Sel Late (6)
It had already been several days since the proper knight training had begun.
Amira's guidance was the complete opposite of her stunning beauty—blood and tears were absent from her lessons.
She had ruthlessly crushed the chronic habit of our tribal warriors wasting their strength in crude, untrained blows.
Through the breath, she had forcibly imprinted the skill of gathering the scattered energy in the lower abdomen into the core of the body.
Every single day she would throw us to the dirt dozens of times, leaving bruises and cuts all over our bodies, yet the results were unmistakable.
A low heat rising from the lower belly.
That was the sign we had finally built the foundation needed to wield orer, the power we had been waiting for.
And as usual, everyone had collapsed into the deepest part of the night.
I slipped out of the yurt, stepped into the cold night wind, and dropped onto the hillock.
The stars, thick and glittering as if about to pour down from the cloudless sky of the western plains, painted a beautiful picture.
It was a beautiful, peaceful landscape, but on the inside I was anything but calm.
*… Can I really unite all these tribes and become the king?*
Winning battles and shattering enemies was something I could do.
I had already led two major clashes to victory.
But tying a blood-soaked territory into one realm and ruling a true nation was an entirely different problem.
Of course, I had the perfect answer key— the history of the Mongol Empire.
Yet even in that perfect key, countless wrong answers were also written in plain sight.
Suddenly, a memory of the story between Temur Khan and his foster father Ong Khan of the Kereit tribe flashed through my mind.
Temur Khan had sent his four most trusted generals to save the besieged Ong Khan, yet in the end the seed of unerasable suspicion had taken root and their bond had shattered.
Right beside me now, laughing boisterously, was Toghrul of the Irayte tribe, and I myself.
One day, when the true ruler of the west took his place, would we end up aiming blades at each other exactly like the wrong answer in history?
On this plain scarred by intrigue and division, the alliance we had forcibly stitched together felt like a time bomb that could explode at any moment.
After all, what bound us was not mutual trust between tribes, but only rage against the enemy and the overwhelming promise of reward.
That was the moment I had sunk deepest into the mire.
*Scratch. Scratch.*
The sound of footsteps trampling dry grass came from somewhere nearby.
I turned my head and saw Amira, who had been heading back to her yurt after guiding me on the proper breathing technique, spot me and begin walking over slowly.
"Even until the dead of night, you haven't slept? What exactly are you pondering so deeply?"
She stopped at a suitable distance beside me.
"It's nothing. Just…"
I was about to brush it off, but clicked my tongue.
Since she was an outsider and a thorough outsider, it felt easy to spill my true thoughts.
"The war and fighting overflow with baseless confidence, but once I have to clean up all of that and actually become the real ruler of the west… suddenly doubt creeps into my own chest."
"…"
My clumsy confession.
Amira listened to my words and fell silent, gazing up at the night sky for a moment.
Then she turned her head and looked straight at me.
For an instant her gaze overlapped with that of Remer, the merchant lord who had first come to our yurt and proposed a naked deal.
A merchant's eyes that calculated value with absolute certainty.
"I have only learned how to swing a sword as a knight, and I have never studied rule or politics much, so I cannot neatly organize an answer."
"It's fine. You said it to get the answer…"
"But there is one fact I have confirmed with my own two eyes that is certain."
"What certain thing?"
When I asked, a faint curve appeared on Amira's lips.
"You will not end on the line of crushing the western kingdom alliance and the corrupt nobles. Perhaps… you will swallow the entire great center where all the powers of the east, west, south, and north covet and drool, and exercise an unimaginable amount of influence across this entire continent."
"…"
Not the slightest tremor of doubt.
In her voice, which was so serious, I stared at her blankly for a moment.
How was it possible that this woman, whom I had only known for a little over a week, could say such words?
How could she show me trust as much as my own tribesmen?
*Hah, seriously.*
It was absurd, yet at the same time my chest felt wide open, as if a stopper had been yanked away.
To a man still panicking because he hadn't even properly unified one plain, the prophecy that he would swallow the center of the continent.
Besides, if I thought about it, I had already been caught in the historical dregs and digging useless holes.
If I mixed blades with Toghrul, then at that time I could simply subdue the old man with my own strength.
It was simple.
After clearing all the distractions, I stood up from my spot right away.
"Sorry for saying useless things at this late hour, but thanks to you my head has cleared."
"No. A ruler is naturally lonely and full of suspicion."
"Did the king you served also have that?"
"… That man was stupid and power-hungry, greedy, making him quite irritating."
"… You spoke out of turn again."
"No."
Amira gave a light bow.
"Speaking of which, if it's not too much trouble, could you spare a bit more lesson?"
Amira paused briefly at my sudden request.
