Chapter 29
A Running Train, A Desperate Man (3)
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The secret weapon of the battle gear the enemy was using was, in fact, wind.
"Wind, huh."
The fact that the battle gear used by the strongest among them, the Holy Knight, had the ability to create blades of wind, and that he relied on it quite heavily for combat strength.
"Pitiful bastard."
The stained glass in Kairus’s hand shifted.
“?!”
Then, the blade of wind that had been extending toward Kairus twisted in midair and turned back toward its own master.
Wind circled around Kairus’s body, making a chilling sound.
“Swift Blade? You, did you learn the sword from that filthy traitor family? You really have no shame.”
“Ha… That bastard, seriously, since earlier…”
The Holy Knight had been picking just the right words to grate on Kairus’s nerves since the start.
He was a man doomed to die anyway, but when someone rubbed him the wrong way to this extent, any intention to let him die cleanly disappeared.
The angle of the blade in Kairus’s hand shifted slightly.
Wind that rushed in through the torn-open train wall brushed against the stained glass blade, producing a sharp whistling sound.
Every time the angle and position of the blade shifted, the pitch of the sound rose and fell in turns. As he continued weaving that whistling, wind-cutting sound, Kairus slowly advanced forward.
“Looks like these days, even bastards like you are considered worthy of commendation? The Empire has truly lost its mind.”
Facing Kairus’s provocation, the Holy Knight charged and swung his poleaxe. Now that he knew Kairus was using Swift Blade, the Holy Knight had no intention of trying to create blades of wind with the poleaxe any longer.
“Not that any of this is going to change much anyway!”
The train was speeding along. A massive amount of wind poured in through the torn train wall. In this situation, Kairus had no need to use the stained glass’s power to create more wind.
Just making use of the wind that was already there was more than enough. After all, the chance that any of the knights facing him here could defeat Kairus was slim.
But in this situation, it was outright impossible. The moment Kairus adjusted his grip slightly on the stained glass, a storm-like gust surged toward the charging Holy Knight.
“Krgh…”
Once the wind speed began to rise, even keeping one’s balance became difficult. Just the wind they faced atop the speeding train was enough to make it hard to advance.
The problem was that with the stained glass shifting little by little, the wind battering the train only continued to accelerate.
“What’s wrong? Weren’t you going to send me to hell? Or was it hell designed to bore a man to death?”
What Kairus was doing now was closer to commanding the wind than swordsmanship. All he had to do was move the blade to move and accelerate the wind.
There was no reason to draw upon wind arts like Local Wind, Khamsin or Mountain Funnel.
“Swift Blade isn’t the only thing that can control the wind!”
Amidst the howling wind, the Holy Knight finally swung the poleaxe wide. The wind that had obeyed Kairus’s command surged violently.
The wind that had served Kairus as its master wavered in confusion at the sudden emergence of a second master.
The instant the force of the wind weakened, as if they had been waiting for just this moment, the Holy Knight and the other two knights charged straight toward Kairus.
“Who said otherwise? Sure, you can control the wind too.”
Swift Blade wasn’t the only technique for manipulating the wind. And that wasn’t any particularly important or impressive fact.
What truly mattered was something else entirely.
Watching the three of them rush forward, Kairus lowered his stance.
“I am stronger than all three of you.”
There was enough of a gap that even when facing three opponents at once, he could still take the advantage.
“I have witnessed countless deaths on the battlefield. The enemy died, and so did my comrades. The ones who laughed and joked with me until yesterday became corpses, but I did not grow angry. I fought solely for the peace of the nation and the safety of the Imperial citizens!”
The Holy Knight spoke as though lecturing Kairus. Every strike he unleashed carried the weight of the steadfast principles he had lived by.
“This bastard. What’s with this endless damn monologue? I never asked.”
Wind surged from every direction as the two continued their exchange of blows.
Kairus blocked the arc of the poleaxe, then twisted its path and slammed it down into the floor.
Right after, he smashed his forehead into the Holy Knight’s nose.
