Chapter 66
Urich’s semi-final match had drawn the anticipation of many people.
“He lifts his jousting lance with one arm and strikes down on his opponent!”
“How strong does he have to be to pull that off? I guess the nickname Armor Breaker wasn’t for nothing after all.”
The crowd gladly waited for the jousting match to see Urich’s unnatural strength. The public loved anything that deviated from the norm.
So far, Urich had fought three bouts, all of which ended with a single blow. The people were eager to see more of the same.
The semi-final match was underway, and Urich dug his heels into Kylios’ side.
Clank!
Urich and the knight clashed with a loud and clear impact. The two men on their horses winced and glanced at each other from opposite ends.
“Huff, huff.”
Urich let out the breath that he was holding in as he listened to the cheer of the crowd. He wasn’t able to knock down his opponent with just a single attack this time.
‘He’s strong.’
It was the semi-final of the Hamel Jousting Tournament, where every single one of the contestants was filtered and handpicked from a plethora. The man who had made his way into the semifinals was not an easy opponent.
‘I almost broke my wrist—his strength is this much even after I’ve deflected his spear. What an unreal strength.’
The man who had successfully defended against Urich’s attack thought to himself. He was a shield-wielding specialist. He had deflected Urich’s lance at an angle to parry the attack. Urich, who just experienced the skill himself, knew how great of a skill it was.
“Amazing. The tip of my lance made good contact with his shield, but my strength was somehow parried away.”
Urich tugged on Kylios’ reins and straightened their stance. This was no ordinary opponent.
‘He is more experienced than I am. I don’t think I’m going to win by just pushing through with my strength.
Urich was technically only a novice at jousting. His chances of winning were better in an honest contest of brute strength than with a technical and analytical strategy, so he always went for the win from the start.
What was he supposed to do when he encountered an opponent who was difficult to suppress through his sheer force?
‘If you think you don’t have a good chance in the mounted portion, it can be better to go on the defensive and drag it out to the foot duel.’
Urich already knew the solution thanks to Phillion, and he decided to listen to his teacher. Urich gripped his shield firmly and focused on blocking. It wasn’t the way he wanted to fight since he wanted to feel the wind in his hair again as he felt the pleasure of knocking over the opponent.
‘Mounted charge is fun. It’s exhilarating.’
However, victory was the virtue of a warrior. Money wasn’t what they were gambling on, it was his life. Unlike money, one’s life couldn’t be earned back once it’s been lost.
Urich was a warrior who knew how to be patient for the sake of victory.
“Claiming that I tried my best after losing is only a pathetic excuse!” Urich laughed as he blocked the lance of his opponent two more times by holding his shield firmly in front of him.
‘It feels like I’m running into a wall.’
Urich’s large frame and strong muscles couldn’t be broken down easily. After three rounds of mounted combat, the trumpeter blew a long blast on his trumpet.
Buuuup!
Urich and the knight dismounted their horse and picked up their sword and shield.
“Leave the rest to me, Kylios.”
Urich said to his horse as he patted him lightly. He slightly opened his visor to release the trapped heat inside his helmet, then closed it.
“Hmph.”
After drawing in a full lung of fresh air, Urich stared at his opponent.
‘Foot combat.’
It was different from the mounted combat. He was no longer fighting an unfamiliar battle with a horse and a jousting lance.
‘I’m standing on the ground now. Good, Urich,’ Urich told himself in his head.
Thump.
Urich took a step forward. To his opposing knight, it seemed like Urich’s size had doubled since getting off their horses.
‘We’ve gotten off our horses, but somehow he’s even more intimidating now.’
The other knight was puzzled. In mounted battles, the presence of the horses muted their riders’. But now, they fought with only human strength. The pure power of a warrior was on display.
“Woahhhhhh!”
Urich roared as he banged his sword on his shield.
‘Barbarian. Goddammit.’
The knight frowned. Barbarians were adept in primitive fighting. They intimidated their opponents even before their clash by puffing themselves up.
Crash!
Urich lunged forward ruthlessly and wildly swung his sword.
‘Dammit, his attacks feel just as heavy as they were when he was on his horse.’
The knight frowned at the heavy blow. A tingling sensation began to build up in the arm that he had used to block the repeated blow.
Thump!
Urich pounced on the knight with his shield mounted in front of him. The two men tangled as they lost their balance.
The knight was by no means an easy opponent. Even during his fall, he tried to stab into the side of Urich.
Crunch.
Urich tossed his shield aside and grabbed the knight’s blade with his hand. It was only possible because his chainmail was protecting his hand down to the fingertips.
Schring!
