Chapter 91

Chapter 91. I’ll Warn You Only Once

Even though Balun’s talk of writing a contract or whatnot was more than provocative enough, Count Monteki showed no particular sign of anger. He merely laughed as if dumbfounded, then brought over his seal and stamped the contract.

Of course, his adjutants and Knights were horrified and tried to stop him, but Count Monteki reassured his subordinates, saying it was fine.

Balun rather liked Count Monteki’s bold manner.

You could say his first impression had been quite good.

“Oh! You’re pretty cool!”

“What does cool mean?”

“It means broad-minded. It means you’re tolerant.”

Balun said that as he carefully folded the stamped contract and tucked it into his breast, and Count Monteki gave a small laugh as he shook his head.

“If that is what it means, I cannot quite agree. The truth is, I am narrow-minded. I am merely exercising flexibility because the situation demands it. The reality is that we are short even one soldier.”

“That’s what being cool is. You’re broad-minded and tolerant.”

“Haha. I appreciate you thinking so.”

Balun was in a good mood after meeting a bold commander from the very start, but that good mood did not last long.

That was because every factor except Count Monteki struck him as unpleasant.

Shitty bedding, shitty food, and shitty people too.

‘Mm, yeah, this is more like it. This is reality.’

Balun kept shoveling the pale, thick pig slop into his mouth.

Just as its filthy texture suggested at a glance, the pig slop tasted foul in reality too.

The flavor was bland, but the gamey stink of meat mixed with some unknown spice made a wave of nausea rise every time he swallowed it.

He even felt the urge to go find a cook and ask what on earth they had put in it.

Of course, he did not show it. Balun had already grown used to the life of Barbarians, foul tastes and all.

So he was not particularly displeased. His expectations had been converging on zero from the start, which made it even more so. After all, one needed to have expected something in the first place to be disappointed or offended.

“No denying he’s a beast bastard. He really can eat.”

“Exactly. Even the way he eats is like a monkey.”

The same went for the shitty humans all around him.

With only slight exaggeration, he was being racially insulted once every five minutes, but Balun did not so much as blink. If anything, it felt so familiar and almost affectionate that it even made him laugh.

‘This is more like it too, honestly. Count Monteki was the abnormal one.’

All in all, this place was about a 70 out of 100. Not satisfying, but not unpleasant enough to be offensive. Neither good nor bad, somewhere in the middle.

“I have no excuse. I am the one who brought you here, Lord Balun, yet I have not been able to help you at all.......”

“It’s fine. I don’t care.”

“No. I know you are barely holding back from the insults. Ugh, I am truly sorry.”

After seeing the constant mistreatment directed at Balun, Baron Anchio and his Knights could not hide their guilt. They had no real way to help him, even as they watched scorn and mockery sharp enough to make them frown unfold right beside them.

Baron Anchio might have been a noble, but he was only a minor lord, and there were many nobles in similar positions here. His standing within the count’s army was weak, so Baron Anchio had no room to shield Balun.

Even if he had possessed the ability and standing to do so, carelessly shielding Balun would likely have caused various problems.

Given that this was a gathering of rough men, the more he was protected, the more he would be pushed to the outside and become a thorn in their eyes. In the end, to solve this problem, Balun himself had no choice but to step forward.

Baron Anchio and his Knights also expected Balun to step forward himself and flatten the noses of the Knights and mercenaries, solving the problem.

But what was this?

No matter who mocked him, no matter whether he was ignored, he did not care and simply went about his own business.

“This steamed potato is rather tasty. The smell is a little strange, but the taste is fine. Will you eat this too?”

Look at this. With that huge body, he was squatting there miserably and eating potatoes.

For Baron Anchio, it was so frustrating that his insides felt ready to rot away.

How could he be like that?

“No. We are full, so we are fine.”

“That’s a shame. It tastes quite good. It’s even better when dipped in salt.”

“More importantly, Lord Balun. Will you truly be all right? There are far too many bastards waiting for a chance to harass you. If it were me, I think I would get sick from bottled-up anger.......”