“The battlefield, huh. Just hearing your bullshit tells me enough. You were mostly a hunter, weren’t you?”
The Holy Knight managed to parry Kairus’s sword. With an impact like a massive battering ram striking him, his body was flung backward, crashing into the soldiers gathered behind him.
“I asked you a question. Answer me, Sir Holy Knight. In the wars you took part in, how many times did you end up as the prey?”
The moment the Holy Knight tried to rise again, Kairus tore off a section of the train wall and hurled it at him.
To dodge the mass of metal hurtling toward him with terrifying force, the Holy Knight threw himself to the side. Naturally, the soldiers behind him failed to block the flying hunk of iron and were pulverized into a bloody mess.
“A helpless situation where someone else decides whether you live or die, and you have no choice but to obey, whether you like it or not. Ever experienced that?”
The other two knights lunged at Kairus, trying to buy time for the Holy Knight to recover his stance.
He grabbed one by the head and slammed him into the floor, then seized the other by the collar and smashed him down on top of the first.
“What are you trying to say, you bastard!”
But just before he could finish, the Holy Knight, who had regained his stance, charged in to interrupt Kairus.
Kairus caught the shaft of the poleaxe the knight swung with his left hand and grinned slyly.
“You haven’t lived a life grand enough to lecture others about theirs. Some medals you got for trampling a pitiful little army from a weak country? This world is far too big for you to boast about that crap.”
At the same moment he pulled on the poleaxe’s shaft, Kairus slammed his knee down onto the Holy Knight’s knee joint.
As the Holy Knight’s body wavered, Kairus grabbed the shaft of the poleaxe and immediately threw him over his shoulder.
In training or sparring, you made sure the opponent could land on their back safely… but this was real combat.
The Holy Knight, thrown over, was plummeting head-first toward the floor. If he struck the ground like this, his skull would shatter instantly.
“Uaaaagh!”
Straining with everything he had, the Holy Knight managed to thrust out one hand and keep his head from hitting first. At the same time, he forced power into the hand gripping the poleaxe.
The other knights attacked Kairus, forcing him to release the poleaxe shaft.
“Still, now that there are three of you clinging to me, it finally looks a little more like a proper fight.”
The words that came from Kairus’s mouth were like an adult toying with a child, but the sword he swung was like a hunter locked in a deadly struggle with a starving beast.
‘Three knights can’t subdue one man.’
Of course, the soldiers of the Valorn Empire couldn’t believe what they were seeing with their own eyes.
The attacks and defenses continued without pause, and that was the problem in itself. There were three knights here, and one was even a Holy Knight.
The soldiers had believed the fight would end in an instant, with the knights’ victory. Yet it dragged on and on.
“The wind blows. Fly. No, float.”
In this drawn-out battle, the one rampaging as if he were some kind of god was that monstrous train bandit.
For the proud Imperial knights, including the Holy Knight, there was no point in trying to dodge Kairus’s blade.
With every slash, the wind shifted direction and struck them with accelerated force.
Some were slammed into the walls by the wind, others were cut open by gusts as sharp as blades, blood flowing from the wounds.
‘In this environment, losing would be harder.’
The currents created by the speeding train and the torn-open walls were swirling wildly inside. There was no way he could lose.
The wind became both blade and hammer, hunting for the enemy’s throats.
If the enemy tried to leap in, he pressed down. If they advanced, he pushed them back. If they tried to retreat, he pulled them forward.
The wind was entirely on Kairus’s side, making sure his enemies had no control over anything.
“You said you always fought for the peace and glory of the Empire and its citizens, didn’t you?”
Like spinning a top, every time Kairus swung his sword through the air, the rustling wind grew fierce as a wild beast and then quieted again.
The raging wind suddenly drew into a single direction, creating an overwhelming current.
“And so what if you did!”
Kairus kicked off the floor and charged toward the Holy Knight with the wind at his back.
The Holy Knight lifted his weapon, bracing himself against the torrent of wind. And Kairus began to run.
