WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Oblivious

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◈ Prince of Rage ◈

Chapter 41

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It was a town with an awful lot of frogs. They croaked their heads off every night. Sometimes it was noisy, but sometimes it felt almost homey.

But now, the frogs could not be heard. Their cries came from far away, but perhaps because so many people had gathered here, tonight’s chorus seemed to be taking a break.

Several people holding torches stood near the reed beds. And for some reason, someone was sitting tied to a chair.

The person in the chair sobbed and begged like a child.

One of their ears had been cut off, one eye was swollen so badly they could barely open it, all their fingernails had been pulled out, and several fingers had been severed at the joints.

“Please... Please... I really told you everything... It’s true...”

Their face was a mess of tears, blood, snot, and drool.

Raily showed no expression at all while looking at them. They did not seem frightened or cold, nor did they seem to enjoy it. They were excessively businesslike. That was what made them so terrifying.

Roy approached with a canteen and gave the person in the chair some water. They needed fluids to endure torture longer.

It was unfortunate for the victim, but the torture had not even begun in earnest. Slicing off strips of skin and sprinkling salt on them was the real start, and gouging out their eyes was the highlight.

As Raily picked up the sharp pincers again, the victim truly began bawling like a child.

They struggled and shook the chair, but it was stuck in the mud and would not move properly. In a way, it looked like a child throwing a tantrum.

Just as Raily was about to cut off another finger joint, someone who had been sitting some distance away stood and spoke.

“That’s enough. Stop.”

Raily put away the pincers, wiped their hands on a bloodstained handkerchief, and stepped back.

The victim did not know who had spoken, but hearing the order to stop felt like salvation.

Torture did not merely destroy the body. It destroyed the mind as well. Overcome with gratitude, they burst into tears.

They kept repeating thank you, thank you, when someone approached and placed an index finger over their lips. It meant shut up.

The torchlight revealed Valerie.

“Our brickmaker is dead, while you’re still alive.”

“W-What!? But I only followed orders! I had no personal grudge against him! Really!”

“I have no personal grudge either.”

“What!?”

Valerie drew his sword, Wound.

The victim’s eyes widened in terror. Yet even then, why did the sword reflecting the blazing torchlight look so beautiful? It was a smooth blade unlike anything they had ever seen.

At the very moment they felt both extreme terror and beauty, their head fell.

Valerie did not even feel the sensation of cutting with his hand, making it seem unnatural. There was not a drop of blood on the blade.

Even without enchantment, dwarf steel’s sharpness and durability were magical in themselves.

Valerie sheathed his sword again and spoke.

“Send it to the head of the Peat Guild. Perhaps he only meant it as a warning, but what we’re sending is not a warning. It is a challenge.”

The person behind the brickmaker’s murder was the head of the Peat Guild.

The two largest powers in Gringen were currently the Jewel Guild and the Peat Guild. It was the Peat Guild that had ordered Valerie’s brickmaker killed.

They had sent Valerie a warning because he had gathered people and mined peat.

In other words, he was taking away people they could exploit, leaving them short on workers. And mining peat clearly threatened their monopoly. That was why they had reacted.

Simply put, it was a conflict of interests.

There was neither good nor evil here. As there had always been, there was only the strong devouring the weak. Who was strong, and who would become meat.

The head of the Peat Guild was a man named McConnen, the second-generation head of the peat-mining business.

McConnen was effectively a local magnate, with a status in Gringen no different from a noble’s.

McConnen’s work involved gathering the heads of businesses affiliated with the guild once a week to hold meetings, and punishing people or groups that threatened them.

These days, the topic of discussion was none other than the Frog Mercenary Company. Those nobodies nobody had ever heard of. No, that was not right. The Salt Prince was quite famous, so they were not completely unheard of.

A meeting was being held even now, and they were discussing them.

“When exactly is the Duke going to finish gathering his forces? He cannot even control one of his own children. How did things turn out like this? Idiot...”

“If the Duke mobilizes his army, we will be threatened as well. I do not think relying on outside forces is so wise.”

“Then what are we supposed to do? Start a war with those Frog bastards? Even if we win, we will only be doing someone else a favor.”

“No word from the Jewel Guild?”

“Those bastards only care about themselves. Do they not realize they will be the next target after us?”

“Or perhaps they intend to expand their power while the two sides weaken each other fighting.”

Everyone shared their opinions, but there was no direction. It was the guild head’s job to determine that direction.

“Ahem. Ahem.”

When McConnen cleared their throat, the increasingly heated meeting quieted down.

“We have certainly sent a warning, so there will be a response. And do not worry. I have hired a wandering knight.”

“Sir Ingolf, ‘Iron Head’?”

“That is right. He is a pure Norseman knight who murdered a noble and killed twenty pursuers by himself, so there is no doubting his skill. He is far stronger than that fearsome Groin-Ripper. The Salt Prince cannot threaten our safety.”

