WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 456

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Escape from the Principality no.3

Long ago, when humans were slower and weaker than every four-legged beast around them, they survived by leaning on a different advantage. Fortunately, that big head of theirs wasn't the only thing worth bragging about. They had endurance. Whether they crammed meat or plants into their mouths, their fuel efficiency was remarkable, and no matter how fast a beast fled, they would run it down through sheer persistence.

Perhaps this was the revenge of all those hunted beasts. I was in exactly the position of prey.

"Find them! Don't let them escape!"

"Search every inch!"

"You don't have to catch them! Just don't lose them! When night falls, we'll send the Yelings after them!"

Baron Jenryu and a handful of ain were leading a large group of humans in a sweep for us. Few of those humans had any serious energy training, so they weren't much of a threat, but shaking off pursuers who tracked our every trace and pressed steadily inward was nearly impossible.

Hilde glanced back over her shoulder. "These insufferable vampires! They just keep coming without a shred of exhaustion!"

"That's a silly thing to say. Vampires don't get exhausted."

"I know that! I didn't mean it like that. It's the middle of the day with the sun blazing down, and they're still chasing us! If you're going to be a vampire, at least commit to the concept!"

"Sunlight is the problem, not the time of day. If they have a way to block it, they can follow us just fine."

The plan had gone slightly sideways.

For vampires, sunlight is something like a sharp bee sting. It goes beyond simply weakening them, it constrains their movement the way stepping into a room full of bees would. So we had struck Baron Jenryu first and taken the horse that served as his legs when he couldn't move freely.

But of all the people to target, he turned out to be kin to the Black Knight Du Lahan. True to the knightly tradition of keeping spare horses, the moment we fled he switched to another mount and gave chase. The sun slowed him to less than our pace, but he was still more than capable of commanding his forces.

"Look how relaxed you sound! You think you're not going to die, don't you?! You're so irritating I want to smack you!"

"I'm not particularly relaxed. I just have a plan."

"What plan?"

"Put Baron Jenryu out of the picture."

"Don't tell me you want to turn around, charge in, and take him down? You have no idea. Turning to fight is the absolute last thing you do when you're running away! On top of that, he's not a Yeling, he's an ain. Killing him for good would take at least a week! By then the pursuit force will have us surrounded three or four layers deep!"

"You make it sound very real. You must have done some running in your younger days."

Probably because she had. Before joining the Holy Sword Corps, Hilde had spent years on the run as a wanted enemy of the Empire, known as the White-Faced One. The reason she had learned shapeshifting in the first place was to escape, that said it all.

Even now, if she didn't have me trailing behind her, she would have slipped through this cordon without breaking a sweat. Her grumbling was perfectly fair.

"Don't worry. It's nothing that half-baked."

"Then what is it?"

"Just a moment. Ahem."

I cleared my throat, turned my head back, and shouted at the top of my lungs.

"Baron Jenryu! I'm about to tell you something remarkable, so open your ears and listen carefully!"

My voice echoed off the quiet canyon walls. He had no real reason to answer, but perhaps because he fancied himself a knight, Baron Jenryu replied directly.

"I'll hear you out, after I've caught you and put you on your knees!"

He could hear me clearly despite the considerable distance. I hauled the voice up from my gut and kept going.

"Your maker, Sir Du Lahan, is in danger right now! Just before I escaped, there was an uproar at the Castle of the Full Moon, and Sir Du Lahan was swept up in it and falsely accused! He needs your help!"

"Ha! You expect me to believe that!"

"Believe it or don't, that's your choice, but if you don't check quickly, Sir Du Lahan is in danger. Are you really going to leave your maker's crisis unaddressed?"

"You're trying to draw off my attention and my forces! If you thought that trick would work on me, you're sorely mistaken!"

I'm not lying. Du Lahan really is in danger. The fact that he might already be dead is a bit of a problem, but still.

"Sir Du Lahan, who holds honor above all else, would never raise a rebellion, and you dare slander him! I'll catch you and make you pay for insulting my maker!"

...He's actually the one being deceived here. Du Lahan may well be honorable, but he launched that rebellion faster than anyone.

"I'm telling you the truth! The friends of yours who headed to the Castle of the Full Moon will be showing up soon, find them and hear what they have to say!"

"Quiet! Did everyone hear that?! Head toward where that voice came from!"

With that, Baron Jenryu fell silent. Instead, the presence of humans began closing in from every direction. Hilde urged us faster and rounded on me.

"So instead of charging back in, you're going to bring enemies to us and fight them? What a wonderful plan!"

"It is a wonderful plan. Everything I said was the pure truth, not a word of it false. He'll peel away before long."

"Before long when, exactly?"

"Let's see. The Duchy's news has to reach him first, so... a day or two?"

