Chapter 118:Battle of Ramdas Plain (5)

The snow, which had been pouring down as if to paint the entire world white, came to a brief halt by early morning.  

However, there were many things ready to take its place. This time, it was a light mist that had settled in.  

“Soot… ngh…”  

Alyssa let out a groan as she checked the charcoal pile.  

When Keldric looked closer, he saw that the charcoal in her pale white hands was faintly damp.  

“This won’t work?”  

“No… It’s a bit difficult…”  

That meant Alyssa couldn’t use her magic easily.  

For Keldric, it was an unbearably unpleasant condition. Magic was invaluable on the battlefield.  

When the conditions were right, it could wipe out dozens in a single blow truly, alongside knights, it was one of the two great forces capable of changing the tide of war.  

And if one of them was faltering from the start, it was a troubling sign. Keldric smacked his lips with a complicated expression.  

“If only I’d taken better care of it…”  

“With this weather, it couldn’t be helped.”  

A thick radiation fog had settled over the Ramdas Plains a result of the freezing air.  

Snowflakes would still drift down from time to time, so even if the charcoal had been tightly wrapped, the moisture seeping in was unavoidable.  

“There’s a defect in the catalyst, but I think I can manage a couple of uses.”  

“Don’t push yourself too hard.”  

Keldric was concerned about Alyssa’s health, but couldn’t bring himself to tell her to just rest.  

In a battle where hundreds of lives were on the line, Alyssa’s magic was essential. It wasn’t that they were guaranteed to lose without magic but with it, even a losing battle could be turned into a win.  

Keldric wanted to bet on that possibility. For now, he had to. Alyssa couldn’t afford to make a scene about overexertion. And he didn’t want her to, either.  

“A battle will start soon.”  

“I see.”  

“Watch out for stray arrows. My father died that way.”  

Alyssa opened her eyes wide, then quickly glanced around, searching for any eavesdroppers.  

But for Keldric, it wasn’t really a secret. He awkwardly smacked his lips again.  

‘…I was going to tell her eventually anyway…?’  

Until now, Keldric hadn’t gone into detail about his family.  

He would just vaguely say, “My father passed away, and I left since I didn’t inherit the family title.”  

There wasn’t a particular reason for it. He wasn’t deliberately trying to hide anything.  

It’s just knowing information about someone isn’t the same as them knowing about you.  

Even if they were companions or attendants, Keldric didn’t share his own information easily. It wasn’t about trust; it just felt like common sense to him.  

Unless the other party pried deeply, there was no reason to blurt things out from his end.  

In that sense, Sir Volpen’s death wasn’t something he felt the need to hide.  

Everyone in the family knew already, and the people of Carlton village would be whispering about his cause of death sooner or later.  

‘It wasn’t even a disgraceful death.’  

If he had to think of something about his family he did intentionally keep hidden, it was Fritz  the attempted patricide.  

Fritz was a stain on the family name. Keldric didn’t feel any strong attachment to the House of Bellaf, but still, it wouldn’t smear the name he carried around like a business card.  

And besides, Keldric had crippled Fritz entirely that was something better left unsaid.

“That’s how careful you need to be.”  

“Ah, understood. But…”  

“Hmm?”  

“No, it’s nothing. Thank you for your concern.”  

Alyssa twisted a strand of her blonde hair around her finger, murmuring something under her breath. Whatever it was, it didn’t reach Keldric’s ears.  

Keldric sniffled. The cool mist brushed against his face, and the cold moisture stung like tiny needles.  

Soon, soldiers would charge across that snowy field. The Reesians, too, would be riding through it on horseback.  

Keldric would be among them. He would need to steel his heart.  

“Alyssa. Don’t you get cold these days?”  

“…Eh?”  

“Last time, you were cold and came right up next to—”  

“Wah! W-wait a minute! Sir Keldric!”  

Alyssa, her face red as a beet, started hopping in place. Keldric let out a quiet chuckle.  

