WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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◈ Sword Master of the Fallen Kingdom

Chapter 59

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Two Exiles (6)

"Damn it, damn it, damn it...!"

Viscount Leonard chewed on his fingernails without realizing it. Though it was already late dawn, he had not slept. Sitting at the desk in his office, he ground his teeth in agitation.

The hunting hounds had returned earlier. Almost an hour had already passed.

The problem was that their owners had not come back with them. Not the cavalry. Not the cavalry captain. Not the mercenaries. Not the knights. No one had returned with them. Forget the traitor, he could not even tell if anyone was still alive. He had no idea whether the mission had succeeded or failed.

No.

"All of them are dead? That can't be..."

The reality he had been avoiding finally crashed down on him. Leonard felt his hands begin to shake.

Three hunting hounds had returned in total.

All three had been terrified. The soldiers' and servants' accounts matched. Above all, if things had gone normally, then by now not only the hounds, but the cavalry and mercenaries as well, should have dragged the traitor before him. They had not. And that meant only one thing.

Had they really been defeated?

"No. The sun will rise soon. If I sit here doing nothing until then..."

His heart pounded with anxiety. Leonard shouted toward the firmly shut door.

"Is anyone there! Anyone outside!"

No answer came. He raised his voice again, but it was the same. It was as if no one were there. As if everyone in the castle were holding their breath.

Creeak.

That was when the office door opened. Leonard stared through it with tense eyes. The first thing he saw was golden armor. Then his gaze was drawn to the long red cloak hanging behind it, and to the sword at the knight's waist, its blade a mixture of black and red.

A wyvern knight?

Leonard's eyes widened as if they would split. At the same instant, the wyvern knight vanished. Leonard's field of view plunged downward.

Thud!

The wyvern knight who had been standing near the door was now right behind him. Leonard's head slammed down onto the desk. A hand pressed hard against the back of his head, and the fierce pressure crushing his face forced a strangled groan from his throat.

"It seems you did not receive my letter, Viscount Leonard. The traitor should have passed through this gate."

"..."

"What happened?"

A cold, low voice entered his ear. Leonard trembled as he forced his eyes upward. Above the golden armor he had seen earlier was red hair that fell to the knight's shoulders. His features were handsome and looked barely past thirty, and blood-red eyes sat in the center of them.

"S-Sir Damian..."

"Oh. You know me?"

A deep smile appeared on the red-haired knight's lips. Leonard, his head pinned to the desk, could not bring himself to nod, so he moved his eyes up and down instead.

The eldest son of House Carvello, one of the handful of greatest houses in the Empire, and the young genius knight of the Celestial Knights.

Damian Carvello.

Even nobles from the southern kingdoms knew the more prominent houses of the Empire and the Federation. That was especially true of the handful of great houses. Among them, there was no way anyone would not know the name Carvello. They were a prestigious house that had risen rapidly to replace House Lucent, which had opposed the Emperor's wars of conquest and been completely brought down.

The fact that the eldest son of that house was the Empire's greatest genius was just as famous. A monster who had been chosen as the future Vice Commander of the Celestial Knights at just over thirty.

Considering that the current commander and vice commander would retire someday, he was also the person closest to becoming the next commander. Three years ago, during the Northern War against Hailen, he had killed several of the famous Knights of Ash. He was a true knight. It meant there were almost none on the continent of Velia who could stand against him.

Just how important was that traitor?

"So?"

But Leonard's thoughts lasted only an instant. The smile vanished from the red-haired knight's lips.

"I-I apologize. We did everything we could, but the resistance was far stronger than expected..."

"In more detail."

"A-another Silver-rank Mercenary joined the traitor! The two of them incapacitated every soldier on the wall and crossed the gate."

"Two people crossed the gate?"

"Yes! As soon as we confirmed it, we formed a pursuit force and sent troops after them, but just a short while ago, only the hounds returned empty-handed..."

Leonard hurriedly spilled everything that had happened. He had cast aside even his last shred of pride, and the sight was almost pitiful. He blurted out the whole truth, including his own disgrace.

"..."

Damian only listened in silence and showed no particular reaction. Silence settled over the room for a while. In that stillness, where even the sound of breathing was clear, Leonard kept his head pressed against the desk and swallowed.

"P-please spare me, Sir Damian. Please..."

Unable to endure it any longer, Leonard pleaded, his voice desperate. Damian still did not answer. Instead, he stared past the open door. Footsteps clicked down the corridor.

"The discipline here is a mess. It almost makes me miss the walls of Alenos. To think the descendants of a country that once ruled the south would end up like this."

"Lorentz."

Another knight stepped through the open door. Lorentz Bernan. Another wyvern knight who had joined this pursuit alongside Damian. Not one, but two of the Empire's strongest assets had gathered here, and Leonard's trembling grew even worse.

"How is it?"

"Exactly as expected. They closed the gate in their own way, but the soldiers meant to guard it are a complete disaster. The city is unsettled because of the muster order. And the target escaped without being caught."

Ptui.

Lorentz strolled into the office and spat on the floor. His swaggering attitude was nothing like a noble's, but the eyes he turned on Leonard carried the pressure of one of the Empire's finest knights.

"I'm disappointed, Viscount Leonard. We sent a letter ahead of time, and this is the result?"

"Hah, hah..."

"What are you going to do now?"

