Chapter 3: Man’s Armor
The Dusk Merchant Guild was situated outside of Estusia’s border, located in a large brick building with an oddly slanted roof next to the inter-kingdom highway. The inside of the guild contains a lot of exotic items, ranging from water dragon skulls to magic tomes. It also attracts many adventurous people. Not in the sense of swords and shields, but investors and shrewd business owners who want to learn the next trends to either start a business or keep it afloat.
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“Yes sir! These seeds are a good business option. Summer is approaching fast and with it comes drought. But these seeds are no normal seeds, they are a high-quality, heat resistant variant from down south.” A cat-girl with blonde hair, clothed in guild regulated brown uniform responds to a possible buyer over the counter.
“Are you sure Ms. Lydia?” Said buyer asked. Seemingly unsure of her pitch.
“Indeed, I am sure of it.” She assures the man.
“Hmm… Well since you have never led me astray before, I’ll buy one no… two sacks of these so-called wonder seeds.”
“Good purchase Mr. Fanner that’s around twelve silver marks, it’s good doing business with you.” Lydia writes down his purchase “Let Amon lead you to the seeds outside.” pointing to a guild worker.
She asks for his name and signature, using the end of his registration crystal as a kind of pen, Mr. Fanner marks the page with his mana.
Lydia tips her plumed guild hat at Mr. Fanner as he exits the guild with Amon.
‘Mr. Fanner is a good guy. Maybe I should give him a loyalty bonus when he comes back hehe…’
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The bell on the doorway rings as a person with familiar green hair enters the guild.
‘Haven’t seen him before, he seems new around here.’ Lydia thought to herself, getting closer to the desk in front of her.
“Welcome sir! I am Lydia this guild’s attendant. Welcome to the Dusk Merchant Guild! What would you like to inquire?” Lydia introduces herself.
“Do you provide carriage transports to Grapafeuse miss?” Hasegawa asked. He walks toward the guild’s counter.
“Just call me Lydia, and yes we do! For cargo or people? For how many? Sir…” Lydia asks the boy.
“Please call me Hasegawa, Lydia. It’s for a passenger, just one. me.” He pointed at himself.
“Hmmm… there’s a slot in a scheduled departure this lunch, would you be able to wait for this long Hasegawa” Lydia grabs her paper and pen, waiting for Hasegawa’s response.
“This afternoon?... no problem.”
“That would be around twenty silver marks.”
“Here.” He pulls out a coin pouch from his satchel bag containing gold marks that were given to him by the king for him to use in his journey. Lydia’s ears twerk up, surprised after seeing the inside of the satchel
He gives her one gold mark.
‘Wow, that’s a lot who is this kid? Nobody just carries a pouch full of gold marks around.’ She takes the gold mark and gives him eighty silver marks.
“Well then, just write your name and sign here with your registration crystal.” She points to the lower right corner of the piece of paper. The crystal leaving a green mark on the paper, specific to Hasegawa’s aura.
“Here’s a copy of the order,” Lydia hands him a document “just show this to the carriage driver later.”
“Thanks!”
“Hey Hasegawa, you are you new around here?” She asks him.
“Uhmm… yeah.” He nervously replied.
“I’m not supposed to ask you this with customer privacy and all but, why are you going to Grapafeuse.”
‘I can’t tell her I’m a summoned hero. nobody’s supposed to know I’m here’
“O-Oh, I’m a scholar. I’m there to learn portal transportation”
‘That’s not really a lie isn’t it?’ Hasegawa thought to himself.
“Really? That’s impressive.” Lydia goes around the counter getting closer to him. She inspects him from the head to the tip of his boots sniffing him. Specifically, the scent of his aura.
‘There’s something unique with his aura, there are no attributes.’ Lydia noted to herself as she sniffs him with her superior sense of smell.
“Enough about me, what about you Lydia?” Hasegawa asks her.
“Are you hitting on me?” She teases him, purring ever so slightly.
“Wha-What no!” Hasegawa stutteringly replied back, blushing profusely.
