Chapter 50

Chapter 50 - Medieval Bulldozer (2)

"Such arrogant...!"

"Does such an honorable place look like a pushover?"

A few knights stepped forward, dumbfounded. They were those who had been away from their posts for scouting, training, and troop management, and were seeing Eugene for the first time.

An era where the spread of news is slow. If they were low-ranking knights who came up from the countryside without connections, it was not a strange reaction.

"Naturally, you have been my vanguard from the beginning, Sir. I wish you luck in battle. I will entrust my honor and the honor of my family to those reliable shoulders."

When Roxanne designated Eugene as the true first pick, they became quiet.

"Then the knight who will go out as the second pick is..."

However, when Roxanne started the discussion for the next rank, it immediately became noisy.

"It seems the ones defending the castle do not know you are in the camp."

"Even our side doesn't know well, so it's natural. They probably have no mind to spare while defending Goldford."

Valda looked pleased, perhaps expecting Eugene to grasp great honor once again.

'I'm thankful for her belief in me, but isn't she too unworried?'

As a knight, he was happy but felt a peculiar mood. A duel is fundamentally a life-or-death battle. Unlike ground combat where declaring surrender at an appropriate time is easy, jousting combat has a much higher degree of danger.

"Do you know a person named Geist among the opposing knights?"

"He is a person directly knighted by the Emperor. He always plays an active role in tournaments hosted in the capital. I have also seen him fight."

"It seems you have even been invited to the capital."

"A few times."

Fumbling through her memories, Valda narrowed her eyes.

"Sir Geist, who knocked down his opponent in the tournament, approached the place I was sitting."

"He wanted a flower crown, huh."

"What else would a victorious knight want from a lady in the audience besides that?"

Tournaments of large scale are also attended aplenty by young ladies of noble families.

On their laps lay flower crowns they made themselves. Throwing it when the victorious knight approaches is the pride of noble ladies.

"So did you throw it to him?"

"No. Because it was a place I was suddenly invited to, I was empty-handed. Afterward, I felt completely like I was sitting on a bed of thorns due to the glare sent by the young girl next to me. It really was a flower crown made with utmost sincerity, though."

Perhaps finding the girl cute, Valda laughed.

"That Geist is here means the other imperial guards have also come."

"That is the reason the garrison commander confidently proposed a duel."

"Even if all the opposing knights were Sir Geist, if it's you, you would easily win."

Valda spoke without an inch of hesitation.

"He's a knight who approached wishing for a flower crown, so please speak a bit kindly."

Even as Eugene said that, he felt a sense of fulfillment rising from deep within his heart.

* * *

Like Roxanne's camp, vitality blossomed inside Codon Castle for the first time in a while.

The residents and mercenaries were happy just that the painful siege warfare was ending. Because it was none of their business if the owner of the castle changed.

"They say all the useful knights of Morad went to Goldford."

"Naturally. To go to Roxanne means to get on the bad side of the future head of the family."

The castle command was also satisfied. Because in a situation where defeat was a given fact, they got to throw a highly probable winning move. Furthermore, the Emperor's imperial guards were on their side.

Only the adjutant, who normally had many petty worries, whispered to the garrison commander.

"Will it be alright? No matter how strong Sir Geist and the imperial guards are, one never knows how a duel will turn out. By any chance, if we lose..."

The adjutant was on the side of trusting the castle and holding out, for better or worse. While praying that Timothy gets repelled at Goldford.

However, the garrison commander gave an answer that exceeded imagination.

"Even if we lose the duel, I have no intention of surrendering."

"W-Will that still be alright?"

From the beginning, the garrison commander had no intention of keeping the promise if he lost. It is a rule that one absolutely must throw if it's a gamble where one doesn't lose the stakes.

"Isn't it already a situation where the family even launched a surprise attack without a declaration of war?"

"Even so, this is..."

The adjutant thought it was going too far, but the garrison commander had hardened his heart.

Whether it gets taken through siege warfare or taken through a duel, if the castle gets handed over anyway, he will be killed by Count Duran.

'It's an opportunity to become a lord I got somehow, the hell with surrendering. I will absolutely defend it even if I have to bury my bones here!'

The garrison commander tightened his trembling hand and firmed his resolve.

* * *

Eugene visited the dwarf blacksmiths to see the weapon he would use in the duel.

"By any chance, could you show me your sword, Sir?"

Roxanne, who followed him, asked carefully.

Although she was overwhelming in family, status, and troops, asking to show a knight's sword is a request that cannot be easily made.

"I know it is rude, but since an ether-made sword is right before my eyes, I cannot endure it."

