Chapter 171: The Final War of the Northern Continent
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 171: The Final War of the Northern Continent
Though I had decided to intervene, I didn’t act immediately. There was another decision to be made first.
How far should we meddle?
Despite the mother and daughter’s cries, not a single person came out to look, let alone stop it. In fact, from a few houses, I could hear the sound of locks being bolted.
It was a scene that suggested such incidents had become commonplace in the royal capital of Aran.
This meant we would likely encounter similar scenes all the way to the city gate. So, should we intervene and help every single time?
“Let’s make one thing clear. We are not gods. To think we can save everyone is arrogance.”
Just because we decided to help the mother and daughter in peril didn’t mean I had forgotten our original mission.
If we failed to complete our mission, the citizens of Aran would continue to suffer. It would be like abandoning the entire city to save just a few people.
We had to avoid that outcome. For that, we needed clear guidelines.
“Then…”
“The mission is what’s most important. We have merely decided not to ignore the injustices we encounter in the process of carrying it out. Keep that in mind.”
In other words, we would ignore any injustice that occurred off our path to the gate.
“Understood.”
The knights, not yet completely swallowed by their emotions, nodded.
“Then we’ll handle this stealthily. Wepilder?”
At my command, Wepilder, along with two of his comrades, circled around the residential block to get behind the enemy. He was the first knight who had insisted on saving the mother and daughter.
I had the other two knights stand guard on the perimeter. If we were discovered, we’d have to worry about our own lives before we could even think of saving them.
Fortunately, no one approached despite the commotion. It seemed this was, indeed, a routine event.
The enemy soldiers, their attention fixed on the woman and child, failed to notice our approach.
“Hehe. Even a little brat has all the right holes… Gack.”
Not until a blade was buried in his body. I had deliberately aimed for his lungs, so the man couldn’t even scream.
“You—!”
The two soldiers who had been dealing with the woman finally noticed me and reached for the swords at their waists.
Before they could even draw their blades, Wepilder and the other knight, who had circled around, ambushed them. They clamped their hands over the soldiers’ mouths to stifle any sound and plunged their daggers in with their other hands.
“…!”
The two enemy soldiers collapsed without a sound.
“Ah…”
The woman, now free, stared with wide eyes, her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish. She looked ready to scream at any moment.
“Shh. Do you want to continue tonight’s nightmare?”
“Hk…”
I handed her the child we had rescued. She quickly bit her lip to suppress her voice, pulling her child into her arms to soothe and comfort him.
“Mommy…!”
“Ann…!”
We hid the dead soldiers in the shadows of the alley. There wasn’t enough time for a proper concealment, but it would have to do. It was just three more bodies added to the countless others already strewn about.
“Don’t leave your house tonight.”
“Thank you. Thank you, my lord.”
Having resolved the situation quickly, we resumed our journey with lighter hearts.
The horrors awaiting us grew more frequent, reaching a crescendo when we approached the main road leading to the central plaza.
Amidst rows of houses burned to the ground, what looked to be hundreds of enemy soldiers were indulging in debauchery, high on drugs.
The citizens of Aran being tormented at their hands seemed to number at least twice that of the soldiers.
The reason they couldn’t resist was likely due to the bloodcurdling screams of those being burned alive at the stake in the center of the plaza.
“Aaaaargh—kill me—!”
“Heehee! Did you really think this wouldn’t happen when you defied us, the army of God? Keekik.”
I grabbed the shoulder of Wepilder, who was leaning forward as if he were about to charge out at any moment.
“Control yourself.”
“But…!”
Wepilder turned to me with a desperate expression, but I could only shake my head.
“There are too many of them. If we step out, we’ll be discovered. We are their last hope. If we fall here, the citizens of Aran will suffer until the day they die.”
“Ugh…”
Only after the other knights also shook their heads did Wepilder finally relax his tense body.
Just as we turned away from the citizens’ screams and stepped back into an alley, the door of a half-burnt house creaked open.
“Huh…?”
A soldier appeared, frozen in the act of pulling up his pants.
Behind the dumbfounded soldier was the naked body of a woman, sprawled out. From between her wide-open legs, signs of rough violation trickled out.
Her faded, vacant eyes and limp, unmoving arm told me she was a corpse.
Of all the luck, an enemy soldier just had to be finishing his business in this very house. Even if we had let our guard down due to the shocking scene in the plaza, this was just too unlucky.
Putting that thought aside, I thrust my sword. The sensation of piercing flesh and muscle, something I felt I would never get used to no matter how many times I experienced it, traveled up the hilt.
“Gurgle.”
