Chapter 118
Chapter 118
Iron Emperor — Chapter 118
The moment Jin-cheon's fist tightened, the already-shattered sword let out a shrieking crack and burst into fragments. At the sight, the knights simultaneously re-gripped their swords—but no further action followed.
Drip.
His arm rose toward the sky.
From Jin-cheon's fist, red blood coiled down his arm and streamed to the ground.
His lips were pressed tightly shut.
He had walked among more than a hundred knights with no weapon, yet he stood without a trace of fear—completely poised. And at the gaze that so naturally looked down upon the assembly, the knights found themselves staring at him and him alone.
Jin-cheon's eyes moved to the fist he held raised in the air.
Red blood was flowing.
"Is it different?"
Jin-cheon posed the cryptic question with his eyes fixed on the flowing red blood. No one answered him.
"I asked you—is this red blood flowing here any different from yours!"
Whooom!
A massive vibration radiated outward from Jin-cheon in concentric rings. The knights felt the sweat on their backs chill all at once, and the soldiers felt a nameless shudder run through them.
"There is only one thing that sets me apart from you."
Jin-cheon's eyes shifted from his fist and swept over the knights and soldiers as if surveying them.
"I am strong!"
A single statement brimming with arrogance.
Yet not a single person considered him arrogant. Slowly lowering his arm, Jin-cheon turned his back and spoke one more quiet line.
"That is all."
Jin-cheon turned and walked slowly back toward where Baron Gowin was.
"Graaagh!"
Behind him, Viscount Hardin let out a bestial howl and lunged. Even so, Jin-cheon kept walking.
SWISH!
A brief flash passed.
Thud.
Viscount Hardin's head, which had been flying through the air, struck the ground. A beat later, a fountain of blood that had lost its path erupted from the headless torso and sprayed the earth.
Baron Gowin subtly grimaced, as though something filthy had splashed onto him, and flicked the remaining blood from his sword onto the ground. Behind him, Jin-cheon walked unhurriedly to a chair and sat down.
Every bit of the spectacle was utterly natural.
In that moment, to every eye present, Jin-cheon's figure seemed more dignified than any human being alive, and Viscount Hardin—head and body separated, collapsed upon the earth—seemed more wretched than any human being who had ever lived.
But for Hardin, in a situation where no one would stand with him, there had likely been no other choice.
Click.
The sound of Baron Gowin's sword sheathing its blade rang out. Then, from here and there, intermittent solitary death cries followed—the screams of the squad leaders who had come from Count Dinerd's private soldiers.
Many of the free knights were men who had been abandoned by the nobles of the Haian Kingdom. Men ruined by noble houses, men who had fallen out of favor—and a great many were knights who had served under Baron Gowin back when his house had been a county.
"We greet you, Baron Gowin."
A middle-aged knight stepped forward, inverted his sword, and offered Baron Gowin a military salute. One by one, more knights followed, presenting their respects.
"I was cast aside."
Baron Gowin spoke in a grave voice.
"The blood we shed was blood without worth."
A pang struck the hearts of the soldiers watching. Among them were those who had been born slaves, and those who had been dragged to war after the nobles' tyranny had stripped them of everything they owned. The battlefields where they had taken up weapons and staked their lives had always been foreign soil.
"This place, too, is a battlefield without worth."
The soldiers' and knights' eyes turned toward the bloodstained, opulent banquet table. Then toward Count Dinerd, Baron Nimial, and the others forced to their knees to one side.
"Fuck."
A voice from one of the soldiers.
They had known.
That their blood was nothing more than a means of earning money.
Some soldiers wiped their burning eyes and clutched their aching chests. Others stared at the weapons in their hands.
Turning over the meaning of the weapons they held...
"You—!"
Baron Gowin's voice, laden with mana, resounded.
Now even the occasional shrieks had fallen silent. His voice broke the stillness like a wave.
"—have been cast aside!"
They knew that too.
"I have been cast aside!"
Gowin's voice was thick with bitter grief.
"What is tomorrow to us!"
Darkness had veiled them.
"Is this what it means to live!"
They were walking corpses.
Silence fell.
A heavy gravity flowed with it.
Who among them did not already know this? That was why they had followed Baron Gowin.
At the very least, to reduce the number of those dying meaningless deaths, he had always pulled his forces back—even when he could have earned far greater battle honors—falling from count to viscount, from viscount to baron, and had survived together with them. That was the man they had followed.
Because Baron Gowin was that kind of man, the soldiers' hearts ached all the more. For when the truth they had known but kept buried was dragged into the open, what awaited them was despair.
Now the soldiers and knights welcomed Baron Gowin's return, yet at the same time, they hurled resentment at the man who had brought them this pain.
"Kgh...! What are we supposed to do, then! Are you going to become our king, my lord!"
The indignant voice of one soldier burst forth.
"Let's kill every last one of those Haian central nobles first!"
"At least that would mean something!"