“Hahaha, I’m joking. I’m just joking, I’m not interested in younger people” Lydia laughs uncontrollably. Her now visible tail wiggling in the air as she steps back from him.
“Not, funny.” Hasegawa replied annoyed.
“About me huh? My name is Lydia I’m beastman and I work here that’s all.” She grins at him. “It’s been a long time since I’ve met someone interesting though.”
“Anything else?”
“That’s all, kid if you’re traveling around here here’s some tips.”
“What?”
“First, don’t tell too much about yourself to strangers, you’re lucky that this place is respectable.” She counts.
“Second, don’t go off showing that pouch of yours.”
“Third, beastmen have aura detecting senses so don’t let one inspect you if you’re doing something non-scholarly. You understand?” Lydia finishes.
“Ok, I understand.” Hasegawa reaffirms Lydia.
“Good.”
The pair continued to talk for hours until the carriage finally arrived at the Dusk Merchant Guild. The two of them saying their parting goodbyes to each other.
“It was nice meeting you, come back again if you’re in the area.” Lydia said her goodbyes.
“I will. Goodbye Lydia!” Hasegawa boards the carriage already filled with passengers, waving goodbye to the friendly guild attendant. Finally heading on to his journey, as he gives the document to the driver.
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The clip clop of the horses’ hooves signified the long journey taking place. The carriage was drawn by two sturdy horses, the carriage itself was pretty spacious with enough room for four to five people. That said, the carriage wasn’t empty with four other passengers.
They were wearing tailored suits and carrying large instrument suitcases. The suitcases taking most of the leg space. Further preventing any sense of comfort for the summoned boy.
“Hey kid!” One of the passengers right next called out Hasegawa. “You haven’t said anything since you first boarded. You ok? you look pretty stressed out.”
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“Oh… sorry. It’s just that I didn’t expect this to be cramped.” He answered truthfully.
“Sorry ‘bout that. Is this your first time traveling?”
“Not really it’s just the first time I rode in a carriage.”
“Really? What’s your name kid?” The passenger asked.
“My name is Ha-”
“First, don’t tell too much about yourself to strangers, you’re lucky that this place is respectable.” He remembered what Lydia had told him earlier.
“Ha-?” The passenger was confused at the sudden pause.
‘Medieval name that starts with Ha… Hal? Wait I got it!’
“It’s Halberd?”
“Wait you mean the weapon?” The passenger exclaimed in surprise.
“Uhm. No, its uh… Halbert, with spelled with a t. That’s it.”
“Ahhh ok, my name’s Baz.” The passenger known as Baz told Hasegawa. Baz then proceeds to name the others in his group.
“That’s Eleanor. She plays the flute”
“That’s Trevor, he plays the violin.”
“Finally, that’s Sophia. The one holding a flower.” Baz finishes.
“As you can see from our clothing and equipment, we’re musicians playing for a concert in Grapafeuse two days from now.” Baz grabs his lute. “You should see our performance, our music-based abilities are going to stun everyone in the audience.”
“Sure, once I finish my business.” Hasegawa writes the event down on some paper.
“So, did you hear about the summoning of the heroes?” Eleanor buts into their conversation. Upon hearing this Hasegawa takes in a big gulp, not liking where this conversation is going.
“They did it around a month ago right?” Baz answers.
“Yeah, apparently they’re very strong.” Eleanor continues.
“It’s thanks to that news that my family can finally sleep without the worries of demons invading us. Isn’t that right Halbert?” Baz nudges Hasegawa on the shoulder.
“Hehe, yeah…”
“What? are you not excited? The heroes are finally here!”
“He probably heard of that story about one hero running away Baz.” Eleanor assumed.
“You mean that rumor? Do you actually believe that stuff? That hero isn’t running away, he’s probably just fighting early you know… Hey Halbert what do you think about that?” Baz countered.
“I don’t really know what to think, when did that rumor start?” Hasegawa inquired.
“Dunno. Trevor probably knows-” Baz is interrupted by none other than,
“Sophia knows! Sophia knows!” Sophia interjects.
