Chapter 178
Chapter 178
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 178
Chapter Title: 54. Gloriously Like Flames (5)
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The kingdom's Paladins, having broken through the long spear soldiers' phalanx, leaped straight off their horses.
And they began rampaging like madmen.
"Argh!"
Screams rang out everywhere as severed heads soared into the sky.
"Block them! Block the Paladins first!"
"Senior knights, take the Paladins! Everyone else, hold off the other knights!"
The empire's knights rushed forward to stem the collapse of their lines, but it was no use.
The kingdom's Paladins were crushing the empire's knights with overwhelming force.
Distinctions like Double Chain or Triple Chain meant nothing.
No one could block even a single strike from the Paladins.
The Empire Knight Order Captain, unable to stand by any longer, stepped forward.
"You bastard!"
The captain roared, summoning every ounce of mana he had and unleashing a flurry of sword strikes. He couldn't breach their defenses, but he believed that facing them with resolve to die would at least hold a Paladin back for a moment.
But it was all an illusion.
One strike snapped his sword in half. The follow-up slash carved a deep gash across his chest.
"Ah, even Paladins shouldn't be this..."
The captain couldn't even think to staunch the wound as a cry of astonishment escaped his lips.
And those were his final words.
Slash.
The Paladin's sword severed the captain's head.
Thud, roll.
The head hit the ground and tumbled, its face frozen in disbelief and shock.
The senior knights who had gathered to aid the captain stared vacantly at his headless corpse.
"Get out of here for now!"
"Rendezvous with the other legions and live to fight another day!"
The senior knights hesitated, then bellowed the order before turning tail and fleeing.
"R-re-treat!"
"Fall back!"
The knights scattered in every direction. The long spear soldiers, who had desperately held their formation even as the kingdom's knights trampled them, threw down their spears and bolted.
But there was nowhere to run.
Kingdom knights blocked the front, while a wall of fire sealed the rear.
The empire forces, caught between flames and knights, were helplessly massacred.
Similar carnage unfolded deeper inside the camp.
"Our actual troop losses aren't heavy! Put out the fires first! Survival will follow!"
The 91st Legion Commander bellowed at the top of his lungs, desperately trying to quell the utter chaos.
His efforts seemed to work—the panicking soldiers rallied around him and began extinguishing the flames.
The commander had just breathed a sigh of relief when bolt-from-the-blue news struck.
"Enemy cavalry charging this way!"
The commander practically screamed at the pale-faced messenger.
"The knights! What the hell are they doing?!"
"Our knight order's been wiped out!"
"What?!"
The commander let out a howl, his mouth gaping wide.
Beyond the flickering, unquenched flames, something was approaching. Even from a distance, its crushing presence froze the commander solid.
Crunch.
In his rigid gaze, he saw the distant flames parting. Each time, blue flashes shot skyward.
"I-it's the kingdom's Paladins!"
The messenger cried out, his face drained of color.
"Get out of here, sir!"
Escort knights and officers scrambled, shoving the commander's back.
But there was no time to escape.
Rooooar!
A gale hit like a typhoon.
The fierce wind reignited the barely contained flames.
"Argh! My arm! My arm!"
"Help me!"
Soldiers battling the fire were engulfed, their screams filling the air. Collapsing tents were hurled by the gusts, burying more men.
The area turned to pandemonium in an instant.
Screeeeech.
And in that moment, calamity descended from the skies.
Boom!
The sudden impact knocked the commander unconscious.
When he came to, the rampaging inferno had vanished like a lie.
All that remained were shattered tents and piles of ash.
As he stared blankly, a chill of wrongness made him shudder.
Grrrrrr.
An eerie scrape like metal on metal. Hot, wet breath licked his back.
The commander forced his stiff neck to turn.
Where the burning tent had stood moments ago—where his escorts and officers had clustered—right behind him, a massive wyvern perched.
Its feet crushed mangled corpses, talons clutching gory chunks of flesh.
