Chapter 138: The Coastal City Alliance
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 138: The Coastal City Alliance
“You bastards! Let go of me!”
The resistance from the city’s commanders, who were a mere handful compared to the mercenaries, was futile.
After binding them and forcing them to their knees, the mercenary captain held up the end of the rope and shouted.
“Now, open the gate!”
“Wait.”
At my command, one of my mercenaries opened the gate—or more accurately, the side gate next to it.
The mercenary captain frowned at the small gate, which was barely large enough for one person to pass through.
“Baron. What is the meaning of this?”
“For now, only the mercenary captains and the city commanders are to enter.”
Though we had captured the city, our forces numbered only a hundred men. If over a thousand enemy soldiers entered and had a change of heart, we would be in serious trouble.
Besides, weren't these the same mercenaries who had switched sides in a heartbeat when the situation turned against their former employers? There was no guarantee they wouldn't betray us as well.
“Why the hesitation? Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts?”
I turned the pressure back on them. The mercenary captain flinched, quickly exchanged glances with his comrades, and then bowed his head.
“Of course not.”
Soon, a dozen or so leader-class mercenaries dragged the city commanders inside.
Clang.
The side gate slammed shut the moment they were through. The mercenaries’ faces hardened despite themselves.
Did they think it was a trap? Or did they truly have something else up their sleeve?
‘We’ll see soon enough.’
The mercenaries’ eyes darted around, busy observing their surroundings. This continued until I descended from the parapet.
“What are you all looking at? Just a few hours ago, this was the city you were camped outside of.”
“It’s just surprising, sir. Your forces seem truly small.”
A hundred soldiers was far too few to capture a metropolis like Saifran. As a result, even with most of them concentrated at the gate, they numbered less than ten. Right now, the mercenary captains outnumbered them.
“If my forces had been larger, I wouldn’t have been able to capitalize on the element of surprise.”
If there had been more sailing ships, the city would have noticed the surprise attack much sooner, even for a major port accustomed to countless vessels coming and going.
“By the way, what did you do to them? They’ve gone quiet.”
The city commanders, who had been shouting and resisting so fiercely outside, were now completely silent. In fact, like the mercenaries before them, they were busy surveying their surroundings.
Curiosity may kill the cat, but weren't these prisoners, whose lives hung by a thread, a little too relaxed?
The city commanders glanced at the mercenary captain. A swift exchange of looks passed between them.
When the mercenary captain turned back to me, a deep smile was plastered on his lips.
“So, you’re saying this is all the combat-ready strength you have?”
As if on cue, the mercenaries sliced through the ropes binding the city commanders.
Now free, the commanders stared at me with meaningful expressions, their hands already resting on the swords at their waists.
“Dropping the formalities, are we?”
They slowly began to surround me.
“Don’t take it too personally. What can I say? The city lords offered to double the pay. Besides, mercenaries like us who’ve built a reputation have to think about our credibility. How else are we supposed to make a living on the northern continent, eh?”
The mercenary captain grinned. The city commanders laughed along with him, each adding a comment.
“You fool! Making an enemy of the Coastal City Alliance on the northern continent means you’ll never get a decent mercenary contract again! And you wanted us to betray them? Did you really think that would work?”
“Hah! You’re so shocked you can’t even grasp the situation! Mercenary captain! Kill him quickly and complete the contract!”
The mercenary captain shrugged and stepped forward. The others had already formed a circle around me.
“Thanks to you, I’m about to make a fortune. I’ll make your death a quick one.”
“So, you never actually intended to betray them. You just used my offer to raise your price?”
“Well… that’s about the size of it.”
Shinggg.
As the mercenary captain drew his sword, the others unsheathed their weapons in unison and pointed them at me.
It was then that one of our mercenaries, who had been watching from the gatehouse above, spoke up.
“Uh… I don’t think you should do that…”
“What’s it to you! You want to die too?”
The mercenary captain, interrupted at the crucial moment, glared up at him with a murderous expression.
“Jeez, I was just trying to give you some friendly advice. What’s with the temper?”
“Advice?”
“When we landed in Saifran, the remaining city defenders outnumbered us. And that’s not all! The nobles who stayed behind had hired ten knights to protect them!”
“What’s your point!”
“The Baron broke through all those obstacles in the blink of an eye to stand here now. And you think you can oppose him with even less than that?”
The mercenary added, asking if they hadn't heard the rumor that I had opened the gates by myself.
The mercenary captain and his comrades scoffed.
“Ha! You think we’d believe such a ridiculous rumor?”
“The nobles believed it enough to hire those expensive knights.”
