Chapter 139
Chapter 139
Iron Emperor — Chapter 139
"Hm? Sudden killing intent?"
Marquis Baikal, walking at the head of the column, turned to look behind him. He cocked his head quizzically, then raised his hand again to answer the crowd's cheers. Theatrical as this was, he didn't dislike it—in fact, he wanted to join them and cheer along with them.
But the war wasn't over...
"Gauri..."
Still holding his waving pose, Marquis Baikal turned his body slightly and looked back. The procession didn't seem especially long, but his expression made it look as if the Gauri army were standing right in front of him.
"Marquis."
"Mm."
As if reading the marquis's thoughts, Baron Bels approached and spoke.
"I'm worried about when we enter the palace."
"Indeed."
Worry settled over the faces of Marquis Baikal and Baron Bels. The nobles of South Roselin would be thinking of nothing more than currying favor by handing out titles to the Gauri army or some such gesture. Marquis Baikal had entertained those same thoughts himself, which was precisely why his concern ran ahead of him.
Images from a few days ago flickered through Marquis Baikal's mind.
"Gurk!"
Thud.
A short scream squeezed through vocal cords and spilled into the night. In the stillness, that scream was more than enough to pluck at everyone else's nerves.
"What was that sound?"
"Escape!"
In an instant, the escape alert rippled through the South Roselin soldiers. At that, it was the escapees who grew truly desperate.
"Damn it, we've been made!"
"Move, now!"
"That way!"
Even though their escape had been discovered, they didn't panic. Each man snatched up the weapons of the soldiers they'd downed and launched themselves forward. The soldiers who sporadically tried to block them couldn't last two exchanges before they were cut down.
"Damn! Alert the knight order! North Roselin knights are escaping!"
"Aaargh!"
The soldiers trying to bar the path of the dozen-plus escaped North Roselin knight prisoners couldn't even hold for two rounds, screaming as they toppled left and right.
SLASH!
"Guuurk!"
Thud.
One of the North Roselin knights finished off a soldier who had been standing frozen in front of him, then pointed to one side.
"That way. At this rate we won't have the stamina!"
"Agreed!"
"Let's go."
Their movements were unfaltering as they fled. It was true, in a sense—the South Roselin camp had grown complacent in victory, and gaps had opened everywhere.
"Since we're passing through, let's trim the head count a little!"
A North Roselin knight spoke cruelly. Their eyes had landed on a gathering of bandaged wounded soldiers.
"Huh?"
"What's that?"
The ears of the Gauri soldiers, who had been enjoying the liquor and meat the South Roselin soldiers had brought them, caught the sound of tearing screams.
"Oh? Sounds like somebody's bolted."
"Yeah?"
"Ah, leave 'em. They'll get caught. Here, have another drink!"
In stark contrast to the screams ringing out nearby, the Gauri soldiers drank on as if they belonged to a different world entirely, even singing songs to go with their cups.
"Kyah! The liquor in these parts is good and all, but... tch! I want to get back soon, knock back a bowl of grain wine, and eat some maekjeok—marinated wild boar bulgogi—wrapped in buru (lettuce)."
"You said it."
Just as the soldiers were tearing into their meat and chatting away, the screams began to dwindle, and the sound of many footfalls began drawing closer.
"Huh?"
"They're coming this way?"
"Ah hell, why are those bastards running over here!"
The dozen-plus ferocious footfalls approaching their drinking spot were more than enough to ruin the taste of their liquor.
"Goddamn it! Those sons of bitches are the bane of my existence!"
The Gauri soldiers bristled with irritation as they watched the North Roselin knights charging toward them, blades glinting even through the darkness.
Scrape.
Grinding their teeth, the Gauri soldiers rose, bent down, and picked something up from the ground.
"Keh-heh. If we mix in with those bastards, we can dodge the arrows. After that, we grab the horses tethered over there and ride out."
One knight running at the head spoke, and the knights following behind answered as they ran.
"Yes!"
"Looks like they've only just spotted us."
As the wounded men sluggishly rose to their feet, one knight spoke. The scattered wine jars and the slabs of meat roasting over the fire told him plainly that these men were drunk.
"Cut through them as fast as possible and keep moving."
"Archers are starting to mass behind us!"
"Don't worry. At this range, it's impossible. If they miss, they could hit the wounded men in front of us—they won't shoot."
Just as the lead knight had said, the archers were gathering, but they couldn't loose their arrows and were simply milling about in confusion.
"Relax and run fas—"
Thwack!
"Gah!"
Had they relaxed too much?
Before the words could even finish, an impact rang through his skull. His lower body kept running forward, but his head snapped back as if bouncing in the opposite direction. In that knight's eyes, two moons hung in the sky.
Thud.
"Hut! Milleim!"
"What the—!"
Swoosh-swoosh-swoosh!
It happened in an instant.
The moment the North Roselin knight named Milleim collapsed at the front, the sound of something tearing through the darkness followed.
"Hup!"
Clang!
Still, they were knights!
They were knights, the very symbol of martial prowess. One knight batted aside the unidentified projectile and shouted a warning.
"Everyone, cau—"
Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack!
Thud.
They no longer needed his warning to understand the danger. Clinging to his fading consciousness, he examined what had just slammed into his entire body.
"Nnngh."
Hard to the touch. And jagged. His eyes flew wide open, and he lifted his head with effort, looking toward his comrades.
"Watch out for the throwing stones—"
Smack!
A throwing stone dropped onto his laboriously raised head, and his warning was never finished.
Stones.
Throwing stones.
Objects called rocks.
On a battlefield where spears and swords fly thick and fast, a mere stone seems like nothing at all. But that is a miscalculation. The most primitive and yet the longest-serving weapon in human history—mankind's first and mankind's last—is the throwing stone.
The Gauri people likewise practiced stone-throwing competitions and promoted stone-slinging on a national scale. If you run out of arrows, should you not at least throw stones?
Of course, in the present situation, it was less that they were out of arrows and more that the throwing stones happened to be what their hands found first—so they flung them.
But for men on the receiving end in the middle of an escape, it wasn't something they could take lightly.
THUD!
"Gurgh!"
Only after five or six of them had fallen did the survivors finally steady themselves, quaking with fury. And then their eyes registered the men who, moments ago, had looked like wounded soldiers—now charging at them ferociously.
"It's a trap!"
They could only conclude that it had all been a ruse designed to lower their guard. At the very front of the charging men was one whose leg was wrapped round and round with bandages.
Why else would anyone wrap bandages around a perfectly healthy leg, flaunting it for all to see?
"Argh! These treacherous South Roselin dogs!"
"This is bad. We circle around, take out those horse handlers, and flee! Run, now!"
They had no more time.
"So that's why they made a show of following Continental Law—they meant to draw us into a trap and slaughter every last one of us!"
Continental Law.
As had come up before, it literally meant that nobles were not to be killed but released. But North Roselin had never honored it.
This had been a war launched to annihilate South Roselin from the start, and Continental Law wasn't something observed for the defeated. South Roselin, however, could not kill them. The reason was the Holy Empire backing North Roselin—it would use any such killing as a pretext to intervene in the war.
"Run, hurry!"
"Krrgh."
Aaaargh!
As the North Roselin knights raced toward the horse handlers, the screams of their comrades reached their ears. When they turned to look while running, they saw their fallen comrades being brutally trampled behind them. Fury began to overtake reason.
"Kill them fast and break out!"
The horse handlers came into view ahead of them, looking bewildered, as though they'd only just now noticed the approaching knights.