Chapter 162
The Roaring Lions of the North (1)
Count Schmilde Stuttgart, Nogisa, had been recognized for his talent with the sword from a young age, joining the palace knights early in his life. Since that time, he grew steadily and gained completion at age thirty-five, becoming the youngest palace knight commander in Leonberg’s history.
Many knights praised his talent and accomplishment, but some of them dismissed him for being unstable, all due to the relatively smooth manner in which things had flown throughout his life.
They mocked him as a flower in the garden cultivated by the king, a flower who has lived a life of luxury in the palace without knowing true hardship.
Contrary to popular opinion, Schmilde’s life was never a smooth ride, without sharp curves in the road.
He spent all his youth fighting against the imperial machinations aiming to make Leonberg a scarecrow kingdom. Even in Nogisa’s laters years, could he not rest for a single day while he faced the empire’s schemes.
Schmilde had never truly known a good night’s sleep.
The number of assassins and grotesques he had defeated during those tough years had been in their hundreds, and it wasn’t enough for the old man to be called a mere champion.
However, now Count Stuttgart’s indomitable spirit was shaken by a horde of monsters that flocked onto the snowfield and by the hideous monstrosity mounted upon the griffon.
The foe exceeded Schmilde’s expectations – A monster whose mere presence was of an incalculable scale.
Shivers ran along the old knight’s skin. The battle has not begun, yet those tens of thousands of monsters crouched upon the snowfield while the beast upon the griffon looked down on Winter Castle.
How could they beat this? Nogisa felt as helpless as if he had returned to the time when he had first encountered imperial assassins.
But he soon made up his mind: Just as the lords and knights of Winter Castle held their pride in the protection of the north, so too Nogisa was proud in doing his duty and protecting the royal family.
He couldn’t deny such a duty, even if faced with such a monster.
Nogisa looked at the prince, who he had tutored when the boy was young before the prince had embraced baser talents and fallen into the lowliest of natures. It wasn’t just Nogisa: Everyone attached to the prince had been thrown to the wayside at the time. Even the boy’s father hated his son, persecuted him, and contemplated banishing him from the palace.
It was no exaggeration to say that the prince’s childhood was marked by contempt and hatred.
All had feared that disaster would strike the kingdom was this prince to ascend to the throne. They figured that the moment he ascended, the hatred and anger that had ruled his childhood would sweep over the kingdom.
But it did not turn out so – the prince, as if beholding that future himself, shrugged off his hatred and contempt. Then he subjugated the harsh and desperate northern lords and earned the hearts of the high-ranking knights of the kingdom.
In this process, he showed aptitude in behaving like the ambassadors of the empire and even banished the imperial shadows that had crawled through the royal palace itself.
The prince was now indispensable to the kingdom.
“It doesn’t matter that you’re going to be far away from me. The kingdom needs him more than me at this time.”
The king had also judged it to be so and finally persuaded Nogisa, who insisted upon staying at his side.
“Now that that child is the future of the kingdom, he is the kingdom itself. Makes sure that the reckless child does not reach out too far and plunge into the abyss.”
Nagisa’s head grew cold as soon as he recalled the king’s request, yet his heart still beat with warmth.
The king ordered him to protect the future of the kingdom, and that command was enough.
Nogisa gripped the hilt of his sword.
By his own judgment, his energy would not be enough to end the presence of that great monster, for, in the face of such a monstrous presence, the four rings he were so proud of were as nothing.
However, the royal knight wasn’t here to win, so staying back was enough.
‘Shhlkp~’ the sound of a sword drawn from its scabbard pierced Nogisa’s ears, and it was not the sound of his sword, which remained sheathed.
‘Pwooo~’ a brilliant golden glow spread over the castle walls. Nogisa turned his head to find the source of the auspicious light and found it to emanating from the sword of the prince’s dearest confidant.
She was Adelia kingdom.
At first sight, Nogisa had thought that she was a woman who could not be seen as a champion, rather one who would be nicely dressed as she strolled through the palace instead of standing upon the field of battle with her sword drawn. She had not made a big impression upon him, yet he had figured that her gentle nature and figure matched the prince well.
However, this delicate woman, who the Nogisa had thought of in that manner, had drawn her sword before anyone else.
`Wooo~’ and another flash broke out, this time from Arwen Kirgayen.
Men had been groaning and chewing their lips under the enormous presence of the monster – these men now drew their blades and pointed them at the beast above.
Nogisa saw men jutting out their chins and wriggling their eyebrows in defiance.
