<h4>Chapter 23</h4>


    “A mere mercenary wielding an Imperial steel weapon? I’m starting to wonder who you are.”


    Garcio readjusted his stance. He stretched his sword out to a medium distance to settle into a defensive stance. He was intending to parry every blow and not give away even the slimmest of chances to Urich.


    <i>‘I’m the one who wins by dragging this on, so I just have to buy time. However...’</i>


    Garcio took a quick nce to his side. One of his mercenaries who was a part of the fortress attack was running back toward him.


    “I heard your bone snapping loud and clear just now. That hurt, didn’t it?” Urich said as he twirled his sword. Garcio maintained his concentration as he stared at Urich without a word.


    <i>‘His stance is solid now. He’s trying to buy himself time.’</i>


    Urich swung his de at Garcio a couple of times, but it was impossible to prate his defense. Their weapons only shed meaninglessly.


    “Count Daggleton, my brother! Run for your life and don’t look back. It’s all over if they capture you!” Garcio signaled to Count Daggleton, who hesitated for a moment and then started to flee with a heavy limp.


    “Hmm,” Urich’s eyes went back and forth between Garcio and Count Daggleton. He suddenly leaped backward, thenunched himself toward Daggleton.


    “G-get him! He’s going for the Count!”


    Nobody could catch up to Urich. Even back in his tribe, there wasn’t a single warrior who could keep up with his speed. There was no chance for these mercenaries, let alone for those with heavy metal armor weighing them down. All they could do was just watch powerlessly.


    “I got you,” Urich said as he grabbed Daggleton by the throat.


    “Y-you bastard, this is for Allian!” Daggleton cried out as he fumbled for his sword. Urich grabbed his hand and snapped his wrist.


    <i>Crack.</i>


    “Argh! M-my arm!”


    “Stay still. It must be nice to be a noble, huh? Even if you start a war, you can pay your way out of it. Now, tell your men to drop their weapons,” Urich threatened Daggleton as he held his sword against the noble’s pale throat.


    “Y-you son of a bitch, you murdered A-Allian!” Daggleton raked his nails down Urich’s arm. Urich, irritated by his struggle, pped Daggleton across his face. A few teeth popped out of his mouth onto the ground.


    “K-kugh,” Daggleton’s desire for revenge was quickly extinguished and was reced by trembling fear. He came to the realization that his life was in Urich’s hands.


    <i>‘The n worked,’</i> Donovan thought as he backed off and looked at Urich. The war was over now that they had Daggleton in their captivity.


    “Pull your troops back! Go on, tell the leader of the mercenaries, Count,” Urich said, looking back and forth between Count Daggleton and Garcio.


    “B-brother Garcio,” Daggleton said, almost pleadingly, as he desperately looked at Garcio.


    “Hmm, I guess that leaves me no choice,” Garcio muttered as he scratched his head. He walked toward Urich and his brother, holding the side with broken ribs.


    <i>Swipe.</i>


    Garcio reached behind his waist to pull out a throwing dagger.


    <i>‘A throwing dagger? What is he trying to do?’</i>


    Urich took cover behind Daggleton as a reflex.


    <i>Schluck!</i>


    The dagger buried its de in Count Daggleton’s neck. His blood spouted out.


    “B-brother, w-what have you done?” Daggleton stuttered hisst words as he stared at Garcio.


    “I shall take over your ce as the Count of the Daggleton family.” Garcio’s words were calm. It was as if he had nned this all along. Garcio the Silver Lion was the previous Count Daggleton’s abandoned son. He was far below the rest of the Count’s kin in the line of session, but his mercenary squad was powerful enough to stifle anyone who opposed him. None of his rtives would dare to poke the sleeping Silver Lions.


    “Count Daggleton fell to his death from his horse in the middle of the battle. He was not murdered,” Garcioid out his n for the public announcement of the Count’s death.


    “Are you going to continue the war? Urich asked with his eyes narrowed as he dropped the Count’s body.


    “No, I don’t n on dying just when I became the Count.”


    Garcio knew that if the battle were to continue, his men would win. However, he also knew that he would not survive the mercenary that stood before him. Furthermore, with his broken rib, any more aggressive movements would cut up his insides and kill him with internal bleeding.


    <i>Buuuup!</i>


    Garcio blew the horn to signal his men to retreat. The battle stopped.


    “Take me to Count Mondo. We’ll make a peace treaty.”


    Garcio dropped his weapon and took off his armor to show that he had no intention to keep fighting. He picked out the Count’s si ring from Daggleton’s cold body.


    “How boring. So, this is the war and politics of this ce.” Urich’s eyes grew cold.


    <i>‘The men here don’t fight for their family and brothers. They only fight for power and greed, even if it means betraying their own flesh and blood.’</i>


    Garcio killed his half-brother—his own blood—without blinking an eye.


    Urich returned to Count Mondo with Garcio apanying him.


    “What happened, Urich?” Mondo asked,


    “Daggleton died. Apparently, this guy’s going to take over.”


