#185

Swallan held her breath upon seeing those figures slowly standing up from the ground. Just like Swallan, all of them had their ears cut off. Furthermore, their nose, lips, and eyes had also been cut out—however, she could recognize them at a glance. They were Swallan’s elf comrades who had traveled with and helped her for a long time.

They were also those that Swallan and Celine had once taught as well as received help from. Although a long time had passed, their bodies seemed to have not rotted at all.

“…Undead?”

“You shouldn’t compare them to such crude things. They are still alive, you know.”

Celine smiled and moved her fingers to gesture. One of the elves groaned and slowly turned his head at Celine’s hand gesture. His mouth gaped open, but his empty mouth couldn’t spit out a proper word.

Swallan covered her mouth with her hand; she was speechless at the miserable sight of her old comrade. Celine hummed a strange tune and wandered around her comrades.

“The elves that were born after the emperor killed Iolin, who used to protect the forest and the lake, couldn’t enjoy a long life like their ancestors. They lost their harmony with the spirits and ended up growing old, just like ordinary humans. Just like you and I, Swallan. Our parents didn’t even consider or treat us like elves,” Celine said as she reached out her hand to poke her finger into the empty eyes of the elf.

“However, that didn’t mean that humans treated us like humans, even though we were no different from ordinary human beings after losing our God’s blessing. But look, my comrades and I built a nest here in this dungeon, and we are stronger than ever.”

“That… doesn’t mean… you got stronger…” Swallan muttered.

“Of course, we had to pay a price. It seems that you believe that I have a monopoly on this power. But you’re wrong. All the priests of the Thornbush Priest Organization are equal, and so are they.”

When Celine put her two fingers on her tongue, a wet and muddy sound was heard. After a while, Celine opened her mouth to hide her tongue still wriggling with tentacles.

“Swallan.”

It was the voice of a man that came out of Celine’s mouth. Swallan was completely frozen upon hearing the voice.

“I’ve been waiting for you for a long time, Swallan.”

Swallan quickly pulled out an arrow and shot it in an instant, but Celine just slightly turned her head and dodged the arrow.

“…Did you really think that such a trick would work on me, Celine? Did you think I’d be agitated if you just imitated Ergel’s voice? You really thought that I came here without any resolution?” Swallan said.

But ‘Celine’ continued to speak.

“I remember the night when the star of Elpell crossed with the tip of the Sagittarius, Swallan.”

Swallan was completely rigid. Her hand which was holding the bow began to tremble. The story Celine was talking about was something that was not known by anyone other than Swallan and the other person involved.

‘Celine’ continued to speak in a relaxed manner.

“You said that you wanted to learn how to use the bow. Even though we told you many times that we could no longer shoot arrows that would lead us to the destination due to no longer being blessed by the wind spirit, you insisted that you still want to learn. You said the Order of Lindwurm shooting arrows from atop the dragon looked cool, but…”

“Shut up,” Swallan gritted her teeth.

‘Celine’ snorted at Swallan’s mutter.

“But you didn’t know back then—that the Order of Lindwurm helped kill our god, Iolin.”

“I said shut up!”

Swallan fired an arrow again. This time, the arrow flew in a completely different direction, let alone the face.

‘Celine’ continued her words while looking at the arrow that missed her.

“I also remember you breaking your bow after you found out about this fact. None of us was as good at archery as you. Thus I gave you the bow made using the horns of a dragon that was passed down as a treasure within our forest—so that it would never break.”

Swallan was biting her lips so hard that she was bleeding. She was tightly clutching her bow as if she was ready to fire another arrow at any time, but the bow seemed like it might break before that. ‘Celine’ lifted up her finger as if she was playing with a doll.

“But look, Swallan. Celine did not flee to this dark, humid dungeon for nothing. She took a huge gamble where she was betting our lives. And look at what she got as her price.”

