WeTried Translations

Translator: Dawn

Editor: Dawn

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Genius Knight of a Fallen Race

Chapter 4

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A Beast Needs Space to Rampage

Unlike how people who exchange words only through letters without ever meeting can become as rude as they like, those who face each other with weapons in hand usually keep a certain degree of courtesy toward one another. Most of those who fail to do so end up with their heads smashed to death.

And yet the reason the Leaf Village vigilante had barked at Shan and treated him carelessly was simple. His hunched shoulders, the way his eyes seemed to timidly watch their reactions, and even the frightened, shrunken posture. His whole body had been shouting that he was the weaker one, and he would submit if they just pressed him a little. Seeing how they judged others by appearance, people were not so different from animals.

“Rodam—!”

“That crazy little bastard!”

So when the first man to step forward had his arm cut off, people felt anger before shock or fear. As those who had been close to the giant man rushed in with weapons, Shan threw down the cloak bundle to lighten himself.

At the same time, he grabbed the handle sticking out and drew it with his empty left hand, revealing a heavy iron mace. When he smashed the face of the man rushing at him with it, his teeth shattered and flew in every direction.

“Oh.”

A few realized then that something had gone wrong, but most were too inflamed by the fact that their comrade had been struck to keep calm. Men holding blades rushed at Shan, who stood still. But with nothing more than a light step, a turn of the head, and bending his waist nearly to a right angle, every one of those attacks cut through empty air in vain. And the vigilantes had to pay the price for those attacks.

“Argh!”

“Ugh, ghk.”

“M-my eyes!”

Each time the sword and mace in his two hands traced through the air, someone’s body was inevitably cut, broken, or torn apart. Wrists were severed, collarbones were broken, ribs were crushed, so they coughed blood and died, or both eyes were slashed, making them blind.

The reason Shan did not aim for vital points and take lives as he had when fighting the bandits was not that he was showing mercy. Unlike that first battle in the dark forest against over a dozen men, now he was facing more than sixty people on an open plain without a single obstacle.

If they fully surrounded him and pressed in with sheer numbers, he would be overpowered, no matter how skilled his swordsmanship was. And if a weapon got stuck somewhere, it would not be easy to replace it right away. If he merely injured them without killing them as he was doing now, they became excellent obstacles.

Compared to lifeless corpses, it was not easy to kick aside and shove through living comrades screaming in pain. And as a bonus, it was easier to target vital spots or other sensitive areas, like the eyes, than vital points that took life. The interaction lasted about twenty seconds. 

Once ten of those who had rushed in were killed or crippled in an instant, the vigilantes lost the will to fight, despite there still being more than fifty of them left. Those who threw away their weapons were the better sort; quite a few wet themselves where they stood or collapsed crying.

“Ughhh—”

“Mooom!”

The sight of a fully grown man crawling on his knees while crying for his mother was so ridiculous that Shan let out a laugh without meaning to. Covered in blood and giggling, he truly looked no different from a demon to others.

Ah, this feels great...

Just like during the first fight, he could feel his head heating up and his heart pounding. If he let his body follow instinct, he would surely be able to enjoy himself madly until they were all dead or had fled. 

But Shan took one deep breath to calm his excitement. If he slaughtered them here, he would really become the demon the priest had spoken of. Even if he were going to be a demon, would it not be better, if possible, to become a slightly less evil demon? Then later, when he met Celina, he would still be able to face her proudly.

“Can you believe me now?”

Those who were still unharmed, but looked desperate to run away at any moment, all nodded one after another. If he had told them to kneel or press their heads to the ground, they probably would have obeyed that, too.

***

After the situation calmed somewhat, the people of Leaf Village changed their attitude unbelievably fast, unlike how overbearing and arrogant they had been at first. They now looked servile, just as the Shan of the past had been toward the people of Willow Village.

Seeing them like that, he did not feel any particular superiority. Just as it feels unpleasant to look at your shabby self in a mirror, their figure only reflected his past self back at him, making him feel disgusted instead.

“So three villages...”

“Yes, Sir Knight.”

Orgo, the chief of Leaf Village, had gone so far as to address Shan as Sir Knight. It was a title reserved for the strongest warriors, clad in armor and mounted on horseback, who were directly appointed by nobles. Shan laughed in disbelief, but did not bother telling him not to call him that. The more they feared him and looked up to him like that, the safer he would be.

