Chapter 162 - The Roaring Lions of the North (1)

Count Sturmhilde Stuttgart was recognized for his extraordinary talent with the sword since childhood, joined the Royal Knights at an early age, achieved completion at the young age of thirty-five, and rose to the position of the youngest Commander of the Royal Knights.

Many knights praised his talent and achievements, but among them were those who disparaged his life as having been smooth and without hardship.

They even mocked him as a flower blooming in a garden cultivated by the king, having lived a sheltered life in the royal palace without knowing any hardship.

However, contrary to public perception, his life was never smooth, nor was it without hardship.

He spent his entire youth fighting against the secret operations of the Empire to turn the Royal House of Leonberk into puppets, and even in his old age, he did not have a single day of peace due to the Empire's ongoing operations.

The times he actually slept lying down in a bed could be counted on one hand.

During those arduous years, the number of assassins and assailants he struck down numbered in the hundreds; the old knight's spirit was not in the least bit lacking to be called a Silver Lion.

But that unmoving mind of his ended up wavering.

The swarm of monsters flocking to the snowfield, and the hideous monster mounted on a Griffon.

Every single thing exceeded his expectations.

Monsters on a scale that could not be counted. And what of the presence of that leader?

His skin prickled.

The battle hadn't even begun, the tens of thousands of monsters were merely crouching flat on the ground, and the beast on the Griffon was just looking down at the castle.

He couldn't even move an inch.

As if he had returned to the time when he first faced assassins, the old knight felt a sense of helplessness.

But he soon gathered his resolve.

Just as the lord of Winter Castle and its knights had the pride of having protected the North, the old knight had the pride of having protected the Royal Family.

He couldn't let that pride be rendered futile in front of monsters.

The old knight looked at the Prince.

He had acted as his teacher during his childhood, but it wasn't long before he cast him aside due to the wretchedness of his talent and innate nature.

It wasn't just him. Everyone who had been saddled with the Prince at the time had abandoned him like that.

Even his father hated his son, persecuting him and only thinking of ways to kick him out of the palace.

It was no exaggeration to say that the Prince's childhood was riddled with contempt and hatred.

He had feared that the Prince, raised in contempt and hatred, would bring a disaster upon the future of the kingdom. He thought that the moment the Prince ascended the throne, the hatred and anger that had dominated his childhood would sweep the kingdom.

But that wasn't the case.

The Prince threw off that hatred and contempt for all to see.

He subjugated the Northern lords, who were rough and possessed strong tempers, and won the hearts of the Iron Lions, renowned even within the kingdom.

In the process, he showed the resourcefulness to order the imperial ambassador around like his own limbs, and even cleared away the shadows of the Empire lurking throughout the royal palace.

The Prince was now an indispensable existence to the kingdom.

["It's not that I want to play the father now of all times. The current kingdom needs him more than it needs me."]

The King had also judged it so, and had persuaded the old knight, who stubbornly insisted on remaining by his side, in that manner.

["That child is now the future of the kingdom, and the kingdom itself. So, please protect him. So that the reckless child doesn't fall before he can even spread his branches."]

The moment he recalled the King's request, the old knight's head cooled down.

His heart, rather, burned hotly.

The King had commanded. To protect the future of the kingdom.

That one word was enough.

The old knight grasped his sword.

Judging by himself, he would not be able to clear away the presence of that leader with his energy alone.

In front of the beast's terrifying presence, the four rings he had been so proud of were nothing.

But the King's knight did not fight to win, so simply protecting was enough.

CLANG.

The sound of a sword springing from its scabbard dug into his ears.

It wasn't a sound from the old knight's sword. He hadn't even drawn his sword yet.

FLASH.

A brilliant golden auspicious light spread across the entire wall.

The old knight turned his head toward that auspicious light.

There stood the woman the Prince held most dear.

It was the newly born Silver Lion of the kingdom, Adelia Bayern.

He had thought of her as a woman who showed not even a hair of a spirit befitting a Silver Lion, someone more suited to strolling through the royal court beautifully dressed up rather than standing on a battlefield holding a sword.

He had even foolishly thought that although her appearance wasn't exceptionally outstanding, her gentle complexion and polite posture suited the Prince quite well.

Yet the frail woman he had thought of that way drew her sword before anyone else.

WOOOONG.

At that moment, another flash of light burst forth.

This time, it was Arwen Kirgayen.

While the men, crushed by the massive presence, were merely biting their lips and groaning, the female knights drew their swords and aimed them at the beast.

He could see the men twitching their eyebrows and clenching their jaws.

"Damn it. I have my pride as a man."

The young lord of the Eli family drew his sword and aimed it at the sky.

