CHAPTER 69

It didn't matter if he didn't know horseback riding or if he wasn't sitting on the saddle.

"Kraaagh!"

"Hurry, get on the horse!"

Heeeying-!

As the boy looked ahead, someone was there, and after swinging his sword, he was gone in an instant.

Worlds upon worlds.

The two, connected by aura and horns, were heading toward the same place even though they were looking in different directions.

'This is it!'

Vlad laughed out loud as he felt the wind blowing past his face.

The sound of the pitch black horse's heartbeat felt throughout my entire body.

Vlad swung his sword, feeling a heartbeat twice as strong as his own.

More blood will be needed to burn this giant heart.

"Laugh like before!"

With each passing of the black night, the blood of barbarians spread thickly.

Those who descended to the ground, blinded by loot, could never mount a horse again.

"That guy set people on fire!"

"······He's the one that even you rejected!"

The barbarians who had been looting merchants were startled and perplexed as Vlad approached rapidly.

Not only because of his speed, and the ferocity of his sword swings, but above all, what surprised them was the fact that the boy they had been chasing had picked up a horse.

Only they, the son of the plain, born from sacred bloodlines, could ride the children of the plain.

But their firmly held belief was shattered by Vlad, who was now mounted on the black horse.

Contrary to their expectations, the black horse belonged to no one but itself, and it chose the boy of its own accord.

"Do not hand the children of the plain over to the Empire's brat!"

Feeling as if their own belongings had been stolen, the barbarians cursed and chased after the boy.

With a sense of pride trampled beyond just their dignity, the barbarians began to pursue the boy, leaving behind even shiny gold coins.

Although they were mere barbarians driven out by the Empire, there was still a last line they couldn't give up.

'They're following!'

Vlad, who had been cutting down those who had been looting for a while, was confused as to what to do when he saw the people coming towards him.

Vlad achieved the purpose of diverting them from the procession, but they surrounded him quickly, so it was difficult for the inexperienced Vlad to handle.

----!

As Vlad hesitated, unable to make a decision, the barbarians suddenly began to encircle him, who had been running.

The sharp gazes of the barbarians coming at him like knives.

Vlad, trapped in a crowd of more than ten people, gritted his teeth and prepared for the coming evil.

"Get off that horse right now, kid!"

"You dare to ride a horse that's not yours!"

Even amidst the piercing gazes of the men coming at him like daggers, Vlad remained undaunted.

"······What business is it of yours whether I ride this horse or not!"

I will do what I want.

I crawled up here to do just that, and you lot have no right to stop me.

"You're criticizing us. Brat."

"Kill him!"

The barbarians who saw the boy's burning blue eyes extended their swords from all directions as if they were waiting.

"······!"

Vlad tried to quickly raise his aura to confront them, but before he knew it, he was just stumbling in front of the men's swords.

"Huh?"

Heeeying-

Vlad wasn't fighting alone.

The black horse, deftly slowing down, evaded the swords thrust by the barbarians in an instant.

Kuung- Ckong-

Then, he roughly pushed the horses of the barbarians running next to him and began tearing up the siege they had created.

Even the pitch-black horse had a debt to pay back to them.

----!

White horns that can only be seen in the boy's world that is connected to each other.

The black eyes, now glowing along with the horn, began to exert an irresistible pressure on the surrounding horses.

It was a force so formidable that it couldn't be attributed to a herbivore.

"Whoa!"

"Damn it! We're surrounded!"

Vlad, who had been trapped in a huge net, tore the net and jumped out, taking his place behind the barbarians.

It was a position that only a pursuer and a predator could capture.

"Cut the noose!"

In the sudden reversal of positions, while Vlad was still taken aback, some of the barbarians swiftly began to cut the nooses they were holding.

These were the nooses imbued with spells that had been flown to capture the black horse the previous night.

Heeeying-

Seeing the nooses filled with malice that he couldn't handle himself, the black horse began to howl.

