Those Who Live Without the Law

Chapter 124

The Emperor

Kairus began swinging his sword faster. In response, I swung mine faster as well.

The wind that swept across the clearing also grew more intense. A gentle breeze turned into a gust, and the gust kept accelerating without end.

A violent gale seized the heads of yellowed, overgrown weeds. The sound of the wind brushing past the weeds resembled the screams of weeds having their hair yanked out.

“That is…”

For a moment, I nearly stopped swinging my sword. Dust swirled in the air from the onslaught of wind, and soon it uprooted countless weeds. Normally, a whirlwind would be invisible, but as debris and stone fragments got sucked into it, it took on a dusty, visible form.

“A dragon spout?”

I spoke, and Kairus immediately answered.

“No.”

Contrary to its name, a dragon spout descends from the sky to the ground. If what Kairus had overheard from his family was true, one couldn’t create a dragon spout without mastering Cloud Seizing Art.

Any swordsman from the Featherwing family would know the difference between this and a dragon spout.

“It’s a vortex that wants to look like a dragon spout.”

What Swift Blade could create was a vortex that surged from the ground up toward the sky. Not only was the process different, but the force it produced was on an entirely different level.

A speed of 60 meters per second and a diameter of 30 meters—no natural vortex of such monstrous scale exists. Since it was a technique designed to mimic a dragon spout, its destructive force was immense, grinding down anyone who entered its radius.

One by one, more vortices swept across the clearing. Four or five similarly powerful cyclones tore through the area like ravenous beasts.

“I think I understand now what it means for this to have an advantage in full-scale battle.”

I had grasped the essence of this Swift Blade swordsmanship. Its true nature wasn’t swordsmanship at all—it was closer to a weapon of mass destruction. A battlefield where thousands clashed was the kind of place where Swift Blade truly shined.

“This scene you see now.”

Kairus pointed with his sword at the five vortices ripping the clearing apart.

“Someday, you’ll have to create it alone.”

No one knew when Spring Parsley would finish drawing the blueprint. But until it was complete, there was no way I could produce such a disaster-like scene.

‘Just one.’

Even managing to create just one would be impressive. Outsiders who learned Swift Blade couldn’t use it like this. Their thoughts never reached that far.

“Swift Blade was designed from the start for full-scale warfare. Understand what that means.”

Local Wind, Constant Wind, Weasel’s Scythe… All of them were mere offshoots made for situations outside of all-out war.

“Everything that swordsmanships known for controlling wind can do—Swift Blade can do as well.”

It was because the swordsmanship was so thoroughly refined that the Featherwing family had confidently made Swift Blade known outside their lineage.

And yet…

“But what Swift Blade truly excels at, no other sword art can match.”

That was what elevated Swift Blade to a truly unrivaled status.

The curious thing was that while Kairus was explaining the essence of Swift Blade to me…

A similar discussion was taking place deep within the Imperial Palace.

“Your Majesty, with my foolish mind, I still cannot fully grasp Your profound intentions.”

At the very deepest part of the palace lay the emperor’s bedchamber. As the most heavily guarded place in the empire, only a select few were ever allowed inside.

Emperor Philip IV of the empire had summoned the man to whom he had posed a question.

“You there, Guardian of the Nation.”

The empire existed for the emperor. Everything born and raised on this land, and even the sky and earth that nurtured them, existed for the sake of the emperor.

Thus, protecting the emperor was no different from protecting the empire itself. That was why it would be stranger if Denver Hudson, a man bestowed the title of “Guardian of the Nation”—a title given to the very few tasked with protecting the country—were not included among those granted access.

“I want to hear your evaluation of the Featherwing family’s swordsmanship.”

Swift Blade, which conjures wind. Cloud Seizing Art, which grasps clouds. Moonwalk, which lets one step through the air.

“It is unparalleled swordsmanship. But I find it difficult to see how that relates to Your Majesty’s strategy in sparing Kairus Featherwing’s life.”

“The Featherwing swordsmanship moves the heavens to manifest its intent. That pitiful family had no idea of the true worth of the treasure they possessed.”

Creating whirlwinds and dragon spouts to sweep away enemies? Summoning lightning and storms to strike foes?

Those things didn’t matter. Moonwalk wasn’t needed to begin with.

“If mastered, it means one could bring rain to where it's needed, and clear skies to where they’re necessary.”

An emperor’s place was to govern. To watch over what was his.

“Do you know how many of My subjects suffer from drought each year? How many pyeong of My lands are tormented by floods?”

The Featherwing swordsmanship could control the heavens, and had the power to guide this nation to immeasurable abundance. That was why Philip IV had tried to destroy the Featherwing family and seize their swordsmanship.

“If I made a mistake, it was in not knowing how complex the procedure would be to acquire that swordsmanship.”

For longer than the empire’s own history, the Featherwings had optimized their bodies generation after generation in order to perfect their swordsmanship, then added a procedure on top of that.

The emperor had already secured the method of the procedure. But what he hadn’t been able to obtain was the time—the long years the Featherwing family had devoted to perfecting their swordsmanship.

Time was a constraint that not even the emperor could overcome. For the royal family to receive the procedure, they needed the years the Featherwings had built up.

