Chapter 23 – Urich’S Brothers (6)
Chapter 23 – Urich’s Brothers (6)
“An insignificant mercenary is using an imperial steel weapon. It makes me curious as to who you really are.”
Garcio put the sword at length in the center and took a defensive stance. He didn’t allow distance for Urich and planned to parry all of his attacks.
‘If the fight is delayed, I will be the victor. But…’
Garcio kept glancing at the side. Some of his subordinates that were attacking the fort were running back towards him.
“I heard the sound of your bone breaking. Hurts, right?”
Urich spoke while spinning his sword. Garcio silently stared at Urich and concentrated.
‘His stance is more solid now. He’s made up his mind to buy time.’
Urich swung his sword twice to attack, but the defense-focused Garcio was difficult to penetrate. The iron meaninglessly hit each other.
“Earl Degelton! My brother! Run away and don’t turn back! It will be over if you get caught!”
Garcio signaled him. Earl Degelton faltered before slowly running away, limping.
“Hm.”
Urich looked at Garcio then at Earl Degelton. He suddenly dashed back then sprinted forward.
“C-Catch him! He’s aiming for His Earlship!”
No one could keep up with Urich. No one, even in his village, could keep up with his speed. Even more so for men who wore iron armor. They could only just blankly stare.
“Caught you.”
Urich spoke while grabbing Earl Degelton’s nape.
“Y-You bastaaaard! This is Alrian’s revenge!”
Earl Degelton sloppily tried to pull out a sword. Urich grabbed his wrist and crushed it.
CRUSH.
“Gguuuh! M-My wrist!”
“Stay still. It must be nice to be a noble, huh? Even if you start a battle, you can keep your life just by paying your worth. Alright, now tell them to stop the battle.”
Urich demanded as he placed his sword on Earl Degelton’s neck.
“Y-You bastard. A-Alrian’s murderer!”
Earl Degelton clawed at Urich’s arm.
Urich was annoyed and smacked the earl’s cheek. A few of his teeth fell on the ground.
“Kuhoek.”
Earl Degelton trembled in fear, as if he had completely forgotten about his revenge. He realized that his life was in Urich’s hands.
‘The plan was a success.’
Donovan stepped back and watched Urich. He had Earl Degelton in his hands, so the war was essentially over.
“All troops, back off! Order them, Earl.”
Urich spoke while looking at Earl Degelton and Garcio.
“E-Elder brother.”
Earl Degelton looked at Garcio.
“Hm, if it’s like this, there’s no other choice.”
Garcio scratched his head. He held onto his broken rib as he approached his younger brother and his captor.
Slide.
Garcio put his hand behind his hips and pulled out a throwing dagger.
‘A throwing dagger? He’s going to use a cheap trick like that?’
Urich instinctively shielded himself behind Earl Degelton.
Stab!
The dagger landed in Earl Degelton’s neck. Blood poured out.
“Wh-Why… E-Elder Brother…?”
Earl Degelton stumbled on his words as he looked at Garcio.
“I will succeed you as Earl.”
Garcio spoke calmly. He must have thought of a scenario like this in the first place.
Silver Lion Garcio was the previous earl’s illegitimate child. He was much lower on the succession order compared to his relatives, but with his mercenary group, he could act in front of them as he pleased. Earl Degelton’s relatives would rather not annoy the Silver Lion.
“Earl Degelton died from falling off a horse on the battlefield. He was not killed.”
Garcio spoke with composure. He planned to officially announce the earl’s death like that.
“Do you plan on continuing the battle?”
Urich narrowed his eyes while tossing away Earl Degelton’s corpse.
“No. I have no plans to die right after I become Earl.”
If he continued the battle, he would likely be able to win. However, he was not confident that he could keep his life to the mercenary in front of him. Furthermore, if he moved more from here and was somehow able to defeat Urich, the broken rib would most likely dig deeper, and he would die from internal injuries.
TOOODOOOOO!
Garcio’s retreat horn was blown, and the fighting stopped.
“Take me to Earl Molando. I will agree to a peace treaty.”
Garcio threw his weapon away to show that he had no thoughts of fighting and even took off his armor. He took the earl signet ring from the dead Earl Degelton’s fingers.
“How boring. Is this what wars and politics are like here?”
Urich’s eyes calmed down.
‘The people here don’t fight for their family and brothers. They betray their own family and brothers for their own power and greed.’
Garcio didn’t even bat an eye after killing his half-brother.
Urich returned to Earl Molando with the Silver Lions’ leader.
“What happened, Urich?” asked Earl Molando.
“Earl Degelton died, and this guy said that he will succeed as the Degelton House’s Earl.”
“H-He died? I told you not to kill him, Urich!”
