WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Oblivious

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Prince of Rage ◈

Chapter 14

──────

It was a tent with a large tactical map spread across a table. Several people were present, and Valerie was looking down at the map, planning strategy, tactics, and operations.

The usual sounds of a military camp came from outside. Senior soldiers and noncommissioned officers shouting in the distance, wagon wheels rattling along, horses’ hooves, and weapons clattering together.

Still, the tent’s thick fabric muffled those sounds somewhat, making them all dull.

Then, at some point, the entrance flap was pulled aside, and the noise suddenly rushed into the tent. The flap fell back down and shut it out again.

Someone entered the tent. He looked to have only recently entered middle age, with short blond hair, blue eyes, and a solid build, the typical features of a Norseman.

But he looked deeply shocked. More precisely, his face held a mixture of emotions, including anger and disappointment.

“Why did you make that decision? It was never even discussed in the meeting! You didn’t tell me either!”

“Lower your voice. I don’t want to hear it.”

At Valerie’s cold words, the blond man seemed about to explode, but barely swallowed it and lowered his voice.

“...No, Prince. If you burn the city and massacre its people, who will surrender to us in the future?”

“The tide has already turned. If they don’t surrender, I’ll kill them all.”

“B-But, Prince... There are as many as five thousand people living in that city...”

“So? I clearly gave them a chance. I told them to hand over the Fifth Prince’s son. They were the ones who tried to deceive us by putting innocent children forward. They intended to betray us from the start.”

“Even so, give me just five hundred soldiers, and I’ll find him within a week. No matter what, burning the whole city should be reconsidered...”

“I can’t waste a week searching for one little brat. Time is everything when moving an army. Wasting time means putting ourselves at a disadvantage, and being at a disadvantage means unnecessary casualties. Don’t say things you can’t take responsibility for.”

There was nothing wrong with Valerie’s words. That was why the man gradually had less and less to say.

“...Are you really going to do it?”

“Listen carefully. Rather than sacrifice even one of my soldiers, I would burn a city and massacre its people. If something similar happens again, I’ll do the same. That’s who I am. It’s not just what I think. I have always been this kind of person, Arne.”

Perhaps realizing that words could no longer persuade Valerie, Arne’s expression changed from moment to moment as countless emotions crossed his face.

Then, with a very calm expression and a bitter smile, he spoke.

“Hey, Valerie.”

“...”

“Are you really someone with no heart, just like people say? A person shouldn’t be like that. How can anyone be like that?”

It seemed Arne had been holding much in for a long time. Valerie knew that, but had coldly ignored it until now. It seemed to have finally burst out.

“It has been eight years. Eight years of giving you all my loyalty and running forward with my eyes fixed only on you. Yes, you’ll become king. Because you don’t know defeat. But someone like you will lead people to paradise? I don’t want to go to that kind of paradise.”

Arne seemed to have made a firm decision. Yet Valerie’s gaze as he looked at him was utterly merciless and did not waver in the slightest.

Arne even felt despair in that unshaken gaze. So he drew a dagger from his clothes. It was one Valerie had given him as a gift.

Valerie’s closest aides in the tent rose to intervene, but Valerie raised a hand and stopped them instead.

Arne spoke.

“You did nothing wrong. You are a prince of the sacred Volsung royal house. I’m the one at fault. I judged a person wrongly. But... Please, do not burn the city. I beg you. I’ll be watching, even after I’m dead.”

After speaking, Arne slit his own throat without hesitation.

With the dagger Valerie had given him.

Arne collapsed as though crumpling apart, blood gushing from his neck. No emergency treatment could have helped. The wound was too fatal, and he soon died.

Valerie stood still for a while before speaking.

“Take him away.”

And soon afterward, he burned the city.

Screams and cries seemed to fill the sky, while violent flames swallowed the city.

Rumble, rumble. The sound of the fire burning was like a waterfall crashing down.

Those hot flames, filled with resentment, reflected in Valerie’s cold sky-blue eyes.

