Record of Wortenia War: Volume 4

by Ryota Hori

  It limited the mobility of one’s joints, but one could move as if they were lightly armored by using thaumaturgy to handle the weight. That, in and of itself, was extremely impressive. One could liken it a vehicle having a tank’s armor along with the speed and engine of a Ferrari. One could easily realize why martial thaumaturgy became the symbol of the ruling class in this world.

  But impressive as it was, it still sacrificed mobility. Using the car analogy, Kael was only moving as fast as a passenger vehicle traveling at max speed. Indeed, considering how armored he was, maintaining that speed was astounding. However, if he didn’t have that armor, he would surely be capable of moving as fast as a race car.

  Which way would the battle have tilted if that was the case? No one could tell. Blocking a slash delivered with superhuman speed by sheer skill would still be difficult. But in the end, Kael owed his defeat to his over-reliance on the power of martial thaumaturgy, and to his own ability to use it. The conceited belief that his being a knight made him stronger.

  “Conceit... Conceit, you say... Heheh. To think it would be exactly what Mikhail said... Let me ask you one thing. Why do you side with Princess Lupis? Is it money? Power? Those are just empty promises... The wall of social status is thick in this country. Even if the princess were to repay you, the nobles around her would never allow it!”

  “I don’t intend to ask the princess for money or power.” Ryoma shook his head.

  “Impossible... Then why did you fight? Why did you stand in our way?!” Kael’s tone became rougher.

  He had to know why the enemy that drove him to death’s door chose to fight.

  “It’s simple, really... Your meddling made us side with Princess Lupis.”

  “My meddling...?” Kael’s expression contorted with surprise.

  “Yeah... Remember how you set Mikhail up?”

  After thinking for a moment, Kael nodded as if remembering.

  “You mean when we smuggled Princess Radine into Rhoadseria?”

  “Right... We accepted a request from the guild, and were attacked on the way there. We took the blow for Princess Radine.”

  “Yes, I leaked the information about the fake princess to Mikhail and had him attack her. And while he did that, we moved the real princess into the country... That went well, indeed... And it was thanks to that that Duke Gelhart accepted my defection to his side!”

  Kael’s words had a tinge of pride at the success of his own ploy.

  “Yeah, it went well, all right,” Ryoma said with a bitter smile. “Except for the fact that it involved us in this whole mess!”

  Perhaps one couldn’t say this was truly Kael’s fault. Laura’s hair just happened to be the right shade of silver. She just happened to be the only silver-haired mercenary in Pherzaad at the time. A lot of little coincidences piled on top of each other led up to Ryoma facing Kael in the present. And if even one of those coincidences wouldn’t have taken place, Kael’s fate may have been different.

  “Aaah. I thought I saw you somewhere, but it was you back then...” Kael’s face twisted bitterly.

  Anyone would curse their fate if they just heard Ryoma’s explanation. What started as his own ploy became the noose tightening around his neck.

  “So it was just rotten luck...” The words slipped from Kael’s lips.

  Such was the remorse of the man betrayed by the goddess of fortune and her whims.

  “Yeah. You were just out of luck...” Ryoma nodded silently.

  And in truth, had the wires crossed in any other way, Ryoma may have been the one lying dead here. The only difference between them really was just a matter of luck.

  “I have one last request,” Kael said.

  Ryoma nodded silently. Kael’s face was already pale from the blood loss, and the only thing ahead of him was death. And Ryoma wasn’t cold-hearted enough to ignore the words of a dying man.

  “I wanted to die fighting... as a knight. Will you be my opponent?”

  Ryoma gave another silent nod, and propped up his katana.

  “You have my gratitude... Thank you.”

  Ryoma lifted up his blade. The stance of fire. The optimal form for Ryoma to land a blow. Kael held up his sword at his flank, and burst into a jog, swinging at Ryoma with what strength remained in him.

  This is the final battle I will ever...

  The moment Kael made to slash at Ryoma’s abdomen, a battlecry erupted from Ryoma’s lips. The next moment, the blade swung up over his head bashed down into Kael’s helmet. Kael’s body ran past Ryoma’s side, and took two more steps... a third... a fourth...