“From Owl Village to this Mountain Shade Village, and if what you said is true, then even Willow Village seems to have been destroyed by them.”

Orgo laid out everything he knew about the surrounding geography and the current situation before Shan. According to what he said, the mysterious bandit group had been moving from east to west, annihilating every village in their path. Even these men did not know what had happened to the places farther east than Owl Village, the easternmost one.

“In our village too, several men gathered and went to report this to the lord... but now that the bandits are all dead or scattered, it’s become a problem.”

“Why?”

“Because it means we dared tell a lie to the noble lord.”

If the lord heard the news and sent troops to subjugate the bandits, it would literally become a wasted trip. When Shan nodded, understanding what he meant, Orgo, who had been watching his mood, spoke cautiously.

“Th-then, may we be on our way now...”

“Mhm... Ah, wait.”

Shan nodded without much thought, then suddenly stopped Orgo as if an idea occurred to him. With just that one small remark, the faces of the dozens of vigilantes instantly turned pale. Whether they did or not, Shan lightly swung the sword in one hand and spoke in a casual tone.

“Give me some food.”

“Pardon?”

“You brought some snacks since you came out this far, right? Leave it all here.”

He had just run out of the hard rations taken from the bandits, so he needed to secure food. And yet it felt burdensome to accompany them all the way back to their village. After all, even mutts become brave in their own front yard.

He was confident he could beat as many of these small fry as came at him openly, but he did not want to take the risk of getting stabbed in his sleep. In the end, the people of Leaf Village, who had boldly come to help a neighboring village, had to go back in tatters after having all the food they brought for themselves taken away.

“Chief...”

“It’s fine. We’re lucky just to have survived,” Orgo let out a sigh as he looked over his people, worn down.

Leaf Village had the largest population in the area, but having ten men dead or crippled was critical damage. It meant one out of every seven adult men capable of working and fighting had been damaged. However, sincerely meant that it was fortunate that things had ended with only this much sacrifice.

The boy looked small and fragile on the outside, yet was more agile, cunning, and cruel than any warrior he had ever seen. Orgo had seen knights fight once or twice in his youth, but even they had not been monsters like that. That young monster had not demanded all their blood and had been satisfied with taking their food instead. Surely, that was the goddess’s mercy.

While Orgo was fleeing with such thoughts in mind, Shan was holding a feast with the food the villagers had left behind. Coarse black bread, cheese made from goat’s milk, fruit, and nuts preserved in honey or dried. It seemed the people of Leaf Village were richer than the people of Willow Village. After indulging in the food, Shan let out a gloomy sigh as he recalled what he had heard while dealing with the vigilante.

Celina is already dead...

From what he knew, the place Celina had married into was Owl Village, which was presumed to have been attacked first. By the time, it had already been four or five days, and since there was still no news of anyone surviving from that place, it was obvious they were all dead.

Then where am I supposed to go now?

Thinking over the map Orgo had roughly drawn on the ground for him, there was no suitable place. The two villages south and east of here had been destroyed, north was Leaf Village, and farther northwest from there was the manor where the lord lived. Of all places, the lord’s manor was certainly one place he absolutely must not visit.

Shan had felt the eyes of the Leaf Village people shift the moment they learned he was an Alto. It went from suspicion and caution straight into contempt. The nobles probably would not be much different, so if he went there, he might really have to fight knights or soldiers clad in iron armor.

How do you kill a knight?

In his head, Shan imagined an enemy covered from head to toe in steel armor. A sword probably would not work; he wondered if he should strike the legs with a mace and knock them down. 

It might also work to stab the eye area with a spear from a distance. If they were strong enough to defeat monsters like dragons, then they would move faster and more rationally with bodies stronger than that, so it would not be an easy fight. He might not even be able to win.

Though he himself did not realize it, he had already begun defining humans as hostile beings no different from beasts or monsters. Because violence was the first way he had ever protected his own dignity, he had never learned any other way to interact with others.

After that, he carried his stuff around and searched the area for a place to stay. Fortunately, there was a hut in this village that had not burned because it stood somewhat far away. Seeing several pieces of furniture covered in hide, it seemed to have belonged to a hunter. Otherwise, it would have been hard to enjoy such luxury.

