Chapter 140: Chapter 140

As the summer heat slowly drew near, Shan and Roden boarded a ship bound for Beshalia after leaving the City of Meln.

Unlike their arrival with around a hundred people aboard a single warship, on their way back they had secured a force of about three thousand soldiers and twenty warships for them to ride.

This was thanks to combining the newly hired mercenaries with Gillian’s reinforcements.

To lead them, Gillian had appointed Sir Polk, a knight accustomed to naval combat, as commander.

“I look forward to working with you, Your Grace.”

Sir Polk was an impressive man with red hair, a characteristic feature of the Ruman people.

With short-cropped hair and a sharp scar across his face, his fierce eyes gave off the impression of a pirate rather than a knight.

To think that a man of that bloodline would be commander when going to fight against the Kingdom of Ruman.

Even though he himself had suffered many disadvantages due to his lineage, Shan felt a subtle sense of unease.

Perhaps sensing this atmosphere, Sir Polk openly revealed his background right from their first meeting.

“I am the child of a pirate.”

Sir Polk explained that his mother hailed from a knight family on the Einsul Peninsula west of Meln, and in the past, while out on an outing to the coast with a few guards, she had been kidnapped by pirates.

Fortunately, she was able to return to her family after paying a ransom, but by then she was already pregnant with Sir Polk.

Naturally, as the child of an unknown pirate, he was not treated fairly within his family, so from a young age he had boarded ships and honed his swordsmanship through escort duties before being picked up by Gillian.

Just seeing how Gillian entrusted this low-born knight with the command of two thousand reinforcements was enough to tell how deeply he trusted him.

“Mhm.”

“That is why I hate the Ruman pirates more than anyone else. In fact, I feel like pulling out all of this red hair of mine. So you do not need to worry.”

As Shan and Roden found themselves unable to speak in the face of such a heavy family history, he said those words and bowed his head.

It seemed Gillian had deliberately selected a commander who was the most trustworthy and least likely to be won over by the Ruman side.

After greeting the new commander who would accompany them, Shan finally bade farewell to the people of the Altoan troupe.

They decided to remain here rather than leave for Pendia together.

After all, a long voyage would not be good for those who had suffered from lung disease for a long time.

After resting and eating well for about a month to build up their strength, they would easily be able to endure the journey toward Pendia.

By that time, there was a high possibility that the sea pirates would have lost their strength, making the sea routes safe as well.

“Pendia has many monsters, so never move around separately, and be sure to travel with a group of at least twenty people.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

“I have already sent word, so when you arrive in Hasra, look for the Duke of Velakar’s mansion…”

Watching Roxy bow deeply every time he spoke, Shan felt a strange sense of bitterness.

Power was nice when it was beneficial, but there were moments when it felt regrettable to see it create distance between people.

As the ship departed, while Shan waved back at Debbie waving from afar in the distance, a voice came from beside him.

“Is Her Majesty the Queen not jealous?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“She kept asking me every day what that young lady looked like and what the mood was like between you two.”

“So what did you tell her?”

“Well, I just told her what I saw.”

Just as Shan was about to ask what on earth he had said, he looked at Roden’s smooth face and once again thought it was hard to get used to.

“Did you happen to tell her that you get shaved by the lady of Meln every day?”

“Why would I tell her about my private life?”

Roden shook his head incredulously at Shan’s question.

Normally he trimmed his own hair and beard with blunt-tipped scissors, but cleanly shaving with a sharp blade proved somewhat difficult for him.

His current appearance was possible thanks to Venoa, Gillian’s sister to whom he was recently engaged, shaving him herself.

Supposedly, he had endured it by lying down with his eyes tightly shut, focusing as much of his attention as possible on the gentle hands sweeping across his face.

“Now you won’t be able to get a shave for several weeks… no, several months. By the way, do you know that she learned how to shave men just so she could shave Gillian?”

“You’ve already told me that several times.”

Shan shook his head at Roden, who was smirking.

Although the time spent recruiting mercenaries and negotiating in the City of Meln had clearly been barely a week, Roden seemed completely smitten with Count of Meln’s sister, the target of his political marriage.

