Chapter 208

“So, can I take it that you’ve decided to cooperate with me now? You come to talk to me after a week and even tell me the identity and numbers of the enemy. You’re kinder than I thought.”

[Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s not for your sake, I just… don’t want such a disgrace to be remembered forever.]

Even a woman who eats people alive doesn’t seem to want to endure the shame of being reduced to a historical bitch.

“Right. I guess so. I don’t want to end up like that either… I suppose I should say, let’s work well together from now on.”

[…But, there’s a condition.]

“A condition?”

[I can overlook the fact that you fled to the Empire… Sure, if you stayed in the grasslands, unable to control your own power, you would have lost whatever reputation you had built. However, you forcibly took my body and wielded the power I had accumulated for your own purposes. If you still want my help after all that… at the very least, shouldn’t you cooperate with me to make it fair?]

“What do you want?”

As long as it’s not some nonsense about conquering the Empire together, I might be able to agree.

[What I want is just three things: revenge, protection, and freedom. Cooperate with my revenge, protect the subordinates I left behind, and most importantly, you must find a way to return my body to me. If you swear to this, I might lend you my power.]

Revenge and protection are fine, but… the last condition is a bit unsettling.

Even if the day comes when I find a way, letting this woman run free is too dangerous, and returning to a body with severed legs isn’t what I want either.

“What if I refuse?”

[If you refuse, I don’t know when, but when I regain control of my body, I will kill all the Imperial people around you and escape. That would put you in quite… no, a very difficult position. So, what will you do?]

…If that’s how it’s going to be, I guess I have no choice.

“I swear in the name of our God in heaven. Will that do?”

I made a half-hearted false oath. From Hersela’s perspective, she might think I swore to Elpinel.

In reality, it was completely different.

But whatever.

The guy nailed to the cross isn’t here but in the original world, so even if I break my oath, he probably won’t come here to get mad at me. Maybe.

—

Returning to the carriage, I told Nigel and Leonor that we couldn’t let the lord who did this go unpunished.

“The lord’s private soldiers… It’s not an impossible story. Even if the Imperial Army tries to stop it now, they could incite people by saying they’re breaking neutrality to help only Leopold. Even after the civil war ends, if Isabella wins, wiping out a village or two would be swept under the rug.”

“What a despicable person…!”

“Punishment. Indeed, now that we know, we can’t just let it slide. If the one who did this is part of Isabella’s faction, even if we proceed, the chances of being intercepted and clashing are high.”

Right. That makes sense.

Someone who goes this far to wage war wouldn’t just let a carriage roam freely in the middle of the battlefield.

After getting the agreement of all three, we followed the faint traces of the remaining troops to track them down.

It wasn’t too difficult.

Every few kilometers, we came across bodies skewered on spikes.

…Does this bastard think he’s Vlad the Impaler?

“Really, what kind of lunatic is this?”

“He’s no different from a madman. An evil that must not be tolerated.”

Nigel also couldn’t hide his anger.

He seems to really like spikes, but let’s see if he’d still like them if he were the one skewered.

After tracking for a day and a half, we finally caught their tail.

“Carriage ahead! Stop immediately! If you don’t comply, we will attack at once!”

Well, it’s more like they came to us.

Twenty armed soldiers and one fully armored knight stopped the carriage, saying they wanted to inspect it.

Judging by their uniforms, they weren’t Imperial soldiers but the lord’s private troops… Given that they were the first soldiers we met after passing through a road full of corpses, it was highly likely they were the culprits.

“Is it them?”

“Who else could it be?”

Leonor also nodded in agreement.

I picked up Durandal, which I had set aside, and eavesdropped on Nigel’s conversation with them.

I was about 90% sure, but there’s always a chance they weren’t the culprits.

—

“What’s your business?”

Nigel, with his hood pulled low, asked them.

“…A woman? A woman driving a carriage, couldn’t you find a man to do it?”

There was a hint of surprise in the voice answering, as if they hadn’t expected the driver to be a woman.

“I asked what your business is.”

“What reason do soldiers have to stop a carriage? An inspection. We’ll check your identity and inspect the inside of the carriage, so cooperate.”

“…An inspection on the highway? What authority do you have if you’re not Imperial soldiers? What’s the reason?”

Nigel’s question was a valid one.

Unless it’s the lord’s city, the highways throughout the capital are state property.

For a mere lord’s soldiers to block passage and attempt an inspection is an overreach that disregards national order.

But it seems they didn’t care.

“Authority? It’s by the order of Count Dubien. He said that those who come here after seeing the warnings posted everywhere are likely enemy spies, so we must inspect thoroughly. It won’t take long. Show your face and state your identity and purpose of travel.”

“…Warnings? You mean the corpses skewered along the road?”