"Wooow. That's vampire-scale 'before long.' I'm pretty sure we'll be the ones out of the picture tonight."

"If we can last through tonight, there's a chance."

Night was the vampires' time. The terrain was too rough to ride in the dark, and making a light would only show them exactly where we were. Hiding in the darkness was no good either, vampires would only grow faster and stronger, hunting us down through the black.

"How do you plan to last through it?"

"Do you happen to know how we escaped from the military state back then?"

Hilde hadn't been there, but she was the Six Generals' Zikhrund and the Holy Maiden Yuel's closest aide. She would have heard the whole story.

"You used Rallion as bait and ran? Yuel couldn't see through the darkness either, so it worked, but that was only possible because you were on a moving meta conveyor belt! It's too plain a trick to even call a strategy."

"Plain means time-tested. You can't bluff your whole life. Even the honest approach has to work at least once."

Of course, to pull that off you need a better hand than the other side. Luckily, I'd had a good meeting recently.

I spoke with confidence, and Hilde gave in with a resigned sigh.

"...Fine. Whatever. Let's just do it."

***

The vampires' time had come. Deciding the sun had set far enough, Baron Jenryu finally shed his heavy armor.

"You've worked hard, squire."

"Ugh, that was heavy... You're finally up."

The human squire who had been holding a parasol over the baron's head all day rubbed his tingling arms and grumbled. Baron Jenryu put on a theatrical scowl.

"You held a parasol, not a heavy banner, and for only one day, and you dare complain? In my day, a standard-bearer couldn't drop the flag until his arm fell off! If his arm stopped moving, he'd clench the pole between his teeth!"

"That's only possible for someone as great as you, my lord..."

"You think I was born strong and great? I endured pain and hardship like that and climbed to where I am now! You're the same. Stop whining, hold the parasol with more devotion, and someday you might become a great knight like me!"

"But my lord, you're an ain. I could die and come back a hundred times and I'd never become an ain..."

"Life is unknowable. Even I never dreamed I would be knighted by the honorable Sir Du Lahan and become an ain!"

"Is that so?"

Baron Jenryu, who hadn't the faintest notion that Sir Du Lahan was dead, made a promise he could never keep. The squire's expression eased slightly, and Baron Jenryu clapped him hard on the shoulder.

"Rest up. You'll be holding the parasol again tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow... all day..."

Leaving the despairing squire behind, Baron Jenryu raised his hand and signaled. Blood energy bloomed from his fingertips and snapped like a banner, once, twice. A moment later, cavalry riders in dark armor began appearing one by one behind him.

"Knight Puainyu. Answering your lordship's call in accordance with the Blood Oath."

"Knight Maini of Fence Ridge. Answering your lordship's call in accordance with the Blood Oath."

"Red Stray, answering your lordship's call in accordance with the Red Oath!"

Ten knights on horseback. Baron Jenryu's Yelings. His own order, chosen one by one and turned into vampires, formed ranks behind him in the dark night, red flames flickering at their edges.

Baron Jenryu surveyed his order with satisfaction and began his address.

"Before we set out, I thank my faithful thralls and loyal members of this order. Your hearts have been heard, you remembered the blood oath and came at a gallop."

The advantage of vampires was that they could sit through a speech that tedious without feeling bored. The human soldiers under him visibly winced, but Baron Jenryu pressed on without caring.

"The night is ours. The fugitives who dared attack me, falsely claim the title of the Progenitor's consort, and insult our master, the honorable Sir Du Lahan, must be pursued and punished. Though it was daylight, the skill that took my head was no ordinary thing, but who are we? We are the limbs of the honorable Sir Du Lahan, the knights who guard this land. No one can strip us of our honor, our lives, or our pride."

Baron Jenryu was a vampire too. Delivering a speech this tedious, he felt no stirring in his chest, no surge of emotion. The reason he gave tedious speeches was simply that he was a tedious sort of knight. To him, a pre-march address was common sense.

That probably made it all the more frightening to the humans listening, but no matter. That was none of a vampire's concern.

Having done nothing to raise morale and a fair amount to drain it, Baron Jenryu pointed forward. "...There is no time to spare, so I will stop here. The pursuit begins. Glory to the Progenitor."

"Yes, sir!"

The order of knights that had once haunted old stories and terrified generations of children. Dark knights who pierced through the black of night gave chase to the fugitives. The trail wasn't hard to find even in the dark, a horse carrying two people had charged along at a clatter, leaving hoofprints all the way.

"The stolen Nox is a fine horse, but two non-vampires pushing hard through this night won't have gotten far. Follow the trail."

"Yes, sir!"

The Yelings spread wide to either side of the road. Baron Jenryu followed the path at an easy pace, positioned to move in any direction.

The trail stretched long and clear. They followed it for a while. Then one of the human squires who had been scanning the surroundings approached the baron.

