Chapter 26
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: The Kerkunude Evacuation (1)
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Chapter 26
“August, 1697 of the Origin Era.”
The Inferno Line collapsed under the demonic horde's all-out assault. The Old Republic's key maritime hub, <Aristapo>, and its capital, <Tervenople>, also fell.
“The Eastern Front Command's plan to hold the Inferno Line and halt the demonic advance was crushed.”
The remnants of the allied forces, fleeing after a crushing defeat, were hunted down and annihilated.
The Uruk army units that had wiped out the allied forces of the minor kingdoms bypassed their escape routes.
Now, they spread their wings and began to encircle the fleeing soldiers.
“At this time, humanity's main forces, dispatched from various nations to defend the Inferno Line, faced the threat of encirclement and annihilation.”
Attempts to regroup the remnants at a few fortresses and launch a counterattack ended in futile and brutal failure.
Ultimately, 230,000 survivors from the Eastern Front and 2,460,000 refugees were besieged by the Uruk army on the Kerkunude coast.
And now, with the allied forces' escape routes cut off, the Tahup clan stepped forward to shatter them completely.
“Tahup, meaning 'atonement,' was a member of the High Tarq. They were also the most notoriously barbaric clan among the Uruk.”
“Professor, why is that?”
“They crafted various tools from human bones and skin, and it is said they performed the process of flaying the skin and stripping the bones while the victims were still alive.”
“......!”
“Because they performed all their rituals in front of other human captives, fear of the Tahup clan spread like wildfire among the soldiers. Many gave up all hope and chose suicide.”
The Kerkunude Evacuation, one of the two great battles that marked the end of the 'Red Summer's' prologue, began against this backdrop.
“The Eastern Front Command dispatched Kaisen Alter Aradamanthel, who had just completed his investiture, to this battlefield. What we will cover today is the largest naval evacuation in the continent's history.”
That's right.
The Kerkunude Evacuation.
The operation where Kaisen Alter Aradamanthel made his legendary debut, the 'Slaying of Three Thousand,' began in this setting.
Slaying of Three Thousand,
The Kerkunude Evacuation (1)
The Kerkunude coast.
Even now, I can vividly recall the moment I arrived there.
The stench of rotting corpses, mingling with the salt of the sea.
The sight of the shore, covered in torn and mangled bodies.
And the thousands upon thousands of eyes that fixed on me as I disembarked on the pontoon bridge, their gazes filled with despair.
“It's a FakeWarrior......”
“A FakeWarrior......”
“It's a FakeWarrior......”
Beyond the shore, past the city, volcanic ash swirled like a blizzard.
The Abyss was coming.
After the land and sea fronts suffered a devastating defeat and the defending forces scattered, all land routes were cut off.
Refugees who had been struggling to survive in various regions heard rumors of the evacuation and flocked to Kerkunude.
- The Dunos Royal Navy and the City-State Alliance's combined fleet are dispatching numerous ships for the naval evacuation. Buy us time.
- Why is it taking so long?
- The sea routes are under intense pressure from those bastards.
Ships that ventured beyond the undersea barriers of mages and witches were crushed into wreckage and washed ashore.
The starving refugees stared blankly at the debris stuck in the mudflats.
Hope seemed like a concept that had never existed, or perhaps one that had already died and vanished from this world.
‘Would there even be enough ships to carry all these people? And even if there were, would there be enough time......?’
This was the scene of the world I witnessed upon landing on the Kerkunude coast.
Humanity's forces here were but a handful.
The Royal Cavalry Regiment of the Alconde Kingdom, the combined forces of seven minor kingdoms, the remnants of the Old Republic, and the dispatched troops from the Dunos Kingdom. That was all there was to defend this city.
Among them, many were injured or had gone mad, leaving fewer than 100,000 combat-ready soldiers.
“Grand Marshal Crauzan has formed a three-sided defensive line centered on the Turen Port docks and is proceeding with the evacuation with the help of the witches of the Blue-Green Rose Society.”
An officer who had come to meet us at the coast reported in a somber tone. At that, Isla cackled.
“Worry no more! The super FakeWarrior, Isla, has arrived! Krawr, krawr, krawr!”
“Y-Yes?”
“It's nothing. Isla has a habit of mimicking a dragon's cry.”
“That's a dragon......?”
