Chapter 217 : Chapter 217
Chapter 217 : Outer one (4)
***
Going back in time, to that morning.
To be precise, right before Rowen staked everything in his duel against Hugin.
Around that time, the rear of the Springeus camp was bustling as usual.
The mercenary tents were lined up slightly behind the main frontline forces centered around the Great Raven Mercenary Band. Among them, the supply unit—a mixture of the Springeus regular army and five or six mercenary bands—was under the temporary control of Noser's direct subordinates.
"One potato per person! Ack!"
"Enjoy your meal! Ack!"
Krnock and Deli had become strictly disciplined in the meantime. It all started when Noser's men went easy on them. Now, it had reached a point where even they could not stop them.
"What's this? Why isn't there any solid food in my soup?"
"Solid food is distributed to exemplary comrades first! Ack!"
"Be grateful that you can even have a meal! Ack!"
"......Aieee, dammit."
"Profanity! Comrade James of the Angry Shrew Mercenary Band! Penalty point added! Ack!"
Deli brandished the ladle like a sword. The mercenary holding the tray sighed and turned away. Krnock and Deli looked at each other and smiled warmly.
"Krnock, Deli. It's good that you're working hard, but don't rein them in too tightly."
Morgan approached from behind the two. Morgan was Noser's adjutant and practically his right-hand man. From what Krnock and Deli had heard, he was an elite among elites who had graduated from the Academy with excellent marks and was immediately deployed to the Left Camp of the Imperial Capital Knight Order.
"We only acted according to the principles! Ack!"
Morgan smiled warmly at Krnock's bold answer. He looked after Krnock and Deli more affectionately than anyone else. The two also followed him like an older brother.
"Principles are good. But it's better to have flexibility. They're free mercenaries, so if you act too rigidly, they'll rebel instead. In the first place, our mission is camp management, so it's enough that they follow our control well."
Krnock and Deli looked at each other and tilted their heads. The two were still too young to understand the meaning of his words.
Morgan found their appearance cute and playfully stroked their heads.
Night deepened.
The soldiers of the Imperial Capital Knight Order were using a temporary wooden building erected in the center of the camp as their barracks. It reflected their stubbornness not to show a disheveled appearance even during a short stay.
"Ah, there's no one here?"
Krnock and Deli looked around the empty barracks. It seemed they were the very first to return after finishing their duties.
"I heard there's a meeting today."
"Everyone's working hard."
Krnock and Deli murmured as they each took off their helmets on their beds. They were gradually forgetting their original identities. The military life they experienced recently provided much more intense memories than their past days living as priests. The density of life itself was different.
"We have to work hard."
"Right."
Krnock, who was undoing his arm guards, casually looked up at the ceiling. The rafters supporting the roof were laid out at perfectly even intervals. He clicked his tongue in admiration all over again. Even though it was a temporary building to be torn down in a few days, nothing was done haphazardly.
"The seniors really liked it when we acted cute, right?"
"Yeah. They even gave us pocket money."
"Then should we try a bit harder?"
Deli's gaze followed Krnock's finger upward. Gazing blankly at the ceiling, Deli soon flashed a mischievous smile.
"Great! We can finally put that to use."
"Let's give them a surprise!"
That referred to the Turtle Breathing Technique they had learned from Bihen a while ago. Seeing the meditation training method of the Solari, Bihen told them that the principle was the exact same and taught them this parlor trick.
Fitting their bodies into the ceiling rafters like parts, Krnock and Deli nodded to each other once and swallowed a deep breath simultaneously.
Soon, their presence completely vanished.
How much time had passed?
Finally, the barracks door opened. Led by Morgan, the soldiers of the Imperial Capital Knight Order walked in one after another.
Krnock and Deli hurriedly sucked back the saliva dripping down past their lips. They had almost fallen fast asleep.
"Where are the kids? They should've finished early."
"Seeing how they took off their gear, they probably went to wash up."
"Those guys, they're more like soldiers than we are."
"Tell me about it. I'm seriously thinking about telling them to take the entrance exam."
Small laughter spread. Deciding that now was the time, Krnock and Deli exchanged glances.
Creak—
Just then, someone walked in without knocking. It was a person shrouded in a long robe.
Since there was no one else left to come in, it was the exact moment Krnock and Deli paused with bewildered expressions.
"Stand up."
The man who entered spoke. His voice was extremely fine. Soon, as he pulled off his hood, golden hair was revealed.
It was Raven.
Thud!
The soldiers, who had each been sitting on the edge of their beds, sprang up simultaneously and took a rigid posture. It looked as if they were suddenly performing a drill movement out of nowhere.
"I don't see those rats?"
"They are on duty."
"Good. I wasn't particularly pleased with the thought of taking the lives of those young things with my own hands anyway."
Krnock and Deli exchanged glances once more. He seemed to be talking about them.
"Listen carefully."
Raven, who had been walking as if pacing around, stopped among the soldiers. The soldiers simultaneously stomped their heels against the ground and thrust their chins up rigidly.
Hidden in the ceiling, Krnock and Deli furrowed their brows at the same time.
For some reason, the eyes of everyone, including Morgan, looked strange. As if possessed by something, their pupils were entirely a murky gray color.
"Tonight, Rowen Windermere will die by my hand."
Krnock and Deli's eyes narrowed with force. Rowen Windermere. It was a name they knew well from hearsay. They had even heard that he was Morgan's classmate from the Academy.
"Of course, the world will know it as the doing of the Mercenary King Hugin."
Their breathing almost faltered. It sent a chill down their spines. It was a dangerous story that they felt they shouldn't be overhearing for some reason.
"Shall we launch a joint attack with the Windermere army to strike the Mercenary King?"
The one who asked was Morgan. If someone had looked without knowing, they would have thought he was murmuring to the empty air. His focus was still blurry.
