‘How many days has it been since I arrived in Lutia…?’
Dunmel counted the days since he had arrived in Lutia, facing a dreadful situation. Eleven days. Could anything have been done differently during that time to prevent this? It was a question whose answer would only leave regret.
‘Let’s stay calm. Now is not the time for regrets.’
The Mozes were threatening to kill the captured humans by hanging them on crosses. A single kick from them, and a person tied to a log would fall face-first to the ground, the log on their back. A single movement from those holding knives to the hostages’ bellies, and the belly would be cut open, spilling out the intestines. Dunmel fervently wished for there to be no pain, regardless of which scenario unfolded.
Dunmel simply watched the Mozes for a long while. Even as Luder and Philip urgently gave orders to the soldiers and dozens ran about busily behind the palisade, Dunmel stood still. He was someone who could understand others through their tone, even if they spoke behind his back, but this time, he didn’t respond until Loyal tapped him on the back twice.
“While I still have some rationality left, issue an order.”
There was nothing but anger in Loyal’s eyes. Left to his own devices, Loyal would rush into the midst of the Mozes, killing dozens of them and likely ending up dead himself, along with the hostages.
‘Hold on. I’ll control this.’
Dunmel tried to maintain his cool and spoke through hand signals. Loyal didn’t even nod. He had lost his composure, and so had Dunmel. Holding onto the last threads of his rationality, he told himself.
Think slowly. If they had decided to kill, these hostages would have been dead by now. There’s still time.
Dunmel’s gaze fixed on one of the twelve crosses, specifically on Flora. Hanging from the cross, she had her head down, limp. Her brown hair covered her face, making it impossible to discern her condition. She seemed so lifeless that one might think she had already died.
‘It started in Camort. I met Kassel, encountered the Red Rose Count, and came across the Blackfoot. The ambition of the Black Lion Count crumbled unexpectedly at the hands of Kassel and the dark magic growing in the shadows was shattered by Loyal’s sword. However, the moment I turned from heading to Nadium to enter the Sky Mountains, Azwin and Gerald went missing.’
Each of these events had the Black Knights as a common denominator.
‘They are completely different from the twelve black knights we faced in Camort. The atmosphere, the appearance! Why do I keep thinking of these two as the same?’
Cutting through the Mozes, the Kagua, riding a black-furred Venon, casually revealed himself. The Kagua waited after approaching fairly close to the leg area.
Among the hostages, a tall man was still able to support his body hanging from the cross because his feet touched the ground. However, the shorter women, just by hanging, were in such pain that they either fainted or screamed. Dunmel listened to their screams with his heart, not his ears.
‘I’d rather the teacher were dead!’
Caesar’s wish was in vain. Flora was alive. Weakly, she lifted her head to watch across the river. There was no vitality in her eyes.
Suddenly, Dunmel felt something slip from his grasp. Looking down, he realized he had crushed part of the palisade he was holding with his hand.
Loyal, Dunmel, and Master Luder, who had experimentally used magic, stood across the bridge, and the Kagua, riding a Venon, stopped less than ten steps away from them. Inside the robe, the black helmet he was wearing sparkled in the sunlight. Although the exact shape of the helmet was not visible, Dunmel would not have been surprised if it was the same as that of the Black Knights.
Unable to see his mouth because of the helmet, he asked Loyal.
‘Is he saying anything right now?’
“He’s not saying anything. Just keeps looking.”
Luder stepped forward in front of the two.
“I’ll speak.”
Dunmel could only see Luder’s back. So, Loyal moved his lips to tell Dunmel what Luder had said.
“What do you want, Kagua?”
Kagua answered Luder’s question. Loyal relayed his words, saying it was a deep male voice.
“I am not Kagua.”
“Well, that name was given by us. Then, will you reveal your true identity now?”
“I am one who wishes for the destruction of Lutia.”
Loyal added an explanation.
“This guy, he’s mocking us.”
Luder asked again.
“What’s the reason for tying up the children of Lutia like that? Do you want to negotiate?”
“Negotiate?”
Just by seeing the movement of the robe as he tilted his head back, Dunmel knew he was laughing. Even if seen during the day, his figure was ghost-like. However, not hearing his voice actually helped Dunmel maintain his composure. As the conversation progressed, Dunmel felt his tension easing, and his perspective widening.
