A strange nervousness hung on the border of the Lancephil County and the Chase County.
With the border region as the center, the Count Lancephil Troop and the Count Chase Troop scowled at each other.
No. It looked as if they were scowling.
The strange nervousness too was not directed at each other.
“Should we soon begin?”
One of Count Lancephil’s captains cautiously asked.
Kali Owells quietly stared at the Count Chase Troop over the border, then slowly nodded his head.
“After crossing the fief border, shoot the arrows towards the ground. The cavalry will move left and right rapidly and leave footprints, and the foot soldiers will throw away the broken spears, swords, and the shields.”
“Yes. Understood.”
There was no look of being puzzled even at the strange order.
Vvuuuu!
Soon, the sound of horn signalling the march echoed.
Unlike the normal tactics, the archer troop moved first and then crossed over the fief border.
It was undeniably a military invasion.
However, the Count Chase Troops instead merely smiled brightly as they watched that sight and didn’t move thoughtlessly.
The archer troop, which had entered the Chase County, moved around this way and that and shot arrows at empty grounds.
Pbubububuk!
Tens, hundreds of arrows futilely crossed the empty s.p.a.ce and planted themselves into the ground.
The cavalry and the foot troops swept through afterwards.
As according to Kali’s order, the cavalry moved erratically left and right and left footprints, and the foot soldiers threw broken or bloodied weapons onto the ground.
A moment later.
Jiing! Jiing! Jiing!
The sound of gong signalling retreat rang out.
The archer troop, the cavalry, and the foot soldier troop all moved back and returned to the Lancephil Fief.
Hazy dusts fell down upon the place they left.
No matter who saw it, it was undeniably a sight of battlefield.
It was a battlefield fabricated with lies.
“Excellent.”
Viscount Royce Fielder, who received the role of Count Chase Troop’s supreme commander, made a faint smile.
His gaze went towards Kali on the other side.
‘I knew it will become like this.’
Royce knew Kali well.
It was because their ages were similar and had also spent a long time as rivals.
He knew that Kali would betray Io.
‘That b.a.s.t.a.r.d is probably blaming Count Lancephil.’
But that was Kali’s misjudgment.
The smile hanging on his mouth began much thicker.
‘There is no way Count Lancephil would pa.s.s the fief to a b.a.s.t.a.r.d like you.’
The existences called humans were essentially like that.
While the eyes for looking at others were bright, the eyes for looking at themselves were dim.
Due to that, most people didn’t know what their own faults were.
Kali too was the same.
‘In the first place, Count Lancephil who values people without discriminating status and you who are busy taking care of your own profit were opposites.’
Royce clicked his tongue.
If he was going to serve, he should had served a similar person.
Like him.
‘There really is no one like our Sir Count Chase who is all wrapped up with ambition.’
Royce and Count Jonathan Chase’s personalities were completely same.
Furthermore, Jonathan lightly ignored the process, unlike Io, as long as the result was good.
If one could just fill his ambition, he valued and used any one.
‘He doesn’t poorly treat his retainers just because of the lowly things. He grants lots of fiefs too. Kukuku.’
If Kali served Jonathan from the start, he would have achieved a large wealth and power in his hands.
No, truthfully said, it wasn’t a bad choice even now.
Because of that, this fief war was very important from Royce’s position.
‘Kali. I can’t leave you b.a.s.t.a.r.d to raise a big merit and serve Sir Count Chase.’
He had no desire to share the wealth and power with Kali.
‘You will have to die in this fief war.’
Of course, it wasn’t something Jonathan wanted.
No, he had no interest whether Kali lived or died.
The important thing was to gain the Lancephil County in his hands.
‘It should be fine to say he died during a chaotic battle.’
If he gave even that much excuse, Jonathan won’t delve any further.
Royce raised his right hand as he smiled frighteningly.
Coincidently, a west wind blew.
“Charge.”
He spoke in a low and unperturbed voice.
The Count Chase Troop rode the west wind and charged towards the East.
Dududududu!
The sound of horse hooves noisily rang out.
Kali and the Count Lancephil Troop stared at the Count Chase Troop that were approaching and then slowly turned their horses.
The direction the horses turned to was East.
They too made preparation to ride the west wind and charge towards the East.
Kali raised up his right hand high.
“Charge!”
A resounding voice echoed the land.
Dududududu.
The Count Lancephil Troop, no, the Viscount Owells Troop and the Count Chase Troop ma.s.sed together into one and charged towards the East.
It was the moment the Rinse Kingdom’s peace, which had continued on dangerously, shattered.
Lancephil Fief versus Chase Fief.
The Count Lancephil Troop versus Count Chase Troop and Viscount Owells Troop.
