Chapter 105 - Left Behind, Forgotten, and Returned (2)

A very long time ago, even before the nation of the lion was established on this land, I had selected men and women of outstanding character and talent to pass down a high-grade Mana Heart and its paired swordsmanship.

As time passed, they became the swords that protected the king, and when the king personally led the campaign to slay the Mad Dragon, all of them joined him.

In a battle more vicious and intense than any war the kingdom had ever fought, countless knights and soldiers died. Among them, it was somewhat natural that the Royal Knights suffered the most severe casualties.

After all, the king they served was one who always volunteered to be the vanguard in battle.

The number of Royal Knights who fell while fighting to protect the king at Mount Frost was a staggering ninety. Ninety percent of the one hundred Royal Knights had died.

The ten surviving Royal Knights later became the foundation and predecessor of the current Royal Knights, and the ninety Royal Knights who died in battle at Mount Frost were posthumously elevated to Paladins.

The Death Knights before my eyes were those very Paladins.

Even though their heroic appearance from when they were alive was nowhere to be found, and even the bluish, frozen corpses they possessed were not their own.

I could recognize them.

Just like back then, when I alone recognized their talent and character when no one else could.

『Knight of the Mad Dragon. Hurry and tell us where the King is.』

However, the Death Knights did not recognize me.

It was only natural.

At that time, I was nothing more than a sword, and they believed that the swordsmanship and Mana Heart passed down to them all originated from their king.

No, even if they had known, they still wouldn't have recognized me.

For the time of the dead never flows.

『If you answer obediently, we will retreat just like this.』

They were repeating a specific moment in time from four hundred years ago.

『That alone shall be the way to keep your fortress intact.』

Perhaps in their eyes, I was not human, but a dragon-tooth warrior serving the Mad Dragon, or something similar to one.

I couldn't give them any answer.

Because I didn't know what to say to that hollow question.

However, the answer had been decided from the start.

"Knights of the King."

『Speak. Knight of the Mad Dragon.』

Looking into the red eyes unique to the dead, I spoke.

"The war is over."

I told them the truth—the story of what happened after they died, which they did not know.

That the expeditionary force was victorious, and the Mad Dragon was dead.

『Did the King finally succeed?!』

The Death Knight cheered.

To me, it was a cheer that sounded incredibly hollow and vain.

『Wait. Ekion.』

At that moment, another Death Knight stepped forward.

『How can we believe that? What if he's playing tricks on us? What if the King is anxiously waiting for us?』

『Eus is right. It's only been a day since we separated from the King. It makes no sense for the war to have ended in that time.』

Nostalgic names flowed from their mouths.

The moment I heard those names, I realized the reason why I had been able to figure out their identities so quickly.

How could I not recognize the souls of my dear brothers, who were the very first among the Royal Knights to be selected and raised as knights?

"Steadfast Ekion, cheerful Eus. And cautious Edar..."

『You know us.』

『See. I told you something was suspicious.』

At the words I let out unintentionally, Edar and Eus replied in low voices.

『Everything will only become certain once we see the King ourselves. Knight of the Mad Dragon, tell us where the King is.』

Ekion drew his sword and approached me.

I told them the truth I hadn't been able to bring myself to convey.

That four hundred years had passed since the war ended, and that they hadn't merely separated from the King, but were no longer able to follow him.

『He's spouting nonsense. Ekion. How much longer are you going to just listen to that bullshit?』

『What an utterly absurd fellow.』

『We must hurry and catch up to the King. Even at this very moment, the King is...』

Listening to the conversation of the three brothers, I recalled their final moments.

Eus, whose body was rotting away from a necromancer's corpse poison,

Edar, who had both legs severed while fighting a Death Knight,

Ekion, whose body was slowly freezing from a curse.

["Please go ahead. We will follow you shortly."]

Their last words surfaced in my mind all too vividly.

So that was it.

It wasn't just something they said, was it?

They had only wanted to follow behind the king, right up until the moment they died.

Taking steps with a rotted, festering body, crawling on the ground with two arms instead of two legs, struggling desperately with a freezing body.

Something hot surged up from within me.

Loyal knights who chased after the king even after dying such miserable deaths.

"You were struck by a necromancer's poison, you were struck by a Death Knight, and you were cursed, leaving your bodies unable to follow the King."

Suppressing my miserable feelings, I told them of the end I had seen.

『We're dead?』

『Are we really dead?』

In the end, they finally realized their own deaths.

『We are?』

『The dead.』

『You say.』

Their tone of voice, which had felt completely natural, suddenly changed. Their voices, once full of humanity, turned as dreary and dismal as a chilling wind howling through a dark valley in the dead of night.

『Urrrgh.』

An eerie energy began to spill from their eyes, which had previously only been red.

『Aaaaaaaargh!』

The three Ekion brothers—no, the Death Knights—let out terrible screams and drew their swords. Pitch-black aura surged out in clumps, entangling around their blades.

