Chapter 107: Stranded (1)
Chapter 107: Stranded (1)
As the number of residents grew and the army settled in, various procedures were being established in the once-disorderly Wandering Castle.
Among them were the duties of the guard force immediately after teleportation.
Due to the nature of teleporting to uninhabited regions, there was a high probability of landing in a monster's territory.
First, those with keen eyesight surveyed the surroundings for danger from the balcony.
Bwooo!
Once safety was confirmed, they sounded a horn to announce it and opened the central gate.
The first to step out were the dwarf warriors of the Hammer Brotherhood. As they possessed the sturdiest defense among the garrisoned troops, it was their assigned duty.
The dwarves took pride in being the ones to set the first foot down whenever the castle reached a new world.
"When the opportunity arises, we should give them a badge with a related symbol. Something like a boot stepping onto the ground."
"An excellent idea."
Varda nodded at Eugene's whisper.
Small things like these built soldiers' pride and loyalty.
It was not the sort of idea one expected from a young knight, but Varda was not surprised. She knew well enough that Eugene had a good head for matters like these.
"You may come out now, Lord of the Castle."
The dwarf warriors who had completed the secondary inspection reported. Now, the title for Eugene had been unified as 'Lord of the Castle,' except for those with certain privileges.
"Even though it's a desert as well, it feels so different."
"What lay beyond North Fork would be more accurately called a wasteland or barren land than a desert."
"Here, I can sense signs of life hidden all around us. It's barren, but it doesn't feel unpleasant."
Homi, standing beside her, nodded and sniffed cutely.
For her, who understood the world through scent as much as sight, this journey was even more special.
Every time the castle gate opened, it was not just the scenery that changed. To her nose, it was almost like having a whole new feast laid out before her.
"The boundary of two different regions and a rocky mountain. It seems we've arrived roughly where we intended."
The place where the castle had descended was a location corresponding to the border between desert and grassland. It was as Chieftain Alessa had indicated.
On the desert sand, a creature resembling a meerkat was furtively watching the strangers with a lizard clutched in its mouth.
RUMBLE—!
The castle gate leading to the stables opened, and Rex came out with three mounted archers.
They handed the reins of Might and Sandy to Eugene and Homi.
"I will go take a quick look around."
The castle's descent generated a lightning strike. Whether hunter or caravan, anyone nearby was bound to come investigate out of curiosity.
Scouting the area immediately after teleportation, partly to gather information from anyone drawn by the lightning, had become routine.
"Is there any need for you to go personally?"
"This is a place I've never been in my life. Won't the men under me be safer if the commander gets familiar with it quickly? I have more confidence in what I see and hear with my own eyes than through someone else's."
The tribal warriors smiled, as if satisfied with Eugene's answer.
A leader who took initiative in both command and reconnaissance was trustworthy to fellow warriors. They were sick and tired of taking orders from lazy, fat nobles.
Eugene and the scouts wrapped prepared Samur-style headscarves around their heads to keep out the sand and conceal their identities.
Armed men doing this elsewhere might be suspected of being a bandit gang, but it was not an issue here.
"You said the place the opposition faction set out to find was an abandoned ruin?"
Rex nodded at Eugene's question.
"They say there's a large ruined temple dedicated to a god now forgotten. They call it a temple, but it's closer to a large village with everything one might need."
"This area doesn't seem all that suitable for settling."
"Because any usable location would already have an owner."
In Samur, most of the population lived in the farmable regions of the east and south. Villages in the desert or jungle were outposts along trade routes.
Other undeveloped areas were too barren, had no water, or teemed with monsters. Living by throwing up a hut and farming a patch of land wherever one pleased, as in Roman or Gord, was impossible.
"And while they disagree over the Promised Land, they agree on the destruction foretold by the prophecy: spears and swords wielded by people."
"Nesting in a place like this would let you avoid most man-made disasters, I suppose."
The two dynasties that had once unified the continent had conquered Samur last of all.
Even then, they never conquered it completely, stopping after receiving formal submission and tribute. As a place to evacuate the clan with survival as the only concern, it was a reasonable choice.
"But I did not approve. What future could there be in hiding away in a remote backwater, let alone an abandoned temple?"
The other tribal warriors nodded in agreement with Rex's words.
"Even if we cowered like that, the clan would decline and fade away all the same."
"Our clan must endlessly wander the world and also savor it."
The longer they all stayed in the castle, the more their pride and attachment grew in proportion.
It was partly because the castle itself was magnificent, but also because it endlessly stimulated the nomadic nature imprinted in them and their desire for adventure.
"That aside, how did you find this abandoned ruin? This shouldn't be your main area of activity."
"A hundred-man unit belonging to the opposition faction once hired an adventurer from Samur. They obtained the information from him."
"You came all the way down here trusting just that?"
The Black Hand Mercenary Company was closed off and trusted no one outside the clan. This was not just their trait, but a common characteristic of all dark elves.
Naturally, they were reluctant about frontier regions where there would be no way to call for aid from the clan if isolated.
