Hakurei nodded and in an impressive show of leadership, took command of the remaining forces to resume the charge down to Hakugin Castle. Panic started to spread among the enemy troops and I could see the allies holed up in the fortress begin to shoot arrows as well. Taking advantage of the lull in the battle, I slowed down my horse and clucked my tongue at the veterans. “Seriously, you guys...”
“Oh no, you don’t.”
“You’ll make the young Lady Hakurei cry if you die.”
“We have to repay General Chou for all the kindness he’s shown us. And the food he’s fed us.”
“Ha ha ha! Sir Raigen has given us orders as well!”
The veteran soldiers grinned at me and, with the hands holding their weapons, offered me a salute by pressing them to armor.
“We would be honored to die as your shield, Lord Sekiei! Please allow us to accompany you to hell!”
That reminds me. Things like this happened in my past life all the time too. Why does everyone jump at the chance to die? I ran my hand through my hair, uncaring of how messy I made it. Then, adjusting the grip on my sword, I tilted the blade so that it reflected the setting sun’s light. The red of the dusk glimmered off the pale white of the steel like blood.
“So this was all Gramps’s doing? This is why I can’t deal with you veterans!”
“He spoke highly of you.”
“And said that Lady Hakurei needs you.”
“We’re the ones who’ll suffer if people like you or General Chou die.”
“Ha ha ha! I look forward to witnessing the birth of a new hero!”
Idiots, all of you! I pointed my blade towards the dozen enemy soldiers charging towards us, their swords and spears held aloft. “Fine. Don’t fall behind; make sure you follow me at full speed! Also, none of you are allowed to die! You have to live so that you can help me come up with an excuse for Hakurei.”
“Understood!”
I kicked my horse into action and started my advance.
The enemies must not have expected us to put up a fight with nothing more than five cavalrymen. The soldier serving as their vanguard widened his eyes before smirking. He thrust his spear towards me as he yelled, “Kill them!” The wavelike tip of his weapon—a design unique to the Gen Empire—stabbed forward, but I parried the attack, knocking it away.
“Too easy,” I said. I took advantage of the opening I’d created and swung my sword in a horizontal slash, slicing through both his leather armor and his abdomen.
He fell off his horse, dead. Both his eyes and mouth were wide in surprise, as if even in his final moments, he hadn’t realized what had happened. The Gen soldiers continued to charge at us.
“Each and every one of you is a suicidal fool,” I said in a cold tone as I continued my advance, cutting them down as I passed them. The enemy soldiers screamed wordlessly, their cries tapering off in the silence of death. I could barely hear them over the surprised exclamations of my allies behind me.
“Wh-What?!”
“Amazing!”
“A tiger’s child is a tiger in his own right, I see!”
“Ha ha ha!”
The veterans pushed their horses until they were riding alongside me. It seemed that all of them had survived the attack without major injury. I cut down an arrow with my sword as it flew towards me and then paused for a breath as I looked over the enemy formation.
There he is.
A young man, with a baffled expression on his face and eye-catchingly bright red armor, was waving a swagger stick. The stick was made of metal rather than leather.
“Young master!”
Two Gen soldiers who had managed to survive the veterans’ attack charged at me from both sides—only to be struck down by my sword. I swung my weapon through the air to clear the blood from the steel and then glanced at the castle behind me. I could see the enemy army starting to disperse.
“That’s their general!” I yelled. “Let’s go!”
“Yessir!” Even though I knew the four men behind me weren’t without injuries, their answering yell was still formidable. Of us five, I was the only one left without a scratch.
The young commander pointed his swagger stick at us, his face twisted in fear. The cavalrymen around him, serving as his guard, were wearing different armor from the rest of the Gen soldiers. I could tell from the way they handled their horses that they were well trained and experienced. The heavy cavalry—wearing metal armor that had been painted a deep red—split into two and galloped towards us in a pincer movement.
I urged my horse to go faster and shouted, “Don’t slow down or stop! Defeat all of the enemies you see!”
“Yessir!”
