Chapter 245 - The Crown Prince's Virtues (2)

The force assembled for the extermination was by no means small.

The number of regular knight orders mobilized alone came to roughly four hundred from the four Royal Knights orders directly under the Royal Family, and roughly four hundred from the four knight orders belonging to the Third Legion.

Following them were one legion of soldiers from the Central Army and two companies of Ballorhard Rangers.

A massive force of 3,200 in all.

And that was not the end of it.

The Royal Family had mobilized every Silver Lion except the Commander of the Royal Knights for this extermination.

It was a sign of how seriously the king regarded the matter.

The king's resolve was firm.

He did not want the calamity that had occurred in Branbrut County to spread throughout the kingdom, and he wanted it brought to an end as quickly as possible.

Reflecting the king's wishes, the extermination force began moving with all possible speed.

Vincent divided the troops into five groups as his first priority. He included experienced veteran Rangers in each unit so they would be prepared for any future encounters with monster tracks. Then he had the Silver Lions command them.

"You will each be heading to different regions, not Branbrut County."

Although Count Branbrut was the only one to dispatch a messenger to the Capital, Vincent did not rule out the possibility that other domains were in a similar plight.

This was entirely in accordance with my warning that inhuman things would rise up throughout the kingdom, as well as the king's wish to end the chaos as quickly as possible.

I gathered the Silver Lions as they prepared to depart and gave them a final admonition.

"Don't overlook even the smallest clue. Even if you think it's nothing more than a far-fetched rumor, make absolutely sure to investigate it."

I met each of their stiffly set eyes in turn and repeated the warning several times.

"Everything that happens from this point on will be strange in ways none of you have ever experienced before."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Whatever it is, can it really be stranger than what we experienced in the sea of trees?"

The short but forceful answer was Arwen's, while the cocky reply belonged to that bastard Eli.

The veteran knights, including York Walloden, also answered me briefly and promised to bear my words in mind.

"I look forward to seeing you again soon."

After Arwen's farewell, the Silver Lions broke away from the group.

Now the only Silver Lion left at my side was a kind and gentle woman who became uncontrollable at the sight of blood.

"You won't have to spend any more time cooped up in that stifling carriage."

As I watched the Silver Lions depart with their forces, Vincent's voice came from behind me.

"I thought I was the one being escorted."

"There's no rule saying the person being escorted has to stay inside the carriage at all times."

Vincent added another word after answering that way.

"And, well, what's the harm? No one's watching anyway."

He bared his teeth in a grin.

Seeing that smile, I suddenly looked around me.

Yorden and the veteran Rangers were watching me, their mouths twitching. The Knights of Winter sent me intense looks without saying a word. Gawain and the knights of the Knights of Dawn cast sidelong glances at me.

Every face was familiar—so familiar it had become tiresome.

Only then did I realize that everyone who had remained here was a force made up entirely of Winter Castle's own soldiers.

"I suppose I'll finally get to enjoy myself after all this time."

"Enjoy yourself all you like. Just enjoy yourself. Never forget that Your Highness's duty is to soothe the people's morale."

When I snickered, Vincent needled me with a swaggering retort.

"Then we're moving as quickly as possible. It would be a disaster if the monsters moved somewhere else."

The extermination force, which had paused briefly at Vincent's urging, began moving again.

The nimble Rangers and the tireless knights of the North traveled day and night.

Before long, we reached the border of Branbrut County.

"Company Commander Yorden."

"Yes, my lord."

"I'll entrust half the Rangers to you. Inform the count in advance that we've arrived, then begin your investigation at once."

Vincent was now a duke, but the Rangers of Winter Castle treated him solely as their lord, as though his new title meant nothing to them.

Vincent, for his part, did not seem inclined to correct their form of address.

"What should I do if I happen to find a clue to the monsters' whereabouts?"

Yorden asked.

The monsters had not settled anywhere yet, so they could not possibly remain in one place. If we did not move immediately, tracking their trail again would be difficult.

"Whether you pursue them or engage them, I'll leave it to your judgment. If necessary, invoke my name and request support from House Branbrut."

Vincent answered Yorden without a moment's hesitation.

He might have judged poorly and let the monsters escape, or the Rangers might have been injured, but the likelihood was exceedingly small.

Yorden was one of the longest-serving Rangers in Winter Castle, counted among the very best.

"Then I'll set out at once."

Yorden turned immediately, then suddenly came back and stood before me.

"Don't be too disappointed if I end up handling everything on Your Highness's behalf. Ah, that's right—Your Highness is a noncombatant on this mission. I keep forgetting."

