Book 5-3.2
“In addition, Egane seems to have finally conquered the first oasis and has started to proceed north.”
“You definitely have to give Greatest Warrior Egane credit. I’m sure it wasn’t easy.”
“Our Pareia should have unified the Eastern Desert a long time ago. We would have done so if it wasn’t for the fact that the Shuarei had someone like Venersis.”
Vibli thought about Venersis, his greatest enemy, as he started to speak. They would have been unable to defend against Venersis without himself and another Greatest Warrior.
Going against Venersis was the only time his name of Angry Brandistock could change to the Shriveled Brandistock. But now, Pareia also had a great War God named Yulian, and they were just a few steps away from unifying the Eastern Desert. This would be a new chapter for Pareia.
“Anyways, I am more worried about Pareia.”
“What problems can arise while Runa-nim is there?”
“Runa may be there, but Venersis is there as well. I didn’t think he would dare to invade, but as Runa anticipated, the Shuarei have drawn their swords.”
“If you think about it, it is kind of obvious since the Glow is not there. Even they know that the difference in our strength will continue to grow as time goes on.”
Yulian nodded his head at Vibli’s response and agreed.
“We need to quickly resolve the situation here and head back. It looks like Vibli-nim and Egane-nim will need to remain here afterwards until everything settles.”
“We will do what is needed. Please go inside and rest. I have not seen you even sleep properly for the last few days.”
“The warriors have suffered just the same.”
At that moment, one warrior informed the two of them that Runa’s messenger warrior had arrived.
“Warrior Riquid greets Yulian Provoke-nim, the War God of the Desert and Pareia’s Glorious Glow.”
As the messenger warrior respectfully greeted Yulian, Yulian nodded lightly before asking.
“What news do you bring?”
“Commanding Warrior Runa seeks the Glow to return as soon as possible if the situation in the Northern territory has been settled.”
He had heard that they gave up the first oasis and retreated back, as well as the fact that they were safely defending the second oasis. So seeing Runa asking for him like this surprised Yulian.
“Did something happen? Why is he urgently looking for me?”
“Commanding Warrior Runa has left the oasis to start the counterattack. Runa-nim made his move right around the time I left, so the oasis should be moving under Pere-nim’s command right now.”
“No!”
Yulian’s shout surprised even himself. It was not that he did not believe in Pere. It was just that his opponent was too strong. Venersis was someone who ate you up before you had a moment to realize you made a mistake.
Pere has been increasing his abilities since receiving Greatest Warrior training after the war against the Wikaly, but there was no way he was already stronger than three Greatest Warriors at Vibli’s level working together.
Even he knows this to be the case, so why would Runa do something so dangerous? Yulian could not understand.
“I’m sure he had a reason for doing that.”
Vibli started to speak to Yulian, even though he was shocked as well. VIbli was someone who had fought against Venersis for the last twenty years. The discomfort in his mind was probably no less, if not greater than what Yulian was feeling, but he was still able to calmly settle Yulian down.
“I should head back.”
“I’m sure I am worrying for no reason, but please be careful on your way back and do not engage Venersis in a 1 on 1 confrontation. To be honest with you, the Glow’s blade is still slower than Venersis right now. Your morale as well.”
Vibli’s words could have upset Yulian, but rather than doing that, he took a thankful approach for Vibli’s concern and worry. This was the difference between him and the other conquerors.
“I understand. Then I leave this place in your hands. If the enemy ignores our request for them to surrender once more, please make sure to kill those idiotic Glows. It might not even be a bad idea to completely skin them and have a ceremony to console the souls of the dead warriors.”
Seeing Yulian say such harsh words that showed his anger was still now subdued, Vibli just smiled as he answered.
“I will do as you say.”
Yulian returned to the formation after listening to Vibli’s answer. The Red Storm was then summoned and they started to prepare to return to Pareia.
‘Mm~.’
Pere let out a moan as he blankly stared into the map.
“Do not be too anxious. This is not a war that will end in a day or wto.”
