Ch.220A Stupid and Diligent Officer Is the Worst.

The smell of grilling meat wafts around my nose, stimulating my appetite.

The screams of a burning horse pierced the sky.

Flames that had found their way through gaps in the horse armor were consuming its body, with red-hot metal plates searing its flesh like branding irons.

Havar’s horse, jumping frantically from the terrible burning pain, rolled on the ground trying to extinguish the flames on its body, but how could that remove the scorching armor?

Before long, with a final agonized cry, the well-roasted horse meat collapsed onto the ground with a thud.

—-

“Haschal!”

Havar, face-planted on the ground, gritted his teeth as he stood up. His face, distorted like a demon from rage beyond limits, flushed red and blue.

His scale armor was covered in clumps of dirt, making it look patchy. Just like mine.

Havar raised his crescent blade and charged.

Barely managing to steady my ragged breathing that had risen to my chin from the intense movement, I charged back toward him.

– Clang!

Like striking a xylophone with an iron hammer, a clear metallic sound rang through my one remaining eardrum.

Clearly, Havar, having fallen from his horse, was no longer showing the same power as before.

“You cowardly bitch!”

“Cowardly? We’re finally on equal footing now!”

The nerve of him charging at me two-to-one and then accusing me.

With whooshing sounds, the crescent blade swung in wide arcs.

I advance, blocking, stopping, and deflecting each heavy blow delivered with his full weight using just my longsword.

My fractured wrist protests in pain each time I block the crescent blade, but I don’t stop moving forward.

– Clang!

With each step I take, the chipped blade and blue sword clash violently, spitting flashes of light.

Broken metal fragments fly in all directions.

“First you summon a sorcerer during a duel, and now you’re using Imperial swordsmanship…! Where did you sell the honor of a warrior who once reached Champion? Know your shame!”

“I quit being a warrior, okay? I’m an Imperial knight now!”

[Who gave you permission to quit…!]

What’s she on about? That’s my decision.

Ignoring Hersella’s lament, I summon all my remaining strength.

My inherent Karma. The clear power I’ve accumulated fills my sword.

The Oath Sword vibrates as if welcoming it, amplifying the power. Making it sharper. Making it more ferocious.

– Crack!

Finally, the blue teeth bite into the crescent blade.

The wide blade splits with a crack, nearly half of it carved away.

One more swing and it would break under its own weight.

“You traitor!”

Havar shouted, grinding his teeth.

“Traitor? I’m a patriot! Look at me, fighting invaders for my homeland!”

I strike with Frosting toward his head.

Nails stained crimson, soaked with the power of Murder Karma.

The force would be enough to penetrate his skull and more.

Perhaps sensing the danger, Havar clenched his teeth and hurriedly turned his head. But he was half a beat too late to dodge.

My fingertips grazed his cheek.

The skin of his cheek was torn off completely, sending a stream of blood gushing.

“Khaak…!”

Through the hole in his cheek, his bloodstained molars were clearly visible all the way to the gums.

“What, what is this…!”

Havar clutched his cheek and staggered backward.

“How does it feel? Refreshing?”

The curse contained in Frosting, the cold of the netherworld. Havar’s complexion turned deathly pale.

A freezing chill was flowing into the wound, eating away at his life.

“Haschal!”

Gritting his teeth, Havar threw his half-broken crescent blade.

I knocked it away like hitting a baseball and charged. He drew the sword at his waist.

“I wonder how long you’ll last before you can’t hold on and die!”

“Long enough to kill a traitor like you!”

Sword and blade collide like a storm, carving brilliant trajectories.

Torn armor fragments fly up, and missed slashes tear up the ground.

Splattered droplets of blood stain my entire body red.

“Haaap!”

Havar’s attacks were straightforward and resolute, reflecting his temperament.

Valuing only power and speed, his blade swung with the elasticity of his waist.

It was like he was swinging an axe rather than a sword.

Perhaps his only problem was that I had the advantage in strength, speed, and even skill.

Then he should die.

“Kyaat!”

Durandal, twisted upright, deflects his slash, and Frosting, with nails raised, tears his scale armor to shreds.

As crimson blood spurts up, the cold penetrates deep into his body.

Havar’s attacks grow increasingly dull.

“Not yet…! Not yet!”

Havar gritted his teeth. His bloodshot eyes shed crimson tears.

With veins turned blue from the curse, his face was like that of a monster, not a human.

“Even if I die, I’ll take you with me!”

– Clang!

A blade swung with such force that his gritted teeth might shatter.

The collision was so powerful that his sword shattered into pieces.

“Kuk…!”

Durandal in my grip is knocked away, and my right arm is raised high. My entire arm tingles.

It wasn’t an attack that could be blocked with one hand.

“Khaaap!”

Following that, a fist extends as he charges recklessly, as if daring me to stab him.

The sound of air being pierced was savage.

“That won’t work!”

