Chapter 52
Chapter 52
Iron Emperor — Chapter 52
Rustle.
The undergrowth swayed faintly, and a single figure emerged.
"You're back. How'd it go?"
"Success, General."
"Yeah?"
At the soldier's report confirming the operation's success, Eulji Buru's mouth stretched into a wide grin.
"Moooooooo!"
"Hold still, you!"
"Mmmuuu."
The Minotaur pressed into service to drive the orcs let out a mournful sound, but a sharp tug on its nose ring soon silenced it.
For this operation, Buru had spent several days relentlessly harrying every orc pack in the area. Based on the observation that orcs fled from the Minotaurs' ferocity, the soldiers had each brought one along to herd the orcs. And the primary aim of that herding had been to keep the orcs from eating.
From the perspective of the Gauri army, the notion that orcs could actually defeat Baron Gowin's forces was met with deep skepticism. By their own standards, that is — not that the orcs themselves were weak.
So in the end, they starved the orcs, and the orcs, their eyes rolling with hunger, displayed a ferocity far beyond anything they had shown before. And that ferocity descended on Baron Gowin like a calamity.
"All right. Send men to the enemy's rear and strip anything worth taking, fast."
"Yes, sir!"
Buyeo Gi-yul nodded at Buru's order and began mustering the soldiers. Watching their brisk movements, Buru turned and spoke to Gye Ung-sam, who stood behind him with a sullen expression.
"Hey, you. Gurajaengi."
"......."
"You sulking?"
"......."
Buru's call scattered into empty air while Ung-sam simply kept right on sulking. At the continuing silence, Buru's face began twisting into a scowl.
"Ah, this little bastard — so you're big enough to talk back now, are you? Hey, Gurajaengi! Not gonna answer me?"
When Buru called out again and shifted his grip on his axe with a menacing air, a surly reply finally emerged.
"Stop calling me Gurajaengi. I'm a general now too. In front of the men......."
"Heh."
As Ung-sam grumbled and jerked his chin toward the soldiers, Buru found himself reconsidering the sheer audacity of the man's defiant streak.
A few hollow laughs escaped Buru's lips before they stopped. Instantly, Ung-sam began edging away, bracing for whatever might come next.
"Right. You're a general now."
"......?"
"I oughta apologize."
"What?"
When Buru unexpectedly apologized so readily, Ung-sam's voice rose with surprise. Buru let out a short laugh and clapped Ung-sam on the shoulder a couple of times, his tone hearty as he spoke.
"You're right. Hell, you're a general now — that was my mistake. Don't stay sore. You've already got a rough road ahead without setting off with a sour face, eh?"
"General......."
Listening to Buru's warm words, Ung-sam found himself thinking that he might actually miss the man.
In truth, everyone knew that for all his rough talk, Buru always looked after his subordinates. And they knew he wasn't a man who chased his own self-interest. Buru's actions might be violent and coarse, but on the battlefield he was a wise commander, clear-headed and tactically shrewd.
Recalling what he had briefly forgotten, Ung-sam bowed his head vigorously and offered his farewell for the long journey ahead.
"General Buru, I shall carry out His Majesty's command to the letter, settle the task entrusted to me, and return home in glory."
"Good. You take care of yourself."
"Yes, sir."
Ung-sam answered forcefully, moved by Buru's sincerity. Buru nodded, as if reassured by the sight, and gave his final send-off.
"Farewell, Liar General."
"......."
"Keh-heh-heh. Liar General, what're you standing around for — get moving!"
At Buru's bizarre cackle, Ung-sam forced down the hand that was drifting toward the short sword at his left hip and sank into silence.
'That damn bastard. Just what I should've expected.'
And so, the march of the Liar General — a name that would one day shake the continent — was beginning.
"Dammit! Hold the wagons!"
"Kiiiieeeek!"
Crunch!
"My shoulder! My shouldeeeeer!"
When an orc's club dislocated his shoulder, the soldier's scream tore through the air. But even that scream was extinguished — snuffed out by a rusty mace that crushed his skull.
The supply wagons advancing from the main force's rear were already surrounded by orcs. At first, the capable knights had held them off well, but then they had suddenly stiffened mid-motion and died without meaning. After that, the ranking veteran among the soldiers, Fullheim, had taken command and was desperately keeping them at bay.
"Don't fall back there! The main force will arrive soon!"
"Kuiiiiek!"
"Everyone, to the wagons......."
Fullheim could not finish the order.
