Chapter 3: The Spring of Seventeen (1)
TL: Jonny16
Our God was a crybaby.
If the 〈Sacred Treasures of the Four Seasons〉 made of his tears were gathered together, maybe he would laugh again…….
━ A Magic King’s booze-fueled ranting
The chamber is surrounded by white walls.
The sky, which appeared to be about to pour, was visible outside the window, but the red velvet drapes obscured it.
On one side were bookshelves constructed of wood available only in the forests of the Northern Elves, with volumes arranged like teeth.
A boy with black hair sat in the center of the room on an extraordinarily large chair.
“Young Master Abel is a good person. But, with the Ross Marquis family behind him, today’s combat will undoubtedly… “
The elderly knight, who had been speaking with the kid, paused.
He recognized that whatever he said would not reach him.
The elderly knight clasped the boy’s hand and conveyed warmth.
“Young Master, are you afraid of the duel with Young Master Abel?”
“…….”
The boy’s purple eyes fluttered.
He couldn’t respond because the weight of being the sole heir to this family was bearing down on him.
The elderly knight grasped the boy’s hand, attempting to give him strength.
“In my hometown, there is a saying that ‘it is not the sea that sways━.”
Crackle, crackle, crackle!
Suddenly, white lightning flashed across the boy’s entire body.
Vanderbilt flinched in surprise, but he held his hand even tighter.
He thought that if it was bad magic, he would take care of it himself.
“━but the heart. I had to travel a long distance to realize that.
Something had changed.
“Young Master Cain?”
When the lightning struck, the youngster, who had been anxious and shivering, vanished.
The official successor to the Ethelred Count.
Cain Ethelred.
Cain rose from his chair and smiled lightly at Vanderbilt.
“Thank you, Vanderbilt.”
The elderly knight hesitated, keeping an eye on Cain.
He was suspicious of Cain who had changed after the strange lightning.
Vanderbilt cautiously reached for the greatsword hanging on his back.
Cain chuckled and shook his head.
“You were trying to protect me, but now you’re trying to kill me.”
“Th…….”
the elderly knight was mute from shame.
Cain shrugged, stood, and looked around.
The taste of the luxury room that did not suit him was that of his biological father.
It was exactly as he recalled, but he had been gone so long that he uncomfortably touched here and there.
To Vanderbilt, he appeared to have returned after a lengthy journey.
“It used to feel stuffy, but now it just feels ordinary.”
Cain moved his hand across the bookshelf.
There wasn’t a single blemish on the bookshelf, indicating that it had been well-maintained.
The current Cain recognized the significance of this Northern Elf tree and grieved that it had been wasted in this manner, yet it felt appropriate when he considered the owner of this room.
‘Count Edmund Ethelred.’
Cain and Abel’s father and the head of the Ethelred Count.
Edmund displayed his prizes in his office.
This tree proved that he had won the Elven Forest expedition, and the curtains represented his success in the war against the merchant alliance 〈Delft〉.
“What about the dungeon?”
Cain asked an abrupt question, but the elderly knight Vanderbilt responded immediately.
“It’s still closed.”
“Is father really still fighting there?”
“……It’s possible if it’s Lord Count Edmund. He is the strongest swordsman in the kingdom.”
Vanderbilt replied with a stiff face.
He was not the one who made Cain uneasy, but he was also not the one to whom he would demonstrate fealty.
“It could be an error, like the Marquises say, that it won’t open again.”
The dungeon had the property of barring anyone else from entering while the person who entered was still alive.
That was commonly referred to as ‘closed’.
“Normally that’s the case.”
The fact that Cain was using Edmund’s office meant that something had happened to him.
Earl Edmund went into the dungeon alone because of the marquises’ political scheming and hadn’t come out for a year.
There was no food in the dungeon, so the Marquises assumed he was already dead.
Furthermore, Cain, who was still young, was the only one left to keep the place where the strongest swordsman in the kingdom had disappeared.
They naturally reached out to Earl Ethelred’s territory.
It was easy to deal with.
“Vanderbilt.”
“Yes.”
“Do you think I’ll win or lose when I fight Abel today?”
Cain asked a mischievous question.
Vanderbilt responded after significant consideration, as if he had forgotten he had ever doubted Cain.
“You will lose.”
“Isn’t that a cold answer?”
“Young Master Abel, who was in the North, was brought here by the ‘Black Fox of Ross’, Philip. That sly fellow must have also done something about this duel.”
“Then I shouldn’t go out to fight.”
Cain said jokingly.
“To be honest, I think that would be a good idea…….”
Vanderbilt trailed off.
But not everything needs to be spoken to get across.
Cain read his thoughts and opened his mouth.
“If Ethelred’s successor avoids a duel with his younger brother, who will follow me? In the end, the influence of the Ross Marquis would only grow.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
Thud━.
Cain crossed his legs as he sat on the soft one-seater sofa that Edmund, the Count, used.
“It was well planned. If I flee, I am a cowardly successor. If I lose, I am an unfit successor to the count.”
Vanderbilt spoke softly after a prolonged silence.
“What about a proxy duel?”
Cain looked up at Vanderbilt, who was racking his wits.
‘He didn’t talk like this before.’
Vanderbilt, who had previously just cheered him on, had supplied a different perspective, however limited that may have been.
Cain recognized that every decision he made from now on could affect the future.
“It’s better than running away, but I don’t have a knight to fight for me.”
Thud━.
Vanderbilt kneeled on one knee, bowing his head. His white hair streamed down to the ground.
“Knight Vanderbilt, at your service, Young Master.”