“Then why not have him eliminate the Salt Prince beforehand?”

“Even so, the Third Young Master remains, does he not? If they retaliate, we would have to bear losses as well. The best outcome is for them to bow their heads. I will handle the negotiations. War is a last resort.”

Unfortunately, while they were holding their meeting, Valerie had already begun the war.

Then the meeting room door opened, and a guild employee entered. They carried a heavy box.

“The Frog Mercenary Company sent this.”

“Already, after one day? Do these people not even hold meetings? Open it first.”

They were puzzled, but when the employee placed the box on the table and opened the lid, everyone recoiled in shock.

A severed head lay inside, its mouth hanging stupidly open and its tongue lolling out. One ear had been cut off, while pulled fingernails and severed finger joints had been arranged around it as though decorating the head.

“Gasp!”

“Ahem!”

“Tch!”

Everyone in the meeting room reacted according to their nature. Some were greatly startled, some merely disgusted, and some felt their blood run cold.

McConnen, the guild head, was among those whose blood ran cold.

“A warning, or a challenge...”

“This is serious. Let us gather all the employees at once.”

They were called employees, but they were workers and soldiers at the same time. They knew how to use weapons.

They did not merely run a peat-mining business. They possessed armed strength, and that was why they had held a dominant position in Gringen for so long.

“We still have work left to do.”

“This is not the time to worry about losses.”

“Let us clear this away first. Damn it.”

At another person’s words, McConnen waved a hand as if telling them to remove it quickly. The employee closed the lid and carried it out again.

“Gather the employees. Open the armory as well, and do not let down your guard for the time being. We shall end the meeting here today. Return home, everyone, and we will convene again tomorrow morning.”

McConnen sent away the mining business owners who made up the guild. They needed to make a final decision. Whether to go to war, or whether to attempt one last negotiation.

McConnen could not sleep all night. When the meeting was held again the following morning, two people were missing. There were only three people in the meeting room, including McConnen.

“None of us could sleep, so perhaps we should hold the meeting again later, Guild Head.”

“Yes, that would be best.”

McConnen returned to the bedroom, slept briefly, ate, and convened the meeting again around noon. But this time, McConnen was alone.

McConnen called an employee and told them to find out what had happened, only to receive the answer that nobody knew where the others were. They said they were searching hard as well.

Only then did McConnen realize that something was seriously wrong.

“Ingolf. Bring Sir Ingolf.”

“Yes.”

The employee went to fetch him, and shortly afterward, a large man entered the meeting room. Strangely, nobody knew how he had done it, but his forehead was made of an iron plate.

“It seems those bastards have done something. From now on, you will protect me.”

“Understood, Guild Head.”

Then the outside became noisy. McConnen hurried out to see someone pounding on the main gate while employees ran around the spacious courtyard, hastily grabbing weapons and preparing for battle.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

They were not simply pounding on the gate. Someone outside had shoved something like a chisel through a gap, then struck the bolt with a hammer.

Before long, they split the iron bolt in two.

Clang! Clatter!

Creeeak.

The main gate opened, and someone entered. It was Valerie. Skard and the sturdy men he had trained followed. There were five of them.

McConnen’s side had around twenty people, far more in number. But Valerie did not seem intimidated at all. He threw what he was holding into the courtyard.

There were four heads. They belonged to the heads of the businesses affiliated with the Peat Guild. Over the night and that morning, Valerie had ordered Knut to assassinate every one of them while their defenses were weak.

Valerie walked out into the courtyard and looked up at McConnen on the balcony.

“I will give you one last chance. Surrender and hand every right over to me.”

It was a simple statement, but an impossible demand to accept.

McConnen’s heart pounded, but they forced themself to remain calm.

“What nonsense. You are only an illegitimate child with a little ability, yet you run wild without knowing how frightening the world is. Can you not even count? What are you doing!? Kill those bastards at once! Why is the courtyard in such chaos!?”

McConnen shouted at the employees. It was not particularly encouraging, but it did remind them that they had greater numbers.

Valerie spoke to Skard and the sturdy men, then strode forward alone.

“Wait.”

From the enemy’s perspective, they wondered whether he meant to face them alone. His bearing was so imposing that they were confused.

Then someone gathered their courage, shouted, and charged with a spear. People carrying swords, axes, and other weapons followed. It was not a large-scale battle, so they did not form a proper group formation.

“Argh!”

Valerie lightly evaded the spear tip of the person rushing at him first. As he drew his sword, he struck the person’s head from left to right as he passed.

He immediately moved to the side, cutting the next person’s waist from right to left. Continuing the same motion, he raised his sword and brought it down on the person after that. They were split from shoulder to stomach.

At that moment, the sword swung by the fourth person nearly reached Valerie. Valerie twisted his body and blocked the attack with his sword.

Clang!

