WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle

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◈ The Wandering Knight and the Moving Castle ◈

Chapter 36: First Subjugation Campaign (7)

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The heretical mage served Kalash, God of the Hungry Brand.

They offered living sacrifices, inscribed wicked tattoos, and studied monsters. It all cost a great deal of money, but they could not remain in any village or city, leaving them with no choice but to join a bandit gang.

‘The knight I baptized is dead. Damn it!’

The mage kept a dignified expression before the bandits, but inwardly seethed. They could feel the magic inscribed on the knight fading away.

No matter how strong a magical beast was, there were roles only a human knight could fill. The knight who had abandoned his humanity, drunk on strength, and devoted himself to Kalash had been the mage’s treasure.

“Damn it! Where are those knights dawdling? Aren’t knights supposed to kill monsters?”

The elite mercenaries on the right flank were slaughtered by the Wendigo, and the shock spread to the center and left flanks.

“Cut them all down!”

As the Gord Mountain Tribes swept into the left flank with axes raised, both wings began to buckle at once.

The slingers were also forced to retreat from the high ground as their own formation collapsed and enemies rushed in.

“Guhhk!”

The Wendigo skewered two mercenaries on its antlers and shook them wildly. Blood and fragments of entrails scattered through the air.

“Aaaah!”

Whether rookies or veterans, mercenaries drenched in it like rain lost the will to fight.

“Hold the line! Anyone who leaves now will be executed on the spot...”

Crunch!

The mercenary captain trying to rally them was struck by a boulder hurled by the Wendigo and turned into a bloody mess. Having lost their captain, the mercenaries scattered in every direction.

“Fire! I said fire!”

“B-but our allies...”

“Shut up and fire! Are you just going to watch that monster come right at us?”

One terrified mercenary captain barked at their subordinates.

Bolts flew in a volley, but the Wendigo cunningly kept the subjugation force in its path. Depending on the situation, it even ran low to the ground on all fours.

“Aah!”

“Ghk!”

“You bastards! Where are you shooting?!”

As a result, the only casualties were allies struck by friendly fire. Members of the subjugation force collapsed, clutching their exposed backs, buttocks, and thighs.

“D-don’t come closer! Stay away!”

“Heh heh. Being a mercenary is tough, isn’t it? That’s why I quit too.”

“Spare me! I need to go home...”

“I’ll send you somewhere better than home.”

The wounded met their deaths at the hands of bandits who approached with snickers.

Grrrrr!

The Wendigo charged on all fours, sweeping its antlers in every direction.

“Lower your shields! Protect the lower half!”

A veteran mercenary shouted, but it was useless. The difference in strength sent the shields flying at once.

Mercenaries whose ankles, shins, and thighs had been shattered or torn apart by the sharp antlers fell everywhere, howling in agony.

“If the mage is with us, no subjugation force will ever dare challenge us.”

The bandit chief smiled broadly. The bandit chief had spent a lifetime preying on the weak and fleeing from the strong.

Yet seeing the powerful people who had come to capture the bandit chief get crushed and run away gave them a pleasure as intoxicating as a drug.

“For that, we need more sacrifices.”

“Of course! We make sure no one touches livestock during raids. The merchant house that made a secret deal with us will soon send cattle as well.”

‘It’s not like we’re offering people. They’re only animals.’

Even a bandit chief with a ruined life would not have stayed with the mage if the mage performed human sacrifices.

Morality did not even enter into it. The bandit chief would have fled in terror. But if offering animals gave the bandit chief this much military strength, there was no reason to refuse.

“At this rate, we’ll be wiped out! We need to retreat!”

“You’re telling us to show them our backs in this situation?”

The guard captain answered the lieutenant with a stunned expression.

“We’ll die even if we stay here. We need to leave some people as a rear guard and withdraw.”

But with a monster approaching, its antlers decorated with dangling human entrails and a crushed head in each hand, who would stay behind?

“Damn it! I’ll hold it back, so everyone retreat!”

“Captain!”

“We don’t have time for useless talk, so shut up and move!”

The Bonyard City guard captain could maintain their leadership among the mercenary captains because they were willing to lead from the front.

At that moment, Eugene arrived at the hill on the subjugation force’s right flank, leading reinforcements.

“Fire!”

