Chapter 7
Chapter 7
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: The Wolf Crossing the Northern Mountains
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[Are you saying we should wait?]
Scrall let out a bewildered voice at my words. I replied flatly to him, who was acting as if he had never even considered it.
“If the leader of the barbarian tribe is the woman I know, then Darius won’t hold out for long. He’ll come down from the ridge and fight another defensive battle in the streets of Northsweden.”
[But if he does that, the citizens’ safety...]
“We won’t have the spare capacity to worry about it.”
If they fail to stop the barbarian tribe from crossing over, the family itself will be shaken.
It’s a house that has survived on force alone, so in that situation, they’ll think of sucking the citizens’ blood dry just to hold on.
“He’ll be back soon. To realize that the beast he thought was a mere mongrel is actually a wolf, he’ll have no choice but to get bitten.”
I had only seen him for those short three months, but the Darius I knew was no great general.
He might be an outstanding warrior, but he was not the type to become an exceptional commander.
People like that could never defeat someone superior in martial prowess.
‘He’ll definitely return after defeat.’
Until then, all I had to do was wait quietly and prepare my negotiation cards.
* * *
“Raise your shields! If we give up here, next is Northsweden’s streets! Were the warriors of the North too spineless to even protect their families!”
Darius’s rage-filled shout erupted. On any other day, the soldiers would have cowered and swiftly obeyed his orders.
But now, they didn’t even have the strength for that.
They had fully utilized the geographical advantage of the mountain ridge.
Even if there was a difference in weapon quality due to technological disparity, their side’s magic was not inferior at all.
The path from the village to the ridge was well-maintained, making resupply easy.
They weren’t short on manpower, nor had the soldiers neglected their training.
The giants of the borderlands had always drilled their soldiers.
In terms of morale, there was no comparison. After all, the soldiers knew that if this line broke, their families’ hometowns lay right behind them.
They were defending with their lives.
But.
“Urk!”
A sharp, acrid smoke scent stung their noses.
Not the gunpowder smell from the barbarians’ rifles, but the harshly pungent aroma of tobacco.
A woman, like a wolf charging through the snowy fields, exhaled not breath but cigarette smoke.
Her eyes, stained with how many deaths, glowed a deep crimson.
Thwack!
The raised axe cleaved a Northsweden soldier in half like chopping firewood. He slid down the mountainside without even realizing he was dead.
“She’s coming again!”
“The White Wolf is charging!”
Squelch.
“I’ll handle this!”
Darius ground his teeth so hard his veins bulged and finally charged forward.
He could not be toyed with by that woman again.
As his coat fluttered behind him, only the thick tobacco scent lingered in his wake. That woman had climbed the mountain extinguishing every flame of life.
Mana gathered at the tips of Darius’s feet as he dashed downhill.
With each heavy step, the surrounding trees shook off their snow as if screaming.
“Hoh?”
The barbarian woman called the White Wolf, Pindenai, spotted the man charging at her like a chariot and pulled back the hand gripping her axe.
“You’ve finally graced us with your presence, Border Count Darius!”
“That’s not a name for the likes of you to utter, you lowly wretch!”
Darius’s sword clashed with Pindenai’s axe.
In raw power, Darius held the advantage. Thinking to slay Pindenai with one stroke, he pressed forward relentlessly.
“Kekeke, so you’re just a brute with brute strength?”
“You bitch!”
“Didn’t you say you’d only recently become family head? What a shame. All brawn and no seasoned cunning.”
Pindenai twisted her axe sideways, deflecting the sword’s trajectory. At the same time, her body slid across the snow like ice, evading Darius’s blade.
“Look at that hot blood rushing to your head. Fight like that in the Clock Republic, and you’ll die in no time.”
“Who are you to lecture me on age and vigor? You’re clearly just a girl barely past twenty.”
“Hmm, precisely twenty-seven. I just look young.”
Pindenai tapped her shoulder with the back of her axe and sneered, exhaling cigarette smoke.
“But I’ve got way more experience than you.”
