“Raaaaaah!”
As if answering Lawrence’s roar, the goblins simultaneously began shooting crude arrows and throwing stones.
Dozens of arrows and pebbles flew toward the soldiers.
“Everyone, shields up!”
At the senior soldier’s command, the soldiers immediately raised their shields and blocked the incoming arrows and stones.
Most of the arrows and pebbles were stopped by the shields, but several of them struck unlucky soldiers.
In the meantime, the goblins at the front reached the Barrier Wall and began swiftly climbing up by wedging their sharp fingernails and toenails into the gaps between the stones.
“The goblins are climbing up! Everyone, be careful!”
A soldier who had been watching the goblins from atop the Barrier Wall shouted a warning.
They needed to stab the goblins with their wooden spears before the goblins climbed onto the Barrier Wall, but because of the flying arrows and stones, lowering their shields was not easy.
Lawrence also wanted to thrust his wooden spear and hinder the bastards from climbing up, but lowering his shield was not easy.
Whenever he tried to lower his shield, crude arrows or stones flew in from somewhere as if they had been waiting.
‘I was thinking too lightly of battles against monsters.’
After obtaining the game interface and growing faster than others, he had unconsciously become filled with arrogance.
But right now, he was in the middle of battle.
There was no time to be reflecting like this.
This was not inside a game, but a real world, and if he made even the slightest mistake, he could die.
Lawrence hid his body behind the parapet of the Barrier Wall.
Then, with his shield protecting his head, he drove his wooden spear down toward a goblin climbing the Barrier Wall.
He felt resistance in the hand he thrust out with all his strength, and soon an unpleasant sensation washed over him.
“Keeeeeeek!”
At the same time, an ear-splitting scream burst out.
A goblin whose eye had been pierced by Lawrence’s downward thrust fell to the ground while screaming.
The sensation in his hand and the goblin’s scream were so vivid that his heart seemed to tighten.
At that moment, a message window appeared before Lawrence’s eyes.
[15 experience and 1 point obtained.]
[Shop Window opened upon obtaining points. Use points to purchase items from the shop.]
Since he had already played the Arcadia game before, he had somewhat expected that the Shop Window would open when he hunted monsters.
In the shop, just like in other games, weapons and armor were sold along with various other items.
With this, it had to be said that all the basic functions had now opened.
And one more thing.
Even in this chaotic situation, one fact filled Lawrence’s mind.
Unlike in the game, obtaining even 1 point in reality had become absurdly difficult.
Items he had bought without thinking when playing the game now felt so expensive that his hands trembled.
It was as if he was feeling the tremendous inflation between game and reality.
“Rookie, you’re doing well. No one even taught you, but that was excellent!”
The senior soldier, who had been running here and there while giving orders, shouted loud praise at Lawrence.
The roars of the goblins, the soldiers’ shouts, and even the messages delivering new information.
Even in a situation where his mind was in complete chaos, the senior soldier’s praise strangely reached Lawrence’s ears with perfect clarity.
“Just keep doing that!”
And his following shout told Lawrence exactly what he needed to do right now.
Following his instructions, Lawrence moved from place to place along the Barrier Wall and stopped the goblins climbing up the wall.
“Die, you stinking goblin bastards!”
“Screeeeech!”
“You damned bastards. How dare you crawl all the way here?”
“Squeeeeeal!”
“Aaaah! Die, die!”
The soldiers hurled curses at the goblins, and the goblins growled back at the soldiers as if refusing to lose.
Their loud voices and momentum collided, heating the battlefield.
Reason had long since flown away, and now only slaughter existed.
It was a desperate place where if one failed to kill the other side, one had to die.
Battles against monsters were far more brutal and merciless than battles against humans.
From the beginning, the concept of surrender did not exist in this battle.
Because the concept of retreat did not exist inside the savage goblins’ heads.
As such, the battle would likely not end unless one side suffered devastating damage.
Meanwhile, Lawrence, drunk on the atmosphere of the battlefield, also lost his reason at some point, just like the other soldiers.
He disregarded his own defense and focused all his attention solely on killing goblins.