I parried arrow after arrow as we barrelled through, using the same motion to slash at a bearded cavalryman who tried to rush me, forcing him off his horse. I slowed down my mount and roared, “Move! Make way or I’ll kill you!”
The formation of the enemy trying to protect their general wavered. A path—a slim one, but a path nonetheless—formed. This is my only chance! But...
“Kill! Kill! Kill!”
I could hear the fearsome battle cries from behind me as the Gen cavalrymen started to close in. Unless we changed our tactics, we would be surrounded and killed before we could defeat the enemy general. The veterans fighting by my side turned their horses around to face the threat despite their injuries.
“Young master!”
“Leave this to us!”
“Get their general!”
“Wait, you guys!” I yelled, but to no avail.
The large soldier wielding a war hammer flung himself from his horse and bellowed, “We will gladly serve as your shield, young master!” He raised his voice in a fearsome war cry as he rushed towards the enemies.
“Lord Sekiei, go!” the other veterans ordered before they, too, joined the fray.
“You idiots,” I muttered, gripping the hilt of my sword so hard that I could almost feel the metal twist. “Wait for me on the other side. I’ll join you soon.”
“Yessir!”
As soon as I heard their replies, given in a laughing tone, I urged my horse into a gallop and rode through the path opened in the enemy formation. I rushed straight for the Gen general. Screams and yells rang out from behind me, as well as the violent screech of metal upon metal. Then, amid the cacophony, I heard the sound of someone falling to the ground and the final cry of the war-hammer-wielding veteran—
“Ha ha... Ha ha ha! This...this was exactly what I wanted! It was an honor to watch the back of a new hero... We’ve attained glory!”
Even though I could no longer hear his voice, I didn’t look behind me—instead, I broke through the enemy lines. They were so stunned that they barely put up a fight; the enemy general stared at me, frozen and pale as I swung my sword down straight for his head.
However, the final guard standing taunted me as he blocked my attack with his sword. “In your dreams!” I could see white hair peeking out from under his helmet. We exchanged blows for a little bit before I backed off to gain some distance. He was strong. He must have lived through and survived countless battles. In fact, he reminded me a little of Gramps Raigen. But...
“Prepare yourself!” the old cavalryman yelled as he closed the gap between us. I dodged his attack by leaning my torso backward and then slashed out, lopping off his left arm. “I-Impossible! H-How could someone this powerful...” He fell off his horse, blood spurting from his missing limb.
I pointed my sword at the pale-faced enemy general, who wailed, “Y-You monster! What are you?!”
“I’m just a man who wants to be a civil official.”
“Wha—?!”
Before he could finish his sentence, I slashed out with my sword and sent his head flying from his shoulders. I raised my voice above the din of the battlefield, yelling, “I, Chou Sekiei, have killed the enemy general!”
I could see the news travel through the sea of enemy soldiers, the shock and panic spreading like a wave. At the same time, the high-pitched scream of the whistling arrow rang through the air. Hakurei had succeeded in evacuating the soldiers holed up in Hakugin Castle, and had started to depart from the battlefield. Father’s blood ran true through her veins. She might be better than me when it came to commanding troops.
My expression relaxed a little and I swung my sword to get rid of the excess blood coating the blade. Then I turned my horse back the way I’d come. At the very least I wanted to collect some locks of the veterans’ hair to serve as keepsakes to their memories.
“Damn! Everyone who tries to watch my back ends up dying in front of me...” My horse must have sensed my sorrow. It shook its mane as if it was trying to comfort me as we raced along the plain as fast as the wind. You’re right. “Hakurei will cry her eyes out if I die!”
With those words as motivation, I threw myself into the horde of enemy cavalrymen, who looked lost and confused at the sudden death of their commander. By the time I got through them and returned to Keiyou on my own, it was already midnight. Hakurei had been waiting for me at the gates to the city and as soon as she saw me, she dragged me inside.
It was while she was tending to my wounds that we received the bad news.
“Gen Emperor Adai has arrived on the northern shore of the river, accompanied by a large number of enemy forces. It looks to be the start of a large-scale invasion.”
The battle that day had been nothing more than a prelude. We only realized it the following morning.