War erupted far too easily.
A few words exchanged in conversation by the old men sitting high up in a place where they would typically never even see each other’s faces.
Those mere words of conversation led everyone into a war filled with flames and fire.
Ridiculously, the signal that marked the beginning of that damned great war was a single handkerchief.
In an effort to avoid war as much as possible, the Empire proposed a peace treaty aimed at suppressing the conflicts between races.
When the representatives of various races, including dwarves and elves, gathered to sign that treaty.
While the dwarf representative group and the elf representative group outwardly shouted for peace, behind the scenes, they secretly exchanged documents, which was eventually discovered by a member of the Imperial Knight Order belonging to the Empire’s representative group.
Using a clever method of enlisting a hotelier working at a hotel where representatives from various countries were gathered, they hid the documents within the handkerchief and passed them along. That method was nearly successful.
Unfortunately, if only one Imperial knight hadn’t suspiciously watched the hotelier who kept going back and forth in the same direction.
The documents hidden in the handkerchief were immediately delivered to the Empire’s representatives, and its contents were enough to make the second prince, who attended the treaty as the Empire’s representative, rage.
[Should we feed the sleeping giant kopentum (mountain goat) meat?]
Kopentum. A word in the dwarf language meaning ‘mountain goat.’
In the old Bible, it is said that Garsus, the conquering king of the unified kingdom of Terea, which first achieved the unification of humanity in human history, was nicknamed the giant.
And such Garsus was assassinated in a vile manner.
Because of the mountain goat meat offered to King Garsus during the grand festival held in Terea.
The races that shivered at the numerous conquest wars of the conquering king Garsus poisoned the mountain goat meat to be offered to King Garsus, who was nothing less than ‘the representative of humanity.’
Since poison was spread over the already completed dish, the servant who tasted it beforehand could not detect the poison.
Ignoring the courtiers’ warnings to use silver utensils, King Garsus, saying, “I am the one favored by the Lord,” did not listen, and ultimately succumbed to the poison that came upon him that night.
And, with no suitable successor, King Garsus’s death led to the downfall of the Terea Kingdom at the hands of the races shortly thereafter.
[Should we feed the sleeping giant kopentum (mountain goat) meat?]
The sleeping giant is like the Empire, which is nothing less than ‘the representative that unified humanity,’ just like the old conquering king Garsus.
And the phrase about feeding it mountain goat meat implies intentions to poison the emperor or take military action.
Naturally, the treaty fell apart, and thereafter, the tensions that had heightened among the three nations escalated into war.
Brendall Warren Jericho, selected as a knight to accompany the Empire’s representative group at that time, knew the inner workings of the horrific war better than anyone else.
The story of their absurdity and outrageous foolishness was so hollowing and ridiculous that it left him at a loss.
Even when the final negotiations eventually broke down soon after, and they sharply criticized the disclosure of the ‘handkerchief telegram’ incident that had transpired between the dwarf and elf representatives, Brendall Warren Jericho, then merely a member of the Imperial Knight Order, did not know.
He did not know how the foolishness of the Empire, which had responded half-heartedly despite being challenged by the reckless challenge of the races, would come together and result in a terrible outcome.
*
The sound of bullets whizzing past his ears.
The sound of enemies in the opposite trench pulling the pins from grenades. The sound of the dwarves’ specialized artillery, coated with the power of the runes handled by elves, being fired.
“Ugh, Aaaaah—!!”
“Help me! Help me!!”
And, allies. Human soldiers like Brendall Warren Jericho.
Cloaked in blood from bullets, shrapnel, and grenade fragments, collapsing in the mud.
– Fwooosh—!
“Ughhk—! It’s hot! It’s so hot!!”
“Help me! Mom! Mommyyy!”
The dwarf detachment that had somehow reached the trench, spewing flames into it…was reflected directly in Brendall Warren Jericho’s yellow eyes.
Faced with the scene of aggressive and destructive life robbery, Brendall’s breath quickened.
Inhaling the smell of burning flesh mixed with the stench of blood, freshly dug earth, decaying corpses, and pungent gunpowder…everything filled Brendall’s lungs.
In a sight he could never grow accustomed to, in a smell his body could not adapt to no matter how many times he inhaled it, and in a noise that his ears refused to accept no matter how often he heard it, Brendall felt suffocated. Madly.
“Ha…”
It has been five years since the war broke out. Just remembering that the world could be plunged into such a blaze over a single handkerchief still brought a hollow laugh to his lips.
It was absurd. Those who were there were no longer present, so then who were the ones collapsing before his eyes?
Young men of the Empire, ranging from their twenties to thirties. They were the vital driving force of the Empire’s overall society.