As if all his training until now had not been in vain, his body faithfully carried out Lawrence’s will, and mana also circulated through his body and gave him strength.
The moment he thought that if things continued like this, they might win smoothly.
A tearing scream sounded from somewhere not far away.
“Aaaaaaagh!”
The moment Lawrence heard that sound, his heart dropped.
One soldier had been stabbed in the abdomen by a goblin’s rusty sword.
The soldiers had worked hard to stop the goblins from climbing onto the Barrier Wall, but the bastard had stubbornly succeeded in climbing up and launched an attack.
“You bastard. Die. How dare you do that to him!”
Excited by the sight of his comrade being struck down, a soldier recklessly charged at the goblin.
“Kendall, no!!”
Another soldier hurriedly tried to stop him, but it was already too late.
The goblin dodged the longsword Kendall swung with almost absurd ease.
The soldier had been so extremely excited that his reason was shaken, and because of that, he had swung his sword sloppily.
There was no way a goblin could fail to dodge such a large and simple movement.
SLASH!
The nicked, rusty sword the goblin swung upward cut precisely across Kendall’s neck, and Kendall’s face filled with confusion at the unexpected counterattack.
“Ah, ah, ah.”
Kendall hurriedly covered the wound with his hand, but he merely opened and closed his mouth like a fish, as if he could not believe this situation.
His upper body stiffened as though frozen, his movements growing more and more rigid, while red blood overflowed through his fingers.
Belatedly, Kendall desperately tried to stop the flowing blood, but the blood that had already burst out only poured down helplessly.
“Fuck, where did the knight go? Isn’t this exactly when we need a knight?”
A soldier who saw that sight spat out his resentment.
The soldiers had no choice but to focus all their attention on stopping the goblins climbing up the Barrier Wall.
For those soldiers, the greatest threat was a goblin that somehow broke through their attacks and climbed onto the Barrier Wall.
However, unlike ordinary soldiers, to a knight wearing plate armor, the goblins’ crude arrows and stone-throwing could not deliver any impact.
Such a knight was supposed to stop the goblins that climbed onto the Barrier Wall.
At the sight of a soldier being taken down so pointlessly, Lawrence’s vision went red.
The soldiers were precious beings who devoted their loyalty to the count’s house and silently risked their lives to protect the territory.
He could not tolerate such beings dying so pointlessly like this.
Lawrence drew the sword at his waist and ran toward the goblin.
Then he swung his sword toward the goblin, which was raising its rusty blade and roaring in victory as if delighted that it had killed a soldier.
The frontal slash he had carved into his body by swinging at a scarecrow hundreds of times every day unfolded naturally.
SLASH!
The mana that responded to his will settled into the sword, and the blade bisected the goblin’s body far too easily, as if cutting through tofu.
“Kek?”
For a moment, the goblin seemed unable to recognize that its body had been cut apart.
Then it screamed at the pain that soon surged over it.
But as if he did not want to hear that scream, Lawrence drove the tip of his sword into the goblin’s mouth.
With a hoarse, choking sound, the goblin immediately died and collapsed.
The arrows the goblins shot and the stones they threw still flew toward him, but Lawrence ignored them.
They were sufficiently threatening to Lawrence as well, but right now, he had no room to worry about such things.
The soldiers were precious beings he needed to protect.
If there was no knight, then as the heir of this territory, he had the duty and responsibility to take on the role of a knight himself.
“Uaaaaaaaaah!”
Lawrence roared toward the sky.
His eyes were trying to grasp every part of the battlefield.
Then, as he looked around, his gaze stopped on a damaged section of the Barrier Wall.
The goblins had not broken through the soldiers’ attacks and climbed over the Barrier Wall.
They had easily come up through the damaged Barrier Wall.
“Damn it.”
At that sight, Lawrence’s insides burned.
He was maddeningly furious.
This was a man-made disaster that could have been prevented.
If only simple repairs had been done, there would have been no need to lose the precious lives of two soldiers.
The arrows of all his resentment once again turned toward the knights.
If they had not eaten away at the territory’s finances, the Barrier Wall would not have collapsed this easily.