The pale light emitting from his sword spread widely across the wall.

That was the beginning.

CLANG.

The old knight also drew his sword.

There was no more hesitation. Rather, a sharpness was added to the blade in his heart that had dulled as he entered his old age.

The sword power containing his entire life gathered at the tip of his sword.

White light burst forth and enveloped the top of the wall.

Thus, four Masters each aimed their swords at the beast from the top of the wall.

The beast twitched the corners of its lipless mouth.

Because of the mangled face, the old knight could not tell what expression the beast was trying to make.

But seeing that the pressure crushing down on their energy had increased, he could at least tell that it wasn't pleased with the flashes and momentum blooming on the wall.

His skin prickled at that anger.

The old knight rotated his rings even more fiercely. The white light lingering on his cherished sword spread more intensely and further.

The other three Masters squeezed their hearts and rings respectively, responding to the old knight's momentum.

A taut tension, a balance that seemed ready to collapse at any moment.

The old knight drew out his energy with the thought that he wouldn't mind dying right here today.

His back became damp with sweat. The chill of the driving biting wind assaulted his body. Nevertheless, instead of driving away the chill, the old knight squeezed his rings and resisted the beast.

How much time had passed?

In reality, not much time would have passed, but it felt as if hours had gone by.

The existence the old knight had to protect stepped forward.

Spitting out an unfamiliar language, different from human tongues, from his mouth.

『...』

A fierce sound, much like an Orc growling.

What kind of language it was, or what it meant. The old knight did not know.

However, he could at least tell that those words had made the beast furious.

The beast mounted on the Griffon opened its mouth wide.

But before a roar could burst through its teeth,

"Fire!"

BOOM!

The angry shout of the lord of Winter Castle and a loud explosion rang out first.

Unidentified lumps of iron positioned all over the wall spewed fire.

Black trajectories flew through the air.

The Griffon, caught at the end of those trajectories, hurriedly flapped its wings and flew up.

The cannonballs fell vainly to the ground.

But in the meantime, a single arrow flying in from somewhere pierced the Griffon's shoulder.

The Griffon screamed and staggered. The beast also grabbed the Griffon's nape and swayed side to side with it.

The dignity of the beast, which had been looking down arrogantly at the castle, no longer existed.

There was merely a monster sitting on top of a flying beast, struggling not to fall.

KUWOOOOAR!

The beast roared.

"All forces of Winter Castle!"

The Prince shouted back.

The monsters in the snowfield that had been crouching started charging forward with bizarre shrieks all at once. The Rangers grabbed their bows and crossbows.

The lumps of iron lowered their heads, spewing out creaking, roaring sounds.

THUMP THUMP.

The ground shook. The snow piled up on the walls fell in droves.

"Engage!"

With rough shouts, the Rangers released the bowstrings of their crossbows and strongbows.

SWISH, SWISH, SWISH.

Thousands of arrows covered the sky.

WHOOSH!

Under the rain of death falling with sharp sounds of tearing the air, a section of the monsters crumbled.

But the formation that had crumbled like that was quickly filled with other monsters.

"Crush the ones holding ladders and ropes first!"

"Ignore the big ones! They won't pierce anyway!"

The Rangers' shouts burst out one after another on top of the wall. The sound of pulling and releasing bowstrings filled the entire wall.

"I will take the west!"

"Then I will take the east!"

Scattering brilliant flashes, the kingdom's rising Silver Lions ran along the wall.

The knights of Winter Castle grabbed their shields all at once and stood at the edge of the wall.

"Hah!"

At the same time, all sorts of things flew up from below the wall.

CRASH!

Loud noises rang out everywhere.

However, not a single spear or boulder thrown by the monsters made it over the wall.

"Hah!"

The knights let out spirited yells again and swung their shields.

The wolves and Orc riders that had leapt up along the wall were struck by the shields and plummeted straight down.

GWOOOAR!

Large monsters reaching several meters in height let out bizarre shrieks and threw axes and boulders.

The knights holding shields lowered their bodies all at once. Stepping on their backs and shoulders, the knights in the rear ranks leapt up.

WOOOONG!

The light clinging to their swords was out of the ordinary.

It was a Sword Aura likely belonging to at least three rings.

CLASH!

An explosive sound was heard. The knights who had leapt up blocked the monsters' attacks and were continuously bounced backwards.

The knights who had lowered their bodies raised their shields again. Behind them, other knights were catching the bodies of their comrades tumbling down the wall.

The Rangers didn't even bat an eye, even when boulders shattered right in front of their noses and knights were bounced away.

It was the same even when wolves that had climbed up the wall charged with their jaws snapping.