On the surface, she seemed like just a passive and shy lady, but when spending time with her, the warmth and refined intelligence she had cultivated while raising her younger brother shone through, or so he said.

In any case, Shan thought it was fine as long as Roden was happy with it.

The better the two got along, the more securely they could draw Count of Meln into an alliance, and even setting that aside, Shan wanted Roden to welcome a good companion.

After all, wasn’t that what friends were for?

*

Thanks to the favorable wind, it took only about a week for the fleet departing from the City of Meln to arrive in Beshalia.

Moving at such a speed from the far south of Libert all the way to Pendia, the pace of a sailing ship traveling day and night was indeed difficult to compare to walking or riding a horse.

After the warships docked at the port, Shan and Roden ordered their subordinate forces to rest, and then sought out Ravana and Lug, who were training reinforcements in Beshalia.

“Gasp, Mr. Roden. Your beard…?”

“Well, that’s how it turned out.”

The stubble that had grown scratchy over a few days fell far short of when it was still bushy, so Roden’s transformation was more than enough to surprise everyone.

Even this, however, fell short of the shock experienced by Shan, who had seen his completely hairless face.

A moment later, Lug let out an exclamation of admiration as he watched the soldiers disembarking behind them.

“Ooh… I heard about it, but this is incredible. With this much, those Ruman bastards won’t be anything at all, right?”

At this, Ravana shook her head with a cautious expression from the side and spoke.

“We shouldn’t let our guard down. The Ruman bastards won’t have been idling around all this time either. Let’s be prudent.”

Afterward, they gathered the information they had uncovered while apart and analyzed the situation.

Sir Polk, commander of the Meln army, had also joined them.

First of all, the Kingdom of Ruman was currently gathering troops at the domain of Duke of Licharzo, whom they had identified as the mastermind behind the pirates.

Of course, as Cheryn had said in the past, it was a rather pitiful army to be gathered in the name of the King of Ruman.

Though there might be some margin of error, it was said that the currently assembled force numbered roughly ten thousand.

“Ten thousand? That’s a bit more than what we heard.”

Shan said, frowning slightly.

Clearly, according to what he had heard from Cheryn in the past, their troop strength was at most seven to eight thousand.

At this, Ravana nodded and replied.

“From what I heard, the Ruman royal family promised something to the lords who originally intended to refuse the summons. Because of that, quite a few changed their minds and decided to join the war.”

It meant that some lords who had decided to remain neutral due to Cheryn’s schemes had turned back.

Indeed, it seemed they were not standing idly by like fools either.

Of course, it was hard to view this as an entirely bad thing.

Although the fight had become somewhat harder, it meant there would be more to gain when they won instead.

And to add one more piece of positive news, the priests of the Kingdom of Ruman had refused to serve in this war.

They had refused to serve for the sake of Duke of Licharzo, the backer of the pirates who wielded evil magic.

At this, the Kingdom of Ruman threw a fit, but they could not persecute the Goddess’s priests for acting according to their own conscience.

If anything, they had to be grateful that the priests provided at least minimal support necessary for people’s lives, such as purifying seawater into drinking water.

Of course, to that extent, it would be difficult for the Pendia side to actively utilize the power of miracles like they did when subjugating the pirates, but receiving indirect help from military priests alone made a huge difference.

Because when a wound exposed one’s intestines on the battlefield, whether one lived or died would be determined by whether a priest’s miracle was available or not.

“The important factor is the enemy commander. Count Benon Robar of Nasrin Island. He is also the naval admiral of the Ruman royal family. He is the greatest strategist in the South Sea, whom the King of Ruman trusts the most.”

At Giznu’s words, Shan recalled the middle-aged man who had previously come as an envoy of the Ruman royal family.

Exuding a wolf-like impression, he certainly gave off the feeling of an extraordinary person.

Explaining that waging naval warfare against him would be no easy task, Giznu, acting admiral of the Pendian Navy, pointed at the map.

“Our military also numbers close to seven thousand one way or another, so we need to pay attention to supply lines. First, we have set up a supply base on Kotor, the largest island near Beshalia, so we can resupply there once before moving southwest.”

