Chapter 111 – The Warriors of Arbalde (2)  

“There’s an ambush!” Ergil shouted in a loud voice as soon as he witnessed the young warrior’s sudden death.

The warriors of Arbalde were busy dodging and protecting themselves from the pile of falling stones, but Yurban drew his dual swords and bounced off the rocks falling in front of him. A loud roar echoed throughout the mountain. This was a roar that only those whose minds had been encroached upon by the Crack could understand. Upon hearing the roar, the warriors immediately regained their composure and prepared for battle.

“Come out, you Imperial bastards! Your fattened skins will be useful to us, allowing us to last through the winter!” Yurban shouted.

“You might be a little disappointed if what you want is our skin.”

A mocking voice replied to Yurban’s shout from the top of the mountain. At the same time, arrows poured down on the warrior division. The warriors barely managed to avoid the rocks that were slowly rolling toward them, but it was impossible for them to dodge all the arrows fiercely pouring down on them.

The warriors crawling up the hillside were soon stabbed by the arrows and rolled down the hill. Only a few were able to hide behind the rocks and the bodies of their comrades.

“How long are you going to continue with this cowardly move?!” Yurban shouted as he blocked another arrow.

“Can someone please pierce that noisy bastard’s neck and shut him up?”

Arrows were shot toward the spot where Yurban was standing one after another. No matter how strong Yurban was with the power granted by the Crack, he had no way to deal with this kind of barrage. Being unable to hold out, Yurban lifted a heavy rock and threw it toward the people who were ambushing them. But, the people ambushing them dodged the rock with ease.

Yurban continued to throw more rocks one after another, but no one was hit; after all, Yurban couldn’t even see the enemies properly. Even so, Yurban didn’t stop and continued to throw the rocks, even the one which the warriors were hiding behind.

“Yurban! If you throw all the rocks…”

As soon as Ergil shouted, an arrow pierced through Yurban’s cheek.

Swoosh!

Swoosh!

Swoosh!

More and more arrows pierced through Yurban’s body one after another. Despite his injuries, Yurban stood firm as he either broke or pulled out the arrows which had pierced through his body.

“Come on out, you sons of bitches! It seems to me that you all can only fight fair and justly against unarmed people! Nothing has changed from the time when you all attacked Arbalde!”

The arrows stopped at once. Ergil wondered if the enemies had been persuaded by Yurban’s words, but he soon realized that wasn’t the case as soon as he saw someone sliding down the cliff to approach the warriors.

“It seems that among all my men there are none who can shut your mouth. Or maybe they just don’t mind your annoying shouts, since they are all wearing earplugs.”

It was a black-haired young man who appeared in front of the warriors.

Yurban’s heart began to pound faster than ever upon seeing the young man’s hair color. The rumors about the black-haired beast had already spread among the warriors of Arbalde. Yurban couldn’t hide his excitement; he thought that he would be treated as a real warrior rather than just a child who got stronger by shouting his master’s name if he brought back the neck of the black-haired beast.

“Black-haired beast! Let’s have a duel! A fight to death!”

“A duel?”

“Yes! It must be your first time fighting against a real warrior of Arbalde, huh? Be prepared, for I’m on a whole new level compared to the villagers you killed at the valley last time! Is that short sword your only weapon? I’ll lend you one of my dual swords if you want. I don’t want anyone saying that I won unjustly.”

Juan simply stared back at Yurban with his arms crossed—Juan’s careless attitude bothered Yurban.

“No, I think you’re misunderstanding something…”

Even before Juan could finish his sentence, Yurban once again opened his mouth.

“You and I met here because of fate, and one of us will die here! There is no misunderstanding!”

Yurban began to sing in a loud voice. He could feel the power of the Crack filling his body. ‘I become a true warrior with this power. I will avenge those brothers of mine who were murdered helplessly!’

Yurban broke out a long roar.

At that moment, Juan ran wildly toward Yurban and stuck his finger in Yurban’s mouth. Then, Juan pushed his finger all the way to the side without hesitation.

Yurban couldn’t figure out what had just happened. But for some reason, he was looking in the opposite direction. Then he saw Juan still standing there.

“Did you think I came down here to fight you?” Juan snorted.

