The Game Difficulty
Is Insane
The search party, including Nelpers, did not ask Glen in detail how he dealt with the cursed fog or why he had gone beyond the northern forest into the uncharted land.
They simply felt relieved that Glen was safe and rejoiced at their reunion.
That was because while Glen was negotiating with a god inside the Crystal Temple, Romina had accompanied them and quietly swayed their hearts.
“What did you do?” Glen asked.
“Is charming thirty humans really that hard?” Romina replied.
As she answered, she stuck her tongue out slightly.
When Glen frowned at her, Romina smiled shamelessly and poked his side.
“I’m joking. I just shed a few tears and told them some stories about you.”
From the time he cleared out the monsters in Haven Mine and wiped out the hidden Black Cult parish, to how he fought bravely against the demon army—
Romina told the search party about Glen’s deeds she had personally witnessed as his exclusive maid, embellishing them in a very heroic way.
As a result, to Nelpers and the search party, Glen Wordsworth had become a hero who fearlessly dove into the most dangerous places, saved the territory from crisis, and always put the safety of the people first.
“And now, on top of saving Wordsworth, you’ve even become the pioneer who saved Veronia too, haven’t you, young master?”
Romina grinned mischievously as she alternated her gaze between Glen and the enormous crystal-made temple.
“That’s not exactly wrong, but……”
‘Not only did I remove the cursed fog that had tormented the territory for decades, I also discovered a massive amount of crystal that could be used to make Holy Power Stones hidden in the uncharted land.’
Soon, this fact would spread far and wide, and Glen would gain immense public support not only in Wordsworth but also in Veronia.
Of course, enduring such embarrassing praise would be a task in itself.
“So then. It looks like there’s nothing more to see here. Are we going back?”
“No.”
Standing at the towering entrance of the Crystal Temple and looking south, Glen smiled with his usual cunning grin.
“We still need to wrap things up.”
Willoden Veronia could barely breathe under the suffocating weight of anxiety.
“Have you been well?”
Glen Wordsworth sat across from him, smiling warmly with crescent-shaped eyes.
The moment Willoden saw him in person, his mind went completely blank.
‘Damn it…… it finally happened!’
What he had feared had come true.
Why was it that ominous premonitions were always accurate?
Just a week ago, Glen Wordsworth had left for Luciliron after promising to remove the cursed fog in exchange for Veronia dispatching battle priests.
Yet in that single week, Glen not only dispelled the cursed fog that had plagued Veronia for nearly a hundred years, but also discovered an enormous amount of crystal beyond it.
Honestly, calling it a week was generous.
Considering that the distance between Luciliron and Veronia took about two days on horseback, Glen had accomplished all of this in barely three days.
Even Willoden himself, the Grand Lord of Veronia, had failed to solve this problem—yet a boy not even twenty had done it openly and decisively.
How could he not be shaken?
‘Is a real god guiding this man or something?’
Of course, he knew intellectually that such stories were nothing more than rumors circulating in Wordsworth.
But since the situation could not be explained rationally, his thoughts kept drifting toward absurd speculation.
“Lord of Veronia?”
“A-ah, y-yes…… you must have suffered a lot on such a difficult expedition.”
Willoden smiled bitterly.
While exchanging routine praise and encouragement, Willoden’s thoughts raced nonstop.
‘Hah… there’s no point dwelling on what’s already happened.’
Regardless of how it was done, the fact remained that Glen Wordsworth had achieved a great feat.
Now that things had come to this, Willoden focused on what he needed to do next.
The key issue was the crystal structure Glen had discovered in the uncharted land.
How much ownership he could claim over it.
Normally, since the northern uncharted land of Luciliron belonged to Veronia, Willoden could boldly assert ownership.
However, with Glen holding a weakness that could destroy both his life and the entire Veronia family, Willoden’s position was overwhelmingly weak.
‘First, I’ll give up on the battle priest dispatch. I made a promise to him anyway, and there’s nothing to gain from nitpicking that.’
In his absolute underdog position, there was only one move Willoden could make.
Sacrifice one thing to secure as much of the other as possible.
“……By the way, about a promise you and I made earlier.”
As Willoden carefully raised the topic, Glen responded with a bright expression.
“Ah, well, a promise is a promise. We can’t not talk about it.”
“Indeed. Th-that is…… thanks to your efforts, the cursed fog has cleared, so Veronia’s battle priests are much freer now.”
“Yes. I suppose so?”
“Therefore, Veronia intends to spare no support for Wordsworth.”
“Spare no support, you say?”
When Glen raised an eyebrow, Willoden replied with a gentle smile.
“According to the contract, we were to dispatch 300 battle priests and 100 Black Horse Knights to Wordsworth as compensation. However, you are Veronia’s benefactor. So, how about we add Sir Nelpers Luciliron and 200 battle priests under his command as well?”
“Oh, really?”
Glen looked delighted.
The battle priests of Veronia were already considered elite. Among them, those from Luciliron were the very best.
Giving them up was a significant loss even for Willoden.
“Yes. The cursed fog has disappeared anyway, and Sir Nelpers himself volunteered for the dispatch.”
“Sir Nelpers volunteered?”
“Yes.”
Even Willoden found that surprising, given Nelpers’s strong loyalty to Veronia.
It almost made him suspect that some deal had been struck between Nelpers and Glen during those few days.
“In any case, that should greatly help fend off the wicked demon hordes.”
“Of course. With the famous battle priests of Veronia supporting us, what is there to fear? Thank you very much.”
“Ahem. Not at all. Compared to how you saved Veronia from that dreadful fog, this is far from enough. In any case, the dispatch will happen within this week. At the latest, they will arrive in Wordsworth within fifteen days.”
“Yes. Thank you, Lord.”
“Haha. Very well. Please enjoy your stay while you’re here.”
With that, Willoden stood up.
There were losses in manpower, but if it ended here, it was bearable.
“Ah, right. Lord.”
As Willoden turned to leave, his head slowly turned back.
“There’s still one more thing we need to talk about, isn’t there?”
“W-what are you referring to?”
Willoden forced a smile, praying again and again that this topic would not come up.
But—
“What else? The crystal structure I discovered.”
‘Damn it all!’
Willoden’s face twisted.
For a moment, anger flared clearly in his dull black eyes before fading.
