The work related to Rock’s defense accelerated. Kassel thought the citizens’ fear of the coming war would be great, given that there had been a major war a few years ago and a big incident recently. However, the councilors persuaded them and made them work even harder. Even Tanya, who used to curse them as people who only knew how to talk inside the council, praised their actions.
The movement of the army stationed outside Rock was also active. Captain Harrow of the Rock Guard, appointed as the commander-in-chief with the majority approval of the council members, visited the Red Rose army several times a day to exchange opinions with their commander.
‘It would be difficult for two commanders from different countries to easily coordinate their opinions, but those two are doing well. They won’t need me here.’
Tanya was so busy that she hadn’t returned to the Dragon Knights building since that dinner together. She spent her nights teaching the magicians of Grand Rock, providing the minimum instruction needed to move the Tower of Blessing. She also called in some high-ranking magicians, including Chairman Rependas, to research and develop antidotes against Moze’s poison. Tanya was at the center of the war.
“Is it because I’m still immature that I want to see her, even though I know it’s obvious?”
Hearing Kassel’s complaint as he stood on the southern castle tower, Jay replied,
“If you want to see her, just go see her.”
Kassel half-opened his mouth and then closed it.
The problem was that Kassel was also busy. He was probably the second busiest person in Rock after Tanya. Even this brief moment to talk with Jay was under the pretext of checking the guard situation. After the violent incident, Kassel always kept Rai by his side, but it wasn’t much help. Even now, he just stood behind Kassel and Jay, doing nothing and saying nothing.
‘Jay is right. If I want to see her, I should just go.’
Being busy was always a good excuse.
“Hey, isn’t it burdensome for you to be with Tanya?”
Jay asked, leaning on the railing with his arms stretched out, turning only his eyes to look up at Kassel. Kassel mimicked Jay’s pose and grumbled,
“To think I’m being analyzed by someone like Jay…”
“Stop joking around!”
“You’re right.”
“Why? Even I can see that Tanya likes you. It’s very obvious. If that woman is showing that much, well, isn’t it certain?”
“Don’t simplify the situation. That’s honestly a bit… Ah, I think I was more comfortable in the cave under the Hapu where I could talk to Tanya without facing her.”
“Her face? Is it too pretty now that it’s burdensome?”
“It’s my fault for confiding in you.”
“Come on… You should just sleep with Tanya once.”
Kassel opened and closed his mouth in disbelief, then hit Jay’s shoulder.
“Are you really giving that kind of advice?”
“Well, that’s how it was in my case. Sometimes that’s better. You cherish women too much. You become flustered trying to be too careful.”
“You really…”
Kassel was about to say a few words but closed his mouth again.
“Damn it, because of you, I won’t be able to face Tanya anymore. I feel like I’ll think of your advice every time I see her.”
“That’s how it is, it comes to mind more after you’ve done it once.”
“If I hit you, you’ll dodge, right?”
“Is that even a question? I won’t let you even graze me.”
“That’s good then. At least I want to punch something! Whether you dodge or not, I just want to…”
“The point is, we don’t know when we’ll die either.”
Jay suddenly spoke seriously. Kassel raised his fist and then lowered it.
“You think that too?”
“I know from fighting in Lutia. If you’re unlucky, you die. So what I’m saying is, you could die even to one of those creatures.”
“Even you?”
“Even me.”
Jay muttered softly.
“And we’re not talking about a few hundred of those creatures, but tens of thousands. The army here can’t stop them.”
Kassel was surprised and looked around to see if anyone else was nearby.
“Don’t say such things carelessly.”
“Loyal, Dunmel, and I, the three of us together, killed just over a hundred. And even that was quite dangerous. And they’re saying there are tens of thousands of those creatures?”
20,000. 40,000. 80,000. The numbers of Mozes reported to the council were increasing each time.
“Give up, Kassel. Rock will fall.”
“Shut up. If you’re so scared, why don’t you run away first?”
Jay looked up at Kassel with a rare gentle smile.
“Maybe I should?”
Kassel was rather uneasy about his joke.
“Jay, did something happen to you? You’ve been saying strange things lately?”
“I’ve always said strange things.”
Jay turned his head again and stared into the distance. With his arms dangling below the railing, he looked like a teenage boy halfheartedly contemplating suicide.
“By the way, hasn’t it been about three days since the Dragon Knights left? Why is there no news?”
Jay asked. Kassel was curious about that too. If Anbaldi was safe, news of their safety should have arrived by now, and if it had fallen, news of its fall should have come.
“You’re worried about the Dragon Knights. That’s unusual.”
“I know someone there. There’s something I want to ask him.”
“Is that so?”
“I hope he returns safely.”
“Me too. I have a lot to talk about with Captain Deradul.”
The two of them said that much and then didn’t speak to each other for a long time.
