Return of the Apocalypse Knight

Chapter 29: The Village Chief (3)

Mountain Soldier.

The elite soldiers of the Northern Mountains, also known as Rangers, were so skilled that many of them could feel mana.

They could do more than the equivalent of ten ordinary soldiers.

Especially in the demon-infested northern mountains, they were said to be on par with knights.

It wasn’t that they were preventing the demons of the mountains from descending to the plains, but it was easy for them to scout the demon-infested northern mountains as if they were their own home.

The mountain soldiers were skilled and well-regarded, but they were not treated with the respect they deserved.

Knights and wizards, noble officers and common soldiers alike considered them skilled but untrustworthy.

This may seem puzzling, but it makes sense when you realize how mountain soldiers are recruited.

In fact, the mountain soldiers were a punitive force to punish criminals.

The demon-infested northern mountains were a dangerous place that even demon hunters and adventurers avoided.

Soldiers and knights alike were reluctant to approach them.

Fortresses had been built at the base of the mountains to keep the demons at bay as they descended to the plains, but to stop the sudden waves, someone had to get inside the mountains and understand their movements.

Looking for a solution, the higher-ups solved the problem by punching the offenders.

Soldiers, adventurers, and hunters who were too good to kill were thrown into the northern mountains and called mountain soldiers.

Many died, and over time, all that remained became elite soldiers.

Many of them felt the need for mana to survive, and it was thought that they might even dare to fight knights in the Northern Mountains.

As strong as these mountain soldiers had become, their original sin of being criminals had not been eradicated.

Moreover, their death-defying minds were not immune.

Hoffman’s addiction to potions wasn’t just a result of his time in the army.

“Coming down from a fucking mountain, sleeping with corpses, thinking the war was finally over, and then coming to another world…….”

Hoffman was fed up with this hellish chain of events.

“If it weren’t for the potion, I would have died a long time ago.”

The potion saved his life, or at least he didn’t kill himself because of his potion addiction.

Saying something unintelligible, he climbed the walls of the apartment, past the 29th floor and up to the 30th.

The fire escape floors were empty, as they are at night.

“They have guards in front of the house where we sleep, and this place is empty. They’re so ridiculous.”

Were the guards in front of the houses the original guards on this floor?

If they watch one house, they can’t stop him if he comes up the other stairs?

Well, it’s all meaningless if you climb up the wall like him.

It’s supposed to be a group of surviving civilians, but every man in this country has been in the army, and they’re so careless.

It was pathetic.

There were plenty of cliff-climbing demons and not a few wall-climbing undead among the undead.

They’d been safe for so long, and from the looks of it, this place wouldn’t last much longer.

“I suppose we could try to intimidate them into giving us some information…….He’s surprisingly gentle.”

If he had a reputation for rolling around in this muddy war, he must have a mind like his own.

The knight was much gentler than he’d expected.

“He seems to know a lot about this side of the world.”

The knight must be smart after all, he thought, knowing so much.

And quite the fighter, too…….

“I can’t fight a knight.”

Thinking of the knight in charge of the party, he cursed.

The young knight who died first had a ridiculous amount of mana, but I felt like I could see through it to some extent, but the party leader knight was impossible to even guess.

“If I can see it, I’m probably going to be decapitated.”

Well, since my life depends on it, I should just be careful not to act like a brat and just keep quiet.

Seeing that the hero was dead, I felt like the world was coming to an end, but it was surprisingly not too bad.

The pretty little girl was surprisingly useful.

The mission to join the hero had been a total bust, but if I did it right, I might make it back alive.

“Come to think of it, how did he know about my skills?”

Hoffman sighed as he climbed up the refuge floor.

It was clear that he knew his former life, as he picked it up and gave instructions.

Before becoming a mountain soldier, Hoffman had been a thief.

If he wanted to plot something without people knowing, he had to take advantage of the time when everyone was asleep.

The head of this organization, Yang Ki-hyuk, was no different.

In the dark night a few people gathered in the lower level of the rooftop, in the suite of the leader, a house made from two houses.

“Brother, what are you going to do?”

“If we make a mistake, we might lose the territory we’ve built.”

The men who burst into the house said urgently when they saw him.

Yang Ki-hyuk frowned at the men’s words.

“So you were just watching during the day?”

“No, even brother, who has superpowers, got knocked out in one hit. What can we do?”

Yang Ki-hyuk could only click his tongue in disbelief.

When he didn’t say anything, the other men continued the conversation.

“There’s only one guy in iron armor who actually fought, so I think we can take him out.”

“No, we can’t beat him, that’s why we’re here at night, talking.”

“Since when have we ever fought in public? Why not kill them secretly, like giving them sleeping pills and ambushing them at night?”

“Hmm. Seems like a good idea…….”

At his words, the other men gave him a cold look.

