Chapter 246 - The Crown Prince's Virtues (3)

"Your Highness!" "Lower your visor!" After laughing aloud for quite some time, I lowered my visor at the knights' urging.

Click.

My broad field of vision narrowed in an instant. The smell of iron stung my nose, while the thunderous pounding of hooves shook my eardrums.

"Kraaah!"

The centaurs' angry roars sent a tingling sensation across my skin.

"Close ranks!"

"We're trampling straight through!"

The knights' desperate shouts came from all around me, and my heart began pounding like mad. I glared through the slit in my helmet at the enemy charging ferociously toward us.

The hero of the centaur people was racing toward me, blue light spilling from his eyes. The stature of that extraordinary being became an invisible spear, prodding at my heart again and again.

"Hoo."

I let out a deep breath. Heat flowing from my body swept through the inside of my helmet. My face grew hot, as though a fire had passed over it. My lips twitched in the heat, and the corners of my eyes trembled.

My entire body told me that I was on a battlefield.

The thoughts filling my head gradually faded. The congestion that had weighed on my chest vanished as if it had never existed.

Only now did I feel truly alive and breathing.

But it still wasn't enough.

My mouth had gone parched. It felt as though my throat were burning.

I knew all too well how to quench this thirst.

Only after cleaving through the enemy's flesh and drenching myself in their blood would this searing thirst finally disappear.

At that moment, a rider and her horse sprang out ahead of me.

A woman whose thirst and hunger matched mine, but whose patience for restraining them did not.

Adelia, bearer of the Butcher and War Maniac Traits.

Her riding had become fairly skillful by now, and Adelia raised her sword. Golden sword aura gathered at its tip.

Seeing that, I dug my heels into my horse's flanks.

I intended to swing my sword first, before she could lay a hand on the feast prepared for me.

I gripped Twilight tightly and urged my horse on without pause. By the time the centaurs' vaguely visible faces, and the veins standing out across their bronze upper bodies, came clearly into view—

『Snow-covered mountains, frozen valleys, walls soaked in red blood remain silent,』

『Only the horn of a dawn-blown advance resounds.』

I recited a War Poem.

『The birds that departed against the path of the bitter wind return,』

『And the fortress, its cold coat of snow decayed to reveal itself pale, finally awakens from sleep and stretches.』

I sang of the spring that had finally come to the Knights of Winter.

Vroooom.

The magnificent wave released simultaneously by a hundred knights spread in every direction.

Whoosh.

The Banner rose high. Fighting Spirit and battle fervor stood sharp as swords.

I gathered into one the keen edge leaping wildly in every direction.

Fwoooosh.

The flames of requiem clinging to the tip of my sword began to burn even more fiercely.

Clutching the sword of searing flame, I continued charging forward.

By the time the features of the vaguely visible Prince of the Centaurs had sharpened, I let go of the reins and seized Twilight with both hands.

"Hngh."

Drawing a short breath, I held the sword out at an angle.

And just as I was about to bring it down—

Grrrroar.

At that exact moment, the Prince of the Centaurs rumbled low in his throat.

"Krah!"

The centaurs cried out and split apart to either side.

"The enemy is targeting our flank!"

"Flank knights, prepare for impact!"

The knights shouted themselves hoarse.

But the anticipated flank attack never came.

The centaurs merely swept past our forces.

"Fire!"

A Ranger's shout rang out.

Rattle-rattle-rattle.

At the same time, I heard the sound of crossbow bolts shooting from their strings and slicing through the air.

I twisted around to look behind me.

The centaurs were charging toward the Rangers.

The Ballorhard Rangers dropped their crossbows and flung caltrops from the pouches at their waists.

"If you're aiming, start with their legs!"

The seasoned veteran Rangers tightened their grips on their swords and moved to the front.

Seeing that, I leaned forward.

I intended to make a wide turn and strike the centaurs from behind.

But I had no opportunity to do so.

The centaurs avoided the caltrops scattered across the ground and passed by the Rangers' flank.

Without thrusting even once with the spears they held in a firm grip.

"Huh?"

From atop my running horse, I stared blankly at the centaurs' backs.

After racing away without looking back for quite some time, they stopped in the distance and turned toward us.

Their spearheads hung low, and the Killing Intent that had prickled my skin was nowhere to be found.

Thunk.

Then the Prince of the Centaurs drove his spear deep into the ground.

The man who stepped forward with both arms spread wide began speaking haltingly.

"...!"

His pronunciation and intonation were a complete mess, and he shouted every word at the top of his lungs, making him difficult to understand.

"......! Knight... of Bayern!"

Only the words “Knight of Bayern” came through clearly.

Though bewildered by the sudden change of circumstances, I asked him, "What did Bayern do?"

He answered me again in the same mangled pronunciation.

This time, I could understand him.

"I did not know this was Bayern's land! I have not the slightest intention of coveting it, so please do not misunderstand!"

"Bayern's land?"

"That is so!"

He shouted in a voice like thunder, then rapidly poured out more words.

But with him speaking rapidly in clumsy human speech, I couldn't make out what he was saying at all.

Even so, I could understand one thing: I no longer sensed any desire to fight from him.

The afterglow of the War Poem had yet to fade. The sword light I had painstakingly gathered was still surging and burning.

The fire had only just caught, and now there was nothing left to burn.

It left me frustrated.

If I could, I wanted to charge him immediately. Even now, the stature of the natural-born hero kept provoking me.

But I couldn't simply throw myself at an opponent who showed no will to fight, so I reluctantly sheathed Twilight's power.

