Chapter 42:
The Nomadic Empire
THE GARDEN OF THE RECKENBELL MANOR WAS vast. The late Lord Reckenbell had excelled in politics, military affairs, and combat. Because of her talents in all three fields, she was provided with the best manor that money could buy. Her garden even had an archery range for practice, and the targets were placed six hundred meters away.
“It’s a good distance away from the targets,” I observed.
“The nomads use composite bows,” Lady Nina explained. “To have greater range than them, you must hit those targets.”
“Flugel, I’m counting on you.”
Helga, my chief squire, had brought my trusty steed to the Reckenbell manor. I climbed atop his back before I received the late Claudia von Reckenbell’s favored magical longbow from Lady Nina.
“Now then…” I said.
“This has a very high draw weight,” Lady Nina warned. “My mother, Claudia, didn’t request a magic sigil to ease that weight; instead, she asked for one that would increase the power and range of her arrows.”
“I assumed as much.”
I drew the bow back to my elbow. It wasn’t tough or heavy for me, though a normal person wouldn’t have been able to pull the string back. I was able to do so just fine.
“I see that you can draw the bow,” Lady Nina observed. “I’d expect no less from the superhuman who defeated my mother.”
“I think I can do this,” I said.
As I drew the bowstring back, memories of the Campaign of Villendorf flooded into my mind. Lord Reckenbell pulled it back to her chest, I thought. I checked to see how far I could pull the string, and found that I could reach my ear.
“Sir Polidoro?” Lady Nina asked.
“I want to check its power when I draw this string back to my ear,” I said.
Drawing the bow back to my chest was more than enough to hit a target six hundred meters away, but I wanted to unleash the full potential of this magical longbow. For some reason, Lady Nina smiled happily.
“You may do as you wish,” she replied.
I launched an arrow from Flugel’s back. It whizzed through the air toward its destination before it hit the bull’s-eye. The arrow flew clean through the target. If I were against an enemy soldier, even a heavily armored knight would have a hole blown through their body.
“Are all superhumans capable of such feats?” Lady Nina asked.
I could clearly see the target that stood six hundred meters away. It was covered with marks from arrows that had shot straight through it—Lord Reckenbell must’ve practiced just like I did.
“Practice is always necessary,” I said.
In real combat, my targets wouldn’t stand still and wait to get hit. Flugel would run ahead, and I’d be atop him as I fired. The nomads would also be moving swiftly on their own horses, and it would take some practice to hit them amid the commotion. It might be best to just pull the bow back to my chest for combat. I thought back to my battle against Lord Reckenbell and tried to learn from her actions.
“I promised Queen Catalina that I would lend you this longbow should you be capable of drawing it back,” Lady Nina said. “I shall come and take this bow back when I turn sixteen.”
“Then I’ll borrow it until then,” I replied. “I assume some sort of maintenance is required. Could you teach me how to take care of this bow?”
I’ve got another weapon to entrust Ingrid with. It’ll probably cost me a bit more, too, but I’ve gotta bite the bullet there. I presumed that I wouldn’t be chasing after bandits for my military service next year—I’d face the nomads. Now that we’d made peace with Villendorf, there were no other nations that could pose a threat to a princess-elector kingdom like Anhalt. All that was left was the threat that loomed in the north.
Anhalt would use all its power to crush the nomads. Frankly, it was a bit of a bother to join the battle against those of the north. As the princess’s advisor, I might’ve been able to use my power and influence to get myself assigned to fight small groups of bandits. And that would end my military service for the year.
“But I guess I won’t be able to do that,” I muttered.
I’d attained far too much fame. People would begin to ask why a knight like Sir Faust von Polidoro was taking down bandits instead of fighting on the battlefield. It would be a pain to deal with that backlash. Above all, I was certain that Princess Valiele would round up her corps and head to fight against the nomads. If the situation called for it, Crown Princess Anastasia and Duke Astarte would act too. I had no choice but to head north. Ugh, so cumbersome.
With all that in mind, I was lucky that I’d obtained a longbow that could kill tribal chiefs in one shot. Claudia von Reckenbell’s tactic for dealing with the nomads had been to first kill the tribal chief, then aim for the archers. I’ll keep that in mind. I’ll make sure that those nomads won’t be able to do any Parthian shots. I need more arrows. I wanted a member of the cavalry beside me who could carry quivers of arrows and several bows, and hand them over to me when I needed them. I need a trustworthy partner… Just then, a voice reached my ears.
“If only we had someone like Claudia von Reckenbell, or Faust von Polidoro.”
The voice came from the manor; the person might have been speaking to someone else or just talking to themselves.
“Then our nation wouldn’t have perished,” the person said.
A tall woman with pale silvery hair appeared before me. She clearly wasn’t from Anhalt or Villendorf. She had a low nose bridge, a characteristic of those from the east, but her beauty was still breathtaking. And her large boobs jiggled nicely. I happened to lock eyes with her, and she bowed deeply. A longbow similar to mine was in her hands, and the magic sigils that were etched into her weapon also closely resembled the ones I had.
“That’s the spare bow that my mother had,” Lady Nina said. “Queen Catalina requested me to lend it to that woman.”
“Is she from the east?” I asked.
“Yes. She came a long, long way, from the end of the Silk Road.”
Lady Nina puffed out her tiny chest proudly as she spoke. Apparently, that lady was an eastern warlord, the equivalent of a knight in our kingdom. When her nation fell into ruin, she’d become a vagabond and wandered around the Silk Road with her steed before she arrived in Villendorf.
“She was granted an audience with Queen Catalina,” Lady Nina explained. “Now, she is an honored guest of House Reckenbell.”
“If she was loaned a longbow, that means…” I started.
“Precisely. I believe that she’d use that bow to destroy the nomads in lieu of Lord Reckenbell.”
In lieu of Lord Reckenbell… It’s safe to assume, then, that at least her archery skills are spectacular.
“I’d love to see what she’s got,” I remarked.
“Yukigarasu,” the woman said.
Huh? I was befuddled for a moment, but quickly noticed a crouching white horse nearby get to its feet and gallop over. Oh, that must be the name of her horse. She climbed on her steed’s back and pulled back her bowstring. Her movements were swift and smooth; she made it look like the draw weight was light. When she drew the string back to her ear, she released, and her arrow completely penetrated her target, just like mine had done moments before.
“That was amazing,” I said.