Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Chapter 399: Chapter 44: Turu, Haug, and Naiman_2

“Me.” Bell said unhappily.

“Where did you learn that?”

Staring at his shoetips, Bell answered, “My mother.”

Winters could tell the young Hunter was in a bad mood, but Colonel Jeska obviously did not care about the trooper’s background.

The colonel barked at the others, “Bring all the surviving Herders over!”

…

The Herders who could still speak were bound hand and foot and kneel in a row in front of Colonel Jeska.

“Tell them I can’t be bothered to waste words with them.” The colonel, leaning on his saber, surveyed the prisoners coldly. “I’ll ask, and they answer. Keep silent, and they die.”

Bell translated lacklusterly.

One of the Herders raised his head and shouted a few words at Bell. Winters did not understand, but he could detect the anger in the tone.

“What did he say?” Colonel Jeska pointed at the talking Herder and asked.

With a complex expression, Bell glanced at the colonel, then lowered his head. “He said ‘You’re clearly a Herder, why are you helping the bipeds?'”

With a cold sneer, the one-eyed colonel suddenly drew his sword and chopped off the speaking Herder’s head.

The headless corpse heavily crashed to the ground as blood spurted rhythmically from the severed neck. The head rolled a short distance before coming to a stop, eyes still wide open.

Bell, the kneeling Herders, the onlooking Paratu People… even Winters was startled; some prisoners were even scared into incontinence.@@novelbin@@

“I ask! You answer!” Colonel Jeska’s saber was still dripping with blood. “Translate for them.”

The subsequent interrogation went smoothly.

The Herder Cavalry, hidden behind iron helmets, spearing, and slashing in battle, seemed like devils and monsters.

But at the end of the day, they too were human beings capable of pain, fear, and tears. Stripped of their soldierhood, they were nothing but nomads, no different from the militia of the Paratu.

“Which group do you belong to?” the colonel asked.

“The Dog Soldier group.”

“What’s the name of your ‘Turu Koda’?”

“Aviya.”

Staring with his one eye, the colonel asked word by word, “Then who is your ‘Haug Koda’?”

The inquired Herder stiffened at the word “Haug Koda,” murmuring a few sentences softly.

Bell translated, “He says the Dog Soldier group is a small tribe that doesn’t have a Haug.”

Colonel Jeska didn’t waste words, immediately cutting down the responding Herder.

Blood splattered onto Bell’s face, causing the young Hunter’s body to tremble uncontrollably.

The colonel approached the third Herder prisoner to ask, “Who is your ‘Haug Koda’?”

Without need for translation, the Herder prisoner shivered and spat out a name.

“Lieutenant Montaigne!” Colonel Jeska yelled.

“Here!”

“Have everyone ready; we are moving out immediately.”

“Continuing forward?”

“About-face to the east!”

…

Four riders fled for their lives, with the Herders sparing no horse strength, viciously whipping their warhorses.

Although they couldn’t see, the Herders knew that somewhere right behind them, a group of Paratu Cavalry was doggedly pursuing them.

The Herders and Paratu People chased each other over the undulating wilderness, only catching sight of each other when both parties were atop hills.

Their horses frothing at the mouth as they climbed another hill, one of the Herders looked back and exclaimed with surprise, “Look! The bipeds have pulled back!”

[Note: The Herders are all speaking in the Herder language.]

On hearing this, the other Herders looked back to see the Paratu Cavalry on the plains had stopped pursuing and were now moving away from them.

A narrow escape brought a sigh of relief from the few Herders.

With their tense nerves finally relaxing, one of the Herders suddenly cursed at his companions, “[Expletive]! We agreed to attack at the same time; how come you were so late?”

The accused Herders erupted in anger, “It was clearly your group that struck too early!”

“Stop arguing, Aviya and Herhunshi are dead, what’s the point of quarreling now?” another Herder shouted, “Where’s Goka? Wasn’t it agreed his men would cut off their path from behind, where are they?”

The others looked at each other in confusion, only then realizing that those responsible for attacking the rear had not appeared at all.

Lieutenant Andreya Chelini, on his way back to the supply train cursing and swearing, unaware that it was his heavy blow on “Goka’s” head that saved Colonel Jeska’s detachment from falling into an ambush from three sides.

…

The moonlight was dim; the convoy lit torches, marching through the night.

Everyone was on high alert, match cords wound around their wrists, with pike bearers in heavy armor marching on.

Winters, fully mounted in his armor, inspected the area between the wagons by the light of the torches, which made his half-armor particularly conspicuous.

Since he had received his officer’s armor, this was the first time he had worn it fully.

As the silver-grey stallion passed by, the militiamen saluted silently.

Winters heard someone whispering his name and turned back to see Andre emerging from the night.

“Haven’t worn it in so long, I’m not even used to it,” Andre said, patting the steel plate on his chest, now also clad in armor.

“It’s easy to put on, but hard to take off,” Winters said, a bit distracted: “Last time, I wore it for a year, and now, I don’t know how long it will be this time.”

Andre chuckled mischievously, “If Colonel Jeska and I were always armored, we wouldn’t have gotten wounded.”

Although the firearm posed a great threat to armor, having extra plates of iron in hand-to-hand combat was always better.

According to Winters’ observations, the Herders mainly had only melee weapons, so Andre’s statement wasn’t entirely untrue.

“Right,” Andre asked, “do you have a spare sword?”

“What?” Winters didn’t catch that at first.

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