Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: King
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Kinalo, once known as the City of Mages.
Night had fallen, but streetlights made of glowingstone brightly illuminated the city.
“Move it, move it!”
“Y-yes!”
Citizens carried military supplies under the shouts of soldiers.
It was a time when they should have been home resting, but today, everyone was out on the streets, dripping with sweat.
They had been forcibly mobilized as a supply unit for the Kushan subjugation.
*Slap!*
“Snap out of it!”
“Eek! I'm sorry!”
The slightest fumble was met with a slap or the kick of a boot, and the citizens trembled as they continued their harsh labor.
Thus was the frantic bustle of Kinalo City.
Yet the lord's bedroom, which overlooked it all, was quiet and peaceful.
“Hmm~ hmm~”
The Gale King, Harun, lay with his head in the lap of his lover and guardian knight, Brida, humming a tune.
By the window, bathed in bright moonlight.
Brida, the silver-haired warrior, slowly stroked Harun's very light golden hair.
Having reached the pinnacle of a Sword Master, Harun still had a youthful face at the age of thirty-nine, and he smiled with the innocence of a boy.
“Brida, Brida. You know, after we conquer Norverge, next is Chaumédur—the west of Roverland. We'll take Shamalun, where that old man Zafar is, and use that momentum to seize all of Chaumédur.”
Harun's light green eyes sparkled like stars.
Whenever Brida looked into those eyes, she was reminded of the Milky Way she used to gaze up at from the alleyways of her childhood.
Infinitely distant and heart-pounding...
“Are you that happy?”
“Of course! Being cooped up, blocked in from all sides... Ha, I felt like dying every day.”
Harun rolled around on Brida's lap and pinched his own thigh.
“Look, see how fat my thigh has gotten.”
Brida laughed.
“That's impossible.”
There wasn't an ounce of fat on it.
Only resilient muscles, sculpted like a statue.
Harun plucked a grape from a nearby bunch and looked up at the sky outside the window.
“Honestly. I feel like giving that Lansen fellow a kiss on the forehead. It's all thanks to him, isn't it? That this path has opened up before me. But why can't he understand how I feel...?”
“You wanted to welcome him as one of the Seven Heroes, didn't you?”
“That's right. One of the Seven Heroes. If Lansen joins.”
The Seven Heroes referred to the seven strongest warriors under Harun's command.
“So would it become the Eight Heroes?”
“Nah, that's not it. Someone would have to go. Seven Heroes. It just has a nice ring to it.”
“Don't tell me... you'd remove me?”
“Hmm? Haha!”
Harun didn't answer, only laughed.
Brida knew. That was a yes.
Still...
It was fine. She just had to try harder.
Brida gazed softly at Harun's smiling face.
As if that was all that mattered. As if she was happy.
“So, after we conquer Chaumédur... where should we go? Should we advance into central Roverland? Blancétir? Soleil?”
“Anywhere. I will follow you.”
“Good. Ah... But, I think I want the final destination to be there.”
“Where?”
“The Empire. I want to gallop across the lands of the Empire, too!”
Harun looked out at the fields beyond the darkness and smiled innocently.
He was a born cavalry commander.
A hedonist who found the joy of life in breaking through paths forged between countless obstacles.
“I'm going to be a king. Not some hollow title like one of the Five Kings of Roverland. A true king of Gloryland. I will rule a territory so vast that even a horse can't cross it.”
Harun gazed at the fields far beyond, and Brida gazed at Harun's face.
Though he lay close, his head in her lap,
their gazes never met.
***
Knight Balseon remembered a conversation he'd had with a young Lansen.
*What is a king?*
In truth, Balseon didn't know much about the art of kingship, but he felt he had to teach him anyway.
Lansen was the last remaining royal of Vanroah, a being born to the destiny of a king.
But Lansen was always negative.
“What is a king, you ask?”
A bitter sneer had appeared on his face back then.
“Mister Balseon. Look at our situation. This isn't the time for us to be worrying about others, is it? The people, freedom... We don't have the luxury to think about such things right now.”
Balseon found that answer terribly sad.
Because it was so true.
Still, he said stubbornly,
using Lansen's proper title for the first time in a long while.
“Even so, Your Highness. You will become a great king in the end.”
***
The day finally came.
