-Unedited-
“Heimos and the Aaron Landis Army?”
Opada looked with confusion at the countless cavalrymen who suddenly appeared on the hill in astonishment.
“Why are they here? Haven’t they already gone to the Northland battlefield?”
His voice wasn’t loud, but it was very clear in a place that was silent and more so of the appearance of Aaron Landis’ cavalry.
Many people heard his words, but no one answered.
There was an uncontrollable look of surprise on the Tasdarians’ face. Although they were ready to fight to the death of the last one, the desire to survive was human instinct. If there was hope, they would also want to live.
“Fuck!”
Staring dumbfoundedly at the mighty Aaron Landis cavalry standing on the hill, the leader of the horse thieves cursed.
His small, fierce eyes stared viciously at the Tasdar man beside him, who had hired them to kill.
“You bastard, how dare you betray me!”
Didn’t he said that there were less than a hundred Tasdar infantrymen, so why is the terrifying Aaron Landis cavalry there——
The baby prince must be right, this insidious Tasdarian has no intention of letting our group live! That’s why he deliberately plotted against us!
Stoke completely ignored the horse thief leader who was fiercely staring at him.
He looked at the prince of Aaron Landis, glaring straight at him and his fingers holding the rein clenched tightly.
Garlan looked at the black eagle that had landed on his arm and stroked its feathers. Probably noticing Stoke’s gaze, he raised his eyes, and met Stoke’s fixed stare.
Then, he gave a wide smile to Stoke.
Not a little deterrent, without imposing manner, even a smile that could be described as the soft wind in early spring.
However, all the more so it was difficult for Stoke to accept.
From the very beginning, he had never held any regard for this prince.
‘Wise’?
It was just a halo that weak people rack their brains to find out and put on themselves.
This world was a world where the strong prey on the weak. Only power could make others submit and admire, only power could decide everything!
Stoker had always believed so.
But now, he who thought was a strong man and was above everyone, was defeated by this weak person.
He couldn’t accept it—even losing to Kaijos would make him feel better.
No matter how violently Stoke was impacted, after Garlan smiled at him, he turned his gaze to the horse thief on the side.
The sturdy horse thief leader occasionally scowled at Stoke angrily, and sometimes glanced nervously at the mighty Aaron Landis cavalry not far away. His forehead was already dripping with sweat and his subordinates were even more restless. Seeing the obvious fear on the faces of the cavalrymen, the riot spread among the horse thieves and couldn’t be stopped.
It could be seen that when the Aaron Landis cavalry appeared from behind, the fighting spirit of the Siwari bandits was completely extinguished in an instant, and a tense atmosphere spread among the crowd.
In any case, no matter how vicious they were, they were nothing more than a bandit group. Even if they were given great courage, they wouldn’t dare to fight against the regular army with a small difference in number—especially the world-famous Aaron Landis cavalry.
That was simply courting death.
“Are you still planning to continue?”
Garlan’s words stunned the nervous horse thief leader. He turned his head and looked at the beautiful blond-haired boy who made him feel pity for killing him a moment ago, who showed a smiling face, the corner of his mouth couldn’t help twitching, as if feeling a toothache.
Immediately afterwards, he glared at Garlan.
“I’m not afraid! I can still take you as a hostage! At worst, we will die together! It’s not a loss to have a prince to die with us!”
He roared, with a stern and confident look on his face, as if only one party dies, and the other party could survive.
But it could be seen that this person was obviously vicious.
“En, I know. But I don’t want to die together with you.”
Garlan nodded.
He said, “So you guys go.”
“You can’t scare me. This old man cut off more heads than you, a little baby weaning. I’m not afraid of you… Ha?”
The leader of the horse bandits was still uttering harsh words and pretending to be ferocious to cover up his fear of the army. Halfway through his speech, he was choked up by Garlan’s words.
A mouthful of saliva stuck in his throat almost choked him.
He stared at Garlan with wide eyes in disbelief, suspecting that he was hallucinating.
