East Road Quest

Chapter 87 The Sage’s Cabin

Buffalord strode purposefully towards the well where Sapph was.

When they first met in the forest, he didn’t feel particularly large compared to the giant trees or Helldra, but now his size was truly remarkable. If he stood on his tiptoes, he could peer over the roof of the cabin.

“I knew you’d be here!”

Buffalord, scythe in hand, surveyed the surroundings and asked,

“Is there someone else?”

Sapph, trying not to show her tension, replied,

“Ruby is here. You’d be gone in one hit.”

Buffalord let his scythe dangle. The sound of the chain hitting the ground was as sharp as the sound of a sword being drawn from its sheath.

“Then call her out. Let’s finish the fight we started yesterday.”

Sapph clenched her fists and continued to back away.

Suddenly, she felt the wall against her back.

“Why don’t you call? Did you die from Ducubo’s poison?”

Buffalord sheathed his scythe and drew a black-bladed knife from his back.

The knife was almost as tall as Sapph. Even considering his size, it was a large knife. He raised it high, and it looked like a beam propping itself up.

Sapph dodged to the side. She knew it was futile, but she threw herself sideways anyway.

Bang!

Buffalord’s knife struck the wall.

He hadn’t aimed for Sapph but for the wall she was leaning against. Even though it was made of stone, the wall crumbled under the knife, leaving a large hole.

Behind the broken wall was Ruby’s bedroom.

Ruby didn’t wake up despite the loud noise, and her face was hit by the falling stone fragments without any reaction.

Buffalord, upon discovering Ruby, bared his teeth at Sapph with a smile. Like Lamatus or a tyrant, he had the fangs of a carnivore, not the teeth of a herbivore.

“There you are!”

Buffalord moved towards the hole he had made.

Sapph, almost reflexively, rushed and grabbed Buffalord’s waist.

“Don’t! Don’t touch Ruby!”

Sapph hung on with all her might, but it felt like clinging to a rock.

Buffalord swatted her away as if she were a fly. Sapph was knocked back several steps by the back of his hand.

“Don’t worry, I won’t kill you now. There’s still much to learn about the magic of light…

Buffalord pointed at Sapph and continued,

“…and your horns are still worth examining.”

Buffalord snorted and went back into the hole.

“But this redhead is different. Just thinking about him joining forces with the sentry is already bothersome.”

“Stop! Or else…

Sapph sprang to her feet and shouted at Buffalord.

Her head was split open, and blood ran down her forehead. Unfortunately, the blood went into one of her eyes, and Sapph could hardly see.

Buffalord laughed oddly.

“Or else… what?”

“I, I won’t let you off.”

Buffalord looked at her for a while, then ignored her and tried to enter. But he bumped his nose against an invisible wall and stepped back.

“What’s this?”

Buffalord tapped the transparent barrier blocking the wall.

“A protective barrier?”

“Yes, that’s right. I’m a light mage who wards off darkness and evil powers, so I can create as many as I need.”

Sapph mustered her courage and shouted.

‘It’s useless. The demon who broke through Sage’s protective magic will easily break through my flimsy spell.’

Buffalord turned to Sapph, holding back his voice,

“Don’t waste my time with useless things.”

Sapph was terrified to death.

“I will do it!”

That’s why she was even more determined.

‘Ruby has saved me several times. Now it’s my turn to save her.’

Buffalord punched the protective wall a few times. But it didn’t break. Then he approached Sapph with his large knife.

“The holy light will drive you away!”

Sapph raised her voice to overcome her fear, pouring out the light of salvation and purification that could repel demons from her hands.

This light was originally meant to heal the poison of demons or drive out evil spirits inhabiting human bodies. In theory, it should have prevented a well-known demon like Buffalord from approaching. But Buffalord merely turned his face slightly, as if the sudden bright light was just a bit dazzling.

“What are you trying to do?”

Buffalord swung his knife. It was just a motion as if swatting a fly, but the sound of the blade cutting through the air was as heavy as a great swordsman swinging with full force.