“Kairus Featherwing is necessary to Me. He was born on this land, so he belongs to Me.”

“Indeed, Your Majesty.”

“That’s why I’ve overlooked all the arrogant and insolent acts he’s committing right now.”

Because he was necessary. Because he was someone needed for the empire and for Philip IV. On the off chance, the emperor hadn’t killed all of Featherwing’s bloodline. Instead, he had kept Kairus alive—someone whose records could be easily erased should it come to that—and that had ultimately led to this outcome.

“Originally, I had intended to transplant the Featherwing procedure into the royal family and gain the power to control the heavens through My bloodline.”

That had been Philip IV’s initial goal. If the swordsmanship required a procedure, then he had simply thought he could complete all preparations and undergo it.

But it had proven impossible for the royal family to receive the Featherwing procedure.

“Though the power to control the heavens will end with My reign… I am at peace with it.”

If he succeeded in putting a leash on Kairus Featherwing, then history would remember Philip IV as the emperor who mastered the heavenly currents and led the empire to prosperity.

It had taken immense time and resources to erase every record of Kairus and silence those who knew of him. But if he could be brought under control, then all that investment would have been worth it.

“Now put aside your doubts and speak to Me about the Kellogg family.”

“We failed to secure evidence. But their movements are certainly suspicious.”

Sometimes, pretending not to know what you do know serves the nation better.

“Simid Kellogg is a capable man. He brought much benefit to the empire during his long years as Treasury Chief.”

Given the vital role the Treasury Chief played in the empire, he couldn’t be executed on mere suspicion.

“The Kellogg family stands accused of embezzling tax money that Your Majesty’s people paid in good faith.”

Compared to the empire’s total tax revenue, the damage wasn’t fatal. Still, touching taxes—what rightfully belonged to the emperor—was a crime that had to be punished.

“Yes, and the report I ordered investigated, the one that was completed—Kairus Featherwing stole it, didn’t he?”

“…Do You intend to overlook such impudence as well?”

“Let’s say I’ve postponed judgment.”

Philip IV was resolute. He was the one who had annihilated the Featherwing family, which once held an important role in the empire.

But Featherwing and Kellogg were different. The Featherwings had something Philip IV wanted badly enough to destroy them. The Kelloggs did not.

“That old bastard.”

After the failed assassination attempt, Simid Kellogg had changed his strategy. He fragmented all his roles and powers. He was no longer a tree but a weed. Even if his head were cut off now, he would sprout again.

“If the time comes, I will personally sever his head, considering the sin twice as grave. You, Guardian of the Nation, need only be ever ready.”

“Understood.”

Denver Hudson thought of nothing else but carrying out the orders of Philip IV.

“Kellogg is one thing. But that bastard Kairus… Of all places, why that city?”

When Kairus had been released from the labor correctional facility, Philip IV hadn’t expected him to go to Bennett City.

And in truth, the emperor’s assumption had been somewhat correct. Kairus hadn’t originally intended to head for Bennett City. In fact, even if he had wanted to, he couldn’t have.

“What became of the one tasked with escorting Kairus?”

“There’s been no word. It is presumed he’s dead.”

Philip IV nodded at Denver’s reply. That knight was scheduled for execution anyway once the escort mission was complete.

Even now, efforts were ongoing to silence anyone who knew anything about Kairus and to incinerate any records that surfaced. There was no way someone who became a knight through illegitimate means could have survived.

A man doomed to die had been placed in the role as a useless pawn—and that twist of fate had led to this result.

“Bennett… of all places.” Official source ıs novel fire.net

It wouldn’t have been an issue no matter where Kairus went. As long as he remained within the empire, he could never escape the emperor’s grasp.

But the escorting knight had died, and in the brief window during which Kairus's whereabouts were lost, he had ended up in Bennett City.

A place that belonged neither to the Aylan Republic nor to the Valorn Empire.

“Who knows when he’ll act, or where he’ll finish his work and return from…”

Even the emperor, who owned everything in the empire, was powerless in that city. By the time you noticed anything, it would already be too late.

Featherwing’s swordsmanship was important, yes—but touching the Antaria Grand Canal would mean full-scale war with the Aylan Republic.

And the Valorn Empire had no confidence it could claim a clear victory in such a war.

“It’s true things have gone slightly off course.”

At Denver’s words, the emperor nodded again.

“Indeed, fortune did not smile on us.”

The plan had been for the entire Featherwing legacy to become imperial property after their extermination.

But during the process of seizing their inheritance after the family’s annihilation, an incident occurred, and about half of the Featherwing legacy had been lost.

“If one were to submit and give up in the face of such misfortune, what right would they have to call themselves emperor, standing above all the people?”

If things hadn’t gone according to plan, it wasn’t something to mourn or regret—it was something to resolve.

And the emperor was doing what he could to manage the situation in his own way.

“That troublesome city is the real problem in the end.”

The current state of Bennett City was a problem that would eventually have to be resolved, one way or another.

If he succeeded in seizing the Antaria Grand Canal, he would become the emperor who had finally solved a long-standing problem—and at the same time, he would secure control over Kairus’s whereabouts.