WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Genius Knight of a Fallen Race ◈
Chapter 28: See You Again Next Time
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White flames, glowing with sacred light, engulfed one side of the city.
The sight was so magnificent that Shan wondered whether some terrifying fire monster had appeared. Then Vent, the first to recognize what it was, muttered under his breath.
“Purifying Flame!”
“Purifying Flame?”
“It’s a secret technique now preserved by only a few Old Faith priests. Flames that burn away every unholy enemy...”
Priests’ miracles were less versatile than magic, but in certain respects, they displayed far greater power.
Healing, support, and purification.
Purifying Flame was an alchemical creation that pushed purification to its most aggressive extreme.
It made flames burn hotter, gave them purifying power, and allowed them to restore themselves and keep burning even without fuel.
When specially consecrated oil was lit, it burned brilliant white and erased all unholy power. Even when it clung to stone walls, it did not go out easily, consuming everything around it as it burned.
The use of miracles in wars between humans was now strictly forbidden, making it rare to see. But long ago, during the religious wars when the Old Faith and New Faith split apart, the two factions branded each other heretics and burned each other’s cities with Purifying Flame.
“The Ajun Kingdom’s Crusader Order has come.”
Jerpo finally realized what had appeared at the western gate and clicked his tongue.
“The Alto expedition team that came before us said those bastards chased them down and made them lose their haul. They must’ve marked the city’s location during their last encounter, then returned to wipe it out properly. Damn it, why did the timing have to line up like this...”
Despite Jerpo’s grumbling, they had actually arrived at a fortunate time.
Had they come even a few days later, the Crusader Order would have burned the entire city down, leaving them nothing but ruins.
After recognizing their enemy, Green Eyes immediately turned around and headed for the southern gate. Yet flames were rising there as well.
The northern and eastern gates were likely no different.
“Looks like escaping through a gate is out.”
“Let’s use the sewers.”
Roden frowned, looking troubled. Jerpo, who had been quietly thinking, offered his opinion.
“The sewers... Ah! The ones the Altos used?”
“That’s right. According to the journal, they should be somewhere in the southeast, so they must be nearby.”
Fortunately, the sewer entrance was not particularly well hidden.
The entrance was blocked by iron bars, but one side had been cut open, likely by the Alto expedition team that had come before them. They entered without difficulty.
The passage inside was wide enough for five or six people to walk through. Carrying torches, they moved through the dark tunnel while loudly cursing the Crusader Order above them.
If not for those bastards, they would not have had to flee through the sewers like rats.
“How many of them are there to burn a city this large from every direction?”
“They probably travel in groups of hundreds.”
Vent answered Shan’s complaint quietly.
“In the Demon Realm?”
The more people there were, the slower they marched. It was also difficult to carry enough food and water and find somewhere safe to rest every day.
That was an even greater problem in the Demon Realm, where obtaining clean water was nearly impossible.
They would also attract the attention of monsters by moving so noisily. If banshees or similar monsters gathered around them, their formation would surely collapse before they could do anything.
To cast blessings that protected the minds of hundreds of soldiers, they would need dozens of priests. No matter what they found in the Demon Realm, it would not be worth the cost.
Roden came up with his own answer.
“That’s because, unlike us, they aren’t combing through the Demon Realm for money.”
Unlike Pendia, where civilian expedition teams explored for profit, Ajun’s Crusader Order was closer to a coalition army of lords.
That meant large numbers of knights and priests were mobilized, the kind who would normally be putting on airs while guarding their own territories in Pendia.
Of course, that made the cost greater than the reward, as mentioned earlier. Still, the goal of those most devoted to the Old Faith was never to secure old Alto relics or uncover forgotten history.
The Crusade’s objective was to erase every trace of the old Alto Empire, which they regarded as a servant of demons.
They believed that if they achieved their goal, even at the cost of enormous funds and lives, they would draw closer to the goddess.
“Those insane fanatics!”
Jerpo muttered in a voice full of anger.
