The Sack of Sel Leysia
The small gathering hall inside the grand trading city of Sel Leysia, at the western edge of the continent.
Orer Expert
In the wide hall bathed by the dazzling mana lights, the grand feast hosted by merchants from various nations and the estate managers was already in full swing.
Plates overflowed with rich meats and expensive southern grape wine.
Heinz, the Knight Commander responsible for maintaining order in Sel Leysia—the city among those that had gained the lord’s trust and now fell under Sel Late’s rule—sat with a pocket bulging with gold coins in one hand while his other hand rested around the waist of a tavern girl.
“Hahaha! Truly, the Viscount Remer from the north has a big heart. With this much sincerity, the passage toll inside Sel Late territory can be halved.”
“Aigoo, Commander. I am deeply grateful for your consideration.”
Remer bowed low and poured wine into his empty glass from the northern merchant house.
Yet beneath the lively atmosphere, a thick unease flickered in Remer’s eyes—the kind that had been growing for some time now.
He savored the feast for a long while, waiting for the mood to ripen, then wiped the sweat from his forehead and spoke cautiously.
“However, Commander. Rumors are rampant about the current situation in the capital. They say four kingdoms have simultaneously moved their armies inside the Kingdom Alliance… Could the western nomadic tribes be taking advantage of this chaos and scheming something?”
“Puhahaha!! The Iteon Alliance is no joke. It’s a colossal power that even the southern kingdoms and empires can’t touch and only keeps in check. If they’re just fighting each other for their share of the spoils, they’ll sort it out on their own, won’t they?”
Heinz let out a contemptuous laugh and undid two more buttons on his silk shirt.
The heavy, stifling iron armor had long since been discarded like a decoration in a corner of the hall.
“And the western tribes are invading? What kind of savage bastards could they be? They might be good at horse riding, but with our Orer Expert knights keeping their eyes wide open, who do they think they’re fooling? Viscount, you worry too much.”
“Kyaa! You’re so cool, Commander.”
Heinz leaned in to kiss the girl’s cheek just as he was about to tilt back his wine.
Thud—!
A short alarm bell rang from the city gate, signaling danger.
“Huh? What’s the commotion? The wine’s getting flat.”
Heinz frowned and turned his head.
The merchants, including Remer, began murmuring in bewilderment.
But even before they could figure out what was happening.
Thud! Thump!! Thud—!!!
Three bells—the highest alert level—rang frantically in unison, shaking the entire city of Sel Leysia.
Kugugugugu—!
As if an earthquake had struck, the floor of the hall began to tremble.
“C-Commander! What on earth is going on?!”
“Quiet! Get out and see what—!”
Heinz shot to his feet in panic, reaching for the sword discarded in the corner.
Kwaaang—!!
The massive front gate of the hall was torn clean off, and the stench of animal shit that they had so scornfully mocked came rushing into the hall along with the dust.
“Kwaaaah!”
“Help me… kuhk!”
“As commanded by Lord Temur, touch none of the lands except Sel Leysia!!”
Hundreds of cavalrymen in unknown uniforms poured into the narrow courtyard in front of the lord’s residence and the central hall, trampling everything in their path with terrifying momentum.
Before the guards could even lift their spears, arrows from bows struck true, piercing their foreheads and throats.
Any man who reached for a weapon lasted exactly one second before collapsing to the floor.
“These savages…!”
But Heinz was different.
He was an Orer Expert at the low tier, a skilled knight who drew his sword fastest and raised his aura.
Unfortunately, his brain was still heavy with alcohol.
Slash—!
One impossible strike from a massive warrior.
Heinz, the knight commander who had been enjoying wine with such ease moments ago, spun once in the air before dropping heavily at Remer’s feet.
“Hiiik!”
From the headless body of Heinz, a fountain of blood shot straight up.
The hall turned into hell in an instant.
“Huu… The thrill of the first kill really is a piece of shit.”
