Player Who Became A Constellation [EN]: Chapter 106

Player as a Constellation – Episode 106

A drop, two drops, three drops….

Water droplets began to fall from the cloudy sky, eventually turning into a downpour.

The armor was heavy and damp, soaked with either sweat or rain.

The Node soldier took a ragged breath and shouted.

“Ooooooh-!”

“Kkyaaaaaak-!”

“…Shut up!”

Thwack-!

The Node soldier stabbed the heart of an Imperial slave soldier charging at him, then pulled out his sword.

The slave soldier knelt and slumped over.

The Node soldier also lost strength in his legs, kneeling on one knee and using his sword to support himself.

He tried to stand up, but his legs wouldn’t hold.

“Oh? This is dangerous…? Huh?”

Crack-!

The Node soldier, who was smiling awkwardly, turned his head at the sharp pain he felt behind his shoulder.

The Imperial slave soldier, his arms severed, was biting the Node soldier’s shoulder.

“…Are you some kind of beast? Biting people!? Ugh!”

The Node soldier roared and swung his sword, blowing the slave soldier’s head off.

“Reload…!”

Above the outer wall, the lined-up Node soldiers simultaneously drew their bows.

“Fire!”

Thud-!

As they released their fingers, arrows soared and pierced the enemy soldiers rushing towards the outer wall.

However, some missed and struck the ground.

‘Missed?’

The Node soldier who shot the arrow looked at his hand.

The tough orc leather on his fingers was worn out, and blood was seeping into the fingers inside.

His hand trembled, lacking strength.

It must be because he had been drawing arrows non-stop.

“…Die!”

One of the Node soldiers kicked an Imperial slave soldier in the solar plexus, knocking him off the outer wall.

The slave soldier crashed to the ground with a ‘thud!’ and silence fell, signaling the end of the battle.

The Node soldier inhaled and muttered.

“We…won.”

“We won-!”

The Revolutionary Army following them shouted with high morale.

But-.

Boooooooom-!

The sound of the advance horn echoed once more.

The Node soldiers clicked their tongues, and the faces of the Revolutionary Army turned pale.

An endless battle.

The shadow of death was gradually looming over them.

“Damn it, this is unbearable.”

“…Yeah, it’ll be hard to last long like this.”

The Node soldiers inhaled and exhaled.

Dozens of battles.

The enemies kept rushing in.

“They’re trying to wear us down.”

Already, countless corpses were lying on the outer wall of the Hubel territory and beyond.

With this much damage, ordinary armies would retreat, but the Empire’s slave soldiers continued to attack, regardless of their own casualties.

Shields, meat shields, tools, and so on.

The Node army and the Revolutionary Army realized once again why the Empire’s slave soldiers were called that.

They were addicted to hallucination potions.

The pain was minimal, and the raging anger was directed at the enemy.

Each slave soldier wasn’t very strong, but they charged like zombies unless completely killed.

Above all, they had to prevent Emperor Kashaar from participating directly.

In the end, these factors pushed even the Node army to their physical limits.

“Ah! I like fighting, but I really hate this kind of fighting!”

“Right… where did my romance about war go?”

“…Crazy bastards!”

The Node soldiers didn’t look terrified, even though they complained. The problem was the Revolutionary Army on the outer wall.

The Revolutionary Army was leaning against the wall, unable to stand even as the enemy approached.

At this rate, they would become food for the approaching Imperial slave soldiers.

“Hey! You patriots who were shouting for revolution! If you can’t move, get out of here because you’re in the way!”

“Everyone who can move, stay! Everyone else, fall back! I’m getting more tired of protecting you guys.”

The Revolutionary Army frowned and glared at the Node soldiers as if they were displeased.

They were fighting to reclaim their country, but they had to hear such words from ‘barbarians’?

The Node army’s reputation wasn’t good among the Revolutionary Army.

They had the justification of fighting to rebuild the country, but the Node soldiers were seen as mere ‘mercenaries’ hired by Prince Eron.

The Node soldier, knowing their thoughts, said.