The Mozes were not simply threatening with their swords. They were sticking close to the hostages, considering the possibility of a magical attack from this side. Because the hostages were being used as shields, the soldiers of Lutia could neither use arrows nor magic.
“Is there no competent tactician or general on your side? Does no one there understand that we can utterly destroy this place without even having to propose a negotiation card?”
“Then why the hostages?”
“Hostages? How does this look like hostages to you? These ones you call the children of Lutia…”
Loyal didn’t finish transmitting the sentence and closed his mouth. Dunmel, not knowing what was said next, looked back and forth between Loyal and the Black Knight. After a while, with trembling lips filled with anger, Loyal relayed Kagua’s words.
“…were brought here to be executed.”
After that, Loyal could not relay the back-and-forth conversation between Luder and the Black Knight. However, the situation explained everything.
Luder must have said that if the hostages were harmed, they would attack from this side, and the Black Knight must have dared them to try. But attacking first would not offer a way to save the hostages. And the moment they crossed the bridge, monsters waiting in Downsearch would swarm over. Even if magic worked, it was impossible to fight under these conditions. Losing their composure and crossing the bridge was exactly what the other side wanted.
The execution started from the first cross on the left. The Moze, who had been holding a knife to a hostage’s belly, suddenly removed the knife and pushed the erected cross forward. The man, tied by his arms to the sides of the cross, fell face-first to the ground.
Luder turned his head away. Dunmel watched as the Moze stepped on the log and then, just to make sure, stabbed the dead man’s back with a knife.
“Is this what you wanted?”
Loyal said, trembling his lips. Dunmel could not tell if that was Loyal relaying Luder’s words or expressing his own thoughts.
Dunmel confirmed that Flora was the sixth from the left. It seemed the Mozes had no intention of fixing the logs upright anymore. Even if a hostage’s face smashed into the ground by accident, it didn’t matter to them.
Just as the Black Knight had said, this was an execution. And a provocation. Whether they attempted a rescue or not, all hostages would die. This was staged to demoralize them completely.
This time, the second log from the left was pushed. Luder extended his staff. The falling log paused mid-air and slowly fell downwards. Luder desperately twisted the direction in which the tree was falling.
“Stop!”
Luder shouted.
It was hard for Dunmel to just watch. Even if it meant losing a hostage, he wanted to fight and send Flora off without regrets. Maybe, as Caesar said, it would be better to die comfortably!
For a moment, Dunmel nearly lost his reason and dashed out before Loyal. However, when Dunmel spotted something among the Mozes that shouldn’t be there, he regained his composure.
‘Stay cool. Stay calm. It’s not too late!’
Dunmel hurriedly tried to sign to Loyal. But Loyal spoke first.
“That bastard, he just said to watch as the hostages die like this. He’s taunting us, saying magic seems to work, so let’s see what we can do. Even if we burn all the Mozes here with magic, there’s ten times the troops waiting behind!”
Loyal spoke too quickly for everything to be understood.
“And he said when the time comes that magic doesn’t affect the Mozes, they will attack again. Dunmel, don’t hold me back. I’ll kill that bastard first. If all the hostages are going to die anyway, I won’t just stand here stupidly watching!”
‘Loyal, stay calm.’
“How can I stay calm!”
At that moment, the third log from the left fell. Luder, unable to regain his magic, could not stop it. The person hanging there was a young man from the vigilante group, twenty-three years old, with a seventeen-year-old red-haired younger sister, a simple farmer’s child who had been plowing the fields in Downsearch with his parents.
Dunmel signed.
‘Stay calm. To save even one more person, look at my signs!’
Loyal hesitated.
When the fourth tree from the left fell, Luder again extended his staff to stop the log. When the staff’s end met the Black Knight, the log, as if caught by invisible threads, stayed suspended in mid-air before falling back to the ground. The tip of the Black Knight’s spear pointed at Luder from a distance.
Almost instinctively, Luder grasped the spot on his body where he had been pierced by a spear before.
A Moze climbed onto the fallen log and drove his knife down. The woman hanging there was a teacher from Kainswick, a respected sorceress who had bravely managed her household alone after her husband died of illness two years ago. But under the Moze’s blade, everything she had was lost.
Dunmel signed quickly.
‘Someone will attack the Mozes. When that happens, you attack the Black Knight. I’ll save the people. Tell Luder to prioritize protecting the people at all costs.’
