The Third Son of a Medieval Knight Family Chapter 96 - Knight of Ascension (31)

The battle ended so swiftly it was almost anticlimactic.

The number of enemies pursuing the remnants was far fewer than expected.

At first, it even felt inefficient to stay clustered together as one group.

Eventually, Viktor ordered the expedition force to split into several smaller groups again.

And finally, the group directly led by Viktor had just finished hunting the last remaining enemies.

“I don’t think we can do anything about the wound here. Let’s head back and at least give it basic first aid.”

“…Thank you, Sir.”

As Uliya expressed his gratitude with reddened eyes, the barbarians standing behind him muttered among themselves.

“He doesn’t seem much like a principality knight?”

“Right. I thought knights were all tough guys like Lord Viktor over there. That, what’s his name… ah, wasn’t that Krupin fellow quite fierce too?”

Of course, this was their misunderstanding.

While Uliya was more like a noble than a typical knight, he had never once been called weak anywhere he went.

He had simply grown weak temporarily after enduring the extreme situation of being continuously hunted like prey.

There was also the fact that the level of knights the warriors had observed was exceptionally high.

Whether they muttered or not, Viktor slowly helped Uliya to his feet, then had his subordinates find the man’s beloved horse.

Then he turned his head and spoke to the warriors.

“Did you catch two of them securely?”

“Yes! They’re right here.”

A wolf beastman with one ear half-torn kept sniffing as he dragged a barbarian warrior by the hair.

“Urgh… these bastards… to think you’d betray us… no matter how desperate you are, partnering with the principality?!”

His face was quite swollen from being beaten, but even so, the barbarian warrior seemed unbroken as he growled.

The other one beside him was either unconscious or slumped over limply.

“Well done. I want to extract information from them… do any of you know how to interrogate?”

At his words, the warriors nodded enthusiastically with delight.

The wolf beastman holding one man’s hair was wagging his tail vigorously in joy.

“Just leave it to us. Handling bastards like these is our specialty.”

“If you want, we can find out how many teeth this guy’s grandfather has!”

“Ah… yes, reliable. I’ll leave it to you.”

‘I was thinking of telling them they didn’t have to do it if they felt reluctant since they’re from the same steppes…’

Watching the beastmen cheerfully drag away the two warriors, it seemed that had been a misunderstanding.

Contrary to Viktor’s expectations, the concept of being “people from the same steppes” was vague to them.

They only recognized them as warriors from different tribes, different factions.

The steppe warriors were equally merciless toward everyone, not just principality people.

Realizing this anew, Viktor shouted toward their retreating backs.

“Don’t kill them!”

“Don’t worry! Hahaha!”

‘Hmm…’

Uliya looked at him with a pale face.

“Uh… Sir Viktor, if I’m not mistaken, those you just gave orders to are…”

“Ah, I know what you’re thinking, but don’t worry. They’re ones I’ve tamed.”

‘Tamed?’

No matter how he thought about it, this was the first time he’d heard of anyone being able to tame barbarian beastmen like raising dogs or cats.

“Uh… what do you mean by tamed?”

“Obviously I mean they’ve been converted and decided to serve under me. Just like other predecessors in the principality have done. Sir, what’s wrong?”

“Ah, ahhh. I see. No, I was just out of sorts, so… haha…”

Uliya nodded with a distasteful expression while forcing himself to understand.

It wasn’t entirely unprecedented to employ barbarians, and being in the position of having his life saved, he wasn’t tactless enough to unnecessarily nitpick.

“Sir Viktor, though it may be redundant, thank you once again for saving my life. But how did you come to be here…”

As Uliya changed the subject, Viktor replied while mounting his horse.

“We were rushing here after receiving word that the main force was in danger. Let’s head back first. We need to treat your wound, and I’d like to hear the detailed story.”

---

The first sortie was tremendously successful.

The steppe warriors disposed of the Grand Chief’s warriors cleanly, literally like hunting.

Particularly, the warriors led by Kulak achieved the feat of eliminating two to three times their number of enemies, displaying overwhelming power.

That didn’t mean the mercenaries were relatively inferior.

Though they lacked horsemanship compared to the warriors, their combat experience itself was comparable.

Moreover, they knew how to skillfully use various equipment and weapons that the warriors lacked, so in the end they could achieve similar military accomplishments.

Viktor actively praised them all.

Most importantly, fighting together had reduced the wariness and distance between them, which was the greatest gain.

He provided wine and meat to the mercenaries and warriors, then called a meeting.

The first battle had been satisfactory, but separately from that, there was a need to hear Uliya’s story and examine future countermeasures.

And the story he heard from Uliya in that place was enough to astound him.

Viktor looked at Uliya with an incredulous expression.

And most of the people gathered in the hall felt the same.

“Did I mishear just now?”

“Th-that’s not the case. You heard correctly.”

As Uliya bowed his head with a reddened face, Mikhail unconsciously let out a sigh.

“Good heavens, Your Excellency… why on earth…”

Uliya’s story was that shocking.

“So… let me organize this a bit.”

Viktor continued while tapping the table before him with his finger.

“After the main force departed, you confirmed that the Grand Chief’s army had also set out, and His Excellency sent an envoy? To negotiate with Yugrichi?”

“…Yes, that’s correct.”

“Fine. That much I can accept. It seems reasonable enough that opinions were coordinated and you agreed to meet in the middle with armies facing each other… but there His Excellency tried to kill the Grand Chief but failed?”

“W-well, to be precise, His Excellency first made a proposal that the Grand Chief took as an insult, and as the argument escalated, it became unavoidable…”

Uliya tried to defend the Count, who wasn’t even his lord, but people’s gazes were cold.

“Indeed, if luring someone under the pretext of negotiation then setting a trap to kill them isn’t an insult, what on earth could we call it?”

