I Became a Retired Warrior Who Suffered NTR in the Novel

68 – Duchy of Alsmeyer

“hahahaha, what a trick. I came into this position in the year the princess left, and I have been recognized by the duke to this day.”

Aide Kroll’s appearance and voice are both male and female, but his laughing voice was as sharp as a woman laughing loudly.

“Then where is my mother and the rest of my family?”

“If you are a family member, don’t worry, you are doing well in a country house.”

Crawl, the aide who doesn’t give in at all to Irene’s voice full of life, but rather responds with words as if playing with Irene…

“Irene…”

During the snowball fight between Irene and her aide Kroll, Kir pulled Irene by the cuff of her sleeve and was pointing away…

There, I could see the Duke of Reggio standing on the terrace and staring at this place.

“Even if I leave, I will leave after seeing that my mother and family are safe. Tell your older brother that.”

“Yes. All right.”

Irene also looked at Kroll, then raised her head and glared at the Duke of Reggio standing on the terrace.

The silent war between brother and sister started like that, and it was quiet for a while.

Only one of us…

Kirman continued to signal Irene to leave the palace, pulling at the hem of her dress.

*

After leaving the palace, we didn’t leave the capital right away, but looked for a place to stay temporarily.

In this vast city, not a single inn was open.

I had no choice but to leave the city gate and search for an inn on the outskirts of the capital.

I went into a shabby, seemingly empty house due to a sudden snowstorm.

“I will go out and get some firewood.”

When he entered the house, he saw an old fireplace, and Roman went outside again to get some firewood.

“Lucia, put this on.”

First of all, I put my coat on Lucia, who is the coldest among us.

Lucia, who initially refused, finally nodded her head instead of thanking her, and she put on my coat.

“Sorry everyone.”

Looking at this scene, Irene lowered her head towards us and she was suddenly apologizing…

“You came all this far, but I can’t treat you at all…”

Surprised by Irene’s sudden apology, Lucia hurriedly got her up and stopped her, and I also opened her mouth to stop Irene.

“What kind of treat is it… We came here to work, not to play?”

“……”

“First of all, those things are not important right now, but how did this place change like this… Irene, do you have any doubts about anything?”

“…..”

Irene doesn’t know if she was thinking about my words, or if she knew, but couldn’t bring herself to speak.

Her answer from her came a long time later.

“Yes. My older brother was originally like that.”

“A person like that…?”

“When I left here, they kicked me out like that. So… maybe nothing has changed for me.”

Unlike the usual Irene, her eyes look somewhat sad…

I don’t know what happened here, but she kept her head down and didn’t say anything about her after that.

“The Four Heavenly Kings, Ballark.”

“What?”

After stopping Irene at the palace, Kir, who hadn’t said anything until she came here, opened her mouth.

Everyone looked at her with wide eyes at the sudden words that came out of her mouth.

“You mean the aide that was there.”

“Yes.”

“You look so much like the Four Heavenly Kings, Ballak. I would believe it even if it was just the same person.”

Besides Seir, the Four Heavenly Kings who fled from the battle with me, Balak is the only remaining Four Heavenly Kings…

“The faces and appearances look different, but when you listen to their voices, their actions, and their way of speaking, they are very similar.”

“That means…”

“And the Demon Lord is the only one who will do crazy things like this, right?”

As long as I didn’t know about the existence of Balak, I was listening to Kir’s words with dubious doubt.

After hearing Kir’s last words, I couldn’t help but agree with her to some extent.

The only ones who would do crazy things like this are the Demon Lords…

Kir seemed to be convinced that the aide, Krall, was the Four Heavenly Kings, Balak.

Irene was also listening attentively to see if her words could be trusted.

“But for what purpose are the Four Heavenly Kings acting here and doing that…”

If it is simply to attack this place, the hometown of the warrior party members, it would be better to just attack and occupy it with the demon army…

Why did they even bother to control the minds of humans and stay here?

“I think they’re trying to trap us and tie us up here… Otherwise…”

“Maybe he came looking for a sealed demonic sword.”

