–Aegir POV–
After ensnaring a large group of barbarians in the swamp and defeating them, our army is advancing into their territory, pursuing the fleeing survivors. The tailing light cavalry were shaken off due to the speed of the enemy horses, but we know their general direction. Thinking about the scale of past attacks, the earlier battle has without a doubt dealt a fatal blow to them. It will become a battle on unfamiliar land, but we will be able to overwhelm them with numbers.
「However, I thought that when it comes to not having anything my territory was number one, but I can't compare to this place.」
A wasteland as far as the eyes can see, although it isn't flat ground and is bumpy while also being slightly inclined.
「If we go further east from here, we will reach the great mountain range.」
The great mountain range separates the continents running north to south and cuts into the central plains, before appearing again further ahead. The mountaintop is not a place where people can possibly ascend, and a report has said that the summit is over 10,000 m high – basically the territory of the gods.
「As expected, their main forces will not live in these mountain ranges. The mountain tribe will be living in the wasteland a little beyond these mountains.」
Leopolt is lecturing for my sake. I'm grateful, but being treated as an idiot also makes my blood boil.
This territory is barren but expansive. If they can freely run around in this area, it will be impossible to find them.
「If we have a general idea of the direction, we can manage somehow.」
Horses are indispensable in their lifestyles. They are not only used in battle, but also for hunting and for transportation, and it seems that all adults receive one horse each.
In addition, maintaining the horses require a large amount of water and fodder. The skill level of the mountain tribe is low and they even have to resort to plundering and stealing to get wagons and porcelain pots – not being able to satisfactorily make them on their own. They are unable to transport the especially important large amounts of accumulated water, so they would have to travel to the plains or another water source no matter what. Once we know the direction of a small river or pond, we would be fine.
「Ooh, so you know that much?」
Leopolt looks at me in astonishment.
Heh, things like their skill level being low and them having one horse per person, it's information that even you don't know right?
「You heard this from a barbarian woman during pillow talk didn't you?」
「Don't say anything unnecessary.」
I flick Celia's forehead. That one felt good, so it made her hold her red forehead in agony.
We could not let the prisoners of war that we captured in the earlier battle walk with us so we tied their hands and had around 100 soldiers monitor them in the village. The amount of soldiers will decrease on our end, but I think we're just about to settle things, so there's no point in being frugal with them.
Amongst them, I picked out my favorite girl and took her to bed with me, but I don't know whether the mountain tribe hasn't advanced in their skills in bed, or whether that girl was just too innocent. The girl was crying while satisfying herself over and over, and by the time I released my semen once, the number of times she has already climaxed was in double digits. Once day broke, the girl has completely become my prisoner and she told me anything that I asked.
「Regardless of the method, that is crucial information. As expected.」
I have never heard a more sarcastic 'as expected' as that.
「That woman, she asked me whether I was the captain's younger sister! Not only that, when I told her that Aegir-sama already has three wives, she recommended herself to be the fourth one!!」
By the way, she said that it was normal for strong men in the mountain tribe to have several wives. However, as expected I don't want to make a woman I just met not too long ago my wife.
「Because it's not good, next will be my turn...I mean, if you continue to 'eat' women irresponsibly, you'll get into trouble.」
It's fun seeing Celia get so desperate all the time. But recently, it seems like she's been influenced by Irijina and her voice is getting louder. If she knew that the people around are looking at her, she'd get really embarrassed.
If you don't attempt to make some futile conversations or something, in this territory where there is nothing but mountains, it would be unbearably boring. I want to hurry in finding and subjugating them. I can probably see whether there is any activity in the surroundings of Rafen with nothing around here.
「A bunch of tents that look like they belong to barbarians have been discovered in the riverbed in front.」
The situation moves instantly from the reports of the advance guard.