Loyal immediately whispered in Luder’s ear. Luder, who had been crying out for Kagua to stop, widened his eyes in shock. There was no time to explain.
Dunmel saw the person who shouldn’t be among the Mozes begin to move. Finally, ‘his’ attack started!
The heads of four Mozes guarding the cross to the right of Flora simultaneously fell off. And at the same moment, a spear flew and lodged into the haunches of the Venon.
The Venon reared up, and the Black Knight fell from atop it.
Without needing to signal, it served as a signal itself. Loyal dashed out slightly ahead, followed by Dunmel running after him.
The Black Knight, beside the fallen Venon, fluttered his black robe as he swiftly stood up. Loyal, who had only the knight in his sight from the beginning, ran straight and swung his sword down. The Black Knight blocked Loyal’s sword.
The shock that vibrated the air was felt on Dunmel’s skin as he ran past the fight between Loyal and the knight.
Dunmel left the battle between Loyal and the knight behind and continued to run. Among the Mozes, there was someone who was not a Moze. The way this person perfectly concealed their presence was so remarkable that even Dunmel took a moment to notice.
The man suppressed the attacks of the Mozes on either side of him in a single move and cut off the arm of a Moze trying to push a log. However, the persistent Moze kicked the log towards the ground even as he fell backward.
It was Flora’s log.
The cross fell towards the ground with Flora’s face pointing downwards. Dunmel ran towards the falling log and reached out his hand. At that moment, a spear flew through the air towards his chest. He reflexively blocked it, but was pushed back, and Flora’s cross fell to the ground.
‘It’s too late!’
Dunmel clenched his eyes shut, then opened them. The one who threw the spear was another Black Knight coming from Downsearch.
Imagining the gruesome scene, Dunmel looked at the log. Flora, crushed under the log, dead in a terrible state…
Dunmel’s eyes widened. The log binding Flora didn’t fall to the ground but hovered about a yard high. Dunmel hurriedly approached and grabbed the log. The rope binding Flora untied itself, and she placed her hands on the ground as she lay there.
‘Did Luder save her?’
Other Mozes also kicked the crosses simultaneously. Like those executed before, the hostages fell face first with the logs on their backs. Philip and Luder desperately tried to magically stop the falling crosses. However, due to the distance, they could barely make the logs fall slightly away.
Meanwhile, the log binding Flora was still floating. Meaning, it wasn’t Philip and Luder who saved her.
Loyal was fighting the Black Knight, and the young man who created the opportunity for Dunmel to rush in was walking towards the Black Knight, stabbing and slashing at the Mozes in his path. Mozes from Downsearch swarmed towards the young man as their target. Yet, he fought on, unfazed.
It was an incredible skill Dunmel had never seen in Lutia. What came to mind was the reinforcements from Aranthia. But he was neither Sheyden nor any other Wolf Knight.
The identity of the young man was a mystery, but Flora’s condition was equally astonishing. Dunmel momentarily remembered the brightest spot shown on the map in Downsearch, mentioned by the masters in Lutiano as Justin…
The Mozes gave up on toppling the crosses for execution and attempted to stab with their knives.
Flora quietly lifted her head to look up at Dunmel. A faint smile spread across her lips. She gently waved her right hand, and all the weapons of the Mozes on the right line lifted into the air. She raised her left hand, and the weapons of the Mozes on the left line did the same. The Mozes stood still, dumbfoundedly watching their knives floating in the air.
Flora, relying on Dunmel’s outstretched hand, got up and then spread her hands. The ropes binding the hostages on the crosses were all cut.
From that moment, many things happened simultaneously. A wall of fire, two roads high, erupted in front of the two Black Knights robed in black and the horde of Mozes rushing from Downsearch. The wall of fire, starting from the south, vibrated the air as it raced north. Mozes that rushed into the fire prematurely evaporated on the spot. The mysterious young man, who had approached to confront the two Black Knights, retreated in surprise from the flames.
On the other side, Loyal was still fighting a Black Knight. Their fierce battle wasn’t interrupted by the Mozes, nor was Loyal noticeably injured. Yet, the fight wasn’t concluding! In fact, at a glance, it seemed Loyal was the one being pushed back.
‘It wasn’t because I was injured that I had trouble before. These Black Knights, they’re strong!’
The Mozes tried to kill the freed hostages with their bare hands.