“You… no, you… what did you just say?”
“I said, you can take your people and leave now.”
Garlan raised his eyebrows and said, “Or do you mean that you don’t plan to leave and want to fight my guards for this Tasdarian?”
“No no no—How do we dare to?”
The horse thief leader waved his hands hastily.
It was revealed from Garlan’s mouth that the group of cavalrymen were the king’s guards, which shocked him even more for a moment.
His face, which was brutal and fierce just a second ago, instantly changed to an expression of admiration.
He flatteringly said to Garlan, “My kind prince, thank you for being so generous and forgiving us humble villains.”
The leader of the horse thieves had never been to school at all and he could only come up with such a few clumsy flattery words after searching in his brain.
After finishing his flattery, he didn’t even wait for Garlan to reply. Fearing that the other party would take back his words, he simply turned around and waved his hand.
“Let’s go!”
Before the words fell, he rushed out immediately.
Seeing the mighty and majestic heavy armoured cavalry army, the horse thieves who were already trembling in their hearts heard what the boss said, and responded one after another, and followed the boss’ galloping footsteps without hesitation.
In a blink of an eye, the group of horse thieves disappeared completely, leaving only the dust raised by the horseshoes running in the desert.
Stoke didn’t stop them.
He knew that he couldn’t stop them. He and the horse thief had a relationship of interest, and it was impossible for the other party to die for him.
If he wanted to stop those horse thieves from leaving, those horse thieves might even immediately turn around and kill him first.
Thus, he stood there on horseback, silently watching his accomplices abandon him, leaving only him, and his dozens of confidants surrounded by his side.
He still stared fixedly at the young man who dismissed thousands of horse thieves in a few words.
“All of this…” He paused for a moment before continuing unwillingly, “Was part of your plan?
He asked, “You know I’m coming to attack the group?”
He repeated, “How did you know I was going to attack the group?”
Stoker couldn’t figure it out.
He even kept it hidden from his closest friends and relatives.
For this day and this moment, he had planned for more than a year, and even the fact that Opada followed the group to Aaron Landis was the result of his secret urgence.
Except for his loyal confidant who was here at the moment, no one knew his purpose.
He really didn’t understand why this Prince Aaron Landis, who had never even met him, could see through his plot?
The teenager saw through him, and he knew nothing about it.
Garlan looked at Stoke, smiled and said nothing.
He stood there with a calm smile and an indifferent expression, as if everything was under his control, which inexplicably made people’s hearts palpitate.
The teenager’s golden eyes reflecting the firelight were clear and deep, as if he could see through everything in this world.
…………
In fact, it was because I read the strategy beforehand.
Opened a predicted plug -in.
Of course, the teenager who smiled and said nothing at this moment and put on all the pretentious gestures that one would never expect to say these words.
Garlan didn’t answer Stoke’s question, but Stoke had already heard the sound of countless horseshoes coming from behind him.
Aaron Landis’s cavalry was approaching them, spreading out in an arc and surrounding them.
Stoke made no attempt to escape.
He knew that Garlan temporarily spared the gangsters in order to avoid greater casualties, but Aaron Landis would never let go of him who tried to frame them.
The cavalry had surrounded them.
In the next second, someone came out from the crowd.
In the firelight, he could see the man’s face clearly.
That was the young man who stood on the hill not long ago with a strong bow that shot an arrow and almost pierced his back.
After he disappeared on the battlefield in the Northland, the young man who suddenly rose to fame and covered his prestige and reputation was called the “Black Knight” by everyone.
The two people who met for the first time looked at each other for a second.
Then, almost at the same instant, the two galloped forward.
The pitch-black iron spear and the snow-white long sword collide heavily.
Stoke’s confidants naturally rushed up, but were immediately intercepted by a group of guards. Within just a short time, they fell into the hands of the guards and were either dead or injured.
At this moment, apart from the crackling of the gradually burning flames in the camp, there was only the sound of weapons clashing between Stoke and Heimos when they fought.
