I Killed the Player of the Academy-Chapter 247 World Tree (4)

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“‘Tates is a son of a bitch.’ Say it.”

“W… What?”

The leader of the Axehead Tribe tilted his head as if he didn’t catch what I said, but I did not miss the slight twitch of his lips.

“Say ‘Tates is a son of a bitch.’ Come on.”

“Ha, haha… What… are you saying…”

“What’s wrong? What’s so hard about saying that one sentence? It will show us you are not a follower of Tates Valtazar.”

“L, listen… That’s not a cultured expression…”

“What? Are you telling me Tates Valtazar is not a son of a bitch? Of course he is! Come on – say it! Do it right now!”

The people from the kingdom might not show any averse reaction to what I said, but there had to be a strong response from the northerners.

Those that escaped all the way to the walls were obviously there because they hated Valtazar, and the rest remained because they were a follower and decided to obey him.

Tates was a living god – he reigned above them as a god and was the leader of the north. Half the valkyries acknowledged him and were revering him as god, and the northerners were obviously aware of that.

As such, their perception of Tates would be in complete contrast depending on whether they were a follower or not.

To the non-followers, Tates was just a son of a bitch trying to destroy the world hoping for a new world, and for followers of Tates, he was the god of the new world.

“Say ‘Tates Valtazar is a damned son of a bitch!!’ Why can’t you say it!?”

“U, ughh… Uhh…”

– Cling!

They immediately unsheathed their swords and raised their axes, practically revealing themselves.

“Kill them all!”

Ah dang it. Of course.

The man in the lead dashed forward with the ax in hand. Until the very end, he couldn’t say, ‘Tates is a son of a bitch’ and instead leaped forward, swinging down his ax.

“Huhp…!”

However, his ax was too slow for it to reach my neck, and my spear pierced through his throat before he could even perceive it.

“Wipe them out,” I ordered.

It resulted in a slight commotion, but it didn’t take us long to suppress them.

“Did you fight? Against people?” asked Estelle after arriving nearby with the main group, alongside Hua Ran and Alicia.

“They were northern tribes under Valtazar. They tried to join us pretending to be allies.”

“…That would have been dangerous.”

“They’re probably doing something similar on all fronts.”

They would probably stay quiet and lay low for the time being, because our numbers were much more than theirs.

However, that won’t stay the same after more northern tribes join our ranks. They might suddenly turn their ax heads at us when we were at a geographical disadvantage.

“How did you know they were enemies?” she asked.

When I told her my secret strategy, she replied with a smile.

“Ah~ I see. That is certainly something the enemies won’t be able to say in fear of blasphemy.”

“There’s no guarantee it would work, but when there’s a big group trying to join us, we could force all of them to say it and a few won’t be able to.”

That was when we could define that entire group as an enemy.

“It’s an old-fashioned method, but it would work well especially in this kind of setting.”

“Yeah. I will convey that to the other groups. Hopefully there won’t be any issues with our pigeons.”

It was pitch black here, and it was hard to tell whether the pigeons would be able to successfully deliver the message or not.

“Thanks for your work. You can fall back now,” said Estelle. “We will have someone else at the lead now…”

“No. I’ll do it.”

“Korin-dongsaeng?”

“Can you continue staying with Hua Ran and Alicia? I can stay at the front>”

The roles were completely different for those at the front and those at the center. At the front, we would have to continue fighting against groups like this and killing them.

And that had to be my job. I didn’t want to rely on the girls when it came to killing people as much as possible.

“…”

Estelle was about to volunteer to join but seemed to decide against it. She was the most important figure in our army, and it would naturally be hard for her to step up to the front.

“Let’s keep moving forward. We have to quickly increase our numbers.”

Even if we accidentally took in a wrong group, we had to be so big that they couldn’t possibly dream of doing anything funny.

We continued moving forward, and we came across several more groups.

At times, we found a bunch of corpses that were brutally murdered, as well as groups of soldiers from the kingdom and northerners that were fighting against Shadow Demons. Out of those, we found allies and enemies.

“They’re enemies! Wipe them out!”

From the groups we encountered, there was a higher ratio of allies than enemies.

Around 2 out of 10 groups that we came across were enemies. Rather than trying to hide in our ranks and cause insurmountable damage, it appeared that their goal was to steal information and cause confusion in our army.

“Kuhk…! Kill me!”

As expected of northerners, they refused to reply when we asked them about the enemy formations and information.

For them, a valiant death was the road to paradise, and their belief would have been enhanced even further after coming across a living god.

“What should we do sir?”

“Cut his head off.”

I didn’t hesitate to kill them. Although human lives were precious, I wasn’t a blind humanist who couldn’t differentiate between allies and enemies during a war.

Mercy for enemies was a betrayal to allies.

“These guys don’t stop coming though. They’re putting their lives on the line for this.”

“It’s because they believe there is an afterlife prepared for them.”

To be fair, they weren’t wrong. If Valtazar reopened the era of gods, the original paradise, Tir na Nog, and spiritual worlds like Valhalla would be brought back with his powers.