Then she showed a slightly bewildered expression, and soon let out a soft laugh, placing her hand on the shamshir at her waist.
"Very well. The price for stealing my sleep time must be paid thoroughly, Chief Temur."
"Stealing a beautiful woman's sleep time is one of the dreams all warriors share."
*Clang!*
Under the moonlight, the shamshir sheathed with orer was drawn.
I, too, without hesitation discarded my distractions and drew my sword.
***
Exactly five weeks had passed since we turned Sel Iritas to ash and trampled the five-thousand army of Sel Late.
And the information our Ibin scouts brought in every day was so frequent that smiles inevitably leaked out every time we heard it.
In that short time.
The western plains of the continent had sunk into an unstoppable storm of chaos, as I sowed poisonous bait that devoured them.
First, the kingdom alliance's internal war, sparked by the fake messenger, had grown beyond control and secretly begun to accept external intervention.
Naturally, all the gazes of the western lords had left the plains entirely.
They were either guarding their own bowls while watching the alliance or, taking advantage of the chaos, desperately fighting to steal even a little more territory from neighboring lands.
Most satisfying of all was the current situation of the western traitor, the Ir-ent tribe.
In the past five weeks, half of our tribal warriors had been wearing the armor of the Sel Late knights and ceaselessly biting at the Ir-ent's outer patrols and supply lines.
The Ir-ent, who had already been anxious from lack of support.
After two months of food and weapons were completely turned to ash by repeated attacks from this fake Sel Late army, they finally lost their reason.
A mad dog that had decided to bite the master's finger.
Ir-ent declared true war on the most lenient outer lordship of the western lords, the Marquis Melia, and began full-scale plundering.
And as the price of that audacious rebellion, the western lords' alliance and the Kingdom of Ventea formed a massive pursuit army of a total of fourteen thousand.
The news that they had begun marching to crush Ir-ent arrived at our yurt this very morning.
*Perfect trap.*
If I had my way, I would immediately lead all the cavalry, charge, and behind Ir-ent, who was fighting the fourteen-thousand army to the death, open a pincer front.
But I tried to calm the boiling blood and looked at the map.
Thanks to Amira's and the merchant guard's hellish training, the warriors' level had skyrocketed, and the number of those who could handle mana had also increased, but.
One fatal weakness remained.
We had not yet experienced actual warfare with proper sieges and large-scale conventional battles.
No matter how mobile we were, in front of solid walls we would only scatter like sand.
Moreover, the Ir-ent were the type who knew how to use magic and siege weapons properly.
So I decided to postpone the real hunt that would cut off Ir-ent's throat for a while.
Instead, we would lose two cities and three thousand soldiers and become the most desirable prey of the other lords.
I planned to completely disable the Sel Late lord and use him as a wonderful practical training partner for our side.
And the first goal for that grand plan was the most solid pass and firm fortress city on the way to the heart of Sel Late territory, Sel Mircont.
Around midday, the chiefs of the alliance gathered one by one inside the yurt.
Including Toghrul, Kasar, Bars, and others.
The faces of the chiefs shone with a vitality from the recent victories and the mana, the power that only nobles knew.
I met their eyes one by one, then spread the map across the table.
"You all must have heard the news that the Ir-ent have started fighting the fourteen-thousand regular army to the death."
At my words, Kasar laughed boisterously.
"Hahaha! That's right! Just as Temur said, those idiots tore each other apart! So when do we go chop their backsides?"
"No, that's still not it."
I shook my head firmly and pointed at the walls of Sel Mircont.
"We will wait until the encirclement around Ir-ent is completely sealed and both sides have used up their strength. Our goal is the western lords, not the alliance kingdom."
"That's correct."
"Therefore, instead of that time, we will practice breaking this solid stone."
"Sel Mircont… it truly is a real fortress with walls that can't be compared to the commercial cities we destroyed earlier."
Bars nodded his head twice and added in a cautious voice.
"Even if we train, our plains warriors are just the kind who climb walls like ladders. How do you plan to capture that city with only cavalry?"
"That is simple as well."
I turned my gaze toward Remer, the merchant lord who had been standing in a corner of the tent.
He had arrived this morning, bent his waist with a kind smile after seeing the huge investment.
"You don't have to worry about that. Our merchant group has brought plenty of wonderful gifts."
From miniature mana cannons that condensed power and shot it out, to specially made steel battering rams designed to break walls.
The siege weapons secretly procured by the merchant group were already waiting, covered by tents behind the yurt.
Seeing the curiosity and fighting spirit burning in the chiefs' eyes, I stood up.
"Everything is ready. All of you, inspect your warriors' equipment and sharpen your blades. In four days, on the night when the full moon rises, we will launch our first siege war of the prairie alliance, leading with the siege weapons procured by the merchant group."