WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Genius Knight of a Fallen Race ◈

Chapter 67: The Hammer and the Anvil

──────

Duke Moraen, the great lord of eastern Libert, was quite famous even in Pendia.

As the ruler of territory bordering Pendia, he had been involved in all manner of historical entanglements with the kingdom.

All the knights here were from Pales, but any Westerner would have recognized the banner’s owner from its description alone.

“Duke Moraen...?”

“Could he have joined Conrad’s side?”

Duke Ranphel, Prince Conrad’s maternal grandfather and supporter, ruled western Pendia.

Without forming an alliance with him, Duke Moraen could not possibly have brought such a force through western Pendia and all the way to this northwestern region. Since they belonged to the same Old Faith faction, they were bound to share some sense of kinship as well.

Baron Yurk was the one who settled the confusion.

“For now, figuring out why they are here can wait. We need to decide how to respond. Do we fight, or withdraw?”

“If we withdraw, we’ll have to abandon nearly all our supplies. Otherwise, they’ll catch us.”

Shan’s army had patrolled every nearby city, securing useful strategic resources: Magic stones, large quantities of iron ingots, lumber, leather, cloth, and food.

Expecting to outrun an unburdened army while carrying all that was simply greedy.

After quietly listening to the knights discuss the matter, Shan asked the messenger, “How far away are they?”

“Roughly four kilometers, I believe.”

Shan closed his eyes and pictured the surrounding terrain.

He weighed their current marching speed against the normal pace of an army of around a thousand men and quickly reached a rough conclusion.

“Let’s enter the city first.”

“The city? You mean Zerkan City?”

“Yes. If we leave now, we should have enough time to get inside. We can wait there and at least ask why they’re chasing us.”

The knights looked at one another at the proposal to enter the city and defend it, then nodded.

If they could manage it, it was the best option available.

They would gain a strategic advantage without abandoning their spoils.

“The enemy has nearly twice our numbers, but a two-to-one disadvantage is usually manageable in a siege.”

“Besides, we have Sir Shan.”

“They don’t have enough supplies to maintain such a large army nearby. If we hold out a little, they’ll have no choice but to turn back.”

Shan’s influence had already been great, but after displaying superhuman strength, it had become impossible to oppose.

Since his command also made perfect sense, there was no reason to object. The army’s course was decided according to the commander’s judgment.

* * *

After a forced march, Shan’s army reached Zerkan City by the narrowest margin, just before Duke Moraen’s pursuing force arrived.

Fortunately, they did not need to struggle to open the gates.

Every member of the ruling household had been kidnapped, leaving only low-ranking officials to run the city. They did not have the nerve to reject conquerors who had returned.

The moment Shan entered the city, he ordered the gates reinforced with Magic stones again.

Orum, Head of the Magic Society, was a tremendous help in that work.

“No, that’s not it, you fools!”

“I told you to seal that side first!”

“Tch, this old man can’t do it himself...”

His abuse was enough to make anyone listening furious, but thanks to him directing the mercenaries, installing the Magic stones, a task that should have taken nearly an hour, was completed in only minutes.

Shan looked at the result in genuine admiration.

“I had no idea reinforcing a city gate with Magic stones could be done so quickly.”

“It’s only possible because I have a library of truth inside my head and have studied enchantment magic all my life. Ordinary magicians would have taken days.”

The old man grumbled that installing them in such haste was not good for the long term.

It did not matter. They would dismantle the stones and take them away after this battle anyway.

Before long, an army finally appeared beyond the walls.

Over a thousand soldiers marched forward, positioned themselves beyond bow range, and began preparing for a siege.

At that point, there was no need to ask whether they had come in peace.

Soon afterward, someone who looked like a knight stepped forward from Duke Moraen’s army and shouted, “I am Kyros, Baron Tot, servant of His Majesty Conrad, the true King of Pendia!”

With someone openly declaring himself Conrad’s servant, their identity was fully confirmed.

Whatever the details, Duke Moraen had clearly decided to support Conrad.

“You foolish followers of the lewd witch, Princess Serin, who defiles the Goddess with evil power and throws the kingdom into disorder! Change your hearts even now, submit to the Goddess’s will, and swear loyalty to Pendia’s true king! If you do, His Majesty promises to forgive every outrage you have committed!”

