WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
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◈ The Wandering Knight and the Moving Castle ◈
Chapter 19: Great Warrior (2)
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Homi skillfully kept pace on a hunting horse provided by the city. Since neither Karas nor Cressy traveled with a Squire, she had no rival to contend with.
Whoosh!
“Damn it!”
Cressy’s light crossbow bolt missed the fleeing deer.
He carried a lever-type cocking tool, but continued riding without reloading.
His horsemanship wasn't polished enough for him to let go of the reins while racing through woods this rough. It would be an embarrassing display to stop and reload, only to fall behind.
Thud!
Karas’s arrow struck the deer in the hindquarters.
“Luck isn’t with me.”
He had aimed for a vital point, but the deer leaped to avoid a tree root, and the arrow hit its rear instead.
Wild animals were tenacious. Unless they were struck somewhere vital, they could keep running for quite a while with an arrow lodged in them.
Besides, the deer was just about to escape down a narrow path toward a cliff, where the knights couldn't follow.
“Sorry, but I’ll have to step in.”
Thud!
An arrow fired by the centaur Barun pierced the deer through the chest.
Crash!
The deer crumpled helplessly, its body trembling.
“As expected of a centaur.”
“It’s a shame. It would’ve made a fine first kill.”
Cressy and Karas slowed their horses.
Just as it was a great honor to lead a charge in battle or be the first to cut down an enemy commander, praise went to the hunter who made the first kill.
While the others slowed to a walk, Barun picked up speed instead.
“Are you happy to have claimed the first one?”
“No. He’s doing it to carry out the centaurs’ tradition. Whew! It’s easy riding beside you, Sir Eugene, since you match my pace.”
Since Eugene followed at an easy pace without trying to get ahead, Fannis could comfortably ride beside him.
He hadn't been doing it out of consideration.
Watching the fat man’s belly wobble wildly atop his horse was simply more interesting than the hunt.
“Centaurs enjoy hunting, but they dislike causing needless suffering. He stepped in because it would have died slowly as its wound worsened if they left it alone. It was an act of mercy.”
“I’d heard centaurs were a very warlike race, but you’re surprisingly gentlemanly.”
“Ha ha! You certainly know how to make someone feel good. Whenever I’ve dealt with guests, all I’ve heard were insults calling centaurs barbaric.”
Fannis looked warmly at Barun, as though he cared deeply for him.
When Barun reached the deer, he took out a dagger, cut its throat, and offered a prayer passed down through his tribe. It was a blessing for the prey’s soul to depart peacefully.
While the beaters dealt with the deer, Barun approached and bowed.
“I apologize once again for interfering with the knights’ hunt.”
“Don’t worry about it. We would’ve lost it without you anyway.”
“I heard you spent a long time at a monastery.”
“Ah, you thought I’d be offended by something superstitious?”
“Yes.”
The knight before Barun was someone Fannis had repeatedly told him to treat with absolute respect.
“Barun is capable and thoughtful. We work very well together when handling the city’s affairs.”
Fannis patted Barun on the shoulder. Most centaurs were raiders steeped in barbarity and violence. Someone like Barun, who could read the room and communicate with the outside world, was rare.
“I grew up in a monastery, but I was raised to become a knight, not a priest. I’m not offended at all, so cherish your traditions.”
“Thank you.”
Others had not looked kindly upon centaur customs.
Priests would lecture them, saying that only people had souls and asking why they bothered God with prayers for animals.
Knights, for their part, thought it foolish to go through the trouble of dismounting for nothing more than an animal. To them, suffering prey was no more than a decoration that made them look impressive.
“We centaurs believe that if we don’t show mercy after a hunt, we’ll one day die in the same agony ourselves.”
“It’s only a superstition, of course.”
Fannis quickly added that. Eugene seemed generous, but that was all the more reason to be careful.
“Even if it is superstition, it’s the kind that makes the world more beautiful. It would be good if it spread far and wide.”
“...!”
Barun’s eyes widened at the unexpected answer.
“Could you teach me as well? There must be different ways to grant each kind of prey a swift rest. If I die someday, I’d like to die peacefully too.”
“Do you truly mean that?”
“I don’t joke about handling a life, even if it’s an animal.”
“I spoke out of turn.”
Eugene and Homi’s usual method of hunting involved setting poisoned bait traps coated with mixed medicinal powders.
Hunting with weapons would require different techniques. He also wanted to learn whatever other useful tricks Barun knew.
“I’ll teach you with all my heart.”
Barun struck his broad chest and spoke with pride.
“And while you’re at it, teach me the prayer you were reciting.”
“Pardon?”
Barun stared blankly at the knight who kept saying things he never expected.