“Why, are you pissed off because you’re being ignored by barbarians?”

“What?”

“Get down if you don’t want to fight!”

“Damn it, fine. I can’t do it anymore! I won’t fight anymore!”

In the end, the Revolutionary Army couldn’t stand it and voiced their complaints.

The Node soldiers looked at them and smiled bitterly.

It was when the Revolutionary Army was about to go down the outer wall stairs.

“You fools!”

“Yeah, I guess that’s all the resolve you had.”

“Well, whatever. What else is going to happen if this country falls, other than their families becoming slaves?”

The people who were about to go down the stairs stopped and froze.

The Node soldiers smiled as they watched the slave soldiers approaching the outer wall and said jokingly.

“The Kron Empire, it’s quite infamous, right?”

“Yeah, they don’t treat anyone like humans except for the nobles, I heard.”

“I heard the value of a slave is lower than that of a dog or pig. That’s why Kron Empire people go on rampages when they travel to subordinate countries? They beat children to death for fun, rape women, and just kill men… And the country is watching the Empire’s every move.”

“Is that all? One of the conditions Ronia set was to offer thousands of slaves every year. The tribute is also enormous, right?”

“Still, there are a lot of people….”

The Node soldier flicked his finger towards the Revolutionary Army, whose faces had turned pale.

“The chances of your families being chosen and sold to the Empire are slim, right?”

“…….”

The Node soldier smiled cruelly.

“You’ll be agonizing, not knowing when your family will be sold off to the Empire.”

The Revolutionary Army trembled.

“You won’t be able to make a living because of the excessive tax rate, and you’ll be suffering every day as if you’re living in hell.”

The Revolutionary Army gritted their teeth.

“The king is crazy and offers his people to other countries, sitting there saying, ‘Please take good care of them!’ and living in luxury, and you… ‘Ah! I survived another day. But what about tomorrow…?’ You’ll be reflecting on your lives, saying, ‘If only I had struggled a little more back then….’”

The Revolutionary Army clenched their fists.

Their eyes were filled with anger.

“All you weak and incompetent people can do is ‘regret,’ right?”

The Node soldiers grinned.

“You’re just slaves, that’s all.”

“Shut up!”

“What do you think we are!? Barbarians!”

The Revolutionary Army approached the Node soldier and glared at him.

“We’ll fight!”

“You think we’d back down with just this much?”

“Ha, these guys are so simple. But….”

The Node soldier grabbed the Revolutionary soldier by the collar and headbutted him in the forehead.

But the Revolutionary soldier didn’t back down and glared at him.

He liked that look.

“I fucking like it. Yeah, you might as well resist that fate with all your might. Drive out this crazy king and protect your own families. And shout it out to the world!”

The Node soldier shouted at the top of his lungs.

“‘I did it!’, ‘I protected them!’ ‘I-!”

His voice echoed on the outer wall.

“I protected my family, my freedom, with my own hands!”

“……!”

The Node soldier shouted to the Revolutionary Army on the outer wall.

“You don’t want your families to live as slaves, do you?”

The Revolutionary soldiers’ minds were filled with images of their families.

“Struggle! Resist them!”

The days when they could live decently were ruined by a single mad king.

“Choose to be rebellious humans rather than obedient dogs!”

There was only one thing that could change all of this.

The downfall of King Ash.

That was the way for them and their families to survive.

At the Node soldiers’ scolding, the Revolutionary Army grabbed their weapons.

Each of them glared at the Empire’s slave soldiers approaching the territory with murderous intent.

“Yeah! That’s what men should do! Those who can move, put some spirit into it! You yourselves…!”

The Node soldiers and the Revolutionary Army grabbed their weapons.

They glared at the siege tower approaching from afar and the slave soldiers on it.

“Protect your families.”

***

“Kkyaaaaak!”

The slave soldiers climbed the ladders.

As the siege tower reached the outer wall, the slave soldiers poured out of it like a swarm of insects.

They had no fear.

Because they drank the hallucination potion!

