The Imperial Supreme Commander Has Returned - Chapter 67

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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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The Imperial Commander Returns: Episode 67

Delram had much to do.
Mana Detection to conduct, defensive formations to inspect.
And in between it all, city reports still needed to be submitted.

Under normal circumstances, the schedule wouldn’t have been so tight.
But the detour in Gulles had changed everything.

The slave trading post had taken only a day to resolve—that part was manageable.
The real culprit was the month spent at the Temple.
All that time consumed teaching children and constructing Mana circles.

[Harpy Subjugation]

So why, despite all this, had he managed to reach the Mercenary Guild anyway?
Because there was one experiment he needed to run.
Something far more important than any mission.

‘My Owl.’

Not long ago, Owl had transformed in ways that defied all logic.
Because of it, techniques once thought impossible had become reality.

Forcing air backward through a person’s lungs.
Shaping wind into a Protective Barrier.
Wielding the Vortex that had torn open doors—all of it now possible.

‘It’s all thanks to consuming the Demon Heart.’

But thinking it through, there was another life form that resembled demons.
Monsters, specifically.

Of course, they bore the name in appearance only—they wielded no Mana.
Yet for reasons beyond understanding, they harbored grievances.
Their animosity toward humans rivaled that of demons themselves.

And their breeding capacity? Extraordinary beyond measure.
No amount of culling ever managed complete eradication.
Though intensive extermination efforts had rendered them nearly absent from roads and city outskirts, they still infested the forests and mountain ranges in alarming numbers.

Perhaps for that reason alone.
When demons launched attacks on humanity, they never came alone.
They brought trained Monster legions, wreaking havoc across the land.
In any case, demons and monsters were inseparable.

These monsters possessed an organ analogous to the Demon Heart.
The Mana Crystal—a crystalline formation born from solidified Mana.
Typically, these were used to craft Artifacts.

‘But if the Demon Heart is solidified Mana, then… wouldn’t feeding Owl a Mana Crystal produce similar effects?’

The problem was that acquiring Mana Crystals was extraordinarily difficult.
The kingdom had classified them as strategic materials—private trade was prohibited.
Then what could be done?

‘Capture them myself and extract it.’

That was precisely why he’d visited the Mercenary Guild.
Monster subjugation was one of the major commissions, along with merchant escorts.
He’d assumed the guild would have good knowledge of where such creatures frequented.

‘A harpy, then….’

Delram had seen harpies before.
In fact, one might say there was scarcely a monster he hadn’t encountered.

He’d mentioned it earlier, hadn’t he?
Demons had invaded leading entire legions of monsters.
He’d had to wade through every conceivable creature on those battlefields.

Harpies, though, left a particularly vivid impression.
All monsters are grotesque, but harpies possessed a uniqueness all their own.
The lower half was avian—feathered like a bird—while the upper body bore a human woman’s form.
The legs were as muscular as an eagle’s talons, and the arms tapered into wings.

At this point in any recounting, most women inevitably ask:
“Is she wearing anything on top?”

Men, on the other hand, ask:
“Is she beautiful?”

Unfortunately, the answer to both was no.
She wore nothing, and her face was unfinished—blunt and featureless.
Looking upon her was like gazing into an unsettling ravine.

The strategy for dealing with them, however, was straightforward.
Simply unleash the archers and be done with it.
Wings or not, the creatures still had to land to attack, and when they did, a volley of arrows brought them down like hail.

“Good instincts, this one.”

Delram scanned the commission parchment from horseback.
There was more than just the request details and the village’s location.
Hastily scrawled notes described the harpy’s nature—written in a hurried hand.
It seemed the guild, concerned by Delram’s youth, had taken pains to brief him.

“I really do have an eye for people.”

Delram chuckled softly and urged his horse forward with the reins.
The plodding gait shifted into an eager gallop.

Three days after leaving Gulles Keep,
Delram finally arrived near the lumberjack village.

* * *

“This seems like an odd place for harpies to settle….”

It was Delram’s first impression upon seeing the village.
Truth be told, he’d harbored some doubt from the start.

They’d told him this was a village of loggers.
With woodcutters numbering more than a handful, a logging settlement would need to be surrounded by trees ripe for the felling.
Hauling timber from distant forests would be too labor-intensive.
Therefore, the village had no choice but to be nestled deep within the forest itself.

Yet harpies were airborne hunters.
How could they spot prey if the ground below was choked with trees?
Naturally, Harpies typically nested on the Plain.
A combination of Lumberjack Village and Harpies struck him as distinctly odd.

“This isn’t some kind of lie, is it?”
—Kree-eek!

A peculiar cry answered his murmur.
He didn’t need to look twice to know it was a monster’s call.

Tap!

Delram immediately created a layer of air and kicked off into the emptiness.
After repeating the motion several times, he reached the treetop in moments.
Sharpening his vision, he peered through the gaping forest beyond—

“No, it really is Harpies.”

Delram muttered flatly.
A swarm of Harpies circled in the distance.

The Harpies seemed to approach, then veered away, disappearing entirely.
They vanished beyond the Mountain Ridge.
It felt exactly as if they were mocking Delram for falling for their feint.

