Chapter 32

“Those are the Guardians.”

Mom’s face was pale. In contrast, Teacher Sena looked curious.

“Guardians! I’ve heard rumors, but this is my first time seeing them in person. Do they just stand there?”

“Usually yes… but we need to confirm.”

In the blue dawn, the entire nomad was in an uproar over the Guardian that had suddenly appeared.

The Guardian, which had risen with a terrifying presence, stood motionless like a tree. People who had initially screamed in surprise were now curiously tapping on it. Clang, clang, it made a metallic sound. The adults said it wasn’t iron, but something harder and more elastic.

“What do we need to confirm?”

Teacher Sena asked. Now her voice carried tension too. The Guardian was just standing there motionless, but Mom’s reaction was unsettling. In the wilderness, it’s always wise to heed a guide’s words.

Mom answered without even looking in Teacher Sena’s direction.

“How many Guardians have risen… and whether the boundary is still safe…”

The boundary of the Guardian’s Graveyard. The rectangular stone monoliths lining the boundary, and beyond them, the Blade Beak Plains where calamities roamed freely.

Mom’s gaze anxiously moved back and forth between them.

“We need to pack up immediately. While the Guardians aren’t moving… we must get away as quickly as possible!”

+ – + – +

“Here’s another one!”

A Guardian rising between trees, pushing aside moss.

They ranged from 3 meters 20 centimeters to 80 centimeters in height. Their appearances varied greatly.

The first Guardian we discovered was particularly ornate. Standing 3 meters 60 centimeters tall. A body intricately constructed of mysterious metal plates forming elaborate patterns. It wore a sword at its waist and had horns sprouting from its head.

As we moved along the boundary, we spotted various other Guardians. One that looked like it was cast from a single piece of metal, smooth and featureless except for the joints; another constructed like chain mail with holes punched throughout its surface. Besides their basic humanoid form, they differed in every other aspect. They were made of various metals too, including familiar ones like iron and bronze.

With each Guardian we discovered, Mom’s face grew darker.

Finally, Mom raised her voice to issue new orders.

“Speed up! We’ll march through the night if necessary! We need to get beyond the area where the Guardians have risen as quickly as possible!”

“Huh? Night march…?”

Complaining voices rose from behind. In their minds, Guardians were protectors that shielded humans from calamities. Especially since they were just standing there like stones without doing anything… they couldn’t understand why Mom was in such a hurry. Plus, having barely survived a few days ago, they probably weren’t eager to start moving so quickly again.

But Mom used the authority delegated to her by Teacher Sena to push the nomad forward.

“Minimize rest periods until we get out of here.”

In other words, if you want to rest, move as quickly as possible.

But not everything went according to Mom’s wishes. The biggest factor slowing our march was food.

Even after traveling all night and marching for a day, we kept discovering more risen Guardians without end.

Mom clearly wanted to push further, but we had already gone a full day without proper food or sleep. And our food reserves were already exhausted. We had no choice but to disperse and gather food.

No matter how urgent the situation, people couldn’t go without eating.

+ – + – +

“Catch anything?”

Monggu, whom I met on my way back, asked.

“Not much. One rabbit… what about you?”

As I showed him the plump rabbit I’d caught, Monggu opened his sack to show me.

“Two handfuls of oak mushrooms, and a few wild beans at the bottom…”

Both Monggu and I had poor results.

The Guardian’s Graveyard had a modest forest at its center, but food was scarce. The forest might have more to offer in its denser interior, but we couldn’t go there.

-Absolutely, absolutely never go deep into the forest. When you look at the ground, if you see more shadow than sunlight, turn back immediately. No one has ever gone deep into this forest and returned alive.

Such was Mom’s stern warning.

The Guardian’s Graveyard was a rare safe zone in the wilderness, but even here, going too deep was extremely dangerous.

In the end, the food we gathered was pitiful.

At this rate, we’d have to stop marching to collect food every day.

“This doesn’t look good. The guide says we need to pass through quickly… but with food in this state, we can’t move fast.”

Monggu bit his fingernails nervously as he spoke.

“What can we do? Just try our best.”

I hid my anxiety and responded casually. My nonchalant attitude seemed to reassure Monggu a little, but he didn’t stop biting his nails.

“But… what’s the reason? Guardians are… well, ‘guardians,’ right? They’re not doing anything. What’s the guide so afraid of?”

Monggu’s question carried an undertone of wishing Mom was wrong.

Actually, I was curious too. Why were the Guardians a problem? But when I asked Mom, she didn’t give a clear answer. She said it was just a precursor, so she wouldn’t speak rashly about it. Mom seemed afraid her words might become the seed of some ill-fated event. Wilderness inhabitants are sensitive to such jinxes.

But I had one thing that set me apart from others. While others might doubt Mom’s warning, I had my own confirmation.

[Preparations according to ??’s request.]

[Preparation complete.]

[Confirming dense ?? of ?? that initiated movement. A-class alert issued.]

[Alert confirmed, preparation complete.]

Since the Guardians had awakened, the magical powers had completely ignored me and lined up, exchanging incomprehensible messages.

I couldn’t understand the exact meaning, but judging by their urgent tone, nothing good was about to happen. Mom was right. The Guardian’s Graveyard wasn’t a safe place either.

“Anyway, Mom is definitely right. You know, right? How much distance a guide has to travel and how meticulously they must record everything to be recognized as a wilderness guide. Mom is a veteran guide who has crossed our land twice.”

