I Gain Infinite Gold Just By Waiting-Chapter 231: Episode 3-2_Harbinger (3)

4.

Elinel Rayard.

The princess’s name, which had never been revealed to anyone except the Emperor and a select few, was now made public at the very moment the entire continent was watching.

It was not a name imbued with any special power. Hearing the name of an unknown princess didn’t suddenly fill anyone with strength.

However, for the people, for the citizens of the Empire, the princess’s declaration made in her own name felt like magic, even though it held no such power.

“WOOOOAAAAAAH—!”

A thunderous roar of cheers shook Arhel.

If this had been Teheran, the reaction might have been more subdued. That place was merely a border fortress surrounded by mountains; one might feel that to die there was to vanish without a trace, becoming ash along with nature.

But this was the Imperial capital. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

The heart of the Empire, which had stood from its beginning to its end.

Here, they would make their last stand.

It felt like they could win.

Even if they lost, it felt like they could fight without regret.

That was what they thought as they prepared for war. They listened to reports of the advancing Allied Forces and vowed to take down at least one more enemy before they died.

That resolve held firm right up until the moment the Allied Forces surrounded the capital.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The ground trembled so violently they could feel it through the soles of their feet. The drumbeats that assaulted their eardrums echoed from every direction.

Yet the army itself was silent.

Though hundreds of thousands of troops encircled the capital from a distance so great it seemed unreal, not a single person spoke.

They only stomped their feet in unison.

A collective gulp ran through the defenders. Their hands and feet trembled. They had sworn to give their lives for the Empire and for their families, but the sight before them shook that resolve to its core.

There were so many of them.

It wasn’t just hundreds of thousands; it might very well be millions.

Every one of them was a soldier. They might not all be professionally trained knights, but they were all people who knew how to handle a weapon.

And behind them, there would be knights. The number of knights on horseback and mages alone easily reached into the hundreds of thousands.

“How are we supposed to win?” someone muttered, the words escaping before they could be stopped.

No one else dared to say it aloud, yet everyone silently agreed.

Even the massive dragon floating in the air seemed as if it would be powerless against such overwhelming numbers.

The only small mercy was that the enemy had stopped advancing at a distance so far they were barely visible.

Yet that only made it more terrifying.

Because they couldn’t see clearly, because the enemy was nothing but a vague sea of specks on the horizon.

What would happen if those specks started to charge?

Could they even be stopped?

Unless an endless rain of fire poured down from the sky, wouldn’t those black dots simply sweep over Arhel’s massive walls and crush everything in their path?

Fear slowly consumed the Imperial capital.

The princess’s speech was already a distant memory. Her bravery, the promise she had made in her own name, would be meaningless against the Allied Forces that had brought the entire Empire to its knees and executed the late Emperor without a hint of resistance.

A clear, delicate melody began to play.

Amid the rising tide of anxiety, the sound tickled their ears.

’Did I mishear that?’

In a situation where the thunderous drums and the trembling earth threatened to burst their eardrums, there was no way such a pure sound could be heard.

’I must be hearing things.’

But it was not an auditory hallucination.

The delicate melody swelled, becoming a song that washed over the entire fortress. Before they knew it, the drumbeats had faded, and the song enveloped the city, spreading outward until it reached even the Allied Forces.

Everyone’s gaze focused on a single point.

The top of the city wall.

The princess—Elinel—was still standing there.

And she was singing.

She had set aside the sword she held during her speech. Now, she was unleashing her greatest talent. The Special-grade harp she had brought from Lerbel’s lair amplified her voice hundreds of times over, soothing the hearts of all who heard it.

For this moment, at least, no one trembled.

They closed their eyes and listened, smiles even appearing on their faces as their hearts grew calm.

By the time the song came to an end, even the Allied Forces had stopped their drumming and foot-stomping to listen.

A brief silence followed.

Even with the eyes of the entire continent fixed on her, the princess said nothing.

Instead, she began a second song.

If the first song had calmed their hearts, something they could listen to in peace with their eyes closed, the second song had a slightly faster tempo. As the rhythm quickened, the strength she poured into each line became both beautiful and powerful.

It filled them with energy and courage.

Some might have thought it was just a song, but her voice carried real power.

To her allies, it gave courage.

To her enemies, it became a threat.

For the Allied Forces, the song was fear itself.

The tempo grew faster, her voice stronger. The lyrics, brimming with confidence, amplified the effect. Their hearts pounded, and their confidence waned. Some even began to imagine that they would all die in some trap the enemy had prepared beyond those walls.

That was the power of words.

The power of song.

And the princess’s song was not all.

“ROOOOAAAR!”

The golden dragon, the hope of the Empire, let out a fierce roar, asserting its overwhelming presence.

* * *

[You have obtained 10,000,000 Gold.]

[Your Level has increased by 10.]

[You have obtained 50 Stat Points.]

[You have obtained 15 Special Stat Points.]