As Kassel was about to get up to end this short break, Rai, who had been standing behind them as if he wasn’t there, spoke.
“People are being attacked.”
“Where?”
Kassel looked around. But Rai pointed in the direction Kassel had been looking at all along.
“Over there.”
“What kind of people?”
Kassel and Jay stretched their necks and squinted, trying to see what was visible in the direction Rai was pointing. But it was impossible for human eyesight to see where a Lemif’s sight could reach.
“Three black knights. On the side being attacked, one hundred and twenty. Civilians and knights, mixed. About ten knights.”
“Civilians?”
Kassel spoke hurriedly, remembering something.
“Rai, can you save them now?”
“Yes.”
Rai spread his wings and asked.
“Go?”
“Yes!”
Kassel hurriedly ordered. Jay blocked Rai’s path.
“Take me too. You can carry one person like me, right?”
Rai looked at Jay intently. Without asking ‘Why?’, he just looked and then answered.
“Alright.”
Rai hugged Jay from behind and jumped off the tower. It seemed a bit heavy, almost falling to the ground, but soon glided up. Kassel watched them silently and then muttered.
“That guy Jay, I thought he hated high places, so why…?”
☆ ☆ ☆
Jay hated high places. Sitting on a roof was thrilling because it stimulated that fear, but he disliked high places like cliffs or towers where you could see clearly below. So flying in the sky with nothing to stand on was pure torture. Rai, not considering Jay’s feelings, increased speed with violent wing beats several times. It wasn’t a situation where he could ask to go slower, so Jay just focused on what was ahead.
Gradually, the scene Rai had witnessed from afar came into Jay’s view as well.
As Rai had said, over a hundred people were running towards Rock. Three black knights were chasing them. A few Rock knights interspersed among them tried to hold off the black knights, but they were no match. It wasn’t easy to deal with horses that charged like bulls, ramming anything in front of them.
Rai flew as low as possible, almost touching the ground. Jay had never been so glad to see the ground so close.
“Drop?”
Rai said.
“Drop me!”
Jay shouted, trying to match the flying speed as he ran on the ground. When Rai released his arms, the speed was faster than expected and Jay couldn’t handle it. He rolled heavily on the ground.
‘I’m glad I practiced jumping out of carriages before. I thought it was useless at the time.’
Jay was able to get up with only minor scratches and covered in dust.
People with exhausted and terrified faces rushed past Jay. At the very end of the procession, Dragon Knights were following.
“The Lemif from the Sky Mountains and I will handle this. Keep running.”
Jay shouted loudly to them.
“They are the Undying.”
One of the knights ran up to Jay and cried out desperately. His voice didn’t sound particularly happy about Jay and Rai’s appearance.
“We desperately attacked them even as we sacrificed twenty of us, but they wouldn’t die no matter how many times we stabbed them.”
“I know! That’s why you need to run quickly.”
Meanwhile, one of the black knights spotted Jay and charged straight at him. Jay drew only one of his two swords and gripped it with both hands. The knight who had reported quickly fled.
The black knight charged towards Jay at tremendous speed.
‘They don’t revive immediately after being killed, right?’
Jay ducked his head to avoid the spear swung by the black knight. Then, sweeping his sword low, he cut off one of the running horse’s front legs. Given the extraordinary speed at which it was running, the fall was naturally spectacular. The black knight riding the horse slid across the ground for over twenty paces, kicking up dust.
Jay ran to the black knight who was staggering to his feet and sliced off his head with his sword.
Meanwhile, Rai, gliding down from the sky, snatched up one of the black knights and ascended into the air. The black knight resisted by striking Rai’s chest and stomach with his heavy iron fist, but instead got hit in the neck by Rai’s knee, twisting it sideways. Rai dropped the black knight from a dizzying height, and the black knight shattered into pieces upon impact with the ground.
The remaining black knight showed little reaction to the deaths of his two companions and pointed his sword forward. The horse, pawing the ground with its front hooves, glared at Jay with intense fighting spirit. Seeing Rai flying towards the black knight, Jay held out his hand.
“I’ll handle this one.”
Rai spread his wings wide to slow his flight and landed on the ground. As Jay had asked, he didn’t approach any further.
“I have some things to settle with this one.”
Jay pointed the tip of his sword forward.
‘Was the one who scared me among the two who just died, or is it you, or can all of you do such strange things? Either way, let me see the face under your helmet. You can’t do anything to me with that anymore.’
Jay shouted.
“Take off your helmet!”
“How arrogant.”
The black knight said.
A clear human voice, not an unpleasant monster’s voice, not Lemif language, nor incomprehensible ancient language, flowed from inside the helmet. It was the voice of his father, Tion. The black energy flowing from the black knight’s body darkened the surroundings around Jay.
“Do you think that will eliminate your fear?”
