battle of fate (1)
“come out.”
As if to represent the heart of someone hiding behind the fence, the sudden wind blew the bushes wildly.
When things were finished, Jessica, whose tension had eased, pointed her hammer at the bush I was looking at with a rigid expression on her face.
If a thief had noticed the abnormality and escaped first, there would be no way he would have stayed in such a place.
So, am I one of those guys who just came back from ambush and loot like the ones we caught?
It would not have been so strange if he felt something strange at the entrance of the village and moved with the intention of even exploring.
“Are you thinking of killing me? .”
Raising his hand on Nang-a’s hilt and muttering like that, the bushes suddenly began to shake violently, and a man in a strange attire came out.
“Gee, wait!! I am not suspicious!!”
The man claimed so, but contrary to his claim that he was not suspicious, his attire was quite suspicious.
The leather suit that covered the whole body did not stop from the neck to the head, but with the face covered and the odd glasses with the eyeglasses sticking out, they were like reptiles.
Not only did he look like a reptile, but the leather suit he wore was changing its color from moment to moment to match the environment like a chameleon.
‘Is there some kind of magic?’
Like Jessica’s armor, it looked like it was enchanted for infiltration, or it was made from the hide of a beast with such characteristics, but neither of which was a piece of equipment that a single thief would have.
“Suspicious, but I don’t think he’s a thief.”
“That’s right!! And the young lady over there isn’t Jessica?!”
“… … Do you know me?”
When Jessica, who had had the hammer, took off her helmet, asked, the man took off his glasses and a hat in the form of a mask that covered his face, revealing his face.
The well-groomed man, more suited to a knight or butler than a thief, knelt down in front of Jessica to show respect.
“Jessica Youngae… . I hope to see you in a place like this… .”
“Anyone you know?”
“… No, excuse me, is it okay if I ask for your name?”
“Oh, there’s nothing to be rude about. It’s just that I’ve only seen Youngae once from a distance.”
The knight named Baron was the knight of the fortress the bandits were about to invade.
Since ancient times, he has been specializing in the pursuit of bandits and ambush, and he was on a mission to spy on the bandits’ hideouts by utilizing his talents.
“I see, but did you do the spying alone? Or maybe you hid someone inside… .”
There was a knight spying outside, so it was a natural thought to think that someone might have infiltrated inside.
When Jessica, who knew the situation inside, looked at Baron with a frowning expression, Baron shook her head and said.
“Relax. I was the only one who spyed on it, but no knights were infiltrated.”
I don’t know if that’s the truth or if it’s a good lie to ease the burden on Jessica and me.
Even if they knew, there was no way to bring the dead back to life and there was no way to get them back.
It was a wise move to just move on quietly, thinking that what he said would be true.
“One last thing, how did you know that Jessica was Jessica? He was wearing a helmet, so he wouldn’t have been able to see his face.”
“that is… .”
Baron looked at Jessica and hesitated for a moment, then coughed and pointed to Jessica’s hair.
“There is no other person in this estate who insists on such an old-fashioned hairstyle even if you are not wearing a helmet… .”
It was a really clear answer to all my questions flying away at once.
Even if he had only seen him once from a distance, if he had been a bun-headed person, he would not have forgotten it until he died.
Jessica blushed and glared at me, thinking that there are days when that non-funny hairstyle helps.
“Hmm… . In any case, then, can the abducted women be left there?”
“Yes, of course. By the way… If it’s not rude, would it be okay if I asked for your name?”
He must have expected that he was an academy student by looking at my attire, but his words were polite as if he was treating his master.
hahahaha, what human cannot be respectful in front of a person who has killed nearly a hundred people alone in front of his eyes.
“Ian Bar Tow. Count, but I don’t care that much.”
When he heard my name, Baron was startled and looked up at me with a surprised face.
“Ian Ba Tow, is that Ian Bar Tow who said he killed ten thousand men alone in the Count of Pierre?”
Not an influential nobleman, but even a knight like this knows my name, so it seems that my name was widely spread through the battle of that day.
“That Ian Bar Tow is right, but not ten thousand people.”
“Ah, so the rumors are in the middle.”
