The Mausoleum of the Sword (1)
Clack, clack...
As the sound of horse hooves carried the Leinrant manor farther away, I naturally began to feel relieved.
"With this, I should be able to breathe easy for about two weeks."
"But where are we going?"
"The Great Berkel Forest. The exam is the day after tomorrow, so today we'll camp somewhere along the way—"
The moment I instinctively tried to answer the familiar voice beside me—
"Whoa, you scared me?!"
"Kyaa?!"
Startled by my sudden scream, Arin also jumped in the opposite direction in shock.
"What the hell, why are you here? No, how did you even follow me?"
When I asked that, Arin grinned brightly and replied.
"Hehe, whenever you leave, you always come back late! So I followed you!"
Arin's innocent, radiant face.
Even as she said that, both her hands tightly clung to my collar.
'Is she anxious...?'
Arin continued sticking close to me.
Thinking back on the two months I had spent at the wall, it wasn't hard to understand why.
'Well, it was probably the first time in her life we'd been apart this long.'
While I thought that inwardly, Arin—whose trembling still hadn't stopped—looked at me and spoke.
"We were apart for two whole months. Don't leave me behind anymore."
Was she sulking, or just upset?
Thinking she really was impossible to figure out, I gently patted her head.
"Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere."
"Really? You really won't go anywhere?"
"Of course."
The faint trembling I could feel through my collar.
Sensing it, I recalled the first time I met her in the underground prison cells of the reformatory.
A body covered in wounds.
Eyes trembling in fear.
And the chains that had bound her existence itself—
Just remembering it made bile rise in my throat.
"Don't wander around recklessly. Got it?"
"Yeees~!"
"You're always good at answering, at least."
I pressed a finger lightly against Arin's forehead as I said that.
Still, well...
It meant I had gained another conversation partner for this boring carriage journey.
It wasn't such a bad feeling.
KWA-BOOOOM—!
With a deafening explosion, the wooden wall burst apart, and shadows instantly poured out from within.
"My Lady!"
"We'll open an escape route! Everyone, follow us!"
A girl holding a mace in one hand.
After shouting to the knights following her, Laia swung her mace toward the black figure charging at her.
KWAAA-BOOM—!
A monstrous roar, as though an artillery shell had exploded.
Its upper body completely blown away, the creature staggered forward a few more steps on two remaining legs before collapsing.
"What about the others?!"
"We received reports that they escaped the manor, but after that, we've heard nothing!"
Gordon, who wielded a thin sword while guarding Laia's blind spots, answered her.
Screams and monstrous shrieks echoed everywhere.
Paul wyvern Castle, once called the Fortress of Dragon Slayers, had already transformed into hell.
"Helian... how could you do something like this...!"
A gigantic castle tower stretched high above the narrow alleyways.
Watching Helian and her knights—
No, the monsters that could no longer even be called knights pouring out from there—
Laia ground her teeth.
"Grrrraaaah!"
"Kiiiii—!"
Meanwhile, seeing knights flooding in from both front and back, Laia and the other knights clenched their jaws.
"Damn it, the royal guards...!"
"Has the entire central army already been infected?!"
Soldiers wearing armor engraved with the Paul wyvern crest, blood and pus dripping from their bodies.
Their clouded white eyes made it obvious they were no longer living humans.
"This ends here, Lady Laia."
A situation where there was no longer any escape.
The undead army parted on both sides, and a man clad in armor walked toward Laia.
"I am a knight under Helian."
"A knight? That?"
Looking at the grotesque appearance of the man pointing his sword at her, Laia asked back.
Bulging veins and tendons protruded across his entire face.
That bizarre appearance and overwhelming amount of mana—
He was no knight.
That was the fate of someone who had abandoned their humanity in pursuit of power.
A horrifying monster created by injecting Helian's power into him.
"To think an Imperial knight would point his sword at a member of a ducal house."
Raising her mace, Laia spoke as though warning him.
"His Majesty the Emperor will not overlook this!"
Unless there was proper justification, conflict between Imperial noble houses was strictly forbidden by Imperial decree.
And if it involved one of the Three Great Ducal Houses responsible for guarding the Empire's borders, the laws were even stricter.
Yet they had recklessly caused an incident like this.
And with such vile and filthy methods too...!
"KHAHAHAHAHA—!"
As Laia gritted her teeth while thinking that, the man who heard her burst into roaring laughter.
The mana and sinister aura emanating from him—
It was obvious he already intended to kill.
"How foolish. Do you truly think His Majesty the Emperor is unaware of this?"
"...!"
Those words coming from the mouth of an Imperial knight.
Hearing them, Laia tightened her grip on her mace.
"Surrender quietly, Lady Laia. By order of Her Grace, we will not kill—"
"So this is the result of following the Empire?"
Laia's voice cut through the knight's words.
Sensing the killing intent within it, the knight immediately rushed toward her without further hesitation.
"So in the end, you've chosen to hasten your own death!"
In the blink of an eye, the knight appeared before her and swung his sword.
'A mere knight commander who rose through noble status—against this power...!'
Thinking that as he looked at the defenseless Laia, the knight's sword slashed toward her shoulder.
CRACK—!
Or rather, it should have.
"H-Huh...?"
It broke.
The knight's mana-infused sword.
