Lawrence left the mansion without anyone knowing.
Then he took out the shabby clothes he had prepared in advance from his Inventory and changed into them.
The Inventory was a benefit provided to users by default, a kind of personal storage space.
He had checked it immediately after learning that he could use the game interface.
Until now, he had never used it because there had been no occasion to, but it was a very useful function for carrying out today’s plan.
After even sneaking out a horse from the mansion, Lawrence rode quite a distance and arrived at a small office in the village.
This was a place that recruited people to fight monsters.
Because the Romanov family’s finances made it difficult to operate sufficient troops, they supplemented their lacking forces by hiring some of their soldiers in this way, paying them according to the situation.
“Good day.”
Lawrence entered the office and greeted them in a loud voice.
With shaggy hair, a face moderately smudged with grime, and old, shabby armor, he looked exactly like a low-rank mercenary no matter who saw him.
“Welcome.”
The one who greeted Lawrence warmly was Wilhelm, the village chief.
Wilhelm, who looked stubborn at a glance, welcomed Lawrence with an awkward smile spread across his face.
It was the expression of someone who had never smiled in his life forcibly acting out a smile.
That ill-fitting smile was enough to make Lawrence flinch inwardly.
The reason Wilhelm was trying this hard was because, with the count’s house in poor financial condition, they could not pay much as a daily wage.
The work was dangerous enough that one could lose one’s life, and the daily wage was low as well, so almost no one volunteered.
But as Wilhelm was responsible for the village’s stability, he had to gather people somehow.
“Sit over here.”
“Thank you.”
When Lawrence sat down in the chair, Wilhelm brought him a cup of warm tea.
“Drink. The taste is a bit like that, but it is very good for the body.”
“Thank you.”
Lawrence lifted the cup and took a sip of tea.
Because of what Wilhelm had said, he had not expected much from the taste, but the bitter flavor was fairly decent.
“By the way, did you perhaps come knowing how much the daily wage is?”
Wilhelm brought up the main point first.
From his experience so far, no matter how well he explained things, everyone who was going to leave left the moment they heard the daily wage.
As that experience piled up, Wilhelm realized that skipping the explanation and getting straight to the point was the way to save both sides time and effort.
“Of course I checked before coming.”
At Lawrence’s answer, Wilhelm felt relieved.
Since he had come knowing the daily wage, the greatest hurdle had been cleared.
“You are thoroughly prepared. But do you know how to use a sword?”
No matter how urgently they needed people, this was work where one could lose one’s life.
In good conscience, he had to confirm at least a minimum level of skill.
“I may look thin, but I know how to handle a sword somewhat. Shall I show you here?”
Lawrence shifted his hips as if he could show his skill at once.
“No, no. I think you can use a sword well even without my checking.”
“As expected of the village chief. You have an excellent eye for people.”
Wilhelm took a strong liking to Lawrence’s proactive attitude.
It was good to see him acting modestly while still trying hard, unlike most young people these days.
“Haha, thank you. Then when can you start working?”
“I can start today if needed.”
“Good. Then start work today.”
“Um, but I have one request.”
At Lawrence’s sudden request, Wilhelm’s expression soured.
His face seemed to say, Of course, I knew it.
Well, it was strange for a young man to be so proactive for this kind of daily wage.
“I have certain circumstances…… Would it be possible for me to mainly take night shifts?”
“Night shifts?”
At Lawrence’s unexpected request, Wilhelm could not close his mouth.
He had expected to be struck in the back of the head, yet Lawrence had instead made an even better offer.
He had had a good dream last night, and perhaps it had been so he could meet this bundle of good fortune.
“Of course. Naturally, that is possible. Would you like another cup of tea?”
Seeing that Lawrence’s teacup was empty, Wilhelm quickly picked it up.
If he could, he wanted to serve him even a tasty snack, but circumstances had been so bad lately that there was nothing left.
“Thank you. I was just thinking I wanted another cup.”
“You are quite a fine person.”
“I do hear that a lot.”
“Goodness, you even know how to joke.”
