Novel

[The chieftain of the giants, Kamash, was ridiculously huge. No matter how straight the hulking Molon drew himself up, his height could only reach about the same level as Kamash’s heel.]

[Although Molon leaped forward, swinging his prided ax, that fool was sent flying with a single kick from Kamash. ‘He’s strong!’ Molon shouted. Wasn’t something like that already obvious?]

[The beautiful Sienna raised her staff, Akasha! The light emitting from the staff was just as beautiful as Sienna. Some of you may not know this, but the giants possess the greatest magic resistance among all the races. Do you know what this means? No matter how powerful the cute Sienna’s spells were, they were useless against a giant.]

[But her foe was the dreaded Kamash! A giant that was hundreds of years old and the most powerful chieftain in all of the giants’ history. However, you all should know that just because you’re powerful doesn’t mean you’re a great person. And that’s exactly what Kamash was like. He was a savage bastard who sold his entire race to the Demon Kings.]

[With her beautiful magic, Sienna beautifully attempted to restrain Kamash.]

‘How on earth would you use beautiful magic to beautifully restrain someone?’ Eugene momentarily stopped reading the fairy tale to ponder this question.

[However, it was impossible to restrain Kamash. In return for betraying his entire race, that savage bastard had received a powerful increase in strength from the Demon Kings. A giant could already fight a dragon with just its bare body, but Kamash, who had the blessings of the Demon Kings on top of that, was just like a sentient natural disaster.]

Even the revised versions contained the battle with Kamash, the chieftain of the giants. However, the backstory of Kamash wasn’t told as explicitly as in this first version. He was merely described as a bad giant. As it was a fairy tale meant for young kids, they now published a simplified version.

[Still, they wouldn’t back down. The gentle and elegant Anise radiated a divine light of resolve. That’s right. They couldn’t back down. Because behind Kamash marched an army of giants numbering in the hundreds, and they were advancing towards the Plains of Palmir.]

Eugene could remember it clearly.

The Plains of Palmir lay at the entrance to the Devildom of Helmuth. Three hundred years ago, a tall rampart had stood there, separating the plains from the border of Helmuth.

To prove his loyalty to the Demon Kings, Kamash had led an army of giants and had come to topple the wall personally. It was impossible for any of the armies belonging to either the kingdoms or the empires to stop this sentient natural disaster.

However, they still needed to be stopped.

[When the sweet Anise lifted high a rosary, what happened next was amazing. Brilliant lights poured down from the heavens like rain. Although the human armies prepared to stop the giants appeared insignificantly small, Anise’s blessing gave courage and strength to them all.]

[A thousand men were gathered to face hundreds of giants. Do you think that was too few? But it couldn’t be helped. To you who are currently reading this book, are you truly confident that you wouldn’t run away in the face of these giants’ advance? The shaking from the footsteps of these enormously tall monsters could be felt on the Plains of Palmir a few days before they even arrived.]

[Also, the truth was that the number of allies didn’t really matter.]

That’s just how it was.

Eugene recalled his past life from hundreds of years ago.

[Because Vermouth was there.]

The Great Vermouth, the Master-of-All, and the God of War.

He raised his dazzling Holy Sword high and marched forward. The rain of light called down by Anise increased the Holy Sword’s strength. Any emotions detrimental to the battle, such as fear or despair, were erased from everybody’s minds. At that moment, all the humans gathered there weren’t afraid of death, pain, the giants, or even the Demon Kings.

Anise’s blessing didn’t stop at just erasing any useless emotions. Any wounds would heal immediately, and no matter how long you fought, it made it so that you wouldn’t get tired. In addition, it released the physical limits of what your body could handle, making your body more suitable for battle.

Giants possessed strong magical resistance. But that didn’t mean that Sienna’s spells were useless. She shook the earth even more fiercely than the giants’ footsteps and tore it apart. Lava rose from the ground, and lightning fell from the sky.

[Molon, that idiot, wanted to test his strength against Kamash in a frontal contest. Although everyone thought Molon was an idiot, we all held back the urge to say it, and only that rude bastard Hamel actually socked Molon in the jaw.]

—You stupid bastard. A contest of strength? You’re saying that you want to go up to that savage bastard and challenge him to an arm-wrestling match? Don’t spout such bullshit, and just stay with the soldiers over there.

—Why do I need to do that?

—If you’re not there to stop the giants, all those soldiers will be crushed into pancakes by the giants’ feet!

When Hamel had shouted that in a fit of perplexed frustration, Molon’s mouth had hung open for a few moments in a look of confusion before he had nodded with an exclamation.

—Oh, so that’s the case. Hamel, you really don’t want them to die.

