Chapter 56: Chapter 56
No matter how much Pendia was called a kingdom of monsters, under normal circumstances, monsters did not swarm all the way to the vicinity of the capital, Hasra, where the army patrolled frequently and the floating population was large.
That was to say, under normal circumstances.
While the two princes waged their civil war, the area near the capital was filled with people leaving to escape the grim news.
In the process, defenseless people became prey for monsters, and the smell of blood spilled from them lured in yet more monsters.
As a result, even here… scarcely a thirty-minute distance from the capital’s castle walls… swarms of lesser vampires had come to infest the area.
It was for that very reason that Cheryn and the servants of the Weavers household encountered the creatures.
“Ugh, uaaah…”
“Butler! What should we do?!”
The number of creatures that ambushed those moving ahead while leaving Shan behind was ten in total.
Any decent warriors working together could have beaten them to death without much difficulty, but for civilians who had never received proper combat training, they were formidable foes to handle.
“Everyone, stand shoulder to shoulder and do not show your backs! Keep your weapons thrust straight forward!”
Butler Tata, who had at least traveled outside and encountered monsters before, commanded the group and formed a formation.
It took the form of a circle surrounding Callion, who lay unconscious on a stretcher.
[Kyaaak-!]
Surrounding the formation, the vampires thrust out their hook-like curved claws and shrieked to threaten them.
Like the monsters they were, they could catch the scent of frightened prey far better than anything else.
“Ah!”
Meanwhile, a kitchen assistant whose back of the hand was lightly scratched shrieked and pulled back.
The moment the vampires sensed their opponent’s disadvantage and prepared to pounce into the opening, Cheryn, who was behind them, stepped into that gap and slashed her own forearm with a dagger.
As blood spurted out beside them, the people nearby gasped in horror.
[“Urkbach Kruga!”]
Along with the incantation, the blood flowing from her fair forearm hardened firmly, turned into sharp awls, and shot forth.
Astonishingly, the blood-red awls swept over four vampires in that direction, showing the power to mangle their entire bodies.
Startled by the powerful blood magic, the vampires shrieked and retreated far back from the distance where they had almost been within arm’s reach.
Only then did the panicking servants regain some degree of reason and let out exclamations of awe.
“Woah…”
“My goodness!”
Lacking magical knowledge, they had no idea that the spell she had just cast was a transcendent ability nearly impossible for modern mages.
They merely felt joy and admiration that, unlike their helpless selves, she possessed the power to resist the monsters.
It seemed certain that if she used that spell just two or three more times, all the vampires would easily be wiped out.
“Haa…”
However, contrary to their expectations, Cheryn quickly stepped back instead of using more magic.
Her pale face was drenched in cold sweat, and her whole body trembled violently as if seized by a chill.
Only then did the head maid realize that the amount of blood loss was extraordinary, and grabbed Cheryn’s arm in surprise.
“A-Ah, Young Lady! Your arm! Quickly, someone get a cloth…”
Since everything that could be used as bandages was inside the luggage baskets, all she could do was press down on the bleeding wound with her hands.
However, as the one who had unleashed the menacing attack retreated, the vampires, guessing that their opponent had exhausted her strength, approached aggressively once again.
As the stablehand struck down with a club at a creature leaping inward, a maid behind him shrieked in shock instead.
“Kyaaak!”
“Get back!”
Just as the vampires approached once again, the sound of horse hooves resounded from afar.
Turning its head, one vampire saw two green lights approaching through the darkness and uttered a roar filled with warning.
[Kkiaak-!]
Before that roar could even end, Shan rushed in with lightning speed and cleanly took off the heads of three vampires with the blade of his spear.
Arwin likewise showed off her presence by crushing two hindering creatures to death with her hooves.
Watching the last remaining one flee, Shan, still mounted on Arwin, threw the spear he was holding.
Crunch! Pierced cleanly through the chest, the vampire collapsed on the spot and moved no more.
“Is everyone all right? Is anyone hurt?”
Only when Shan arrived did the servants’ legs give out, causing them to flop down on the spot.
Having lived in the capital all their lives and only hearing by word of mouth that the world outside the castle walls was harsh, experiencing it firsthand proved it was by no means a place fit for humans to live.
