Chapter 59 – Promise (2)

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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I quickly scanned the battlefield.

Already, one large-class monster lay dead from subjugation, and far away on the opposite side, the commander was seen distracting the monsters with his black hair fluttering.

Confirming that the commander was safe, I let out a sigh of relief.

‘He was holding out well on his own.’

Wondering how they held out against this number of large-class monsters, the soldiers, following the commander’s instructions, repeated firing and retreating to herd the monsters into one place, maintaining their ranks in a circular encirclement.

Dealing with this headcount of large-class monsters must be a first for the commander as well, yet his response was calm beyond imagination.

Although there was some blood on the commander’s clothes, seeing that he had no discomfort in moving, it didn’t seem to be his own blood.

The commander, seemingly not having discovered me yet, was busy commanding the soldiers.

‘Though he held out better than I thought…’

This form of encirclement is nothing more than simply buying time.

Even if they luckily maintained the formation, their bullets would run out eventually, and when that happened, the formation would collapse in an instant.

If I hadn’t arrived here in time, not only the commander but also all the soldiers here would have been in danger.

At that moment, one side of the encirclement became messy.

“Ugh!”

A soldier fell while backing away, and subsequently other soldiers fell as well, giving the monsters an opening.

A monster didn’t miss the opportunity and rushed toward the soldiers sprawled on the snowfield, opening its mouth wide with its sharp teeth glinting.

“A-aaaah!”

Watching the panicked soldiers escape by crawling desperately on the snowfield, I took out the white flare in my bosom and shot it toward the monster’s eyes.

Although this white flare couldn’t deal a large blow to large-class monsters, it was a color invisible to the monsters’ eyes, so they wouldn’t dodge even if shot at their eyes, making it perfect to draw agro.

“Kyaaa!”

Sure enough, as the monster that took a direct hit from the white flare in its eye shrieked and turned toward the direction where the gunpowder flew, the gazes of the soldiers and the commander also pinned on me.

The commander’s face, discovering me standing armed on the snowfield, was seen slowly staining with shock.

“Haydam! Why are you here!!”

Yes, it is natural to be that surprised if his son is standing in a place teeming with monsters.

But it is the same for me; it would be troublesome if ‘Father’ becomes endangered here.

My bastard child strategy is, after all, a strategy where the commander must back me up until I establish myself as the successor here.

Of course, even if the commander dies right now, since Daphne, Meursault, and the military academy graduates will support me, there might be no difficulty in conquering the zone.

The problem is that I am too young right now.

Therefore, if the commander dies now, the one with the highest probability of becoming the next commander is Meursault, not me.

Because Hayden was able to become the commander of the Cola Zone because he married Daphne, the daughter of the previous commander, and Meursault is the one Daphne currently has in mind.

Both Meursault and Daphne currently have goodwill toward me, but there is no telling how they might change once they stand at the pinnacle of power.

‘And anyway, because I promised Luna Moon that I would protect Hayden.’

Recalling the promise I made while retrieving the ring from Luna Moon’s grave, the portrait of Luna Moon, which had my mother’s face, naturally came to mind, but I struggled to push away thoughts of my mother.

I must not have distracting thoughts right now.

No matter how I am a player, to deal with this many large-class monsters alone, I have to keep my wits about me.

I loaded the gun slung over my back and ran forward, facing the monster that was rushing toward me.

“Uh-oh!!”

“This is crazy! Haydam!”

They screamed around me as I didn’t back away to avoid the monster but charged straight in the direction it was running, however.

Lightly ignoring them, I slid over the snowfield and entered beneath the chin of the charging monster.

The reason I dug under the chin was that the monster hit by the white flare did not throw its head back but instinctively pulled its chin in and held it close to its body as if protecting something.

‘It’s there.’

As I drove a bullet under its chin, the monster tried to turn back as if feeling a sense of crisis.

Judging by its reaction, the location of the gem seemed to be exactly correct, but the gun I held was designed so even a child like me could withstand the recoil, so its destructive power was not high.

That was why I had instructed Meursault.

To shoot in turn after I shot.

*Bang! Bang!*

Two gunshots were heard in succession not far away.

Whether his words that he could shoot if only given the location were not a lie, the first of Meursault’s bullets shattered the monster’s chin halfway, and the bullet that flew next precisely struck the spot I had shot.

With a crunching sound of something breaking, the monster’s body began to tilt, and slipping out from under its chin, I shouted toward the surrounding soldiers.

“Fall back!”

The soldiers, who had been busy checking on my safety out of the corners of their eyes and keeping in check other monsters that charged next, hurriedly dodged upon hearing my shout.

Two of the monsters they had been holding down couldn’t avoid the heavy body of the falling monster and collapsed together.

The remaining monsters glanced toward my side for a moment, but perhaps because the headcount standing on this side was remarkably small, they didn’t seem to draw much interest.

The monsters that ignored me headed for the place where the soldiers, who had gathered in one spot while avoiding the falling monster, were located.

“Huff, huff, Lord Haydam, please refrain from reckless actions…!”

Whether he had run in a hurry, Meursault was breathing heavily.

I held out my hand to Meursault without taking my eyes off the monster running toward the soldiers.

“White flare.”

