I Became the First Prince: Legend of Sword's Song

The empire isn’t much (4)

Hansen’s status was that of a probationary knight under the crown prince.

However, he did not have the qualifications of a probationary knight.

For example, his equestrian skills were too low to travel for a long time on horseback like now.

Far from riding alongside the knights, he lagged far behind, and even when following the rear of the rangers he was nearing the point of death.

That was why he was sitting on the floor right now, frowning at his own arrogance.

Of course, he also had excuses.

While he was a probationary knight in name, he was just a ranger until recently. And before that, he was nothing more than a peddler wandering all over the kingdom.

It would have been stranger to be familiar with the warhorses that were notoriously expensive and difficult to maintain.

“Oh my. You’re completely sprawled out.”

However, a man who definitely knew about his situation kept walking around while smirking.

“Has our knight trainee never learned how to ride a horse?”

It was Jordan, the oldest ranger in Balahard, whom he had a bad relationship with.

This happened every time.

Jordan always bickered endlessly while hovering around him.

At first, he had endured and thought of it as his own fault because he had ignorantly fallen for the ranger’s trick and said he would kick the man’s ass.

But even that had its limits.

Jordan would come over whenever there was a chance and make his insides churn.

It was so terrible that Hansen’s initial guilt was long gone.

“You said you would kick my ass, so you followed my ass all day?”

“I am doing the best I can…”

“Look at that. I forgot I had to take care of the kids on the patrol team.”

Especially like now, when the ranger spoke sarcastically so he could overhear, ignored anything he said in response, then suddenly left. It felt like his chest would explode.

Hansen thought he had to kick that nasty ranger’s butt in order to relieve his anger.

Looking at Jordan’s back disappearing into the distance, he lay down.

“What a terrible life.”

The sky had turned dark before he knew it, and the stars were especially bright today.

Looking at that brilliant light, he remembered the face of someone who had completely changed his life.

In an unknown town in the east that he had visited by chance, he had met that steel knight for the first time.

He had been stunned the moment he saw that lofty figure which did not fit in with the rest of the bloody battlefield.

When he belatedly came to his senses, he was already rolling around in the harsh lands located in the northernmost part of the kingdom.

After the hellish training, and an even more hellish winter, he had come down to the central region and became a probationary knight under the crown prince.

It had truly been a stormy time.

But those harsh days would be nothing compared to the days soon to come.

Hansen looked at the sky towards the south with melancholy eyes.

Somewhere inside the lands of the Burgundy Empire.

A battle lay ahead.

Hansen had spent one winter as a ranger and had gained experience, but it would be his first time fighting against humans.

His heart was heavy.

It would be nice to have someone to open up to at times like this, but the only people around him were lunatic rangers.

There was only one time when he had expressed his feelings to the rangers.

The only answers he got back were crazy things like how swords were several times better than monsters. So after that day, Hansen gave up on having normal conversations with the rangers.

Other than the rangers, there were about 300 knights.

Perhaps they would be able to address his concerns.

Right after he was appointed as a probationary knight, the crown prince suffered an accident so he had not been able to establish a connection with them, but he still counted as a knight as well.

Unfortunately, the knights did not pay any attention to him.

No, whether or not they had any interest, Hansen had never seen them open their mouths to say anything.

Also, the air around them was so dark that he didn’t dare to speak at all.

At times like this, it would be nice if someone could step in and sort things out.

While he complained to himself like this, he heard a voice that he could never forget.

“Hannibal?”

It was the prince.

Startled, Hansen jumped up from his seat and fell to his knees.

“I came to see what kind of guy kept falling behind.”

Seeing him like that, the crown prince frowned.

“Why are you here?”

The crown prince’s question made Hansen feel like he had been hit in the back of his head.

He had changed his affiliation from a ranger to a knight under the prince, but he had been completely forgotten.

It was embarrassing.

“Well, Your Highness appointed him as a probationary knight, but after that, Your Highness… well, that. Because of that, his position became unclear…”

In place of him who kept his head bowed in silence, the ranger company commander Jordan that he thought had fallen asleep suddenly appeared and explained the situation.

“So I put him in our company at my discretion as a company commander.”

In short, everyone had completely forgotten about him because they had been distracted.

“Since he hadn’t been formally appointed, I thought there wouldn’t be a big problem with the hierarchy, and since he was originally a ranger, I thought it would be more convenient to be here than with the knights, but if there are any problems…”

“There’s no problem. In that case, you take care of him for this battle, Jordan. The atmosphere over there is a little difficult to put someone else in.”

The crown prince’s eyes briefly turned toward the knights resting on the other side.

Hansen followed his gaze and glanced at the knights.

It was a gloomy evening, and the place where the knights were located felt particularly dark.

“In the first place, a ranger company commander is equivalent to a knight according to the system in Balahard, so stay under Jordan for the time being. If you have any objections…”

“No objections!”

Looking at the gloomy air, the crown prince was willing to take action.

That was how Hansen became affiliated with the rangers again.

“Good job then.”

After that, the crown prince made a few trivial requests and left, and Jordan began giggling.

“Little guy. Let’s work hard.”

Seeing that sinister smile, Hansen thought that maybe it would have been better to stay with the grim knights.

