Chapter 145 – The Hero and the Free Knight (2)

Rewinding the clock, three hours before meeting the hero’s party.

I boarded a hovercraft and headed toward Nampo Port in North Korea.

Originally, we planned to stop by the Pacific Fleet stationed on the west coast to get permission from the expeditionary force command in Daejeon and the U.S. military headquarters on the mainland.

However, upon arriving at the fleet, it seemed impossible to get permission from the command.

Not only were the communication satellites destroyed, making contact impossible, but the fleet itself was in complete disarray.

The aircraft carrier had been split in half by a direct hit from a large satellite and had sunk, and half of the fleet had either sunk or been severely damaged by the satellite bombardment.

Only two ships were still operational, and the command had sunk to the bottom of the sea, leaving no one to make decisions.

Seeing the ships too busy rescuing people to make decisions, we realized we had to make the decision ourselves.

Fortunately, after learning that the hero was still alive and that I had no desire to become the hero, Benedict gave up on trying to take me to the capital.

“I will return to the expeditionary force.”

Instead, he wanted to return to the Daejeon expeditionary camp, like the mages and knights who were retreating from Yeouido.

With the Demon King still active and possessing magic capable of destroying this world, he needed to return to Daejeon to assess the situation of the expeditionary force.

After all, in the worst-case scenario, the expeditionary camp might have been destroyed just like the U.S. fleet.

If the expeditionary force was in bad shape and the gate was still intact, he might have returned to the Empire immediately.

Perhaps he wanted to find a new hero candidate instead of dealing with a disobedient hero candidate and a potential saintess.

In any case, with the main opposition no longer objecting, there was no obstacle to heading to Pyongyang.

“We’ll take you to Nampo.”

The U.S. officer who had come with us decided to take us to Nampo in a hovercraft along with his subordinates.

We then headed to Nampo in the hovercraft, just as we had taken a helicopter to the Nakdong River with the U.S. troops not long ago.

Behind us, the wreckage of the fleet grew smaller, while the islands of the west coast grew closer.

Nampo Port was just ahead.

As the port came into view, the U.S. officer asked, “The hero’s party won’t stay there forever. How do you plan to find them?”

“It seems the hero’s party went underground into the Pyongyang subway, so I plan to search the subway stations starting from the west.”

“Subway stations? Do you have a map of North Korea? How do you plan to find the subway stations?”

“Well, navigation… Oh, right. The GPS satellites are down too.”

What a mistake.

Seeing me facepalm, he handed me a map.

“It’s a map of the Korean Peninsula. It’s a military map, but it doesn’t show subway stations.”

“Thank you. But this is troublesome.”

Looking at the map he handed me, I sighed softly.

It was an old, typical military map.

The contour lines were detailed, but there were no subway lines or stations marked.

This meant it would take longer than expected to find the hero and the saintess.

As I sighed, the hovercraft continued to speed toward the Nampo coastline.

Before arriving at the Nampo coastline, we had assumed that all the landing crafts that had carried the hero’s party had been destroyed.

With the satellites destroyed and no way to know the situation, we thought the hero’s party had been wiped out by the zombie horde while waiting for their return at Nampo.

The landing crafts on the Nampo coastline were equipped with weapons better than personal firearms, but even those couldn’t hold back the tide of undead.

However, what we saw at the Nampo coastline was not destroyed landing crafts but a fierce battle.

“Speed up!”

I didn’t even need to say anything.

At the officer’s command, the hovercraft sped toward the coastline at an incredible speed.

Zombies were charging toward the landing crafts stationed on the beach.

Machine guns mounted on the landing crafts and rifles from the soldiers on board fired at the oncoming zombies,

and fireballs erupted from the ships, sweeping away the charging zombies.

“Fireballs? Was there a mage left behind?”

For a mage to stay behind to protect the soldiers while the hero went to confront the Demon King, they must have been truly remarkable.

Thanks to that mage, the landing crafts seemed to have survived.

In the end, the landing crafts on the beach held off the zombie attacks until we arrived.

The machine guns mounted on the landing crafts shredded the zombies’ bodies, but more importantly, the mage on board used their magic to incinerate the undead whenever things got dangerous.

The sheer mana capacity, the power of the spells, and the precise control of combat magic—it all pointed to one person.

Even before seeing them, I had a good idea of who the mage on the landing craft was.

“Wow, we made it.”

The mage waved at the hovercraft as it stopped in front of the landing craft.

It was Yelena, the mage to whom I had handed over the legacy of my combat mage mentor when we were in the capital.

After we arrived, we could easily sweep away the remaining undead.

Unlike the LCU 1627-class landing craft with two machine guns, the U.S. Navy hovercraft we were on, the LCAC-1, was equipped with not only machine guns but also naval guns.