Arrows poured down on the bandits pushing into the collapsed right wing.

Powerful composite bows, dark elf archery, high ground, and exposed flanks. With all four factors combined, bandits struck in vital spots fell in droves.

* * *

“That knight bastard, no, Sir Knight, has arrived!”

“It’s the Victor Knight!”

Hope returned to the faces of the fleeing subjugation force when Eugene appeared on the battlefield atop his warhorse.

Twang! Twang!

Even then, the dark elves continued firing arrows.

“Ghk!”

“Aaah!”

Backs, ankles, thighs, necks, sides, armpits.

It was vicious shooting, striking only the places shields could not cover. The bandits fell without even knowing where to protect themselves.

“Mage!”

“I know. They’ll be corpses soon enough.”

At the chief’s cry, Kalash’s mage nodded.

‘Why are there so many damn knights? No matter how many I kill, more keep crawling out.’

Grumbling, the mage focused their mind on the brand on their forehead. Their will was transmitted through the brand engraved on the Wendigo’s forehead.

Whoosh!

The monster, burning with a lust for slaughter, turned its gaze toward Eugene. After letting out a fierce roar, it charged with its antlers lowered.

“A Wendigo! To think they summoned such a vicious magical beast!”

Varda was horrified that the heretical mage’s abilities were far beyond anything she had imagined.

“Ignore the bandits! Focus on that monster!”

At Rex’s command, the dark elves concentrated their fire on a single point.

“Huh?”

“Aah!”

The Wendigo stretched out both arms and seized two bandits. Its hands were so large that each could grip a grown man’s torso. Of course, it had no concern for the people it caught.

“Cough!”

“Uegh!”

The bandits vomited blood. Hook-like nails tore open their bellies, and the force of its grip crushed their organs. Fortunately, their suffering ended quickly.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

The Wendigo raised the two before itself and used them to block the arrows. The human shields died, but the Wendigo was unharmed.

‘A long-handled flail from horseback won’t work. It’s so fast it’ll close the distance in an instant, and the chain could get tangled in those branching antlers.’

Eugene gathered his thoughts and gave another command.

“Keep firing.”

“Yes!”

The dark elves were afraid as the magical beast rapidly drew closer, but they gritted their teeth. If they ran now, they would disgrace the Black Hand Tribe’s name.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

The Wendigo blocked the second volley with corpses, but that was enough. The human shields had obscured its vision. That was all Eugene wanted.

Swoooosh!

A javelin propelled by tremendous force tore through the air.

Snort!

The recoil drove Might staggering backward.

By the time the Wendigo moved the human shields aside, the javelin had already reached it.

Thud!

The javelin buried itself in the Wendigo’s right arm, and it let out its first cry of pain.

“Damn.”

He had aimed for the chest, but Might had shifted under the force, throwing off Eugene’s aim and weakening the throw.

Varda closed her eyes and chanted. Grass seeds and vines that she had personally treated with magic were wrapped around the javelin.

“Sprout! Grow thorns! Feed on the flesh and blood where you have taken root!”

The Wendigo pulled out the javelin, but rapidly growing stems and thorns wrapped around its right arm.

Kyaaaaah!

Thorns burrowed into the pierced flesh and tore through muscle fibers, and even it could not endure the searing pain.

The Wendigo tried to tear away the vines wrapped around its arm, but their horribly sharp, tough thorns made them impossible to touch.

“It won’t be able to use its right arm now.”

“Excellent! Everyone, fall back!”

The Wendigo, crazed with fury, was nearly upon them.

“Go, Might.”

Eugene jumped down from the horse and slapped its rump, sending it to the rear.

Then he threw a second javelin. Unlike the first, this javelin carried his full strength.

Swoooosh!

The alert Wendigo quickly rolled to the side and avoided it. The javelin continued in a straight line and struck the front of the bandit formation.

Thud!

Two bandits were skewered by the javelin and died without even being able to scream. The force behind the throw had not faded.

“Die, you dog... Huh!”

“W-what is that?!”

Members of the subjugation force and bandits who had been about to swing weapons at each other recoiled in horror. The impaled bodies bounced and rolled between them.

“...”

“...”

The absurd sight brought the fighting to a halt. Everyone’s gaze turned toward where the javelin had come from.

