Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: I Won't Abandon a Single Citizen (7)
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The horse clad in heavy armor and the knight astride it were nothing short of a mountain.
Raising his long spear straight and charging in a dead-straight line, its power was truly like a medieval tank.
The spear shaft pierced through my chest and into my back. The pain felt like my lungs were being crushed flat.
"Uwaaaah!!"
Just before my breath gave out, I vomited blood but still burned with fighting spirit to the very end.
A greatsword fell like lightning, smashing my helmet into an unrecognizable pulp.
Mutual destruction at best... that was the sole achievement I'd clawed out, enduring the agony of being skewered on that spear.
What my blood-smeared hand had barely grasped was a shabby, pitiful excuse for a victory.
Yet I calmly looked ahead once more. Because I believed that even shabby gains, piled high enough, could form a mountain.
I raised my sword again. Accumulating experience, one death at a time, through my own flesh.
'Don't go for the legs—bypass straight to the main body. But a head-on fight's no good either. If it were a one-on-one duel, maybe I could manage something...'
Countless defeats had cleared the foggy haze bit by bit. I could vaguely make out the conditions now.
Stop the cavalry from reaching the main force. That was the goal of this Defeat Regression.
Coincidence or fate, it didn't matter—this time, it aligned perfectly with my own purpose.
'Actually worked out better. At least it doesn't feel like I'm being dragged around by force...'
The first clash ended with me mercilessly trampled under hooves. Desperate efforts followed, but no real rewards.
Even Crown Prince Andre ignored all my provocations. He just kept advancing.
He seemed overly obsessed with Princess Anna—far more than necessary.
"...Hoo."
My vision turned black and white. The more deaths I repeated, the more sharply I felt death itself.
And the pain was the same. If anything, each time made the agony more intense.
But I didn't turn away from the tearing, piercing torment. Instead, I roared at the top of my lungs and charged forward.
Kwaang!!
For the first time, my spear clashed against the greatsword and held. The recoil sent the knight tumbling from his horse.
My follow-up was instant: stomping his head until it burst.
"Hoo, good. Next up..."
Kwa-jik!!
Not even a moment's breather was allowed. Inevitable, really.
The enemy wielded two thousand spears. I'd barely knocked aside one.
'Speed is key. Kill the vanguard first, seize a horse, then fight mounted.'
To anyone else, it'd sound like the ravings of a suicidal madman. But it was the only way.
Obviously, no ordinary human could outpace a horse.
With magic power, sure—but regrettably, I had none.
"You still haven't sensed your magic power?" "No." "That's strange. Even with poor talent, most sense it within a month..." Even without talent, anyone could sense magic power after a month of training, or so I'd heard.
Yet despite over a month of steady practice, nothing for me.
Instead, I kept stacking those small, shabby victories won with bloodied hands.
I opened my eyes again. Time had rewound. Once more, I faced thousands of cavalry alone. No time to hesitate.
Kwang! The knight couldn't handle the recoil and fell. I hurled myself onto the horse.
Repeated deaths had made the motion familiar.
"Hoo-uk, hoo-uk!"
I steadied my ragged breathing, lungs squeezing like they were being wrung out from the exertion.
But the shadow of death loomed, denying even that brief calm. Countless spear tips locked onto me.
The kingdom's vaunted cavalry spears were sharper and fiercer than I'd imagined.
"I've heard the kingdom's cavalry holds its own against the empire in quality and bravery. Half exaggeration, probably... but there's truth to it." 'No exaggeration. Feels just like facing the imperial army.'
The seamless coordination from relentless training felt like battling a single giant.
Never imagined I'd feel the same awe against the kingdom's knights as I had the empire's.
Even a rotting bonito has its merits... they'd been hiding some reliable forces after all.
"Form up!"
"Slay the traitor!"
"Damn."
Not brute force alone. They formed ranks with precision, weaving a noose that tightened like a serpent.
Even pouring everything to kill one, the remaining spears swarmed in an instant, impaling me.
Then I'd open my eyes, back at the bridge legs, facing the cavalry again.
"Magic power is the source of life—and the force that reaches toward the heart's imagery. Train without end, confront yourself. You'll sense it someday." 'I see. So that's why I couldn't sense magic power.'
I realized it at last, after endlessly piling up those bloodied gains through repeated deaths.
Why I couldn't wield magic power. What that sinister black force had been.
Perhaps the foe sensed the ominous energy now coursing through my body.
For the first time, the cavalry's relentless hooves came to a halt.
"What are you doing! It's just one man! Trample him and advance!"
Of course, the pause was brief. The crown prince's barked orders snapped the cavalry back to their senses, reins gripped tight.
A mere fleeting standoff—but in it, I glimpsed hope.
Maybe... I could stop them without even clashing directly.
"Huu..."
Not some training method. A baleful power that rose only in the throes of death, bit by bit.
Death Force
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Crown Prince Andre was valiant, but plagued by hasty temper and narrow vision.
Not stubborn, though. Aware of his flaws, he readily sought counsel from his retainers.
With time and experience, he had every quality to become a wise ruler.
Until his sister Anna entered the picture. A royal birth was a blessing, after all.
Anna had been clever and beautiful since childhood—a true jewel of the crown.
The problem was Andre's obsession with her, growing worse by the day.
'As crown prince, I must protect Anna. And to do that, I have no choice but to grow stronger.'
Obsession devoured even the cleverness he'd once possessed.
Before long, brotherly love had warped into something dangerously possessive...
He'd beaten an imperial envoy to death at a banquet because the man suggested a political marriage.
"Duke family's heir, one of the empire's scant five Masters—Sir Leonhart has just reached marriageable age..." When he came to, his hands were drenched in the envoy's blood.
The empire, having warned the kingdom repeatedly, seized the incident as pretext for war...
The coalition that had long courted the kingdom had no choice but to sit it out—the justification was ironclad.
"Before negotiations with the empire are fully sealed... that filthy traitor who dared covet the princess will be mine to capture and execute."
Clinging to that one conviction, he led two thousand cavalry straight into the march.
By the time he reached Rock Iron Bridge, he spotted a black-haired man standing alone before it.
Black hair, black eyes. A massive greatsword to boot... the spitting image of a Blackguard.
"Whatever nerve lets him guard the bridge alone... doesn't matter. Trample him flat and push forward!"
Alone on the narrow span, he stood like an immense boulder—not a flicker of movement.
A sight of pure valor, but hardly unbreakable.
Yet in that instant, the furiously charging horses skidded to a collective halt.
"Kuh...?!"
"Wh-what is this...!!"
An overwhelming pressure poured from the man standing like a rock on the bridge, sweeping over the entire cavalry in a heartbeat.
It blanched the knights—and even Crown Prince Andre himself.
A chilling sensation, like a reaper's scythe pressed to the throat. Bound by it, none dared stir...
From just one man!? As all reeled in shock, the man at last spoke.
"I am Cain Blackguard."
Who will share life and death with me.