“Alright, I’ll stop.”  

“Phew, phew… Seriously…”  

White breaths escaped her lips again and again. They scattered into the air and blended into the snowy landscape.  

“…It’s still cold.”  

“…Hmm?”  

“No, it’s just… Never mind.”  

Alyssa slapped her own cheeks lightly and took a deep breath. A mystery, truly.  

But thanks to it, the tension eased.  

Keldric looked off toward the inner area, where Helga was fitting a saddle on Aveline.  

And then he felt it in his gut this battle would encapsulate everything about the territorial war.  

Keldric recalled the events from two nights ago, in the pitch-black darkness.

☩   ☩   ☩   ☩   ☩   ☩   ☩

 Sir Lothar is going to the battlefield? 

Keldric realized that this wasn’t some empty remark like “I’ll personally oversee things from the camp.”

To go to the battlefield meant to stand shoulder to shoulder with the other knights and fight.

And Keldric wasn’t entirely sure of Sir Lothar’s combat ability. But he had a rough idea.

“No matter how you look at it…”

When he casually scanned Lothar’s body, even being generous, he was only at the level of a squire or perhaps an apprentice knight.

Of course, one can’t judge everything solely by the condition of one’s physique but still, there’s intuition. And Keldric knew his instincts were fairly sharp.

If Lothar were to step onto the battlefield in this state, he might be able to hold onto his life but even that wasn’t guaranteed.

You might predict the flow of battle, but within that flow, no one can predict who lives and who dies.

That was the one great truth that applied to everyone, regardless of rank or station. Whether the highest king or the lowest peasant soldier once on the battlefield, there were no guarantees of survival.

So, Keldric first tried to guess the true intention behind Sir Lothar’s words.

“Sir, that’s—”

“I know what it is you’re worried about, Sir Keldric.”

But Sir Lothar’s words carried weight.

Words have power. To put strength into one’s words what did that even mean?

To imbue words with power meant to speak from the heart. Just as you need actual liquor to fill a wineskin, you need sincerity to pour strength into your words.

Catching a glimpse of Lothar’s sincerity, Keldric widened his eyes.

“Do I seem arrogant to you?”

“No, sir.”

Keldric shook his head. Arrogance is confidence without basis.

If one is backed by certainty and stands firmly on solid ground, then that becomes confidence with justification.

But what Sir Lothar harbored was neither arrogance nor confidence. Keldric saw something else quietly creeping in between the two.

“Then do I look like a madman, struck in the face and left reeling?”

“I see a man prepared to take responsibility.”

Keldric paused to take a breath before continuing.

“And also… I see someone trying to prove himself through a reckless challenge.”

Sir Lothar fell silent. His wide eyes trembled like young shoots caught in a north wind.

Even the kings of neighboring lands and even the emperor of the empire had led their armies into battle in person. A lord was no different.

When a ruler who commands troops steps into battle what does that mean?

They fight when they must, when they can win, and when they must bear responsibility.

Thus, Keldric had no real intention of stopping Sir Lothar. It wasn’t unusual for lords to enter battle personally. It wasn’t particularly extraordinary.

Let alone when it wasn’t the lord himself, but merely his son Sir Lothar.

But there was still something that needed to be made clear: What exactly did it mean that Sir Lothar was stepping onto the battlefield?

“…You’re right, sir.”

Sir Lothar looked somewhat intimidated. Strange. He was a completely different person from the one just a few days ago.

But a person doesn’t change overnight and that applied to Lothar too.

“But, Sir Keldric doesn’t this battle present the perfect opportunity to capture that bastard Gottfried?”

Keldric made a sour face. If anyone was a greenhorn, it was Lothar himself.

“If those Lysians are truly as strong as you say, then I’ll personally step up and fight alongside the soldiers.”

“That’s the only reason?”

“…They were once my father’s subjects. And maybe, someday… they could have become mine.”

A complicated expression filled Lothar’s eyes. He was thinking of the people of Einhorn.

