Chapter 251
Side Story - A Snake Without Venom, A Flower Without Fragrance (1)
"I've lost."
Karim Zahar withdrew his magic and politely bowed his head, conceding defeat.
After a brief silence, the young man who had been his sparring partner glanced at the Hidden Weapons scattered across the floor and muttered under his breath.
"Cowardly bastard."
Rather than bristling or talking back, Karim simply returned to his seat in silence.
He could feel the contemptuous stares directed at him from all around.
The Nobles of House Zahar, a Wizard family that ruled over the Enril Desert, were often compared to venomous serpents.
The cruelest and most merciless assassins in the world.
Among them, Karim was called a coward.
Because of a temperament that feared competing with others and dreaded causing harm.
The only reason he had not been cast aside was that he was the son of Talis Zahar, the current Family Head's brother and the real power holder who oversaw the family's affairs great and small.
Of course, whether his father and uncle were even properly aware of his existence was another matter entirely.
With neither Magic Power nor temperament worth anything at all.
While enjoying the luxury of washing his face with water at one end of the training grounds, a low voice came from behind him.
"You weren't blubbering again, were you, Karim?"
"I was not. Sister."
"I saw it with my own eyes last time, so don't try to deny it."
Aril Zahar, Karim's one and only full-blood sibling.
She was the only person in the family he could be at ease around.
Unlike the other venomous serpents of House Zahar, she was someone who at least possessed something resembling human warmth.
That said, unlike Karim, Aril was someone who could be thoroughly cruel when the occasion demanded it, so her public reputation was far better than his.
"So, what brings you here?"
Perhaps when they were younger it had been different, but it had been quite some time since Aril and Karim had shared a private conversation.
Not so much because they had grown apart, but because the worlds they lived in had diverged.
If she had gone out of her way to seek him out like this, he guessed she must have some business, and his guess was correct.
"War is coming soon."
"War? With whom......."
"House Aravion."
Karim wiped his face with a towel and stared on his sister with a sharp gaze.
Aril did her best not to let on that she had flinched inwardly.
Her hulking younger brother was so weak and timid that his build seemed wasted on him, yet when he wore a serious expression like this, the sheer force of his presence could be terrifying.
Perhaps it was because of his large frame, inherited from their uncle, the Family Head.
"Surely they're not going to war over that squabble from the other day? That would be foolish."
"Watch your tongue. It's not for us to judge whether it's foolish or not."
"Well, that's-"
Karim understood what his sister was getting at and shut his mouth.
Here in the Red Fortress, light sources were stationed everywhere to prevent anyone from easily moving about under Concealment, but even so, someone could always be eavesdropping on a conversation like this.
"......Only a handful of the higher-ups know about this so far. So before word gets out, buy yourself some Magic Artifacts that'll be useful in combat as fast as you can. Do you have any money?"
"I do not."
Giving medicine and treatment money to servants with seriously ill family members, or regularly sponsoring facilities that helped orphans become self-sufficient.
For reasons like these, Karim's pockets were never anything but empty.
Having guessed as much, Aril scrunched up her face and said,
"What kind of idiotic nonsense have you been wasting it on?"
It never bothered him when other people called him that, but hearing it from his sister still stung.
When Karim kept his mouth shut without letting it show, she let out a deep sigh and spoke.
"......Can't be helped, then. I'll talk to Father and try to get you assigned to the same unit as me."
"That won't be necessary."
A political favor was, by its very nature, a debt.
That held true even between father and daughter.
Not wanting his sister to owe their father a debt on his account, Karim refused.
"Can you survive on your own?"
"I'll have to try. If I can't, then that's simply my limit."
In truth, he had no confidence at all and was too frightened to even want to set foot on a battlefield, but he knew that was not an option.
Yielding to currents he could not resist was something he had done his entire life.
*
Just as Aril had told him, war broke out a few months later.
Wizards of House Zahar, mustered from every corner of the Enril Desert, headed west, riding in carts and carriages drawn by Magical Beasts, or running on their own two feet.
The commander of Karim's unit was Ferga Zahar, a grandson of the Family Head and Karim's Fifth Cousin nephew.
"Karim."
"Yes, Ferga-nim."