“What's with that impudent look! You got a problem with dragons?”
“N-No, not at all.”
We rode a carriage through the desolate city streets to the city hall building, which was serving as a temporary command post.
There, a heroic woman with hair as pure white as a snowflake was issuing various orders to the soldiers.
Then, she saw Kaisen and her eyes widened. A silence fell.
“It's been a while.”
As I broke the awkward silence and greeted her first, my late master's sworn friend gave a sad smile.
Sharon.
Sharon Alter Tassalpo.
Her hair, having lost more of its luster and vitality than when I had seen her on the southern front six months ago, was tinged with gray.
Just like Camilla before she died. The change was sorrowful.
Sharon reached out, gently brushing Kaisen's white hair, her voice full of regret.
“Yes, I heard, but you've really become a FakeWarrior. And you've even inherited Camilla's Aradamanthel.”
As Aradamanthel exhaled a red breath, the holy sword Tassalpo resonated, emitting a blue one.
“I heard from Wolf. You saved Camilla with a Kaltake against Kishun?”
“I couldn't save her. I was too late.”
“There's no such thing as too late in this world. Camilla would have been proud of you. Even Wolf spoke of you with such pride.”
“He didn't say anything like that.”
“He acknowledged you as his student, didn't he? If that's not proof, what is? We both know Camilla was never very direct.”
My master's final moments, dying with a smile.
Recalling that smile only brought back a sorrow that could never be resolved, and never would be.
I didn't have the strength to endure that sorrow and continue this conversation.
“It's been a while, Ria.”
When I turned my gaze to Ria Raily, who had been cautiously glancing my way, she let out a cough mixed with a hiccup.
Ria had matured, becoming even more beautiful than she was six months ago.
Do flowers that bloom on the battlefield grow more beautiful by feeding on blood?
I thought this even as I saw blood, bits of flesh, and sweat matted in her elegant, curly blonde hair.
“A while? Y-Yes! It has been a while!”
“You're talking strangely. Like Isla.”
“Isla?”
“Krawr! She speaks of me. My name is Isla Alter Gaumris. Master of the holy sword Gaumris and a super FakeWarrior!”
Isla swung Gaumris around, as if showing it off.
The twilight shimmered and reflected off its surface, and the wind from her swings whipped our hair and clothes about.
Until Sharon grabbed her by the horn, a gentle yet eerie smile on her face.
“Now, now, Isla. You shouldn't do that. Swinging a holy sword around like that will scare people, you know? A FakeWarrior can't behave that way. Didn't Ryunel teach you?”
That intimidating presence…….
Isla's face turned pale.
“K-Kaisen taught me to greet people like this. Isla didn't actually want to do it. Really.”
“?”
“Kaisen isn't the type to do that.”
“Isla is a dragon! Dragons only speak the truth! But Kaisen is human. Humans don't always speak the truth like dragons do.”
I responded to Sharon's gaze with a sigh and a shrug, as if to say, *she's always like this*.
“I see. To be honest, I don't really care what Isla does. But you must never mess with Kaisen. Our Ria already called dibs on him a long time ago.”
“M-Master? What are you talking about?”
Meanwhile, Isla's Dragon-Fang Brigade and Sharon's Black Rose Brigade were chatting amongst themselves.
The Black Rose Brigade was cavalry, and the Dragon-Fang Brigade was an armored unit; they were the core forces for the upcoming defensive battle.
The survivors of the Dragon-Fang Brigade, originally led by Ryunel, had waited in <Haraldoniki> for Isla to be commissioned before returning to the front lines like this.
Watching them was painful.
Because it made me remember.
Because it made me dream an impossible dream.
How wonderful it would have been if I, too, could have reunited with the White Skull Brigade like that.
“Kaisen, what Master said was a joke! You know? Just a joke! Oh, so funny, hahaha.”
Ignoring Ria, who was flapping her arms about, I watched the soldiers of the two brigades with those thoughts in my mind. Then, Sharon sighed and got to the point.
“I was hoping they'd send Roro, the current second-in-command... I suppose the central front is in a much more critical state.”
“Do you not trust me?”
“You don't trust Isla!”
Sharon once again grabbed Isla's horn and gave her an eerie smile.
“Our Isla is great, but she's a bit too curt, isn't she? I went easy on Kaisen before because he's a boy, but I show no mercy to other women.”
