Chapter 222: Don’t You Dare Run
Baron Valent’s cavalry had been rebuilt after being devastated by the Épinay knights, or so I’d heard, but naturally most of them would be raw recruits.
Morale was yellow, combat power at 53.
The force under my command had a combat power of 80.
They were elites brought by the princes, so that made sense. The Gale Knights, too, boasted high morale and combat power second to none. This was a clear mismatch. And we outnumbered them three to one.
Unless you recruited cavalry from across the entire country as I had, building up a cavalry force as a regional noble was extremely difficult. That’s why Baron Valent had wanted monetary compensation instead.
If he’d asked for my help sincerely instead of threatening me, I would have helped. If he’d approached me that way from the start, things would never have gotten this bad between us.
And that’s what separates wise nobles from foolish ones. Baron Valent was clearly the latter. The embodiment of short-sighted aristocracy. And as fate would have it, today I was going to decide his destiny.
I had no intention of letting him go.
I’d been waiting to settle the score over those 10 gold coins.
[Gale Knight VI Quest]
[Defeat Baron Valent]
[Reward: 5,000 points, 5 gold coins]
[Item Reward: Courage 200% Boost Scroll (one day)]
[Danger Rating ★★☆☆☆]
Hmm, a two-star quest. A reasonable rating.
Given Baron Valent’s cavalry morale and combat power, the difficulty clearly wouldn’t be high. I gave Fiel and Viktor 100 riders each, and we quietly split into three groups.
How about trying that encirclement and annihilation tactic that supposedly only works in fantasy?
Of course, I had three times the numbers. The plan was to surround them instantly, tear them apart, then drive them into a melee where they couldn’t escape. Since they were cavalry, if they scattered in every direction there’d be nothing we could do, but well, it was what it was.
Still, the enemy couldn’t possibly know we were here yet. Baron Valent came into view, staring straight ahead with zero perimeter security. Just as I thought, they were setting up an ambush. Were they waiting for someone?
Huh? Wait, what’s this?
[Unit Identified: Angela von Euznirk’s Escort Party]
Why was Angela popping up here all of a sudden?
Angela, the treasured daughter of the Euznirk family, was a young lady who resembled Hilda. Count Euz had even recommended her as a handmaid for Lily, the future crown princess. So that’s what those bastards were after—Angela!
I was completely thrown off by the sudden development.
Why was Angela, who should have been at Euz Castle, passing through here?
Our appearance must have been beyond anything Baron Valent anticipated, but now it was my turn to face an unforeseen situation. Naturally, none of my allies had noticed Angela’s presence.
"Commander? What’s wrong?"
"Give us the order!"
The cavalrymen were waiting for my signal.
"All forces, charge! Annihilate the enemy!"
I drew my cavalry sword and gave the attack order. The cavalry, which had dispersed in three directions and formed an encirclement without Baron Valent noticing, let out a unified battle cry and launched their charge.
But before the charge began, I’d given Anton separate orders.
"Anton! Cut across the front and go down the hill. You’ll see a carriage convoy! Get there, explain the situation, and make sure they don’t get caught up in this! If any allied cavalry try to approach them, stop them no matter what!"
"Huh?! C-carriages? What are you talking about all of a sudden?"
"There’s an important person there, so do not screw this up! Hurry!"
"Y-yes, sir! Hyah!"
After sending the flustered Anton off, I fixed my eyes forward. The enemy was in complete disarray from the three-pronged cavalry charge. Now I understood why Baron Valent was here instead of at the Meriant Plain.
His cavalry was garbage, so he’d been given an easy mission. Or he’d obtained the intelligence himself and acted independently. But since there was no trace of the detachment forces, it was clearly the latter.
That greed had come back to bite him.
"Let’s go, Mont Blanc! Hyah!"
Neeeeigh! Snort!