“It’s common for those merchants to whine and exaggerate.”
“Exaggerate, you say…”
“Knights? I bet they couldn’t leave their masters’ sides because the merchants, who value their own skins above all else, wouldn’t let them! If ten knights had actually fought properly, how could you lot have possibly taken the parapet?”
This was an age without any real means of communication. The spread of information was inevitably slow.
“Hah, I can’t even blame you. I was the same before I saw it with my own eyes.”
“You’re next after the Baron! Go wash your neck and wait!”
The mercenary on the parapet shook his head.
“Are we done talking?”
I had been watching silently, as winning without a fight is always the best option. Only then did I approach the mercenary captain.
“Yes. Now it’s your turn!”
The mercenary captain swung his sword as if he’d been waiting for this moment. I took another step forward and caught his blade.
Since I had caught it far from its intended point of impact, it ended with nothing more than a small tear in the thick cloth of my palm.
“Let go!”
The mercenary captain struggled with all his might to pull his sword free, but the blade, caught in my hand, didn't budge an inch.
Instead, I pulled the sword toward me. As the mercenary captain was dragged along, I grabbed his head with my other hand and swung him at the men aiming for my sides and back.
“You cowardly—!”
The mercenaries hastily changed their attack vectors. The mercenary captain made for a decent shield.
I tossed aside the sword I’d taken and, for all to see, lifted the captain high into the air by his head.
“The cowards here are you lot, who pile betrayal upon betrayal.”
“You bastard! Let go! Let me go—!”
The mercenary captain grabbed my hand with both of his and thrashed about wildly.
But my hand remained immovable. If anything, my fingertips began to dig deeper into his skull.
“Aaargh—!”
An experienced mercenary like him had probably heard the sound of breaking bones more times than he could count, but this was likely the first time he’d heard it coming from his own head.
The faces of the other mercenaries turned deathly pale.
“You crazy bastard! What are you doing!”
“Traitors get the end they deserve.”
My fingers dug deeper and deeper. Even the skull, said to be the strongest bone in the body, couldn't withstand my strength.
Soon, the captain’s hands, which had been desperately clawing at mine, lost their strength and fell limp.
His thrashing turned into intermittent convulsions. The sound of his skull cracking grew louder.
Then, it passed a critical point and shattered as easily as an eggshell.
His head crushed while he was still alive, the mercenary captain went limp like a puppet with its strings cut.
“Huuuk—!”
“My God! He’s dead!?”
I tossed the man to the ground like a piece of trash, pulled a cloth from my tunic, and wiped my hand, which was covered in blood and white brain matter.
Then I casually threw the soiled cloth over his body and drew my sword.
The mercenaries, who had just witnessed a man’s skull burst in real time, were frozen like ice.
“Believing rumors without question is foolish, but dismissing them entirely just because they don’t fit your own ideas is just as foolish.”
“You… you… devil—!”
I swung my sword lightly at the mercenary pointing at me. The result was anything but light.
The mercenary, still wearing his chainmail, was split in two. The cross-section of the cut was ragged, as if he’d been mauled by a monster.
Blood and entrails spilled from the body that had been alive just seconds before. The occasional twitching of his extremities only added to the gruesome sight.
“Huuugh—”
Only then did the mercenaries seem to realize the rumors were more than just rumors.
They didn’t dare to resist, only stumbling backward. One of them asked in a trembling voice.
“I-If we surrender, will you spare us?”
“Do you spare a dog that bares its teeth at its master?”
Realizing there was no way out, the mercenaries finally banded together and fought back.
A short time later, twenty freshly severed heads were displayed on pikes atop the parapet.
With the men who could have become a rallying point made into an example, the remaining mercenaries didn't dare to even think of opposing me.
Meanwhile, the freed Aron and his vassals were busy trying to read my expression. How arrogant they had been, deluded into thinking everything was going according to their plan. If they had any shame, they wouldn't have been able to lift their heads.
“We’ve already captured two of the Coastal City Alliance’s key cities! At this rate, the capital will be ours in no time!”
Of course, if they had any shame, they wouldn't have demanded a share of the spoils after doing nothing, and then on top of that, stolen the position of commander-in-chief.
One of the vassals tried to gloss over the situation. The other vassals, one by one, found their voices.
“Even the Count couldn’t have predicted that we, his tributaries, would conquer the eastern part of the northern continent like an unstoppable force!”
“That’s right! Let’s march straight to the capital! Then Lord Aron will become the successor once again!”
Their desperate denial of reality was almost pitiful. After watching them in silence, I spoke up.
“And what army do you plan to use to conquer the capital?”