A new group of people began to rise up from the ground once again; they were wearing old, rusty armor that had a symbol of a white dragon engraved on the chest.

“Celine managed to get the Order of Lindwurm in her hand.”

Celine’s tongue wriggled, and her voice returned to her original voice.

“I am now able to control and command those who used to be the emperor’s men, Swallan. Don’t you think this would be much more meaningful than rebuilding our destroyed forest? We can’t kill the emperor who’s dead already, but don’t you think it would be just as fun to destroy the empire he founded?”

At that moment, Juan’s body shot out like an arrow with the sound of the stone pavement he was stepping on cracking.

***

The armor engraved with a white dragon was the symbol of the Order of Lindwurm. From the moment Juan saw the symbol on the armor, his eyes had been blazing. Juan neglected Celine and Swallan’s conversation in the hope that Swallan would get over her trauma. However, Juan could no longer sit still after seeing the Order of Lindwurm rising from the ground.

As soon as his short sword struck the back of her neck, Celine fell to the ground with her neck almost chopped off halfway through. At the same time, Swallan’s comrades and the Order of Lindwurm surrounded Juan in haste. While dodging the huge swords being swung at him, Juan cut the knights’ hamstrings. The knights fell to their knees and a short sword stabbed them in their necks right after.

“I know one strike isn’t enough to kill you. Get up.”

Upon hearing Juan’s words, Celine slowly raised herself up. Before anyone knew it, the back of her neck that had been cut wide open was being joined back by the tentacles.

Instead of attacking Juan again, the knights from the Order of Lindwurm surrounded Celine as if they were protecting her.

“Right, I forgot the boy was still here. You said you were chasing Gerad Gain, so you might have had a history with the Order of Lindwurm. Why didn’t I think of that?”

Gerard’s Order of Lindwurm was a group of brave knights who had devoted themselves to protecting the eastern territory from dragons and sea monsters. However, their current base was in this humid and dark underground where not a single ray of sunlight shone. The object that they were currently loyal to seemed to be a gruesome tentacle monster rather than the flag of the empire proudly flying on the battlefield.

“Let me be honest with you. The priests of the Thornbush Priest Organization have been watching you ever since you first showed up in Tantil. We were planning for a very elaborate revival of Talter over there. Due to what you did there, we considered you our enemy.”

Juan frowned upon hearing that there was a hand behind the scenes planning Talter’s revival just as he had expected. However, the gods were not on good terms with the Crack, even though the empire and the Crack were hostile to each other.

Juan had a feeling that the priests of the Thornbush Priest Organization pushing ahead with such a plan could only mean one thing.

“Were you trying to shake up the empire?” Juan asked.

“Well, there’s that. But I don’t feel the need to go into details with you. After that, you antagonized and destroyed the Order of the Blue Rose as well as the Order of the White Crow. Thanks to that, we fell into confusion. I even thought that you might be on our side at one point, since what you had done had more ripple effects than the revival of Talter ever would have.”

Juan clutched his short sword. He felt that there was no reason to keep listening to such a trivial story.

“We wanted to know more about you, and you finally came all the way here. However, seeing you now makes me think of another possibility,” Celine said.

Juan’s body disappeared for a second, then reappeared from a blind spot on the right side of Celine.

Looking at the empty space where Juan was no longer standing, Celine quietly muttered to herself.

“The possibility that you’re just some random idiot who appeared out of nowhere.”

Even though the spot where Juan was attacking from was clearly Celine’s blind spot, the Order of Lindwurm simultaneously struck their weapons toward Juan as if they were sharing their senses with her. Juan narrowly dodged the attack. Despite the fact that they were being controlled by the tentacles, the knights of the Order of Lindwurm could still be considered to be the best knights of the entire empire. One could say that their proficiency in Baltic Sword exceeded that of most Templars.

“You’re much too dangerous as an idiot who can’t be controlled. Maybe it’s for the best that you just die here.”

