Chapter 34: Desire Invariably Flows West (3)

[34] 5. Desire Invariably Flows West (3)

When I first heard that the cultists had started a rebellion in the west, my first thought was…

Have the cultists finally lost their minds?

The western part of the Empire is nothing but vast grasslands and a sky that stretches as far as the eye can see.

It’s a place inhabited only by nomadic tribes and fools who believe that the answers to life’s questions can be found in nature.

It’s a place where it’s not only difficult to get food, but even water. The terrain offers no tactical advantage, forcing one to engage in open warfare.

In other words, it’s the worst possible place to start a rebellion.

That’s why, regardless of their motive, I thought it would quickly die down. This was even more so when I heard that the Central Knights had taken action.

However, my assumptions were proven wrong.

The rebellion that had begun in autumn still showed no sign of subsiding, even after winter had arrived.

Instead, rumors about the situation being worse than we thought started circulating. They were saying that the Central Knights had suffered a major defeat and were even considering a retreat.

At first, I didn’t believe it either, but the details were too specific to be just a rumor. Even if it was exaggerated, the situation must have been bad.

So every time I thought about it, I couldn’t help but wonder,

What could possibly have defeated the renowned Central Knights?

And now, having rushed to the west after receiving the captain’s message. I could finally see the answer with my own eyes.

“Howl’s Moving Castle?”

“What?”

Surprisingly, it was Irene who reacted to my mumbling. She looked back at me, as if she had just heard something ridiculous.

“It’s nothing. Just forget about it.”

“No, that’s not it…”

Pointy ears suddenly jumped in between us.

“Don’t mind him, blue-haired weirdo. The Vice-Captain’s always like this. There’s something wrong with his head from all the hits he’s taken… Gah!!”

It wasn’t me who punished the elf for spouting bullshit. Feya, gently stepping on the back of Pointy ears’ head, who was now face down on the ground, came to stand beside me.

“Do you have any idea what that is, big bro?”

“No.”

I answered and turned my gaze back to ‘it’.

It definitely looked similar to that flirtatious womanizer’s ride. (TL Note: Howl was a guy that flirted with women, made them fall in love with him then just left or rejected them.)

But this thing was ten times larger, and in terms of grotesqueness, it’s not even comparable.

Each of its four legs was made of countless smaller legs stitched together, a tentacle, rusty machinery, and… a fluid with an indescribable color.

And on top of that were eyes and a mouth that were a disturbing imitation of human ones. Instead of drool, monsters oozed from its mouth, and strange red magic circles were intertwined over its eyes.

It looked like something ripped straight out of the nightmare of a cultist suffering from extreme delusion. (TL Note: It’s sounding more and more like a siege weapon of nurgle from warhammer 40k)

Clevens rubbed his shiny head and mumbled.

“Necromancy, demon summoning, monsters from another world… Just how many different factions are gathered here? It’s no wonder the knights are struggling.”

Then he turned to me and asked.

“Things seem pretty serious, are you sure it’s alright to get involved in this?”

I scratched my head, then sighed.

“Let’s go meet up with the Captain first.”

***

A gloomy atmosphere hung over the military camp we were approaching.

It wasn’t just the people, even the buildings looked tired.

“Halt!”

I turned my head to see a haggard-looking knight on horseback. He drew his sword nervously and pointed it at us.

“State your business!”

He wasn’t exactly welcoming us with open arms. Our men’s faces hardened, and I stopped them with a look and stepped forward. Holding out my bronze hand, I said,

“I’m Rem, Vice-Captain of the Rose Rem mercenary group. We came here after receiving the Captain’s carrier pigeon.”

The Knight’s eyes landed on my bronze hand, and then they widened.

“You’re the ‘Mangled One’?”

It was rude, I couldn’t help but frown.

However, the knight seemed too exhausted to care about such trivial matters.

He sheathed his sword readily and turned his head away.

“…The Rose Rem mercenary group is staying on the west side. Go find them yourselves.”

And then, without another word, he left.

“They’re in really deep shit, huh?”

Clevens came and stood beside me, his expression now serious. Instead of answering, I thought about the knight’s appearance.

Dirty armor, unkempt beard, bloodshot eyes.

If the knight was this bad, then just how bad were the soldiers?

I started to think that they might have already lost this war. And another question came to mind.

Just what did the captain see in this situation that made her say she had found a way to end our promise?

“Hey, you mangled bastard!”

A rough voice broke me out of my thoughts. Looking up to see who it was, I failed to keep a neutral expression on my face, once again.

A huge physique, befitting his nickname ‘Giant’s Half-breed’,

A face full of beard,

And beneath it, gleaming blue eyes.

I swallowed down a sigh and whispered into Feya’s ear,

“Go on ahead and meet up with the Captain first, Feya.”

“Yes, sir.”

“What are you two whispering about!”

*SMACK-!*

“___!”

I barely managed to suppress a groan, pain radiating through my back. I lowered my head and spoke with effort,

“Good to see you, old man Dorn.”

“I told you to call me uncle!”

Another slap landed on my back. It was a way for him to express affection, but it was assault to me.

Trying to steady my staggering body, I looked up at him. Dorn, casually slinging his arm around my shoulder, grinned.

“First, let’s go to my tent. We can’t meet after so long without having a drink!”

Oh, God.

***

Dorn Dryman, the man who had risen from slavery to become the leader of the largest mercenary group.

To put it simply, he’s my benefactor.

He helped me and the Captain when we were on the run, and even when we were building our mercenary group, he had provided us with support, both physical and financial.

The truth was, I couldn’t possibly repay the debt I owed him, even if I devoted my life to doing so.

But, that being said, me and the Captain didn’t particularly enjoy a one-on-one with him.