“It can’t be eliminated…”
Even though it was a scene repeated many times, Jay was scared. It was a lie to say he wasn’t afraid of the person who had been the entirety of his childhood fears just because he had grown up.
Jay slowly closed the distance and charged. The black horse raised its front hooves and rushed at Jay in one breath. The black knight’s spear flew towards Jay’s neck.
‘One and a half steps!’
The spear blade grazed Jay’s shoulder and plunged into the ground. And Jay’s sword cut through the horse’s neck and sliced into the side of the black knight riding it. The decapitated horse rolled on the ground, and the black knight riding it rolled several times with the horse. One of the black knight’s legs came off, one arm came off, and finally, the helmet rolled off onto the ground.
Inside the armor was his father.
“Are you going to kill me once again, son? You must live with my fear for the rest of your life. For life, until the moment you die.”
Jay looked at his father’s face, speaking while coughing up blood, and pointed his sword forward.
“I know. I’ll live with it for life.”
Jay’s sword cut off his father’s neck. Black smoke exploded and flowed to the side.
Jay quickly sheathed his sword and turned around. The sight of the headless horse and the headless knight tangled together, writhing and dying, wasn’t a sight worth watching for long. But Jay felt somewhat relieved.
“At least my father didn’t say such pitiful words as he was dying.”
Suddenly, Brander’s words came to mind, and a smile involuntarily appeared.
‘You’re right, Brander. I don’t need to atone for my father’s sins.’
Rai approached Jay as he walked.
“Black knight, you, two, what talk, had?”
“Family matter. Don’t be concerned.”
Rai held out his hand.
“Let’s fly. Far.”
“No.”
“Then I go alone.”
“Go alone.”
So Rai flew off alone.
“He really went alone.”
Jay grumbled and joined the Dragon Knights who were going ahead. They greeted him with tired but relieved looks.
“Thank you so much.”
“We thought we were going to be completely wiped out.”
“I’ve never seen anyone attack a mounted knight like that. It’s impressive.”
One of them was the very knight who had previously quarreled with Jay. He hesitated, then awkwardly smiled, just slightly raising his hand.
“What about Brander?”
Jay raised his hand in return and looked at each of their faces before speaking.
“Ah, about that…”
One of them hesitated before answering.
“He couldn’t escape from Anbaldi.”
☆ ☆ ☆
About half of the citizens who escaped from Anbaldi safely fled to nearby cities.
The other half couldn’t do so.
According to Gracus, a Dragon Knight who survived with the help of Jay and Rai, a demon flying with black wings burned all their companions to death, and dozens of people were enveloped in black mist and died, dried up like mummies.
In the end, Brander evacuated about five hundred people to ‘Lima Castle’ north of Anbaldi. His companion, Tendros, thinking they would all be massacred if trapped in Lima Castle with no escape route, evacuated some citizens towards Rock. However, the enemy tracked their route. In this process, Tendros and twenty knights died, and about a hundred citizens died. The only survivors were the people rescued by Jay and Rai.
“What are the enemy forces surrounding Lima Castle?”
Governor Ruenmus asked with a stern face.
“When we escaped, there were about five hundred monsters. But the problem is not those monsters, but the black knights who don’t die even when killed, and that demon pouring curses from the sky.”
‘It must be Narbeni.’
Kassel thought to himself.
Dragon Knight Gracus continued reporting in a dry tone.
“There were many sacrifices, but we can’t say Tendros’s judgment was wrong. We couldn’t keep defending Lima Castle. When I last saw it, there was no food left, no drinking water, and almost no weapons. It wasn’t built for defense in the first place, so it couldn’t hold out for long. By now…”
He couldn’t finish his sentence.
Kassel asked.
“What kind of place is Lima Castle?”
“It’s a small fortress guarding a beacon. The underground is spacious, so it might be able to accommodate people immediately, but there’s no escape route…”
Captain Harrow of the Rock Guard and some council members and advisors began to murmur and consider ways to go rescue the citizens there. Especially Gracus, who felt guilty for surviving, asked to be at the forefront of any operation to rescue them.
‘It’s not an easy task.’
Lima Castle was half a day’s ride away at full gallop. At a time when they didn’t know when the enemy might attack, they couldn’t spare many cavalry who would be their most valuable force, and if they led infantry, they would arrive the next day. They couldn’t expect Lima Castle to hold out until then. If it had already fallen, it would be taking an unnecessary risk. As Gracus eagerly suggested, they were about to decide on sending twenty Dragon Knights and about a hundred cavalry from Rock’s guard as reinforcements.
‘No. We can’t go.’
Kassel couldn’t open his mouth. For the same reason, Ruenmus couldn’t speak either. The elderly advisor assisting Harrow was also restless. Ruenmus wrote something and pushed it to Kassel. Ruenmus had put all his opinions in a short sentence.
‘You speak. The advisor and I cannot.’
Kassel bit his lower lip hard.
