CH 77

With the return of Amukhan and the arrival of Kairos on the battlefield, the tide of the war turned 180 degrees.

The Kerrates’ cavalry, which had been on a winning streak, were quickly dismounted and annihilated whenever they encountered Kongurat cavalry.

In all, the Kerrates lost 14 battles in just three days, losing most of their territory.

The key to this was Kairos.

Kairos led the Kongurat warriors into battle, crushing their enemies indiscriminately.

Kairos’s personal combat prowess was undoubtedly powerful, but his commanding ability was even more terrifying.

Right after the 14th battle ended.

“Brother.”

Amukhan spoke to Kairos with an expression of respect.

“Why are you looking at me with such a burdensome look in your eyes, bugger!”

Kairos replied, sipping mayu as he sat on the corpse of a dead Kerrate clan member.

“I was born a nomad here in Haver Prairie, and have been riding horses since I was very young.”, Kairos said while looking at the vast Prairie.

“And?”, Amukhan further inquired.

“After my coming-of-age ceremony, I rode horses into battle for nearly twenty years.”, Kairos reminisces about his past life.

“What do you want to ask?”, Kairos said while turning his head and looking at the inquisitive eyes of Amukhan.

“How are you able to fight so well?” Amukhan finally blurted out.

Amukhan was genuinely curious.

It was frankly shocking that Kairos, a continental man, had a deeper understanding of cavalry tactics than the warriors of the steppes, and that he was so much better at using them.

For people who rode horses from birth to death, it was a bit of a blow to their pride.

“Guffaw!!”

Kairos laughed loudly with a plastic smile.

“Don’t you even know that it’s called jjambap?”¹

“What…?”

“Let’s see.. The first time I held a sword was when I was about… thirteen.”, Kairos said wistfully with eyes glossed over as he saw a mirage of his younger self in front training.

“Ah, yes.”

Amukhan was not surprised.

It was common for nomads of the Haver Prairie to have at least one dagger with a dull edge by the age of ten.

“I left home at thirteen… and worked as a handyman for a ragtag mercenary band.I started fighting when I was fifteen and died when I was fifty…. I’ve been on the battlefield for about 40 years. Hehehe. What’s a man like that not to be able to do? I’ve lived my whole life on a horse and rolled in the field of battle.”

“…….”

“When I was about thirty-two, I fought nomadic warriors like you once, and the chieftain’s name was… Vator, I think it was, and he was a very strong man, though my strength eventually brought him to his knees. Hahaha!”

*thump*

*thump*

*thump*

Kairos rambunctiously laughed while pounding his knees

“Yeah… older brother?”

“What’s wrong?”

“That’s a bit of a lie.”

“What?”

“Vathor is not a common name. There is only one man who can bear it, even in this prairie. He roamed the grasslands 450 years ago. He is the ancestor of our Kongurat tribe.”

Amukan sighed heavily and said.

“But even if you say you’re my age… honestly, you’re probably younger than me, and even though I’ve decided to make you my brother, that’s not true. That’s a lie….” Amukhan reasoned to Kairos

“Hey!”

Kairos interrupted Amukhan, pulling him to his feet.

“Can you come over here for a second?”

“yes?”

“Follow me,” he said.

Without a second thought, Amukhan followed Kairos into the tent called the Ger.²

“Put this in your mouth.”

Kairos held out a piece of cloth to Amukhan.

“What does that mean all of a sudden?”

“Wouldn’t your men think it strange if you screamed when you were being beaten?”

“What…?”

“How dare you accuse me of being a liar?”

“Brother, that’s not it… Argh!”

Amukan screamed and ran out of the room.

“I’m saving your face because of the circumstances, but I’m not going to let you get away with it.”

Kairos then began to rain down a barrage of blows on Amukan.

* * *

Meanwhile, as Helmut prepared to attack the Magritte Kingdom with the cavalry of the Kerrate tribe, he was greatly disturbed by an unexpected turn of events.

The news that his daughter, Elise, had been kidnapped by a third party, not his own men, and that it had set the Magritte army in motion, was the worst of all possible worlds for Helmut.

Helmut’s plan was to march on the capital at the same time as the rescue operation for his daughter began and end this coup as soon as possible.

However, thanks to a tipped ball, Magritte’s army made the first move, and a surprise rebellion was out of the question.

The whole point of the plan was to have the rescue operation and the rebellion happen at the same time, and it had been thwarted.

“Your Excellency, a messenger from the King has come to demand your surrender, or they will exterminate not only you, but everyone on our lands.”

“What the hell…!!!”

Helmut, cornered, gritted his teeth.

Amnesty.

Surrender, and you die.

If you fight the Magritte Kingdom, you die.

Even with the Kerrates allied with them, they were no match for the Magritte Army.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the rebellion itself was a battle that was unlikely to succeed except by surprise, so the odds were stacked against you unless your plans went awry.

The worst thing that could happen was that they would die.

“Could it be… a ploy by the king?”

Helmut thought that this might be the work of King Magritte.

A terrifying plan to stage a staged kidnapping of Elise, frame Helmut, and use that as an excuse to wipe out House Valdemar….

“Your Excellency, what if the cavalry of the Kerrate tribe finds out about this….”

“It must be kept in absolute secrecy. Even if the king’s army is at the gates.”

If this became known, it would break Helmut’s alliance with the Kerrates.

Helmut would have to face the Magritte and the king’s army alone, without the Kerrates, and he might as well take his own life if that happened.

“You bastard… My family has been loyal to yours like dogs for generations…. You dishonor my daughter with this filthy self-destruction… and you bring our family name into disrepute….”

It was then.