“Isla is not to be trusted...? My lady?”
“Pfft. Right. That's not what I meant. It's just that this place is too harsh. Phew...”
Sharon looked out at the city.
Wounded soldiers on stretchers were groaning in agony—they were being transported from the front lines to the central medical corps.
“If not them, I was hoping for reinforcements from the Empire. But it seems that won't be easy.”
The Holy Human Empire, humanity's largest and most powerful nation, had descended into chaos under the pretext of 'religious innovation'.
Innovating religion......
With the hand of the demonic reaching for their throats, how could they have the luxury of fighting amongst themselves?
“The Empire is... currently split between the True Faith and the Heretical Faith, and they're fighting each other. But it feels strange. Could it be the work of the Black Church?”
Sharon shrugged at Ria's comment.
“Perhaps they're just tired of war and making excuses. The Empire has been caught up in all sorts of wars, after all.”
“That's true of every nation. Your home country, the Dunos Dynasty, continues to fight... I-I'm truly sorry.”
“What does Ria have to be sorry for? It's obviously the meddling of the Empire's high-and-mighty elders.”
“That's right! Humans are foolish! They only repeat their lies! They're different from a good dragon like Isla!”
Ria lowered her gaze, as if ashamed to be a child of one of the Empire's Three Great Sword Families.
Kaisen couldn't understand the Holy Human Empire, the homeland of his mother and master, nor did he want to.
If the Empire hadn't bothered with things like reform and had sent reinforcements, then perhaps Master...
“Kaisen, you know about the High Tarq, of course?”
“Of course.”
The High Tarq.
A name synonymous with terror and nightmares.
It refers to the top 21 clans of the Uruk Alliance, led, of course, by the Valkrush. In second place is the Kiral, the clan that annihilated the White Skull Brigade in <Aristapo>.
“The clan on its way here now is the Tahup clan, which belongs not just to the High Tarq, but the High Kun Tarq.”
The High Kun Tarq was an honor bestowed upon only the top seven of the 21 High Tarq clans.
Unlike the High Tarq, whose rankings shifted with the times and whose status could be lost, the High Kun Tarq was said to have remained unchanged for ages, until before the 'Black Summer'.
The Valkrush clan had seized a vacancy in the High Kun Tarq that opened up during the 'Black Summer' and risen all the way to the top rank.
“Tahup means 'atonement.' And I learned in the Chronicles of Heroic Swords that they did not participate in the invasion during the 'Black Summer'.”
“Right, and no one knows what kind of power they use. That's the problem. The lack of information is incredibly ominous.”
“It's not that there's no information, Master. There is a unit that encountered the Tahup clan and survived.”
“But they all went mad and can't speak a single word. To think there's no information on an enemy that has always been ranked fourth among the clans.”
It was only later that I learned of the Tahup's barbaric customs, which drove all who faced them to madness.
That they flayed humans alive, ate their flesh, extracted their bones, and made clothes from their skin.
That they opened the skulls of children to extract their brains and spinal fluid for use in rituals.
And that they forced the survivors to watch the entire process.
At the time, I lacked the knowledge to discuss such things, and even if I'd had it, there would have been no time.
Dong, dong, dong, dong, dong.
For in that moment, the urgent, desperate toll of a bell rang out, like the screams of a person being burned alive.
The bell tolled low.
And then it rang high.
It sent the refugees who had been rummaging through the city for food and water fleeing toward the coast.
“They don't even give us a moment to breathe. You can talk to that perverted old commander-in-chief later.”
Couriers began to run frantically through the city hall.
“Welcome to Kerkunude, Kaisen.”
Sharon walked down the hallway, her helmet tucked under her arm.
I immediately followed her.
Ria, who was putting on her combat gear as she walked beside me, spoke.
“Brace yourself. Where we're going now is hell.”
Hell.
The thought felt redundant.
Whenever I touched the brand of fate on my cheek, the indignation, sorrow, and grief of a distant past surged up like a cliff.
“If that's what it is, don't worry.”
There was no visible escape from this hell of grief.
The path is too distant to see.
But perhaps if I keep spilling the blood of the enemies I can see so clearly, these flames of hell that painfully burn and corrode my soul might just be extinguished.
“My life has been hell ever since this brand was seared onto me.”