—Why are you putting it like that? If we’re going to fight together, it’s just better if more survive than less.

—Okay, I’ve got it. I’ll act as their shield. But what will you be doing?

—What I always do.

It was better for more to survive than less.

Of course, that was only the case when talking about his allies. As for enemies, it was definitely better if a lot of them were killed. This was also something that Hamel was particularly confident, enthusiastic, and skilled in ensuring.

[At that time, the knights still believed in their own greatness. When Molon stood in front of the soldiers, the knights headed over to Vermouth. Introducing themselves as the knights of this-rose and that-pebble,[1] they continued to spout off the names of knightly orders that no one would ever even care about. What these idiots basically meant by saying all this was—]

Let us fight together.

[What did they mean by ‘fight together?’ It would be difficult for them to cut off one of Kamash’s toes even if they all charged together. Also, saying that they would fight together with Vermouth was nothing but lip service. What they really wanted was to have their names added to Vermouth’s legend so their reputation could be passed down to future generations.]

[Besides, Vermouth didn’t really like fighting with such groups. He very well knew that if he fought alongside these knights, they would only drag him down uselessly and serve as meatshields at most.]

[This was the Great Vermouth. There was only one man who was able to fight alongside that inhuman monster, and he was the only one Vermouth could rely on this battlefield.]

—Hamel.

—Yeah. What?

[The Stupid Hamel.]

—The left arm. Can you do it?

—I’d prefer the right arm. Isn’t that bastard, Kamash, right-handed?

—If that’s the case, you can take the right arm.

—Why do we even need to divide up the left arm and the right arm? I’ll just figure it out as I go along.

[That’s… um… it’s hard to put it into words. Although you readers might not be aware of it, it’s taken me a lot of tries to somehow write this down, you know? However, if you’ve read up to this point, I’m sure you’ve already noticed it. I’m not very good at writing stories. I just write whatever comes to mind.]

[In any case, it was an unbelievable fight. Kamash was as tall as a mountain. As for Vermouth and Hamel, well…. Although they weren’t as hulking as Molon, they were still tall and with good physiques, but there was no way that they could be compared with Kamash.]

[However, Kamash wasn’t able to advance any further. When Kamash attempted to take another step, Hamel slashed at his ankle with an ax. When Kamash swung his arm at the pest, Hamel sliced his arm with a sword. When Kamash threw his fist at Hamel, Hamel’s spear pierced Kamash’s wrist.]

[Then Vermouth sliced open Kamash’s throat.]Geett the l𝒂test 𝒏𝒐vels on no/v/elbin(.)c/om

It wasn’t as simple as this book made it appear. Trusting in Anise’s blessing, Hamel had headed out to meet Kamash. Whenever things got scary, Sienna’s magic intervened, then Vermouth would parry the attack. Without the help of the light from the Holy Sword and Vermouth’s assistance, Hamel couldn’t have possibly blocked Kamash alone.

[Only the Holy Sword was able to put an end to Kamash, who was clad in the power of the Demon Kings. But, since the Holy Sword would only recognize Vermouth as its master, the only one who was finally able to kill Kamash was Vermouth.]

[With his throat cleanly sliced open, the blood spewing from Kamash washed over the plains. It was like a riverbank somewhere had burst open.]

[Although Kamash had died, the giants did not surrender. However, the situation was still more manageable than it was at first. The Demon Kings’ blessing had faded with Kamash’s death, so the beautiful Sienna’s beautiful magic was able to exert its full force.]

This was what Eugene had felt having read this far, ‘It was either Sienna or Anise who wrote this book.’

Of course, the author of this classic fairy tale was unknown, but having read this book, Eugene had figured something out.

The Wise Sienna and the Faithful Anise. Those were their usual epithets.

However, in this first edition of the fairy tale, all sorts of titles were attached to the front of Sienna and Anise’s names. Beautiful Sienna. Elegant Anise. Cute Sienna. Sweet Anise. Charming Sienna. Seductive Anise.

‘Just what were those two bitches playing at?’

On the other hand, Molon and Hamel were harassed terribly. Idiotic Molon. Asshole Hamel. Stupid Molon. Son-of-a-bitch Hamel. Noisy Molon. Foul-mouthed Hamel.

Perhaps because they couldn’t bear to attach any other title to Vermouth, from beginning to end, whenever he appeared, he was only described as the Great Vermouth.

1. The original text says: ‘The knights of the dog-shit roses and the horse-shit rat-tail.’ Saying that two things are dog-shit and horse-shit is a Korean way of saying they’re virtually identical, similar to po-tay-to and po-tah-to. As for the rat-tail, it means something small or insignificant, like saying that the pay is peanuts. The rose might also mean something that looks pretty but is useless. ☜