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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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Chapter 27
Before entering the Toulon Gate, there wasn’t much preparation to be done.
I had already equipped all my gear, and as for Jeanne, most armor was meaningless to her.
The restorative and protective powers of her holy power far surpassed any physical armor.
As I watched Jeanne tying a piece of cloth to a small metal rod, I asked,
“What’s that, Jeanne?”
“A flag. I’m more familiar with holding something like this than going in empty-handed.”
In her hands was a simple, pure white banner.
==
[Crude Saint’s Banner]
[Rank: Rare]
— A flag crafted by the Saint, Jeanne d’Arc.
==
‘So it works like this, huh.’
Even though she had merely tied a cloth to a rod, the moment Jeanne held it, it became a holy relic.
Of course, it was only a relic because she was the one holding it. If anyone else did, it would just be an ordinary piece of cloth.
Unlike the Saint’s Banner from the past, which required sacrifice as its premise, this was different.
It was merely a banner shaped by Jeanne’s familiarity with it.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes, I’m all set.”
“Then let’s go.”
Once Jeanne’s banner was complete, we immediately stepped into the Toulon Gate.
==
Entering Toulon Gate.
==
Swoooosh…
A cool sea breeze blew past.
The refreshing view of Toulon’s harbor stretched before me, filling my sight.
‘It’s been a while.’
Not much time had passed in reality, but the memories of Toulon felt distant and nostalgic.
After all, I had been through so much since then helping Admiral Yi Sunsin, meeting Jeanne, and more.
A firm, masculine voice echoed faintly in my ears, as if lingering in my mind.
— Pardon me, but could I trouble you for a drink?
The very first historical figure I had met. The man who awakened my abilities.
— Napoleon Bonaparte.
Napoleon.
To me, he was more than just a historical hero; he held a deeply significant meaning.
If I hadn’t met him, I might still be struggling as an E-rank Hunter.
‘I miss him.’
I would never see him again, but the sight of Toulon Harbor made me think of him.
[You have entered Toulon Harbor.]
[This is a battlefield imbued with the legend of France’s revolutionary hero, Napoleon.]
[The efficiency of Napoleon’s Rifle has increased by 80%.]
[Accuracy has increased by 90%.]
[Battlefield Charisma has been unlocked.]
A flood of status messages appeared, granting new traits to Napoleon’s Rifle.
==
[Battlefield Charisma]
─The French Revolutionary hero Napoleon inspired his people to military glory.
Those who join him on the battlefield will not fear death.
==
‘A courage buff, huh.’
As I was processing my newly acquired trait, Jeanne suddenly spoke up.
“Who is Napoleon?”
She must have seen the status window as well, her expression filled with curiosity.
Since Jeanne lived in the 15th century, an 18th-century figure like Napoleon was completely unfamiliar to her.
“He was a hero. A man who rose from a low-ranking officer to become an emperor.”
I glanced around Toulon Harbor as I continued.
“This is the battlefield where he made his debut.”
“You seem to know him well.”
“I met him once.”
“…Oh, did he visit the General Store too?”
“Yes, he was my very first customer.”
I left it at that.
Toulon Harbor was not peaceful enough for a leisurely conversation.
Boom—!
The roar of cannon fire echoed across the harbor as the fortress at the entrance connecting the sea to Toulon was bombarded.
Fort Mulgrave.
The ironclad fortress that Napoleon had seized from the Royalists still stood tall.
As if someone had rebuilt it.
Boom—!
A swarm of dead men was relentlessly shelling Fort Mulgrave.
It was as if the Siege of Toulon had been brought back to life.
But the situation was entirely reversed.
The bombardment failed to inflict any real damage on the fortress, the deafening blasts serving only as a futile spectacle.
Of course, that was to be expected.
The key to the Siege of Toulon Napoleon was absent.
Toulon had only fallen in history because of Napoleon’s genius in military strategy.
That was why, in the modern era, people often joked about the Toulon Gate.