"There was no other way. With no foundation here, we had to make use of even such information. I also felt a sense of urgency that we could not afford to delay any longer."
"A sense of urgency?"
"It's because of you, Sir. Until last year, many tribespeople still agreed with the opposition over the prophecy. In less than half a year, that balance reversed."
The majesty of the Wandering Castle seen firsthand, Eugene's formidable strength, the support of the chieftain and elders, and the backing of Marbas, the clan's advisor.
Countless tribe members had begun defecting to the faction that settled in the Wandering Castle.
The pressure to produce some kind of result before it was too late was what drove the opposition faction into this reckless expedition.
Just then, the faint sound of horses neighing was heard.
"Cavalry."
One of the tribal warriors dismounted and put his ear to the ground. After listening with his eyes shut, he snapped them open and pointed in one direction.
"Around ten riders. That way."
"Good work. Shall we go gather some information?"
"It wasn't a caravan."
A moment later, Eugene's party came face to face with mercenaries wearing the distinctive attire of Samur. Their numbers were nearly double their own.
The other side also turned their horses and approached upon seeing Eugene's party.
"Who are you?"
The one who appeared to be the captain at the front asked haughtily.
They all wore southern-style armor designed for lightness and ventilation, and their weapons were spears and curved swords.
"I am Sir Eugene Meyer. And you?"
"You are not from here."
"..."
As the other side responded rudely without an answer, the tribal warriors' eyebrows twitched.
They did not even face them squarely, but used their superior numbers to half-surround Eugene's party. This was a clear threat.
Eugene could guess from their confidence, bearing, and the seal rings on their fingers that they were fellow knights.
"As you can see, we came from Roman."
Samur was the country with the most distinctive regional character on the continent. Eugene's party was foreign in their warhorses, accent, and skin color.
"How did you come here? This is far from any caravan route, and the direction you came from has no villages."
"Well, about that."
Even if he said they came on the Wandering Castle, they would clearly be treated as a madman or a braggart. Yet if he gave any other reason, it would be immediately seen through as a lie.
"What is your purpose in coming here?"
"You've been going too far from the start. Won't you at least tell us your name?"
The captain answered by aiming his weapon.
"Throw down your weapons at once. Toss them over there."
By this point, even the good-natured Eugene felt his blood begin to boil.
He had left his flail behind to travel light for scouting. Eugene's party was all lightly armed with bows, while the opponents were heavy cavalry clad in proper armor.
With numbers doubled, they had been confident in their absolute advantage at such close quarters.
"If you do not follow instructions, we will attack."
"No choice, then."
Shing.
As Eugene drew Last Autumn, the blade caught the sunlight and flashed silver.
"An Etherje sword?"
Astonishment spread across the opposing knight's face.
"Keep one alive for interrogation."
"I have been waiting for those words!"
At those words, Eugene seized the tip of the spear shaft that the captain had leveled at him and pulled.
"Wha?!"
His body was yanked forward by that absurd strength, and his spear was taken from him.
Slash.
A silver flash burst forth, and the captain's head fell. Eugene hurled the stolen spear, impaling yet another man through.
Rex and his subordinates also drew throwing daggers from their sleeves and launched a surprise attack.
The enemy cavalry had let their guard down, assuming bows were useless at such close range. Then they all clutched at their throats and screamed.
Eugene charged through the gap, and a wind of blood swept through.
"Damn it!"
"R-run!"
With their captain dead almost the instant the battle began and their numbers cut to less than half, the mercenaries lost the will to fight when they realized the rampaging knight was not the only elite among their enemies.
But heavy cavalry could not shake off light cavalry, especially light cavalry armed with bows.
"Aagh!"
They all fell from their horses, arrows lodged in their backs.
"Do not kill the horses! Desert warhorses are valuable."
The tribal warriors moved about excitedly, a plunderer's gleam in their eyes that Eugene had not seen in some time.
The two who had been taken alive were disarmed and forced to kneel before Eugene.
"Now, shall we start again from the beginning? And this time, mind your manners."
"W-we will do whatever you command!"
The surviving mercenaries nodded desperately.
"Who the hell are you?"
"We are the Condor Mercenary Company."
Eugene glanced at Rex, who nodded as if the name were a familiar one.
"An infamous group out of Samur."
"Are they strong?"
"Their strength is one thing, but they are infamous for vicious plundering and for sticking their hands into anything that makes money. The man lying dead over there was probably a bandit knight or a wanted knight from another country."
Interrogating the captured mercenaries made it clear why they had been so wary of Eugene's party.
"You sons of bitches!"
The tribal warriors beat the mercenaries and spat on them.
"Things are worse than I thought."
"Yes. Betrayal was always a possibility."
Eugene and Rex's faces hardened as well.
The ruins the adventurer had told them about were real; his intentions were not. From the beginning, he had lured them there to trap them and stab them in the back.
The opposition faction's hundred-man unit was now trapped inside the ruins, surrounded by another mercenary company and holding out.
