13 (31)

“Rin… you’re lying…….”

“The Black Widow.”

“She was a remarkable sibling who had never once failed in two hundred assassination missions, yet to die at the very moment of their first failure.”

Hazdar let out a low groan. It was regrettable to have lost the Black Widow, but considering her abilities, he had thought she would at least leave the target half-paralyzed or crippled. In any case, it was his own mistake. It meant he had trusted her too much, and at the same time that Louis had surpassed his own judgment. Hazdar spoke in a dry voice.

“We have to hurry.”

Louis was watching a general who was scolding the other armed men while pointing at them. He was an old man, with wrinkles drawn across his face like a spiderweb. The armor he wore was as old as he was, and thoroughly broken in. He had participated in dozens of battlefields, and the most recent one had been fought alongside Louis. He was Gaion. He had been Fred’s loyal retainer, Louis’s elder brother, and a wise commander who had rendered great service in the bloody battle against Marquis Haidek Gangpireu. Louis had seen that man make such an angry face only once before, and that had been at his brother’s funeral. Once again, shouting erupted.

If they had been ordinary soldiers, he might have struck them at least once, but lined up before him were armed men. Mihoff, Anok, Kaiser, Boromir, and others. Men who could handle a sword and took turns guarding Louis. There was even a face he had not seen in a very long time over at the back. Kalbang. He actually looked three or four years younger than he had in the past. Louis had entrusted him with a small city, and seeing how firm and healthy his skin looked, life there seemed to have suited him rather well.

“If it had not been for the Duke, for Lord Louis, he would have fallen to that assassin that very night, and then we would have lost the war before it even began. To neglect the guard in a time of war, just what were you thinking…….”

As Louis watched the veteran commander continue his lecture with bulging veins, he thought he should calm him down. That was because he knew very well how centrally the man placed him in his life. His family had served House Pontina for generations, and Gaion had been renowned even when he was Fred’s loyal retainer, so everyone knew that loyalty was now directed toward Louis.

Louis had entrusted him with all the cities seized from Marquis Haidek Gangpireu, and up to now he had managed them cleanly and honestly. Though he lacked dazzling efficiency, Louis was sending enormous amounts of food and supplies from the ducal territory, so honesty. For now, that was enough. In any case, it had also been Louis himself who had dispersed Anok, Mihoff, and Boromir, his previous guards, because of training. Louis spoke softly.

“That is enough.”

Louis half-closed his eyes. Generals, armed men, and soldiers were steadily gathering in the ducal territory. War was near. A gaunt-looking chiliarch began reporting to Louis. It was about the number of dead and the rough information concerning the assassin. But the outline was just as he had expected. Louis recalled the woman who had come to him last night carrying sweet poison. Her exotic appearance and black, distinctive attire showed that she had come from the distant south. Even the soldier in charge of the investigation could not bring Louis any information beyond that.

Boromir looked around and clicked his tongue. The corpses had not even been properly cleared away, so traces of the previous day were everywhere. One had fallen over and died with the back of the neck cut open. One had died with a hole in the head. One had dried out cold. That third type of corpse was the most numerous. Most of the poison had been removed, and the hot spring water had all been drained away, leaving the wide hall completely stripped bare.

Even at that moment, trustworthy soldiers were hoisting the corpses onto their backs and stacking them onto makeshift carts. Boromir finally found the culprit. The Duke had not said anything, so he still had not known the assassin’s sex, but only when he went closer and saw the swollen chest did he realize it was a woman. ‘This woman…. She’s stronger than me.’

One of the woman’s arms had been cut off, her skin was pale, and the signs that she had died stiff and hardened were obvious, yet she had not lost the traces of training she had possessed in life, nor the mana she had carried. Calculating by the amount of mana left in a corpse was basic common sense among Sword Experts. By that calculation, it was clear that the woman before him stood at the very gate of becoming a Sword Expert. The problem was that Louis had told him her specialty was not swordsmanship, which only made Boromir’s shock even greater.

That was also why the corpse disposal had been delayed, because of the terrible poisonous miasma scattered all over this place. Boromir swallowed dryly at the thought that, while poisoned, someone had still managed to sever the arm of a swordsman of this level. On top of that, one fundamental question remained. This was a bathhouse. It was obvious he had entered naked, so with what weapon could he have cut off the assassin’s arm? Boromir gave a short bark to a soldier who was making crude jokes about the pretty-faced woman in front of him.

“How did this arm end up like this?”

“Th-that… Duke Louis did it himself.”

“I mean how did he do it?”

The soldier’s eyes drifted to the right, and following that gaze, Boromir saw a curved blade leaning against the marble wall. “He took her weapon from her.” Boromir said that, but no soldier answered. It made no sense by ordinary standards. Still, it seemed that was what had happened. Boromir could only admire it in pure amazement.

‘I’m dying to know exactly how it all unfolded. If I distinguish myself in this war, will he tell me….’

‘I must never take charge of instruction again…. When I first taught him, I did not think he would even reach Sword Expert, but this is beyond Expert…. This is……. the realm of a Master.’

At dawn, before the light had even properly risen, a cart creaked along. Riding on the cart were four men and one woman. The one driving the donkey was a huge man. Hazdar had acquired a robe and was crouched low with it pulled all the way over his head. At a glance, he looked like a mage. The cart was passing over a hill. Hazdar was watching the richly growing wheat. ‘At least he does what needs to be done.’ Grand Duke Apsen had been a butcher and a tyrant.