“I said it’s fine. You don’t need to help me, so go back to your tent. Anyway, I should ask if there are more of these potatoes.”

Balun sprang to his feet and began striding toward the command tent.

As he cut across the long row of tents, there was suddenly the sound of a lump of iron dropping to the ground and clattering away.

Startled by the loud noise, Baron Anchio hurried outside, only to see an unexpected sight.

The iron basket Balun had been holding was overturned on the ground, and beside it, potatoes had spilled out in a heap.

Next to them stood Balun with a devastated expression, and mercenaries snickering as they looked at him.

Balun stared at the potatoes, now dirty and covered in mud, then turned his head toward the snickering men and asked in a low voice.

“Did you throw a stone?”

“A stone? How would I know? We were only watching.”

“You really didn’t throw it?”

“That’s what I said. You tripped on your own while walking, so why take it out on the wrong people? Don’t start any pointless shit. Just keep going where you were going.”

“I see.”

Balun nodded.

He looked around the muddy ground as if searching for something, then suddenly thrust out his hand roughly, grabbed the mercenary by the scruff of the neck, and slammed him straight into the ground. The mercenary’s face became a complete mess, smeared all over with mud.

“Ptoo, ptoo! What the hell are you doing?!”

“Shameless liars deserve what they get. Just like you bastards.”

“What lie? I didn’t do...... Aaargh!”

Balun kept grabbing the mercenary by the hair and driving his face into the ground. Each time the man’s face hit the ground, a wet splat rang out.

“Did you think I wouldn’t know you secretly threw a stone on purpose and snickered? On top of that, you tripped me so I would fall. Thanks to you, I can’t eat my precious potatoes now.”

In an instant, every gaze nearby gathered on them. Since this was the area where the hired mercenaries were gathered, most of them were mercenaries.

Whether they watched or not, Balun paid them no mind and focused on grinding the mercenary’s face into the ground.

“These are the potatoes you dropped, so you eat them. This works out better. There’s no salt to dip them in, so dipping them in mud sauce instead should be fine.”

Then Balun picked up a potato, forced the mercenary’s mouth open, and crammed it in. The mud-covered potato was crushed as it entered the mercenary’s mouth.

By that point, the mercenaries watching nearby sprang to their feet. Hostility settled into their gazes.

“This crazy Barbarian bastard.”

“Who do you think you are, causing trouble here? Are you out of your mind and looking to die?”

“Oh? Not answering? Your liver must be hanging outside your belly.”

The mercenaries approached Balun and surrounded him. Soon, along with curses vicious enough to kill a man’s parents and siblings a hundred times over, a blind fist flew in and struck Balun’s jaw. Balun deliberately did not dodge.

THWACK—!

Balun stopped moving and turned his head. The bald mercenary who had struck him flinched. That was because Balun’s eyes were as still as a clear lake. So still that they did not seem to belong to a man carrying out such a violent act of revenge.

“Did you hit me?”

“Yeah. I hit you, you bastard. If you don’t let go of him right now, I’ll chop you into a hundred pieces and.......”

“You said it with your own mouth. This is clearly self-defense.”

THWACK—!

Balun threw a jab straight into the bald man’s face. Even though it was a light punch, the bald mercenary’s eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground with a thud.

“Kun!”

“You son of a bitch!”

At last, the mercenaries rushed him in a group, and Balun grinned. It had gone just as he wanted.

Balun gladly obliged them in the brawl. Before long, the number of men rolling on the ground and groaning increased.

However, there was danger in it even for Balun. As many as five mercenaries had drawn daggers and begun swinging them.

Of course, Balun had anticipated that too. He had noticed from the moment he was eating potatoes that they had been glaring at him while constantly touching the daggers at their waists.

What was a little flustering was that he had not thought they would actually stab him with knives.

Do these bastards not even know enough to tell fire from water?