"Don't stand up so straight. It annoys me having someone taller than me standing next to me."
"Understood."
Privately, Ferga was merely a Fifth Cousin nephew, but officially he was both Karim's unit commander and one of the candidates considered likely to become the next successor, so Karim had no choice but to bow his head obediently.
Fortunately, rather than devoting himself to tormenting his hapless Fifth Cousin uncle, Ferga threw his energy elsewhere.
Waging wars of nerves with rival successor candidates, or bringing influential Nobles from other vassal families to heel under the guise of friendship, and so on.
After nearly a month of rapid marching, they finally left the Enril Desert behind and arrived at the place commonly known as the Gray Zone.
"This place is desolate enough in its own right."
"No kidding. I heard that outside the desert it's all lush grass and thick forests."
"That's further west from here."
The Zahar Nobles, setting foot outside the desert for the first time, looked around with curious expressions and exchanged idle chatter.
That lasted only a moment. When Ferga raised his hand, every one of them fell silent at once and turned to face him.
Draped in long robes and wearing Masks to a man, the sight of them was nothing short of sinister and menacing.
"We'll establish a base in Bigen first."
"The lord of Bigen has declared his intent to support House Aravion, sir."
"So I've heard. The fool......Ashu, Karim?"
"Yes, Ferga-nim."
Karim's mouth went dry as he answered the commander's call.
The order that followed was exactly what he had expected.
"The lord of Bigen's brother has expressed his intent to support us, so we need to install him as lord. Handle it."
"By your command."
Unlike his comrade, who answered without hesitation, Karim faltered for a moment before bowing his head.
He could feel the other Nobles around him glaring openly, as if to say, 'That useless wretch.'
Shortly after, they met Alos Mebern, the current lord's brother, on the outskirts of Bigen.
"So, you'll support us once you're installed as lord?"
"Yes. Bigen sits at the southeast edge of the Gray Zone and borders the Enril Desert, so I know full well that defying your people would be suicidal."
"If only your brother had understood that too."
"My brother......during a pilgrimage in his youth, he received a great kindness from an Aravion Noble and said he could not betray that debt. For the sake of the family, it cannot be helped."
He was not wrong, as far as it went.
Had it not been for this man who called himself the lord's brother, House Zahar would simply have slaughtered House Mebern, the ruling family of Bigen, root and branch and seized their place.
But that was beside the point. How could one look kindly upon the face of a man who was asking an outside force to assassinate his own brother?
Fortunately, their Masks spared them the trouble of concealing their expressions of contempt.
Thanks to Alos's assistance, the assassination of Bigen's lord went off without a hitch.
"Guh, gkh......"
Roso, the head of House Mebern, was a formidable opponent, one that even the two of them fighting together could not have been certain of defeating.
Among Nobles of ordinary Wizard families who bore a single Bloodline, he could be considered top-tier.
In all likelihood, there was no stronger Wizard to be found in the entire Gray Zone.
But even a man of his strength was helpless when stabbed through the heart and throat with a Magic Power-infused blade while he slept.
Karim twisted the knife free from the man's neck and clenched his teeth against the stench of blood clinging to his hands.
"You can get it done when you have to, can't you, coward."
His comrade taunted him, then vanished once more under Concealment. Karim likewise followed him out of the bedchamber, still concealed.
Thanks to Alos having extinguished the corridor torches in advance, they vanished like ghosts.
Two days later.
At the invitation of Alos, the newly installed head of House Mebern, Zahar's forces made Bigen their base of operations.
Standing in the very corridor he had passed through just days ago on his way to assassinate the city's lord, Karim stared down at his own hands.
He had washed them clean long ago, yet the smell of blood still lingered.
His first kill, something other Zahar Nobles would have accomplished at an even younger age.
The shock of it ravaged his mind.
But war, and the family he belonged to, House Zahar, were not kind enough to coddle such fragile sentiments.
*
It was House Zahar that struck the first blow in earnest.
They ambushed the enemy's main force in the forested zone connecting the Gray Zone to the Takein Plains, Aravion's territory.
First, they approached under Concealment and raided supply columns, setting fire to stockpiled provisions and sniping from a distance to wound or eliminate powerful Wizards.
Karim threw Javelins with all his effort, though whether fortunately or unfortunately, no one died by his hand.