“Damn, but you got an ugly face,” said Bernardo Eli as he drew his sword and pointed it at the sky. The pale glow of his blade spread across the walls.
That was the beginning.
‘Cheolkup~’ Nogisa unsheathed his sword as well.
He hesitated no further; rather, great anticipation was added to the blade in his heart, which had become dull as he entered old age.
The metaphorical blade of his entire life was gathered upon the edge of his sword. A great white light erupted and wrapped itself over the wall. And so, each of the four masters aimed their swords at the monster that hovered above the walls.
The beast’s anger made his skin tingle, so Nogisa rotated his rings with even greater velocity and ferocity. The fresh white light of his blade spread deeper and farther. The other three masters each accelerated their hearts or rings, responding to Nogisa’s rising energy.
The air grew tight with tension, with a balance that seemed as if it would collapse at any moment.
Nogisa drew energy into him with the belief that it would be acceptable were he to die here today.
His back was damp and wet with sweat, and the frigid, stormy weather attacked his body. Nevertheless, the old man resisted the beast above by accelerating his rings rather than driving away the chill.
How much time had passed?
It may not have been long, yet the Nogisa felt as if he had stood there for several hours without end.
The personage who the old knight had to protect stepped forward, and he started to speak in an unfamiliar, non-human language.
“…” it was a ferocious sound as if an orc was growling. What language was it, and what did it mean? Nogisa did not know, yet he could see that the utterance of those words had made the beast above very angry, for the monster upon the griffon now opened his mouth wide.
But before a roar could burst from its maw- “Fire!” ‘Doof!’
The Count of Winter Castle gave the order, and a great roar rang out as Nogisa saw the unidentified iron cylinders placed all along the walls spew fire.
Black missiles arced through the air, and the great griffon hurriedly flapped its wings to escape their trajectory. The shells fell to the earth, their fiery flight in vain. In the meantime, an arrow flew from somewhere and pierced into the griffon’s shoulder. The winged beast screeched and pirouetted in pain, with the orc atop grabbing onto the griffon’s neck as he was rocked back and forth.
The dignity of the beast that had so arrogantly looked down upon Winter Castle existed no longer. Now there was just a monster sitting upon a flying best, struggling not to fall from the thing.
‘Uuh uh uh uh!’ the monster roared.
“Prepare for battle!” shouted the prince.
The monsters upon the snowfield had begun to roar and surge forward, all at once.
Rangers grabbed their bows and crossbows, and the heads of the screaming metal devices were lowered.
‘Dum dum dum dum dum!’ the ground shook as that vast horde charged, and the snow that had gathered upon the walls fell down under that vibration.
“Respond!” came a harsh shout, and rangers let loose crossbow bolts and arrows.
‘Sasasasasak~’ thousands of arrows blanketed the sky.
‘Krsh!’ a portion of the monsters collapsed as death pierced into them from the air.
However, these diminished lines were quickly filled by monsters pushing in from the rear.
“Target the ones with the ladders and ropes!”
“Ignore the big ones! They’ll get stuck anyway!”
Rangers yelled out to each other all along the wall, and the sound of bowstrings being drawn and then twanging echoed all over.
“I’ll cover the west!”
“Then I’ll take the east!”
The newest and greatest champions of the kingdom spread their brilliant light as they ran across the walls.
The knights of Winter Castle stood upon the walls, bearing shields.
“Ha!”
In the next instant, a great many missiles were thrown from under the walls.
‘Klnng!’ the roar of their impact echoed all over, yet none of the stones and spears thrown by the monsters so much as crossed the wall.
“Ha!” the knights cried once more as they swung their shields, beating back wolves and their orcish riders who had tried to leap onto the wall. Beasts and riders both plunged earthward.
Large monsters, several meters tall, roared as they threw axes and stones.
The knights with shields crouched down, and the knights from the second line leapt onto the backs and shoulders of those before them.
‘Wooo~!’ an unusual brilliance shone on their swords: Sword auras of those with at least three rings.
‘Swkng!’ the jumping knights blocked the monsters’ attack and leaped back in quick succession, with the knights of the first row once more standing, shields raised. Behind them, the other knights were removing the corpses of their fallen companions from the wall.
The rangers did not budge, even though the rocks fragmented under their very noses as the knights shattered them or bounced them back. The same counted when the wolves climbed onto the walls, striking out with their slavering maws.
The rangers just fired arrows like machines, and the knights protected them.
“Ah,” Nogisa admired the defensive strategy as he watched it unfold.
