Chapter 127
Chapter 127
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 127
Chapter Title: 40. I'll Go Stir Things Up and Come Back (3)
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Idrian Leonberger stepped forward.
The empire's knights blocked his path, stating that there was no need for royalty to interfere in knights' affairs.
It was a demand to silently watch as his own knights were killed.
The prince did not reply.
He simply kept walking.
At that moment, the paladin spoke.
"He is still a prince of a nation. Treat this precious guest with care so he doesn't get hurt."
The empire's knights moved. Without even drawing their swords, they reached out to restrain the prince.
Sashak.
A flash of light gleamed. The hands of the knights reaching for the prince thudded to the ground.
"Wha? Wha? Aaaargh!"
The knights clutched their severed wrists and let out long screams.
But the screams did not last long.
No human could scream after their head was sent flying.
Paat.
A beat later, a spray of blood erupted.
Bathed in the blood, the prince flashed a white smile.
Kkadak.
He shook his bloodied sword.
It was blatant provocation and mockery.
"Whoa."
Dolosis Dotrumunt, watching the scene from the sky, let out an exclamation.
"He just lopped off their heads like that."
He had expected at least a few words exchanged before swords clashed. To think he'd swing first thing.
It was so bold, it nearly stole his heart.
And to wear such an arrogant expression in front of hundreds of knights.
His spirit was something else.
But impressive as the scene was, spirit alone couldn't turn the tide of battle.
The enemy the prince had cut down numbered only three. The empire's knights, still over three hundred strong, continued to surround the prince and his delegation.
Among them were even two paladins, knights among knights.
A force gap that was nearly impossible to overcome.
"Now, show me what you've got."
What he was hiding.
What confidence allowed him to choose annihilation over escape.
His heart pounded wildly.
Before he knew it, his saddle and rear were repeatedly sticking and un-sticking.
"That looks really unsightly right now? Please stay still."
Even as his dear Jin Katrin chided him, he paid no mind.
His nerves were entirely fixed on Idrian Leonberger. Trivial nagging like that didn't register.
He watched the prince with a face full of anticipation.
*
The empire's knights began to move. Rather than responding to the prince's provocation, they chose to tighten the encirclement and press the delegation. That was when Leonberg's knights charged out all at once.
At the forefront was the kingdom's female knight gripping her brilliantly shining sword.
Saak.
One corner of the encirclement crumbled in an instant.
But few died.
The empire's knights had been wary of the kingdom's female knight from the start. The moment she appeared, they scattered, evading her slashing range.
And so the battle began.
The kingdom's female knight went on a rampage with full intent. The advantage of the empire's encirclement vanished in a flash. They relied purely on numerical superiority to face Leonberg's knights.
It wasn't a bad response.
If the opponents had been a typical knight order, and the empire's paladins had effectively pinned down the kingdom's female knight.
That alone would have sufficed for victory.
But Leonberg's knight order was no ordinary one.
They did not form a defensive formation for a test of strength like typical orders, nor did they fight solely with sword and shield like average knights.
Fists, knees, heads. They swung whatever they could, and sometimes scooped up dirt with their sword tips.
Leonberg's knights resembled mercenaries more than knights.
They were ruthlessly accustomed to chaotic melee.
While facing one knight, they might suddenly thrust at another, or switch opponents before the fight even concluded.
The empire's knights were the ones thrown into disarray.
They had to stay vigilant for blades from blind spots while engaging enemies in front.
No one had anticipated this.
Because knight orders didn't fight like this.
That failure to predict it was the empire knight order's first mistake.
And the second was that the paladins they trusted utterly failed to restrain the kingdom's female knight.
The kingdom's female knight tore through the empire knights without hesitation.
To the empire knights already flustered by Leonberg's unpredictable knights, she was a disaster.
"Where are the paladins!"
One empire knight called for a paladin.
"Paladin, here."
Something rolled to the knight's feet.
Degurur. Thud.
A severed head, helmet and all.
It was the paladin's head, eyes wide in shock, unable to even close in death.
*
"Exactly once."
Dolosis Dotrumunt emphasized repeatedly.
Idrian's blade had felled the paladin's head in truly a single stroke.
The kingdom's retainers were speechless.
Some were so stunned they stood there mumbling like fools.
It was a ridiculous sight, but Dolosis didn't laugh.
He had been the same.
When he saw the paladin turned headless corpse in a single clash, even he was shocked.
No matter how much the paladin had underestimated his foe, he hadn't expected the fight to end so quickly.
The wyvern knights who viewed imperial paladins as beneath them felt the same.
No one spoke.
Only after a long while did Jin Katrin comment on the prince's ambush: it was a fluke born of pouring full power into one strike to overcome clashing mana attributes, and it wouldn't work twice.
It was a reasonable guess.
The empire knights who first moved to restrain the prince had fallen to the same tactic, and they assumed it was his style.
It didn't take long to realize that guess was wrong.
*
"I meant to spare your life for your status! Now, beg no mercy from me!"
The empire's paladin, stepping in late to salvage the situation, deployed his aura blade at full power from the start.
