I Became the First Prince

TL Note: I haven’t translated chapters 7-289, and at the pace I’m going I don’t think I ever will. Please find them on a different site.

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When the dawn comes (4)

Exiting the gates of the fortress, Bernardo Eli glanced behind his back.

After confirming all of his subordinates had followed him out, he raised a fist.

Uttuk.

The riders all stopped in place and began to form ranks while shouting.

Bernardo Eli was silent for a while, waiting for them to get into position.

And then, after they had finally finished shouting and lining up, he asked quietly.

“Are you scared?”

The riders didn’t respond.

It was fine.

He could hear the answer from the way they breathed through their mouths and raised their swords higher than necessary.

The riders were extremely nervous.

He didn’t like it. But it wasn’t something he couldn’t understand.

The enemy’s forces of approximately 8000 soldiers were in close proximity.

And unlike their previous opponents, these were not a group of ragged soldiers driven to the brink of collapse by monsters. Instead they were a well-equipped army with proper discipline.

It was natural to be afraid.

Nevertheless, the reason why Bernardo felt regretful was probably because he was too used to the knights of Winter Castle, who joked leisurely even while rushing towards thousands of orcs.

He struggled to shake off his regret.

For the riders in front of him, it was too harsh to expect the bravery of madmen who were born on the battlefield and considered dying on the battlefield as a virtue.

Not to mention that these riders weren’t even official knights.

For convenience, they were referred to as the Guerilla Knights, but all of them had been mere mercenaries just a short while ago.

A group of people who considered surviving a virtue rather than dying in a fight.

He had been displeased by that trait before, but now Bernardo liked their tenacity.

Defeated repeatedly by mana ring knights, Bernardo’s family had lost their prestige as the best knights of the kingdom and had fallen to rock bottom. But they had survived, and now it was finally time for him to regain his family’s long lost glory.

After overcoming the crisis of death by doing all sorts of hard jobs, these people had also endured, and eventually got the chance to become knights after drifting into the kingdom.

Bernardo Eli smiled softly.

It seemed like he finally understood the crown prince’s intentions of entrusting him with these men.

He turned and faced the riders.

“You will all die here today.”

They were agitated by his unexpected words.

“I, too, will die with you.”

The riders began to stir.

“Therefore!”

Seeing them react like that, Bernardo Eli said forcefully.

“We will be reborn!”

A voice so hot it was burning.

“I will be reborn as a member of the kingdom’s first knight family!”

It contained the desire that had lived in his heart his entire life, but he had previously never been able to speak of.

“I promise!”

A name that he had inherited on behalf of his father, who had long since passed away. A name he had never before uttered aloud.

“The rightful heir to the Eli family! In the name of Count Bernardo Eli!”

He took out a neatly folded cloth from his chest.

Then he opened it wide.

Hwaak.

A gust of wind blew the cloth wide open.

Like this, an old cloth that had become discolored over time and the symbols emblazoned on it were revealed to the world.

An iron helmet covered in blue laurels and a longsword.

It had originally been only the sword and helmet, but with the addition of a laurel crown bestowed by the king in honor of their excellence, it had become the coat of arms of the Eli family.

The symbol of the kingdom’s first swordsman, Knight Laureate.

Flutter.

It was the moment when the pattern of the Laureate Knights was revealed to the world after 100 years.

“Laureate Knights!”

Cried Bernardo Eli.

“Charge!”

His horse neighed wildly and ran ahead.

Three hundred knights followed behind him.

* * *

Degare de Deviche¹ squinted at the castle.

Since the gates opened all of a sudden, he thought a messenger carrying a white flag would appear.

But that didn’t happen.

It was not a messenger with a white flag but approximately 300 knights who had exited the gate.

A man who appeared to be the leader of the knights shouted something at his men.

Then he suddenly pulled out a flag.

De Deviche frowned when he saw the pattern on the flag.

The meaning of that coat of arms was too grand for a group that wasn’t even armed properly.

“A laurel wreath. They know nothing of the subject.”

A blatant sneer hung from the corners of Degare de Deviche’s mouth.

