Chapter 121: Nalson, the Honored Guest

Blue Goose Castle stood beside the lake, named for the blue waterfowl that dwelled upon it. The fortress had been built by the Chipman family as a military stronghold against the forest centaurs.

The Chipmans had governed Blue Goose Castle for more than a century. After repeated renovations, the fortress had reached the limits of human castle-building. The main keep rose sixty-four meters high, while the two auxiliary keeps stood fifty-five meters tall. Thirty-meter walls linked the three fortresses, enclosing an area of three square kilometers. Within lay water sources, fields, storehouses, a smithy, stables, and barracks—everything needed to maintain a garrison of three thousand soldiers for years.

For a hundred years, Blue Goose Castle had stood impregnable, never once attacked by the forest centaurs. Now, at last, it had seen its first battle.

“Excellent! As expected of the Bear of the North!”

“Berner, shoot already! Watching you is giving me an ulcer!”

“Berner, have you gone soft?”

Berner, a knight built like a giant bear, shot a furious glare at his fellow knights and nocked a fire arrow to his longbow. With a deep hum, the arrow flew, crossing more than four hundred meters before striking an ant-man and setting it ablaze.

Berner spread his broad mouth in a triumphant grin. But then another fire arrow soared high into the sky, and his smile froze upon his face.

“What a freak!”

Berner gritted his teeth and drew the longbow again. His eyes spun in their sockets as the knotted muscles of his arm swelled high. With a sharp crack, the birch longbow snapped in two.

“My bow broke! This round doesn’t count!” Berner bellowed, only to be met by a chorus of jeers from his companions.

Nelson loosed two arrows in succession, then turned to Berner and said calmly, “You lost.”

Berner’s weathered face flushed red, but he immediately burst into laughter and slapped Nelson on the shoulder. “I lost! I never expected your stamina to be this monstrous, boy!”

Berner was tall and powerfully built, his explosive muscles radiating strength. As the physically strongest knight in the Chipman family, even a friendly pat on the shoulder from him was more than elite soldiers could bear. Nelson, however, possessed an even mightier physique and did not move an inch beneath Berner’s blows.

In truth, Berner was expressing his recognition of Nelson. He would never show such familiarity toward an ordinary person. Most knights did not regard commoners as their equals. Knights were, by nature, arrogant.

Nelson had earned the respect of the Chipman knights through his strength, proving himself someone with whom they could speak as equals.

Thirty days earlier, Nelson had ridden a swiftbird into Chipman territory and brought word of the ant-men’s invasion to Blue Goose Castle. Though the castle’s commander had been only half-convinced, he had wisely ordered preparations for battle upon seeing Nelson covered in green blood. He had also dispatched scouts to investigate Victor’s territory.

The scouts encountered Master Dewitt and his apprentice fleeing in disarray along the way. With the scouts’ assistance, the two knights successfully reached Blue Goose Castle—and brought with them an army of more than ten thousand ant-men.

An endless tide of ants came surging across the land. The earth trembled beneath their feet, while clouds of dust blotted out the sky. The defenders of Blue Goose Castle quaked before the ant-men’s overwhelming numbers and ferocity.

Fortunately, the castle’s walls were high and thick, and preparations had already been made. After a fierce battle, more than a thousand ant-men had fallen, yet they still failed to reach the walls.

The ant-men then began piling up earthen ramps by the thousands. Fortunately, Nelson had informed the castle commander that the ant-men feared fire, and Blue Goose Castle still possessed several catapults. These war machines, originally prepared for use against the forest centaurs, inflicted terrible losses upon the ants.

Cow dung and dry grass were kneaded into balls, soaked in lamp oil, and set alight before being hurled into the densely packed rear ranks of the ant-men. Countless creatures burned to death, and their siege was shattered.

Seeing that the assault was hopeless, the main swarm gradually dispersed, leaving only more than a thousand ant-men behind to continue besieging Blue Goose Castle. The others began sweeping through the surrounding villages and fields.

The castle commander intended to lead the army out and destroy them, but Dewitt and Berner strongly objected. While they argued, disastrous news arrived.

Count Chipman had led the family’s elite cavalry into battle, only to be pursued by the ant swarm. After losing most of his men, he had fled into Blue Goose Castle in utter disarray.

From that day onward, the knights of the Chipman family reached a unanimous conclusion: they could not fight the ant-men in the open field.

Relying on Blue Goose Castle, the Chipman soldiers began slowly wearing down the ants surrounding the fortress. But expecting ordinary soldiers to strike ant-men hundreds of meters away with longbows was simply too much.

After vast quantities of arrows and lamp oil had been consumed, the heartsick Count Chipman drove all the family’s knights onto the walls to serve as archers. Thus, the bored knights began competing to see who could kill the most ant-men—and so the contest between Nelson and Berner had begun.

In terms of combat power, Nelson might not be a match for a knight. But when it came to stamina, no knight could compare with a human who had undergone feral transformation.