In this time of chaos and upheaval, tragedy and destruction clung to people like old friends, and villages like Einhorn were all too common in the Empire.

Some lords turned a blind eye to such tragedies. And then raised armies to create new ones with their own hands.

But then there were a few lords who were different.

“Those damn Gottfried bastards how dare they plunder my father’s loyal subjects as they please? Am I supposed to just stand by and watch? I’ve no such intention.”

Whatever the reason, he wasn’t looking away from the responsibilities of governing a territory he was trying to be true to them.

Keldric could see the budding signs of that in Lothar. Though still full of pride and stubbornness, what he held was something that could indeed be called a just cause.

Behind Lothar stood Sir Rutger, who gave a glance in Keldric’s direction. There was a touch of earnestness in his gaze.

Don’t crush the budding growth taking root in Lothar’s heart.

That’s what it seemed to say.

“If that is truly how you feel, Sir Lothar…”

So Keldric decided not to ignore it.

“Then we’ll crush them. Those unrighteous ones.”

A strong arc formed at the corner of Keldric’s lips. Sir Lothar, and Sir Rutger behind him, both smiled in turn.

To strike down those who betrayed justice there was no cause more honorable, no reason more righteous.

☩   ☩   ☩   ☩   ☩   ☩   ☩

The north wind blows.   

The fog that had covered the snowy field was half lifted. Like gentle ripples in the water, the wind-blown mist flowed smoothly and gracefully across the snow-covered permafrost.  

Over it, hundreds of strong men began to slowly gather.  

Perhaps the fog, frightened by their fierce presence, was retreating gradually on its own.  

Watching the plain gradually fill with heads of people, Arno suddenly found himself thinking such a thing.

“Arno……”  

A girl, still not fully awake, rubbed her eyes and approached. Arno erased the worried look on his face and smiled.  

“Helga, you fool. Are you still sleepy?”  

“Mmm… It was so cold at dawn today, I didn’t want to get up…”  

“Well, I could barely open my eyes too…”  

But still, we have to get up.  

If not, our master would be in trouble.  

Arno thought of his reliable, and secretly respected, master.  

A large build, and a solid personality to match. Not a single rough edge.  

“How’s the horse? Is it okay?”  

“Aveline is always healthy. I even gave her a little apple last night.”  

A whinnying sound rang out—

prrrr.  

Helga, who had stopped speaking, turned toward the sound.  

Ahead, where the soldiers were lined up, knights and mounted cavalry were forming ranks.  

Where Helga and Arno’s eyes landed was on a knight with an especially large frame among them.  

“…Aren’t you scared?”  

Helga suddenly spoke.  

The one her master was about to fight was from a foreign land soldiers who had burned her village to the ground.  

In the distance, beyond the still lingering pale fog, dozens of riders could be seen, dark and shadowy.  

Arno and Helga were certainly afraid of them.  

They weren’t the ones who had burned Arno and Helga’s village but in the end, it made little difference.  

Was Sir Keldric not afraid of them?  

Arno shook his head roughly.  

“He’s not afraid.”  

“How can he be like that? If it were me… I would’ve been terrified.”  

“Yeah. If it were crybaby Helga, you’d be bawling like crazy.”  

“…You’re mean.”  

“But, I think Sir Keldric probably isn’t bothered at all.”  

It’s not something he could know for sure. But Arno dared to be certain.  

“He’d never let himself be defeated, not while we’re watching.”  

The wind quieted slightly.  

The enemy camp in the distance seemed to have already formed up. In response, the soldiers holding spears, swords, and shields moved swiftly.  

There was no longer any fear in Arno’s eyes as he looked at them.  

His master, who had defeated countless knights and won the tournament, would never lose to those who know nothing of justice.  

The wind was cold, and snow would fall again tonight,  

but now the snowy field would be covered in warm blood and steel.  

 Boooo~!   

The plains of Ramdas began to shake violently.