When I dug my spurs into Mont Blanc, who’d been extremely irritable lately, he snorted angrily and took off at a furious gallop. Even sugar cubes couldn’t fix his foul mood, and it was because I kept dragging him into forests full of branches that snagged him at every turn.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
In the forest, the Gale Knights took the lead. They were accustomed to charging through woods, which more than qualified them to guide the other cavalrymen. Fiel’s squad and the Steinhof knights split the enemy in two in an instant.
Viktor also fully demonstrated the prowess of a former commander. Where Fiel crushed the enemy with charges, Viktor focused on directing the cavalry to make sure no one slipped through rather than fighting himself.
And me?
I charged straight at Baron Valent without a second thought.
You’re the only one I see. Don’t you dare run.
Caught off guard by the sudden ambush, Baron Valent naturally chose to flee. He tried to break through the layered encirclement by charging with his personal guard. Concentrating on a single point to punch through a cordon was textbook, to be fair.
"Where do you think you’re running, Baron Valent!"
When the startled Baron Valent turned to look at me, we were less than 10 meters apart. He was wearing a helmet so I couldn’t see his expression, but he was probably as shocked as if he’d seen a ghost.
"S-stop him! Stop that man!"
Baron Valent’s knights rushed at me to protect their master. The fact that he ordered them to attack me even with my cavalry standing right in their path told me I must have been truly terrifying to them.
When we were on the same side, they’d treated me like a pushover, but now that we’d met as enemies, suddenly I was scary? I held no grudge against house knights loyal to their lord, but that was House Valent’s karma. So don’t blame me.
Unlike knights of wealthier lords, regional nobles’ knights often couldn’t afford full plate armor. These knights had plate covering the front, but their sides and backs were covered in regular chainmail.
And their joints were covered with thick cloth. I liked to relentlessly target weak points. Armor was so sturdy that ordinary attacks simply didn’t work.
Clang! Clang! Screech!
After deflecting the first charging knight’s sword several times, I grabbed his crossguard and yanked him toward me. In the instant the knight lost his balance, I whipped out a dagger and drove it into his armpit.
Thud!
Ignoring the unhorsed knight, I immediately engaged the next ones. These vassal knights of a vassal (baron) of a vassal (count) of a sovereign (grand duke) seemed to be competing with each other for the glory of defeating me.
In the middle of all this chaos, no less.
They had zero coordination.
I spotted chainmail wrapped around a knight’s chin and drove the tip of my cavalry sword into it with all my strength. Since my recent rank-up to D-Rank Knight (military power 40%, courage 40%), my strength had increased considerably and my nerve had grown bolder.
The sword tip, driven into the dense chainmail, pierced the knight’s neck, and the knight, unable to withstand the force, toppled off his horse. That was the price of protecting only the chest with plate armor. He should have invested in a gorget.
The other knights were no match for me either.
These were supposed to be elites who’d fought against Burgundy in the north.
I wrenched one knight’s joint, and as Mont Blanc reared up, the knight was dragged off his horse. Another I knocked off his horse with my cavalry sword held in a reverse grip, striking him with the blunt crossguard.
It felt great to be improving. Before, if several knights had ganged up on me, my first thought would have been to run. If I ever ranked up to the final S-Rank, would I become the Lancelot of this world?
"Commander! The enemy leader is getting away!"
A Gale Knight’s shout alerted me to Baron Valent’s fleeing figure. He’d managed to punch through the allied cavalry’s encirclement after all. Several riders were in pursuit, but they were struggling to catch up.
With his life on the line, some superhuman strength must have kicked in, because Valent was weaving between trees with uncanny agility, confounding the pursuing cavalry. I absolutely could not let him escape.
Mont Blanc and Euz went way back.
Count Épinay would probably be furious about it, but this was where I’d obtained such a magnificent horse, and now Mont Blanc had become my partner in spirit, the beloved steed of the Gale Knight. Mont Blanc surged forward powerfully.
My horsemanship was still only at Stage 3, but I could reach the highest speed of any rider in the cavalry. Most of the credit went to Mont Blanc, but being able to control such a fierce thoroughbred to this degree was a skill in itself.
