Chapter. 14. One Empire, Three Legends (6)
****
Borka has a keen ear.
Of course, most beastmen have sharp ears, but he especially tended to check his sense of smell and hearing before his sense of sight.
Regardless of his instincts as a species, it was the habit of a werewolf who had come down to the human world and seen too many things he did not want to see.
When I close my eyes, the world that comes to mind is more three-dimensional than I thought.
Rattling. Sigh-!
Rustle.
A public post office filled with a strong paper smell similar to Wuthering Heights.
As you walk down the street, you can hear the sour heat of the gambling tables, the voice of the gambler banging on the sign with the names of the fighters saying that it is his last chance, and the sound of silver coins pouring down on the old wooden table.
The fishy smell of fish that can be felt among the market products that must have passed through the hands of all kinds of people is an appropriate gift for a wizard who is probably chewing aquatic plants while looking at the city’s exotic meals with envious eyes.
And as he was about to receive the five fish strung on a long branch, he heard light footsteps approaching him quickly. The body odor of an elf is classified as the animal-like scent of the forest.
For the first time in a long time, Borka, who was enjoying walking around as a beast without any restrictions in a crowded city, welcomed his elf companion with a happy heart.
Borka thought he felt dizzy for a moment as the elf spoke, sounding slightly out of breath.
“…. ……”
What are you talking about? My ears heard, but my mind did not understand.
“A letter… deliver it personally?”
“I heard so. Tushan Marca. “Are these your two lost children?”
.
.
.
.
slam.
This is the sound of five fish caught on a tree branch falling to the ground.
The werewolf’s hot breath passed before my eyes, and its sharp claws kicked the ground.
A broken and tattered door. A colleague with a confused expression and a yellow piece of paper in his hand.
A clear name written on the paper held out. Names he has lost and must regain.
Quang!
Ujikkeun!
What followed was the sound of the tattered door falling on the body of the werewolf running away, howling, and the sound of the body of the professor running after him, pressing him down on the wooden floor.
“calm down! Argh! “I told you to stick your fingernails in!”
“Let go! My children, my children are in this city now! “Right now, we are looking at the same sky and breathing the same air!”
“So just calm down for a moment… Ugh! “Does this bastard… ask?”
Borka’s sharp teeth bit into the professor’s thick forearm, which was strangling him, and lifted the large colleague with only the strength of his back and neck and threw him down. The force was strong enough to crush the solid table and the floor at the same time, but the man hanging on his back showed no signs of falling, and his thick forearms were even more suffocating.
“Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!”
“Come to your senses, you bastard! Don’t you know that the first preliminary round is in just a few hours? That’s not just a list, it’s a list of participants in a speculation contest! you also! All four children are also participants! If you jump in now, it could be seen as an attempt to slander the opposing player before the game! It won’t be a touching reunion, but your children will stick their claws in your face! There is no need to run away from the arena, so if you wait calmly, you will be sure to be in the players’ waiting room-”
“15… years… I’ve been waiting for a whopping 15 years… How can I get any more from here!”
Quad deuk!
Borka, who took advantage of the opportunity for his arm to slip on the wet fur to throw the professor behind him, cried out.
“15 years! As a beastman, as a human, as the leader of a group! I left everything to come this far! Don’t you think those kids are in the arena right now? “As a slave in the arena!”
Borka, who had pulled the professor away, cried out desperately. Except for the space where the two people faced each other, the entire space was completely blocked by a water barrier, and the professor who had removed them was shaking off the glass stuck in his body with his eyes shining fiercely. He had to go.
The voice of the werewolf, who felt that he could not break through with his own strength, was filled with earnestness.
“I don’t know how much you know about the arena! I know so well that if you dig up my bones, the pain and screams of that day will come out. Who fights for money? “Driving my nails into the neck of someone who was brought in to live in the same situation as me?”
Quang!
“you’re welcome! Even that scene of bloody slaughter is only the brightest side of the arena slaves! They are warriors and slaves! During the day, you engage in unwanted slaughter, and at night, you become a toy for your master and his relatives! How do you think a nobleman who is excited by blood and slaughter will relieve that excitement?”
“….”