"Damn it. What the hell is going on?"

I kicked the innocent ground in irritation.

* * *

The Prince of the Centaurs continued rambling for quite some time.

It was painful enough listening to someone with atrocious pronunciation who couldn't even string sentences together properly. On top of that, his voice was so loud it seemed to have swallowed thunder. It was an ordeal beyond all others.

Yet he kept shouting, whether I frowned or my eardrums burst.

Through those things that might have been language or might have been noise, I was able to grasp the situation roughly.

First, his name was Europe. As expected, he was a centaur among centaurs—the prince of the half-human, half-horse people.

And he was confused.

"So, following the guidance of the gale...!"

"To hell with the guidance of the gale. You probably just wandered around."

He had rummaged through the surrounding area trying to understand the situation, but in the end, all he had seen were unfamiliar human castles and cities.

He didn't even know where this place was. He didn't even know that hundreds of years had passed since the end of the Great War.

"Please speak more quietly. Quietly. Anyway, let's sort this out. You were fighting those people you couldn't tell whether they were Mages or knights, and struggling because you were outnumbered, when suddenly heaven and earth turned upside down. Then you came to your senses here, right? You were about to attack because you thought we were allied with them, but then you saw the light of House Bayern and realized it was a misunderstanding."

"Exactly!"

When I asked to confirm, he shouted the answer unnecessarily loudly.

I frowned.

If I spoke with him much longer, my eardrums would never survive. But the safety of my eardrums was not the truly important matter.

I briefly organized the conversation I'd had with Europe in my head.

First, it wasn't difficult to determine the identity of the group that had attacked the centaurs first.

Those people who were neither Mages nor knights had to be Knights of the Ring.

When I woke after four hundred years, I had described them in exactly the same way Europe had, so the expression did not sound unfamiliar.

The problem was which Knights of the Ring had attacked them, and why.

Among the many other races in the world, the Centaurs, along with Dwarves, were one of the few peoples that were not hostile to humans.

There was no reason to pick a fight with them while they were minding their own business.

Besides, they were a people who wandered the world like the wind. Their attackers couldn't seize land as spoils, nor could they obtain valuables from them.

And despite being exceptionally skilled in battle and difficult to deal with, provoking them would bring great losses and no gains.

After pondering it repeatedly, I finally found the answer.

"The Bourgogne lot."

The answer was hidden in Europe's long-winded explanation.

The knights' colors, as he described them, unmistakably belonged to the Imperial Knights of the Bourgogne Empire.

But the answer I'd found was merely the least important of the great questions.

Why they had attacked the centaurs remained a complete mystery, and an even greater question remained unanswered.

"They opened their eyes to an unfamiliar world..."

Most incomprehensible of all was their very existence, as though they had simply dropped from the sky.

It was as if time and space had been cut apart and pasted back together.

They were not the first.

The Fire Dragon had also suddenly returned, just as the centaur people had, and the Overlord of the Orcs had likewise appeared before me after leaping across centuries.

But no matter how much I thought about it, I could find no answer, so I decided to leave it for later.

"Come with me for now."

He did not reject my offer.

He needed time to adapt to this unfamiliar world, after all. In a way, it was only natural.

But although I was the one who had shown him goodwill, he directed his thanks somewhere entirely unexpected.

"I thank you for your kindness, Knight of Bayern!"

At his sudden thanks, Adelia flinched and glanced at me nervously.

"This isn't House Bayern's land..."

She looked uncomfortable, as though she had committed some grave offense.

At her words, Europe opened his eyes wide.

"Welcome to Leonberk, sons and daughters of the gale."

After watching him, I offered a belated welcome.

Even to my ears, my tone sounded halfhearted.

"We've wasted enough time."

Before he could once again question that in a thunderous voice, I raised a hand.

"We should hurry if we don't want to see House Branbrut turn the place upside down and send out a search party."

To be honest, the greater reason was that I no longer felt any need to wander this cold, wind-swept plain myself, rather than any concern about a search party coming for me.

But I had no intention of explaining that to anyone else.

"Quickly clear the area and prepare to depart for the count's castle!"

The knights hurried to prepare for departure, while the Rangers ran in every direction collecting the caltrops they had scattered across the ground.

Watching them, I muttered a small complaint.

"I should have gone there myself instead of sending Vincent."

If I had, I would probably be happily swinging my sword by now.

When I grumbled under my breath, Karl somehow heard me and slowly shook his head.

Regardless, I drooped my shoulders and headed for the count's castle.

After marching for two days, we reached the count's castle.

I entered with only Europe and a few Centaurs accompanying me.

"Your Highness. What in the world is all this, and who are they...?"

Count Branbrut cast a sidelong glance at the Centaurs who had entered the castle with me.

I had sent Rangers ahead to explain the general situation, but the count clearly wanted to hear the details directly from me.

"Someone else will explain it. I need to rest."

Having already lost all motivation, I handed every report over to the others and went straight to my quarters.

I was about to close the door and head straight for the bed when I suddenly froze.

An inexplicable sense of wrongness swept over my entire body.

I rolled my eyes and quickly scanned the guest room the count had prepared especially for me.

Then I noticed a darkness in one corner of the room—unnaturally deep—and seized Twilight.

"Come out."

There was no answer.

"If you don't come out, I'll drag you out."

I pointed my sword at the darkness.

At that very moment, the darkness rippled.

And from between the pitch-black shadows, a snow-white face suddenly thrust out.