Grrk.
The wyvern split its maw in a grin.
Whoosh.
Hot breath washed over his face, and the commander collapsed on the spot.
"Are you the legion commander?"
Only then did he notice the rider atop the wyvern, upon hearing the deep voice.
"I asked if you're the legion commander."
The muffled voice from the full-face helm carried far too much authority for a mere knight.
The commander nodded without thinking.
"Looks like I win again."
The wyvern rider muttered softly.
Screeeeech!
A sharp whoosh cut the air from somewhere.
Thunk.
In that instant, agony like fire scorched the commander's back.
Looking down, a blade tip protruded from his chest.
"Guhk."
The groan came late. Strength drained from his body. With his last gasp, he twisted his head.
A knight in golden armor charged toward him.
His vision whitened, then blackened.
In the all-consuming dark, only the lion emblem on the knight's breastplate lingered like an afterimage.
The commander closed his eyes. They never reopened.
The King of Dotrin scowled.
"At this stage, isn't this a bit petty?"
The prince of Leonberger paid no heed to the king's clearly displeased tone.
He merely withdrew the sword piercing the commander's back and replied indifferently.
"It doesn't matter who delivers the finishing blow, so why fuss over who spotted him first?"
"Shameless, just dipping your spoon into someone else's finished stew."
"To be honest, Dotrin only lit the fire under the pot. We did all the stirring and the actual cooking."
"Without the warlocks to start the blaze, things wouldn't have gone this smoothly."
"Would the outcome change without the fire? Besides, cold soup goes down easier than scalding hot."
The prince didn't yield an inch.
"Either way, the 91st Legion Commander's head belongs to our kingdom."
"You're deliberately being unreasonable. No countering that."
The King of Dotrin clicked his tongue and shook his head.
Luckily spared from the wyvern's assault, the empire's surviving officers witnessed the scene.
They trembled with humiliation but didn't dare interrupt the two men.
The camp had burned, the legion shattered. The knight order sent to defend the perimeter was annihilated, and the command staff, including the commander, wiped out.
They must have judged there was no gain in fighting on.
The surviving knights and officers dropped their swords in unison.
"We surrender."
The two men, who had been glaring at each other, turned to them.
And spoke simultaneously.
"Who said you could?!"
"Pick up your swords. I'll give you a chance for an honorable end."
Their replies came almost in sync. The wording differed, but the intent was the same.
I glanced at the King of Dotrin.
I couldn't see his face under the helmet, but I knew his battle lust hadn't cooled.
I felt the same.
"We don't accept surrenders."
The empire's officers stammered in response.
"O-our forces have lost all ability to resist. To avoid needless bloodshed on both sides, we surrender."
Their brazen reply was utterly absurd.
"The empire started this war."
"Who struck first is irrelevant. We clashed on the field, and you emerged victorious. Though defeated, as commanders, we request treatment befitting our station."
I chuckled in disbelief and asked them.
"So you're admitting defeat and begging to be spared?"
Was my phrasing too blunt? The empire officers, who had been so eloquent, now hemmed and hawed evasively.
"Our families in the homeland will pay a fitting ransom later."
After an eternity, that was their response. What a spectacle.
It wasn't the desperate grasp of a drowning man. The empire officers genuinely believed it sufficient—that their lives were assured.
"If I'm right, you're the Prince of Leonberger. If you uphold chivalry and noble honor, recall the pact of blue blood."
"What's that?"
"We compete in skill, but if the foe surrenders, knights and nobles are guaranteed safety unconditionally, lest noble blood spill in vain. It's the unspoken accord between all houses on the continent."
They'd chattered on smugly once I played along.
In the end, I burst out laughing.
War wasn't child's play.
Hyenas charging to trample another nation and its lands, only to flip palms and plead for their lives when the tide turned—it was laughable.
I cackled before asking the King of Dotrin.
"What do you think?"
