The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 28 Pursuit(2)

Translator: BaeBae Editor: BaeBae

“Did we get him?”

Ausrey shaked his head at Sina’s question. Sina bit her lip.

It had been two days since Juan had got away. They’d passed the forest near the Gray tower and were fast approaching the Laus Mountains that split the empire’s southern region from the central province.

As they marched forwards, an odd fog followed them clouding their vision, so they had no choice but to send out search parties.

And of course, this reduced the amount of progress they were making.

“We’ve decided to stop the search due to the thick fog. A few knights have been assaulted inside the fog. There’s been no casualties but even commander Hasell has doubts on whether we should continue…… Do you think he’s able to control the fog?”

As Sina looked out her tent at the thick fog, frustration boiled inside her.

She was afraid Juan was waiting somewhere inside the thick fog that looked as if murky clouds had descended upon the land.

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Even with a child’s body, Juan was difficult enough. Who knows what could happen if they were ambushed inside the fog.

“For certain, this fog is not natural. I keep thinking back to the story that the Gray tower’s interior was basically all fog. I fear this could somehow be linked with the recent collapse of the tower.”

“Even the Gray tower’s power…….Who could he really be? Even the emperor’s relic didn’t affect him.”

Ausrey bit his lips nervously. Looking on, Sina lamented the fact that she was unable to help in the search.

Currently, she was in an emergency tent, getting treated. Although there were no big injuries, her whole body was covered in bruises and she was suffering from nausea.

After gazing at Ausrey, Sina spoke.

“Although I’m most curious about Juan’s identity, there’s something I’m curious about you too. Since when did you have the White crow’s shield in your possession? I wasn’t aware that you’ve been promoted as Paladin.”

At those words, Ausrey’s face reddened.

“Embarrassingly, Kato nim bestowed it to me. He said, Sina nim will be his sword and I should act as his shield. Of course he reprimanded me, if anyone else but me or a paladin got their hands on it, I would be severely punished. He said bishop Rieto nim had temporarily given permission.”

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Sina had never heard of anyone without a paladin title, given permission to use paladin equipment.

Receiving an equipment bestowed with the emperor’s ‘grace’ was of the highest honor, and it wasn’t lightly given to others even if it was for the sake of borrowing. In such cases, paladins would rather be deployed instead.

Sina felt tightness in her chest. There were too many exceptions surrounding this incident.

A knight was bestowed with paladin equipment and an inquisitor was acting like an assassin.

It felt she was in the middle of a giant conspiracy that she could not yet see.

“Still, it’s disappointing that you didn’t let me know.”

“Euk… Kato nim did say it was unlikely I would ever need to use the shield….. And moreso, if this expedition succeeded, he would let Sina nim and I….ah.”

Ausrey quickly stopped himself.

“He’ll let you and me what?”

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“Nothing. Uh…. anyways, I don’t think anything is a given seeing as Kato nim is in that state right now. Furthermore, the tracking device broke as well.”

Sina was suspicious of Ausrey in how he suddenly changed the topic.

But there were bigger and more important matters. Sina heaved a sigh.

“If this fog isn’t natural, tracking will virtually be impossible. Maybe the search will be called off soon. I can’t think of any other ways to catch him….. I just hope Kato sees logic and doesn’t turn even more insane. If he knows what’s good for him, he would stop here.”

“Just now, he was grinding his teeth inside the tent, so…I think that’s not going to happen.”

“Exactly. And if we continue on, there’ll be another big problem to consider as well.”

“Another problem?”

Sina squinted her eyebrows as if she didn’t want to even speak of this problem.

“Just a bit further and its Raven[1] territory.”

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Sina knew by looking at Ausrey’s face, he hadn’t fully understood what this meant.

Realising again how outer districts didn’t care to learn about history, she sighed as she began to explain.

“You’ve heard of Lars Raude?”

“Yes. One of the six apostate….”

“That’s right. There were six who instigated the emperor’s assasination. And one of them was his youngest adopted, Lars Raude. Lars’s Hugin knights had set out from the south to attack the capital during the assasination but failed. They were stopped at the Laus mountains, on the borders of southern and central provinces. The one who stopped their march was none other than Capital’s knight order led by General Vares Valte.”

