Bear School Astartes

”Then let’s take a look together...”

Adal stared intently into Hacksaw’s eyes.

”See what fate awaits a hero’s family!”

”Knock!”

”Break every bone of this hero’s son! Start with his fingers! I want to turn him into a puddle of mush inside his armor! Right in front of this hero!”

With a ”thud,” Adal raised the iron scepter, standing it upright to slam the handle down on Hacksaw’s breastplate.

This made Hacksaw curl up suddenly, eyes wide, gasping and making a ’hoo-loo hoo-loo’ sound.

Adal laughed heartily: ”Resist? Continue resisting! I just don’t understand, what do you have left to resist? How has the Empire wronged you?”

”Cough-cough, reasons to resist? Isn’t it— isn’t it easy to find?”

A muffled laughter emanated from Hacksaw’s curled-up form.

Meanwhile, Stuart also started making sounds stifled by pain.

”I used to be a cowardly man, a wimp.”

”What did you say?”

Adal was baffled by Hacksaw’s words, even thinking it might be Hacksaw putting up a brave front.

”The scepter in your hand belonged to my friend. His name was Aolivin, the mayor of Sintra.”

”He was driven, fleeing to the castle, while your men beheaded his son and wife by the moat.”

”Do you know who his wife was? What a damn coincidence... she was my sister!”

Elegance, etiquette, all those things Hacksaw etched into his bones through countless training and memory over his life were abandoned in an instant. None of it mattered anymore.

”I raised my sister, entrusted her to a dependable man, she gave birth to a son, and then— then your people beheaded them!”

”I was a coward, I was terrified, until Aolivin pushed me away. Just like he used to take care of cowardly me, then he too died. Leaving me only with this mayoral scepter. He told me to save people, to save this country!”

”Then I desperately strove, desperately devised plans!”

Hacksaw’s curled-up body suddenly sprang up. He fished out a hidden dagger from his armor’s gap, and lunged at Adal!

But he was too slow, too obvious.

So the dagger didn’t even touch Adal’s armor; it was intercepted by a nearby Niflgaard soldier.

The soldier’s arm grappling Hacksaw’s arm made it impossible for Hacksaw to move the dagger forward at all, no matter how hard he tried.

An infuriated Adal swung the iron scepter, with a ’bang,’ smashing Hacksaw’s other leg.

But Hacksaw, the former Royal Steward of Sintra, who called himself a ’spineless man,’ ignored the agony of bones cracking and flesh being crushed.

Clamped by Niflgaard soldiers, he laughed heartily at Adal, showing his gums and teeth stained bright red with blood.

His hair and beard were disheveled, and the mockery and ferocity in his eyes rivaled any warrior from Sintra!

”How laughable, Duke of Niflgaard!”

”You made a spineless man into what he is now! Made him understand what courage is from the hatred of relatives, and learn what responsibility means through countless deaths, finally... this spineless man became the hero you speak of! Hahaha! How laughable!”

”Shut up!”

Adal raised the iron scepter, fiercely jabbing the handle at Hacksaw’s mouth.

The heavy and solid scepter instantly caved in Hacksaw’s half face.

Blood pooled inside the helmet, then dripped down through the gaps. Half the teeth were knocked out, half swallowed by Hacksaw mixed with blood.

Flames continued to spread downhill from the slope; the heat grew increasingly intense.

Adal took a deep breath, suppressing the fury from being mocked by this northern barbarian.

Now wasn’t the time for torture; he still had things he wanted to learn from this barbarian’s mouth.

”Tell me...” Adal used the scepter to lift Hacksaw’s head, the contact between helmet and scepter emitting a harsh metallic scraping sound.

”Where’s the Demon Hunter in your ranks? The little girl with mouse-gray hair? Where have you hidden them?”

Hacksaw’s expression froze; his bloodied mouth twitched as if he smiled.

”So, that’s what your emperor wants? ’The little girl with mouse-gray hair’? Heh.”

He struggled to speak unclearly.

”You don’t even know who you’re looking for, seems like your emperor doesn’t want you to know these things.”

Adal’s expression stiffened, then returned to normal.

”I may not know, but I know you’ll soon tell me the whole story. And this intelligence will become my new political leverage.”

”Come on, speak, hero. Afterwards, I’ll let you die swiftly.”

But Hacksaw just looked at him with a smile. Even when he waved his hand to increase the force on Stuart, making the young knight’s screams increasingly shrill, he only sneered coldly.

And the young knight, from start to finish, only screamed, never saying a word to his father.

Holding firm, eh?

Adal had seen stubbornness before and knew how to deal with such people.

He intended to toy with them until they utterly broke down!

So, the duke revealed a cruel and sinister smile, leaning close to Hacksaw’s ear.

”Do you still think reinforcements will come for this wildfire? Do you think leaving behind these maggot-like refugees can detain me and my army? Making you a household name, an undisputed hero everyone praises with thumbs up?”

”But all of this, all your efforts are meaningless.”

Adal laid out the current situation, but Hacksaw remained unresponsive.

”Oh, so you knew we had won the Battle of Sodden, and your hope was to use this mead to burn us alive. But it’s no matter.”

”Because it’s all meaningless.”

Adal chuckled, gesturing without turning his head, whereupon a rare man without armor stepped over.

He wore simple clothes, without lavish adornments, only a Sun Sect prayer stuck on the outside of a single-shoulder leather bag with a fire seal.

”Unlike you northerners who have an irritating custom of treating these magic users as noble, in the Empire, magic is just a craft. No different from carpenters, blacksmiths.”

Adal sneered disdainfully: ”And the Empire has trained these craftsmen to respect truly noble people—Empire nobility.”

”Bring on the rain, Pita. Cool us down.”

Chaos Magic Power surged, the sky turned gloomy.

Hacksaw’s pupils contracted at first, then he revealed a mocking smile.

”Who says it’s meaningless? You’ve been trapped by refugees; without a warlock, you’d nearly die! What happens when these soldiers spread the news? Are Niflgaard people still invincible? Is the Empire nobility still unreachable? Or, are you planning to silence all these over three thousand soldiers?”