Dark Mage - Volume 1 - Chapter 12

LN: I went over it once…punctuation is not my strong suit. :<

Dokgosong turned his curious gaze towards Shrekheimer.

“I want to know everything about him.”

“I’ll start explaining then.”

According to Shrekheimer’s explanation, the Crossen Magnus at that time was an unbeatable person with strong swordsmanship.  At that time, no other Sword Masters in the Truvania could beat the Crossen Magnus, but they were able to grasp the extent of his skills.

“The people thought he was a lion sent by Belhazel-nim.  They couldn’t believe that a human could have that much skill in swordsmanship.”

Of course at the beginning when Crossen Magnus arrived, he wasn’t able to communicate with the people of this place.  This cultural difference bred a lot of misunderstanding.  Eventually even though he possessed strong swordsmanship, he had to become a mercenary to continue on living.  Moreover, his days were filled with request for duels from each country’s knights, who was looking for fame.  He fought countless battles, but it was spread that he had never lost a match. It resulted in him being regarded with jealously from each country’s knights. Isn’t there an old saying that say the outstanding person will be regarded with jealousy first rather than envy?  He was a lowly mercenary with no titles, so the result couldn’t be too surprising.  However, his fate changed drastically when he had a coincidental meeting.

“When he was living in the capital of the Ikarot Kingdom, the monarch of the surrounding country Crossenna was staying there.  At that time, the Crossena kingdom had been wiped out by the orc’s attack.  The royal family barely escaped and with their knights, they had entrusted their bodies to the Ikarot Kingdom. Crossena’s monarch lived the life of an exile, when he coincidentally witnessed Crossen Magnus’ fight.”

Crossen Magnus possessed an inhuman amount of sword skills.  In those days, it has been told that the Crossena’s monarch was rapt by Crossen Magnus’ swordsmanship.

“He is the only person who can revive our ruined country.”

The Crossena’s old monarch made a resolute decision to revive his kingdom that was conquered by the orcs.  He transferred his seat as the kingdom’s monarch alongside his beautiful daughter to Crossen Magnus.  The senior statesman of the Ikarot Kingdom thought this was shocking, and they could only be very appalled by this decision. Even if he had extraordinary skill, he was just a lowly mercenary.  He was given the seat as a monarch of a country alongside a queen…  Even thought this was a collapsed kingdom, this had never happened in history.  However the Crossena’s monarch didn’t blink an eye and he went forth with it.  The result being Crossen Magnus officially inherited the Crossena kingdom.  The name Crossen was made during that time.

“I bet no one on Truvania knows the Magnus’ real name.”

In those days, everyone mocked the decision, but it wasn’t long before it was revealed that the decision of the monarch was excellent.  The true worth of Crossen Magnus was revealed when he learn the language of this place.(TLN:idk why they didn’t use the translation magic…or maybe this is referring to that?)  His leadership to command the knights were on par with his swordsmanship. The exiled Crossena retained about 500 knights.  Of course they weren’t paid properly so their morale was at their lowest.  What was worse was there were some knights that ran away under the cover of darkness…
In those days, Crossen Magnus displayed his extraordinary abilities, and he immediately was able to win the hearts of the 500 knights.  Then what continued was a somewhat unique training method that was passed onto the knights.  He promised to fulfill the goal of rebuilding the ruined Crossena kingdom.

“On our Truvania continent, it was known at the time that the Sword Masters were an existence considered to be a gift from god.  It was that difficult to become a Sword Master.  Countless knights trained with their lives on the line, but only a few were able to succeed in becoming a Sword Master.  Crossen Magnus broke that stereotype.

In those days, the strongest country Ikarot had a total of 200 Sword Masters.  With only their strengths, they boasted that they could sufficiently exterminate a kingdom.  Using this the Ikarot Kingdom was able to be adhere to the seat of strongest kingdom for a very long time.  However Crossen Magnus, a single man, was able to crumble the sturdy impregnable fortress. About half of knights who trained following Crossen Magnus’ secret method rose to the level of Sword Master in 10 years.

“At that time, Ikarot and the other kingdoms were shocked at this news.  Even though the knights of Crossena kingdom had a reputation for swordsmanship, it was considered a miracle that they were able to grow 250 Sword Masters in just 10 years.”

In one breath, Crossen Magnus was able to attain knights whose strength exceeded the Ikarot kingdom.  Finally he was able to gather all the knights under him and he dragged them into war.  The number of soldiers he had was low, but the knights he had was on a level where they could annihilate a kingdom. This was the spring when we were in midst of an all-out war against the orcs.  From all over the place, the war that risked life and death broke out. In that war, Crossen Magnus’ knights showed power that couldn’t be demonstrated by others.

“The power of the knights that were trained by Crossen Magnus were beyond imagination. In a week, they were able to kill twenty thousand orcs and they had recovered the all the territories of the fallen kingdom of Crossena…”

Afterwards, Crossen Magnus’ path in life was robust.  After his skills and wartime accomplishments were spread, all the hot-blooded lads who were hiding from the orcs in the Crossena kingdom signed up for his army.  However, this wasn’t an isolated incident that happened in the Crossena kingdom.  At the time, the defeated soldiers and knights from the numerous fallen kingdoms all came forth.  They all decided to make serving Crossen Magus as their only objective.  He was the only person who would be able to take revenge against the orcs, that had destroyed their family and homeland…  After the previous monarch made an excellent choice, Crossenna kingdom stood above the previous strongest Ikarot kingdom as the strongest country.

“The humans were at an overwhelming disadvantage at that time.  The orc race’s population were more numerous compared to the humans and after many kingdoms fell, endless humans were being killed.  However even during these times, army of the Crossenna kingdom kept achieving victory against the orc race.”