The soldier, his throat pierced, collapsed while choking on blood. Just as everyone breathed a sigh of relief…
“What the!?”
There was another soldier. A man coming down the stairs to the second floor froze in place. Before we could do anything, he blew a whistle.
Pweeeee—
“Enemies!” he bellowed, his shout seeming to echo through the entire city.
I quickly pulled a dagger from a dead soldier and threw it. The dagger, imbued with immense strength, shattered the man’s face.
The problem was, that didn’t solve the situation. Wepilder, who had been lingering at the rear of our group out of reluctance, shouted, his face pale.
“They’re coming!”
Though their numbers were still small as they were high on drugs, it was obvious they would soon swell to an unmanageable size.
“From now on, we think only of the mission.”
We no longer had the luxury of helping others. In any case, the enemies who had spotted us would prioritize eliminating us over tormenting the citizens of Aran.
Without waiting for the knights’ reply, I started moving at a much faster pace than before.
Before long, an enemy soldier appeared ahead. His stupid expression told me he hadn’t yet grasped the situation. I made him pay the price.
I swung my sword from top left to bottom right. A diagonal line was drawn across the soldier’s body. A fountain of blood erupted as his body split in two.
“Enemy!!!”
The problem was that there wasn’t just one. In the brief moment it took to swing my sword, another soldier had already entered the alley.
Behind him, more and more soldiers appeared. Under the dark night sky, their strangely unfocused eyes multiplied from a few to dozens in the blink of an eye.
“Enemies behind us too!”
There was no time to delay. I immediately lunged forward and thrust my sword into the next soldier’s neck. Kicking away the collapsing soldier like a puppet with its strings cut to create space, I retrieved my sword and swung it horizontally.
When there was no time to retrieve my sword, I swung my chainmail-protected fist. The head of another soldier who had been charging forward exploded.
I was cutting and cutting without rest when the sensation of the blade slicing through the enemy’s flesh and muscle changed. It had become rough, like a saw blade.
The edge is gone.
This was an undying army that would resist with the power of holy water and drugs unless they were killed in a single blow. Therefore, I had to put my full strength into every swing.
It meant I had no choice but to overexert myself, and my sword was the first to show the consequences.
I have to use Trollsberd.
But the alley was so narrow that only two or three people could pass at a time, making it impossible to use Trollsberd, which was much longer than a longsword.
The zombie-like soldiers who clung to my ankles even with their necks half-severed were also a problem. After crushing a soldier’s head with my boot, I shouted back.
“We’re heading for the main road! I’ll open a path, just follow my back!”
If we were surrounded by an endless stream of enemies in this narrow alley, it would truly be the end. Just as we broke through the soldiers and entered the main road…
“…!”
I couldn’t help but flinch. Hundreds of pairs of eyes were staring at us. The bigger problem was that this wasn’t the end of it.
From the edge of my vision, more and more soldiers were joining their ranks. Their numbers seemed endless.
“Baron!”
The enemies were now as close as the knights following me. This was no time to stop.
I put all my strength into a horizontal swing of Trollsberd. Three soldiers who tried to block it by raising their swords were split in half, just like their weapons.
“…!”
Even the drug-addled soldiers couldn’t help but flinch at the sight. I didn’t miss the opening. I plunged into their ranks, swinging my sword left and right.
“Kehehehek, dieee!”
In the chaotic melee, I was sometimes struck by a stray blade, but my high-quality chainmail and high stamina stat gave me the strength to endure.
“We’re almost there! Keep it up!”
In the distance, I could see the walls of the royal capital of Aran, which had stood firm for hundreds of years.
“Haah. Haah.”
Instead of answers, I only heard labored breaths. I didn’t need to look back to know the knights were at their limit.
They were knights the Duke had handpicked and sent with me, but they weren’t superhuman like me.
That was why I couldn’t show any weakness. If I did, they would truly give up.
That would be a problem for me, too.
The only reason I could charge forward so recklessly was thanks to the knights guarding my back. If they were gone, I would be a dead man.
“Haaap!”
I squeezed out every last ounce of strength I had. My mind was filled with only one thought—how to kill the enemy more easily and quickly.
My sword strikes grew faster. They also became simpler. Devoid of a single shred of emotion. They were dry, mechanical thrusts and slashes, like those of a slaughtering machine.
Even in my slowed perception of the world, my sword strikes now looked like a blur of rain, and with every swing, an enemy’s head flew off. It was as simple as reaping rice with a scythe.
“…ron! …Baron!”
By the time Wepilder’s shouts pulled me out of my trance, the city gate was right before my eyes.