Ruenmus was right. It was an issue the governor could never speak about.
‘He’s asking me to take responsibility.’
Kassel nodded at Ruenmus and then opened his mouth.
“We cannot send reinforcements.”
Everyone’s eyes widened. The representative of the Elder Council, his beard trembling, spoke up.
“Captain, are you saying we should… abandon over two hundred lives?”
“Yes, we abandon them. We cannot send cavalry.”
“Shut up. Someone who doesn’t even have the right to enter the council has no qualification to give such an order!”
At the elder councilor’s words, Latilda, who was sitting alone with her legs crossed far from the round table, quietly spoke up.
“Does that include me too, councilor?”
White tobacco smoke leaking from her red lips hazed the ceiling of the conference room. Under the tobacco pipe she held out, the guard knight next to her extended a silver cup to receive the ashes.
“Although you’ve let me participate in military operations, I know nothing about strategy or tactics, so I tried not to speak as much as possible. I’m also embarrassed to step forward because my pronunciation would sound as funny to your ears as yours does to mine. But don’t you all know that Captain Wolf’s thinking isn’t wrong?”
The elder councilor was intimidated by Latilda’s voice, which wasn’t forceful at all. She knew very well the power her appearance held, and she knew the most appropriate timing to use it. Kassel admired her technique of subduing others not with words but with actions, while also being wary. As Tanya had repeatedly warned, she could be an enemy.
Governor Ruenmus spoke quietly.
“The location of the enemy’s main force is important. Where is the current estimated location?”
The old advisor spoke cautiously.
“Considering the time it took to reach Anbaldi from Leofio, it’s truly astonishing. If they left Anbaldi at that speed, tonight… no, in the worst case, they might have already arrived and be waiting somewhere.”
“What do you think of Captain Wolf’s opinion on abandoning reinforcements?”
Ruenmus asked.
The advisor answered briefly.
“I agree.”
“I agree too.”
Ruenmus quietly gazed at everyone.
The Dragon Knight strongly objected.
“Are you saying you’re abandoning the Dragon Knights now? There aren’t just ordinary citizens in Lima Castle. About forty Dragon Knights are still alive there. What are you going to do about them?”
Though he was speaking to Ruenmus, the target of his hatred was Kassel. Kassel was prepared to accept that hatred from the moment he first opened his mouth. So naturally, Kassel had to respond.
“If it’s the black demon killing people in Lima Castle, it would be Narbeni, and if Narbeni is there, the place can’t be defended for a moment without a magician. Even if we take two hundred cavalry instead of a hundred, we won’t be able to stop Narbeni. I’ve seen hundreds of soldiers unable to stop twelve black knights and collapse in an instant in Camort.”
“Can’t we take magicians?”
“A magician who can stop Narbeni? Are you saying Master Tanya should leave Rock empty?”
“W-well, anyway, our Dragon Knights have been stopping them for two days!”
“They’re not stopping them. They’re deliberately leaving them be.”
The enemy’s strategy was so simple that Kassel thought it might be a trap in itself. But it wasn’t. This was a repetition of Lutia.
“The enemy wants us to send reinforcements there. While painfully chasing you to Rock. To put it more harshly, the reason you were able to survive is the same context.”
“W-what?”
“Jay and Rai jumped in a bit early and reduced the sacrifices. You would have arrived safely at Rock. According to the enemy’s intention for us to know this fact.”
Gracus, who was already under great mental shock, dropped his gloomy face to the floor.
“But Lima Castle…”
Harrow of the guard tried to strongly object to something. But as Kassel waited for his words, he couldn’t continue speaking.
Kassel spoke again.
“Everyone, the enemy has come down from the Sky Mountains, ready to bring down the entire continent, starting with bringing down Carnelock. They are the ones who used even the magical city of Lutia as a trap to attack Nadium. There’s no reason for them to struggle with just Lima Castle. Lima Castle itself is a trap.”
“The council will agree with Captain Wolf’s opinion.”
Ruenmus finished by agreeing with Kassel’s opinion, not stating his own. It was to show that he, as the governor, had made this cruel decision with difficulty. Kassel left the conference room, leaving behind the council members and knights who glared at him until the end.
As he breathed in the cold air outside, something welled up inside him. Kassel covered his mouth and leaned his hand against the wall. His weakened forearm trembled violently.
‘Why am I like this?’
He seemed to see the image of Lima Castle. No, that horrific and vivid image actually floated and sank in his mind like a memory he had just experienced.
Lima Castle was burning. In those flames, people were burnt black or buried in mud. A woman with black wings on top of a pile of corpses looked at Kassel and laughed loudly. All the dead people seemed familiar. It felt like all the pain they experienced while dying was being transmitted.
The jewel embedded in the hilt of the sacred sword was glowing. Kassel gripped the sacred sword tightly.
