"I-I'll talk. I'll tell you everything..."
"Oh, now you want to talk? You're not hiding some kind of poison capsule in your teeth? Not planning to kill yourself?"
"I'll talk, so please stop..."
"You kept your mouth shut all this time, and now you're desperate to speak after just one slash?"
When Yuri touched the wounded eyeball with his sword, the leader clutched his eye and slammed his head to the ground.
"Ghhhk..."
"Good. My offer still stands. If you talk properly, I'll let you go right away."
"Thank you. Thank you."
"So, who sent you? Who's your master?"
"Well..."
The leader hesitated for a moment. At that, Yuri reached out his hand.
Thinking Yuri was going to torture him again, he flinched in fear. But Yuri merely cut a piece of black cloth from his clothes and used it to stop the bleeding from his injured eye.
"Go on, talk."
"J-just this, and I can go?"
"Yes. Then I'll let you go."
"The one who sent me…"
After taking a deep breath, he opened his mouth.
"The Cro—"
That moment.
Something burst out from inside his mouth.
Yuri stepped back and raised his Wind Ring Blade.
"What is that?"
It was a pitch-black snake.
Slithering out from his throat, the snake flicked its tongue at Yuri, then turned and burrowed into the leader's remaining eye.
The leader screamed in agony.
The snake wormed its way into his skull and stirred his brain for a while.
The leader writhed in convulsions where he stood, then collapsed, bleeding from every orifice in his face, dead.
The black snake soon dissolved into smoke and vanished into the air.
It was a horrifying sight.
Yuri rose to his feet.
Jared, who had been standing behind him, shuddered and asked,
"What the hell was that just now?"
"Can't you tell? It was black magic."
"Ugh..."
"There was a magic restriction. No wonder they sent these sloppy guys."
Though he hadn't uncovered the mastermind, one thing became clear.
Black magic, which until now had only been a strong hypothesis due to lack of evidence, was indeed festering in the shadows of the Empire.
Jared asked,
"Do you really think it's the Crown Prince?"
"There's a high chance."
"Hassan must be part of that dark group too."
"Yeah."
Yuri thought of the Crown Prince.
He was the man who sat next to Emperor Ibarra. His expression had been gentle. Compared to Georg, who sat beside him, he even seemed weak.
"Could the Emperor be involved too?"
"Probably not."
"Why do you think so?"
"If the Emperor were involved, the assassins wouldn't have been so sloppy."
"Ah…"
"For now…"
Yuri stood up.
"Check if anyone's still alive."
"Sorry?"
"We can't let even one go."
Yuri counted the black-clad corpses. Twenty in total, matching the number they had seen earlier.
He walked past the bodies and stabbed each in the neck to confirm the kills.
Jared watched him blankly.
"Your Highness."
"Yeah?"
"You're… ruthless."
"Have you never fought an orc?"
"That was an orc, though."
"These guys, or orcs."
Without even turning to look at him, Yuri shrugged and continued his work.
"They tried to kill us. That's all that matters."
Just then, perhaps having been pretending to be dead, one of the black-cloaked men at Yuri's feet suddenly sprang up and begged for his life.
Yuri asked him the same question he had asked the leader earlier.
"Who sent you?"
"Well…"
"If you just answer that, I'll let you go."
The black-clad man couldn't bring himself to speak.
He must have secretly witnessed the leader's gruesome death.
And he must have realized that a magic restriction had been placed on him too.
"Wait."
Yuri stopped the man.
"Let me try something."
He had previously sliced through Okua's black magic using the Heart-Soul Slash.
If this restriction was also created by black magic, he might be able to remove it again.
He activated his mana method and gazed into the landscape of the soul.
In the colorless world, the man kneeling before him appeared faintly.
Dark tendrils, like tentacles, entwined the man's body and soul as one.
They were completely fused—there was no way to separate them.
Yuri let out a low groan.
"Damn…"
Though this black magic wasn't as vast as Okua's, it was far more precise.
If the monster who created this spell offered up more sacrifices and completed the incantation, just how horrifying would their magic become?
Yuri spoke calmly.
"I can't do it."