「Spear cavalry, without engaging the enemy, surround them from the back, assume every one of those guys will ride on horses, including women and children. If you don't circle them, they'll escape.」
「Take the archers to the front. Those guys are bow cavalry. The long spears won't be able to defend them all.」
Each squad remembers from experience in battle how annoying these guys are. Even though we are facing few in numbers, we don't let our guard down and form into ranks.
「Will it turn into a battle?」
I spoke my honest feelings.
「Well, their ways of doing things are unknown.」
Leopolt also has doubts in the bottom of his heart.
The enemy noticed we were coming and hastily moved, but there are only a few weapons prepared for attack and equipment for riding with horses. At a glance, they have at most 100 people, and the rest are either elderly or children. Although we had some decrease in numbers, if you include my private army, we are close to 2000, and as expected they won't stand a chance. It's what I thought, they would surrender if I showed them our numbers.
「The spear cavalry over here has gone around to the back. They are completely surrounded.」
Celia informs us. With this, their fate is sealed.
「Do they intend to resist?」
「Apparently it seems so. Their cavalry are starting to form ranks.」
Of course, Leopolt will not allow such things. The archers start firing at them in full force before they finished forming their ranks, and most of them were defeated before they could start moving decently.
Just when I was about to finish them off by setting them on fire, one man appeared. The man is wearing a fancy costume and is shouting something in a loud voice while looking over at us. It seems that he is requesting a duel.
「A duel...」
「Don't go! The battle is already decided. Putting yourself in a dangerous situation like this is pointless!」
Celia warns me as she saw how I was going to oblige with their request.
However, it isn't meaningless. According to the information from the girl I persuaded, they have a custom in which their leader has always been the one who is the strongest, and it is decided by a one-on-one battle. I can tell from the decorations that the man who is currently shouting is wearing, but he is probably the head of the family, or the chieftain. If I am able to defeat him, then the rest of the enemies may stop resisting and surrender to us.
「Just when I found some excellent cavalry, it would be a shame if I killed them all.」
Also, if we kill all of them here, we don't know how the ones who have already surrendered will act. There's also Carla's injuries, but because of the girl I embraced yesterday, I'll forgive them. With Celia sighing behind me, I advance forward. By no means did I only want to fight.
「You fool who defiles our sanctuary! If you are terrified of the formidable rage of this earth and these mountains, may my request be granted, and let us settle things in this sacred duel!」
「I'm not really scared of the mountains, but I accept.」
He's a man in his 40's and is an exception of the mountain tribe, as his physique is slightly small, but he appears to be a veteran warrior.
「Ooh! So we have a hero here. The mountains will also be watching. Now come at me!」
The man lets out a voice of happiness as he lets his horse run and releases an arrow.
A bow in a duel? However, they are people who fought with swords and bows in the first place, so this is normal to them. Moreover, the arrow itself is not that threatening. I can easily dodge arrows that are aimed and fired right in front of me. I brush it away with my spear and instantly close the distance.
The man sees my spear and without letting me get into a close-combat fight, backs off and tries to finish me off with his bow. He maneuvers his horse expertly and uses obstacles as shields while maintaining his distance.
But I am still able to close the distance in one breath. The reason is simple, his horse is unable to escape from Schwartz. Schwartz is different from other warhorses and his legs are thick and tough. He overturns those worthless obstacles and sprints, compensating for my average horse handling skills and chooses the shortest course by himself.
The price that he is looking for is to have a beautiful girl take care of him and brush him. If he doesn't get that, then he's quick to sulk.
In the blink of an eye, the distance between him and I closes to 10 m, and seeing as how he can't escape, the man unsheathes his sword. He has something like a machete which is shorter than 1 m, while I have a 3 m long spear. He's using a bow too, so don't think it's unfair.
While I was mumbling to myself in my heart, I swing my spear and aim for the man's neck. He blocks desperately with his sword, but with the overwhelming difference in strength, his sword flies away and his arm bends backwards.