When they encountered each other, the two of them fought hard.
Sparks could be seen from where the weapon collided and it was extremely intense.
It could be seen that the two were evenly matched, and neither could overwhelm the other in a short period of time. In the shadow of the sword light and spear, ordinary people couldn’t get involved in such a fierce battle.
“Kaijos, go and help out.”
Garlan’s words made Kaijos hesitate for a moment.
“Prince, this damages the reputation of the knight…”
The teenager blinked.
He asked, “Which is more important – your reputation or my order?”
“…”
Without saying a word, the one-eyed knight raised his sword and charged directly into the stalemate.
Heimos glanced at Garlan from the corner of his eye, seemed a little helpless, and with a touch of connivance, he made way for Kaijos to join the battle.
If Garlan hadn’t opened his mouth and he didn’t want to lose Garlan’s face in front of everyone, with Heimos’ arrogance, he would never have asked Kaijos to help him.
Whether it was Kaijos or Heimos, Stoke was evenly matched against any of them.
Now, with the two of them together, they would immediately crush Stoke to death.
When the two powerful knights teamed up, the attack like a storm made him almost breathless. Although he was still resisting, he was just barely supporting it.
You can easily slaughter this guy to death, why do you have to fight so hard?
Garlan, who was watching, thought to himself.
At the next moment, Stoke, who was almost exhausted under the onslaught of Heimos and Kaijos, managed to avoid the big sword that Kaijos slashed from the front. However, the snow-white long sword suddenly appeared out from the oblique ground and stabbed.
The sharp blade fiercely pierced the Tasdar man’s chest.
His pupils dilated for a moment, and he fell off the horse. The blood gushing from his chest stained the sand under him red.
“Brother!”
Oppada, who had been clenching his teeth and watching what happened in front of his eyes, couldn’t bear it any longer, and rushed forward with a loud cry.
He knelt down next to Stoke with a puff, looking at him whose clothes on his entire chest had been dyed red with crimson eyes. His lips twitched several times, and finally he only uttered two words.
“…Elder Brother…”
…It was the end.
Stoke laid his back on the sand, staring at the endless night sky with his eyes open.
At this moment, his eyes were soulless as if there was nothing.
He could feel the blood gushing from his chest, and the life in his body passing quickly.
His ambition, his belief, he should have had an infinitely glorious future…
It all ended at this moment.
“…Brother…”
The familiar murmur woke him up from his trance, and he saw Opada kneeling beside him with red eyes.
“Why are you crying?”
He reprimanded, as if it was a long time ago when he was very young, scolding the little child who was taught martial arts by him.
“As Tasdarians, even if the blood is bled dry, they cannot shed a single tear.”
Opada, who was reprimanded, pursed his lips tightly and did not make a sound. The water mist that had seeped out of his eyes was pulled back by him forcefully.
Stoke looked at his younger brother, he was determined to kill, with complex eyes written in his eyes.
He had no regrets.
It was just wins and losses.
No matter what the result was, he would not regret it.
But maybe it was a person who was about to die, he looked at the only relative who was by his side, and his mood was full at this moment.
After a while, he suddenly whispered something.
“Beware of the North…”
He said in an unreachable voice, and then his eyes moved away from Opada and fell on the blond-haired prince not far away.
His lips moved and made a weak sound.
“Prince Garlan…I admit…I underestimated you and ended up like this…”
He said that his breath gradually weakened and his voice became intermittent.
“…I lost to you.”
Suddenly, he changed the subject.
“I lost…but you may not be the final winner…”
He said as blood started pouring out from the corner of his mouth.
His grey pupils stared at Garlan, revealing a strange smile.
“You think I did something stupid…how do you know…you won’t end up like me in the future…”
“Aaron Landis…two princes…there is only one throne…”
Stoke’s voice was very soft and low, but it made people’s hearts jump.
