I’m the Main Villain but the Heroines Are Obsessed With Me

41 – Part 2: “If You Can Stop It, Try to Stop It”

A remote outpost in the rugged mountain range.

Ferrando, a member of the North Wind Lion Knights who was on border duty, let out a deep sigh.

Ugh… It’s so boring.

It had been two years since he joined the Volcanov family’s North Wind Lion Knights. Still, he couldn’t get used to border duty at all.

“When I first started, I was happy to think I could work here while seeing this scenery. But now, all that’s left is disgust.”

“What kind of feelings did I have back then to be happy seeing this kind of landscape?”

Thinking back, he was truly innocent. He had even marveled at the snow falling from the sky and had pledged to sacrifice himself for the Empire out of patriotism.

“Things change.”

Of course, that was an impossible story now. The rigid hierarchy and the harsh life of the Knights had made Ferrando indifferent.

Even though he saw breathtaking landscapes, he no longer felt any sense of excitement.

He only thought about when this time would end.

“I guess he’ll end up like this too…”

Ferrando looked at Dov, his adjutant, who stood beside him, blinking.

“Dov, do you find this scenery beautiful?”

“Oh, it’s beautiful! I’d like to show it to my mother back home.”

“But your mother says she has joint pain. What if you drag her out to this mountain range? This guy is a disobedient child.”

“I-I’m sorry! My thoughts were short-sighted!”

Ferrando let out a dry chuckle as he looked at Dov, who stood stiffly, gazing straight ahead.

He knew he was doing something mean, but what could he do? If he didn’t do things like this, time would never pass.

To be frank, it would have been better to engage in such a pointless conversation rather than be in the same space as the taciturn senior.

Ferrando, leaning comfortably against his greatsword, looked at Dove.

“Dove, do you have any interesting stories to tell?”

“Interesting stories, sir?”

“Yes, just anything. I’m bored to death.”

“Well… Sir Ferrando, if the Grandmother and 100 Knights Commander were to fight, who do you think would win?”

“What the hell, kid?”

Ferrando, taken aback by Dove’s unexpected question, stood up and stared at him.

Who in their right mind asks such a question when I asked for an interesting story?

He had the urge to throttle Dove, but Ferrando held back. Dove probably asked that because he didn’t know any better.

“Don’t ever say such things elsewhere. And what’s with the ‘Grandmother and 100 Knights’? Even if you faced just one Knight Commander, you’d probably die with a single blow.”

“That’s true, but… What if the Grandmothers get a berserker buff? Things would be different, right? They’d charge like madmen unless they die… like ghouls! In that state, even the Knights Commander would be scared, right?”

“Then call them ‘ghouls’ from the start, damn it. And do you even know what the Knights Commander did in the past? Our Knight Commander defeated ghouls and rose to this position. Would such a person be scared of crazy grandmothers?”

“I apologize. It was my mistake.”

In the tense atmosphere, Dove lowered his head.

“Ha… this guy, seriously.”

In this situation, the right thing to do would be to scold Dove firmly and move on. But Ferrando decided not to do so.

If he did, the confidence of this timid recruit would further diminish, and high-ranking officers were known as the enemies of the knights, after all.

No one else would hear it anyway. They could keep it as their little secret.

“Yeah, let’s just let it slide this time. But don’t ever do it again.”

“I understand. I’ll remember that.”

“Good. Oh, by the way, who’s on duty today?”

“Duty, you say? I believe it’s Vice Captain Ulken, sir.”

At the mention of Vice Captain Ulken, Ferrando felt a pang of annoyance.

“Ulken? That damn noble with no sense of duty. Even though he’s supposed to be married, he volunteers for duty on such a day.”

“But Vice Captain Ulken is impressive, isn’t he? He strictly enforces discipline.”

“Yeah, right. You’ll learn soon enough. People like Vice Captain Ulken are the most tiresome nobles. When you want to take a break, he starts talking about sun-drying and other nonsense.”

“Well, before we head into the mountain range borders, he did say we could retrieve the equipment from the storage.”

“Look, look at what they’re doing. Can you believe there are people who dislike Lord Wilken?”

Ferrando scratched his head and pondered before smirking.

“Well, at least once our work is done, the children will have cleaned up. That’s good, right? Don’t you think so, Dove?”