The knight jerked the blade out with a rough twist. The chains around Urich’s hand snapped and twisted as their links broke.
“This goddamn cheap-ass armor!”
Urich yelled in frustration. He felt a burning sensation in the hand that he had used to catch the blade. Blood was pouring out of it.
‘Nice, he only has one hand left to use.’
The knight thought that Urich could now obviously only use one of his hands since he had cut deeply into the other one.
The two men rolled around tangled too closely to swing their swords. It was a common occurrence in a battle between two armored fighters.
Grip.
Urich clenched his bloodied fist and drove it into the side of the knight.
Cring!
The knight’s chainmail rippled. The impact of Urich’s fist penetrated the chainmail and into the quilted cloth underneath. His fist was no different than a club, and he used it to pummel the chainmail regardless of the extent of his injury.
“Gagh!”
The knight spat out his breath after the strike. Urich pinned him down and pounded his fists on the knight several times.
“Hagh, hagh.”
Urich stopped his hand which blood was pouring down from, and the armored knight underneath him had gone limp and passed out. The blood on him, however, was mostly from Urich’s wounded hand.
“W-wow!!! Armor Breaker! Armor Breaker!
The crowd lost their minds over Urich who had pounded away at the armor with his bare hands. It was a truthful violence that they rarely saw from the standard knights.
Urich raised his arm in victory and exited the arena with the crowd’s cheer on his back.
“Mm-hmm. It wasn’t the most chivalrous victory, but a victory nevertheless.”
Phillion shook his head as he assessed the wound of Urich who had returned from the match.
“Was my armor supposed to break that easily? Huh?”
Urich expressed his annoyance as he held his torn hand out.
“It’s because the chains weren’t strong enough. I can’t believe it just broke like that. Even the leather underneath the hand portion is thinner than anything I’ve seen. I can’t believe how poor this workmanship is…”
Phillion kicked his tongue as he poured a bucket of clean water on Urich’s hand. After washing the blood away, he assessed the cut.
‘The cut is quite deep. It will be difficult to pick up a weapon or shield in this state.’
Urich’s hand was split open cleanly. It was painful just to look at it.
“Try moving your fingers one by one. Mm, that’s good. It’ll heal on its own with plenty of rest. The prince had his audience yesterday, so now is a good time to stop…”
Urich grabbed Phillion by the ruff of his neck.
“What are you on about? Are you telling me to forfeit just because of some cut in my hand? I only have one match left. If I win that, I’m going to be the champion.”
“We’ve already got what we wanted, Urich.”
“I haven’t. A wound like this will be better by the morning if I just spit on it.”
Urich’s eyes were burning with a determination that even Phillion could feel. On top of that, Urich had just finished a fight, so he was even more aggressive.
“The fact that you made it to the finals is already impressive. People will remember your name.”
“Get that bullshit out of my face. Remember my name? The man who wasn’t even the champion? Nonsense.”
“Calm down, Urich, remember the reason why you entered this tournament in the first place! Who did you come here for?”
Phillion shoved Urich’s arm away. Even Phillion, a man who was gentle by nature, was a stubborn knight at the end of the day. He prioritized loyalty over everything to the point of choosing it over staying truthful to the oath he made with the sun god Lou.
“Mr. Phillion, I know what you mean. But I’m young, and my heart is burning. I might regret this for the rest of my life. I haven’t lived as long as you have, but I know this one thing. If there’s something you want to do, you have to do it while you can. If you keep running away from it by coming up with a bunch of excuses, you’ll never do anything.”
“Ugh.”
“There’s just one left. Listen, Phillion, the crowd is chanting my name. The chants from the gladiatorial days don’t even come close to this.”
“Since when were you so hungry for fame?”
“It’s not that I’m hungry for fame. I just want to know what it feels like to gain it.”
Urich’s words were calm.
Phillion stared into Urich’s eyes. They were fiery, yet cold at the same time.
‘Childishness is a privilege of the youth.’
With age, one could no longer afford to take risks, and they naturally forgot the eagerness of youth. Instead of learning something new, they favor sticking to what is familiar. Unable to recognize their own senility, they dismiss youth as foolishness.
Phillion grinned bitterly.
‘You always shine, Urich.’
He looked up at Urich. Urich was young and strong.
Creak.
Urich took off his helmet.
“Just like how you are doing this for Pahell, so am I. But we are different, Sir Phillion. You may be his loyal servant, but I am his friend. My life isn’t solely for Pahell.”
“But at least for now, you must do your job as the mercenary leader who we hired…”
Phillion rebutted.
