Blood burst up from the half-gone head. The Red Eagle Prince, standing behind River Rat, took the spray full-on.
“AAAAAH!”
The Red Eagle Prince flailed both arms and fell straight onto the ground. The corpse’s knees buckled, then it slowly toppled forward. Thud. A dull sound followed—like someone dropping a sack of grain onto the floor.
Wolf couldn’t even breathe as he stared down at the body. He couldn’t believe it. River Rat of all people—dead.
“Ugh… ugh—BLEH! BLEH!”
The Red Eagle Prince vomited onto the ground. That was when the sound of wind drilled into Wolf’s ears. His heart started pounding out of nowhere, and his gaze snapped to the right.
Something else was flying in.
Wolf threw himself in front of the Red Eagle Prince on instinct.
“Get down!”
At the same time, he yanked the travel chest up in a swing.
Crack—
With a sharp sound, the chest was sliced clean in half. Clothes and gold coins spilled everywhere. Wolf stared at the severed chest for a beat, then jerked his head up.
Right. It came from the right.
Nearby, an old inn was taking the winter wind head-on. A moment later, murmuring voices drifted out from behind it.
「See that? That bastard blocked your blade.」
「Damn. Good eyes, for a servant.」
「Is he really a servant? Not the prince?」
「No, no. Atanian bastards would’ve tamed them like docile sheep—so the weak-looking one is the prince. Look. Even the robe’s different.」
Men ran their mouths loudly as they filed out one after another from behind the inn.
Seven of them.
They were speaking in Stol, so Wolf couldn’t understand the words. But he understood one thing clearly.
They were enemies.
And extremely dangerous ones.
Even their looks overwhelmed River Rat. River Rat at least had a clean face—these men were tattooed up to their cheeks. One had an axe. One had a crossbow. Four carried spears. One carried a crescent-shaped blade on a long chain.
That blade was the one that had split River Rat’s skull like slicing a melon.
Cold sweat soaked Wolf’s whole body. This was bad. They were outnumbered from the start.
He whipped around toward the horse seller.
People, shocked by the sudden bloodshed, were staring this way. A lot of them were Atanian women.
“Help us!”
Wolf shouted. The women flinched.
“Ask your husbands to help! Tell them I’ll give them all these gold coins if they do!”
Wolf pointed at the gold coins scattered all over the ground.
“We’re Atanian! We’re only seventeen! We don’t want to die on foreign soil!”
At Wolf’s plea, the women wavered. A few even grabbed at their husbands’ sleeves and begged.
The men all shook their heads, repeating the same phrase.
“Tunoi! Tunoi!”
It was one of the few Stol words Wolf knew.
No.
Something boiled up inside him. Even with gold on the line, why won’t you move? There are dozens of you, and you’re scared of seven men…?
Coward bastards.
“Aren’t you ashamed, calling yourselves men in front of your wives? Just die, all of you!”
Wolf hurled the half-chest onto the ground. The Red Eagle Prince looked up at Wolf, sobbing.
“Wolf… w-we… are we going to die? Why…?”
“I’d like to know too. Why we have to die here.”
Wolf spat the words like he was chewing them up. The men were already closer.
「White Snow Cat, what’s that servant bastard yapping about?」
「He said you aren’t ashamed in front of your wives, and you should all die.」
「What? He should worry about his own life.」
「He’s not wrong. Our faces got smashed in front of our wives.」
After talking among themselves, the men stopped in front of Wolf. All of them were hulking—no smaller than River Rat. Wolf clenched his fists and stared up at them. Either way he was going to die; he didn’t want to die sniveling and pathetic.
One man stepped forward.
He was the only one with brown hair among the seven, and he held a spear.
“I’m White Snow Cat.”
Atanian—suddenly. Wolf flinched.
“My grandmother was Atanian. Now—are you the prince?”
“…I’m the servant.”
“Hmph. Thought so. The one sitting on the ground shaking like a leaf—that’s White Deer’s son.”
“Why are you trying to kill us?”
He had to buy time. Somehow get a chance to run.
