Chapter 208
Chapter 208
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 208
Chapter Title: Jevin's Humiliation
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Pfft.
“……!!!’
At Eugene’s smile, Jevin’s shoulders slumped.
At the same time, he finally grasped the clear reason why he both feared and loathed Yan Eugene so much.
From the very first moment they met—even back then, when the man was just a mere knight who had barely earned a name despite some achievements—he had never looked down on himself.
Him, the heir to the Evergrow Count family, the overlord of this region with its towering prestige forged through grand history!
But he hadn’t been able to admit it then. No, he had thought it impossible.
How dare a country bumpkin knight who had scraped together a name?
But now, he fully accepted it.
That brutally strong and beautiful knight had always regarded him as worthless as an insect.
Just as he himself looked upon the subordinates of the count’s family.
“Yaaan Eugeeeene!!!”
Shring!
With his pride utterly shattered and his reason lost, Jevin drew his long sword and whipped his reins.
“C-Count!”
“Milord!”
Ignoring the shocked knights, Jevin fixed his bloodshot eyes on Eugene and spurred his horse forward.
“Raaargh!”
Eugene, who had just severed the necks of three mercenaries in a single stroke, tilted his head toward the source of Jevin’s roar.
Swish.
Madrjika left his hand.
Even though tossed lightly, it flew with a terrifying whoosh, and the moment it reached a few meters ahead of Jevin’s mount,
The horse, unable to withstand the ferocious bloodlust carried on the spear, halted its charge at once, the red aura at the tip stopping just inches from Jevin’s face.
Ziiing!
“……!!!”
Jevin’s body froze at the icy wail of the spear hovering motionless in the air.
Not only that, the warhorse, its spirit suppressed by the blood aura extending like threads from the spearhead, stood stock-still, drool streaming from its mouth.
The mercenaries nearby gulped dryly and retreated unsteadily.
Though the count’s life was in peril, no one could stand against this thrilling otherworldly mystery they had never witnessed before.
“Ugh… Uuugh……”
Jevin’s pupils dilated as his body and mind were overtaken by the demonic aura emanating from Madrjika, drool trickling from his slack lips.
Eugene slowly rode Silion toward him.
As if time had stopped in this space alone, the knights and mercenaries could only watch the scene without acting.
Finally reaching Jevin’s side, Eugene grasped the Madrjika hovering motionless in the air.
Ziiiing.
The spear let out a reluctant wail, as if unsatisfied, before its vibrations gradually subsided.
“Do you remember your last words?”
“Ugh……”
“I swear never to oppose any who bear Eugene’s banner. I pledge this on the honor of the Evergrow Count family and myself.”
As the words he himself had spoken flowed from Eugene’s mouth, Jevin shuddered violently, the humiliating memory of that day resurfacing.
But there was nothing he could do.
His knights could only lower their faces in despair.
They too had heard it clearly with their own ears that day.
“You and your family have no honor left, Jevin Evergrow.”
“Kuh!”
Jevin bit his lip so hard it bled and barely managed to speak.
“W-What do you intend to do with me? I am the Count of Evergrow and a knight of the royal family. Harm me, and the k-king won’t stand idly by.”
The shrewd young count was gone. In the face of death’s terror, only a cowardly wretch, trembling and clinging to others for his fate, remained—his honor in ruins.
“Count……”
Seeing the knights’ faces darken further at their lord’s shameful behavior, Eugene knew Jevin was finished.
A lord did not shine alone. Without loyal nobles and knights, a domain was nothing but a hollow puppet.
But at least to Eugene, Jevin still had his uses.
“Oh? The king won’t stand idly by? He’ll send troops to rescue you?”
“Y-Yes.”
“Hmm. He sent so many against Count Winslon and the noble alliance already. Does the king really have the spare forces?”
“Gasp!?”
Eugene smiled at Jevin, whose eyes widened in disbelief.