The Sword Maidens surrounded me.

"Step back."

『Ninety Death Knights. Impossible alone.』

Gunne urgently gestured to me.

I briefly looked back at Winter Castle.

The Rangers were there, faces contorted like demons as they shed tears while driving spears and swords into the bodies of their old comrades.

The knights were there, looking on with devastated faces at the corpses of their former colleagues rolling down the castle walls with their limbs severed by their own swords.

"This is my fight."

This was a postponed, holy funeral for my old comrades; I could not receive anyone's help.

Just as the soldiers of Winter Castle were doing, I too would mourn them with my sword.

Gunne stared intently at me.

Looking at the Half-Elf's unfathomable face, I spoke calmly.

"Go on."

『Please be careful.』

Following her brief hand gesture, the Sword Maidens disappeared.

The moment they vanished, a black energy surrounded me on all sides.

Unclean, ominous, and cold. Yet the sorrow contained within it was so profoundly heartbreaking.

I gripped my sword tightly and raised it before my chest. Then, I bowed my head to the Knights of the King.

"Respects to the Knights of the King."

I bloomed a flame at the tip of my sword. In my heart, I recited a poem.

A requiem dedicated to the ninety knights who fought for the king and fell for the king.

My feet stepped forward into the heart of the unclean and ominous energy.

I drew my sword in a long arc.

Dozens of black blades rushed toward the brilliantly shining Aura Blade.

CRASH!

A terrible impact. The ominous and unclean energy dug into my body.

I drove out the evil aura by circulating my mana fiercely.

And I swung my sword again.

Black blades flew at me.

I dodged, blocked, and slashed.

Scattered fragments of darkness flew through the air.

Black ashes, remnants from burning in the flames, fluttered everywhere.

Amidst the ashes of the flames I had ignited and the darkness I had carved up, I fought like a madman.

Just how long had I been fighting so frantically?

Suddenly, the world faded to white.

It was too radiant to be the twilight of dawn, and too sudden to be morning.

『Urrrgh.』

The Death Knights let out groans and retreated.

I caught my breath and glanced toward Winter Castle.

The fortress where the fighting had stopped at some point; atop its highest spire was a woman fluttering in a pure white robe.

It was the Mage of the White Night, Ophelia.

"I thought she said she had no intention of getting involved this time."

She had said she wouldn't participate in this battle.

This was because her essence was darkness, just like the dead, and the ultimate fate of darkness annihilated by a greater darkness was either eternal confinement or complete obliteration beyond salvation.

『The wailing of the dead, the screaming of the living.』

Ophelia, having somehow caught my voice, drove her reply into my mind.

She said it wasn't a very pleasant sound to listen to, so I should hurry up and grant them salvation.

Watching the knights and knight candidates who had thrown open the gates and charged out striking down the blankly standing undead, I fixed my grip on my sword.

『Where is this?』

『Why are we...』

The confusion-filled thoughts of the Death Knights poured out endlessly.

『Who are you! Where is the King.』

Just like when we first met, they asked for my identity and inquired about the King's whereabouts. They seemed to have completely forgotten what had happened just moments ago.

However, not everything was like the beginning.

『What are you talking about. Ekion. The King is right in front of us.』

『What on earth are you talking about. Edar. Where is the King.』

『Are you saying you cannot feel the King's energy!』

The three Ekion brothers began to bicker while looking at me.

『What we feel from him is definitely the King's energy.』

『But it is different.』

『It's not entirely different, either.』

『It's not entirely the same, either.』

The other Death Knights also spouted confused thoughts.

『Are you our King?』

Amidst the chaotic storm of thoughts, Ekion looked at me and asked.

"I am not your King."

At my words, the Death Knights murmured.

『Everyone, be quiet.』

Ekion raised his hand and calmed the other Death Knights.

『But this energy radiating from you is unquestionably the King's.』

Then, he asked me.

"It's inevitable. We have the exact same Mana Heart."

The King they served, and I as well, both harbored the Will to Slay Dragons in our hearts.

『Who on earth are you to possess the King's power.』

I ended up laughing.

Because it was far too coincidental.

Ekion's question was identical to the question I had asked myself countless times while breaking down the wall to the Master stage.

Perhaps if it were the me from just a short while ago, I would have equivocated.

Because back then, I was a being who couldn't be called a sword, nor could I be called a human.

"I am."

But that wasn't the case now.

"Adrian Leonberk."

The current me was the divine artifact Gruhorn, which had existed for hundreds of years, and at the same time,

"I am the prince of the nation founded by your king."

I was also the human Adrian Leonberk.

How ironic fate could be.

To think that the first ones I would reveal myself to as Adrian Leonberk of my own volition were Death Knights, not even the living.

『What does that...』

Looking at the ninety Death Knights who were staring at me with blank faces, I spoke forcefully.