They were the strongest and worst ghosts alive.

But-.

Swoosh-!

“Kill!”

“Kkeuaaaak!”

There were those who struggled even against such living ghosts.

If the Imperial slave soldiers had potions, those who struggled to live had ‘conviction.’

“Like hell I’ll die!”

“My family isn’t slaves!”

“I’ll live!”

“For freedom! For the revolution!”

The Revolutionary Army stabbed and swung their swords at the Kron Empire’s slave soldiers.

One of the slave soldiers screamed at the spear piercing his body.

“Kkyaaaaaak-!”

As if not to be outdone, the slave soldier also stabbed a dagger into the shoulder of the Revolutionary soldier who stabbed him.

That was enough.

An ordinary person would scream in pain and back away. Then the slave soldier would pounce on that soldier and hack him to pieces.

That was the ‘way to win in battle’ that the slave soldiers had learned.

But it was different now.

The Revolutionary soldier screamed. But he gritted his teeth and endured the pain.

“……!”

He gave strength to his pierced shoulder and the arm holding the spear, pushing the slave soldier even harder. The spearhead pierced through the Kron Empire’s slave soldier’s chest.

“Euaaaaaak!!”

“Kkeu… Kkeuaaaak?!”

The Kron Empire slave soldier’s face contorted.

The faint pain gradually grew, and he distorted his face in terror as he looked at the other person’s expression.

A distorted face.

Anger and hatred.

And a face filled with the conviction to protect.

There was no hesitation. There was no retreat.

There are times when you have to not back down even if your body is torn to pieces!

“I’ll live peacefully! I’ll live for freedom!”

Thinking about the future….

“You think I’ll let my family be played with by you guys! You think they’ll become your toys…!?”

Assuming the worst….

“Yeah, put some spirit into it! Show them the pride of men! Put some strength in your waist! What are you going to do if you’re worse than us barbarians? You can do it! Protect what you want to protect!”

They encouraged.

The Kron Empire’s slave soldiers were crazy people addicted to potions.

They didn’t back down to drink the drug.

But the Revolutionary Army was crazy with conviction.

For their families,

For the future,

They didn’t back down.

The Kron Empire’s slaves and Ronia’s Revolutionary Army.

They were fighting with firm will and determination, without backing down from each other.

“Don’t back down!”

The Revolutionary Army burned with fighting spirit, with ‘conviction.’

***

“Aren’t they amazing?”

Hans clicked his tongue.

He didn’t think the Revolutionary Army would hold out so stubbornly.

“…Those with conviction are scary. I know that very well.”

Hans looked at Palm. And asked.

“Then, what kind of conviction do you have, Palm?”

“…….”

“I’ve been wondering for a while. Marquis Palm. Why do you serve Prince Eron?”

He could have served Ash and made Ash a puppet.

But he didn’t.

Hans couldn’t figure out why.

To Hans’ question, Palm….

“Who knows? It’s been so long that I’ve forgotten.”

He just avoided answering.

***

“…More annoying than I thought.”

Kashaar sat on the throne and frowned at the cheers coming from the outer wall.

What he wanted was their despair.

He wanted to watch them slowly die as they tasted frustration and lost hope.

He wanted to see them wailing in that pain.

But what was this?

The dying bastards were struggling.

Moreover, they were trying to endure, not losing hope, but rather illuminating it.

Kashaar felt unpleasant at the sight.

“Hey.”

Kashaar called the trainer next to him.

The trainer, wearing scale armor and a white metal mask that looked like he was crying on his face, bowed his head.

Kashaar’s three thousand elite guards of the Kron Empire, whom he had raised himself.

They were followers who followed Kashaar wherever he went.

They were beings who had their minds broken from a young age and were trained as weapons solely for fighting, and they were skilled in swordsmanship, martial arts, archery, horsemanship, and even siege weapons….

In addition, they were versatile elite warriors who were skilled in slave training and other things.

“You guys directly capture that outer wall.”

The Kron Empire’s army began to move in earnest.