The unpleasant ripple of ring mana reached even the wyvern knights high in the sky.
"This time, it'll be tough. The Leonberger royals have already forgotten their heritage."
Dolosis nodded at his dear Jin Katrin's words.
The knightly house famed for the Dragon Slayer lineage no longer existed. All that remained was a fallen royal house that had abandoned its heritage.
He didn't know why that young prince had accumulated mana in his heart, but it was just an empty shell without the core.
Heart mana without its essence was powerless before the ring.
The prince would likely fall soon, just like the swordmasters of old against ring knights.
That was certain.
Until the prince's lips moved slightly.
Kuwaaaa.
Suddenly, the wind howled fiercely.
The plains were still lush green,
in the sweltering heat before summer had fully retreated,
yet a biting gale blew.
And at its center stood the Leonberger prince.
Dolosis groaned. Goosebumps rose all over his body.
He knew what this sudden phenomenon was.
The re-enactment of a feat of faith,
the manifestation of heritage.
It was the awakening of the Epic of Martial Deeds.
Dolosis cried out unwittingly.
"You've been deceiving the world!"
The Leonberger royals, known to have abandoned heritage for the ring.
"They never forgot!"
Yet the eldest son of that blood boldly wielded the power of the Epic of Martial Deeds.
To think another heritage besides Heaven's Mandate had endured—he was thrilled.
But his excitement quickly faded. He knew all too well that heritage alone couldn't overturn attributes.
Heritage had become dusty legend, faith a fleeting shadow.
Unbelieved, even the mightiest feats dimmed.
The verse might continue, but its power would not be whole.
If only there were relics to prove the feat, he could borrow the verse's karma and intent.
But the prince carried no such relic.
Whether the Leonbergers had truly lost them, or they hadn't passed to the heir, he couldn't say.
What he knew was that here today, a great knight's legacy, a house's history, would shatter pointlessly.
Another heritage vanishing to a sword not even extraordinary.
"Prepare."
The sky knights lowered their helmet windscreens for the dive.
"On three, we charge."
They planned to plunge right after the first clash.
"One."
He saw the prince gathering the raging gale along his blade.
"Two."
The paladin charged at the prince.
Kwang.
A thunderous roar erupted from the full-power clash of blades.
"Three!"
The crouched wyverns dove.
Dolosis joined them.
He lowered his posture as if prone, clamped the 7-meter spear under his arm, and gathered mana at its tip.
He intended to skewer the paladin like this.
He scanned the dust cloud for his target.
And found it soon enough.
Eh?
His eyes widened.
The empire knight, who had deployed his aura blade at full power, was a mangled wreck in moments.
His body was covered in slashes and stabs.
And before him stood Leonberg's prince, whom he'd thought would be knocked away.
"Four rings, yet their caliber falls far short of what I knew."
The paladin trembled at the contemptuous words.
But he hesitated to charge, the fight already decided.
Dolosis grimaced fiercely.
His plan was to finish the paladin in place of the exhausted young prince.
That was the plan.
Kwak.
"Keurk!"
Somehow, he'd ended up cleaning up a half-dead paladin the young prince had left.
"Damn it all!"
As he skewered the paladin and flew off, the young prince's cursing reached his back.
It's mine, my prey, my achievement, damn thief.
Curses he'd never heard before.
But he wasn't offended at all.
On the small scale, because he'd intruded on another's fight. On the large, because he'd been shocked by the intact heritage the prince wielded.
To perfectly recite a verse without relics.
Not some trivial ditty, but at least a hero's epic.
It meant the young prince had reached a hero's stature.
In a world where nothing escaped the ordinary, no matter the effort.
Impossible.
Yet stark reality.
Dolosis Dotrumunt circled back and landed before the prince.
"Kwaak!"
"What monster... Aak!"
Behind, empire knights screamed, trampled by wyverns and impaled on spears.
"Ha. You know what you just did to me, right?"
Ahead, the prince ground his teeth at the paladin's opponent, his heightened spirit not yet reined in.
Dolosis's wyvern growled lowly.
Krurrr.
It was less a threat, more a suppressed whimper.
To see a wyvern unflinching before ogres or trolls cower and whimper before one human.
Absurd.
In an era of defiled heritage, rare even then.
A utterly ridiculous figure had appeared.
"Just who the hell are you?"
Even to his question, the prince gave no answer.
He demanded only recompense for his stolen victory.
*
"That's why I came here as a herald."
Dolosis smiled brightly at the kingdom's retainers' dumbfounded faces.
The kingdom's retainers were silent for a long while.
They seemed stunned by the prince's feats spilling from his lips.
Finally, the one-eyed knight spoke.
"So, where is His Highness the prince right now, and what is he doing?"
"Perfect timing—I was just about to say."
Dolosis surveyed the room as he spoke.
"Idrian is right now."
He paused to wet his lips, then continued.
"Raiding empty bases."
The prince, with the sky knights, was turning the knight order camps—left behind in pursuit of the delegation—upside down.