Chapter 9. Cetton Castle
by Foreigner Β· 2026-08-21
It was just before sunrise.
Bedrun was on the castle wall.
The east was gradually brightening, and there was a dot in the sky.
Karin: What is that?
Karin asked.
Bedrun: ......
Karin: It's too big for a bird.
The dot grew larger.
Beliston came up the stairs.
Erarion was supporting him.
Bedrun: my lord.
Bedrun said.
Bedrun: Please take a look at that.
Beliston narrowed his eyes.
He watched for a long time.
Beliston: It's a wyvern.
Silence fell on the castle wall.
Bedrun: ......A wyvern?
Beliston: Yes.
Bedrun: Why is that coming here?
Beliston: I don't know either.
Beliston gripped the railing.
Beliston: They don't come here. They don't come to where people live.
Bedrun: ......
Beliston: They never leave their nests.
Bedrun: Then what is that?
Beliston: ......
Beliston: Indeed.
A soldier looked down.
There were three hundred orcs outside the castle.
Then he looked up.
There was a wyvern in the sky.
Soldier: ......
Soldier: Excuse me.
The soldier said.
Soldier: Isn't this a bit much?
A sound came from below the stairs.
It was the young lord.
He was wearing armor. It had been tailored when he was forty, so the strap around his stomach was loose.
The young lord looked at the sky.
young lord: ......It's like they want us to die.
The infirmary door opened.
Eda came out.
Eda also looked at the sky.
And said.
Eda: We're running low on medicine.
Karin picked up her bow.
It wasn't within firing range.
But she picked it up.
Holding it made her feel a little better.
The wyvern drew closer.
It wasn't flapping its wings.
It was just descending, carried by the wind.
Karin aimed at it.
As she aimed, she looked at its neck.
There was something on its neck.
Karin lowered her bow.
Karin: Commander.
Bedrun: What?
Karin: There's a person riding it.
Bedrun: ......What?
Gihun watched the sun rise from beside him.
It was different from seeing it from the ground.
On the ground, the sun rises. Here, the sun was beside him.
Both were beside him.
Gihun watched it for a moment.
Then he looked down.
The black things were now visible one by one.
From the peak, they were a surface.
Now, they were dots.
There were so many dots.
Gihun tried to count them.
'One, two, three.'
'.......'
Gihun stopped counting.
The castle was below.
The place where the castle gate should have been was empty.
It wasn't empty, but filled with something.
Gihun made a plan.
The plan was this:
Land on top of the castle wall.
Gihun tapped Dummy's neck twice.
Aron: Over there.
Dummy stretched its neck.
Aron: Up there.
Dummy stretched further.
Aron: Descend.
Dummy didn't know how to descend.
To be precise, it couldn't distinguish between descending and falling.
The castle wall grew very quickly.
Gihun covered his left eye.
Dummy veered to the right.
The castle wall passed by.
As it passed, Gihun saw faces.
He saw them very briefly.
All of them had their mouths open.
Gihun made eye contact with one of them without realizing it.
It was a woman holding a bow.
Gihun instinctively bowed his head.
Aron: Hello.
And then it passed.
It was quiet on top of the castle wall.
Bedrun: ......
Karin: What did he say?
Karin asked.
Bedrun: ......
Bedrun: I think he said hello.
Bedrun said.
Bedrun: ......
Karin: I heard that too.
Gihun passed the castle wall and went out of the castle again.
That is, he was above the orcs.
Aron: Turn around.
Gihun said.
Aron: Turn around.
Dummy didn't turn.
Gihun then realized something very important.
This bird cannot land.
He crashed into a tree twice.
He fell into a lake once.
That was all.
'.......'
Gihun looked down.
The orc was looking up.
The height was about twenty meters.
Gihun decided to make it ten meters.
He pushed his head down.
Dummy went down.
It gained speed as it descended.
'Ah, this isn't right.'
Gihun jumped.
The first orc wasn't killed by Gihun.
It was crushed to death.
Gihun rolled over it.
As he rolled, a voice spoke.
'Tuck your chin!'
'Shut up.'
Gihun stood up.
As he stood, he grabbed his club.