“Sophia knows that the rumor Sophia heard came from one of the castle guards that said that he saw thirty heroes getting summoned and only twenty-nine were presented to the public last time.” She explains.
‘I was too embarrassed to join the ceremony. What was I supposed to do? Tell them I’m useless?’
“That makes sense.”
“Does that answer your question Halbe-” The carriage driver opens the front window with a loud thud. Grabbing the attention of each and every one of the passengers.
“There’s a blockade up front.” The driver tells them. Everybody looks outside and there it is, a blockade made of twenty-five knights stop the carriage from advancing further along its route. The knights slowly move forward, walking towards them.
“Never seen any guards this far from any kingdom.” The driver remarks. “There’s probably just some road robbers in the area.”
“Relax I’ll take care of this.” The carriage driver said as he dropped down from his seat. Approaching the knights he starts.
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“Hello there!”
No reply.
“Good sirs, we are heading for Grapafeuse, is there a problem with this route?”
No reply
“Is there anything in the area? Bears, monsters, robber-” The driver never got to finish his sentence as the leading knight impales the man with the tip of his sword. Pulling it out in a swift fashion letting the body fall on the floor.
“What the fuck!” Hasegawa shouted. The knights start to run towards the carriage drawing out their weapons.
“Everybody out the carriage!” Hasegawa pushes the carriage door open and jumps out of the carriage, Baz and others follow all grabbing their luggage. Hasegawa pulls out the dagger from his belt. His arms all shaky as this is his first true combat experience, a trial of fire, with the enemy being humans not demons.
“Halbert get down!” Baz orders Hasegawa as he plays a musical note in his lute, the instrument glowing. “Harmoniae Vis!” it sends a gust of wind pushing back the knights if only for a moment.
“Sophia behind you!” Eleanor shouts as an arrow crashes into the back of Sophia’s chest breaking her spinal cord and impaling her heart, effectively killing her.
“NOO! Y-You damn bastards! I’ll kill you!” Trevor screamed, charging at the closest knight he could find, pulling out his violin and bow, he plays a piece pouring his heart out.
“Melodiam Ad Iram!” Invisible blades cut up the knight into pieces, with Trevor’s wrath fully realized. He plays another piece and chants the same spell slicing the leg off another knight, the lump bleeding profusely but the knight doesn’t scream out in pain or even flinch.
Instead grappling Trevor down to the ground with him.
Trevor struggles but the knight is able to climb on top of him and smashes his face with the pommel of his sword, his skull caving in, killing Trevor. The knights all face and surround the remaining three survivors Baz, Eleanor and Hasegawa. All three back to back with each other.
“We need to force an opening!” Hasegawa shouted parrying with great difficulty a sword strike using his dagger. The unbelievable weight of the impact rattling his entire body.
‘If it wasn’t for those sparring sessions with Takezawa-kun I’d be dead by now.’ Hasegawa thought to himself having managed to fend the knight off with the help of Eleanor.
“I have a plan! Everybody get behind me!” Baz ordered and Eleanor and Hasegawa followed him. Baz chants.
“I am the bard, I am the jester, I am the troubadour. Music encompasses my very being! Magnitudine Parem Octo!” A loud explosion comes out from the lute, obliterating the knights directly in front of them in a blinding flash accompanied cacophony of sounds.
“Quick! let’s run for it.” Eleanor grabs Baz’s hand who looks pale and with a flow of blood trickling from his nose, his body weak from using the card up his sleeve. Hasegawa helps her shouldering Baz on his other shoulder.
Before being able to, another arrow flies through the air. Hitting Eleanor in the back of her knee. She falls to the ground.
“Eleanor!” Both Baz and Hasegawa shouted.
“Get away from here!” Eleanor screamed at them, signaling them to run away, just as a knight chops her body in half.
“Damn it all!” Baz shouted as he pushed himself away from Hasegawa, his knees weak and wobbly “Halbert run into the forest I’ll slow them down!”
“I can’t leave you here!” Hasegawa cried out, tears flowing from his eyes.