“If I’m going to do it, I should do it properly. I may meet other centaurs someday, and it’ll help me befriend them.”
“Ha ha ha!”
Barun finally forgot Fannis’s warning and burst out laughing.
* * *
That very day, Eugene and Barun became friends.
Barun was surprised to discover that the knight knew far more about the forest than he had expected.
“You know how to track footprints. And you know much more than I do about medicinal powders.”
“A Witch taught me.”
“You’re good at jokes too!”
Barun laughed along with Eugene, never imagining he was telling the truth.
“Your foundation is already solid, so I think I can teach you the rest quickly.”
Barun gave him a crash course in useful hunting tricks.
“I’ve already claimed the honor of the first kill, so I’ll serve you with all my heart. I’ll bring you the finest prey, no matter what.”
Barun normally wouldn’t be this enthusiastic. Even if he had learned hospitality while serving under Fannis, he still had a warrior’s pride.
Yet Eugene was different from the arrogant guest knights Barun had dealt with until now.
“Move aside! How dare a barbarian try to get ahead of a knight?”
“Sir knight, I was only trying to guide you...”
“Shut up! If that’s what you want, then dismount and guide us as befits your station.”
“...”
For a centaur, dismounting meant getting down on their knees and crawling.
Whether they understood that or not, saying that to someone whose body was one with a horse was plainly meant as an insult.
“Ugh, what’s that disgusting smell?!”
“Wash yourself once in a while, you barbarian!”
Their body odor was a frequent target of abuse. Even though Barun bathed every day while working with Fannis, there was only so much he could do with a horse’s body.
“I’m sorry. We smell when we move around.”
This was the one thing Barun felt self-conscious about, so he asked Eugene for understanding.
“Your upper body smells fine. You must bathe more often than most people.”
As expected, this knight was different.
“The smell from your horse body can’t be helped, can it? Most of its sweat glands are apocrine glands.”
“Pardon? Apo... what did you say?”
“It’s something like that. I don’t mind at all, so feel free to ride ahead.”
Eugene glossed over it. Most of a horse’s sweat glands were apocrine glands, which made their sweat smell strong, like human underarms.
He had no idea how he could explain that to someone from this era.
“If knights complain about that, they should be ashamed of themselves. Do they think the horses they ride smell like perfume?”
“Everything you say surprises me, Sir Eugene.”
Barun’s reaction was good enough. Having ridden slightly to the side out of concern over his smell, he now surged ahead.
Ping!
Barun fired an arrow in front of a roe deer driven by the beaters, turning it neatly toward the knights. It was a feat only Barun could manage.
Thud!
“That’s it! Well done!”
Karas claimed that one. This time, his arrow pierced the roe deer’s neck.
“Sorry. This is my first time hunting with a group, so I reacted too slowly.”
“Of course, sir.”
Barun smiled.
Eugene had tried to save the other knights’ pride because it seemed like he alone was receiving attention, but the perceptive centaur had already noticed.
“Sir Cressy! Splendid!”
“Thank you, Chief Constable.”
Cressy also caught a pheasant, enough to save face, and the excitement of the hunt rose. It was just about time for a large animal to appear and bring things to a close.
Watching Barun’s back, Eugene recalled a conversation he had once had with Gopri.
“You’ll meet many beastkin while fighting on battlefields. Centaurs are one group you need to watch out for.”
“Aren’t they cavalry from birth? They must be terrifying warriors.”
Perfect horsemanship, muscular bodies, and a warlike nature. It was only natural that they were dangerous.
“That doesn’t mean you need to fear them. Inexperienced soldiers tend to be intimidated when they first encounter them, but they’re more inept than they look. I’ve cut down plenty of them on the battlefield.”
There had been many groups that shook the world in their own way, even if they had not reached the level of Luiamour or the Ancient Kingdom. Some never unified the entire continent, but still trampled and plundered several countries.
Centaurs, though, had never left much of a mark on history compared to their powerful image. As Eugene hunted alongside Barun, he understood why.
“A boar! A big one, Sir Eugene!”
“I see it. I must have some sort of connection with boars.”
Barun was excited by the excellent prey, which was difficult to find. It was perfect for Eugene, who had yet to make a kill.
He drew his bow, intending to avoid a vital point and slow the boar enough to catch it.
Grrr!
The beast had survived in the wild long enough to grow this large, and it had a trick of its own.
As it passed a large tree, it used the brief moment its body was hidden to make a sharp turn. In an instant, it ran back in the opposite direction, on Barun’s other side.
“Damn it!”
Barun hurriedly swung his bow around, but it stopped at roughly ninety degrees and could move no farther.
“Leave it to me.”