The surroundings were quiet.
Three hundred orcs were watching him.
Gihun looked at them too.
Aron: ......
Aron: Hello.
From atop the city wall, Karin saw it all.
Karin: Commander.
Bedrun: I saw it.
Karin: It was a person.
Bedrun: I saw it.
Karin: A person is there.
Bedrun was gripping the wall stone.
His hand was clenched.
Karin: Commander.
Bedrun: ......
Karin: That person will die.
Gihun didn't die.
He almost died.
The first ten were easy.
The orcs were densely packed, and when they were, they got in each other's way. If the one in front raised an axe, the one behind couldn't move.
Gihun went in between them.
The club was heavy and short.
Heavy and short things are good in tight spaces.
Thwack.
Thwack.
Gihun didn't count.
Counting would slow him down.
At the eleventh one, his back was exposed.
The orcs had retreated.
Gihun knew that wasn't a good sign.
When they retreat, arrows come.
Gihun lowered his body.
Arrows came.
There were three.
Two missed, and one grazed his left forearm.
Gihun ran towards that orc.
The distance was twenty meters.
Gihun covered those twenty meters in four seconds.
Someone on the city wall cried out.
That's when the kick came out.
The orc with the bow was light.
Light things fly well.
Gihun spun.
As his body turned, his foot shot out.
The orc flew back three meters.
It flew and knocked down two other orcs.
'.......'
Gihun stood there for a moment.
'Master Kim.'
'I think I'm getting good now.'
The next part was the problem.
There were three hundred orcs and Gihun was one.
Once the dense formation broke, they surrounded Gihun.
They knew how to surround him.
That was what Gihun feared the most.
Beasts don't surround.
Beasts charge.
These waited.
Gihun's ribs gave out again.
More precisely, the spot that had barely healed reopened.
His breath grew short.
When his breath grew short, his club became heavy.
When his club became heavy, his next move slowed.
Gihun knew that sequence.
Then the sky darkened.
Dummy passed by low.
Gihun hadn't called it.
It was for food.
The orcs scattered.
Anything scatters when something with a wingspan of over three meters passes five meters above their heads.
Dummy snatched an orc from that spot.
It grabbed its shoulder with its talons and ascended just like that.
The orc screamed.
The sound went higher and higher.
Gihun went towards the castle through that gap.
As he went, he looked up.
Aron: Hey.
Aron: ......
Aron: One more time.
Dummy didn't answer.
It was busy eating.
Gihun saw it.
'.......'
Aron: ......You really are something.
In hindsight, it wasn't strange at all.
For eight days, Gihun had fed that thing orcs.
In Dummy's mind, orcs were food.
And now there were three hundred servings of food here.
It was thirty meters to the gate.
Gihun couldn't cover those thirty meters.
Because the orcs parted.
When they part during a fight, it's one of two things:
They're running away.
Or they're making way.
Gihun looked in that direction.
At first, he thought he'd misjudged the size due to the distance.
It got closer.
He hadn't misjudged it.
It was an orc.
It was the same kind as the ones Gihun had killed so far.
It was the same color, had the same teeth, and smelled the same.
But it had an extra head.
More precisely, it was as tall as an extra head on top of another orc.
Its shoulders were the width of two men.
What it held in its hand wasn't an axe.
It was iron.
It looked like it had been torn from the city gate.
Gihun searched Aron's memories.
'Orc Lord.'
A memory surfaced.
'When a horde grows large, a leader emerges. It is larger than other individuals. It commands thirty to fifty orcs.'
'And.'
'.......'
The memory ended there.
Gihun reread the entry.
'Thirty to fifty orcs.'
Here, there were three hundred.
'.......'
Aron loved books.
He had memorized the entire monster encyclopedia.
This wasn't in that encyclopedia.
Gihun gripped his club tighter.
His hands were slippery.
It was from blood, but he didn't know if it was his own or someone else's.
Aron: ......
Gihun spoke.
Aron: What are you?
It stopped.
Gihun would remember that moment later.
The orc hadn't stopped.
It had stopped because it heard something.
Orc Lord.: Human.
Gihun almost dropped his club.
