The Emperor Has Returned

“Kato!”

Sina barged into Kato’s tent. Kato and the knights of the Order of the Blue Rose were packing. They had already been briefed by the scout. Kato had recovered enough to leave his sickbed and move around, but his appearance was still eerie with the blood and puss-soaked bandages covering his body.

“What is it, Elite Knight?” Kato answered.

“Did you actually give orders to conduct a cleansing operation?!” Sina screamed right in his face.

With his severe injuries remaining untreated and getting exposed to the humid air, Kato’s skin had started rotting. Metal pieces infused with Talter’s mana stuck in his body were disrupting the healing process and only worsening his condition. A sickening smell hit Sina’s nose, but what was more revolting to her than his appearance was his inner state of mind.

“Elite Knight, I am the one who holds authority. Your job is to simply carry out my commands. You refused and I was left with no choice but to go with plan B. You should be thankful that you didn’t have to get your hands dirty,” Kato growled.

“I didn’t refuse, but only suggested a reasonable plan!”

“And such is the logic of a loser who lost to a heretic.”

“Didn’t you agree that it would be harder to track him once the cleansing operation is conducted? That it would not only take longer to track him but also get unnecessary opposition from the natives?”

“But we eventually found him, did we not?” Kato grinned with his ripped lips. “The rabbit is bound to come out if we set fire here and there; or it might come out to prevent the fire from spreading even further. Whatever his reason is, he appeared in the village on the main road and ordered the villagers to spread the word about his current location. He is waiting for us to come.”

Sina was left speechless. When considering the result, Kato wasn’t wrong. It was actually an effective method in guerrilla warfare if you were to only consider the result.

Kato finished packing up and walked out of his tent, and Sina quickly chased after him.

“So what?! Does that justify your action? What about all those people that were slaughtered in Tantil? Committing another slaughter to catch the slaughterer is nonsense,” Sina argued.

“You are still too young and lack faith. I don’t want to continue arguing about this. Besides, two commanders arguing in front of the knights isn’t setting a good example for them.”

As Kato said, all the knights around them were looking at them anxiously. Sina was arguing against an Inquisitor—someone who had the authority to choose and label anyone a heretic and interrogate them without consequences. There would be no exceptions for Sina either, even if she was an Elite Knight and a Pursuit Unit Captain. Sina realized that she was standing on the edge of a cliff.

“Stop being so sentimental, Elite Knight,” said Kato as he raised both his hands in front of Sina. “You think I’m being controlled by my emotions, but I am being more rational than ever. I can’t even get any sleep with the pain of my body rotting alive—wounds that bastard gave me continue to remind me,” Kato held Sina’s shoulders with his eyes burning with madness, “that it would be the civilians of the entire empire to bear the painful consequences if that bastard isn’t eliminated.”

‘Bullshit!’

Sina felt the urge to spit on his face and insult him, but all she could do was suppress her anger.

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Kato let go of Sina’s shoulders and quietly turned his back to her as he noticed her eyes filled with anger.

“I guess I don’t have a choice. You may return to Tantil if you don’t want to join, and wait for your disposition with your uniforms off. You had value because you were the only one who saw that bastard, but now I have also seen him. We will join the Order of the White Crow to capture the enemy.”

“...What if,” Sina chewed her words at Kato’s back. “What if you fail to capture Juan? What are you going to do if he manages to get away again?”

Kato remained silent for a while, then answered Sina. “Then I will start an even bigger fire, big enough that he can’t escape.”

That was the last straw. It didn’t take too long for Sina to pull out her sword and stab Kato in the back. Sina’s sword pierced through Kato’s chest even before he had the chance to look back.

“Keuk…!” Kato’s eyes widened.

Sina twisted her sword out of his body and tossed him to the ground. Kato’s blood sprayed over Sina’s body. As a skilled knight, Sina made no mistake in stabbing the most vulnerable area of the body; with his heart pierced through in a single blow, Kato’s body trembled for a bit, but soon stopped moving.

Sina looked down at Kato’s body while breathing heavily. It was her first time stabbing someone in the back, especially someone from the Church.

Sina slowly lifted her head to look at her surroundings.

The knights were in shock. One of them even dropped his luggage on the ground. It was so quiet that even the sound of the luggage hitting the ground echoed loudly.

Meanwhile, Sina was wondering if now would be the time that she got arrested to be sent back to Tantil.

Just at that moment, Haselle stepped forward in front of the knights.

“Inquisitor Kato fought heroically against the heretic, but ended up dying in this remote area due to the deterioration of the wounds,” said Haselle with dignity. Haselle didn’t bother looking in Sina’s direction as she was standing in front of him while still holding a sword dripping with Kato’s blood. “His death will forever be remembered by the Church and the Order of the Blue Rose.”

Everyone remained silent at Haselle’s declaration.

“What are you all doing just standing around? Get moving! It’s time to avenge the Inquisitor’s death!” Haselle yelled with a distorted expression on his face.

The confused knights started to move at Haselle’s word. Sina couldn’t believe her eyes at the sight of the knights rushing—she had never seen Haselle yell at the knights like this before. A knight walking past Sina bowed and saluted her; no one was paying attention to Kato’s body lying on the ground and being covered with mud.