To a mage fascinated by the culture of the old Alto Empire, the Crusader Order’s actions were nothing less than horrifying atrocities.
There might even be old Alto books left in places they had not examined because of time...
Still, it made no sense to try stopping them now.
Even with a powerful warrior capable of killing a cockatrice alone, they would be helplessly slaughtered against an army that included many knights and priests.
“Wait.”
“Why?”
“Something’s coming from that direction.”
Just as they felt the end of the sewer could not be far away, Shan spoke quietly and stopped the group.
The moment he finished speaking, flickering torchlight approached from the other side. Roden groaned.
“Damn it...!”
The people who appeared were soldiers who seemed to belong to the Crusader Order.
There were more than twenty of them at a glance.
Since both sides carried torches, the other side noticed them immediately. A young voice echoed strangely through the sewer.
“What? They’re people, not monsters? We should be the only ones guarding this place.”
“They must be Pendian explorers, young master. We saw those demon bastards around here last time...”
“Ah-ha! You there! Unpack your baggage right now! We cannot allow the belongings of demons to be brought into this world!”
At the command of the “young master,” who appeared to be of high status, soldiers without torches aimed their arrows at them, as if they would fire the moment anyone refused.
The sight of the sharp arrowheads made Roden’s legs give out. He squeezed his eyes shut.
At that moment, Shan threw his torch into the ditch beside the sewer, where water had once flowed, and shouted.
“Ah-”
“Everyone, fall back!”
At the same time, Shan cut down the other three torches, dropping them to the ground.
Jerpo and Vent finally understood his intent. They quickly dragged the frozen Roden back and disappeared into the darkness.
Once the torches went out and Shan’s eyes shone green, one Crusader Order member shouted urgently.
“An Alto! Demons who betrayed the goddess!”
“So he’s a companion of those who escaped last time! Fire!”
At the commander’s order, more than ten arrows flew at once.
Shan rushed forward and swung his longsword, knocking away as many arrows as possible.
Unlike him, his companions could not see through the darkness or recognize and deflect incoming arrows.
Even in that desperate situation, Shan knocked away two arrows with his sword, took one on the shoulder of his damaged chainmail, and caught the last one with his teeth.
There was nothing he could do about the four or five arrows that had not been aimed directly at him.
All he could do was hope his companions were lucky.
“He’s coming!”
Watching the green light rush toward them, the Crusader Order members immediately threw down their bows and drew spears and swords.
Yet for some reason, the enemy’s speed was strange.
The distance had definitely been considerable. It was as though he was charging at them on horseback-
“Urgh!”
The leading soldier’s head split apart, blood and brains spraying everywhere.
A grayish-blue streak lashed out from the darkness.
It was Thousand Forms, which Shan had worn as underclothes until moments ago, transformed into a flexible sword.
Four soldiers died in quick succession to attacks flying in from beyond the range of the torchlight. Another soldier hurriedly threw a torch forward.
When the enemy was revealed, something like a writhing tentacle could be seen in Shan’s hand. The Crusader Order members cried out in shock.
“It’s demon power!”
“He’s using magic!”
“Everyone, fall back!”
At the mention of magic, the knight who had been attending the young master stepped forward.
Most unholy tricks were supposed to yield before powerful Spirit.
The knight accurately blocked Shan’s flexible sword with the shield they held.
Clang!
One corner of the shield was cut away.
“Hmm...!”
The knight let out a startled groan.
The knight did not show it, but Shan was just as surprised.
The flexible sword could pierce even a cockatrice’s stone hide. How had it failed to split the shield in half, cutting off only one corner?
Even if the knight had used Spirit to defend against it, it was difficult to understand.
Looking closer, Shan saw that the shield was no ordinary item.
Its color showed that it was an alloy mixed with some special metal. It also glowed faintly from a priest’s consecration.
It seemed that, like someone who had entered the Demon Realm for a Crusade, the knight was thoroughly armed.
