Chapter 61: The Hero's Return
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 61: The Hero's Return
The forest was silent. Not the chirping of birds nor the cry of insects could be heard. The only sound was the rustling of bushes colliding with one another whenever the harsh winter wind blew.
The natives of the forest held their breath, watching the humans who had invaded their domain.
The soldiers ambushing in the woods on both sides of the road stared at the horizon, weapons held tight. A suffocating silence roamed among them.
How much time had passed?
Clip-clop. Clip-clop.
The sound of horse hooves echoed from the distance. Their grips on their weapons tightened. The sound of wooden handles creaking under the strain was as loud as thunder.
Gulp.
The sound grew closer. Now, they could even hear footsteps. As the winter wind died down, the sounds of horses and men grew even louder.
At the edge of the horizon, the silhouettes of men and horses shimmered. They grew with the sound of their approach, transforming into a force of thirty soldiers.
“…!”
There were ten more than the scout had reported. What’s more, three fully armed cavalrymen were leading the force from the front.
Seeing the spare horses and the squires leading them, they had to be knights.
‘Isn’t that Sir Powell?’
Bolton frowned as he identified the fox emblem embroidered on the surcoat.
Powell Osborne appearing instead of Allen? Could he have pursued Allen all the way here? Then where was Allen? His mind instantly became a tangled mess.
‘Bolton, what should we do?’ the other vassals asked silently. Their gazes implied they couldn’t just ignore an enemy commander from a neighboring territory they were at war with.
‘We ignore them.’
Bolton shook his head. Not only was this not the prey he was waiting for, but even if they won, it would likely only benefit Allen.
Powell Osborne, however, had other ideas. The sight of the silent forest confirmed that the information Allen had given him was true.
In that case, there was only one thing to do.
“All troops! Attack!”
The soldiers, who had been briefed on this possibility, did not hesitate. They split into two groups and charged into the woods on either side of the road.
“What in the…!”
“Betrayal!?”
It was Bolton and his vassals who were thrown into confusion.
There was no time to think. The knights at the vanguard had already begun to lop off the heads of their ambushing soldiers.
“Ugh, fight back! We’ve beaten them once before! If we fight, we will win again!”
Bolton reacted belatedly, but his men were already in a state of panic. They knew. Their victory in the last battle had been solely thanks to Allen.
Vastly outmatched in both numbers and quality, their morale plummeted when Muel and his household soldiers, positioned at the rear of the formation, quietly slipped away.
“I-I don’t want to die—!”
“Fuck, get out of my way! I said move!”
Soldiers began to turn their backs, one by one. The enemy troops surged in like a tidal wave, sweeping over their forces. Bolton could only watch, dumbfounded.
Betrayal? By whom? From the moment they started plundering the lands of those who sided with Ailgar, they had all become a community bound by fate—if they didn't pin the crime on Allen, every last one of them would die.
So how could there be a betrayal? What kind of idiot would tighten the noose around his own neck?
Bolton set his anger aside for a moment. For now, survival came first.
“Sir Powell! Is this how you repay a favor, with enmity! What is the meaning of this!”
Bolton shouted at Powell Osborne, who had stepped back to observe the battle.
“Don’t make me laugh. A favor? Did you think I wouldn’t know this was a ploy to use me like a chess piece?”
Powell Osborne let out a smirk. Bolton’s face twisted.
“Whatever the reason, I was the one who set you free!”
“Hmm, that is true. Very well. I will not capture you. So you’d better run until your feet sweat before I change my mind.”
Powell Osborne had already discerned that Bolton was Allen’s political rival. Judging Allen to be a far more dangerous enemy than Bolton, he planned to use Bolton to keep Allen in check.
Of course, this was merely insurance.
‘There’s no way that cunning bastard would have released me without thinking this far ahead. I must take this one step further.’
Meanwhile, Bolton turned his back without a shred of hesitation. For the vassals who had been watching him with a sliver of hope, it was a dumbfounding sight.
The man who had caused this whole mess was running away so readily without a single look back?
“Bolton!!!”
“You son of a bitch! Come back!”
Contrary to their wishes, Bolton’s footsteps only quickened.