“You’re saying I’m an idiot? Fine—every last one of you will pay for that.”

In any case, Delram decided to abandon his preconceptions.
After all, what else would monsters be?
It was foolish to try predicting abnormal creatures in the first place.

Having confirmed the Harpy presence, Delram headed toward the village.
From his vantage point high above, he’d mapped its location clearly.

The entrance was fortified with wooden palisades against monsters.
The watchtower suggested a thoroughly serious operation.
In situations like these, outsiders were typically met with cold rejection.

But again, his assumptions proved wrong.
Instead, the villagers in the watchtower lit up the moment they spotted him.
When he said he’d come to deal with the Harpies, they erupted in cheers.
Their reaction revealed just how much they’d been suffering.

“Oh, mercenary! Thank you so much for coming. We couldn’t reach anyone, and we were wondering whether to send out another messenger.”
“Save the thanks. I’m just here to collect my pay.”
“I am the Village Chief of this settlement. Before your companions arrive, allow me to show you somewhere comfortable to rest. We have no inn, but we’ve prepared a house for mercenaries like yourselves.”
“Companions?”
“……?”

There seemed to be a misunderstanding.
They’d assumed he was a scout—a lone mercenary, young at that—arriving first.

But the Village Chief’s face drained of color as reality dawned.
The crowd of villagers who’d gathered turned sickly and uncertain.
They wondered if he was toying with them.
With muscles hardened by logging work, their menacing expressions looked genuinely intimidating.

At moments like this, nothing worked better than a show of capability.
Delram had learned that lesson from the Mercenary Guild and prepared accordingly.
Before leaving Gulles, he’d bought a full sack of Apples.

Whoosh.
“What?”

Delram withdrew two apples from the Subspace.
The villagers, who had never witnessed magic in their lives, gasped in astonishment.
Some rubbed their eyes, wondering if it was an illusion, but when Delram bit into one of the red apples, a crisp sound rang out.

“Watch closely.”
Whip!

Delram hurled the two red apples skyward without hesitation.
The villagers’ eyes followed the fruit as it climbed higher.
The apples, drawing all attention to themselves, soon became nothing more than red dots.

But what lacks wings must fall.
The apples reached their apex and began their descent.
Then came a short, sharp breath—

“Hup.”

Immediately after, a tempest erupted from the Wooden Bow.

Whoooosh!

It was only an instant, but every villager saw it.
A storm born from the earth itself!
Rising with ferocious intensity before their eyes.

The result was terrifying.
The two apples were shredded into strips, thinning to threads, then dissolving into mere points until they vanished without a trace.

Whiiiiine—

The afterwind of the tempest dispersed in a circle around Delram.
A woman clutched her skirts as the wind threatened to blow them up, muttering under her breath.

“Mad. Absolutely mad.”

* * *

“Wooow!”

The villagers, who had fallen into terrified silence, erupted in cheers once more.
They’d been disheartened when a lone young mercenary arrived alone.

“Turns out he’s a mage!”
“Well… yes.”

Delram started to deny it, then nodded instead.
Conjuring a bow from bare hands and firing a tempest from it?
What else could that be but magic?

‘From now on, I’m a mage.’

He’d said as much in front of the mages at the victory banquet, too.
But in truth, Delram couldn’t imitate all that many spells.
He could manage little more than a gentle breeze, or the Blade of Wind at best.

That was why he’d been holding back ever since.
If someone asked him to demonstrate any other magic, it would be disastrous.

But things had changed now.
There were far more Spirit Magic techniques that could pass for actual spellcasting.
It was all thanks to Owl’s growth.

In any case, the proof of skill was complete!
Delram spent the night in the house the Village Chief had prepared for him.
Now all he had to do was catch a Harpy, kill it, and harvest the Mana Crystal properly. That would be the end of it.
Even if it took longer than expected, it wouldn’t be more than a few days.

“Easy enough!”

Delram grinned widely, brimming with confidence.
Of course, that confidence was completely unfounded.

* * *

“On three, we push. One, two, three!”
“We’ll have a meal break soon, so give it your all!”

In the forest some distance from the village, logging was in full swing.
When corded forearms tensed like earthworms and swung the axe,
white wood chips flew from century-old trees.
The timber soon fell with a loud crack.

Then came the women’s turn.
They clung to the felled tree and pruned away the branches.
Small hand axes followed the flick of their wrists with precise grace.
The children fumbled about, gathering eggs from nests in the canopy.

Working away like that, one tree would soon be done.
Their coordination was flawless—like watching an ant colony at work.

‘Somehow it brings back memories from childhood…….’

Whenever his mother went out to tend the sheep, Delram was left alone at home.
After finishing all the household chores his small hands could manage, the remaining hours were spent in the yard, watching the bare earth.
He would stand entranced by the industrious ants, oblivious to boredom until his mother returned.

Watching the logging now felt like stepping back into those days.
And Delram found himself muttering in that same vacant tone.

“…Where the hell are these creatures?”

A week had passed since arriving in the village.
But the Harpies hadn’t shown their faces once…….

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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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