The knights atop the wall flushed red with anger as the baron openly insulted Serin.

Just as the country knights were about to answer with rough curses, Roden gripped the wall to support his trembling legs and shouted in a booming voice.

“His Majesty Gizelle is still alive, yet Conrad calls himself king? Looking at him now, Conrad is the true unfilial wretch! No wonder he’s such a worthless man that even his younger siblings don’t acknowledge him! Did you know your unfilial lord calls prostitutes to his bed every night and has them whip his back?”

Having one’s back whipped was a common insult aimed at followers of the Old Faith.

During the Arman Empire’s era, a doctrine had spread claiming that inflicting pain upon oneself brought a person closer to the Goddess. Its resemblance to the tastes of perverts made it easy to mock.

Laughter broke out along the wall at Roden’s insult, and the baron’s face twisted with fury.

“You dare insult the true king! You will all die and fall into the fires of hell! Filthy traitors who abandoned the Goddess! And those who accepted them and submit to that whore!”

As the baron’s shrill voice rang across the wall, the nearby Alto mercenaries began whispering among themselves.

“Must be because they’re highborn. Even their insults sound fancy. Why not just say they’ll catch those motherless bastards and rip their balls off?”

“You idiot. Their leader and our princess are blood siblings. If you call him a motherless bastard, aren’t you spitting in your own face?”

“Ah...”

“But don’t they have different mothers?”

“You’re really smart. You even know that.”

While they chatted freely among themselves, Roden cleared his throat several times and raised his voice again.

This time, he did not curse or insult them. He questioned them.

“Your banner clearly belongs to Duke Moraen of Libert, so why are you involving yourselves in Pendia’s affairs? Count Barlic must still be waiting for you in the west! Don’t suffer in a foreign land for nothing. Foreigners, go back to your own country!”

“Foreigners, go back to your own country!”

Unlike the elaborate insults thrown around earlier, this line was simple enough for the soldiers to understand. They repeated Roden’s words with snickers.

After a few more exchanges, the baron who had come as a messenger returned to his camp.

Movement immediately began among the enemy.

They skillfully assembled several prepared wooden parts, creating siege equipment in moments. Even at a glance, their skill was on a completely different level from Pales’s soldiers and the Alto mercenary corps.

“Did they prepare all that beforehand?”

“They’re taking us awfully lightly. They must have a rough estimate of our numbers, yet they’re launching a siege without hesitation...”

“Perhaps they have no room to spare. If they run out of food, they’ll have to retreat.”

As the knights discussed the enemy among themselves, Ravana narrowed her eyes at the enemy camp and called Shan.

“Sir Shan.”

“Hm?”

“That man over there is Duke Moraen.”

She pointed toward a young man in his late twenties inside the camp, wearing black armor adorned with splendid gold ornamentation.

His features were unclear at this distance, but his neatly trimmed beard stood out.

‘So that’s what he looks like.’

If they fought in the future, Shan would have to capture or kill him. He committed the man’s appearance firmly to memory.

* * *

The battle began in earnest roughly two hours after their fierce exchange of words.

Soldiers carrying ladders charged toward the walls from afar with battle cries, and Roden raised his sword and shouted.

“Fire!”

Of their roughly five hundred soldiers, around a hundred archers loosed their arrows in unison from the walls.

The soldiers running with ladders in both hands and without shields screamed as the rain of arrows fell upon them.

The attackers below tried to return fire, but it was not very effective.

It was a law of nature that going down was easy while going up was difficult.

The defenders’ arrows struck downward with the aid of gravity, while the attackers’ arrows quickly lost their force and could not reach far enough. Even those unable to use bows hurled nearby stones wildly, widening the difference in firepower.

Still, the enemy had about twice their numbers.

What was more, the soldiers charging from below advanced with remarkable resolve, as if they knew no fear.

Before long, ladders began to rest against the walls one after another.

A knight among the soldiers below raised his sword and gave an order.

“Climb! The first man to take the wall will receive one hundred gold coins!”

The defenders were not fools, of course. They immediately tried to shove the ladders away or break them, but it was not as easy as it sounded.

Although the arrows from below were comparatively weak, they naturally concentrated on those trying to destroy the ladders. Sturdy, heavy ladders were harder to push away or break than expected.