“A sealed demon sword?”

Contrary to my expectations, Irene, who had been listening, opened her mouth to see if she could guess anything.

Kir and I had to ask her back at the same time.

“Yes. If he was doing that while leaving his brother alive, he might have done it to find the sealed demon sword.”

“Is there such a thing here?”

“I also heard from my father when I was little… I heard that the reason why it snows here even in summer is because the magic sword is sealed in the hidden dungeon.”

Irene said that Kiri had an expression of nonsense about her magic sword ability, but I was able to fully sympathize with Irene’s words.

The holy sword Ascalon that I have now was originally a demonic sword…

Due to her magical sword’s protective instinct, she had the ability to make her surroundings match her own attributes.

This Ascalon was also found in lava, the nest of the old fire dragon.

“Then, the reason why the Duke of Reggio was kept alive was to find the location of the demonic sword…?”

“I guess so.”

“Then what about other families?”

“…..”

As Kir said, in order to find the location of the hidden dungeon, he would have to hold his mother and Irene’s mother hostage, just like the Duke of Reggio…

Since the palace was empty today, there was a high probability that he was confined elsewhere.

If that happens, we won’t be able to easily attack the Four Heavenly Kings, Balak…

“Hero. I have a favor to ask.”

Irene came up to me and politely put her hands together and took the posture of asking for something.

“If you take my family hostage in the battle with the Four Heavenly Kings, Balak, please don’t worry about it and attack me.”

Irene was worried that I might hesitate in battle…

I couldn’t answer her.

“Let me ask you this. Please don’t make me a fool.”

“……”

If I can’t fight because of her own family held hostage,

Irene’s words mean that she will step in and kill her family…

I couldn’t help but stare at her shocking remarks for a while, making eye contact with her.

“Huh?”

The only thing that broke the mood was Kir’s small voice, which he felt while looking around…

“This is…”

I can feel the presence too…

Enemy movement seems to slowly gather towards our house from afar…

The vibrations resonating through the ground seemed too light for a huge number of energy…

Knock!

“Yo… Yo.. Hero!! It’s a big deal!!”

Meanwhile, Roman, who went to get firewood, came in empty-handed and was out of breath.

“The… Enemies are coming!! There are so many of you… They’re approaching that I can’t even count them!”

As soon as Roman’s words ended, he left the house, and the disgusting smell wafted from all directions, and the energy that could not be counted…

“Undead…”

This is obviously Ballach’s ploy to provoke us…

I don’t know why they sent so many undead to us, but I could see zombified soldiers and long-dead skeletal soldiers through the blizzard.

If it’s this large group of undead…

This must mean that there are necromancers around here…

“A warrior. I’ll look for the necromancer.”

Kir, holding a dagger in both hands, jumped into the undead group to catch the necromancer controlling these undead.

Quad Deuk

Irene, who was preparing for this, was providing cover so that Kir could safely dig in.

Roaring!

I then pulled out my Ascalon and attacked to keep the undead from following Kir.

As the undead piled up after being crushed by Irene’s ice or burned by the flames of the holy sword, more undead came in behind them and surrounded us more and more.

I was going to clear things up by bombing the surroundings, but I had to switch to another magic when I suddenly thought that Kir was in that group.

“Deterioration”

Restly..

First of all, there is no sign of Kir around…

I engulfed the undead by igniting the flames as far as my presence could detect.

To endure like this…

My goal was to get out of here with one big blow after Kir kills the necromancer…

Pot! Papababat!!

Pot! Papababat!!

I was curious about the sound of bowstrings coming from around me, so I took a defensive posture,

Irene also created an ice barrier to protect Roman and Lucia.

Shook! Shu Shu Shuk!! Swoop!!

An enormous number of arrows evaded us and headed for the undead,

Undead fell on the spot due to the silver-plated arrowheads, or were unable to fight without regenerating their bodies.

“Waaa!!!”

And with the ensuing shouts, those who handle huge axes were flocking…

And let’s get close enough to know their identity…

“Baba.. Ryan…?”

A low voice leaked from Irene’s mouth.