10. Stab Fate in the Back
Evolg, which had been as good as the king of the northeast, had met a futile end.
The remaining forces had but one thing left: to choose one of two options.
Whether to submit to Asta, the new order, or to walk the same path of annihilation without betraying honor and trust.
Just how much of those two regions Asta could secure dominion over, and what they were connected to, I did not know.
In any case, the war in the northeast—my past, and something I too had been entangled in—was drawing to a close.
‘Now, instead of ten houses, there may be nine.’
Before long, the north would be reestablished under Asta’s hegemony.
However, I couldn’t care less about such interests.
It was simply that, thinking of the northeasterners—the ones closest to my bloodline—dying off, I did not feel good about it.
They were the ones who would have been the source of labor and taxes for my house, and would be so in the future. It was problematic for them to die off.
But more unsettling than such things was the procession of corpses.
No matter how much I tried to deny that “what if” possibility, my mind concluded it was black magic and barbarians.
Black magic.
It was known as a kind of heretical cult that bewitched the people with shallow tricks and worshipped demons, but—
once you learn alchemy and herbalism to a certain degree, you become unable to deny the “study” of black magic.
The foundation of alchemy is combining and awakening the abilities slumbering within various ingredients.
For example, extracting medicine of desired properties through the arm of a kobold, the bone of an orc, and the egg of an ice spider.
Combining and refining the bodies of three completely different entities—different in species, form, and habitat—and transmuting them.
Alchemy had many aspects that reminded one of black magic in terms of its principles.
A chimera created by combining the bodies of different species.
How is that any different from a substance created through alchemy?
However, black magic was a study so reviled that if even a trace of it was discovered, not just the related village but cities and territories would be overturned.
I smelled the scent of blood and recalled the contents of the history books.
As the Emperor’s reign entered a period of stability, the work of uprooting magic began on the continent,
and at the same time, a long wall was built on the eastern side of the continent to block the barbarians.
But the reason the humans beyond it were classified as barbarians wasn’t solely due to the Emperor’s arrogance.
Humanity at the time had not matured enough to accept and properly use magic and black magic.
Endless wars and screams filled the continent, and peace only came after the Empire was barely established. The various technologies developed during the war blossomed, and it was magic that had built the Tower of Twirope where I once lived.
But the Emperor knew.
That if there was a power capable of touching the natural order, it could also disrupt this peace.
Thus, the mage hunts led by the Emperor and the church.
When magic was forbidden and mages were all slaughtered, black magic was naturally regarded as magic and suppressed.
The alchemical knowledge in my pockets and my head was, in a way, a remnant created as a byproduct of magic.
Only, alchemy barely managed to keep its scholarly lineage alive through the excuse of chemistry.
As I drew near Gereon Castle, distracting thoughts grew many.
The pockets I carried potions in were now largely empty. I should set up an alchemy lab, even a temporary one, to replenish them, but for now, all I had were the things I’d made while escaping the Tower of Knowledge.
The blood trail had faded before I knew it.
Before the sun reached its zenith, I had barely reached the boundary of Gereon Castle.
If we left this forest and revealed ourselves, Gereon’s sentries would notice our presence immediately.
Before leaving the forest, I tried to explain the final warnings and precautions to my subordinates.
This was an operation where even a single mistake could not be tolerated.
But then.
One subordinate looking up at the castle wall behind me went wide-eyed.
Wondering what was wrong, I turned my gaze in that direction, and something familiar was impaled above Gereon’s castle gate.
It was someone’s head.
It was a sharp-eyed subordinate who recognized it immediately.
“Ah, Big Brother Al?”
‘What? Al?’
I furrowed my eyes and concentrated. Then, the face of the head impaled on a pike, far in the distance, slowly came into view.
It was Al. No, to be precise, it was Al’s severed head.
Al’s beheaded head was pierced on a pike and hung from Gereon’s castle wall.
“Why is our big brother’s head over there!”
The enraged subordinates shouted as if in disbelief.
And looking at Al’s dead head, I steeled my wavering heart.
At the same time, I revised part of the plan in my head.
‘This is actually better.’