Like that, the fief war that would change many things began.
*****
‘What happened to you?’
Roan still made a surprised expression.
Although seeing Kinis was also surprising, the look that was different than what he had heard was also surprising.
‘Didn’t she say she was only about a size of a palm?’
Those were words he inwardly repeated alone.
But it seemed that those words were clearly heard in Kinis’ ears.
[I abruptly grew like this all of a sudden. Also……]
Smiling peculiarly, Kinis extended her hands towards a Kutier that had already neared them.
Puung!
Suddenly, a ball of water burst out from her hands.
A ball of water made underneath the water.
That was truly an odd sight.
[My power got stronger too.]
Her voice overflowed with confidence.
Although her appearance was still that of a cute and young girl, she was still a spirit.
A strange mysteriousness and beauty coexisted.
Pop! Pbung! Pop!
Kinis continuously shot out b.a.l.l.s of water towards the Kutiers that were approaching.
Although they were wiggly and slow looking attacks, they actually were very powerful strikes.
The Kutiers either had their skull broken or shattered.
But even so, it wasn’t as if Kinis’ situation was leisurely.
[Uwa! There’s seriously a lot!]
The Kutiers they faced with the boat lights and iron nets were at most a portion of them.
The Kutiers under the water were incredibly many to a point of being hard to count with eyes.
Pop! Pbung! Pop!
Kinis once again shot out b.a.l.l.s of water and then turned to Roan.
[What are you doing? Are you just going to keep watching like that?]
At those words, Roan made a bitter smile.
‘I want to help too, but the mana within me was completely depleted.’
[Mana? What are you talking about?]
Kinis creased her forehead.
‘I spent all the mana inside me to block Sethus’ atta……’
When his words had reached that point.
Kinis creased her brows as if saying what are you talking about.
[Then what’s that inside your mana hole?]
‘Mana hole?’
Creasing his brows, Roan focused his mind on his mana hole again.
‘Just what is she saying is in there?’
The mana hole was still completely empty.
But even so, there was no way that Kinis would make up empty words.
With the mana hole as the center, Roan slowly felt the energy around it.
Suddenly.
‘Ah……’
His eyes widely opened.
‘What is this?’
It wasn’t the mana hole.
To be exact, it was the exterior that wrapped around the mana hole.
An energy that felt completely different than the original mana was there.
If the mana hole’s mana tinged a pure heat due to filling it with the Flamdor Mana Technique, the mana of the mana hole’s exterior was.
‘Water?’
It was a flawless water energy.
A pure essence of water.
‘Why is this……?’
Roan couldn’t understand it.
According to the words queen of water Biate left and words Kinis had said, it was a fact that he had absorbed the essence of water.
He had also realized that it was also the essence of water that had saved his life when he lost his mind and the Flamdor Mana Technique rampaged at the end of the war with the Istel Kingdom.
But that was all.
After that, he couldn’t feel the aura of water, the water energy anywhere in his body.
But because a more stable compression and management of mana became possible as he trained the Flamdor Mana Technique, he thought that the essence of water had naturally dissipated as it took on such role.
But.
‘It has been wrapped around the mana hole?’
And a water energy this powerful and plenty at that?
‘How did something like this happen?’
It was something that he simply couldn’t understand.
In truth, although Roan didn’t realize it, it was thanks to water spirit king Ellaim’s arrangement that water energy, and extremely pure water energy at that, was hidden inside his body.
So that the pure water energy won’t unknowingly become active before Roan realized the essence of water by himself, she had placed a limit that wasn’t quite a limit.
Only, in order to stop at least the situation where Roan becomes swept up by the Flamdor Mana Technique and rampage, she had chosen the surface of the mana hole instead of the head or the heart and hid the water energy.
Although he wasn’t a human that was quite likable to her, since he did inherit Biate’s will at any rate, she wished to stop him from meaninglessly losing his life.
But an event that even Ellaim too didn’t expect happened.
The moment Roan used up the heat that had fully filled his mana hole, he sank into the Poskein Lake where a piece of Biate was asleep.
When the two events happened simultaneously, the pure water energy that was wrapped around the mana hole had opened its eyes on its itself.
A coincidence and a coincidence had overlapped, and he had earned an opportunity that he hadn’t even thought of.
Thanks to that, Kinis, whose strength was energetically overflowing thanks to the Poskein Lake even without it, received the effect of Roan’s water energy and could repeat a growth after growth.
Of course, Roan as well as Kinis too wasn’t able to guessed such truth at all.
‘Anyway, a water energy that I could use instead of heat appeared.’
And an extremely pure and amazingly great amount of water energy.
But there still was a problem.