But until then, he had never even imagined that the only 300-strong knights would dare to attack his troops.

“You, You’re crazy!”

So when the enemy suddenly accelerated and began to charge, he freaked out, forgetting the distance between them.

Belatedly realizing his ugly appearance, his face quickly turned red.

“The knights, what are they doing! Quickly punish those crazy people!”

“There is no need for the knights to personally step out. A group of no more than 300 men can’t do anything. If they come close to our base, all of them will become easy targets for our arrows.”

One of the corps commanders objected.

His face showed clear contempt as he spoke.

He held no regard for the new commander, who had suddenly risen to his position without making any contributions.

Degare de Deviche cried out.

“Then there will be rumors of us cowering in fear of those unarmed countrymen! Send our knights out to make an example of those ignorant fools!”

The corps commander clicked his tongue at de Deviche’s nervous reaction.

However, he did not raise any further objections, perhaps because he thought that expressing disagreement when the enemy was right in front of them would hurt their morale.

It was also true that the enemy’s power seemed great.

Nod.

When the corps commander who had initially objected gave a nod, a soldier raised up a flag and began waving it.

Dududu.

There was the heavy sound of hoofbeats, and four calvary units from the Duchy of Briand² who had been waiting in the rear now came to the front.

“If any of them make it back to the castle alive, you will be severely punished!”

Whether or not they heard the raging words of the commander, the knights chose that moment to spur their horses in unison and rush forward.

“As expected of the Silver Scale Knights³! It’s like a tide of silver spears!”

Degare de Deviche clapped his hands and cheered.

It was as he said.

The appearance of the knights charging toward the enemy while neatly maintaining ranks looked similar to a shower of spears.

Their momentum was incredibly strong, and it seemed obvious to the corps commanders who were watching that the enemy forces would be trampled under their overwhelming power.

However,

“The enemy is retreating!”

The opponents seemed to have felt the same way.

The enemy knights, who had been furiously charging forward, suddenly changed direction.

“Now you understand your place!”

The commander cried out with great excitement.

Meanwhile, the Silver Scale Knights pursued the enemy knights who had turned sharply to avoid confrontation. 

“Why did you even come out if you were just going to do that? Truly a pitiful sight to see.”

The enemy knights who had lost their initial momentum were busy fleeing.

However, the gate that they had come out of had already been firmly closed, and there was no place on the battlefield for them to escape.

Degare de Deviche laughed out loud when he saw it.

In his mind, he was already envisioning a rosy future.

The annihilation of the enemy knights would only be the beginning.

He would trample on them and immediately attack and retake the castle.

And one by one, he would crush the fortresses occupied by the kingdom’s troops.

If he was lucky, he would be able to capture the king of Leonberg who had appeared on the warfront.

It wouldn’t be a dream to become a public servant of the newly established Briand family if things went his way.

Just imagining it was thrilling.

Laughter flowed out involuntarily at his pleasant imaginings.

So he was laughing out loud,

“What!”

When one of the corps commanders raised a flag.

Degare de Deviche, who had been lost in his imagination, returned to reality.

He opened his eyes wide and looked towards the castle in the distance.

Heeng!

The war horses were screaming and collapsing one after another.

“Aagh!”

The riders were screaming on top of their falling horses.

Kwadukduk.

Unable to turn, the Silver Scale Knights were trampled by the enemy forces. 

The cries of their war horses echoed across the battlefield.

Degare de Deviche stared blankly at the sight.

He couldn’t figure out what had happened.

A short moment ago, the Silver Scale Knights were definitely on the side of the pursuer, not the chased. 

It had been the enemy knights who were in disarray and scrambling to retreat.

Even when he looked with his own eyes, de Deviche was unable to understand the situation.

He was just dazed.

“Order the knights to retreat!”

The corps commanders shouted hurriedly. Soldiers waved their banners and beat the drums for retreat.

But.

“The enemy knights! They’re blocking the retreat!”

“It’s hard to escape!”

The enemy knights persisted in chasing down the Silver Scale Knights. 

At the forefront was their leader, wielding an aura blade.

