Chapter 141

Translator: Willia

As one lives in the world, one occasionally sees people who dress themselves excessively in ways that do not suit them. They are the kind of people who hide their wretched self-esteem and flaunt power and wealth by wearing overly fine clothes and ornaments. Most of the time, they were nouveau riche.

However, King Santonio did not suit fine clothes and ornaments in a different sense.

With his tall height and dignified build, intense gaze, straight forehead and nose, well-groomed beard, and black hair neatly combed back, the king was a man who seemed to suit armor better than silk, gold, and jewels.

The splendid silk clothes, thick rings, and necklaces instead seemed to neutralize his fierce presence.

Ambition lay within the king’s eyes. And he did not hide it. He appeared to harbor a desire for greatness beyond that of a mere king.

Somewhere on a vast plateau, under warm sunlight, flags of all kinds fluttered powerfully. It looked like a military encampment, and indeed, it was a real military camp.

Ricardt was standing there before the king, under the watchful eyes of the rough men of Sinatria.

Ricardt’s splendid attire was no less impressive than the king’s, and even seemed to stand out more, to the point that their confrontation appeared somewhat improper in terms of etiquette.

King Santonio was sitting on something like a cargo crate, but even without a throne, it did not diminish his majesty.

His eyes themselves were sharp like those of a bird of prey, and his gaze was equally intense, so no matter where he sat, most people could not look at him directly.

But Ricardt was different. He merely faced him calmly. The two men stared at each other in silence for some time, as if trying to see what lay beyond appearances.

They were not engaging in a contest of wills, but to others, it looked as though they were.

Perhaps because of that, Raimund standing behind Ricardt and several knights of the Order of the Flame Knights seemed more tense than the parties themselves.

And over the past several hundred years, the Order of the Flame Knights had never reached out to the local king for help. During that time, they had merely guarded the Empire’s borders, and in truth, the Order of the Flame Knights and the kings of Sinatria had remained distant from one another.

To those who lived locally, the Order of the Flame Knights were foreigners, both hundreds of years ago and now.

The Sinatrians shared the same religion, but they were not part of the Empire. They were neither Salaman, but literally natives who had lived in Sinatria since long ago and descendants of the ancient Empire.

“El Cid......”

King Santonio muttered first. At that, it felt as though a thin crack appeared in the silence that had seemed solid.

“It is not easy to earn respect from heretics. But I hear you are not even a knight? Son of Abelich, Ricardt.”

“That is correct. I have never been ordained as a knight.”

“Then in what capacity do you stand before me?”

“In no capacity at all, I am merely myself. I simply wished to see you because I have a request to make.”

“Speak.”

Countless gazes around them were fixed on Ricardt, but Ricardt did not spare them a single glance and continued to look only at the king.

“Please provide me with supplies. I will defeat my elder brother who has seized Karagosa Fortress and put an end to his evil deeds.”

“......”

The king did not respond. He merely looked quietly at Ricardt, then suddenly let out a snort of laughter. At that, the surrounding knights, soldiers, and armed men began to laugh.

It was laughter born of disbelief, a kind of mockery.

King Santonio did not burst into loud laughter, but after chuckling for a while, he spoke.

“It is truly heartbreaking to see brothers trying to fight one another, yet my own situation is no different. I too am in a long war with my younger brother. Still, is there any reason for me to make an enemy of the Red Reaper? You are his younger brother, yet you seem not to know how terrifying he is. I am afraid of him. But I am not ashamed of that. Everyone here feels the same.”

What on earth had happened here over the past eight years that everyone feared Vilter so much, to the point that even this extraordinary king regarded him as troublesome.

Only then did Ricardt turn his gaze away from the king and look around at the people present.

As if taking it as an unspoken constant that Vilter was not to be provoked, they seemed to take the very notion of fighting him as an absurd joke.

To use an analogy, it was like there being a tiger that never came down from the mountain, and one day a strange outsider suddenly appeared and said he would catch that tiger, so give him some money.

From the perspective of the locals, it could only be absurd. What if they got dragged into trouble by provoking it and suffered a tiger disaster? There was no need to do anything if they just left it alone.

Ricardt thought for a moment. He felt that he could not persuade the king by putting forward a sense of righteousness. It was not as though he could beg for understanding by insisting that he purely wished to stop Vilter.

The deal with the king required a realistic proposal. And, above all, he had to show that he too was as fearsome as him.

“The Emperor has cast us aside, so the shackles placed upon the Order of the Flame Knights no longer exist. If I defeat my brother, I will lead the knights and go to Adeloron. If that happens, Karagosa Fortress, the long-standing stronghold of the knight order, will become the king’s. And I am not asking for support for free. If there is any troublesome matter, I will resolve it for you. In exchange, please provide me with supplies.”