He felt something like teeth clamp around his neck, a sharp sting, and before long he felt his consciousness fading. And the last thing he saw was a rusty sword plunging into his belly and tearing through it.
"Kuiiiiek!"
Shunk!
"Graaaagh!"
Once Fullheim fell, the soldiers who had still been resisting were crushed one by one under the orcs' weapons and died.
"Uuuh...... hee, hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee! Kyahahaha!"
"Kuiiik!"
The last surviving soldier stared as the orcs tore into and devoured the corpses of his fallen comrades, his mind crumbling into madness. And the orcs, paying no mind to whether he laughed or not, tore his body apart and began filling their starving bellies. Nothing moved. Only the eaters and the meat being eaten showed the food chain of the Reganza Mountains.
As the orcs held their private feast of human flesh, a crazed light gleamed in Eulji Buru's eyes as he watched from afar.
"Look here."
"Yes, sir."
"From now on, every last pig that's eaten human meat — slaughter them all."
"Yes, sir."
It was true that they themselves had brought about the orcs' deaths, but he had no intention of letting any orc that had eaten human flesh live.
That didn't mean Buru was suddenly nursing some clumsy sense of human pity. While the sight of fellow humans being devoured and snuffed out like mere fodder before his eyes was hardly pleasant, his reasoning was that an orc that had eaten human flesh could never be tamed.
That principle extended not only to orcs but to all beasts.
"Kill every last one of them, then take the wagons and withdraw as fast as you can."
"Yes, sir!"
"Let's go."
The moment Buru finished speaking, his form shot toward the orcs. The remaining soldiers tightened their grips on their various weapons and charged out after him.
"Kuiik!"
Crash!
"Quiet, you."
Buru split the skull of the nearest orc that had sounded a warning cry and spat the words as if chewing them, then began his slaughter. Split and torn apart by Buru's axe, the orcs wanted nothing more than to flee rather than fight back.
And why wouldn't they? Weren't these the very humans who had spent the past several days never killing them, only chasing them and beating them with clubs?
What's more, they had already come to perceive these humans instinctively as their superiors. Outwardly there was nothing to distinguish them, but the scent that rose from their bodies was the scent of death.
"Kuiiiiik!"
"Huap!"
Crrrack!
Buyeo Gi-yul's axe followed behind Buru, methodically cleaving through orcs, and the axe-blows of the Axemen who poured in after him were severing the orcs' breath in no more than two strokes.
"Muuuuoooooo!"
Crush!
"Aaaaaagh!"
Everything below the soldier's waist ruptured under the Minotaur's stomp, and from above the waist a blood-soaked scream was wrenched forth.
His spine shattered and his innards spilled, the soldier writhed as if to flaunt the stubbornness of life itself, crawling desperately to survive until the Minotaur's club silenced his breath for good.
"Guh! My lord, you must at least escape!"
"Rainman! Rally the remaining knights and break through at one point!"
"Understood!"
The soldiers, thrown into disarray by the Minotaurs, fell one after another. Only five of Baron Gowin's knights and some twenty soldiers remained alive and still resisting. The one stroke of fortune was that the Minotaurs' attacks were targeting not just the humans but the orcs as well.
As Rainman gathered the surviving troops, Baron Gowin drew up his Mana and charged forward.
"Kill the Minotaurs ahead and open an escape route!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Break throoough!"
Baron Gowin's voice rang out across the tumult, rallying the remaining soldiers. However large and monstrous a Minotaur might be, it was inevitably inferior to an ogre or a troll.
Moreover, to a Sword Owner like himself, one or two of them posed no real problem. And luckily, at this moment the Minotaurs were more focused on slaughtering orcs than on the handful of humans left alive, and were accordingly scattered here and there.
"Hraaaaap!"
Slash-slash-slaaash!
"Kruuuuuuuuugh!"
Boom-boom-boom!
Along with Baron Gowin's battle cry, the Minotaur blocking the path ahead split diagonally and collapsed. Treading over the Minotaur's corpse as it slammed heavily into the earth, their desperate breakout began.
SLASH!
"Kuiiiiik!"
Baron Gowin and the five knights took the vanguard, carving open a path of escape. Behind them, the soldiers following now numbered only ten or so.
"A little further and we can break free."
"Aaaaagh!"
"Guh! Goddammit."
No sooner had Baron Gowin urged the men onward than another scream announcing yet another sacrifice tore through the air. A rough curse slipped unbidden from Baron Gowin's lips.