Chapter 51

Chapter 51

Harvald sprinkled the black powder into the campfire over and over again as the powder burned with a popping sound. The black powder reacted with the heat to create colorful flames that rose for a moment and swayed beautifully.

‘What was that?’

Urich’s eyes widened. His heart was beating hard like the time he crossed the Sky Mountains. He had never seen such a thing before.

“We call this the flame powder. Anyone can do this as long as they have this powder; it’s not magic at all.”

Harvald said calmly, but the mercenaries didn’t seem too convinced. Even Pahell, who had more knowledge than anyone else there, could only stare at the warrior with his jaw on the floor.

“Give me that, I want to try.”

Urich broke the silence and demanded the powder. He grabbed a handful from Harvald and chucked it into the fire.

Woosh! Kwahh!

The fire roared to life. Urich felt the searing heat and grinned in ecstasy.

“Haha, I’m the sorcerer, you bastards!” Urich said with immense excitement. The hair above his forehead was well-torched by the fire, but he couldn’t care less.

‘Their leader is a converted barbarian,’ Harvald thought as he looked at Urich’s sun pendant. His actions were quite silly.

“Anyway, what made you travel with a bunch of mercenaries, Sir Phillion? The wound in your hand seems rather fresh as well...”

“I can’t tell you that, not even to a Sun Warrior.”

Phillion was very cautious about who he talked to about their goal, and Harvald respected that and refrained from any further questions. The warrior then looked around the group.

‘Those men are northerners, and haven’t converted yet, I see.’

Harvald locked his eyes on the northerners after glancing around at the gathered mercenaries. A sense of mission surged in his heart, so he recited a short prayer and got up from his seat.

“The people of my mother, convert. The sun god is always waiting for his prodigal sons to return to him,” Harvald said to Sven. His words finally pushed Sven’s patience over the edge.

Creak.

Sven picked up his double-handed axe and walked toward Harvald. The warrior flinched and drew his sword. It seemed like a fight was imminent.

“Stop it, both of you.”

Harvald felt a sudden coldness against his neck. Before he knew it, Urich had come up behind him and pressed the blade of his axe against his throat.

‘When did he come behind me and pull out his weapon?’

Harvald tried to retaliate by taking out a dagger from his waist.

Slap.

Urich quickly grabbed his hand and stopped him from drawing his dagger. Harvald, who had the northern blood flowing through him, was quite a strong man, but he couldn’t escape Urich’s grip.

‘What an incredible grip; it feels like my fingers are going to snap.’

After completely disarming Harvald, Urich turned his head to Sven.

“Sven, I am the leader of this squad. You dare to draw your weapon without my permission? Do you want to die, old man?” Urich growled. Sven frowned for a moment, then nodded.

“My bad, Leader.”

Sven backed off without a fuss as he respected Urich’s authority.

“And Harvald. I don’t care who or what you are, and I don’t even care that you’re that ‘Sun Warrior’ thing. Do not tell my brother what to do. I may be a Solarist, but if you ever humiliate Sven again, you will be the one to die. Let’s not cross any lines here. As long as you do that, we can all be friends.”

“We lost all of our horses to the traps that the sorcerer had set up. Wouldn’t it be alright if we traveled together until we could find a town where we could buy some horses? Furthermore, this area isn’t safe. That’s part of the reason why we, the Sun Warriors, had to be sent out to handle a single sorcerer. The noble who got buried in debt from all his luxurious spending disbanded his private army, so there was no one to keep the bandits and criminals away. He’ll be stripped of his title and territories soon enough.”

It didn’t take long for Urich and the mercenaries to understand exactly what Harvald meant by the area being unsafe.

About half a day of traveling after getting out of the forest, they spotted smoke rising in the distance.

“That smoke can’t be from baking.”

“Let’s just go around, no need to get caught up in it.”

The mercenaries came upon a burning farm village. Grey smoke rose into the sky.

“Looks like they got hit by a group of bandits. Oh, another one died just now. I can’t see exactly how many they have because a bunch of them are in the houses, but it looks like they have around twenty,” Urich said as he squinted. He told the mercenaries about the situation that he was seeing around the farm village.

“You can see that from here?” Harvald’s eyes widened. To him, everything looked like small dots.

The mercenaries were used to Urich’s exceptional vision, but it was a shock to Harvald the Sun Warrior. Even in the Sun Warriors, where everyone was of barbarian blood, no one had such good vision.

“Urich, let’s go save them! Let’s go, Sun Warriors!” Harvald shouted as he drew his sword. The Sun Warriors looked like they were prepared to charge at any moment.

“Huh? Why should we go?”

“Those bandits are stealing from the poor helpless farmers! Us Solarists cannot turn a blind eye to this!” Harvald yelled as he bounced around anxiously. With the mercenaries’ help, the outcome would have been obvious.

“The farmers harvest their crops from the grounds for the amount of sweat that they put forth, and bandits steal their possessions for the amount of blood they spill. Who’s to say what’s good and what’s bad? It’s not like they’re my family,” Urich shrugged, making Harvald frown.

“The Sun God Lou will remember your words! We’ll save the farmers on our own!”

Harvald despised Urich. He led the Sun Warriors and ran down the hill.

“For the Sun!!!!”

“For the Sun!”

“Oh, Lou!”

The Sun Warriors made their way to the burning farm village as they made all the noises they possibly could. The sight of the five of them running because they had lost their horses was quite entertaining.

“We have no time to think about others right now. It’s unfortunate, but as Urich said, we can’t afford to help them, my prince,” Phillion said to the prince. Pahell looked down at Phillion as he stroked Kylios.

“Sir Phillion, who am I?” Pahell pondered, then asked.

“You are the sole rightful heir to the Porcana Kingdom,” Phillion answered.

Pahell closed his eyes and drew the sword from his waist belt.

“That’s right. I am Varca Aneu Porcana. If even I, the soon-to-be king, turns a blind eye, then who is going to look after my helpless people?”

“They are not of our kingdom, my prince. The one who should be ashamed is the lord, who cannot protect his own people. It’s none of our business.

Phillion too was a knight. But his values lay in loyalty. He wasn’t afraid to do anything for the sake of his master’s safety, regardless of how immoral that action may have been. To him, even the moral code of god came second.

“What brings more shame than thinking only of your own safety when you have the power to help? Urich! I am your employer, not Sir Phillion. Now, look, Urich’s Brotherhood! The shiny jewels await your victorious return!”

Pahell exclaimed as he circled the mercenaries on the back of Kylios. The mercenaries clashed their weapons and shields in their response.

“Yes, Young Master!”

“So, how much are you paying us, Mr. Royalty?”

The mercenaries shouted. Pahell took out a pouch full of pearls from his pocket and tossed it to Urich.

“Haha! What are you doing, we just got paid! Get to work already!”

After confirming the fine pearls, Urich shouted to his mercenaries. The mercenaries roared their battle cries as they ran after the Sun Warriors.