And as always, his ominous predictions were not far off the mark.

“Faster! There’s no one among our rangers who can’t even do this little thing properly!”

As soon as they set forth the next day, Jordan stayed close by and began to roast Hansen.

“If you’re like this, it’d be better to give up on even thinking of being a knight!”

The day before, Jordan had at least been avoiding him somewhat and treating him as a knight trainee in his own way, but today he had no such consideration.

Today Jordan treated him roughly like he was a recruit.

Thanks to that, Hansen recalled some unpleasant memories, and he grit his teeth and kicked his horse.

After rushing quickly and then trotting slowly for a long time, the day soon turned dark.

Hansen lay down on his bed, exhausted from being scolded by Jordan all day, when he heard the rangers whispering on the side.

“Leader. Don’t you know that none of the people His Highness personally appointed to be knights have been mediocre?”

“Then I will regret it later.”

“Do you really still care about him saying he’ll kick your ass?”

Hansens pricked up his ears.

“Or are you trying to kick his before he kicks yours?”

“That’s not how to court someone.”

For a while, useless words came and went, and then the question he had been waiting to hear came out.

“Why are you bothering him so much?”

It was something he was also curious about.

Even though he had started off on the wrong foot, there was no way Jordan wouldn’t know by now that it had originated with an unknown ranger’s prank.

He couldn’t understand why Jordan was always at his throat.

Hansen thought it would be less unfair if he knew the reason.

“He said that His Highness was an immature child who lived well in the royal palace.”

But no.

He heard the reason, but it was still just as unfair.

How old was this story.

Back in the days when he did not know much about the crown prince, he had once spoken badly about him.

That had been two years ago.

He hadn’t said anything like that after hearing how devotedly the crown prince had fought alongside the soldiers of Winter castle.

But that was why he was being tortured now.

Hansen hoped that the other rangers would stop their company commander.

But for some reason.

“What? How dare he!”

“To say such stupid things about His Highness!”

“You only did this much after hearing that?”

Far from dissuading their company commander, the rangers angrily asked why he was only going so far.

“I think it would be okay to pretend to take him on a long-distance patrol and leave him behind the enemy lines.”

“Or in the middle of battle, no one would know…”

Some of the more extreme rangers made a fuss saying that he should be punished immediately.

For Hansen, these were spine-chilling words.

Even though he hadn’t spent too much time with the rangers, he couldn’t just pass it off as simply being swept away by the atmosphere.

He had already experienced how fierce they were when it involved the crown prince.

When it came to the crown prince, who could predict what those crazy rangers would do?

Of course, he knew in his head that they wouldn’t be so ruthless.

However, he couldn’t help but feel that the bed was very uncomfortable.

It was to the point that he couldn’t sleep at all for fear that an ally might stab him in the dark.

In the end, he stayed up all night with his eyes open, so it was only natural that the next day’s march was even more exhausting.

“Are you out on a walk? Is it relaxing? Can’t you see how we have been slowed down thanks to a certain knight trainee?”

“If it’s so difficult to ride, just get off and run. Might as well put your mana to work.”

It was difficult for him to handle even one company commander, but now even the platoon commanders came forward to harass him.

Even though he didn’t say a word, the other rangers looked at him poorly.

At least before, some of them would look after him because he was also a ranger, but now even those people were gone.

He was surrounded by enemies on all sides.

And he hadn’t even encountered the real enemy yet.

The words ‘thorny path’ sounded fitting for this situation.

However, there was one other person in the unit who was equally pitiful.

Couillon de Montpellier.

Originally a marquis of the empire, the middle-aged man who was said to have converted and become a count of the kingdom was being dragged along, unable to even climb onto a horse.

And when the march stopped, he served as the crown prince’s chair. It was a miserable sight.

It wouldn’t be until later that Hansen would discover the middle-aged man he had felt sorry for was a former ambassador of the Empire who had taken the lead in exploiting the kingdom.

“Who’s caring about who?”

Besides, he didn’t have the time to worry about others.

The road ahead was covered in dark clouds.

He was even starting to wonder whether the sun would ever rise again in his gloomy life.

However, the darkness only lasted until the third day after leaving the Briand Duchy.

On the fourth day, he was finally able to escape from the rangers’ clutches.

“We’ve discovered traces of enemy scouts about half a day away! Judging by the trail, it looks like a scouting party of light cavalry! The number is at least twenty!”

“A group of light cavalry spotted disappearing into the southwest! Size is at least 1 squadron, confirmed to be a scouting party!”

The rangers who had scattered in all directions found traces of the enemy everywhere.

“Ignore them and keep moving.”

Even after confirming that the enemy was active nearby, the crown prince remained calm.

He seemed unconcerned with the enemy patrols circling the area.

As if he wanted them to know his route. As if he wished for them to bring in more troops.

“Hm.”

The crown prince stopped the troops. He opened a map and fell into thought.

However, in Hansen’s view, he looked no different from a person agonizing in front of all kinds of delicacies.

Whether to eat this one first or that one first, that kind of face was staring at the table with a hungry expression.

“First.”

The crown prince pointed to a section of the map.

“Let’s start here.”

It seemed like he had finally finished deciding.