Chapter 31: Reunion (1)
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“Ahhh?! Hey, Dunkel, I’m begging you, please take it easy…!”
“If I take it easy, it’s worse than not doing it at all. Now, one more time!”
“Ahhhhhh-!”
It was the second day since the Order’s large-scale assault had taken place.
What awaited me as I groaned under accumulated fatigue and muscle pain was a knight-order-style massage administered by Dunkel.
Crack! Crackle?!
“Hey, wait! What was that sound just now? Something didn’t break, did it?”
“It didn’t break. Please stay still.”
“No, my joint twisted in a weird direction just now? You call this a massage?”
Dragged around by Dunkel’s hands like that, my entire body was contorted for an hour.
Only after being freed did I let out a sigh and reach for the book lying on the desk.
Even so, the massage really must have been effective—the stiffness in my body felt noticeably lighter.
“It’s really effective, which just makes me irrationally pissed.”
“A knight of captain rank personally takes care of you, and you don’t even know to be grateful?”
At the voice from behind, I turned my head in that direction.
Ian was leaning against the doorframe, looking at me with a sigh.
“Couldn’t you knock before coming in?”
“I did. You just couldn’t hear it over your screaming.”
Having said that, Ian walked straight into the room and perched himself on the sofa.
“You got into one fight and then stayed bedridden for two days—if this were the Imperial Knight Academy, you’d be expelled.”
“That’s great. It only took me ten minutes to master all their swordsmanship manuals anyway.”
“Oh wow, sure, you’re amazing.”
As if giving up after my retort, he shook his head and grabbed a cookie to eat.
“Ah! That’s mine!”
“Huh? What’s this now?”
Seeing her cookie get stolen right next to her, Arin immediately raised an objection.
This.
I subtly checked Ian’s complexion at the way he addressed Arin.
He looked completely relaxed, like he was playing with a child, but his mana circuits were in a constant state of tension.
‘So he has a rough idea.’
I was thinking that as I watched the two of them running around the room, fighting over cookies.
Knock knock.
“Young Master Klein.”
Knocking after opening the door.
When I turned my head, Burkman, dressed in formal uniform, was looking at me.
“His Grace the Duke is looking for you. And….”
Burkman, who had been speaking politely toward me, looked at Arin and Ian running around the room.
“Ian-nim has also been requested to accompany you.”
At that, Ian tilted his head in surprise as he looked at Burkman.
“Heinkel, asking for me?”
“Yes.”
Nodding at Ian’s words, Burkman gestured to me and Ian.
“He said he has an urgent matter to ask of you.”
“Just as you said, a letter arrived from Polwyvern.”
What I saw upon arriving at Heinkel’s study was a letter bearing Laia’s seal.
“It says they’re transferring ownership of farmland located in the border region between Polwyvern and Leinrant.”
I nodded as I reviewed the document handed to me along with those words.
“The sender is unknown, but it’s probably the same insider who provided information before, right?”
“That’s correct.”
“Hm.”
After pondering briefly at my words, Heinkel handed over another sheet of paper.
“This is…?”
“A letter Hellian sent directly to me.”
A letter from Hellian to Leinrant.
What it contained was obvious without even reading it.
“She’s demanding that I be handed over, isn’t she?”
“Yes. She likely believes you’re connected to Hector’s murder.”
Pigs wrapped head to toe in gold.
But they were neither stupid nor weak.
Even if a small crack had formed between the Empire and the collateral line, their common target was Leinrant.
Using this incident as a pretext, they had applied pressure immediately.
“What do you plan to do?”
“I should run.”
I answered Heinkel’s question without hesitation.
It was none other than Rudel’s existence.
A Death Knight possessing combat power comparable to Heinkel’s.
But put another way, it was also proof that without strength on that level, I would never have made it out of there alive.
‘If it hadn’t been for Arin, things might’ve been settled at Sanchez.’
As I was thinking that, a smile appeared on Heinkel’s lips when he heard my answer.
“Yes. I thought you’d say that.”
And the moment I saw his smile, my thoughts came to a brief halt.
He smiled? Heinkel?
An impossible situation.
A bad premonition flashed through my mind, and I glanced at Delain standing beside him with a pack on his back.
‘He’s grinning.’
The exact same smile Heinkel was wearing.
“We received another letter saying the Empire and the collateral line will pay another visit soon.”
As I, feeling uneasy, hurried to look for a solution, Heinkel struck first.
“I’ll handle them, so hide yourself in some remote place for a month or two.”
As he said that and gestured, Delain, who had been watching, immediately placed something on the desk.
‘Ah, wait. I’ve seen this somewhere before….’
A cold-weather cloak made of brown fur.
It was the very cloak Delain had accepted in despair the first time I’d been summoned to this study.
“Delain, this isn’t….”
“That ‘isn’t’ is exactly what you think it is.”
Just as Delain said that, barely able to contain his delight,
Heinkel, wearing a similar smile, drove the final nail in as he spoke to me.
No, seriously, that smile was terrifying.
Because I had never seen it even once in my life.
“You’ll stay at the Northern Great Wall for two months. I’ve already contacted the wardens there.”
It felt like my breath caught in my throat.
The Northern Great Wall.
It was the continent’s shield, constructed to block the undead and monsters remaining in the northern regions immediately after the Akimond Incident.
A brutal cold so severe that even breath froze, and barren land.
To the people of the continent, it was an iron wall called ‘the end of the world’.
