Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi Chapter 171: Winter War in the Capital ① Dance of Tragedy

Chapter 171: Winter War in the Capital ① Dance of Tragedy

「What happened, it’s so noisy.」

「Our mood is dampened now.」

The nobles furrow their brows and the servants complain when the door is swung open with a bang.

But they don’t continue grumbling for long.

「The palace guards!? Whose mansion do you think this-...... uwaah, what are you doing!?」

I can hear the knight assigned as the security for the party scream and then run in on all fours covered in blood.

「Ruffians! H-help......gyaah! 」

The knight crawls into the hall and the pathetic man dies soon after he was pierced in the back with a sword.

「Ooh...... how cruel!」

「Ah......」

Most of the people here are civil officials who have never seen a person die so they cover their eyes, while many wives faint on the spot.

「l, Leah, hide behind .」

「Right!」「‘Kay!」

It sucks not having Irijina here.

First I have to determine what’s going on though.

「Nobody move!」

Counting the man who pulled the sword out from the dead knight’s body, there are 10 n who walk into the hall together.

All of them are wearing chainmail and holding swords.

As expected, none of them had weapons like bowguns or spears.

「The palace guards? ......what on earth is-!?」「What the heck is going on!?」

I can’t bla the nobles for being shocked.

All of them look just like the guards that protect the capital.

「Are they palace guards?」

「They’re imposters.」

I answer l’s anxiously asked question imdiately.

There’s a possibility that they ca because the master here is evading tax or they’re in the middle of cleaning up any places that support criminal organizations, but it’s still strange to specifically target a party. There are too many unrelated nobles here and if by any chance they made a mistake and an irrelevant high ranking noble was injured, the guard captain won’t just lose his job.

Any ard groups loitering around and planning insubordination in the capital would be imdiately suspected.

Their disguise as palace guards is just camouflage.

In that case, their objective is robbery? ......or maybe sothing else.

「We belong to the palace guards! Where is the Commissioner of Governnt Affairs!!?」

「Oh yeah, where is Marquess Baldwin?」

「Didn’t he go to the room in the back as soon as the commotion started?」

I guess Kenneth ran to the back room as soon as he heard the shouting.

That’s quite the leg speed if he didn’t know this was going to happen.

The fake guards realize imdiately from the noisy nobles that Kenneth isn’t here anymore.

The n make a sour look and click their tongues.

「Now that it’s co to this...... there’s no stopping even though we only have a small group!!」

The n tear off the crest of the palace guards on their uniforms.

「We are proud mbers of the Magrado Dukedom! We have co to punish the evil Goldonian nobles in place of our late King and for our fatherland!!」

The n draw their swords altogether and start indiscriminately cutting down the surrounding nobles.

I knew it would end up like this.

「Aegir-sama!」「Master, we-......」

「Don’t worry, there are only 10 of them. We’ll be fine.」

I can sohow manage nurically speaking, but the enemy seems fairly well-trained and it’ll be hard on when I’m unard.

I can’t just nonchalantly walk out and co back with a sword.

「Peiza, I’m scared!」

「Leave it to honey, I was once called the knight of the swift wind!」

I’m not sure who called him that, but the knight of the swift wind draws his needle-like ceremonial sword and stands up against the hoodlum.

Oh right, this guy was the one who did a swordplay performance as a sideshow for the banquet a little earlier.

「The area within my sword’s reach is my barrier! Only death awaits those who get too close!」

He swings his needle around quickly. It does look like it’ll hurt if you get stabbed by it.

「Soryaa!」

Finally, the knight’s sword hits the hoodlum’s arm, drawing blood and a scream of pain.

That’s one point, you would win ...... if you were in a match that is.

「Damn son of a bitch!」

The hoodlum shouts a curse and flicks away the sword stabbed in his arm with his two-handed sword.

The thin sword bends into the character ‘く’ and snaps in half, rendering the weapon unusable.

「Awawa, my sword! Ti out! Let switch my sword!」

The clamoring knight lost the will to fight along with his weapon and gets stabbed in the stomach while his hands remained pushed out in front of the enemy.

「Uwaaaaah!! Mamaaaa—!!」

I look elsewhere to see the nobles all trying to escape and helplessly getting cut down one after the other.

Even without a decent weapon, there are 30 guys here against the 10 enemies.

I thought they would have been able to give l and Leah enough ti to escape but it doesn’t look like I can expect much from them.