"The war I know and the war they know are worlds apart."
The King of Dotrin gazed down at the empire officers from his wyvern.
"In Dotrin, the vanquished accept the victor's judgment. Even if it's a wretched death."
"What a coincidence."
I nodded exaggeratedly, as if hearing some grand revelation.
"Our kingdom's the same."
I rolled my eyes toward the empire knights. Their faces paled, mouths flapping uselessly—it was comical.
"If that's the case, when this war ends, not a single empire noble or knight will survive!"
"Stating the obvious."
There was no more worth hearing.
"You marched forth resolved to lose everything if you couldn't defend it. You came here resolved to die if you couldn't win."
The war they knew was not the war I knew.
There were no safe havens in this war. Death visited all equally on the battlefield.
"That's the war I know—the war of the small kingdom you empire sought to crush."
I raised my sword and declared to them.
"If one of you survives by luck, tell your vaunted empire army this."
I kicked a nearby discarded sword.
"The kingdom has staked everything on this war, so the empire should do the same."
The empire officer stared at the sword dropped at his feet, torn between picking it up or not.
I decided to end his dilemma personally.
Thud.
I kicked off the ground and leaped into their midst.
Necks split, blood sprayed. Knights realizing too late screamed and snatched up their swords.
They gripped their blades, but not a shred of fighting spirit showed.
Their gushing blood soaked my body.
"You mad prince! You'll regret this!"
"Die! You war maniac!"
"Your kingdom will be trampled by our legions, not even foundations left!"
I simply laughed amid their furious curses and maledictions.
Laughing, I swung my sword for a good while—until only corpses littered the ground around me.
"What? Something wrong?"
He stared, so I asked. The King of Dotrin just shook his head.
The battle was over.
The empire army couldn't escape the burning camp and was slaughtered by the kingdom's encircling knights and soldiers.
Those who refused to leave the camp to the end burned alive or were crushed by wyvern knights.
Not a single survivor.
My forces faithfully carried out my order to leave none alive. Once the flames died down, they scoured the camp and finished off every last hider.
"Good work."
I told the knights gathering around me after cleanup. They replied blasé.
"The empire lot were such weaklings, it hardly counts as work."
"Halfway through loosening up, now I'm all stiff."
The one-eyed cavalry captain's words drew nods from the knights.
And not without reason—the kingdom's knights, battle-hardened against ferocious orcs, were genuinely disappointed by the empire troops' frailty.
"Weaklings like these strutted around like world conquerors. Unbelievable."
"Should've fought them sooner if I'd known."
I shook my head at the knights' belligerent chatter, their battle high yet to fade.
"The empire is vast, its knights and soldiers countless. They're not all the same—if there are weak ones, strong ones exist too. Don't get arrogant yet. The war has only just begun. We've crushed but a handful of their myriad legions."
The knights snapped to attention and fell silent.
"Sorry, Your Highness. We were short-sighted."
The one-eyed cavalry captain bowed his head in apology.
Only then did I realize I'd been overly stern.
But I saw no need to belatedly grant them the victor’s indulgences.
As I'd said, the war had only just begun.
Savoring triumph could wait until we'd fully blunted the empire army advancing on the kingdom.
"Your Highness."
Even before the battle fully concluded, one of Dotrin's wyvern knights—who had departed to scout new foes—returned and reported an enemy presence.
"Three empire legions marching north, three days from here."
A report at odds with the wyvern knight's directive to target isolated legions minimizing risk.
It meant this foe was worth the danger.
As expected.
The wyvern knight confirmed spotting the empire's overall commander-in-chief's banner, aimed toward Leonberger, in the marching column.
"What are your orders?"
He sought my view, noting they could seek other targets per the kingdom army's will.
"Relay to the Lord of Dotrin."
I answered without hesitation.
"The commander-in-chief's head is prize enough to settle our wager."
At my words, our allies' briefly relaxed morale sharpened like a blade once more.