I gathered everyone in one place.
Sea stood up and reported, her face unusually stiff.
“The Gale King has marched. We need to set out in the next day or two as well.”
Right. Time to march.
Was it because we had prepared so diligently? A fitting tension enveloped the room.
My siblings, Rivera, Kalserik, Mister Balseon.
I met each of their eyes and made a vow.
“Let's win.”
Let's win, and seize a better future together.
“So no one can ever order us around again. So we never have to put up with things we hate seeing again.”
My siblings nodded.
Kalserik, on the other hand, who didn't know our past well, tentatively raised his hand and asked,
“What exactly are these things you hate seeing?”
What are they?
Nothing grand.
Really.
“I just... hate seeing kids cry. And I like seeing them smile.”
That's all.
At least in the lands I rule,
I want children to smile more and cry less.
It might be an anticlimactic goal, but it's the truth.
I just said it as it was, but...
“Well... That's not a bad goal.”
Kalserik nodded with a satisfied expression.
“As expected...”
Rivera gave me a meaningful smile and a thumbs-up.
“Lansen...”
Mister Balseon's pleased face was brimming with tears.
His expression looked exactly like he was thinking,
'What did I tell you? Didn't I say Your Highness would become a great king...'
which made me feel incredibly awkward.
That's not it.
It's just because we suffered when we were young, that's all...
I wrapped up the meeting and looked out the window from the terrace.
Citizens were lined up in the large square in front of the lord's castle.
Every one of them had brought out various goods.
“A huge crowd has gathered again today.”
Sea added from beside me,
“Yeah. They're asking us to win for sure. Then again, our taxes are much lower than the Gale King's.”
The first thing we did after taking control of Kushan City was tax reform.
We lowered taxes for the low-income population across the board and streamlined tax administration.
As a result, the tax rate for the low-income class, which had been as high as 40%, dropped to 10%.
That was why.
Why citizens voluntarily flocked here every day to donate military supplies.
This, too, was a bit...
embarrassing.
'...I only did this because we have a lot of money from the ruins.'
It wasn't anything that grand.
I'd reformed the tax system according to the Vanroah Kingdom's style, not Roverland's, but I hadn't attached any great meaning to it.
It was just a benevolent measure taken because we had a lot of money.
And yet, seeing them gather for us like this every day,
how should I put it.
I feel grateful.
And it makes me feel all tingly for some reason.
***
Two days later,
in the border region between Kushan City and Kinalo City.
At a place called the Stormy Hills, our army and the Gale King's army finally met.
Low, gentle hills stretched on intermittently, with fairly wide plains spread between them.
We faced each other across one of those plains.
Since it was a border region, everything was ashen.
Amidst such scenery, the sight of the armies with their colorful flags held high stood out even more.
Amidst the rising tension, Harun came forward and called out.
“Hey! Lansen! Are you there?!”
As if calling an old friend.
“I'm here.”
When I readily stepped forward, the bastard waved his hand at me energetically.
“It's good to see you like this! Wow! You're handsome. Why on earth did you reject my offer?!”
“Because a dragon can't serve under a dog?”
“What? Hahaha!”
The Gale King, after a long laugh, swung his spear wildly through the air.
“I'll cut down exactly half! Exactly half the necks of the men who follow you. Let's reconsider then. Which one of us is the dragon.”
'...'
I knew it was an obvious provocation, yet I felt a surge of anger.
What?
Cut down their necks?
Whose, you dare...
“Harun.”
“Speak!”
“How about we just fight now, the two of us? I'm not interested in your men's necks, only yours.”
“Anytime! But not now. Half. After I take the lives of half your men, then I'll gladly fight you one-on-one!”
*Grit.*
There he goes again.
Half my men? What did he say he'd do?
In this world,
there are lines that should never be crossed.
That bastard has crossed it twice now.
“Try it.”
“Gladly!”
Harun kept smirking unpleasantly before raising his hand.
“Cavalry!”
“Hah!”
The Gale Cavalry roared, their voices ringing out loud enough to shake the entire hill country.
“Charge!”
*Thump!*
Harun's cavalrymen slapped their breastplates once with their palms and charged in unison.
A simultaneous charge of 3,500 cavalry.
The furious momentum made my entire vision swim.