Was that really something he had to say while leaving the main camp as part of the advance party?

Watching his irritating expression, I wanted to reach out and shut that aggravating mouth right then and there.

"Yorden."

Instead of silencing him, however, I smiled deliberately and gently.

"You really do have it hard."

"I'm grateful that you recognize it, I am."

"But what can you do? This time, it will be especially hard."

"Yes, sir. Hardship's my constant companion. Nothing out of the ordinary."

The Ranger replied playfully to the end, bowed his head, and passed in front of me.

"Then I'm busy with my mission, so I'll be off. Come on, boys!"

At Yorden's spirited shout, the veteran Rangers trailed after him at a sluggish pace.

"I ought to transfer companies. If I stay under that man, I won't live to see old age."

"You've really struck the jackpot when it comes to work."

"Shut up! Just follow me!"

It was the same scene as always. Yorden bickered with the veteran Rangers, then soon disappeared from view.

Watching the direction in which they had vanished, I muttered under my breath.

"They really are going to suffer."

I offered a small requiem for the hard days awaiting the Rangers.

Exactly two weeks after I finished meeting Count Branbrut, offering my condolences for the misfortune that had befallen his domain, and conveying the Royal Family's firm resolve regarding the matter, I encountered the Rangers again. Their faces looked exactly as I had expected.

Their hollow eyes showed they had gone several days without sleep, and their wretched appearances—drenched in the rain that had poured down over the past few days—were utterly pitiful.

Yorden, who looked as though he had suffered every hardship imaginable without so much as a night's sleep, seized Vincent and me and began to complain.

"In all my life, I've never seen people this strange."

The Ranger's account of the past two weeks spilled from his mouth.

At first, he said, things had been good. Thanks to the monsters leaving traces everywhere, he had been thrilled that things proceeded smoothly without having to scour every direction in search of clues.

Indeed, Yorden said they had found the monsters' tracks before even three days had passed since leaving the castle. Yet his face showed not the slightest sign of excitement.

"A sudden downpour washed the trail away completely. But who am I? Yorden, the finest tracker in Winter Castle. I put my wits to work somehow and managed to pick up their trail again."

Even while complaining with an utterly exhausted face, Yorden did not neglect to praise himself. Then he spoke with a thoroughly fed-up expression.

"These fellows run all day. They really do run without sleeping. They keep running even with the ground in this condition. If they hadn't kept circling this area, we'd have lost them long ago."

Until then, Vincent had listened quietly to Yorden. Now, for the first time, he asked what the monsters were.

"I don't know. I've spent all my time following their tails, so I haven't even gotten a look at what they look like."

After all that self-important boasting, that was the best report he could offer. It was truly absurd.

Vincent's expression stiffened at the shameless answer.

"Still, it isn't as though we gained nothing."

The quick-witted Ranger hurriedly added,

"They travel on horseback."

"What?"

Vincent's face twisted sharply.

He had every reason to react that way.

He might have seen monsters tame and ride beasts such as wolves, but monsters taming and riding horses was something he had never heard of.

"I thought it strange too. I even wondered whether a band of bandits was disguising themselves as monsters and causing trouble. But when you consider the rank stench of excrement and the leftover food at the places they stayed, that can't be it either."

Yorden poured out the words like an excuse, then voiced another puzzling point.

When asked what it was, he answered,

"They never get off their horses. They eat on horseback and sleep on horseback."

Monsters that ate and slept on horseback—he had never heard of such a thing.

The moment I heard that, something flashed through my mind.

"Could it be them?"

I murmured without thinking, and Vincent and Yorden turned toward me.

"Do you have an idea, Your Highness?"

At Vincent's question, I nodded.

Ignoring his beseeching look demanding an immediate answer, I questioned Yorden instead.

There were several things I could not understand.

Yorden's account pointed precisely to one of the ancient beings I knew. Yet the calamity I had heard about before coming here was completely at odds with their nature as I knew it.

So I decided to verify that first.

"While you were tracking them, did they attack a village even once?"

Yorden shook his head.

He said they had done nothing but run all day, leaving them no time to attack a settlement.

I frowned.

I pondered it for a long while. At last, I found the answer.

"We were chasing the wrong ones."

Yorden contradicted me.

That could not be. Of all the tracks left in this area by things that were neither beasts nor humans, the only ones were those they had been pursuing.

Vincent looked back and forth between Yorden and me.

