The Third Son of a Medieval Knight Family Chapter 91 - Knight of Ascension (26)

Tumen growled in a quiet voice.

“Don’t move. If you move even a little, I’ll stab your throat.”

“…”

Even though the blade was lightly cutting her throat and blood was seeping out, the woman seemed unconcerned.

She was only glaring at the knight who had killed her father.

‘Tsk…’

Tumen frowned as he looked around.

Bohdan’s subordinates were shouting with faces filled with shock and rage, and that Igor fellow or whatever – Viktor’s brother – was grinning so wide his mouth seemed ready to tear, as if something delighted him immensely.

‘I did stop her from attacking Lord Viktor from behind… should I just kill her off?’

However, Tumen soon shook his head.

It wasn’t his decision to make, and besides, a better idea had occurred to him.

A quite decent plan to more successfully accomplish what his master had asked of him.

Tumen looked at Viktor, who was shaking off his axe while lost in thought.

---

“Ch-Chief…!”

“I’ll kill you! I’ll peel off all the skin from your face!”

“Uheeeeng!”

Perhaps Bohdan had been well-regarded by his subordinates, as the handful gathered there were reacting intensely.

Only the old wolf, Kulak, was quietly staring at Bohdan’s corpse with its split head, his sad eyes unreadable.

As Viktor watched with an indifferent expression those who seemed ready to attack him at any moment with bloodshot tears.

“…Keke.”

At the inappropriate laughter for the situation, everyone turned their heads.

The man who was still collapsed on the floor with his hair gripped by a guard, Igor, was giggling.

“Has this bug-like bastard finally gone insane!”

The enraged guard violently shook the hair he was gripping and shouted, but Igor showed no sign of caring.

He now openly burst into hearty laughter as if he couldn’t contain himself any longer.

“Kahaha! Hahahaha!”

“…This fucking bastard!”

Smack!

Finally taking a pommel to the face, blood streamed from his nose, but Igor’s bloodshot eyes only shone brighter.

“Well done, well done! As expected of my brother! Kahaha! Kill them all! Kill every one of those trash bastards who dared lay hands on me!”

“…”

Everyone present stared at Igor with stunned expressions.

Even while being dragged across the floor by the guard’s strength, he didn’t stop his ecstatic laughter.

“Viktor, leave that woman to me! I can’t stand it unless I personally take care of that bitch! Ah, and the same goes for this bastard holding my hair! Hurry! What are you standing around for!”

Tumen frowned mercilessly.

That so-called brother was presumptuous beyond measure, babbling as he pleased.

‘Did he go insane from too much torture?’

There was no other way to understand such words.

No matter how much he was Viktor’s brother, he had no right to give such orders.

Moreover, wasn’t he in the position of being captured as a prisoner by the enemy?

If he had been in that same position, he would have been too ashamed to even show his face.

Instead of helping, this relative was only dragging him down.

Tumen carefully looked at his master.

He wasn’t particularly angry, just maintaining his usual calm expression.

Viktor opened his mouth gently.

“Brother.”

“Yes! My brother! I, Igor, am here!”

“Shut up and stay quiet.”

“…Uh…”

While Igor stared at him with a dumbfounded expression, momentarily speechless, Viktor paid him no mind and continued looking around as he spoke.

“Well, now that Bohdan is dead, it’s your turn. I’ll ask once, but will you surrender?”

At Viktor’s words, the warriors shouted with incensed faces as if hearing something absurd.

“Don’t make me laugh! I’d rather die here than bow my head to a principality bastard!”

“I see. Then die.”

As Viktor swung his axe and approached, the warriors all drew their weapons in unison.

The warrior still gripping Igor’s hair shouted roughly.

“We’ll start by killing your brother first! Because of you, this bastard will die miserably!”

“Ah, no!”

Igor struggled.

“Kill him if you want.”

“…?!”

“Viktor, you?!”

Viktor approached without a care, walking steadily forward.

The warriors hesitated.

It was overwhelming intimidation.

“If he dies, it can’t be helped.”