It was an unfamiliar sight, for Nogisa had never heard of nor seen a scenario where precious knights fought like common soldiers. He had never seen knights risk their bodies for the sake of protecting soldiers, as they did here. Nogisa was impressed by the manner in which they took the initiative, yet at the same time, he was concerned, knowing that the knights would be the first ones to tire.
The knights had to maintain an optimal level of power at every moment. In that way, Nogisa could step out and do his part, as was required of him.
That was common sense, but it didn’t take long for Nogisa’s conception of common sense to shatter.
The knights of Winter Castle did not tire; they were like iron men. Then the prince came up to Nogisa and explained it to him as if he had read his inner thoughts.
Once the battle begins, the Knights of Winter Castle have to fight for a few weeks up to several months.
Naturally, they have no choice but to learn how to use their energy efficiently and how to quickly recover exhausted stamina.
Nogisa spat out his doubt. Sure, there was no way to grow a knight faster than through a battle as the current one, so Winter Castle was the perfect proving ground for them. However, no matter how efficiently they manage their energy, the mana of the knights was bound to be limited. And once the knights upon the wall fell, there would be a vacuum in defensive power that the monsters would exploit.
“Don’t the knights on the wall then, in reality, suppress their energy?” asked Nogisa.
The prince smiled as he looked back along the wall. “Not as such, no. Ah, it’s time for the turn change,” said the prince, almost to himself, and the Nogisa did not understand.
“Line shift!” came the order from Count Balahard.
“Ha!” The knights who had fought fiercely with the monsters in the front ranks now stepped back, and the knights behind them took up shields and swords, stepping out to take their comrades’ places.
Nogisa’s eyes stretched wide. He didn’t try to conduct an exact count, but by rough estimate, about four-hundred had retreated from the front ranks with the same amount taking their place.
This was incomprehensible for the old man – he had heard that there were less than five hundred knights gathered here from the northern region and that a significant number of them had been sacrificed in the latest charge into the rampaging monsters. It was a historical moment, to have almost a thousand knights present, and the second prince had confirmed it before the Nogisa left the capital.
“Shouldn’t you reduce the power and report?” the Nogisa asked Prince Maximilian at the time.
The prince replied by saying it wasn’t very important.
“Because there are imperial spies everywhere,” he had then stated, and Nogisa had paused for a while, and then broken out into laughter.
These knights could not exist after the imperial pressures bore down upon the kingdom, so they were all disbanded, and the Kingdom of Leonberg became a toothless lion.
Everyone said that the day would never be seen when the northern lion would roar once more, and Nogisa had also secretly thought so. But it didn’t turn out that way.
A new history of Leonberg was beginning here, in this cold land that so few knew of. And this new history was so glorious and splendid, unlike the past hundred years which had been marked by humiliation and defeat.
The thrilled Nogisa’s face was flushed, and he looked at the prince.
“It’s not over yet,” came the prince’s words, and the air became heated. At first: A small ember and then many embers grew to become fiery fists, and these formed into balls of flame bigger than human heads. And at last, fireballs flew into the monsters.
‘Fwoosh~!’ and the small fireballs exploded into big flares, with the flames reaching out several meters to either side.
Flames erupted all over, and the burning monsters roared and ran riot.
“It seems that quite a few of the children sent by the nobles had talent enough to become wizards.”
Nogisa’s eyes widened as he watched the flames, a magical fire that has not been manifested for a hundred years since the empire sealed Leonberg’s tower.
It was combat magic, through and through, and Nogisa was thrilled by the flaming sight of it. The prince drew his sword and stepped forward. The three masters who had dispersed themselves across the wall to slay monsters now stood behind him.
Nogisa was overwhelmed by these new champions, for they had reached completion before the age that he had done so, some even ten years before his thirty-five. They did not notice the gaze of the old knight, as they were talking among themselves.
“He will appear soon,” said the prince.
“Already?” asked Bernardo Eli as he tilted his head.
“We just lit a fire in front of a being whose game it is to ignite eternal fires, so he won’t back down after our challenge.”
The prince’s statement was unintelligible to Nogisa, and the other champions also seemed befuddled. Then the prince’s face suddenly had a questioning appearance to it, and Bernardo asked something as if he had just remembered.
“But… what did you say earlier?”
“I didn’t say much. Just…” replied the prince in an awkward tone, pausing.
“It is said that he pretends to be proud about the fact that he is the waste that Hwaryong chewed upon and then spat out.”
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