From Mercenary to King

Chapter 2: Back to That First Battle (2)

Although he did not spread his name far and wide or raise great renown, he still had twenty years of eating steel for a living.

Because of that, Shatien did not find the battlefield before him as frightening or as grueling as in the past.

Even now, look.

“Uwaaaaah!”

A shieldman of the Emperor’s army that Miles had missed charged all of a sudden, but Shatien was not surprised.

He was calm instead.

‘Shield bash? How obvious.’

Knock the opponent over with the shield, then thrust the blade straight in.

It was a stance he had seen far too many times in twenty years of fighting the Emperor’s soldiers.

Shatien was unimpressed.

He had faced it so often that the way to counter it had become second nature.

‘Steal his breath before he swings that shield…’

When the stance broke and the movement grew large, the exposed wrist became the target.

It was a difficult counter, which was why it was effective.

‘Good.’

They were still four and a half steps apart.

When the enemy closed within two steps and set himself to swing the shield, that would be the right moment to rob him of his breath.

Just like now.

Flash!

Shatien sprang forward a half beat faster and gripped his sword.

He swung with all his strength, aiming for the shield.

Or rather, he tried to.

-Rinnnggg

All at once, a strange sound seemed to ring, and then an indescribable sensation wrapped around him.

‘…?’

It felt as if the world moved slowly.

More precisely, it felt like the time of his mind and the time of his moving body had split apart. At the same time, fragmented information about the situation flooded his head.

The path the shocked enemy intended to move along.

Scratches, the grain of the shield, angles.

The condition of the shield in that enemy’s hand.

In a single instant, before he could even judge, all of it had already been decided and guided Shatien under the name of instinct.

And the result was this.

-Crack!

A strike meant only to shove the shield away, instead split it in half.

Shk-shk-shk.

Thud.

It even cleaved the enemy’s head in half through the shield.

“??!?!”

“W-What the?”

The enemy soldiers who saw it recoiled and cursed.

A shield was a shield for a reason. It could stoutly block ordinary attacks at least once or twice, which was why they carried that heavy thing with such confidence. Yet it had split from a single strike. But the most shocked of all was Shatien himself.

“???”

He had simply followed a trance-like instinct without knowing why, and the shield had split with a dry crack like seasoned firewood. Just like the strikes he had sometimes seen knights use on past battlefields.

‘...I just did that?’

A sour bewilderment smacked through Shatien’s head. The shields used by the Emperor’s soldiers were very sturdy and of good quality. With the crude iron sword in his hand, cutting one should have been close to impossible.

“Daaamn it!”

“It has to be a fluke! Rush him! He probably hit a rotten edge!”

There was no time to think about it.

The startled enemies around him screamed and charged. It might look cowardly for three to go after one, but this was a battlefield.

For survival, anyone could do anything.

‘Damn it.’

Muttering a low curse, Shatien set his stance.

Left, right, front.

In the brief daze, he had been surrounded on three sides. On an ordinary day he would not have made such a rookie mistake…

It was a fatal blunder.

‘Dammit. Was the gambeson I wore in my first battle tough?’

He couldn’t remember.

And what good would it do to know. Either way, he would have to give up his flank.

Biting his lip, Shatien braced for the shock. Even if he gave up his side, he would have to smash the skulls of the others to break even.

“Dieeeeee!”

“You can do that instead! You bastard.”

Vwooom.

And when everyone swung their weapons at once—

-Rinnnggg.

The world began to slow again. He did not know why.

* * *

Miles thought today’s battle brought more harm than gain.

They had scraped together new recruits with great difficulty, and yet from the very start they faced the Emperor’s army.

It was bad luck.

He worried how many would survive this clash.

“Guuhk!”

Thud.

Though he had just struck down an enemy soldier, Miles’s thoughts were on the recruits.

Protecting them from the shock of their first battle, guiding them, and keeping as many alive as possible was his duty as a senior mercenary.

He hurried to scan the battlefield.

And saw it.

“Damn it-! I told him not to rush ahead.”

Recruits were recruits.

There were always ones who would not listen.

It was that very recruit who had driven him mad earlier. Judging from the fallen soldier ahead, the boy had somehow managed to cut one down. But that was all.

With no experience, the recruit had rushed out and was now surrounded on three sides.

“Damn it! Sigh… Because of kids like that, I’ll die before my time.”

Still cursing, Miles hefted his axe and sprinted over. The boy would probably die, but one never knew.

Just then—

Clang, clang!

