Chapter 300
Chapter 300
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 300
They had been low-ranking officers, but they were original Gauri people who had shared every hardship after crossing into this other world.
Geolmurang, Igi, Yangdeok.
He was not angry because they had lost a battle and died.
He was angry because this was all the caliber of man who had defeated them amounted to.
"Come to think of it, it was a fight Geolmurang won."
Jin-cheon let out a short laugh.
"Geolmuraaang! You bastaaard!"
Marquis Public's eyes flashed.
"Utterly worthless."
Jin-cheon sneered coldly.
"Annihilate the heathens before you!"
At Marquis Public's cry, which sounded as though he were vomiting blood, the blood-drenched swords of the Holy Knight Order rose as one to the center of their bodies.
"Charge forward!"
Behind Marquis Public, who drew his Sword Aura and charged at Jin-cheon, a blood-soaked silver wave surged forward like a tide.
"I'll grant every last one of you martyrdom."
Jin-cheon gave a cold, sardonic grin and charged forward. Yeon Hwi-garam likewise drew his Hwandudaedo and shouted.
"They are worthless scum. Leave not a single one alive!"
"Yes, sir!"
The moment Hwi-garam gave the order, a black wave reflecting the morning sunlight charged forward as one.
CRASH!
The thunderous crash of the two masses colliding shook the interior of the fortress.
"Kaat!"
The sword in Public's hand flew toward Jin-cheon's throat like a bolt of lightning. But Jin-cheon's Hwandudaedo cut off its path first.
CLANG!
A great metallic clang rang out, hurling Public's body backward. Jin-cheon's fist chased after him, splitting the air.
THWACK!
"Keu-eok!"
A single blow that seemed to seep into his very bones spun Public's jaw around. Enraged by the sight of Public hurled into a corner, two Holy Knights charged at Jin-cheon.
THUNK-THUNK!
"Mind your own business."
Two arrows loosed from Uru's bow pierced both Holy Knights' heads before they could even reach Jin-cheon.
Sseureung. Tak.
Jin-cheon slid his Hwandudaedo back into its sheath and moved toward Public, who was staggering to his feet.
"A weapon is wasted on the likes of you."
Ddu-du-duk.
As Jin-cheon approached, cracking his neck from side to side, his eyes held only contempt.
* * *
"Drive the prisoners over here!"
"I said move fast!"
The allied forces of the Haian Kingdom and the Marlon Kingdom, having seized the Holy Empire expeditionary force's main camp, gathered the prisoners to one side while detaching their cavalry and heading for Pharus Castle.
Judging by the number of men killed or captured in the main camp, the likelihood seemed high that Pharus Castle, toward which the Gauri army had rushed, had already fallen to the Imperial forces.
Even if it had not, it was only natural to worry about Go Jin-cheon's unit, which had gone ahead leading fifteen thousand men and leaving behind their supply train.
THUD-THUD-THUD!
"Hyah!"
As roughly five thousand cavalry from both armies raced onward, Pharus Castle came into view in the distance.
Their shock was no less than what the Gauri side had felt—indeed, it was greater. The countless corpses were one thing, but the sight of the fortress itself dyed completely red was something none of them had ever witnessed in their lives.
"Full speed ahead!"
Duke Ken of Marlon spurred his horse toward the castle first, with Marquess Gaun following close behind.
The corpses were already dead, but watching them shatter and scatter under the hooves of the cavalry was truly a sight no sane mind could endure.
Once inside the gate, they drove their horses onward toward the source of the thunderous noise.
They rounded an alley and emerged into a plaza. There, figures so drenched in blood that they were difficult to identify—yet clearly wearing Roselin regular-army uniforms—stood rigidly at attention beside Gauri soldiers.
"Whoa, whoa, what in the...."
Duke Ken reined in his horse sharply and started to speak, only to lose his voice at the slaughter unfolding before his eyes. Marquess Gaun, entering behind him, and the rest of the cavalry were the same.
"Surely not... Public the Cruel?"
Duke Ken's pupils dilated.
The man facing Go Jin-cheon was unmistakably one of the Ten of the Continent—Saint Public, the one called Public the Cruel. No, rather than facing him....
"He's being beaten quite brutally."
"......."
He was being beaten mercilessly by Jin-cheon. The rest of the Holy Knight Order was faring no better: the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry, numbering less than half as many, were staining their silver armor red.
Movements like those of a yaksha.
Jin-cheon's fist slammed across Public's face, now almost unrecognizable. The sword in Public's hand had long since been broken in half....
"Keu-eok!"
The last remaining Holy Knight's neck snapped under Uru's brute strength, and the knight crumpled lifelessly. Jin-cheon, who had been staring at the twitching Marquis Public as one would an insect, shook the blood from his hands and slowly withdrew from the battlefield.
"Clean it up."
Only at Yeon Hwi-garam's words did the soldiers who had been standing at motionless attention begin to move.
Then it happened.
"Keu-aaaak!"
Public snatched up a sword lying nearby, let out a shriek, and charged at Jin-cheon. Before anyone could stop him, he shot toward Jin-cheon's back in an instant.
"Behind you!"
The moment Duke Ken shouted, Jin-cheon's body pivoted left and his Hwandudaedo followed.
Slice!
THUD!
Marquis Public, severed at the waist by the Hwandudaedo, met a miserable end in Pharus Castle.
For a man praised as one of the Ten Masters of the Continent, it was a hollow end.
* * *
"Keuk!"