Just by looking at how much food was growing, Hazdar could tell how thoroughly it was being managed. ‘But can he wage war as well as Grand Duke Apsen did?’ That, he did not know. He now had to find out how much Rin had accomplished. The best way was to see it with his own eyes. The ducal territory was right before them now, and all they had to do was enter.

“Hazdar. Do you see it?”

When the giant driving the donkey spoke from the front, Hazdar turned and narrowed his eyes. Amid the dimly gathering light, a grand sight unfolded. An army was marching in orderly formation from the northwest. A massive encampment had already been formed near the ducal territory. The crests of each house were gathering beneath the crest of House Pontina. The timing could be called good or bad, but the good part was that they could confirm Duke Louis’s strength at a single glance. The bad part was that it would be hard to enter properly.

The cavalry was just coming in, and the infantry was setting up camp. Even from the equipment the infantry carried, it was clear their branches had been subdivided in detail. Judging by how they matched their stride, discipline looked strong, and the soldiers were sturdy and free from hunger. Moreover, the roadside was packed with mercenaries armed with a wide variety of weapons—flail-variant spears, dual swords, greatswords, axes, and more. The fact that mercenaries were gathering also meant Duke Louis was overflowing with money.

“It’s similar to Grand Duke Apsen’s time. I know because I handled espionage there back then.”

A man who hardly ever spoke rubbed his eyes and said that to Hazdar. But then they all fell silent. That was because the army being powerful and Rin having failed meant the odds of assassination had plummeted. In a place like this, failure meant annihilation.

“We proceed carefully.”

Hazdar looked out the window. A fat man was running past, and he saw a woman trying to sell sausages to that man, and another man dragging a cart loaded with rum. That was right, this place was filled with crowds of people. It was such a lively scene that it was hard to believe it was wartime. Inside it was quiet, because the four others had each scattered to gather information. Because he had been with others, he had tried not to be shaken by Rin’s death.

Only now did gloom and exhaustion fully come over him. Hazdar closed his eyes and muttered, ‘It was my mistake.’ That was what made it more of a problem. From now on, they could not afford to lose any more siblings. In Rin’s case, he had felt an especially deep bond with her, more than with the other siblings who had completed harsh training together since the Templars. He bit his lip lightly, and a little blood came out.

Just by looking at the territory even now, he could already see what kind of situation would erupt if Louis died. It would not simply pass to the king; chaos would break out as people sought to loot the wealth and grain one ruler had accumulated. And from what he had seen directly, Orpendius, king of the Duchy of Eron, was no more than a trivial man by his standards. The door, which sounded like a cry, opened, and as a woman entered, Hazdar returned to a blank expression.

“The information?”

“Rin’s head is hanging in the square. I just came back from seeing it. The shocking part is that Rin attacked the Duke while he was tangled in spiderwebs, flailing around, yet she still died in that situation. They say the Duke himself does not even have a wound on him. But judging by the fact that all the attendants inside that hot spring died, it seems an enormous poison was spread there, so it almost sounds like a lie that he killed Rin without a single injury….”

“He killed Rin… without being wounded.”

“There isn’t anyone among us who could do that. They say Duke Louis is a Sword Expert, but almost at the level of a Master….”

“That is impossible. At that age….”

“That’s true, but still.”

The door opened again, and the huge man came in.

“I thought I’d been the first to return, but I was late.”

“The information?”

What the giant man said was similar to what they had just heard from the woman. The two who came in afterward also brought similar information. The core of it was that the Duke seemed to have been injured, but was not showing himself. In that situation, the surest way to resolve the question was to go and see with one’s own eyes.

“I’ll go myself.”

Hazdar was sweating coldly. Beside him yawned a pitch-dark cliff. Even though it was some distance away, he could see various lights flickering. The city did not seem to know how to sleep even at such a late hour. That was proof of health. Soldiers holding torches were moving here and there, showing how much security had been strengthened.

The hand gripping the bricks ached. In truth, the soldiers were not the problem. His stealth was excellent enough that ordinary soldiers would think only the wind had passed by. The problem was the magical devices and mana. As his shoulder began to go numb while hanging from the watchtower, Hazdar kept his gaze fixed on the opposite side. To his senses, mana was clearly spread out there. It was artificial. Yet the range was frighteningly wide. He was in a blind spot where the mana did not reach, but if he went even one step higher from this position, he would be discovered immediately. In truth, to properly look through the window, he had to go up one more step, but he did not dare.

He was growing impatient, and though he had no choice but to admit that Rin had died without accomplishing anything, he did not want to make a decision before seeing it with his own two eyes, so he waited with patience. And then, what felt like eternity later, after dozens more minutes had passed, someone came out by the window, and Hazdar recognized as if by instinct that it was Louis.

There was no way he could fail to recognize him. The rumors had not been exaggerated. What was astonishing was that, in less than a few seconds, those two eyes found him. ‘The mana doesn’t even reach here, so how did he see through my stealth…?’ Hazdar thought of Grand Duke Apsen at the same time. Fear came with it. Just as he tried to escape, an arrow shot from the window with tremendous force. One arrow pierced into the brick, and Hazdar slipped because of the shockwave created by the excess mana. As he landed on the ground, he thought:

‘This…. must be abandoned. He possesses skill even beyond Grand Duke Apsen. It would take twenty more siblings. But it is not worth keeping faith to that degree.’