“Haaaak…”
At the same time, the breath I had been holding escaped my lungs. I planted my sword in the ground and gasped for air. When I looked back, a spectacular sight unfolded.
A path of blood and corpses had been carved through the middle of the still-endless sea of soldiers. It was a scene I had created, yet I had no idea how I’d done it.
“The winch, find the winch!”
I pushed my thoughts aside for later. Instead, I turned to the rear to block the enemy while giving orders to the knights.
“Baron! Here—!”
The mechanism was usually near the gate, so it didn’t take long to find. The problem was that only traces of it remained.
“They destroyed it on purpose…?”
The damage was clearly deliberate. The gate wasn’t just closed; it was made impossible to open.
“Hahaha! To think that destroying it because so many were trying to flee would work out like this! Is this not proof that God himself is watching over me!”
Just then, a roar of laughter came from the gatehouse above. Only then did we spot the lavish bed placed incongruously on the gatehouse and the Pope upon it.
“The Pope…!”
The Pope was looking down on us, completely naked. He probably wasn’t cold, though. Prostitutes, entwined around him like mating snakes, served as his clothes.
But his eyes resembled those of the soldiers we had been fighting.
Sure enough, he tipped a waterskin—presumably filled with drug-laced holy water—upside down and gulped it down, letting it spill all over his mouth.
“You insignificant little lambs! Kneel! I, the first servant of the Lord, the regent of the divine, the one and only ruler of the continent, command you!”
“Caught in his own trap, I see.”
I finally understood the cause of the tragedy unfolding in the capital. With even the Pope, who should have been managing the dosage, high on drugs, it was no wonder the undying army was running rampant.
“You bastards! How dare you not kneel! This is the king’s presence! No, the Pope’s presence!”
I had no time for his nonsense. I immediately picked up a sword from the ground and threw it at him.
The sword flew with a sharp whistle. Considering the force behind it, even a blow from the hilt would have shattered his skull. And it did.
SPLAT!
A head exploded, scattering blood and brain matter. The problem was, the head didn’t belong to the Pope.
“Hiek—!”
Just before the sword reached the Pope, one of the prostitutes had thrown herself in front of him.
“So she wasn’t an ordinary prostitute.”
Then again, this was the Pope who was notorious for his numerous affairs. He might have started brainwashing the prostitutes with drugs even before the soldiers.
“You, you!! I was going to show you mercy as a king, but you dare kill my favorite mistress!? All of you, listen! Rip off their arms and legs, leaving only their mouths to apologize, and bring them before me! I’ll turn them into my toys!”
The Pope, who had fallen on his ass in shock, shot back up and pointed a finger at me. The enemies, who had been in a momentary lull at the Pope’s appearance, began to swarm us again.
“Baron!”
“Cover my back for a moment.”
Leaving the rear to the knights, I stood before the gate and raised Trollsberd. Then, mustering every last bit of my strength, I brought it down from above.
KRAAANG!!
A sound like an exploding bomb echoed out. But the iron-plated gate remained standing.
“Hahaha! Did you think I wouldn’t be prepared! This gate is reinforced with several layers of all the iron I could scrape together from the city! Even for you, breaking it is impossible!”
It seemed that even while high on drugs, he hadn’t neglected his preparations. This was bad.
Above me, the triumphant Pope roared with laughter, while the enemy soldiers, their faces confident of victory, pressed in on the knights.
The knights, having lost hope, were gradually being pushed into a defensive position. Soon, if one of them fell, the rest would inevitably be forced to their knees like dominoes.
“The gate, maybe.”
But what caught my attention was the dust and stone debris that had risen and fallen from above when I struck the gate.
I shifted my gaze to the side. I saw the city wall, built thick with stone of an incredibly hard material.
It was thanks to this that the imperial castle, built centuries ago, had maintained its form to this day.
But nothing is immune to the ravages of time. The dust and stone debris were proof of that.
If the result is good, who cares about the process?
I’d even experienced this once before. Of course, this wall was on a completely different level from that one, but I, too, had grown much stronger since then.
“Haha! Have you gone mad!”
The Pope mocked me as I stood before the wall and raised my sword. But his laughter didn’t last long.
CRASH.
Far more dust and stone debris erupted than when I had struck the gate. After the dust settled, a deep dent in the wall was revealed.
“What the…?!”
I looked up at the Pope and grinned.
“Should have paid some attention to the walls, too, shouldn’t you?”
If he had given even half the effort he put into the gate to the walls, perhaps things would have turned out differently.
With that thought, I raised my sword again. And began to strike it without rest.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!