“The Ash Heap Knights or whatever they were said it. A massive army several times their size marched that way. Apparently, the royalists plan to hit Maren and the noble alliance at once, but anyone not an idiot knows Maren’s the bait and the alliance the real target. And you’re no idiot, so you probably know the truth.”
“……!”
Staring into Jevin’s eyes shaking wildly in shock, Eugene continued in a low, cold voice.
“The Ash Heap Knights are bait, right? The king and cardinal’s ploy to make Count Winslon and the noble alliance drop their guard. Isn’t it?”
“Ugh……”
“Your reaction confirms it. You realized it late but were already committed, riding the tiger. But the Ash Heap Knights ended up as real ashes, and you’ve come to this.”
With an even deeper smile, Eugene placed the final nail in the coffin of Jevin’s crumbling mind.
“Jevin Evergrow. Do you still think the king will help you?”
“Kuuk!”
His shallow ploy, which had thrown his last shred of honor into the mud, was dismantled in an instant, and Jevin’s lip finally split open.
“Hahk, hahk……”
“But.”
Jevin, gasping for breath in despair and shame greater than fear, barely lifted his head.
“You will get to meet the King of Kailer.”
“……!?”
Not hope, but another fear dilated Jevin’s pupils.
Eugene whispered into his ear with a smile that felt more devilish than any demon, at least to Jevin.
“If thousands of troops marched against Count Winslon and the noble alliance, there can’t be many able-bodied left in the capital. Right?”
* * *
The battle ended anticlimactically because most of the serf soldiers fled after the first charge.
Two hundred mercenaries, unprepared and crushed by Eugene’s blood aura, stood no chance against fifty heavy cavalry knights.
Over half fell in moments, and the rest surrendered wholesale.
The Evergrow Count family’s knights fared the same.
Having never fully committed to joining the king’s side from the start, their will vanished the moment Eugene—who Jevin had sworn on his honor never to oppose—appeared.
A few resisted to the end but were thoroughly trounced by the elf knights led by Princess Lilisein.
Elan and the continent had been isolated for so long that the Evergrow knights had no counter to the unfamiliar swordsmanship and auras of the elf knights.
In any case, the battle—begun at 50 against 800 odds—ended in a historic victory for Eugene and the Maren knights.
And it brought Eugene an unexpected windfall(?).
“W-We are but lowly merchants contracted to the royal family. Sir! Show us mercy.”
“Please have compassion!”
With eight hundred troops, camp merchants naturally followed, and two representatives came begging Eugene for mercy.
Crawling on their knees and prostrating themselves the moment they saw him.
‘Why are these guys so groveling?’
Eugene, who had planned to just fleece them lightly and send them off, found it odd.
But their reaction was only natural.
‘He treats a count like that, even if it’s just in name?’
‘Sir Jenath is the king’s infantry commander, at least. And he just killed him without ransom?’
‘He’s a knight who doesn’t think about consequences. Better flatten ourselves.’
That was war. Soldiers died, knights fell. But high nobles, top commanders, were customarily captured honorably, not killed.
Yet Eugene hadn’t just routed the Ash Heap Knights—he’d slain their leader outright.
They had witnessed him openly treating the head of the region’s most prestigious count family like trash.
To the merchants, it was shock and terror.
‘Scheming or talking slick to a reckless knight like this will get our heads chopped off!’
Gulping dryly, the merchant cautiously lifted his head while prostrated.
“We still have plenty of supplies left for the Ash Heap Knights. And their loot too. We’ll hand it all to you, sir.”
“Oh?”
The merchants grew desperate at Eugene’s lukewarm response.
Those indifferent red eyes seemed to ask, ‘Is that all your lives are worth?’
“O-Of course we’ll pay ransom too!”
Money could be earned again, but lives only once. The camp merchants had no choice but to empty their profits from the Ash Heap Knights to Eugene.