「-!!!」
He doesn't even have the time to scream, as the returning motion of my spear comes crashing down on his neck, sending his head flying. As expected, I wouldn't lose to a small 40 year old man when it comes to exchanging blows. Having lost its head, the body collapses and falls to the ground as the horse quietly stops.
「The chief is dead! Are you still going to fight?!」
I face the surrounding mountain people and shout. They stop moving and drop their swords and bows to the ground. The women who were about to run away also gathered around me, covering the ground.
It seems that what that girl said was correct. With this, I will now become the chief of these people. The eastern army also precisely stopped attacking because of Leopolt's orders.
The battle is over.
The barbarians...the mountain people did not get destroyed, but they were conquered.
One of the mountain people stripped the headless chief's decorations and brings them over to me. It makes me look like a real barbarian so I'm against it, but it would satisfy them so it's better to wear it. With that in mind, I stretch my hand out but, at that moment, thunder roars.
The man from the mountain tribe who knelt down in front of me and offered me the decorations was struck by lightning and was burnt to a crisp, dying instantly.
The war has not yet ended.
This is the worst feeling. That's because after attaining victory, I witnessed a human getting barbequed.
「Aegir-sama!」
Celia hastily rushes to me, but I control her with my hand. Right now there is not a single cloud in the clear sky, and if you think about it normally, lightning would not occur. I don't know what this is, but there is something clearly malicious out there, which I will not let hurt Celia.
「I won't admit it, I won't admit this!」
A voice that seems to crawl on the earth. It was not really a loud voice, but it was a voice that remains in your ear quite unpleasantly.
「A fool like you who doesn't revere the mountain doesn't deserve to be the chief. Even if the law is twisted, I will not accept this!」
An eerily decorated tent, with skulls of horses and sheep...I don't want to think of it, but there are even things that look like human bones hanging there, as a single person appears slowly from that area. Wearing a large amount of rotten cloths that could no longer be called clothes, I can not see their face, and nothing can be seen except their mouth. I can't even tell whether it's a man or woman as it approaches me slowly while dragging an old rag that is acting as a dress.
「It's fine if you can't accept it, but you can at least give us your name right?」
That thing halts for a bit, but then raises its unpleasant voice again.
「You fools. Prepare yourselves, revere me. I am the incarnation of the mountains Dorbaga, only those who desire to be punished should raise their faces! 」
There was a scream, and altogether, the mountain people knelt to the ground and asks for forgiveness. Earlier, they were not kneeling as much when they knelt to me after I defeated the chief, but now it was completely different, and they were trembling as they begged for forgiveness.
Meanwhile, the eastern army soldiers naturally did not lower their heads. Perhaps that was bothering so Dorbaga shouted angrily.
「The fools who do not revere the mountain will be granted death!!」
Then, light starts glowing from the staff that was held, and a stream of light runs straight into the middle of the soldiers. It was a roaring sound several times louder than before, and several people got burnt instantly, blowing back around 10 people in the vicinity as well.
It caused a large commotion.
「A magician?!」
I have heard stories about this. They are the people who manipulate the spirits and are able to use fire, wind and other mysterious powers. It requires one to be born with talent, so they are usually protected and welcomed by nations and high nobles so it is exceedingly rare for normal people to see them.
Also there are very few of them, the information on them is ambiguous and there are many uncertainties. Some say that magic users are nothing more than a flashy jack-in-the-box, while others say that it depends on how they are used, even being able to determine the outcome in battle. The point is, even though they are all magicians, their individual differences in talent varies, and there could even be small fries who wield great destructive power.
In the past, I have heard from Lucy that most magicians can only defeat one or two people. If they can defeat several people all at once, then they're actually quite skilled.
Being able to blow away 10 enemies from a distance, the one in front of us is without a doubt a first-class magician.