"Sorry?"
"The restriction on you—I don't think I can break it."
"Ah…"
Despair crept over the black-cloaked man's face. He moved his lips silently for a while, then finally said,
"Just make it quick…"
Before he could finish, Yuri's sword sliced through his neck.
His head slipped from his shoulders, his mouth still slightly open.
His body crumpled to the ground, blood flowing freely.
As if repeating a routine task, Yuri moved on to the remaining corpses and checked them one by one. No one else stirred after that.
Twenty corpses were left discarded on the ground outside the Imperial City.
Yuri said to Jared,
"Bury them all."
"Sorry? All these corpses?"
"Use mana if you have to."
"Is there a reason?"
"That way, the guy behind all this will be curious."
Yuri was already dragging the corpses into a pile.
"He sent twenty assassins, and they all vanished. If there were bodies, he'd think they lost a fight. But if they all just disappeared, then what?"
"Ah…"
"Wouldn't he come sniffing around to see what happened?"
"Do you think he'd be that foolish?"
"We'll see."
Yuri looked off toward the Imperial City.
Upon the solid walls fluttered the red flag symbolizing the Empire.
"The Crown Prince won't be afraid of me. He has no reason to be. Which means whether he suspects me or not, he won't care. He won't be cautious."
"What if he does become cautious?"
"Then things get harder."
Jared grunted and started helping gather the corpses.
Eventually, they piled all twenty bodies together and dug a hole.
Yuri coated his sword with sword aura and struck the ground with the flat of his blade, opening up a wide trench.
"Your Highness."
"Yeah?"
"If the Crown Prince really is using black magic…"
"Yeah."
"It does look like he is, but… does it have to be you who steps up?"
"Jared. If the Imperial family falls, do you really think Briol will be safe?"
"Well, no, but…"
"What Okua did with the orcs will look like child's play. The Empire will go completely insane."
"Hmm…"
Jared went down into the pit and swung his sword a few times, then suddenly said,
"You once told me something, remember?"
"What?"
"When we fought Okua, you said the Allied Army was just the beginning, and to look forward to what's coming…"
"What did I say again?"
"Hmm…"
Jared walked up to Yuri and whispered something quietly. Yuri burst out laughing.
"Ah, that's right."
"Did you mean it, when you said that?"
"Don't you think I did?"
Yuri grinned as he looked down at Jared.
"Look at what we're doing now. What do you think? If we keep going one step at a time, won't it turn out that way?"
"Ah..."
"Have a little faith, Jared."
Jared let out a deep sigh.
"At this rate, I might not die a natural death."
"Everyone dies eventually."
Yuri climbed down into the pit where Jared stood. Resting his arm on Jared's shoulder, he said,
"What matters is how you die."
Jared sighed so deeply it seemed the ground would cave in.
"That's heavy."
"My arm?"
"No, your conviction, Your Highness."
"What, you thought it'd be light?"
"If I'd known it'd be like this, I would've just stayed holed up with the royal guard..."
"Well, well."
"I should've taken it easy and lived off the system..."
Yuri silently looked at Jared.
Over his face, the image of Jared from his previous life overlapped.
Back then, they hadn't been this close.
He had been just another guard Yuri didn't even know existed, but after fighting alongside him, he turned out to be quite agile. Still, due to lack of training, he couldn't last long in battle.
He was similar to how Yuri had once been.
"It's frustrating, Your Highness."
"What is?"
"If I could turn back time, I'd train to death..."
"Hey, cut the crap."
Remembering that made Yuri chuckle.
Jared had died in the next battle. As he closed his eyes, what regrets did he have?
Maybe, just like Yuri, he had wished for another chance, to return to the past and try again.
After laughing aloud once, Yuri looked into Jared's eyes and said,
"Hey, cut the crap."
Then, patting his back, he returned to digging.
"Uh..."
Jared, hearing those words, had a dazed look.
That offhanded remark, tinged with laughter—he felt like he had heard it a long, long time ago.
Was it when they were wandering the dungeon made by Briol's progenitor?
No, he'd seen a strange vision then, but even that hadn't been the first time. Even back then, he had tilted his head in déjà vu.
