The Emperor Has Returned

The Order of Lindwurm was a knight order belonging to the eastern territory; it was led by Gerard Gain. Juan had also heard of the rumor saying that the Order of Lindwurm was in Durgal.

“You know about Gerard Gain who assassinated His Majesty, right? He was chased by the Regent Barth Baltic and eventually escaped. Back then, the eastern territory was known to have been eroded by the Crack. This fact played a huge part in creating the rumor that the reason behind Gerard Gain suddenly going insane and becoming an apostate was because of the Crack. Don’t you think that his knight order would also have been affected?” Mark explained.

“So?”

“The Order of Lindwurm obviously couldn't escape punishment when their captain had committed such a crime. They were devastated and almost disbanded; however, some of them fled and gathered here and built this castle. They probably thought that they would be able to hide just like the Order of Huginn, since Durgal is in the middle of the mountains. But this place ended up being their last hiding place…”

“Last?” Juan asked.

“I have heard that there was an internal conflict and that a huge fight broke out within the knight order, one where the knights even killed each other. It is understandable though—their captain had disappeared, and they were branded as traitors who were involved in the assassination of His Majesty. Back then, everyone thought it was a divine punishment. A few among them swore about Gerard Gain’s innocence until the end, but who would believe that?”

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“...Are there any survivors?”

“I’m not sure. But based on the stories that have been floating around ever since, it is said that even if there are survivors, they wouldn’t be sane; it is said that they were covered by body fragments and intestines everywhere. People say that the reason behind there being so many lunatics around this area is the curse of the knights of the Order of Lindwurm that died at that time,” Mark chuckled as he spoke, as if he didn’t believe in these curses at all.

“It seems like you don’t believe in the curse, huh?”

“I believe in magic or Grace, but when it comes to a curse in a traditional sense… well, I’ve been living in this territory longer than anyone, but I haven’t gone insane, as you can see.”

Juan agreed with Mark. If something had to be believed, it would be better to believe that the Order of Lindwurm went insane due to the influence of the Crack.

The traces of the Crack could clearly be observed in the forest. Juan thought that it was very strange that Mark was not aware of such a fact—unless Mark had also gone insane, in a completely different way.

“It seems that you know the story quite well,” Swallan said with sarcasm.

However, Mark didn’t seem to be bothered. Rather, he replied while feeling proud.

“Of course I do. The first person to find the scene at that time was my father. He was not only one of the nobles who had been sent to subjugate the apostates, but he was also one of the knights who had once fought beside His Majesty! He had said that he expected a fierce battle when he walked in. But he only witnessed the terrible scene of fighting and killing in this very room we are standing in—the conference room,” Mark said in a loud voice as if he was excited.

The story he had heard from his father was the beginning of the Moore family, and it was what connected Mark with His Majesty’s era—it was only natural for Mark to get excited when talking about such a topic.

Meanwhile, Swallan silently smiled without answering him.

The flames from the fireplace flickered, and its light shone on the red moss and dirt hiding in the gap between the floor and the wall.

Juan lowered his eyes at the unpleasant traces. The Order of Lindwurm had been one of the knight orders that had served him for the longest time. Juan never would have thought that they would meet their fate in such a cold and humid place.

Upon seeing Swallan and Juan’s reaction, Mark laughed out loud, shaking his head.

“Oh my, are you surprised? But what kind of land has never had any dead bodies on it, am I right? Don’t worry—the red traces in the gap aren't left behind by blood. It’s just been stained since the soil here is originally red. It’s a lovely color once you get used to it.”

Mark spoke as if he was joking, but Juan couldn’t easily laugh it off as a joke. Juan could already sense a strong connection between this castle, the Order of Lindwurm, and the Crack.

This castle basically had the same style of trendy architecture from the time when Juan used to go on conquests beyond the border as the emperor. After that, the structure became a little more complicated as the Moore family expanded it. Juan could tell that the basic framework of the castle was still following the ancient style, as if the Order of Lindwurm had thoroughly thought about where to build the castle—they had built a castle on top of a building that had existed even before humanity had settled in the area.

‘Gerard.’

Juan inadvertently muttered his eldest son’s name and recalled a serious but friendly face. Gerard was more like a knight than any other knight Juan had known, and he had been such a sweet child that Juan couldn’t believe Gerard’s betrayal even in the moment when Gerard had stabbed his back.

‘Was he really corrupted by the Crack?’

When Juan remained silent for a long time, Mark cleared his throat, feeling regretful about getting overly excited when talking about the story.

“Um, your name was... Juan, right?”

“Yes.”

