyes. The top of the wall was Juan’s favorite spot in Beldeve.

Elsewhere, a small banquet was underway to pray for the swift recovery of the dragon and Horhell before they prepared for another war. Even the punishment unit, who were usually treated like prisoners, was mingling with the other troops to drink. A strong stench of alcohol could be smelled from Hela, almost as if she drank a bit too much at the banquet. In fact, she was already quite drunk.

“Aren’t you cold? I always feel like I will end up getting hemorrhoids if I sit here for even ten minutes,” Hela said.

“I have a lot of body heat, so I’m fine,” Juan answered.

“Oh, by the way. Don’t worry about the rumors. I’ve ordered everyone to remain completely silent about your existence. Most of the rumors are about Horhell and the dragon. They’re both popular on the front line, as they’ve saved the troops who were in a crisis many times before. There are many soldiers who are happy about the news of their safe return.”

“Isn’t a Centurion supposed to be in charge of tactical command?”

“Well, soldiers would prefer a superior who flies in the sky and controls a fire-breathing dragon over a superior who shouts at them to charge at the enemies. Anyway, thanks to Horhell returning safely, the image of your… handcuffed warriors who led the rescue operation has improved a lot.”

Hela looked at Juan with a profound expression. But Juan didn’t bother to make eye contact with Hela.

“What magic did you use to bring the punishment unit to their knees like that? They have some talent, but they are quite difficult to tame. In particular, Hury was a man who pretended to be obedient, but no one really knew what he was really up to. But now, he looks like a well-trained hound in front of you.”

“I’m just good at training others in a harsh environment,” Juan shrugged.

“I wish I was good at that.”

“It was you and your soldiers who actually dealt with the most difficult part of the battle.”

Juan was right. Hela defeated and captured nearly a thousand enemies with just one hundred fifty soldiers who specialized in guerrilla warfare—it was an unprecedentedly big victory. However, Hela gave Juan more credit for his successful rescue operation.

“What is there to be proud of when I won against those who were unarmed, had burn injuries all over and had lost their minds? It’s better to show off the obvious achievements than to brag about an achievement that could create a lot of false rumors. You and the punishment unit rescued a hero who was isolated in the middle of the enemy camp. That alone is enough to be a pretty good story,” Hela said

“I see,” Juan nodded his head.

“That’s even more so because you can’t reveal your existence. The soldiers would fall in love with you in an instant if we could praise you as a young hero.”

“Well, I can’t reveal myself anyway. Plus, I’ve already told you that I don’t care about being praised.”

Juan’s existence could never be publicly announced—at least for the time being. The Order of the Evil Snake was still chasing him, and Hela had been asked by the capital to capture Juan. It was obvious that people would immediately become suspicious of Juan in such a situation if they heard a story praising the achievements of a young man with black hair.

“Come to think of it, why would you call me a celebrity when no one even knows of my identity?” Juan asked.

“Oh, of course, no one can stop the rumors from spreading little by little. There are plenty of people who have big mouths. It can’t be helped even if I sew their lips together. You’re not famous enough to be called a celebrity, but I heard rumors about you are already spreading elsewhere.”

“Elsewhere?”

“Where I can’t control anyone’s mouth. I’m talking about the northeastern rebels.”