Chapter 58
The duel trial was over. The Sun Warrior Harvald assumed the role of the interim captain of the twelfth gate. He cleaned up the situation as if he had been waiting for an incident like this to happen.
“I failed to recognize you last time, Prince Varca. I felt that you had an unusual air about you, you were a royalty.”
The Sun Warrior Harvald said as he showed his respect. He put his hand on his chest and knelt on one knee. It was the way to respect a higher man.
“I didn’t expect to run into you here again, Sir Harvald.”
Pahell helped the Sun Warrior back to his feet. His appearance came as a surprise to everyone, as no one had expected to see him again, especially in a place like this.
“I didn’t either, prince.”
Pahell cautiously glanced at Harvald’s face. He was a man whose blood was half barbarian. Although he was brought up in civilization, the remnants of his barbarian half were obvious in certain places of his body.
“What’s going to happen to the gate captain Auber?”
“We will interrogate him to pull out the truth. Until he admits the truth with his own mouth, he won’t leave his cell.”
Auber was locked behind bars in the gate’s underground prison. He was stripped of all his authority and chained up to his cell. It was a tragic ending for him.
Harvald the Sun Warrior took over the command of the gate quite easily. It showed how poor the morale and trust in the guard captain was under Auber.
“If it weren’t for you, Sir Harvald, things would have gotten messy even after the duel trial. Thank you.”
Pahell finally caught a breath. Without Harvald, the clash between the mercenary squad and the gate garrison was a possibility.
“Auber was going to be stripped of his authority anyway. The emperor received news that the captain of the twelfth gateway wasn’t doing his job properly. So, these past few days, I have been asking around for the general opinion on the gate captain. The Sun Warriors often get tasked with scraps like this.
The Sun Warriors was the direct private army of the emperor, composed solely of barbarians or those with barbarian blood. This meant that they had no connection to the nobles of the empire.
‘The Sun Warriors who have no blood connections to the nobles are able to deal with things more fairly than anyone else.’
Pahell understood the complicated reasoning behind the formation of the Sun Warriors. These warriors were a group separate from the noble society. When ordered to, they didn’t hesitate to behead even the highest of the nobles for the emperor. Since the Sun Warriors were men who prioritized their religious faith and honor of warriors, they were seldom tainted by earthly desire.
The Order of Imperial Steel, on the other hand, was composed mainly of highly prestigious nobles, meaning that they were hesitant to act on their fellow nobility due to their blood relations. While the Order of Imperial Steel still served the emperor with loyalty, they were still noblemen who acted in the best interest of the riches and honor of their noble family.
“Corrupt bureaucrats are the pus that eats away at the empire. When you have pus like that, you must cut it out before it gets too big,” Harvald hinted at Auber’s future.
“Then will you not hold Urich guilty of his actions?”
Pahell’s words widened Harvald’s eyes.
“Guilty of what crime? Since the words of adjutant Greeman were proved to be the truth, there is no reason for us to punish Urich. His actions were a fair revenge, and since Greeman is dead, there’s no chance that his testimony gets retracted.”
Greeman closed his eyes after the end of the duel. His body went up in flames as his soul returned to the embrace of Lou.
“...but Lou does not endorse vengeance,” Pahell blurted before quickly shutting his mouth.
‘I must be insane; I should be happy that we were getting away with this.’
It was simply an urge to oppose Harvald’s faithful statement. Pahell, who had been educated by highly religious priests and scholars, was a faithful man himself.
“Your Highness, Lou tells us to forgive one another, but the fallen men are not capable of realizing their sins unless they are punished. Without pain, they do not repent; just like how the pagan people of my mother finally converted only after going through so much pain.”
Harvald felt the barbarian blood flowing inside him. It was the blood that occasionally boiled to the climax and made his beastly desires overwhelm the will of Lou. Whenever Harvald felt such a sensation, he reminded himself of the word of Lou.
‘Reincarnation.’
The soul tarnished with earthly desire ascends to the sun. After Lou accepts the soul, he burns the sin from the human and purifies the soul before sending the newly cleansed soul back to this world.
The souls that fail to reincarnate become evil spirits who constantly fight among themselves before returning to nothingness. It was a terrible ending where their presence was erased.
“You truly are a faithful man, Sir Harvald.”
Pahell said with an awkward hesitant tone that was neither a compliment nor a retort. He looked into Harvald’s eyes.
“If I show mercy to Auber, my soul will become purer, for a heart of mercy is a teaching of the sun god Lou. But Auber, on the other hand, will not repent for his sin and his soul will be further corrupted. Eventually, he will become an evil spirit that wanders the earth. I am going to punish Auber’s body until he repents. And if he truly does so, then his tarnished soul will become pure and return to the embrace of Lou.”
Harvald’s eyes were steady. His conviction was unwavering.
‘Punishment for the flesh.’
The words echoed in Pahell’s ears. He could see the future of the tortured Auber. Harvald would carry out his torture with the utmost goodwill and without a single bit of malice.
“Is that so...”
“Oh, and my prince, once the new gate captain arrives, I will escort you to the capital of Hamel myself. Until then.”
Pahell nodded as Harvald left the room to deal with his remaining tasks. He was burdened with a pile of duties as interim gate captain. He was busy cleaning up after the mess that Auber had been accumulating as the corruption that happened under Auber’s nose was too much to count.
* * *
“It doesn’t fit, Urich, just sell it.”
Bachman said to Urich. Urich had forced the full plate armor onto himself, making him look quite ridiculous.
“What the hell is that, Urich!”
“Just stay naked, you look the best that way.”
