Volume 8 Chapter 4 Tale Of Nokin Triumph – Later
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”Got it.”
Geronimo replied and, with his shield raised, marched toward the enemy lines.
Unlike yesterday, a volley of arrows rained down on Geronimo from the enemy ranks, but the steel-forged full-body armor I had given him deflected them all.
As he reached the perimeter, he placed his shield down and swung his warhammer in a wide arc.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The wooden palisade splintered, and when Geronimo charged through, a gaping hole appeared in the enemy lines.
”Good work. Let’s go!”
Without hesitation, I spurred my horse forward and raced towards the breach Geronimo had created.
The enemy soldiers, their ranks broken, were paralyzed by the return of their previous terror, their legs turning to jelly.
As I charged in, I swung my greatsword, cutting down the fleeing soldiers who dared to show their backs.
Geronimo, meanwhile, swung his warhammer around him, slaughtering the enemy soldiers in his path.
”Those who do not wish to die, drop your weapons and lie flat on the ground! Those who cling to their weapons will be slain!”
”If you don’t want to die, do as Nokin says! You there, do you intend to fight if you refuse to lay down your weapon?”
The man glared at by Geronimo hurled his weapon far away and threw himself face down onto the ground.
Soon, Repulus, leading his troops, stormed into the encampment.
The positions were breached, the remaining soldiers were slaughtered one by one, and those who surrendered were taken prisoner.
”Where is Surveyga? I challenge him to a duel!”
I cut down the remaining soldiers and rushed through the camp, but I couldn’t find the general-looking figure.
It seemed that when the palisade was breached, he had abandoned his troops and fled back to the town.
The army, now without a leader, was thrown into chaos.
”Sir Nokin, we should annihilate the enemy army while they are disorganized.”
”Let some of them escape back to the town. We’ll charge into the town with them!”
”Understood. We’ll leave a gap in the encirclement.”
As Repulus issued instructions to his subordinates, he was loosening the siege along the road leading to the town.
Enemy soldiers surged towards the area that had been relaxed.
The enemy soldiers who escaped the siege dashed straight towards the town, where the walls stood tall.
Leaving the processing of those who surrendered to his deputy, Repulus led Geronimo and a thousand troops, pursuing the retreating enemy while effectively guiding them towards the town.
In due course, the routed enemy reached the gates of Ostenfort.
Because they had created distance from the enemy before reaching the gates, the gate guards opened the gates to accommodate the allied retreating soldiers.
”All troops, Charge! Take the gates by storm! Sir Nokin! I entrust you with the elimination of the enemy!”
”Aye, I have it covered. Let’s go, Geronimo!”
”Leave it to me.”
Rapidly closing in on the enemy who had been maintaining their distance, I launched an attack on the guards who were opening the gates and facilitating the accommodation.
One of the guards, who had been working to open the gates, met my strike and was cleaved in 2 at the torso and lower half.
The sight elicited a scream from the enemy soldiers.
”AAAHHH! Nokin is here! Quickly, shut the gates! We’ll be killed!”
Alongside Geronimo, I mowed down the soldiers near the gates, succeeding in breaching through.
Repulus, with his own troops, expanded the breach we had created and swiftly completed the seizure of the gates.
”Do not resist! We will not kill those who bear no weapons and do not show intent to oppose! If you wish to live, drop your weapons and lay down upon the ground to surrender. We are the forces of the Garuda Principality. Under the Kingdom’s decree to reclaim the territory, we are here solely to arrest the Surveyga who are unlawfully occupying Ostenfort. We will not lay a hand on the town. Citizens, remain inside your homes.”
I called out to the nearby soldiers and civilians to surrender in the Loud Voice I could muster.
Geronimo likewise urged the civilians and soldiers to submit, and even the troops of Repulus who had invaded the town began to call for surrender.
One after another, the civilians and soldiers discarded their weapons and either lay down on the ground or chose to retreat into their homes, watching the situation unfold.
And so, the enemies had completely vanished from the lord’s mansion that Surveyga had occupied.
I spurred my horse onward towards the mansion.
Arriving at the mansion, I encountered men loading gold and silver treasures into several carriages halted outside.
”Hey! Where the hell is Surveyga?!”
The man, halted in his tracks, paled at the sight of my face.
”Hiii! It’s Nokin! I’m so sorry! Please don’t kill me! I was just led astray by Surveyga! I have no intention of opposing the Kingdom or going against the Garuda Principality!”
”Where is Surveyga?”
”He’s inside, looking for women to take along. We were only ordered to load the valuables.”