I thrust my left hand to counter.

A crimson wave swirls around Frosting.

Our fists collide mercilessly.

The explosion rings in my ears.

The shockwave sweeps across the shattered earth.

Like a sand castle kicked away, Havar’s right arm exploded into pieces.

“Guaaaaa!”

Havar’s roar was more like a scream.

Despite his right arm being completely gone, far from retreating, he charges straight ahead.

As if he had planned to sacrifice one arm from the start.

“You bastard!”

I swing Durandal reflexively. Havar blocks the sword with his remaining arm.

The blue blade digs into his palm, splitting the bone in half and cutting all the way to his shoulder, but his charging momentum remains unhindered.

Damn it…!

Sacrificing both arms and even his life, all for a single strike.

His attack, filled with determination to die, overcame my defense and reached where he wanted.

The Champion’s knee dug into my abdomen.

—-

“Kahak…!”

An impact like my lower abdomen exploding.

My waist bent sharply, forcing the air out of my lungs.

“Ugh, auugh…!”

Groans escape involuntarily.

If I hadn’t wrapped Murder Karma around my extremely compressed abdominal muscles, my stomach might have actually burst.

The pain transforms into rage in an instant.

“You damn bastard!”

Responding to my anger, crimson energy bursts out and condenses.

Sharp as a spear, thick as a stake.

The thorns of Murder Karma, undulating like tentacles, pierce through Havar’s entire body.

He spits blood and groans weakly.

Having spent all his energy on that last attack, he seemed to have no strength left to resist.

I lift his body up.

A miserable sight with both arms severed and various parts of his body pierced by red tentacles.

Blood tainted purple by the curse poured down like a waterfall.

“Haa…haa….”

Wiping away the blood trickling from my mouth, I dump his limp body into the pool of his own blood.

With a splash, wet spray flies up.

He was still breathing, but his remaining life wouldn’t last even a minute.

“So, how does failure feel? Looks like you’ll be the only one dying.”

“…Why did you betray us…!”

Barely lifting his head, Havar muttered weakly.

With his arms severed and spine pierced, no matter how much he tried to get up, his body wouldn’t respond.

“The Khan… he favored you… For his daughter to betray her own father…!”

Betrayal, is it? Still on about that?

Should I educate him as a parting gift to the afterlife?

“It wasn’t me who betrayed, but you. More precisely, you, Amin, and the White Banner betrayed Orhan.”

“What… nonsense…!”

“You broke the peace treaty and messed with the wall on your own, didn’t you? Orhan will have no choice but to return. Once he returns… he’ll never have another chance to conquer the Great Plains in his lifetime.”

He might live another thirty years at most, but the Empire’s vigilance won’t ease during that time.

The tribes of the Great Plains will also be several times more wary of Orhan.

We’ve returned to square one.

Back to the time when they couldn’t move east due to fear of the Empire’s rear attack, just wasting time in Ordos.

Now there’s only one way for Orhan to conquer the Great Plains: destroy the Empire by attacking it.

Even if he leads his army east, they won’t dare attack the empty Ordos.

“Congratulations. You’ve completely shattered Ser Khan’s ambitions—an achievement no one in the Empire could manage.”

I clapped my hands in congratulation.

As if finally realizing how things would unfold, Havar’s eyes wavered.

“No, that was… by Ser Khan’s order…!”

“Did Orhan say that himself? I doubt it. He’s probably rampaging somewhere far away in the Great Plains right now. So… it’s obvious. You blindly believed some forged order from Amin as Orhan’s command and marched without a second thought. Right?”

Didn’t they say the enemy leader was Amin? As Orhan’s son, he could certainly forge his orders.

It was just Hersella’s conjecture, but highly probable.

“In the first place, knowing full well I was in the Empire, he wouldn’t attack without saying anything to me. Unless he intended to kill me too.”

“No way…! Then I…!”

Whether from the cold of the curse or the shock of realizing the truth, Havar trembled.

“You can boast in the afterlife. The only warrior who stopped Orhan! Havar, savior of the Empire and the Great Plains! Isn’t that a story for the ages?”

Havar’s face twisted horribly with shock and regret.

Yes. This was the expression I wanted to see.

That’s why I bothered to speak to a half-dead corpse.

[What a twisted pleasure.]

Hersella muttered as if disgusted.

Twisted pleasure? You’re one to talk.

If this man had even a shred of judgment, the Ka’har wouldn’t have attacked the wall, and Landenburg wouldn’t have been tied down.

Then there wouldn’t have been a civil war, and I could have smoothly finished off Isabella.

In other words, this was simple venting.

“My Khan… I…!”

Havar’s head, which had been weakly muttering, dropped down.

The faint sound of his heartbeat could no longer be heard.

He’s dead.

Well, he reaped what he sowed.

I kick away the breathless corpse and dash forward again.

While I was delayed fighting him, the battlefield was already heading toward its final stage.