White Snow Cat answered, sullen.
“What’s it matter? You’re going to die anyway.”
“It matters. Tell me!”
“Don’t want to. Just die.”
Wolf’s eyes went wide.
White Snow Cat’s spear was already sliding in close. At the last possible moment, Wolf threw his arm up. The shaft grazed his side with a hiss.
Grab it!
Wolf clamped a hand onto the spearshaft.
He yanked hard, dragging it down. White Snow Cat lost balance and staggered. Confusion flashed across the man’s face.
「Ugh… y-you little…」
Wolf didn’t miss the opening.
He whipped his elbow up—then widened his stride and surged forward in one fast step. In an instant, he was right on top of White Snow Cat. The elbow, accelerated by that forward drive, buried itself into the man’s face.
‘An elbow is the second-strongest part of the human body after the knee.’
‘If you want power, use speed! Stab into it when the other guy charges! Don’t just swing—drive in and stab!’
Crack—
Wolf couldn’t believe how loud it was. And the feeling traveling up his forearm—
It was real.
The nasal bone shattered like glass and caved in.
W-what… that hard…?
“Ugh! Ngh!”
White Snow Cat groaned and let go of the spear. Wolf didn’t let the opening go, either. He grabbed White Snow Cat’s shoulders with both hands and bent his knees.
‘When you break a jaw with your head, you have to hit upward. Make the teeth slam together. The sound is no joke—you should hear it yourself.’
Jump—
Wolf’s head slammed into the man’s chin. White Snow Cat’s mouth snapped shut with a clack. Teeth collided and scraped, the sound spitting out into the open air—
Eek. Grind. Crack.
“AAAAH—!”
White Snow Cat’s companions screamed. The moment Wolf released him, White Snow Cat toppled backward.
「Idiot bastard—getting worked by some green kid?」
「Stop wasting time! Kill him!」
The men leveled their weapons at Wolf all at once. Wolf scrambled and snatched up White Snow Cat’s spear. He’d only gotten one by luck. The real fight was just starting.
Could he even do this?
When it came to fistfighting, he had scraps of knowledge—from combat training, from neighborhood guys bragging about brawls.
Weapons were different.
Even Wolf could tell his hands looked awkward on the spear.
「Die—!」
Two spear-men rushed first. The spearpoints shot straight for Wolf’s chest. Wolf started to lean back—
Crack.
The sound hit.
The men mid-thrust froze dead still.
Wolf froze too.
What…?
The two men dropped their spears and sank to their knees side by side. Blood poured out of their sides like their bodies had been punched open. The heavy, metallic stink spread.
Only the barren wind kept blowing.
The men’s companions—everyone watching in the distance—no one could speak. Faces went blank, mouths hanging open.
Wolf rolled his eyes right.
A huge log was stuck in the ground, trembling.
That log had passed through the two men’s torsos in succession.
Even seeing it with his own eyes, Wolf couldn’t believe it. No matter how sharp the end was—punching clean through two human bodies, in one throw…?
Wolf turned his head toward where it had come from.
From far off, a man strolled over with a huge axe slung across one shoulder. He wore a wolf pelt—an entire wolf skin, head and all—thrown over him like a robe. Backlit, his face was drowned in shadow.
The wolf-man shouted in Stol.
「Hey! Those are my customers! Get the hell out!」
What the hell did that mean?
Wolf couldn’t understand the words, but he got it fast.
Not an enemy.
And definitely not some noble knight coming to save them.
Just someone stronger showing up.
The men who’d been pointing weapons at Wolf and the Red Eagle Prince snapped around as one.
Four against one.
The numbers were bad, but after seeing someone punch a log through two men, the wolf-man’s odds looked plenty good.
The moment Wolf thought that—
The inn door nearby slammed open.
｢Huh?｣
The wolf-man turned, expression flat.
A crowd of men poured out of the inn—at a glance, more than twenty.
At least twenty-four against one…
No.
Twenty-four against two?
Wolf narrowed his eyes.
Looking again, there was one more person behind the wolf-man—someone in a black robe.