Celine beckoned to the knights of the Order of Lindwurm without sparing Juan another glance. When Celine ‘saw’ Juan through the agents in the wasteland, she could immediately tell that he was a powerful opponent. However, he wasn’t strong enough to deal with the entirety of the Order of Lindwurm. Besides, the Order of Linwurm’s skills wasn’t rusty at all compared to when they were active.

Celine’s interest was directed toward Swallan rather than Juan—until one of the knights from the Order of Lindwurm was mutilated and scattered in an instant.

“Huh?”

Celine was connected to all of them by the nerves made out of tentacles. It was even possible for her to feel their emotions and see their judgments to control them in detail. But a feeling that she had never felt from them in the past years was delivered to her just now: fear. They shuddered.

Celine couldn’t understand. Every one of the knights of the Order of Lindwurm had a massive advantage over Juan in terms of their weapons, size, environment, location, and anything else. Almost as if such things had no effect on him at all, Juan fought against the Order of Lindwurm with a single short sword.

Flames flared up in Juan’s eyes. The fourth stage of Baltic Swords: Dispersing Fog.

Juan slipped into the gaps between the knights of the Order of Lindwurm like a fog. Being perplexed by the sudden unexpected movement, the knights from the Order of Lindwurm failed to swing their weapons properly and ran into each other.

In that short moment, Juan’s fog instantly turned into a blade. Another knight was cut down in the blink of an eye again. Their armor failed to protect them from Juan’s short sword and they were cut like a piece of paper. Juan kicked the knight’s head that had been cut off and sent it flying away as if he refused to give the knight a chance to recover.

“What’s going on?”

Celine couldn’t help but grow frustrated upon seeing the Order of Lindwurm being destroyed. The knights’ necks were burnt black, making it difficult for the tentacles to grow on them. Celine was already aware of the fact that Juan used the power of flames from when she observed him over the wasteland, but didn’t think the heat would be strong enough to prevent the tentacles from regenerating.

Then, an arrow narrowly passed by her cheek. The arrow struck the back of the neck of one of the knights from the Order of Lindwurm who tried to back off from Juan’s short sword. The moment the knight’s neck was bent back, Juan was able to slash his throat.

“Swallan!” Celine shouted as she glared at Swallan who was fiddling with her bow once again.

Without a change in her expression, Swallan was preparing to shoot another arrow. It seemed obvious that she had no intention of cooperating with Celine again.

Juan was stronger than Celine thought, and Swallan kept her in check with her sneak attacks. Both of these things were causing her concentration to break. Celine hastily ordered the knights to pull back, but four of them had been killed.

Juan didn’t give Celine a break. Juan’s body turned into a blurry afterimage and chased the knights from the Order of Lindwurm as if he was weaving through them, and then cut their bodies one by one.

Celine was beside herself with anger when she saw the Order of Lindwurm helplessly getting annihilated.

“How come all of you so-called emperor’s knights are this pathetic…!”

“That’s not how you run the knight order,” Juan said as if he thought Celine was pathetic, while stabbing a short sword into the neck of another knight.

Celine glared at Juan.

“It’s all meaningless no matter how skilled the knights are; after all their commander is a newbie. The Order of Lindwurm had the best teamwork and cooperation among its members compared to any other knight orders. You’re the textbook example of an incompetent commander since you’re making them charge recklessly without taking advantage of their merits.”

“Yes, I bet their teamwork was so good that they were destroyed by internal conflict, right?” Celine shot back without flinching.

Juan was a stronger opponent than she had expected. Celine couldn’t help but be perplexed. The Order of Lindwurm wasn’t pushed back to this extent even in the past when a Templar called Jules paid a visit.

Not only did hallucinations fail to work on the Templars, but their power called the ‘Grace’ was also very annoying. But that was all. Even though the Templars were difficult and annoying opponents, not a single knight from the Order of Lindwurm had been killed.

That could only mean that Juan’s skills far exceeded those of the Templars.