WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Oblivious
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◈ Prince of Rage ◈
Chapter 29
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Valerie woke at dawn as usual. But he did not feel refreshed.
It was an unfamiliar place, and it had been a while since he had slept somewhere with the sounds of people living outside, so his sleep had been restless.
People leaving for night duty, wives and mothers seeing to them, people having a drink after returning from duty. It was not something he could complain about being noisy.
The room was dim, so he felt around and lit the lantern. The place seemed somewhat tidied up, but since he was staying in a house someone else had used, traces of another person's life remained everywhere.
The fatigue of travel clung to him, but he could not sleep either, so he simply got up.
He first checked that his weapons were in place, drew his sword, and examined its blade. Then he went to the large jar in the house.
It was full of water when he lifted the lid. He scooped some into a basin with a dipper, crouched down, and barely managed to wash his face. There was no towel, so he roughly wiped his face with his clothes.
Belfort had many good points, but one weakness was the difficulty of securing drinking water. There was no well and no nearby river, so they had to travel far to fetch water from springs or streams.
Valerie put on his armor and went outside. The dark, watery blue of dawn filled the world.
“You're already up?”
Edric asked. He was armed as well, though rather than chainmail like Valerie's, he wore only a thick gambeson and a helmet.
“It is when I normally rise.”
“I see. If you'd stayed a little longer, my wife would have brought you a meal.”
“I'll have some porridge later.”
“Um, understood. I need to go stand watch.”
Valerie nodded.
“May fortune follow you.”
Edric, the outpost commander, descended from the rocky area carrying a spear and shield. Soldiers armed with bows and spears were already waiting below. The gate opened, and they left to guard the barley fields.
Valerie went down to see Snow. Snow was, naturally, in the stable. There were no horses besides Snow, though there were other livestock.
Snow appeared to have been brushed very well. Valerie patted Snow, then cleared the mud caught in Snow's hooves.
Valerie fed Snow fodder and gave Snow plenty of water, passing the time that way.
People gradually began to wake up, and Valerie returned to the rocky area to eat breakfast.
It was around sunrise. Valerie was tending to his equipment where he was staying when the man who had guided him yesterday burst through the door.
The man was Belfort's deputy outpost commander, and he looked urgent.
“Patrol Officer. It's them.”
Valerie immediately sheathed his sword, fastened his belt around his waist, and hung the sword from it.
“Can you see them from the watchtower?”
“Yes.”
Valerie first climbed the watchtower with the deputy outpost commander.
The sun had just risen over the far eastern horizon, and fighting had broken out near the northern forest he had seen yesterday. It looked as small as dots, so Valerie had to narrow his eyes to see clearly.
The wildmen had smeared white paint over their faces and bodies, making them quite visible even from afar. They threw stones and carried clubs as weapons. A few held crude spears as well.
The wildmen had greater numbers. To an unfamiliar observer, it would have appeared to be a fierce battle, but not to Valerie.
Edric's side was better equipped and more experienced. They were maintaining distance well and appeared to be shooting arrows from afar, meeting anyone who approached with spears and swords. It did not seem particularly dangerous.
But something seemed strange to Valerie.
“Weren't they coming to steal barley?”
“Yes? That's right.”
“But they seem to be fighting too openly. Considering when the outpost commander left earlier, couldn't the wildmen have come sooner and stolen the barley?”
“Yes? Uh... They must be very angry.”
“Are battles like this frequent?”
“Not exactly, but it seems they came prepared today. Time is of the essence, Patrol Officer.”
Despite the deputy outpost commander's urging, Valerie ignored him and looked down toward the village.
“How many people remain here? Those capable of fighting.”
“...Well, around six or seven.”
Valerie thought something was wrong. If they desperately needed barley, they should have been targeting it. But that did not seem to be the case.
He quickly turned to the south. It was not as vast as the northern forest, but there was forest to the south as well, and it was quite dense.
“Close the western gate. The remaining men are not to go support them. Guard this place. There could be an ambush. Where the outpost commander is isn't as dangerous as it appears.”
“...Pardon?”