Viktor’s tone was calm, but his eyes were full of disbelief.

‘If you’re going to do it, at least do it properly.’

The more he heard, the more certain it was that they had been excessively careless.

Otherwise, there would have been no reason for the Count to make such a blunder.

From the beginning, he’d heard they had gathered enough troops that it would be difficult to lose even in a direct confrontation with the Grand Chief’s army.

Yet they had plotted to lure the enemy to a negotiation site and eliminate him, which probably meant…

‘It’s an army assembled by spending that much money. It’s hard to think the Count wanted to make a half-hearted agreement. The nobles gathered under him would feel the same. Then it wasn’t purely for negotiation that he called them, but to make things easier.’

Since the opponent was just barbarians anyway, there would have been no particular reason to maintain dignity.

There weren’t any appropriate political enemies around to condemn such methods as cowardly, so there would have been no need to be concerned about appearances.

“The idea itself of getting them drunk and then shooting them with crossbows is a typical old empire-style plot, but…”

Receiving Mikhail’s muttering, Krupin shouted.

“Even if the opponents were barbarians, it was too cowardly! Why didn’t Sir Vasilev stop it?!”

“Hey, young knight. It’s not like principality folks have done such things just once or twice, so what’s with the pretense of being fair and square now? Just sit quietly.”

At Kulak’s words, mixed with bitterness and mockery, Krupin flared up.

“How dare you look down and babble at me, lowly wolf!”

“…Utterly presumptuous. Do you want to die?”

As the two glared at each other and growled, Viktor spoke indifferently.

“Both of you shut up for a moment.”

When both men quieted down, flinching at his cold gaze, Viktor continued.

“If it had succeeded in the first place, there would have been no need to hear talk about cowardice or whatever. To think they provoked the Grand Chief with impossible conditions before even getting him drunk, making him angry. When they should have been sweet-talking him with pleasant words.”

At his cold criticism, Uliya bowed his head even deeper, even though he had done nothing wrong.

“And then pointing crossbows at him while mocking him to the end, saying it would have been good for everyone if he’d just drunk nicely, then letting the target escape? And you didn’t even pursue? No, you should have immediately attacked with the army the moment things went wrong.”

Viktor understood well how important honor was as a virtue in this era.

However, he also clearly understood that in this ruthless age, honor could be discarded as easily as throwing away old shoes.

Most nobles and knights sang daily about fairness and God’s will like reciting prayers, but simultaneously, beneath the surface, conspiracies and political schemes whirled – a fact anyone who had even slightly set foot in noble society could recognize.

Therefore, Viktor had no particular feelings about the Count plotting a conspiracy itself.

The problem was the inadequate, half-hearted response.

If he himself had devised such a plot, he would never have given the opponent any excuse.

‘According to Sir Uliya, the Count and Sir Vasilev ignored the appeals from their commanders to attack.’

Perhaps, having already set the trap, they didn’t attack out of concern for maintaining external honor, or perhaps in their carelessness they didn’t care whether he returned or not.

Since Viktor wasn’t directly involved, he could only speculate about their thinking, but whatever the case, that carelessness had returned as a fatal consequence.

“Afterward, at dawn the Grand Chief’s surprise attack struck, causing even the command structure to collapse and resulting in a great defeat… those gathered scattered in all directions, and no one knows what’s happening anymore…”

“…I have no face to show.”

“Raise your head. I’m sorry, hearing such an absurd story made me unnecessarily raise my voice even at you.”

Viktor offered him an apology while looking around.

People’s reactions were now varied.

Mikhail was closing his eyes and sighing, while Krupin was restlessly glancing at him.

And the steppe-born beastmen like Kulak and Tumen had extremely complex expressions.

Viktor steeled his resolve.

No matter that the Count was the supreme commander of this war and his employer, from now on he would need to choose his words carefully.

No matter how much they had submitted to him, if he spoke carelessly about how barbarians knew no honor and it was fine to do anything to them, they would inevitably harbor resentment.

“Everyone, please listen to me for a moment.”

When people’s gazes gathered, Viktor spoke in a low voice with a firm expression.

“Let’s be clear about this first. We’ve now crossed an irreversible river with the Grand Chief. He will have abandoned any thought of negotiating with the principality.”

When Viktor looked at Kulak’s face, he quietly nodded.

Considering that the main cause of conflict between Bohdan and Yugrichi had been negotiations with the principality, it was quite ironic.

“It’s certain that the command was careless. But the main force didn’t collapse simply due to that. Even with a night attack, the difference in troop numbers was overwhelming. Yugrichi’s forces seem more powerful than estimated.”

He could feel several people glancing at him at those words, but Viktor ignored them.

“From what I’ve heard, surrender offers won’t work at all. From now on, kill everyone you see.”

Murderous words.

However, the warriors seemed to cheer rather than object.

“The situation doesn’t change much. We reverse-hunt those enjoying their hunt while helping the main force buy time. Same goes for the stragglers.”

Salvage them if possible, abandon them if not.

Viktor concluded with fierce eyes blazing and a strong tone.

“There’s no need to think about anything else. Tear apart everyone you see. Let’s end here for today. Ah, Kulak and Tumen, you two follow me for a moment.”

At his forceful conclusion to the meeting, people rose from their seats while organizing their thoughts.

Viktor watched the faces of the two men following him with dejected expressions.

The direction for future matters seemed to be taking shape.

‘To continue leading them, things can’t stay as they are. Centered on the principality like this, it’s nothing more or less than invasion no matter what. Then rather…’

It was a problem he had been continuously pondering while coming down here, but hearing of the Count’s blunder this time had solidified his resolve.

‘I need to step forward myself.’

His fists began to clench with determination.