Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 55

55.

With a whoosh— a crack— a smash!

It only took a few minutes for the orcs to be completely annihilated by the surging sword. The hundred or so orcs had all turned into cold corpses at the hands of a single man. In contrast, however, there was no sign of exhaustion on the man’s face. Not even a single scratch on him.

He had no idea that among the many orcs he had cut down, there was a polymorphed dragon. Or perhaps, even if he had known, he wouldn’t have cared much.

After briefly surveying the orcs’ corpses with an indifferent expression, the man flicked the blood off his sword with a simple motion, reattached it to his waist, and spoke.

“Stop watching and come out. You’ve had your fun by now, haven’t you?”

Then, a group of men in black armor began to appear in the empty field. At their head was Count Setnio, the leader of the Dark Knights and known as the Duke’s left hand.

Though unintentionally, they had all clearly witnessed the man’s prowess. Even after achieving feats that no human could ever accomplish, the man’s face remained expressionless. Count Setnio, who had been looking at the man in front of him with a fearful expression, bowed stiffly.

“I greet Pylon de Caribdis.”

“Well, it’s been a while, Rukiem de Count Setnio.”

Setnio flinched as the man’s cold purple eyes met his. *Those* damned purple eyes. He had always hated those eyes. Didn’t they look like they were stained with blood?

“You know why I’ve come here, don’t you?”

At the question as cold as his eyes, Setnio bit his lip. From Caribdis’s perspective, it was just a confirmation, but it stung Setnio’s pride.

“…I could have handled it myself.”

“But you didn’t. Did you? It’s already been over a month since you lost track of the Emperor. The Duke is very disappointed.”

“……”

There was nothing he could say. It was true that he had failed to meet the Duke’s expectations. Count Setnio bit his lip again until it bled.

He had already expected that Duke Yukarte would give some other instructions by now. Even so, he never expected that Duke Caribdis, one of the five Sword Masters on the continent and the Duke’s right-hand man, would come in person. At the very least, he thought Caribdis would be a trump card to be used much later.

But now that he had arrived, he had to hand over all command to him. Although his pride was wounded, the Count bowed politely, judging that it would not be wise to be seen in a bad light by him.

“I’m sorry, Duke. I was lacking.”

“Knowing that is enough, Count. Unfortunately, from now on, I, Pylon de Caribdis, will be commanding you. Do you have any objections?”

“Of course not. It’s a wise decision.”

Caribdis nodded with a satisfied look at the polite answer.

“What’s the current situation?”

“The Emperor’s trail has not yet been found, but it is believed that he will head to the Principality of Clmore. We have already deployed soldiers into the Principality.”

“Is the Emperor still moving with his Imperial Guard?”

“Probably. The Emperor has no ability to protect himself. They will be desperate to protect the Emperor, so they won’t be able to fall apart easily.”

“Hmm, I see. Strengthen the inspections at each checkpoint and deploy additional soldiers.”

“Understood, Lord Caribdis!”

Even though it was a shame to relinquish command, the addition of the Sword Master Duke was advantageous to them in many ways. The Count smiled contentedly, imagining himself capturing the Emperor and offering him to the Duke.

Just then, the knights who were examining the orcs’ corpses reported an unexpected finding.

“Count! The weapons the orcs had are all amazing!”

“There are magic swords, as well as two-handed swords made of mithril [a rare and strong metal].”

“What?”

At the surprised question from the two commanders, the knights began to politely display the collected weapons. As they said, the swords were perfect, from the workmanship of the scabbard to the forging of the blade.

“I thought the orcs’ weapons looked pretty good. Did they rob a weapon shop or something?”

Listening to the Duke muttering with an intrigued expression, Count Setnio smiled with anticipation. The knights felt the same way.

‘Heaven is helping us! This must be a sign that things will go well in the future!’

Count Setnio and the Dark Knights all believed without a doubt that this was an auspicious sign. Only Duke Caribdis briefly questioned how the orcs came to possess such high-quality weapons. Of course, his interest in it didn’t last long.

“Kuh, cough. How dare you……”

After the Duke and the knights left, an orc wriggled among the corpses. It was the Black Dragon Messeterius, who had fainted the moment he was struck by the sword wind.

He gritted his teeth as he raised himself from the foul-smelling filth. He couldn’t bear the fact that he, a dragon, had been defeated and knocked unconscious by a human.

In the middle of his body, there was a long scar caused by the sword wind from Duke Caribdis. The deeply carved wound spewed bright red blood every time he moved.

Messeterius glared at it with narrowed eyes and muttered in a spiteful voice.

“Today was just a moment of carelessness. If we meet again, I will never be so easily defeated. That will be your last day!”

Messeterius, who clenched his fists, realized that something was missing. He looked around and then realized why. A considerable amount of the weapons he had given to the orcs had disappeared while he was briefly unconscious. Realizing this, he became even more angry.

‘Those bastards dared to take my weapons and run away?’