From the deputy outpost commander's perspective, this was absurd. What did Valerie know, arriving only yesterday and saying such things? Honestly, he thought Valerie was only saying it because he did not want to fight.
But regardless of what he thought, Valerie hurried down from the watchtower and gathered the able-bodied men. There were boys around thirteen to fifteen, but he did not gather them.
“Close the western gate! Send the women and children up above, and block the road!”
Valerie gave the order like a shout. The armed young men had been about to go support the battle, but they followed Valerie's instructions in confusion.
To the deputy outpost commander, Valerie was becoming more outrageous by the moment. He had not expected much to begin with, but now Valerie was even preventing support from being sent. What did that brat know? What if something happened to the outpost commander?
Yet before long, wildmen truly came pouring out of the southern forest.
They looked like a swarm of white ants. There were far more here than where the outpost commander was fighting.
The deputy outpost commander's eyes went wide. Nothing like this had ever happened before.
The wildmen wore animal hides that had not even been properly tanned, or were otherwise scantily clad.
They entered through the eastern gate that had deliberately been left open, carrying clubs. Some clubs had animal teeth embedded in them, while some came empty-handed.
They rushed into the outpost village with shrill cries. Their teeth were truly black. Their tongues were black as well.
“Kyahhhhh!”
There was only one person stopping them. Valerie. Even before such numbers, he drew his sword without the slightest sign of tension.
“Patrol Officer!”
One of the men blocking the uphill road cried out, seeing that Valerie was in danger. It looked as though he would be lucky to kill even one with his sword before being swept away and trampled, as if by a wave.
The wildmen did not fear death either, pressing forward with nothing but mad momentum.
But just before they collided, Valerie slipped aside and swung his sword. The wildman at the front sprayed red blood from his neck and pitched forward at the same speed he had been charging.
Then Valerie stepped back and swung again, and another wildman fell spraying blood. Next, he passed by an enemy as though brushing past them and sliced through their waist.
Hot entrails spilled out in a heap, steam rising from them.
Then the next, and the next. With movements as smooth as flowing water, Valerie killed one man with each stroke.
In an instant, five or six corpses lay scattered across the ground, and the wildmen behind them tripped over the bodies and fell.
Valerie kicked the heads of those who had fallen hard, or drove his blade into their throats. By then, their mad momentum vanished as though doused with cold water.
The grotesque and terrifying wildmen faced true terror and began stepping back.
Valerie spoke to them.
“What has made you no longer human? Do you know how to speak like people?”
His manner was like that of a king or prince. Yet he meant it sincerely. He found them revolting and pitiful, feeling both a kinship as fellow humans and an alienation because they were no longer human.
Not only the wildmen but the allied men stared in shock, while the deputy outpost commander's mind went blank.
A knight could normally face dozens of wildmen. But Valerie gave off a different kind of chill.
Where knights generally overwhelmed their enemies with brute violence, Valerie was like someone precisely filleting fish or butchering an animal.
He swung his sword so quickly it could barely be seen, and people dropped one after another. It gave the feeling of wondering whether this was right, whether it was right to kill people so easily.
“Wait, what was the Salt Prince's name again?”
The deputy outpost commander murmured as if to himself. Perhaps having heard him, one of the village men replied.
“I heard it was Wid. Wid, Winslow's illegitimate child.”
It felt as though lightning struck inside the deputy outpost commander's mind. All the pieces of the puzzle seemed to fall into place. A name unbefitting a noble, a young age, swordsmanship like a ghost's. Whether it was exhilaration or fear, his jaw trembled.
Regardless, while the wildmen hesitated, Valerie brought Snow out of the stable. He saddled the horse, mounted, and shouted at the men.
“Spears! Bring me two spears!”
Startled by his clear shout, the men rushed over without realizing it. Authority poured from Valerie.
Valerie gave his sword a sharp swing through the air, roughly shaking off the blood. Droplets of blood spattered the wall of a nearby house.
Then he sheathed it and took the two spears as though snatching them away. He hooked one on the saddle and gripped the other in his hand.