“The route you just mentioned seems overly straightforward, and the Beskus Reef area along the way is good for ambushes. It would be better to bypass this place a bit.”

“Then the amount of stored water will become an issue. Since we are also loading siege weapons this time…”

Whether they could secure sufficient amounts of drinking water and food, whether the seasonal currents and sea winds aligned, and whether they would be spotted by residents of nearby islands or merchant vessels on heavily used sea routes.

The knight and captain, who had spent long years aboard ships, debated for a long while over topics that other commanders who had spent their entire lives on land could not understand.

Knowing well that it was better to defer to experts in unfamiliar fields, Shan let them converse while occasionally nodding his head.

In contrast, Roden listened to the conversation between the two with a solemn expression, trying to acquire the knowledge necessary for naval warfare.

This was so that in an emergency, if he could no longer seek advice from such experts, he could think and act on his own even a little.

*

“We will thoroughly hold out on this island and repel the enemy.”

Betraying the expectations of the Pendian commanders, who were devising measures in anticipation of all sorts of sea ambushes, the army of the Kingdom of Ruman had already made the decision to hold out on Licharzo Island, the enemy’s objective, instead of setting out to sea.

Other nobles pushed back against the admiral’s decision.

“No, see here, Count! Those Pendian bastards are earthworms who have spent their whole lives on land! Instead of sailing out to crush them, you’re going to curl up and hold out with superior numbers? Are you serious?”

“Indeed! It is shameful to be called the greatest strategist of the South Sea!”

Benon, commander-in-chief of the Kingdom of Ruman, listened to their opposition with an expressionless face before asking back.

“I do not know if you have heard the legend of that ‘Nightmare of the South Sea’.”

“I have heard it. But surely that is an exaggerated…”

“Even if only half of what the survivors there said is true, he is a monster we must never engage in naval warfare. If you think my judgment is flawed, I won’t stop you from taking a warship out separately to fight him, but without a doubt, it will end terribly.”

“Still…”

“And it is not as though we intend to merely hole up and endure either. Several stratagems have already been prepared, so please trust me.”

With the commander-in-chief putting it that way, there was nothing they could say.

After all, going out in groups of two or three thousand on their own would hardly allow them to handle it anyway.

Of course, Benon was not simply cowering in fear and holing up in a castle without any plan.

He was renowned for his skill in fleet battles, but apart from that, he was also versed in land combat and siege tactics.

‘A siege is an environment where the defender’s advantage is maximized. In exchange, as the battlefield narrows, the prowess of a few individuals can exert great effect… but if a few strategies are added, it can easily be overcome.’

Even now, all sorts of ideas were repeatedly forming and disappearing in his head.

Though superior in numbers, the enemy’s army could hardly be considered equal when judged by equipment and level of training.

Furthermore, standing before them was the most powerful knight in the world, one more monstrous than actual monsters.

To overcome this, geographical advantage as well as all kinds of clever tactics were required.

‘I will win, no matter what!’

Benon ground his teeth as he recalled the old king who would be waiting for him at the royal palace.

Even if he were to die in this place, crushing the enemy force so that they could not reach the king.

That was the ultimate loyalty he could offer.

*

After taking a final three-day rest, the Pendia-Libert allied fleet departed Beshalia and began advancing south.

Just as cavalry scouts were scattered in all directions apart from the main force on land, small, fast speedboats moved back and forth around the advancing dozens of warships, conducting repeated reconnaissance.

Yet, strangely enough, the sea was utterly quiet.

Even news brought by occasionally encountered merchant ships indicated that Ruman’s army was not moving from Licharzo Island.

“To think they would give up naval warfare.”

“Hmm, come to think of it, maybe it makes sense…”

All those who had participated in the past war against the pirate alliance looked at Shan and nodded.

Of course, while Shan was powerful on open plains or in siege warfare, in naval combat where it was difficult to overwhelm with raw numbers and where one had to fight in light gear, he was truly akin to a nightmare.

Especially when his long, slender soft sword fluttered, those not wearing proper armor were brutally torn apart and killed even from several meters away.