After several dozen minutes of struggle, one soldier finally climbed onto the wall first.

“Hahaha! I’m first! One hundred gold-”

Crack!

Before he could finish, the soldier’s body split in half and scattered beyond the wall.

A large woman smiled confidently, the rabbit ears above her head twitching upright.

“How dare you!”

Ravana, the Butcher Rabbit, swung her axe at the ladder resting against the wall.

Her magic device, Rabbit’s Foot, received its owner’s strength and smashed the heavy ladder apart.

“Aaah!”

“Save me!”

Several soldiers on the ladder fell from several meters up and crashed into the ground.

Those farther back escaped with bruises or broken bones, but those who had nearly reached the top fell from seven or eight meters and either died instantly or suffered grave injuries.

The morale of the soldiers besieging the area visibly fell at Ravana’s appearance.

“The Butcher Rabbit...?”

“Damn it, why is that crazy bitch here?”

Many of the soldiers had seen her before, since she had fought in Duke Moraen’s army during Libert’s civil war.

They had been grateful that the woman who went mad after taking berserker’s elixir had been on their side. Now, they faced her as an enemy.

Duke Moraen’s command staff beneath the walls also recognized Ravana.

“Ravana? Why has that demon woman appeared out of nowhere?”

“This won’t be as easy as expected...”

“What should we do, Your Highness? We can still withdraw without major losses. We could take the time to build catapults instead.”

Rather than answer his retainers, Duke Moraen watched the battlefield with an expressionless face.

Soldiers fell to their deaths beneath the wall, spilling blood, entrails, and brains.

“Beautiful.”

“Pardon?”

“Continue the attack. From what I can see, they’re not accustomed to wars between humans. If we press them, we can seize the initiative.”

Just as Duke Moraen predicted, signs of collapse began appearing throughout the wall before long.

“Y-you bastards!”

“Hehe... They’re here. You’re all dead, come on!”

The Alto mercenary corps Shan and Roden had personally trained possessed solid organization for their short training period, but their only actual combat experience had been against monsters.

They were not accustomed to the stress of fighting humans who could speak and engage in complex thought just like them.

The direct forces of Count Paless and his subordinate barons were even worse.

Except when taking turns escorting trade wagons beyond their territory, they had lived their entire lives safely in Pales. The battlefield, where arrows rained down around them and the stench of blood and burst entrails filled the air, robbed them of their senses in an instant.

“U-urgh...”

“Don’t retreat! Hold your positions!”

Duke Moraen’s army, on the other hand, found such a battlefield as comfortable as home.

Over the past several years of Libert’s civil war, they had experienced every kind of battle, from field engagements to sieges.

People of Pendia often mocked Libert’s people as weaklings living in a paradise without monsters. Libert might have had few monsters, but it suffered constant civil war, and the bandits born from it ran wild everywhere.

It was a land where anyone who lived by the sword inevitably grew used to killing.

They would have fled in terror if ordered to hunt a troll, but against Pendian soldiers who could easily kill that same troll, they could fight as fiercely as they pleased.

“Ghh...”

While Pales’s army and the Alto mercenary corps struggled, Ravana and her subordinates, who had considerable wartime experience, desperately blocked ladders rising from every direction.

Yet with enemies twice their number, or truly several times their number, climbing up in a steady stream, they were gradually overwhelmed.

If they had not held the overwhelmingly advantageous position atop the wall, they would have been driven back long ago.

The disturbance was not limited to the top of the walls.

Whenever soldiers wielding a well-made battering ram struck the gate together, the Magic stones embedded inside flickered and their light dimmed bit by bit.

A gate protected by reinforcement magic could withstand attacks like this with ease a few times, but the situation changed when over a hundred soldiers took turns battering it without rest.

The stones were poor-quality Magic stones from middling monsters, not stones taken from powerful monsters, which made matters worse.

“There! Yes, dig like that! No, you dug it wrong! Move aside, damn it!”

Orum, Head of the Magic Society, stepped in again.

Using hastily conscripted civilians as his hands and feet, he quickly pulled out the Magic stones the moment they lost power, inserted fresh stones, and activated them.

Normally, the task would require dozens of magicians, but his magic, which had reached an exceptional level, made it possible alone.