“If you can’t say it, I’ll say it! A well-trained warrior’s body is a good target for nobles! No matter how great a warrior he is and how much he holds the spirit of the great forest in his heart, the moment the seal of slavery is imprinted on him, he is nothing but a slave! slave! The lowest point of human life, where everything in life exists for others! I walked into that place of my own free will! Because they said they knew the whereabouts of the slave trader who wiped out our tribe and took our children! “Because the last clue that I, who had nothing and knew nothing, could barely grasp was in their hands!”
Even now, when I close my eyes, I remember it clearly. I spent three years like a crazy person chasing the faint smell of harvest and blood out into the world. When the slave trader’s claw marks were everywhere he was heard, he was finally able to meet a human who knew about the children. A man who said his children’s names before they were even out of his mouth. The owner of the arena said he saw two young werewolves, but sent them back instead of buying them because they were expensive and young.
‘This is a story that brings tears to my eyes. The story is good. Because stories always work. Do it like this. You become a slave in our arena and work hard for me. until when? Until you become the star of our arena. It won’t take long? Looking at the way our children have been cut off, it could take at most a year or even two years. ‘Only two years?’
‘Grrrrrrrrrrrrr…. There is no time to wait that much. Even now, those children….’
‘Those damn children, children, you bastards! If you have a head, think! Not a bad deal! Look at your little pony. That stinking body, not wearing any clothes and covered only with wolf fur caked with sweat and oil. How hard was it? There is nothing more difficult than living in the human world without money, right? Let’s make money for just two years and return to being a human being. Werewolves don’t die easily even if you try to kill them, so I guarantee that your children won’t die within two years. If that person becomes our star and loses just one ridiculously large game, we will give them the information they want in return for the enormous profits. I won’t believe it. In our town, instead of uncertain trust, we use a good thing called a magic contract. Hehehe….’
The time needed to reach the top of the arena was eight years. Along the way, he learned how to fight, learned to give in and compromise, and learned that magic contracts could be manipulated.
Eight years filled with nothing but meaningless pain.
Even though the pain of that day is still before my eyes.
“…The only thing I prayed for while enduring all that pain was the safety of my children, and now they are standing where I was. All of the most terrible experiences I have ever had in my life were there, and I remember every single detail of what happened there, both physically and spiritually! How can you put the words “calm down and wait” into your mouth! Even if it’s you!!”
A blue-white energy began to seep from Borka’s screaming body. Spiritual energy used by forest tribes. If it was a struggle until now, it means that it is now sincere.
“…This is really eye-opening. “I tried to lighten him up a little because of his condition before the big game.”
“I must go. “Please don’t stop me. If it’s an apology, I’ll do it after I come back and bring my kids!”
“What is the apology between us? There’s no need to apologize or leave, dude. “If you take a good nap, wake up, take Aldrich’s sedative until your stomach explodes, and still decide to leave, I’ll consider it then.”
“Grrrrr…. KAAAAAA!!!”
Realizing that conversation was no longer possible, Borka’s body curled up like a spring and shot like an arrow towards the professor who blocked his path.
A deep sigh came from the mouth of the professor on the other side, and his arms turned black.
“What a pathetic idiot you are.”
Borka was a warrior with great strength and great experience, but his current movements were nothing more than that of an animal that had lost its mind and was rushing towards him.
Claws and reinforced forearms brush against each other, sparks fly, and
boom!
With a brutally clean blow, the howling of wolves that had been ringing the city since morning stopped.
****
Grumble.
The heat that makes my eyeballs boil. The horrible smell of burning fur and flesh.
“Hahaha! You stupid beasts! A grown man won’t listen anyway! “Kill them all and bring only the children!”
A snarky laugh can be heard among the screams of his tribe members, but he cannot move.
‘dream. ‘This is a dream.’
The spear that pierced his chest from behind pinned his body to the ground like a stake, so all that was visible was the halberd and gaiters of a beast on horseback.
The world melts away, leaving him helpless.
Wow! Wow!
Familiar pain. The whip was also a whip with a small metal weight at the end for sub-races with thick leather.
“How many times have I told you this is a game you have to lose, you beast! “I said I would throw away the question about a warrior’s honor last time!”
“The other person tried to kill me. “I can’t die here…ugh!”
