Episode 56
The mythical warriors who had entered the territory by ruthlessly, brutally, and overwhelmingly trampling the Wights showed an attitude of submission to a single man.
A man wearing a crow mask, a cloak of feathers, and leather garments looked down at them with his head held high.
The emotion Ash felt as he watched the man was indescribable.
Just who was this man, that they would kneel to him?
And why? How? How could he stand so proudly before such monsters!
Ash wanted to voice the questions bottled up inside him, but he lacked the courage.
He had witnessed the might of the Berserk Warriors.
Just by seeing what stood before him now, he could feel how tremendous their spirit was.
He couldn't even imagine how hard such men had strived to grow stronger after giving up their humanity, nor how many lives they had taken.
Standing before such people, Ash—who had grown up in a greenhouse trusting only in his background—could not even muster the courage to speak.
Then, the one kneeling at the front slightly raised his head and shouted.
“New Asgard! The Hundred Berserk Warriors! Their captain, Kudan Ragna! The oracle Kankun Ragna! And I… Aum Rinia! Having answered the call of the King of Nord, we offer our respects!”
“Call?”
The corner of Loki’s mouth twitched, but Ash did not see it.
He was merely repeating each and every word they had spoken.
‘New… Asgard? Berserk Warriors? And… King of Nord? What on earth are they talking about…?!’
New Asgard? Why would they utter something that meant a newly born nation?
Berserk Warriors? Was that the name of a knightly order?
King?
King of Nord?
What was that supposed to mean!
As Ash stared at Loki and Aum Rinia with his lips tightly sealed, Aum met the gaze of Loki, who was smiling down at him.
Within the shadowed crow mask, red eyes met Aum’s blue pupils. Aum smiled at him.
Finally, the meeting with the Constellation had come to pass.
***
“Mmm—! Permission has been granted!”
A Berserk Warrior’s seemingly delighted voice came from within a beastly helm.
He tapped his weapon against his palm and spoke.
“Who are we?!”
Though the other Berserk Warriors shouted, “The Berserk Warriors of Asgard!”, the speaking Berserk Warrior shook his head.
“No, no. The assembly order has been dismissed. So then, what are we now?”
At his words, each of them grinned grimly within their helms.
“Raiders.”
Their manic gazes leaked through the gaps in their helms.
“Yes! We are Nords! Beasts who live by devouring others’ happiness through plunder! So everyone…!”
They already pointed their weapons in the direction the scattered, fleeing Wights had gone.
“Begin the hunt.”
Except for some Berserk Warriors, the assembly order was dismissed. Now they would individually go out as hunters and raiders to hunt down prey.
They sprinted out.
Despite carrying equipment of considerable weight, they ran across rooftops at superhuman speed, hunting the Wights one by one.
“It is the oracle’s command! Rescue and treat the wounded and infected!”
The people of Harma Territory and the refugees gathered in one place.
Some summoned Berserk Warriors called together the surviving refugees in Harma Territory and treated them. It was none other than Kankun’s order, and she herself was busy directly rescuing the Lord’s people and refugees.
However, what was used to treat their wounds was medicine made from simple herbs, and for the infected they were treated under the guise of holy water using purification potions.
Aum, who knew Kankun’s personality well, had earnestly warned her that while she could treat them, she must absolutely not reveal anything about the potions.
“Do we have oil?”
At Kudan’s words, the Berserk Warrior shook his head.
“There appears to be no oil anywhere in the territory. It seems it was all used during the siege defense.”
“…Then tear off straw or wooden doors and burn them. So that no more infected appear.”
At Kudan’s command, the Berserk Warriors smashed house doors in the territory to gather firewood and collected corpses to burn.
The black blood and Worm Pest nearby were handled by using straw to burn only the paths leading out of the territory.
“By the way… Lord Loki is one thing, but Aum is stubborn too.”
Kudan glanced toward where Loki and Aum were.
There, Aum Rinia was still kneeling, and behind him, four Berserk Warriors were prostrating on the ground.
