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𝐌𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 (8)
‘𝘞𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘶𝘯 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. . .?’
The Eastern Rangers were quite well-known among the various armed groups on the continent, but ultimately they were just mercenaries and riffraff if you looked at their essence.
The nobles of the East had elevated them, but that was only because they were useful mercenaries, not because they respected their status.
That’s why some Eastern Rangers dreamed of performing feats of arms and receiving knighthoods, but Joseph had no interest in such titles. He thought that even if a commoner received a title, it would only bring troublesome things.
. . .Yet now the knights were casually striking up a conversation with Joseph. They were knights from the Empire side that Johan had brought. To be honest, their presence made him uncomfortable.
‘𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳.’
“Tell us about your meeting with His Excellency the Count, Joseph. Did you encounter any monsters while chasing them? You must have fought against a strong opponent.”
As the knights kept prodding him, Johan stepped in to stop them.
“Leave the Rangers alone. If you keep talking to them, they won’t be able to focus.”
“Oh really?”
“The Eastern Rangers have a talent for concentrating all their senses to find traces spread out and discover new paths. You shouldn’t talk to them when they’re focusing.”
“?”
“??”
Galambos and Joseph looked at Johan as if asking what he was talking about. It was the first time they had heard such a thing. There was no reason for Eastern Rangers to have some kind of rule that they couldn’t talk while working, they weren’t priests or anything.
“Indeed. . .”
“So there was such a custom.”
However, the Empire knights who were not from the East passed it by without any doubt.
“But why are they following us this far?”
“I don’t know either.”
Johan immediately answered Suetlg’s question. Johan really didn’t know. If they were prisoners, they would just stay put quietly and get released after paying ransom, so why ‘𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯!’
“But wouldn’t they still fight well?”
“From what I see, what this rescue team needs now is not excellent warriors but docile people who won’t dig into your and my insides.”
Johan selected the strong and agile ones among the dwarf mercenaries to form the rescue team. It didn’t seem necessary to form a large-scale rescue team since they would be wandering the mountains. The supply issue would only get more complicated.
In the first place, Johan’s goal was primarily negotiation. He had no intention of getting into a bloody battle to wash blood with blood with the tribes in this mountain range. While the disgraced nobles might want an opportunity to regain their honor, that was their problem and. . .
In that sense, it wasn’t bad for the Empire knights to participate. Excluding the fact that they didn’t match Johan and Suetlg’s personalities.
“Once we get over this pass, there will be a decent basin. I think it would be good to set up a camp there. . .”
“Do you have something to say?”
“There are many places around here where you can graze, and you can find quite a few herbs, so shepherds from distant tribes come here too.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice to ambush and attack them right away, Your Excellency?”
Iselia, who had been listening to the knights’ words with great interest, shook her head and said.
“Looking at the terrain of the mountain range, it is more likely that the shepherd will spot us first if a shepherd comes. Then wouldn’t the shepherd go back and report or call the main force instead of coming back? Since there is still some daylight left, I think it would be better to move to a better place.”
“. . .!”
“!”
Hearing Iselia’s words, Johan and Suetlg were so surprised they stared at her. Iselia smiled awkwardly.
“Why do you look at me like that, my dear? Did I say something wrong?”
𝐖𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐡!
Johan hugged Iselia. Caught off guard by the sudden public display of affection, Iselia’s face turned red. But she didn’t push Johan away.
“Save this for when the sun sets. . .”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
Johan patted Iselia’s back once as if delighted and stepped back. Her unexpected reaction had put him in slightly high spirits.
“Let’s move. There’s still time, so we might be able to find a better campsite. Galambos, go with the dwarf scouts.”
“I will go with you as well.”
“Oh come on, Joseph. You don’t seem to need to go, do you? Stay here.”
“Yes. . .”
Joseph heaved a sigh of relief on the inside as he managed to subtly slip away from the suffocating atmosphere. He had wanted to stand at the vanguard.
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The mercenary, Heojen, licked his parched lips. Of all things, lack of water was an unbearable suffering.
When the rumors first spread through the city, he hadn’t imagined things would turn out like this. It was just a job extermination mountain monsters for a generous payment.
Usually monsters were only dangerous when less than a dozen mercenaries were sent to exterminate them. With over a hundred, there was little risk.
But to end up trapped on this high ground, that was completely unexpected.
“Have the nobles said anything?”
“No. They still seem to be in conference.”
At first the mercenaries were in good spirits, but now the mood was ominous. With supplies cut off, they had to make do with what they had brought along. Understandably so.
They were rationing their food and could eat their pack animals if need be, but lack of water was the real issue. They had come to a place where water was hard to obtain.
“I heard a rumor that if we lower our flags, the dwarves will let us withdraw.”
“What? Is that really true??”
The envoys sent by the tribes only spoke with the nobles in their tents, but rumors were bound to spread. Mercenaries fished for information from servants and attendants and were now gossiping amongst themselves.
Lowering their flags and withdrawing might be a greater humiliation for the nobles than dying, but the mercenaries didn’t care. If they could just get away from here and spend the silver they had been paid, they were fine with anything.
“Eh. . . What are those dwarves doing down there?”
“Looks like firewood. . .”
“Damn it all. Hey! The dwarves are trying to send smoke this way!”
The dwarves who had long stayed in the mountains knew well how to fight here. They were using the wind to send smoke to torment the mercenaries. A simple yet effective tactic.
“Cough, cough. . .”
“Do you think a relief force is coming?”
“How should I know.”
