How to Live as a Wandering Knight

“Among them. . .”

“. . .?”

“. . .I will give the honor of stepping forward first to the one who knows Biorarn the best.”

At Johan’s words, the elf knights were taken aback. It was a condition they had never even imagined. While they had heard the name and rumors quite a bit, few knew him well.

In this era, information was still heavily reliant on word-of-mouth stories and accounts from those who knew. This was the same even among nobles.

The murmuring elves began to volunteer what little they knew, one by one.

“He has quite decent sword skills. Of the emperor’s bloodline, he is the most knightly.”

One of the elf knights said so. For an elf knight, it was quite high praise.

Of course, the word “knightly” could be used in various senses. It could mean brave and strong, but also recklessly foolish. Sometimes it meant both.

Biorarn had come with not a large army and boldly requested a duel to decide the contest.

While it was a common enough custom to gamble a contest on individual martial prowess rather than armies, even allowing for that, the sheer audacity he showed in not considering the consequences if he lost was puzzling.

Reinforcements could arrive for Johan’s side at any moment, potentially hemming Biorarn’s forces in or encircling them, yet he seemed not to consider that in requesting a duel.

Seeing nobles who did just as they pleased without thought for the consequences, Johan occasionally wondered if he himself thought too much.

“I’ve heard rumors of bad blood between him and the emperor, and that they’ve crossed swords.”

“That he has caught an ice drake before. . .”

Taking advantage of the elf knights’ chatter, Suetlg quietly asked, probing Johan’s intentions,

“Are you perhaps averse to a duel?”

“No. To be honest, if it can be settled with a duel, I would prefer that.”

A clash between hundreds of warriors with spears and swords held many variables. As the emperor’s son, the opponent would doubtless be elite as well, and there were many on Johan’s own side to consider too.

In contrast, Johan had several contacts who were confident of victory in a duel. Just the elf knights alone were warriors who had rarely bowed their heads anywhere.

“I’m just concerned about whatever power Biorarn commands as Cardirian’s son.”

“Certainly, the rumors depict Biorarn-gong as the most valiant of the emperor’s sons. His exploits in the north are widely known.”

In addition to hunting numerous northern monsters alongside other knights, as the emperor’s son he was likely to possess magically enhanced armor and weapons.

In a duel with its uncertainties, knowing one’s opponent was most vital.

As the others talked, one of the elf knights simply smiled to himself. When it grew somewhat quieter, the knight stepped forward and spoke:

“Your excellency, I have personally seen Biorarn-gong fight in a tournament. As I would know him best among all here, I ask that you give me this chance!”

And so the knight to step forth first was decided. The other elves looked at him with envy.

🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸

As the elf knight came out instead of Johan, Biorarn sent out one of his subordinates. Biorarn had led several knights befitting his fame and wealth.

He didn’t exactly claim to be a knight order, but people naturally called Biorarn’s knights the Crimson Knights. It was because of the color of the surcoats they wore around.

“Are they bringing around arrogant elves?”

Biorarn murmured in a strained voice. The knight next to him took his words.

“Elves are excellent knights, so we must not be careless.”

“There should be no knight among those present careless enough to be caught off guard! Isn’t that right?”

‘𝘋𝘢𝘮𝘯 𝘪𝘵.’

Torsten kept looking around. He was afraid of being surrounded here or having to leave for some reason.

While Biorarn was confident in his skills and other knights would sacrifice their lives to protect him, he was not.

One from each side jumped out. When the distance narrowed, Biorarn’s knight dismounted from his horse. Seeing this, the elf knight shouted decisively.

“Get on your horse! If you’re not a coward!”

“Get off your horse, if you don’t know how to fight without hiding behind it!”

Knights of the Empire, especially those from the north, usually got off their horses to duel. On the other hand, elves preferred to duel on horseback.

Their quarrel was settled by the elven knight dismounting from his horse. After all, this was the land of the Empire, so it seemed the elven knight had backed down.

The two knights tangled and clashed fiercely. When they exchanged the fifteenth blow, the Empire knight’s sword broke. The elven knight shouted for him to admit defeat, but the Empire knight refused, drawing out another weapon.

Another clash occurred, and this time the elven knight collapsed to the side. He seemed quite precarious as he dripped blood through the gap in his helmet.

‘𝘖𝘩 𝘮𝘺.’

Johan frowned and glared. Fortunately, the elven knight was still moving. The elf knight who got up struck the opponent’s side hard. The Empire knight’s balls popped out and he admitted defeat, which the elven knight accepted.

“Fighting twice would be too much. Tell him to come back.”

“Yes!”

The elf next to Johan happily called back his comrade.

The elven knight nodded his head angrily as if annoyed to retreat without even pulling out Biorarn.

After that, other knights came out and clashed swords. Meanwhile, Johan was slowly realizing something.

‘𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴. . .’

Biorarn’s knights were quite competent as well, making it difficult for even the elven knights to take down more than one. Besides, being in a position to serve Biorarn, they did not want Biorarn to expend unnecessary strength.

Perhaps the other side was thinking the same thing after several duels took place, as Biorarn’s attendant came and politely conveyed a message.

“If Your Excellency comes forward, my master says he will also come forward. Please be kind enough to accept.”

“. . .Fine. Tell him we’ll meet in the middle and test our strength.”

Johan said, trying to restrain his boiling blood. Despite the lack of confidence in the opponent, confidence preceded fear.