***
“Representative of the Nord folk, Aum Rinia offers his eighth petition. Your Majesty! Please return to your homeland…”
“Please return to your homeland—!”
As Aum Rinia bowed his head and shouted, the Berserk Warrior behind him chimed in. At a sight one would only see in a historical drama, the muscles near Loki’s mouth twitched.
The deliberately exaggerated tone, behavior, and even voice.
It was the most annoying refrain Aum had calculated that Loki would hate.
“I refuse.”
Then the same words repeated from Aum’s mouth.
“Representative of the Nord folk, Aum Rinia offers his ninth petition. Your Majesty! Please return to your homeland…”
“Please return to your homeland—!”
Only the number he spoke kept increasing.
“I’ll refuse even if you say the same thing a hundred times.”
“Then I shall entreat you a thousand times, ten thousand times.”
“……”
Loki looked not only at Aum but also at the Berserk Warriors behind him.
He had expected them to come find him directly. He had thought they’d bring Kudan or Per as companions at most, but never in his dreams had he imagined they’d lead an army in this manner.
If one spoke of the Berserk Warriors, they were Asgard’s strongest human weapons.
Excluding Loki’s Legion of Death, the Skeletons, it would be no exaggeration to call them the strongest on the continent.
He never dreamed they’d bring them as a ‘welcoming party’ or whatever.
Moreover, Aum had deliberately used the title ‘King of Nord’.
It was a word used because the Berserk Warriors did not know Loki’s true form, and also intended to emphasize Loki’s importance.
‘Is it because they coordinated their words that the Berserk Warriors don’t show much rejection?’
If not, there was no way the Berserk Warriors would remain calm at the words ‘King of Nord’.
Or perhaps from the start, he was trying to officially stamp the identity Loki was currently using for amusement, ‘Hun’, as a formal authority figure.
Constellation Loki. King of Nord, Hun.
Perhaps the intention was to make it so that neither Loki nor Hun could easily run away from Asgard.
‘So this is how you’re coming out…?’
These were surely calculating actions to take him to Asgard.
There was only one action to take at a time like this.
“…I made myself clear. I’m not going.”
Shamelessly ignore them.
As Loki shifted his steps elsewhere, a Berserk Warrior hastily rose, knelt in the direction he was walking, and blocked the way with his head pressed to the ground.
“……”
When Loki turned again, another Berserk Warrior blocked his path from a different direction, kneeling and bowing his head.
“…Move.”
“If it is your command, I shall obey. But if there remains a void left by Lord Hun in Asgard, countless citizens will suffer. Please consider this once more!”
“……”
Such words couldn’t come from a Berserk Warrior. They were surely lines Aum had prepared.
Feeling veins bulge on his forehead, Loki looked at Aum with a murderous gaze.
“You. Are you going to keep this up until the end?”
At Loki’s words, Aum raised his head. Aum looked at Loki with eyes filled with firm resolve.
“Please return to your homeland. The country needs a pillar now. Please leave what you wish to do to us….”
“Isn’t that because you lot can’t handle it that I came out myself?”
“……”
Loki sighed and slipped his hand under the crow mask to press hard on his temples.
“…Fine. We’ll talk later. For now, let them rest. No matter how harsh their training, they must be tired.”
At Loki’s words, Aum had no choice but to back down.
Any more than this and the dignity of both Aum and Loki would fall. It wouldn’t affect the Berserk Warriors, but it wouldn’t be a pretty sight.
Aum knew that too, so he took a step back.
“Um….”
Loki lowered his gaze at the familiar voice.
He saw Salret tugging at his clothes from beside him.
“Who are those people?”
Salret showed considerable reluctance as she looked at the Berserk Warriors. She had never seen such a powerful army before.
Not even an army of monsters would be as strong as them.
Loki uttered in a manner suggesting it was no big deal.
“Comrades.”
“…Comrades?”
This time it was Ash who reacted.
