How to Live as a Wandering Knight

Chapter 270: 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐞 (4)

Johan’s warm support seemed to have partially restored Jyanina’s confidence.

After a few trials and errors, Jyanina discovered a nearby goblin footprint.

Because it was on solid rock, the trail, which would have been invisible to the naked eye, was revealed by magic.

“Look! It’s a goblin’s footprint!”

“I see.”

“. . .Aren’t you a little too calm about this?”

When Caenerna asked if he was okay, Johan shrugged and replied.

“The goblins already ambushed us, so I thought it was a possibility.”

‘𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴. . .’

Jyanina continued to examine the trail. As she did, goblin footprints were found concentrated near a marker left by the dwarven expedition.

The dwarves were astonished when they saw the goblin handprints on the marker.

“Isn’t this ridiculous? How did goblins. . .”

“But it’s right in front of us now, isn’t it?”

“Let’s apologize to the wizard for now.”

The dwarves accepted the truth and knelt before Jyanina.

“We apologize, wizard! We have brought shame upon you with our wrong judgment and hindered your rescue.”

“. . .”

Jyanina felt her mind enchanted by the sweet taste of power that she had not felt in a long time.

The look of fear and respect from slaves and servants that she had felt in the emperor’s court.

The power that Jyanina had wanted ever since she had been forced to eat dirt was this.

“What’s wrong?”

“. . .Oh, I’m sorry.”

When Johan urged her from behind, Jyanina came to her senses and looked around at the dwarves. Her posture was somewhat arrogant.

“I don’t think it’s going to be good to praise that wizard too much.”

“Hmm. But it’s better than being completely discouraged, right?”

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At first, it was difficult to find the way because of the damaged marker, but once they found the knack, they soon realized that it wasn’t so difficult.

When there were several paths, all they had to do was move in the direction with the most goblin tracks.

The other paths would be blocked or not lead inside, so if they followed the goblin tracks, that was the marker.

“Amazing, wizard. To be able to use such magic.”

Jyanina nodded arrogantly without saying anything. In fact, the magic of using potions to find monster tracks seemed a little low-level, even to Johan. . .

‘𝘊𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘐 𝘥𝘰 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘰?’

It seemed like something that could be done with good eyesight and some powder, but Johan just left it alone.

━■■■■!

And so, the party had their second encounter with the goblins. Johan’s party was expecting it and prepared, but the goblin scouts who were out on patrol were surprised and cried out.

“Don’t let even one escape! It’ll be annoying if they get away!”

Johan shouted resolutely.

This underground mine was like a front yard to the goblins. If they were to wage guerrilla warfare through the complex terrain, it would be quite a headache.

Johan had the blessings of various magics, weapons, and spirits, so he was confident that he could withstand the goblins’ poison, but his other subordinates were not.

━■■■!

At that moment, the eyes of the goblin at the very back turned red, and it began to stab the other goblin next to it. The sharp short sword swung and knocked down three goblins.

‘𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤!’

Johan was surprised by the mysterious energy. He thought that Caenerna had done it for a moment, but it wasn’t Caenerna’s magic. Jyanina had cast frenzy on the goblin behind.

When the slaughter began behind them, the goblins’ feet were tied. While they were stabbing and cutting each other fiercely, Johan’s men charged in, shouting.

━■■■! ■■!

“Take them down!”

“Don’t kill them all!”

The soldiers and dwarves who had been wielding their weapons with murderous intent stopped. The wizard had uttered an unexpected word.

“Take them prisoner?”

“Yes!”

“. . .Understood!”

The soldiers were bewildered, but they managed to capture one of the goblins without killing them all. The dwarf asked cautiously.

“Why did you tell us to capture them?”

“She probably wants to use them for experiments.”

“. . .Ugh.”

The dwarves made a sound that was half horror and half disgust.

Among magic, the magic related to monsters was particularly feared. It couldn’t have sounded good that they were taking the goblins to experiment on.

‘𝘖𝘰𝘱𝘴.’

The soldiers, who knew that the dwarves were scared, tried to make an excuse somehow. They were the wizards they served, after all.

“No, we might be wrong. It’s not for experiments. . .”

“No?”

“. . .Maybe she’s going to control them and use them as arrow fodder.”

“Do you know how to control monsters?!”

The dwarves’ voices were even more shocked. The soldiers felt like they had made a mistake, but it was already too late.

“Why are the dwarves looking at Jyanina with such scared eyes?”

“I think there’s a misunderstanding about magic. I apologize.”

“What. . . what can I do? That’s the truth. You might get scared.”

Johan thought it couldn’t be helped. The deep-rooted superstitious fear of magic couldn’t be dispelled with just a few words.

And it was true that Jyanina was a wizard who dealt with monsters. . .

“■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■■. . .”

━■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■■■. . .

As Jyanina chanted the spell, the goblin nodded its head as if it were drunk and spoke the words accordingly.

“What did you do?”

“I made him guide us to his base.”

Jyanina wiped away the sweat on her forehead and spoke as if she was proud. This time, even Johan was honestly impressed.

“That’s great, Jyanina-gong. I didn’t know you could show me such magic.”

“. . .”

The count, who had only criticized her for not knowing the ancient Empire letters, was more moved by this pure admiration than the dwarves’ admiration.

Jyanina was slowly savoring the emotion deeply when she realized something was wrong and asked.

“But Your Excellency. Why are the dwarves in the back?”

“I guess they’re checking the path. Now. Tell the goblin to guide us the rest of the way.”

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“It’s noisy outside. Something seems to be going on.”

“Don’t move. It could be a trap.”

Schweibeck said in a worried voice.

If they have enough intelligence to erase and rewrite the marks, they could do anything. Luring the dwarves out with loud noises was one of those things.

“But it’s too noisy for something like that, and lots of goblins are gathering. Could it be the rescue team?”

“It’s more likely to be a monster than the rescue team. It’s too fast for the rescue team to arrive. Especially since the markings have been erased.”

Schweibeck’s words were cold, but realistic. The dwarves listened to him with heartbroken expressions.

“If it’s a monster, what kind of monster is it? Will it help us in our situation?”

“It must be pretty strong to be able to hold its own in a place with a quicksilver spirit. Shut your mouths. Let’s listen.”

Schweibeck and the dwarves pricked up their ears and focused. The information about this monster might help them.

“It must be quite large and strong. There have been several loud noises of things breaking.”

“It sounds like it’s throwing and breaking rocks.”

“Is it a giant? But it’s too narrow for a giant to live in here.”

The dwarves tilted their heads. They couldn’t think of a monster with such a huge size and strength in the underground cave.

“It seems to be quite ferocious. The goblins are running away screaming.”

It was rare for the cave goblins to be terrified in their own front yard. It must be some kind of ferocious monster.

“The noise is getting closer. It’s coming this way!”

“If it comes this way, won’t it run into the quicksilver spirit?”

“It might. If the monster catches the spirit’s attention, we might have a chance!”

However, there was no sound of the monster and the spirit fighting. Instead, there was only the sound of steady footsteps growing louder.

“Dwarves of the Rimpangel family, answer me if you can hear me! Schweibeck of the Rimpangel family! Holgretz of the Rimpangel family!”

“????”

The dwarves were bewildered when they heard the deep human voice. It wasn’t a dwarven voice, it was a human voice.

“Is this a trap too?”

“. . .????”

Everyone looked at Schweibeck with confused eyes, but even Schweibeck couldn’t answer.

He couldn’t think of any monster that would imitate a human voice and call out to them by name.

“I’ll go out and have a look, uncle.”

“No way. I’ll go!”

“That’s exactly what you shouldn’t do! What if something happens to you!”

“Where do you get off, you little punk! Can’t you stay still for once!”

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“They’re not coming out. Do you think they’re badly injured?”

Johan said with a worried expression. He was holding Giant Slayer in his hand. Caenerna and Jyanina still had bewildered expressions on their faces.

‘𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺?’

The goblins swarmed fiercely towards the rescue party who had found the front yard, but they could not defeat the young count rampaging like a crazy b*stard and had to flee.

It was pointless for dozens of them to rush in and try to break his formation while he pulled out the surrounding rocks and threw them.

The goblins tried to cleverly lure Johan towards the quicksilver spirit in the midst of all this, but Johan was one step ahead of them.

He chased the quicksilver spirit away with a single blow.

Despite having been so wild, the quicksilver spirit was so terrified after getting hit hard by Giant Slayer that it disappeared into the puddle and didn’t show its face again.

“Your Excellency Count. Is that weapon a spirit-banishing weapon? It wouldn’t be shameful to name it the Spirit Slayer!”

The dwarves’ eyes sparkled when they saw the Giant Slayer. It seemed to be an antique weapon with traces of dwarven craftsmanship.

Johan, who was sorry to expose the dwarven craftsman’s shameful failure in front of the dwarves, looked away instead of answering.

“Let’s call out again.”

The deep voice resounded once more. Johan thought he heard the dwarves whispering in the distance.

“I think the dwarves are over there. Let’s go.”

“Huh? Is that true?”

The other dwarves didn’t understand. The count had called out to them, but they hadn’t come out even though they weren’t that far away.

“They must be badly injured.”

“That’s. . .!”

Johan and the dwarves hurried their steps. They were worried about how badly they must be injured that they couldn’t come out right away.

However, they were met with relatively unscathed dwarven expedition members.

“. . .Y-Your Excellency Count!!”

Schweibeck dropped his hammer in shock at the sight of the unexpected person. He accidentally stepped on the foot of the dwarf next to him with the hammer, but he was too shocked to notice.

‘𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥?’

He wished it was just an illusion created by the goblins. It was that unrealistic.

“His excellency came to the rescue with his knights and wizards because he was worried about Schweibeck-nim and the other dwarves.”

One of the dwarves said in a proud voice. If Johan hadn’t been there, Schweibeck would have yelled, ‘𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘥 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦!?’

“Your Excellency Count. Thank you! It was a big deal because the goblins were smarter than we thought. . .”

One of the dwarven expedition members, who was relatively slow to catch on, expressed his gratitude in a pleased voice. To be honest, it was a situation where anyone would be worried.

The unexpectedly intelligent goblins, the violent spirit, the broken communication. . .

In that situation, the rescue team that showed up so quickly was bound to be moving.

“. . .Thank you. Your Excellency.”

Schweibeck also expressed his gratitude for now. He was really, really curious about what had happened, but the first thing he needed to do now was show his manners.

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“That dwarf must have had a hard time.”

Johan said with a pitiful expression as he watched Schweibeck groan and sigh after hearing a detailed explanation from his colleagues.

“No, your excellency. We’re as strong as rocks, so our bodies won’t get hurt by this level of expedition.”

“Even so. My men will be getting rid of the remaining goblins, so go back up as soon as they return.”

“Wait a minute, count. Did you happen to see an angry spirit on your way here?”

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