“It’s a good name. If you don’t have any more questions, let’s get to the point. I am sure you’re not here to just listen to old stories, so would you be interested in the dungeon expedition we talked about earlier? I can guarantee good profits. Ms. Swallan, if you decide to join as well, I’ll pay you the price for four people, and a bonus on top of that. I’m sure you guys will be able to go deeper than Jules. Perhaps you’ll be able to find many more precious treasures there.”

“A bonus?” Swallan asked curiously while rejoicing at the sweet word that tickled her ears.

“That’s right. I’m a generous man when it comes to supporting the mercenaries. Why don’t I give you thirty percent of whatever you find inside the dungeon, and also cover the basic cost of exploration…”

“Make that fifty.”

Mark’s face stiffened at Swallan’s words.

“Fifty percent is too much. Even Jules only asked for thirty percent…”

“And we are the ones who brought back Jules’ head. Besides, it’s us that are risking our lives to enter the dungeon. Aren’t you the one who would be in trouble without us, my lord? I don’t want to make it hard on you, so fifty.”

“...Fine. I’m not interested in money anyway—all I care about are the relics excavated from the dungeon. I have to get everything I want, you know. Then let’s do this: both Juan and Swallan must participate, and I’ll be the first one to pick out the items I want. Deal?”

Swallan grinned and looked back at Juan. Juan had absolutely no intention of being hired by someone, but he figured that it would be for the best to stick around and find out about the information Mark had as well as get knowledge about the dungeon.

“As you please,” Juan answered.

“Perfect! Then I’ll call you as soon as I come up with an expedition group. Until then, enjoy yourself in the village while you wait. Alcohol, meat, women, men—if you put any of them on credit, I’ll deduct it from your share. So don’t feel pressured to ask for anything you want and enjoy yourselves.”

***

Mark offered to provide them a room in the mansion, but Juan refused and left the mansion. He didn’t want to stay in this mansion for even a second longer—it was an unpleasant place, that was even filled with the smell of damp mold and the smell of blood.

“Mr. Ten thousand gold pieces, where are you going?” Swallan asked.

“I’m gonna go and take a look around the village.”

Juan knew that the Lord of Durgal had lied to them—Juan instinctively felt that Mark was already well aware of the Thornbush Priest Organization. Thus there were two possibilities; he either knew about the Crack but neglected it, or he had already been affected by the Crack.

Although the lord didn’t appear to be crazy, mental illness could take on many forms. If the lord was related to the Crack in any way, it was clear that there would be traces of it somewhere in the village.

Juan went off to search for the traces of the Crack and the Order of Lindwurm. The village wasn’t very big, but quite a few people were wandering around even though it was late; mercenaries often walked in and out of the village.

The most prosperous place in the village was a pub located in the center of the village. After getting drunk, all the mercenaries in the pub went somewhere—a temple.

“A temple has been built even over here…”

Upon seeing the temple with his symbol engraved on it, Juan wondered if the Church had even managed to extend their reach all the way out to Durgal. However, he soon got rid of such thoughts upon seeing the women who came out of the temple.

A half-naked woman welcomed a drunken mercenary and pulled him into the temple. The mercenary grabbed at the woman’s breast while muttering nonsense as he crawled in. It looked like there were Priests in the temple, but they appeared to be intoxicated due to the use of a suspicious incense and had two women next to them.

Juan wasn’t surprised that the temple was being used as a pub and a brothel. In fact, Juan had no positive impressions of either the Church that served him nor the brothel.

Beside the temple were countless tombstones. There were so many of them firmly stuck to the ground that they formed an abnormal pattern and extended out to the road.

The last tombstone seemed to have been placed quite a long time ago. Upon looking at the tombstones, Juan gave up his last remaining hopes for any survivors. Jules’ head was stuck on a stick at the entrance, and people didn’t seem to care about the fact that he used to be a Templar.

“Is there something that you’re looking for?”

Juan looked back—it was the old butler he saw at Mark’s mansion.

“I was ordered by my master to guide you; he was concerned that you were wandering around at such a late time. If you’re looking for anything, I’ll lead the way,” the butler said.

Juan knew that this wasn’t true. It was clear that Mark was worried that Juan might run away after seeing the atmosphere of the village. Mark’s intention for sending his butler to Juan was very obvious, but Juan didn’t care.

Then Juan paused when he saw the butler’s eye; it was an exquisitely made prosthetic eye.

“Is it still possible for you to lead the way when you can’t even see properly?” Juan asked.

“Huh, you’re the first person to recognize it at just a glance. There’s no need to worry. I’ve lived in this village the longest—I worked for the predecessor of the Moore family as well. I dare say, I even know the rats that run around the village.”

The old butler looked quite healthy and didn’t even have a cane to support him despite his old age. Juan wasn’t particularly suspicious of him; he didn’t feel anything strange when he first saw the butler at the mansion. Juan especially liked the fact that he had lived in this village for a long time.