Because they moved somewhat slowly to prepare against potential ambushes, it was nearly a week after departing Beshalia when they arrived at Licharzo Island.

Shan widened his eyes at the sight of the emerging island.

Even though it was still quite far away, neither the left nor right ends were visible.

“At this scale, I’d believe it if someone said it was almost a small continent.”

“Well, the size of this island is even larger than Palles. It will probably take a few days to explore it all.”

In Ruman, there were several more large islands like this.

If every island were so small that only a few thousand people could live on it, how could they have become one of the five nations of the Arman Alliance?

Giznu frowned as he looked at the intended landing site.

“Oh dear, they have already played a trick. Though we anticipated it to some extent.”

Whether they had sent a separate scout ship to check, the enemy had already burned down the harbor on the eastern side of the island.

As if they had finished the work just a moment ago, dark black smoke was still billowing up.

Thanks to that, they had to circle around the island to find a decent landing spot.

In truth, if it were only people disembarking, it would suffice to stop slightly away and launch small boats back and forth a few times, but doing so would make it impossible to unload the siege weapons stored inside.

“It’s not a major loss, but… it’s strangely annoying.”

“Indeed.”

Ravana and Lug said, grimacing.

Since they were invading enemy territory, it couldn’t be helped, but it felt strangely like they were being dragged into the opponent’s pace from the very beginning.

Eventually, they dropped anchor in a rocky area located several kilometers away from where they had originally intended to land.

Having terrain that was half close to a natural harbor, this area had not been developed due to various geographical issues, but its structure was quite suitable for unloading cargo from large ships.

“Move it carefully! If this falls into the sea, we can’t retrieve it!”

“Heave-ho-!”

The soldiers from Meln provided by Gillian were a great help in unloading the siege weapons.

Unlike the Pendian soldiers who were still somewhat clumsy on the water, they skillfully kept their balance while moving the large siege weapon components.

While they were slowly attempting to land, a speedboat circling the area approached.

The person aboard shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Enemy! About twenty speedboats! Approaching from the north!”

“They targeted the moment when our movements slowed down due to landing…”

Sir Polk, commander of Count of Meln’s army, clicked his tongue.

Even if predicted, this was not a move for which they had any particular countermeasure.

After all, they couldn’t just refrain from landing and hold back simply because they didn’t want to be attacked during the landing.

“Then we’ll have to repel them. I’ll step up myself.”

The moment Shan said that, Giznu, who had been deep in thought, raised his head and spoke.

“You must not.”

“Hmm?”

“Ah, I apologize. However…”

Although he held the position of naval admiral, he was originally a commoner, so he was surprised by his own words and offered an apology.

Cutting him off, Shan asked.

“Never mind the breach of etiquette, what is the reason?”

“It is clearly a diversionary operation. Speedboats are fast, but they cannot carry many people, making hand-to-hand combat difficult. They are almost certainly trying to draw our attention by shooting arrows from afar.”

If they attacked on land while Shan was lured out to sea in that manner, they would be able to inflict heavy damage.

At Giznu’s words, everyone let out an exclamation of realization.

“Indeed…”

“Of course, there is a possibility that I am wrong…”

“There’s nothing certain in battle anyway. In that case, I will leave repelling them to the Meln soldiers who are skilled in naval combat.”

“Understood.”

Expressing slight regret at not being able to witness Shan’s prowess, which was said to be like a god’s on the sea, Sir Polk nodded and immediately reboarded the soldiers who had disembarked.

A short while later, the speedboats that appeared on the water refrained from closing in and instead only rained down arrows from a distance.

Skillfully maneuvering to maintain a distance of over fifty to sixty meters, they gradually enticed the Pendian warships away from land.

Indeed, even Shan could not close such a distance.

While watching this quietly, a roar of battle cried erupted from the land.

Soldiers of Ruman poured out from the path inside the rocky area.

“Kill the Pendian bastards!”

“Hit and run fast! All troops, at…”

Count Robut, leader of the vanguard who had believed only the story that the monstrous Altoan had been lured away by their strategy, let out a quiet groan as he saw the golden armor before his eyes.

The Nightmare of the South Sea was waiting for them.