Continue the Journey

What was going on?

The Orks shifted the direction of their attack, and the caravan, which had been struggling to hold on, suddenly felt the pressure ease. Only then did they come to their senses and look ahead, where they saw a huge figure clad in terrifying armor swinging a warhammer amid the Orks, locked in battle with those fearsome creatures.

"Gasp—!! What kind of monster is that?"

Seeing the battle before them, one of the Pawns sucked in a breath and muttered in amazement. The others felt much the same. In humanity's eyes, Orks were symbols of savagery, brutality, and sheer size. And that was more or less true. Most Orks were huge, immensely strong, vicious, bloodthirsty creatures. Generally speaking, humans rarely came to a good end when facing Orks head-on.

But this black Knight before them was different.

He swung the warhammer crackling with lightning in his hand, smashing each charging Ork to the ground. Blinding arcs of electricity flashed amid continuous explosions, turning the battlefield into a Hell that spewed fire. Rather than retreating, the Orks only became more excited. This was the kind of battle they craved!

Only the strong were worthy of a challenge!!

Unfortunately, Duanmu Huai had no intention of WAAAAAAGHing with these Orks.

To outsiders, Duanmu Huai looked even more Rage-filled than the Orks at that moment. In truth, however, he was extremely calm inside, without the slightest emotional fluctuation.

For one thing, this was far from his first time fighting these monsters. As an experienced player, he had slaughtered enough of them to know them inside out.

For another, this was one way Inquisitors protected themselves.

As mentioned before, the Chaos Gods found it difficult to directly interfere with the main universe. Thus, their most common method was to stir up their targets' emotions and lure them into corruption. In response to the Chaos Gods' spiritual temptations, players had summarized four rules, commonly known as the Four Admonishments of the Inquisitor.

Fight without frenzy, think without delusion, cleanse without filth, enjoy without indulgence.

Fight without frenzy—one could fight, but must not fall into fanaticism, or the God of Tyranny would easily exploit the opening.

Think without delusion—one could think, but must not overthink, or the God of Deceit would toy with them in the palm of its hand.

Cleanse without filth—keep yourself clean instead of being filthy like a beggar, and you could stay far away from the God of Filth.

Enjoy without indulgence—one could enjoy life, but must not indulge oneself, lest they fall into the God of Desire's trap.

As long as players followed these four rules, it was difficult for the Chaos Gods to find an opening and influence them. In the end, it all came down to moderation in everything. Don't keep charging down one path until you hit the wall!

"Whoosh—!!"

While Duanmu Huai fought and slaughtered across the battlefield, Okegis silently appeared behind him. She stretched out both hands, and the threads on her fingers flashed. Then dozens of dolls appeared out of thin air and rushed toward the Ork horde, holding back the weaker, low-level Orks.

Soon, the situation changed once more. The Orks had previously pushed the caravan into a crisis, but they had suffered considerable losses themselves. Now, with Duanmu Huai, Okegis, and the army of dolls stabbing them in the back, their losses grew even worse. Although Orks were generally hot-blooded types who fought to the death without retreating, no amount of thinking could let them create things from nothing, much less activate some invincibility cheat that locked their health bars. In the end, this group of Orks was still smashed to death by Duanmu Huai's hammer, one blow after another...

This showed that personal will could not alter objective reality. Even WAAAAAAGH had its limits.

"Thud!!!"

When the last Ork collapsed to the ground and became a corpse, the battle finally came to a complete end.

"Whew..."

Duanmu Huai removed his helmet and let out a breath. These Orks that fought to the death without retreating were truly annoying. Even Ratmen knew to flee and scatter once their lines collapsed, but to Orks, being wiped out meant nothing—the value of their lives lay in fighting.

Whether they won or lost was another matter.

That was why fighting Orks was truly painful. Winning brought no sense of achievement, while losing was even more humiliating.

"Thank you for your help, brave Knight..."

The caravan members timidly approached. Duanmu Huai certainly looked terrifying, but at least he was human, which let them breathe a sigh of relief. If he had been an Ork or some other monster, that would have been a different matter.

"You're welcome."

Seeing that they did not react too strongly, Duanmu Huai put his helmet back on.

"We're taking this road too. We can't just let these Orks cause trouble here."

As he spoke, Duanmu Huai turned his head and saw the young Knight clutching his sword, clearly preparing to run away. He snorted and gestured to Okegis. She lightly raised her little finger, and the young Knight cried out as threads bound his entire body and dragged him back again.

"Trying to run? You worthless coward, you didn't dare fight when I told you to, but now you've got the guts to run?"

Duanmu Huai glared at the young Knight and snorted. The latter trembled on the ground, not daring to say a word.

At that moment, the caravan leader instinctively looked at the young Knight, then his eyes widened in surprise.

"Young Master Louis? Aren't you Young Master Louis?!"

"...Huh?"

Hearing the caravan leader call out, the young Knight was startled. He hurriedly raised his head, and upon recognizing the caravan leader, his face immediately turned pale. He quickly turned away and pretended not to know him.

"You know each other?"

Seeing this, Duanmu Huai asked with interest. The caravan leader hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"Yes, Sir Knight. May I ask... what exactly happened...?"