Although Meursault seemed to let out a massive sigh at the sight of me just extending my hand without even looking at him, a hard-textured white flare was soon held in my palm.

I shot the white flare held in my hand at the back of the monster’s head that was turning away from me.

The commander, noticing that I was deliberately drawing the monster’s attention, was staring at me from over there as if to eat me alive, but for now this was the best for each other.

Turning my brief gaze away from the commander and looking at the monster running toward me drawn by the white flare’s agro, the gem sparkling on its snout came straight into view.

‘Seeing that it is still alive even though the gem is embedded in such an easily visible place, it must be a rather highly intelligent individual.’

It seemed the fellow had evaded bullets by raising its head.

Since it was in a position anyone could confirm with the naked eye, others must have aimed and shot at it too, for while its snout was relatively intact, the area under its chin was completely ragged.

Rather, this kind of individual is more troublesome than the one earlier with the gem under its chin.

Because unless humans fly in the sky, they must always stand beneath the monster’s chin.

For that reason, conventional subjugation battles consisted of pouring in massive firepower to bring the monster down, then finding and destroying the gem.

‘But I am different.’

If it’s a part I can’t hit with my physical condition.

I just have to leave it to ‘luck’.

Before leaving it to ‘luck’, I glanced at the commander visible behind the rushing monster.

‘Since there is distance, it should be fine even if the title effect is temporarily cut off.’

Confirming the distance from the commander, I switched my title from ‘Friend of Luna Moon’ to ‘Magic Marksman’.

The last time I counted, there were still about three shots left before hitting the seventh, so it would be fine to use one to handle that fellow.

When I aimed the muzzle, the guy raised its head as if to show off, however.

Such cute tricks do not work before the Magic Marksman.

The bullet I fired without hesitation pierced through the area under its chin, which was weakened by concentrated fire, and penetrated straight through the gem on its snout on the opposite side.

The guy collapsed on the spot as if its fuse had blown, and its corpse, unable to overcome the speed at which it was running, slid over the snowfield right up to my nose.

Meursault approached to shoot in turn behind me, but when the monster collapsed with a single bullet, he stared at me with a shocked face.

“You…”

“Wooaaa!!”

Meursault said something to me, but it was soon buried by the shouting of the surroundings.

Despite several large-class monsters still remaining, when I suddenly appeared and handled two in a row, they seemed to have forgotten the sense of crisis and were busy admiring me.

Thanks to me bringing down two in an instant, leeway must have been created for the other teams too.

The two that collapsed together after being pushed by the first guy I brought down had been wiped out by other soldiers who seized the opportunity.

‘Now there are four left.’

Since I had killed two in a row, the agro of the remaining four was also drawn to me.

Checking the number of remaining bullets, I shouted toward the soldiers.

“Take the wounded and get out!”

The soldiers seemed to conflict for a moment on whether they should listen to my words, but discovering Meursault following behind, they assisted the wounded and withdrew from my surroundings like a ebbing tide.

Once the soldiers withdrew, the figures of three people approaching me beyond the monsters charging at me entered my view at a glance.

The commander walking with his muzzle aimed at the monsters, having handed command to another soldier in the meantime; Plato with an excited expression; and CornerHoney, who was running hard on his short legs, though I didn’t know how he ended up here.

‘I must not use the Magic Marksman anymore.’

The Magic Marksman is a title where the seventh bullet inevitably hits someone precious to me.

It would be a problem if one of those three got hit by the seventh shot, and facing the commander without wearing ‘Friend of Luna Moon’ might instill a sense of mismatch in him.

The moment I switched the ‘Magic Marksman’ title back to ‘Friend of Luna Moon’.

A strange thing happened.

“…Mmh?”

The four monsters that were charging toward me flinched their giant bodies all of a sudden, hesitated and backed away, then began to flee, avoiding me as I walked toward them.

Even though the commander was walking right behind them, they passed the commander just like that and vanished beyond the snowfield.

I futilely lowered the muzzle I had hurriedly raised, fearing they might harm the commander.

“What?”

Unbelievably, they fled in terror as if they had become herbivores chased by a truly fearsome beast.

‘Why on earth?’

Of course, among the titles I possessed, there were titles that could scare monsters and chase them away, but ‘Friend of Luna Moon’ was not that kind of title at all.

Even if such an effect were attached, as far as I know, a title that could scare off four large-class monsters in terror does not exist in Safe Zone.

Furthermore, the title of Friend of Luna Moon had been worn since I first arrived at this spot, and I had temporarily swapped it with Magic Marksman before returning it.

If the monsters fled because of the Friend of Luna Moon title, it should have shown the effect the moment I appeared here.

‘This… I’ll have to investigate.’

Exactly what caused them to flee.

Whether it was related to the fact that all monsters had fled from our team’s search zone.

It is a matter that must be properly investigated.

‘But for now, I was saved thanks to them fleeing.’

Because even for me, it was true that handling four simultaneously would be overwhelming.

As I watched the direction they vanished, I heard the voices of soldiers shouting in shocked tones from over there.

“D-did those guys just run away upon seeing Lord Haydam?”

“Not only did he take down two monsters with two bullets…”

“Chasing away four large-class monsters with just his momentum!?”

Ah.

Another strange thing will be added to my birth myth.