“Bullshit! From the age of ten, when I first gripped a sword, I’ve followed in my father’s footsteps guarding this mountain range. I’m not some vessel you barbarians can compare to!”
Darius panted heavily, gathering mana as if ready to bisect the insolent Pindenai right then and there.
The snow piled at his feet began to scatter fiercely.
“Yeah, sure. Hiding in safe outposts on the ridge since you were ten, killing my kin just trying to survive and cross over.”
“......”
“Playing tough, young master. That’s not called combat. It’s hunting. No different from catching rabbits or foxes. You’re not warriors—you’re hunters.”
“I won’t tolerate any more insults.”
“Insults? You’re the one insulting us. Mistaking slaughter for battle, you half-baked pup.”
Plop.
Pindenai spat out the cigarette from her mouth onto the ground. A fierce killing intent surged in her blood-red eyes.
“I’ve been fleeing desperately since birth, killing people to survive since the age of three.”
Crack!
“Guh!”
He couldn’t even track the axe with his eyes. His shoulder armor shattered, and the blade embedded deep into Darius’s right shoulder.
“Grrrrr!”
The menacingly rising mana scattered in an instant, retreating before the chill.
Before the agonized Darius’s eyes, Pindenai’s instep was already there.
Bam!
A flying kick struck his face dead-on.
Darius’s body staggered backward.
But Pindenai didn’t stop.
Twisting in mid-air from the first strike, she drove a back kick straight into his chest.
Crack!
The sound of his ribs shattering as it pierced through his armor. Darius collapsed onto the cold snow.
“Gah, urk!”
The pain was so intense he couldn’t even scream properly.
“Suits you.”
Pindenai looked down at Darius and yanked the axe from his shoulder.
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
He screamed as if the mountain itself would crumble, but Pindenai just giggled and wiped the blood from her axe against the snow.
Another barbarian who had followed her held a hunting rifle, aimed it at Darius—but.
“That’s enough. Let him go.”
“What? Leader, what do you—”
Mercy?
This mere barbarian showing mercy to him, the Border Count of Griffin?
The ones who had lived like slaves in the Clock Republic showing him mercy?
His guts twisted, but Pindenai had no intention of showing mercy.
“Leave him alive, and no competent replacement will take the Border Count seat.”
“Ah.”
“......!”
Darius’s eyes bulged red with rage. Blood rushed to his head, but all it did was worsen the bleeding from his shoulder.
“Border Count, sir, can you report that the line’s been breached? The moment you do, your family loses all the privileges it’s enjoyed until now.”
“Grrrrrr!”
“I’ll let you live. Think it over carefully. Request reinforcements for the kingdom, or stay silent for your family.”
Cackling, Pindenai strode toward the outpost, leaving Darius trembling with humiliation at her back.
Not a single snowflake fell from the stark white sky.
Only the thick tobacco scent remained by Darius’s side.
*
Exactly two days later.
Family head Darius returned to the mansion laid up in a sickbed.
His soldiers trudged back with heavy steps, heads bowed low, hiding their faces behind helmets—the very picture of defeated remnants.
[Truly remarkable foresight, sir.]
“......”
Scrall marveled as my judgment proved spot-on, but to me, it was obvious, so I felt nothing.
The mansion grew chaotic inside, and the citizens of Northsweden, witnessing the routed soldiers’ return, trembled in fear of barbarian pillaging and demanded answers from our family.
They’d paid taxes for times like this, so it was only natural.
I took in the streets of Northsweden visible through the window. Chaotic inside, but not a single carriage departing outside.
“No one’s leaving.”
[Northerners have always had a strong attachment to their homeland.]
Like icicles frozen to the earth, they had no thought of fleeing the barbarian invasion—they just meant to hold their ground.
Urgent footsteps approached from outside. I turned from the window and donned my coat.
“Time to go.”
Scrall bowed deeply to see me off.
The door, which hadn’t opened except for mealtimes these past few days, swung wide.
Urging me out as if demanding answers.