How to Live as a Wandering Knight – Chapter 304

𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐞 (3)

In the darkness of night, the pagan knights, who had approached the fortress, were far from foolish.

Though greedy and rash, they were not so reckless as to let their guard down when approaching an enemy stronghold.

That was why the knight, Almahood, who received a secret order from Suhekhar, was able to relax to some extent.

They were on the lookout, although with expectation.

‘𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦.’

“Your eyesight is good. Go ahead and scout.”

“Why me. . . It won’t hurt to be too cautious. What if they notice us?”

“You have to do it well. You can do it. We must trust you since the pagans are so cunning.”

“Tsk. Fine. Stay here.”

The pagan knights, who had approached the fortress, carefully scouted the surroundings. There was no particular trap, and the fortress was as quiet as a mouse.

There was no sign of an army in ambush outside the castle or archers stationed on the castle walls, which would have been the most likely places for a trap.

At that sign, the knights smiled.

“Go and open the door.”

“Yes.”

Someone was heard gulping. Tension and anticipation naturally caused the air to tighten. The invaders looked at the castle gate with excitement.

However, the ones who appeared behind the castle gate were similarly well-armed knights.

“. . .A trap!!!”

“Prepare for battle!”

The pagan knights were startled, but they drew their swords and bows even faster. It was a well-trained move. They desperately tried to check the other side rather than the enemies trying to come out of the castle gate.

“Didn’t you say you checked for ambushes?”

“I swear on the honor of my family and the two gods that there was no ambush! Unless they’re using wizardry!”

“Then it’s all the better! It seems they looked down on us arrogantly, so let’s break through the gate and take over! With the darkness all around, if we capture the gate and set fire to the castle walls, won’t many of them flee?!”

A belligerent knight shouted. The other knights nodded in agreement.

If there really was no ambush around, then this trap could rather be an opportunity.

Perhaps the enemies had made an arrogant judgment and tried to trample them from the front, but the knights gathered here also excelled in swordsmanship and spearmanship and had been riding horses since they were young.

“Get ready to fight!”

“To your posts! Move!”

The pagan knights moved actively and prepared to confront the charge.

A fight in the dark is a fight of who has a stronger heart and who’s tougher. They didn’t think for a second that they would lose a fight that tested their guts like this. They had never doubted that they were brave since the day they were born.

However, as the leader of the enemy knights charged fiercely through the darkness of the night and began swinging his sword, the pagan knights realized the fear that had been within them.

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“Iselia!! Don’t chase them and come this way!”

“Got it!”

“Iselia! It hasn’t even been a few minutes!”

“I got it!”

“Gerdolf, what are you doing! Don’t chase them! Maintain the formation!”

“Sorry!”

A person who had never fought in the pitch black darkness would easily think of that fight.

However, if one had even a little common sense, they would want to avoid fighting in the dark. This was even more so if they were not at a disadvantage, but rather at an advantage.

Johan wouldn’t have forced himself into this dark fight if he had a choice, because the situation left him no choice.

The torches held by a few horsemen were too weak to brighten up the darkness. The surroundings were so dark that they could hear the enemies’ voices, but they couldn’t see them properly. Even the most experienced warriors were tempted to forget orders and scatter in all directions when caught up in the excitement.

Even in all this chaos, Johan tried to maintain his composure and control his knights.

Although he was not very satisfied with his own standards, overall, it could be said that he was holding the knights in check at an almost monstrous level.

And that monstrous power was not only used in commanding.

“My name is. . . Croak!”

Without even listening to his opponent’s introduction, Johan swung the Seal Retriever and knocked a knight off his horse. Thick armor was cut like paper and blood splattered.

He didn’t inflict a fatal wound that could have been used to capture him as a hostage, but if he was unlucky, he could have died in the chaos of the darkness.

‘𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘦𝘥.’

He wanted to capture him if possible, but now was not the time to capture and hand over hostages one by one. There were still many enemies left.

Someone shouted Johan’s name in the Eastern language.

“That guy’s the duke!”

‘𝘕𝘰. 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸?’

After the initial charge, the knights from both sides became entangled in a complicated manner. They were fighting so intertwined that it was hard to tell who was who, so Johan was surprised when he figured out his identity right away.

“Your Highness, you stand out too much!!”

A paladin from the monastery, who had been following Johan in case something happened, shouted in a worried voice.

From the perspective of someone watching from behind, the duke was someone who couldn’t help but stand out. Every time his sword flashed through the darkness, enemy knights fell like confetti and fell from their horses.

The duke was so fierce and ferocious that there were no enemy knights entangled around him. It was like a wildfire devouring vegetation.

“Attack him! If we capture the duke, we can make up for all the losses!”

At first, the pagan knights didn’t back down against Johan and attacked him fiercely. They didn’t properly grasp how Johan was knocking down the knights because it was dark and chaotic.

However, even the darkness had its limits in covering up the duke’s carnage.

As the fierce hand-to-hand combat, where they struck and received blows, passed the halfway point, the enemies began to realize the situation and looked exhausted.

. . .Is that guy even human?

The number of knights who had fallen from their horses around the duke was too many to count. If he charged once with his men, no knights could withstand it and would collapse just like that.

Sir Almahood, who was commanding from the other side, belatedly realized the situation and made a bewildered expression.

He hadn’t spent that much time, but suddenly, the other ranks had completely collapsed and the knights were running away. What in the world was going on?