Baron nodded to himself as if he understood something, but that wasn’t what I meant.
It is true that I cut more than ten thousand people that day, but strictly speaking, it was accurate to say that seven thousand people were cut, and the rest were beasts.
There were too many enemies at the time, so I’m not sure, but that’s probably about it.
“Then the only question left is to find out where Jessica Papa is… .”
“… … Don’t call someone else’s father strange. Sir Baron, did you not receive any news from your father in the city?”
Naturally, no single article like Baron could know such important information, and Baron shook his head.
However, it was not decided that we did not know even the lord who managed the castle, so we decided to aim for the fortress for now.
Before I left the village, seeing the body and blood stained red in the village, I tapped Nang-a’s scabbard to wake her up.
[Ummm… What’s wrong, master? Is it already time to clean up?]
“It’s meal time, not grooming time. It’s been a while since I’ve had meat, so eat it as much as you want.”
[meat?!]
When he pulled out the nang-a, who was excited like a child, the tip of his sword trembled like a dog sniffing his nose.
[It smells delicious!!]
“This meat was grazing in nature. Leaving it behind may cause a bad plague, so you should eat it cleanly without leaving a single bite. got it?”
[i get it!!]
The blood pooled on the floor began to boil, and the corpses and blood all over the village began to flow toward Nanga like a river.
The blood and corpses gathered like a river soaked into the blade in an instant, and all traces of the tragedy of the day had disappeared in the village except for a little bloody smell.
[Breathe… .]
“Does the magic sword also burp? Anyway, now that the meal is over, you can go back to sleep.”
There is a saying that if you go to bed right after eating you will gain weight, but it has nothing to do with the magic sword.
It wasn’t Jingoo Noh, and when I turned back to return the sleeping Nang-a back to the scabbard, Jessica and Baron were looking at me with astonished faces.
“what? what’s the matter?”
“No, even if the opponent is a villain, I feel reluctant to think of it as a human-eating magic sword… .”
“If humans aren’t eating people, what’s wrong?”
There is no end if you pay attention to such useless things one by one while talking about morality.
Above all else, it is the law of nature that the loser becomes the blood and flesh of the victor, and humans, the same beast, had the right to do this.
“Then, now that it’s all sorted out, shall we go to the fortress?”
“I am going to fix the situation here. I’m going to give you my pass here, so just show it to the gatekeeper and you’ll be able to go through.”
After receiving the pass from Baron, we left the bandit village behind and returned to the carriage.
As I walked into the carriage, wiping away the corpse lying on the floor, I caught a glimpse of Hori, who was sleeping peacefully, with a confused face.
This place has been struggling since dawn, but it was no wonder he was sleeping so comfortably.
‘Should I hit you?’
Well… let’s hit
“Aww!”
*****
Perhaps it was because of her usual good footsteps, there was information about Jessica Papa in the fortress, which she visited without much expectation.
It was not information left for us, but information to join when the royal support troops arrived, so it was entrusted to the fortress close to the border of the territory.
It was a dizzying situation what would have happened if we had arrived late and the fort had been captured.
Jessica Papa was hiding somewhere unexpectedly, but the location was none other than a slash-and-burn village not far from the castle.
It’s a small town and it’s not on the map, so it was enough to hide, but I had a feeling that it might be too close to the castle where he was staying.
‘But why are you staying in the castle?’
If you said you stayed over the wall for 80 years in the first place, why did you come and cross the wall again?
He didn’t bring a large army to rule this territory, and all he has done so far is to break down the wall and create chaos to occupy the castle.
Perhaps his purpose is to take revenge on the opponent who defeated him 80 years ago?
If so, the behavior as if waiting for someone was understandable.
“It seems to have arrived slowly.”
“yes? okay?”
A lot of time seemed to pass while I was thinking about various things.
As I listened to Jessica’s words and looked out the window, I saw shabby houses that I never thought had a high-ranking aristocrat like the earl.
We parked the carriage in a suitable place and slowly walked towards that shabby slash-and-burn village.
And after a while, as they got quite close to the village, several knights in armor with strong traces of battle came out of the bushes and pulled out their hammers.