The gale that the Holy Knight was barely withstanding only became a tailwind that spurred Kairus’s sprint onward.
“I hope you keep that clear, pure sense of pride in the rest of your life, Holy Knight.”
Appearing right in front of the Holy Knight’s face, Kairus spoke those words as he moved his blade.
The tendons in both of the Holy Knight’s legs were severed, and both his thumbs were sliced off. The Holy Knight was left with no choices at all.
Like someone struck by a speeding car, it was a lightning bolt that had fallen from the sky, completely beyond his will or effort.
“May Itera watch over you. Or not.”
Kairus said that as he pressed his hands together in a mock prayer.
The Holy Knight was still a knight. His worth only existed so long as he could wield a weapon and stand on the battlefield. A knight who could no longer do so had no reason to remain in the military.
The Holy Knight who had fallen to Kairus would soon be discharged.
“At least you won’t starve after you retire, right? You’ll get a pension.”
Kairus tapped the moaning Holy Knight’s cheek with his sword, then rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a pocket watch to check the time.
“Hm, time to arrive.”
After checking, Kairus took a step toward the soldiers who were trembling all over.
“Listen up, friends. Honestly, even if all of you charged me at once, I could cut every last one of you down as you came. But then I’d be tired and you’d all be pitiful corpses, right?”
Kairus spoke to the soldiers with his arms folded.
“When the train starts to slow down, get off immediately and clear out. I won’t bother chasing you.”
At Kairus’s words, the soldiers nodded their heads to save their own lives.
There wasn’t a shred of courage left in the Imperial soldiers to resist someone who had, in an instant, cut down five knights including a Holy Knight.
“You fools! You bear the noble duty of protecting the Empire!”
The Holy Knight, whose leg tendons were severed and whose thumbs were gone, screamed in desperation.
“Think carefully! If you obey this scoundrel’s orders here, the Empire will hunt you down! Do you really think you can escape the Empire’s solemn gaze?”
The soldiers who had been wavering under Kairus’s words began to stir again. The Holy Knight wasn’t wrong.
They were Imperial soldiers. Yet they were standing here, doing nothing, while a bandit robbed the state treasury.
They would face terrible punishment.
“The Holy Knight makes a fair point.”
Kairus nodded in agreement with him, then slowly lifted his sword as he looked at the soldiers.
“But there’s a slim chance you might get away. On the other hand, if you come at me, you’ll definitely die here and now.”
Would you rather die for certain? Or die with an extremely high probability later?
Unless you were a fool, it wasn’t hard to choose.
“And Sir Holy Knight, you’d better keep your mouth shut from now on.”
Of course, there was no way the Holy Knight would quietly accept that. But the moment he opened his mouth again, with a thunk, Kairus stabbed his sword into the floor between the knight’s legs.
Nothing was cut off right then. But the sword, digging into the floor beneath his crotch, sent a perfectly clear message.
“Keep flapping your mouth, and I’ll demote you from Holy Knight to eunuch.”
It wouldn’t be a very pleasant experience, he could guarantee that. Though, considering this Holy Knight also served Itera, it was probably something he didn’t even need anymore.
Still, there was a world of difference between having something and not using it, and not having it to begin with.
It was like the difference between not dating anyone, and not being able to date anyone.
“What’s wrong? You’ve already lost the use of two of your three legs. You don’t care if the last one gets ruined too? Want me to test it?”
At Kairus’s words, the Holy Knight finally fell silent.
After confirming the silence, Kairus stuck his head out the train window and looked ahead before calling to the engineer.
“Hey, where are we right now? Mark it here.”
When Kairus handed over the map, the engineer, shaking all over, marked the train’s current position.
It wasn’t far from where Spring Parsley had planned.
“Start slowing down soon. When you can’t go any farther, stop the train.”
“Sorry?”
“You’ll understand what I mean soon enough.”
It was time to crack the safe. There were still plenty of soldiers left, but they had already lost the will to fight.
They wouldn’t be much of a threat.