“Cadel, come on. Give me my wings back.”

Cadel stepped in front of them and roughly grabbed Lydon’s collar, looking up at Van with a serious face.

“Where are the reinforcements? Did the guards go to call them?”

“Yes. We’ll be in charge of the defense, so they went to call the reinforcements. I said we were the Scarlet Scales Mercenary, and we wouldn’t be able to hold on for long. I’m not sure how long it will take……. Commander. That woman, she’s a demon, right?”

“She’s not just any demon. She’s a High Demon with a good bloodline. A genuine.”

“Why are there demons everywhere we go? Are we cursed or something?”

To Van’s lament, Cadel shrugged. That was what game stories were for.

‘Things have taken a turn for the worse, but so far, so good.’

The Mercenary’s reputation now stood at 60, which was no small number. His hard work paid off as he was here right from the start of the quest, and the guards at the gate went according to plan. It started out well enough.

While he listened to the movement of the gateway through Van, Cadel released Lydon’s transformation. Returning to his normal size, Lydon stretched long and hard, then gestured toward Sellev, who hovered above the magic circle.

“Cadel, are you going to kill that demon? That’s going to be hard.”

“It would be greedy to kill her now. We have to defend the gate until reinforcements arrive. There are civilian houses just beyond the gate. We can’t let them cross until they’ve been evacuated.”

That was the essence of the quest for knight order promotion. Not just slaying the demon, but defending the entrance to the Empire against her attacks.

‘If we hold out, the Imperial Knights will join us, and when they do, we’ll have to prove to them that we make the greatest contribution to the defense of the Empire.’

In-game promotion quests had a system called ‘level of contribution’. If you didn’t reach a certain ‘level of contribution’ in an ongoing battle, the quest would fail, even if you wiped out Sellev or the monsters before then.

Achieving contribution and defending the gateway. Doing both at the same time was quite a challenge and resulted in many retries.

‘The level of contribution is the sum of the number of monsters we have slain and the damage we have dealt to Sellev, so it’s pretty clear what we need to do.’

Fight as hard as they could. As always, fight to the death.

Sellev stared at Cadel, her hands full of demonic energy. The blackness shimmered with a murky glow.

“Alas, I was so excited to surprise the humans, I didn’t realize there would be so many obstacles in the way from the start.”

The demonic energy that had enveloped her hand dripped like liquid onto the magic circle, and the circle, which had been obscured by the Red Men’s corpses, began to glow the same deep purple color it had at the beginning.

“……Or should I say, a lot of fun?”

A new army of Red Men appeared next, sucking in the light. A vague smile crossed Cadel’s face as the enemy force charged up in the blink of an eye.

Contrary to concerns that it would be difficult to determine damage to determine the level of contribution, the system implemented the ‘level of contribution’ as it was in the game.

「Defeat enemies to increase your chance of completing the quest.」

「Quest success rate: 3%」

He knew how to increase the odds. The total amount of damage they had dealt to monsters and demons, that was the baseline. So this well-timed system window was a nice little helper to keep him from over-strategizing or spending more stamina than necessary.

‘The quest has only a 3% chance of success……. I have a long way to go.’

The Red Men now numbered roughly 50 in front of the mercenary corps. They marched forward to fulfill Sellev’s order to ‘destroy the gate’, and Sellev continued to drop demonic energy onto the magic circle. Her demonic energy-soaked circle spawned another army of Red Men, increasing their numbers as easily as breathing.

Cadel led the mercenary corps by creating a barrier of fire in front of the advancing Red Men.

“Stay away from Sellev as much as possible. We’ll deal with her after reinforcements arrive.”

“Sellev? Is that demon’s name Sellev? Is that the one from the Demon War…….”

“Yes, that Sellev.”

Just as the eminence of the Seven Knights had endured through the ages, so too had the infamy of those who threatened the very existence of the world. The terrible despair and terror of those days remained like scars.

“Why would the one who’s supposed to be sealed…….”

Van’s expression darkened at the unexpected identity of the demon.

And Lydon, flying free in the distance, hurled a spear of ice at the Red Men. As if he remembered it belatedly, he descended to Cadel’s side.

“You know, Cadel. It just occurred to me, are you sure it’s okay if the humans who came as reinforcements see me? You’ve been nagging me all along not to get caught.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. She’s not an opponent that’s easy enough to fight with restrictions.”

Originally, he would reveal Lydon’s true identity at the end of his knight order promotion. He decided that was the safest route, and that was what he was planning to do until recently.

But when he made that plan, he had Lumen. The second son of a famous family, enough to draw attention without Lydon. Lumen was the next best thing to being the center of attention.

However, with Lumen gone. With Lydon out of the picture, the Scarlet Scales Mercenary was barely a ‘mercenary corps’, with one commander and one member. The promotion to knight order became ridiculous.

Because of that, Cadel chose Lydon as a means to satisfy the lack of members and the presence of the mercenary corps. No existence could imprint the mercenary corps’ presence more reliably than a fairy. Besides, if this quest failed, he would lose the chance to show off Lydon, so it was like hitting multiple birds with one stone.

‘There’s a lot more to worry about than just the level of contribution.’

Following the story in the game did not make this world a simple system like a game. Cadel had to build a foundation to survive the natural progression of events.

‘’Let’s not rush this. This is the biggest challenge I’ve faced since I transmigrated. One wrong step and I’ll fall.’

One step at a time. Calming his nerves, Cadel gave the mercenary corps the [Wind Path]. They sped up, outpacing the Red Men, and raced straight for the gate.

All the while, Sellev continued to spawn Red Men, and the sight of the armies at the gate was a sight to behold. It was like a never-ending red wave or a moving fortress of disaster. There was a sense of dread as they advanced in columns. Cadel drew a short breath as he surveyed the monsters that seemed to surround the gate.

“From now on, I will maintain the barrier protecting the gateway. You two will take care of any approaching monsters. As I’ve said a few times, avoid any conflict with Sellev.”

“Yes, Commander.”

“Ahaha! I can’t wait!”

Since Sellev was still focusing on mass-producing Red Men armies, there was no need to over-size the barrier from the start. It should be thick enough to cover any possible ranged attacks and surprises from Sellev.

As Cadel drew on the mana in his body, he also opened the ‘My Information’ window. It was a quest that required him to take on a High Demon and achieve a certain level of contribution. He had to use the attribute points he’d been saving up.