The Blue Wolf and the World's First Rider
“Your movements are quite extraordinary, aren’t they?”
Vesta walked beside Bia and spoke.
“It’s not that remarkable.”
“Not remarkable? That’s the kind of thing that makes Ahor think of you.”
Ahor was a person whose riding skills allowed her to stand on a horse with just two legs. Vesta considered for a moment and decided it wasn’t that special.
“Well, she probably can’t ride as well as her, but—”
“Exactly.”
As if hearing her, the black horse jerked its head violently. Its body rocked heavily.
“Enough. Stop that.”
The horse she had thought well-trained was causing trouble without any warning.
“It only gets like this when it has the chance.”
“There’s no guarantee that just because you allow a horse to rest, it will lend you its trust.”
Vesta nodded at Bia’s words.
Since he had been the first to tame a horse directly, he was inexperienced in many ways.
That was precisely why he admired Ahor so much.
“But just the fact that Ahor exists is amazing. A human girl who became the head of the Khan’s Guard by outranking all the other elves.”
‘That’s how it was? No, it makes sense.’
Just as Vesta had guessed, she was someone of high standing.
“Compared to her, your skill with horses and with the bow would be lacking by far.”
“So you think I can still give it a try, apart from those two?”
“......”
“Hmm. What about the sword?”
“The sword, you mean?”
Bia tapped the sword at her waist with her finger. It was a steppe rider’s weapon, heavy and solid.
‘Quite an unexpected weapon.’
A two-handed sword suited ground fighting with legs planted firmly. Because it required both hands to handle fully.
That was why the steppe people, who naturally thought of riding horses, rarely used it.
‘It’s longer than usual. It’ll be hard for me to wield.’
Bia’s way of handling that sword was something Vesta would love to see.
“I can wield it a little. I know how to handle it to some extent.”
“Is it the sword you learned in the Empire? I’d like to spar with you sometime.”
“If the opportunity arises, I will.”
Vesta accepted readily.
“Vesta-nim, you’re challenging the guest to a duel right away?”
A voice chided Bia.
Another centaur.
Unlike Bia, neither had glittering golden fur.
They were Bia’s servants.
Word was they shared the same wet nurse and were milk sisters. After Bia went independent, they had followed her.
They always went together, unless there was some special case.
“A duel? Just a friendly spar, not a real one.”
Aishil exhaled in a calm demeanor.
Arin, on the other hand, smiled at them both with a lively expression.
“Vesta-nim. Even for sparring, the strength of a centaur is a burden to a human.”
“Is that so?”
“Haha… I’m fine.”
Although there was a hierarchy, they seemed close like friends or sisters.
After all, as milk sisters, they were practically family.
“Where is the patrol headed?”
The answer came from Aishil.
“The place where the male camels are released.”
“Even there they patrol separately. Orolbai would be there to protect them, right?”
“Orolbai…? Ah, the one who tends the sheep.”
Aishil paused to recall Orolbai and could not answer immediately. Arin jumped into the conversation.
“It’ll be time to shear the camel wool soon, so thieves come often. Sometimes orcs… wait, who’s coming over there?”
As Arin was explaining, her eyes widened. Being a centaur with large eyes, it felt like a fist in comparison.
She pointed. An elf on horseback approached at full speed.
Centaur riders were also coming, and they sped up even more.
As he drew nearer, the atmosphere grew serious.
An arrow was lodged in the horse’s rear end, blood flowing.
“Vesta-nim—!”
“What happened?”
Vesta asked with a serious expression. The elf answered in haste.
“Orcs. About five of them, well-equipped.”
“Five?”
“Yes. When I escaped, there were definitely five.”
The situation turned critical. The elf turned his horse and began leading the way.
Centaur riders and Vesta himself followed.
They soon spotted camels. Of course, the orc group as well.
Several camels had their hides completely stripped and were left with only bones, cut into pieces by body parts.
And wolves were devouring the meat still clinging to those bones.
Bia put on her helmet and prepared for battle. Vesta rode his horse up beside her.
“I’ll help too.”
Bia’s eyes widened.
“You truly have confidence in your skill.”
She was slightly surprised.
From her common sense.
A normal human boy saying he would fight in front of orc cavalry was impossible.
Vesta was an abnormal little guy.
But real courage had always been the domain of the abnormal.
In that sense, the equally abnormal Bia found Vesta’s courage quite admirable.
“Thank you for speaking up so readily. But I cannot allow a Khan’s person to be in danger, so please wait here.”
