Chapter 138
Chapter 138
Iron Emperor — Chapter 138
Once the battlefield was roughly cleared, Baron Silen Bels headed for the Gauri camp. Samdopyo and his men followed behind.
They must have seen them approaching, because a party of horsemen emerged from the Gauri camp and rode slowly toward them.
"I am Baron Silen Bels of the Kingdom of South Roselin."
"I am Daesaja Gye Ung-sam of Gauri."
It was Gye Ung-sam who had come out to greet them.
As he received them, Ung-sam's eyes found Dupyo.
"......."
"......."
Ung-sam and Dupyo's gazes met. When Ung-sam took in Dupyo's wretched state and said nothing, Baron Bels found himself feeling sorry instead. Ung-sam broke the brief silence first.
"You fight the whole war by yourself?"
"......."
It was an exceptionally warm remark.
Dupyo wanted to shout, You're the bastard responsible for all of this!, but he decently moderated his reply.
"Snrk. The war only just ended. You've already been grilling monster meat, I take it?"
"......."
At Dupyo's words, Ung-sam's mouth closed. Dupyo's eyes narrowed at the sight.
It was a look of reproach.
'We went and nearly got killed following someone's orders, and here he is munching on grilled monster meat?'
Dupyo's inner thoughts were plainly visible on his face. Meanwhile, Ung-sam's expression, as he held his silence, was undergoing a peculiar change.
Watching their standoff, a South Roselin knight spoke up.
"Do you intend to keep Baron Bels standing out here?"
"Huh?"
The South Roselin knight, carrying himself with a hint of arrogance, looked down at Ung-sam as he spoke.
"We must escort Baron Bels inside at once. Ahem."
Abruptly, Dupyo's demeanor shifted. No, it had to.
Because Ung-sam's expression right now was not that of a man chagrined by reproach. It was a face contorted with outrage—of all things, pure fury.
And on top of that, a clueless South Roselin bodyguard knight had cut in, so the only conclusion Dupyo's experience allowed was that he had to intervene like this.
"Alright, let's go inside and talk."
Though his voice emerged from a face smeared with rage, it was at least calm.
'Damnation. Am I the one who said something wrong here? Snrk!'
Grumbling to himself, Dupyo had no way of knowing that Ung-sam had been roasted and charred by lightning and sent rolling across the ground. But there was one thing Dupyo did know.
The reality that getting any decent rest today was going to be difficult.
As they moved along behind Gye Ung-sam's party, a South Roselin bodyguard knight edged closer to Baron Bels and spoke quietly.
"These people fought better than expected."
"Mm."
At the knight's remark, Baron Bels simply nodded in silence.
It was something he'd sensed on the way here, but the nobility of South Roselin still tended to regard the Gauri army as nothing more than a rabble of bumpkins.
"Whatever happens once we're inside, you will follow my lead."
"Hahaha. What could possibly happen?"
Watching his bodyguard knight laugh with theatrical exaggeration, Baron Bels let out a small sigh and urged his horse forward.
"It seems your soldiers took quite a beating."
That was Baron Bels's first impression upon meeting Go Jin-cheon.
A great many soldiers bore wounds large and small. If there was a silver lining, it was that the number of dead appeared low.
"Couldn't be helped. There are still a few issues with our organizational structure."
Baron Bels could understand Jin-cheon's meaning. They were a strong army, but their organizational structure might still have problems.
In a large-scale engagement, maintaining a rigid organizational framework and moving organically was crucial, so he reasoned that their coordination with the Hawk Legion, which had only recently joined them, might still have been lacking.
Even so, the fact that the soldiers had escaped with only injuries suggested a formidable degree of individual proficiency.
"For now, how about making camp here tonight and moving out tomorrow?"
"To where."
Jin-cheon's brusque manner of speech was hard to get used to. A nervous Baron Bels spoke again.
"Ah, His Highness the Prince of our kingdom said he very much wished to meet you."
No sooner had Baron Bels finished speaking than an answer burst out.
"What did you say! You son of a bitch!"
Clang-clang-clang!
The moment Eulji Buru exploded in fury, the knights who had accompanied Baron Bels as his escort swiftly drew their swords.
"Oho! The war's over and now you're getting cocky? Your Majesty, just give the order. Leave ungrateful beasts like these alive and they'll come back to bite us later!"
"Put your swords away at once! Sir Buru, please hear me out first."
As if he had expected this very reaction, Baron Bels began restraining his escort knights. Fortunately, at his command, they sheathed their swords without protest.
"Whew."
A sigh leaked out, so faint that no one could have heard.
In truth, they had drawn their swords not so much of their own volition as out of pure reflexive shock at the burst of killing intent that had emanated from Buru in that instant.
And they were forced to swallow hard all over again.
"Hansen......."
"Huh? Gah!"
When one knight pointed behind them, the knight called Hansen glanced back thoughtlessly and froze on the spot.
Because dozens of archers were easing arrows off their bowstrings there, while in front of them, dozens of Black Armored Ghost Cavalry soldiers were slowly putting away their Hwandudaedo.
"......."
The faint sense of superiority they had felt on the way here had already evaporated.
"I judged this place unsuitable to receive you, and so......."
"Fine. We'll go."
