Chapter 10 : Storms of the Red Moon

“Rachel.”

“Yes, Daddy!!”

Rachel greeted Jonan with more affection than usual. But Jonan’s face, which would normally crumble in an instant, remained firm.

“Acting cute won’t work.”

“Huh~? I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Rachel tilted her head and giggled, running towards Jonan.

“I love Daddy.”

“……Hugging won’t work either.”

“Kiss!”

“Gah…”

“Hehe.”

In the end, Jonan collapsed. Defeated by Rachel’s ultimate attack, Jonan forgot his purpose and played with her.

Only after Rachel fell asleep and he closed the fairy tale book did he realize.

“Oh, right.”

‘I forgot to question her about this morning.’

Sophie had said that Rachel was caught by the guards this morning. She had been trying to leave the village.

Due to the sudden dawn rain and fog, they almost missed her, but they managed to find her.

‘Could she be going to see the dragon…?’

No, that can’t be.

Jonan was a person who had witnessed the dragon firsthand. The gaze directed at him was certainly benevolent, but the cold emotion contained in a corner of that gaze made his whole body tingle.

Even excluding the dragon’s gaze, the dragon’s body, which extended down to the bottom of the sea, had an overwhelming presence that naturally made one bow one’s head.

Such a god-like being, and our daughter is going to visit?

‘…That can’t be.’

Rachel was a tomboy, but she was a smart child. She was fully aware that the forest was dangerous through various adults, and she was a proud daughter who could take care of herself, albeit weakly.

“And if she really crossed the forest…”

He would no longer be able to see his daughter.

Jonan glanced up and looked out the window.

The red crescent moon dominated the sky. It wouldn’t be long before the red moon truly appeared.

The next day, Jonan hurried to the village chief’s house in the morning at the village chief’s call.

“Chief, you called for me… huh?”

At the village chief’s house, there was a man lightly armed, talking to the hunting captain. Jonan immediately recognized his identity and called out to the man in a joyful tone.

“Knight Failer! How have you been!”

“It’s been a while, Jonan.”

He was one of the five 3rd-class knights belonging to the Count Craystist family, located in the east of the Runan Kingdom. As the red moon approached, the Count Craystist family had begun to dispatch knights to manage the territory, and since Estel village was located where it was, they had dispatched him, a 3rd-class knight.

“We’re almost the same age, so you’re being too awkward. We’ve even hunted together several times.”

“If you tell me the title you want, I’ll do it anytime…”

“It’s fine. I’m not a stickler for that kind of thing.”

Failer, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, was still a man with a gentle personality.

Jonan glanced at the village chief and moved his head.

‘Did the knight call for me?’

The village chief nodded slightly so that the knight couldn’t see.

“I came here to convey the Count’s wishes.”

With that, Failer took out a letter with the Count’s family crest from his pocket.

Wishes?

‘Come to think of it, the village chief requested additional troop support.’

The letter that Failer brought was probably the answer to that. Estel village was located at the end of a large plain that produced nearly half of the kingdom’s grain. Behind it lay a forest and the sea, and Estel village served as a barrier protecting the great plain from the forest and the sea.

In other words, Count Craystist was a person who knew the importance of Estel village.

That’s why he had been supporting Estel village every time, and thanks to that, Estel village was able to obtain many residents and strong defenses.

“There are no knights available to support this time.”

“…What?”

“What do you mean?”

A moment of silence fell. Jonan, who did not understand the words that came out of Failer’s mouth, committed the mistake of daring to ask back. But Failer, as if understanding, answered him again.

“A large number of red demons are being reported inland. The existing 4th and 5th-class knights are not enough.”

“But, Sir Knight, we are bordering the forest. If demons erupt from the forest and Estel falls, the great plain may suffer a great blow.”

“The Count trusts in the support he has provided so far and the mercenaries he has hired individually. I have also looked into the mercenaries’ skills. There are quite a few who are equivalent to 4th and 5th-class knights.”

“But they are not enough.”

“No, they will be enough. It is the Count’s judgment.”

“…”

“…Sigh, instead, don’t worry about the demons occurring in the great plain. I will be in charge of that area. You just need to block the ones coming from the forest.”

With those words, Failer disappeared on horseback.

“Sigh, what do we do?”

“Jonan, how are our barriers and defenses?”

“Honestly, it’s hard to say they’re perfect. Unless we get support, we’ll have to add things like traps starting today.”

“Ugh…”

Jonan suddenly thought of the being beyond the forest. The way it pierced the red bear through a tree in an instant without lifting a finger. He sighed without realizing it.

