The Fake Wife of the Strongest Husband Wants to Survive - Chapter 60

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 60
“Monsters are pouring in!”
With that cry, Namoi Castle descended into absolute chaos.
From near the Castle Gate came the shouts of soldiers and the urgent commands of officers, all tangled together in a deafening roar.
Soldiers rushed about, bellowing to reform their scattered ranks, while the wounded and the weak hurried toward the rear exit of the castle.
“Raise your shields! Reform the line!”
“Everyone to your positions!”
The castle interior had transformed into a battlefield where there was scarcely time to breathe.
Pesha ran against the flow of fleeing people, pushing deeper into the chaos.
Gripping the stone parapet, she looked down and saw the Swarf Army struggling not far below.
“Rear guard! Tighten the shield formation! Hold your arrows until the second signal!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Third squad, move up to the Castle Gate. When the monsters cluster, suppress them all at once with arrows!”
Facing the tide of monsters covering the ground, Owen gave his orders without a trace of hesitation.
The Swarf Army built their defensive line according to his commands.
Though few in number, the soldiers who had fought monsters before held their ground far better than expected.
The assurance of having a commander they could trust and follow banished their fear.
“Why do they keep coming like this? Do these bastards ever end?”
“Shut your mouth! Instead of whining, cover the Lord’s flank!”
Owen, standing at the front, cut through the tide of monsters with blinding speed.
The soldiers, awed by his extraordinary strength and emboldened by fighting alongside Owen Namoi, threw themselves into battle with the certainty that they would survive.
Then, beyond the Castle Wall, a roar unlike anything heard before echoed forth.
It was a sound that shook the earth itself—utterly different from the cries of the ordinary monsters.
“What… is that?”
A soldier pointed with a pallid face.
What emerged from the darkness was a beast of colossal proportions.
It was three times the size of an ordinary monster, its body encased in chitinous shell as hard as armor, its limbs thick and elongated.
The soldiers’ faces drained of color at the sight.
“Damn it, it’s advancing!”
“How are we supposed to stop something like that…?”
“If it breaches the Castle Wall, we’re finished!”
As fear began to spread at the sight of this new threat, Owen gripped his sword firmly.
In the same instant, the blade flashed across the air with startling speed.
His first strike aimed for the hairline gap between the creature’s chitinous plates.
As the steel bit deep, the beast’s shriek shook the Castle Wall.
Blood sprayed with each trace of the blade’s arc as Owen, without pause, severed the creature’s thick arm as easily as tearing paper.
The severed limb fell with a thunderous impact.
Timing his strike as the beast staggered, Owen cut through its knee joint, and the massive creature toppled sideways.
The instant the beast lost balance, Owen’s blade drove deep into its belly.
Seeing the monster lying motionless with the sword embedded, the soldiers erupted in cheers.
“The Lord has killed it! Something that huge…!”
Awe kindled in the soldiers’ eyes.
Fear evaporated, and excitement and fervor spread like wildfire.
Yet the moment of triumph did not last.
The severed limb began to writhe as flesh crawled across it, regenerating.
The newly formed arm descended upon Owen with terrible speed.
“Owen…!”
Pesha, who had been watching with bated breath, screamed as she saw the grotesquely swollen hand of the monster close around Owen like a crushing vice.
The creature’s fingers wrenched fiercely at Owen’s right shoulder.
His injured shoulder.
The wound reopened, and blood bloomed across the white fabric of his shirt.
“No!”
Though the pain must have been considerable, Owen clenched his teeth and did not let go of his sword.
Even as the beast’s limb bore down on his shoulder and his bones threatened to shatter, his gaze grew only sharper.
While the monster held him fast, Owen switched the sword to his left hand and angled for the creature’s throat in a diagonal slash.
The beast, its neck slashed, shrieked in agony and recoiled once more.
Owen seized the moment, drawing a quick breath before leaping onto the creature’s body and driving his blade down from above through its skull.
The sword pierced the beast’s cranium clean through.
After driving it deep, he twisted and tore the blade free, and the colossal creature’s eyes went wide before draining of all light.
Its final roar shook the Castle Wall as the massive beast collapsed, and the ground trembled beneath its fall.
The massive form collapsed before the Castle Gate, the air thick with dust and blood.
“We—we’ve won! We’ve won!”
“Didn’t I tell you? As long as we have the Lord, we’ll be fine!”
Pesha brought her hand to her mouth as if she hadn’t heard the cheers at all.
Her eyes held only Owen’s bloodstained shoulder.
The Bandage had long since failed its purpose, and the blood had soaked through his clothes so thoroughly that the wound might well have reopened and worsened.
“……This won’t do.”
Owen’s face was expressionless as he brushed blood from his blade, but there was no chance his body had escaped unscathed after fighting in such a state of injury.
Scrape.
Pesha’s fingernails, gripping the railing, scraped against the stone wall.
In the original story, Owen had companions beyond his trusted officers—people he could entrust his back to.
Friends from his days as a nameless mercenary, they had scattered in discord around the time he became the leader of the mercenary band.
Each of them was a formidable warrior with considerable power in their respective fields.
Normally, toward the story’s end, the Emperor would send armies to crush Owen and, through Io, the misunderstandings would be resolved and his allies would help him weather the crisis. But…….
‘Owen is already wounded. I can’t have him strain himself waiting for them to appear.’
Then there was only one way.
To bring those allies here myself.
‘It’s just settling a misunderstanding that would have been resolved anyway, only a little early.’
Pesha spotted Bri, her maid, desperately calling for and searching for her inside the Castle Gate.
“Bri!”
“Good heavens, my lady! You’ve been there all this time?”
“Yes.”
“What if you’d fallen or become a Monster’s target! The Lord gave me strict orders to protect you!”
Seeing Bri about to launch into another scolding, Pesha hurriedly changed the subject.
“Never mind that—prepare things. We’re going somewhere.”
“Prepare things? At a time like this?”
She had sent requests for reinforcements to the capital, but the Emperor would certainly ignore them, and the help available from neighboring Lords was limited.
Yet if Swarf’s defensive line broke and Monsters were allowed to penetrate deep into the eastern territories, the Emperor would blame Owen for it.
So a prolonged conflict was impossible, no matter what.
The Monsters had to be driven out before winter came.
There was no time to waste.
“This is exactly why we must go. Prepare as quickly as you can.”
“But where are we going?”
Pesha’s expression grew grave as she spoke to Bri, who looked as though she might burst into tears.
“The Grape Farm.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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