Chapter 38: Oh! My God (3)
38
“Th-this…. what…?”
It had been a week since I had confined Young Lord Klein in the side chamber.
On the desk of Korax, the captain of the Big Raven Knights who oversaw the defensive forces and training, lay a report filled with utterly unbelievable contents.
“Is what’s written here the truth, without even a hair’s worth of error?”
At Korax’s chilling voice, the knight flinched and nodded his head fiercely.
“Y-yes! Not only the frontline knights, but even several of the watchers….”
Before the knight’s explanation could even finish, Korax’s body rose from his seat.
“Young Lord Klein, to think you’d pull this kind of prank to the very end-!”
“Let’s see~ what was your name again?”
“R, Rilton. My father’s name was Galboer.”
Hearing that, I deeply furrowed my brows and let out a groan as if suffering.
And then, a moment later.
“You crossed over from the central region in your grandfather’s generation, right? Before that, you were on the central-western plains.”
Immediately, a startled voice rang out.
“Ah, that’s right! H-how did you know that…!”
“Woah…!”
As unexpected information spilled from my mouth, exclamations poured out not only from the knight receiving the consultation, but from all around.
“How does he know all that?”
“That’s seriously uncanny, uncanny….”
By now, in front of the prison where I was confined, countless knights were lined up, waiting.
Toward the knight staring at me with eyes wide open in shock, I casually tossed out a question.
“You’re wondering whether it’s the reason your sword skills aren’t improving, or about the family back in your hometown. Right?”
“Uh! Ooh! Uuuh?!”
When I said that, the knight turned pale and could only spew incomprehensible sounds.
“He even knows stuff like that?”
“Do all the Necromancers we used to beat up have abilities like that?”
“No, I heard only Young Lord is special….”
The Big Raven Knights exchanged such guesses while looking back and forth at each other’s faces.
Watching them, my impression was simple.
‘They’re really hopelessly naive.’
No, honestly, I thought I’d get exposed pretty quickly.
Making ghosts play pranks only worked once or twice, and the rest I just blurted out whatever came to mind.
Knowing family birth information?
It was just because that guy’s grandfather’s name was one commonly used in the central-southern Empire.
Knowing what they were worried about?
The Big Raven Knights spent half their lives stuck at the wall—so aside from swordsmanship and family, what else would their worries be?
“Th-then, Young Lord. What should I do….”
“That’s simple.”
Saying that, I roughly tore a sheet of parchment from an empty book, scribbled some runes, and handed it over.
“If you stick this by your pillow when you sleep, it’ll be fine. After three days, burn it.”
A Necromancer’s confident assurance, and parchment inscribed with runes that looked like they meant something.
Perfect materials for bewitching ignorant knights.
“Thank you. Young Lord Klein! If I get the chance later…!”
It was the moment the deeply moved knight was speaking to me like that.
“What do you think you’re all doing here right now-!”
At the thunderous roar, the knights’ shoulders all trembled at once.
‘Oh, looks like the captain is making his appearance.’
Thinking that, I glanced toward the direction the sound came from, and saw Korax, the captain of the Big Raven Knights, striding over.
“Let me see your faces.”
A terrifying gaze that looked like it could devour one or two people on the spot.
“C-captain…!”
“Th-that is, w-we were…!”
The knights who had been sitting just moments ago sensed they were screwed, and immediately sprang to their feet, assuming attention.
“I told you to take a rest, and instead you’re here, possessed by this kind of bizarre superstition!”
“It’s not true-!”
The first arrows flew not at me, but at the knights.
As Korax shouted in fury, the knights all screamed in unison.
“With the enemy’s invasion right around the corner, you dare pull such absurd nonsense!”
Saying that, Korax burned each knight’s face into his eyes.
One by one, carefully engraving them into his head, as if planning to deal with them personally.
“Call the vice-captain right now! I’ll take this opportunity to properly straighten out the discipline…!”
Up to that point, Korax’s gaze landed on one spot.
A familiar black-haired knight.
“…….”
Seeing that, Korax wore the expression of a man who had lost his country.
“Boran, even you…?”
What reflected in his eyes was the vice-captain, Boran, tightly clutching the bogus talisman I had handed out with both hands.
“C-captain. Th-that is, well….”
Unable to find words, Boran faced his superior who was trembling with betrayal.
Unable to bear it any longer, I decided to step in and defend him.
“He barged in saying the exact same thing you’re saying.”
As I deliberately started with a sly smile, Vice-captain Boran’s face turned deathly pale.
“But after persuading him about three times, he fell for it hook, line, and sinker.”
“Y-Young Lord…!”
Startled by my internal whistleblowing, Boran shot me a desperate look.
Was there lingering bad blood from when we first met and snarled at each other?
Of course there was!
Did the great Akimond look like someone who’d sulk over something that trivial for several days?
Correct!
“Eii!”
Clang-!
Korax’s sword, no longer able to endure it, rang loudly against the floor.
“All Big Raven Knights, equip yourselves in full gear and assemble at the training grounds!”
The captain’s voice echoed throughout the entire floor.
At his voice, like a sentence being passed, the knights’ faces turned ashen.
“I’ll tear out your rotten mindsets and rebuild them from the start! Dismissed!”
“D-d-dismissed!”
“Dismiiiiiissed-!”
Along with the knights’ near-screaming chorus of acknowledgment, the corridor packed full of knights was emptied in an instant.
“Phew…!”
The corridor, now wrapped in silence before I knew it.