Then, the floating swords moved on their own, slicing through the Mozes. Initially slow, they gradually picked up speed until they sliced through everything above the waist. Five swords, ten, twenty… the number of flying blades increased.
Even Dunmel had to duck down. It was a storm where sword blades swirled like wind.
The crosses still standing where the blade storm passed crumbled, unable to withstand being sliced. As the rotating range expanded, Loyal and the Black Knight, engaged in intense combat, also had to stop and retreat.
The Black Knight managed to break a few of the incoming swords, but overwhelmed by the sheer number of blades, he retreated on his Venon.
Loyal also retreated towards the bridge. Luder and Philip, rushing to help Dunmel and save the hostages, along with the soldiers from the vigilante group, had to stop in their tracks.
Blood droplets from the Mozes on the blades collided and shattered. Now, a red mist created by the blood-mixed storm hung in the air. Standing alone in it was Flora, with hot air swirling around her gradually settling.
The exhausted swords clattered to the ground. Not just the Mozes, but the hostages too, lay prone, unable to move. Only after the storm had passed could Dunmel stand up. Flora, with a faint smile, signed to Dunmel what she had learned from him.
‘It’s okay.’
Then she collapsed. Dunmel rushed to catch her as she fell.
He remembered what Flora had said later. Magic isn’t learned slowly but realized in an instant through some catalyst.
‘But for such an event to be the catalyst, Flora, you…’
As Dunmel thought this and lifted her, a Moze lying prone nearby raised its claws and rushed at them.
Dunmel was about to retaliate, even if it meant setting Flora down roughly, but another sword already flew and decapitated the Moze. It was the red-haired young man who had started the fight to save the hostages.
“Do all the sorceresses I meet act like this, or is it just sorceresses in general?”
The man made a statement that seemed understandable yet baffling at the same time.
The wall of fire still blocked the Mozes’ path, indicating that this magic wasn’t Flora’s. Philip and Luder, leading dozens of soldiers, crossed the bridge and attacked the surviving Mozes, saving the hostages tied to the crosses. This meant the wall of fire wasn’t the magic of Philip and Luder either.
The wall of fire extinguished. The Mozes and Black Knights, who had been unable to approach because of the fire, had already retreated.
☆ ☆ ☆
Crossing Larvitten Bridge, Master Dethain was waiting. The wall of fire was his magic. He spoke with a weary face.
“I’m too late. If only I had been a bit faster, three lives could have been saved…”
Dethain looked down at Flora, whom Dunmel was carrying. Gently wiping the blood off her face, he continued.
“Well done, Flora.”
Through Dethain’s words, it was confirmed. The dance of blades had been created by Flora.
“I thought you wouldn’t arrive until this evening. It’s fortunate.”
With a tired face, Luder embraced him lightly.
“And the ambush from that position was timely. Lucky for us, Dunmel caught on quickly… It’s fortunate.”
Luder also looked down at the unconscious Flora with warm eyes.
The rescued hostages were quickly moved to the barracks for treatment by Heidi and the other teachers. There was a surge of morale among everyone. While the exact intentions of the Black Knight with this execution were unclear, this outcome was surely not what he had anticipated.
The meticulous predictions of the Black Knight, which had so far been accurate, crumbled due to the element of Flora and the sudden appearance of Dethain.
Loyal returned a bit late after dealing with the last of the Mozes. Philip also returned and embraced Dethain. And then, a man with fierce eyes, dirty clothes, a loose backpack, and wearing a worn cape that could have been years old, inserted himself among them. His hair, now seen clearly, was not completely red but closer to brown. His messy hair was covered in Mozes’ blood.
Dethain introduced him.
“This is the reinforcement brought from Aranthia. If this fellow hadn’t executed a proper ambush initially, starting the fight would have been difficult. Regardless of the battle’s outcome, we would have lost all the hostages.”
“Indeed. I’d like to hear your name, Wolf Knight.”
Philip offered a handshake and asked, but the young man just slapped his hand away and said with an indifferent look.
“I’m from Aranthia, but I’m not a Wolf.”
Catching Loyal’s glance, even Loyal seemed puzzled and asked.
“Exactly as he says, this man isn’t a Wolf Knight. Who are you?”
The young man, hands on his hips and with a disgruntled face, replied.
“Jaymer.”
–TL Notes–
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