“Are you sure the enemy force is five hundred? Didn’t you say that for a siege, the defending force is three times that? If you called fewer than that just to save money, we won’t fight. Sometimes that happens… Huh?”
The man covered in gray dust, who had been haggling belligerently the whole time, suddenly narrowed his eyes and looked into the distance. Then, just as suddenly, he furrowed his brow deeply and grew angry.
“Ah, seriously!! You said it was a siege!! It looks like knights are coming out of the gate!!”
“…….”
Edward stepped forward on behalf of the silent Count.
“No confidence in close combat?”
“…….”
“You said you were confident when it came to war, so I suppose you’ve only ever fought sieges until now?”
At Edward’s words, the mercenary captain bared his yellowed teeth.
“What? I’m pointing out that the terms are different from what was promised!”
“Five hundred gold ingots.”
“…….”
“I’ll pay that as a victory bonus.”
Only then did the mercenary captain’s expression smooth over. He let out a small chuckle and sprang up onto his horse.
“You should have said so earlier.”
And he narrowed his eyes, surveying the castle walls.
“I can barely see a thing, and they haven’t even lit any fires? Light the torches. Tell the riders to come forward, and have the archers stand by.”
The mercenaries moved the moment his order fell, and the Count took his position standing in a suitable spot.
As torches rose from the mercenary camp, the plains shrouded in darkness were revealed, and they came into view. The knights who had followed the Duke on campaign and ultimately returned alive were lined up in a long row like a wall.
Then, not long after, the expressions of the veteran mercenaries began to subtly harden.
“…It’s uncomfortably quiet.”
Only when a low murmur was heard from somewhere did the Count realize that the plains were enveloped in silence, and he also realized that this silence was exceedingly strange.
All that could be heard were the neighing of horses and the sound of hooves striking the ground. There were none of the shouts to overcome fear that were customary in war, nor any speeches to rouse morale.
They rode black warhorses and were armed with black armor and helmets. Assimilated into the darkness, their forms could not even be seen properly from afar.
The Count moistened his parched lips with his tongue and looked back. Beneath hundreds of torches, he saw mercenaries covered all over with the scars of war. The sight of them seemed to momentarily calm his anxious heart.
“Kill them quickly!”
When the Count urged the mercenary captain, he who had been watching the knights merged with darkness with a grave expression spoke.
“Five hundred gold ingots won’t do.”
“What?!”
“Pay seven hundred as a victory bonus.”
“You thieving bastard!”
“…….”
“Ah, fine!! I’ll pay, so hurry… hurry!!!”
Even after hearing that he would be paid, the mercenary captain’s expression did not brighten much. He rubbed his damp hands dry and gave an order to his aide.
“Deploy the Class 1 and 2 troops to the front.”
The moment his order fell, the positions of those already deployed churned and reorganized as if a river and the sea were mingling. Mercenaries with palpable experience were placed in the front ranks.
The mercenary captain roughly swept his eyes over them and then bellowed.
“Two hundred gold coins as victory pay, seventy gold coins upon death. Injury compensation is double the base rate!!”
In response, whistling sounds were heard from here and there.
“Whee—now that’s hot!”
“However, if we lose, there is nothing. As you well know.”
The mercenaries’ gazes gradually burned hotter.
“If we lose, there’s no guarantee you won’t die or get hurt. So win unconditionally. Win and take everything, got it?!”
“Yes sir!!!”
With a thunderous reply, the mercenaries rushed toward the darkness without anyone needing to go first. That was their way of fighting.
The moment they charged toward the fortress with a clamor, the silence that had covered the plains was broken, and war began.
Ares declared in a low voice.
“From this moment, the House of Count Rinko is no longer a vassal of Richmond.”
Then he gave a flat command.
“Crimson, Sirius. Scatter them.”
To their master’s flat command, Crimson and Sirius also responded quietly. When the two wordlessly drew their swords, their squads simultaneously drew long blades as if they had promised to do so. And they advanced toward the clamoring mercenaries.
The black warhorses that had campaigned with their master at the Wall of Death did not grow excited even at the sight of enemies beating drums and hurling curses as they charged. Compared to the foes they had until now had to overcome their fear to charge at, these were nothing.
The knights astride the warhorses were likewise unexcited.
They had returned alive from that foul land where thick fog lingered, unquenchable fires lurked everywhere, and dead trees hid like obstacles. For a full ten years, they had fought unseen things. Therefore, enemies clearly visible in the open plain, in the clear sky without a wisp of fog—
“It doesn’t even feel like fighting.”