Yorden's words troubled him because everything I had said so far had been correct. My words troubled him because Yorden was an experienced Ranger whose judgment mattered.

He seemed unable to decide which of us was right.

But Vincent's dilemma did not last long.

"Another village four days west of here has been reduced to ruins!"

A messenger sent by Count Branbrut arrived at the perfect moment and provided the answer.

Yorden looked at me.

His face was rigid with confusion.

Naturally. The target Yorden had been pursuing was neither to the west nor four days away.

"Vincent."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Vincent, who had been deep in thought with a deeply furrowed brow, answered me at once.

"We should probably divide the forces again."

I suggested that we split the troops.

Vincent frowned.

"What exactly are the creatures that attacked the village, and what exactly are the ones we were pursuing?"

"I still don't know what attacked the village."

There was no way I could know about beings I had never even seen myself.

Vincent looked disappointed.

But only for a moment. Soon his eyes lit up as he asked me,

"That sounds as though you do know what the ones we were chasing are."

"Of course I do."

Their gloomy expressions brightened.

They looked relieved that I knew the identity of even one of the strange beings that had suddenly appeared in the kingdom.

"What are they?"

At Vincent's question, I turned my head and looked toward somewhere Yorden had mentioned.

"A people who consider running a virtue and stopping a sin, and call themselves the sons and daughters of the gale. Warriors born fierce and brave—the clan of men and horses as one."

After choosing my words while gazing across the vast plain, I told them what the creatures were.

"Centaurs."

The half-human, half-horse beings were the ones we had been pursuing.

"As far as I know, they never attack humans without cause, nor do they crave human flesh. They do become quite infatuated with handsome or beautiful people, though."

With that, I urged Vincent on.

Divide the forces. The urgent matter was over there, not here. Go before the casualties grew worse.

"Don't worry about me. Hurry."

I continued pressing Vincent.

I told him that only by hurrying as much as possible could we prevent innocent casualties, and kept urging him on so he could not think of anything else.

Vincent regarded me suspiciously, but after deliberating, finally made his decision.

"Just in case, I'll leave half the Knights of Winter with Your Highness."

Vincent spoke to Karl, who stood behind me.

"Sir, escort His Highness back to Count Branbrut's castle."

He also instructed Karl to keep a close watch on me along the way so I could not get up to anything unnecessary.

"I don't think that's something you should say with the person in question standing right here."

"I'll be back as quickly as possible."

Ignoring my words completely, Vincent left in haste with the messenger leading the way, his face radiating anxiety.

"To think the ones I was chasing are centaurs from the old stories..."

As I watched him disappear, Yorden's voice reached me.

"But they were supposed to be pretty savage in the stories. Aren't they like that in reality?"

I gave a small nod at his question.

"Centaurs are fierce, but they aren't so savage that they rampage indiscriminately."

Whenever centaurs ran wild in a violent frenzy, there was always a reason for it.

And that happened exceedingly rarely.

For the most part, they were not hostile toward humans.

When they did become hostile toward humans and bare their fangs, it was an exceptional case.

And, unfortunately, this was one of those cases.

"You said they weren't hostile toward humans!"

Yorden shouted at me.

"Generally speaking, they aren't."

"Then what are those?!"

Beyond the plain Yorden pointed toward, a hazy cloud of dust was rising.

Beneath the cloud, more than fifty half-human, half-horse beings were charging toward us.

They thrust their rusted cavalry lances forward and roared without pause. Their unmistakable hostility and killing intent rippled through the air.

"Rangers, prepare for battle! Shooting formation!"

"Load the crossbows!"

"Protect His Highness!"

As the Rangers, Karl, and the others surrounded me and raised a commotion, I drew Twilight.

This really was unavoidable.

I muttered under my breath and shifted my gaze beyond the knights and Rangers blocking my path, toward the cloud of dust rising ahead.

At the head of the charge was one exceptionally large centaur.

The lower body of a black horse, the upper body of a bronze-skinned human male, and a bronze crown on his head—a centaur.

A hero of his people, powerful enough to turn a mediocre Sword Master into a bloody mess in an instant.

He was the prince of the centaurs.

His eyes were fixed directly on me.

As he gathered light along his blade, he spoke in a low voice.

"Move."

The knights who saw Twilight shining brilliantly were startled and opened a path.

I spurred my horse without hesitation through the passage they had made.

"Follow His Highness!"

The knights' voices rang out behind me.

Ahead, the half-human, half-horse beings roared savagely.

And in their midst, I—

"Wonderful!"

—grinned broadly.