But this approach was not enough to halt the enemy's advance entirely.
Aravion's army blazed such brilliant light as they marched that there was nowhere left to hide, pressing forward and forward again. Supplies that had been destroyed by the Zahar Nobles were simply extorted from Wizard families along their route.
"It's not working as well as we'd hoped."
"What about a head-on fight?"
"That would be suicide."
The Zahar army operated under the overall command of Talis, with three successor candidates each leading their own units. Even they set aside their rivalries and debated with grim faces.
Their fearsome reputation rested on relentless pursuit and stealthy ambushes that struck before the enemy even knew they were there; a pitched battle was the last thing they wanted.
Before long, Alma Zahar put forward a proposal.
"Let's attack their homeland."
"What if the main force pushes through?"
"They can't move fast anyway because they're afraid we'll ambush them. We'd be better off shaking their vassal families."
After some clashing of opinions, the proposal was adopted, and Karim found himself assigned to the force that would raid Aravion's homeland.
Nobles of similar strength envied him.
"Damn it, we're stuck here twiddling our thumbs while the fun part goes to someone like you......"
Karim, of course, did not answer such jealous remarks.
Whining that he would rather be the one stuck here would change nothing.
The Takein Plains Raiding Party was composed entirely of Nobles mounted on Magical Beasts, without so much as a Knight to attend to them.
Their number totaled roughly forty.
Having bypassed the enemy's main force and entered the Takein Plains, they swiftly began taking the small cities one by one.
"Aaaaagh-!"
"The enemy! Everyone, defensive positions!"
Blood, screaming, and madness.
The Zahar Nobles descended upon the cities' Wizards like demons incarnate.
Their cruel hands reached not only toward Wizards but even toward defenseless Commoners.
"Ahahaha!"
"Whoa, if you grab the head and pull, the whole spine comes right out? Looks like a tail. That's hilarious."
Perhaps it was the release of aggression that had been suppressed under strict discipline in ordinary times. The cruelty they displayed felt less like something directed at fellow humans and more like what one might inflict upon an alien species.
Among them, there were even those who reveled not merely in cruelty, but in outright sadistic pleasure.
'I'm sorry.'
Karim murmured those words as he threw a Hidden Weapon into the neck of a Knight who had been swinging his weapon wildly in every direction, still concealed.
Under Concealment as he was, no one heard his voice.
He knew that easing his own guilt this way was, if anything, even more cowardly, but this was the extent of what he could do.
Defiance in war meant death, and so long as strands of his hair were periodically delivered to the main house, desertion was equally impossible.
After tearing a city apart and indulging in slaughter and plunder, it was time to savor the spoils.
"No, please, don't......"
"Please, spare me!"
It had long been custom among many Wizard families to gather and raise the most beautiful individuals within their domains.
Being human and born with sexual desire, they naturally preferred more beautiful partners for breeding.
These individuals were commonly called "flowers," and the Raiding Party had earned the right to claim such flowers as part of their plunder.
It was not only women who were taken; well-bred beautiful boys were likewise claimed by women or men with same-sex inclinations.
And there were women who desired other women, as well.
The encampment, filled with screams and moans of pleasure, resembled not a gathering of exalted Nobles but the banquet hall of beasts.
As Karim withdrew, struggling to hold back his nausea, he sensed someone approaching from behind.
"What, Karim, you didn't grab a single one?"
"Mm."
Karim let out a low groan and shook his head at the question from a comrade who stood drinking water without even bothering to put on his underclothes.
At that, the man smiled and made a casual suggestion.
"If you're not going to take any women, could you give me your share? There's a limit on how many we can bring along."
Since having too many captives would be cumbersome when they eventually returned to base, the higher-ups had set a limit on the number each person could bring.
His comrade was asking Karim to use his allotted share to bring along a flower the man had his eye on.
"Not interested."
"Oh, come on, don't be like that."
It was not so much because this man had looked down on him as a coward since childhood; rather, Karim simply could not stomach the thought of not only killing innocent people but kidnapping them like slaves.
All he could do was offer cowardly silence.
Having indulged to their hearts' content, the Zahar Raiding Party invaded their fourth target, a city called Kimel.
