The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 46 – Indeterminate Polyhedron (5)

“Hey, you. What’s going on right now? The mansion has been robbed?”

As the atmosphere within the mansion got chaotic, Ethan grabbed a guard who was passing by and asked.

“It’s not a big deal, sir. We are in a rush, so please excuse us…”

Just as the guard attempted to leave, Ethan’s adjutant grabbed the guard by the collar, lifted him up in the air and pinned him against the wall. Pinned against the wall, the guard felt suffocated.

The other guards tried to rush in and try a surprise attack, but soon hesitated when they saw the symbol of White Crow on Ethan and the adjutant’s capes.

Meanwhile, the guard who had been pinned against the wall belatedly realized their identity.

“Let me ask you again. What’s going on right now?” Ethan asked calmly.

“O-one of Earl Henborn’s cherished items has been stolen, sir. We are tracking the location of the culprit right now, and we are also searching for the possible accomplices,” the guard eventually confessed after hesitating.

“What is the stolen item?”

“T-that I do not know, sir. But, I heard it was some kind of a gem.”

‘A gem.’

Ethan made a face and turned away, and the adjutant tossed the guard to the ground to follow Ethan.

“Do you have an idea of what it might be, Captain?” the adjutant asked.

“There was an item that Bishop Rietto was supposed to receive from Earl Henborn. I don’t know about the details, but I have a feeling that it’s connected to what’s happening right now. Bishop Rietto is not the type to covet gems, so I have a rough idea of what it is.”

Indeterminate Polyhedron. It was a gem known to curse its owner. Nevertheless, there were many people who coveted it. Its ability to curse the owner had yet to be proven, but its ability to absorb dark energy was a certain fact.

“I’m afraid we might be held back due to random matters. It would be for the best to help the guards for now. If we can retrieve the gem, we can pressure Earl Henborn to accept our request.”

“Yes, Captain. Then I’ll organize a tracking team with the knights within the city for now. Will you be commanding the team yourself?”

“No, it’d be better to split up and search. Move in groups of three, I will move on my own.”

The adjutant left first to relay his commands to the other knights, while Ethan decided to stay behind in the mansion to search the surroundings. There was a chance that the culprit hadn’t gone far.

Ethan couldn’t help but link even such minor incidents to the Order of Huginn due to the timing.

‘It seems like I’m becoming more and more like the previous Captain who had been obsessed with the Order of Huginn.’

Ethan felt bitter. However, this only further strengthened his resolve to eradicate the Order of Huginn. Without doing so, the Order of the White Crow would never be freed from the curse that was the Order of Huginn.

The surroundings of the mansion were quieter than anticipated. Everyone seemed to have assumed that the culprit had fled far, and thus expanded the search area rather than searching around the mansion. It was the right method of handling things if anyone understood Hiveden’s way of operation; it was easy to find the seller since stolen goods were easily sold, but that also meant they were easily monitored. It would be even riskier to stay within the city if the owner of the stolen item was the Lord of Hiveden—it would be a wise choice to run away as far as possible.

Ethan walked along the mansion walls to check if the culprit had left any evidence behind. Then he placed his hand on his sword as he suddenly sensed someone’s presence around the corner. The ones whom Ethan had encountered around the corner were a noble woman and a boy who came off as her servant. To be more specific, it was the noble woman he ran into earlier in the hallway, and the black-haired boy who was fighting in the garden.

Despite Ethan’s gaze, the boy unreservedly placed his hands on the noble woman’s thigh underneath her skirts and buried his face in her breast. Ethan had heard of secret love affairs between noblewomen and young servants before, so he quickened his steps, feeling a little unpleasant.

The moment Ethan walked past them, he pulled out his sword and swung it back immediately.

Clank!

With a sharp noise, Ethan’s sword met with the boy’s short sword. The boy seemed like a completely different person from who had been burying his face in the noblewoman’s breast. Heretia hastily arranged her skirt with a flushed face. Juan distanced himself from Ethan as he pushed Heretia away.

“As I expected,” Ethan said as he loosely held his sword and approached Heretia and Juan. “I had a feeling that this was an odd combination. What are your identities? Are you both knights of the Order of Huginn?”