Upon colliding with dwarf steel, the enemy’s sword broke. Valerie dodged toward the person holding the broken sword. The next enemy then ended up stabbing their own companion in the back.

“Urgh!”

As they stared in shocked confusion, Valerie’s Wound flashed like a beam sword in the noon light and cut off both their heads at once.

This time, enemies attacked from both sides. Valerie avoided the attack from the right by closing in on the attacker, then rammed them with his shoulder.

At point-blank range, Valerie immediately drew a dagger, stabbed the person in the stomach, and slashed across it. He then stabbed the person on the left, whose attack had missed, in the belly and cut upward. Hot intestines spilled out.

He then threw the dagger with all his strength at another enemy who was charging in.

Whoosh!

The rapidly flying dagger pierced their ribs and lodged in their heart.

Thunk!

“Ghk!”

Eight people. Eight dead.

How many seconds had it taken? By now, the enemies could no longer charge in and instead staggered backward.

“Wow...”

The sturdy men who had followed Skard stared in a daze as well. Before fear, they felt awe. How was this possible?

Bodies lay scattered everywhere, and those who had spilled their intestines still clung to life, groaning as they died.

“Uuugh...”

Valerie stood among them and calmly looked up at the balcony. More precisely, he was not looking at McConnen, but at “Iron Head” Ingolf standing beside them.

Perhaps having read the challenge in Valerie’s eyes, Ingolf went downstairs without hesitation.

“H-Hey! Sir! Where are you going!?”

When Ingolf reached the lower floor, he drew his sword without hesitation. It looked like an oversized kitchen knife made long.

With vacant eyes showing white all around the irises, he stared at Valerie as he approached step by step. Then, in an instant, he charged like a storm and swung his sword.

Valerie swung his own sword as well, and as expected, dwarf steel split Ingolf’s blade.

Clang!

But Ingolf had another true weapon. It was the iron plate attached to his forehead. He pressed closer and launched a headbutt.

Valerie immediately turned his head and stepped back with his right foot to evade the attack. Ingolf’s thick hand then grabbed Valerie’s left arm, preventing him from widening the distance.

His grip was so strong that it felt as if Valerie’s arm might break. A longsword was of little use at such close range. And he had already thrown his dagger. If his right arm were caught as well, Ingolf would surely land a proper headbutt.

Then suddenly, Ingolf’s body froze.

Valerie had switched to a reverse grip and cut upward between his legs.

There was not enough force in the swing to cut deeply, but Valerie simply tightened his grip and began slicing higher and higher. He was relying on dwarf steel’s sharpness and durability.

Ingolf began to tremble. The blade cut through his lower abdomen, split his ribs, and reached his heart. The moment Valerie could properly put force into it, he split through Ingolf’s neck and jaw, and even the iron plate on his forehead.

The sword that had split a person completely in two emerged above him.

Slash!

An indescribable amount of blood and entrails poured out. Valerie immediately stepped back, and the body split in half collapsed.

At the shocking sight, silence fell over the courtyard. Not even the sound of someone swallowing could be heard.

Valerie swung his sword through the air, shaking off blood and everything else stuck to it. Then he looked up at the balcony again. McConnen, utterly terrified, collapsed where he stood.

Valerie entered the building alone, and now nobody could stop him.

Instead, they moved aside. Valerie took a dagger carried by one of them as though it were his own. The person could not resist. His body had simply frozen.

McConnen hurriedly crawled away toward the bedroom. But Valerie, who had already climbed upstairs, walked faster.

McConnen looked around the room for somewhere to hide, but there was nowhere.

Valerie entered with his sword at his waist and calmly sat at the table. He placed the dagger on it.

“Come and sit.”

Would he not kill him? Trembling, McConnen clung to that last hope. No, he wanted to believe it. So he sat across from Valerie as ordered.

Valerie spoke.

“As I have watched people throughout my life, I have found that gangsters, businessmen, and rulers are not so different, yet there are differences. Gangsters cannot think about what comes after, businessmen cannot think about those below them, and rulers cannot think about themselves.”

What was he trying to say? McConnen only trembled, unable to speak.

“Having the brickmaker killed was an act without thought for what comes after. Then is the guild head a gangster?”

Valerie asked with a chilling gaze. His handsome face looked like the most frightening thing in the world.

“...I, I... What should I do? What should I do?”

Perhaps it was not the answer he wanted. Valerie let out a small sigh.

“I wondered whether you might have something unusual about you, but you are ordinary. Disgustingly, utterly ordinary.”

Valerie rose and approached. He grabbed McConnen by the hair as he looked up at him with terrified eyes, then picked up the dagger from the table and stabbed it into his throat.

“Ghk! Gurgle! Grrk!”

He carelessly tossed the dagger onto the table and left without looking back.

He went downstairs again, and once more, nobody could stop him. Walking toward the main gate, Valerie spoke to Skard and those who had followed him.

“Let’s go.”

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