“One day…you will either do the same thing as me…or you will be…”
“…I saw…in ‘his’ eyes. There is the same thing as me…”
He saw it.
Within the eyes of the black-haired prince, there held something that was the same as him.
Ambition, lust, the thirst for power over everything.
“One day…”
The corners of his eyes curled up mockingly.
His words were like curses.
“One day…you two will be like me…”
Heimos rode on the horse and the long sword in his hand was still dripping blood.
His right hand was holding the sword, and the veins on the back were already bulging.
He stared at the Tasdar who was still talking intermittently and his eyes were full of anger.
If he could, he would have chopped off that guy’s head with a single sword.
But he couldn’t do this, if he did, he would really fall into that guy’s trick, making others, even Garlan, think that he was guilty of a crime, and then kill him.
The blond-haired knight on the other side stared at Stoke coldly, but also resisted moving.
At this moment, the surrounding was very quiet, only Stoke’s intermittent voice echoed.
Those who were relatively close by, heard these words subconsciously turned to Garlan.
At some point, Garlan came over, squatted beside the dying Stoke and said, “…You’re a quick learner.”
“Such a blatant sowing of dissension.”
Stock coughed up blood and smiled at Garlan.
“I learned from you… what you said… ahem, the… power of speech.”
Even if he dies, he will sow the seeds of discord between the two princes of Aaron Landis.
For Tasdar.
Garlan squatted beside him, looking at him with bright golden eyes.
“There won’t be such a day.”
Said the teenager.
Stock smirked and said nothing.
He was absolutely sure that there would be such a day.
The swords of these two princes will meet one day.
For the throne.
The determined expression on the dying Tasdarian’s face, as well as the ‘I’ve seen through you’ expression, put Garlan in a very bad mood.
This guy wanted to disgustingly provoke him even before he died.
……
Although what this guy said was actually… it should be said that… It really did happen before.
But Stoke’s half-smirk look at him made Garlan’s stubborn temper aroused.
If it goes on like this, Stoke will die contented with such satisfaction.
In that case, I would be one that is resentful till death.
No way, this guy has to die aggrieved.
Thinking of this, he suddenly thought of a good idea, and his eyes flashed.
“There will never be such a day.”
The teenager repeated.
Stock looked at him mockingly, disbelief written in his eyes.
It was just that the grey pupils started to dilate, which was a sign of impending death.
Garlan lowered his head and leaned closer to his ear, speaking in an inaudible voice that only Stoke could hear.
“No matter what happens, I will not hurt Heimos.”
He said softly,
He is my most favourite person.”
Stoke’s eyes widened suddenly, showing a look of astonishment.
He seemed to want to say something, but in the next second, his pupils dilated.
He just opened his lips like this, stared straight at Garlan, and swallowed his last breath unwillingly.
He opened his eyes and died with the regret of being unsatisfied.
…………
Garlan leaned into Stoke’s ear and spoke in a voice so low that even Opada, who was kneeling next to him, couldn’t hear him.
No one knew what he had said.
But no one noticed that when Garlan was speaking, the hand of Heimos, who was riding a horse and standing to one side, suddenly shook while holding the reins.
Many people knew that Heimos was a person with outstanding talent, which was why he could become one of the strongest on this continent.
He was very talented.
But only a few people know that when he was fully focused… he could clearly hear the tiniest voices within tens of metres around him.
【He is my most favourite person. 】
I remembered a user said this on Reddit when I was feeling down:
To live life is to experience loss. Loss is the prerequisite of happiness. If you don’t risk feeling that loss, you also don’t get to experience the happiness. Think of the good time with your pet. You wouldn’t have had those if you were afraid of loss when you bought your first rabbit.
……….
Probably just something to make me feel better. hehe.
Have a great week ahead everyone.
Jeanie
1 thought on “Chapter 81 – Heimos is my most favourite person.”
thank you for the chapter! i may not comment usually but ive been following this story since you started translating it, thank you so so much for still going on with it, i appreciate all that you do for us strangers ♡