"Oh, it's nothing much. Yesterday, this guy called me some despicable Demon and tried several times to challenge me to a duel. So I beat him down, tied him up, and made him a prisoner."

"I see..."

Upon hearing that, the caravan leader visibly relaxed.

"To be honest, he is actually the son of our merchant guild's president..."

"Oh, so you want him back?"

"Well, if possible..."

"Take him. Keeping trash like this would only waste food."

As he spoke, Duanmu Huai looked at Okegis. She manipulated the threads again and directly tossed the young Knight to the caravan leader's feet. The caravan leader wiped cold sweat from his brow and signaled for his men to take the continuously wailing young Knight away. Only after Louis had left did he solemnly bow to Duanmu Huai once more.

"Thank you so much, kind Sir Knight. If not for you, the young master would probably have lost his life long ago..."

"Oh? Has this idiot always been this stupid?"

"Um..."

Faced with Duanmu Huai's question, the caravan leader looked troubled, but he still quietly explained the situation. Sure enough, that brain-dead young Knight was the son of the president of their merchant guild, Lake Sword. Ever since childhood, he had loved listening to stories of Knightly adventures. He had even pestered his father to hire Knights to train him. However, the young man clearly lacked any talent. At first, everyone merely watched and laughed it off. Children dreaming of becoming Knights was perfectly normal; they would mature once they grew up.

That was what they had thought at the time.

But unexpectedly, as he grew older, the fellow only became more deeply obsessed with Knight stories. He often wore Knight armor and carried a sword around, imagining that some old person in town was an evil witch, or that a dragon had been sealed beneath Carcassonne. Just like Don Quixote, he caused countless absurd disturbances and troubles.

This gave his parents endless headaches, but they could not forbid him from becoming a Knight. After all, in Bartonia, becoming a Knight was politically correct. If his parents stopped him from pursuing Knighthood and this loudmouth went around spreading nonsense, their merchant guild would be finished in Bartonia. So they could only keep him locked in their villa to prevent him from going out and causing trouble.

Who knew how he had slipped out... If he had not encountered Duanmu Huai, he would probably have become a corpse.

After all, although Bartonia was said to be a country straight out of pastoral poetry, that only applied to its cities and the nearby villages and towns. In this Middle Ages civilization, the lands between settled areas were largely uninhabited wilderness. Bandits and robbers often prowled the roads, and Orks and Goblins were even more common.

A weakling at LV3 like him did not even have a Sacred Gear to protect himself. The moment he went out, he would get instantly killed.

Duanmu Huai also explained his own situation. Upon hearing that they were from the Empire and wanted to find a place in Bartonia to take refuge from disaster, the caravan leader patted his chest and promised that once they returned to Carcassonne, he would report it to the president. Lake Sword was not some major merchant guild, but helping them out would not be a problem.

Having another connection was always a good thing. That had been Duanmu Huai's intention as well, so both sides decided to travel together to Carcassonne. They no longer needed that idiot as a guide, so Duanmu Huai decisively sent him back to the caravan. With how brain-dead that guy was, he might lead them straight into an Ork nest while supposedly guiding them.

Of course, before setting out, the caravan did not forget to set the battlefield ablaze, burning both sides' corpses and even the ground clean. This was not because Bartonia had a tradition of cremation. As mentioned before, Orks were essentially a type of fungus. Before dying, their bodies scattered vast quantities of spores, which would fall to the ground and grow into groups of little Orks.

If the caravan did not uproot and exterminate them now, then when they returned along the same road, they would only see an even larger group of Orks WAAAAAAGHing at them.

"Master, what exactly is wrong with that human?"

The group set off again, and Okegis voiced her question to Duanmu Huai.

"You mean that idiot? What about him?"

Duanmu Huai was not surprised that Okegis had questions. After all, her main mission was to observe humans, experience humanity, and feel souls. Human behavior must naturally have seemed full of all sorts of mysteries to her.

"I do not understand. Why did he gather the courage to challenge you before, yet choose to submit immediately after failing?"

Okegis was clearly unable to understand.

"It's simple. That guy got scared. Don't be fooled by how fired up and fearless he looked at first—it was all an act. When he first attacked me, he really did have the mindset of succeeding or dying. But by the second time, he was fighting for his own pride... because he could not accept tucking his tail between his legs and running away like that."

"But after that, he still kept following us?"

"He hadn't given up. That's what half-hearted people are like. They can't gather the courage to step forward and die, but they also aren't willing to run away in disgrace. So they follow along, hoping some other opportunity might appear."

Duanmu Huai curled his lip.

"That's why he surrendered so easily after being caught. His original image was just an act. In reality, he's a paper tiger that goes flat with one slap. He just refuses to admit that he's a coward who fears death, so he comes up with excuses like being willing to become a Demon's servant to make himself look better."

That was how adolescent syndrome worked, after all. They liked skulls, opposing the world, Death Metal, things that looked fallen and cool... That guy was no exception.

"Humans really are complicated..."

After hearing Duanmu Huai's explanation, Okegis could not help but sigh.

Duanmu Huai merely chuckled.

After all, that was the truth.