Ch. 25
Chapter 25. The Sword and the Rose
The morning mist had not yet fully lifted.
Eli had only just finished his daily round of Intelligence Acquisition when an alarming message came to him:
【Purple: A group of adult Scale-Armored Crocodiles, having lost a struggle over water sources in an upstream territory, will migrate downstream before noon today and pass through the lower stretch of the river below Black Territory.】
Scale-Armored Crocodiles—aquatic magical beasts covered in thick bony plates and violent by nature—were the nightmare of every settlement along a riverbank.
Eli instantly thought of the fishermen working downstream, and the slaves assisting them.
“Clark!” There was a rare urgency in Eli’s voice. “Come with me at once! There’s danger downstream!”
His shout pierced the temporary wooden hut next door where Clark had been lodged.
From inside came a muffled complaint and the dull thud of something heavy hitting the floor.
“So noisy... Eli... it’s not even fully daylight yet...”
“There’s no time for nonsense. Magical beasts are coming through the river downstream!” Eli seized him by the arm and started dragging him outside.
“Magical beasts?!” The sleep-fogged haze in Clark’s golden eyes vanished in an instant.
“Where?! What kind of magical beasts?!”
“Wait! My sword! Bring me my sword!” he shouted over his shoulder to the knight accompanying him.
The knight reacted with practiced speed, rushing back into the hut and reappearing a moment later with an elegant one-handed knight’s sword, its scabbard adorned with a thorned-rose motif.
......
Downstream from Obsidian Territory, at a backwater cove where the current ran relatively gently.
A crude wooden raft floated on the surface. Six fishermen from the eastern coast were there with more than a dozen strong slaves, all hard at work in the water.
Some were driving sharpened stakes deeper into the riverbed to secure the raft. Others were on the bank, weaving and repairing enormous fishing nets.
When they saw Eli hurrying over with his people, Estor, who was leading them, looked startled.
“My lord? Why have you come?”
“Everyone! Get ashore now! Quickly!” Eli did not waste time explaining.
The fishermen and slaves had no idea what was happening, but at the sight of their lord’s grave expression, no one dared delay.
They immediately dropped what they were doing, scrambled onto the raft with both hands and feet, then jumped back to shore.
Seeing this, Estor instantly raised his voice to help. “Ashore! Everyone ashore!”
Clark, who had been staring fixedly at the river’s surface, suddenly had his golden pupils shrink to needlepoints.
“Look out!”
A sharp warning burst from his mouth, and his body sprang forward like a leopard that had been coiled and waiting for the moment to strike.
With blinding speed, he snatched the longsword from the waist of a nearby guard knight.
The movement flowed without the slightest hitch—draw, twist, and throw!
A flash of snowy light screamed through the air like a bolt of lightning, shooting with flawless precision toward a shadow beneath the surface that had looked utterly still.
The sword plunged into the water with a heavy splash.
In the next instant—
“ROOOAAARGH—!!!”
A furious, pain-filled bellow exploded across the river.
The muddy water churned violently, as though a giant stone had been hurled into it. Three enormous and ferocious black shapes burst from the river.
They were three adult Scale-Armored Crocodiles. Their backs, plated in thick bone armor, rose above the water as they roared with terrifying force.
One of them, the largest of the three, had Clark’s thrown sword buried in its neck.
Dark red blood poured down the blade in streams, staining the surrounding water crimson.
The agony drove it into a frenzy.
The people on shore instantly erupted into terrified screams.
The three enraged beasts locked their tiny scarlet eyes on the diminutive figure on the bank who had dared to injure one of their own.
“Good!”
Clark did not retreat. Instead, he stepped forward to meet the charging monsters. His right hand closed around the hilt of his own thorn-and-rose one-handed sword.
SHING—
The elegant, slender blade came flashing free of the scabbard.
The wounded giant crocodile reached him first, lunging in with its jaws wide open.
Clark bent backward in an almost impossible motion, supple as a willow branch swaying in the wind.
At the same time, his wrist flicked, and the slender sword became a sly streak of silver—
like a venomous snake striking with its tongue, it thrust precisely into the spot beneath the crocodile’s comparatively vulnerable eyelid.
With a wet punch, the silver blade pierced straight into its brain.
The massive beast’s body locked up at once. Its mad charge stopped dead, and it crashed into the shallows with a thunderous splash that sent muddy water flying everywhere.
The other two crocodiles were already upon him.
One opened its huge jaws and snapped at his waist. The other whipped its thick, spike-studded tail sideways at his legs like a battering ram.
Eli’s pupils contracted slightly.
Yet the arrogant smile never left Clark’s face.
As the first beast snapped for his middle, Clark spun lightly in place, like a graceful dancer stepping through the most exquisite of patterns.
He skimmed past those ghastly fangs by the narrowest margin.
At the same time, he did not withdraw his sword. Borrowing the centrifugal force of the spin, he drew a silver arc of deadly beauty through the air.
A huge gash, deep enough to expose bone, opened instantly across the second crocodile’s relatively soft throat.
Blood erupted from it like a fountain.
The crocodile let out a howl of pain, and its attack collapsed at once.
As for the lethal tail sweeping in at him, Clark used the lingering momentum of his turn to leap upward with the nimble lightness of an ape.
The tips of his boots touched the massive tail, which cut through the air with a savage howl, only for the briefest instant.
He borrowed that force.
In a flash, his entire body shot higher.
Not only had he perfectly evaded the tail strike, he even seemed to hang in the air for a brief, dazzling moment.
