Chapter 90: Turbulent Whirlwind
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 90: Turbulent Whirlwind
“What…?”
Everyone looked bewildered. Bewilderment quickly turned to rage.
“Are you trying to jest with me?”
Even Baron Debussy, who had maintained his composure, raised his voice, his face turning beet red.
“I am being sincere.”
The baron's daughter, on the receiving end of this confirmation kill, looked like she'd just bitten into something foul.
In truth, she wasn't terribly ugly. As the daughter of a noble house, it was clear she had been raised with care, which alone placed her above the average woman of this era.
The problem was the comparison to the women by my side.
Adeleade, who was three or four years her senior, possessed a beauty that rivaled women in their twenties.
Well… that’s all just an excuse.
The real problems lay elsewhere. First, my foundation.
Unlike the sons of other vassals, I hadn't spent my childhood building connections in the court, yet I was never treated like an outsider. That was thanks to my father, who had been Baron Rasino’s right-hand man.
If not for my father, I would never have been made a commander in my first war.
I had no such foundation in Baron Debussy’s domain. In other words, even if I switched sides, I would be, at best, one of the baron’s henchmen.
He’s a cunning one.
And Baron Debussy had surely made his offer with this in mind.
The second problem was Djak, Baron Debussy’s younger brother.
Having constantly vied for the barony and clashed with Powell Osborne, he would not welcome my arrival.
Since my power would be diminished due to the first problem, he would undoubtedly try to test me.
Accepting the baron’s offer wouldn't be a step forward; it would be a stumble backward.
On the surface, the proposal seemed greatly to my advantage, but its core was rotten to the core. A poisoned chalice, one might say.
“Over mere beauty? Ha, now I truly see how young you are. As a man who has lived twice your years, let me offer some advice: what matters is the blood of the family you marry into.”
It was the way of the nobility to marry without ever seeing the other’s face. By that standard, I must have seemed peculiar.
“Beauty is more important to me.”
The baron took my attitude as an insult. His face flushed, he shot to his feet and pointed a finger at me.
“Fool! You refuse a toast only to demand a penalty drink!”
The vassals, who had briefly retreated, formed a semicircle, surrounding me. The swords aimed at me glinted grimly in the flickering candlelight.
There was only one knight, but it was unlikely any of these vassals hadn't learned the sword, making them quite a threat.
However, compared to a moment ago when they were all talk, they now seemed far too confident. The baron, too. It seemed they had something up their sleeves.
My eyes were drawn to the few candles in the massive hall. Thanks to the sparse lighting, the corners of the hall were as dark as if covered by a black curtain.
Just then, moonlight seeped through a crack in the closed window, sweeping through the darkness. For a moment, something sharp glinted.
An arrowhead?
I instinctively thought of the crossbowmen Baron Debussy was so proud of. Hadn't a small number of them been resisting when we arrived in Palanti?
The insidious baron had made full preparations before summoning me.
One knight, five others of comparable skill, and a few crossbowmen waiting to ambush me. An ordinary man wouldn't even leave his bones behind in this situation.
“Let’s end this pointless debate. I have no intention of letting any of you live.”
When I offered an arrogant smile, the baron and his vassals exchanged glances, their lips twitching. They were counting on their crossbowmen.
Baron Debussy’s expression hardened. He pointed at me and shouted.
“That’s my line! All of you, take his head!”
Despite the baron’s command, the vassals were cautious. Perhaps they had learned from their comrade’s death. They didn't rush to cross swords, instead probing for an opening.
“Where did the man who was going to take my head go?”
“You need not rush. You are fated to die here today!”
“I bet if you fell in the water, only your mouth would stay afloat.”
“You bastard…!”
“If you won’t come to me, then I will come to you.”
I readjusted my grip on Trollsverd. Then, just as I had when I split their comrade in two, I raised it high. From top to bottom. A classic overhead strike.
A sound like the earth itself was being crushed echoed, and the knight facing me turned deathly pale.
He didn't dare to face it and rolled to the side. Of course, he wasn't just dodging.
“Now!”
Twang—
An arrow fired from a crossbow shot through the space the knight had just vacated.
The arrowhead closed the distance in the blink of an eye. Seeing their trump card about to succeed as planned, the faces of the baron and his vassals brightened.
But I, having entered a world where time slowed, took it all in.
As if I had been waiting for it, I grabbed another vassal’s sword. The man instinctively resisted, putting his strength into it. A fatal mistake.
He should have just let go of the sword. If he had, he might have lived.
As I pulled, the vassal came stumbling helplessly forward. He tried to let go of his sword, but the arrow was a beat faster.
“Gack—”
The arrow pierced him instead of me. The man looked down at the arrowhead protruding from his chest and collapsed with a look of disbelief.