Valerie opened his eyes.

The room was dark, though a faint light had begun to seep in. It was dawn, his first day at the House of Viding.

The room was furnished with fairly good furniture. There was a chest of drawers, a desk, chairs, and even a clean brass mirror.

He had had an unpleasant dream, but he quickly shook it off and got up. As always, he first arranged his bedding and opened the window shutter.

The window was very small. The annex was a building with a military purpose, forming part of the fortress’s outer wall.

The view outside was not as good as Winslow’s, either. Still, looking at the city beyond the moat had its own small charm.

White smoke rose in curls from chimneys throughout the city.

He tilted a water jug and filled a basin, washing himself briefly. As he swept back his hair and looked in the mirror, Valerie disliked the sight of himself reflected there. So he took the mirror down and placed it face down on the chest of drawers.

He went outside and headed for the dining room on the first floor. Meat butchered for yesterday’s banquet, freshly baked bread, fresh ham, cheese, and soup were laid out there. Since the banquet had ended early, there was plenty to eat.

There were not many people, but there were some, and all of them looked much older than Valerie. They seemed to be at least in their thirties.

Some had thick beards, while others had faces and hands covered in scars. They were knights with the air of veterans. The kind of people who, fully armed, could kill everyone in a village by themselves.

No one openly picked a fight, but they stared at Valerie. One of them spoke.

“The bowls are over there.”

Valerie gave the man a slight nod, then took a bowl and plate and helped himself to food.

That was the difference between barracks and an annex. In the barracks, food was served out, but in the annex, one could eat as much fresh food as one wanted.

He found a suitable seat and ate. His only tools were his hands and a dagger. He even used his hands to pick solids out of the soup.

No one spoke to him. Eventually, even the gazes quietly watching him turned away.

Though they might have spoken among themselves if they knew one another, they did not. It was still early, and they were all individualistic by nature.

“How old are you?”

The person who had told Valerie where the dishes were, sitting quite far away, asked him.

“Fourteen.”

The man did not look surprised. He merely nodded.

“That horse of yours looks fine. What breed is it?”

“I don’t know.”

The man only nodded again. Without even exchanging names, their conversation ended there.

Those who had finished eating got up and left, while new people came in.

Everyone had their own work to do. The ducal house’s knights managed their horses, squires, and soldiers, patrolled the area around the city, dealt with incidents and accidents, or carried out the duke’s orders.

Even waiting for orders when there was nothing to do was work.

Valerie had not been assigned anything yet. He was not a knight of the ducal house, but neither did he seem to be a guest merely staying for a short time. Yet if he was staying in the annex, he was not an ordinary resident guest, either.

That did not mean Valerie felt uneasy about his position. He did not care about such things, so he decided to look around the city for now.

After finishing his meal, he rose. He put on a short cloak, strapped his sword to his waist, and left the annex. He had received little attention inside, but now he could feel gazes from all around him.

Servants walking through the castle courtyard, other employees, resident guests, and people like them.

Normally, he would not have paid attention to them, but Valerie carefully examined every one of them, as though looking for someone. Yet no one stood out.

Just then, the drawbridge lowered and the castle gates opened. Those assigned to guard duty left the fortress to change shifts. Valerie followed them out.

The soldiers changing shifts scattered to their respective posts, but Valerie did not follow them. Instead, he walked along the canal.

At a glance, Torvik had many Norse-style wooden buildings. They had pointed roofs with long overhanging ends.

Some homes had painted round shields hanging on their outer walls, showing that the people living there were freemen.

Valerie followed the canal for a while, then changed direction and walked along a main road. He intended to visit the market if there was one.

Many people had started their work early in the morning. He followed people pulling carts somewhere, and as expected, came upon a market.

Stalls lined the square. There were also many large stone buildings, as well as narrow, tall Norse wooden temples.

Many people went to the temples, offering tributes and mourning the dead gods.

Valerie had no particular wish to mourn them, but he entered a temple briefly to look around.