“Yes you can! Now go before they kill both of us!”
Wiping the tears from his eyes Hasegawa bursts into a full sprint into the forest, turning to look back one more time to see Baz, fending off three knights but ultimately losing the struggle and his life.
The man having been impaled onto a tree with a spear. With blood smeared all over his face. The knights then look directly at Hasegawa having apparently sensed where he is, they then also start sprinting with a speed not possible with all that armor on them.
“Shit!”
Hasegawa runs and runs, dodging low hanging tree branches and climbing over large rock. Doing the best he can to put some distance between him and his pursuers. But wherever he goes the knights are still able follow him.
Climbing up a small hill Hasegawa then turns sharply to the right, hoping to throw them off only to slip in the mud of the side of the hill, and falling into a cavity in the ground, knocking him out.
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“W-Where… am I?” He groggily thinks to himself, “Am I dead?”
He shifts his body around, feeling a cold hard surface surrounding him.
“I can’t see in here.” Hasegawa starts touching around him hoping to see if there’s anything that’s useful.
‘Am I going to die here?’
That’s when it happened. His bruised left-hand brushes over something, it felt like a screw, moving his hands around more, the felt something along the lines of buttons and levers. Finally, a crystalline shaped object was directly to his right.
‘What is this thing?’ He grabs it. The object starts to glow. Illuminating the dark chamber with a pulsating scarlet red light. He can finally see the interior of the place. It’s slightly spacious with various levers and metal supports protruding from the main hull.
“Is this… a tank?” His mind races. “How can there be a tank here?”
The crystal object from earlier starts to disappear into thin air.
“No, no, no!” Hasegawa stumbles in the vehicle trying to stop the only source of light from disappearing. That’s when he saw it, a green glow emanating from his torn up and muddy satchel.
His registration crystal.
Placing the registration crystal into the vacant space left by the red crystal. This time the tank pulsates a vibrant green and the registration crystal glows a bright green for a split second before returning back to normal.
“What the... The registration crystal it updated?”
The registration crystal no longer says his class to be a lowly “Peasant” but instead.
“Tank Commander? It says here, weapon: PzKpfW. I Ausf. A.”
A realization occurs in Hasegawa.
“Is THIS my ability?” Turning on the engine with the keys of the tank. Hasegawa grabs the levers and tries to move the tank, at first the engines roared and nothing happened, but slowly and surely the tank crawled itself from its earthly grave slowly dragging its hulking mass.
He then shuts down the engine.
“The knights are still out there; I need a plan.”
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“The child has not been eliminated, he cannot have run away that far, find him.” The captain of the elite knights spoke to his men two hours after the attack on the carriage, as they tracked Hasegawa’s location onto the hill where his aura’s trail mysteriously vanished.
The knights scour the area nonstop for a few minutes, that’s when they spotted the large excavated patch of rock and dirt.
“Sir. I might be able to sniff him out.” A dog beastman knight approaches the spot, his nose sniffing out traces of aura in the air, his body follows his nose moving closer and closer onto a side of the hill overlooking them, that’s when he noticed.
There were two metal barrels pointed straight at him and the other knights.
“Bingo Motherfucker.” Hasegawa grinned to himself.
The two machineguns let out a large hailstorm of piping hot lead onto the unsuspecting knights, hitting each and every one of them. The bullets gouging into their bodies and breaking, impaling and obliterating every one of the knights including the beastman.
The hot lead passing through one end and lodging itself onto another surface, brains and limbs blowing out in a graphic manner.
Finally, the machine guns run out of ammo.
Hasegawa maneuvers the tank out of its hiding area. Stopping it before the carnage he made. Opening the commander’s cupola, he looks at the gruesome sight. He spits on the body of one of the dead knights.
“That was for Trevor. Eleanor. Sophia, the carriage driver and Baz.” He spat out.
Suddenly, his vision becomes blurry as another scarlet light takes over him and the Panzer I. Flashing brightly before suddenly disappearing leaving nothing left behind.