Yurban stumbled with his neck completely turned the other way, then soon collapsed to the ground helplessly. Juan didn’t even need to draw his short sword to kill Yurban.

The remaining warriors silently looked at Yurban’s body and then a hostile expression covered their faces as they turned to Juan.

Juan wasn’t surprised at their reactions since all the people he had met so far had been hostile to him. Ordinary people usually lost their will to fight and surrendered when Juan showed them his overwhelming power, but the warriors of Arbalde were different—they never stopped until they died.

Then someone from the back raised his hand and stood up.

“I’m Ergil, the vice commander of the warriors. I wish to surrender.”

***

Beldeve was once again excited at the news of capturing the warriors of Arbalde.

In just a few days, the fourth division had destroyed a total of three divisions of the warriors of Arbalde. The punishment unit led by Juan capturing the vice commander of the warriors was the peak of their victory.

However, there was no celebration for the victory this time around; not only was winter coming, it had also not been that long after the celebration for Horhell’s rescue. Instead, Hela gave the punishment unit plenty of alcohol and meat as a reward.

This time, only Juan and the members of the punishment unit were invited for security purposes.

“This guy captured the warriors of Arbalde! He even got the vice commander!”

Hela raised her glass high and laughed out loud with her arm around the back of Juan’s neck. Juan was rather surprised to see how excited Hela was—such a reaction was unexpected, since Hela normally made only cynical and violent remarks.

“It’s not that impressive. They were just a bunch of crazy guys who were singing. It’d be weird if I couldn’t capture them,” Juan shrugged.

“Of course it’s impressive. Only a few of the warriors of Arbalde have ever been captured alive until now. It might not have been an issue for you, but it’s difficult to capture them since most of them are crazy about the Crack. Did you remember to gag them?” Hela asked.

“Yes. Hury told me that we must gag them no matter what.”

“Good job. Things get complicated if we let them keep singing or calling out that name,” Hela giggled and drank from her glass.

There wasn’t enough meat and the alcohol was too strong, since the fourth division also had limited supplies just like the rebels. Everyone was simply enjoying the atmosphere. However, Hela seemed to be getting drunk a little too fast compared to the others.

“A name… come to think of it, I heard a story that people get stronger the more they call out that name. What’s that all about? One of the guys I killed earlier today was much stronger than normal warriors. Was he able to get that strong just by calling out that name as well?” Juan asked.

“Stop trying to find out about the details. I’ve seen many people who found out the details about the Crack one by one like that and had their minds encroached upon by it before they even knew it. I heard that something appears in your dream and tells you a ‘name’ once your mind has been encroached upon by the Crack to a certain extent. But there’s no point trying to find out about that name since each person hears a different name. There was a fool among the soldiers who tried to get stronger by muttering a random name he got off of the rumor,” Hela explained.

“It looks to me like you know too many details.”

“Yes, I’m at quite a high risk of having my mind encroached upon by the Crack,” Hela said as she waved the stump of right arm. “However, it’s hard to find anyone who hates the Crack as much as I do. I’m walking a tightrope, just counting on that. For your information, I have ordered Horhell to cut off my neck if he ever sees me muttering a strange name.”

“You’re such a difficult superior,” Juan clicked his tongue.

“It’s certain that Horhell has bad luck when it comes to his superiors. And my soldiers… well, maybe they’ll be able to catch their breath now. We’ve all been very happy these days. It’s all thanks to you, cutie.”

Hela stuck out her lips and jumped on Juan as if she was about to give him a kiss, but her attempt failed as Juan backed away in disgust.

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“Which do you think is worse, the insult of a superior or disobedience of orders?” Hela jokingly shouted with an angry look.

“How about… sexual assault?”

“That’s… important. Ok. I’ll restrain myself. Anyway, your men in the punishment unit did quite a good job this time as well. What do you think? Are you satisfied with them?” Hela asked. “They’re slightly better than the ordinary soldiers for now. But the fact that there’s no one being disobedient is quite satisfying. I think they’ll get much better as long as they don’t neglect their training.”

“They can’t settle for being decent,” Hela murmured with a serious face despite being drunk. “If you really are going to train them, try to make them the best. Pavan, that asshole was so good at the Baltic Sword that he could even hold out against Horhell in a spar… I wish I could have another genius like that. If only I had just one guy like him next to me…”

‘Pavan, huh.’