Just as Baron Bels began offering excuses, Jin-cheon granted permission as simply as that. Buru, who until that moment had been glaring as if he were ready to slaughter the lot of them right then and there, instead widened his eyes and looked at Jin-cheon.
For the prince of South Roselin to summon the Yeolje of Gauri while remaining seated was absurd, especially after Gauri had delivered them from a crisis bordering on annihilation.
But that was the Gauri perspective; from South Roselin's standpoint, these men were simply people who were to be commended.
That was precisely why Baron Bels, who at least understood Gauri sensibilities, had felt so uncomfortable coming here.
"I heard the crown prince of South Roselin is still young. And this is still a battlefield. It is only right that we go to him, rather than expecting him to come into a place where danger still lurks."
"Understood......."
Buru answered with his head bowed low.
"Besides, are we not guests here right now?"
"That we are."
Seeing Buru reply to Jin-cheon's words as docile as a lamb, the South Roselin bodyguard knights all turned somber themselves.
A formidable hierarchy of command.
"I had to meet him once before withdrawing the army anyway. Consider it settled."
"Aye!"
As knights drawn from the elite Eastern Army, they were quick to realize their error. Watching Buru render a military salute and return to directing the troops, the South Roselin knights began to see Gauri in a new light. They had a premonition that these men were, at the very least, on an entirely different plane from some ragtag militia.
As Baron Bels was collecting himself, Jin-cheon addressed him.
"And we ought to collect what we're due, shouldn't we?"
"Pardon?"
Baron Bels felt something inside him drop. When he lifted his head to look, a bizarre smile hung on Jin-cheon's face. An explanation followed, as though clearing up Baron Bels's curiosity.
"The so-called mercenary types get paid for this sort of thing. I mean, we didn't fight this war out of pure madness expecting no compensation whatsoever."
"No, that's...!"
"Mm. The casualties were heavy......."
As Jin-cheon turned his head slightly aside, the countless soldiers who lay groaning with their injuries—were those real?—filled his vision. At the same moment, Baron Bels exhaled a sigh.
He was saying: pay up.
Triumphant return.
The shoulders of the victor are always squared.
And more than a simple victory, a battle won with the fate of a nation at stake was a precious thing.
For whatever reason, despite still having sixty thousand troops remaining, the North Roselin army was retreating with lightning speed. But it was not long before they heard that Marquis Ferguson had collapsed during the battle and lay in a coma.
On top of that, whether a supply problem had arisen, the number of starvation deaths among the retreating forces swelled, and the bodies of North Roselin soldiers who had collapsed from hunger could be seen here and there along the main roads.
The war was not over, but this single clash had enabled South Roselin to rise again, while North Roselin would require a long, long time to reorganize its forces.
"Long live Marquis Baikal!"
"Long live!"
"Waaaaaaaaah!"
The faces of the citizens cheering the name of Marquis Helios Baikal shone brightly, despite the ruin wrought by the long war.
The saving grace, at least, was that South Roselin's nobility was not wholly populated by rotten talents. The nobles who remained here were precisely the ones who worried for their country.
What they chose was to create a hero. Even if they had not worked to deify Marquis Baikal in this way, he was already a hero, but the inflated rumors became a beacon to the people of South Roselin.
Had the nobles been corrupt, they would have prevented public sentiment from gravitating toward him. But these men were wise.
"They're sure havin' themselves a grand old time."
"Look at that. Ain't those girls pretty?"
The Eulji Brothers were not entirely displeased by the cheers either, and they grinned, turning their heads this way and that.
At times, the different environment and different people were also a novelty. Until now, all they had seen were charred and shattered buildings and haggard people. But this lively scene truly made it sink in that this was another world.
"Over there, look!"
They were not the only ones struck by novelty. Though the Gauri army was marching in toward the rear, it could not escape the eyes of the citizens.
When women pointed at Buru and Uru, the two straightened their backs rigidly.
"Dwarves riding horses!"
"Well, isn't that a sight?"
"......."
For a moment, the two nearly tumbled off their horses.
"Kyaa! Those Northern Mercenaries there are so cool!"
The Gauri army was nominally called the Northern Mercenaries. This arrangement satisfied the interests of both sides.
Gauri could not yet be revealed to the general public, and South Roselin needed to propagate the story that they had prevailed through their own strength alone, not with outside help.
Of course, Baron Bels, who made the request, had overlooked this Gauri concern—and thereby incurred yet another debt.
"Ahem."
Go Jin-cheon straightened his back. His broad chest was more than enough to sway a woman's heart. No, the swaying had begun. The women who had just been exclaiming how cool they were were suddenly flustered and at a loss.
"Jesse, I can't see!"
"That horned mister in front is blocking the view!"
"Ugh, so frustrating!"
A crease formed between Jin-cheon's brows.
"Mister, huh......."
The murmur slipped from Jin-cheon's lips. Coming up behind him was Yeon Hwi-garam.
"Jesse, let's move over there. Because of that horned mister, I can't see the handsome guy behind him."
"Let's do that."
The crease between Jin-cheon's brows deepened even further.
Whooosh!
"Kyaak!"
The killing intent that suddenly radiated outward drove the women to their knees. And Jin-cheon, as if nothing had happened, strode away with Gangsoe, while Hwi-garam passed by looking profoundly embarrassed.