The sound was strange. Its pronunciation was slurred because its throat wasn't human. But even slurred, it was a word.
Orc Lord.: Small.
Aron.: ......
Aron.: You.
Gihun spoke. His voice didn't sound like his own.
Aron.: You can speak?
Orc Lord.: Learned.
Aron.: From whom?
It didn't answer.
Instead, it said something else.
Orc Lord.: Orc. Thirty.
Aron.: ......
Orc Lord.: Thirty. Die.
Aron.: ......
Orc Lord.: Three hundred.
Aron.: ......
Orc Lord.: Not die.
Gihun heard those words.
As he listened, a chill ran down his spine.
That orcs wouldn't die if they gathered in groups of three hundred. That was a calculation.
Beasts don't calculate.
Aron.: That.
Gihun asked.
Aron.: Did you figure that out?
Orc Lord.: ......
Orc Lord.: Told.
Gihun couldn't ask the next question.
Because it had already moved.
Gihun was beaten to a pulp that day.
He dodged the first blow. Dirt flew from where the iron passed, scattering two meters away.
He dodged the second one too.
He couldn't dodge the third.
He blocked it with his club.
The club broke.
Gihun doesn't remember well what he did after that.
He knows he was hit. He doesn't know if it was three or four times.
Once, he was sent flying and landed on an orc corpse.
He got up.
He was hit again.
He got up.
Someone screamed from atop the city wall.
Gihun didn't hear that sound.
Another sound was ringing in his ears.
After the fourth blow, Gihun couldn't get up.
His hands wouldn't support him.
It walked over.
A knee was before Gihun's eyes.
'.......'
Gihun looked at that knee.
There were three things summarized in Chapter 2.
First, monsters die if you crush their heads.
The problem was that its head was up there.
'Kicking isn't about kicking with strength.'
'.......'
'It goes as far as your body rotates.'
Gihun twisted his waist while lying down.
He twisted his waist first.
His foot shot out.
It was next to its knee.
Something made a sound of being dislocated.
It made a sound for the first time.
And then it collapsed.
The moment it collapsed, it dropped the iron it was holding.
Gihun saw it.
Its head was lowered.
It was the same as with the troll.
Gihun got up.
He didn't get up; he crawled.
It was three meters to the iron.
Those three meters were farther than any three meters he had walked on this mountain.
Gihun grabbed the iron.
It was heavy.
He lifted it.
'Third, rocks are the strongest.'
It was the third point he had summarized in Chapter 2.
Now it wasn't a rock, but iron.
Gihun turned around, holding it.
It was looking at him.
It was looking at him with one knee bent.
Orc Lord: Human.
Aron: ......
Orc Lord: Name.
Gihun stopped.
He didn't even know why he stopped.
Aron: ......Aron.
It didn't repeat the name.
It just moved its head ever so slightly.
Gihun raised the iron.
With both hands.
Once.
Twice.
A third time wasn't necessary.
But Gihun did it a third time.
Karin saw it from atop the city wall.
Karin: ......
Karin: Commander.
Bedrun: I saw it.
Karin: That thing.
Bedrun: I saw it.
The orc stopped.
Three hundred stopped simultaneously.
And then what happened next was strange.
The first orcs Gihun encountered were six.
The six attacked in cooperation, one leading and five following.
The three hundred didn't do that now.
The one in front retreated, and the one behind it was pushed.
The one that was pushed hit the one next to it.
The one next to it retaliated.
Bedrun saw it from atop the city wall.
It was a sight no one, not even those who had lived in this castle for forty years, had ever seen.
Orcs were attacking orcs.
Bedrun.: Karin.
Karin.: Yes.
Bedrun.: How many do you see?
Karin looked down.
Karin.: ...Three hundred.
Bedrun.: No.
Bedrun said.
Bedrun.: Thirty times ten.
Bedrun.: Teacher!
Beliston was already opening the box.
Beliston.: One sheet?
Erarion.: One sheet.
Beliston.: He'll use it.
Bedrun ran down the stairs.
Bedrun.: Open the castle gate.
Karin.: Captain!
Bedrun.: Open it.