The interests of the houses, or even the connection between House Asta and black magic that was still mere speculation—none of it was enough to affect me now.
‘What matters right now is surviving and moving forward.’
I rolled my eyes and glanced at the furious bandits.
Just earlier they’d been grumbling about how they envied those living in luxury and how Al had abandoned them, but now they were glaring at the pike with fire in their eyes.
‘At this point, they’ll follow any command I give.’
Hiding my inward smile, I declared solemnly,
“Tomorrow, we go to avenge Al.”
[Hoo… you’re no ordinary one.]
Only Isaac Newton recognized my scheme and admired it.
I read the rage reflected in their eyes and the obedience surpassing it, then swallowed a satisfied smile.
Why they were fighting, why they were following someone without pay or food.
Wars, houses, their own interests—they were ignorant fools who didn’t even know why they were fighting right now.
But if anyone touched a brother of the band,
whether they were a house, a noble, rich, or poor,
they would take revenge, no matter who.
Because that was the driving force that had kept them alive until now, and their only rule.
It was also the reason I had chosen them.
I intended to make good use of Al’s death so that it would not be in vain.
If his death saved the subordinates and led them to a better position, that alone would give it noble value.
I could roughly guess why Al, who had been acting as a magistrate, had come here.
There was a very high chance Al had caused all kinds of trouble in Evolg and ended up in the underground prison.
And House Asta, during the process of occupying the castle, must have met Al in the underground prison calling himself a magistrate, and sent him as an envoy to Gereon, which was a troublesome thorn in their side.
Gereon, resolved to fight to the death, would have shown the will of their lord by beheading the magistrate who dared urge surrender.
Whether Al had revealed his identity while imprisoned, I didn’t know… but in any case, that wasn’t important now.
Not letting Al’s death be in vain. That was all that mattered.
In that sense, it was very welcome that the subordinates were burning with such fury.
‘Just one step closer to the restoration of House Abanas.’
“Yes, let’s go. But we must stay calm. Revenge isn’t accomplished through emotion. Listen well to my explanation from now on.”
The explanation wasn’t long.
‘First, cut off the head.’
I had to seize Gereon Castle before House Asta arrived.
“I’ll take ten volunteers to avenge Al.”
But far from ten, all twenty-two raised their hands.
Paco, who had raised his hand first, surveyed me with a strangely suspicious look.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Ah… it’s nothing. Just… it reminds me of the old days.”
“The old days?”
“Yes. That. When we stopped your carriage. The expression you made the moment you stepped out… it strangely resembles the one you’re wearing now, Boss.”
So that was the expression I was making now.
It was probably the face of someone figuring out how to cook and eat what lay before him.
I selected ten from among them.
But the remaining twelve had a role as well.
After relaying the mission to the remaining ones for a successful revenge,
I gathered the ten volunteers and made them memorize my plan.
If we broke through the outer walls and entered the interior, the lord inside would truly be a rat in a jar.
It would make a fitting gift for the Lord of Asta.
And how to break through the stringent watch—the first and greatest obstacle—and enter the castle?
It was simple.
* * *
“We’ve come to volunteer as mercenaries! We heard you were preparing for war.”
The commander of Gereon’s knights smiled a delighted grin at me.
He had no idea that smile was paving his liege’s shortcut to the netherworld.
We were already armed mercenaries who had even received supplies from House Evolg.
Though we had discarded weapons emblazoned with shields and coats of arms, we were still carrying steel swords, so this must have been welcome news for Gereon after a long time.
“Welcome! Your men have a reliable build. They look to be in good shape as well. Good, I like what I see! Hey, clear the spikes. Send them to the magistrate.”
Just like that, we entered the castle and made our way to House Gereon’s mansion.
When we assembled in the training grounds, I could see the lord looking down through the windows above.
But it was not yet time.
The magistrate of House Gereon approached with a gloomy expression and glanced at me dismissively.
“You muscle-brained mercenary bastards haven’t got a thing in your heads.”
It was laughable how he held himself so stiff even while cornered like this.