“Duncan!! You son of a bitch—!”
I tossed Duncan aside like a piece of trash and faced the baron and his vassals once more. The crossbowman who fired the arrow was still hidden in the darkness.
“Didn't Sir Powell report it? That arrows are useless against me.”
“Don’t be fooled! He’s lying! How can a man see an arrow and dodge it! Fire again! Quickly!”
With the baron’s command, I heard the sound of taut bowstrings being released. There were three of them.
Besides the one I had seen, there were two more crossbowmen.
I had anticipated as much. I immediately lowered my stance and dove between the vassals. With the sound of arrows whizzing past my back, I swung my sword.
“N-No—!”
The knight who had rolled on the ground to create an opening for me had yet to recover his posture.
He desperately tried to block my sword by holding his own horizontally in a half-swording grip.
His movements were clean, as if he had trained for such a situation. It made him fast.
But he would soon regret it. He belatedly remembered the fate of his comrade who had died trying to block my sword.
I gave him the same end as his comrade. I shattered his sword and split his torso in two.
CRASH.
Even then, my sword had power to spare, leaving a deep gash in the stone floor of the hall.
I immediately rushed toward my next prey. Even with the help of a loading mechanism, a crossbow’s reload time was long. I couldn't miss that opening.
“No! Help me—!”
The terrified prey turned to flee, not knowing it was the worst possible choice.
Where Trollsverd passed, his back was left with a deep, concave wound. Its owner couldn't possibly be unharmed.
“Keuk—”
Leaving the prey to collapse while vomiting blood, I twisted my body and swung my sword in a wide arc.
Two swords that had been aiming for my back, trying to take advantage of the moment I was finishing my prey, were sent flying with a shower of sparks.
“Aargh!”
Unable to handle the force transmitted through their blades, two vassals lost their grip on their swords.
I plunged my sword into the chest of a vassal who was trying to retreat too late. I kicked the other one to the ground, then stomped on his head, crushing his skull.
Swish.
I heard the sound of arrows again. The crossbowmen, having finished reloading, had fired once more.
Already wary of the direction the arrows had come from, I dodged all three with a single step.
At the same time, I threw the dead vassal’s sword. The last remaining vassal was just about to open the door to escape.
The sword I threw skewered him and the door together. The three remaining crossbowmen soon followed him in death. Now, only the baron and his daughter were left.
“W-Wait! I’ll do as you say! I’ll give it all up and step down!!”
Finally grasping reality, Baron Debussy declared he would accept my terms.
“To be honest, I never planned on letting you live.”
“What? You son of a—”
Trollsverd split Baron Debussy’s skull. He collapsed without even managing a proper scream. Now, only his daughter remained.
She had fled to a corner at some point and was now huddled there, trembling. When our eyes met, she froze, and a yellow puddle formed beneath her.
“P-Please, spare me… Please…”
“I will, if you promise to follow my instructions.”
The baron’s daughter nodded her head frantically.
Objectively, the baron’s daughter was valuable. For a mere knight, marrying her meant ascending to the nobility.
Among the knights who had arrived one by one in response to the call to arms, none had balked at the idea of marrying into her family.
When the baron’s daughter came out to greet them and brought up marriage, they came to the hall where I was waiting without suspicion. And they all died.
“Is this all of them?”
The baron’s daughter, still huddled and trembling in the corner of the hall, nodded her head frantically.
Her gaze was fixed on the corpse sprawled in the center of the hall.
The knight, who had been breathing and speaking just moments before, now had his skull shattered to pieces. Spilled blood and brain matter mixed to create a pinkish mess.
“Yes, yes. Th-That’s all… Blech!”
After barely squeezing out the words, she grabbed the wall and dry-heaved.
“Is that so…”
Having dealt with the baron’s house, I summoned Muel and Dreng. They came to me bearing the clear marks of battle.
While I had been dealing with the knights, they had been tasked with killing the squires the knights had brought with them and disbanding the mercenaries.
“Sir Dreng. Go to the manors of the dead knights. Deal with the remnants and seize the manors.”
“Yes. I will obey your command.”
Dreng gave a military salute and left the hall.
“Sir Muel. You will announce the baron’s death and that his grandson has become the new baron.”
“I will obey your command.”
Muel followed after Dreng. With the heads of each faction cut off, there would be no one left to oppose me.
Of course, the problem wasn't completely solved. Rebellions could break out in the various manors, or middle managers could plot treason behind the scenes.
If they were to ally with the baron’s brother, Djak, the situation could become quite troublesome.
A bigger problem was the fact that Count Dresden, having been contacted by Adeleade, would soon make his move.