Upon hearing that, I knocked the men unconscious.
I left it to Geronimo, who arrived late, to bind the men while I entered the mansion.
Inside the mansion, chaos reigned; the screams of women echoed from every corner.
”Surveyga! Become rust to my sword without resistance!”
A particularly loud scream from a woman rang out from the second floor.
I ascended the stairs and headed towards the back of the second floor.
Opening the door to a room from which sounds were coming, I found a man from the Asura Clan pulling on the hand of a catgirl.
”Who the hell are you?! Wait, it’s Nokin! How did you get here so fast?! The castle gates should have been closed!”
”Are you Surveyga?”
The man from the Asura Clan averted his eyes and answered my call.
”N-no, I’m just a mercenary. I don’t go by the name of Surveyga.”
Then, the catgirl retorted sharply.
”That’s not true! This man is Surveyga! He’s the one who killed my master, Lord Ostenfort!”
”I told you I’m not!”
The man from the Asura Clan kicked the catgirl away.
Seeing his panicked demeanor, it was clear that he was indeed Surveyga.
I pointed my greatsword at the man’s throat and asked his name once more.
”I’ll ask you one more time. Are you Surveyga? Answer me or I’ll take your head off right here!”
The man, pale as a ghost with my sword at his neck, trembled in fear.
”…So, that’s it. It’s Surveyga. I admit it. So don’t kill me. I can be of use to you if you let me live. I’ll do any dirty work for you. By the way, what about the women? There are many fine women in the Garuda Clan. I’ll give them all to you.”
Surveyga was a low-class man.
He was a man who cared only for money and women, and he lacked even a shred of a warrior’s spirit.
”I’m sorry, but the women are already taken care of. You are a criminal who has broken the laws of the Kingdom. I will investigate all your crimes and determine your punishment. Until then, you will live.”
I knocked Surveyga unconscious.
Thus, ‘Swords and Skulls’, which had been controlling most of the Ostenfort territory, was destroyed, and the town and streets of Ostenfort became part of the Garuda Principality.
The surrendered ‘Swords and Skulls’ soldiers were subjected to a rigorous criminal investigation, and most of them were revealed by the residents to have been involved in crimes. Over a thousand of them were sent to work on the road construction site. Those who had committed serious crimes, such as murder, were to be executed.
When the week-long criminal investigation was completed, they were brought to the square in Ostenfort and lined up before the guillotine.
I watched the scene from a prime seat in the square.
Beside me were Geronimo, who had become my personal bodyguard, and Repulus, who had been formally promoted to General.
And there was Bartram, who had worked tirelessly to prove the criminal acts.
There was one more person, the cat-like woman who had helped me capture Surveyga. She had become my personal maid.
She introduced herself as Terry, a young catfolk in her twenties.
Apparently, she had worked as a personal maid for the Lord of Ostenfort, but now she was asking to serve me.
Personally, I had no interest in any woman other than Alonsa, but since we met by chance when I saved her, and she tearfully confessed she had no job, I reluctantly let her try working as a maid.
Surprisingly, she offered the same level of attentiveness and comfort as Alonsa, which led to her becoming my personal maid.
Alonsa’s been pretty busy with all kinds of work lately’ maybe I’ll leave the day-to-day stuff to Terry.
Still, I’ll need to get Alonsa’s permission when I get back’ she’s scary when she’s mad.
As I was thinking about all that, the announcement for the public execution began.
The townsfolk had gathered in the square’ many of them from distant villages’
probably because the sentencing of the leaders of the Garden of the Goddess was happening at the same time.
”I couldn’t just dump the troublesome work on Bartram. Thanks to you, I saved myself the hassle of a lengthy investigation. I’ll make sure to let Alonsa know so you can be rewarded.”
”No, I was simply doing my job for the people of Ostenfort; there’s no need for a reward…”
”Don’t be modest. After all, I can’t imagine Alonsa letting you go that easily.”
Bartram, known for his competence as a clerk and his ne2rk of traders, had excelled in information gathering during this expedition, which led to an invitation from Alonsa to become her direct bureaucrat after she reviewed the records.
”Very well… if you put it that way, I shall strive to be a limb for Lady Alonsa.”
”Good, Mr. Bartram is also rising in the world. I’m a General, after all, and Mr. Bartram should at least be in charge of the capital.”
Repulus was also pleased to see Bartram’s promotion.
He himself was nervous about being made a General out of his depth and likely wanted his acquaintance Bartram close by.