‘Is this what you’re showing me, Ztokh Worg? If it’s an unchangeable future, please don’t show it.’
Kassel’s tears fell on the white floor made of cleanly cut granite. Next to the tear stain, the paw of a large wolf approached. Kassel raised his face to look up at the wolf’s head, which was higher than himself kneeling.
“W-why am I like this? I can see all the people who are about to die there. They’re dying because of my decision. Do I have the right to do this? Do I have the right when the people on the battlefield aren’t just chess pieces?”
Kassel tightly hugged the wolf’s neck. The silver fur warmly enveloped Kassel.
“I’m scared, Tanya. I’m scared that I might have to make even worse decisions than this.”
The wolf raised its front paws and wrapped them around Kassel’s back. Its body slowly changed into a human form. Tanya, holding the weakly clinging Kassel with both hands, said,
“Whatever decision you make, I will always be by your side, Kassel. Whatever sin you commit, I will bear it with you.”
Tanya had been running at full speed as a wolf to inform them that the enemy’s vanguard had already reached the southern plains. And she found Kassel crying.
Tanya ran and hugged Kassel. That was all she could do.
Tanya was scared too. In her eyes, she saw not the burning Lima Castle, but the burning Rock.
She saw the dream that Latilda had.
She saw the collapsed Tower of Blessing.
‘The hand extended by the Lord of the Undying is beginning to control us. His strongest magic is not the power of destruction, but fear.’
Tanya returned the words Kassel had said in Knadil’s cave.
“You mustn’t lose, Kassel. Don’t lose.”
☆ ☆ ☆
‘As long as we’re alive, we can grow more. I fell off my horse and was shamefully defeated, and we lost many excellent knights. But we survived. Don’t consider that a disgrace. It’s a disgrace if we can’t stand up again. Even without dragons, we are the Dragon Knights. The dragons will return. Should we show them a mess of a knighthood when they do?’
Ten years ago in the war, Deradul shouted this as he raised the defeated and fallen knights. And he really did restore the strength of the knighthood.
Deradul, he was Brander’s hero, teacher, and captain.
He died in Anbaldi. Brander wept as much as when his parents passed away.
There was no food left in Lima Castle now. No water either. He couldn’t even remember when he last drank water. The nights were long, and the exhausted sleeping people tossed and turned with dry coughs. The sound of a child crying could be heard in the darkness.
“Brander, it’s your turn. Get some sleep.”
A comrade approached and said in a tired voice.
Brander barely moved his parched lips to answer.
“It’s fine. I can’t sleep anyway.”
“You didn’t sleep yesterday either. At least rest your eyes.”
“I said I’m fine.”
The comrade gave up trying to persuade him and crouched down next to the stairs.
“Do you think reinforcements will come?”
Brander didn’t answer his question.
Elderly people who couldn’t sleep, women staring blankly into space, Anbaldi soldiers unable to move due to injuries… They all waited for Brander’s answer. Brander looked at them and then replied.
“They’ll definitely come. If we hold out just one more day, we can survive. Surely they wouldn’t abandon this place where forty Dragon Knights are still alive?”
“Is that so?”
“Let’s go for a walk.”
Brander climbed the stairs with his limping leg. There were some clouds in the sky, but the stars and moon were still clearly visible. The weather had been consistently good recently.
After confirming there was no one around, Brander said,
“If I were the commander in Rock, I wouldn’t send reinforcements.”
“What? But earlier…”
“I lied because there were too many ears listening.”
The walls of Lima Castle weren’t low enough to easily climb. If the opponent were a regular army, they might attempt a siege, expecting some casualties. However, the horses ridden by the black knights could jump over walls of this height in one leap, and they had cut down several Dragon Knights before retreating.
That’s how they gradually crumbled. Among the forty survivors, no one was uninjured. Brander too had been stabbed in the thigh by a spear while facing two black knights. It hurt so much he wanted to scream with every step. But since there was no medicine and no time to rest, he pretended it didn’t hurt. There was no one to sympathize even if he said it hurt, and shouting in pain wouldn’t reduce the suffering.
“Look over there. Those many monsters aren’t doing anything other than just surrounding us.”
Brander pointed at the distant encirclement of Mozes and continued speaking.
“They’re preventing us from escaping. They’re not even killing us. Just tormenting us slowly. They’re waiting for reinforcements to come from Rock. We’re the bait. I hope there are no councilors in Rock who would fall for such bait. Do you know what’s even scarier? That these many monsters are just a small fraction of their entire army.”
“H-how can you say such things so casually?”
“Captain Deradul died during the operation. What right do we, who abandoned his body and came here, have to live? I just feel guilty for not being able to protect the people I brought here under my responsibility.”