“You’re a barbarian, Urich. So, act like one.”
The mercenaries all tossed a comment as they walked by. Urich wasn’t wearing the armor—it was more like he had it on top of his body. The gaps in the armor revealed his skin. It was unbelievably ugly for a suit of plate armor that boasted its ironclad defense.
“Eheh.”
Urich tossed the armor aside as he expressed his annoyance. Urich was a barbarian of a massive stature. His muscles were especially developed so his structure was completely different from a regular man. There was no way that regular armor was going to fit him.
“Bahahaha! Urich, are you mad because you couldn’t put that armor on? Huh?”
Bachman grabbed his stomach and laughed as he looked at the pouting Urich. Urich, with his face turned red from embarrassment, kicked the dirt from the ground.
“Shut up and just help me take this thing off. What the hell is wrong with this thing? I’m never putting on anything like this ever again,” Urich said as he molted out of the several layers he had underneath the armor.
The multiple layers of clothes worn underneath the armor served as the absorbents for impact. Even if the armor user was hit by a blunt weapon, the cotton and leather layers acted as the secondary protection layer after the steel plate.
‘Even though I can’t wear it, it indeed is an amazing armor.’
It was Urich’s first time seeing the actual construction and the inside of a full plate armor. Even though he couldn’t fit inside it, it was intricate and sophisticated enough to draw out an expression of awe.
“It’s an armor that everyone wants. But if you, our leader, can’t wear it, then you should sell it to a noble. It’s too good for a regular mercenary to wear. And unlike the imperial steel weapons, the empire isn’t too fond of their full plate armor staying on the market,” Bachman said to Urich.
“Yeah?”
“If we had someone from the Order of Imperial Steel here instead of Harvald, they might have taken the armor after your duel. I’ve heard that some collectors had theirs taken away. But for this armor, I’m certain that buyers are going to line up because you got this through a legitimate process—the duel trial. There were a bunch of nobles in the crowd, too.”
“How much do you think we can get from this?”
“Hmm, a fitted full plate armor like this one would normally start at around a hundred million cils, but this one is a bit old, and the face plate’s been smashed. But I’m sure it will still easily fetch you around eighty million cils,” Bachman estimated, and Urich flinched.
“What?”
“They don’t call these treasures for nothing. Full plate armors are only produced in small quantities in the Imperial forge, so the price takes their scarcity into account.”
“Hold on, this thing goes for a hundred million cils? Shit!”
Urich was suddenly taken back to the snowy Sky Mountain. He had only taken the sword from the Imperial knight Fordgal. His armor was probably still in the middle of a blizzard in the mountains.
Urich wasn’t aware of what the armor was worth back in the Sky Mountains. if he did, he would have brought it down with him whatever it took.
“Hmm.”
Urich reminisced about all the hardships that he had to go through because of money. He had to roll in the sandy arenas as a gladiator, and almost died a few times working as a mercenary.
‘Money makes life in this world much easier.’
Robbery was a common method of gaining what one wanted back in his tribe, but he had been avoiding it. He wanted to live according to the rules and laws of the civilization as much as possible as he had a desire to learn their way of life.
‘Damn, if only I had brought that armor down with me... I wouldn’t have had to go through all this shit.’
Bachman looked at Urich with a puzzled face.
“What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy? You’re getting a whole box of gold coins, you’re rich now! And if we finish this job, you’ll be sitting on a pile of money so big that you wouldn’t know what to do with it. That prince likes you a lot, so he might even offer you a semi-noble-level knight position. Damn, now that I think about it, I’m getting pretty jealous!”
Bachman exclaimed in excitement. Urich was a man of honor. If he saw a huge success, he was surely going to look after Bachman.
“Alright, let’s sell it.”
After pondering for a moment, Urich decided to sell the armor. Bachman lined up a buyer in no time.
A nobleman who seemed quite unrelated to fighting and battles came to the mercenary tent to buy the full plate armor. Judging by the several fancy rings on his fingers, he was a man of wealth.
“Ohohoho, at last, a completely legitimate full plate armor! They won’t be able to confiscate this one away from me.”
The noble smiled as their deal was complete. He reached out and caressed the full plate armor. After confirming its condition, he happily handed over the pouch full of jewels.
‘He’s buying an armor that he isn’t even going to wear.’
Urich didn’t like the deal, but he didn’t show it. An excellent piece of armory had been reduced to an ornament for a wealthy nobleman.
‘But I guess this is part of the way of civilization.’
This thought brought a smile to Urich’s face. The noble saw Urich smiling and assumed that he was happy about the jewels.
“This was a win-win for both of us, mercenary captain Urich.”
“Eh, it wasn’t too bad. I’m glad that you’re happy with it.”
The noble offered to shake hands. Urich knew the customs of civilized people. He returned the handshake and lightly bumped shoulders.
“Oh, and do you know what the people are calling you?” The nobleman glanced back as he was leaving the tent.
“Huh?”
Urich, who was looking at the jewels one by one, looked up.
“They call you Urich the ‘Armor Destroyer.’ Use that fame well! The image of you shattering a steel plate with your bare knee is etched deep in people’s minds. Those who saw your duel yesterday will mention your name wherever they go. That there was a warrior who shattered an armor with his bare hands! Ohohoho!”
The nobleman finished his words with a wink. Urich felt a sudden chill running down his spine.
Urich the ‘Armor Destroyer.’ The name reached the capital much sooner than Urich’s body. Pahell and Urich’s Brotherhood arrived in the capital half a month later, and among those who considered themselves swordsmen, there weren’t that many who didn’t know Urich’s name.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