Chapter 29: The Spring Journey (4)
Bald head.
A middle-aged man with a full beard, his shiny scalp exposed, stared intently at the chessboard in front of him.
The arrangement was peculiar.
A white king and knight.
Two black queens and four black knights surrounded them.
“The Airian Kingdom, I presume?”
The woman sitting opposite him smiled and asked.
The middle-aged man scratched his bald head.
“I thought so.”
He picked up the isolated white knight. He turned it over and over, meticulously examining something.
“But this knight is a little strange. I thought it was a count who stuck to the 7-star dungeon and would die of thirst in a remote corner…”
“Philip never returned, Lord Marquis.”
The bald, middle-aged man was Ross Marquis.
He casually tossed the knight aside and stretched.
“Maybe he really did get swept away by the sea, like they say. I know how treacherous Ethelred’s cliffs are, and he’s a bit sloppy for what he’s gotten himself into.”
The woman rose from her seat.
She was wearing tight-fitting trousers and a knight’s uniform on top.
She picked up the white knight rolling on the floor and placed it back in its original position.
“I’ve seen the Lord Marquis more than once. Do you suspect something?”
Ross Marquis’s eyes narrowed.
The dazzling light of the magic lamp illuminated the room, but it was not enough to dispel his suspicions.
“Yes. The Black Fox, of all people, caught in an accident? And all my knights dying with him at the same time? It’s strange, Commander.”
She silently looked down at the board.
The current king, Ethelred, and the backwater count who was on his side.
And the rest of the marquises and counts.
“Lord Marquis, I think that’s not important.”
For a moment, Ross Marquis’s lips curled up. He seemed to be anticipating what the sword he wielded would say.
Knights of Kaerot 〈Los de Kaerot〉.
Sigma, the captain of Ross Marquis’s first sword, smiled at the marquis, a smile that mirrored his own.
Ting━!
She flicked the white knight with her finger.
Her finger, imbued with aura, shattered half of the knight.
“If they’re not on our side anyway, we have to get rid of them.”
“So, it is?”
Ross Marquis threw the remaining white knight into the trash can and looked down at the lone white king.
There was no desire in his eyes.
Only a blazing thirst for revenge flickered as he gazed at the king.
“Old McLoud seems to be coveting that throne.”
“It’s worthless, whether he becomes king or not, in this land where even a duke is not allowed due to the empire’s watchful eyes.”
“Right. But I want to kill the king. I want to tear apart everything that stands in my way.”
She rose from her seat again.
She knelt beside Ross Marquis’s chair and bowed her head.
“Yes, My lord. I will go and kill the king and Count Ethelred immediately.”
“Captain Sigma Mari. We’ll need to sharpen the sword, but not right now.”
Ross Marquis picked up one of the four black knights that were with him and placed it in the palm of his hand, bringing it in front of Sigma’s eyes.
She raised her head.
Ross Marquis smiled, revealing his pearly white teeth.
“Let’s see for now. What happens when the cowardly Count Lamaring and the mysterious young Ethelred clash.”
“Understood.”
Sigma bowed her head.
And she suppressed a rising question.
‘Wouldn’t it be too late then?’
She wondered if they were being too easygoing, when they should be biting the enemy’s neck when they were not prepared.
But as long as Count Edmund Ethelred was confirmed to be really dead, that wouldn’t happen.
She shook off her excessive worries.
🔹🔹🔹
“Is this all the Ethelred Knights are capable of━!”
Cain’s thunderous shout!
In an instant, it jolted everyone in the training ground awake.
The knights, unable to stop their ragged breaths and the droplets of saliva escaping their mouths, shouted.
“No!”
“But is this all you can do!? Are you even Knights of Ethelred?!”
Kuuung━.
Cain held a blunt, wooden sword.
Around him were circular traces of blood and sweat.
And the knights, gasping for breath, were aiming their wooden swords at Cain.
“Again.”
Cain’s low voice rang out, and the armed knights moved in unison, surrounding him layer by layer.
The knights’ training ground turned into a battlefield in an instant.
A fierce murderous aura shot out from Cain’s purple eyes like lightning, instantly enveloping the knights, who grimaced and raised their weapons.
“If this is all you’ve got, you’ll only increase the number of corpses on the battlefield.”
Cain’s provocation.
At that moment, the knights stomped on the ground!
Front, back, left, and right.
Knights rushed at Cain from all directions, holding their weapons.
‘They certainly have talent.’
Pazijijik━.
A thunderclap that only he could hear.
At the same time, his entire body tensed up, and a white aura began to flow out.
Cain’s feet spread out at a speed that could not be followed by the naked eye, firmly gripping the ground.
Then, a graceful circle of the sword was drawn.
Tadadadadak━!
With a single swing, he deflected the attacks pouring in from all directions.
Of course, that wasn’t the end.
‘If it were a fight where we could just laugh and retreat, I wouldn’t even have started.’
Cain’s sharp eyes locked onto the knight who was closest, his body that had flown back into the air.
Kwaang━!