「I didn't hear that something like this existed from that girl though.」
Maybe she was purposely not talking about it, or perhaps it was an existence that she didn't know about. Either way, the commotion is spreading to the entire eastern army. To suppress it, we should get the commanders to immediately give orders to rain down arrows on it. The one who instantly killed 10 people is formidable, but shouldn't be able to win against 2000 opponents. However, if that happens, then there will be deaths from the mayhem, and we might have to once again abandon the mountain people who have just surrendered to us.
「There's no choice except doing it myself.」
I get in my stance with my spear and signal the people around me to step away. I don't intend to protect them, but they would just get in the way if they stand beside me.
「You bastard will defy the mountains as well?!」
「I understand that you're amazing, but the battle is decided. If you become obedient, then your life will be spared.」
It's not like I wanted them to surrender. I just wanted to signal the opponent to target me with their attacks.
「How nonsensical, this fool is!」
Light concentrates on the staff. I advance forward immediately, slashing at them. But the light on the staff flew at me faster, and as I tried to deflect the bundle of light,
I got blown away quite spectacularly.
「Guh...!」
From the depths of my chest, air naturally leaks out as my field of view wavers. I can't just lay here forever while I'm in the middle of fighting so I get up, but my whole body is tingling with a numb feeling.
This is the first time I feel this sensation. I thought I was able to repel it with my spear, but I guess I can't tell when it comes to magic.
「What!? After taking my magic, why have you not perished?! You bastard, are you some sort of demon?」
「You're the more suspicious one, having some weird thing fly out of your body!」
The only thing that flies out of me is love for women. Though, when it enters their bodies, it's a love that becomes a child.
「Is that it? Then it's my turn next.」
I try putting strength into my hand, but the hand holding the spear feels numb and I can't use my strength the way I want. When I look carefully, the palm of my hand is burned quite vividly. The fact that it wasn't burnt to a crisp, may be thanks to the cloak I'm wearing.
I unsheathe the much lighter Dual Crater and charge once again. Seeing as how I'm being lectured between incantations, it seems that this light magic can't be fired consecutively.
The distance is 20 m, but to me that distance is only a little, and it doesn't seem like my opponent can move too quickly either. If my sword can reach, then it should be over.
「Nonsense! Be destroyed, you demonic being!」
As I approach, the light does not come flying. If that's the case, I can do it. With that thought, I prepare to swing my sword, but the staff glows with a light different from before.
It was not the roaring sound made from the earlier thunderbolt, but it was a crackling sound like sizzling hot oil, and a wall of light appeared, encircling the magician.
「You serious, how much skill do you possess?」
The wall of light burns even the grass on the ground, so even I can tell that it would be bad if I touched it. Seeing as how our movements have stopped, the soldiers aimed their bowgun at the magician and fired their arrows, but they instantly caught on fire as they touched the wall of light, burning up and being deflected.
「If you touch this guy, then we'll suffer a terrible fate again like earlier.」
My burned palm hurts. My cloak also has a burnt smell. If I were to lose this cloak as well, I might cry.
「But, there is no other way than that.」
If I have a pillar of fire, then I might be able to try and oppose the magician during our confrontation, but unfortunately, I only have a sword as a weapon right now. I took my Dual Crater and get ready to swing it with both hands, exhaling a large breath. 1
With a rough warcry, I swing down my sword. It's do or die, and I can't do anything but trust in the Nonna's symbolic treasured sword.
When the sword hits the wall of light, it was like trying to forcefully cut something soft, and there was an intense crackling sound, similar to the one that burned my body before. I don't know what will happen, but the only thing I can do is to utilize my strength and try to outmuscle the opponent.
And then I won the bet, the beautifully brilliant sword did not get repelled by the light, but instead was able to slice through the wall.
Cheers erupted from the gathered mountain people and the eastern army. After the wall had been cut, it disappeared, just like how fog would clear up.
「What the-! The blessing of the mountains, to be able to slice my sacred power, what on earth are you?!」
「I wonder!」
I don't feel like talking. I pull the sword from the wall and approach the magician. The bundle of light is once again released at point-blank range.