I looked down at the trembling merchants and screaming women trapped in the corner while wiping the blade of my sword roughly with a cloth.
“Is Toghrul’s and the Irayte warriors’ hundred angels already at the eastern knight station and arsenal?”
Sarnai, who had broken the necks of three knights with her whip, nodded.
“We took them down even faster this time. We lost.”
“That’s quite the respectable loss, though.”
Our tactics were simple yet flawless.
The hundred angel cavalry led by the old man Toghrul played the role of a massive hammer that smashed the enemy’s largest concentration of troops at the outpost.
The two hundred warriors led by Beike completely sealed off the four city gates and food warehouses.
The two hundred finest archers commanded by Orhan controlled the building rooftops and watchtowers, unleashing a rain of arrows from hidden positions so that even the mages’ incantations or knights raising their aura were impossible.
And the four hundred elite cavalry led by me and Sarnai cut across the heart of the city—the lord’s residence and central square—perfectly paralyzing the command structure.
“Kwaaaah!”
“You crazy bastards! What the hell is wrong with you!!”
Hoofbeats that burst the heads of corpses rang out endlessly beyond the windows alongside terrible death throes.
The warriors of the western plains, who had been despised as nomadic scum all their lives and exploited as potential threats, were now unleashing overwhelming and merciless violence as if snapping the chains that had bound them.
The knights who had belatedly donned armor and formed up were unable to keep up with the speed of the cavalry, falling with arrows in their backs.
I grabbed the merchant’s collar who was lying in the corner of the hall, his pants wet with urine, and pulled him up.
“What’s your name?”
“W-we’re foreign merchants protected by the laws of the continent! Please, spare my life…!”
“I asked for your name.”
“R-Remer.”
“You of all people should know that the continent’s laws mean nothing in the battlefield. The trash of the Kingdom Alliance would say so, but we’re different. We don’t harm merchants like you, women who don’t carry weapons, or children.”
“I-I see…”
Remer’s eyes shook uncontrollably.
I lightly patted his trembling shoulder and continued.
“But the rest are exceptions.”
With a slight nod, the Ibin tribe warriors who had followed Sarnai and entered began mercilessly taking the lives of the managers and escorts still inside the lord’s residence.
A massacre without any pity or mercy.
It was a calculated decision to spare the foreign merchants and the weak so as not to create more enemies.
A foundation laid to spread the rumor of the western nomadic tribes’ overwhelming power and mercy across the continent through the merchants’ mouths.
And in the end, a grand picture meant to protect my—our—anger until they themselves were trampled upon.
But for all the other citizens of Sel Leysia, those rotten bastards who had eaten beans while following the Irent tribe’s tail.
Only utter hell was permitted.
We smashed open the city’s vaults, scooping up gold and silver coins into sacks, and loaded everything onto horses—the massive quantities of food and iron weapons stacked in the warehouses.
Those who tried to resist even a little had their heads crushed by Beike’s axe, and those trying to flee had their legs pierced by Orhan’s arrows.
Toghrul’s cavalry turned the outpost into a bloody mud pit, hunting down the remaining stragglers with boisterous laughter.
Exactly six hours had passed.
Sel Leysia, the western continent’s greatest trading city that had enjoyed dazzling prosperity, was now a skeleton of ruins wrapped in red-black flames and thick smoke.
The image of the noble order that had been firmly maintained for hundreds of years just before being completely trampled under the hooves of the nomadic tribes and reduced to ash.
I sat on horseback, quietly watching the debris of the city vibrating with the stench of blood.
“… Honestly, I didn’t think we’d achieve this much in the first strike.”
There were still many lords helping the Irent tribe oppress the nomads and amassing vast wealth and power through the Silk Road.
Even the lord of Sel Late alone still possessed six cities the size of Sel Leysia.
But with this one attack, we had learned one very important truth.
The empty carts look impressive, but they’re rotten from the inside.
“Depending on how Sel Late comes out, the extinction of the Irent tribe will either be accelerated or pushed back.”