Thus, the camp merchants trudged away with some laborers, leaving twenty wagons loaded with massive quantities of supplies and loot before Eugene and the knights.
And atop the glittering piles of gold and silver, the spirit placed a hand on its hip and smirked arrogantly.
“Kihhehe! I like it rotten. But I, King God Neo-Revolution Mirian Mark Two, am still hungry. Kihehehu… Kihuhuhuhu!”
The top contributor to this great victory, yet so annoying it made one want to smack it—the knights murmured.
“Not a water spirit, but a gold spirit, they say. Seems true.”
“That’s why it’s cute.”
Princess Lilisein cut in with a sleazy, middle-aged-man-like expression.
But the knights, already convinced she was Eugene’s lover, pretended not to see.
“No. That looks more like an evil spirit than a spirit? Chanting kicks and punches while unleashing water blasts. Never seen such advanced deception tactics.”
“Makes me like it more.”
“Indeed……. And that endless greed. Only someone like Sir Eugene could command such a powerful, wicked evil spirit.”
“Strongly agree.”
In the end, the knights’ conversation concluded with praise for Eugene.
* * *
Maren City welcomed the triumphant Eugene and knights with grand fanfare.
Not a single allied casualty, routing over ten times their number and capturing hordes of prisoners—a historic feat that sent the citizens into ecstasy.
“God of War! Yan Eugene!”
“Sir Eugene is Maren’s great hero!”
“Erect a statue! All bards, compose war poems! Sir Eugene’s lofty honor will live eternally in our city!”
Every pub and eatery in Maren poured free drinks and food, and citizens of all ranks and genders poured out, singing victory hymns and reveling.
But the most thrilled were, of course, Maren’s mayor and guildmasters.
“You are truly Maren’s hero, sir! Here’s three thousand gold in victory bonus.”
“Sir Eugene! We’ve decided to erect a gilded statue of you in the city square.”
“We’ll engrave war poems of your exploits beneath it.”
“The city and all guilds have pooled funds to build you a grand mansion on Palm Hill. Please accept.”
“Wengrad, the Brantia royal family—no, all who bear the Bartla banner will receive full tax exemption on every item traded.”
Eugene was more than satisfied with the mayor and guildmasters’ lavish rewards. Maren truly knew ‘sincerity.’
“Hmm! I merely did what was right as Maren’s friend, but I’m deeply moved by your gesture. The friendship between me and Maren will be eternal.”
“Ooh! Sir Eugene!”
“Waaah!”
The mayor and guildmasters were moved to tears.
But their joy wasn’t purely selfless.
‘Captured Count Evergrow!’
‘This region’s hegemony is now fully ours!’
With the city at the center, seven territories including Evergrow County now fell completely under Maren’s influence.
Thinking of the profits ahead, to the mayor and guildmasters, Eugene was practically a god.
Not the god of war or soldiers they spoke of, but the god of wealth.
And that god of wealth said,
“Now that the immediate threat is gone, it’s time to move to the next plan.”
“Oh! Will you join Count Winslon and the noble alliance at once?”
Eugene shook his head at the mayor’s question.
“No, why bother with that hassle?”
“Huh? Isn’t the royalist main force headed there? Shouldn’t we aid the noble alliance?”
“Count Winslon will handle it fine. Besides, it’s the noble alliance? Even if we join now, we won’t get good treatment. Right?”
“Hmm.”
True enough.
Eugene was champion of Count Winslon’s tournament. They’d welcome him outwardly, but many nobles would inwardly wary.
Even without the royalists, nobles who disliked merchant- and guild-ruled Maren were plenty.
“Then your plan is……”
Scanning the map on the stone table, Eugene unhesitatingly pointed to one spot.
“We head straight here.”
“……!!!’
The mayor and guildmasters’ eyes bulged.
Eugene’s finger pointed to the capital of Kailer Kingdom.
Maren’s god of wealth intended to plunder the Kailer royals clean.
(To be continued in the next installment)