“I thought Templars would run away upon seeing such an unbecoming scene… After all, they grew up without interaction with females. I guess you’re not so faithful after all, huh?” Juan derided Ethan instead of answering his question.

Ethan twisted his lips in irritation, but he kept calm. Knowing that Heretia was planning to run away first, Ethan instantly rushed to stop her. Juan and Ethan’s sword met once again, and the alley flashed with flames.

The result was completely unexpected.

Juan managed to block Ethan’s attack, but his body got thrown in the air due to the heavy strike. Juan had been naturally exposed to Ethan’s attack as he was flung up in the air. Ethan didn’t hesitate to stab his sword toward Juan’s falling body. Although Juan took defensive posture with his short sword, it was clear he wouldn’t be able to properly block the attack from such an unstable position.

The moment Juan’s body was almost pierced, his body suddenly disappeared. Ethan instinctively swung his sword to the back to block Juan’s short sword. Ethan felt a cold sweat running down his back, and thought that he might not be able to defend against that attack a second time.

“What the…?” Juan also displayed a frustrated look on his face.

Ethan recalled Juan’s movement he had seen just now; it was a movement so fast that even a shield blessed with His Majesty’s Grace could barely block it. This would only be possible if it was a high-rank magic.

‘Did he use Teleport? No, it might only have been for a second, but I had been able to see his movement. It must be some sort of acceleration spell.’

If that was Juan’s natural movement, Ethan would have no chance to block his attack. However, looking at Juan raising his sword on alert, it seemed difficult for him to use the technique frequently.

'Could it possibly be Blink, the highest rank Grace of all…?’

Ethan felt chills throughout his body. The highest rank Grace was extremely rare even among the Templars, as it was too difficult to handle. There was a risk of death before anyone could get used to it. So, there was no reason to grant such Grace to the precious Templars. Templars were powerful enough with the basic Grace they were granted anyway.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t a Grace for a heretic from beyond the borders to use.

‘No, maybe he is an illegitimate mace. No matter his identity, I need to properly interrogate him.’

“My Lady. Please remain calm and stay there. I don’t wish to hurt you,” Ethan said while he stood against Juan.

Heretia had tried to flee the scene upon realizing that she was holding Juan back, but had to upon hearing Ethan’s warning.

Ethan glared at Juan and waited for a chance. Juan seemed talented, but Ethan was overwhelmingly superior in terms of physical strength. Ethan found himself to be much more relaxed than Juan, if the bou didn’t often use that acceleration technique he had used just before.

“You…you must be the black-haired boy that the Order of the Blue Rose had been chasing after,” Ethan opened his mouth after quietly glaring at Juan.

Heretia’s eyes widened, but she soon understood and had an accepting look in her eyes. She had also had her own suspicions. While Juan didn’t answer the question, his silence was enough to be an answer.

“I see. I thought it made sense, since you and Sina Solvane gave off a similar feeling. Sina Solvane would be happy to receive your head as a gift.’

“Getting ahead of yourself is a bad habit,” Juan answered relaxedly.

Ethan charged at Juan again.

Juan had only rushed toward Ethan from the front as Heretia was behind him, but he didn’t make the same mistake again. At that moment, Juan dodged the trajectory of Ethan’s sword and spun his body around.

At the same time, Ethan’s vision blurred. Ethan turned his body in haste, as he thought Juan had sprayed something at him, but all Juan had done was bring out his gray cloak.

.

When Ethan let his guard down for a short moment, Juan immediately took off the ground.

With the sound of stone pavement breaking, Juan’s body fired like an arrow using Blink. He aimed for Ethan’s leg as he was unable to attack any of Ethan’s vitals.

Clang!

Juan’s body circled in the air and fell with a sharp sound. The one to bleed was Juan rather than Ethan. Juan frowned at the long cut on his chest.

“I think I’m getting used to your attacks after seeing how you move for the second time. Maybe I’ll be able to get you the third time,” Ethan said as he shook Juan’s blood off his sword.

Juan clicked his tongue. He had been unintentionally underestimating Ethan, since he was a Templar just like Arwain. But their skills were incomparable. Ethan was the first to block an attack using Blink without the help of the Templar’s shield. Juan let out a long sigh.

Meanwhile, Ethan was quite curious as to why Juan didn’t even bother to close the wound on his chest.