Until now, the Gold Missions had always progressed Chapter by Chapter. Once a Chapter ended, he could return to Earth and choose when to enter the next one. Because of that, even in this merciless quest where he couldn’t return unless he cleared the Chapter—where he had to choose between finishing it or dying—Kim Buja had been able to keep a smile on his face.

For the first time, that rule had been broken.

The moment Chapter 3-2: Omen was cleared, it immediately rolled over into 3-3, and the rewards poured in.

The rewards were so enormous they couldn’t be compared to anything he had received before. In an instant, he had reached level 49, and his unassigned stat points exceeded 200. His financial power had skyrocketed beyond question. Under normal circumstances, this was the kind of situation where he would have thanked a god he didn’t even believe in and happily agreed to keep going a hundred times over.

Yet right now, it didn’t feel all that welcome.

“That’s a lot of them.”

He had more or less expected this, but facing an army of millions made a wave of helplessness wash over him.

At the same time, it was a relief.

“Good thing I pushed myself to get this far.”

He had managed to persuade Lerbel, but that was all the help he could get from her. In fact, it was possible that the dragon’s interference had caused the “Rift” allowing the demonkind to cross into the human world to grow larger. Whether that was a good sign or not was something only the war would reveal.

“Phew.”

He dismissed the satisfying holograms and assumed his dragon form. He didn’t have the luxury to rejoice over the numbers floating before him. If he failed to win this battle, he would end up buried here as a handful of ash, those holograms shoved into some forgotten corner with him.

He began to cautiously weigh the odds.

’Is it possible?’

Even as a dragon, there were too many of them. This was a completely different caliber of force from the ragtag soldiers scraped together for the Holy War. Not just knights, but mages as well. The priests would repel anything harmful, and the mages would do everything they could to counter his magic.

If Kim Buja were a real dragon, able to freely wield a true dragon’s magic, he wouldn’t have needed to worry about the mages. But that wasn’t the case. The spells he cast were made entirely of gold. Even if he paid the full price, the penalties meant their power wouldn’t match the original, and any mage who examined them would sense something was off.

That was why the opening move was critical.

He unleashed his power in time with the princess’s song.

“ROOOOAAAR!”

’Now that’s how a dragon should roar.’

With his savage cry, the sky split open, and a meteor that swallowed the sun appeared. For the Allied Forces, for those who had experienced the previous Holy War, it was a familiar sight.

Meteor!

His aim was off last time, but he wouldn’t make that mistake again. He couldn’t drop it on everyone, since the enemy was everywhere, but he drove it straight down toward the enemy command.

The meteor grew larger and larger, its heat becoming a palpable force—an overwhelming spell whose presence was undeniable.

During the Holy War, people had just sat there and taken it.

This time was different.

WHOOM—!

A massive vortex of mana surged into existence. Among the Allied Forces gathered here were not only mages but even archmages who had broken past the human limit and reached beyond the 9th Circle. Led by one such archmage, the storm of gathered mana created something.

The meteor did not stop. No matter what they created, he had the confidence and the power to smash it.

The mages’ brilliant solution was to swallow the meteor whole just as it arrived.

The mouths of all who watched hung open.

The storm of mana had not shattered or blocked the meteor. They had never even considered that they could do anything to that colossal force, that dragon-made catastrophe, with human power alone.

Instead, they consumed it.

A black hole that warped space itself swallowed a meteor several times its size.

It was an impressive response, one worthy of admiration. Considering that, unlike the dragon who had cast the spell alone, hundreds of mages had worked together to achieve this, it was clear this was not something they had improvised on the spot.

They had expected it.

The dragon’s Meteor.

They had prepared a perfect countermeasure. It showed just how much the Allied Forces had staked on this war.

This time, it was the Empire’s song that was cut off.

In the face of that immense, overwhelming display, the fact that the mages had exhausted their mana and fallen back was barely noticeable. Even if they didn’t slay the dragon, the fact that they had stopped it was enough. The mages had done their part.

From here on, it was a job for the endless ranks of soldiers and knights.

No, it was far too easy a job.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

As if waiting for this very moment, the Allied Forces, which had been holding its position, began to advance.

One step, then another.

Slowly.

But steadily.

Once they entered arrow range, countless arrows flew over Arhel’s walls, but they did not stop the enemy’s advance. They didn’t even slow it. As one soldier fell, another advanced over his body.

There was no fear on their faces. The Allied Forces had their own will, their own morale. To them, the Empire was evil and darkness. If they could save a continent tainted by evil through their own sacrifice—

Their unceasing march reached the walls. They had never intended to break down the sturdy, towering walls themselves. However, they had already crossed these walls once before.

“Break down the gate!”

Unlike the walls, which didn’t bear so much as a scratch, the gate would eventually fall.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

The sound that rang out was so massive it felt as if even the indestructible walls were shaking.

Because of that, they didn’t hear it. The Allied Forces, drunk on the heat and sound of battle, thought the shaking was their own doing.

RUMBLE... CRASH—!

They didn’t realize that the ground itself had been trembling, however faintly, for some time now.