‘Could I used the Flamdor Mana Technique to pull up and use the water energy?’
Even if he simply thought about it, it was something absolutely impossible.
There was even a possibility that the mana could rampage if not careful.
At that moment.
[Roan! Hey! Just how long are you going to stay like that?]
Kinis’ panicked voice was heard.
Already, Kutiers were tightly closed in around her surroundings.
It was a situation that Kinis could be in danger if not careful.
‘d.a.m.n it. To think it’s a situation where I can’t use the mana even when it’s there!’
Even thoughts of blindly trying out the Flamdor Mana Technique came to his mind.
‘I would have at least tried it if I knew any other mana techniq…… ah!’
Suddenly, Roan’s mind abruptly got hold of itself as if he was. .h.i.t on the head.
‘There is one!’
There was one other mana technique that he knew.
The mana technique that anyone knew of as long as they are higher commander than a thousand-man commander.
‘The Tale Mana Technique.’
The very man who had trained the Tale Mana Technique first right after Brian finished it was Roan.
But because he had the Flamdor Mana Technique, he hadn’t separately trained it after understanding that there was no big problem to the mana technique itself.
‘It should be fine if it’s the Tale Mana Technique, right?’
Because it was a mana technique that exceedingly emphasized the basic of the basics, it could control all types of mana.
Of course, there was one worrisome problem.
That there was a chance that it could collide with the Flamdor Mana Technique if not careful.
‘But if it’s at a state like now when the heat is completely depleted……’
The possibility of collision was very slim.
But since there was something like perhaps, there was a need to be careful.
‘I don’t touch the inside of the mana hole.’
Roan gulped once, and visualized the mana hole.
When he focused on the surface of the mana hole, the water energy that had softly wrapped around it soon began to move little by little.
‘It’s working!’
At the very moment he was about to cheer at the mana that moved as he willed.
‘Hgh!’
Roan gasped back an empty air.
It was because the water energy within his body had explosively increased and completely filled his mana road.
No, it wasn’t only that.
As if the s.p.a.ce within his body wasn’t enough, the water energy that had explosively expanded tried to even jet out of his body.
‘Kinis! Run!’
Roan hurriedly yelled towards Kinis.
Kinis too, befitting a water spirit, had already felt the abnormal phenomenon happening within Roan body.
She quickly moved below Roan’s feet and curled up her entire body.
As Kinis, who had checked them while shooting out b.a.l.l.s of water, disappeared, the Kutiers extended sharp claws in front of them and leaped at Roan.
However, their desires couldn’t be achieved.
The very instant before Kutiers’ claws would rip apart Roan’s body.
Boooooom!
An incredible water energy exploded from Roan’s body.
The strength of the water energy was unbelievable.
Pbubububuk!
The Kutiers that were energetically attacking disappeared without a trace.
Not just at the level of exploding, they were completely erased.
It truly was an incredible power.
The at least one good point was that the energy didn’t extend towards above his head or below his feet thanks to Roan controlling the explosion’s direction until the end.
Thanks to that, the ships above the water’s surface and Kinis, who hid below his feet, could be safe.
[Ro, Roan. Your appearance……?]
Kinis looked around at the empty water where the Kutiers disappeared, then stared at Roan a moment late and made a shocked expression.
Roan.
His appearance right now was undoubtedly that of Ellaim.
Blue hair and a transparent skin.
Of course, it wasn’t a look as beautiful as her.
*****
“My lord! My lord!”
Harrison’s panicked voice echoed out.
“Shine the boat light!”
“Call the ships that retreated!”
The flagship arrived at the place Roan sank.
But however they shined the lights and shouted, Roan’s appearance wasn’t seen.
“The soldiers capable of diving step forwards!”
Harrison personally took off the on-water-use leather armor and stepped up for diving preparation.
The ones originally good at swimming and capable of diving amongst the soldiers hurriedly made preparations.
Their setup seemingly looked ready to dive into the lake at any moment.
But.
Boom!
With an explosive sound, one of the ships that were approaching towards the flagship sank.
Sethus, which had blasted away Roan, had already reached near them.
“Thousand-man commander!”
The soldiers turned to Harrison and hurriedly shouted.
Harrison, who was about to jump into the water to save Roan, gritted his teeth as he looked at Sethus.
‘d.a.m.n it! d.a.m.n it! d.a.m.n it!’
Curses rose back up all the way to his throat.
But if he became emotional, the soldiers below him would fall into panic.
Harrison forcefully calmed his heart that shook and gave an order.
“Prepare to attack with the arrows! All fleet hold back its legs!”
A miserable order.
The damage would be extreme.
But while the entire fleet stopped Sethus, he himself and the flagship’s soldiers planned to save Roan.