“That bastard, that bastard, that bastard could have become a bastard in some neighborhood! If you don’t want to die, listen to me! If the old man lifts his finger, your heart will explode! “Why aren’t you listening when I’m exploding?”
Bound by thick chains, he was once again helpless.
‘….hmm?’
Borka closed his eyes, enduring the pain of the memories, but this dream lasted a little longer than usual.
Two letters were blown by the wind and landed in someone’s hand. If alive, Tushan would be twenty and Marka would be eighteen. How did you grow up? Will it remain the same as when it was young?
A smile appeared on the face of Borka, who was chained up, at the vision of his faceless children opening letters.
and. The moment when the blurry background becomes clear. The smile of the two werewolves who received the letter turned into a bitter smile. The place turned into a familiar arena slave prison, a room full of whips and irons with chains where he was chained, and the moment the two children took his place in the memory.
“Oh, no. no! “No way!!!”
A death-like scream flowed from the werewolf’s mouth.
Blood spattered from the bodies of the two children due to the ferocious whipping, and the scattered blood became vivid letters and gathered in front of his eyes.
=========
『Open Ribs Tribe』
– 1. Blue Mane Tushan: Affiliated with the arena.
– 3. Blue Mane Marka: Belongs to the arena.
=========
It’s not a dream. It’s reality. No matter how much he wanted to deny it, Borka the Werewolf knew the life of a gladiatorial slave all too well.
Amid the werewolf’s suppressed moans, the whipping and screaming grew louder.
‘Slave arena. Tushan Markya. ‘Slave arena contract wizard…’
Borka kept repeating himself in that torture-like scene. We must meet. Let’s meet and do whatever it takes. I will release the two children. Even if there is no place for him next to him, he will send at least two children back to the forest.
The werewolf closed his eyes in an endless nightmare. It was so clear.
****
“Huh oh oh!”
Even though I woke up to a dream so intense, it was difficult to tell whether it was reality or a dream.
The hard, angular place made my back tingle, and the sun rising high in the sky made the werewolf who woke up frown. The smell of wet wood and horse manure. A rattling sound. A carriage and the sky.
A shadow appeared over his distracted vision, and a large head appeared in front of him. A grinning face and mischievous eyes.
“Hey you you finally awake.”
“…What does that mean?”
“There is such a thing. This is exactly what you should say to someone who comes to their senses in a carriage. Have you calmed down a bit? If you need more, let me know. “Because this is free.”
A man grinning and shaking his fist.
The person who knocked him down like this. He is a colleague and leader professor.
As I looked at his face, memories gradually came back to me. He lost his temper, exposed his teeth and raised his claws at his colleagues, other colleagues looked at him with anxious eyes, and… a piece of paper with the names of his two children written on it.
Stumble!
“Whoa whoa don’t move. “It hit you so hard on the chin that your bone will ring a bit.”
“Umm…. Where am I?”
Borka sat down on the floor of the carriage, feeling his whole body throbbing. The carriage was carefully crossing the snow-covered city, and citizens along the road were waving their hands or cheering at them. The strangely shabby carriage had no lid even though it was snowing, and I thought it was to show the citizens what they looked like.
“this? A cart named… provided by the arena. It seems that all personal weapons and luggage to be used in the arena are loaded here. “Before I won my first game, I didn’t have a horse, but after I won one game, they sent me a coachman and a horse.”
“If it’s the carriage provided by the arena… has the game already started?”
“Okay, you bastard. You’re lying down for four hours just because you hit that shit. I had to play the preliminaries alone. And because of the rule of two people per group, I carried you, who had fainted, on my back. They say there will be one more preliminary round and then the finals in that arena. “We are on our way to the preliminaries.”
The professor waved his hand at the cheering people and pointed behind them with his finger. The sound of cheering from a block away can be heard through the alley.
Riding in a carriage with no lid, just like the one they were riding, were a large troll and a knight. Seeing that the carriages were heading in the same direction, it seemed like they were the next opponents.
“hey. How can we fight? “He was so determined to attack me that I seriously beat him up.”
“…No problem.”
There was a lot I wanted to say. An apology for almost ruining the entire party’s event due to his personal emotions, thanks for stopping him when he lost his temper and went crazy, etc…
But right now, all he could think about was the arena and his children, so he apologized. chose to put it aside for a while and focus on the enemy.