No matter how rootless these bastards are, isn’t this too much? No matter how fragmented the chain of command may be, this is still an army, isn’t it?

After lightly knocking down the mercenaries, Balun stood up and looked around. He could see people watching him with tense expressions. Balun opened his mouth toward them.

“Listen carefully. I’ll warn you only once.”

“.......”

“I don’t care if you curse at me. I don’t care whether you glare at me. But if you mess around with food, I won’t let it slide.”

The atmosphere was cold. It did not merely turn cold; it froze solid. In that frigid air, everyone’s expression stiffened, but Baron Anchio’s expression alone was bright.

‘That’s more like it. There’s no way that great Warrior would endure insults.’

Thinking that, Baron Anchio passed a hand over his chest. It felt refreshing, as if the blockage inside him had been cleared away.

***

Balun’s show of force was truly effective. After that, almost no one touched Balun anymore.

Even the territorial hazing vanished, so Balun was able to live comfortably in the camp.

‘Ah, this is comfortable. It’s so nice once you’ve laid the groundwork.’

The world of men was truly rough and barbaric beyond measure, and Balun knew very well that the logic of power inevitably had to enter it.

That was why he had deliberately waited for the right timing. A moment to display his strength where everyone could see it.

The mercenaries happened to touch him at exactly the right time, so the situation fell neatly into place. If the mercenaries had not touched him, he would have ended up awkwardly enduring racial discrimination as he lived there.

‘I wonder what’s for breakfast today.’

It was the morning of the third day since he had joined Count Monteki’s army. Balun had woken up early and was sitting on the edge of the tent, smacking his lips as he thought of breakfast, when a bell suddenly rang.

Ding, ding, ding, ding!

‘Hm?’

Balun looked toward the direction of the bell. The ringing of a bell meant there was some news to deliver.

Sure enough, a Knight wearing a blue surcoat approached and shouted in a booming voice.

“Everyone, wake up! It’s a surprise attack! The Croa bastards are coming, so all of you, grab your weapons and get up!”

At that news, the camp stirred. However, the type of stir was slightly different. The soldiers steeled themselves with grim resolve, while the mercenaries chattered frivolously with greed-soaked eyes.

Only Balun belonged to neither of those two groups. He had no grim resolve like the soldiers, nor did he think about how many enemy heads he could take like the mercenaries.

He was simply curious. How many enemies were there? What was their force composition? How many Knights were there, and how many mages? How skilled were those Knights and mages?

He did not know, but there had to be a tremendous number, right?

Unable to contain his curiosity, Balun sprang to his feet. He approached the Knight ringing the bell and asked. He needed to know such things to establish a strategy. A strategy to earn the greatest merit with the least effort.

“Hey, Knight.”

“What is it?”

“How many enemies are there? Is there no information on the enemy force?”

“I don’t know! How would I know that?!”

“You don’t even know that?”

Wait, they fight without even knowing that?

Of course, since this was a surprise attack by the enemy, it was possible they had no information, but still.

Do they not run things like intelligence operations here? Did they keep scouts around just to boil them into soup?

“Stop asking useless questions and go prepare to fight. Those damned bastards are right under our noses.”

“If I go ask the Count, will he tell me?”

“You fool. The Count is busy right now and has no idle time to meet some mercenary scrap like you. Go fight while I am still asking nicely.”

“How heartless.”

Balun obediently followed the Knight’s words. That was because he knew the Knight was not wrong.

No matter that he had come with Baron Anchio’s introduction, in the end, he was merely one of the mercenaries who would become arrow fodder.

In a situation so urgent that the enemy had already come right under their noses, there would be no room to leisurely brief a Barbarian mercenary on information.

‘No helping it. I’ll have to throw myself in and find out firsthand.’

Balun returned and gathered his equipment. He was tucking daggers into his belt one by one when he faintly heard the sound of hoofbeats. It meant the time to fight had come.

As the hoofbeats grew louder little by little, the sound of Balun’s heartbeat also grew louder little by little.