Ether alloy steel is completed by magically breathing an unknown substance into a rare metal. Because only the Louis Amour, the first continent-unifying dynasty, could smelt it, it is now a lost technology.

Therefore, the saying that an ether-made sword is the price of a whole castle is not a joke. Not that it can be bought with gold in the first place, though.

"Whenever you please. You may also draw it."

Because of that, when Eugene untied Last Autumn scabbard and all and handed it over, Roxanne was also flustered.

Gulp.

The dignified expression she usually showed evaporated, and Roxanne, nervous to the point of being cute, drew the sword.

Srrring.

"Ah!"

At the silver blade revealing its appearance, Roxanne's ecstatic sigh leaked out.

As she swung it in the air a few times, a clear timbre distinct from other swords echoed.

"If a goddess were to blow a flute, would it be this timbre?"

The artisans who were busily working also all put their hands down and watched the spectacle. With a satisfied face, Roxanne lowered the sword.

"Since I was young, my wish was to have an ether-made sword."

"Does not the House of Morad also have one?"

"That is the divine object of the head of the family. It is Father's right now, and later it will enter Brother's scabbard. Although it probably won't be drawn in front of enemies either way."

Perhaps she was jealous, her tone was cynical.

"The sword must enter the hands of the one who can swing it best, though. Even I find it regrettable."

"You always say what I want to hear, Sir."

Clink!

Roxanne sheathed the sword and personally tied it to Eugene's waist.

"Tomorrow's fight. We can be confident, right?"

"I will do my best."

"Doing your best is insufficient. You absolutely must win."

Although it was not the answer she wanted, Roxanne was satisfied. Because there was no tension in Eugene. She too knew that relaxation did not stem from a knight's characteristic thoughtless arrogance.

"I heard you requested weapon manufacturing from the blacksmiths? The ether-made treasured sword and a terrifying large blunt weapon. You have two excellent weapons, so why?"

"Because I absolutely must win, and just winning is insufficient."

The flail is powerful, but it is a weapon whose efficiency is maximized in chaotic melees. Last Autumn is one of the best treasured swords, but slashing with a sword lacks impact.

'To completely break the morale of the defending side, a performance will be necessary.'

Eugene was the only knight in this world who understood the importance of a 'show'.

"Sir Knight. What you mentioned has been completed."

Torim, the representative of the dwarf blacksmiths, brought the weapon. Because it was a simple shape and there were many materials and artisans for manufacturing siege weapons, it was completed in an instant.

"... You're going to use that?"

Roxanne looked at the weapon with a flustered face.

* * *

The day of the duel arrived.

All the troops, sutlers, and laborers looked at the empty clearing with great interest. The duel of knights determining victory or defeat representing the hundreds and thousands. It was the best entertainment of this era.

The person who came out first from Codon was Geist's closest knight.

"Death to the rebel bastards!"

"The Emperor's spear! Punishment to the enemies!"

The mercenaries on top of the castle walls cheered with cracked and split lips from eating only hardtack for a long time. The imperial guard felt his blood boiling at the cheers pouring onto his shoulders and lifted his spear.

The weapon knights love as much as the sword is the spear. Long lances were only used in tournaments, and in actual combat, they loved using ordinary spears that were easy to handle.

The imperial guard shouted towards Roxanne's camp. It was a valiant provocation to come out immediately and settle the outcome.

"Knight bastard of Morad! What are you doing not coming out immediate..."

"Are you perhaps terrified of the flag of the Emperor's knight..."

"... Huh?"

The momentum of the garrison, who were responding by clashing weapons and shields, rapidly subsided. Because the knight who came out of the enemy camp was holding a large lance that seemed like it could kill even an Ogre in one strike.

"Have I ever seen such a crazy bastard!"

To the imperial guard, Eugene looked like a crazy bastard. Compared to that lance, the spear he held seemed like a toy.

"W-What is that?"

"It must be a bluff. How could a person use something like that?"

Unlike the garrison, who became disheartened and whispered, the mercenaries of Roxanne's camp shouted cheers with a momentum that would blow the world away.

The imperial guard, who had been the protagonist until just a moment ago, burned with jealousy and anger when the attention was stolen.

"For His Imperial Majesty the Emperor!"

He immediately aimed his spear and shield and drove his horse to charge. Eugene also kicked Might's belly and ran towards the opponent.

Eugene's monstrous strength did not require the couched lance posture tucked under the armpit or a two-handed grip.

He simply approached while holding the lance to the sky, and then thrust it forward in an instant.

Swoooosh!

At that lightning-like thrust, the imperial guard felt like a log was suddenly popping up before his eyes.

'W-Where should I block...'

That was his last thought.

Baaang!!!

The lance that tore through his chainmail pushed in, drilling a tunnel in his chest.