*
The battle ended in a landslide victory for Baron Debussy’s army. Half of the ambushing force was killed, and the other half fled. The vassals, who had lost all hope the moment Bolton showed his back, chose to be taken prisoner.
Having lost everything in defeat, they couldn’t be sure if they could even afford their ransoms, but they had to live to see another day.
Powell Osborne didn’t know this. So, hoping they would keep Allen in check upon their return, in addition to paying their ransoms, he treated them as proper prisoners of war.
Of course, this was all just insurance. He had another plan for Allen.
“Quickly, erase the tracks and set up an ambush!”
What if Allen had been the enemy commander at the start of the war? What if he’d had more troops? He surely wouldn’t have been satisfied with plunder and would have attacked Baron Debussy’s capital city.
It was a terrifying thought. That was why Powell Osborne intended to use this opportunity to kill Allen. If only for the sake of his young son.
‘I won’t apologize. What we agreed upon was only to strike Bolton.’
A fellow knight who had been cleaning up the battlefield approached.
“Sir Powell. Shouldn’t we also station men by the river?”
There were two ways to move the carts loaded with plunder from Baron Debussy’s domain to Baron Rasino’s: the main road and the waterway.
The knight was worried that Allen might take a detour via the river.
“He will come this way. I’m certain of it.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Why do you think he borrowed my hand? There must be two reasons. First, to legally acquire the plunder gathered by his political rivals.”
Powell Osborne pointed to the carts piled high with loot.
Bolton and his rivals would take the blame, while Allen could simply snatch the fruits of their labor. He was a greedy and cunning bastard.
The more he thought about it, the more his resolve to kill the man hardened.
“Whew. With that much, a family could live in leisure for three generations. It’s worth being greedy for.”
“I saw through him from the moment I met him—he’s a greedy one. The second reason is his ambition to score another victory against our forces, which have suffered combat losses.”
“He’s looking down on us.”
“And why wouldn’t he? He must be confident in his skills, and he did lead his side to victory in the first battle. It’s only natural he’d be arrogant.”
Powell Osborne smiled wryly.
“But things will be different this time.”
Their previous defeat had occurred because they were unaware of Allen’s existence, which defied common sense. In other words, the cause of their loss was a lack of information.
The situation was different now. He had formulated a plan based on the premise of Allen’s military prowess and cunning.
His eyes fell upon the elite soldiers who had been defending the capital city until a few days ago. In their hands were expensive crossbows.
‘He will learn that there is always a sky above the sky.’
Thoroughly prepared, Powell Osborne waited for Allen to arrive. He waited and waited. A week passed, but Allen didn’t show so much as a single hair.
News of Allen finally came three days later, when a messenger arrived from the capital.
“The domain is being plundered!”
“What!?”
Powell Osborne had assumed the reason Allen, who had departed before him, hadn’t arrived yet was because he was waiting for Powell to deal with Bolton. But the reality was different.
While Powell Osborne was wasting time bickering with Bolton and setting up an ambush, Allen had continued to plunder Baron Debussy’s domain.
From Allen’s perspective, legitimately plundering enemy territory was far more comfortable than dealing with Bolton’s questionable loot. Moreover, with Powell Osborne having led his forces out, there was no one to interfere.
“Th-then where are those bastards now!”
The next time Powell Osborne saw Allen was in front of the tower where their first battle had taken place. He had simply used the waterway to return.
“Sir Powell. You’ve worked hard.”
“Aargh!”
Seeing Allen waving and smiling from atop the tower, Powell Osborne clutched the back of his neck. Though he was in the prime of his life, his vision blurred.
“Sir Powell!”
The surrounding knights rushed to support him as he staggered.
“Prepare to attack! I’ll kill that bastard…!”
He shook off their support and raged. The knights quickly blocked his path.
“Sir! Calm down! Even with our superior numbers, it’s reckless to attack an enemy holed up in a tower!”
“Then plunder the surrounding area! We’ll draw them out by plundering!”
“Hasn’t the enemy already plundered everything?”
Thanks to the relentless looting by Bolton and his vassals, there were no lands left to plunder in the area. And there was another problem.
Pitter-patter.