"Stop making such a fuss, please."
"Does this look like I'm making a fuss to you?"
Hailon's screams did not stop echoing from a cleaned-up corner of the fortress where he was being treated. One of the soldiers tending him muttered, pointing to one side.
"That man over there didn't let out a single word of pain while he was being treated."
"That fellow's been unconscious since the moment he got here."
"......."
Even the pain felt new to Hailon. Was it not because he was alive that he could feel pain at all?
"Hailon! How is your body doing!"
"Yes, sir!"
When Eulji Uru entered the treatment room, Hailon sprang to his feet, forgetting even the pain. Behind Uru came Go Jin-cheon, Duke Ken, and Marquess Gaun, all smiling broadly.
"As expected, the name Iron Wall Hailon is not an empty one."
Duke Ken laughed heartily and praised him, and Marquess Gaun chimed in from the side.
"Trading twenty thousand men for an army of a hundred thousand is a favorable exchange by any measure. Hahahaha!"
"Exactly right!"
At Marquess Gaun's words, Duke Ken burst into laughter as well.
But the face of Hailon, the very man receiving their praise, was not bright. The number who had ultimately survived after the battle was four thousand five hundred.
Aside from those who had formed a defensive formation and held out alongside Hailon, others had been found wounded here and there, which was the only reason the count had risen at all.
Seeing Hailon's darkened expression, Duke Ken and Marquess Gaun let their laughter subside awkwardly.
"You've done well."
Jin-cheon stepped forward and clapped him on the shoulder.
"Whether one hundred thousand or twenty thousand, death admits no comparison. But within that, you preserved four thousand five hundred lives. That alone gives you the right to stand tall. What is more, had this fortress fallen, how many Roselin citizens would have died in its aftermath?"
"Sire...."
Jin-cheon straightened Hailon's shoulders and lifted his head. Then he looked him squarely in the eye and spoke.
"Raise your head with pride. Square your shoulders. You are the gatekeeper of Great Gauri."
"Yes, sir!"
Hailon suppressed the rising sorrow and raised his head and squared his shoulders as Jin-cheon commanded. That alone was enough.
In the Siege of Pharus, the Roselin army fought so fiercely that out of a total force of twenty thousand and twenty-five men, only four thousand five hundred and one were classified as wounded, with all the rest dead.
By contrast, from the Holy Empire's army, excluding the wounded and sentries, out of roughly ninety-eight thousand men, only about twenty-five thousand remained as prisoners or wounded. All the rest were dead, and for many of the fallen, not even their bodies could be found—a battle of utter annihilation.
Saint Public, commander-in-chief of the Henesia Holy Empire's Roselin expedition, was killed in action.
Everyone believed that this marked the end of the war with the Holy Empire.
* * *
SHHHHH!
Along a coastline where rain poured down, enormous warships were disgorging small landing craft toward the shore. The destination of the landing craft, which nearly covered the entire sea, was not a port.
Far from a port, it was a sandbank with not even a proper dock.
Teok.
As the bottoms of the boats scraped the sandbar, the men seated inside leapt out and swiftly moved onto dry land.
"Move quickly!"
"Faster, faster!"
Men with hoods pulled up against the rain gestured toward soldiers gripping weapons and guided them onto land. Before long, the sandy shore was filled with humans bearing arms.
Keu-wo-eo!
"Wh-what the hell!"
"An ogre!"
"Knights, deal with it swiftly!"
What emerged from the thickets bordering the sea was an ogre nearing four mir in height. And not just one—two of them appeared.
"Everyone be careful. There are rumors the monsters of the Reganza Mountains are especially dangerous."
SHING!
The man who had warned the knights drew his sword first, and a dozen knights drew their own swords in unison.
"Assign five men to each ogre and take them down."
TAP-TAP-TAP!
One might expect their feet to sink into the sandbar, but the knights' footwork was as light as if they were running on flat ground.
"Keu-wo!"
The ogres bellowed loudly, as if startled by the appearance of so many humans, but they bared their feral hostility toward the charging knights.
WHOOOOSH!
"Careful!"
A knight nimbly evaded a massive club that grazed past his head, slipped inside, and slashed the ogre's waist as he passed.
"Keu-weok!"
The ogre recoiled a step, shocked by the sudden pain, and the other knights seized that opening to sever the tendons of both its ankles.
"Keu-wo-eok!"
Even as it toppled backward, the ogre flailed both its hands, trying to seize the swiftly moving humans. But even these motions soon fell still when a sword was driven into its heart.
At almost the same time, on the other side, an ogre's head, covered in countless wounds, soared through the air, and the fate of that attacker was sealed.
"Any wounded?"
"One of ours was caught by a blind swing of a club and suffered severe injuries. His ribs were crushed inward."
"You idiot!"
At the reprimand from the knight who appeared to be the commander, the man making the report hung his head, utterly at a loss.
"Get that injured fool treated immediately. The rest of you, sweep the perimeter. If monsters appear, don't try to handle them alone—link up with others and take them down."
"Yes, sir!"
"And follow the advice of the monster hunters we brought along as much as possible. Otherwise, we'll suffer pointless troop losses in these Reganza Mountains. Understood?"
"Understood."
"Move quickly!"
The knights formed groups of three or four and melted into the underbrush.
All the while, the landing craft ceaselessly ferried more soldiers onto the shore.
"Damn, how do the Gauri bastards live in a place like this...."
A soldier grumbled as he stared toward the forests of the Reganza Mountains.