But it's useless, as this sword has already proven to me that it can cut through light. I will no longer get hit by your magic.
With one swing, I bisect the soaring spear of light, and launch a kick to the opponent's body. Getting knocked back in a sorry state, I step on the back of its fallen appearance and get ready to swing my sword. Sounds of two explosions resounded behind me. It seems the magic that was cut by me flew to the back. The unlucky soldiers should resent this guy, not me.
「S-stop! If you kill me, punis-! You'll be punished! A landslide will-! An avalanche will-!」
My interest in this guy suddenly fades. This guy isn't using the mountain or actually has anything to do with it. This guy is just a little bit of a powerful magician and has the mountain people in fear. When you destroy the magic that they are so confident in, they start panicking, and when they are about to hit the depths of death, they turn into humans who beg for their lives.
「Your skill was amazing. Later.」
Just like taking the stem off of vegetables, the head was separated from the body.
A chorus of loud cheering erupted that seemed to shake the mountains. All the soldiers of the eastern army raised both their hands and praised me.
「The strongest knight in Goldonia!」
「Even magicians don't scare him!」
「Praise the invincible captain!」
「An incredible woman-lover!」
I'll deal with the final guy later, so the cheers don't make me feel bad. This time was quite dangerous though. My hand and my entire body needs treatment, and more than anything I'm worried about my cloak...it would be nice if it didn't get burned or filled with holes.
On the other hand, the target of the mountain people's fear died, and I remain as the only person they surrendered to, thus they end up bowing their heads around me once again.
This time, it's really over. I declare the victory and the end of the battle to everyone, and I will have Celia, who's running toward me with tears streaming down her face, handle my treatment.
「Gosh! It's already gotten so bad.」
I leave the post-war processing to Leopolt and have Celia treat my injuries. My hand is in a terrible state, but besides that, there are also places where I got burned even though I was wearing armor.
「It really seems like you got struck by lightning.」
Back in my mercenary days, I had the misfortune of seeing a person get struck by lightning, and the burns look like this. Although that guy had his entire body inflamed and died instantly.
「You saw how the soldiers got burnt to a crisp right?! Why did you act so recklessly!?」
It's because I thought I could deflect it with my spear, but Celia is not looking for that kind of answer.
「My bad. I made you worry.」
I hug the teary-eyed Celia and tell her gently. For Celia, who has grown up, this is the right answer.
Incidentally, because I'm having ointment plastered over me, Irijina is forbidden to come in. And about the important cloak....
「It's pretty burnt and there are a few holes here and there. I think it's better to get a new one.」
「...」
「Aegir-sama? It would need a material that I've never seen before in order for it to be resewn, so why not throw it away?」
「Celia, don't say anymore than that.」
My voice came out harsher than I thought. The hand that was spreading the ointment over me stopped.
「W-well, I'm terribly...sorry.」
Celia turns pale. Even though she's treating me, I did something bad, although I won't allow this. To throw away this cloak, it's something ridiculous for me. Once again, I pet the teary-eyed Celia as I sniff the cloak's scent. It feels like I can smell the nostalgic scent of that wasteland among the burnt smells.
「How are the mountain people doing?」
「They have calmed down. There doesn't look to be anybody who wants to escape.」
Leopolt tells me about what is going on after the war is over.
The mountain people decide their chief through duels every time, so after I killed the previous chief, nothing out of the ordinary happened, and it doesn't seem like they hold a grudge against me either. But the troublesome thing is their system of government.
They treat the chief as the absolute existence and will follow his every order, and from that, the other various leaders move accordingly. In other words, it is a centralized authoritarian system. The one other person, besides the chief, who can voice their opinion is the shaman, but was killed by me so there is no other corresponding person.
After becoming their chief, if I don't give them any instructions, they won't be able to decide anything by themselves and they can't do anything.