The night sky from that night when the ropes flew from all directions came to mind.

"How dare you!"

However, this time, it was the boy who was responding to the part the black horse couldn't handle.

The world that Vlad had been holding in began to flow out from his closed left eye.

"These bastards are persistently annoying!"

Vlad kept in mind the nooses flying from all directions and began swinging his sword at the exact moment.

If they had been flown from various angles, Vlad would have been caught off guard, but he had already caught up with them, and the hastily thrown ropes were just flying towards him head-on.

Ssgeuk-

Along with the gleaming flash, the barbarians' spells were ruthlessly cut off.

Together with the malice of humans that the black horse couldn't handle.

"This kid's also using aura!"

"The little guy was a knight too!"

Seeing the bewildered barbarians, the boy and the horse grinned fiercely.

"Now it's my turn!"

The unadorned sword in the boy's hand began to tremble.

Faster and sharper than the barbarians, the night sky descended upon them from behind.

※※※※

Aaaah!

The horses are scared!

"······."

Another group of people confronts each other outside the procession.

The old man and the leader of the barbarians in the group turned their heads without hesitation at the strange scream coming from behind.

"Vlad?"

"······Oh no."

They were barbarians who had lived their lives chasing and hunting someone.

But in the scene before them now, they were the ones being chased by someone.

By the blond boy wielding a sword alongside the black horse.

"Stop him!"

Sensing the urgency of the situation, the leader of the barbarians quickly instructed the group that followed him to take care of Larmund and swiftly ran towards the source of the screams.

"Where are you going, you bastard!"

Larmund noticed him moving towards Vlad and hurriedly tried to follow, but the horse that was only driving the cart was unable to catch up with him as he rushed forward in an instant.

The remaining members of the group hindered Larmund's path, grabbing hold of him.

"What's going on!"

The leader of the barbarians, running towards his fleeing subordinates, witnessed a shocking sight.

"Lord Aage... Lord Aage!"

One of his injured subordinates, upon seeing Aage running towards them, waved his remaining arm weakly.

"Oh no!"

His subordinates were suddenly reduced to half their number.

And behind them, the blond boy and the horse with the spiritual blood he had been eyeing.

Watching the unimaginable scene unfold before him, Aage's eyes widened in disbelief.

"How dare this brat!"

Seeing the scene that made his blood boil just by looking at it, Aage grabbed his bow.

From afar, a cruel arrow was shot towards the boy, emanating its inherent presence even from a distance.

Simultaneously, the ears of the black horse perked up.

"Ah!"

Vlad instinctively grabbed the mane of the startled black horse, pulling himself close without even realizing it.

Swish-

The sound of a sharp wind passing by his ear for a moment.

It was the sound created by the arrow Aage had shot piercing through the very spot where Vlad's head had just been.

Vlad quickly raised his head and glared at the direction the arrow had come from.

Unlike the other barbarians, this one had his hair tied up with various colored strings.

"You bastard, you're the one from before!"

Vlad gritted his teeth, remembering the cold-eyed man who had shot an arrow at him from the hill.

"······!"

Aage, too, was left dumbfounded as he saw his arrow miss its target.

He knew the horse born of spiritual blood was extraordinary, but he hadn't expected it to be this formidable.

'I must capture him here!'

A shiver ran down Aage's spine as she saw them becoming perfect together and becoming stronger because they were young.

He needs to stop these guys' momentum here and now.

"Surround those brats!"

"But, Lord Aage!"

"I'll finish them off myself!"

Aage's eyes began to blaze as he looked at the boy.

Even his tattoos, etched all over his body, seemed to come alive.

With the barbarians' magic coursing through him, Aage's world was rising up from his skin.

Once again, the formation tightened.

"Come on then!"

There was a man coming through the gap.

The eyes of the boy and horse looking at him began to flash sharply.

At a distance where they could even see their reflections in each other's eyes, the two cried out fiercely as if they had been waiting.

"Die!"

"Rot!"

