Chapter 106
Chapter 106
Iron Emperor — Chapter 106
"To think such a method existed..."
Baron Silen Bels clicked his tongue as he watched the communications system utilizing hobgoblins. It was a method he had never even imagined. No—a method he could never have imagined.
The sole surviving wizard from the battle approached and spoke to him.
"In all my years of magic, I have never seen hobgoblins put to such use. They are notoriously difficult to tame."
Baron Bels nodded silently at the wizard's words. Then a rough voice reached their ears.
"What're you doing?"
"Interpretation."
As Eulji Buru approached, muttering to himself, the wizard quickly cast a translation spell.
"You have come."
Baron Bels inclined his head slightly in greeting toward Buru. Buru, barely acknowledging the gesture, spoke to him bluntly.
"So what're you doing right now?"
"To tame hobgoblins like that... it is truly incomprehensible."
It was the wizard who answered. A wizard's hunger for knowledge was the same everywhere. Seeing the curiosity shining in the wizard's eyes, Buru answered as if it were nothing special.
"Had to do it myself."
"Yourself? How did you accomplish it?"
The wizard's eyes went wide, his tone urgent. His reaction was only natural—brainwashing magic could make hobgoblins obey, but it could not make them relay messages. Doing so damaged their nervous systems.
That was precisely what made it so intriguing. Buru looked at the wizard with a deadpan expression, glanced over at Samdori, and spoke.
"Back home, even the kids know this method."
"What is it?"
"At first, beating 'em didn't do no good."
"Beating them?"
The wizard, who had been expecting some grand technique, looked bewildered. Buru continued regardless.
"So we used a different method."
The wizard's eyes lit up again.
"Not just beatin' 'em. Beatin' 'em half to death."
"..."
"When they was about to croak, Master Risel would cast Healing, and then we'd beat 'em half to death again."
Consternation spread across the wizard's face.
"They still didn't listen. So I changed my approach—went after the mental side."
"Mental magic will not work on them."
At last a normal method had surfaced, and the wizard's eyes glittered again. Buru, apparently displeased by the wizard's reliance on magic talk, clicked his tongue.
"Tsk tsk, magic ain't everything!"
"Then..."
"Turned out pretty simple."
At Buru's self-satisfied expression, the wizard pulled parchment from his robes and prepared to take notes. Then the answer came, slow and deliberate.
"Put 'em in a hungry ogre's mouth and pulled 'em back out five or six times until they listened. Before long, they were even doing tricks."
"..."
The wizard stood frozen, not even noticing the ink bleeding across his parchment.
For days after the devastation of war had passed, smoke from burning corpses rose nightly over Vihanen Fortress.
The first thing the Gauri army did after capturing or annihilating twenty thousand North Roselin troops was to process the prisoners. The surviving North Roselin nobles were personally interrogated by Eulji Buru and Uru.
Whether it was due to the two men's exceptional skill or the interrogation methods unheard of on this continent, the prisoners readily gave up the locations of the rear supply units. Based on that intelligence, the South Road Army was reinforced with elements of the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry and the Archer Cavalry, and they struck the remaining supply units, looting their provisions.
As all of this unfolded in sequence, Baron Silen Bels could do nothing but watch from his ambiguous position.
"Huuu..."
A sigh escaped Baron Bels.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang.
The small, rhythmic metallic sounds had become familiar by now. It was the sound of someone being interrogated.
The method was simple: bury a man with only his head above ground, place a metal can over his head, and strike it at regular intervals. At a glance it seemed trivial, but the person subjected to it deteriorated as if they had been hit with mental magic.
Baron Bels could not understand people who tortured nobles without hesitation.
"Did you see it today?"
"God, it was nearly death."
Soldiers passed in front of Baron Bels, murmuring to one another. To the South Roselin soldiers, everything the Gauri forces did was a novelty.
"Aaaagh! You demons!"
A scream rang out from somewhere. Baron Bels looked toward the source and furrowed his brow. It was the place where Samdopyo conducted his interrogations. A sudden chill ran through Baron Bels's body.
"Tch, looks like we'll have another eunuch today."
The muttered comment of a soldier watching from the side reached Baron Bels's ears. Wherever Dupyo conducted his interrogations, women came and went. And afterward, screams erupted as if their lives were ending.
Dupyo's torture was simple. A small cylinder lined on the inside with countless nails was fitted onto the prisoner's most vital part, and then a woman would exact her revenge—using strip shows and the like.
No hands ever touched them, but the effect was terrifying. The sturdier the man, the faster his reaction.
The women were people they had rescued during the raids on the North Roselin supply units. In short, they had been sex slaves. Those women threw themselves wholeheartedly into Dupyo's interrogations, and the prisoners—who in normal times would have enjoyed such performances—now wept tears of blood, desperately trying to prevent their swelling vital parts from turning into pincushions on the nails.