The hut in Mountain Shade Village was not a bad shelter at all. Compared to the shed he used to live in, both the roof and walls were sturdy, the furniture was soft, and there was even a solid latch on the door. Another advantage was that, since it was somewhat away from the village, the smell of rotting corpses was not too strong.

He neither had the courage nor the obligation to deal with more than a hundred corpses, so he intended to leave them for animals to drag away and insects to eat. Come to think of it, he could have told the people of Leaf Village to clean things up before they left.

Celina is probably rotting away like that by now, too.

At that sudden thought, Shan briefly considered visiting Owl Village to the east, then soon shook his head. If it had been attacked even earlier than this place, then the bodies would all have rotted away or been eaten by beasts. He also wasn’t confident that he could identify Celina’s body among them.

After unpacking all the things he had brought, he spent his time properly exploring the nearby forest. Unlike Willow Forest, where he had sometimes gone in to gather firewood, this forest matched the name Mountain Shade Village, lying upon softly rising hills.

As he wandered here and there, Shan drew a map in his head using ravines, streams, unusually shaped trees, and springs as landmarks. Thinking of this place not as somewhere he had to come to cut wood or fill water jugs, but as his own land, his own territory, made him hum unconsciously.

While he was at it, he bathed in the stream, washing away the blood he had been covered in, and washed his bloodstained clothes as well. After roaming around all day, he returned home, filled his stomach again, and slept. Lying on a bed stuffed thick with soft oat straw and covered with a tough woolen cloth, it truly felt like a heavenly bedchamber.

And so one day passed, then another. In his new home, Shan enjoyed happiness for the first time in his life. In the morning, he slept in, then woke late and ate food, wandered the nearby hills, drank from the stream, sometimes swam, or played by leaping between trees.

Unlike in the village, being able to fully use his abilities and test the limits of his athletic power brought him a pleasure no less intense than slaughtering his enemies. It was also fun to swing the various weapons he possessed and imagine how he would fight people or animals with them.

There were opponents on whom he could put that practice to use. Whether the hunter of this village had been lazy or whether the corpses had attracted predators, there were quite a few dangerous enemies in the forest, like goblins and wolves. Shan ran through the woods hunting them down relentlessly, making the area around his dwelling safe while also satisfying his urge to kill.

In many ways, it was a life closer to that of a beast than to that of a person. Once, while carrying a bow and arrows, he succeeded in hunting a deer that was drinking from a spring. From some distance away, he drew the bowstring and let go, and the flying arrow pierced straight through its head.

“Got it!”

He may not have learned hunting, but he had helped hunters a few times. So, draining the blood with a dagger and skinning it was not difficult. The problem, again, was that he still could not make a fire. He regretted, for the second time, not asking how to make one when he had the chance.

“Hmm...”

He brought over stones from nearby and struck them together countless times, but no fire sprang out from that. In the end, he sliced the deer meat thin with a dagger and ate it raw, and naturally, it tasted terrible. It was not to the point of being inedible, since he had often eaten worse. However, after having eaten cheese and fruit preserved in honey earlier, his standards had risen.

I should at least have some honeyed fruit instead...

When he went looking through the cupboard for a snack because his mouth felt empty, Shan realized all the food was gone. Though it had been brought by dozens of people, it was mostly light snacks. Since he had mindlessly stuffed himself at every meal until he nearly burst, this was only a natural result.

Up until now, Shan had never once even thought about the concept of saving or storing food. He had lived like livestock, merely eating the scraps given by the village chief’s family.

“Ah.”

After all the food ran out, he had no choice but to live on the venison he had caught earlier. But since summer was approaching anyway, the meat spoiled before long in the warm weather. Just because he was good with a bow did not mean the animals in the nearby hills and forests would come rushing over one after another to die for him. Even if he did catch them, he would still be stuck eating horrible raw meat.

So after thinking for a moment, Shan strapped a sword and mace at his waist and took up his spear. The people of Leaf Village to the north had plenty to eat, so if he asked, they might share a little. If it came to making a trade, he could offer the silver candlesticks or the melted-down precious metals he had brought.

And if they refused to trade altogether, it would be a slightly bad thing to do, but he would have to point a sword at them and get food that way. After all, he could not just sit here and starve to death. The thought made him laugh, as though he had become some bandit from an old tale.