“Your Excellency!”

A messenger rushed in, kneeling before Helmut to report.

“A man named Otto de Scuderia requests to see you, Your Excellency.”

“Otto de Scuderia…? I don’t recognize the name. Does anyone know him?”

Of course, if anyone knew Otto’s name, that would be even stranger.

“Why did he say he wishes to see me?”

“Yes, Your Excellency, he says… he’s in the service of Miss Elise.”

“What? Tell him to tell me now!”

Helmut was puzzled by the unexpected appearance of Otto, but when he was told that he had his daughter with him, he decided to see him anyway.

* * *

“What?”

Helmut was dumbfounded.

“You mean you’re the one who kidnapped my daughter?”

“Yes.”

“How dare you!”

Helmut shouted, jumping up from his throne.

Thud!

The knights around him drew their swords in unison and pointed them at Otto.

Their swords stood on edge….

“It’s not enough that you kidnapped my daughter, you have the audacity to come here, to visit this Helmut, and you thought you could get away with it, with your entire body intact?”

“Of course I’ll be back in one piece.”

Otto smiled coldly.

“Because if you touch me, your daughter won’t be safe.”

“You think that threat will work with this Helmut? I’m not a fool. You must have been sent by the king….

The moment.

“Fuhahahahahahahaha!”

Otto burst into laughter.

“…….”

“…….”

“…….”

Everyone was dumbfounded by Otto’s outburst, and lost for words.

“Hahah… King Magritte sent me? Hehehe… King Magritte… has… sent… a self-inflicted… hahah… even if you’re too… smart… huuu… to ride… heh… hehe… phew….”

“Were you laughing at me?”

“No, not really… haha… it was so funny… hehe….”

“……?”

“That’s a good guess… cough cough… if only King Magritte was that smart…. Snicker… he wouldn’t have treated his most loyal of loyalists… as poorly as a dog in the first place, snicker!”

Helmut thought Otto was laughing at him, and his anger rose, but he regained his composure when he heard the next words.

‘Well, you’re not wrong, that ungrateful bastard couldn’t have pulled off such an elaborate scheme.’

The current King Magritte was very greedy and suspicious, but he was not a cunning man.

To be cunning, one must have a certain amount of brains, and he had never been that resourceful.

“Then… Why did you kidnap my daughter?”

“To keep your blade pointed in a different direction.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’re on the wrong side of the line. If you wanted to join hands, you should have joined with the Kongurat, not the Kerrate.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because I’m allied with the Kongurat, and because you’ve aligned yourself with the Kerrate, we’ve lost our trade routes, and in the process, our trading posts have been devastated. The economic losses we’ve suffered because of it… ugh.”

Otto stuck out his tongue.

“I can’t count the damage, I can’t count the losses.”

“Who in the world are you?”

“The Kingdom of Lota.”

“The Kingdom of Lota…?”

Helmut pondered, then asked around.

“Do any of you know Lota?”

But no one came forward to say they knew Lota.

Neither did he, for the Kingdom of Lota was now a nameless, unrecognized nation.

“I’m sorry, but… where is this place called the Kingdom of Lota?”

The result.

Zurrrrr!

Dew formed at the corners of Otto’s eyes.

* * *

Otto spent a long time explaining the Kingdom of Lota to Helmut before he could continue.

“It was so far away that I didn’t pay attention. So… you are the king of the Kingdom of Lota?”

“I have told you so many times.”

Otto replied bluntly.

“Well, then. I see.”

Helmut gave Otto the honorific of royalty for once.

“You mean to tell me that my alliance with the Kerrate tribe has caused you great harm?”

“Yes.”

“And that is why you kidnapped my daughter?”

“Because if you join with the Kerrate to crush the Magritte Kingdom and the Kongurat, I will never regain my trade routes, and I will never get my revenge.”

“Revenge?”

“For the lives of our merchants, laborers, and mercenaries who died at the hands of Kerrate warriors.”

“That can be negotiated….”

“I don’t pay money for life³. Blood for blood. Life for life.”

“What do you propose to do?”

“I’m going to destroy the Kerrates. I’m going to kill every single one of them who was involved in the massacre, and if they run, I’m going to hunt them down to the ends of the earth.”

“Hmph.”

“I need an example, of what happens when you hit the top of our head, for the Kingdom of Lota”

Helmut felt a chill at Otto’s words.

‘This man… is no mere parasitic orca⁴, though he may appear to be so, he is… a very frightening thing. He holds everything in the palm of his hand, sees through it, and bends it to his will.’

Helmut realized from the conversation that Otto was an extraordinary man, and he spoke up.

“Is that what you want… you want me to break my alliance with the Kerrates and ally myself with the Kongurat?”

“Now you’re making sense.”

“Then what do I have to gain?”

“If you do as I say….”

Otto smiled.

“I’ll give you everything you want.”

** ** **

TL/N:

1. It is also frequently used as a word to define experience or career. For example if a person is indicated as a man of Jjam-bab`, it presents that he has abundant experience in a certain field.

2. It is home as Mongolian nomads have been living in it throughout the year and prefer Mongol ger to other forms of housing. Mongolian ger durability, lightness and low cost are of tremendous advantage to the nomads. 

3. Otto mentioning that if the situation is reversed he would not pay money for murdering/killing someone as recompense

4. Orcas are apex predators that feed on the usual variety of fish and squids, but there are times in which they target and eat seals, sea birds, or larger whale than them. Helmut describing Otto as an orca because he isn’t familiar with the obscure Lota Estate/Kingdom but its King which is Otto didn’t back down when he learned that Helmut and the Kerrates Chief Togril are in alliance.