“Ah, yes I’ve heard of this. In order to stop them, they raised the mountain range, making it more steep and difficult to cross.”

“…….That’s wildly exaggerated but yes they did achieve in stopping them. And with that, the six apostates became isolated, and eventually finished. However, unlike the others, the Hugin knights didn’t disband but decided to hide somewhere in Laus mountain range. Waiting for the chance when the empire is at their weakest to strike again. If it’s them, they wouldn’t ignore someone like Juan.”

“Huh, if that’s the case then…..”

As Ausrey tried asking a question, a soldier entered the tent. It looked like it was raining outside as the soldier appeared to be drenched.

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“Sina nim, inquisitor is asking for your presence.”

*****

“Are you crazy!?”

Rain was pouring down noisily. Through the downpour the blue rose knights were moving around getting ready to leave.

For all the noise created outside, it didn’t reach Sina’s ears. Kwoong Kwoong, she could only hear her own thundering heartbeat.

“As I’ve just said, Sina kyung.”

Strapped completely in bandages, Kato’s appearance looked bizarre. Even though his bandages had been regularly replaced, blood was still flowing out and puss was oozing.

As if the explosion had also hurt his throat, his voice sounded strained and creepy.

“Our goal is to catch and kill the apostate, as soon as possible!”

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“We’re already armed and ready to go, so I guess I won’t oppose you any further, but shouldn’t we just continue to send search parties!”

“How?”

Sina was speechless at Kato’s reply. The holy relic used to track Juan had already been destroyed.

A thick fog blinded the Blue rose knights and pouring rain made it more difficult to track Juan’s whereabouts.

It had made it practically impossible for heavy armoured knights to search.

“Maybe, distribute Wanted notices to surrounding areas and call for a special force to help track him down.”

“And the likelihood of this succeeding?”

“…………”

“Why don’t you just behave and carry out my orders.”

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Sina bit her lip.

After glaring at Kato for a while, Sina punched the table in front of her, breaking it.

“But to set an entire village on fire!”

An unwavering Kato calmly glared at Sina.

“The principal in dealing with an apostate is through purification.”

“An outdated principal from several decades ago! The last time it was used was near Tantil before I was even born! Even if you are an inquisitor, won’t using purification which is normally only used to catch traitors associated with the emperor’s assasination incident, have implications down the line?”

“In the western region, it’s a viable strategy that’s still being used.”

“That’s because the west….!”

Dumfounded, Sina didn’t know what to say.

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“……I don’t want my home region to become the same as the western district. That place is practically hell for anyone living there. I’m not questioning the General Dismas’s faith, all I’m saying is, we shouldn’t be following his methods. I’m sure the other knights will tell you the same thing.”

“My thoughts are the exact same, Kato nim.”

Rolling up the canvas, a person entered the tent. It was the commander of Blue rose knights, Hasell.

Hasell had stepped back, assigning this mission to Sina, so it was surprising to see him giving his input.

While Kato’s face was wrapped in bandage, one could feel his expression distort. Bandages around his wrinkles were suddenly soaked in blood.

“Your reasoning being?”

“Simply of the fact whether it’s possible or impossible. If we burn down each and every village we find, it’s going to delay the search. I can get behind the fact that the inquisitor’s method will be more thorough, but if the bastard didn’t hide and chose to run instead, then we’d be delayed so much that tracking him down might be not feasible.”

“Then I’ll mobilize another knight order to help.”

“Do what you need to do. But I don’t know if there is any other order that’s willing to come far deep into the forest to do what you’re asking for. It should be mentioned that I have no knights to send as messengers for you.”

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“Aren’t you just saying that because you’re afraid of Ravens?”

“I’d be lying if i said I’m not afraid of them. However, I would like to say, there’s not a single knight in my order that would run away if we had to fight them. Kato nim, please reconsider your plan. We can all die by fighting the ravens thus losing track of the child, or let the capital know of the situation and ask for reinforcements.”