“Viktor! How dare you say such a thing…!”

“I can’t let these people go just to save one brother.”

Igor realized with a horrified face.

His brother wasn’t worried about him even a bit.

He was truly nothing more than an extra.

He was just someone whose life or death didn’t matter at all.

“You, you… didn’t you come running to save me? Bohdan, that bastard definitely…”

“What nonsense are you talking, brother? I didn’t even know you were here.”

His tone was polite, but Viktor’s face remained utterly calm.

At that clearly cold attitude, Igor finally choked up.

“Viktor, I’m still your brother! You insolent bastard… were you taught to treat the family’s eldest son like this!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Viktor stared directly at Igor.

“…!”

At those bottomless eyes without any emotion, Igor broke into a cold sweat.

Though no particular intimidation was involved, he could clearly tell.

This was a warning.

A warning that if he spouted nonsense one more time, being his brother or whatever wouldn’t matter.

Watching the two brothers, the warriors could clearly understand.

This man Igor had surprisingly no value as a hostage.

Kulak, who had been quietly staring at their chief’s corpse at the back of the group, sighed quietly.

‘Ah… the chief’s thinking was wrong from the start… to that knight, family members meant nothing…’

As Kulak thought, Viktor had little interest in his brother whom he was meeting after so long.

Of course, it wasn’t that he wasn’t glad that a brother he’d grown up with since childhood had survived that catastrophe and they could meet again, but that was about it.

He had never held much loyalty or affection for the village people or family members in the first place.

They had always been distant with each other.

If asked whether Igor had treated him well, that wasn’t the case either.

There was the matter of giving him a horse and weapons when assigning patrol duties, but thinking about it now, the intentions probably hadn’t been good.

‘Seeing how much he suffered is somewhat pitiful, but that’s ultimately due to his own wrongdoing.’

There was no need to act cautiously for Igor’s safety.

Even if he died in the process, that would be his fate.

Boom!

Viktor swung his axe threateningly.

The already narrow interior felt filled with the axe’s afterimages, causing the warriors to hesitantly retreat.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to attack?”

At Viktor’s words, the warriors gritted their teeth and raised their weapons properly.

It seemed their fate would end here.

‘Chief… we’ll follow you soon.’

The guard gripped his sword in reverse with a determined expression.

No matter how worthless he might be, if he was Viktor’s family, he was still family.

He had to kill at least this bastard before going to have the dignity to face their chief when they met again in the ancestor wolf’s embrace.

Seeing the blade glinting before his eyes, Igor screamed, and just as the guard was about to bring down his sword.

“Wait!”

When Tumen shouted with veins bulging in his neck, everyone’s movements paused momentarily.

He stepped aside and helped the woman who had been lying on the floor to her feet, then brought his blade to her throat again before speaking.

“Lord Viktor, couldn’t you spare these people?”

“…Hmm?”

Viktor tilted his head at the unexpected words.

“Tumen, are you perhaps feeling pity for them? That’s not a very good attitude for a warrior.”

“No, no, it’s not that! The instructions you gave me, Lord Viktor!”

When Tumen frantically shook his head, Viktor looked around at the warriors who were watching them with slightly confused expressions.

“…Right, I did give you something to do. But do you think such talk will work on them now?”

“Just leave it to me! I don’t know about the others, but this woman who is Bohdan’s blood will definitely understand.”

At Tumen’s confident words, the woman who had been glaring only at Viktor from beginning to end turned her head slightly.

She couldn’t understand what this beastman serving in the principality’s army was babbling about.

He met the glaring gaze of the one-eyed woman head-on and muttered.

“There’s no law saying principality people can’t participate in the steppe’s customs. Being one with wolf’s blood, you’d understand what I’m talking about, wouldn’t you?”

“…!”

---

Before setting out to attack the base, Viktor had given Tumen one command.

Think of a scheme to more surely subjugate the barbarians!

Viktor didn’t want to be satisfied with just killing or driving away all the barbarians.

The principality’s east was barren with few people, and there were limits to maintaining and defending this land with only principality people.