They were supposed to be nobody, yet they were the Empire. They were everything that made up the Empire.
Yet they were dying brutally. Their skin burning, their insides melting from the poison gas that sometimes wafted through, their bodies riddled with bullet holes, and torn apart by shrapnel.
They were the Empire. The Empire must be protected by the Imperial Knight Order.
Thus, Brendall drew his sword.
– Swish.
The longsword, drawn from its sheath with a sharp and cold sound, was aimed at the burning battlefield.
“Huuh…”
Brendall’s eyes began to glow bright yellow. Even without the longsword, he was ready to cut down everything that stood before him with just his gaze.
The once innocent and excitable Brendall was no longer present. What remained in this place was nothing but a machine for slaughter.
“Brendall. Follow me.”
“I’m coming now.”
Next to Brendall, a new type passed by so quickly it was hard even to track with his eyes.
Michelle de Baluerge. As the high commissioner of the City and a knight in the Imperial Knight Order, she was a capable knight deployed alongside Brendall to the front lines.
Brendall immediately followed her into the battlefield. As his massive frame, having grown a great deal over the years, thudded across the battlefield, the soldiers who had been firing began to direct their attention to him.
“It’s the Imperial Knight Order!”
“We’re alive!”
“Fire the guns, you idiots! The knights are feeding you!”
Even though he had felt the urge to say, “Just provide cover fire,” Brendall diverted his gaze from the officer yelling at the soldiers in his stead. From now on, he had to concentrate.
– Bang!
“I blocked it!”
The advancing Michelle simply cut or blocked the bullets raining down towards her as she moved forward. Her speed slowed a bit, but the explosive power stemming from her trained legs made even that difficult to follow.
– Bang! Bang! Crack—!
“Brendall! Get behind me!”
“I can block, too!”
“No! Follow behind me! It’s still dangerous!”
Even now, Michelle still viewed Brendall as a child. Though Brendall wasn’t pleased with that, he complied with her words somehow.
“Yikes…! Oh, it’s coming! Coming—!!”
“You fools! Don’t get scared! Rather than wetting yourselves, grab your hammers! For Mother Mountain—!!”
“Motur’ztakarz!! For Mother Mountain!”
Ignoring the shouts of the small dwarves, Brendall was able to safely enter the enemy trench following Michelle. The barbed wire that had obstructed the front of the trench had already been neatly cut long ago by Michelle’s sword.
“Wow, we’ve arrived! We’re here!”
“Kill them all!”
“Smash their heads with our hammers—.”
– Scrape.
“Hah! Not a chance.”
As soon as Michelle’s sword gleamed, everything after that happened in an instant. Brendall promptly distanced himself from Michelle. The two split to efficiently deal with the enemies within the trench.
“Ughhk! S-save—!”
“Ughhh….”
“Get lost! Get lost, I said! Get lost—!”
– Slash—!
Cutting, cutting, and cutting again. Brendall Warren Jericho’s arms moved incessantly.
The longsword in his hand transformed into a blood-red blade as he rapidly swung it again and again. The sticky blood was thrown off with each swing, and the next target got stained even faster than the blood could be washed away.
Short arms and legs sprang into the air, severed necks and beards tumbled to the ground. The cool, bright eyes of Brendall began to blaze with the heat of the fight and the rising blood.
So, how long had it been since he started cutting down the dwarves in the trench?
“Stop!”
“…….”
Brendall looked at the man blocking his path. An impressive elf man with long ears stood before him.
“This should be the dwarves’ trench.”
“The dwarves are our allies, you foolish human.”
“While your dear allies are being butchered at my hands, what have you been doing all this time?”
“…You insolent fool.”
In the elf’s hands were scimitars, one in each hand. The threatening and sharp weapon was covered in intricate runes.
He had heard of it. The stories about special units chosen from the elite ranks of the elves’ guerilla troops who wield double-edged swords.
Brendall immediately took his stance. Even if the opponent was skilled, he did not feel himself to be inferior in terms of ability.
“Human. Do you really intend to fight me?”
“Then should we have some tea together instead?”
“I…want to propose a deal.”
“A deal? Do you think this is a situation in which you can propose a deal?”
Brendall gestured toward outside the trench. Thanks to Michelle and Brendall leading the charge and clearing the trench, the cheers of allied soldiers beginning to surge forward reverberated through the air.
– Waaah—!!
“I can kill you easily just by stalling for time. Why should I accept that proposal?”
“…Then it seems we have no choice but to fight.”
As Brendall stared at the elf crossing his scimitars, he gripped the sword in his hand even tighter.
In the end, life is just the act of taking another’s life.
It’s only a fight of killing and being killed.
