Chapter 28
A Running Train, A Desperate Man (2)
* * *
But sadly, I needed an example to show the other soldiers. It was the easiest way to break the morale of conscripted troops in an instant.
“Kk… Ughhhh….”
The soldier who had charged at me had both of his arms broken, and then I grabbed his head. His abdomen was torn open in a long horizontal gash, and blood and entrails were spilling out.
“Even if you don’t care about the Empire or His Majesty the Emperor, there is no glory here for you. There never will be.”
The soldier, still alive in that unspeakable agony, twitched weakly, unable even to struggle properly.
That faint spasm looked more like a plea to hurry up and let him become a corpse. But I had no intention of doing so.
The morale of the soldiers plummeted into the abyss in an instant. It didn’t look like it could ever recover.
“Step aside.”
At that moment, a voice called out from behind the soldiers. At once, the soldiers forced themselves to split to either side, making space where there was none.
At the same time, the flicker of hope returned to their eyes.
“Hello, Sir Knight.”
I spun the stained glass in my hand with a flick and looked at him.
“I don’t expect honor or pride from you. Those are concepts trash like you could never understand.”
The knight glanced at the soldier I was clutching and slowly raised his spear.
“But it seems you don’t even have mercy.”
“Why would I show mercy when I’m about to die?”
The moment he heard my answer, the knight leveled his spear at me.
“You show no mercy, so I will show none to you. I declare here and now: the pain you will suffer will be many times worse than that of the soldier moaning in your grasp.”
“I get that you’re trying to sound impressive.”
Besides, this opponent wasn’t even the paladin originally assigned to face me.
In an instant, I vanished and appeared right in front of the knight, swinging my sword.
The knight hastily brought his spear up. With a tremendous clash, sword and spear collided.
“Kuh… Ha!”
The locked weapons ground against each other with a shrieking noise.
Unable to withstand the force behind my sword strike, the knight was pushed backward. As I pressed him back, I spoke.
“At the very least, you should be able to gauge the skill of the opponent standing before you. Moonlight Order apprentice.”
The knight’s eyes widened. There was no way I, who had to memorize all the noble families, would fail to recognize the emblem of the order.
Being an apprentice was something that could be known in the instant you crossed weapons.
He wielded a spear, yet failed to maintain the distance most favorable to him. In experience and skill, this one hadn’t caught either of the two rabbits, but was merely struggling to chase them.
“You’ve lost. Farewell.”
But this apprentice knight would never succeed in catching even one of those two rabbits.
I swiftly seized the opponent’s left wrist, pulling it toward me while stepping aside.
The moment the knight’s body, which had been straining to withstand the pressure of my sword, lurched forward, I had already slipped away to the side. With a smooth turn of my arm and body, I redirected the force.
The knight’s body floated into the air, spinning helplessly before crashing down to the ground.
As his back struck the floor, the sword I held in my opposite hand thrust into his throat.
The knight couldn’t even scream. When I drew the blade sideways, his head was severed cleanly and rolled across the ground.
I wiped the blood splattered on my face with my sleeve and looked over at the soldiers.
“What are those expressions for? Is it because the owner of that head rolling on the floor wasn’t the gentleman you all wanted?”
The soldiers had expected me to be beaten senseless and die in agony. But reality was merciless, and what unfolded before them was nothing like what they had hoped for.
‘Truthfully, I’m not exactly in a position to be taunting them like this.’
The word “merciless reality” applied just as much to me as to the soldiers trembling in front of me.
The knights were still here, and nearly five thousand soldiers were in fact unscathed. On top of that, the speeding train still needed time to arrive at the location my collaborators had prepared.
‘At this rate, damn it.’
Either I would manage to kill all the knights and utterly crush the soldiers’ will to resist, or I would die beneath the overwhelming violence of their numbers.
By the time the train arrived, it would be one of those two outcomes.
“Well, at least even in the worst-case scenario, I’ll be able to follow the boss’s advice.”