  Kael’s running speed gradually grew slower, and he eventually pitched forward, falling headfirst to the ground.

  By the time Kael was beaten to the ground by Ryoma’s blade, Helena’s revenge was approaching its climax in the forest’s depths.

  “Shit! We have to protect the General and his family!”

  “Follow me! We’re breaking through the encirclement!”

  Conflicting orders flew past each other from every direction, complicating the battle further. Some knights said they had to protect Albrecht’s person, while others tried to gather the remaining knights and attempted to break through their pursuers’ enclosure. They all desperately avoided the enemy’s blades, their armor creaking as they moved.

  Reality was ruthless, however. Their desperate efforts would go unrewarded. They held up their shields and swung their swords in an attempt to cut a way through the enemy’s ring, but they all sank to the ground dead, one after another.

  Thirty guards set out from the camp with Albrecht, but now less than twenty remained. Helena’s unit, by contrast, numbered over two hundred. Both sides were fully armed knights, but the difference in numbers was clear and absolute.

  After being ambushed in his camp by Ryoma, Albrecht fell to Helena’s trap next. And that was how their snare was planned, to begin with. Ryoma would be the hunting hound to scare him out of the camp, so that the hunter, Helena, could finish him off. A lethal ploy, indeed.

  “Lady Helena... Everything is moving along as you’ve ordered,” one of the knights reported. “All that remains is to take the heads of Albrecht and his family.”

  “Yes, I think the end is in sight. Ryoma has done well.” Helena nodded with a dark smile.

  “Still... To see things carried out so well... That boy, he’s... terrifying,” Chris whispered as he watched the fighting... or rather, the slaughter carried out before him.

  Of course, Helena and her forces were the ones stomping out the enemy. Each enemy knight was beaten down by four or five of Helena’s knights, and anyone but the mightiest of warriors would fall to those odds. They were also surrounded by a multitude of other knights that stood in the way of any attempt to escape. The only future Albrecht’s knights had ahead of them was death.

  And what created this situation was Ryoma Mikoshiba’s plan. Chris’s eyes were full of fear toward Ryoma.

  “Yes, he’s certainly impressive,” Helena complimented Ryoma’s plan, and then turned to face Chris. “Does he scare you?”

  There weren’t any traces of her earlier smile in her expression. Chris simply held his tongue, which expressed his feelings all on its own. If nothing else, the fact remained Ryoma hadn’t done anything that didn’t benefit the kingdom of Rhoadseria. It wouldn’t be odd to praise him as a reliable ally. But Chris couldn’t shake off a certain concern.

  He has gained some impressive accomplishments. He’s capable at coming up with and executing plans and he’s a skilled commander... But he’s not a man of this country. He’s a stranger, a wanderer... If a tactician like him were to join in with an enemy country, and then try to invade Rhoadseria...

  Chris openly acknowledged Ryoma’s skills, and he also understood his imagination was quite baseless. But even knowing all that, Chris was terrified of Ryoma, and that stemmed from the fact Ryoma had absolutely no ties to Rhoadseria as a country. He hadn’t sworn allegiance to Princess Lupis, nor did he feel
much affinity to the kingdom, either.

  The only thing that bound Ryoma to Princess Lupis was a series of coincidences stacked together, and that was an opinion shared by many of Princess Lupis’s lieutenants. That was why Chris feared Ryoma.

  Helena and Chris exchanged gazes in silence for a long moment.

  “I thought so...” Helena eventually whispered sadly. “I understand why you’re anxious, Chris... Several others have already come to me with similar doubts.”

  Chris’s expression changed at her words. There was only one type of plot employed against dangerous characters. That choice crossed Chris’s mind. The dangerous choice of assassination...

  “I did tell them all to not plan anything needless... So as to not stir up any hornet nests,” Helena said with a shrug.

  “Do you mean... assassinating Ryoma Mikoshiba?”