-They will be suffering from a shortage of supplies in that rough terrain. It is difficult country even to ride horses through.
Eugene had come expecting little more than a supply run, based on what Chieftain Alessa had told him. The sudden shift to a rescue and combat mission caught him off guard.
"Why pull a stunt like this? Was there a grudge?"
Mercenary companies formed and dissolved frequently. Most were brutish men who lived only for the day, and the nature of their work made it easy to accumulate bloody grudges.
Mercenary companies formed and vanished all the time. Most were brutes who lived only for today, and their line of work made bloody grudges easy to accumulate. Naturally, few such companies lasted long: the commander might be driven out, the company might be smashed on the battlefield, or the second- or third-in-command might seize an opportunity to break away with his own followers.
A mercenary company as powerful and long-lived as the Black Hand Clan was bound to have enemies nursing grudges in every direction.
The ease with which they had accepted the prophecy of destruction, from the chieftain down to the lowliest tribe member, was precisely because they were entangled in so much blood and enmity.
'What was bound to come has come.'
'It came later than I thought, actually.'
Such had been their attitude the moment they heard the prophecy — a resigned acceptance.
But now, they could not help but tilt their heads.
"That cannot be... We have barely operated in Samur."
There had been a reason the hundred-man unit had come all the way here, far from the clan and alone. It was because they had judged that there would be no enemies here bound to them by blood price.
"You wretch! What grudge did you bear to target us?"
The tribal warriors, enraged by the crisis of their kin, seized the Condor mercenaries by the scruffs of their necks.
"Th-there is no grudge!"
"Then why, damn you?"
"W-well, th-that is..."
As the mercenary, sweating profusely, rolled his eyes, the tribal warriors immediately pressed daggers to his cheek.
"Talk now, or we will skin you alive."
'These guys are hunters through and through.'
Going for the skin first when making a threat. Apparently that was a trait shared by hunters across races and cultures.
"Because they are all women!"
As the blade bit into his cheek and blood flowed, the mercenary screamed.
"The captain said we could make a fortune selling them to the slave traders of Samur."
"These sons of bitches."
There had indeed been reason for their hesitation to answer.
"So that is why they were so hostile from the moment we met. It was because of you."
Eugene pointed to the characteristic skin of the dark elves, visible between the folds of their headscarves.
Elves might be another matter, but even with much of their ears and faces covered, dark elves were quickly given away by their skin tone.
The enraged warriors sent fists and kicks flying at the mercenaries. Had Eugene not been present, wanting further interrogation, they seemed ready to swing their blades and kill them outright.
"Sir Knight. The hundred-man unit that came down here is composed primarily of female warriors. It is a unit specially formed for operations in regions where supply is difficult."
"They consume fewer calories than men, so they can operate on less food, I take it?"
"Yes. But they are in no way lacking in combat prowess. They are not warriors who deserve such vile treatment."
The mercenaries, who had been thoroughly beaten in the meantime, clasped their hands together even then and begged.
"P-please, have mercy!"
"J-just spare our lives!"
As famous as the Black Hand Clan's martial prowess and fearsome reputation was the bond between its members. The captured mercenaries had a gut feeling that they would by no means be granted an easy death at this rate.
"Enough. Rescuing our people comes first right now."
When Eugene raised his hand, the tribal warriors, still fuming, dragged the mercenaries along.
"What is the combat situation?"
"The ruin site proved sturdier than expected, so we have them surrounded while we drag things out."
"But without food and water, they will surrender soon..."
The mercenaries, trembling, spilled everything they knew.
"Can you guide us to the ruins? If so, I give my word you shall be set free."
At Eugene's words, the tribal warriors stirred for a moment. It seemed they had absolutely no desire to let them live.
But once Eugene had given his word, they dared not step forward to protest.
It was a sight that would have sent other noble lords who had employed them in the past into a rage, cursing a blue streak. For it was an attitude they never displayed before those lords.
"Leave it to us!"
"We will take you by the shortest route immediately! We know this terrain well!"
The mercenaries, having found a slim chance at survival at last, nodded desperately.
"Issue the sortie order to the cavalry standing by."
At Eugene's command, a tribal warrior immediately mounted his horse and galloped back the way they had come.
Riding at full speed, once he had put sufficient distance behind him, he drew a horn and blew it.
"This worries me. Isolated in unfamiliar territory without food or water, they cannot hold out for long."
"They will be fine. They are the proud women warriors of our clan. Their brute strength may not match mine or the other men's, but..."
Rex grinned.
"When it comes to sheer tenacity, even we cannot match them. If there is nothing to eat, they will tear flesh from their own bodies if that is what it takes to survive."
Pride and faith bloomed on Rex's face, which moments before had been filled with rage. The other tribal warriors were no different.
"..."
"..."
The two Condor mercenaries, still on their knees, wore expressions suggesting they had already dealt with these women and found it all too true.
'Just how vicious are they?'
At that sight, even Eugene found curiosity rising above any sense of crisis.