Jonathan had said that if I failed, it would be better to die here. It hadn’t sounded wrong to me, and I remembered it well.
Still, surviving was always the best option.
‘Overwhelmingly, ruthlessly.’
I could never afford to look weak. That would block any chance of success, and ensure disaster in everything else. I must not give the soldiers any grounds to recover their morale. Though I’d succeeded in cutting the train in two, there were still too many enemies for me to handle alone.
Up to now, I was doing excellently. To the soldiers watching, I was nothing but a beast wearing a human mask.
“Raise your hand, whoever wants to be the next challenger. I’ll take your head off right away.”
No one was foolish enough to raise a hand at my words.
“I suppose I’ll take a turn.”
No there was one. He was clearly dressed as a knight. In front of that one, I couldn’t afford to wag my tongue carelessly.
He looked pathetic. And for someone like me, who had to suppress the many with sheer force, appearing pathetic was fatal.
‘To put it plainly, I’ll have to face five thousand alone.’
Even if each of those soldiers managed to pinch me just once, the flesh of my entire body would be torn away.
…
My figure vanished, then appeared right in front of him. As I swung my sword, the opponent responded by gripping a pair of crowbars in both hands.
At that sight, even I couldn’t help being momentarily taken aback.
It wasn’t because his skill exceeded my expectations. He was just an apprentice too.
“…Did this bastard bring tools? Are you insane?”
I was only startled because he was wielding something closer to a set of tools than actual weapons.
If things like that counted as weapons, then a fork was a trident. Besides…
“You watched another apprentice die, and yet you still overestimate yourself and charge in alone? If you want to kill yourself, spare others the trouble and hang yourself, you bastard.”
My sword writhed like a snake. The blade grazed over his wrist.
That sharp kiss cut through skin and muscle, severing the tendon beneath. The knight dropped the crowbars, and I picked up the one he’d lost as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“A lunatic who attacks with tools instead of weapons. I’ll admit, it left an impression.”
The crowbar I held in my hand came down on the crown of his head. With a sickening crunch, his skull caved in, and one of his eyes burst free, unable to withstand the pressure.
It wasn’t something I enjoyed, but I still reached out, tore the loose eyeball free, and flung it toward the soldiers.
The rolling eyeball bumped against the toe of one man’s boot.
“Ugh… Ahhh…”
While the soldiers turned pale at the horrific scene, I hurled the corpse of the knight with the shattered skull out of the train.
“I will never let you die peacefully.”
“A monster who built up skill without a shred of pride or respect.”
I raised my head and looked at the next ones who were likely to come at me.
“I can understand two coming at me if one isn’t enough, but don’t you think three is a bit cowardly?”
I clicked my tongue. There were supposed to be five knights. If the information I’d gathered was true, one of those three was a paladin. The other two were an apprentice and an ordinary knight.
“O almighty and holy Itera. I send you this soul, steeped in sin.”
The one who looked unmistakably like a paladin raised a poleaxe and leveled it at me.
“Look upon him and judge, and cast this man down into the endless depths of sulfurous fire, without redemption.”
“Are you really a paladin? The crap you’re spouting isn’t a curse it’s practically an invocation.”
To fall into the flames of hell and burn… That wasn’t something a man of the cloth should be saying.
Anyway, I now had four knights to face at once. I swallowed hard and, unlike before, adjusted my stance properly.
“Damn bastards, in the end I’m the only one suffering while the rest get to sit back and reap the rewards.”
If I managed to hold off these bastards here…
Those other construction contractors, who were bracing themselves to stop the train and fight further down the line, would end up not lifting a single finger in the end.
“Thieving scum, what nonsense are you spouting?”
The paladin stepped forward as he spoke.
“You don’t need to know. It’s personal business.”
From my point of view, it was rather unfair. But it wasn’t as if I could ask them to pay me more.