Juan remembered his name quite clearly. As far as Juan knew, Pavan was the captain of the Order of the Capital. Hearing Hela’s words, it seemed that Hela had once trained Pavan. Juan was once again convinced of her intentions which he had already been suspecting.

“You want me to stay here to help you out,” Juan muttered.

“Yeah, so what?”

“Are you trying to a knight order in the eastern territory?”

“...you’re quick-witted. Yes, I am trying to do just that. I’m assuming you already know that there is no knight order in the eastern territory. It’s been my cherished dream for a long time—to build a decent army in the East. The reason why we don’t have one in the eastern territory is partly because of the Order of Lindwurm, but also because of the fact that Pavan Peltere, that son of a bitch, took all of my knight apprentices away.”

Juan nodded his head; he figured that Pavan taking away all the knight apprentices had to have been a fatal blow for Hela, who had invested all of her resources in training the knights.

“I taught Pavan ever since he had been nothing, but he took all his comrades when he left for the capital. Yes, it’s only natural for people to want to get ahead and succeed. I also understand that he wanted to escape from the dangerous battlefield and live a comfortable life in the capital. And I can also understand wanting to get the honor of being the captain of the Order of the Capital… but I couldn’t forgive him for one thing—leaving me behind just to kiss Barth Baltic’s ass.”

Hela gritted her teeth as if she was angry just by thinking about it.

“I lost a lot of talented individuals whom I had trained at that time. If it wasn’t for Pavan stealing them away, the civil war would have been over a long time ago. The eastern territory would have had a knight order and it would have had the opportunity to wash away the label of being ‘land of betrayal.’ But now… I don’t know. Would I be able to see that scene in this lifetime?”

Juan didn’t answer, but Hela already knew his answer. At this point, Hela was too old to nurture a knight order, and she could tell that Juan had no intention of staying at Beldeve for a long time.

Hela smiled bitterly and leaned her head on Juan’s shoulder. “Well, it seems like there's a guy who’s fallen for the wrong man again this time.”

Hela’s words clearly hinted at something. Juan could immediately tell who Hela was talking about.

‘She’s talking about Horhell.’

Horhell did not openly show his favor for Juan, but he was not very good at hiding it either. Most people seemed to interpret it as him simply being grateful to the one who saved his life, but Hela seemed to think otherwise.

Hela was a quick-witted woman.

“You seduced the punishment unit and one of my centurions in less than a week since you came to Beldeve. What a fatal man you are, huh? So who’s next? I bet the entire fourth division will fall for you just in half a year. But it's only fair. A young hero is better than an old, scrawny grandmother, both on the battlefield and in leading the eastern territory.”

“Hela.”

Hela drank the alcohol in her glass.

“Whatever. But Juan, please don’t betray me. I’ve had enough betrayals in my life… Gerard’s betrayal alone was too much for me to handle.”

The last words muttered by Hela were close to a quiet whisper, but Juan could hear her clearly. It was hard for Juan to even swallow a gulp, but he could answer Hela’s request with confidence.

“I won’t. Both you and I have already suffered too much betrayal,” Juan said as he nodded.

Hela stared at Juan for a while, then stood up. Standing on the railing of an old wall in a fierce wind, Hela looked like she might fall at any second. The prosperity and stability of the entire eastern territory depended on her narrow and scrawny shoulders. And those were things that the eastern territory has not had in nearly half a century.

Hela took a deep breath. Juan wondered if she was going to shout something out loud, but she stayed still for a long time and exhaled.

Then Hela got down from the railing again.

“I’m gonna go.”

“Don’t drink too much.”

Instead of answering Juan, Hela threw her glass down the railing. Then her steps suddenly stopped as she was going down the stairs.

“Come to think of it, Horhell said something strange about you.”

“About me?”

Horhell had sworn allegiance to Juan when he found out about his identity. Juan recalled that he had never asked Horhell to keep his identity a secret or asked him to keep his mouth shut. It wouldn’t be so strange if Horhell mentioned Juan’s identity to Hela as a show of his remaining allegiance to Hela.

“According to Horhell, you… no, nevermind. Forget about it.”

Hela went down the wall without looking back.

Juan’s hair blew in the wind.