Lorentz looked around the office and spoke flatly. Leonard panted roughly in fear of death. In the faint moonlight, Damian's red eyes gleamed.

"The target remains the same. We continue the pursuit and capture her alive."

"But the wyverns are exhausted. You know that, right?"

From the Imperial capital all the way to the Ligrid Mountains in Brendel, a southern kingdom. They had forced a brutal march while keeping the wyverns supplied along the way. They could not move again right away.

"They need at least a full day of rest. Supplies are an issue too."

"I know."

"If they shook off the gate's pursuit force and stole horses... By the time we set out again, they'll be almost down the mountains."

"That is why we will send a messenger hawk. Their escape route is fixed anyway."

The mountains were vast, but the roads through them were limited. Just as one had to pass through the gate to cross the Ligrid Mountains, the route down was the same. The paths were set.

There were two main mountain passes leading down from the range. One was mainly used by trading convoys and carriages, and the other was used for military purposes. Both had fortresses built at the foot of the mountains.

There was no normal way to descend aside from those. Even if it were possible, it would take far longer. The fortress on the military pass could not be used by ordinary mercenaries or merchants, so in effect, only one route remained.

"Viscount Leonard."

"Y-yes!"

Damian called Leonard's name. The man, still shaking in fear, answered belatedly.

"I will write a letter. Send a messenger hawk to the fortress below the mountains."

"B-but the messenger hawks remaining at the gate..."

"There are none?"

"I-I apologize! We sent the last one not long ago..."

"When will the fastest one return?"

"It will return before this evening. Yes, it absolutely will..."

Leonard rolled his eyes around, trying to read Damian's mood. Damian eased the pressure of the hand on the back of his head.

"There will be no second chance, Viscount."

"Ah..."

"This is your last opportunity. Bring me a messenger hawk before the sun sets."

Damian's chilling voice entered Viscount Leonard's ear as he awkwardly rose. Leonard looked back and forth between the wyvern knights with fear-soaked eyes, then hurried out of the office. He fell once on the way, but sprang back up and ran down the corridor, clearly desperate.

"What a filthy place. The people and the building both."

Lorentz clicked his tongue softly.

"For now, I think we need at least a full day of rest. And the messenger hawk will take more time to return."

"The wyvern mana we planted on Her Highness's body vanished. Do you have another way?"

After Leonard disappeared, Lorentz stopped choosing his words.

The two of them had traveled by following the mana clinging to the princess's robe. But since yesterday evening, that mana had vanished completely.

"If we send a messenger hawk to the fortress, we can at least buy time. The lord there is a typical pro-Imperial faction man."

"Hmm. And?"

"There is one more way to track her. I didn't want to use it unless necessary."

Damian's eyes narrowed. Inside his Inventory Pouch was a Magic Stone condensed with Prisia's mana. It was one of the very few byproducts left from the Imperial family's research into the Dragon Heart.

Using it on a human would mean death, but wyverns were different. Even if only half-blooded, they were creatures that carried dragon blood. It would place a heavy strain on the body, but there was no other way. The princess had a Dragon Heart shard, so if they strengthened a wyvern's five senses with Prisia's mana, they could track her accurately from hundreds of kilometers away.

Dragon mana was that intense. The wyvern would need at least a full week of rest after using it, but capturing her came first.

She would never imagine it. That the Dragon Heart she believed to be a treasure would become the reason she could be tracked, and the thing that would trip her up.

"And the target is not only the princess."

"Not only her?"

"I heard another Silver-rank Mercenary joined her at the gate. If he refused the guild muster order and sided with the princess, she must have promised him quite the reward."

"A Silver-rank Mercenary..."

"Do not let your guard down. If the princess were alone, she could not have crossed the gate. Since they crossed it anyway and shook off the pursuit, that means he has considerable skill."

Of course, even as he said that, Damian was not particularly worried. With just one wyvern knight, even a Gold-rank Mercenary could be beaten with ease. Much less now, when there were two. Damian was one thing, but even Lorentz was an elite among elites with experience in the Northern War, so there would be no surprises.

"It will not take long."

After looking down for a moment at the bookshelf Viscount Leonard had disappeared past, Damian moved to the open window. Dawn was slowly rising over the massive wall and the high mountain ridges.

Grrrrr.

That was when a low beast's growl sounded. A long wyvern neck lowered itself in front of the window where Damian stood. The wyvern was covered entirely in red scales and had blood-red eyes just like Damian.

"Ignis."

The red wyvern slowly closed its eyes. The red-haired knight gently stroked the wyvern's head.

Damian spoke without turning back. Once the wyverns recovered their strength, everything would be over. No matter how rugged the Ligrid Mountains were, they could cross them in half a day or so by wyvern. That Silver-rank Mercenary would regret it too, after being torn to pieces under his blade.

Even if the man was some other knight instead of a Silver-rank Mercenary, the result would be the same. Damian had never been defeated. There was only one person he had failed to settle a match with.

The Blue Wolf of Hailen.

The final Commander of the vanished Knights of Ash. A coward who had abandoned his dying order members and fled alone. A loser left with nothing but faded glory.

He would likely never see him again. The Empire grew stronger by the moment, and the cursed man remained endlessly crouched in hiding. All that remained was to capture the princess and return to the Empire. Damian smirked and said under his breath,

"It is about time the childish princess woke from her little game."

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