"No. The Mercenary King went to the hill where the Conwell army was stationed just a moment ago. I have to head over there straight away as soon as I finish up here as well."
Raven shook his head.
"Because of that idiot brother of mine, even I have to suffer, tsk. Well, at any rate, you guys need to clear the path for the Windermere army here. You have to help them bite into Springeus quickly before the enraged lions can calm their anger."
Raven walked with a swagger. The soldiers lined up on both sides remained completely unmoving. They looked as if they weren't even breathing.
"Tomorrow dawn, before the sun rises, empty this place. Kill every single one of them without leaving so much as a single ant behind."
The soldiers answered in unison.
"As you command!"
Raven nodded as if satisfied with the response and headed toward the door.
Soon, having opened the door and stepped out, he poked his head back in and spoke.
"Ah, handle your own conclusions yourselves. Wouldn't it be better if it burned down cleanly anyway?"
Raven cackled, humming along like song lyrics.
It's burning up.
***
Thud—
Krnock and Deli landed softly.
The inside of the barracks was filled only with the breathing and snoring of the sleeping soldiers.
Krnock let out a silent scream. His entire body ached because he had been hanging for far too long.
Deli, who recovered his posture relatively quickly, gave a warning to Krnock with a threatening expression.
The two quietly opened the door, stepped out, and hurriedly headed toward a secluded spot.
As soon as they confirmed that no one was around, Deli promptly covered Krnock's mouth as he tried to speak in excitement.
"Shh. I know. Calm down. Right now, the seniors are completely out of it because of some strange bastard, and we have to stop it somehow before something terrible happens. Right?"
Krnock nodded his head up and down wildly.
"Good. Right, good. Let's think, think. What can we do? What do we have to do......?"
Deli's hand placed on his mouth slid down. Krnock could barely calm down as well.
"How about waking up the mercenaries in advance?"
"Waking them up with what?"
"Obviously, that's......"
Krnock was at a loss for words. Come to think of it, he had no idea how they were going to carry out the massacre.
There are about a hundred mercenaries. On the other hand, there are only twelve soldiers from the Imperial Capital Knight Order in charge of management. It didn't make sense from the start.
"Those mercenary misters already dislike us anyway, so what do you think will happen if we just wake them up recklessly?"
"We'll die first."
"I think so too."
The two let out a sigh simultaneously. No matter how much they thought, no answer came up.
Because of that......
Their heavy eyelids kept drooping down.
The two were in their growth period. Even just operating the Turtle Breathing Technique was overwhelming, and after torturing their bodies as if receiving a punishment, their minds and bodies were utterly exhausted.
They didn't know who was first.
The two fell asleep right where they sat.
***
"You damn kids! To think you're sleeping here! Hey! Wake up right now......!"
Their half-closed eyelids snapped wide open immediately. Sleep vanished instantly at the screams and all sorts of noises erupting from all directions.
Krnock and Deli instinctively bounced to their feet and immediately looked around.
Their mouths fell open in dismay.
It was still a bluish dawn. While flames were surging from place to place, a fierce battle was unfolding right in the middle of it.
Mercenaries, soldiers of the Imperial Capital Knight Order, and some unknown entities that were hard to distinguish whether they were human or something else were tangled in a messy brawl, and blood was splattering everywhere.
"Hey, you guys!"
Krnock and Deli's bodies flinched simultaneously. Only then did they see him.
"C-Comrade James!"
It was the mercenary they had given a penalty point to for profanity during dinner distribution yesterday.
Deli covered his mouth. James's condition was not good. Having lost both his legs, he was in a crawling posture.
Krnock and Deli hurriedly tried to support him, but they had to back away at his violent thrashing.
"The Imperial Capital Knight Order bastards betrayed us! Those bastards are trying to kill us all!"
Krnock and Deli sputtered in confusion, utterly flustered. They didn't even know where to begin talking. Even in the midst of this, horrifying screams erupted one after another from afar.
"And their condition is strange! They're like complete lunatics! Every single one of them has lost their mind! Even the guys killed by them are rising again like demonic beasts!"
Krnock let out a hiccup out of sheer shock. Deli was trembling wildly.
"Dammit! Don't just stand there with your mouths shut like idiots, say something! You bastards must know what the hell is suddenly going on!"
"C-Comrade James! For now, we have to escape this place quickly—"
"Shut up! You bastards are in on it too! I let it slide because you bastards are young—"
SQUELCH—!
A plunged blade pierced through James's neck and embedded obliquely into the ground.
Krnock and Deli's gazes slowly traveled up the blade from James's face, which lost focus in an instant.
It was Morgan.
"......"
Morgan's gaze was infinitely empty. It was not that of a living person.
For a moment, he looked down at Krnock and Deli as if weighing down on them.
Amidst the tumult, silence went back and forth as if only the three of us were trapped in tranquility.
Just how long had they been like that?
Morgan turned away.
"Ha, haaa—!"
Krnock collapsed onto his backside. The strength left his legs.
It was at that exact moment.
James's collapsed body twitched as if convulsing.
"......!"
Not even a scream came out. His body froze up completely, unable to move a single millimeter. It was primal terror.
"Uuueee......"
James fumbled at the ground with his arms, then crawled toward the two while dragging his body across the floor.
His gray-tinted pupils relentlessly pursued only the two of them.
"W-W-Wake up, Krnock!"
Deli shouted as if pleading. Krnock couldn't even part his lips. The words telling him to run away first merely hovered inside his throat.
"Kuwaaaaargh!"
It was the exact moment James supporting himself with one palm reached out with his other hand as if trying to snatch Krnock's ankle.
THUD!
James's head exploded. Someone appearing from behind had kicked it away.
Of course, it was Bihen Benkou.