“Father, is there perhaps another place….”
“I’ve already prepared everything. I even made an excuse to use on the collateral line.”
An excuse?
As I mulled over Heinkel’s words, another document was placed atop the cold-weather cloak on the desk.
No, this wasn’t a document but a ducal decree.
Written as the recipient’s name was my own name, Klein Leinrant.
“This is….”
I lifted the paper and skimmed its contents.
[Order]
[Klein Leinrant, second son of the Duke of Leinrant, is assigned to the 77th Watch Post of the Northern Great Wall. Join the watchers stationed locally and carry out guard duty for two months.]
[Issuer of Command: Duchy of Leinrant, Heinkel Leinrant.]
An official military order stamped with the seal of the Duke of Leinrant.
This wasn’t a simple joke, but a genuine return assignment.
“It’s true that thanks to you, I resolved the resentment between your father and me. Even now, I’m grateful for it, Klein.”
Heinkel, who had been smiling noticeably more these days, said that while looking at me.
“However, you must willingly accept the punishment for digging up the family mausoleum.”
“……Ah.”
Only then was I able to belatedly recall the words I had blurted out two days ago.
“One companion. I’ll designate one guardian, so you can travel with him.”
Despite appearances, Heinkel was an extreme principlist.
Once a decision was made, reversing it was impossible.
“I understand. I’ll prepare.”
If it couldn’t be avoided, quickly giving up and accepting it was the best option.
And when I thought about it, it wasn’t such a bad decision.
‘This might actually be for the best. The Empire, the collateral line, and the Order are all chasing me.’
The wall that ran across the entire northern continent was, in itself, like a naturally impregnable fortress.
If I could just hide within it, there would be no better hiding place than this.
And the far northern reaches of the continent where the wall stood were also a base of mine—of Akimond.
‘If I’m going to clash head-on with Hellian soon, I might need to pay a visit to the Ice Castle.’
“Puahahahaha-!”
Perhaps intending to mock the day my departure for the wall was decided, Ian, who had been enjoying the spectacle, suddenly burst into loud laughter.
“To think you’d even consider sending that weakling to the wall—you’ve really become a vicious bastard too, Heinkel! Hahahaha!”
Ian said that and started patting Heinkel’s shoulder repeatedly.
“Ah, and big brother.”
But his cackling only lasted a moment.
“You are Klein’s guardian.”
“……Huh? What did you say?”
Toward Ian, who asked back with a smiling face as if he’d heard something strange, Heinkel picked up a set of cloaks and tossed it at him.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you getting ready to go?”
“To call that thing my little brother…. To call that my little brother…!”
“Be quiet. Uncle.”
The northern gate of Leinrant.
When the guards saw me with cold-weather gear, crampons, and a sword on my back, they opened the gate with a salute full of sympathy.
Snowfields and mountain paths that continued for an entire week.
As I walked across ground thickly covered in snow, Ian’s complaints never ceased the whole time.
“Damn it, I should just run off to the eastern jungle even now…!”
“Didn’t you hear Father’s words?”
“Kgh.”
Ian, having received what was essentially Heinkel’s not-a-request, naturally opposed it.
To begin with, he wasn’t even a member of Leinrant, so there was no need for him to follow Heinkel’s orders.
However, Heinkel’s net had not even a finger’s breadth of an opening.
‘Your location has already been identified, and all of Leinrant’s borders have been sealed. Imperial knights will be visiting soon as well.’
In other words, there was no escape route.
Of course, in a situation like this, the fact that he had provided a hiding place at the wall itself was Heinkel’s form of consideration.
“Fine, then I’ll take this chance to grab you and swing swords nonstop.”
Soon after, with a drained, resigned voice, Ian began walking far ahead.
“By the way.”
“Is there a problem?”
Had we walked for about ten more minutes like that?
When I answered his call, Ian nodded slightly and turned back to look at me.
“Let’s say your swordsmanship is a mutation of Heinkel’s blood.”
“And then?”
At my question, Ian nodded and continued speaking.
“Then where in the world did you learn necromancy?”
A brief silence.
But soon, I spoke the prepared answer.
“My mother researched necromancy. I inherited that knowledge….”
“A lie.”
Ian cut me off and smiled at me.
An inorganic smile.
The unfocused eyes of a blind man were staring straight at me.
“I traveled across the entire continent and encountered countless Necromancers. The Empire, Plysian, Galamu. I even met the undertakers of the East.”
I quietly clenched my fist.
This wasn’t a question but an interrogation.
Depending on my answer, I might have had to flee on the spot.
“Yet there was no one anywhere who handled souls the way you do.”
Silence once more.
This time, it lasted a little longer.
“What you’re using isn’t the necromancy currently in circulation, but something far older. A form that’s practically the origin of necromancy itself.”
The answer to Ian’s pursuit came from behind my back.
“First discovered 200 years ago, developed by a single individual, and ultimately the one and only necromantic lineage that influenced the entire continent.”
At that all-too-familiar voice, a chill ran down my spine.
When I turned around, a priest with a body as massive as a mountain was standing there.
“Garrison…. Bierkman….”
Baring his white teeth in a smile, he continued speaking while looking straight into my eyes.
“The name of the Necromancer who shook the continent with an undead legion of millions was, Akimond.”
As he said that, Garrison’s face drew closer.
It was the benevolent smile of that damned priest I had seen since childhood.
“I told you, didn’t I? That we’d meet again.”
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