In the square, those guilty of heinous crimes such as murder, robbery, and assault on women were having their charges read aloud before being sent one by one to the guillotine.
Each time the blade of the guillotine fell, the crowd would burst into cheers.
They delighted in hearing the dying cries of the despicable individuals they had come to loathe.
”Damn it! I’m an officer of the Kingdom’s army! I demand a proper military trial! I don’t even know about the Garuda Principality!”
It was Surveyga, the one who had ruled this land, who was led to the guillotine, shouting at the top of his lungs.
He had dabbled in every conceivable crime, and it took quite a while to read out his charges.
”Nokin! Just because you became king, don’t let it get to your head! You too have done horrific things with the Demon God Emperor’s army! Don’t act like a saint now!”
Surveyga, seated at the guillotine, seemed to have accepted his fate and spat curses in my direction.
”Surveyga! You have bullied the common folk too much. My village could have survived if you hadn’t killed the Lord. Because of you, we were forced under the control of that mysterious army called ‘Garden of Goddess’ and fell into hardship!”
Geronimo, who stood beside me, was retorting against Surveyga’s curses.
Indeed, had Surveyga not instigated a rebellion, it was believed that the Ostenfort territory would have remained under the Kingdom’s rule.
”Geronimo is right. The fact that many common people suffered under your luxurious demands cannot be twisted. I am not a good person, but neither do I remember becoming a wicked one. I shall only slay my enemies.”
”There’s no difference between you and me. It’s merely a matter of whether we could ride the tide of the times!”
As Surveyga glared at me, the blade of the guillotine came crashing down, severing his neck.
The decapitated head fell into the basket.
A louder cheer erupted from the crowd in the square.
If I had gone astray, perhaps I would stand in that very spot… but I believe Alonsa will handle things properly in that regard…
I decided to remember Surveyga’s demise as a lesson.
Next to ascend the guillotine was Grace, the Lord’s daughter.
She was being condemned for suggesting involvement in several kidnappings and allegations of sexual assault.
”I am the Lord’s daughter! Are you going to kill the only one with the right to inherit this territory?”
Grace, her makeup stripped away, revealed a hideous visage as she screamed in distress.
Terry watched this scene with a complicated expression.
”Is Terry not willing to help Grace? If you beg for her life, I might be persuaded to spare her, even if it means I must strip n*ked and become the nighttime companion of the street paving laborers.”
I had given Terry, who was the Lord’s maid, a chance to help her daughter, Grace.
But, Terry shook her head.
”My sister was abducted by her and turned into a comfort woman, and she committed suicide. I am only in the Lord’s debt, and I owe that woman nothing. I see no reason to help her.”
Terry, with a composed expression, glared at Grace with a hateful light in her eyes.
”I see… you were only jesting. Forgiven.”
I signaled to the executioner.
The executioner placed Grace on the guillotine and cut the rope supporting the blade.
THUNK!
Grace was beheaded, becoming a lifeless corpse.
With her death, the Ostenfort territory lost all its heirs, and it was officially incorporated into the Garuda Principality’s domain.
~New Character~
Geronimo
- Garuda Clan
- Minotaur species
- 35 years old
- Male mercenary from Yuenal Village, Ostenfort territory
He fought as a mercenary for Swords and Skulls against the Nokin but was defeated and captured. Afterward, he pledged allegiance to the Nokin.
With his extraordinary strength, he fights in full-body armor, wielding a massive shield and warhammer to protect the Nokin.
—
Terry
- Garuda Clan
- Cat species
- 22 years old
- Former maid to the Lord of Ostenfort
After the Surveyga Rebellion, the Lord was killed, and Terry was taken as a comfort woman. Her older sister was also abducted by Grace and driven to suicide.
Terry was rescued by Nokin when Surveyga tried to flee with her. She now works as Nokin’s exclusive maid.
—
Surveyga
- Asura Clan
- Male, 40s
- Officer in the Eastern Garrison Army of the Kingdom
Known for his poor conduct, he was under surveillance. Like the Gertroud Uprising, he murdered the General of the Garrison Army and massacred the Lord of Ostenfort.
For a time, he ruled over half of Ostenfort territory, but was ultimately defeated by Nokin and executed.
—
Grace Ostenfort
- Majin Clan
- Female, 20s
- The only daughter of the Lord of Ostenfort
She grew up spoiled and selfish, jealous of anyone more beautiful than herself. She used her subordinates to abduct them, turning them into playthings for her amusement.
After Nokin annexed Ostenfort, she was used as a symbol to legitimize the takeover. Once it was complete, she was executed for her crimes.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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