Before long, it began to rain. It was a downpour that heralded the beginning of spring.
The frozen ground thawed and turned to mud. The condition of the road was not much different. Their supply line was lost, and the performance of their precious crossbows would plummet if they were exposed to the rain for too long.
“Sir Powell. The rainy season has begun.”
If it were a rain that would last only a day or two, they could have ignored it, but this region’s rainfall was concentrated in the spring. This was only the beginning.
“Even the heavens are helping that bastard.”
Powell Osborne looked up at the sky with a grief-stricken expression. The rain struck the bridge of his nose and streamed down his cheeks.
“Sir Powell…”
“We’re returning.”
In the end, all Powell Osborne gained from this war was a small amount of wealth plundered by Bolton and his vassals. The territory he had occupied reverted to its pre-war state.
As the soldiers began to retreat one by one, Powell Osborne, unable to let go of his lingering attachment, stared intently at the tower. He thought he could faintly see Allen.
‘I will return. I will definitely return.’
He made a vow, but whether he could keep it remained to be seen.
*
After Powell Osborne withdrew, we also hurried our preparations to return. The faces of the soldiers leaving the tower were bright. And why wouldn’t they be? Everyone had made a hefty profit from this war.
The smiles never left the faces of the elite mercenaries who had followed me from the beginning. This was despite the fact that their contract period was long over, and I hadn’t paid them their corresponding wages.
“Returning to Quaran? Or retiring?”
Leading the troops from the front, I asked Dreng, the mercenary captain. For him, who had earned the most among the mercenaries, retirement was a viable option.
“Is the war completely over?”
“Not a chance. This is just a brief respite.”
Powell Osborne was not the type to stand idly by after such a humiliation. An unexpected great victory would also stimulate Baron Rasino’s greed.
War was inevitable.
“In that case, I will return to Quaran, prepare, and wait. Then we can see even greater gains in the next war.”
The gains he spoke of were likely not money. He had probably earned enough in this war to live the rest of his life in leisure.
“I will call for you when the time comes.”
“I will be waiting.”
Not everyone was happy.
“Let go! You filthy traitors! Do you think Sir Segerik, the Baron, will let you get away with this! You’re dead men when we get back to Polton!”
Bolton, tied up in ropes, struggled violently. Muel had caught him as he was fleeing after the ambush failed, and in that short time, he had suffered enough to look like a beggar.
Even now, he was being forced to walk, tied to a saddle, and was dragged along the ground whenever he couldn’t keep up.
I laughed in disbelief.
“Bolton. Shouldn’t you be worried about your own neck first? I don’t think the Baron will spare you for plundering the territory of an ally.”
“That was your doing!”
“Are you trying to cover the sky with the palm of your hand?”
Bolton smiled confidently.
“And why can’t I? I am the heir to House Bryuen, the most influential family in Polton’s political circles! I have the power to bury an outsider like you! You’d be wise to untie me now and beg for your life!”
Muel, who was watching from the side, cautiously offered his advice.
“He’s not entirely wrong. House Bryuen is a local magnate that has ruled this area since before the Baron acquired the domain. Also, since he only plundered the lands of those who sided with Ailgar, Sir Segerik will likely protect his biggest supporter.”
However, Muel added that Bolton wouldn’t be able to shift or evade responsibility.
The reasons were that I had left behind conclusive evidence, and the people from Ailgar’s faction who had been plundered would not remain silent.
In short, two defeats and the plundering of allied territory were not enough to bring down Bolton and his family.
I had a different opinion.
“You people don’t know the Baron very well.”
“Pardon…?”
“What nonsense is that!”
The Baron coveted even what belonged to his own subordinates. So why had he left House Bryuen alone? Wasn’t it because they were too big to swallow in one bite without tearing his own mouth?
But now, the situation had changed. House Bryuen had exhausted much of its strength in this war, and Bolton had kindly provided an excellent justification for an attack.
If I were Baron Rasino, I would never let this opportunity slip by. Furthermore, didn’t I have an insurance policy of my own?
I thought of Piole, who should have arrived in Polton by now and delivered my letter to the Baron, and a deep smile spread across my face.