Chapter 35: The Knight Who Wouldn’t Break

Puuk.  

The sound of my leather boots sinking knee-deep into the mud.

I swallowed the curse rising in my throat and took the next step.

Lobigos, standing atop the hill, laughed.

“Come up if you can.”

In the end, the only way to truly win was to capture that bastard.

As if refusing to let me, a green monster with blazing blue eyes charged, wielding two spears.

“Their scales are hard, their muscles explosive.”

Lobigos’s voice rang strangely clear.

The spearhead drawing a semicircle toward my neck looked slow-motion.

Kang!

I blocked the blade with my left gauntlet and seized the rebounding shaft.

“Ōt!”

With a kiai I twisted my body, and the lizardman holding the spear end lost balance.

I took a large step forward and thrust my sword tip between its ribs.

“Kiik!”

It screamed and collapsed.

“Shut up and wait.”

I shouted toward Lobigos.

Somehow I had climbed to the middle of this damned slope where every step upward cost three sliding back.

The lizardmen desperately followed, trying to stab my back and thighs and bite.

Glancing over my shoulder, I thought:

The sword is a splendid weapon.  

Especially against monsters without regeneration.

But this knight’s sword felt a little… inconvenient.

It was the first time I had felt this awkwardness.

Awkward, yes—but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was awkward.

Hilkeum. 

A spear dug in behind my knee joint.

I half-turned and knocked it away the spear, only for a second one to fly in immediately.

“Can you really relax with just that?”

Again, Lobigos’s voice.

I was about to reply that it was fine when three, four, five more spears came in succession.

Tch.

I groaned and fully turned to face them.

Two lizardmen were alternately thrusting three spears each.

To me they were spears; to the tall creatures they were more like short spears or bladed clubs—so the swings were fast.

Kiik, shiik. The bastards laughed in turns and poured down spearheads like a rainstorm.

I divided my heartbeat and watched the six organically moving spears.

Spear 1 would miss, spear 2 was coming for my thigh.

Spear 3 would hit the cuirass and slide to the right flank, spear 4 would dig into the shoulder.

Spear 5 would also hit the cuirass, but judging by the shoulder movement, the force behind the shaft was tremendous—I’d be pushed back even if I blocked with armor.

Knock spear 5 away too.

Spear 6 is aiming for the face.

Better to dodge that one.

The chain of thoughts flowed naturally, like water.

The thoughts were long and complex, but not even one full beat of the four-part heartbeat had passed.

As predicted, spear 1 missed, I swung and deflected spear 2 aimed at my thigh.

The shaft splintered and shards flew.

I trapped spear 3 sliding toward my flank under my armpit, twisted, and snapped it; I slashed upward and cut the shaft of spear 4 heading for my shoulder.

I kicked the falling spearhead, spun it in the air, then kicked the cross-section again—planting it neatly into the eye of the next climbing lizardman.

“What!”

His voice rose higher—surprised just now? I answered inwardly.

Spear 5, loaded with power, struck my cuirass.

Spear 6 immediately changed trajectory from face to chest.

Boom! Boom! The strength of the scaled monsters was tremendous.

Mass against mass, I could not win.

It was force enough to send me flying.

But I leaned my center of gravity forward as if about to fall and held.

The lizardmen, flustered, dilated their vertical pupils sharply.

I thrust my sword to pierce those eyes.

“Huh?”

The sword was short—even with my arm fully extended, it didn’t reach the lizardman’s body.

Kideuk. 

Smirks appeared on their faces.

If only I could lunge—those words rose to my throat.

I retracted the extended sword, sliced the shaft, and stepped back down the single step I had just gained.

“So when exactly were you planning to come all the way up?”

I erased Lobigos’s damned voice from my mind.

As if they had been waiting, the two lizardmen drew daggers from their waists.

One aimed for my thigh, one for my neck.

I mentally drew a vertical line connecting both their elbows.

Seongbaek cut in curves, but right now a straight line was better.

I relaxed the strength in my elbow and swung.

Seogeok. 

The blade that entered between joint and joint actually accelerated.

Two heavy thud sounds.

But they still had three arms each.

One was faster.

Its dagger drew a semicircle.

I could see the arc passing my neck and reaching its comrade’s thigh.

Instead of blocking or countering, I lightly turned and took it on my cuirass.

Kadeudeuk—the dagger that slid across smooth metal stabbed straight into its comrade’s thigh.

“Kak!”

The comrade screamed at the unexpected attack.

Its dagger, raised above my head, trembled.

I grabbed its wrist with my left hand and yanked.

Puk! The two lizardmen, now sharing a dagger in the thigh, staggered together.

“Fall.”

I lifted a foot mired in mud and kicked one in the chest.

The tangled pair collapsed together in perfect harmony.

***

The monsters pursued tenaciously, and Anplus cut them down mercilessly.

They were tougher than humans, so controlling force was difficult, but in the end, for every three steps he slid back he gained one upward, and he stood atop the hill.

The sun emerging from the clouds illuminated his face and cast a cloak-like shadow behind him.

“You really climbed all the way up, you shabby knight of clear blood.”

“The shabby one is you, Lobigos. Releasing monsters on another house’s land?”

Anplus leveled his sword and thought:

He looks exactly like his cousin—every inch the upright noble—yet his deeds are just as filthy.

Lobigos put on a grave expression.

“You think all sorts of things. Let me be honest—I do feel sorry. I know this isn’t something a blue-blood noble should do.”

Anplus startled.

Not only because of the content, but because he had not spoken that thought aloud.

Seeing Anplus’s shock, Lobigos smiled.

His previously solemn face twisted like a clown’s.

“But we imperial collaterals aren’t in a position to be choosy about means.”

Lobigos spoke without moving his lips.