Although he had readily given weapons to the orcs, the dragon Messeterius was actually quite greedy for wealth. From the beginning, he had placed tracking magic on all the weapons. This was to ensure that he could retrieve them at any time, even if they were lost.

Messeterius smiled with satisfaction.

“I’ll make you regret taking that thing for the rest of your lives. Foolish humans.”

To repay an enemy he had made, he would chase after them and exact his revenge over and over again. That was his method of revenge.

* * *

After meeting the orc horde, the group arrived safely at the first checkpoint without any problems.

The checkpoint was in the form of a small guard post built outside a long-stacked castle tower. The soldiers who were chatting inside got up with sullen expressions when they saw us arrive.

When the representative of the merchant group in the carriage quickly showed his identification badge and documents stating his destination, the soldiers leisurely began to look around the carriage and the mercenary group.

“Hmm, Phoenix Merchant Group? Looks like you’re going to supply goods to the branch.”

“Yes, sir. As always, it’s silk and a number of flour sacks.”

“Are these the mercenaries you hired this time? Show your mercenary badges and certificates.”

At his words, Huesen and the mercenaries took out their identification badges from their pockets. Everyone seemed used to it, as if they had done it once or twice.

I was worried about what would happen if the soldiers showed interest in the wooden tags that I and Isana had, but they nodded their heads carelessly without even properly checking the tags. It just felt like they were going through a formality.

“Twenty escort warriors and thirty-five contracted mercenaries. Isn’t that too much escort for the cargo?”

“That’s not true. We encountered over a hundred orcs just before we got here. We need to hire this many mercenaries to protect our cargo.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

“Please take good care of us, hehe.”

The merchant, who bowed politely, slipped something into the soldier’s hand. A satisfied smile appeared on the soldier’s face when he saw it.

“Ahem, well, it seems like monsters are particularly rampant these days. Okay, I’ll allow passage. Hey, open the gate!”

The soldier who was inspecting shouted loudly, and the guards inside the castle walls heard the sound and slowly opened the gate.

‘What, is that it?’

I thought they would check in detail on various aspects, such as what the contents of the cargo were, whether there were any suspicious people among the escorting mercenaries or merchant group members, and so on, but it was a disappointing and anticlimactic inspection. I couldn’t hide my feelings of disbelief.

“Um, is inspection usually this simple?”

Herol replied in a small voice to my question.

“It’s because it’s the Phoenix Merchant Group. This checkpoint is used by them regularly. They’ve paved the way to simplify the inspection process by paying extra. Didn’t you see them handing money just now? It’s all the power of bribery.”

“W, wouldn’t it be a big problem if they got caught?”

“The problem is that there’s absolutely no chance of them getting caught. From those soldiers to the nobles above them, they’re all in cahoots [conspiring together]. It’s easy to say, but how can the country run properly when the Imperial Family’s affairs are in such disarray? The higher-ups must be clean for the lower ranks to be clean.”

“……”

At those words, Isana’s shoulders stiffened as she listened next to me. For a moment, I regretted asking, but since it had come to this, I thought it was necessary to accurately examine the reality of the Empire, so I asked in an even lower voice.

“Is this kind of thing common?”

“It’s serious. It’s even a world where murderers are released if they pay enough money. What’s the point of the drought ending? The most basic laws are all messed up. I can bet my entire fortune that this empire will collapse within a few years if this situation continues.”

“W, well, it could suddenly get better, right? For example, if the missing Emperor returns.”

“Would anything change if that happened? After all, the higher-ups are all the same. They’re too busy taking care of their own interests and don’t care about the people’s situation at all.”

“It could be different. It’s a prejudice to think that everyone who is high in status is selfish. Good people and bad people exist regardless of status.”

“…Well, the late Emperor was definitely a good person.”

At that moment, Isana’s breathing deepened. Her lips, barely revealed from under her hood, were trembling slightly.

“Do you really think so?”

“Huh? What, Ly?”

“Do you really… think the late Emperor was a good person? Even though he was a cursed Emperor?”

At Isana’s question, Herol widened his eyes, then frowned as if to say, ‘What are you talking about?’

“Well, I’ve never seen the oracle myself, so I’m not very interested in the rumors about the cursed Emperor or whatever. All I know is that the late Emperor opened the Imperial Family’s warehouse during the difficult drought and released a lot of relief rice. If someone like that isn’t a good Emperor, then who is a good Emperor? I think there are quite a few people who think the same way.”

“……”

“According to rumors, the current young Emperor resembles the late Emperor a lot. If that’s true, then this world will definitely change. But that’s why I’m more worried. I think it’s putting too much burden on the shoulders of the still young Emperor. I hope His Majesty doesn’t give up on the people of this land……”

His muttering tone was filled with genuine concern for Isana. I gave Herol a grateful look. Even if it was just a thoughtless remark, what he had just said would have been a great strength to Isana. It was probably the words she had wanted to hear the most.

Isana was deep in thought, clutching the collar of her clothes near her chest. I smiled and muttered.

“He won’t give up. Because he is the Emperor.”