However even though the Crossena’s army was strong, they couldn’t overcome the numerical inferiority. To turn the tides of war, Crossen Magnus made a brave decision.  He would mobilize his hand-picked knights and penetrate into the orc’s military headquarters.  He decided to steal their Tablet of Oath.

“As I have told  you earlier, Crossen Magnus’ plan succeeded in the end.  As he had intended, the soaring morale of the soldiers enabled them to push overwhelmingly against the orcs unlike before.  Finally in the end, they were able to be victorious in the flow of the offensive and defensive battle.  However, the problem didn’t end there.  As a consequence of starting a race war against Belhazel-nim’s will, the humans had to experience unthinkable great calamities.  Three of them…”

“What do you mean by great calamities?”

The sun was setting, but the conversation between the two didn’t seem like it would end.  It was fortunate that Shrekheimer was a high level priest since he could maintain the translation magic for a long time. (TLN: mystery solved, i thought the language spell stuck after casting it once)  Dok-gosong forgot about sleeping and he was immersed in Shrekheimer’s story.  Although it was the history of a foreign country that was far far away, it had direct implication for him.

“Through the war of conquest, Crossen Magnus rose to become the most powerful hero.  However, no one could predict that a problem would arise from this.  Even though the war had ended, the disputes continued without an end in sight.”

Shrekheimer thought about what was considered the most hideous conflict in the human history.  After the race war had ended, the church of Belhazel’s power was at its zenith.  Therefore it was considered to be the highest crime to believe in another god other than Belhazel.  If you were found out then you would have been immediately executed without a trial.  Moreover, the people who did not believe in god was also captured.

“The problem arose from Crossen Magnus being an Unbeliever, who didn’t believe in god.”

Unbelievers.  They were people who didn’t believe in god and they relied on their own abilities to pave their own path in life.  They denied the main god Belhazel and they used only their will to solve everything.  The origin of the Unbelievers was Crossen Magnus.

“It was a tremendously stupid situation.  We have to carve out our own fate.  After that we have to think about the problem of finding god.”

It was an era where everyone relied on the grace of god for everything.  Crossen Magnus ridiculed this.  His fate did not solely exist(according to his perspective) for god, so he couldn’t understand how he could influence it. (TLN: confusing sentence/wording- in it’s original form it doesn’t really made sense… basically asking how god can influence his actions)  Therefore his beliefs were soon spread between the Crossena kingdom’s knights.  At that point, they believed more in their king, Crossen Magnus, then Belhazel. With his teachings, the Crossena kingdom’s knight focused on training their swordsmanships and abilities instead of piety.  Through him they were able to rapidly increase their skills.  Therefore they were able to win the race wars and they played a pivotal role in it.

“No we shan’t be long”

After the race war ended, Crossen Magnus developed confidence and he started revealing his beliefs without hesitation.  This was the spring when a person stepped forward and openly proclaimed his disbelief on the Truvania continent.

“I do not believe in the god, Belhazel.  I only believe in my ability and hard work.”

At the time, his proclamation created a great sensation.  The Belhazel church and the monarchs who were devout could not accept his words and do nothing.  This was when the Belhazel church was at its strongest, and it was considered the gravest crime to deny the existence of god. It couldn’t be helped, but Crossen Magnus’ proclamation necessitated a conflict between him and the Belhazel church.  Dok-gosong could only shake his head in dismay when he heard the situation up until then.

“I cannot understand this. They tried to oust someone who had distinguished himself in war for such a small problem…”

Shrkeheimer laughed bitterly.

“At the time, it wasn’t a simple problem.”

Despite admiring Crossen Magnus, he was also a devout believer in Belhazel.  When he made his proclamation, he couldn’t help but feel disappointed at Crossen Magnus…  The biggest role in driving out Crossen Magnus was other kingdoms monarchs’ jealousy.

“The monarchs during those times were extremely guarded against Crossen Magnus.  In the eyes of the lowly soldiers, he was worshipped almost as a being synonymous to god.  It was obvious that they would shun him.”

He had incredible wartime accomplishments that could not be ignored. Also, their own soldiers were mesmerized by Crossen Magnus’ achievements.  Each of the monarchs had an unbelievable amount of wariness towards Crossen Magnus.  If opinions were to come out that all the kingdoms on the continent should be united and Crossen Magnus should be crowned as the emperor of the united countrues then they would be unable to go against that tide.  The lowly soldiers already admired Crossen Magnus more than the country’s monarch.  When Crossen Magnus’ explosive proclamation came forth, each country’s monarch couldn’t say their feelings but it was something that they had wanted in their hearts… (TLN: 불감청고소원(不敢請固所願) ughh another idiom- its something like you want something to happen with all your heart but you don’t dare request it ex. you give someone something they wanted or someone received something they really wanted then you would use this phrase)
The Belhazel church’s judgment came down at last. It could be said that this judgment was strengthened by the sponsorship from each kingdoms’ monarch.

“The monarch of Crossena Kingdom, Crossen, committed the grave crime of denying god.  Therefore all his accomplishments will be wiped clean and he will be submitted into court.”

It was a self-evident truth that if he was submitted into court then they would immediately burn him.  Of course Crossen Magnus and the knights that followed him could not accept the judgment.  The Crossena kingdom had acquired power that could not be ignored through the race wars.  The military strength of the Crossena kingdom easily exceeded the combined might of the strongest country Ikarot.  After Crossen Magnus was disobedient, each country’s monarch decided to combine the military powers they possessed to confront Crossen Mangus’ army.  The Truvania continent eventually polarized into the extremes of believers and unbelievers.
Before a war could be initiated, it was imperative for each of them to organize the inside of their home.  Therefore each monarch began a large scale cleanup before the confrontation. (TLN: the monarchs will root out the unrest in their country before going to war…)