Sapph quickly turned and ran towards the bushes, trying to lure Buffalord away from Ruby to buy time. But she hadn’t run twenty steps before Buffalord pushed her back, and she fell forward.

It wasn’t a strong push, but she lost her balance and tumbled over.

Buffalord stepped on her fallen body.

“Hmm, I almost killed you by mistake. But if you don’t remove that wall, I’ll kill you right now.”

Buffalord shifted his weight slightly onto the foot he was pressing down with.

Sapp, trying to alleviate even a bit of the weight, pushed against the foot with all his might, but it wouldn’t budge.

In that state, Buffalord asked, “Now that I think about it, what exactly are you?”

“I, I am from the Rome Priesthood…” Sapp began, but before he could finish, Buffalord interrupted.

“Are you a White Horn?”

Buffalord eased the pressure on his foot just enough for Sapp to breathe.

Sapp caught his breath and then asked deliberately in a slow tone, “Do you know… about the White Horn?”

“I know what a terrifying demon from hell it is.”

Sapp thought this was a precious opportunity to discover his identity, but at the same time, he considered using this fact to escape from here.

‘Should I reveal that I am the White Horn and threaten him? Would such a lie work on a demon like this?’

All Sapp could do now was to keep Buffalord away from Ruby and buy as much time as possible, waiting for Merald to return. But before he could even concoct a lie, Buffalord had already drawn his conclusion.

“So, you’re not the White Horn. A White Horn wouldn’t be in human form. Then why do you have horns on your head? Are you some half-breed of demon and human?”

Buffalord pointed the tip of his sword at Sapp’s forehead.

‘Let’s try to apply it. After all, Buffalord couldn’t penetrate the shield of light I created earlier.’

Sapp used the Shield of Light on the hand placed on his sole.

The light pushed Buffalord away. Suddenly, an invisible force pushed one of his feet, causing him to stagger slightly.

Seizing the moment, Sapp wriggled out from under his foot and crawled away on the ground. He then leaned against a tree and gathered his hands again to summon the Shield of Light.

“Are you going to keep doing this when we’re short on time? Would you become more compliant if I cut off an arm?”

Buffalord strode forward and raised his sword toward Sapp.

‘If that sword isn’t a demon’s weapon, then my arm will be severed.’

Buffalord thrust the sword toward Sapp’s shoulder.

Sapp concentrated the Shield of Light in front of him and turned his head away. He couldn’t bear to watch the blade piercing towards him.

A metallic clang sounded, and Sapp was slammed against the tree. Astonishingly, Buffalord’s sword couldn’t penetrate the domain of light Sapp had created and stopped in its tracks.

“You blocked this…?”

Buffalord examined the tip of his sword, tilting his head in confusion.

“Try it again.”

He swung his sword once more.

With his legs too weak to stand, all Sapp could do was align the Shield of Light with the direction of the incoming blade. A crisp sound rang out, and Sapp was flung in the opposite direction from where the sword had come.

Sapp rolled several times. The impact of hitting the sword and rolling on the ground added up, causing all his joints to scream in pain.

Nevertheless, he wasn’t cut by the sword again.

Sapp shook his head vigorously, trying to regain his senses.

“Not bad. I’ve never seen such magic before.”

Buffalord chuckled and slashed down with his sword again.

Sapp blocked it again and was thrown off once more. This time, the back of his head hit the ground, causing his vision to momentarily whiten.

“Are you trying to stall for time until the Watchman arrives? Then let me do the math for you. I left the battlefield long before Heldra fell. They might have defeated Heldra by now, but they won’t know I’m gone.”

Buffalord aimed his sword at Sapp’s abdomen.

Sapp blocked the sword with the Shield of Light and was pushed back and fell over again. The impact repeated itself. However, the accumulated shock increased the pain.

Sapp vomited blood onto the grass.

“Even if they’ve noticed my absence, the fastest mount the Watchman has is a Campion. If you add up the time it takes for the fastest Campion to get here, the time it took me to get here, and the time I’ve wasted on you so far… I have about 10 more minutes to play with you.”