The subjugated spirits boasted as if taking them down was nothing. Johan focused deeply to shake off his arrogance. No matter how much his instincts or spirits whispered he could win, Johan himself always had to stay calm.

🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸

“Johan of the Yeats family.”

“Biorarn of the Bizalpirk family!”

The two knights did not bother to list their accomplishments. Johan had no interest and Biorarn thought his opponent would already know.

‘𝘈𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥, 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤.’

Johan keenly sensed various magical auras coming from Biorarn. Biorarn could hardly be a wizard like Johan, it must be the power of the weapon he held.

Biorarn raised his eyebrows in a warlike expression. He had heard the rumors about Count Yeats’ superhuman strength several times. He wanted to see if those rumors were true today.

𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠!

As soon as his opponent entered striking distance, Johan swung his Giant Slayer like lightning. Just as Johan didn’t know much about his opponent, his opponent likely didn’t know much about him either. It was best to overwhelm him before he got used to fighting.

‘𝘐’𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘸!’

“!?”

The skill of an assassin is to deceive the opponent’s eyes, confuse their senses, and precisely stab a single lethal blow. Biorarn was horrified that Johan’s warhammer smashed his chest before he could even react.

The heavy impact. However, Johan clicked his tongue and retreated to widen the gap between them. He had hit accurately but his opponent was still alive.

Fortunately there was no counterattack, perhaps because his opponent was equally shocked.

“I admit I underestimated you, Count!”

Biorarn flung the shield he was holding to the side. As soon as the shield hit the ground, the magical energy disappeared and it turned to dust. Saint Gohark’s shield, said to block even a giant’s attack, turned to dust from one blow.

Biorarn glared at Johan as he gripped his sword with both hands. His stance was even more cautious than before. Though he didn’t say it out loud, he was already thinking of his opponent as a monster.

‘𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘨𝘰.’

Johan clicked his tongue in frustration. He thought he had finished it, he didn’t expect an interference like this.

“Count, this time I’ll show you my sword!”

As Biorarn swung his sword, the mystery contained within pulsated and turned into cold air. The tip of the Giant Slayer froze and slowed. It was a deceptive level of magic.

An average knight would have been unable to wield the heavy slowed weapon and gotten cut somewhere. However, Johan gripped the Giant Slayer even harder and swung it more strongly. The ice stuck to the Giant Slayer broke and scattered.

Though Biorarn was the one on the offense, he was also the one who retreated. Not daring to come into striking distance, Biorarn backed away. His face flushed red with humiliation.

As his opponent retreated, Johan approached. As he retreated, Biorarn watched for an opportunity. Sensing an opening, Johan realized what his opponent was aiming for.

‘𝘏𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴?’

It seemed Biorarn intended to use the nearby forest trees to limit Johan’s free swinging warhammer.

‘𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴. . .’

“Isn’t His Excellency being pushed back?!”

The observing Torsten blurted out in confusion. Shouldn’t the knights intervene and stop the fight now? Dishonorable yes, but better than dying right?

However the Empire knights didn’t seem to consider it. Knowing Biorarn’s personality, he would hate that more than dying.

More than anything, they believed in Biorarn.

“Look. Though the Count’s strength is monstrous, Biorarn-gong has cleverly maneuvered him into position! Now he won’t be able to swing that warhammer.”

“I see. . .!”

Judging that he had lured Johan in, Biorarn stood his sword again and charged. At that moment, Johan’s eyes flashed beastly. Biorarn instinctively halted his steps and jumped back.

𝐂𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤!

Johan swung his warhammer, smashing through the thick interfering tree as he tried to strike Biorarn. It was a truly common sense defying blow.

But he missed again, only scraping the edge of the armor. The sound of the tree falling and dust swirling up filled the air.

“Isn’t it too much like a rat running away?”

“. . . . . .”

Johan, who often killed before provoking so he was not good at provoking, thought provocation would be necessary this time. The opponent was avoiding better than expected.

Anyway, there was no one here to listen even if he talked, Johan wondered what kind of swear words he should use.

Which of the opponent’s father and mother should I swear at first?

But without having to say such things, Biorarn’s face was flushed red with shame and humiliation. He had kept avoiding without clashing his swordmanship that he had honed so much. He had nothing to say even when called a rat.

‘𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦?’

Johan was refreshed by the unexpected effect. It’s already at that level even though I haven’t even started swearing yet. If Johan enumerated his usual views on Cardirian, the blood vessels on his face would surely burst.

Biorarn braced himself and raised his sword again. He was going to give the count a proper blow even if he had to give up one of his limbs.

Whether that determination was conveyed, the surroundings suddenly became quiet. The chirping sounds of birds were no longer heard. The sunlight coming in between the leaves also disappeared. Johan’s face was filled with horror.

An ogre was standing behind Biorarn.

The monster of the forest, the master of the forest, the nightmare of the forest, the ogre.

The ogre, who appeared like a ghost, was looking down at Biorarn with a dull and fierce look.

“Bow down!”

Johan shouted and threw the Giant Slayer. Biorarn unknowingly bowed his head low and prostrated himself. He made the absurd act of following the words of the enemy.

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐝!

With a dull sound, the Giant Slayer broke the ogre’s breastbone. Even though Johan did not order it, Valkalmur manipulated the Giant Slayer on its own to make it return like a boomerang.

‘𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘶𝘳!’

He felt the evil spirit at his fingertips feeling proud. Johan grabbed the Giant Slayer and threw it again.

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