"At least that would give us hope!"
The soldiers' agitation swelled.
But the knights, who knew the practical reality all too well, could only swallow their rage and listen to the soldiers' fury and sorrow in silence. They understood that although they were knights, their lot was ultimately not so different from the rank and file.
"Is that truly what you want, O Hawk Corps!"
Baron Gowin's voice rang out across the turmoil.
The soldiers' faces were flush with fervor. Their desperation to escape wretchedness had detonated.
"And afterward—would you see it all end in ruin at the hands of the Holy Empire, the Federal Empire, and the Maritime Empire!"
"Then what are we supposed to do!"
"Why did you even bring it up, then!"
The soldiers' pent-up rage and frustration erupted. Once the wave of bitterness had broken, it would not be contained.
"Do you trust me!"
Baron Gowin's voice, sounding as though it were ripped from his very blood, bored into the ears of the twenty thousand elite troops. The boiling indignation subsided in an instant, and every eye turned to him alone.
"I asked if you trust me—comrades!"
His voice rang out once more.
Shing.
The knight who had been the first to step forward and salute drew his sword and shouted.
"I, Schiffon Dicroy, swear upon my honor as a knight to follow the will of Baron Gowin."
"I, Illyon Pizillen, swear upon my honor as a knight to follow the will of Baron Gowin."
"You have taken responsibility for our lives until now—see it through to the end!"
Along with the knights' oaths, the rough but earnest voices of the common soldiers burst forth. Their voices spread like pigment dropped into water, swift and far.
Listening to them, Baron Gowin quietly closed his eyes.
'My life has been one of worth. Who else has ever heard voices such as these?'
He opened his eyes and thrust one hand high toward the sky.
"This is mine—and our—final choice!"
"We will follow!"
"We will follow, Supreme Commander!"
Baron Gowin's face was flushed red, uncharacteristically so. Hope kindled on the soldiers' faces as well. The fist he raised toward the heavens clenched so tightly that veins stood out along it. Drawing a short breath, he accepted their hearts and roared.
"We who have been sold out all this time! Now, for the last time, we will sell ourselves!"
At his words, the soldiers' cheers stopped mid-cry, and they watched in silence. It was not disbelief. It was a wordless demand for the meaning behind his words.
Baron Gowin answered their silence.
"We will sell ourselves—and buy our freedom! A reason to live! Our tomorrow!"
Whaaash.
A silence so absolute it was as though even breathing had ceased, as in a vacuum. After a few seconds of silence, a storm broke.
"Whoaaaaaa!"
An explosion of surging cheers erupted all at once. Gripping their weapons, tears streaming down their faces, they roared their acclaim for Baron Gowin's decision. They erupted as if possessed by madness, like men drugged.
Baron Gowin stepped forward, and as if to sear his words into them once more, he thrust his fist toward the sky and shouted.
"Our freedom—"
"Freedom!"
"—and a reason to live—"
"A reason!"
"—and our tomorrow!"
"Tomorrow!"
"Will you stake your lives to trade for them, comrades!"
"Whoaaaaaaa!"
No further answer was needed. Only their crimson, blazing cheers shook the earth.
With their roaring acclamation at his back, Baron Gowin slowly turned and approached Jin-cheon. And when he reached Jin-cheon's presence, even the cheers began to ebb.
"..."
Silence passed between the two.
Slowly.
Baron Gowin lowered one knee to the ground.
"From this day forward, I, Levion Gowin, together with the Hawk Corps, pledge myself to follow the banner of Gauri."
Baron Gowin spoke quietly, but with conviction.
Jin-cheon, who had been watching him in silence, rose from his seat, walked past Baron Gowin, and took a few steps toward the soldiers. The moment Jin-cheon came to a stop, the heads of the knights and soldiers, who had been looking up, lowered before they even realized it.
It may have been because Baron Gowin had paid him homage—but the truth was, Jin-cheon had already overwhelmed them with what he had shown them earlier.
"Even if you die in war—I will see to it that you can die gladly."
Leaving only those words behind, Jin-cheon turned back and went to Baron Gowin. Then he declared.
"I confer upon Levion Gowin the rank of Daesaja. What you have staked your lives to gain—I shall give it to you. Freedom, a reason to live, and a future for your descendants. Furthermore..."
Jin-cheon's words trailed long.
"...within the name of Gauri, you shall behold what a life of glory looks like."
With that, he strode toward the barracks where Count Dinerd had been staying. Behind him, the voice of Daesaja Gowin—no longer a baron—rang out with majesty.
"By the command of His Majesty the Yeolje, Supreme One of All Heavens (萬天), who embraces all people (萬人) and all things (萬物), I shall uphold the duty of a knight beneath that name—and the name of your servant Levion Daesaja shall be spoken first among all who follow at the vanguard!"
"Whoaaaaaaa!"
The voice of Daesaja Gowin and the roar of the Hawk Corps shook heaven and earth.