Although I didn’t know much about the powers of gods, I knew he had the power to promise afterlife to the souls of the dead.

Because of that, the enemies seemed to have no fear of death.

‘It’s taking a toll on us already.’

Having an enemy that was willing to throw away their current lives in expectation of the afterlife was really quite tedious.

“Well, I guess I’m also like them, risking my life to save the world.”

Soon, we came across a split path.

We were on our way going up the largest root, and we had to stop after seeing a sudden increase in roots.

“Sir Korin! There’s a group in the distance!”

Hearing the scout, we immediately pulled out our weapons and readied ourselves.

“Fuu… Hope it’s not another enemy.”

Whether it be Shadow Demons or troops under Valtazar, constant streams of battles was building fatigue in our army. I hoped the group in front of us wasn’t going to be yet another enemy.

“Aht? Korin?”

“Student Korin?”

Thankfully, what we soon heard was a familiar voice.

****

The group we met was the combined troops of northerners and the kingdom’s army, which included Lady Josephine, Kranel and Yuel.

“Have some tea.”

“Ah, thank you.”

We stopped our army for the time being after encountering Lady Josephine’s group, and I received the tea she made. Because of the sheer number of mages in our army, it was quite easy to light fires and cook food.

“How were things on your end, Professor?”

“It was chaotic,” she replied. “Especially because we came across Valtazar’s subordinates pretending to be allies.”

“You too huh… How did you tell them apart?”

“I remembered everyone.”

“Sorry?”

“I remembered the faces of all the leaders and vice leaders of the northern tribes in our expedition. So I knew it was an enemy when it was only strangers.”

“…”

How is that even possible? I asked with my eyes but Lady Josephine simply pushed the frames of her glasses up with her finger.

She was much more intellectual than someone like me, so I guess it was possible if that’s what she was saying. I decided not to doubt anyone in the group that came with her.

“By the way, what happened to the Chairman?”

“Master is tracking another root with Marie.”

“I see.”

Like that, we stopped advancing and took a break while catching up.

The world was devoid of light and it was hard to tell the time, but technically it was around midnight so we decided to set up our tents and spend the night.

“Korin-dongsaeeeenggg!”

“Ah please! Stop yelling in my ears.”

I wondered when this noona, Estelle, would stop clinging onto me.

“Hing~ You’re so cold…”

“What is it?”

“Do you want to eat dinner in my tent?”

“…”

When I turned my skeptical eyes towards her, Estelle pouted and grumbled.

“You’re looking at me as if I’m someone planning to do something lewd.”

“Are you not?”

“Maybe a little bit,” she replied before quickly rewording herself. “… I mean, it’s cold. It’ll be warmer in my tent.”

“Sure.” It was quite obvious, but I agreed nonetheless.

“Ah… r, really?”

“We don’t have enough tents either. Let’s use the same one.”

“Sure thing! Come with me!”

Walking down the dark encampment, we arrived at Estelle’s tent.

“It’s a lot more luxurious than I imagined.”

“I am the Saintess and the Princess, after all.”

Although we were on an expedition, just like how the tent of a normal soldier was different from that of an executive officer, Estelle’s tent was luxurious beyond belief as the fundamental symbol and commander of the army.

There was a large rug of wolf hide on the ground, as well as a thick blanket of duck feathers. On top of that, even her basin of water was made in gold.

“It’s far from practicality, but a member of the royal family has to be distinguished no matter where they go. You would have to get used to this too, Korin-dongsaeng.”

“Well… I do have a similar experience.”

In the last iteration, Park Sihu and I would often share the same tent.

As a master of all sorts of magic spells, he was able to make up the best environment no matter where we were, and we didn’t lack anything thanks to his inventory.

Now that I think about it, this was my first time having a fully native experience on the field for such a long time.

The tent was extravagant, but the same didn’t apply for food.

Using potatoes, emergency ration food including jerkies and some other ingredients, we made the typical war stew and shared it while discussing future plans.

“How do you think this war will span out?” Estelle asked.

“Who knows. Logically speaking, it would be us attacking the wells and Valtazar trying to defend them.”

“It sounds like you have some doubts.”

“Until now, I had been thinking that I was the one leading the big picture.”

After coming back in time, I had planned and prepared countless things.

I saved Marie, destroyed the plans around Hua Ran, crumbled the Tower of Mages and the Old Faith, and took in a portion of the northerners.

Looking back at what I had achieved in the past 3 years, all I could say was that they had been fantastic. They were much better than what I was able to do with Park Sihu in the last iteration.

And yet this big picture had begun to twist and distort, and now, it felt like it had been swallowed into the enemy’s big picture.

“Even what happened today. I had never imagined Valtazar to have such abilities. Leaving aside the World Tree, this world without light was certainly going completely against our expectations.”

From the time he didn’t attack Master, to the border city and the haste retreat of the Frost Giant.

Was it me that was drawing a big picture and continuing with it? Or were we playing in the hands of Tates?

Seeing me ponder to myself, Estelle smiled.