"Baron Bels, you are summoned to the command room."
"Understood."
A soldier ran up and called to Baron Bels, who had been lost in thought. He walked slowly. He knew he would be nothing more than a bystander, but he had to go.
"Baron Silen Bels has arrived."
The command room of Vihanen Fortress, where Baron Bels had once been master, was now occupied by Go Jin-cheon. Yet Baron Bels could say nothing. He was, at the end of the day, someone who had been rescued, and in the current situation he desperately needed the Gauri army's military strength.
"Come in."
At Eulji Uru's indifferent call from where he was studying a map to the side, Baron Bels entered a moment later.
"You summoned me?"
Baron Bels inclined his head slightly. It was not an act of extreme deference, but with no formal relationship yet established, his behavior was awkward—though no one commented on it. More accurately, Jin-cheon and his party were not paying him any attention at all.
If Dae Mu-deok had been present, he would certainly have been furious.
Baron Bels himself had heard about the nation called Gauri from the knights of the South Road Army. Having witnessed the battle that day, he also knew how powerful these people's military strength was.
Still, he remained unable to commit one way or the other, deferring judgment. Who would believe a nation no one knew of had appeared?
But what Baron Bels could not deny was that the black-haired troops called the Gauri army possessed skills that could not possibly be forged in just a year or two. Their prowess was only attainable through countless real battles.
Yet what he could not understand was this: if they had waged war with such force, they should by all rights be famous, but even he—the man in charge of combat intelligence—had never so much as heard a rumor of them.
As Baron Bels stood there quietly, a heavy voice spoke.
"Sit."
"Yes."
At Go Jin-cheon's curt command, Baron Bels quietly found an empty seat and sat. He studied Jin-cheon carefully.
A man shrouded in questions.
These people called their king the Yeolje. Judging by the meaning, it was close to Emperor, but only three nations on the continent were called empires. One did not simply become an emperor by declaring oneself one. Yet whatever the case, there was no doubt that this man was their leader.
"As I thought... we'll need to fight at least once more."
"Wouldn't it be fine to simply withdraw our forces now?"
Uru, unexpectedly, spoke with caution. But the answer came not from Jin-cheon but from the entrance.
"If you're told to do it, you do it!"
"Buru, you're here?"
Buru came in with a grin and rendered a military salute.
"Salute!"
Jin-cheon acknowledged Buru's salute with a slight nod, then slowly spoke.
"The interrogation?"
"Finished."
"Good work."
As Baron Bels listened quietly to the exchange between Jin-cheon and Buru, a question mark flickered in his eyes.
'We'll need to fight at least once more.'
It was a short sentence, but Baron Bels could not help pricking up his ears. At the very least, wasn't one fact clear—that their blades were pointed at North Roselin?
The critical question was whether there was still a force large enough to engage them.
'The twenty thousand troops coming from the Haian Kingdom?'
The force approaching under the Holy Empire's coercion came to mind. If those troops entered the fray, the effect of destroying North Roselin's twenty thousand rear troops would be nullified.
But conversely, if those twenty thousand did not reinforce the Eastern Army's front, that too would be a gain. Baron Bels's mind raced.
"Then where do we hit?"
Buru raised his hips slightly from his seat and peered at the map. Jin-cheon pointed to a location with his hand. Buru and Uru's expressions instantly turned grave.
"This one's a bit much."
"We only need to open a breathing hole for the Eastern Army. In any case, if we're to absorb the twenty thousand Haian Kingdom troops, one side has to make some noise."
Listening to the conversation, Baron Bels sensed something odd about the direction of the discussion.
'Eastern Army? Twenty thousand?'
Baron Bels shifted his hips slightly, trying to glimpse the map from a distance. But his movement stopped as his eyes met Jin-cheon's.
"Baron Bels."
"Yes? Ah, please speak."
The moment his eyes met Jin-cheon's, Baron Bels wore the expression of a child caught misbehaving and pressed his hips back into the chair.
In a situation where no agreement had been reached, looking at another's operational map was an act that could, under certain circumstances, be punishable.
Realizing he had been momentarily carried away, Baron Bels composed his face back into calm. Jin-cheon's voice reached his ears.
"Stop fidgeting over there and come closer."
"..."
Baron Bels's composure crumbled again.
Step. Step.
Having finished his work, Dupyo walked toward the command room to make his report, his steps lighter than ever. His wound had fully healed, and during his recovery he had gathered intelligence on the twenty thousand Haian Kingdom reinforcements while producing several eunuchs in the process.
The information had been piecemeal, but by coordinating with Buru during the interrogations, a largely accurate picture had taken shape.
"You've worked hard."
"Salute! Hailon reports to General Samdopyo!"
Hailon, the lifetime soldier who now led over ten men under his command, was diligently carrying out his duties again today.