There was no answer from Dove, who had been waiting. What is this kid thinking, not responding? Ferrando turned his head, wondering.

“D-Dove?”

The young successor, who had just been laughing immaturely, now had an arrow in his head and lay lifeless.

“When did this…”

It was true that he hadn’t been fully focused on his guard duty. However, he hadn’t been careless enough to not notice a flying arrow.

There had been no indication. He hadn’t heard any sound either.

He couldn’t know anything. Who shot the arrow and took Dove’s life? And whether they purposely avoided his senses to shoot the arrow.

But one thing was certain.

“There is a master surpassing me by far…”

There were enemies nearby whom he couldn’t defeat even if he risked his life.

Carefully placing Dove’s body on the floor, Ferrando turned his head toward the window.

With trembling hands, he wiped off the frost on the window. And finally, he saw it.

Thud, thud, thud!

Countless troops pouring down from a distance… It appeared like an avalanche, but Ferrando trusted his instincts.

“They’re… the enemy!”

It was the moment Volkanov was in danger.

***

For the barbarians, Volkanov’s invasion was not a difficult task.

The land of ice was nothing more than home turf for the warriors of Kicolan, unlike the barbarians.

Having lived by hunting for food, even ordinary warriors were adept at concealing their presence.

The skills passed down from their ancestors had developed over a long period of time. Thus, the current Kicolan warriors had reached a level where they could casually slit a man’s throat in the mountains.

Thanks to that.

“Stop them! Find a way to stop them no matter what!”

“R-Request reinforcements…. Argh!”

“Kill them all! Drink the blood of these feeble imperial citizens!”

The Northwind Lion Knights defending the mountain range had collapsed without resistance.

The unexpected attack had caught the knights off guard, and they were no match for the rapidly advancing barbarians.

Cawatle, the great warrior, smiled as he watched the knights being slaughtered by Colran’s warriors.

“Now that we’ve reached the summit of the mountain range, we’ve overcome the challenges,” he thought.

In his view, a small village gathered below the mountain range.

Before long, they would be able to take control of that place and offer the blood and skin of the feeble imperial citizens to the sky.

A satisfactory situation. But Cawatle remained vigilant.

“It would be wise to consume the village before the knights replenish their numbers.”

Fortunately, they had managed to reclaim the mountaintop, but the condition of the warriors was far from ideal. A recent outbreak of disease in the village had left them ailing.

In this situation, it would make sense to let the warriors recover and engage in battle. However, Cawatle couldn’t make that choice.

He recalled the words that had come from the mouth of Kartina, the tribe’s prophet.

“Our gods have decreed it. The time has come to exact retribution from Colran, who drove us out and spread the plague.”

If they could capture their blood and flesh and offer them as sacrifices, the great gods promised the prosperity of the Colran tribe.

Cawatle knew how noble it was to follow the will of the heavens, which is why he had to do whatever it took to bring down Volcanov and his army.

That’s why he had gathered his warriors even in the midst of a fierce snowstorm.

After organizing the knights, Cawatle gathered the warriors in the only relatively flat area.

The gazes of the tribe members surrounding him were directed at the human kneeling beside him.

With a satisfied look, Cawatle raised his axe and shouted, “This one’s name is Ulken. He’s the lieutenant of our archenemy, the knights.”

“aaargh!”

“Kill him! Cut his throat!”

Fierce cries echoed through the mountains. Was this what the screams of burning humans in hell sounded like?

“Excellent.”

This was exactly what Cawatle desired: blind rage.

The ailing tribe members were far from their best, and their morale had hit rock bottom. By channeling their anger toward the imperial citizens, he could rekindle their enthusiasm.

Turning away from Ulken, Cawatle gazed at the warriors who were now staring at him.

“The ones who drove us to this cold and treacherous land are right here! I will execute this man and quench the suffering of our ancestors with his blood and skin!”

“Uwooo!”

As he finished speaking, the warriors’ hearts began to burn.

With a satisfied nod, Cawatle approached Ulken, who was bound and raised his axe.

Coa’tl bared her teeth while gazing at the man who had become a captive.

“Oh, the dim-witted knights of the Empire. I’ll offer you mercy personally. If you provide information about the Order, we’ll send you on your way without suffering. Otherwise, we can summon someone named Ian here, just as Ferando did with you.”