Sirius, running at the fore, growled fiercely and swung his greatsword.
Warhorses tempered in death reared their forelegs as if they knew not death itself, trampling opponents, and the knights swung their swords precisely, killing foes with a single blow. Not a single one of them wasted their strength in vain.
“Kuk—”
“Uwaaack!!”
On the battlefield where a bloody wind began to blow, soon only one-sided screams began to echo. It was instantaneous—the squads of Crimson and Sirius destroying their battle lines.
“Uh…….”
While the aides around the mercenary captain rolled their eyes in bewilderment, Ares seized the momentum and gave the next command.
“Jeon, Ruben. Finish it.”
A chilling reverberation of steel rang out all at once, and some of the knights advanced as if they had been waiting. With their deployment, a one-sided slaughter that could no longer be called war began.
By the time an ominous premonition flashed through the mercenary captain’s mind, the situation had already reversed so rapidly that it was beyond control.
The numerical superiority they had held over the knights had been meaningless from the start. Where the knights in black armor passed, only the corpses of the slain were piled like mountains.
Without any sign of excitement, they wielded their swords calmly and precisely, like beings that had no purpose other than to bestow death upon the enemy. That eerie calmness and silence approached the veteran mercenaries as fear beyond compare.
“D-death gods…….”
As fear spread like a plague, the Class 1 and 2 mercenaries turned into a disorderly mob in an instant. When several mercenaries fled, the lower-ranked mercenaries watching from behind wavered.
“Desertion is death!! Do not waver, do not waver!!”
The middle managers tried to calm the mercenaries with desperate effort, but complaints burst forth.
“No one said we would be fighting close combat against those guys!! We clearly came here because we were told it was a siege!!”
“That’s right!! This is a breach of contract!!”
The Count and Countess of Rinko, feeling a sense of crisis pressing in, pushed past the mercenaries and went forward. The mercenary captain stood rooted to the spot, merely chewing his lips.
“H-hey! You need to commit more mercenaries, what are you doing, huh?!”
“…….”
“Are you trying to get everyone killed here?! Quickly, why aren’t you committing them!!!”
The Countess who had shouted took a hollow breath at the fierce gaze of the rough-looking man turning toward her. The mercenary captain glared at the couple with bloodshot red eyes as if to kill them, then gritted his teeth.
“…You were the ones who broke the contract first.”
“What?”
The mercenary captain felt that if he could, he would turn back time to just a few tens of minutes ago.
Class 1 and 2 mercenaries were not just anyone. Outstanding physical ability was a given, and one needed at least five years of actual combat experience to become a Class 1 or 2 mercenary. Such men were being horrifically slaughtered before his eyes. If they had been at a disadvantage in a mutual slaughter, he would have already committed the next unit.
The mercenary captain turned his head not toward the Count, but toward Edward.
“You said it was a force of five hundred at the level of Class 1 mercenaries, what the hell is this?!”
Edward gazed at the mercenaries being slaughtered with somber eyes and asked in a calm tone.
“Is there no chance of victory even if we commit more troops?”
The mercenary captain answered by spitting. Then, as he mounted his horse outright, the Count urgently grabbed him.
“Why are you turning away? We still have many troops, don’t we?!”
“Didn’t you talk properly with your son? We contracted that if we were defeated here, we would safely escort you to Castle Rinko in exchange for half the victory bonus.”
Count Rinko hurriedly looked at Edward. The mercenary captain urged them.
“I cannot commit more troops. What will you do?”
Though he asked what they would do, now that the commander of the troops had decided not to continue this war, Count Rinko had no choice.
“Yes, if we go to my territory, there are troops, and we can gather reinforcements.”
The mercenary captain urgently called someone over with his hand, and soon mercenaries numbering the same as the count’s faction nobles approached.
“Escort them one by one.”
“Are there no female mercenaries?!”
When the Countess shouted at the burly mercenary approaching her, the mercenary captain let out a hollow laugh as if it were absurd.
“Where would you find such a thing? If you don’t like it, my lady, you may remain here.”
“Just get on. What are you going to do about it!”
Prompted by the Count, who had mounted the mercenary’s horse faster than anyone, the Countess also climbed onto the mercenary’s horse as if she had no choice.
Once she too was on horseback, the mercenary captain began to ride without looking back. Though the groans of dying mercenaries could be heard from behind, they were bound together by money anyway. He chose to flee without hesitation.