“Yeah, yeah. Those were all spies disguised as travelers. If you don’t want to end up like that, cooperate quietly. You talk too much, which makes you suspicious… We’ll need to search you too.”

So, it was these guys after all.

Spies, my foot. Who would use a ten-year-old kid as a spy?

“Count Dubien, huh? Do you know who that is?”

I’d never heard the name before.

I thought Leonor might know, so I asked her, but she just shook her head.

“Dubien? Why would I know some random count? Well, I can probably guess what kind of future is coming for him, though.”

Yeah, I think I can guess too.

As I stood up, drawing Durandal, I heard Nigel sigh and pull back his hood.

“Oh. Well, aren’t you a surprise beauty? Traveling by carriage with a face like that in times like these? You must not be afraid of bandits, huh?”

“Who knows? Maybe she gets treated well every time she’s caught and then let go.”

The soldiers snickered, making crude jokes.

Maybe it was because she was hiding her armor under a coat, or maybe because she was playing the role of a coachman. They clearly had no idea she was a knight.

And that was their last mistake.

– *Thud!*

Nigel’s spear, placed behind the coachman’s seat, pierced through the heads of two soldiers in one clean strike.

Blood and brain matter clung to the spearhead sticking out from the back of their skulls.

“G-guh…!”

The soldiers, mouths agape, trembled before collapsing.

The stench of urine hit my nose.

“What the hell?!”

“What do you mean ‘what the hell’? It’s divine punishment, that’s what.”

I stepped out of the carriage and snapped at them.

Just nineteen of them, and all of them were ragtag. Even after two of them died, they were too busy being shocked to even think about fighting back.

“A Ka’har woman in scale armor with a longsword…! Could it be… the Carnivorous Beast, Ai-shan Gi-or?!”

So, they recognized me. The knight trembled as if struck by lightning.

“You know me, huh? Then you probably know what’s coming next, right?”

“It’s the Carnivorous Beast! The real Carnivorous Beast!”

One soldier screamed, threw down his weapon, and ran toward the back.

He must have realized there was no winning and decided to try his luck with fleeing.

Quick thinking.

– *Thud!*

And a quick death.

The dagger I threw pierced cleanly through the soldier’s skull.

“Why is Ai-shan Gi-or here…?!”

“Why? Because you idiots are pulling stunts like this. Nigel, I have some questions for these guys, so try to just break their legs.”

“Understood.”

Nigel nodded, pulled out his spear, and charged into the soldiers.

Even twenty knights would struggle to take down a single master.

Unless, of course, each of them was as skilled as Freide or Damien, who were on the verge of becoming masters themselves.

And among these guys, there was only one knight.

It took less than twenty seconds for them to be wiped out.

—

A fun interrogation session. Participants: one knight and nineteen soldiers. Directors: me and Nigel.

Since these guys might lie, I planned to split the prisoners into two groups and cross-check their stories.

– *Crunch!*

“AAAAAAHHH!”

The knight, his face red, screamed like a pig.

Blood mixed with urine trickled from his crushed groin.

“Stop overreacting. The real punishment hasn’t even started yet.”

All I’d done so far was crush his limbs and blow out his lower body.

Leaving the knight convulsing on the ground, I approached the soldiers with a grin.

“You seem to like the sight of blood between your legs… Anyone else want to experience it firsthand?”

“P-please, spare us…!”

“Please, just let us live…!”

The soldiers, pale and trembling, begged for mercy.

Some of them already had their groins soaked.

“Well… that depends on how honest you are. I’m going to ask you a few questions now… For every second you delay your answer, I’ll crush one limb. If you don’t answer within five seconds, you’ll end up like him. And if you bravely lie and get caught… well, it’s better if you don’t know yet.”

The soldiers frantically nodded.

—

Thanks to the soldiers’ cooperation, the interrogation didn’t take long.

Maybe it was because I chopped up the knight who was cursing at me.

As a reward for saving me time, I let them all experience what it felt like to be a knight.

Becoming a knight is every soldier’s dream, so they must have been satisfied.

“AAAAHHH!”

“Ugh, gah…!”

“Guh…!”

I didn’t forget the finishing touches.

Since I didn’t have skewers prepared, I had to make do with the soldiers’ spears.

“You said you’d spare us if we told the truth…!”

“I never said I’d spare you. Besides, you weren’t honest people to begin with. You were just forced to be honest this time.”

“You… damn bitch…! AAAAAHHH!”

The desperate screams and weak moans harmonized beautifully.

Music to my ears.

Hoping they’d live as long as possible, I left the spear halfway in and headed back to the carriage.

[Didn’t you criticize me for being cruel and barbaric? I wonder who the real barbarian is here.]

Hersela, who had been watching, spouted some nonsense.

Who’s the barbarian? Who else but you?

What I did was just punishment.

What goes around comes around, you know?