Barbarian Quest

Chapter 253

The armies of Porcana and the alliance set up camp on a hill. They watched the imperial army approach from a distance.

On the hill, the commanders of the Porcana-Alliance forces gathered to assess the situation.

“We’ve taken the high ground, so it will be difficult for the imperial army to deploy their cavalry.”

Varca opened his eyes halfway as he looked at the imperial army. The hill with an uneven terrain made it difficult for the heavy cavalry to charge. It was terrain thoroughly disadvantageous to the imperial army.

“It seems like the enemy commander is Carnius.”

Duke Lungell recognized the banner of the Carnius house and muttered.

Urich also remembered Carnius. The alliance had suffered a great defeat at his hands and went on the brink of crumbling.

“We fought that guy once. He gave us a serious blow,” Urich spoke as he trimmed his beard with the blade of his axe while sitting on a rock.

Urich had narrowly escaped death at the hands of Carnius but survived miraculously through the Battle of Valdima.

“Though Carnius was overshadowed by the Sword Demon Ferzen, he is a renowned general of the empire. Since he already has experience fighting against you guys, he won’t be careless, either.”

Varca clutched his chest with one hand. His heart was pounding.

‘This is a battle that will decide the fate of the kingdom.’

He had pondered many times. What if he had made a different choice? What if he had sided with the empire?

“Pahell, the arrow has already left our hands. We can only hope it hits the mark.”

Urich, having finished shaving, rubbed his chin. He looked at the imperial army with a grin on his face.

“And what if the arrow misses?”

Varca said reflexively and then closed his mouth. It wasn’t good to say ominous things before a battle.

“...That’s why you have to carefully draw your bowstring when you’re hunting a big beast. If you miss, the enraged beast will tear the hunter apart with its claws and teeth. Well, if you’re lucky, you might get another chance to draw your bow while rolling in the dirt, but you can’t rely on such luck. Luck is just luck.”

Urich’s eyes sharpened. His hair seemed to flutter wildly.

‘This is the decisive battle.’

If the western alliance suffered even one major defeat, recovery would be difficult. In the civilized world, where the roles of warriors and farmers were distinct, society continued even if warriors died. But in a tribal society like the west, the death of warriors meant an equal loss of productivity.

‘I cannot lose here. Even if we win, we have no future if all our warriors die.’

Urich had practically brought the future of the west to this land. Even young warriors without children had come to the heart of an unfamiliar world. The only men left in the west were dying old men or infants.

‘If we fall here, even some random kingdom could conquer the west.’

Urich closed his eyes. His nape felt cold. It was as if someone was holding a blade to his neck.

‘If we lose, my brothers will become slaves.’

Urich had seen the fate of defeated peoples during his travels in the civilized world. They had become slaves and were discriminated against. Some were treated as less than human.

Urich couldn’t tolerate his people living such a life. No matter how much he admired the civilized world, he had no intention of willingly becoming their slave.

“...We will not become slaves,” he muttered to himself.

He thought of Sven’s red tears. Sven had experienced defeat firsthand and was a warrior who had harbored that resentment all his life.

The Porcana-Alliance camp was sharpening their weapons and preparing for battle. The look-out soldiers kept their eyes on the movements of the imperial army.

The two camps stared right at each other. It was a situation where strategies like surprise attacks could not be used. They would start the battle like a contest once both sides were ready.

Clip-clop, clip-clop.

A messenger emerged from the imperial camp. The commanders of the Porcana-Alliance army stood up and looked at the messenger.

“Is it a declaration of war?”

“Maybe they’re trying to insult Porcana, calling us traitors to the civilized world or something.”

The nobles looked at the messenger with worried expressions.

“What’s the point of sending someone now? All that’s left for us to do is face each other with swords,” Urich grumbled as he stood up from the campfire.

“King Varca of Porcana and the head of the plunderers, here this!”

The messenger raised his voice. Judging by the plate armor, he seemed to be an imperial steel knight. The messenger glanced around and continued.

“In the name of His Imperial Majesty, we request peace! If you are willing to negotiate, come out tomorrow at noon with two representatives and twenty attendants each! In the name of the Sun God Lou!”

The messenger shouted with a fist to his chest. He waited for the response of the Porcana-Alliance army.

“Peace?”

“Is the emperor asking us for peace?”

The nobles jumped up in excitement. The fact that the empire was the one requesting peace first indicated its dire situation. In this case, the Porcana-Alliance army would have the upper hand in the negotiations.

“Our military alliance seems to be putting significant pressure on the empire.,” Varca muttered as he gathered the nobles.

The nobles murmured, each saying a word.

“We must go to the negotiation table. If we can gain independence without exhausting our national strength and soldiers, what better outcome could there be?”

The nobles were in favor of negotiating. Even after considering it ten times, it was better to listen to the peace terms of the empire. After all, they couldn’t be certain of victory against their enemy.

“Peace...”

Urich muttered. He called his close subordinates like Katagi and Georg to ask their opinions.

“This means that they are afraid of us. We must prepare to attack immediately.”

Katagi insisted, and the warriors shouted in agreement. Unlike the Porcana nobles, the alliance warriors were aggressive. They saw the current situation as an opportunity.

‘Katagi is not wrong. If we refuse peace and attack immediately, it will put great pressure on them.’

Urich squinted his eyes. He waited for Georg’s opinion. Urich was not strong in diplomacy and politics. Thus, he listened carefully to the words of his close subordinates.

After thinking for a moment, Georg spoke.

“Porcana is keen on negotiation. In fact, most of them are welcoming this proposal as if it were salvation. They’ve been under the pressure of fighting against the imperial army. Even if we suggest an attack, Porcana won’t easily agree. They will insist on at least hearing the terms of peace.”

