Chapter 28: Ian Leinrant (2)
28
Bang! Bang! Bang!
It was the time when the evening glow hung on the horizon, scattering brilliantly multicolored hues across the sky.
From the wall on the second floor of the Leinrant estate, the clear sound of hammering rang out.
“Aaagh!”
…Along with it came Ian’s scream, having smashed his own finger instead of the nail.
“No, seriously, which lunatic makes a blind man do construction work?!”
“Then you shouldn’t have broken it in the first place.”
“Then should I go down the stairs at this age?! The great Ian Leinrant has his pride!”
“What pride does a wanted criminal have?”
As I watched those brothers bickering at each other from early morning, a voice flowed into my head.
-Those brats really haven’t changed at all, even after passing fifty.
It was Rudel, the father of the two brothers, who had now become a Death Knight.
‘They said you died when Heinkel young, around the time he turned twenty.’
Recalling the years of his birth and death, I took a sip of tea.
“You might not have seen Heinkel much, but you must have seen Ian often, right?”
-This is the first time I’ve seen him fooling around like that. If it weren’t for you, I’d never have seen a sight like this.
Rudel, who was looking at the two children already past fifty and nearing sixty, laughed out loud.
As if bewildered, as if hollow.
Even so, the father’s gaze as he looked at the two of them was filled with pride.
-Really…. They’re no different from when they were young.
“…Is that so.”
Responding to his words, I took another sip of tea.
Not all souls remaining in the living world possess self-awareness.
What remains in a soul is its identity as an individual and fragments of lingering resentment from its life.
Granting that soul an ego, and giving form to its desires, is the role of a Necromancer.
‘The Necromancer exercises power by using souls, and in return, the souls perceive and think about the world through the Necromancer’s eyes and ears.’
Exchanging the power of the soul for the existence of the living—this was the transaction between the dead and the living.
It meant that the scenery I was seeing and the sounds I was hearing were conveyed to Rudel exactly the same way.
“Do you not resent it?”
-Resent what?
I spoke without meeting Rudel’s gaze.
“I captured your grandson and turned him into undead.”
-Just because one had fallen, just because one had become a monster, did not mean they ceased to be one’s child.
When I brought up Hellian and her son Hector, Rudel, leaning against the window, fell silent for a long while.
-What’s sitting atop Polwyvern Castle right now is no longer Hellian.
“…….”
-As a Necromancer, you should know that better than anyone.
At his words that finally came after a long time, I nodded.
The piece of wood the banshee had handed me.
More precisely, the red liquid that had stained that piece of wood.
“If a living person were to consume that, it could no longer be called human.”
When I said that, Rudel’s voice was heard once more.
-If one strays from the proper path, then it is no longer a Leinrant. That’s how I tied it off.
“….”
-So you don’t need to concern yourself with that. Akimond.
At that single remark from Rudel, a hollow laugh escaped me.
“Ha! Concern?”
I shrugged my shoulders with exaggerated motions and continued.
“The great Akimond, worrying about the descendant of the nemesis who drove a blade into my heart? Don’t be ridiculous!”
I had only asked in case he might go berserk.
There was no other meaning.
Saying that, I brought the teacup to my lips again.
-If that’s how you think, then that’s a relief.
With that response to my raised voice, Rudel disappeared.
And when his presence had completely faded away.
“Young master! I brought the books!”
With a lively voice, Arin burst into my room.
‘I told her to knock before coming in—honestly, she never listens.’
Thinking that, I pointed to one side of the desk.
“Put them down in front of the desk there. I brought back cookies, so take some.”
“Yes~!”
After stacking the books as high as her own height in one corner of the desk, Arin picked up the bag of snacks and looked at me.
“Young master. Young master.”
“What?”
“What are you doing, holding an empty teacup?”
At those words, I froze for a moment and looked at the teacup in my hand.
“……Haa.”
A short sigh.
After that, I took in the evening glow disappearing beyond the horizon one more time.
“Yeah, what am I even doing right now.”
“Enough! That’s it!”
Early morning, the training grounds.