Eventually, the driven-out barbarians would nurture their strength in more distant steppes while harboring blades of revenge, trying to reclaim their homeland, and the principality would try to project power to defend the land they’d gained and to obtain more furs.

That would only result in a vicious cycle.

Therefore, for peace and more rational governance, a different solution was needed.

‘If this is going to become my land anyway, such problems can’t keep occurring.’

Based on this understanding, Viktor had confided his thoughts to Tumen, who knew the barbarians’ nature better than anyone, and he had provided an answer to Viktor’s concerns with surprising speed.

-About the conversation Lord Viktor had with Bohdan before. I think that’s the answer! You should become king of the steppes!

-Stop with that king talk. Did some other noble put you up to this? To get me captured? And what conversation with Bohdan?

-I-I’m sorry… the night raid when Radovitz was besieged. You spoke with Bohdan about steppe traditions then… didn’t you?

-Lukovich must have told you. Right, I said such things. Though I was just saying anything to get his attention.

-From what I can see, that seems to be the correct answer. The steppe tribes and warriors have strong pride and will never compromise with outside threats. I’m not saying this because I’m from the steppes, but with ordinary appeasement policies, you could only attract wanderers at best.

-Just get to the point. What do you want to say?

-Yes. But if Lord Viktor enters within the steppe’s order, the story changes. The reason tribes fight each other every day is ultimately because of tradition. To devour each other and form larger tribes, and ultimately to reach the position of ruler of the steppes.

-…

-To participate in that conflict doesn’t require other qualifications. Anyone who respects steppe traditions and actually rules this land is fine. If you tell them exactly what Lord Viktor said to Bohdan, they might submit more obediently than expected. As long as they clearly feel the difference in power!

-Uh… I don’t see what difference that makes. The principality has shown superiority several times, but they’ve never surrendered obediently even once, have they?

-That’s because as I mentioned, it was nothing more than foreign invasion. Has the principality’s army ever followed steppe traditions even once? Even if orcs invaded, it would be the same.

-Hmm…

-Lord Viktor, announce it clearly and definitively! And declare proudly that you are the one who will become king of the steppes! That you’ve come to rule them according to tradition! You’ll probably be surprised at how effective it is. Just like how I’m acting now, hehe.

‘I don’t know if such word games will work on them…’

Viktor looked with a distasteful expression at the woman who was still glaring alternately at him and Tumen with a face full of resentment.

And at the warriors confused by Tumen’s words, and even the old beastman who seemed lost in deep thought.

He lowered his axe slightly and crossed his arms.

After all, he was the one who had given Tumen the task, so he thought he’d watch once.

‘There’s no harm in trying.’

The noise from outside was gradually fading.

Without proper leadership and not even mounted, such barbarians were no longer objects of fear or anything else to the mercenaries.

Against the backdrop of faintly audible shouts and burning sounds, Viktor slowly leaned back.

Tumen glanced at him once, then shouted proudly in his characteristically overconfident voice.

“Lord Viktor seeks to rule these steppes according to the traditions that have been maintained among us since the first Grand Chief!”

“What bullshit are you spouting, you principality dog!”

When one warrior got angry, Tumen shouted even louder.

“Shut up! You ignorant fool! If you’re truly a warrior born and raised in these steppes, how can you not know that Lord Viktor was born with the destiny of the great steppe king who would someday come!”

“…Has this bastard gone mad! You, descended from the Grand Chief’s tribe, have finally abandoned even your pride! How dare you attach a legendary existence to that principality bastard!”

“Rock Demon Serpent.”

“…!”

“He hunted that monster that had never once been caught, and cut down your lord who had built a force large enough to challenge the Grand Chief’s stronghold!”

Tumen turned his gaze from the warrior refuting his words to the woman whose face was wavering.

“If not Lord Viktor, then who exactly could become the steppe king, the Khan!”

Khan.

At that heavily echoing name, the woman’s face began to harden frighteningly.

And finally, as if he had made a decision after long deliberation, Kulak raised his head with gleaming eyes.