Furthermore, the boy before their eyes (freely roaming that outside world and cutting down terrifying vampires like weeds) scarcely felt human to them.
Marveling anew for only a brief moment, the stablehand quickly answered Shan’s question.
“We’re all fine, sir, but Lady Ryn hurt her arm badly.”
“Yes, well… while using magic…”
“Let me see.”
Leaping down from his horse, Shan took hold of Cheryn’s arm and rolled up her blood-soaked sleeve to check the injury.
The wound cut long across her fair forearm was deep enough that white bone was faintly visible.
“Just how did you end up hurt like this?”
“Magic… because I didn’t have a catalyst…”
From the chatter of the servants beside them, he could gather that she had performed a feat similar to the blood magic of the high vampire he had seen before.
Unlike monsters possessing immense vitality, it was a feat not easily used by a human body, and her exhaustion was clearly evident.
“Give me some medicine and bandages.”
“Here!”
At Shan’s instruction, a maid quickly pulled bandages from the baggage and held them out.
As he spread an ointment made from boiled troll marrow (which he himself had used in the past) and wrapped bandages over it, Cheryn groaned in pain.
“Uuu…”
“Bear with it a little. Ah, come to think of it, there’s one more horse I need to fetch.”
Saying that and thinking it over, there was no suitable way to retrieve Kamad’s horse.
Shan himself going back and forth was dangerous, and sending someone else was equally dangerous in this situation.
While he was thinking whether he ought to take someone along to go back and return, Kamad’s horse emerged from the darkness at just the right moment, approaching them with slow steps.
Apparently frightened of being left alone, it had followed Shan.
“Fortunately, it came on its own.”
Kamad’s warhorse stuck close to Arwin’s side and let out a timid whinny.
*
After the treatment was finished, the party resumed their march toward the east.
Cheryn, exhausted from blood loss and the side effects of magic, rode Kamad’s warhorse while Shan held her from the side so she would not fall.
“Thank you, Sister Ryn. Thanks to your hard work, no one died.”
At Shan’s words of gratitude, Cheryn shook her head with an embarrassed expression and spoke.
“I merely struggled because I needed to survive as well. More importantly, that title…”
“Ah, I’m sorry, Princess. It stuck to my tongue before I realized.”
It was a title fabricated on the spot to conceal her identity in front of the servants, but he had ended up using it without thinking even while the two of them were conversing privately.
“No, it’s fine. Keep calling me that in the future. Now that I actually hear it, it’s not so bad. You can just call me by name, too.”
“Sister Cheryn?”
Hearing Shan’s words, Cheryn burst into a soft laugh.
After a short moment, her attention turned to the warhorse she was riding.
“By the way, did you take this horse from the pursuer earlier? Judging by that armor, he seems to be a royal knight.”
“He said his name was Kamad Entor. He mentioned being one of Sir Darkal’s disciples, just like me.”
“Kamad? Is he by any chance a man with short hair and an obnoxious face?”
“Uh… yes.”
Seeing him when he took off his helmet, his hair was indeed short.
At Shan’s answer, Cheryn looked down at the horse she was riding with an incredulous expression and muttered.
“There are only a few royal knights with warhorses from Mount Horais, so I wondered if it might be…”
“Do you happen to know him?”
Thinking about it, as a royal knight, she would surely be acquainted with him.
As Shan wore a flustered expression, wondering what if they were close, she shook her head.
“Not to the point of being close. We only knew each other’s faces and names.”
“Phew.”
“Kamad is Count of Ronsh’s son. Though his talent was recognized early on and he became a royal knight, because he hailed from a noble family, he only guarded royalty continuously, failing to build a reputation.”
No wonder. Shan himself knew at least the names of the knights rated as the finest in the Kingdom of Pendia, but among them, there was no one named Kamad.
As such, a knight’s reputation did not necessarily correlate directly with skill.
‘Was that why he chased after me to capture me?’
If he defeated Shan (who had hunted a cockatrice and an ogre and won the capital’s jousting tournament) in a one-on-one duel, he would be able to claim that reputation entirely for himself.
It was something a person starved for fame might well attempt.
While Shan was speculating on his opponent’s motive, Cheryn spoke in a tone laced with admiration.
“Still, defeating Kamad so easily is surprising. Among the royal knights, he was evaluated as a warrior second only to Marquis Abel.”