The wildmen pouring into Belfort could neither flee nor charge, but the moment Valerie mounted his horse, they turned and fled in a rush. They had not expected there to be a knight.
Valerie spurred his horse onward. Hooves struck the paved road. Clatter, clatter.
He shot out through the eastern gate like lightning and raced straight toward where the outpost commander was fighting. Wildmen could be seen fleeing in every direction.
The barley fields had no clear boundaries. Some places grew thickly, while others were sparse. Valerie raced through an area where the barley grew sparsely.
The barley rustled as it brushed against him, and hooves pounded against the earth.
Thududududududud!
The outpost villagers watching from afar saw the black horse racing beneath sunlight like a newly risen sunset, making it seem as though ink had been brushed across the barley field.
The wildmen fleeing in panic kept looking back. Every time they turned their heads, Valerie was much closer.
“Ahhhhh!”
Someone screamed in terror. But Valerie's merciless spear pierced them, and he continued onward without slowing in the slightest. He rammed and trampled several wildmen, leaving them mangled.
Thududududududud!
Meanwhile, Edric, fighting while guarding the barley fields, sensed that something was strange.
The wildmen were fighting with greater vigor than usual, yet they were not recklessly rushing in.
He had fought in taut vigilance at first, but as time passed, he began to think something was wrong.
Then he heard the sound of hooves as well.
Thududududududud!
When he turned his head, Valerie was riding through the barley, charging toward them with force.
“It's the Patrol Officer!”
One of the soldiers fighting beside him shouted.
Everyone's faces brightened, while the wildmen facing them fled into the forest in surprise.
Valerie swept past Edric and the soldiers in an instant, continuing his charge.
The huge warhorse passed so close that Edric and the soldiers felt its tremendous weight and speed directly, sending chills down their spines. Yet they also took courage from that overwhelming power. He was on their side, not the enemy's.
Changing direction, Valerie pulled the spear hooked on his saddle and threw it. The spear flew powerfully and pierced a fleeing wildman directly through the back.
Thwack!
He immediately drew his sword, continued his gallop, and cut down one more man. He simply rammed and trampled another two. Including those he had killed in Belfort, he had killed nearly fifteen men alone.
Valerie did not pursue them into the forest. He finally brought his horse to a halt and returned to where Outpost Commander Edric stood. Snow breathed heavily. Huff! Huff! Snow did not snort.
“There was an attack on Belfort, Outpost Commander. That is why support was delayed.”
“What?”
“I evacuated the women and children and drove all the wildmen away, so you may rest assured. More importantly, should we not counterattack now?”
“...What?”
Edric could not gather his thoughts. This was the first time the wildmen had launched such a large-scale attack. They had even used a diversionary tactic.
“From what I saw, they lack women and children. They were not targeting the barley from the beginning. In any case, we successfully repelled the attack. If we have the strength left, we should counterattack immediately. You there. How many more shots can you make with your bow?”
From horseback, Valerie pointed to one of the archers.
“Me?”
“How many arrows did you shoot while fighting?”
“...I think around ten. I'm running out of arrows, and my arm is numb. It would be difficult to shoot any more.”
“You can still shoot around forty more. Send someone to replenish the arrows and weapons, then counterattack at once, Outpost Commander.”
“...”
An archer could shoot roughly ten arrows a day. Beyond that, their arm would grow numb and they could not shoot. But in a fierce battle where lives were at stake, they could shoot fifty or sixty arrows in one day.
That was the standard of the archers who had served in Valerie's unit before his regression, not the standard of the people here.
Still, even if they could not manage fifty or sixty arrows, Valerie judged that they could shoot far more.
“...”
In any case, Edric was so flustered that, despite his confusion, his heart pounded. It felt as though he was receiving the command of a true battle commander.
And his unconscious mind acknowledged that Valerie's judgment was correct.
His ability to immediately see through the enemy's intentions, his timing in shifting from defense to offense, even his precise calculation of enemy and allied strength to lead them to victory.
No one in the world could compare to Valerie in such abilities.
It had not been long since the sun rose. Blue paint was spreading across the sky in place of black.
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