Relieved that everyone tacitly agreed with her decision to kill Kato, Sina’s legs wobbled. Ossrey approached Sina to quickly support her.

“...Thanks, Ossrey.”

“You make us all look like cowards, Sina,” Haselle spoke to Sina with a frown.

Sina bowed to Haselle and answered, “I owe you a debt, Captain Haselle.”

“No. Everyone here owes you a debt. It was what all of us wanted to do, but we were too scared to do it. Being a Captain can be hard work.”

“That was not my intention…”

“I’m just saying. I'll take this incident to my grave, to ensure a safe retirement for myself. I know what you usually think of me, but you should now understand just how hard it is to be honest all the time.”

Sina’s face got a little red as she felt ashamed.

“One thing I’m sure about is that I will be retiring after this mission. In fact, I think the next Captain to lead the Order of the Blue Rose has been decided already.”

“But captain, I’m not ready to…” murmured Sina.

“I never said it was you. Anyway, I can’t be too sure until this corpse has been taken care of. Let’s clean up this mess before it causes us any problems.”

“Yes, sir.”

Sina and Ossrey tossed Kato’s body down the cliff. Kato’s bandages came off as his body got damaged while rolling down the cliff, but no one would be able to recognize him since his face was already puffed and scarred from the severe injuries.

“Well, Pursuit Unit Captain. Complete your mission. You hold the authority to lead us now, given that the Inquisitor is dead,” said Haselle.

“I…,” Sina looked toward the north, where the main road crossed the Laus Mountains. “I will go after Juan.”

Haselle was quite surprised. “I thought you would retreat.”

“The only goal I have right now is to go after him, and now, I even know where he is. Besides, there will be even more like Kato as I get closer toward the capital. I’m worried about what would happen if Juan encountered them.”

“Alright, go ahead. I hope you made the right judgment. I will request help from the Order of the White Crow since they have already been informed of this mission. That bastard won’t last against the combined forces of both the Orders.”

Sina nodded.

Soon after, the Order of the Blue Rose finished getting ready and took off on their horses. As Sina moved forward through the rain, she thought of Juan.

‘You didn’t leave the slash-and-burn farmers out to die.’

A young, skinny boy that craved more blood after slaughtering the soldiers in a blink of an eye.

‘Instead, you revealed yourself and announced your location. Why?’

The boy that ridiculed her in a knight battle with swords against each other.

‘Should I think you did so to prevent the deaths of innocent people?’

The boy who claimed himself to be ‘the Emperor’ while standing in the middle of the flame.

‘Are you calling for me?’

The boy was calling for his enemy.

***

Holding his breath, a soldier of the Laus Mountain Scouts was aiming his bow toward the middle of the village square. It was hard to see through the morning fog, but the silhouette of the boy could be spotted clearly.

Just at that moment, his fingers inadvertently released the bow string. The arrow flew across the village to pierce through the silhouette and the silhouette slowly toppled to the ground. But even before he could cheer, something cut across his throat. He couldn’t let out a scream and desperately crawled while he heard his comrades scream.

‘He is going to kill us all. All of us.’

Juan stepped on the soldier trying to crawl away and broke his neck. Then he pulled him by his horn across the village square to toss his body on the floor.

The dead bodies littered the whole village square in an organized pattern, and fresh blood oozing out of the bodies colored the square red as if they were dyeing the floor.

Juan had learned that every experience would eventually help him in the future, yet this wasn’t an experience he wished to replicate. He concluded that just once was enough for such an experience.

Words spread from the escaped villagers and reached the Laus Mountain Scouts, before reaching the Order of the Blue Rose and Order of the White Crow. Part of the Scouts tried to ambush Juan, but failed.

As a result, a decent amount of corpses had accumulated in the village square.

Juan hoped for more soldiers to come but it didn’t seem so. It seemed like the soldier that he just killed from the Scouts was the last one out of the soldiers that attacked him this time. They were the third group to attack.

The Scout’s bow and arrow were of no use in the rain and fog, not to mention the fact that Juan was also skilled at guerilla warfare.

‘Order of the Blue Rose and White Crow are likely to join.’

Juan figured that they would be satisfied with keeping him surrounded as he made clear he had no intention of leaving the village.

Juan sat on the pile of corpses in the middle of the square and enjoyed the feeling of pouring rain soaking his body.

It had been a while since Anya left the village. The only people that visited Juan were the travelers who weren’t aware of the current situation, who then turned back in shock, and the soldiers of the Scouts.

The sound of rain falling was the only sound heard in the village, but even that had started to slow down after raging as if the sky would collapse.

Juan stretched his gray cape out into a faint shape, spreading it across the floor of the village square, and started to re-absorb some of the mana that he had dispersed in the sky through the cape. Although the energy was dark and moist, the gray cape absorbed it like dry cotton.

“Come on, now,” Juan whispered.

He hoped his enemies would arrive soon. He wanted to break this silence and have a battle of ripping flesh and breaking bones, then feel the silence again after finally killing everyone. He wished to let his enemies know how much he loathed them and let them know that he was still thirsty for their blood.

Juan was anxiously waiting for his enemies.