Ash had often received foreign dignitaries befitting a prince, and each time he had seen the training or sparring of knights displayed to show national power.
And now, having become a central figure in the war, he had witnessed actual combat with his own two eyes where enemies charged to kill.
To him, he couldn’t think of anyone who could win even when compared to a single Berserk Warrior.
Among those Ash knew, there were no knights as powerful as them.
The same would likely be true for the Holy Order.
To call such people comrades without hesitation…!
‘No, they aren’t comrades. They showed gestures of submission.’
Their attitude truly felt like loyalty offered to a king or emperor.
‘What is this guy?’
He possessed the mark of the Black Inquisitor, the direct unit of the Holy Order’s Pope.
Moreover, he had the skill to annihilate Wights in a single blow and warriors numbering over a thousand slaughtering Wights under his command.
Could he truly be the King of Nord?
If he truly were the king of those raiders….
‘He must never be turned into an enemy!’
Ash’s face paled.
He recalled the rude attitude he had shown him until now.
Ash knew. One must not judge an opponent by appearances alone. That was the relationship between royalty and nobility.
Even if they smiled outwardly, one couldn’t know what they thought inside, and there were plenty who used apparent vulnerability as bait to launch a counterattack.
That had been natural daily life for Ash.
But to think he’d repeat the same mistake even after falling into a trap because of a commoner-born noble named ‘Pam’ and ending up like this!
‘Pathetic! To only now remember the most important fact I learned while studying kingcraft!’
It wasn’t actually something one could learn through study alone. Moreover, having grown up trusting in his background, looking down on others was normal for him, and Loki’s appearance was also too bizarre.
Above all, since he even had an elf, who was a heretic, by his side, it was only natural for Ash, who had faithfully believed in the Azellan Church, to adopt such an attitude.
‘What should I do? I have to make up for my mistakes until now and somehow close the distance with him…!’
It was while Ash was thinking this.
“……?”
A beautiful woman passed before him.
Though dust stained her face, she was so beautiful one couldn’t realize the filth. White skin and blue eyes filled with firm resolve. Though she wore armor, her gallant figure was almost sacred.
As she moved, glossy blue hair fluttered and drifted before Ash’s eyes.
‘How… how beautiful a woman!’
It was Kankun.
Once emergency treatment for the wounded was finished and things had somewhat stabilized, she walked quickly and approached Loki.
She bowed her head to Loki and offered her respects.
“Oracle of Asgard, Kankun Ragna. I offer my greetings to Lord Hun.”
“…It’s been a while.”
When Loki spoke stiffly upon seeing Kankun, she smiled gently.
Kankun cautiously opened her mouth while reading Loki’s mood.
“Um… Lord Hun.”
“You may call me Loki.”
“Is that so? Still, aren’t you in a position where you must hide your identity for now?”
Kankun tilted her head.
“Not particularly.”
“Even so, the Berserk Warriors do not know. They would be very surprised if they found out.”
She glanced at the wounded refugees.
“What will you… do with them?”
“They have their own path. It’s not our place to interfere.”
“I see….”
Kankun looked at Loki. It was as if she was gauging the timing to ask something.
Loki looked at the wounded.
Most were sobbing and groaning from the sorrow of losing family and from their injuries.
In that regard, Loki was emotionless. He felt no sympathy such as pity or wretchedness. He had no connection to them, nor was there a single familiar face among them.
However, there was one person who caught his attention.
A woman with a bulging belly.
Apparently pregnant, she struggled to steady herself as she received care from other refugees. A smile hung on her face, but anyone could see it was a forced smile.
‘…Could she be Yuan’s wife?’
He wasn’t certain. Even if there was a pregnant woman among the Lord’s people, the chances that she was Yuan’s wife were very low.
Loki recalled Yuan’s final moments.
He had become a Wight and grabbed Loki’s foot, opening his maw to devour him. But his expression had been closer to one of pleading.
‘…If she is related to him, I could help, but I’m not sure.’
Loki looked at the letter Yuan had left behind.