Kuaaaaa!

There, a knight holding an iron shield and a silver sword was fighting the black monster.

Whoosh!

The Wendigo swung its right hand, but Eugene easily dodged. Its flank was exposed for an instant.

‘It’s a trap. I can’t go in.’

When its claw attack missed, the Wendigo used the momentum of its turn to launch a spinning kick with its hoof. It was the attack that had crushed Knight Osram’s chest.

Eugene avoided even that and swung his sword.

Slice!

Silver sword light flashed, and the Wendigo’s massive chest split open, spilling blood. From the feel of it, he had likely cut through a rib as well.

Kyararar!

Infuriated that it alone kept getting hurt, the Wendigo charged in with a brute-force headbutt. Its huge antlers covered Eugene’s upper body. It was the attack that had pierced Knight Cain’s stomach.

‘This can’t be dodged.’

Eugene felt as though he had stepped into a pitfall, the ground collapsing beneath him and dropping him onto stakes in the black earth below.

Bang!

Its antlers collided with the round shield of solid iron, sending brilliant sparks flying. The creature’s antlers were nearly as hard as metal.

As he blocked, Eugene braced the right arm holding his sword against the back of the shield to spread out the impact.

The impact boomed. Yellow and red sparks flew in every direction.

Everyone watching shuddered as they imagined what would have happened if they had been in his place.

Yet Eugene withstood the headbutt, being driven back only one step.

Slice!

He immediately swung his sword, and the Wendigo’s left arm fell to the ground.

‘As expected of a sacred relic left behind by Luiamour.’

A treasured sword left by the ancient elven royal family, the blade of Last Autumn cut through the magical beast’s thick muscles and bone in one stroke.

Krring!

For the first time, fear appeared in the Wendigo’s savage eyes. Its trusted antler charge had failed, and both arms had been disabled. At this rate, it would truly die.

More than anything, its instincts as a beast warned it that the enemy before it was someone it could never defeat.

But it realized too late. Eugene’s kick struck the Wendigo’s knee.

Crack!

A loud sound of shattering bone rang out as its shinbone burst through the flesh behind its knee.

“Yaaah!”

When the Wendigo fell to its knees, cheers filled the battlefield.

“The monster is on its knees!”

“Kill it, Sir Knight!”

A standing knight and a kneeling monster. The sight was so symbolic that the subjugation force’s mercenaries shouted, striking their weapons against their shields.

“This is looking bad...”

“Shouldn’t we make a run for it?”

The bandits, on the other hand, began looking for a chance to flee.

‘What are you doing? Fight back like a servant of Lord Kalash!’

The mage continued sending their thoughts through the brand, but the Wendigo did not obey. It tried to escape, even if it had to crawl while dragging its shattered knee.

Slice!

The blade flashed again, and blood sprayed from behind its uninjured knee. Its cruciate ligament and meniscus were severed, and the Wendigo collapsed forward.

Eugene moved behind the fallen creature. He dropped his shield, grabbed one huge antler with his left hand, and tried to drive his sword into its neck.

Kuaaaang!

The Wendigo squeezed out its last strength and shook its head convulsively. But Eugene’s gauntleted hand gripped its antler, so it could not escape.

Eugene hammered its cheek with his sword hand.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Keurk!

Blood streamed from the Wendigo’s nose and mouth beneath the iron-hard blows. As its resistance weakened, Eugene drove the sword into its neck.

Grrrrk!

Eugene planted a foot on its back and tightened his grip on the antler.

Sliiice.

The blade advanced, severing its esophagus and windpipe before emerging from the other side. Blood spouted forward like a fountain from the split neck.

Riiip!

Eugene wrenched off the Wendigo’s head, which had been left hanging by the back of its neck. The headless monster’s body swayed for a moment before falling forward.

Thud!

Eugene stood overlooking the battlefield, holding the monster’s head in his left hand and a sword in his right. He was the very image of a knight.

“Now! All troops, charge!”

The guard captain regained their composure and gave the order. The subjugation force rushed forward with a roar. Most of the bandits had already turned their backs and were fleeing.

“This is impossible... Lord Kalash. What, what am I supposed to do...”

The dazed mage muttered to themself. The bandit chief who had been flattering them had fled long ago.

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