— Unless Napoleon himself rises from the dead, conquering Toulon Gate is impossible.
No modern Hunter had ever been able to replace him.
Of course, it wasn’t just a matter of strategy and tactics.
The revolutionary forces here did not recognize Hunters as allies. Instead, they viewed them as enemies and indiscriminately attacked them with artillery fire.
‘And if you die, you join them.’
If a Hunter died at the hands of the Royalists, they became a Royalist. If they perished to the Revolutionaries, they became a Revolutionary.
Become undead.
Royalists, Revolutionaries it didn’t matter. To Hunters, they were all terrifying aberrations that needed to be exterminated.
But that was only true for ordinary Hunters.
“Jeanne, let’s head over there.”
“Won’t it be dangerous?”
“It’s fine. I have a plan.”
I pointed toward the Revolutionary artillery on the hill, the very ones bombarding the fortress.
As we ascended the hill, the grotesque beings turned their hollow gazes toward us.
[Ah oh oh─]
The moment they seemed ready to fire their cannons at us.
[Battlefield Charisma has been activated.]
The trait imbued within Napoleon’s Rifle took effect, and the undead suddenly halted in their tracks.
Hundreds of pale, ghostly eyes all turned toward the rifle in my hands.
And then.
[──!]
They uttered incomprehensible words before snapping to attention, saluting me as if welcoming a superior officer.
***
With the first artillery unit under my command, I moved through the hill, steadily absorbing the Revolutionary forces.
Starting with the Jacobins, then The Fearless, and finally The Purge.
A total of three artillery units had fallen under my command.
Of course, simply gaining control of the Revolutionaries didn’t mean I could clear the Gate.
The Revolutionary forces were numerically inferior to the Royalists, and worse, the enemy had the advantage of holding a fortress.
But I had witnessed Napoleon’s warfare firsthand.
I knew exactly what he prioritized and how he had once conquered Fort Mulgrave.
“Advance and reposition.”
[Ah oh─!]
The undead moved swiftly, shifting the artillery into position.
Three batteries surrounded Fort Mulgrave, closing in.
It was the very same encirclement strategy that Napoleon had once used.
And I wasn’t relying on strategy alone.
Boom—! Boom—!
The firepower unleashed by the undeads' cannons was on an entirely different level than before.
[Grapeshot General, Napoleon]
The trait that turned ordinary cannons into self-propelled artillery now applied universally to the Revolutionaries under my command, merging with [Battlefield Charisma].
Kwaaaang—!
A section of Fort Mulgrave crumbled under the bombardment, sending chills down my spine.
‘So this is the true power of Napoleon’s Rifle.’
The abilities unlocked within Toulon Gate far exceeded my imagination.
As I stood in awe of its power.
“Seojun.”
“What is it, Jeanne?”
“There are people over there.”
“People?”
I turned in the direction Jeanne pointed, and my eyes widened.
In the heart of the harbor, where Royalist undeads prowled,
A group of living humans was hiding in the crevices of the terrain.
***
‘I was careless.’
Rachel Bonaparte felt a deep sense of frustration.
As the current head of the Bonaparte family and an S-rank Hunter of France, Rachel had entered Toulon Gate to subdue it before it spiraled completely out of control.
Now, she found herself stranded at its very center, having lost most of the Hunters who had accompanied her.
She hadn’t let her guard down.
Rachel had meticulously prepared for this expedition, and under normal circumstances, she should have already cleared Toulon Gate by now.
If only Toulon Gate had remained in its previous state.
But the unstable Gate had begun to shift, warping into something far more dangerous.
‘I have to take down their commanders? I never heard anything about that.’
The undeads were moving in a structured, military-like formation, with each group led by an officer.
Unless those officers were eliminated, the undeads would keep resurrecting.
She had taken the sacrifice of twenty Hunters just to figure that out.
“Lady Bonaparte, we need to get out of the harbor first.”
“I know.”