The mercenaries could only pin their hopes on a relief force of unknown arrival. But waiting without assurance was its own torment.
“Hey. Are you thinking of running away?”
“Make a break for it? We’ll just get caught if we go back to the city.”
“Then let’s go somewhere else. The sooner the better, before security tightens up. We should run away under cover of night.”
“. . . . . .”
And there were more than just one or two mercenaries having this sort of discussion – mutiny, desertion. Seeing the mercenary morale, neither would have been surprising.
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“Why are they doing that?”
“My friend. I hear they have offended the sensibilities of the tribes here.”
“How foolish. Picking fights with the mountain tribes for no reason.”
The elf knights remarked on the commotion happening across the valley. To come to subdue monsters and end up fighting the tribesmen and trapped like that. It was a foolish thing to do.
“Should we not help them?”
“Help those beast-smelling half-breeds?”
“You make a fair point.”
Without a banner of a noble house they recognized, they had no intention to stand up for nobles they barely knew. Besides, they had their own mission.
Armored in shining armor without a speck of mud, the elves turned their horses around.
Just then, they spotted another marching party coming from the other direction.
“I wonder why so many keep coming. It will only get noisy and troublesome.”
“Indeed, my friend.”
“Wait. Wait. . . Isn’t that the banner of the Yeats House?!”
“The Yeats House? You mean the Count?”
“Yes! What luck meeting him here! Follow me!”
Recognizing Johan’s banner, one of the elf knights waved his arm and spurred his horse forward. Dozens of elf knights chased after him. Their skill at riding at great speed even on the rough mountain paths was truly wondrous.
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“It’s an ambush!! It’s an ambush!!!”
An Empire Knight who had come out to scout directly drew his sword in a hurry and shouted. The main unit that was following behind began to stir in response to the sudden report.
“Which tribe is it? Speak!”
“It’s the elves, Your Excellency!”
“Elves. . .elves? There are elves living in these mountains too?”
Suetlg also had an expression that seemed to indicate this was his first time hearing of it. Though it’s said that Dwarf Mountains harbor secrets living people don’t know about within them, at least no one had heard anything about elves.
“Your Excellency. You must prepare for battle! Sound the battle signal! I will go out first!”
“A status report comes first. It will still take time for enemies to arrive on a road like this, so report properly. Any flags? Were the opponents prepared to fight?”
“That was not the case.”
“. . .Then why is it an ambush?”
“Because they are elves, Your Excellency.”
The other Empire Knights who had not witnessed the situation spoke as if it were natural.
“Your Excellency, if they are elves, then it is indeed an ambush.”
“I think it is likely an ambush as well, my dear.”
‘𝘠𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘵𝘰𝘰. . .’
Johan was at a loss for words seeing even the elf Iselia speaking seriously that it was an ambush.
That’s how renowned the elven knights’ reputation was.
He didn’t know why elven knights were in these mountains, but in any case, it was best to prepare for anything that could happen. If they charged forward, their ranks would crumble at once.
“I am Lauren of the Atoris Family, son of Telphord! I subjugated hellhounds in Silvaron and participated in troll hunting in Marcel! These honorable feats prove who I am!”
However, instead of charging, one elf came forward from the elven knights and began shouting. Everyone murmured at the sudden shout. Johan flinched as he recognized the name of the family from somewhere.
“With proof of my family’s bloodline and feats, I have come to ask a question of you! Is His Excellency Johan of the Yeats Family present here?!”
“. . . . . .”
“Seems it wasn’t actually an ambush then?”
The Empire Knight holding a halberd lowered his weapon with an embarrassed expression. Another knight next to him was even holding a mace.
‘𝘈𝘩. . . 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴. . .’
Only then could Johan figure out who his opponents were. Lauren of the Atoris Family – one of the elven knights who had fought together with Johan to subjugate trolls in Marcel.
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“I thought your excellency would surely build great achievements. I am so glad to meet you!”
“Thank you, Sir Lauren.”
The elf knight was genuinely happy to reunite with Johan. He had only vaguely guessed from the rumors he heard, but meeting him in person made the feeling special.
Johan, who held a sword as a knight and built up his fiefdom, was someone he had no choice but to respect.
“Are you from the Bluea family’s Iselia?”
“Yes.”
‘𝘐𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭?’
‘𝘐𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭. .’
Lauren thought so but did not say it out loud. In the first place, marriages out of love were even rarer. Marriage was a union of families, individuals were not very important.
“So. . . what brings you here? This doesn’t seem like a place fit for elf knights.”
“Hahaha. You’re right about that. My friends back there are wandering to build their reputations.”
Many young knights wandered the continent to build achievements in order to gain fame.
It wasn’t just impoverished wandering knights who did so. Poor knights were poor, and rich knights were rich.
Such wandering was like a pilgrim’s pilgrimage. Valuable and meaningful in itself as a custom.
“Did you come here to hunt monsters?”
“A bit different. Um. This is a secret, I hope your excellency will keep it to yourself.”
Lauren stopped talking. And stared hard at the Empire knights. It meant go away. The Empire knights grumbled and stepped back. It meant the elves were annoyed.
“We came to hunt the basilisk in the mountain range.”
“!”
Johan looked at Lauren in surprise.
The evil-eyed monster, the basilisk.
Its gaze alone could turn enemies into stone, and the poison it breathed from its body was strong enough to melt rock.
Needless to say, it was not an easy target even for knights.
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
“. . .That’s not something his excellency should say, is it?”
Lauren looked at Johan as if he couldn’t believe what he just said.