# One month later, Northern Steppe.
A campfire blazed at the Kuman Tribe's outpost encampment.
"A new commander has been appointed to the Imperial Army."
A scout reported while kneeling.
"They say he's been personally patrolling the supply routes lately, wiping out our raiding parties."
"So?"
The hand sharpening the axe blade didn't stop. Kuuluk. A Great Warrior of the Kuman Tribe. The man continued honing the edge without even glancing at the scout.
"But that commander... they say he's the son of the Southern Great Chieftain. Ten years old."
Only then did his hand stop.
"What? Ten years old?"
"Yes. They say he's a silver-haired kid."
Kuuluk snickered.
"A ten-year-old as corps commander. The Southerners are finished, truly finished."
"They say he's the son of a concubine favored by the Southern Great Chieftain."
"So they gave a corps to a brat who hasn't even been weaned? Kuhaha. I thought the Southern Great Chieftain would be different. But he's the same in the end. Doesn't know how precious his child is."
The scout tilted his head.
"What do you mean?"
"If you cherish a child, you should keep them close. Why send them to the battlefield? It's like asking for them to be kidnapped."
The corners of Kuuluk's mouth slowly rose.
"How much ransom would he fetch? Ten thousand gold? No, if he's the child of the Great Chieftain's beloved concubine... even more would be possible."
"Will you capture him?"
"Of course. If he's the son of that Southern Great Chieftain's beloved concubine—"
"Then will you reach the Supreme Realm too, Commander?"
"Yes. Then you'll all be able to advance as well."
Great Warrior.
In the Southerners' terms, 'Expert.'
Kuuluk had reached that realm at twenty. Though his origins were humble, he had talent.
Twenty years after that.
After grueling training, he had risen to the upper ranks among Great Warriors.
But he couldn't overcome the next wall.
He needed an elixir. But it wasn't something someone of humble origins could buy. Not without obtaining vast amounts of gold.
That's why the silver-haired boy was an opportunity.
"Capture the Southern Great Chieftain's son. Buy an elixir with the ransom. Reach the Supreme Realm. Then wouldn't I be able to aim for the position of Kuman Great Chieftain myself?"
He too would be able to obtain good medicine.
"Like the Southern Great Chieftain, you mean."
"Yes."
Kuuluk smiled.
That Great Chieftain in the south hadn't been a Great Chieftain from the start either.
His origins were humble too.
He had risen to that position solely through his own martial prowess and achievements.
Why hide it?
That Southern Great Chieftain, Walther, was the very person Kuuluk took as his role model.
Kidnapping his role model's son to receive ransom and aim for a breakthrough.
One corner of his heart felt uneasy, but it was clearly the best plan in the current situation.
"But you must be careful. That brat has a very bad reputation. There's a rumor that he commanded a knight order and annihilated over a thousand orcs without any casualties."
He flicked the forehead of the subordinate who said that.
"Ugh, you idiot. You believe that? It's obviously a made-up story because they couldn't just give an important position to someone with no military achievements."
"I apologize."
"So where is that little general active?"
"They say around the Lemin Plateau."
"Lemin Plateau?"
Kuuluk's eyes narrowed.
"Is there a problem?"
"...It's nothing."
"The Southerners are stupid. The last corps commander died doing that, and they're doing it again?"
"Exactly."
The subordinates laughed.
But Kuuluk didn't laugh.
Lemin Plateau.
He knew that terrain like the back of his hand.
Three gorges. Five ridgelines. Large rocks everywhere.
There were more than a few places suitable for ambushing troops.
It could be a trap.
If he calculated the odds, about fifty-fifty.
But he didn't bother telling his subordinates that.
Kuuluk looked at the campfire.
The flames flickered.
If not now, the opportunity might never come again.
Above all.
'He's just a ten-year-old child, isn't he?'
Kuuluk thought.
If the new commander had been even around twenty years old, he would have acted more cautiously.
Since he was the son of that Southern Great Chieftain, there might be something extraordinary about him.
But only ten years old.
What could a ten-year-old do?
A brat who hasn't even been weaned.
And he knew all too well the level of the Southern army in this area.
The late Gerhardt.
He had been someone who reached the upper ranks of Great Warriors like Kuuluk.
But he was a wild boar who only knew how to charge.
When bait was thrown, he rushed in without hesitation.
When fifteen ambushed warriors attacked from all sides, the face that showed panic as if only then realizing it was a trap.
It was an absurdly easy hunt.
Those he employed as staff were even worse. They were merely appointed to create positions for local nobles in the area.
Selected by bloodline, not ability.
There was no way he would lose to such things.
Even if it was a trap, he just had to break through.
**
Lemin Plateau.
Kuuluk lay prone on the ridgeline and looked down.
Three wagons with an escort force of less than fifty. Small numbers, but their aura was unusual. Many were Great Warrior level. In Southern terms, Experts.
'Not bad.'
But that was all.
The force Kuuluk had brought was about a hundred. Thirty of them Great Warriors alone. An overwhelming difference in strength.
Above all.
'There he is.'
Beyond the window of the middle wagon, he could see silver hair. Silver glinting in the sunlight. No mistake. The Southern Great Chieftain's son.
"Attack."
At the low-voiced command, a hundred warriors crossed the ridgeline simultaneously. The sound of hoofbeats shook the earth, and war cries erupted.
"Kraaaah!"
The escort force reacted. Drew swords, formed ranks, and fled?
Kuuluk doubted his eyes. An escort force mostly composed of Great Warriors fled without even fighting, abandoning the wagons.
"...What?"
It was absurd. He knew the Southern knights were cowards, but he didn't know it was to this extent. Abandoning their lord and running away. Even if they were outnumbered.
'They talk about chivalry and all that, but this is what it comes to in the end?'
Kuuluk snickered. Too easy. Disappointingly so.
Three wagons were left behind. The horses had been taken by the fleeing knights, so they couldn't even move.
"Surround them."
The warriors encircled the wagons.
Kuuluk dismounted and slowly walked toward the middle wagon.
Standing before the door, he felt a faint trembling from inside. Frightened breathing. The corners of Kuuluk's mouth rose.
He opened the door.
There was a silver-haired boy.
Or was it a girl? The features were too delicate.
Southerners were said to have pretty faces, but this was excessive for a ten-year-old boy.
The child was holding a black cat. Trembling hands stroked the cat's back, but the cat itself was calm. Golden eyes looked up at Kuuluk.
'Cute.'
Kuuluk thought. Both the kid and the cat.
Capturing this one child would bring ten thousand gold. No, maybe more. If it was the child of the Southern Great Chieftain's beloved concubine, with good negotiation, even twenty thousand gold might be possible. With that money, he could buy an elixir and have plenty left over.
The Supreme Realm. It seemed within reach.
"Don't be afraid, kid. I won't kill you."
He stopped speaking.
Something was strange. The boy's face. There was an eyepatch over one eye.
'An eyepatch?'
This was new information. If the Southern Great Chieftain's son was one-eyed, there surely would have been rumors. But he had never heard such a story even once...
At that moment, the girl grinned wickedly.
"Gotcha."
*Pshushushu*
Pink powder sprayed out from all directions. Pink light scattered through the air. A sweet smell. Like flower fragrance, or perhaps fruit scent.
In that instant, all the mana in his body froze.
He tried to move. Couldn't. He couldn't even twitch a finger.
'What... is this...?'
Mana blockade.
A deadly poison that temporarily paralyzed human mana circuits.
The duration was only a few seconds at most, but in combat between superhumans, a few seconds was like an eternity. In a world where twenty sword strikes could be exchanged in 0.1 seconds, dozens could die in five seconds and more.
To overcome this poison without side effects, one needed to be at least a Swordmaster in the Empire, or what the steppe called the Supreme Realm.
Kuuluk had not reached that realm.
Thirty Great Warriors froze simultaneously. While surrounding the wagons. On horseback, or having dismounted. They stopped like statues.
'Damn it...!'
He gritted his teeth. But one thing was fortunate. Within the range where this powder spread, the enemy couldn't move either. Before poison, ally and enemy were equal.
In other words, for this moment, it was a stalemate. Once the poison wore off, they could fight again. The numbers were still overwhelmingly in their favor.
The problem was those who had scattered outside.
'Fifty escort knights who fled. If those bastards are still outside the range, if they use ranged projectile weapons... but...'
Kuuluk glanced at the silver-haired girl inside the wagon.
If that was truly the Great Chieftain's blood relative, they couldn't shoot arrows with her there.
...Wait a moment.
Was that even real?
The eyepatch. Information he'd never heard before. It wasn't in the rumors.
'What if that's fake? A body double? What if it was a trap from the start? Shit.'
He could barely move his eyeballs. He looked inside the wagon again. The silver-haired girl. The eyepatch over her left eye. The wickedly smiling lips. And the black cat that had been in her arms.
The cat was growing. No, transforming. Its fur disappeared, its limbs lengthened, its face changed to that of a human.
'...Feline Tribe?'
Shape-shifting required mana. Being able to transform in this poison, and so naturally at that, meant—
'No way...'
Only then did he realize.
This poison paralyzed 'human' mana circuits.
Only humans.
Before that thought could finish, a black shadow covered his vision.
A heavy impact struck his head.
And so he lost consciousness.