Nelson stood atop the walls and fired his longbow continuously for a full five hours without even breaking a sweat. Berner, however, could not maintain the circulation of his battle aura for so long. His accuracy was greater than Nelson’s, but Nelson fired far more arrows. Taken as a whole, Nelson won decisively.

“Stay here, Nelson! Baron Victor has no castle to shelter behind. He can’t possibly survive. If you remain, my master will recommend you for the count’s personal guard. With your strength, you’ll surely become captain of the count’s guard within a few years!”

Berner sincerely invited Nelson to join the Chipman family. His offer was not based solely on Nelson’s knight-like strength. Nelson had also warned the Chipmans of the ant-men’s approach in time and brought them the intelligence that the creatures feared fire. For that, the Chipman knights were deeply grateful.

Yet they could never have imagined that Nelson himself had brought the family such enormous losses. If he had not led the ant swarm into Chipman territory, the creatures would still be devouring purple cane in Victor’s lands, while the Chipman family could have leisurely withdrawn its supplies toward the interior.

“I told you—honor a bet once you’ve lost. Give me back the swiftbird.”

Nelson shook his head and rejected Berner’s offer.

“You… All right! Take good care of yourself. Our family’s gates will always be open to you. If Baron Victor should meet with misfortune, you must come find me. We’ve fought side by side, after all, haven’t we?”

Seeing that Nelson had made up his mind, Berner stopped trying to persuade him.

Nelson nodded to him. “Thank you, my friend. If that day truly comes, I’ll bring my men and seek refuge with you.”

On the opposite side of the fortress, the drawbridge was lowered. Nelson mounted the swiftbird and rode out, taking a wide circuit toward Victor’s territory. Before long, he vanished from Berner’s sight.

Berner shook his head and turned to descend the walls. In a spacious chamber, he found Count Chipman and Father Phil of the Radiant Church.

“Nelson has left?”

The count sat upright in the seat of honor, dignified and imposing. Nothing about him suggested that he had suffered a crushing defeat ten days earlier.

“Yes. That fellow insists on going back to look for poor Baron Victor,” Berner said helplessly.

“Loyalty is a precious virtue.”

Count Chipman nodded in praise. He had hoped to recruit Nelson, especially after the personal guard had suffered such heavy losses. But compared with winning over a powerful warrior, praising the virtue of loyalty was more important.

“Father Phil, the ant-men are the greatest threat to humanity among all monsters!” Chipman turned to the priest beside him. “When will the Church send armed forces to help me eradicate them?”

The thought of the ant-men constantly gnawing away at the crops in his territory made Chipman’s heart bleed.

Humanity’s struggle for living space against other races had run throughout its history. Every kind of beastman or monster shared certain traits: the weak were omnivorous and numerous, while the strong were carnivorous and few.

Humanity had long since developed mature and effective methods for dealing with this pattern. Monsters that destroyed crops were subjected to regular military extermination. Against powerful carnivores, humans withdrew into castles and relied on knights to contend with them. Once the monsters could no longer find enough meat within the territory, they would eventually leave.

The ant-men were powerful, and their numbers were enough to inspire despair. Worst of all, they destroyed crops.

Short, stout, and bald, Father Phil deeply agreed with the count’s assessment, but he was helpless when it came to answering the question. Most of the Church’s armed forces in Gambis had been transferred to the Sassanid Empire. The rest had already been concentrated in the Centaur Hills. At present, there was simply no way to provide Count Chipman with support.

“My lord, compared with your territory, the Centaur Hills are the true disaster zone. The Church’s forces have already gathered there. Of course, the Church will not simply stand by and watch the ant-men ravage your lands. A holy knight legion stationed in the Kingdom of Ayr has already set out and is expected to arrive here in another five months. Until then, you must hold your territory. That is a lord’s duty, is it not?”

The priest’s words were gentle on the surface but firm underneath, leaving Chipman somewhat helpless. Lords and the Church were partners when confronting other races, and Father Phil was reminding him that the Church was not his nursemaid.

“All right. Once the ant plague is over, my people will face a famine. The Church certainly won’t stand by and do nothing, will it?”

Count Chipman finally revealed his true intention. The ant-men came to throw away their lives beneath the walls every day. In less than five months, their numbers would be reduced to the point where they could be defeated in a decisive battle.

But this year’s harvest would certainly be disastrous. The count wanted the Church to shoulder part of the losses.

“There will certainly be food. As for how the relief supplies are to be distributed, that will require everyone to discuss it together. Besides the Church, the other lords should also bear part of the burden—for instance, the families behind Chipman territory. The royal family of Gambis must also… Ah, I should go up to the walls and see whether anyone needs medical attention.”

Under the count’s piercing gaze, Father Phil clutched his head and fled.

The priest’s retreat left Count Chipman speechless, while worry for the future filled his heart.

“Who’s going to make up for such enormous losses in grain? What if the Briart family is overwhelmed by refugees?”

Berner saw that his lord was deep in thought and began tiptoeing toward the door, but the count called him back.

“Berner, you deliberately snapped a longbow. Deduct the cost from your annual stipend!”

Berner: “...I knew it!”