Over the course of this campaign, he had already sent seven children back to his homeland. If he was to avoid his wife's recriminations when he returned, he needed to earn enough to feed them all. That was why even as a gate captain, he presented himself with rigid military discipline.
"Ahem, what's this 'general' business... Just get me entry clearance from the generals inside. I'm here to report results."
At Dupyo's words, Hailon rendered a brief salute and had a subordinate relay the message inside.
"You are to enter."
"Keep up the good work."
"Yes, sir!"
Leaving them behind, Dupyo walked through the door the soldiers held open and began to render his salute.
"Your servant Samdopyo humbly pays his respects to Your Majes—"
"This is preposterous."
"—ty."
Dupyo's abbreviated salute was drowned out by Baron Silen Bels's voice.
"Ahem, did that fellow eat something bad?"
The ignored Dupyo muttered quietly to himself, remaining on one knee as he awaited Jin-cheon's command.
"Enough."
A terse reply.
Unlike his previous quietly watchful and cautious behavior, Baron Bels was now on his feet, his expression one of sheer incredulity.
Jin-cheon, on the other hand, kept his eyes on the operational map, and Uru similarly showed little reaction. Only Buru clicked his tongue and spoke to Baron Bels.
"These local folks say it can't be done before they even look into it—I just don't get it. Stop making a fuss and plant your ass in that chair!"
Baron Bels, his baffled expression unchanged, sat back down.
'Ahem, the floor's cold.'
Dupyo, muttering to himself as he stared at the floor, remained on one knee, praying to be called upon soon. Once Baron Bels was seated, Jin-cheon shifted his gaze to Dupyo, who had entered and was waiting to the side, and spoke.
"Dupyo, you're here?"
"Salute!"
"I suggest you reconsider."
But before the words Dupyo wanted to hear could come, Baron Bels's mouth opened. Jin-cheon furrowed his brow and looked at Baron Bels.
"I—I apologize. But this is impossible."
Reading Jin-cheon's anger in his expression, Baron Bels hastily apologized. But it was already too late.
"I'm about ready to rip his throat out."
"Wh-what!"
A suffocating killing intent exploded from Buru. Baron Bels could no longer continue speaking, freezing in place and beginning to tremble violently.
In truth, Baron Bels was closer to a civil official than a warrior. With swordsmanship only about on par with an ordinary knight, he naturally had no strength to endure Buru's killing intent.
Buru glared at Baron Bels and slowly continued.
"You son of a bitch, I've let it slide again and again, and you keep running your mouth? Do you even know where you are? Letting it go once was enough—now you're cutting off His Majesty's words?"
"Th-that's not..."
"Shut your trap. This is as far as my leniency goes."
"Enough."
At Jin-cheon's single word, the suffocating killing intent dissipated. Freed from the terror of death—something he had never experienced in his life—Baron Bels gasped for breath and stared only at the floor with trembling eyes.
"It is obvious you will never trust us Gauri anyway. That is why I have not forced the matter."
Jin-cheon spoke slowly, as if admonishing Baron Bels. Baron Bels, drenched in sweat as though from a downpour, strained his ears, determined not to miss a word.
"For the moment, you are the nominal commander here. In acknowledgment of that, I have said nothing about how you manage your troops. Though beneath that, of course, is your desire to stay in our good graces because you want us to be useful in your war."
As Jin-cheon continued, Baron Bels's face grew paler by the moment.
"But now, we no longer have any need of you."
"What do you—!"
Baron Bels raised his head. His eyes met Jin-cheon's subdued gaze.
"If I released your forces, you would no doubt go bustling about again, poking around everywhere. You would surely strike and withdraw, claiming to help the Eastern Army's front. Once that happens, the enemy will quickly realize that their forces here have been annihilated, and that will make it inconvenient for us to maneuver."
"Then..."
From Jin-cheon's words, Baron Bels realized that his own existence had been nothing more than a nuisance to these people.
"There is nothing new about this. We merely shared the same interests for a time. But now, the enemy will soon send troops to investigate this place, so there is no longer a need for secrecy. Therefore, watch yourself—before I tear you limb from limb and throw you to the beasts. Your insolence toward me ends today. Any further disrespect... I will hold the royal house of South Roselin accountable!"
"—!"
They were clearly words that insulted the royal house. But Baron Bels could say nothing. Though no killing intent accompanied the words, a chill that settled deep in his chest could not be shaken off.
Having delivered what was both a threat and not a threat, Jin-cheon turned his head and looked at Dupyo.
"Dupyo."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
At last hearing himself called, Dupyo answered vigorously. Jin-cheon, apparently pleased by Dupyo's resounding response, nodded and continued.
"Go out and bring Samdori and the signal soldier."
"...As you command."
As Dupyo accepted Jin-cheon's order, he felt the cold seeping into his knees.