“Now, drink up!”

…Because of his fanatic devotion to alcohol.

I looked at the large cup filled with a murky liquid. It was an amount that was hard to gulp down, even if it wasn’t alcohol.

“…Okay.”

But there was something forceful about Dorn’s grinning, bearded face. You could even call it a threat in the form of a facial expression.

I squeezed my eyes shut and downed the cup in one go.

I felt alcohol rushing through my brain, and then a sensation as if my stomach was sloshing with liquid. I struggled to put down the cup.

“It’s a local specialty, made with mare’s milk. What do you think? Not bad, huh?” (TL Note: Mare is a female horse, so… horse milk.)

“It’s… not bad, I guess.”

“Then drink some more.”

“What?”

And then, before I could even react, he filled the cup to the brim again.

As I stared at the full cup, dumbfounded, Dorn grinned once again.

“Don’t tell me you’re refusing?”

“…No.”

***

It was after three consecutive cups that I was finally able to have a proper conversation with Dorn.

Clutching my head that was pounding with alcohol and the sheer volume of liquid I just consumed, I asked,

“So, how are things going? Everyone looked like shit.”

“How do you think things are going? We’re fucked.”

Dorn tilted the cup back and downed its contents as if it were just water.

“We thought it would be easy because those cultist bastards were doing stupid shit in the middle of nowhere…”

His blue eyes gazed outside the tent, landing on the monstrosity.

It was strolling along the horizon, the setting sun serving as its backdrop.

“Who knew they had such a monstrous trump card… Tsk!”

An annoyed reaction.

But it didn’t answer my question.

“Certainly, it’s a monster, but… Are you saying that the great Central Knights are losing to *this*?”

The Central Knights I knew were gentlemen who, unlike those tin can holy knights, had reason to be proud.

Unlike those Holy Knight show-offs who’ve stopped venturing out, claiming that they have to prevent the leakage of holy magic,

The Central Knights have always been the ones to consistently clean up the empire’s enemies since the past.

Having witnessed their capabilities first-hand, I couldn’t believe that they were struggling to handle just *this*.

Dorn simply shook his head at my reaction.

“Well, the Central Knights aren’t what they used to be. After that incident with your captain and…”

“Ahem!”

I cleared my throat loudly. Dorn finally realized his mistake and scratched his head.

“Ah, right, this isn’t something I should be talking about here. Sorry.”

Then he quickly got back on topic.

“Ahem, anyway, the Central Knights aren’t what they used to be, and we got hit hard when our supplies were stolen.”

“Supplies were stolen? What do you mean?”

Dorn spread his arms wide.

“As you can see, there’s nothing around here, right? So we’re heavily dependent on the supplies sent from the capital, but those got snatched by the necromancers.”

Now I understood the haggard appearance of that knight. After all, a loss of morale always begins with an empty stomach.

The fact that it was the dead of winter probably played a part too.

“You didn’t have any safeguards against the attack?”

“Of course we did, but who would have thought that we’d get attacked within the Empire’s territory let alone so close to a city.”

Within the Empire’s territory. Those words hit me hard, and then the word ‘necromancer’ came to mind.

“Hold on, you’re saying you were attacked within the Empire’s territory? And by necromancers?”

“Yeah, there were more than we expected, so we couldn’t do anything about it. Those regular army bastards were all making excuses…”

“When did it happen?”

Dorn, despite his bewilderment, answered readily.

“It was probably at the beginning of winter… Why? Do you know something about it?”

The necromancers who had targeted the cargo.

There was no concrete evidence.

But I had plenty of reasons to suspect them.

The timing matched, and more importantly, I couldn’t think of any other force that would be brazen enough to attack within the Empire’s territory during that time.

So, as soon as they gave up on the cargo, they went after the supplies instead? Or was attacking the cargo just a diversion, and their real objective was the supplies?

I frowned.

I thought that was a request we were already done with, but it kept following us like a ragged leftover piece of cloth.

And each time it did, unease crept into my heart.

It felt like I was missing a huge piece of the puzzle,

And a sense that this piece that might cause a huge disaster later on.

However, these feelings of mine were soon erased.

“Don’t know what you’re thinking, but don’t worry too much. We’ll win in the end.”

I snapped out of my thoughts. Dorn, stretching out his scarred arm, said,

“The reason we’re stuck in a stalemate is because of the lack of supplies. The Empire will send us more soon, when the weather gets a bit warmer. We’ll just resume the attack then.”

And then, he patted my shoulder, and grinning fiercely.

“And more importantly, you’re here now, aren’t you? We won’t die even if we lose, with you here. Right? You mangled bastard.”

I couldn’t help but grimace at those words and avert my gaze.

Always surviving, even if it means becoming a mangled mess, hence ‘Mangled One’.

Those mercenaries have a terrible sense for naming.

“You’re giving me too much credit. I’m just a normal…”

My tongue froze,

Because of a sight that had flashed past my eyes.

Curly red hair,

A physique smaller than most,

And a blue, wide-brimmed hat.

“Please excuse me.”

“Huh?”

Ignoring Dorn’s puzzled look, I stood up and hurried out of the tent.

Fortunately, I hadn’t lost her.

The military camp was mostly deserted, and her blue hat seemed to shine, a single point of color amidst the grey tents.

What had been a walk became a jog,

The jog turned into a run,

And then, a desperate dash.

The closer i got, the more conviction filled my heart.

Finally, when I caught her wrist, I couldn’t open my mouth right away. My breath was caught in my throat.

That’s why it was her who spoke first.

Green eyes turned towards me, trembling slightly.

“Rem?”

Parsley, she asks, her eyes slightly trembling eyes.

“Why are you here…?”

Honestly, that was the question I wanted to ask too.