“So even you have these meaningless worries, dongsaeng!”

“Huh? …Hahp!”

Estelle suddenly shoved her spoon into my mouth. With an enticing smile in her eyes, she started rotating the spoon in my mouth.

The deep flavor of the stew permeated through my mouth, as she played around with the spoon as if it were a tongue.

“Kuhum…!”

“Throw away those worries.”

“Ububup?”

“You’ve led us very well until this point. You bartered with people, made shrewd plans and sometimes went head-first.”

– Us being here is the proof that your hard work has been meaningful.

“…”

The people around me were really generous with their evaluations of me. Even aside from the actions that I had done, I knew how hard it is to fully trust someone else so I was all the more grateful.

Even though I wasn’t even that amazing of a person, oddly enough, they trusted me a lot and depended on me.

“Then… I guess there’s no choice but to do it.”

“Un. I’m sure you will save everyone, dongsaeng. You will save the world. I believe so.”

Seriously, she wasn’t normal by any means either.

Just because of her trust in me, she turned away from the religion she had been believing in her whole life, crushed the pope’s head and united the religions into one.

Honestly, it’s a bit spooky when she tries to talk me into becoming the next gods in line, but she was definitely a reassuring ally to have.

“Let’s go to bed. It’s probably going to be noisy, but let’s try to preserve our stamina as much as we can.”

“Shall we sleep on the same bed then~”

Here she was again, trying to tease me. She kept pretending to be an adult and trying to tease whenever possible.

“Sure. Why not.”

“Huh?”

That was why I played along with her. It was also… because I was grateful for what she said.

“Kyaak?!”

I carried her like the princess she was and headed straight to the bed.

“Higik… Hugik…!”

Estelle couldn’t calm down even when she was laid down on the soft blankets of the bed.

“Well then…”

Really? Are you serious? Her eyes seemed to be asking me, as her lips opened and closed like a goldfish.

Even though she was the one constantly teasing me, she was a coward when push actually came to shove.

“K, Korin-dongsaeng?”

“Shh…”

Placing my finger on her lips, I whispered with a grin.

“Call me oppa for tonight.”

“…!”

“I promise we’ll just be holding hands.”

Estelle was trembling on the bed, not knowing what to say.

I went on the bed and laid myself down next to the stiff girl. This was my time to teach her a lesson.

After teasing her like that for about an hour, I left the tent.

Fuu~ I commended myself for holding myself back.

****

The battle continued throughout the night.

The Shadow Demons came pouring out regardless of the time, and at times, we had to defeat a group of northerners pretending to be allies.

There were a few occasions where we were joined by our actual allies and had to restructure our army, but all in all, everything went smoothly with no real threats.

This was the power of numbers.

Power of an army.

Our expedition army with one sole purpose was able to cover for the building fatigue and losses by the sheer power of numbers.

That was how powerful it was to be regrouped as one after overcoming chaos and confusion.

To be fair, we had so many knights and mages that anything seemed possible.

“Everyone. Wake up! It’s morning!”

The alarm rang across the encampment as soldiers woke each other up. But as expected, it was rare to find anyone that became used to this kind of morning already.

– Ughh… It’s still dark…

– Are you sure it’s morning already?

Even though it was supposed to be in the middle of broad daylight, the world was still dark. It felt like our sense of time was malfunctioning, but we still had a reliable clock.

“Can we not travel in the sky?”

“I did see a Hresvelgr, but the tree tried to wrap it up with its roots when it got too close.”

“We should be able to receive supplies from above. I made a signal with our campfires. With this—”

As they said, humans were adaptable animals. Despite the unimaginable event of the light vanishing from the world, everyone was trying their best to adapt to the new change.

“In any case, it really is dark.”

“Well no shit. There’s no light. Of course it’s dark.”

“No, I mean… It’s like there’s a lid on top of us…”

That was when I overheard a soldier’s comment that I could not ignore. Skeptical, I quickly engraved the Rune of the Sun on my Silver Spear.

“Huh, Sir Korin?”

“What are you planning to do?”

Action spoke more than words. I threw the spear high into the air, and the Silver Spear leaving a trail of sunlight soared into the sky…

– Kajik!

And stopped somewhere. The ambient lighting of the spear soon revealed the ‘tree bark’ that it was piercing through.

“Mages! Light up the sky!!”

The mages quickly responded by shooting light spells into the air. They had been holding their magic back as much as possible to save mana, and everyone was therefore able to respond with their spells.

“Huh?”

“What…”

What was revealed was an enormous face.

For it to be a titan, however, it looked like a wooden puppet and the skin appeared like a dry bark.

But it still had an arm – the enormous hand that was reaching out towards us was the proof.

“1.2 kilometers…”

One of the mages predicted the size of that giant. So that’s how big it had to be to cover the entire sky, huh.

“They did us dirty. Seems like the noise overnight was to hide that thing.”

It was at least 60 times bigger than the King of Titans, Balor. A normal organism could never be so big.

Yggdrasil Wickerman.

The giant, reaching 1.2 kilometers in height, pounced down with its fist.