Crrraaack!

The imperial guard strung up to the upper 30% of the lance slumped loosely. There was no unhorsing occurring in the knights' opposing charges.

Dribble, dribble.

All that fell to the ground was blood pouring from the lance dyed bright red.

A knight dangling strung up in midair. It was a more miserable end than rolling on the ground covered in dust.

"I-It's a monster!"

At that surreal spectacle, the garrison's morale crumbled.

"Did you just see?"

One soldier in Roxanne's camp asked his comrade with a dumbfounded face.

"Woooaaah!!!"

The comrade shouted a cheer instead of answering, and it instantly spread throughout the entire unit.

'Is this enough to suppress their spirits?'

Eugene threw away the lance that was cracked here and there.

"By any chance, the undefeated knight who defeated Gord?"

Someone among the adjutants atop the castle wall spoke as if bewitched.

"Who overpowered that Volks with strength?"

"I heard he stopped a battle with a single javelin throw in a bandit subjugation."

Grind.

Geist gritted his teeth and stepped forward.

"Sir!"

"What is it?"

"N-It is nothing."

The adjutant trying to stop Geist shut his mouth. Because he could not say to the Emperor's imperial guard, 'No matter if it is you, Sir, that fellow is impossible.'

Moreover, Eugene was shouting out for the next opponent to come out. Invoking the Emperor, he mocked them not to avoid the bout they had picked first.

Now it was a situation where the Emperor's face was on the line, not just a matter of a duel!

"I am Geist, imperial guard of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor! I will strike you down and by all means defend this castle!"

With a resounding shout, Geist charged over.

The silver blade of Last Autumn drawn by Eugene collided with Geist's greatsword.

Clang!

Geist is a person possessing outstanding horsemanship and muscular strength. He was famous for a two-handed swordsmanship that swept a wide range even from atop a horse.

However, against Eugene's sword swung with one hand, his grip tore and he lost his balance. Furthermore, the one whose edge was chipped was only Geist's greatsword.

Whoosh!

Eugene struck Geist, who was falling to the left, with the edge of his shield.

'Your Majesty...'

Looking at the thick piece of iron flying towards his neck, Geist intuited death.

Crack!

The knight whose neck bone was shattered flew about 5 meters and tumbled unsightly on the ground.

Afterward, as two more knights were struck down in a single blow, there was no one else who came out of Codon Castle anymore.

When Eugene raised his sword to the sky, a cheer that shook heaven and earth erupted from Roxanne's camp.

"Undefeated knight!"

"Undefeated knight!"

"Undefeated knight!"

Listening to the soldiers' chorus, Eugene aimed his sword at the garrison commander atop the castle gates.

"Commander of Codon Castle. Acknowledge your defeat and honorably fulfill the promise!"

Creaaak.

Boom!

The answer returned to Eugene's shout was the castle gates closing tightly.

"Such bastards to anger the heavens and men!"

"To break the promise of a sacred duel, do those fellows truly not even fear the gods?"

Roxanne's knights were indignant. Because in this era, the meaning of a general duel and a duel where a promise is staked is different.

While the former is just at the level of a somewhat formal fight, the latter is a sacred oath. The target of the oath is the gods, not the fighting opponent. Breaking the promise staked on a duel was like blasphemy.

"As expected of Duran bastards."

Roxanne laughed it off, perhaps having already expected they would break the promise.

"The enemies have destroyed the agreement made with the gods! Now all that remains for them is a miserable death!"

At her declaration, the besieging army shouted cheers, and the dwarf artisans were exceptionally happy.

"The time has finally come to show off our skills."

The dwarf representative Torim stroked the battering ram with an affectionate touch.

There were many siege artisans prepared by the House of Morad. Among them, those handling more powerful techniques like catapult manufacturing followed Timothy.

Just as the knights remaining with Roxanne were non-mainstream knights, the artisans assigned were also non-mainstream technicians.

"Places as good for a battering ram to play an active role as Codon Castle will be rare."

"Indeed. If you're a real man, you must properly clash strength against strength. Digging moats and such in a squalid manner, goodness."

The dwarves under Torim were artisans of the battering ram. That unlucky technique pushed into the backroads of the era as fortification methods developed.

"This is the last time. Let us all decorate the beauty of completion."

Dwarves are stubborn but not idiots. They acknowledged that the stage for the battering ram to play an active role had become too narrow. Because they planned to change jobs to another industry with this battle as the end.

"We will absolutely smash those castle gates!"

"The only thing that finishes a siege battle in one single blow is a battering ram! Isn't that something a catapult or ladders can't do?"

The final work gathering their romance! The dwarves resolved to absolutely capture the castle with the battering ram.