"Hey, cut the crap."
That phrase.
It felt like something he had heard in the distant past, a time he couldn't even remember.
Suddenly, an inexplicable emotion rose within him.
His chest ached oddly.
For some reason, being with Yuri felt incredibly fortunate.
It was a strange feeling.
Yuri, his back turned, continued digging. Jared cleared his throat lightly.
"Your Highness."
"What?"
"When the time comes, you'll give me a position, right?"
"What kind of position?"
"A high one."
"And if I don't?"
"Please do."
"You want it?"
"I do."
"Got it."
"I mean, after all I've done, of course you should..."
Jared, embarrassed, grumbled as he dug furiously into the ground.
With such force that Yuri had to step back from the flurry.
"Hah..."
Yuri sighed as he watched Jared.
"You wanted to rise that badly?"
"Sorry?"
"Greedy bastard."
"No, that's not it."
"Not what?"
"Don't you get what I meant when I said that?"
"Just dig."
"You think I'm that shallow..."
"You asked for a high position, didn't you?"
"I mean, it's not like I meant it seriously, it's just, in this moment..."
"Then I won't give it to you?"
"Please do."
After digging for a while, they rolled the twenty corpses into the pit.
They covered them with dirt, packed it down, dragged over fallen trees to layer on top, and piled grass and rocks to blend it in with the surroundings.
Even the traces of battle were cleared away, leaving the clearing as quiet as it had been before they arrived.
The task was done.
Yuri dusted the dirt from his hands.
"Another long day comes to an end."
"Sure does."
"Jared's going to be a high-ranking man, so he shouldn't be doing this kind of work..."
"That's not it."
"Let's head back. How about a nice cold beer tonight?"
"Sounds good."
"Wasn't Laurent's tournament final tomorrow?"
"Yes, that's right. Are you going to cheer him on?"
"Not really..."
Yuri and Jared dusted the dirt off each other's clothes and began trudging back toward the Imperial City.
As the sun set, their shadows stretched long across the ground.
At the place they left behind, a stone Yuri had planted stood upright like a gravestone.
***
The tournament finals were held on a proper stage, unlike the qualifiers.
It took place at the grand stadium on the outskirts of the Imperial City.
Countless citizens sat in the stands, eagerly awaiting the duels to come.
The announcer stepped forward and shouted.
His voice boomed through a voice-amplifying artifact.
[The greatest swordsmen of the continent have gathered to prove themselves. The tournament, with His Majesty's medal on the line—the Round of 64—begins now!]
Fireworks exploded in the sky.
This time, Laurent was the first to enter. His opponent was a knight from the Empire, not particularly well known.
As the two stood on stage, the announcer approached them to speak.
The Imperial knight was introduced first.
[Espero Garfield, a knight of the Empire's 2nd Knight Order. He is known to be a model knight, an inspiration to all.]
The crowd cheered.
[Please, a word to the citizens of the Imperial City watching you today.]
Espero, seemingly nervous, cleared his throat repeatedly, then looked toward a specific spot in the stands.
It was the VIP section overlooking the arena.
The Emperor wasn't present, but the Second Prince Georg and Princess Ekaterina were watching.
Espero spoke.
[I will win the medal… and dedicate it to Her Highness.]
Cheers erupted from the crowd.
To his declaration, Ekaterina responded with a soft, graceful smile, without a trace of awkwardness.
The announcer clapped along, encouraging the crowd, and then turned to Laurent.
[Laurent Flandre, firstborn of Count Francaise, and a genius who's won numerous sword tournaments!]
The citizens from Briol shouted loudly. Though fewer in number than the Imperials, their voices were just as strong.
The announcer asked Laurent as well.
[Anything you'd like to say before the match?]
Laurent smiled calmly.
[I'll do my best.]
It wasn't a very entertaining answer. The announcer brought the artifact closer and asked again.
[Uh, perhaps a word on what you'll do if you win the medal?]
Laurent glanced at the VIP section. His eyes met Ekaterina's.
He gazed at her for a moment, then smiled and replied,
[You'll find out if I win.]
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