What particularly amazed her was the fact that for someone who had fought such a skilled fighter, Shan’s armor was pristine without a single scratch.
At most, only the shield strapped to his left arm was dented.
“He certainly fought well.”
Perhaps if two powerhouses like Kamad attacked simultaneously, even Shan would find it hard to easily gain the upper hand.
If three warriors of that caliber attacked, he would have to either die or flee.
Cheryn laughed incredulously at Shan’s assessment.
Even if one searched all across Pendia, skilled fighters comparable to Kamad could barely be counted on five fingers; how often would one ever face three such people at once?
“In any case, you’ve completely cut ties with Conrad now. Kamad happens to be Conrad’s second cousin, after all.”
“What about with you, Sister Cheryn?”
“He’s on my mother’s side, so he has little relation to me.”
“Then that’s fine. He’s someone who would have plenty of reasons to hate me regardless.”
Was he not a fellow whose very first plan upon taking power was a policy to expel all mages and Altoans?
In short, to live in this country, their relationship had been incompatible from the start.
As the topic flowed in the desired direction, Cheryn brought up the conversation that had been abruptly cut off earlier.
Her elegant face was tinged with tension.
“So what I mean is, if you have nothing to do from now on, could you help me by my side? I know it lacks persuasion when spoken in this shabby state… but if I have you, I’m confident I can win. Truly.”
Before Shan could even answer, Cheryn clasped her hands together and began laying out the plan she was drawing, one by one.
“My maternal uncle’s territory is a natural fortress blocked on all four sides. Furthermore, its resources are abundant, so it can be self-sufficient even while isolated from the outside world.”
Therefore, if an elite unit centered around a powerful warrior like Shan were formed, whether Conrad or Elvin won, it would be difficult for either to immediately invade Count of Palles’s territory.
In the first place, it was not an environment where a large-scale army could recklessly push in.
“With defense established like that, I will gather the mages of the Magic Society expelled from the capital and launch a full-scale revolution. Once large quantities of magical tools are produced, we can easily overwhelm the opponent in both internal affairs and war. So, if we are given just a few years!”
As if she were a merchant selling wares, Cheryn cast aside even the slightest shred of dignity as a princess and passionately shared her opinion.
The desperation oozing from her tone and gestures was such that the trailing servants even wore fascinated expressions, wondering what kind of story they were discussing so intently.
Shan spared his words and quietly listened to her assertions.
With his limited discernment, it was difficult to gauge whether Cheryn’s words were truly realistic or merely absurd, impractical armchair theories.
After her fairly long speech ended, Cheryn wore a contemplative expression for a moment before speaking.
“Finally, the reward for helping me become queen is… a ducal title and independent authority.”
“A duke and independent authority?”
“Yes. I will hand over the title Duke of Ranpel, Conrad’s maternal grandfather. And while nominally my vassal, you will not bear a single obligation. You may gather all the Altoans of the kingdom there, and though I don’t particularly recommend it, if you wish to declare independence, I will accept it and even include a clause to jointly respond to foreign invasions.”
Duke of Ranpel was Conrad’s maternal grandfather and a grand feudal lord of the west, a powerful figure from under whose command most of the lords and knights of the current Conrad Faction hailed.
Of course, if Cheryn became queen, they would all already be ruined, but even taking that into account, granting an independent ducal title to an Altoan would be a tremendous political burden.
No matter how powerful he was, it was an excessively large price to offer to a mere knight.
Condoning and guaranteeing the independence of Altoans was on a level incomparable even to that.
After tossing out such an enormous bait, Cheryn looked into Shan’s face and asked with a somewhat defeated expression.
“I suppose you still have to consult with Roden?”
“Yes.”
Hearing the expected answer, Cheryn let out a deep sigh and hung her head low.
Her dark blue hair drooped down, covering her face.
“I figured as much, but…”
“However.”
At Shan’s continuing words, Cheryn’s head snapped right back up.
Her wide, round reddish-brown eyes looked almost like a rabbit that had sensed food.
“I don’t know whether what the princess… what Sister Cheryn is talking about will really work or not… but if there are no issues, I want to help.”
“…Really?”
“Yes. I don’t care about ducal titles or independent authority. I just don’t want Sister Cheryn to lose and die, or for something terrible to happen to you.”