Buffalord planted his sword in the grass and extended a dark hand toward Sapp. Sapp blocked his path again with the Shield of Light.

“Do you still have strength left? Interesting.” Buffalord laughed heartily. “Let’s assume the Watchman moved much faster than I thought and play for another 5 minutes. After that, if you remove that magical wall, I’ll kill that red-haired kid and leave here in less than a minute. Of course, I’ll take you with me.”

This time, instead of a sword, Buffalord struck Sapp’s head with his fist. Sapp blocked it with the Shield of Light, but his head rang as if he had been directly hit with a hammer.

Sapp lay face down on the ground and vomited blood again.

“The Watchman has always followed me around for the past three years.”

He struck the back of Sapp’s head again. Since Sapp was lying down and couldn’t dodge, he placed both hands on the back of his head and blocked the punch with the Shield of Light. He could still block the punch with the light, but the impact on his head remained the same. Lying face down, the shock of his face hitting the ground was added.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Buffalord kept punching as if he was playing around.

Sapp focused and blocked every blow until the end.

Blood flowed from his head down his face, and his left eye, which had been squinting from the blood, now couldn’t open, not because of the blood, but because of the impact.

“Have you still not given up? At this rate, you’ll truly die,” Buffaloed inquired.

Saph responded, “Try as much as you like. I can block you for an hour, not just ten minutes.”

“You’re a child worth tormenting. So, I shouldn’t waste the fun now. I’ll take you with me and have much more amusing things to do. The fun ends here.”

Buffaloed drew a plain dagger from his waistband.

“This is a common dagger stolen from the elves.”

Saph, trembling with pain, slowly lifted her head.

“Do you see it?”

The blade had pierced through the shield of light and was touching Saph’s forehead.

“Try to block this too.”

Buffaloed hurled the dagger at Saph’s thigh.

The blade penetrated her flesh and lodged itself in her thigh.

“Aaah!”

Saph clutched her thigh and screamed. Her endurance, which she had maintained until now, snapped. She could no longer sustain the light.

Buffaloed checked the house. The protective wall guarding Ruby had disappeared.

He rose to his feet.

“Finally, it’s done.”

Buffaloed pulled the dagger from the ground and turned his gaze to the forest.

“Ho, has the sentinel already arrived?”

Buffaloed said to Saph with a fresh laugh, “It’s unfortunate, kid. If you had held on for just five more minutes, the sentinel would have miraculously come to your aid.”

Buffaloed started walking towards the house but felt something tugging at his foot and looked down.

Saph was clinging to his ankle.

“No, you can’t go.”

Buffaloed ignored her and walked on, dragging Saph along.

“I can’t let you go… No…”

Buffaloed raised his dagger.

“Shall I cut off your arm?”

“Even so, no… Ruby has protected me… Now, it’s my turn to protect…”

“Even without one arm, I can still discover the secret of your horns.”

“It doesn’t matter if I lose an arm… as long as I can protect Ruby…”

“Is that so? Then let’s proceed that way.” Buffaloed swung down his dagger.

Saph braced herself for the pain of her arm being severed.

‘It’s going to hurt a lot, right? But it’s okay. Just endure for five minutes. The sentinel of the Dark Forest will come.’

But the pain didn’t come.

The blade stopped above Saph’s slender forearm. Looking up slightly, she saw a large, black blade held by a small, white hand.

It was Ruby.

“I heard everything in my sleep…”

Ruby punched Buffaloed in the abdomen.

Buffaloed flew straight back about twenty paces to a tree, hitting it with his back. The tree broke, and he tumbled several times.

“What, you were playing with Saph for ten minutes?”

Ruby looked down at the bloodied Saph with a cold gaze, then lifted her eyes beyond the backyard to the fallen Buffaloed.

“Let’s see if you can play with me for just one minute, you wretch who couldn’t even sprout seeds in this flower bed!”