At Lawrence’s joke, Wilhelm laughed heartily and slapped him on the back.
People generally avoided night shifts.
Because night, with its limited field of vision, was far more dangerous than day.
Even if they lit the surroundings with torches, it could not compare to the light of the sun, and there were also many cases where the torches instead drew monsters’ attention and made them targets.
“By the way, you do know that night shifts are much more dangerous than day shifts, right?”
“Of course. I came to fight monsters. Do you think I would come without knowing that much? I have good night vision and stamina, so I am confident in night shifts.”
“Then come back here before the sun sets today.”
“Understood.”
Just as Wilhelm had said, Lawrence returned to the office a few hours later.
“Oh, you came without being late.”
“Yes, hello.”
When he arrived at the office, several people had gathered there.
“Everyone, introduce yourselves. You will be colleagues working together for a while.”
At Wilhelm’s words, they exchanged simple greetings, and then Lawrence and several others climbed onto a cargo wagon.
“It is late, so let us go a little quickly.”
“Yes, Village Chief. I will go quickly, so please do not rush me too much, haha.”
The coachman drove the cargo wagon quickly.
Lawrence’s face as he looked out at the street was filled with excitement.
His heart pounded with anticipation for his first real combat, but most of the others’ faces looked rotten.
Their expressions said that the throat was the police bureau—that hunger had left them no choice but to do this.
‘I know that feeling well.’
After leaving the orphanage, he had been unable to find work and had spent some time doing day labor at construction sites.
Construction work done for the first time without skill or experience was hard not only physically but also mentally.
The work was hard as work could be, and among the people working with him, there had been many who picked unreasonable fights.
Back then, when he went to work in the morning, his expression had looked exactly like that.
Whatever each person’s circumstances were, the cargo wagon ran diligently, and when it was completely dark, they arrived at the Barrier Wall, the final stronghold that protected the people of the territory from monsters.
The Barrier Wall was far larger in scale than Lawrence had imagined.
The Barrier Wall, about three meters high as it cut across the field, had been built with a width of about five meters.
However, there were places here and there that had collapsed, and there were also many places where wood had been woven together like a wooden fence as a temporary measure.
A bitter feeling washed over him, as if it showed the difficulties the count’s house was currently going through.
After arriving at the place designated by the senior soldier, Lawrence began his duty.
Before his eyes stretched a wide darkness.
In the darkness, where even the moonlight was faint because it was covered by clouds, Lawrence felt fear along with tension.
This was the first time he had seen darkness so vast and deep.
It was a thick darkness that did not exist in either Lawrence’s or Hyeon-seong’s memories.
‘It’s the kind of darkness where it wouldn’t be strange at all for a giant’s hand to suddenly reach out.’
That was how much the atmosphere made it feel as if anything could happen at any moment.
Lawrence thought it was fortunate that a fellow soldier was beside him. If he had been alone, he might have wet himself before even encountering a monster.
A long time passed, but no monsters appeared.
As time passed, the tension that had been sharply raised at first gradually eased, and the darkness no longer frightened him.
He exchanged a few words with his fellow soldier from time to time, but since they had only met today, there was not much in particular to talk about.
Once the tension faded, boredom gradually began to rise.
And his stamina was being consumed at a fairly considerable speed, more than he had expected.
‘So this is why people hated going to the army so much. Standing guard duty isn’t easy.’
Because Lawrence had grown up an orphan, he had been exempt from military service.
That was why, whenever people occasionally said thoughtless things like how nice it must be not to have gone to the army, he had felt hurt.
It was not as if he had avoided going to the army because he wanted to.
Gradually, the light of dawn began to brighten.
The night was coming to an end without anything happening.
Lawrence had come expecting real combat, but in truth, letting things pass without anything happening like this was a good thing for the soldiers.
But there was one strange point.
Tonight, the knight in charge of this place had not shown his face even once.
‘Look at this. No matter how lax discipline has become, they’re even neglecting guard duty.’
If the commander, the most important person in the military, did not fulfill his responsibility, the damage would be beyond description.