Swords clashed, eyes burned with intensity.

A moving arena, crafted from horses, circled around them.

'Damn it.'

As a swordsman, Aage was formidable enough.

That's what Vlad thought as he clashed with Aage.

From the perspective of a boy who had fought against formidable opponents until now, Aage, the warrior of the plains, was a worthy adversary.

But the problem was that he was currently riding a horse.

[You have no saddle. It's disadvantageous as time goes on.]

The voice echoed in his mind, reminding him of the disadvantage of not being able to leverage the power of a tool. The longer the situation dragged on, the more disadvantaged the boy became.

Feeling the trembling thighs of the boy, the black horse tried to stabilize its upper body to alleviate the burden, but the malevolent forces surrounding them hindered its efforts.

[....You need to break free!]

'How?'

Vlad desperately turned his head, trying to find a way to escape.

But all he saw around him were barbarians, and this time, even the black horse couldn't easily break through the encirclement.

"Riding a spiritual horse like that!"

Aage's presence next to him was suppressing both the boy and the horse.

"······!"

In a moment, Vlad's gaze fell on Larmund, who was following closely behind.

Though obscured by the barbarians, Larmund's gleaming forehead was unmistakable even from afar.

"Except for a few warriors, these fellows might not even dare to face knights. You just have to kill the barbarians' unique mobility."

That was something an experienced knight said.

That barbarians were only formidable when mounted.

Vlad's eyes were shining blue as he looked at Larmund following from behind and the siege with no way out.

"I heard you were born on a horse?"

"What?"

Aage sensed the changed demeanor of Vlad, even noticing the slight upward curve of his lips.

"I've been stuck down there all this time."

A boy born in the alleys of Shoara had never once stepped off the battlefield.

"If I've done it this far, you should do as I say at least once!"

In other words, the boy was accustomed to mud fights.

He was born there, after all.

"Damn it!"

Aage was taken aback as he saw the fierce eyes of the horse leaping towards him.

"Get down, you brat!"

Vlad grabbed Aage recklessly while riding the running horse.

Taken aback by the boy's action, which seemed like a mutual suicide pact, Aage could only twist his body in confusion.

He had never experienced such a nonsensical attack in all his years of living.

"Ugh!"

A barbarian warrior who falls to the ground due to the actions of a boy who is nothing short of unexpectedness incarnate.

Immediately afterwards, an intense pain struck his back.

"······!"

As he looked at the approaching ground, gradually turning black, Vlad recalled the gleaming forehead of the old man he had seen that day.

Vlad, who recalled the scene he saw that day in a split second, mercilessly pushed the aura towards the shoulder that was the first to touch the ground.

He hadn't learned it, but he had seen it and felt it.

"Ugh!"

Amidst the thick rising dust, the left shoulder of the boy, now touching the ground, was faintly glowing.

※※※※

"This brat... This bastard!"

Larmund, who followed late, was frightened when he saw the boy who had grabbed the barbarian leader in front of him and tumbled to the ground.

No matter how sturdy a knight's body might be, falling like that made it hard to guarantee one's life.

However, as the thick dust cleared and the scene before Larmund's eyes became clear, it was entirely different from what he expected.

"....I am Agge of the Budart tribe."

Vlad wielding a plain sword amidst flowing blood all around.

And beneath him, a fallen warrior of the barbarians.

"I don't have a name to tell the likes of you."

Vlad had learned that to confidently state his name, he must move with honor.

The barbarian under him was nothing more than a bandit who plundered and killed people of Bayezid.

Larmund lost his words as he looked at the scene before him.

The boy's left shoulder was still faintly glowing.

Larmund swallowed his saliva as he saw the aura shining from Bayezid's armor bursting here and there.

"....What if you steal it before I have it?"

Everyone present here was looking at the boy.

A boy riding a sacred horse according to the ancient traditions of the barbarians.

And a boy clad in the old traditions of Bayezid, following his aura.

There were two old things that continued within the boy's world.