  Helena didn’t answer Chris’s question. If nothing else, people seem to have proposed it.

  Hammering down the nail that sticks out, eh...?

  Chris’s heart wavered in something like a mix of loneliness and frustration. True, he feared Ryoma, but he didn’t consider assassinating him to remove him as a threat.

  No one’s earned as much merit in this civil war as he did. It was thanks to him that Princess Lupis managed to remove General Albrecht and Duke Gelhart... Even if he isn’t a citizen of Rhoadseria and merely some vagabond, repaying the greatest contributor to this war’s conclusion with assassination would be...

  One couldn’t maintain a country without dirtying their hands somewhat. Chris understood that perfectly well. But he still wasn’t comfortable with the idea of assassinating Ryoma, and that wasn’t even a problem of his own sentiments. Even if the situation called for his assassination, it still required a certain condition could be met.

  The condition being that they could actually assassinate him.

  There could be no failing that. Because if he were to survive, the kingdom Rhoadseria would have created a far more dangerous enemy for itself than General Albrecht or Duke Gelhart ever were with its own two hands. That was why Chris felt no urge to assassinate Ryoma despite his fears.

  The best possible solution is to have him serve the kingdom... That way, Rhoadseria would flourish alongside him...

  But of course, that was far easier said than done. The wall of social status in Rhoadseria was too high, and so Ryoma, who wasn’t even a citizen of the kingdom, would run into too many problems.

  “What’s your opinion on it, Lady Helena?” Chris suddenly asked Helena.

  “Me...? I’m against it, of course... It’s only thanks to that boy that I can kill Albrecht. And if someone were to try to kill him and fail, this country would be faced with a far greater threat...” Helena answered ambiguously.

  Anyone would reach this conclusion with a bit of thought.

  His skill as a warrior is exceptionally high, and he’s a first-rate tactician and commander. And there are always people around him, drawn to his charisma...

  Lione the Crimson Lion and her lieutenant, Boltz. Their names as mercenaries were well-known throughout the western continent. Using their connections, Ryoma was able to hire the services of many skilled mercenaries. But the problem was that their relationship with Ryoma felt more like the relationship between master and servant.

  The mercenaries had looked down on him due to his low rank and youth, but following his defeat of Branzo the Black Spider and his success at the river Thebes, everyone’s opinions on him had turned over to complete praise.

  At this point, one could say Lione the Crimson Lion was sitting as the leader of Ryoma’s bodyguards. This was extremely unusual behavior for mercenaries, who had always survived on the battlefield by their own strength.

  It wasn’t for nothing that mercenaries were said to hold loyalty for no one, and that was why their employment terms and pay demands were as severe as they were. Their employers could cut them off at any time for any reason, and so mercenaries never worked any more than they were paid to. They could appear earnest about doing their job, of course, but put conversely, they kept a businesslike approach for anything that extended beyond their contract.

  For mercenaries, an employer was a temporary existence, and not someone they would serve forever. If put in the terms of Ryoma’s world, it was like the difference between temporary and full-time employees.

  And so, if those mercenaries obeyed the command of a young, inexperienced person like Ryoma, it could only be because he had managed to win over their hearts.

  He must have the caliber of a general.

  Ryoma Mikoshiba possessed something Helena must have had in her youth.

  An assassination is a poor idea. Even if it succeeds, Lione’s group would strike back and it would lead to further bloodshed... And who’s to say if we can even kill him...

  That concern shook Helena’s heart. She had no intention of assassinating him, nor any intention of admitting to considering it. If any of her subordinates were to suggest it, she would simply reject the idea.

  But the problem was that someone might decide to do so without her knowing it. In that case, everything would be all right if the assassination went smoothly. If it would remove Rhoadseria’s concerns, Helena would simply have to swallow her own apprehensions and feelings on the matter.

  But what if the assassination were to fail?

  If that were to happen, Ryoma Mikoshiba would never forgive the kingdom of Rhoadseria. He would see it as the kingdom betraying him. Even still, Helena was a knight of Rhoadseria. She would have to fight anyone seeking to harm her country.

