泡芙影院

Chapter 43

“It was him,” Margrave Orquell said as he looked down at the bodies of the bandits.

‘Cleanly snapped necks, backs deeply shredded as if they had been clawed by a beast, I can see the way they were fleeing from the overwhelming force.’

Orquell ran the scenario in his head as he closed his eyes. It was quite obvious how the barbarian took down its enemies.

‘Well done, barbarian.’

Knights were treated like seedlings who trained in swordsmanship all their lives. They were practically war machines.

‘Even such knights fell to the ruthless attacks of the barbarians.’

The knights were equipped with better armory than the barbarians and had the battle tactics that had been honed over several generations.

‘If you’re truly strong, there’s no need to depend on tricks.’

Margrave Orquell was quite familiar with the barbarians. They were creatures that straddled the line between beast and man.

‘When you can overwhelm your enemy with your strength alone, even a simple slash can become a fatal blow.’

The margrave had spent all his life fighting such barbarians, the ones who slaughtered knights with mere crude weapons.

‘In order to defeat them, there’s no need to fight them man to man. They are animals, animals who are wearing the mask of a man.’

The margrave signaled to his soldiers. He plunged his hand into the stomach of the corpse to check the viscosity and warmth of the blood. There was a faint lingering warmth as well as a trickle of uncurdled blood still flowing near the heart.

“Release the dogs. He couldn’t have gotten far.”

The soldiers released the leashes on the dogs, and the three military dogs rushed deeper into the forest.

“If you see him, do not provoke him. He’s not someone you can handle on your own,” Margrave Orquell warned his men. He had only brought ten soldiers with him since bringing an army into another kingdom could have created diplomatic friction.

“Killing that barbarian is one thing, but our priority is the capture of the prince. It’s all over for us if the prince gets to the capital and informs the emperor of our doing. We will all be charged with treason,” the adjutant slowly expressed his displeasure.

“Do you think I’ve gotten so caught up in the hunt that I’ve forgotten our goal?”

“I only wanted to remind you,” the adjutant quickly adjusted his tone to be more polite.

“Prince Varca can’t do anything on his own. As long as we kill the barbarian, capturing the prince is like taking candy from a child. Hah, It would have been better if Princess Damia was born as a boy. I knew for sure that their fate was switched the moment I met the siblings three years ago,” the margrave muttered.

“Unless the entire royal bloodline is cut off, a woman will never be king.”

“What I’m saying is that no matter how worthy of a king a woman may be, at the end of the day, she is only a woman whose purpose is to accept an adequate seed to bear children... Shit.”

Margrave Orquell suddenly felt a wave of anger as he reminded himself of his wife and son.

“I picked the wrong woman to sow my seed. I can’t believe I married an idiotic woman who raises my son as a little bitch. I’ve got to teach them a lesson or two when I get back.”

The adjutant remained silent and only looked at the margrave.

‘The lord that I’ve known since my younger days was a belligerent warrior, but he wasn’t this recklessly violent. He truly loved his wife. He’s changed ever since he returned from the barbarian subjugation mission.’

Margrave Orquell’s shady hobby was known to nearly all of his entourage. At night, he pined over the skulls of the barbarians and longed for them. Sometimes, he would wake up in the middle of the night to go to the barracks to pretend like he was back on the battlefield against the barbarians.

‘Did the war drive him mad?’

The wars that the margrave had to go through were often too much to bear for a sane person. As a knight from a smaller kingdom, it was likely that he was always driven up to the front of the line. Over the years of fighting, he had lost the majority of the friends and lieges that he had trained with since a young age to the war. That was also the reason why all his adjutants were significantly younger than him.

“I’d better get another son before I’m too old. Perhaps I should impregnate a barbarian slave girl... that’s not a terrible idea, an heir with barbarian blood,” the margrave mumbled to himself, and his adjutant waited patiently for him to finish.

The barbarian subjugation was something that had to be done, and it needed people. The Empire requested military power from its vassal kingdoms, pushing all the knights out into the battlefields.

“They called it a subjugation, but it was practically a war—comparable to the ones during the conquest. The leftover barbarians were hiding in lands where they didn’t expect us to come. The northern land was a frozen land cold enough to freeze our fingers and toes off, and the southern land was a boiling hot land that was hot enough to cook our skin. Neither was no place for man; it was for barbarians, for beasts.”

The adjutant had heard this story multiple times, so he just nodded.

“That’s right, my lord. It was a war of great sacrifice.”

“And now they talk about this ‘Barbarian Inclusion Policy?’ The men who call themselves scholars claim that the barbarians are people, just like us. They accuse and shame us as if we’re sinners for having killed those barbarians. I can’t even go around using my nickname ‘Barbarian Hunter.’ It’s not infamy—it’s a proud title that I’ve earned.”

Margrave Orquell’s eyes glowed ferociously.

“You’re right, my lord. You, Margrave Orquell, are the greatest knight of all.”

“I killed those barbarians for our kingdom, for our civilization! Before that damn emperor started blabbering about how they’re people just like us. People don’t have a single clue of what the barbarians are actually like, and that includes you! They only see the defeated ones who are dragged around like dogs in slavery and think that all barbarians are dirty and lowly like them. That’s not what they are actually like.”

The adjutant breathed a deep sigh.

“We’ve all forgotten the true face of the barbarians. One day, it will come back to bite us and only then, we will regret doing so,” the margrave said as he laughed with his shoulders dropped low. A moment later, he picked up his head.

“Let’s get going. It’s about time we started going after them.”