‘It’s true that I was the one who killed that woman in the first place.’
I’d come here because I felt responsible for what had happened because of me, and I intended to handle it myself.
It would be pathetic to start whining now, saying, “This is hard, give me more money.”
“Besides, fame is just as important as money, so it’s not all bad.”
If I succeeded in taking down five knights and a decorated knight inside this train, my tale of valor would definitely spread far and wide.
Once I was famous, plenty of lucrative jobs would come my way, and I’d also draw fools eager to test my strength.
Honor was like a fruit tree that bore both risk and reward.
“You called yourself a paladin, right? So if I end up dying in this fight, will you perform the death rite for me?”
It was a ceremony to pray to Itera to grant salvation and mercy to a soul facing death. Only a priest could do it.
The paladin answered without hesitation.
“I already performed it.”
“Oh, you mean… the part about falling into sulfurous fire and suffering forever?”
At my words, the paladin glanced once at the eyeball still rolling around on the floor before fixing his gaze back on me.
“That’s correct.”
I rummaged in my pocket and flicked a half-pyint coin toward him.
“You should’ve said so earlier. Thanks. This is a donation of gratitude. Take it and shut up.”
A thick vein bulged on the paladin’s forehead.
“I will not let you die peacefully! Do not expect any rest!”
With a resounding stomp, purple glowing letters appeared along the axe blade of the poleaxe in his grip.
The poleaxe swung down.
‘Swinging a weapon from outside striking distance? There are a few kinds of battle gear that can be used like that.’
My eyes followed the movement of the blade. In my head, I traced its path and took in every subtle shift.
Though the axe blade didn’t touch anything directly, I could see things positioned along its path being severed.
‘It’s not happening all at once.’
Whatever was cutting things began with what lay closest to the blade. Something unseen was extending along the arc of the axe, slicing whatever it touched.
I moved my sword. In an instant, a sharp screech rang out, and the impact jolted up my arm.
The others weren’t just standing around, either. Three knights attacked me in unison. I shifted swiftly, blocking and evading their strikes.
“To think that with such talent and skill, this is the filthy path you chose!”
After deflecting a lightning-quick counterattack, the paladin shouted at me in a voice filled with scorn.
“Hey, paladin. You talk as if you know me. Do you?”
That paladin didn’t know me at all.
“How I’ve lived, what I’ve been through, and why, in the end, I’m standing here, wanting what I want.”
As sword and poleaxe collided, the shockwave exploded outward, raging in all directions. Planting my feet firmly, I pushed the paladin back and met his gaze with a cold stare.
“I asked you, do you, bastard.”
He was accusing me saying that with all my gifts, this was the filth I chose to do? The absurdity of it made me laugh under my breath.
The paladin didn’t stop. He pressed the attack relentlessly, speaking as he came.
“No matter your circumstances or reasons, what you’re doing cannot be forgiven.”
“That’s nice. So you’re saying any bastard who does the same deserves the same, huh? Paladin.”
When that bastard Emperor of the Verona Empire slaughtered the entire House Featherwing, that couldn’t be forgiven either, right?
So when that bastard finally dies, he’ll be down there too, roasting in the sulfur pits with me, side by side.
My eyes gleamed as I followed the thought to its end.
“Oh, fuck yes. I have to go to hell. Absolutely. So I can watch that bastard burn.”
If the Emperor himself was roasting beside me, I was sure I’d be able to laugh as my own body burned.
“I’ve witnessed countless deaths on the battlefield. Enemies died. Comrades died. Friends who laughed and joked with me just yesterday became corpses, yet I did not grow angry. I fought solely for the safety of the state and the people of the Empire.”
The paladin spoke as if he were lecturing me. Each strike he swung carried the weight of the steadfast principles he had upheld all his life.
“Good for you. Though I never asked how you’ve lived.”
From the poleaxe he swung burst a gale sharp enough to cleave metal and hack men to pieces.
That was exactly the problem.