The one who has taught me that is the girl who is sitting beside me. Her name is Pipi, and is the daughter of the previous chief, but he had about 20 wives and she is just one of the children so there wasn't really any emotional attachment.
「So, is Pipi going to cooperate with me?」
「It's natural for me to cooperate with the chief. I'll do anything. I will follow the chief wherever you go.」
She has a succinct way of speaking which contains no hesitation. It's the first time that someone from the plains people (seems like that's what they call anyone not from the mountain tribe) became the chief, so they need to try and understand us. At the same time, they want to earn my favor as the mountain people value strength, and has seen me slice the previous chief in half and acknowledged me to be a great man.
Therefore, they offered a tribute that would make any man happy, in other words, it seems they decided that they would present a beautiful lady to me. She's pretty, and Pipi is quite young, but this is what I heard from her.
「I heard that it is a man's pleasure to dye a girl around the same age as Pipi with their own color.」2
「Pipi's body is small so it's easy for men to dominate. Men get excited when they dominate women.」
Our cultures are quite different from each other. Although I don't dislike that.
In any case, we have little information about the mountain people, and if Pipi is willing to come to me, it'll be easy for me to rule over them, so I'll accept this deal without hesitation.
「So what should we do about the ones who left?」3
Pipi's expression gets dark.
「I don't know. Most of the ones who went to the plains never came back. It would be difficult to continue hunting like this. We could make lots of babies to increase our numbers, and then we would have to cull the ones who can't hunt and the weak ones.」
It is certainly the case that if they already have few people and we take away over 1000 healthy people from their population, it would be a crisis situation. But the survivors of the mountain people will be treated as prisoners of war.
「About that, could you say something to the leaders of the tribe? Please tell them, about half of the ones who won't return have been captured but not killed. If they swear loyalty to me, I'll let the prisoners return.」
Pipi's eyes open wide.
「If half of them come back, we would be fine! As expected of the great chief, I will let the leaders know!」
The way she runs off is still childish and adorable. It feels like she's a cute little girl.
「...」
Celia is looking at me with an indescribable face. She might be wary that her standing might be taken away from her.
「Don't be so cautious. You are my cute Celia.」
Celia's face relaxes suddenly.
「Chief! The leaders said they will gladly pledge their allegiance. And also, three women is too little for the great chief to have. They said it's fine if you want to choose 20 and take them with you.」
(Light Novels Illustration: Celia cautious of Pipi)
Celia's expression became tense.
The battle between the mountain people ended with them being taken over by me. In their culture, things like contracts or treaties don't exist, since they don't have paper in the first place. The leaders just knelt down in front of me where the mountains could see them and pledged their allegiance. This will act as the ritual of allegiance.
I promise to release the prisoners of war and I take their negotiator/tribute, Pipi, back to Rafen.
「You just can't. You're still small so you can't be embraced.」
「Why not? Pipi is already a woman. I want the child of the great chief.」
「You're saying this without having seen Aegir-sama's thing! It's impossible with that small body of yours.」
「What haven't I seen?」
「Hm? Well, isn't it 'that'? Hardlett-dono's big dic-, ouch!」
I hit Irijina's head to shut her up. She acts as the negotiator, but the number of girls increased again.
「Uuu, the number of women increased again. What should I say to Nonna and the others...」
「It's fine isn't it? Pipi is like the emissary.」
Celia isn't convinced by that either.
「No! You'll be eaten immediately for sure. And also, there were two unknown women on the floor yesterday, right!? And there were two red stains on the sheets, right!?」4
That can't be helped. The leader of the tribe said that he wanted two of his own daughters to receive the seed of the great one. And they were also pretty, so I couldn't refuse.
I hold down the fussy Celia and dodge the questions asked by the probing Irijina. The burnt cloak, and the broken spear5 – they make up the wounded gifts that Lucy left me, and I feel like this moment will gradually increase in importance later.