He would never dream, until the moment he died, that the man standing before him was a genius scholar from Twirope with a head overflowing with knowledge.
“You came in knowing this is a deathtrap? You fools.”
“What do we care about that? Just pay us.”
I grumbled, acting as an ordinary mercenary.
To Gereon’s magistrate, whose expression was rotting away, I must have looked like a mercenary who followed money and blood.
And so, we were able to easily enter the corridors of Gereon Castle.
Even the Lord of Gereon sat vacantly inside the corridor like a scarecrow, lost in despair with a hopeless face.
He didn’t even give us a second glance. The magistrate was issuing every command as if he were the lord.
In that regard, I could smile brightly on the inside.
Before turning around and leaving the training grounds, I asked the magistrate one thing.
“We may be ignoramuses, but we’d like to pray before the war. What time does prayer start at the church tomorrow?”
“Ha! From sunrise onward, all day long.”
‘Of course.’
They must want to borrow even the power of God.
They must be desperate enough to press-gang even passing travelers, let alone divine power.
It was only natural that they spent the whole day waiting for salvation.
Instead of returning straight to my subordinates at the waiting area, I wandered around the church.
To pinpoint the exact location and formulate the plan.
As expected, there were no holy knights guarding the church.
There was a law that they should avoid involvement in secular affairs as much as possible, but it was also because all holy knights had left ever since the central region turned its back on the northeast. It had been the same in Evolg.
Only the bishop remained, all alone in the church.
I surveyed the church’s interior structure and brought my subordinates over little by little, a few at a time, assigning each one a position.
Deliberately, in front of others, I acted as if consoling my subordinates.
I didn’t forget to earnestly make the sign of the cross.
And in the daytime, handing them the daggers I had purchased with Evolg gold coins under the pretext of war, and patting their shoulders,
no one paid us any heed.
* * *
Finally, the next day came.
The Lord of House Gereon was walking to the church to pray.
‘Facing a fight against House Asta, which has become the king of the east, he must be desperate for divine salvation.’
I gestured to my subordinates loitering around the church with a nod.
‘Prepare yourselves.’
Then my subordinates, who had never set foot in a church even at its entrance in their lives, brazenly laid their swords before the cathedral and entered.
The knights surrounding the lord also merely glanced at them and did not stop them.
However, we each concealed daggers and hand axes in our sleeves and bosoms.
Inside the holy church, no one could bear arms except paladins wielding consecrated weapons, so seeing even the knights laying down their swords, I smirked.
Finally, the lord entered the church.
The knight commander, who as a knight could not lay down his sword, stood guarding the door outside the church.
I stood a short distance from the knight commander.
Even in a wartime situation, the sight of him wearing nothing but chainmail instead of full plate armor was quite absurd.
The knight commander glanced at me and sneered.
How delightful that he picked a fight first.
“Hah. Do mercenary bastards pray these days?”
“So it seems.”
“So it seems? You little… you’ve got a short tongue.”
And this is the knight commander.
I had deliberately provoked him, but he took the bait too easily.
I kept running my mouth.
Making him lose a bit of composure was advantageous because it dulled a knight’s instincts. If he sensed any suspicious killing intent from inside, things would go awry.
“Well, so what? You seem to look down on mercenaries, but have you ever killed anyone with that sword? Threatening to cut down your own allies before the war—what a fine knight.”
“A fine knight hangs the neck of a presumptuous cur to enforce discipline.”
The knight commander’s face turned bright red with the humiliation of being insulted by a lowly mercenary wretch.
Just as he placed his hand on his sword hilt as if to draw it at any moment,
a scream flowed out from inside the church.
“Kyaaaah!”
Thud! Thud! Thud! Slash! Crack!
“Kurk….”
“Uwaack!”
“Die, you bastards!”
The knight commander’s body spun around instantly. The very moment he tried to spring into the church like a rubber band,
a sword was drawn from my waist in an instant.
Shhk!
The knight commander’s head, cut clean through along with his chainmail, bounced against the wall and rolled away.
“And this is Al’s share.”
Before the pale-faced residents, I swallowed my bitterness and forced an expressionless face.
This was the only way.