However,
“Heavy infantry!”
“Hah!”
I have 5,000 heavy infantrymen.
Just like when we faced the Rokwoo, the elite warriors formed a wall of shields, and the regular warriors raised their long spears like a porcupine's quills.
The difference from the demonic beast subjugation was that the elite warriors and Experts were all armed with ancient equipment, and that the Godslayer and Demon-Slayer Corps had been disbanded to mix the Experts into each unit.
There was tension in the soldiers' eyes, but no fear.
They already had the experience of blocking the charge of the Rokwoo horde multiple times.
“Rear ranks! Javelins, ready! Archers! Ready to fire!”
“Hah!”
Facing the Gale Cavalry that rushed in like a wave, the warriors in the rear ranks raised their javelins, and the archers drew their bowstrings taut.
“Hoo...”
With a single sigh, I shook off all my worries.
I can't freeze up. From now on, I must focus solely on the battle. I must think only of taking Harun's head. That's the only way... everyone will be safe.
Now, I have no choice but to trust my siblings.
***
“Hey! Lansen's brother! Don't die.”
Saltsran laughed upon hearing Kalserik's voice from behind him.
“Is that something the man who couldn't break my shield during all our training should be saying?”
“...Yeah. But you have to do better than you did then. Or you'll die. For real.”
“I'll show you exactly what I can do.”
*Thud-dud-dud-dud-dud!*
The Gale Cavalry charged before his eyes.
At the vanguard were 500 heavy cavalrymen.
Behind them were 3,000 lancers.
A wave of men and horses, shaking his entire field of vision as it approached.
Saltsran Juan gripped the ancient shield he had received from his brother Lansen as if to squeeze it dry.
The shield of a hero who was said to have defended a city from countless monsters in the distant past.
Like the former owner of this shield,
and like his brother had done...!
'I'll block it. I will hold them back!'
To Saltsran, Lansen had always been a hero.
No matter how strong the opponent,
no matter how many,
as long as his siblings were behind him, his brother would never retreat.
The brother who killed Blood Count Delkash for them, who never let go of his sword even after his hands and feet were in such a state.
'Now it's my turn...! I, too, like my brother...!'
He trained to death.
To follow in even the faintest of Lansen's footsteps.
And now, finally, today.
He would become a shield for him.
The pride of the Juan County was in protecting.
'I'll save even one more person. My brother's... and our soldiers!'
Saltsran stared straight ahead, a blue flame in his eyes.
*Swoooosh!*
The archers behind him fired a volley of black arrows.
The shadow of black arrows covered the Gale Cavalry.
As thousands of arrows rained down at once, riders began to fall from their horses here and there.
But among them was a warrior who remained completely unshaken, as if arrows were nothing to him.
'He's coming!'
A warrior of immense build, clad in steel armor that covered his entire body, lightly deflecting the black arrows that filled the sky.
'Barkan the Irresistible!'
A Sword Master.
The closer he got, the more terrifying the Aura that emanated from his body became.
His cheeks trembled from the sheer force of it, but Saltsran held his shield even firmer.
'Just a little more. A little longer.'
“Javelins!!”
*Thud-thud-thud!*
After the rain of arrows came a shower of javelins.
It was the same battle doctrine used against the Rokwoo.
A feast of thrown weapons that would make even the Gale Cavalry flinch.
But Barkan was different.
Befitting his moniker, 'The Irresistible,' he didn't slow down; instead, he picked up speed.
He even deflected the arrow fired by Rivera, a top-tier Expert, with his armor.
A massive glaive pierced the sky. An Aura Blade stirred up a storm.
*Kwoooaaaaah—!*
Barkan was right in front of him.
The storm whipped at Saltsran's brown hair.
'Ready!'
Saltsran unleashed his Aura with all his might.
*Wooooong!*
He linked his Aura with the warriors on either side of him.
Aura was something that could be imbued in both swords and shields.
With enough training, it could also flow between people.
And in doing so, the Aura grew even stronger.
“Hold!”
Kalserik shouted from behind him.
“I will!”
Barkan was a Sword Master. Saltsran himself was merely a high-level Expert.
Even so. Despite this vast difference in skill.
Saltsran was determined to hold. No matter what.
That was the oath he had sworn to himself.