“As long as it doesn’t go against my integrity, I act for my own good. If I hadn’t done so, you and Pahell would never have crossed the borders of Porcana. I basically convinced my squad purely for my own desire to see the Imperial capital. What if I hadn’t followed my personal desires and remained loyal to only my duties as the mercenary leader? We probably would have killed both you and Pahell on the spot for deceiving us and taken your bag of pearls, since that was a more stable gain for us.”
Phillion had nothing to say; he had benefited from Urich’s personal whims.
“When did you become such an eloquent man? Do as you please. The finals are in a couple of days, so I’ll find you some good ointment.”
“Phillion laughed weakly. The stubbornness of the incompetent was foolishness, but the stubbornness of the competent was conviction. Urich, of course, was the latter.
* * *
Pahell stared at the jade figure for two days. Jade was an opaque green gem. It was an unpopular ore to use for jewelry, let alone sculpting.
“A dragon?”
Pahell muttered. Despite the wear and tear of the figure, the original elaborate sculpture was detailed enough to recognize the shape of the dragon. It resembled a snake but with lizard-like forelimbs and horns and a beard sprouting from its head. There was also a bead in its mouth.
It was a creature that Pahell had never seen before, but he had a vague idea of what it represented. It was brave and reverent. Dragons were worshipped.
‘He said it was a precious treasure. The emperor would not have given it to me for no reason.’
Pahell remembered the words of Yanchinus.
‘A gift for a gift.’
The emperor was a rough but deeply thoughtful man. He did not do or say anything without meaning.
‘There must be something he wants to tell me through this piece. If I can’t figure that out, then that just means that I am incompetent.’
However, Pahell had no answers. His head was awake, keeping him up all night without sleep.
Pahell had always thought that his knowledge was immense. This jade that was sitting in front of him rendered all that knowledge useless. No matter what he tried to draw from the bank of his knowledge, he couldn’t connect it to the jade piece.
‘A figure from the north… it must be a treasure holding a lot of value.’
Pahell thought to himself. Emperor Yanchinus was a man with ambition.
‘Is he trying to conquer the last remaining land of the north? That frozen land where you can’t even farm?’
The previous emperor poured his energy into the Subjugation of the Remaining Barbarians until the very moment of his death. Now, all that was left to the barbarian’s name was a piece of land where not a single blade of grass could grow: the frozen land of the north, and the burning desert in the south. Not only were those lands difficult to conquer, but they also simply weren’t worth the trouble of investing in the army. The barbarians who were still living in those frozen and burning lands were slowly dying out. Those who wanted to survive were incorporated into the empire.
‘Those are worthless lands. Even if he did have the ambition to conquer the rest of the northern lands, he probably doesn’t want anything from me. He has more than enough power at the empire’s disposal to get it done.’
Pahell gnawed on his thumbnail.
“If only my sister Damia were here by my side…”
Pahell always longed for his sister Damia at times like this. Princess Damia was an avid reader. Whenever Pahell had a question, she was the one whom he went to.
‘I can’t believe that my throne is up to this silly trivia.’
Pahell cussed. He slumped down on his desk and closed his eyes for a moment, and a wave of fatigue that he had been pushing away washed over him.
‘Varca, Varca, my little brother. What a good boy you are, a good boy.’
He dreamt of his sister. His gentle, beautiful, and lovely sister. To Pahell, who lost his mother at a young age, Damia was like his mother, even though they were twins.
It was a sweet dream of his pleasant childhood.
“Mmm.”
Pahell woke up and stiffly sat himself up. He noticed the coat draped over his shoulders.
“You up? You should really sleep in your bed,” Urich said to Pahell.
Urich was sitting in his chair, studying the jade figure.
“Urich, did you hurt your hand?”
Pahell looked at Urich’s left hand which was wrapped in a cloth bandage.
“It’s nothing, just a small cut. Anyway, this thing is amazing. It’s only as big as my palm but the carvings are so intricate.”
“I got it from the emperor. He said that it’s a treasure of the north.”
“Wooow, you’re already getting favored by the emperor? What’s your secret?”
“I wish, but it’s more like a punishment. That figure is a puzzle that I have to solve. Dammit, I’ve never seen a piece like that! It’s not even in the books.”
Pahell whined. Urich tilted his head and glared at the jade piece.
“If it’s a northern treasure, you should ask a northerner. You might not think so, but Sven actually knows a lot of things. He used to be pretty high up among the northerners, too.”
Pahell’s eyes widened.
‘Why didn’t I think of that?’
He felt pathetic. He had let the tension and anxiety narrow his vision.
“Urich, you’re a genius!”
Pahell exclaimed as he jumped up and down.
“Did you just realize that? I’ll bring Sven, wait here.”
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