13 (13)

There was a stir, if not quite a commotion, within Louis’s formation. As rumors spread that Duke Louis was continuing to remain stationed here because he was waiting for Atila’s envoy, setting aside whether it was true or not, everyone was speculating that such a thing was unlikely to really happen.

The soldiers belonging to House Pontina knew better than anyone how warlike the barbarians were, so while they were all secretly saying in unison that they could not understand what had made Duke Louis think such a thing, six barbarian warriors, their clothes covered in dust from how hurriedly and how far they had traveled, arrived at Louis’s camp.

The representative of the barbarian warriors was a man named Gondolr. Gondolr looked around. The wooden buildings clearly bore traces of having caught fire and then gone out, and the tribesmen who had once filled the streets were hardly to be seen. There were only a few makeshift market stalls left, and it still seemed as though the fishy smell of blood lingered on the ground.

The military discipline of the well-trained soldiers stationed here and there was enough to thoroughly intimidate them. Strictly speaking, this was not their homeland. If tribesmen who had originally been based here had been sent as envoys, there probably would have been some kind of disturbance.

Knowing that well, Atila had sent as envoys a tribe settled far from Gedria. In particular, the deeper they went inside, the tighter the security became. The equipment each soldier wore did not look poor at a glance. Since they had been fighting the soldiers of the Kingdom of Gaimer until just a few days ago, they immediately recognized that Louis’s soldiers were wearing weapons and armor of better quality than the arms and armor those soldiers wore.

Not only Gondolr, but the five warriors accompanying him also seemed to grasp the rough difference, and they were marveling at Atila’s wisdom. If they faced Duke Louis’s forces head-on, they could not even begin to imagine how many warriors would die. Nor did there seem to be any guarantee of victory.

In any case, the farther inside they went, the more cold sweat ran down their backs. They could not hide their anxious eyes, and the thought that they might end up buried here naturally made their movements shrink. At the same time, Gondolr also had a vague desire to see the man named Louis. If he could see with his own eyes just how great the man Atila feared was and return alive, he would be able to boast about it to his friends and family for a long time.

“Stop. We will inspect your clothes.”

They were already unarmed, but the soldiers standing before Gondolr thoroughly searched the barbarian warriors’ bodies. They had already put down all their weapons, but seeing them inspect so thoroughly, he briefly thought that Louis might not be a warrior by their standards.

“No matter how much you search, there’s nothing but something dangling and a letter.”

When one of Gondolr’s subordinates said that, the barbarian warriors laughed among themselves for a moment, but Louis’s soldiers said nothing, and their expressions did not change either.

Gondolr muttered inwardly that they were fellows into whom even a knife would not go. Soon, having apparently finished the inspection, the soldier who had given the order to stop earlier sent a signal inward.

At last, it was time to meet the man they had so long awaited. When they went farther inside and then turned left once more, many people were sitting or standing within. Gondolr swallowed. The aura coming from inside was fierce enough to be terrifying. While he had thought outside that, since there were many people giving off the aura of powerful warriors, he might not be able to tell which one was Louis, once he actually saw him with his own eyes, he knew at a glance who Louis was.

A young man sitting alone in a chair draped with the hide of a twin-headed ogre, the symbol of the Giant Slayer, and, in their way of speaking, giving off the aura of an unbelievably powerful warrior.

‘So that was Louis…. He could rival the chieftain. This is no joke. He is a perfect supreme warrior, exactly as the rumors said.’

Not only Gondolr, but all five he had brought with him could not hold back their admiration when they saw Louis. As though mocking the proverb that excessive expectations only led to disappointment, Louis’s first impression surpassed even Atila. Rather than looking like the embodiment of fear as barbarians usually imagined, he gave them a feeling of awe that was unfamiliar to them. Soon, he realized that, not only for the sake of his own life but for the future of the Huns, he had to somehow secure an alliance with Louis.

As Louis looked at the barbarian warrior standing before him, he knew his prediction had been correct. He had used some information from the System, but his inference, pieced together from various specific details, had hit the mark quite plausibly.

“What is your name?”

“My name is Gondolr, O Lion of Fear.”

“Lion of Fear…? What was that supposed to mean?”

“That is what we call you.”

“I do not care how you view me. Just open your mouth and tell me for what purpose you wished to meet me. If it does not please me, you may pay the price. However, I find your courage in coming to this enemy camp impressive.”

“Thank you. The ruler of the Huns, the conqueror of Gaimer, the Final King, wishes to once more request a truce from Duke Louis. The compensation can be adjusted, and he says he will not separately question this incident.”

Jodan delivered to Louis the letter that Gondolr had brought. When he opened the letter, the contents written in rough handwriting were revealed.

[Greetings, Duke Louis. I am Atila. I can do nothing but express regret at your fierce attack. However, I will not take separate issue with this matter. I too have attacked your city before, so would it not be best to consider this debt settled? I wish to cast aside past matters on this occasion and establish a long-term relationship with you. I do not know what you think, but while you were attacking my city, I was taking the capital of Gaimer. And now I am personally crushing the coalition formed by miscellaneous fools. I sincerely ask for peace with you, and if you approve, I will share a modest portion of the slaves and treasures obtained in Gaimer. I would only be grateful if you would return the brothers of mine whom you are holding prisoner.]