Brander stood on the narrow parapet of the castle wall, looking out. The red eyes of the sleepless monsters were moving about in the darkness. The monsters were powerful enough to face Dragon Knights even without weapons. Though they couldn’t pierce armor, knights who were grazed by those claws and teeth were dying slowly from illness. Even though they knew it was poison, they couldn’t do anything without medicine.
Brander struck the parapet with his fist.
“I should have stayed. I should have pushed Captain Deradul out and taken charge of that operation. I abandoned him in the most dangerous place and fled, using orders as an excuse.”
Brander shouted, unable to contain his anger. Other knights on guard nearby turned in surprise.
“You say that knowing the Captain’s stubbornness? Even if you had…”
“There was a way. If I had accepted the Captain’s position right there, that would have been enough.”
“Brander, you? Perhaps?”
“Yes. The Captain kept telling me to take the position of Captain. But only a dragon can appoint the Captain of the Dragon Knights. I didn’t think I was worthy enough, and I didn’t want to be the first to break the rules.”
The listening comrade placed his hand on Brander’s shoulder.
“Brander, if the Captain really said that, you should take the position of Captain even now. It’s an emergency. Rules aren’t important. Shouldn’t we establish a clear chain of command even if it means breaking the rules?”
“Didn’t you hear me? I’m not qualified to be Captain. Even if I had been, that qualification disappeared the moment I abandoned Captain Deradul in Anbaldi.”
The night was dark as if it would last forever. The enemies attacked without warning, and they would attack again without warning. How many more would die if the black knights crossed these walls again, and how many times would this painful torture continue before it ends? Brander was afraid that he might be the last person to survive.
“I curse myself. If I’m the one who killed the Captain, how on earth can I atone for that sin?”
Brander took off all his armor. He even took off the chainmail underneath and threw it down the wall, then jumped down the castle wall with just a sword in hand. The moment he landed, the wound on his thigh that had barely started to heal burst open again.
The comrades on guard shouted,
“Brander, what are you doing? Come back up!”
The monsters, discovering prey that had come down the wall, began to approach, sniffing. Black knights rode over, targeting Brander as their first target.
Brander shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Narbeni, listen! Brander of the Dragon Knights speaks.”
The black knights stopped their horses as they approached, and the monsters also stopped at someone’s command.
One of the black knights approached. He spoke in an incomprehensible language at first, then quickly switched to human language.
“You’re the one who cut me yesterday. What lingering attachment do you have? There will be no negotiation.”
‘So this is the one who cut my thigh.’
Rarely, this black knight revealed his name as ‘Andy’ and attacked Brander. Brander barely managed to cut off Andy’s head. But the creature continued to move even after its head was severed, and finally stabbed Brander’s thigh with its spear. Of course, Andy reattached his severed head afterwards, and now he was proudly riding his horse in front of Brander.
‘These undying creatures have no reason to drag this out like this. It’s bait.’
Seeing him, Brander became even more convinced of his thoughts.
‘I will never become bait that torments my allies.’
Brander shouted,
“I don’t have words for you. Bring your lord.”
“She is not one to appear before you.”
Brander looked at Andy for a moment, then shouted into the air.
“Narbeni, where is your oath to Carnelock? If there are ears on that hideous form of yours, hear the resentment of those who died betrayed by the loyalty you swore without value.”
“Resentment?”
Flapping her black wings, Narbeni flew in from the east and landed in front of Brander.
“I can’t hear anything?”
Narbeni smiled, standing with her body fully displayed as if to seduce a man.
‘How many comrades did she kill with such a smile?’
Brander hated her smile.
Narbeni playfully put her hand to her ear.
“Your hearing must be better than mine. To be able to hear such things.”
Brander spoke, suppressing his grinding anger.
“I hate myself for once respecting your passion. Inheriting Deradul’s anger, I will burn my soul lacking insight right here and cut you down with those flames. If I cannot do it, my comrades will. Even if my comrades cannot, someone from the Dragon Knights that has continued for a thousand years will surely punish you someday.”
“A thousand years is a long time, isn’t it? Isn’t it time for it to end? You can still respect me for now. As the governor of Carnelock who shattered the Dragon Knights!”
Brander shouted towards the castle walls.
“Open the gates. Knights, draw your swords. We cannot be bait for Rock. Let us all die here. We will show the enemy our final courage through death.”
Narbeni cackled.
“Is that the conclusion of your stuffy knightly code, you stupid knights? Suicide? Don’t be ridiculous, Brander. No one will follow your orders. You’re not even the Captain. And if you want to die so badly…”
In the moment Brander turned his gaze towards the castle walls, Narbeni had disappeared. Her voice was coming from behind him.
“…I’ll just kill you myself.”
Brander swung his sword behind him. But he only cut through the air, and Narbeni was back in her original position, as before. She tapped her cheek with her finger and said,
“You want to avoid being a burden to Rock? Good idea. Yes, die. Afterwards, I’ll impale the children in that castle on spears and take them to Rock. I’ll strip the women naked and hang them upside down to be crow food. The rest I’ll tear limb from limb and throw over Rock’s walls as a gift. And you still think your souls are clean? This is dereliction of duty, Sir Dragon Knight. You should protect them to the end.”