The ones who had been fully immersed in sparring for thirty straight minutes were Ian, and Delain, who had returned from the Wall.
“Haa…! Haa…!”
Unlike Ian, whose breathing had not wavered in the slightest, Delain was drenched in sweat, gasping for breath.
“An outstanding talent.”
Though he was saying that toward Delain, the languid look in Ian’s eyes did not change.
“Mana capacity, skeletal frame, and a straight sword path. As the successor of a knightly house, it’s talent beyond reproach.”
“Hoo, thank you. Uncle!”
At Ian’s praise, Delain straightened up as if nothing had happened.
‘Wow, he recovered already?’
Endless stamina and mana, like a bottomless spring.
The way he sheathed his sword and approached Ian was worthy of being called the very embodiment of a Leinrant knight.
“It was astonishing swordsmanship. Clearly there was only one opponent, yet it felt as though countless swordsmen were linking together….”
“Heh heh, unlike this rude brat, this one’s got some manners, huh?”
Saying that while pointing at me, Ian reviewed the spar with Delain and spared no advice.
“You feinted to the side on the first charge. Do you know why it was seen through?”
“That is….”
As Delain fell silent, lost in thought, Ian opened his mouth.
“Your gaze.”
“My gaze?”
“That’s right.”
Answering him, Ian raised his sword and slowly traced the sword path.
“Your movement went toward the flank like this, but your gaze was facing forward, so of course it was seen through.”
At the moment he said that.
Tap.
Ian’s scabbard brushed against Delain’s left leg.
“Uh…!”
As if he hadn’t noticed at all, Delain hurriedly pulled his body back.
“See? Even if I’m blind, when you give a signal with your gaze, your body follows on its own, right?”
“Ugh.”
Realizing it too late, Delain let out a groan.
‘Exactly the same as what happened to me.’
According to Heinkel’s assessment, Delain had already reached a level close to that of a commander-class knight.
Yet to think there was a swordsman who could toy with such a Delain like a child.
Seeing that sight, I could understand how he had single-handedly annihilated his own knight order—no, the Golden Wings, composed solely of commander-class knights.
“You’ve experienced it once, so be careful next time. It looks like you’ll rise higher than Heinkel, so just keep going as you are.”
“Th, thank you!”
A spar with someone considered equal to Heinkel, or even beyond.
For Delain, who had trained only in a limited environment until now, it would surely be a good stimulus.
“From the looks of it, there won’t be any issues with the next Duke of Leinrant.”
After confirming that Delain had left, Ian rose from his seat.
“Your words and your expression didn’t quite match.”
“Was it that obvious?”
“Delain didn’t notice.”
When I said that, Ian shrugged his shoulders as if to say, ‘Then that’s fine.’
“It’s not an empty boast. If that guy Heinkel grabs him and teaches him properly, he’ll become a knight who surpasses either me or Heinkel.”
“Then wouldn’t it be better for you to teach Delain instead of me?”
When I asked back like that, Ian shook his head.
“A guy like that is my natural opposite. Sparring is one thing, but I can’t teach him. And….”
“And?”
When I prompted him as he trailed off, Ian grinned and said to me.
“He does have good talent, but he’s not interesting.”
“…Interesting?”
“Yeah. Interesting.”
With that as his final word, Ian stood up and drew his sword.
“Delain’s talent is excellent, but it isn’t special. You could even say it’s the complete opposite of yours.”
In other words, the talent I possessed was special, but not excellent.
‘That’s true. Even if I master every technique, I lack the truly important mana.’
If technique was what increased the accuracy of a sword, then mana increased its power.
Overwhelming force that could cut through armor like tofu, or cleave a castle gate in two.
Without that, the efficiency of my talent would plummet.
“Still, your talent is, to me, a talent as precious as a treasure.”
Saying that, Ian aimed his sword at me.
“The techniques I just used. You learned all of them, didn’t you?”
The gentle, teacher-like demeanor he’d shown Delain was nowhere to be found; instead, his face was full of mischief, like he’d found a new toy.