“Your attacks are weak. No matter how many times you try, you can’t get through me!”
The knight glared at Shan with eyes wide open, deliberately bluffing to hide their disadvantage.
Shan’s glowing eyes revealed his location in the darkness, but that was not much of an advantage.
The knight could not know what stance Shan had taken or how he would attack until the very moment it happened.
The knight steadied their breathing and prepared to charge.
They did not know what method Shan used, but his attack range was overwhelmingly long. The first strike had to be blocked.
‘His weapon looks flashy, but it isn’t as powerful as it seems. If I block one attack and close the distance-’
As a grayish-blue streak shot from the darkness, the knight used techniques practiced all their life and charged forward at once.
But-
“Ghk!”
What flew at the knight was not the flexible sword they expected, but a long, straight spear.
The grayish-blue spear, filled with powerful Spirit, pierced the shield and then the knight’s neck.
“Sir Knight!?”
“That can’t be...!”
Perhaps the death of the knight they trusted was the final trigger. The Crusader Order members finally lost their nerve and turned to run.
Shan chased after them and split vertically the head of the priest who had been loudly yelling at them not to run and to fight.
After that, it was a one-sided slaughter.
The ones who fled died, and the ones who turned back to resist died just as helplessly.
It might have been different in broad daylight. But in a sewer where torchlight made shadows dance wildly, even knights had difficulty spotting and blocking a flexible sword.
Shan even used Spirit to accelerate, kicking off walls and ceilings in succession as he moved through the space in three dimensions.
Heads were cut off, necks severed, arms and legs chopped apart...
After cutting down the enemies without mercy, Shan finally caught the “young master” fleeing at the front, grabbed the back of his neck, and threw him down.
The boy sobbing with tears and snot running down his face was, unexpectedly, only a few years older than Shan.
“Sniff, sob...!”
“Are there more of your companions outside?”
“Let go, you demon bastard! I am Viscount Axion, nephew of His Majesty the King-Aaaargh!”
“Don’t make me ask twice.”
Shan transformed Thousand Forms into a dagger and drove it into the boy above his collarbone. The boy stopped screaming and began holding back choked sobs.
The pain was too great for that to last. Soon, he burst into tears and began calling for his mother.
“Save me, Mom...”
“Are there more of your companions outside?”
“Aaah! No, no! Everyone else is at the gates!”
“Good.”
After lightly twisting the dagger and receiving the answer he wanted, Shan slit his throat and ran back to his companions.
The sewer’s once-dry waterway was now sloshing with the blood of twenty horribly mutilated people.
“It’s all over!”
“There were so many of them?”
“Well, compared to a cockatrice... Ah!”
As Shan approached, he noticed that Jerpo had been hit by an arrow in the shoulder and another in the chest. His eyes widened.
Roden spoke with a guilty expression.
“Damn it, I should’ve blocked them with my shield, but I froze up... I’m sorry, Jerpo.”
“I’m... fine. More importantly, let’s get outside.”
Fortunately, Jerpo found speaking difficult, but he did not look like he would die immediately.
Roden carried Jerpo on his back while Vent cast healing miracles on him. Shan led the four horses positioned behind them.
As Shan passed the pile of bodies they had created, a thought suddenly occurred to him. He looked back.
‘Ah, that...’
One corner had been cut off and it had a hole in it, but the shield was still sturdy. It seemed like it could be useful if he took it.
* * *
After safely escaping through the sewers, Green Eyes moved away from the city without looking back.
If the commander Shan had killed truly was the king’s nephew as he claimed, a pursuit force might come after them.
Ignoring many of the rules for operating in the Demon Realm, they pressed onward for days, moving at nearly a run.
Despite that harsh schedule, Jerpo recovered quickly.
They gave him anesthetic, cut open the arrow wounds with a knife to remove the arrows, then poured healing miracles into him.
Had he been a little less fortunate and been hit in a vital spot, he might not have recovered easily. He could have died on the spot.
After three days, once they were certain they had completely shaken off any pursuit, they found their original route again and headed southwest.
They had strayed somewhat from their planned route to avoid pursuit. Nearly a month later, Green Eyes finally left the Demon Realm and returned to Sedil City.
“Ah, finally...”
“I truly thought I was going to die.”
Looking at Sedil City’s walls, Vent and Jerpo let out sighs filled with many emotions.
The first thing that drew attention when they entered was, naturally, the cockatrice’s head.
They had wrapped every other relic so it would not be visible from outside, but they had left that one openly displayed.
“What is that? I’ve never seen a monster’s head like that before.”
“It’s huge.”
“Its skin is made of stone. Is that a cockatrice?”
“What? No way.”
“That’s impossible!”
Once someone pointed it out, everyone stared at Green Eyes in shock as they returned.
How had an expedition team with two warriors, a priest, and a mage managed to subdue such a monster?
No matter what people said, Green Eyes first found an inn, washed up, and slept deeply.
The next day, they gathered at a table on the first floor of the Explorers’ Guild and exchanged farewells.
“It was a short time, but I enjoyed it.”
“It wasn’t that short. We’ve known each other for nearly three months after making two trips, haven’t we?”
“Has it already been that long?”
At Vent’s words, Jerpo counted the time on his fingers, then let out a small sigh.
Considering that novice explorers often died within their first month or two, they had actually spent quite a long time together.
Though a significant part of that was because their second expedition had taken so long.
“More importantly, how long do you think it’ll take to sell the relics?”
“I intend to take it slow, maybe six months to a year. It’ll be troublesome if those bastards come looking for revenge...”
If they sold everything they had gained on this journey at once, the prices would crash. It would also be an obvious confession that they were the expedition team that had attacked a Crusader Order member.
There could not be many people who had secured a large quantity of Alto relics and returned at that particular time.
Of course, those bastards had attacked first, and Green Eyes had only fought back. But when had the world ever worked that fairly?
Since a high-ranking noble who was likely the king’s nephew had died, those Ajun bastards would surely insist that Green Eyes be punished somehow.
Vent nodded in agreement.
“I doubt Count Sedil would yield to their pressure, but there’s no harm in being careful.”
This time, they decided to conceal the excavation and sell only the cockatrice’s Magic stone, then divide the payment between Vent and Jerpo.
Shan and Roden would keep the relics, gradually releasing them later as though they had acquired them over time.
That meant staying in Sedil City for several more months, but the profit they could make from it would more than justify it.
“Well, then...”
“See you again next time!”
Vent and Jerpo did not need to receive their shares in person. They could simply be sent to the monastery and school they belonged to.
Of course, that was only possible because they trusted Shan and Roden.
They shared everything from the existence of a massive treasure that could shake a nation to the secret that they had killed the neighboring king’s nephew. There was no need to worry about anyone cheating the others out of money.
And so, like many other expedition teams, Green Eyes disbanded only a few months after it was formed.
The achievements they had built during that time, of course, were on an entirely different level.
After the two left, Shan spoke to Roden in a somewhat deflated voice.
“I feel kind of strange.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. When someone you’ve spent a long time with leaves, it feels empty somehow...”
It felt similar to when Sir Darkal had suddenly left.
Roden chuckled at Shan’s words.
“Everyone keeps meeting and parting with people. How could you stay together forever? For example, when you grow up and start a family, you won’t be stuck with me like you are now.”
“A family...”
It was something Shan had never imagined before, and his thoughts began to wander.
He pictured an unknown woman at his side, and a child who resembled both her and him.
‘Green eyes... Ah, I heard traits like that usually don’t get passed down exactly.’
Since he was an Alto, his child would definitely be an Alto whether his wife was an ordinary person or not. Thinking about it, he could not imagine what the child would look like.
It might be comparatively ordinary, like Roxy having two hair colors. But the Altos could also have appearances that were endlessly distinctive.
“What is it?”
Roden looked confused as Shan stood there groaning to himself.
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