The imminence of the red moon was felt. This was because the number of red demons had noticeably increased in recent days.

“How many times is this just today?”

In front of him was a school of fish killed by the red demons. The waste and blood left by the red demons were polluting the nearby sea.

When the red moon rises, even the ecosystem suffers serious damage.

It was fortunate that it happened every 10 years. If it happened at shorter intervals, this sea would become a dead sea where nothing could live.

The number of creatures decreases due to the red demons. And red demons are generated from that reduced number. Gradually, the creatures will decrease, and in the end, even the red demons will disappear.

But they say that even mountains and rivers change in 10 years.

The sea will probably recover sufficiently during the 10-year period, even if it loses many creatures.

“Then is this the most abundant time…?”

I looked around.

Although I had seen this scenery many times, it was very beautiful and vivid. Despite several damages, the sea was emitting vitality.

I didn’t want to see this scenery destroyed.

“In that case.”

Swoosh.

My head emerged from the water, shaking off the seawater. My gaze was directed towards the east end, where the eternal black storm raged.

The black storm was constantly spewing out thunder and lightning, rejecting everything that approached it.

I had witnessed red demons coming from there several times over the past two months.

It was unclear whether the black storm was directly related to the red moon. But it was true that red demons were popping out from there.

Last night, I confirmed that the crescent moon had turned red.

According to Jonan, on the day the red moon fills the sky, the red demons of the whole world run wild.

In other words, the full moon is the peak. It was just now that the crescent moon was formed, so it would be about two weeks until the full moon.

In two weeks, the red demons of the forest and the sea will wreak havoc on the whole world. I expected that, at this rate, a large number of red demons would also come from that black storm.

“I need to reduce their numbers before that.”

The choice I made for that was that black storm.

If I could reduce the scale of that storm or eliminate it, it would be like preventing a large number of red demons in advance. Like destroying the spawner when you find a dungeon in a certain sandbox game.

Of course, I know that it’s not an easy task.

Controlling the water at will was only possible with the dragon’s mind. But I didn’t want to think with the dragon’s mind every time I needed to control the water. When a power difference began to arise between the two minds, the gap between them would not only cause pain but also leave the human mind as a weakness.

Of course, if it was too difficult, I would do so, but I didn’t want to yet.

In the end, the only fact that remains is that it is difficult to control the water for now.

“But that sense is still alive.”

Fortunately, the human mind and the dragon’s mind are only distinctly different in their way of thinking; they are still the same me. The sense of that storm-like moment when the dragon’s mind had the upper hand remained here and there in my body.

As evidence of this, I could feel the seawater flinching occasionally.

In other words, there is plenty of room to grow the human mind as well.

Time is not plentiful, but it is not scarce either. If I make the most of this time, this plan will surely succeed.

And above all… I felt a certainty that it would never fail.

The black storm is located in the deep sea, based on a canyon under the sea. I don’t know what principle it is, but this canyon was acting as a kind of boundary line. The red demons were popping out one by one from the sea on the other side of that dark canyon.

And this canyon was also a place where the blue dragon’s body was warning. It was like saying with a beating all over my body that I could never survive in a place like that with my mind.

Of course, I was also reluctant to directly enter that place where I couldn’t see anything. Instead, I circled around the storm and estimated its size.

“It’s not as big as I thought?”

When I saw the black storm from the cliff, I thought it might be the size of a typhoon, with the appearance of seemingly endless left and right.

But when I actually looked around, it wasn’t that big. From the beginning, if you consider the size that a typhoon affects, I may have been wrong from the start.

“But the way it rotates looks like a typhoon.”

The black storm generally looked like a small typhoon, but in detail, it showed many differences from a typhoon.

The biggest feature is that the influence of the storm is hardly felt. Thunder and strong storms rage, but that only happens within the visible range of the storm.

The fact that the sea near the black storm is very calm is evidence of this.

“It’s definitely not a normal storm.”

It may be a phenomenon unrelated to weather at all. It seemed likely that it was a phenomenon caused by the transcendent power of this world, such as magic.

Like the huge cumulonimbus cloud that surrounded the floating castle in the sky.

“Then there must be something unusual in the middle.”

A kind of barrier to protect a powerful artifact?

Or a defense mechanism created by a certain being for a resting place?

Or a boundary line to seal something?

“Usually, in these cases, they create safety devices on the outside as well…”

I dived again and looked around the canyon. Unlike when I was looking around to check the size of the storm, I was looking to see if there was anything heterogeneous as much as possible.

“…As expected.”

And finally, I found something submerged in the water on the right side of the storm, based on the cliff.

It was a square stone that looked like someone had artificially carved it.