Having experienced the person named Shan all this time, Cheryn could tell those words were sincere, without a single speck of pretense.
Remaining silent for a moment at the ticklish feeling inside her chest, she smiled broadly and spoke.
“Womanizer.”
“Huh? Why all of a sudden?”
At the completely out-of-the-blue word, Shan asked back with an incomprehensible expression.
*
After an all-night march, Shan’s party was finally able to arrive at their target village around sunrise the next day.
Naturally, the villagers tried to reject the dozen or so outsiders who had arrived out of nowhere.
This was because some of the people fleeing Hasra during the fierce civil war not long ago had passed through here, and there were several instances where they committed crimes due to lack of food and money.
However, with a boy clad in splendid plate armor standing at the lead, they could not treat them as mere refugees.
Much less when his identity was none other than Shan Barendil, the ‘Green-Eyed Knight’ famous even here.
As the gate of the sturdy wooden palisade opened at the recommendation to open up because they wished to rest, the servants who had finally returned to the civilized world let out sighs of relief.
“Finally…”
“I never want to go outside again.”
“Me too. I’d be happy just living here for the rest of my life.”
Apparently, the memory of being surrounded by vampires with glowing crimson eyes remained a terrible nightmare for them.
Wheat Bran Village, which they found, was a village with a population of about five hundred, the largest in the vicinity.
While Cheryn and the others rested in the rented village hall, Shan consulted with the village chief to locate the village priest.
Fortunately, before long, he was able to find a plausible candidate.
Originally, there were ten priests in this village, seven of whom had been dragged off to Conrad’s army, but two young apprentice priests and one old priest remained.
Serving as the focal point of the village priests, he was said to be a skilled priest worthy of a devout Old Faith believer.
“Hmm? Shan Barendil? Ah, that Altoan knight…?”
Knowing Shan’s identity, the old priest displayed a displeased demeanor yet bowed his head politely.
Whatever his personal feelings might be, a knight was a figure that a priest ought to mutually respect, and treating the injured was a natural duty he had to bear as a limb of the Goddess.
The problem arose after he heard the method of treatment.
“Did you say to help a mage? Surgery, even? Cut open the head? Such a damnable act…! Absolutely not!”
Hearing the plan for Callion’s surgery, the old priest turned bright red and vented his rage.
According to his words, the appropriate measure for Callion was strictly limited to boosting his natural healing power through the Goddess’s power.
If he opened his eyes on his own after that, the Goddess had blessed him; if his breath ceased, She had taken him back.
Frustrated by the priest’s attitude, Cheryn let out a sigh and explained once more.
“I told you. A large amount of blood has already clotted and is pressing against his brain. This isn’t something that can be resolved with healing or purification. We need to physically incise and remove it, then borrow miracles to regenerate the damaged brain tissue…”
“Be quiet! How dare a mage wench who wields demonic power presume to judge the Goddess’s authority as she pleases!”
At the momentum as if he might strike her at any moment, Cheryn flinched and bit her lip.
At heart, she wanted to yell at him for daring to scold a princess when he was a mere priest, but in a situation where Conrad’s army was scarcely a few hours away, it was hardly a wise choice.
As the atmosphere turned grim, Shan stepped forward and stood between the two.
Facing a knight, the priest also seemed to calm down slightly, huffing while settling his breath.
“So, you are saying you cannot help us?”
“That is right! As I said earlier, I can exert the power of healing, but joining forces with wicked magic to perform surgery or the like is absolutely out of the question!”
“We will pay ten times the market price for the treatment fee.”
“Money is not the issue! It is a matter of faith! What meaning does worldly gold have while one’s soul is being defiled?!”
The bargaining skills he had learned from Roden did not work at all.
The priest before his eyes looked ready to refuse Cheryn’s treatment method even if offered an entire kingdom.
After a brief silence, Shan gave voice directly to a ‘bad thought’ that surged up from within.
“What if I say I’ll kill you if you don’t comply?”
At the threat uttered in a nonchalant tone, the surrounding atmosphere sank instantly.
The village chief who had brought the priest spoke to Shan in a trembling voice.
“U-Um, Sir Knight… Though this priest is stubborn, he is a good man. For the past several decades, he has accumulated much virtue in this village…”
“This person here is the father of my closest friend and my benefactor who supported me.”