At the center of the temple was a long brazier surrounded by large stones. Since it was a wooden building, they did not make the fire too large. A gentle flame spread warmth instead.

Around it were offerings of every kind, including food, flowers, copper coins, and miscellaneous goods. Priests came and went, organizing and collecting them.

Valerie suddenly remembered his dream at dawn.

Arne’s desperate plea. The flames swallowing the city.

He left a little money by the brazier and left the temple.

Since he did not particularly like crowded places, Valerie headed into an alley before the market fully opened.

Following the alley for some time, he reached another canal. There was a watergate nearby, along with several guards.

They seemed to have just changed shifts and were about to open the watergate, but the situation did not look good. It seemed there was conflict among them.

Valerie had not meant to eavesdrop, but their voices grew loud enough for him to hear.

“You bastard. Do my words really sound that fucking awful to you?”

“...No. I just don’t want to harass people for no reason.”

“No reason? This bastard really is something. You think this is some kind of word game?”

One large soldier grabbed another by the collar. Then he repeatedly struck the helmet the other soldier was wearing in an unpleasant manner. It probably did not hurt, but having someone hit your helmet felt terrible.

“You bastard! You bastard! How! Many! Times! Did I! Give you! A chance! And you! Had to! Understand it! Like a fucking idiot! What makes you! So damn! Special!?”

Each time he broke up his words, he struck the helmet. The other soldier’s helmet became crooked. Unable to resist even once, he frantically tried to straighten it, only for it to become crooked again.

Then the large soldier swung upward as though slapping him, and the chin strap came loose. The helmet flew completely off.

It fell to the ground, rolled along, and stopped at Valerie’s feet.

Clang! Clang! Clangrrr...

Everyone’s eyes naturally turned to Valerie. Their gazes met his.

“Hey! You there! Is this entertaining to you!?”

“W-Wait. Skard, isn’t that the bastard from yesterday...?”

“What?”

The soldier whose collar had been grabbed and whose helmet had come off also turned to look at Valerie. Valerie’s gaze was fixed only on him.

Valerie quietly picked up the helmet and approached him. Handing it over, he said,

“Would you believe me if I said I came here because of you alone, Arne?”

“?”

Everyone widened their eyes, unable to understand what was happening. They hurriedly looked back and forth between Valerie and Arne.

Before the regression, the king had died when Valerie was twenty. After hiding in the Thieves’ Guild for around three years, he met Arne. And then came eight years.

Valerie was now fourteen. Naturally, Arne was young as well. On top of that, he had been wearing a helmet, so Valerie had not recognized him at once.

“H-How...?”

Arne was about to ask how Valerie knew his name, but Valerie turned to the Skard gang instead.

“Give us some room. The two of us need to talk.”

Skard was so bewildered that he unconsciously released Arne’s collar and stepped away. They headed toward the fortress, constantly looking back.

Ignoring them, Valerie straightened Arne’s clothes and put the helmet into his hands.

“Do people bully you?”

“W-Well... How do you know me?”

Valerie considered what he should say. But nothing came to mind. Instead, words buried deep within his heart bloomed like sprouts.

Perhaps there was still some life left in the heart he had believed he had killed himself.

“Well, I suppose I should say that I just know you. Your honest nature is very admirable, but if you had only looked the other way once, just one last time, I would never have done it again.”

“What... Do you mean?”

“That’s all. Let’s get along from now on.”

“...Pardon?”

Valerie smiled and held out his hand. Perhaps because he had settled things properly in Winslow, smiling now came quite naturally to him.

But Arne was so dumbfounded that he did not know what to do. So Valerie grabbed his hand and forced him to shake it.

It was a very awkward handshake. From Arne’s perspective, it could not have been otherwise.

The astonishing rumors carried on the wind, Valerie’s shocking appearance last night, and their incomprehensible first meeting.

That was what Valerie was to Arne now.

Chapter 4: A One-Sided Reunion. End.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried