Chapter 46: The End of Chipped Horn (1/2)
Peasants in this new world had no surnames. That was because the nobility didn’t allow the masses to have a surname. For example, in this world, I am called Mo Ke but that’s only my given name. My surname isn’t Mo, and my first name isn’t Ke. Only those noble masters who had attained the rank of Viscount would be awarded a surname during their peerage ceremony. Some were bestowed one by a superior while some had the privilege of coming up with one on their own.
Usually, only the king or high ranking nobles were able to bestow a surname. The common practice was to give the noble two choices, to choose their own surname or to raise their original name into a family surname. Then there was also the situation where a completely new surname would be bestowed while the noble’s original name was retained.
A person’s nobility can be determined at a glance by whether he had a surname or not. Most of the time, those who did were either nobility or were a direct descendant of one. If they were not of nobility or were fallen nobles who had their viscount statuses revoked; their surname would be revoked. If they were still found using that surname, that person would be hanged for impersonating a noble, fraud and other similar crimes.
Some nobility derived their surnames from their ancestors. An example of this was when a person of noble status had performed meritorious services but had died in the process. That person’s family members would be awarded the rank of Viscount and have a surname bestowed upon them. Most of the time, it would be the name of the deceased family member.
Some of these nobility had surnames that were rather long. For example, I met a noble girl in the city who was called Annabeth. Apparently, her full name was Annabeth. Falmanseth. Mosby. Mosby was the name of her clan’s ancestor, Falmanseth was the name of the founder of her branch lineage. Of course, it could also just be her parent’s name…
Either way, names in this new world were complicated, kinda like those you see in western cultures. This girl…I get it, I get it…Nicole is getting annoyed by my lamp so it’s time to sleep.
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————– From Mo Ke’s otherworldly journal <>
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(That was a journal entry from Mo Ke’s journal. This journal is currently in the hands of Nicole, but due to its contents being written in Chinese, only Mo Ke is able to understand it. At that time, both of them shared a bed, and his nightly activity of writing a journal always disturbed Nicole’s sleep. Also, because Nicole was unable to read Chinese, she always thought that he was drawing some strange symbols. Charming but strange symbols.)
While he was caught off guard by the shield bash, it had only caused his body to sway for a moment before he instantly regained his balance. His body whipped around in a roundhouse kick, squarely impacting the shield of his attacker. The shieldbearer had his shield ready and waiting, but the kick sent him flying, shield and all.
The saber wielders advanced upon Chipped Horn under the protection of the shieldbearers. With a shieldbearer separating each of them, four of the saber wielders thrust out their sabers at Chipped Horn simultaneously.
Seeing this, he violently latched onto the side of one of the heavy bone shields and lifted it up, bearer and all, blocking the incoming saber thrusts. The sabers rebounded harmlessly off the shield but the bearer wasn’t so lucky. The saber wielders didn’t manage to cancel their attacks in time, and he ended up getting skewered.
With four sabers sticking into him, this unlucky imp no longer had the strength to hold onto his shield causing his limp body to fall onto the ground with a thud. His body leaked blood from multiple wounds and he could essentially be counted as dead.
However, Chipped Horn wasn’t satisfied with just half-dead. He immediately slammed the heavy shield down onto the dying imp, smashing his head into pieces; killing him instantly.
The devils present balked at his savage display of cruelty. Not a single imp dared to provoke Chipped Horn. They didn’t want to be the next imp who had his head smashed in.
“What’s the matter with you lot? There’s so many of you and only one of him! Attack! Attack him together!” I have to admit, No.5 was an odd potato. He was like the sweet potato hiding among a field of potatoes. No matter how terrifying Chipped Horn was, he wore an expression that said “Come at me bro, I’ll counter whatever you throw at me!”
Even the sight of Chipped Horn crushing his comrade to death couldn’t dampen his excitement one bit, as he hopped up and down trying to raise our morale: “What are you lot doing? Don’t you want to protect our beautiful and noble Master?! Go on, attack! Protect the Master!”
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“Protect the Master!”
In that instant, the adrenaline washed over them like a tidal wave as they let out a strange pant before charging, any semblance of a formation, gone like the wind.
“What do you mean by [beautiful and noble]?” While it’s great that their morale was raised, but weren’t words like [beautiful and noble] used to describe a female?
No.5 licked his lips as he gave me that signature silly smile of his: “Heh heh…Master, don’t tell me you don’t find yourself beautiful?”
“…” I should beat him up…but he did good raising our morale so I’ll forgive him just this once.
What really surprised me was the fact he managed to raise our morale with just one sentence. Was he that talented, or was it that [beautiful and noble] phrase that caused this phenomenon?
Because of No.5’s incitement, the battlefield descended into chaos. The shieldbearers maniacally charged at Chipped Horn, not caring if they even had the offensive power to harm him or not. The saber wielders were slightly more level headed; they maintained their distance as they relentlessly poked at him with their long sabers.
The guardsmen were caught up in the heat of the moment as well. Like a swarm of bees, they swarmed the lone Chipped Horn in a flurry of swords and shields. Chipped Horn was slowly getting boxed into a corner by this incoming swarm. This was especially so for the guardsmen who wielded the deadly black bone sword.
Due to No.3 and the others evolving into head imps, their black swords were swapped for spiked maces. These swords were passed on to the guardsmen. Furthermore, we managed to obtain more soul pearls in the meantime which I immediately used to forge more black swords. All in all, the count of black sword-wielding guardsmen or black guardsmen rose to 12.
These black swords had once given Chipped Horn a serious wound that refused to heal up for a period of time; it was during our first encounter that he got a taste of these swords. He tried to capture me then, but failed, in the process getting wounded.
I had wondered if he would simply bleed to death over time, but given his enormous strength, that thought didn’t seem to gain much traction.
After all, devils were able to consume flesh and blood in order to heal their wounds. He even had a large imp captive handy for such an occasion.
Having experienced their lethality once, he definitely wasn’t eager to experience it again. Even at the expense of getting stabbed by the sabers, he swiftly reached out for a heavy shield and blocked the incoming black swords. With his empty right hand, he caught one black guardsman’s hand.
*crunch*