If he could only obtain Karagosa Fortress, the kingdom’s power could be greatly expanded. However, by common sense, it was an utterly unrealistic proposal.

“Hahahahahaha!”

As expected, the moment Ricardt finished speaking, King Santonio threw his head back and laughed loudly. His soldiers laughed loudly as well. Was it really such an absurd proposal?

After laughing heartily for a while, King Santonio finally calmed down and spoke.

“I like you. Because you are without concealment and honest. However, El Cid Ricardt, do you see that fortress over there?”

King Santonio raised his hand and pointed somewhere. At that, the people blocking that direction stepped aside.

Far below the plateau, a solid fortress could be seen. For some reason, Sinatria had truly many impregnable fortresses that could not be replicated even with current technology.

This was because of the outstanding architectural techniques of the ancient Empire and the repeated expansions carried out over long ages.

Perhaps that was why this land had long failed to unify and continued to wage constant wars.

“It is a fortress called Leonia. That thing is causing me trouble. Even though I have won battles against my younger brother several times over the past ten years, the reason I have had to retreat each time is precisely because of that. Will you remove my worry?”

In this era, taking a fortress by siege was practically impossible. That was even more true for such a solid fortress.

The only thing that could be done was to surround it and starve it out, but with stockpiled food and secured water, it could hold out for years.

Since besieging an army was ultimately done by people, there were costs for food, drink, and supplies, and in the end, they would be unable to endure and would have no choice but to withdraw.

The place where the king currently was was a kind of rear area, and there was a separate force besieging Leonia Fortress. Looking down from the high ground, it seemed to number at least several thousand.

Ricardt quietly looked at the distant fortress, then looked back at the king and asked.

“What is the deadline?”

"......What?"

“I will take it within three days. Will you promise to provide supplies then?”

When Ricardt calmly said that he would accomplish something impossible, King Santonio wore a dumbfounded expression for a moment.

“I too have ears and have heard of it. That your ability is outstanding. They say you killed four knights of Valencia in an instant. However, confidence and bluffing are different things. Even if I were to yield a hundred times and say it is bluffing, there are things that can be indulgently overlooked and things that cannot.”

“Then you will be able to find out in three days. Whether it is bluffing or not.”

Ricardt said this still without changing his expression at all.

At that, no one could tell whether this was an act of insulting the king or something else, and silence fell over the place, with only the sound of flags fluttering in the wind being heard.

At some point, the smile completely disappeared from King Santonio’s face. With his distinctive sharp eyes, he stared at Ricardt as if glaring. Ricardt calmly accepted that gaze.

The king stared for a while before opening his mouth.

“I promise.”

“Then I will see you again in three days.”

Ricardt did not offer the king any particular courtesy and turned around to walk away. Judging only by their splendid outward appearances, it looked as though a king and a king had met for talks and then parted ways.

As Ricardt mounted the red horse and descended the high ground, Raimund and the knights of the Order of the Flame Knights also hurriedly mounted their horses and followed after him, then asked.

"Do you have a good plan?"

“No.”

When Ricardt answered no in such a matter-of-fact way, Raimund and the knights blinked in disbelief. They were so flustered that they did not even feel angry, though it seemed like they should be.

“T, that makes no sense. If you insult the king, not only will we lose any goodwill, none of us will get out of this safely.”

“It is not something that will work just by buying time anyway. For now, let us watch and observe. If they reveal a weakness, we will dig into it with full force.”

That was easy to say, but if it were that simple, they would not have gone through all that hardship for the past ten years, as the king had said.

However, when it came to fighting, Ricardt had always stepped outside the perspective of ordinary people.

As he had said himself, simply dragging out time would not solve anything. Rather, because so much time had passed, there might be some kind of blind spot on their side.

In any case, whether this should be called confidence or madness, Raimund and the knights, who were not yet accustomed to Ricardt, thought they might need to reassess their evaluation of him as a person.

Ricardt entered the encampment that was besieging Leonia Fortress. When he said that he was someone sent by the king, the commander there seemed to think that Ricardt and the knights were people hired as something like mercenaries.

So they were given a tent and were not paid much attention. In short, Ricardt and the knights of the Order of the Flame Knights were simply in the camp like sacks of barley left lying around. They had no command authority.

Raimund was burning with impatience, but Ricardt calmly looked around the camp.

Because his armor and surcoat were so splendid, the soldiers all stared at Ricardt, wondering who he was. Judging only by appearances, he felt like someone beyond a commander, almost like the king of a neighboring country.

However, when the sun tilted from its zenith and the soldiers were preparing dinner, far away, the drawbridge of Leonia Fortress was lowered and someone came out riding a horse.

