Chapter 199

Carnius sat alone inside a makeshift tent. He stared at a hanging sun pendant with bloodshot eyes.

“...Just why did you take my son first?”

While the battlefield was being cleared, Carnius didn’t take a single step out of his tent. His adjutants and fellow knights commanded in his place.

‘It was my misjudgment.’

Carnius did not anticipate that the barbarians would charge at them in reverse.

According to the soldiers' reports, it was during that barbarian charge that Leo was killed.

“Ah, ahhh.”

There was no one to blame. Carnius tucked the sun pendant away into his chest.

‘I will avenge your spirit no matter what.’

The barbarian army had been split into several units. The divided barbarians were clearly planning to regroup as they fled west.

‘It would be best to pick them off one by one before they can rejoin their forces.’

Carnius wrapped his cloak around himself and stepped out of the tent. The adjutants who were waiting remained silent, waiting for him to speak first.

“We go after them.”

Carnius mounted his horse and divided his army into three units. Then, he pursued the barbarian unit that killed his son.

“They couldn’t have gone far,” an adjutant spoke.

“Probably not. Many of them must be wounded.”

The imperial army’s target was not a small number of men. A force numbering in the thousands was too large to hide its tracks. Speed was the deciding factor.

“Should we send the cavalry ahead?”

“No, we can catch up ourselves. It should only take a day for us to catch up.”

Carnius did not rush. The ground was soggy from the rain. It wasn’t the time to send cavalry.

‘This indeed is General Carnius. He is remaining calm even after losing his own blood.’

Carnius was leading seven thousand troops. Since the barbarians had fled in three major directions, the pursuing forces were similarly divided.

“The sun is shining now.”

“Lou is also helping us.”

The soldiers murmured among themselves. The rain had stopped, and the sun had come out. The wet ground was drying quickly, making the pursuit much easier.

“Send the scouts.”

Carnius waited until the ground had firmed up before sending the cavalry ahead. No matter how fast the barbarians were, they could not compare to horses.

Half a day later, the scout cavalry returned and reported.

“We’ve found them, Sir.”

Carnius nodded. The grip in the hands holding the reins tightened involuntarily.

* * *

Urich's unit was being pursued, so they moved continuously while catching only brief naps.

"Vald, they've spotted us."

A warrior reported as he rode up from the rear to the front where Vald was.

Vald had taken command of the unit since Urich's consciousness was still blurry and he hadn’t regained normal mobility yet.

"Have they already caught up to us... Persistent bastards."

He had hoped, inwardly, that there would even be no pursuit from the imperial army.

"How is Urich doing?"

"Better than yesterday. He'll recover. He is the Son of the Earth, after all."

Vald looked at Urich. He was sleeping on the stretcher made of shields and cloaks.

'His fever’s gone down a lot and his breathing has stabilized. Maybe we've gotten through the rough part...'

Vald urged the warriors on.

'What now?'

Rendezvous with the other scattered alliance units was their priority. However, the other alliance units were likely being pursued as well. They had to shake off their pursuit somehow.

It was only going to take a day at most until they inevitably clashed with the imperial army.

"Ah, man."

Vald shook his head in dismay.

'This reminds me of the time you left us, Urich.'

Long ago, Urich and Vald had encountered an imperial expedition party. The boys who had just grown into their adult bodies were thrown into confusion at the sight of an unknown enemy.

But Urich did not hesitate. He took on all the responsibility and threw himself into the fray to save his brothers.

Vald still vividly remembered the scene from that day.

Wooosh.

The wind was cold. The autumn of the civilized world was coming. The summer of plundering and looting had passed.

"Well, I guess that’s how it’s going to go this time."

Vald picked up his axe and spear. He surveyed the column and gauged the mood of the unit.

"This is Vald. I’m assuming all of you know me, right? Yup, I’m Urich’s lackey."

The warriors laughed at Vald’s words. Vald tapped his shoulder with the shaft of his spear and climbed up a nearby hill.

"We are being followed by the imperial army. We'll probably run into them pretty soon. It's going to be hard to get away from them this time."

The warriors one by one raised their heads. Vald took a long breath and scanned the warriors.

"I’ll keep this nice and short. Those who already have sons to carry on their line, those severely injured who find it hard to move, the elderly, and those who think they won't make it through this year for some other reasons... step forward."

There wasn’t even a moment of stirring. The warriors nodded solemnly.

"Haha, it's been fun."

"I've seen enough blood for a lifetime, so I’ve got nothing left to regret."

The warriors began to step forward one by one.

Georg, who was commanding the mercenary unit, widened his eyes.

'These men... they are stepping up to their own deaths.'

On the battlefield, a person's life was calculated by numbers and weight.

The injured who would hinder the march of the unit came forward first. There were many whose limbs were deeply cut and festering. Then came the older warriors, then those with sons... In warrior society, trying to spare one’s own life was scorned. Furthermore, it was seen as disgracing their tribe and family.

"Thank you all."

Vald nodded as he watched the volunteers.

"I'm not a strategist, nor am I extraordinarily valiant. All I can ask is that you fight hard and die well."

The warriors gathered under Vald's command numbered just over seven hundred. It was not a small number.

"That's all we need, Vald."

The warriors armed themselves.

Vald didn’t have any injuries, and he was young. On top of that, he didn’t have a son. Perhaps one of the women he made his way through might have borne his child, but no one knew for sure.

'But I brought this up, so I have to take responsibility. I can’t ask them to die and then duck out myself.'

Vald was not a significant figure in the alliance. He had risen in rank simply because he was close to Urich.

“I tried to get somewhere by sticking with the right people, but life is not that easy, is it?”