“Shall we just say they ran away? Or maybe we drag the zombies back and leave some signs of a fight…….”

But the plan crumbled at the words of the silent man.

“It’s hard to ambush,” he said, ”they blocked the door in some weird way after dinner.”

He was the man who had ushered the outsiders into the empty house.

He’d brought them dinner, been present when they handed over their clothes, and had been watching the house with the others until a few moments ago.

“She must be capable of something, too. It looks like she took a bath, even though they didn’t have water, and I think it was her who blocked the door.”

The younger man suddenly spoke up at the man’s words.

“That’s right. Kill them all, but don’t kill her.”

“Of course not.”

“But, I don’t think we’ll even get the chance…….”

“No, we should give her to you hyung. What are you thinking?”

The corner of his mouth twitched up at his brother’s words, but he quickly regained his composure and slapped the living room floor.

Thump. Thump.

“Don’t even think about it, because it’s loud, and since we’re crammed into a building, we can’t kill them inside.”

The men nodded at his words.

In fact, the men gathered here, including the chief, did not live in this apartment.

They had been working as thugs a short distance away.

They’d been fleeing the zombies in a car, and their car had broken down near the apartment, so they’d taken refuge here.

At the time, there were a few survivors in the apartment, but it wasn’t long before they were the only ones left with plenty of food.

Then, Yang Ki-hyuk awakened his powers and gathered the survivors in one apartment, creating a survivor’s group.

While Yang Ki-hyuk rallied the people and became their leader, no one realized that he and his brothers were outsiders.

None of the people in the apartment knew who lived in the other buildings.

Since no one in the apartment was alive, there was no one to suspect him.

Of course, there were a few suspicious people now, but until the knight arrived, there was no trouble in the building.

Yang Ki-hyuk would just have to forcefully press the button.

Luckily, the group has been running smoothly so far, and Yang and his brothers haven’t had to show their true colors.

He never raided other homes to steal food, steal wives, or kill people for fun, as he did in the apartment he lived in before.

Sure, sometimes a scout would die, and his wife would let someone else into the house for food, but it was nothing out of the ordinary at a time like this.

“First, I want them outside scouting tomorrow. Maybe we’ll get lucky and the zombies will kill them instead.”

“If they don’t come in waves like they did then, they’ll be hard to kill with regular zombies.”

“I said ‘if we get lucky’!”

Yang Ki-hyuk shouted at his brothers’ disagreement.

They hadn’t been able to make a sound since he got his superpowers but now, they were walking around like this.

It was all because of him.

Part of him wanted to kill them, but as the head of the organization, he had to have a backup plan.

“If I can’t kill them, I’ll let them walk out on their own. I’ll tell them about the other organizations I’ve been hiding from them.”

Although others didn’t know, Yang and his brothers knew the news from other regions.

It was news of a much bigger organization.

It was information that they had kept hidden for fear of upsetting the people in their apartment, but they thought they could use it to their advantage.

Yang Ki-hyuk’s brother spoke up.

“Can’t we just tell them tomorrow?”

Yang Ki-hyuk glanced at his brother.

“No, we have to wait a few days to see if there’s a way to kill them.”

He didn’t say it in front of his brothers, but Yang Ki-hyuk was angry.

He wanted to get revenge for the punch that knocked him out, and he also wanted to get his hands on the beautiful long-eared woman.

Passing on information from other organizations was his last resort.

“That’s what they said…..and then they all went back to bed.”

Before dawn, Hoffman returned with a job well done.

I had him do the job because his movements looked similar to those of the assassins I saw during the war, and he did a much better job than I expected.

Climb up to the rooftop of the apartment building, hang out of the window, eavesdrop on conversations taking place in the living room, and then return without being caught.

He’d only had to avoid one natural awakener and the general population, but that shouldn’t diminish what he’d done.

“Now that I know the situation, I think I can just point my sword at him and ask him.”

I shook my head at Hoffman’s next words.

“I don’t think we need to move right away, like he said. We need to get some rest.”

This base was too good to leave after a day’s rest, or to tear it down.

We’d only been living in the apartment for a short time, and we couldn’t just throw it away.

And even if I did leave, I still had work to do here for now.

The next morning, the chief himself came to visit.

Before he came, I put back the door that Zahina had welded, and he glanced at it and said to me,

“If you’re going to stay here, we need you to help us with some work. We want you to help us find food.”

“Okay. If that’s what it takes, I’ll jump in with both feet.”

I nodded at his words, despite the grain piled in my space-expansion pouch.

“I’m the only one who can fight properly, which is why I’ve been unable to access the commercial district. Since the knight is more skilled than me, let’s go to the Sanga area from today.”

It’s an area with a lot of undead…….

Was he setting up a trap?

It didn’t matter. The commercial district was exactly what I was hoping for.

Surely, there would be an abandoned gold and silver room there.