Speaking fluently in the Imperial language, Coa’tl shook her severed hand in front of Ulken.

They had cut off Ferando’s arm and brought it as a plea for urgent assistance.

“Save me…”

Ulken gritted his teeth, looking at the savage who smiled bitterly. Begging for their lives to those who killed his subordinates and carried out the assault? That was unthinkable.

It was an act of betrayal against the grace of the Emperor and surrendering to those who didn’t appreciate the value of life, something his pride couldn’t allow.

“Do you think I’d beg to those barbarians who don’t even know the minimum respect for the dead? Kill me instead! I’ll curse you in hell for the rest of your lives!”

“What’s wrong with your head? Does my words sound like a joke to you?”

“That’s what I want to say. Call Ian? Ridiculous! Even if you cut my throat! I will never go along with your wishes!”

“Heh heh… Fine. Let’s see if you can keep spouting nonsense even after losing an arm.”

If he gave the answer they wanted, there was a willingness to send him off without pain. But if he resisted like this, there was no reason to show mercy. They could send him off in the most agonizing way possible.

“Kneel.”

Thud!

“Ugh!”

As they raised the massive axe, the tribal warriors knocked Ulken to the ground and pulled one of his arms out.

“Ugh!”

A gleaming, snow-white arm lay exposed in those chilling eyes.

All that remained was to bring the axe down on the arm.

There was no hesitation. It had been a long time since they had any intention of showing leniency once he uttered those contemptuous words.

Coa’tl, with her eyes wide open, swung the axe.

“First, let’s take off the left one!”

Swish!

At an unbelievable speed, the axe, bearing immense weight, sliced through the air and struck downward.

Now his arm would be severed, and blood would gush. It was a moment of delight as he surrendered to the exhilaration.

Crack!

“Ugh!”

“What on earth… Ahh!”

“Argh!

It was when a massive wound began to appear on the bodies of the barbarians.

‘What in the world is this…’

Surely, he had swung the axe, so why was there an injury?

The dizzying pain furrowed his brow, but Koatl managed to open his eyes and look ahead.

Only then did he see it.

“So, this is what it means to deflect an attack. Not bad at all.”

A man who had erected a massive defense barrier to block the attack.

A familiar face appeared, and Koatl’s pupils trembled as if in an earthquake.

“You!”

There was no doubt. It was Ian Volkanov, the offering the Goddess Katrina had spoken of, the one he had to kill to achieve his grand goal, right before his eyes.

Koatl staggered back but raised his axe again.

‘I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s actually better this way.’

He hadn’t captured that knight just to bring him in, had he?

He might have suffered an unexpected attack, but the situation wasn’t that bad.

‘How foolish, charging into the enemy’s territory with my own two feet…’

While he was here to protect his subordinates, it was no different from their inner sanctum.

He had made a grave mistake.

With his battle stance ready, Koatl looked at Ian and sharpened his resolve.

“I don’t know what you did just now… But if you can block this one as well, give it a try!”

As he finished speaking, Koatl focused his magical power on the axe.

Kuooh!

A bizarre and unparalleled force, a mixture of magic and mana, wrapped around the axe.

However, the power was by no means trivial.

Kwagagaga!

The whirlwind of magic and mana converged, tearing apart anything it touched with fierce intensity.

Koatl, in his prepared stance, took a deep breath and thrust the axe toward the ground.

Thud!

“Let’s see if you can withstand this attack!”

“Crack!”

Koatl leaped toward Ian and swung his axe horizontally, but unfortunately, it never reached Ian.

“So slow.”

Just before the axe could strike, Ian dove into his arms.

“What kind of speed is this…?”

Holding the handle with both hands, Koatl couldn’t react to Ian’s attack.

“You’re quite pathetic.”

Kwaaang!

He approached with a weaving motion and delivered a straight blow to the face.

It was an extraordinary attack, enough to shatter a human skull.

Thud!

Thud!

Koatl, now headless, collapsed to the ground.

It was the moment when Koatl, the great warrior of the Kikollan, met his demise.

“What… is this?”

“Koatl is dead? Is it a lie?”

The bewildered and disheartened tribesmen looked at Ian. He raised his fist once again, wearing a sly smile.

“Is it my turn now? If you can stop me, try. If it’s possible.”