“Wha. . .”

Before he could even finish shouting, Johan rushed in and cut down three knights. Two of them were great knights that even Sir Almahood knew by name. They were the ones who had received the family heirloom called the ‘Red Silver Shield,’ and when they fought on horseback, they were as solid as a fortress. . .

They were cut down without even having a chance to catch their breath.

“That guy’s the commander!”

“!”

Sir Almahood was startled by the shout from one of Johan’s men from afar. It seemed that his face had been revealed by the light.

“Protect me!! Stop those guys!”

Originally, those were knights who would have understood Sir Almahood’s meaning and stepped up honorably. However, even though they were this close, Sir Almahood’s orders had no effect.

Everyone turned their horses around and hurriedly ran away.

‘𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘴. . .’

Sir Almahood also turned his horse around with a bewildered expression. He didn’t understand the situation at all, but his numbed reason was screaming instinctually.

He had to run away from this place right now!

“They’re escaping!”

“Alright. Don’t chase them.”

Johan focused on finishing things up around here instead of being greedy. There were still groups of knights fiercely fighting here and there who hadn’t encountered Johan yet and were maintaining their formation.

“Will you surrender?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. . . Keuk!”

“Will you surrender?”

“Don’t insult my honor. . . Keuk!”

“Will you surrender?”

“. . . . . .”

“. . .I surrender.”

As the remaining remnants were cleaned up and the battlefield was roughly tidied up, dawn was breaking. Johan looked up, feeling tired. Because of that, he made eye contact with the people on the castle wall.

The people on the castle wall were looking down with awe-filled eyes.

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“This. Was it a trap after all?”

Suhekhar said regretfully. He had a bad feeling about it, but it really was a trap.

The young duke seemed to be much wiser than he thought. Suhekhar prayed that the betrayal of the captain of the guard was not discovered by accident. If the young duke had known and aimed for this from the beginning, the future expedition would be very difficult.

‘𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵.’

“But. . .?”

It was very common for night raids like this to fail during sieges. Suhekhar was not so weak as to despair over this, though it was regrettable.

But why were the knights gathered here trembling as if they had seen a demon?

“Since the enemy had set a trap and waited, it’s a great achievement just to have returned. Why is there a reason to be so frustrated?”

Suhekhar opened his mouth to comfort the knights. He quickly scanned them just in case, but other than being covered in dirt and sweat, there were no major injuries.

“I. . . It’s not like that, Suhekhar-nim.”

“Suhekhar-nim. That guy’s not human! The rumors were true. The contract with the demon is real! There’s no way it’s possible for a human being. Arrows don’t work and he doesn’t even bleed when stabbed with a spear or sword. When he swung his sword, we couldn’t even fight back and fell. This isn’t something a human being can do. . .”

“Enough. Stop it. What nonsense are you talking about?”

Suhekhar spread his hands helplessly at the knight’s intoxicated rambling.

He should act boldly if he failed a surprise attack, but what’s the point of praising the enemy knight like this?

“It’s true!”

“Sir Almahood. You explain. What happened?”

“. . .The duke is a demon. At least he has similar powers.”

Sir Almahood spat out the words. As someone who had run away from the same place, he understood the pain of the other knights so much that it hurt.

Suhekhar clicked his tongue and sighed as the knight he trusted began to spout nonsense like a superstitious country bumpkin.

“Go back and rest. Don’t say useless things. I’ll punish you according to military law.”

“Thank you for your mercy!”

After the knights left, Suhekhar opened his mouth, dumbfounded.

“What in the world did they see to be so scared when they never used to be afraid of anything?”

“Maybe the enemy knight’s skill level. . . was greater than we thought?”

“No matter how great it is, I don’t understand why they’re so scared like that. Unless he used some kind of magic.”

“How could a petty magic trick fool the knights?”

“It’s not good to be overly afraid of magic, but it’s also not good to take it too lightly.”

The wizards of the Eastern Empire tended to stay in the shade. As such, they lived with the suspicion of questionable superstitions and paganism.

However, when the future seemed uncertain, the nobles would call a wizard to tell their fortune, and when their children were sick, they would call a wizard.

Suhekhar fell into contemplation.

It would be great if he could conquer that fortress, but thinking about the conversation he had with the Sultan before coming, it was not necessary to risk so much damage to conquer the fortress.

Anyway. . .

“I’ll ask for a meeting.”

“Yes? Will the other side accept?”

“If they don’t accept, there’s nothing we can do.”

He wanted to see the face of the person who had made the knights so scared. He had to hear the rumors once, so it would be strange not to be curious after hearing them so many times.

“Suhekhar-nim. The duke sent someone.”

“What? The duke?”

Suhekhar frowned. His slaves(slaves) also frowned. There was only one reason why a pagan feudal lord would send someone after a battle.

“Take care of the knights’ bodies and send them back to their families.”

A mockery and insult.

If they had the same faith, they would be captured and ransomed, but if they had different faiths, they would often be killed and their bodies would be sent back on horses as a form of insult.

“Yes? No. He’s a messenger asking for ransom.”

“. . .Right now??”

“Yes. . .”

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“He was a bit too aggressive.”

“Ugh.”

“But don’t regret it too much. No one in this fortress will ever slander you because of that.”

Johan seemed to regret it, so Suetlg spoke from the side. After seeing the battle in front of the fortress, who would dare to badmouth the duke?

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