Narbeni pointed her finger forward and continued,
“Don’t pretend to be brave. It’s a dog’s death.”
“Don’t speak of the value of life. You have no right. I am a Dragon Knight. Only dragons and the knights who follow them can speak of my death!”
There was no sound from behind. Brander didn’t look back. He didn’t want to make his comrades feel guilty by turning around.
‘No one followed me. That’s fine. I never had the authority to give orders to my comrades in the first place.’
Determined to fight alone if need be, Brander raised his sword and shouted.
“For Captain Deradul!”
Then, a resounding voice came from behind him.
“For Captain Deradul!”
Only then did Brander realize his comrades were standing behind him.
Somehow, Lima’s gates had opened and the remaining forty or so knights were behind Brander. The knights who were too injured to move had mounted horses and ridden out belatedly. Not one of them was uninjured, but not one of them retreated.
Brander turned around and nodded with firm resolve. Everyone nodded back at him.
“I just remembered, even before I became like this, I found your self-righteousness unsightly.”
Narbeni spread her wings and floated in the air, retreating backwards as if sliding along the ground. She pointed her finger forward.
“Seems like I don’t need this anymore. Kill them.”
The Mozes waiting in the distance surged towards Lima Castle like a wave. The dust and vibrations caused by the five hundred or so Mozes shook Lima Castle. Brander limped forward a few steps, then turned back and said,
“Brothers.”
‘What should I say?’
Brander wasn’t used to these kinds of speeches.
‘Let’s make sure our deaths aren’t in vain? No. It’s fine even if they are in vain. It’s enough that we’ve fought together as brothers all this time.’
Brander spoke briefly to everyone.
“Let’s go.”
At Brander’s words, the knights all prepared to charge forward. At that moment, a woman walked up beside Brander.
“Save the brotherhood for later, Dragon Knights.”
The woman’s voice was laced with power, yet strangely sounded like a weighty command. The forty knights hesitated as they were about to charge. She stood next to Brander. A woman with short brown hair that just covered the back of her neck and dark eyebrows stood there.
She drew the sword at her waist.
“W-whoever you are, please step aside.”
Brander spoke hurriedly, alarmed by the approaching monsters. Their resolve to die was wavering due to her appearance.
“That demon’s words are right. Dying here would be a dog’s death.”
“What?”
Brander shouted angrily.
“Don’t get angry. If you die in a place like this, that stubborn old man Deradul would be even more upset.”
“W-who are you?”
Brander asked.
“Irine. I’ll introduce myself in detail later! I’ve come from Aranthia to help Carnelock, so leave it to me and my juniors for now.”
Beside Irine, three men and women were suddenly standing. There was a young woman with short hair holding a shield and a short sword in both hands, a brown-haired man with a long thin sword, and a light blonde man holding a bow. All three were taller than Irine, but strangely, to Brander’s eyes, she seemed the tallest of the four.
Irine thrust her drawn sword into the ground, then knelt on one knee and bowed her head. Incomprehensible words flowed from her mouth.
“Dru znavad og vena, ipjub mai chihap. Zruo yoeb nawib du mai upumai.”
A red light began to envelop her body and gradually swelled. At first, it wrapped around Irine and the three around her, then enveloped all the Dragon Knights. When the confused knights retreated in fear of the light, Brander gestured to reassure them.
“I-it seems alright. Everyone stay still.”
The light was as warm as a bonfire on a cold winter’s day. The knights who had stopped at Brander’s gesture soon sensed intuitively that the red light was not harmful.
The massive ball of light that started from the sword grew larger and larger until it enveloped the entire Lima Castle.
The monsters stopped when they saw the light as they were charging. They couldn’t cross about twenty paces from where the light touched. The monsters roared and threw weapons. The red light couldn’t block the weapons. But they were thrown from too far away to be any threat.
“What is that?”
Narbeni said in confusion.
“Look to the east, Dragon Knights.”
Irine said, opening her eyes. Though it was still hours before sunrise, the sun was rising in the eastern sky. Looking closely, it was a massive object with a golden glow like the sun flying towards them. The owner of those golden wings landed far from Lima Castle.
It was a massive dragon, its scales emitting a dazzling light all over its body.
All the Dragon Knights were astonished. Especially Narbeni, who forgot to flap her wings and sagged downwards for a moment. The dragon looked towards Narbeni with narrowed eyes, then took a deep breath.
“Good heavens, this can’t be!”
The roar of exploding flames from the dragon’s mouth swallowed Narbeni’s voice. The stream of fire rippling across the ground swept away everything in its path like a burst dam. The monsters evaporated, losing their form as soon as they were engulfed in flames.
