Building A Human Empire By Creating A Clan [EN]: Chapter 17

“What a goddamn awful road.”

Count John Dorin muttered, waving his right arm around irritably.

The Count’s party was hacking its way through the dense forest, forging a path where none existed.

With each step the horse took, his body swayed violently, and insects buzzed around him from all directions.

“How about we take a short break, brother?”

Jeremy, who was following behind the Count, piped up.

Immediately after, the horse stumbled on a hidden root, causing his buttocks to lift abruptly before slamming back onto the saddle.

“Ugh….”

“Pathetic.”

The Count frowned at his brother’s discomfort.

Despite being brothers, Jeremy was weak, unlike himself.

He had spared Jeremy, unlike his other brothers, precisely because of that weakness. But watching him now, he had no faith in entrusting him with any real tasks.

“It’s the horse doing the walking, what’s so hard about it?”

The Count clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Jeremy lowered his face, which flushed red.

‘Hmph, think what you want.’

However, Jeremy’s thoughts were far from submissive.

Beneath his flushed face, his expression was cold and calculating. His weak appearance was a carefully crafted act, concealing the knife he harbored inside.

Would his brother, who had so mercilessly killed his siblings, really leave him alone? Jeremy knew all too well that his brother possessed a volatile temper, capable of ordering a beheading at a moment’s notice.

So, to survive, he was feigning weakness, patiently biding his time for an opportunity to strike back.

‘A brute who thinks strength is everything… He probably doesn’t even suspect that my vassals support me, does he? Just you wait. No matter how strong you are, can you defeat an entire group?’

Jeremy subtly exchanged glances with the old knight riding nearby.

It was a silent signal that they were ready. The eyes of the knights following behind also shifted, hardening with resolve.

They were passing through a secluded part of the forest, far from any prying eyes.

Here, he could kill his brother without witnesses.

Waiting for the opportune moment of carelessness, Jeremy glared intently at his brother’s back.

“……Ugh!”

Suddenly, a faint, gasping sound broke the silence.

“What!”

The Count whirled around.

A knight on the side of the group was tilting precariously, then collapsed to the ground.

“Arrow!”

Seeing the feathered shaft lodged in their fallen comrade’s chest, the knights instantly understood the situation.

“Sniper!”

The Count swiftly drew his sword and donned the helmet hanging at his horse’s side.

Gripping the reins tightly, he patted the horse and began circling, trying to assess the threat.

He couldn’t risk a blind run, not knowing the direction from which the arrow had come. He might end up charging straight towards the enemy.

“Where are you!”

“Kkeu… Ugh!”

The knight directly behind him slumped over.

The arrow had pierced his neck, finding the vulnerable gap in the armor between the helmet and the chainmail.

The Count realized with chilling clarity that if he had been a little further back, he would have been the one struck.

A cold dread washed over him. Gritting his teeth, he lashed the reins.

“Darn it! Don’t stop, follow me!”

The horse bolted forward, heading in the general direction of Ollimus.

If he couldn’t pinpoint the enemy, he would strike at their main base.

In his mind, the only enemy audacious enough to target him was Ollimus.

‘Bastard! We’ll see how well you can hide in the forest after your territory is burned to the ground.’

However, the Count’s hasty judgment was short-lived.

Before he could gather any real speed, the horse tripped over a hidden root and stumbled, throwing him forward.

As his body was flung through the air, he kicked free of the saddle and landed hard.

The knights, caught off guard by his sudden fall, reined in their horses.

And that hesitation became their undoing.

“What…!”

The knights were struck down in rapid succession, arrows finding their marks in necks and hearts.

In a matter of moments, half of the company had become fertilizer for the forest floor.

The remaining knights panicked, some rolling on the ground in desperate attempts to avoid the unseen attacks. But instead of arrows, their heads exploded for an unknown reason.

The helmets, designed to withstand the blows of a warhammer, proved utterly useless.

The metal burst like paper along with the back of their skulls, killing them instantly.

“Hi, hide!”

“Heeik!”

In the chaos, all the Count could do was scramble behind a tree, hoping to find some semblance of cover and wait for the onslaught to cease.

At least, he was the most skilled knight present.

He belatedly tried to pinpoint the direction from which the arrows were flying.

He sprinted to the thickest tree he could find and pressed himself against it, trying to become invisible.

‘This should be impenetrable. And invisible.’

“Hee, heeheeik!”

He spat out curses at his brother, who was huddled on the ground, covering his head and whimpering in terror.

He was a fool who hadn’t even been hit by an arrow, simply falling off his horse in a fit of panic.

“Stupid bastard!”

He grabbed a stone that happened to be within reach and hurled it at Jeremy.

The stone struck Jeremy’s forehead with a sickening thud, and blood welled up.

Jeremy clutched his forehead in pain, but continued to scream in terror.

“Count!”

The old knight, also taking cover behind a tree on the opposite side, shouted across the clearing.

“How many are left!”

“Six! Six including me!”

Just moments ago, the group had numbered nearly fifty.

Now, in this short, brutal ambush, most of them were dead, their bodies returning to the earth.

The sound of teeth grinding in fury echoed from behind the Count’s tree.

Knights were not simply men in armor. They were highly trained warriors, honed through a lifetime of combat, and they could not be easily replaced.

‘They were my everything!’

Even if he managed to survive this, he would return home a Count in name only.

The neighbors he had oppressed for so long would seize the opportunity to devour what remained of his power.

“Damn… it!”

A blood-boiling rage surged through him.

And then, silence descended once more.

Drip… drip…

In the stillness, the sound of breaking branches could be heard.

The soft rustle of dew-laden leaves being disturbed underfoot also reached his ears.

The Count knew that the sound was coming from the same direction as the deadly arrows.

He cautiously peeked out from behind the tree, trying to identify the source of the sound.

“……Elf?”

The word escaped his lips almost involuntarily.

Emerging from the dense trees was indeed an elf.

She had dark blue bobbed hair and piercing dark blue eyes.

Her pointed ears and ethereal beauty surpassed that of any human.

The Count couldn’t help but gape, feeling a sense of awe at the sight of this creature, a member of a race seemingly sculpted by the gods themselves.

“Monkeys.”

The elf stopped walking and looked down at the Count with disdain.

A kite [a type of bird] finished its graceful glide and perched on her shoulder.

“What purpose do you pathetic monkeys have in invading my territory?”

The Count stared up at her, his eyes wide and trembling like aspen leaves in a storm.

A chilling sensation, as if all the blood in his body was turning to ice, emanated from the depths of his being.

Lv73. Legion Commander Gerhard