With the current situation, that was the best.
However, Sethus was much more powerful monster than Harrison’s thought.
Kw.a.n.g! Kwakang!
At a swing or two of its arm, three ships were half demolished.
Tens, hundreds of arrows cut through the s.p.a.ce and planted themselves into Sethus’ body, the monster didn’t show any reaction.
Roan, who had taken on the such gigantic b.a.s.t.a.r.d alone, newly felt amazing.
‘d.a.m.n it!’
Harrison was anxious.
He couldn’t stop Sethus, and he couldn’t save Roan either.
“Uaaaak!”
“Sa, save me!”
“Throw the ropes!”
“Save our allies!”
h.e.l.l.
All kinds of screams mixed and were heard.
Kuaaaaah!
With an aberrant scream, Sethus once again raised its arms up high.
Now, the thing the monster aimed for was the flagship.
Looking at the gigantic hand large enough to block out the night sky, Harrison bit his lips.
‘My lord……’
He wasn’t afraid of dying.
But, the fact he couldn’t save Roan felt lamentable.
Harrison grabbed the bow he hung on his back.
‘Even if I die a timely death, I will have to leave a single scratch on you b.a.s.t.a.r.d’s body.’
The bowstring was tightly pulled.
A single spindly arrow sharply trembled its body.
Kwaaaah!
With an aberrant scream once again, Sethus slowly swung the arm he had raised high.
It was a slow movement as if to make fun of the humans who would be crushed by its hand and die.
‘Even though you’re a mere monster!’
Harrison gritted his teeth and let go of the pulled bowstring.
Piing!
With a clear sound, a single arrow cut through the air.
It was an infinitely small and spindly thing compared to Sethus’ gigantic body.
‘Is this the best……’
Watching the arrow fly up, Harrison spat out a long sigh.
At that moment.
Booooooooom!
With an explosive sound, a column of water soared up next to the flagship.
“Huhugh!”
“Wha, what the!”
“Is it a monster again!”
The soldiers loudly shouted and stared at the column of water.
The column of water was truly grand.
It endlessly soared up.
Kwah?
Sethus too, at the sudden situation, blinked its eyes and glared at the column of water.
Shwaak!
Suddenly, an incredible stream of water extended out from the column of water.
Drawing a long curve, it hit the Sethus’ arm that was raised up high.
No, the stream of water that they thought had hit Sethus’ arm directly pa.s.sed through it.
It was a strange sight.
Kwah?
Sethus too, once again, shouted out a strange and aberrant scream.
That moment.
Paaaaaat!
Following Sethus’ arm, an incredible fountain of blood soared up.
At the same time, the arm that was attached to the gigantic body slowly become disjointed and then fell on top of the lake.
Kwaaaaang!
With an incredible splash of water, a swell of water arose.
The flagship and the ships greatly swayed.
Kwaaaah!
Looking at arm that was cleanly cut off, Sethus exploded out a horrendous scream.
On the other hand, the Tale Legion’s soldiers, at the situation that suddenly happened, became mutes who ate honey. 1
At that moment, a soldier from the flagship shouted.
“It, it’s the lord!”
The end of his finger pointed at the column of water.
Everyone’s gazes headed towards the end of the column of water.
“Ah……”
With a greatly moved look, Harrison let out a quiet exclamation.
He was there.
The man proudly standing at the end of the column of water and glaring at Sethus was definitely Roan.
Although both the color of the hair and skin was different than before, he could clearly recognize him.
“My lord……”
For some reason, tears flowed.
Roan whom he thought was dead.
He had soar up riding the column of water and then had cut off Sethus’ gigantic arm.
At that moment, Roan pointed at Sethus with the Travias Spear.
The soldiers, while staying mute, looked at that sight.
A thundering roar exploded out as if it had been waiting.
“Sethus! You b.i.t.c.h! Who told you to touch my guys?”
Who told you to touch my guys.
They were words they really heard a lot somewhere.
< Poskein Subjugation > End.
Translator Note:
So… I’m not sure how to say this well, but firstly, I’m sorry. I’ll be changing the IatM’s release schedule to 2 chapters per week.
In all honesty, I’ve actually spent the last three months constantly translating and hadn’t done anything else besides small ch.o.r.es and family activities. And with the average length of chapters slowly increasing, I had too much problem trying to be on time and it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to get out those sponsored chapters anytime soon.
The bottom line is, I need more time to spend on my studying (as a college student, I really do need to study a bit more), so I’ll be reducing the releases to one chapter each on Tuesday and Sat.u.r.day. I’m sorry.
1. I think I explained this before, but “mutes who ate honey” is a Korean phrase for a very very silent person