“Ghh... Perhaps it’s because I’m old, but this isn’t easy either.”

Saying he could never do it again, the old man clutched his heart and stepped back.

The excessive use of magic had put a strain on his body.

Thanks to him, the gate somehow endured countless blows without breaking.

It was an impressive result for a gate reinforced with Magic stones from relatively weak monsters.

As the gate barely held, the walls gradually approached a dangerous point.

Shocked by their first real battle, the soldiers were half out of their minds and being steadily pushed back, having already surrendered nearly half the wall.

They were still holding the enemy back without major casualties, but at this rate, losing the walls was only a matter of time.

“Captain, how much longer do we have to hold out?!”

“Just a little longer!”

After shouting harshly at a subordinate, Ravana considered using berserker’s elixir again, then gritted her teeth and decided to endure.

If her reason dimmed atop the wall, she might accidentally leap off. Even aside from that, she had used the medicine not long ago, and taking it again was a burden.

More than anything, the commander behind her, Roden, stood with a solemn expression and showed no sign of wavering.

It had to mean things were proceeding according to plan.

In reality, he was only standing there, half out of his mind from the flashing spears and swords all around him. To those nearby, though, he looked calm.

Roden did not flinch even when several arrows flew around him because he had trained consistently to avoid incoming attacks.

In the past, he would likely have screamed in terror and collapsed where he stood.

While holding himself up on trembling legs, Roden looked out over the battlefield and raised a hand.

The soldier beside him waved a blue flag with all his strength.

One minute later, several dozen cavalrymen emerged from one side of the wall and charged toward the enemy.

At last, it was time to counterattack.

* * *

Zerkan City had secret gates scattered around it in addition to the main gate.

These doors were about two meters above ground level and could only be used after opening them from inside and lowering a drawbridge.

Rather than fighting atop the walls with everyone else, Shan and the knights waited there.

There were forty-one of them in total, including the squires.

Before the battle began, Roden had approached Shan with a grave expression after seeing the enemy prepare for a siege.

‘A normal siege defense will be difficult.’

‘Why?’

‘Those bastards are clearly far more experienced at siege warfare than we are. People say defenders can hold off three times their numbers, but that only applies when both sides are on a similar level.’

Ravana, who had also participated in Libert’s civil war, agreed with Roden.

The enemy was far more experienced at fighting humans, so they could not relax simply because they were defending against an army of this size.

Ravana had not raised this earlier to stop them from coming to the city because she had no alternative.

As someone who had not formally joined them, she could not easily propose abandoning all their spoils. Fighting a field battle was not a solution either.

‘So what is the solution?’

‘Our greatest strength is Sir Shan. And the best way to use knights is as cavalry.’

During a siege, all Shan could do atop the walls was cut down infantry climbing ladders with his spear and sword.

Roden believed that was a tremendous waste of strength.

A single sword stroke from Shan could kill even a capable knight, so every time he spent effort fighting infantry, he wasted an opportunity to face a powerful enemy. Even Shan could not slaughter a thousand soldiers alone unless he had received the blessing of vigor.

More importantly, even if they won that way, they would suffer serious losses.

Pales territory was especially short on fighting manpower compared to other factions, so they needed to preserve their forces as much as possible.

That was why they devised the hammer-and-anvil tactic.

The walls would act as the anvil, drawing in the enemy soldiers, while cavalry exiting through the rear gates would act as the hammer and strike the enemy’s vital point.

If Shan led the charge, ordinary knights would not be able to stop them.

Destroying the enemy command would be ideal, but even if they simply dealt heavy damage and returned, the enemy would be unable to focus on the attack.

They would never know when the cavalry might burst out again.

The knights strongly supported Roden’s proposal.

Winning great distinction in battle through a cavalry charge was the very ideal they dreamed of. It was far more honorable than brawling with soldiers atop a wall.

Inside the rear gate, Shan waited with his eyes closed, relaxing his entire body.

He suppressed the excitement rising within him at the shouts and screams from every direction, conserving as much stamina as possible.

Before long, a scout came running over and shouted, “The signal has come!”

“Good. Open the gate.”

Creak.

The gate opened and the drawbridge lowered. The horses surged down with thundering cries.

With Shan on her back, Awin proudly took the lead with light, eager steps.