“Did you spar with Delain from the start for that purpose? To show me the techniques?”
As I walked toward the training grounds and asked that, Ian chuckled and replied.
“You really are quick to catch on.”
The moment his answer reached me, I charged.
Kaaang-!
“Good, not even a hair’s breadth of error!”
Ian’s voice grew louder, clearly pleased.
At the very least this time, I intended to leave at least a scratch on that shameless face of his.
“Hm….”
Heinkel’s study.
Heinkel, who was scanning through the materials Klein had brought, slowly furrowed his brow.
“It’s not incorrect information, is it?”
As he asked without taking his eyes off the documents, the butler Burkman’s reply came.
“At the same time Duchess Hellian returned to Polwyvern’s main castle, the young lords who had been scattered across the border regions are also returning.”
“Bringing back the sons who were pushed out of the power structure to the center again means….”
“That something has happened to Prince Hector.”
Heinkel rested his chin on his hand after hearing Burkman’s words.
Information that had come in at the same time Klein returned from Hellian’s villa.
‘Hellian’s sons are gathering in Polwyvern.’
“Surely Young Master Klein didn’t….”
“Your guess is probably right.”
Answering Burkman, Heinkel held out the documents on the desk.
It was the report Klein had submitted after receiving Hellian’s invitation.
“This is….”
“It contains the current factional structure of the Polwyvern ducal authority, troop deployments, and the flow of funds.”
At those words, Burkman’s eyes widened.
Which meant that almost all information about the opposing side had fallen into Leinrant’s hands.
“Your Grace. Then does that mean Young Master Klein…?”
“No. That’s not it.”
Shaking his head, Heinkel spoke while looking at the documents.
“You can’t gather and organize information this detailed in just a week. This is data accumulated over at least half a year.”
“And the fact that such information has come to us means….”
“That he recruited an insider. An insider capable of leaking this level of high-grade information.”
It was staggering.
That a fifteen-year-old prince had infiltrated deep into a rival house and survived was already close to a miracle.
Yet Klein hadn’t stopped there—he returned having created both the information and allies essential for the coming struggle for dominance.
“Then… could it be that Prince Hector’s death was also…!”
“It’s not certain, but it’s possible.”
Having finished his thoughts, Heinkel rose from his seat.
For thirty long years, the main house and branch families had been split by Hellian, toyed with by the Empire’s schemes.
During that time, no one in Leinrant had ever achieved such results.
Because they were knights, not strategists.
A single-minded group with nothing but their swords.
“Then I should speak with him. Where is Klein now?”
When Heinkel asked Burkman that, the answer came immediately.
“He is at the training grounds with Lord Ian. They should be sparring at the moment.”
“I see. Brother….”
As his thoughts reached Ian, Heinkel’s expression twisted.
Ian and Klein’s first clash.
The technique Klein had used there was unmistakably Rudel Leinrant’s Phantom Sword.
It was the technique of their dead father.
‘He used a technique that even I never mastered and that was forgotten. Then could it be that Klein actually… Father?’
At the same time the thought occurred, confusion and disgust surged up.
In his common sense, necromancy was an evil art that went against the order of the world.
If it had been directed at his own father, even if the one who did it was his son, he could not tolerate it.
‘Brother probably thinks the same.’
Thinking that, just as he accepted the coat Burkman handed him—
Crash-!
A thunderous sound shattered the drowsy afternoon silence.
The sound of breaking glass, and the clash of weapons.
Not the sounds of Ian and Klein that had been heard before, but those of unfamiliar people.
“An intruder! Knights, protect the young lord at all costs!”
The sound coming from inside the estate meant that the knights guarding the exterior had already been taken down.
Grabbing his sword and rushing outside, he saw figures running across the rooftops.
“Those are…?”
At the center of their completely shaved heads was the emblem of the Sun Cross.
At that sight, sparks flew in Heinkel’s eyes.
The very people who had branded young Klein with the charge of being Akimond’s reincarnation and ruined his life.
Emotionless killing machines of the Order.
The Inquisitors.
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