Must win. We will overcome and overcome and meet again. We will win it all and rise to the top. In this way, he will find freedom for his children who were bound by a cursed magic contract.
****
[….Why is he like that?]
‘I don’t know. ‘Did you hit me too hard?’
The professor was thinking about whether he had treated Borka too harshly as he watched Borka take off his clothes and throw them away on the open carriage as if he had made up his mind.
While the women cheered at the sight of Borka, who covered only the important parts with the characteristic fur of a beastman, Borka, who with familiar skill put on a gladiator costume from the corner of the carriage, threw one to me and pretended to wear it.
Of course, as it was a gladiator’s uniform, it was equipment that could not be called armor. The scale armor, which looks quite sturdy, only extends from the wrists to the shoulders. It had leather shoulder pads on top, and a small iron plate covering the heart was connected to a leather belt.
Other than that, everything was bare skin. An outfit that exposes everything except the arms, shoulders, and heart.
“Hmm… I think it would be more comfortable to fight naked. Anyway, I can pull out the outer skin from the whole body. “It will be 100 times stronger than this.”
“Please, please wear it. “The arena has its own rules.”
“…Is it because of the kids?”
Borka nodded with a firm mouth, as if he had made up his mind.
“Despite the shame, I would like to ask you a favor. The slave seal cannot be easily erased. The contracting party must directly cancel the contract or the slave must fulfill the conditions at the time of the contract. “In the case of illegally purchased slaves, it is common to impose very strict and harsh conditions on them, making it virtually impossible to complete them.”
“How did you escape?”
“…The day I found out that the contract would not end even at the top of the arena, I killed all the humans at the celebratory banquet and chopped the bastard who had bound me into the contract and chewed him up bit by bit right in front of his eyes. Until he listens to me, cutting little by little with a steak knife, leaving only his thumb to indicate the end of the contract and his mouth to signal the end of the contract. If only I could do it this time, I wouldn’t mind… The owner of an arena like this doesn’t easily reveal himself to the outside world, and if someone who feels threatened takes the contract hostage, there’s nothing I can do. “We have to approach them their way.”
Slam!
Lastly, Borka, wearing a yellow, perforated brass helmet, spoke in a strangely resonant voice thanks to the helmet.
“A warrior’s sword is not enough to hold in one’s hand. The audience’s cheers are the brightest shield and the spear that defeats enemies who cannot resist.”
“You will become popular… as a gladiator in the arena, right?”
“The whole city will chant my name in their way until the head of the arena has no choice but to stick out his head.”
Not a bad plan. Popularity means money, and if you attract gladiators who know the physiology of the arena well, you can win bigger matches.
But…
“It won’t be that easy, right? Even if you take a quick look right now, you can see that the Empire’s hand is in every corner of Haunuman. It is a city that is like a symbol of the subjugation of countless tribes in the grasslands. Even though fighting competitions are a tradition of the greenskins, it seems like they have been greatly influenced by people. Either through a competition called a tournament or by hosting a festival to raise money. “The original tribal battle competition involves lighting a few torches on a circular sandbox and having everyone fight to the death at once until all the remaining members are dead, right?”
It’s a different story if empires are involved. Right now, 1/8 of the city is a drug farm, so there’s probably a big underworld involved as well. There is also a marquis-level noble attached. Usually, unless it’s a story about money, there’s no way the guy who runs the arena would stick his head out, but for a duo of fighters who are just starting to gain popularity…
“No, it’s completely possible. Since it is still a preliminary round, it may be possible to change the participant’s name. “Most arenas allow fighters to change their names before the fight.”
“name?”
“exactly. name. “Instead of my name, which my ancestors were too embarrassed to use, my name as a fighter was used in Roderick’s arena.”
Borka said as he took the net, round shield, and broadsword in turn.
“Benard Fang. Roderick was a fighter in the Eastern Gentia Arena. Please tell me that the loser of the eastern gladiator world, who escaped by killing all the fighters there alone, has returned. “At that rate, nobles from nearby cities would come to see it.”
Borka thought. It’s a name I want to erase from my memory so much that I want to dig out my head. But if those eight years of pain could be used to save two children, it wouldn’t have been completely in vain.
****