All that remained now were me and Korax, separated by an iron door.
And that old man Ian, drunk and passed out asleep in the corner over there.
“What on earth do you think you’re doing right now, Young Lord Klein.”
“What do you mean what? I was quietly holed up in my room just like you told me to be, wasn’t I?”
When Korax saw my face as I said that with both palms spread open, his expression grew even more ferocious.
“Quietly? You went and bewitched every single knight who was off duty, and you call that quiet?”
“Bewitched, my ass. It was just counseling, you know?”
Korax tried to overwhelm me with his distinctive pressure, but from the standpoint of a Necromancer who’d lived for two hundred years, it was laughable at best.
As I kept smiling lazily and brushing off his interrogation, Korax spoke to me again.
“At a time when a Necromancer invasion is imminent, how could you shake the knights with necromancy of all things!”
“If the knights here were so easy that someone like me could shake them, wouldn’t that be the real problem?”
“……!”
As I said that, the smile directed at Korax deepened even further.
How much time passed like that.
“…I will strictly rein them in. So.”
“So?”
Korax, who had turned his back in displeasure, spoke while looking at me.
“So please, make sure something like this never happens again.”
“Feels like the restrictions increase every time you come by.”
Leaving my snide voice behind, Korax was about to take his leave.
“Ah, but hey.”
“What is it.”
When I started as if something had just occurred to me, Korax’s eyes turned toward me.
“Since you’re here anyway, why don’t you try it once too?”
The moment I said that, Korax’s face crumpled into a scowl worse than ever before.
“No need. Not now, not ever.”
With that, Korax completely turned his back and disappeared.
"Well, looking at what’s stuck to you, I guess that makes sense."
I muttered that while watching his departing back.
On his back, as reflected in my eyes, I could see the figures of two people enveloping him.
Clang-! Clang-! Clang-!
At the urgently ringing bell, I sprang up from my seat.
It was dawn, before the sun had risen.
Starting with me getting up, lights were coming on all around the watch posts and barracks.
“Undead-! The undead are attacking!”
At the same time as the guard’s frantic shout reached my ears, I activated the surveillance spell floating above the floor.
Wooooong-!
“As expected, today was the day.”
Countless red dots forming ranks as they advanced toward the wall.
Looking at the number of undead that truly resembled a full-scale war, I clicked my tongue.
“Watchers to the outer posts! The knight order, assemble in your respective sectors!”
“First company of sentries, evacuate the non-combatants! All nearby village residents as well!”
Voices rang out everywhere, and soldiers moved in perfect unison.
The wall, which until now had been languid, transformed into an impregnable fortress without the slightest disorder.
“See? You can’t underestimate the knights here either, can you?”
Ian, who was looking at the surveillance spell I had set up, added with a satisfied tone.
Despite not even five minutes having passed, the knights, watchers, and sentries were already standing by at their assigned positions.
And at the same time….
Kroooooaaar-!
The howls of twisted beasts echoed from all across the wall.
“Eek?!”
“Th-this… what is this?!”
From below the room where I was standing, screams filled with terror rang out.
They were probably civilians who had fled inside the wall to avoid the fighting.
Which meant, in other words, that where I was standing was the safest place on this wall.
“Cherishing them like gold and jade is fine, but….”
Muttering that, I looked over the enemy’s troop deployment.
Unlike the wall’s personnel, who were arranged systematically, the enemy formation was sloppy, with no trace of discipline to be found.
“This means they’ve never experienced a large-scale engagement like this. But….”
The opponent was a complete amateur when it came to tactics.
That was the conclusion I drew from the undead deployment, yet even so, my expression did not ease.
“What are these guys.”
Unlike the undead scattered irregularly, there was one group advancing while gathered tightly in a single place.
Unlike the other areas that were uniformly red, it was a bizarre group with patches of white mixed throughout.
“There are living souls mixed in. Which means, Necromancers.”
I reached that conclusion, but there were still suspicious points.
If they were planning to assault the wall, at a moment when every single unit mattered, why would such a detached force be moving separately?
“And that route is…. don’t tell me?”
As one possibility crossed my mind, I immediately sent my will to the Banshee.
The Banshee, who had been overlooking the battlefield from the sky, lowered her altitude at my command and captured the scenery of the location I indicated in precise detail.
And the moment the Banshee confirmed their— the enemy Necromancers’ position.
“These sons of bitches!”
I spat out a curse and sprang to my feet.
“What is it, what happened?”
Unlike before, Ian asked with a serious expression, but this wasn’t a situation where I could answer him.
‘How did I not think of it. Those routes I created…!’
Necromancers advancing in a straight line toward the wall, unimpeded by terrain or obstacles.
The passage they were using.
The moment I realized what lay at its end, I couldn’t afford to hesitate any longer.
“Hey, you there! Open this door right now!”
When I shouted that at the knights guarding the passage, one of them stuck his face out between the bars.
“I’m sorry, but that’s impossible. The captain’s orders—.”
“Orders my ass! That’s not the problem right now!”
I roared at them, hurling rough curses.
“Listen carefully. The undead attacking the wall right now are a smokescreen!”
“What do you mean by that?”
Seeing the knights who hadn’t grasped the situation, I forced down my frustration.
Because I was the only one who understood the severity of what was happening.
“Tell captain Korax immediately! Their real objective isn’t the undead attacking the wall!”
After saying that, I shouted while glaring at their faces, as if driving a nail in.
“Their true target right now is the civilians who’ve evacuated to the rear!”
0 Comments