“Are there any places where the traces of the Order of Lindwurm still remain?”

The butler remained silent for a while, then carefully opened his mouth.

“If you don’t mind, may I ask you the reason you are looking for such places? I think this is quite an impious topic to discuss in front of a temple.”

“I don’t know what that ‘temple’ looks like in your memory, but the emperor wouldn’t be angry, no matter what you say in front of it. He would have to beat too many people to their deaths if he were to get angry at this.”

It was clear to Juan which side he should be angrier with out of those who were acting promiscuously in a place that symbolized him and those who simply talked about traitors.

The butler smirked as if he understood what Juan meant.

“I guess that is true. The Order of Lindwurm, huh… it’s rare to find people who are curious about those old stories now, but there are few places that are relevant to the story. Even the temple in front of us was a place whose foundation was laid by the Order of Lindwurm. I heard some of them worshiped His Majesty, but I’m not sure if they were genuine in their faith or not. Oh, and that place over there,” the butler spoke as he pointed toward a place that was barely visible; it was hidden in the darkness. “There is one building without any windows—a concentration camp. There were a few among the members of the Order of Lindwurm that went on a rampage due to extreme stress. The rest of the knights from the Order of Lindwurm couldn’t bear to kill their comrades, so they built the camp to lock them up. I guess that aspect hasn’t changed much. After all, we keep mercenaries that aren’t in good condition over there.”

“...Is there a chance that anyone from that time is still alive?”

“That’s not possible. I have heard that everyone died when the internal conflict broke out, including those in the concentration camp. Maybe it was the victor of the internal conflict who killed them all. Oh, but—” the butler said as he fiddled with his prosthetic eye. “—there is a rumor about the knights that survived the internal conflict. Apparently, some of the survivors are still in Durgal, desperately waiting for the return of Gerard Gain. It is said that they are hiding among the mercenaries, hoping that Gerard Gain will come back one day,” the butler said while staring at Juan.

Juan clicked his tongue. He had already heard quite a few legends similar to the story the butler just told him. Many of these kinds of legends were even related to Juan himself. The matter of whether or not there were any Lindwurm knights still in Durgal wasn’t really important unless Gerard Gain returned.

“There’s no documents left?” Juan asked.

“It was less than three years after His Majesty’s assassination that the Order of Lindwurm was completely destroyed—a short time to leave any records behind. The previous lord also searched everywhere for their traces, but he didn’t find anything related to the incident.”

Although he had already expected that there would be nothing left, Juan was still disappointed. As time went by, more and more things were pointing toward Gerard Gain having really betrayed Juan. But Juan was aware that this was the only place other than the northern territory where he could strongly sense the power of the Crack. It was hard to believe that the Order of Lindwurm specifically choosing this place as their hiding place was simply a coincidence.

‘Why?’

Juan recalled the faces of the knights of the Order of Lindwurm one by one; Deputy Vekelt, who smiled brightly with his light-colored eyes even as he cut down his enemies, Horhell, who jumped into the enemy’s territory by himself to back the enemy captain’s head, the rest of the knights who said that they wouldn’t mind dying the next day after all the enemies of mankind were dead, as well as their captain, Gerard Gain.

Juan couldn’t tell why they held hands with the crack, that was clearly an enemy of mankind.

‘Or maybe, I was doing something wrong.’

Juan bit his lips.

“Ah, there’s one thing that you might be interested in…” the butler said.

“What is it?”

“It’s something like a scribble that one of the knights from the Order of Lindwurm left behind. But it’s getting cold out here, don’t you think? The weather’s quite cold for an old man to be walking around during nighttime.”

Juan immediately understood that the butler was suggesting that they should wrap up the talk and go inside.

“Let’s go inside. What does the scribble say?” Juan asked.

“Thank you for your kind consideration. You should see what it says yourself.”

The butler took Juan and began to walk in the direction he had pointed earlier. After walking for a while, the butler raised up his torch. Under the bright light, the wall on the concentration camp revealed a red silhouette.

The concentration camp was silent, but a whispering sound was constantly coming out of the wall. The whispers sounded like human language, but also sounded like the growl of the beasts—it was as if the wall itself was making a voice.

“In the middle of the wall over there… Do you see it? I have no idea how they wrote it there when there’s not even a window. The previous lord tried his best to erase it, but he said that it reappeared whenever it rained,” the butler explained.

Juan stared at the writing in the middle of the wall. The writing was short and simple. Although it was unclear as to who left the writing, he was certainly full of conviction.

[His Majesty will return.]

Juan couldn’t figure out if the intention of the writing was a sign of madness or a sign of desperation caused by despair.