Now!
Clark’s gaze sharpened like an eagle’s. At the highest point of his leap, the silver sword in his hand burst with blinding golden radiance.
Gripping the sword in both hands, he plunged downward like a meteor, carrying with him the crushing force of a falling mountain as he drove the blade viciously into the joint between the third crocodile’s neck and the armored plates of its back.
“Break for me!”
The silver sword, infused with battle aura, erupted with horrifying penetrating power.
The heavy bone plates shattered at the blow. The blade drove clean through the thick neck and pinned the giant crocodile fast into the mud of the riverbank.
The beast’s enormous body convulsed violently a few times, then went completely still.
From the moment he threw the first sword to the instant all three savage Scale-Armored Crocodiles lay dead, the entire battle had passed in the blink of an eye, so fast it was almost suffocating to watch.
Clark landed lightly on the riverbank and flicked his silver sword through a beautiful flourish.
Shaking the blood from the blade, he slid it back into the scabbard at his waist with effortless elegance.
He tossed back his wet golden hair, his face lit with the exhilarated smile of a man who had fought to his heart’s content.
Then he spread his arms wide and basked in the wild, tsunami-like cheers of the fishermen and slaves.
“Long live my lord!”
“A hero! A great hero!”
“My lord is invincible!”
The Graham Family’s famed one-handed swordsmanship truly deserved its reputation.
That swordplay, so gorgeous it bordered on pure showmanship, that effortless poise... Clark truly had the makings of a titled knight.
Watching his golden-haired closest friend bathed in those cheers, Eli’s eyes flickered with a trace of complicated emotion. He could not help sinking into memory.
It had been at some lavish banquet held by a certain count in the royal capital.
The young Clark had been dressed in exquisite formal wear and hemmed in at the center of a circle of haughty noble brats from the Royal Domain, like a little deer surrounded by hunting dogs.
His golden head had hung low. Faced with their jeers and shoving, he had only clutched at his clothes and stood there in mute silence.
Eli, young at the time as well, had been hiding in a corner, gnawing on fruit in sheer boredom.
The moment he saw that scene, the spoiled little tyrant’s temper that his father—the captain of the royal capital guard—had indulged in him exploded on the spot.
“Hey! You lot! You’re too damn noisy! Get lost!”
Little Eli had swaggered straight into the crowd and, without a word more, swung his fist and planted it squarely into the face of the fat boy laughing the loudest.
The whole scene had descended into chaos at once. Like a tiger charging into a flock of sheep, little Eli had relied on the rough-and-ready tricks he had learned in the military camp.
He had beaten those noble brats until they were crying for their fathers and mothers.
Of course, afterward, the Marquess had beaten little Eli until he was crying for his father and mother too—but that was a story for another time.
When the chaos finally settled, little Clark had stared blankly at little Eli.
For the first time, a tiny spark called admiration had lit in those golden eyes.
From that day on, amid endless uproar and mischief, the two had forged a deep friendship.
Later, Clark’s terrifying talent gradually revealed itself, and naturally the Graham Family was unwilling to let the future jewel of their house continue running around with Eli, that notorious wastrel.
Yet no one could stop Clark’s heart from yearning for freedom. Climbing walls, crawling through dog holes, bribing servants...
“Lord Eli! Lord Eli!”
The excited cries of the fishermen pulled Eli out of his memories and back into the present.
A gentle smile curved at the corner of Eli’s mouth. Shaking his head, he raised his voice and gave his orders.
“Estor! Have some men deal with these crocodiles!
Tonight, give our fisherman brothers, and everyone who worked by the river today, an extra portion!”
“Ohhh—!!!”
“Thank you, Lord Eli!”
“Thank you, Lord Clark!”
The cheering instantly surged another octave higher, the relief of surviving disaster intertwined with eager anticipation for a good meal, making the atmosphere more fervent than ever.
Eli’s gaze shifted to Ella, who stood quietly beside him.
A trace of shock from witnessing the fierce battle still lingered in her clear eyes, and her cheeks were slightly flushed.
Sometimes, people needed to relax too.
“Come on.” Eli suddenly took her cool little hand and led her toward a bend farther upstream, where the water ran gently and the bank was carpeted with fine pebbles.
“Eli?” Ella looked surprised. Her face reddened even more, but she did not pull away.
The water there was so clear that one could see straight to the bottom, its surface shimmering under the sunlight.
A breeze passed over them, carrying the fragrance of green grass and wildflowers.
Eli took off his boots, rolled up his trouser legs, and stepped first into the cool river water.
Then he turned back and held out a hand to Ella, a relaxed smile on his face.
“Come on, Ella. Want to try? The water’s nice and cool.”
Ella looked at the hand he had offered her, and a trace of shyness flickered through her eyes before melting into a bright, radiant smile.
Imitating Eli, she carefully took off her shoes, revealing her fair, slender ankles.
Then she placed her small hand lightly into his palm and let him guide her as she cautiously stepped into the cool water.
The tiny pebbles pressed against the soles of her feet, and the cool river washed over them. In an instant, a strange and wonderful sense of comfort spread through her whole body.
Ella could not help giving a soft little cry.
A pure, delighted smile bloomed across her face.
Seeing how happy she was, Eli smiled too.
The two of them stood there in the gentle shallows, stepping through cool water and over smooth pebbles like two playful children.
For a little while, they forgot the endless burdens of the territory and simply enjoyed this stolen moment of peace and coolness.