“Surprised? Telepathy, pyrokinesis, memory sharing, domination—mental-attribute magic can be applied in many forms.”

Anplus raised his sword into high guard and took one step forward.

His instincts screamed danger.

“This ability has no direct killing power. Yet how do you think a collateral like me survived and rose this far? Aren’t you curious, Sir Anplus?”

But the moment he raised his sword, his breathing quickened and he panicked.

The world spun as if drunk; his head throbbed.

“To be honest… I never imagined a person could do this without magic.”

Only Lobigos’s voice echoed in his mind.

“I acknowledge it. You are a powerful knight and an excellent card. Who would have thought anyone could slaughter these monsters without an officer-mage?”

Anplus felt strength slowly draining from his hand.

Tuk. The wave-pattern sword fell to the hilltop.

“From now on, you will wield that strength for me. Become my sword, shabby knight of clear blood.”

Lobigos began gathering mana in earnest.

His eyes blazed pure blue, and the miracle called magic manifested.

Anplus’s pale gray eyes burned the same blue.

Like he had done with the lizardmen, Lobigos stimulated Anplus’s emotions.

When will a knight like you finally break?

Dominating a person with mental strength, intellect, and reason was never easy.

He had to completely shatter a strong mind and become the object of its fear and love.

And Lobigos had done this more than once or twice.

He poured countless negative emotions into Anplus’s mind.

In that instant, Anplus’s half-closed eyes snapped open.

The blue light in his pupils rippled like a pebble thrown into a pond.

And in that moment, Anplus was with Temeratia.

Havinnan, Ziberck, and other young nobles were there too.

Blue blood soaked the floor, severed limbs rolled, deeply cut backs and pierced stomachs burned hot, thorns piercing the instep were grotesque.

The scream he had let out when the red-hot iron finally touched his forehead and belly revived in his mind.

Pure pain gifted by memories detached from the body.

The moment he had picked up his spilled intestines flashed vividly.

Muscles that had clenched hard at the signal blocked capillaries and raised heart rate and blood pressure to the limit.

“So this is how it works?”

Anplus rasped with difficulty and reached out a trembling hand.

He firmly gripped the sword hilt he had momentarily released.

In that instant, all the turmoil calmly subsided.

Lobigos frantically tried to kick the sword away, but he could not overcome Anplus’s grip strength.

“This is how it works, you say?”

Blue light flashed again, and the texture of the raging emotions changed.

He felt as if he had returned to that corridor the winter he was fifteen.

The moment his father’s eyes, burning with love and expectation, turned coldly away replayed endlessly.

Breath shortened, hands and feet shook, thighs buckled, tears welled, he wanted to run, his face burned, cold sweat poured.

Anplus gripped his sword tighter and put strength into his legs.

He revives memories through emotions to collapse the mind.

The headache that had throbbed like a spiked ball rolling around cooled.

Lobigos’s eyes flashed once more.

Anplus felt his entire body grow cold, the unpleasant sensation of waking from a nightmare in summer, drenched in cold sweat.

It was like falling headfirst from a tall tower, sinking endlessly into water.

Thump! Thump… thump……

His pounding heart slowly cooled; he felt the blood draining from his body.

I must not let go of my mind.

Anplus sensed it instinctively.

It was only the second time, but he had no confidence he could ever get used to this.

Lobigos felt not just panic but bewilderment, then astonishment, then fear, and gathered mana.

What is this.

He scraped together even the mana that had been controlling the imitation ancient monsters.

What the hell are you?

Monsters unintentionally freed from his domination collapsed like puppets with cut strings.

Even the proudest noble would have long since broken, yet his mind is still vivid?

It’s actually getting stronger?

The pain of limbs being severed, nails being pulled, body burning—I personally collected those from condemned criminals through torture.

And that wasn’t all.

Even if he’s a knight, he’s a precious pureblood. When would he ever have felt the disappointment, loneliness, and guilt of being abandoned by the whole world?

He had experienced all of it?

No matter what, he can’t have died!

Lobigos poured mana and emotion in near despair.

If even this failed to make him submit, it meant Anplus had endured pain beyond anything Lobigos could imagine.

A noble direct pureblood born in luxury couldn’t possibly—!

There was no place where the struggle and discrimination between direct line and collateral was as fierce as the imperial family.

The Electors treated collaterals as subordinates, but the imperial family saw them as potential rivals or traitors.

Break already.

Every blood vessel in Lobigos turned blue.

Instead of merely stimulating emotions, he dove straight into Anplus’s mind.

Everyone has at least one terror they absolutely cannot face.

Just what the hell is in that proud head that lets you withstand even death!

Plop. The moment he heard the sound of falling into water, Lobigos witnessed an incomprehensible scene.

What… is that?

A gigantic glass tower stabbing the sky, carriages that rolled silently burning black oil, enormous steel birds that swallowed and vomited countless people while flying the heavens.

Images that could not be described in words, concepts and letters he had never seen or heard.

What is this? 

Even lunatics don’t create hallucinations this vivid.

His head felt like it was splitting; a nosebleed burst from Lobigos.

Yet he could not escape Anplus’s mind.

Incomprehensible images, incomprehensible concepts, incomprehensible words poured in endlessly.

A world without emperor, king, nobles, or blue blood? 

How could barbarians create such civilization?

Lobigos squeezed his mental power to escape the torrent of information.

Then a single memory brushed past his eyes.

Skimming that last memory, his eyes widened.

“Huh?”

Feeling himself surfacing, he emerged from Anplus’s mind.

“Keoheok, keoheokkeoheok!”

“Keok, keok! Heo-eok.”

Both men staggered, gasping violently.

Tears streamed as if they had inhaled acrid smoke.

Lobigos spoke to Anplus, who was once again aiming his sword.

“You…You were never blue blood to begin with. Nor weak-willed.”