Unable to even cut through the shoulder of a girl wearing neither armor nor protective gear—only simple traveling clothes—
it shattered into pieces on the spot.
"No, what is this...?"
"The Paul wyverns are descendants of dragon slayers with a long and storied history."
With Laia's flat voice, her mace rose toward the sky.
"If you wish to leave even a scratch on my body, bring at least a siege ballista."
非非非
The moment those words fell, the mace raised toward the heavens slammed into the ground.
KWAAAAA-BOOM—!
By the time the dust from the shattered ground cleared, the knight's body had vanished without a trace.
"Young Master, we've... arrived."
"Huaaah...!"
"Gordon!"
"Yes, My Lady."
Laia immediately issued an order to Gordon as soon as he answered her call.
"All remaining knights are to retreat. We regroup at the Leinrant border region."
"...Do you intend to summon that person?"
At Gordon's question, Laia nodded.
The mysterious power Helian wielded.
And Helian's soldiers, revived as monsters.
As far as Laia knew, there was only one expert in this field.
非非非
I take back what I said about carriage travel being boring.
No—honestly, the moment I heard the words "Great Forest," I should never have even considered traveling by carriage in the first place.
"You've worked hard. Charge the carriage fee and labor costs to the main house, and use this for expenses."
"Thank... you..."
In the northern regions, this was currently the only season of the year when the snow melted.
The price of attempting carriage travel without realizing that was far too great.
The once-frozen soil had melted into muddy sludge.
The carriage wheels sunk into it and refused to move no matter what, and in the end we had no choice but to abandon the carriage and continue on horseback.
"Young Master, are you okay?"
"No. They say leaving home means endless suffering, and they were absolutely right."
Unlike me, panting heavily from exhaustion, Arin looked completely energetic without the slightest sign of fatigue.
'I only brought her along because I had no choice, but if it weren't for her, I probably would've turned back home halfway through...'
What irony.
Thanks to Arin unexpectedly joining me, we had managed to arrive on time.
"Young Master Klein Leinrant... is that correct?"
While I grumbled to myself and watched the coachman depart deeper into the forest, an unfamiliar voice suddenly came from behind me.
"Yes, I am Klein Leinrant."
When I turned around after answering, a knight dressed in a distinctive black uniform was narrowing his brows while looking at me.
'The Black Shield Knights. So he's one of the exam supervisors?'
One of the Twelve Knights of Berkel, Black Shield Iason.
Looking at the shield emblem modeled after his equipment, I came to that conclusion.
"We will verify your identity again at the testing grounds. This way, please."
The knight glanced carefully at Arin beside me, then politely bowed before guiding me toward the examination site.
'Verify again? Do they not recognize me?'
Tilting my head as I thought that, I soon figured out the reason.
'Ugh, I seriously look like a beggar.'
Pulling the carriage out of the mud.
Forcing collapsed horses back onto their feet.
During all that, the neat and elegant traveling clothes I once wore had become complete rags from all the splattered mud.
For the son of a ducal house to look this shabby—
Honestly, even if I were that knight, I wouldn't believe it either.
"The other trainees caused quite a commotion after hearing Young Master was coming."
"...And how exactly did they find out I was coming?"
"Carrier pigeons travel faster than horses."
As he said that and pointed toward the sky, several white pigeons could be seen flying toward the manor.
'So even if I ran away, I was still in the palm of their hand.'
Maybe they hadn't properly heard the news, or maybe Heinkel had given up.
Still, I found some comfort in the fact that no one was bringing up marriage.
"So am I taking the exam alone?"
"No. Our knight trainees are also participating in this quarter's examination."
So it was an examination conducted by knight orders rather than by individuals.
As I thought that, the Black Shield knight and I arrived at the examination grounds.
"Ah...!"
"Leinrant really came..."
The testing site was a large clearing located deep within the forest.
The trainees gathered there noticed my presence and slowly rose from their seats.
"W-Welcome, Young Master Klein!"
"It's an honor to meet a member of House Leinrant!"
The knight trainees greeted me with awkward etiquette.
As I returned their greetings, I quietly examined them.
"They possess mana and talent, but lack support from noble houses."
"...Exactly."
The knight who agreed with my observation scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
Aside from Leinrant, most knight trainees across the continent took the Imperial Knight Examination.
Its credibility throughout the continent, the connections one could make there, the attention from noble houses—
For rookie knights, especially free knights, it was advantageous in every possible way.
'If there's one minor downside, it's that it's absurdly luxurious.'
The murderous prices of the Imperial capital.
And on top of that, the numerous ceremonies newly appointed knights were expected to attend required considerable money.
But most of the people gathered here were penniless country bumpkins.
Simple sword fanatics who spent their time swinging blades instead of learning noble etiquette.
"Waaah~"
Arin, who had followed me, let out an amazed gasp as she looked around the testing grounds.
"Is it that fascinating?"
"Yes! Look over there! It's so tall!"
I turned to where Arin was pointing.
A gigantic sacred mountain towered upward as though piercing the heavens.
Several trainees swallowed nervously at its overwhelming presence.
At the summit of that mountain was the final destination of the Northern Knight Examination:
the Sword Mausoleum.
The place where the swords of deceased Leinrant knights made their final journey.
And also the resting place of Nordvind—
the sword of Berkel Leinrant, the first Duke of Leinrant.
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