Earl Molando was flustered. A noble’s death was not welcome. Even if it were their mortal enemy. A noble’s death created new interests. One of Earl Degelton’s relatives could easily invade Earl Molando’s fief using revenge as an excuse.
“I didn’t kill him. As soon as I captured him, that guy killed his own brother.”
Urich’s words showed contempt.
“That’s insane! Silver Lion Garcio! You killed your brother—an earl, at that! Fratricide…!”
Earl Molando furrowed his brows.
“Then do you wish to continue the war, Earl Molando? My subordinates won’t stop fighting even if I’m dead. Rather, they would be racing in to plunder your fief.”
Earl Molando closed his mouth. Until the retreat horn was sounded, his army was one-sidedly being pushed back. The Silver Lion Mercenaries were as strong as their reputation.
“Earl Degelton still has a young child, Garcio. You cannot succeed as Earl.”
“It won’t be an issue if I marry my dead brother’s wife. I will take on his child as my adopted child. Their marital relationship would not have been good in the first place, so she might rather welcome my proposal.”
Words smoothly flowed out of Garcio’s mouth. After hearing his words, it didn’t seem too strange for him to succeed as the next Earl Degelton. If he was able to put out the surrounding fire, there was even a method for him to acquire justification to succeed as Earl.
“Hm, Garcio. If you want to become the earl, you will have to hide the fact that you killed your brother with your own hands.”
“I will probably have to prevent the spread of needless rumors until my position is secured. But I will give up the right to this area of conflict. I will sign it on a document right now. Wouldn’t this proposal have something to gain for both of us? Forget my brother’s error, and let us become good neighbors,” proposed Garcio. It was a rather attractive proposition for Earl Molando as well.
“…So the previous Earl Degelton died from falling off a horse. I did hear rumors before about how he was inexperienced in horse riding.”
Earl Molando laughed as he spoke. He spoke sentimentally to Garcio as if his criticisms never happened.
The new negotiations were settled quickly. The secretaries drafted the letter of cooperation, and Garcio and Earl Molando stamped their respective seals on it.
This situation was beneficial to everyone but the deceased Earl Degelton.
Earl Molando protected his fief and escaped from the dangers of Earl Degelton.
Garcio had the opportunity to justify his succession of the title while having been born an illegitimate child.
‘Perhaps, from the beginning, Silver Lion Garcio planned…’
Earl Molando thought while looking at Garcio’s back.
“You guys were swinging swords to kill each other. Why not introduce yourselves?”
Before Garcio left, Earl Molando spoke while calling over Urich.
“Urich the Barbarian. Bye.”
Urich lightly nodded. He didn’t like Garcio. He thought about throwing an axe to the back of his head multiple times.
‘If I were alone, I would have cut his head in two.’
Urich was now in a mercenary group. He couldn’t only think about what benefited him; he had to think about what benefited the entire mercenary group. If he killed Garcio out of rage, the mercenaries that had been participating in the defensive battle would not have survived.
“If you have the reputation of fighting on equal footing with the Silver Lion Mercenaries, work will be flowing in for you, Urich.”
Garcio acknowledged Urich, who crossed his arms as he looked at Garcio.
“You. You planned on killing your brother from the start, right? It would have been easier if you kept him next to you, but you yelled at him to run. Like you were giving me an opportunity to catch him.”
Urich’s eyes were cold. Garcio killed his brother to satisfy his greed. That was unacceptable to Urich.
To him, brothers were people he shared his life with. They were not expendables that could be thrown away like tools.
‘He’s sharp. If he doesn’t die from mercenary work, he’s going to become quite big.’
The reason his plans were entangled was solely because of Urich.
Garcio didn’t plan to kill Earl Degelton in this fight. He planned on staging an accident to kill him after the territorial dispute. But because the battle took an unfavorable turn, he had to select an alternative option.
“You wouldn’t understand it, barbarian. I returned here to overcome my fate as an illegitimate child. Everyone told me that an illegitimate child would never become a noble. They said it was a decided fate. How laughable. Kuku. Cough.”
Garcio stopped laughing and touched his chest due to the pain.
Urich couldn’t understand him. Was becoming an earl so important that you would kill your own brother for it? No matter what he tried to say, only an uncomfortable feeling remained in his mouth.
“If we meet again, you will die to my hands. Remember my name, Garcio Degelton.”
Urich spoke while showing his teeth to threaten him. Garcio flinched.
‘Barbarians. The savages that lost to us, the civilized. He makes me uneasy.’
The imperial territory stretched long from the South to the North. The barbarians were not a threat anymore, slowly becoming assimilated to civilization.
…However, no one could have imagined it. That there were people running in the plains and forests beyond the Sky Mountain Range.
Two worlds divided by the mountain range. The only one who knew it was Urich.
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