Interpreters conveyed Georg’s words to the warriors.

“We can win without those cowards! We are the proud warriors of the sky!”

The warriors glared at Georg. Their morale was high. They believed the imperial army was proposing peace because they were scared of the Porcana-Alliance army.

“Shut up. They didn’t propose peace because they’re afraid of us.”

Urich spoke calmly. He tried to put himself in the empire’s shoes.

‘They’re doing this because of the northern front.’

The western alliance didn’t know the status of the northern front. They had no way of knowing whether the northern independence army was winning or losing. However, the empire, with its advanced communication system, would know the situation on the northern front.

“Either the northern front is in a stalemate, or the imperial army is being pushed back. Otherwise, there’s no reason for them to propose peace. It seems like the strategy of dividing the frontlines has succeeded,” Georg stated a rational inference with no room for rebuttal.

“We will go to the negotiation table,” Urich declared. The warriors looked disappointed.

“What’s with those faces? You guys all chew on shit or something? If you want to fight so badly, come to my tent with your weapons tonight. I’ll take on as many of you as you want.”

Urich said as he laughed, and the warriors laughed with him.

* * *

Carnius groomed his beard as soon as he woke up in the morning. He personally took up his armor and greased it thoroughly. The surface of the armor, freshly polished with an oil-soaked cloth, seemed to shine. Normally, he would have his squire do it, but today he wanted to do it himself.

‘Leo.’

Whenever he had a moment of leisure, the face of his son came to mind. He had dreamt many times of the day he lost Leo.

"Please forgive this fool of a father."

Carnius underestimated the collapsing barbarians. He thought nothing would happen even if he sent Leo to the battlefield. That was an arrogant thought.

The barbarians made a last-ditch effort and broke through the imperial army's encirclement, and Leo lost his life in the process.

‘I wouldn't have lost Leo if I had been just a bit more cautious.’

Carnius blamed himself. His heart ached as if it was bound by chains that were tightening their grip on it.

‘No, if I hadn't raised Leo to be a knight in the first place....’

There were many other paths in life besides being a knight. In these times, there were several ways for noblemen to climb the social ladder. In fact, rising through martial prowess was something only fallen nobles were still doing.

‘All of this is the sin of my greed. Lou punished my foolishness. He gave me pain through the barbarians and the Leo’s death.’

Carnius' eyes were hollow. He wanted to throw everything away and become a monk. But he had responsibilities as the head of his family.

‘Even Emperor Yanchinus put his pride aside and entrusted me with the army. He did it to protect the empire.’

It was an impressive decision on the emperor’s part. The emperor at least wanted an armistice, and if possible, a peace treaty. Yielding to the barbarians like this would utterly disgrace the emperor’s honor and dignity. It was a choice that could potentially be laughed at by future historians.

‘But even that arrogant emperor chose to let his pride be trampled rather than see the empire destroyed. He wasn’t stubborn.’

Emperor Yanchinus knew that it was his own decisions that had made the empire's finances precarious. It wasn’t anyone else’s fault but the failure and mistake of the emperor himself.

“General, it’s almost noon,” the adjutant outside spoke cautiously.

Carnius hadn’t touched the meal on the table. As he aged, his appetite seemed to have gone down as well.

Crinkle.

Carnius unfolded the letter and looked at the negotiation authority delegated by the emperor.

‘Porcana’s independence is inevitable. The war reparations are substantial as well. I guess without at least that, Porcana would be too afraid to negotiate because of the possibility of the empire taking revenge in the future.’

Carnius only drank water as he read the letter to the end. He had read it over at least ten times already. That’s how cautious he was about this negotiation. It was a matter of the empire’s peace.

‘The plunderers and the Porcana army probably don’t know that the Caselmaroni Kingdom and the northern rebellion army have allied.’

To negotiate, the empire had to seize the moment when there was a gap in information. If Porcana and the plunderers knew the northern front was more disadvantageous to the empire than expected, they wouldn’t negotiate.

“General,” the adjutant spoke again, quietly.

“I know.”

Carnius called for his squire, who was waiting outside. With the squire’s help, he donned his plate armor. As befitting a general’s armor, it was an advanced steel armor ahead of its time. The heat-treated and processed surface shone like the sun, and the curvature on the slightly curved plates had an aesthetic functionality. It was cutting-edge protection against all sorts of blades and arrows.

After donning his armor, Carnius mounted his horse. He led ten attendants and thirty knights to the midpoint between the two camps.

The sun of the noon was harsh. Even the armor draped with an outer garment seemed to heat up.

Rattle!

The attendants scurried ahead and set up a canopy and negotiation table.

“They’re coming out as well,” a knight whispered in Carnius’ ear. With his aged eyes, all he could see was a blur, and even that barely.

Two riders emerged from the Porcana-Alliance camp, side by side. They were Varca of Porcana and Urich of the alliance. Even from afar, it was clear these two were the leaders.

Nearly a hundred people gathered in the middle ground. They held their breaths, waiting for their leaders to speak.

Carnius recognized Varca and nodded. Although he was an enemy, he was a royal and therefore deserved respect. Then he looked at Urich beside him and widened his eyes. Somehow, he looked familiar. What was more surprising was that such a young warrior was the leader of those fearsome plunderers.

‘I expected the leader to be a man with a thick beard....’

Barbarians always chose the strongest and most valiant warrior as their leader.

‘I’m assuming this means that he has that level of skill at such a young age.’

On closer inspection, his scars were no ordinary ones. There were several marks of wounds that should have killed him multiple times.

Feeling Carnius’ intense gaze, Urich became discontent and glared back. The atmosphere was already tense. Knights and warriors silently placed their hands on their weapons.