“You are my only sword. It’s a problem since you’re a knight of my mother, not Ethelred.
There was a time when Vanderbilt’s loyalty was burdensome.
Cain’s comments were warm, because he remembered that he was the only one who tried to protect him when everyone else had abandoned him.
The elderly knight and the young heir were looking at each other.
Bang, bang, bang━.
The office door was pounded on aggressively.
“The duel is about to start, so come out quickly!”
An annoyed tone could be heard.
Vanderbilt’s face flushed red in an instant and he spat out his anger.
“How dare you speak rudely to Young Master!”
Creak━.
The door opened to reveal three knights. They had an orange cloth tied over their left arms.
It indicated that they were not Ethelred’s knights.
“I knew you’d stall. Trying to do something in this tiny territory with an old man.”
“Jayden, you bastard! Are you acting so arrogantly because Ross Marquis is behind you?!”
Vanderbilt jumped up abruptly, grasping the handle of his greatsword.
Jayden, who was in the front of the three knights who had entered, shrugged.
“Of course. I’m a knight of Lord Marquis now, so I don’t have to bow my head as before, right?”
Vanderbilt attempted to pull his great sword immediately.
However, Jayden extended his neck and pointed to his own neck.
“Go ahead and cut it if you can handle it.”
Orange was the color of Ross Marquis.
The knights that knotted orange strings were only those of the Marquis, 〈Los de Kaerot〉.
In other words, they were confident since they had been to the territory on behalf of the Marquis.
Furthermore, it was not appropriate for Vanderbilt, who was not even an Ethelred knight, to attack them.
“Vanderbilt, endure it.”
“…… !”
Cain spoke quietly.
Jayden and the other two knights smirked cruelly.
“As expected, you’re smart, Master Cain.”
“So. Are they better than Ethelred?”
Cain asked the traitor, Jayden, who nodded excitedly.
“Of course. Lord Marquis treats us based on our abilities.”
“Do they know that you were kicked out because you killed innocent civilians in Ethelred’s territory?”
“…….”
Jayden frowned.
He hadn’t expected Cain to say something like that, given that he had been avoiding fighting with them.
“Vanderbilt.”
“Yes.”
“You’re good at cleaning up corpses, right?”
“…… Yes?”
Vanderbilt expressed questions about Cain’s quick statements.
The knights, including Jayden, were also puzzled.
Swish━.
Cain drew his rapier, which had been standing next to his chair.
Jayden snorted.
“What are you trying to do? Staple me━.”
He couldn’t complete his sentence.
Poof━.
Cain’s sword, which had flown from his blind spot in an instant, was lodged in his neck.
“Gu━ugh.”
Jayden’s blood flowed down the blade.
Cain stepped on Jayden’s chest and pounced over him, strangling him with an emotionless gaze.
The two knights behind Jayden paused in their steps, unable to comprehend the situation.
Poof━.
Cain pulled the rapier out of Jayden’s neck in one go and immediately thrust the sword into the open mouth of the knight on the left.
“Two.”
Cain turned his head.
Two were dead in an instant, and the remaining one.
Swish━!
He instinctively drew his sword.
Given that knights from other territories were not permitted to carry weapons when entering the inner quarters of a family’s home, it was apparent how much they disregarded Ethelred.
However, now.
No matter how weak and powerless he was, Cain had returned after fighting thousands of days and nights.
Of course, his sword was a little faster.
Thud.
Before the third knight could even swing his sword properly, the rapier was thrust into his foot.
“Ca━in!”
He screamed at the top of his lungs, making the house tremble.
However, no one entered the empty mansion, and he was unable to move since his foot was nailed to the floor.
Cain rolled to the side and jumped. He knelt down and grabbed his head with both knees.
“Yes?”
Crunching━.
Then he turned around once.
“That’s a short last word.”
Thud━.
The third corpse fell with a thud. Cain untied the orange bands tied to their arms.
He wiped the blood off his face and clothes before returning his attention to Vanderbilt.
“You can do it, right?”
“Y, Young Master?”
the elderly knight opened his mouth wide.
Even if they were weak, they were still regular knights of 〈Los de Kaerot〉.
One was one thing, but three was definitely beyond Cain’s capabilities.
But he won.
He hadn’t dominated them with an aura or anything like that. He simply moved in the simplest manner, going for the gaps and killing them one by one in an instant.
Cain pulled his messy black hair back with his palm, smiling cheerfully.
“Do not be startled by something like this. This is only the beginning.”
“This is?”
Crackle━!
Lightning flashed briefly outside the gloomy sky. The office flashed.
“Ethelred is my land.”
Cain’s eyes sparked at that very time.
Vanderbilt was a seasoned knight, but he was briefly overwhelmed by Cain’s spirit.
“How dare they play their own game on my land?”
Moreover, the most frightening thing was.
He could not feel anything from Cain.
He didn’t feel the killing intent that would normally arise when he considered killing his opponent.
Vanderbilt instinctively swallowed his saliva, suppressing his panic.
━I needed medication to save my mother. So I followed Deputy Commander Philip’s instructions. However, there was no such entity in the first place.
Cain, recalling Abel’s comments from that cliff that day, raised the corners of his mouth and gazed at the smoke screen in the distance.
The place of conspiracy.
And the beginning of downfall.
“Vanderbilt, I have another choice besides running away and losing.”
Crack, crackle━!
Lightning struck again.
In the midst of it, Cain laughed strangely.
“Victory. And death.”
The front line where the average survival time is 72 hours.
It was the laugh of a warrior who had fought there for nearly ten years.