“Silver Scale Knights Commander!”

Degare de Deviche turned pale and began searching for the paladin of the Briand family.

“He was killed in the first charge!”

De Deviche’s face became paler at the corps commander’s reply.

Meanwhile, the Silver Scale Knights were being cruelly trampled by the enemy. 

They fled desperately while pulling on their horses. The enemy knights charged forward and over their vanguard.

The Silver Scale Knights in the rear hurriedly tried to turn away. 

Exposing their sides to the castle.

“They have to keep pushing forward! What’s going to happen if they keep retreating!?”

One of the corps commanders screamed.

At that moment.

Shashashasha.

Dark rain poured from the sky.

The rain, if it could even be called that, accurately dug into the gaps in the armor of the war horses.

The horses screamed and fell over.

“Aaaggh!”

The knights clad in silver armor rolled on the ground.

Unable to reduce their speed, the Silver Scale Knights trampled on their allies who had fallen from their horses. And then the enemy knights who followed from behind thrust spears and swords into the chests of the survivors. 

It was a tragic sight.

“How could their arrows have so much power from that distance!? Are their bowstrings made from ogre sinew?”

The corps commander screamed.

It was only then that Degare de Deviche recalled the might of the Leonberg Kingdom he had witnessed in their previous battles.

Powerful bows that could penetrate flesh and bone from a hundred paces away could not be found even in the mainland of the empire.

In the last war, countless commanders who had underestimated the range of those bows had been killed.

The sight of those people dying in the blink of an eye had been so intense that it had been engraved into his memory.

Nonetheless, he did not immediately recall the existence of this particularly powerful weapon because there weren’t many of them.

Having a few bows wouldn’t change anything.

That was what he had thought.

He was wrong.

Shashashasha.

Hundreds of arrows flew through the sky.

The Silver Scale Knights could only scream with their dying breaths. 

“What are you doing! Hurry up and save our knights!”

Degare de Deviche could no longer hold it in and shouted in a frenzy.

Dun dun dun.

The drums sounded the signal to push forward.

Four legions from the Briand Duchy began to advance in unison.

They were originally supposed to crush the opponents with their high morale and fighting spirit and their overwhelming numbers, but now they hurried forward as if they were being chased.

The gate opened.

The enemy knights who had been randomly trampling the Silver Scale Knights immediately retreated as if they had been waiting for this moment. 

“Force your way in before they close the gates!”

The soldiers who were spurred forward by their desperate commander could not even approach the gates before being shot down by arrows.

Each arrow took a life.

Facing such terrifying archery, the soldiers hesitated and slowed their advance.

Meanwhile, the enemy retreated easily.

Thud.

The gate shut again.

“Bring the ladders! We’ll take the walls!”

“Show those peasants what real war is like!”

The commanders of the Briand legions shouted and encouraged the shoulders.

Within moments, countless soldiers were killed by arrows while attempting to reach the wall.

“Keep in line! Raise your shields… Kagh!“

“Advance behind the shields! Argh!“

The commanders encouraging the soldiers from the front fell down.

They each had an arrow in a vital point.

“Don’t be scared… Gwaak!”

The moment they opened their mouths and shouted, an arrow flew in.

Many of the frontline commanders had died. The survivors kept silent as if they had agreed beforehand.

All the drummers near the front had been killed by arrows.

The Briand soldiers had lost their basic method of communication. They no longer had the means to maintain their ranks, and now they were completely out of control.

“Waaaaggh!“

The soldiers were terrified by the strange and unfamiliar lack of orders.

They ran around haphazardly.

Without a chain of command³, there was no longer any distinction between units.

They could only randomly group together and charge towards the castle walls in a frenzy.

Like this, the battle officially began.

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1. The other translator used Degualle de Devich (드골 드 드비쉬). I changed it to Degare because it’s apparently a french name that means “lost one” ⤴
2. The other translator used Brian or Brianne (브리앙) ⤴
3. Renamed from “Silver Knights” to “Silver Scale Knights” ⤴
4. Not sure what this part actually said so I gave it my best shot ⤴