"My lord. Do we keep following the road?"

"Obviously. Nox's tracks are right there."

"Hmm, I suppose..."

The squire tilted his head, letting the sentence trail off. Baron Jenryu answered as though he already knew the doubt.

"You're wondering whether they used the horse's tracks as a decoy and fled in a different direction?"

"Yes, my lord. We haven't let up on the pursuit, but even if Nox is a fine horse, I don't think she'd have the strength left to carry two people up this slope."

"A reasonable guess. Two problems with it, though."

Baron Jenryu folded his fingers one at a time, his tone grave.

"First. My horse Nox is a thoroughbred with iron spirit. She would not tire from carrying two people, a woman who looks like she weighs half of me and some limp dandy on top of that!"

This was the grit theory beloved by knights of his generation. The words "my lord, Nox is not a vampire like you" rose all the way to the squire's lips before being swallowed back down. It wasn't the baron's anger that frightened him so much as the lecture that anger would inevitably bring.

Baron Jenryu continued, indifferent to the squire's feelings.

"Second. Have you seen any footprints? Any sign of people pushing through the brush?"

"Ah, no, my lord."

"There it is. There's only one road right now, and on either side is a dirt track thick with underbrush. Humans can't pass through that easily, and if they did, they'd leave obvious marks. If they had pushed through on foot, even you lot with your dull senses would have noticed."

"Couldn't they have erased their traces?"

"Erased their traces? You seem to think erasing traces is something like tidying a room."

Baron Jenryu clicked his tongue and rebuked the squire.

"Using energy control to lighten your step and leave no prints, using energy-sensing ability to shield your body inside vines and branches, all while keeping every branch intact, moving carefully but quickly, an energy practitioner at that level would be rarer than a tireless thoroughbred. You might as well say they flew."

"Ohhh! You had it all figured out!"

"Your thinking is too shallow, that is all. I won't fault you for it. Wisdom is like training, it only takes root when you've lived it yourself. But if there is something you don't know, you ought to listen and learn with a little more humility! After all my years, did you think I hadn't considered whatever small notion crossed your mind? Deplorable. There is a reason I disregarded that flimsy speculation, and it is..."

"Please, just scold me instead!"

They pressed on through the lecture, which was stretching out as long as the pursuit itself, when one of the Yelings who had ranged ahead sent a signal back. Baron Jenryu stopped mid-sentence and addressed his soldiers.

"Everyone, halt. You stay here and hold the perimeter."

"Are we fighting?"

"No. Even if it comes to a fight, I won't leave it to you unless there's no choice. Combat is the order's business. Stay focused on scouting and holding the line."

Humans were a resource. They could speak and had many uses, but above all their blood was precious, so having them injured or killed was a vampire's greatest loss. Combat, therefore, belonged to vampires, stronger, and harder to harm.

This principle happened to align well enough with the knightly code Baron Jenryu had always followed, which was why he had kept a consistent character across hundreds of years. With his soldiers gathered and held in place, he headed toward the source of the signal.

"Over here, my lord!"

The Yelings gathered around him one by one as he stepped forward. The one who had scouted farthest ahead led him along the trail. From some distance away came the sound of Nox snorting. Every vampire brought a weapon to hand, braced for whatever fight might come.

And beyond the brush, Nox stood panting, exhausted, chewing at the grass. Whether they had abandoned the horse and gone on, there was not a human shadow anywhere nearby. Baron Jenryu swept his gaze carefully over the surroundings and commanded.

"Look for traces. A tired horse wouldn't run through the night alone. There will be human tracks nearby."

"Yes, my lord!"

The Yelings scattered in every direction. Baron Jenryu approached his horse. She had carried fugitives and run far with them, the faithless creature, but what could a mere beast know.

Baron Jenryu was a knight who showed mercy not only to humans but to horses. He was a vampire knight, superior to both alike.

"Running off without even recognizing your own master... I'll have to put you through war-horse training. I grew too lax raising and sending off so many horses. Both horses and humans go slack without real experience."

He drew close to the tired horse and found a strange sight. Looking more carefully, he saw a blindfold had been fitted over her eyes, and a small pouch had been tied to her mane. As the horse moved, something inside the pouch knocked and rattled against her neck.

Horses are cowards. With their vision blocked and a rattling sound chasing them from just behind their ears, they will bolt on their own even without a rider. Only when her strength finally gave out would Nox have been free of the sound that had been driving her.

"...Then when?"

But on the way here, they had found no trace at all. If it had been too dark to see, that might have been understandable, but that wasn't it either. Baron Jenryu was a vampire. Even if the human soldiers missed it, he and his Yelings could pierce through the darkness. They had confirmed it clearly: no sign of anyone pushing through the brush.

This time, the human squire had been right.

Whatever the method, they had some means of erasing their traces.

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