Unfortunately, I have to do it myself.

「Nooo-! Stop it!」

「Prepare yourself, Goldonian pig...... guhga!」

One of the hoodlums chasing down a noble’s wife gets hit with a sturdy and expensive-looking chair. The chair shatters into pieces while the man falls to the ground on the spot with his face smashed in.

「Tch-! Who was that!?」「Don’t worry about him, we have to kill the rest of them before they run away.」

Taking advantage of the opening when the n shifted their eyes to their dead companion, I take a candlestick in each hand from the top of the table and charge at them.

This heavy silverwork should have more effect than that needle-like sword.

「Is it you, bastard! Take that!」

One of the hoodlums realizes my presence and swings his sword down at .

I react instinctively by blocking his powerless strike with the right candlestick, then follow up with a thrust using the left candlestick.

My strike was aid at his face so the candle protruding outwards pokes into his eye first and embeds itself deep inside his head, killing the man instantly.

「This guy, he’s coming here!」

「Finish him off quickly!」

The candlestick crumpled after blocking the sword, so I throw it at the hoodlum, dashing forward using the opening it gave .

「The sa trick won’t work all the ti! 」

After seeing what happened to his friend, he protects his face with both hands.

He probably thought the only place I could aim for was his face since his body was wrapped in chainmail.

「That would work if it was a weak man I guess.」

I thrust into his defenceless abdon with all my might.

The slow and pointy candlestick bends while piercing through the man’s chainmail, lodging everything but the base of the candlestick into his body.

「Abhubhub......」

I move in to grab the man’s sword as he throws up blood.

「You killed three of them ...... unforgivable!」

「Die, you brute!」

The two ruffians co at simultaneously.

I was about to deflect their blow with my arm guard in habit, but I realized I didn’t have them on this ti and jumped out of the way instead.

That was close, I was about to lose my arm.

「Hmph, you’re unard...... I’ll kill you soon!」

The n charge at with cruel smiles.

Oh good, it would have been more annoying if you kept your distance and closed in on from both sides.

I evade the downward strike by a hair’s breadth and step on the sword when it hits the ground so it couldn’t be raised up again.

「Hiih! H-help ! 」

There’s another one aiming for so I have to finish this one off instantly.

It’s nasty, but there’s no choice.

I pull down the man’s chainmail and bite his throat, tearing out his trachea.

「Hiiih!!」「Uwaaaah!」

The other remaining enemy wasn’t the only one to voice his displeasure, the nobles also scread out.

The inside of my mouth feels disgusting...... I’ll forget about it later when I go back ho to do so playful biting with Leah and l.

「Next!」

I hold the man who is spewing blood from his throat in my arms as the other one charges at and use the man’s body as a shield to block his friend’s sword attack before chucking the lifeless corpse at him.

「Uwaa!」

The man drops his sword when hit by his companion’s dead body.

「Don’t co any closer, you monster!」

You’re the ones who ca at , just give up.

I grab his head and headbutt him, then pull back from the fainting man slightly before giving him a second headbutt.

After confirming his forehead caved in, I toss him aside and take a glance at my surroundings.

Because I was involved in a scuffle with their allies, the remaining five enemies are pointing their swords at .

「Fumu, it feels a little light.」

I take the two swords which belonged to the two I killed earlier.

As long as I’m ard with so kind of weapon, there’s no reason to be scared of a re five people.

「Kill hiiiiiiim!!」

After that battlecry, the five of them rush straight at altogether.

I hold out my arms with one sword in each hand and charge at them too.

I block the swords which co at from the sides and twist my body to dodge the attacks aid at my vulnerable abdon.

In that mont, the two n who slashed at lose their balance and end up tangled with each other.

「Tch! Move it!」「You move!」「Gue!」

I use the montum from the rotation of my body to slice off the head of one of the hoodlums and then quickly put so distance between myself and the other n. The fourth man continues pursuing with his sword and I cross my swords to prepare myself to block his attack.

However, I move my swords and sidestep right before the blade makes contact with mine, making him swing at air before stepping on his sword.

「Eh?」

The fifth person charged in hoping to get an opening to attack after I crossed swords with his buddy, but ends up staring at blankly as I stand in front of him.

「Looks like things turned out differently than you expected.」

I deflect his attack with one of my swords and then use the other sword to send his head flying.

「Dammit!!」

The three remaining enemies are left feeling furious, while I’ll be the one initiating the attack next.