“What? We have the mercenaries we just accepted, don’t we? If we add the existing troops we managed to gather, that’s a total of fourteen hundred men! Our forces are stronger than when we started!”
“Those are my troops, aren’t they?”
Aron, who had been the only one looking gloomy, snapped his head up.
“Baron, what are you talking about?”
He had sensed something ominous in my tone. It would have been better if he’d shown such perceptiveness sooner.
“Let me ask you a question in return. Why are you trying to use my troops as you please?”
“You said you would help me!”
“And I was supposed to receive troops as payment. But where are those troops that I never even got a chance to properly command?”
Hadn't I warned him when he stripped me of my command? The next time he needed my help, there would be a price.
I sneered at Aron, whose face was a mask of disbelief. Did he truly not see this coming?
“There are still… still four hundred left!”
“I don’t think so.”
“What?”
“Come in.”
At my signal, Hodgson, the mercenary captain leading our side, entered. He was covered in dust, as if he had been through a fierce battle, and a large, scabbed-over sword wound marred his face.
“We are terminating our contract.”
“What? What are you talking about!”
As his last lifeline disappeared, Aron glared at Hodgson as if he wanted to kill him.
Hodgson just snorted.
“Ha! Over five hundred of our comrades were sacrificed because of your greed! Sacrifices that wouldn't have happened if the Baron had remained in command! And you expected us to just follow you?”
I had opened the gates of Bokum by myself. I had also led a small, hastily assembled force to capture Saifran.
In contrast, Aron and his vassals, after seizing command from me, had been fooled by an enemy trap and led the mercenaries to their deaths.
The comparison couldn't be more stark.
“Even so, you cannot cancel the contract! Have you forgotten the penalty fee stipulated in the agreement?”
“I’ve agreed to pay the penalty fee for them.”
The condition was that they would serve under me instead. The mercenaries, who had already tasted the benefits of being under my command, did not refuse.
Thanks to them, my forces swelled to fourteen hundred. I had also captured two of the three key cities of the Coastal City Alliance. It was an astonishing achievement, considering I had arrived on the northern continent with nothing.
As Hodgson bowed to me and withdrew, Aron’s face turned beet red as he pointed a finger at me.
“Baron! How could you do this!?”
“You seem to have forgotten. You were the one who started this, were you not? You should have treated me better when you had the chance.”
“Baron—!”
He still hadn't come to his senses. Then again, hadn't he poured everything he had into this war? He’d staked everything on this, and now he was about to return empty-handed. It would be stranger if he were still sane.
“Get some rest.”
Aron needed time to accept reality. I decided to give him that time. He sought me out again a week later.
Thud.
“It was all my fault. Please, forgive me.”
When I saw Aron after a week, he immediately fell to his knees. The fall of the man who had once wanted for nothing as the Margrave’s successor was endless.
*
Meanwhile, in a small village in the western part of the northern continent, dispatched priests were hard at work providing aid. Among them was a single knight who seemed out of place.
“A giant! It’s a giant—!”
“Giant Knight! Take my sword!”
“Aargh! To die like this! How vexing! Hero! I curse you!”
The knight, having taken a blow from a child who barely reached his waist, clutched the spot and collapsed dramatically.
The mountain of supplies he was carrying on his back tumbled down with him, creating a tremendous noise and a cloud of dust.
“No, that’s not right! The Demon King has to have more dignity!”
The knight slowly looked up at the child with clear, innocent eyes. A bright smile was on his face.
“But this is the scene where I die after being struck by the hero’s sword?”
“That’s why you need more dignity! You’re so dumb!”
The child, with a mischievous look, kicked the knight’s shin and then disappeared down an alley.
The knight scratched his head, then gathered the supplies and followed the child down the alley. At the end of it was a makeshift clinic filled with busy priests.
“Cynthia.”
At the knight’s call, a woman dressed in a priest’s habit—typically a man’s attire—looked up.
She was a stunning beauty, completely out of place in the slums. However, her face, devoid of any emotion, made her look like a doll God had accidentally forgotten to give a heart.
“Alex, what is it?”
It wasn't just her appearance. Even when speaking to Alex, her childhood friend, her words were stiff.
“They say Duke Signir has withdrawn his army. The opportunity we’ve been waiting for has finally come. This time, I will bring peace to the northern continent with my own hands. So… will you pray for me?”
“I will.”
Cynthia’s reply was curt, and she immediately returned to her work.
Though he had every reason to be offended, Alex simply chuckled and turned away. It was only when his retreating figure had shrunk to a dot in the distance that Cynthia suddenly raised her head, her eyes following his path until he had completely disappeared from sight.