The fact that I had wiped out the knights from both domains, drastically reducing our knightly strength, was also an issue.
It’s one problem after another.
Still, everything up to this point had gone according to my plan. I decided to unravel things one by one.
The count would only move after he had ascertained the exact situation, so I still had some time. That meant stabilizing Baron Debussy’s domain was the priority.
To monitor and control the stirrings of seditious forces, I needed the help of someone who knew the internal affairs well.
I had someone in mind. I called out to the baron’s daughter, who was still dry-heaving in the corner of the hall.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Sir Zant.”
He was the knight who had been captured by me during the tower battle and later released after paying a ransom.
I remembered him for being brave enough to be the first to step forward for a duel, and for cleanly admitting his defeat.
He was a bit hot-headed, to be sure, but that was likely due to his youth. With more experience, he could certainly become a valuable asset.
The problem was whether he would cooperate with me, but I noted his absence among the knights who had answered the call to arms.
“H-He returned his manor and rescinded his vassal contract…!”
The number of errant knights wandering the continent in search of an investiture was countless. To give up such a position, even returning a manor?
“Why?”
“The prevailing opinion among the vassals was that he was responsible for the last defeat. They said that because he, an inexperienced knight, rashly stepped forward for a duel, we got off on the wrong foot, and that greatly influenced our defeat…”
“Hmm, the duel had little effect on the overall battle.”
The duel back then was merely a means to reduce the enemy’s knightly strength; it had little impact on the outcome of the war.
If anyone was to be held responsible, it was the commander, Powell Osborne. I let out a small laugh.
“Sir Powell didn’t protect him.”
“How did you know?”
“No, Sir Powell must have orchestrated it.”
“…!”
The Powell Osborne of a future that would no longer come to pass often passed his failures onto others. It was to avoid showing any weakness to his powerful political rival, his uncle-in-law. It seemed he had used the same trick this time.
Leaving the astonished baron’s daughter behind, I fell into thought. A knight who had abandoned his title and manor due to unjust treatment. His resentment toward the baron must be immense.
“He’ll be useful.”
The situation was even better than I had guessed. I tasked Muel with watching the baron’s daughter and her son and decided to put in the legwork myself.
*
“What kind of man is Baron Debussy?”
“He’s a good man. But why do you ask?”
The middle-aged man named Max, whom I had hired as a guide, eyed me with suspicion.
“No need to be so wary. I heard a rumor that the war created many vacancies, so I was just asking in case there might be a place for me.”
“Hmm…”
Max’s expression soured. He even looked at me with pity. The way he constantly worked his lips told me he was a talkative man.
As soon as I handed him a pouch of dried fruit, his lips loosened.
“It’s not really my place to say, but that’s definitely not a wise choice. Did you hear he tried to abandon the city and run when the monsters stirred? That’s why a small wound of his has worsened, and now he's hovering between life and death! It's divine punishment.”
“The monster activity must have been severe, for the lord to flee.”
“You don’t have to tell me! When the troll broke down the wall, I thought we were all going to die! But then! The Giant Slayer appeared.”
There was nothing more embarrassing than hearing about my own exploits from someone else’s mouth. I pretended not to listen, then casually probed.
“I heard he was a devilish man…”
“Hmph, if he’s saving your life, who cares if he’s a devil?”
“The priest wouldn’t like to hear that.”
“The priest was the one who ran away even before the lord. Hah, that man was always full of righteous words, but when we actually needed help, he didn't even look back.”
Max chuckled and continued his tirade.
“Isn’t the knight called a devil closer to a saint? To save an enemy he fought so many times? If it were me, I would have just left them to die.”
That wasn't just Max’s opinion. All the domain’s residents I met on the way were friendly toward me.
It seemed that reputation had formed because I had saved not only the capital city of Palanti but also Melbourne, the second-largest city I had been in just before.
Thanks to that, I was certain. If I managed the middle managers well, I could swallow Baron Debussy’s domain whole.
The problem was the whereabouts of one of the two pillars I needed for that.
“Sir Zant left?”
“Y-Yes, sir. I overheard that he was going to find a new lord…”
The village chief of Entrée bowed his head. I pressed a silver coin into his hand and asked.
“Did he say where he was going?”
“He definitely said he was going to Polton.”
Our paths had crossed. It was fortunate that Entrée was in the south, relatively close to Polton.
I turned my horse around. My plan had been to recruit Zant and then head to Polton anyway. The other pillar I needed to swallow the domain was there.
One of the few people I could trust, an animal who was likely just wasting his time doing nothing.
*
At that very moment, in the inner castle of Polton. Zaenbold, who had been slacking off thanks to his new, reliable backer, let out a loud sneeze.
“Achoo! Is someone talking about me?”