“...I understand.”
Arin and Aishil approached Vesta and took up positions to protect him. Unlike Bia, they were equipped with bows.
“Don’t worry.”
Bia said that and drew her sword.
“I am a warrior who does not worry even the Khan.”
She stamped on the prairie earth.
The heavy lower half of her horse accelerated in a way completely different from a human.
The orcs shouted strange sounds and prepared for battle.
Wolves dashed toward Bia.
Bia held a two-handed sword, not a rider’s weapon. The sword raised with long arms swept the front.
The power in Bia’s sword tip went beyond mere physical strength.
Crack. Clash. Wolves tumbled around, spraying blood.
An orc fired arrows with a unique technique specialized in hitting close enemies.
The chance of missing was slim.
Bia focused and moved her feet instantly, stamping on the ground.
Thwack—!
The arrow glanced off her armor, losing momentum.
“Have I used up all my chances?”
Bia approached the orc.
URRRRRRRRRAAAAA—!
Orcs wielding rider’s weapons roared and charged at Bia on horseback.
Arrogance dripped with killing intent. The orc’s howl, with the face of a carnivore, was terrifying.
If it were a cannibal monster, it should have that kind of face, Vesta thought.
But Bia did not flinch.
Bia was a centaur, and centaurs had lived without fear on the prairie.
Even before the history of humanity began, they had been riders on horses.
Even in the era when humans carried stones as weapons, before memories could even form.
In the end, the first knight was not human or elf—
A centaur.
If only their opinions had agreed, they could have been the masters of the world.
Bia swung her sword and severed the neck of an orc. The head with fangs exposed fell straight down.
Another orc charging forward with a rider’s weapon.
Bia, with the sword pointed, darted diagonally in a side-step by moving her four legs in a complex pattern.
The orc’s upper body split apart horribly. The horse carrying him was dyed red.
The horse, upon realizing the orc was dead, threw its body off.
An orc with eyes blazing red aimed at Bia’s side.
Bia raised her massive body in one motion. Her two front legs landed on the side of the orc’s horse,
and Bia thrust her sword forward with powerful legs. The orc writhed on the ground, spraying blood.
Aishil and Arin took down an orc and several wolves, ending the battle immediately.
Only one orc escaped.
“It’s fortunate there were so few.”
Bia walked up to Vesta without concern.
“......”
Vesta silently raised his thumb.
“Is that the Empire’s style of praise?”
Bia laughed lightly and returned the thumb up.
*
All had returned, and even the camels had moved on to the evening.
Only the remnants of battle remained in the open space as a flock of eagles descended.
They had come to feast on the orc and wolf corpses.
They landed one by one and strode with heavy steps, like shadows waking.
The birds stretched their long necks. But as a large predator approached, they retreated from the corpses.
A wolf and an orc leading it.
Though emaciated like a defeated soldier, their eyes were fierce.
The orc, after surveying the devastation, gathered his hands.
He began chanting in the orc way.
“......”
A low, eerie prayer.
The orc finished the chant, picked up his knife, and began cleaning up his comrades’ corpses.
He pried open the dead orc’s mouth and removed its unique fangs.
“I’ll take these.”
As if the fangs were precious treasures,
He wrapped them in fine silk cloth.
“I borrow your teeth.”
The orc society was more limited than that of nomads.
It was the limit of a hunting tribe.
Their group was closer to a beast pack than a clan or tribe, and they typically formed hunting parties of about ten.
Thus, when a group was lost, they often could not recover it and were left behind.
Because their community consciousness was faint, they lacked proper means to prove their status.
Therefore, the only way to prove oneself was through one’s own skill and spoils.
That was the necklace the orcs wore around their necks.
For elves they cut off the pointed ears.
For centaurs, the furred ears.
And for the superior warrior race of orcs, they removed the fangs when killing their own and wore them as decoration.
Countless fragments of corpses marked with their own signs,
The only monster that turned all races into enemies.
Proved the orcs.
The orc withdrew with his eyes bulging from adrenaline.
By now the wolves had surrounded him.
And among them were real wolves.
“Is this for the hero’s funeral, wise soul?”
A wolf the size of which could not be compared to any other creature. The orc looked straight at it and spoke.
“Allow my brother and my sister to eat the bodies of the warriors.”
URRRRRRRRRAAAAA—!
The word orc was nothing more than the name humans and elves called them.
They themselves thought of themselves as the blue wolves.
Permitted to no one else.
The funeral of the wolves was held.
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