Eugene twisted his waist a full one hundred and eighty degrees in the saddle and aimed a large crossbow with one hand.
Thwish!
Squeeeal!
The bolt buried itself deep in the boar’s back, severing its spine and dropping it. Eugene turned his horse, chased after it, and fired once more.
Thud!
The bolt pierced its skull, granting the creature a swift rest.
“What monstrous strength. Does he fire a crossbow like that repeatedly, as if he’s throwing daggers?”
Karas was reminded of the force that had thrown him across the tavern. It was fortunate none of his bones had broken.
The boar looked far heavier than the first deer they had caught. It would be hard to find prey of this size again.
Eugene dismounted and prayed for the dead boar. Since it was his first time, he could not reproduce the centaur’s unique rhythm very well, but he recited every word properly.
“I’m sorry. I failed to support you properly.”
Seeing Eugene pray so seriously, Barun apologized even more respectfully.
“No one was hurt, and we caught it. That’s all that matters.”
Eugene stood and reassured Barun.
Being one with a horse was not always an advantage. Centaurs could not perform a Parthian shot.
A human could leave mobility to the horse and freely twist their body, but when a centaur turned their body, their legs turned with it.
When a human rider looked behind them, their horse still faced forward. When a centaur looked behind, it was like driving with their eyes closed. One rock could lead to a major accident.
“Sir Karas, a new horse is ready.”
“Thank you.”
Karas switched to the horse brought by a beater. He pushed off the stirrups and shifted sideways from one saddle to the next without dismounting, an impressive display of agility.
Cressy and Fannis looked ready for a rest. Hunting required wandering through the forest all day, making it an exhausting sport.
“Haa... haa...”
More than anyone, Barun was visibly tired.
“Are you all right?”
“I just need to, whew, catch my breath for a moment.”
Staying alert and maintaining a fighting stance consumed more stamina than one would expect.
For human cavalry, people fought while horses handled mobility. Centaurs had to bear all that fatigue alone. They also could not switch to a reserve horse, so their endurance was a weakness.
“Sometimes, a charismatic great chieftain appears and the centaurs gather in large numbers. Even then, after a few major victories, they always end up falling apart.”
Gopri acknowledged the centaurs’ strength and fighting spirit, but he never considered them a formidable army.
That was also why they had been driven from the fertile grasslands of their homeland and forced to wander. They had lost their competition with human nomads.
“Let’s stop here. Everyone has caught enough.”
Eugene ended the hunt out of consideration for Barun. No one present could object to his declaration.
* * *
The pheasants and roe deer were bestowed upon the mercenaries serving as beaters, while the deer was prepared as dinner for the knights.
“You said Sir Eugene caught this?”
With Eugene’s permission, the boar was brought before the Grand Council. It was large enough to gore a hunting dog to death and send it flying to the stars, and everyone marveled at it.
“Yes! The cunning beast hid behind a tree and fled in the opposite direction, but it was no match for a great knight’s senses. Sir Eugene brought it down with one shot after it slipped past Barun!”
Fannis recited the lines he had rehearsed several times.
“I can finally rest easy. I’ll be able to sleep peacefully tonight.”
The members of the Grand Council sighed in relief.
A knight who could strike a vital point in an instant must have excellent reflexes, senses, and horsemanship. A knight’s hunting skill revealed everything else.
They were unlike mercenaries, who took up weapons to earn a living amid life’s hardships and sometimes ended up killing people.
Knights were human weapons, trained from childhood with blood and iron, spending their entire lives honing the art of killing.
They were taught swordsmanship, horsemanship, tactics, and hunting as one connected discipline. If they excelled at one, they naturally excelled at the rest.
“At this point, no one will have anything more to say.”
The Chief Magistrate looked at Fannis.
“The Hall War is close. Make sure the knights rest well during the remaining time and enter it in peak condition.”
“Leave it to me. Isn’t this my specialty?”
“Go easy on the alcohol. We can’t have the Champions’ senses dulled.”
“I’ll make sure they’re in perfect physical condition. My life is on the line too.”
“Then the Grand Council will be adjourned for the time being. There’s nothing more we can do here.”
Win or lose, the Grand Council would convene again after the Hall War was over. All they could do was hope they would face one another with smiles then.
When the Chief Magistrate raised a glass of wine, everyone else raised theirs as well.
“To our city, free in the past, present, and future!”
The Chief Magistrate began the toast and drained the glass.
“To freedom!”
“To Bonyard City!”
“Blessings upon the foundations of the Ancient Kingdom!”
Each of them shouted their own toast, drank, and threw their glasses to the floor.
Crash!
They hoped the clear sound of shattering glass would drive the last of their fear from their hearts.
Footnotes:
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