An unbelievable sight filled Miles’s eyes.

The recruit’s sword struck the enemy’s blade aside with sparks—

Crunch!

And then pierced straight through the shield, as though it were a spear.

“Wh-What?!”

Dodging and deflecting was already shocking, but piercing a shield?

Miles knew well how fine the Emperor’s soldiers’ equipment was. It was unbelievable.

His jaw dropped, just like that very recruit he had cursed.

* * *

Crack!

It pierced through.

Even while moving, half in doubt, his sword really had stabbed through the shield’s weak point.

And that was not all.

Swish!

Clang, clang, clang!

Shhk.

He was reacting to the renewed strikes of the soldiers he had fended off earlier.

Deflecting, sliding, cutting.

Moving like a tightrope acrobat, he overwhelmed the space around him.

As if… like one of those terrifying knights of legend with monstrous skill.

“Wh-What…?”

“He’s a monster!”

The soldiers around him faltered, terror plain on their faces.

Once might be a fluke, but twice and thrice meant otherwise. They realized the incredible events they had just witnessed were not luck, but skill.

“Do not falter! What are you doing! Forward, you slugs!”

The officer behind them screamed and raged, but it did no good.

It was a wonder they were not already breaking ranks and fleeing.

That was how shocking Shatien’s display had been.

And Miles was no fool. He knew when to seize the mood.

“Ahahaha! What are you waiting for! Push them! Battle is momentum! Smash their skulls!”

He swung his axe in great arcs and planted himself beside Shatien, splitting skulls like chopping firewood.

And the result—

“Yes! We can win! Chaaaarrgee!”

The recruits, their courage restored, grabbed their weapons and rushed behind Miles.

“Um…? Uhhh…”

“E-Enemies incomingggg!”

“Chaaaarge!”

Crash!

Boom!

Their ferocious momentum shook the line.

The Emperor’s shieldmen, barely holding, began breaking away one by one. Soon their formation collapsed.

“Run!”

“This is over, damn it!”

Clashes only lasted while formations held.

Once one side’s line broke, battle turned to slaughter.

The battlefield became a hunting ground for fleeing soldiers.

And Shatien, who had triggered it all, was—

“Haa, haa…”

Catching his ragged breath, staring at the battle winding down.

In truth, he could no longer move.

‘This is… some incredible power.’

The slowed time, the unknown instincts—

They had brought awe-inspiring results.

For a moment, he had felt like a knight, a god of war on the battlefield.

‘But if this triggers randomly, it would be dangerous.’

The pounding headache, the drained body, the weakness filling his limbs—

It was like the price of wielding a power beyond his means.

If the battle had dragged longer, he would have collapsed and died.

‘Anyway, what is happening… I thought I died, but I’m here now, back to the very first battle I experienced…’

The sensations were too vivid to call it a dream or dying illusion.

The raw ache in his chest.

The throbbing headache.

The crushing fatigue.

This was no dream.

‘Then… this means it’s reality.’

The past.

Had he returned twenty years to the past? Shatien let out a disbelieving laugh.

Why?

Why now?

Such things only happened in bard’s tales sung in cheap taverns.

And then, a thought flashed.

‘Wait. Could it be?’

Yes.

The kind of wild tale only bards would spin. But he had something to believe it with.

The pendant.

The heirloom that was said to carry ancient mystical power from his great ancestors.

He pulled it from his breast.

As expected, its once-bright gleam had dulled to a muddy earth color.

‘So there really was magical power in this?’

It was absurd, but undeniable.

But why?

Why only now?

His head swam with confusion.

A relic that could turn back time.

An unbelievable power out of legend.

But nothing else could explain it.

‘I… I’ve returned. Twenty years into the past.’

And with this strange new ability at that.

-Thump.

Shatien’s heart pounded wildly.

-Thump. Thump. Thump.

The tremors spread like lightning through his veins.

‘Chance… I’ve been given a second chance?’

A chance to start again.

He had lived in regret. But now—

He had the chance to cast regret aside, to restore his family, to fulfill both his house’s and his own ambitions.

‘My past is no longer…!’

That past, where effort had ended in disappointment and sorrow.

This was a new beginning.

Now he carried knowledge of the future, information, and this strange gift that slowed time.

If he lived the same way as before, then he would be a fool.

‘Father…’

Clenching his fists, face flushed with heat, Shatien swore to himself.

‘This time, I will rebuild our family. I will make it flourish.’

He renewed the vow he had made when he first left home.