Lawrence’s anger surged at the fact that all the money that should have gone into repairing the Barrier Wall had entered the pockets of those who did not even fulfill their duties as knights.
Anger turned into hatred.
Without realizing it, he had clenched his fist so hard that his nails dug into his palm and blood flowed.
And his eyes, reddened like blood from burst capillaries, said that he would never forgive them.
When another goblin stepped onto the damaged Barrier Wall and climbed up, Lawrence killed it without mercy.
The same was true for a goblin that avoided the soldiers’ attacks and climbed up the Barrier Wall.
Like that, Lawrence ran madly along the top of the Barrier Wall and killed goblins.
A short while later, Lawrence’s first battle ended.
To Lawrence, it felt like an eternity, but the actual battle ended quickly.
There had been many goblins, but the soldiers, aided by the Barrier Wall, had rapidly reduced their numbers.
When the battle ended, perhaps because the tension had loosened, strength drained from Lawrence’s body like the ebbing tide.
It was the result of fighting with all his strength without thinking of what would come afterward.
Lawrence sat down on the ground, breathing roughly.
His body was heavy as a thousand pounds, and his eyes closed on their own.
“Stay alert! The battle is only beginning.”
The senior soldier woke Lawrence, who was half-dazed.
Just as he said, this battle was not the end, but the beginning.
Only one great wave had surged in.
Waves were bound to continue.
The goblins attacked endlessly.
Because it was his first battle, Lawrence, who had failed to conserve his stamina, was exhausted, but even so, he fought with all his strength.
Because the person who needed to fight the hardest here was none other than himself.
The battle that continued through the entire night finally ended only when the light of dawn began to brighten.
Although the battle had ended, the soldiers could not rest.
Because there was still work left for them to do.
Dragging their exhausted bodies, they began recovering the bodies of their comrades scattered across the battlefield.
First, they spread out rough cloths and carefully wrapped their comrades’ corpses.
The sight looked so familiar that the tip of Lawrence’s nose stung as he watched them.
After recovering the bodies of his comrades together with the soldiers, Lawrence mounted the horse he had left at an inn and headed toward the count’s house.
His face remained hardened the entire time as he dragged his exhausted body back to the count’s house.
“Young Master, are you feeling unwell?”
Martin, who had briefly stopped by during training that began in the afternoon, asked worriedly as he looked at Lawrence, whose complexion was poor.
“My body feels a bit unwell today.”
Lawrence still had not escaped the shock he had received from his first battle against monsters.
In particular, he felt regret and great anger at the death of the soldier who had lost his life so pointlessly.
Through yesterday’s battle, he had clearly realized what the true power supporting this territory was.
It was not the endlessly complacent knights, but the strength of the nameless soldiers.
They were sacrificing themselves to protect their families and their place of life, even under poor treatment and harsh conditions.
After seeing that, Lawrence’s resentment and hatred toward the knights deepened further.
He also swore firmly in his heart.
That he would certainly punish those who pushed the work they should have done onto powerless soldiers and sought only to enjoy their rights.
“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to end today’s training here.”
“Yes, understood, Young Master.”
Because Lawrence normally worked harder than anyone else, Martin obediently followed his opinion.
“Ah, right. The count said to stop by his office once when you have time.”
“Father did? All right.”
Lawrence returned to his room, changed his clothes, and went straight to Jason’s office.
“Father, it is Lawrence.”
“It is open, so come inside.”
When he opened the door and entered the office, Jason was buried in several piles of documents.
Worry washed over Lawrence at the sight of his father overexerting himself despite his poor health.
“You seem busy. Your body isn’t in good condition either, so please don’t overdo it. Work while resting.”
“Haha, you little rascal, I am fine. This father of yours is not dead yet. This much work is nothing.”
This was all a desperate measure to reduce the territory’s operating costs.
They had reduced the number of administrators to save on operating expenses, and Jason was handling that work himself.
“The reason I called you today is none other than to show you this.”
After saying that, Jason held out a book to Lawrence.
“This is….”
Lawrence’s eyes widened when he saw the book.