“I know. I know. She’s famous. The story of the virgin guide named Baek who drifted like the wind through the wilderness until she fell in love with young Mr. Baek. How those two people of Eastern origin, from such distant places, with the same surname, got married—everyone says it was destiny.”

That’s right. In the wilderness, where people typically marry whoever is available in nearby or the same nomad without much choice, Mom and Dad’s love story was considered quite romantic and famous.

When I was being ostracized, some even taunted me saying, ‘Your parents had such an amazing marriage, so why are you like this?’ The immature Lidia who once said such things… is now a corpse abandoned in the wilderness.

Anyway, through this brief conversation, the anxious-looking Monggu gradually regained his sharp gaze.

“Still… I’m glad you’re here. With a real mage around, we should be able to handle most calamities.”

Just then, I recalled Teacher Sena’s words. That I was now the strongest, that I needed to be everyone’s shield.

So I tried to respond as reassuringly as possible. I was about to answer jokingly, ‘Yeah, just trust me,’ with a smile on my face.

Scrape.

Until I heard that ominous metallic sound echoing through the forest.

“What was that sound?”

Monggu, who had just regained his composure, stiffened again at the noise.

[Preparation complete. Beginning ?? extermination of ??.]

Following the magical powers’ voices,

Boom!

A massive footstep shook the entire forest.

+ – + – +

“So it’s happened…”

Mom’s face was lost in terror. Even when the harpy was attacking, Mom hadn’t looked this frightened.

Due to the sudden crisis, the nomad hadn’t even eaten properly before beginning to move. We just grabbed beans, fruits, and mushrooms that could be eaten raw and immediately set out.

Now, even in their eyes, palpable tension was visible.

The nomads’ gazes were fixed on the boundary where the Blade Beak Plains met the Guardian’s Graveyard.

The row of standing stones had begun to glow with a blue light. But that wasn’t the important part.

Boom boom boom!!

Screeeech-!

The Guardians, who had been standing silently, were now moving.

With blue light streaming from their eyes, they each drew their weapons and charged toward the Blade Beak Plains. The plains looked drastically different from before. Black storm clouds had gathered, bringing violent winds. Through the black storm, flashes of silver wings… at least three harpies were visible. And that wasn’t all.

“Orcs, the Calamity of Lightning, the Calamity of the Marsh…”

A quick count revealed more than twenty visible calamities.

I’d never even imagined seeing so many calamities gathered and engaged in “battle.”

The Guardians attacked and the calamities defended.

The Guardians, who moments before had been standing motionless, now charged at full speed and collided head-on with the calamities. Sparks flew and the earth trembled.

The battle raged across both land and sky.

In the sky, the ornate Guardian we’d first discovered flew with wings of light unfurling from its back. It pursued what had been our nightmare—the harpy. Dispersing raging storms and exploding whirlwinds with its wings of light, it flew even faster than the harpy and tore at its silver wings.

Could this be what the mythical war between gods and demons was like?

The battle was happening near the horizon, and we were fleeing.

The sky above us remained blue, but the sky over there had darkened like night, with terrifying explosions continuing.

Boom! Boooom!

Occasionally, a shattered Guardian’s arm or a severed orc’s head would fly across the boundary and fall near us. Each time, we instinctively kicked our horses’ sides. Even though they couldn’t possibly run any faster, the horses somehow found reserves of strength to increase their pace.

“Gods… protect us…”

“W-well, at least the Guardians are fighting for us… so we should be safe, right?”

Nomads are typically atheists, but… perhaps because we’d suffered so much recently? Some invoked the names of supposedly dead gods, while others revered the Guardians like angels, finding hope in them.

From the front of our procession, Mom spoke with a chilling tone.

“Do you think they’re going to win?”

Mom’s voice was choked with tears.

“All these calamities… where do you think they came from? Orcs don’t usually appear in the Blade Beak Plains, right? What kind of ridiculous aggro could have drawn orcs all the way here?”

Mom shouted.

“It’s the Guardians! They’re not protecting us! The Guardians are provoking all the calamities in the area! But the Guardians can never defeat so many calamities. When the counterattack begins… perhaps… the entire Guardian’s Graveyard will be conquered by calamities!”

“…”

A horrifying silence fell over the nomad. If that many calamities descended upon us…? With our mobile barrier damaged, we couldn’t withstand even a moment.

Whether I’d become a mage or not… this was a battle beyond all scale.

Roar!

As if confirming Mom’s words, a terrible howl came from beyond the horizon.

Crash!

There was the sound of something getting hit, and then a Guardian flew through the air.

Boom!

It crashed near our procession. It was the Guardian constructed like chain mail. Now it was completely shattered, its interior fully exposed.

“Insane… why is an ogre here…”

Someone trembled as they spoke.

“Run! Run!”

The nomad spurred their horses frantically, and the horses ran faster than ever before, but… the battle line of massive monsters seemed endless.

By twilight, when shadows grew long… the battle line began to shift, and the Guardian’s Graveyard itself started to be invaded. The calamities kept increasing, while the Guardians steadily decreased in number.

That day,

I learned a little more about this world.

Guardians do not harm humans.

They are enemies of calamities.

But… that doesn’t mean they protect us.

They… simply fight their own war.

They had no interest in whether we lived or died.

But,

we still had to survive.

“We have no choice! Move closer to the center of the forest!!”

Following Mom’s instructions, the nomad changed direction to move deeper into the forest, away from the battle line.

If we were like insects caught between giants, we’d survive by crawling like insects.