The margrave had regained his composure. After venting out his emotions rather loudly, Margrave Orquell always returned to the state of a fine warrior. His adjutant nodded as if he had been waiting for this transition.

“Yes, my lord.”

“I’ll be the one to go for his head.”

The margrave followed the track of the soldiers who had left before him.

‘It’s getting late.’

The pursuit was proving to be longer than he had expected.

“Hmm.”

Orquell repeatedly closed and opened his eyes as he reined in his horse.

“My lord?”

“No, I’m fine. You go ahead, I’ll be right behind you,” the margrave said as he shook his head.

‘I can’t believe I’m feeling dizzy just because of one sleepless night.’

His vision narrowed and his head felt dull. It was because he had been tracking too hard with barely any sleep.

‘Aging is a scary thing.’

Back in his younger days, Orquell had no problem with fighting without sleep for days on end. He fought against the barbarians in unfamiliar territory, never knowing when they would attack.

“Phew,” the margrave looked up at the night sky and took a deep breath in.

“Arghhhhh!”

There was a scream. Margrave stopped his gaze at the sky and mushed his horse.

“I told you to avoid a close-range fight!” The margrave exclaimed as soon as he got to the scene.

“We didn’t initiate the attack, he did. He ambushed us!” The soldier cried out as if he was being wrongfully accused.

“Where are the dogs?”

“They were all dead by the time we arrived at the scene.”

After confirming the death of the dogs, the margrave grinned.

“So, instead of running away, he decided to hit us first. He must be quite confident in his strength. I mean, if I had their superhuman strength, I would be, too.”

Urich had taken down two soldiers and three of their dogs. After killing the dogs, Urich hid in the darkness again.

“Be alert of your surroundings, he’ll come again,” Margrave Orquell said as he drew his sword.

‘We’ve gone from the hunter to the prey, that’s impressive, you barbarian.’

The soldiers cautiously scanned their surroundings and advanced deeper into the forest.

* * *

Urich climbed up the tree.

“Dammit, that stupid dog,” he said as he plucked out the dog teeth that were buried in his thigh.

There were three dogs pouncing at him, and he only had two arms. He crushed the heads of two of them, but the third one managed to bite Urich in the thigh.

“Hup!”

Urich stopped the bleeding by contracting the muscles in his thigh.

“I wonder how they’ll come at me,” he said to himself as he paid attention to the sounds around him.

‘They’re not scattering to find me. Instead, they’re all sticking together, dammit.’

Urich was confident that he could take down the soldiers one by one before they even had a chance to scream. Of course, this was only possible if they were separated. The soldiers remained in a group as if they knew what Urich wanted from them.

‘They’ll run into Pahell if they keep coming down this way.’

If Urich and Pahell were to run away on their horse, they would get caught, since the enemies had a horse for each of their men.

‘I have to take care of them here, no matter how hard it is.’

Urich had come to a decision. He could feel the energy pumping through his body as soon as he started to think about the imminent battle, and the pain that was stabbing him throughout his body disappeared along with it. His mind regained its clarity as if it had been rinsed under cold running water.

Creak.

The veins along his arms rose as he gripped hard on his axe and sword.

‘If I were to jump right into the center of them, how many could I slay?’

Urich closed his eyes and drew a picture in his head. He could see his own movement in the middle of the group of soldiers. If they were a little further apart from each other, he would have had enough time to take them down one by one, as he did with the seven calvaries. That battle was practically a series of seven one-on-one battles.

‘They’re compact. I’ll get stabbed after taking down four, five of them.’

Even if he came out as the winner, it meant nothing if he sustained a stab wound in the process. A big wound would kill him after the battle had been won.

‘A warrior who jumps in knowing that death awaits him.’

The northern warrior used his life as a tool. It left quite an impression on Urich.

‘That’s because the northerners have the resting place called ‘The Field of Swords.’

Many thoughts went through his head, but the soldiers were cautiously advancing as he was hesitating.

‘I’ve got to decide right now.’

Urich grinned as he breathed in the crispy night air. There was no other way. The only way he could preserve his life was by throwing all integrity and oaths sworn to god out the window and running away.

‘If four or five men was my limit until now...’

He silently came down from the tree and followed the soldiers.

“Let’s surpass my limit right here, right now.”

Urich came up right behind one of the soldiers, dragged him down, and slit his throat. He smiled through the spouting blood.

“H-he’s here! Kill him! Argh!”

Urich launched his axe at the screaming soldier and killed him instantly. He had taken down two of Orquell’s men in the blink of an eye. The remaining soldiers darted toward Urich as they drew their swords.

‘They have a good movement to them. Forget five, it might be difficult to kill even one more of them.’

He could see the level of the soldiers he was faced with just by looking at the way they were responding to him. They were the elites who were been selected from over two hundred men.

“Gahhhhh!”

Urich released a low, beastly roar.

Neighhhh!

Even the trained horses were startled by his roar and raised their front hooves in panic.

‘Pahell said that horses dislike me because of my ferocious, beastly aura.’

Horses were sensitive animals. They did not obey the commands of their riders as they twitched at Urich’s roar.

“W-what’s happening? Get down from your horses!”

The soldiers rushed to the ground. Urich took his chance and slayed another one.

“Huff, huff.”

Covered in blood, Urich glared his eyes.

‘That’s it, that’s a true barbarian! Look at the overflowing lifeforce in that beast!’

Margrave Orquell was in ecstasy. The corners of his mouth were twitching upward, and it felt like even the white roots of his hair were darkening back to his youthful days.