Lawrence pressed down the anger surging up inside him.
‘Just wait. Before long, I’ll make sure to tear that filthy habit out by the roots.’
Lawrence’s eyes shone fiercely as he watched the red sun rise.
If the knights had seen those eyes, they might have thought again about their own actions.
That was how unusual the atmosphere around Lawrence was.
The next day, when the appointed time came, Lawrence headed to the Barrier Wall.
Though it had only been one day, he smoothly changed shifts with the person on duty before him and began the same duty as yesterday.
At the same time as the sun set, darkness swiftly surged in.
It felt as though it were dyeing the world black.
But perhaps because he had experienced it once the previous day, the darkness now stirred no particular feeling in him.
“Haa~ ahm.”
Perhaps because he had stayed up the night before, drowsiness washed over him.
Using independent training as an excuse, he had slept during the day, but the fatigue did not go away easily.
As Lawrence was staring into the darkness with hazy eyes, he heard someone’s urgent shout.
“Goblins! A group of goblins has appeared!”
At the word goblins, Lawrence’s mind snapped awake, and he looked around to find them.
Then he saw a group of goblins in the distance, breaking through the darkness as they ran toward the Barrier Wall.
There were at least more than a hundred of them.
The goblins were shorter than humans, but because their numbers were considerable, their momentum alone was like that of a giant.
Their roars covered the sky and shook the ground.
And this place, swallowed by darkness, gradually began to be covered by the goblins’ energy.
The soldiers moved quickly, as if they were familiar with this situation.
They had been keeping the torches lit to a minimum so they would not become targets for monsters, but now the darkness was more dangerous, so they urgently lit the remaining torches as well.
Before long, the battlefield grew as bright as broad daylight, and the soldiers burned with the will to resist the goblins’ momentum.
When he first came in for night duty, he had thought it would simply be similar to hunting monsters in a game.
But this was not a hunt. It was war.
He had come with his own resolve, but when reality struck, sweat began to soak Lawrence’s palms.
‘This is no joke.’
Lawrence tried putting on a useless bluff so he would not be pushed back by the goblins’ momentum, but the brutality of the battlefield lightly tore that bluff apart.
“Everyone, get ready.”
The senior soldier ran along the Barrier Wall and shouted.
Lawrence also followed his orders and picked up the shield and long wooden spear he had been issued.
A bitter expression lingered on Lawrence’s face as he looked at the wooden spear.
The spear, made of sturdy wood, had its end sharpened to a fairly sharp point, but in the end, it could not escape the limitations of its material.
Because of that, how long would it last against goblins……?
It looked precarious and unreliable.
If at least the spearhead had been made of iron, the soldiers’ fighting strength would have improved greatly, but given the poor state of the territory, that was probably impossible.
THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD!
The group of goblins charged all at once.
Their stamping feet made the earth rumble, and with it, the rank stench unique to monsters surged in and struck his nose hard.
“Kuwooooo.”
“Kieeeeeek.”
“Kuaat.”
At the many different goblin roars covering the field, his skin prickled as if exposed to electricity.
‘Ah, is this what Martin called killing intent?’
At the sensation of primitive hostility he was feeling for the first time, his hair stood on end.
It felt as though something irresistible were coiling around him from the tips of his feet to the top of his head.
The muscles throughout his body stiffened with tension, and his heart began to beat rapidly.
“Hey, don’t be too scared. Once you actually fight them, they’re nothing.”
The seasoned soldier noticed Lawrence’s state, shouted loudly, and struck Lawrence’s back with a SMACK as encouragement.
At the sharp pain he felt in his back, the fear that had been swallowing him peeled away from his body like a dense fog clearing.
When he came to his senses and looked around, the senior soldiers, as if they had already experienced this sort of situation many times, were not shaken at all.
At the reassuring sight of them trying to protect the territory, Lawrence’s blood began to boil.
“Yeah. Let’s see who wins.”
Having steeled his heart, Lawrence glared with wide eyes as if refusing to lose and shouted at the goblins.