"Light the fires! They're-gkh!"
Naturally, this city too was trampled mercilessly by the invading Zahar Nobles.
While the young Noble serving as acting lord was torn apart by the Raiding Party's strongest fighters, Karim was assigned to a group looting the Knights' houses near the lord's manor.
He fought as halfheartedly as he could get away with, then stepped into a house left empty after the Knight and his family had either fled or been killed.
At the very least, he needed to bring back a decent haul of loot if he wanted any excuse at all.
As he entered, his keen sense of smell detected a living human.
'What's this......'
He turned his head, and what caught his eye was a rather fine-looking wardrobe.
Through the slightly ajar door, he could see a pair of light brown eyes watching him intently.
'A woman, by the smell.'
She appeared to be one of the Knight's family members.
Why had she stayed behind while everyone else fled? Had she thought hiding here gave her a better chance of going undetected?
A foolish calculation, given the senses of a Noble, especially a Zahar Noble.
When Karim let out a deep sigh and turned his head away, a small breath of relief escaped from behind him.
'Making it hard for me to pretend I didn't notice.'
Leaving the room, Karim moved on and searched the other rooms, looting what supplies he needed.
True to the Takein Plains' reputation as the most prosperous region in the world, the Knights here possessed a great deal.
He stuffed jewel-laden necklaces and all manner of accessories into his pack, and just as he was thinking that should be enough, a shrill scream pierced the air from a distance.
"Kyaaaaaah-!"
He strode from the room in a few quick steps, and what he saw was the comrade who had earlier asked to borrow his allotted share, dragging a girl out by her hair.
The girl, with long ashen hair, looked to be in her late teens.
"What......oh, it's just you, Karim?"
"What are you doing?"
"She was hiding in the wardrobe. Must've thought we wouldn't find her. Stupid bitch."
His comrade snickered, shaking the fistful of hair he gripped.
The area he had searched was supposed to be left alone by everyone else, but whether out of whimsy or a mix-up, the man had apparently gone through it again.
He looked the captured girl up and down, appraising her like a fisherman sizing up his catch, then licked his lips.
"She's pretty enough that I'd love to take her along......but it'd be a waste to trade one of the ones I already grabbed. I'll just have my fun and kill her. There's still time before we regroup. Mind keeping watch for me?"
As the man undid his belt and made his suggestion, Karim was silent for a moment, then took one long stride forward.
He twisted the hand that was gripping the girl's hair.
"Agh!"
"I found this woman first. She was mine to keep."
"What kind of bull-aaagh!"
"I cleared this building, so everything in it is mine. Don't touch her."
Karim's Magic Power was pitifully low for the son of Talis, but his physical abilities were among the best.
And when it came to hand-to-hand combat between Nobles, if their Magic Power was comparable, the outcome was determined by build and muscle.
His comrade, bewildered that "Karim the coward" was suddenly staking a claim on plunder, screamed and backed off as his arm was bent to the breaking point.
"Damn it, just say so and I'll back off! You never acted like you gave a damn, and now this, you bastard......"
That was all the man could muster.
He had only been able to treat Karim however he pleased because of Karim's meek temperament; unlike himself, one of countless branch family members, his opponent was the Family Head's nephew.
Having driven his comrade off, Karim lifted the girl with one hand. She was a mess from being dragged around by her hair moments ago.
"From now on, you are my spoils of war."
The thought that the bodies strewn throughout this building were likely the girl's family left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Taking a woman who had just lost her entire family and claiming her as a slave, then telling himself he was saving her. What a wretched form of self-comfort.
But he could not simply let her go here.
The Raiding Party's orders were to kill or capture anyone who might carry on a Wizard Bloodline.
Better to treat her as a war prize for now and release her somewhere safe later.
As he was thinking this, the girl gazed at him with her dark brown eyes.
Remarkably, what he saw in them was not hostility or terror, but curiosity, as though she were observing some strange creature.
"What's your name?"
"Karim."
He never expected her to ask his name here, of all places.
Inwardly caught off guard, Karim answered curtly. The girl spoke in a quiet voice.
"I'm Bijela. Bijela Mirsel."
Her voice sounded almost innocent for someone facing the enemy who killed her family, Karim thought to himself.
*****
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