As if he’d said all he needed to say, Hasell made his leave.”

Sina was surprised at seeing Hasell take her side, and acknowledged everything he said was correct.

Kato of course had a distorted expression on his face in silence.

With Hasell’s words, it became clear the Blue rose knights would not assist Kato with his plan. Kato understood he shouldn’t expect anymore help.

Well, at least from the Blue rose knights anyways.

*****

As a raindrop fell on his forehead, a giant two handed sword was coming down straight on Juan.

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The speed in which it fell made Juan sleepy as he easily evaded the strike.

The knight regathered himself after missing and struck again. While his movements were acceptable, it was too slow with holes.

Obviously he was lacking real combat experience. It was clear as day, that he was a countryside knight that had seen too many peaceful days.

Another strike, dodged. Next attack would be a stab.

Juan kicked his front leg, making him lose his balance. The knight tumbled to his knees.

There was no way he would be hit with such sloppy techniques.

Juan had thought of several ways to kill the knight but instead of killing him, he avoided the knight’s next strike.

‘Reminiscent of when I taught my soldiers years ago.’

In the past, humans were no better than bandits. So Juan trained them and established the royal guard. It had taken him a long time to develop them into a formidable force.

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The Blue rose knights weren’t on exactly bandit level. However, to Juan, he couldn’t feel any difference. How fitting for a knight from an outer district.

“You, you bastard! If you’re going to kill me, then do it already!”

The knight seemed to have lost his spirit to fight but he admirably continued on swinging his sword.

Juan obliged his request.

As the knight’s sword swung again hopelessly, Juan pulled out his dagger. Taltere’s dagger scraped against the knight’s sword and made a screeching noise.

Staring into the knight’s inner vulnerable body, Juan sighed. Instead of stabbing, Juan kicked the knight in the crotch.

The knight fell on his knees as he gulped for air. Juan struck him behind his head, making him pass out.

‘Third one.’

He’d gotten a rough grasp of a knight’s skill level.

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Using mana for physical enhancement, Juan had invested most of it on agility.

Taltere’s dagger was a good enough weapon for now, and any injuries costed him a lot of mana to recover immediately.

Furthermore, his body was light, so naturally Juan’s attack formed a hit and retreat pattern.

‘But even so, these knights are too slow.’

Even during his days as emperor, he’d faced off against humans. And at the time, Juan tried to tolerate most behaviours the opponent threw at him and also tried being friendly as possible even if they were enemies.

But not anymore. He didn’t feel any guilt in killing anyone he came across.

“But if the skill level is only this…..”

Unlike at the colosseum, he wasn’t angry, nor was it any benefit for him to kill them. He also didn’t really have a need to kill them either.

At least if they were skilled and posed some kind of threat, then it would make more sense to kill, but it wasn’t this as well.

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He felt the level of knights now had regressed compared to the past.

‘Of course, these guys are only doing what they’ve been conscripted to do.’

Sina Solbein.

It was hard to not give any faults.

These knights had all moved with Sina’s orders.

Since his resurrection, Sina was one of the people that Juan had come to like the most.

He did feel a little bad in hurting her comrades. So while it frustrated him to do so, Juan showed mercy towards her knights.

The sound of rainfall swept the forest. The rainclouds joined the fog Juan controlled, pouring down torrential rain.

‘Tracking through this would be difficult.’

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Many other knight orders existed and their tracking relic had already been destroyed, so it was only a matter of time before he would give them the slip.

As he got up to start moving again, he sensed the presence of knights.

‘Here to find their comrades huh.’

He didn’t need to assess their skill level anymore. Using the grey fog, Juan slowly faded himself into it.

It was practically impossible to find someone standing still inside a stillness fog.

Juan waited for quite a while for them to pass, but the knights didn’t move.

From beyond the fog, a light smell of blood drifted into his nose.

Juan quickly dissolved the fog and moved towards the direction of the presence. There he found a woman with bright red lips and a ponytail. Anya was pulling out a stiletto from the throat of one of the knights.

“We meet again so soon. Child.”

[1] – Referring to a group called Raven. Not a flock of ravens lol.