I charge at them with full-powered swings, hoping to finish them off before they could attack.

「An attack of this level-geguh!」「-Can easily be stoppe-gyuh!」

The two n positioned their swords horizontally to receive my strike but their swords were shattered along with their heads, and then I send the last enemy flying with a front kick.

「Agh......ughh......」

I thought I got in a clean kick to destroy his stomach, but the chainmail he was wearing saved him.

It would be too sad if I left him to suffer in pain.

I stand in front of him and raise my sword.

「Please wait, Lord Hardlett!」

Just when I was about to give him the finishing blow, a voice calls out from behind .

「We need to ask that man about what happened today. I know it may be frustrating, but please......」

The one who stopped is Kenneth, who showed up from nowhere.

「......Alright.」

I use the butt of the sword to hit a spot on the man’s shoulder.

With a thud, the man is knocked unconscious and collapses.

「Well done.」

Seeing how the fighting is over, l and Leah co running to my side.

「Aegir-sama, you don’t have any injuries, do you?」

「Master~」

There, there, I’m happy that you two aren’t hurt either.

「Is Lord Hardlett a demon or sothing......?」「What a way of fighting, what strength......」

Not all the nobles looked at in admiration.

They’re probably thinking about a beautified version of fighting where both sides cross swords for a while before the final clash where only one person falls to the ground...... like it is displayed in the theatres.

In reality though, brain matter, guts and pools of blood are sprayed all over the room.

The corpses of 10 ruffians and several nobles are lying on the floor while so other nobles got injured and are wailing loudly. It was probably like a scene from hell to them, and with in the center of all that, they looked at in terror and disgust.

As if trying to cancel that delicate atmosphere, Kenneth clapped his hands to make a loud smack.

「Everyone! These guys may not be the only villains. Many of you have also gotten injured. Let’s move to a safer area as soon as we can!」

「Aah......right.」「My son! Where’s my son!?」

「Count Irhid, you’re the host! Go on and take the lead.」

The face of the master of the mansion turned pale when Kenneth glared at him, but he starts walking forward with a trembling voice.

「M-my apologies! Well everyone, please co this way before the real guards arrive......」

「And also...... if Lord Hardlett wasn’t here, then all of us might have gotten massacred. I express my deepest thanks on behalf of everyone here.」

Kenneth lowers his head to , which prompts the other nobles to also thank .

I don’t really care either way.

And you were really just hiding away sowhere the whole ti.

It might have been a wise decision on his part since he probably would have gotten in the way of the fight, but this doesn’t feel right to .

More importantly, I’m worried about sothing.

「Marquess Baldwin, about this incident......」

「Is it about how the remnants of the Magrado forces are targeting ?」

「Don’t you think it’s strange?」

「......if we were to believe what they said, but still you would think that their target would, with all due respect, be His Majesty. Assuming they gave up because they couldn’t infiltrate the palace, you would expect their next target to be either Marquess Radhalde or Lord Hardlett. However, they must not have known you would be here.」

It was decided on the spot after all.

It would be bad if that was the case.

「It’s hard to believe they would purposely aim just for ...... which ans it’s possible they simultaneously attacked the hos of Marquess Radhalde or Lord Hardlett.」

「I’m heading back ho. A carriage......no a horse, I’m borrowing one.」

Without waiting for a reply, I take l and Leah with on a horse. Unlike Schwartz, this horse looks like it’s having a hard ti, but it shouldn’t need to travel a long distance.

I make the horse gallop like its life depended on it.

Irijina should have returned to the mansion although she’s drunk, so the only others who can fight are Pipi and Kroll.

I think they can manage sohow if there’s only about 10 of them, but any more than that will be dangerous.

「Hope I make it in ti......」

But as I approach the mansion, a familiar stench wafts in the air.

The sll of blood, guts and burning flesh enters my nose.

Protagonist: Aegir Hardlett. 23 years old. Winter.

Status: Goldonia Kingdom Margrave. Great Feudal Lord of Eastern Area. King of the Mountains. Friend of the Dwarves.

Citizens: 155,000. Major Cities – Rafen: 22,000. Lintbloom: 3500.

Assets: 60,600 gold

Accompanying: l (concubine), Leah (lover), Irijina (drunk), Pipi (??), Dorothea (??), Alice (??), Kroll (??)

Sexual Partners: 151, children who have been born: 32