Rachel peered out from the pit, observing the undead as they roamed the area.
And then.
Kwaaaang—!
The entire harbor trembled, as if struck by an earthquake.
Rachel's eyes widened as she turned toward the source of the deafening noise.
Fort Mulgrave.
The fortress that no Hunter had ever managed to breach its walls were crumbling.
The sound had come from its collapse.
But what shocked her even more was something else entirely.
“The artillery… why are they…?”
The Revolutionary artillery units had completely surrounded Fort Mulgrave.
‘Are these undeads… using strategy?’
The cannons, which had remained motionless before, had now repositioned themselves, forming a siege around the fortress.
It was an organized, intelligent maneuver something Rachel had never seen from these creatures.
‘That’s impossible.’
Watching these undead execute a human military strategy left her utterly bewildered.
“L-Lady Bonaparte, the undeads are closing in!”
At her subordinate’s frantic warning, Rachel turned.
“!”
Revolutionary undead were pushing through the Royalists, flooding into the harbor.
To her, it didn’t matter which side they belonged to. More undeads just meant more threats.
“We don’t have a choice. We’re breaking through.”
Rachel made up her mind she had to escape before it was too late.
But then, she saw something strange.
At the very front of the approaching horde, figures that didn’t look like undeads were mixed in.
‘…Humans?’
They were definitely people.
A young East Asian man, his lower face concealed by a mask, and a blonde-haired girl.
And the most shocking part was that the undead were following the young man.
“Th-the undeads are following a human!“
“T-That’s impossible…”
Why would an undead follow a person?
She had no time to process this absurdity when the two figures were approaching them.
“We’re here to help.”
Rachel barely understood his words. Korean. He was speaking Korean.
But she did understand that they were offering aid.
Then, she heard something even more familiar, her own language.
“Are you injured?”
The blonde girl was looking directly at Rachel’s right arm.
“Yes, my arm is…”
Rachel grimaced as she glanced down.
Her arm was swollen and useless, the bone clearly fractured.
“May I heal it?”
“Oh… yes, please. I’d be grateful.”
The girl gently placed her hand on Rachel’s injured arm.
A warm light radiated from the blonde girl’s hands, and in an instant, the swelling in Rachel’s arm vanished.
Her eyes widened in shock.
‘…It doesn’t hurt at all.’
Her skin, her bones, everything had been completely restored, as if the injury had never existed in the first place.
At this level, the girl had to be at least an A-rank light-attribute Awakened.
Rachel watched in astonishment as the girl moved on to heal the other Hunters’ wounds.
And then a sharp crack of gunfire rang out.
Bang! Bang!
Rachel turned and saw the young man, rifle in hand, expertly taking down undeads.
“You have to aim for the officers!”
She didn’t know if he understood her words, but the young man was already doing exactly that, firing at the officers with unerring precision.
Bang!
Bang!
Every shot hit its mark.
The officers collapsed one by one, and with them, the undeads under their command crumbled to dust.
‘He’s taking them down that easily?’
His accuracy and firepower were unbelievable.
Rachel could only watch in a daze until something caught her eye.
Bang!
Bang!
The rifle in his hands, more specifically, the insignia engraved on its stock.
Rachel’s breath hitched ‘a golden eagle’ there was no mistaking it.
That golden eagle was the very symbol of her family, the Bonaparte lineage.
The crest of Napoleon and the rifle he wielded.
It was the rifle known to have been one of Napoleon’s favored weapons.
There was no doubt that it was Napoleon’s Rifle.
But the young man wielded it freely, without restriction as if it had always belonged to him.
‘How…?’
It was impossible.
To properly wield Napoleon’s relics, one had to be attuned to their magical wavelength.
Even Rachel herself, a direct descendant of Napoleon and the head of the Bonaparte family, couldn’t use his relics with such mastery.
Unless Napoleon himself had been reborn.
“…….”
Rachel’s eyes trembled as she stared at the young man, Choi Seojun.
——————
HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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