"The war is over, and the Mad Dragon has been slain. Knights of the King."

Once again, they did not believe my words.

I drew my sword.

And I recited a verse of a poem.

The holy victory achieved by their King,

A song about that brilliant achievement.

"Cleaving through the dragon's scales that no treasured sword could cut, and drinking its burning blood."

The [Poem of Slaying Dragons].

My vessel, which had become incomparably sturdier after reaching the Master stage, screamed as if it were going to break.

The mana contained within that massive vessel instantly emptied out.

Grrrrrrrrr.

At that moment, the twilight howled, letting out a bizarre sound.

It was the roar of a ferocious beast tearing at a dragon's throat,

and the resonance between my sword and my soul that had reached the Master stage.

Even though it was still an insufficient grade to sing a [Myth],

it would be enough to prove the achievement of slaying a dragon.

『Aaaaaah.』

The Death Knights let out long groans.

Their thoughts rose up like a tidal wave and crashed over me.

Steadfast Ekion's joy, cheerful Eus's despair, cautious Edar's emptiness.

The indescribable emotions spewed out by the ninety Death Knights dug into my soul.

I gritted my teeth and endured those storm-like thoughts. I waited for their joy, emptiness, and despair to subside.

『Ahhh...』

The roughly raging thoughts gradually faded away. Then, only a single emotion remained.

『The King finally succeeded.』

Relief. The only thing left was relief.

The three Ekion brothers looked at me and asked.

『If so, are we dead?』

"It was an honorable death."

『Did the King think so as well?』

"All ninety Royal Knights who died in battle at Mount Frost were posthumously elevated to Paladins."

When I asked if that was an insufficient answer, Eus burst into laughter.

『If we're Paladins, then a country bumpkin has succeeded as much as he can.』

『It was a pretty decent life.』

『If there's any regret, it's just that I died without ever getting to hold a woman's hand.』

At cautious Edar's unfunny joke, the other Death Knights also burst into laughter.

Feeling a heaviness in my chest that I had never experienced in my life, I simply laughed along with them.

『Descendant of the King. Will you not tell us a little more?』

『I am so very curious about the transformed state of the kingdom.』

『What happened to the Empire?』

At the Death Knights' questions, I briefly looked around.

Dawn was breaking in the distance.

Even though the Death Knights must have also known the dim light of dawn rearing its head in the distance, they flopped down onto the ground and pestered me as if they knew nothing.

I answered their questions with all my heart.

The Death Knights quietly listened to my story. And finally, when even the story about the declined kingdom came to an end, they looked at each other.

Thoughts of the dead, incomprehensible to me, went back and forth.

As I was quietly watching them, the knights of Winter Castle came running toward me.

"Your Highness! Your Highness!"

"Your Highness!"

The ones urgently calling out to me as they ran over were Arwen, Adelia, and the royal knights,

"What are these guys now."

and the one growling at the Death Knights while drawing his sword was that Eli bastard.

Behind them, I could see the figures of Gawain and the knight candidates, looking like absolute wrecks from the overnight battle.

"They are not enemies. Sheathe your sword."

At my words, Eli looked at the Death Knights and clicked his tongue.

"Have you been exchanging jokes with corpses all night?"

"Watch your mouth! Young lord of the Eli family!"

"No, seriously. Some of us were fighting our asses off out here."

Arwen looked back at the grumbling Eli.

"That mouth."

At that short phrase, that Eli bastard shut his mouth.

"Tsk."

As I was watching that pathetic sight, the Death Knights, who had been exchanging thoughts right on time, looked at me and spoke.

『We will not leave.』

"What?"

『For there is still work left to be done.』

『Only after finishing that work will we be able to enter our rest.』

At their sudden words, the knights, including Eli, all drew their swords at once.

"See! I knew this would happen!"

I ignored that Eli bastard and asked the Death Knights.

"The war was won, and your mission is over."

Just what else was left to do.

『The war is not yet over.』

At those words, I furrowed my brows.

If I could, I wanted to grab them and ask them what they were talking about. But I couldn't do that.

Morning was already breaking. The time allowed for the dead was no longer left.

『Let us meet again. Descendant of the King.』

With those final words, the Death Knights heavily drooped their heads.

The specters slipping out of the corpses brushed right past me.

I turned my head.

Where the specters were heading, Gawain and the knight candidates stood.

Men who possessed the very same hearts and swords of Royal Knights that the Death Knights had mastered in life.

"Hm?"

Gawain tilted his head.

With their grade not even having reached the Extraordinary Grade, it seemed they could not see the formless specters.

However, I saw it.

The specters, including the three Ekion brothers, digging into their bodies.

『When the time comes, we shall meet again.』

The open-ended promise Ekion handed me dug into my mind.

『See you later! Prince!』

At the cheerful Eus's words, I ended up completely dumbfounded.