“Let’s go, Awin.”

Awin had fought monsters as a warhorse and battled small groups of people before, but this was her first time entering a full-scale war between human armies.

Yet the fierce Horais mountain warhorse did not care about the scent of blood and the cries surrounding her. If anything, she snorted impatiently, as though excited.

Shan calmed her as he led the cavalry around the walls.

The moment the enemy camp came into view, the enemy also spotted the cavalry emerging from their flank and erupted into chaos.

“Pick up the speed!”

It was a battle against time now.

If the enemy recalled the infantry committed to the walls and surrounded them, Shan’s side would suffer devastating losses.

They had to deal a swift, heavy blow and return before that happened.

“The knights are coming!”

“Spearmen!”

Surprisingly, Duke Moraen’s soldiers, who had seemed confused, formed ranks in an instant.

It was a dense formation where, even if the attackers somehow broke through one line using Spirit, the second would stop the charge while attacks came from both sides and surrounded the cavalry.

It was impossible to form such a formation on the spot. It could only have been prepared in advance.

The moment Shan saw it, he instinctively realized that the enemy had anticipated Roden’s plan.

‘We’ve been tricked!’

Should they turn back?

Their retreat route was not completely blocked yet. If they wheeled around quickly, perhaps they could preserve their troops while suffering only minor losses...

The thought lasted only a moment.

Shan’s sharpened instincts told him that although their defensive wall looked strong, it had gaps everywhere from being hastily assembled.

If he became the spearpoint and broke through, that defensive wall would instead prove to be their mistake.

They had drawn soldiers away from their main camp to create this defense, leaving the camp itself more vulnerable...

As Roden had praised before, Shan’s mind, which only raced in battle, found the answer in an instant.

“Charge!”

Shan gave the order to his hesitant companions and urged Awin forward at full speed.

A line of infantry stood before them, bristling like a hedgehog.

To ordinary eyes, it looked like an iron wall without the slightest gap. Shan’s green eyes, though, moved swiftly from side to side and found the cracks in an instant.

‘The sixth and seventh from the right both have injured hands, so their shields are hanging low.’

‘In the next line, the eleventh from the left. There’s too much space between him and the man beside him.’

‘The last line, just right of center. All three have old spears, and they’re about to break...’

A virtual line appeared before Shan’s eyes as the thoughts came.

It was the route through which he could pierce the enemy’s dense defense.

Following that path, Shan thrust his long cavalry lance forward.

A thunderous roar and an explosion followed.

* * *

“They took the bait.”

“Obviously.”

The moment Shan’s cavalry appeared and was swiftly surrounded by infantry, Duke Moraen’s advisers smiled as if it were laughable.

They did not know who commanded the enemy, but whoever it was had apparently tried to use their head. Still, having lived where there was no war, their thinking was shallow.

If there were far too few knight-class fighters atop the walls, it was obvious they were planning something.

Libert’s strategists, who had spent their entire lives on battlefields of deception and counterdeception, immediately positioned their troops so they could defend against an ambush from either side in an instant.

Their opponent had fallen completely into the net they had cast-

“Huh?”

One noble’s question upon seeing the sight before them reflected everyone’s thoughts.

A knight was tearing apart an encirclement from which no one should have been able to escape.

His exploding lance shattered the first line. He found an opening and broke through the second. He took a spear with his bare body, snapped it, and destroyed the third line.

In the midst of it all, he skewered and discarded one knight who tried to stop him in a single exchange.

Even the horse he rode was monstrous.

Her strength and speed were unreasonable, and she even dodged spears flying at her exposed legs or knocked them aside with her hooves.

The enemy cavalry poured through the gap he created, and in an instant, the main camp where Duke Moraen stood was exposed.

Not even Fional Aldan, the infamous Black Spear, had displayed such power on a battlefield.

One of the duke’s retainers said in disbelief, “What in the world is that... Does Pendia have not only humanoid monsters, but monsters in the form of knights too?”

“Is this the time for nonsense? Your Highness, flee at once!”

There were several knights in the main force, but many had scattered, leaving them without the strength to face such a monster.

As shocked retainers pulled Duke Moraen away, the duke looked at Shan charging toward him and murmured softly.

“Beautiful...”

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