At that moment, Juan opened his mouth.

“You. What’s your name?”

“Ethan Etil. You must be Juan, right?”

“You must have heard from Sina. Are all the White Crow knights as skilled as you? The guy I met previously was pathetic.”

“I’m not going to appreciate you for killing him. It was only a natural result.”

Juan decided to interpret his words as Arwain being far worse rather than as Ethan being far better.

“That’s too bad,” Juan muttered as he clicked his tongue.

“What is?”

“I finally got the opportunity to see the true strength of a Templar, but I have an annoying burden and you have a troublemaker on your hands. Anyway, I’ve already seen what you are capable of. I would like to see if you really can get me the third time when we meet again.”

“Who said I’m gonna let you go…”

Juan widely spread his gray cloak to fill the alley with fog.

As the fog was gathering, Ethan immediately rushed toward Juan, wondering why Juan was using such a petty trick. But before he could reach Juan, something flew toward him. Ethan couldn’t help but to back off. Arrows strong enough to penetrate the stone pavement pressured Ethan nonstop.

Ethan blocked the arrows by swinging his sword, and then picked up an arrow from the ground to throw back to the unidentified archer.

A scream was heard.

At the same time, another blade flew toward Ethan, but this time, the attack was much slower and weaker compared to Juan’s. Ethan smashed the attacker’s head with his fist rather than a sword. The attacker’s cranium and helmet broke into pieces and splattered over the alley.

“An undead?” Ethan frowned.

A group of armed undead were crawling up the sewers beyond the fog.

Ethan growled at the appearance of the undead, the ones who dared to deny divinity. Instead of swinging his sword, Ethan used His Majesty’s Grace to attack all the skeletons in the alley with just a single lightning strike. The crushed skeletons melted away like salt, while Juan and Heretia were nowhere to be seen. But Ethan had no time to think about those two. As far as Ethan could recall in his memory, there was only one being that could summon the undead, and he belonged to the Order of Huginn.

***

Leaving Ethan behind, Juan ran along the waterway with Heretia.

The hem of Heretia’s dress got dirty from the mud, but she couldn’t be bothered about it right now. Rather, she constantly looked back to make sure there was no one chasing after them.

“Stop.” Juan said as he stopped in front of a huge sewer entrance after running for a long time.

“Huff, huff. Was, what we just saw, an undead?” Heretia asked Juan as she gasped for air.

“Yes. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the undead.”

“Why did they help us?”

“They didn’t,” Juan said as he drew out his short sword, looking at the entrance of the sewer which resembled an abyss. “They just hated the Templar enough to help us out.”

Splash. Splash.

Heretia’s complexion turned pale at the sight of the silhouette approaching them from within the shallow water; it was a knight with a black fog-like cape, rusty armor, shield, and a huge sword. There was a blue flame of unknown nature blazing up from the cranium that had been exposed from inside the helmet.

“Knight of the dead…” Heretia muttered, almost sounding like a moan. ”J-Juan. That’s the knight of the dead. Do you know about them?”

“I do. Why are you so scared? This is unlike you. Are you scared of ghosts?”

“I’m scared of things I can’t communicate with, because lies and persuasion don’t work against them! Those kinds have enough strength to fight the Templars one on one! At least Templars die when you stab them, but the knights of the dead don’t even die until you find their summoner! Just one of them has the potential to threaten the whole territory…What’s it doing here?” Heretia whispered while grabbing Juan’s arm, but soon closed her mouth.

The number of blue lights across the sewer began to increase one by one. One, two…pairs of gaze that continued to increase in number finally stopped once there were sixteen pairs.

Heretia’s teeth started to chatter in fear. It was only a matter of time for the knights of the dead to overthrow decent-sized cities, especially when there were sixteen of them that had strengths comparable to that of the Templars. Seizing the city of Hiveden would be an easy job for them.

Heretia recalled the group that actually had control over Hiveden.

“Juan, those guys are…”

“The Order of Huginn, yes. They look a bit different from how I remember them.”

Although the chest protector of the knight of the dead’s armor was rusty with its paint peeled off, it clearly displayed the seal of Jackdaw.

1. Both the ‘annoying burden’ and the ‘troublemaker’ refers to Heretia

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