  “But if he were to bare his fangs against Rhoadseria... Then...”

  It was a terribly bitter decision for Helena to make, and a future she didn’t wish to see come to pass.

  But Chris didn’t get to hear Helena finish that sentence.

  “““Ooooooooh!”””

  “““We caught them! We have them!”””

  The cheering rising from the battlefield drowned out her words...

  “You’re not hurt, right? We’re gonna break through the encirclement here... Don’t let go of my hands, understand? Don’t look back, and keep your eyes on me!”

  Albrecht ran in an attempt to break the encirclement, with his wife and daughter behind his back. Their carriage’s horses were promptly killed, reducing the vehicle into an immobile lump of wood. Albrecht swiftly helped his family off the carriage and attempted to flee into the forest.

  However, by this point, Helena’s encirclement wasn’t a net spread out around them - it was a cage, closing them in and blocking their path of escape. He had no choice but to force his way from the knights closing on him. The world wasn’t kind enough to allow such a reckless tactic to succeed. His repeated attempts at escape claimed the lives of a few of the knights he still had on his side, and by now he was completely surrounded by foes.

  “Father...” His daughter looked at him with a pale expression, feeling the bloodlust directed at them from all around.

  Just a few weeks ago, she was one of the most prominent young ladies of the country. She was by no means hardened enough to withstand the bloodthirsty savagery of the battlefield. The journey to Tarja had also depleted her stamina.

  “It’ll be fine, just follow me! You need only run and keep your eyes on my back!” Albrecht raised his voice to encourage the two.

  He could tell that him showing any sign of weakness would probably make their hearts snap.

  “You’ll be fine. Believe in your father,” His wife said, to which his daughter nodded.

  Though she didn’t have much of a choice.

  “Let’s go!” Albrecht said.

  The knights accompanying him nodded. Only four of them remained out of the thirty dispatched with his carriage.

  ““““Ooooooooh!””””

  All four of them charged at the wall of soldiers blocking their path. They swung their swords, held up their shields, forcing their bodies through. The sight of them wavi
ng their swords and screaming was reminiscent of a group of rabid dogs. They’d completely cast aside the idea of defense, knowing that General Albrecht’s end would spell their own end anyway. That knowledge reduced them into rash daredevils.

  “Milord, now! Over there!”

  The defending soldiers were overwhelmed by their reckless charge, crumbling the encirclement for a moment.

  “Let’s go! Keep your eyes forward and head right into the forest!”

  Albrecht’s wife and daughter nodded, and upon his confirming that, the three of them broke into a run.

  “Hurry, milord!”

  With their knights’ screams spurring them forward the three rushed onward without looking back. They were only a few meters away from the woods.

  Just a little more! If we can run into the forest, we can probably manage to get away! We just have to keep going!

  Of course, getting into the forest didn’t guarantee their safety. But their chances of survival were that much higher so long as they could break this blockade.

  “Aaaaaaaah!” His daughter screamed behind his back.

  “How dare you! Unhand me! Let go of...!” His wife’s voice also called out, but was cut off by the blunt sound of flesh being beaten.

  “Mother...! Stop! Don’t hit her!”

  General Albrecht turned around, only to be faced with the sight of his wife crouching and his daughter being tormented by the soldiers. His wife’s mouth was dripping with saliva and vomit. She was likely punched. Raising a hand on a woman was despicable from the standpoint of chivalry, but there was rarely any place for such idealism on the battlefield. General Albrecht hesitated.

  Dammit! We were so close...! What do I do, do I save them...? No, I’ll never make it. Do I head back in this situation...? But I can’t abandon my daughter here...

  General Albrecht’s gaze crossed with his daughter’s. Her eyes implored him to save her and her mother. But General Albrecht stayed still. He was this close, this close to getting away with his life...!

  Saving his wife and daughter here was realistically impossible. His cold-hearted side prompted him to prioritize pragmatism. But that was impossible, too. He couldn’t abandon them and run either. Doing so would take away his chance at making a comeback.