    “D-Daggleton is dead? I thought I told you not to kill him, Urich!” Mondo panicked. The death of a noble was never good news, even if they were enemies. The death of a noble always created new issues, like the rtives of the dead noble using revenge as an excuse to attempt an invasion.


    “I didn’t do it. As soon as I captured him <i>alive</i>, this guy killed his own brother,” Urich said with obvious disdain in his eyes.


    “You must be out of your mind, Silver Lion Garcio! He was your own brother—a noble! And you killed him...!” Mondo frowned.


    “Are you telling me that you want to continue this war? Count Mondo, even if I die, my men will continue to fight you. Hell, they’ll try to take your territory for themselves.”


    Mondo shut his mouth. It was true that right up until the retrieval horn, his men were being dominated by the Silver Lion Mercenaries. They lived up to their reputation.


    “Count Daggleton has a young offspring, Garcio. He will be the one taking after his father, not you.”


    “That won’t be an issue when I marry my brother’s wife and take him in as my adopted son. Their marriage was probably not in a good ce, so she might even wee my proposal,” words flowed out of Garcio’s mouth without a hup. It wasn’t hard to see how Garcio was going to gain his power without much fuss. He had already figured out a way to quell the dissatisfaction around him while legitimizing his session.


    “Hmm, if you want to seed the Count, Garcio, you must hide the fact that you killed your own brother with your own hands.”


    “I’ll have to keep the unnecessary rumors from spreading—at least until my authority is stabilized. In exchange for your silence, I’ll give up the rights to thisnd. We’ll write up the documents right now. Doesn’t this work out for both of us? We’ll forget my brother’s misdeeds and be good neighbors.”


    Garcio’s offer sounded like music to Mondo’s ears.


    “...the previous Count Daggleton fell to his death from his horse. I did hear that his horse-riding skills were quite poor a while ago,” Mondo said with a grin. His voice was soft and sweet as if he hadn’t criticized Garcio’s wrongdoings just a minute ago.


    The negotiations went smoothly. A scribe drew up the agreement, and Garcio and Mondo stamped their seals on the document. Besides the dead Count, everyone was happy. Mondo was able to protect his territory and be free from the threat of Count Daggleton. Garcio was able to im the countship of the Daggleton family as an illegitimate heir under the official process.


    <i>‘Perhaps, this is what Garcio had nned all along...’</i> Mondo thought to himself as he looked at the back of the soon-to-be new Count Daggleton.


    “We just dueled with our lives on the line. We should at least know each other’s names,” Garcio stopped and turned to Urich.


    “I am Urich the barbarian. So long.” Urich nodded lightly. He did not like Garcio one bit. More than once, he contemted putting an axe through the back of his head.


    <i>‘If I only had myself to worry about, I would have cracked his skull open by now.’</i>


    Urich understood that he was now a part of the mercenary squad. He had to consider the best interest of the squad, not only for himself. If he were to kill Garcio on a whim, the rest of his diators wouldn’t have survived the Silver Lions.


    “When the word spreads that you fought equally against the Silver Lion Mercenaries, your inquiries will be endless, Urich.”


    Garcio had acknowledged Urich as a mercenary, who was staring at him with his arms crossed.


    “You were nning on killing your own brother from the beginning, weren’t you? It would have made more sense to keep him by your side as we fought, but you told him to run—as if you were giving me a chance to catch him,” Urich said with a cold stare. Garcio had killed his own brother for his greed. It was an uneptable deed for Urich.


    To Urich, brotherhood meant living and dying for each other. It wasn’t meant to be used as a disposable tool for one’s own good.


    <i>‘He’s got sharp eyes. Unless he dies doing this mercenary gig, he’ll eventually be a big figure.’</i>


    Urich was the sole reason that his n went awry. Garcio did not n on killing Count Daggleton today. He wanted to wait until they had the territory under control before killing him and covering it up as an ident, but under the circumstances that he found himself in, he chose the next best alternative.


    “You will never understand, barbarian. Everyone told me an abandoned son could never be the Count, and that it was the fate of an illegitimate son. Well, I came here today to ovee that fate. Kek kek, c<i>ough,”</i> Garcio’s cackle was interrupted by the pain in his broken ribs, and he clutched his chest.


    Urich in fact did not understand Garcio. Was being a Count so important that it was worth tricking and killing his own brother over? The disgusting taste in his mouth kept him from speaking.


    “If we meet again, Garcio, you will die by my hands. Remember my name, Garcio Daggleton,” Urich threatened ferociously as he showed his teeth. Garcio flinched.


    <i>‘Barbarian. His people lost to us civilized people, but this one is making me nervous.’</i>


    The Empire stretched far into the north and south, and the barbarians in thosends were no longer a concern as they were slowly assimting into civilization.


    No one was able to see iting—that beyond the Sky Mountains were people who roamed the grasnds and forests.


    There were two worlds divided by the Sky Mountains, and only Urich knew of their existence.