He wore chain mail, a green surcoat that stood out even from a distance, and on his great helm there was even a dragon-shaped helmet ornament.

When he revealed himself, the soldiers hurriedly cleared away the cauldrons and began to scatter and take cover here and there. Ricardt and the knights wondered what was going on and grabbed a soldier to ask.

“Why is there suddenly such a commotion?”

“It is Tausso, the elder brother of the Green Dragon brothers. He comes alternately in the morning and evening to wreak havoc on the camp, and there is no way to stop him. Already, five of our knights have been killed.”

“He attacks alone?”

Raimund asked in disbelief.

Originally, when defending a fortress, a small suicide squad would sometimes be sent out to attack the enemy, but that was closer to harassing them so they could not live comfortably rather than actually repelling them. It also boosted allied morale.

But attacking alone? Things like that did occasionally exist in the era of tribes. As a kind of offering, there was a method of fighting where one would make a short charge to raise the morale of allies.

But not a night raid, and with the sun still blazing high, doing it so openly?

In any case, unlike the bewildered knights, Ricardt narrowed his eyes and observed. Not only the knight, but also the actions of the people standing on the walls, and details such as how long it took for the drawbridge to be lowered.

Before long, the man called Tausso, carrying a spear-banner, advanced slowly and confidently. Sunlight fell on the spearhead and flashed brightly.

He was close yet also far, so while there were units that were flustered as he approached, there were also units that tried to counterattack in their own way. Under feudalism, differences in combat power were severe depending on the region of origin.

There were knights hastily donning their equipment, retainers bringing horses, and people moving busily.

However, from the perspective of Tausso, the enemy, it was all visible which units were weak and which were strong. So he approached slowly, then suddenly spurred his horse straight toward a unit that was in disarray and confusion among themselves.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

There were also barricade-like structures made by driving in stakes, but those were meant to block units, and they did not become obstacles to someone charging alone.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Thud!

“Ah!”

In the end, he barged in as if it were his own living room and skewered a soldier to death with his spear. Even then, he kept riding his horse and trampled the camp as he pleased. Tents collapsed with crunching sounds, cauldrons clattered and rolled about, and it was utter chaos.

There were soldiers who tried to resist with spears and billhooks of their own, but Tausso simply spurred his horse and slammed into them swiftly, or swung his battle axe from above and smashed down on their crowns.

Startled soldiers scattered in all directions, and when the knights who had at least some combat power chased after him to try to kill him, he fled elsewhere. Then the knights became tangled up with their own allies and could not properly pursue him.

At least one lord’s contingent with some sense went outside the camp to block his retreat.

However, it required the entire army to move in an organized manner to completely block the retreat. Since they were doing it with only their own forces, they could not cover such a wide area.

In the midst of that, enemies on the fortress walls far away shouted waa! waa! at the top of their lungs.

After rampaging about as he pleased for a while, the man called Tausso turned his reins and galloped back toward the fortress.

The lord’s troops who had tried to block his retreat attempted to seize him, but facing a massive warhorse charging in was not easy without a thick formation.

In the end, a fellow knight bravely charged to face him. However, from afar, Tausso suddenly hurled his battle axe.

The allied knight raised his shield to block it, but the force carried by the axe made his body reel.

Thud!

In that opening, Tausso rapidly closed in, hooked his arm, and unhorsed the knight. The knight fell from the galloping horse and died with his neck broken.

Crunch!

Waaaaaah!

A great cheer rose from the enemy fortress. Watching Tausso from afar, Ricardt thought that he was quite good.

As he approached the fortress, a small number of troops who had come out to escort him crossed the drawbridge with him. In that way, he had single-handedly ravaged thousands of troops and returned without a scratch.

The damage was not very great, but their pride and morale were, of course, in shambles. From all around came the sounds of soldiers spitting out fuck, dog, dick. The thick dust kicked up by Tausso covered them unpleasantly.

“Truly a valiant man......”

Raimund said. He himself was a brave and outstanding knight, but Tausso was exceptionally courageous.

However, Ricardt was watching all of this from a different perspective. He was calculating distance. If he killed and charged, could he reach it before the drawbridge went up?

Before long, after finishing the calculation in his head based on experience, he said this.

“Rather than three days, it might be possible to take the fortress by tomorrow.”

At that, Raimund replied as if he was no longer surprised.

"Yes, I see."

Raimund thought that Ricardt was outstanding in ability and admirable in character, but just as impressive in his bluffing. Well, a person cannot have everything.

Of course, whether it is boasting or not, tomorrow's sun will tell.

****

For more chapters, you can check out my Patreon here –> https://patreon.com/warriorsballad