Moreover, with Zahina, Yerim, and me on board, we could easily handle the zombies charging at us.

After clearing the zombies on the beach, we boarded the landing craft and met Yelena.

“You’re alive.”

After learning that Yelena had gone with the hero, I had assumed she was dead.

I had heard that only the saintess and the psychic had gone underground with the hero.

At my words, Yelena made a bitter expression.

“The orthodox mages with the hero didn’t like me very much. So when they asked for someone to stay behind, I quickly volunteered.”

She had left the tower when she came here.

The orthodox mages wouldn’t have liked a mage who had left the tower.

But thanks to that, she had survived.

At my words, Yelena scratched her nose with an ambiguous expression.

“Anyway, you should head back. The hero’s party failed.”

While the hovercraft could move on land, the landing craft on the beach could only return to the sea.

Since the hero’s party hadn’t killed the Demon King, they had to retreat.

The soldiers on the landing craft nodded with grim faces, but Yelena tilted her head.

“But the hero is still alive, right? That’s why I stayed here.”

Surprised by her words, I quickly asked, “Can you still track the hero’s status?”

At the sudden question, Yelena nodded.

“There’s a tracking spell on the hero. I cast it on him before we parted ways in case we got separated.”

“A tracking spell?”

“Yes. I cast it on the hero before he left. Only the mages who were there at the time can continue tracking him, but I was there too.”

This was unexpectedly good news.

I nodded at the U.S. officer.

“It looks like you’ll have to come with us, mage.”

“Huh?”

At my words, Yelena’s eyes widened.

With the lucky find of a guide, it was time to move again.

The soldiers on the landing craft were sent back to the fleet.

Our hovercraft, now carrying Yelena, crossed the beach and entered the Taedong River.

At the lower reaches of the Taedong River near Nampo, there was a long sluice gate called the West Sea Barrage that spanned the river.

If it weren’t for this gate, ships could have entered the Taedong River from the sea, but since the gate couldn’t be moved now, ordinary ships couldn’t enter the river.

That’s why we had brought the hovercraft.

Instead of the gate, the hovercraft crossed the beach and moved along the road, entering the Taedong River.

We then sped up the Taedong River toward Pyongyang.

And just in time, we arrived at Mangyeongdae Station, located on the border of Pyongyang.

“…That’s how we managed to arrive just in time.”

Seung-ah listened to my explanation with sparkling eyes.

The hero and the saintess were also listening to my story.

However, the two of them were too exhausted.

The saintess was dozing off even now, so it seemed she hadn’t heard half of what I said.

We were currently on the hovercraft on the Taedong River, near Mangyeongdae.

After rescuing the hero, the saintess, and Seung-ah from the underground of Mangyeongdae Station, we immediately surfaced.

On the surface, Hoffman, Yelena, who had guided us here, and the U.S. soldiers were waiting.

Before going underground, we had cleared the zombies and undead in the area, so it wasn’t difficult to reach the hovercraft stationed by the river.

Once on the hovercraft, we immediately headed back to Nampo.

Having rescued the hero and the saintess, it was time to make a hasty retreat.

Fortunately, there was no pursuit from the Demon King’s army.

Whether the Demon King was busy with other matters or simply uninterested in the hero, we managed to escape to the sea unharmed.

As night fell, instead of heading to Daejeon, we went to the half-destroyed fleet.

After boarding the destroyer that had become the flagship, the hero, the saintess, and Seung-ah fell asleep as if they had passed out.

There was no time for further discussion. Everyone had been through more than just a near-death experience.

Instead, we met with the destroyer’s captain.

“Fortunately, there are still some satellites left, so we’ve managed to contact the mainland.”

He was temporarily acting as the fleet’s commander.

The fact that the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet was now a colonel was quite a promotion, but no one could celebrate it.

“The mainland is also in chaos, but more importantly, please take a look at this photo.”

The captain displayed a photo on the screen.

The Demon King’s magic hadn’t destroyed all the satellites.

There were still some satellites in orbit, and the U.S. military had moved one of the few remaining reconnaissance satellites over Pyongyang.

The screen showed an image of Pyongyang.

“Has the Demon King reappeared?”

“No. Instead, something new has appeared. A gate.”

The screen showed a hole leading to another world, filled with magic circles—a gate.

“Don’t tell me they’ve connected to our world again?”

“I’m not an expert, so I can’t say for sure, but it doesn’t seem to be connected to our world. The magic circles are different.”

At my words, Yelena, who had followed us, shook her head.

Then Zahina spoke up.

“This gate is connected to our world.”

Zahina’s face was unusually pale.

The gate the Demon King had created in Pyongyang wasn’t connected to our world but to Zahina’s world, the land of the divine tree.

The Demon King, who had destroyed this world, now seemed intent on attacking Zahina’s world.