Brander and the other Dragon Knights turned their heads away from the flames surging towards them. However, the fire was blocked by the red curtain Irine had created and flowed to the sides or upwards. A burst of heat brushed everyone’s faces, but it was no more than briefly putting one’s face close to a stove.
Where the flames had passed, there were hardly any corpses left of the Mozes, only some traces remaining. The very few Mozes that survived outside the range of the flames seemed to have lost their minds and didn’t even flee. The only thing remaining in the charred area was Narbeni, wrapped in her black wings. She barely spread her wings and looked down at her hands and wings.
“It seems some reinforcements have come from the Sky Mountains. Did they bring some fledgling dragon? But look. I am safe even in a dragon’s flames! This proves that the master I serve exists above even dragons.”
Narbeni cackled and raised her finger. Black energy flowed along her finger. It raised the black knights who had been shattered by the dragon’s flames. The black horses took on a ghostly transparent form and carried the knights.
“Now, the knights of Lontamon will do again what they did 10 years ago. You nameless dragon, pitiful beast adorned in dull gold! You should have stayed quietly in the Sky Mountains without opening your eyes. I will kill you here and restore my fallen prestige.”
At that moment, Irine drew the sword thrust into the ground and shouted,
“Does a woman like you even have any prestige to restore?”
“Don’t interfere in the sacred battle of gods, worthless human.”
A black sphere the size of a human body formed from Narbeni’s finger and flew towards them. Brander remembered how when those spheres burst, not only the person hit but also five or six friends nearby would dry up and die like mummies, so he shouted,
“Dodge it!”
However, Irine dispelled the black sphere just by swinging her drawn sword. Nothing happened, to the dismay of the watching knights.
“Azwin, clear a path. Loyal, Dunmel. Protect me. I need to kill this traitor of Rock.”
As soon as Irine’s words fell, the three waiting sprang forward. The undying black knights immediately turned their horses and charged at the three.
Brander couldn’t believe what happened next. The woman with the shield blocked all the attacks of the black knights while clearing a path, and the two men following her cut down the monstrous horses and their riders all at once.
Irine ran through the path those three had cleared. With light movements, she caught up to the three in front and reached Narbeni. The flustered Narbeni stretched her hand forward. Pitch-black darkness engulfed the ground and stretched towards Irine. She lunged forward and slashed her sword horizontally. Red light spread in all directions, cutting the darkness in two.
Narbeni tried to spread her wings and fly backwards. But Irine grabbed her neck with one hand and slammed her to the ground. Narbeni flapped her wings even as she fell.
Irine cut off both wings in one breath and placed her blade against Narbeni’s neck. Narbeni froze, unable even to scream.
“W-who are you? That sword is…”
“Vena Esarck. This is the sword of one higher than the master you serve, and I am the god of death come to kill that master you serve.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. My master is the lord of all the undying! He has already transcended death…”
“Let’s see if you die or not, you die first!”
Irine swung her sword widely. Narbeni’s severed head rolled on the ground a few times, then began to burn black starting from the hair. The headless body Irine was stepping on also writhed in pain and burst into flames. Narbeni’s scream echoed from within those flames as if it would continue forever.
Irine and the three knights protecting her stood at the center where darkness, red light, and golden light blurred each other’s boundaries. Their figures rose beautifully like ancient murals revealed after hundreds of years. Soon after, a golden dragon approached Brander, shaking the ground.
The dragon slowly lowered its head to meet Brander’s gaze. The dragon’s narrow gaze swept over the Dragon Knights.
“My children.”
The dragon said.
Some knights were at a loss for words, unable to close their open mouths, while others trembled with joy. How long had they longed for the return of the dragon they had revered as a god, a teacher, a mother, before losing it long ago? Only a knight of Rock could understand that desperate longing.
“As one of the Dragon Knights, I ask. Please tell us your noble name.”
Brander asked, steadying his trembling voice.
The dragon lowered its head slowly and answered.
“Le-Ganelandor. I am the dragon who first gave you your names. Where is your Captain?”
Brander choked up and couldn’t answer easily.
‘Deradul, the one we’ve been waiting for so long has come and is looking for you.’
Brander knelt down and managed to say,
“Captain Deradul fell in battle two days ago. So in his stead, to the master of the Dragon Knights, I, Brander, your servant and knight who follows your name, greet you. O Dragon of the Morning and Guardian of Arok,”
The knights behind Brander all knelt and bowed their heads. The dragon slowly nodded and spread its wings.
“I have come down from the Sky Mountains by the command of the goddess Nadiuren to fight against the ancient enemy. Once again, I, Ganel, must borrow your strength. Knights of Arok.”
The Dragon Knights knelt and received the command. The wide plain before Lima Castle was dyed in Ganel’s golden light, returned after a thousand years.
–TL Notes–
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