The contents of the letter were unprecedented. It meant that Atila would acknowledge Louis’s possession of Gedria, which Louis had occupied, and that he would give him slaves and gold beyond what had been promised last time. Considering this proposal for a truce, Louis’s decision to stay here waiting rather than advancing had been an extremely good judgment. Folding the letter, Louis spoke toward Gondolr.

“I have read the letter well. I will positively consider a truce with the Huns, so I would like you to remain here for a few days.”

“R-Really?”

He was sweating so pitifully that he looked exhausted enough that it would not have been strange if he collapsed on the spot. That was only natural, because if Louis changed his mind once more, it would be hard for him to return alive to his tribe. For them, the time Louis spent reading the letter had been as tense as waiting for a death sentence.

In any case, Louis’s positive reply carried enough weight to send all of them into joyous uproar. Before coming here, how pitifully had the tribesmen looked at him? If this matter was concluded well, it was no different from accomplishing something he could boast about for the rest of his life. More than anything, the fact that he had seen Louis with his own two eyes was now something he wanted to brag about even to his six-year-old child.

“Take them away now. Assign separate rooms to them.”

Their brightened expressions were so obvious that there was no one inside who failed to notice it. Some sneered that they were spineless wretches, but most felt relieved that they would not have to go to war with the wicked Atila.

As the event Louis had predicted turned out to be true, Akiteia could not hide her excitement and steeled herself to ask him about it in private tonight without fail, while Kaban Ferdinand slandered the barbarians’ attitude as spineless, honorless, and unmanly, and felt a good-natured jealousy as he looked at Louis, who was more famous among the barbarians than he was for his own renown.

‘Mary must surely capture Duke Louis’s heart.’

Pendoes was a lord who formed one axis of the coalition of lords resisting Atila. Having lost thousands of soldiers at once through his own foolish arrogance and judged a head-on battle impossible, he was now devoting himself only to defending his castle. Atila had swiftly encircled the fortress as if tightening a noose around his throat, yet cunningly, he was only applying pressure so as not to suffer losses among his own troops.

Because there were many more soldiers than those inside the castle, it was only a matter of time before food ran out. External supplies had all been cut off, and the food inside clearly had limits. In this situation, if they went outside, it was obvious they would all die helplessly. Under extreme stress, his hair was falling out.

Atila had suddenly raised an army and was seizing the country like a catastrophe, yet the situation was completely helpless. If they had united and blocked him from the beginning, there might have been a chance of enduring, but through a series of misjudgments born of distrust, the country stood on the brink of destruction. In such a situation, the news to which he had been clinging was precisely Duke Louis’s movements.

As time passed, he learned that the famous Duke Louis had raised his army and attacked the Huns. The result was a great victory. But for some reason, as if he had become full, he no longer moved from that spot. If Duke Louis had continued to advance boldly, Atila would have had no choice but to pull back, but according to secret news that had just arrived, Louis had concluded a truce pact with Atila.

He was enraged, but they could not all die here. If he surrendered, he would lose most of the power and territory he currently possessed, but that was still better than dying, and better than countless lives dying meaninglessly. After agonizing for three more hours, he finally decided to surrender.

Seeing Pendoes and his close aides come out waving a white flag, Atila smiled. At the same time, when the envoys informed Atila that they had concluded a truce with Duke Louis, Atila felt as though a thorn lodged in him had been removed. Only now could he focus all his attention on matters here. It was enough to make anyone faint in shock if they heard it, but it was true that he had not been exerting his full strength because he had been keeping Louis in mind.

Now that Pendoes, who could be seen as the core of the coalition of lords, had surrendered, the fall of the Kingdom of Gaimer could now be considered certain. Thinking that this vast and fertile land was his, Atila laughed at ease for the first time in his life.

Thus, the points Louis gained from this war were 20,000 from defeating the barbarian army, 10,000 as a battlefield domination bonus, 5,000 as a detached-force bonus, 20,000 for capturing Gijik alive, and 20,000 as an alliance bonus with Atila, which, when added to the points he already had, left him with no less than 95,000 points. For occupying land that was useless in every possible way, the gains left behind were greater than expected, both in practical terms and in terms of the System.

Since Louis’s first Wonder, Alexander the Great’s Library, had steadily accumulated Science, Louis was now in a position to unlock two researches that would make it possible to open a new era.

The two researches whose requirements had been insufficient before moving into the Magitech Age were, in order, Physics and Magitech.

The required points were 20,000 each, 40,000 in total, so even if he spent them here, 50,000 points would remain. He was confident, but he could not help but hesitate. In the Magitech Age, it would not be only Louis who benefited; it was an era in which the world’s technology rapidly advanced and special events erupted one after another.

Whether he was prepared to bear a new paradigm, new resources, and a new wave was ambiguous, but Louis could answer that he was. There were many researches that could be advanced even in the Magitech Age. As he unlocked them, it would become possible to establish new military branches, and specialized military branches were directly tied to Louis’s growth.