They merely kept firing arrows like machines.

And the knights protected them.

"Ah..."

The old knight marveled as he watched that sight.

It was an unfamiliar scene.

He had never heard of or seen such precious knights stepping forward to fight like mere soldiers. He had especially never seen knights throwing their bodies to protect soldiers like this.

He was quite touched by their exemplary attitude.

But at the same time, he was worried.

Because at this rate, the knights would end up exhausting themselves first.

Orders of knights had to maintain their best combat power at all times. Only then could they step forward when needed and do their part.

That was common sense.

But it didn't take very long for that common sense to be shattered.

The knights of Winter Castle did not know exhaustion.

They were like men of iron.

At that moment, the Prince approached and explained, as if he had seen through his thoughts.

He said that the knights of Winter Castle, who had to fight for anywhere from a few weeks to several months once a battle began, naturally had no choice but to learn how to use their energy efficiently and quickly recover their exhausted energy.

The old knight couldn't help but let out an exclamation.

They said there was nothing that grew a knight faster than real combat, and the current Winter Castle was exactly that.

However, no matter how efficiently they managed their energy, there was bound to be a limit to the knights' mana. Once the knights fell like that, a gap would inevitably form in their forces.

"Isn't the momentum of the knights fighting on the front lines actually subsiding quite a bit?"

At the old knight's words, the Prince chuckled and looked back.

"It's about time they rotated out, anyway."

The Prince's incomprehensible muttering.

"Rotate the front lines!"

Right then, the lord of Winter Castle shouted.

"Hah!"

The knights who had been fighting fiercely with the monsters at the front lines swung their shields hard all at once and fell back.

And as if they had been waiting, other knights stepped forward, clutching their shields and swords.

The old knight's eyes went wide.

Although he hadn't counted the exact numbers himself, roughly close to 400 knights had stepped back all at once. Nevertheless, no gap appeared in the front lines.

That meant an equivalent number of knights had rotated in with them.

It was something the old knight couldn't understand.

He had heard that even if one gathered all the knights in the entire North, there wouldn't even be 500, and even then, a significant number of them had been sacrificed in the previous disturbance.

The Second Prince had even confirmed that fact for him.

Yet there was a knight force approaching a thousand.

"Did you report reduced combat strength?"

The Prince replied in a nonchalant tone.

"Because there were spies of the Empire everywhere."

At the Prince's words, the old knight stood dazed before bursting into laughter all at once.

Historic knight orders had been unable to overcome the Empire's pressure and were dismantled one by one, and the kingdom had become a toothless lion.

They said the day when the lions of the North would roar again would never come.

Everyone had chattered like that.

The old knight had also secretly thought so.

But that wasn't the case.

A new history of the kingdom was beginning on this bitterly cold land that no one knew about.

And that new history would be glorious and brilliant, unlike the past hundred years that had been riddled with humiliation and defeat.

Bathed in emotion, the old knight looked at the Prince with a flushed red face.

"It's not over yet."

As soon as the Prince's words ended, heat gathered in the air.

It was a small ember.

The ember grew into a fist-sized mass, and then grew again into a flame larger than a human head.

The fireball plummeted down onto the monsters.

CRASH!

The small fireball became a blazing inferno spanning several meters.

Flames surged up everywhere.

The monsters that caught fire ran wild, screaming.

"It seems there were quite a few with pretty decent talent as Mages among the sons sent by the nobles."

The old knight opened his eyes wide and stared at the flames.

It was distinctly combat magic, something that had not manifested in the 100 years since the Magic Tower was sealed by the Empire.

As the old knight, deeply moved, was watching the flames of magic that had returned once again, the Prince drew his sword and stepped forward.

The three Masters who had scattered along the wall to slaughter the monsters stood behind him.

Rising stars who had reached completion years to a decade earlier than he had; the old knight looked at the young Silver Lions with an overwhelmed gaze.

Unaware of the old knight's gaze, they were busy whispering among themselves.

"That guy will be showing up soon."

"Already?"

At the Prince's words, the young lord of the Eli family tilted his head.

"We played with fire in front of a guy who gets convulsions at the sight of fire, so he won't be able to stand not coming forward."

It was something the old knight couldn't understand, and it seemed the others felt the same way.

Seeing as questions arose uniformly on the faces looking at the Prince.

The young lord of the Eli family asked again, as if suddenly remembering something.

"But what did you say earlier?"

What on earth did you say that made the arrogant guy charge in like a boar struck by sudden fire?

To that question, the Prince answered in a calm tone.

"I said he's awfully full of himself for a piece of trash chewed up and spat out by a Fire Dragon."