Dropping even honorifics, Shan spoke menacingly toward the priest who was easily fifty years older than himself.
Even though he was clearly slightly shorter than the priest and looking up, a strange pressure emanated from him such that everyone felt Shan was looking down on him.
“Whether you think magic is demonic power or not, I don’t give a damn. I want to cure this person no matter what it takes.”
“Hmph. Kill me if you will! My life is already old, so returning to the Goddess is all that matters!”
At the chilly threat, the old priest closed both eyes tightly as if there were no room for compromise and stubbornly held his ground.
However, even he could not help but snap his eyes wide open at the words that followed.
“You don’t care about your own life? Then what about the lives of the people in this village?”
“What…?”
“If you’ve spent decades in this village, you must know plenty of people here. Come to think of it, didn’t you say there were two young priests as well?”
As if confirming for the priest, who wore an expression of doubting his own ears, Shan gestured with his chin toward the villagers around them and spoke.
“I will kill the villagers one by one until you say you will lend your strength. Regardless of whether they are women or children. I can even use torture if necessary.”
“Y-You… How can a fellow called a knight do such an outrageous!”
“If you think I can’t do it, keep being stubborn.”
At Shan’s attitude of openly declaring a slaughter, the faces of the nearby villagers turned pale.
However, not a single one among them dared to stand up to him.
Was a heavily armed knight not already standing in the middle of their village?
The people of Pendia, frequently tangled with monsters, worshipped the knights who vanquished those monsters just as much as they feared them.
All the more so when their opponent was a formidable knight who had defeated all kinds of infamous, giant monsters.
The threatened priest muttered in a trembling voice.
“You wouldn’t dare do that. More than five hundred people live in this village.”
“I can. Five hundred people won’t be stronger than a cockatrice or an ogre.”
The priest had spoken in the sense that Shan would not dare commit the sin of killing as many as five hundred innocent people on his conscience, but Shan understood it as a question of ability and gave an off-mark reply.
For an ordinary knight, killing over five hundred people (even if they were civilians) was a difficult task.
That gap in perspective terrified the priest even more.
Furthermore, setting ordinary times aside, was this not a situation where public order had all but collapsed while two princes waged civil war?
In times like these, even if a single knight slaughtered an entire village, the matter might truly end up swept under the rug…
“Besides, I’ve already seen an entire village collapse at the hands of a few outstanding warriors. I know very well how it’s done.”
Shan was merely talking about his own past experience, but to the priest’s ears, it sounded as though that young boy knight had already committed such deeds multiple times.
“The Goddess will not forgive you.”
“To me, the life of someone precious is more important than the Goddess’s protection. What will you do? If you refuse, I’ll kill about a hundred people first and ask for your answer again.”
After a brief silence following the ultimatum, the priest answered sobbyingly.
“I understand…”
It was the moment a person’s faith collapsed, bowing before violence.
*
After the terrifying time of threats ended, Cheryn, who was preparing for the surgery, looked at Shan standing beside her and asked while pretending to be unbothered.
“Hey, Shan.”
“Yes.”
“Would you really have killed the villagers if that priest hadn’t submitted?”
Though she had thoroughly analyzed Shan in her own way, it was difficult to discern whether that threat was genuine.
Considering the way he usually treated people precious to him, it felt like he might have been serious, yet considering how he pitied the weak and struggling, it felt like a mere bluff…
At Cheryn’s question, Shan gave a gentle smile and answered.
“Eyy, how could I really do that? The villagers have done no wrong.”
“I see…”
“Still, I threatened him with the mindset that I really would. Roden told me that since I’m terrible at acting, I have to fool myself into believing it’s real.”
That was to say, at least for the duration of that threat, he believed, or at least convinced himself, that he truly intended to kill all the villagers if rejected.
It was a chilling method of acting where, with just a hair’s breadth of misstep, a fabricated heart could turn into genuine intent.
Peering into the political arena of the capital’s royal court and orchestrating from behind the scenes, Cheryn had seen any number of people devoured by the masks they themselves had created.
As she had thought before, there was a precarious side to this boy, like a sword without a scabbard.
If they were to walk together, from now on she would have to fit a scabbard onto that sword and ensure it was drawn only when absolutely necessary.
For her own sake, as well as for Shan’s.