Vald swallowed hard and laughed, his fingers trembling slightly.

‘I guess it’s my turn today.’

Vald separated his detachment from Urich’s main force.

“It’s a good thing Urich hasn’t come to yet. He would definitely be furious and oppose this.”

Vald looked at Urich, who was still not fully conscious, then turned his back.

Step, step.

The warriors who were leaving did not look back.

Nod.

Georg, mounted on a horse, bowed to Vald. Vald and Georg’s eyes met.

Vald did not tell the mercenaries to stay with the unit. He knew all too well that they would run away anyway.

Vald and the warriors scattered into the bushes on both sides and hid. Vald waited for the enemies to come while engaging in trivial conversation with the other warriors.

“N-no, I can’t do this. I-I need to l-l-live.”

A scared warrior suddenly stood up. His steps were slow because he was injured in the leg.

Crack!

Vald swiftly stood up and chopped the fleeing warrior’s head with his axe.

“…Sorry buddy, we’re all going to die here.”

Vald threw the body of the warrior with the shattered head into the forest.

“Hah, that coward.”

“How do you die so shamefully? Like, how is he going to face his father and ancestors after dying like that?”

The warriors mocked the cowardly deserter.

Warriors were as cruel as they were brave. And as harsh as they were on others, the ethics of a warrior were stringent. If you feared fighting and cherished your life, you either died at the hands of your brothers or, even if not killed, were treated as if you didn’t exist for the rest of your life.

A warrior society where warriors survived by taking from each other in a harsh environment. That was what the north and west had in common.

Warriors were not born brave. They simply lived in a system where you could not survive if you weren’t.

Rustle.

Vald picked at the dirt. The sun had set, but the soil still held moisture. It was good soil.

‘Urich, it would have been nice if I could’ve followed your journey…’

Vald was a faithful and exemplary tribal warrior. He cherished his brothers and tribe like his own life and knew how to dedicate his life to battle. That was his whole life.

‘You were different, Urich. You always saw something different from us. You ran forward, pursuing something that was beyond the life of a tribal warrior.’

Urich was a man who stood out among such ordinary tribal warriors. He seemed to shine by himself, and Urich had the strength and strategy to navigate an extraordinary destiny.

‘You could have lived so freely, yet you came back to us. You donned the yoke of the tribe again.’

Urich was ultimately a tribal warrior as well. He returned, not abandoning his roots.

“Shush.”

At that soft sound, the warriors fell completely silent. They held their breaths and watched the imperial army getting closer.

The air was humid and heavy. The smell stayed close to the ground, not rising easily.

Vald and the warriors lay flat, well hidden in ambush.

‘Here they come.’

The warriors only had one shot. They had to strike a fatal blow to the imperial army by sacrificing their lives.

Schluck!

A quiet first strike buried itself in the neck of an imperial soldier. Warriors ambushed from the left thrust their spears as they burst out of the bushes.

“An ambush from the left!”

The response of the imperial soldiers was swift. They quickly raised their shields toward the left, forming a formation. The shields of the soldiers intertwined to create a solid wall.

“There’s about a hundred of them. Is it just a small ambush?”

The barbarians who appeared from the left numbered only about a hundred. While the imperial army’s attention was drawn to the left, the remaining tribal warriors sprang from the bushes on the right.

“Argh! Kugh!”

“Ooooooooh!”

The initial surprise attack from the left, and while the enemy’s attention was drawn there, attack from the right. It was a simple tactic, but it was effective enough. Screams erupted among the imperial soldiers.

‘Not a small number anymore.’

The imperial commanders rallied their units to counterattack.

“Hedgehog!”

The imperial soldiers facing the barbarians on the outskirts fell into the Hedgehog Formation. They grouped tightly, surrounding themselves with shields with only their spears sticking out.

“Come if you dare, you vile barbarians!”

The imperial soldiers roared loudly. However, the barbarians did not approach further. They quietly hid their bodies among the bushes.

The tribal warriors already had experience fighting the imperial army. They knew there was no chance of winning a direct confrontation against a solid battle formation of the imperial army.

“Dammit! Chase them!”

The imperial army dissolved their formation and entered the forest.

The goal of the tribal warriors was to buy time. They didn’t need to win; they just needed to keep as many imperial soldiers on them as possible and kill them.

“Kek, keke.”

Warriors who failed to escape into the forest bled out and died. As long as they could still move their limbs, they swung their weapons until the end. Many soldiers died from their unexpected strikes.

The terrifying frenzy of the barbarian warriors made the imperial soldiers shake their heads in disbelief.

‘Haven’t seen barbarian warriors like these in a long while.’

Experienced knights felt a familiar shiver. The chills they had experienced in the north swept down their spines once again.

These were barbarian warriors who seemed to have no purpose in life other than fighting. They had nothing to lose in battle, only gains.

Carnius looked at the dead barbarians. He frowned.

“Most of these barbarians are either old or injured.”

“Sir?”

“Look at the corpses of the barbarians. Many of them already had serious wounds before coming into this battle. These were probably their expendable troops, just fodder to buy time.”

“They’re fighting this hard even though they were sent to die?”

A young adjutant, who had never fought against barbarians, could not understand.

“That’s why they are barbarians.”

Carnius twisted his lips. Despite the ambush being a small force, he couldn't continue the pursuit with any enemy standing behind them. The barbarians were going to succeed in buying time as per their plan.

‘Fine, keep running. I’ll chase you to the edge of the western land if I have to.’

From the moment Leo died, this war became personal for Carnius. It was a war he had to see through to the end, even if it meant his death.