Seeing Pere being so tense these past few days, one of the Greatest Warriors warned him to calm his heart.
“I know that but……”
The end of Pere’s sentence faded away.
He also knew that he needed to be calmer. But he could not do anything about the fact that he could not be any calmer than how he was right now.
The truth was that once you start getting pushed back, you will continue to get pushed back. That reality, as well as the fact that Venersis being the enemy brought a lot of pressure, made PEre like this.
In fact, it made Pere become amazed at the fact that Runa was able to handle all of this with such calm at his age when Pere could not even sleep properly because of his beating heart.
What Pere was not aware of was the fact that this was the reason Runa left Pere in charge over the other Greatest Warriors.
Currently, Pareia’s Greatest Warriors were all old. It was about time for them to have a changing of the guards, and in order for that changing of the guards to go well, they needed to take some risks.
The reason Pareia was able to become the strongest in the Eastern Desert even while fending off the Shuarei’s Venersis was because of Pareia’s current Greatest Warriors. That was why this was such a big issue for the changing of the guards to go well.
‘Pere might feel the pressure but he will not crumble. This is because there are Greatest Warriors next to him who are used to this type of pressure.’
This was the reason Runa had decided Pere will be the commanding warrior.
“I will go for a round of patrol.”
Pere abruptly stood up from his seat and quickly started to walk. The aged Greatest Warriors understood Pere’s current situation and silently cheered for Pere to be able to overcome this tribulation. All they could do externally though, was to watch as he walked away.
“Good.”
As Pere slowly rode on his pirma around the oasis, the cold night air on his face helped him recover his senses a bit.
‘Does hyung-nim carry this type of heavy burden every day?’
The pressure and responsibility that Pere was feeling as the Commanding Warrior made him think about Yulian. He might be in charge of 30,000 warriors, but his brother was in charge of the entire Pareia tribe which was now easily over 100,000 people.
‘I pushed and pushed to catch up to him, but now the distance is so far I don’t even have the desire to chase.’
Pere thought about his old self that considered his brother to be a rival and started to smile.
After feeling a bit better, Pere chatted with the warriors standing guard and looked around the desert as he thought about a couple different things. He tried to anticipate the path Venersis would use to attack, as well as how to defend here and how to fend them off there, etc. These thoughts filled Pere’s head.
Before he was a Greatest Warrior, he had worked with the Red Storm warriors to stand at the vanguard and fight against the enemy. That was why Pere was able to tell whether the ideas in his head were really possible or if they were just possible in his mind.
As he sincerely looked around here and there, Pere’s two eyes suddenly lit up.
He could see an image of sort. This line in his mind was twisting up and down, moving across small hills and valleys.
‘What am I supposed to do?’
It was a line he should not forget about, but right now, Pere was worried about what he was supposed to do. He felt like this was something very important, but he couldn’t tell just why it was important.
‘Shit, whatever.’
Pere just did his best to memorize the direction of the line. It would not be too late to think about it after memorizing it first.
Pere was strong. If you talked about just pure strength, there was nobody in Pareia who could win against Pere. Yulian was no exception.
If Pere had another unique trait, it would be his tenacious personality. If he decides on something, he would always see it through until the end. Since Pere was pretty smart as well, he was able to memorize this line in the end.
After racking his brain for a while thinking about it, Pere suddenly let out a shout.
“I got it! I got it!”
Pere’s voice was so loud that it made the warriors on guard rush over.
“Hahaha. Hahahahaha!”
The guard warriors could only tilt their heads in confusion as they could not tell what was making Pere so happy to laugh like this.
Once morning arrived, the Greatest Warriors were dragged over to the outskirts of the base even before they had a chance to eat breakfast.
At first, they had expressions that seemed to be asking what this young warrior was up to, but as Pere continued to point and explain, their expressions started to slowly change.
In the end, they all had expressions similar to what Pere had the night before, as they started to let out noises.
“Hohoho. Hohohoho.”
Noises of laughter that is.