Chapter 24
Akala Great Forest.
Measured purely by landmass, it was a true great forest, roughly equal in size to the territory of the Bernice Empire.
A forest smothered in trees so vast they dwarfed even a human’s height.
Thanks to the abundance of rare plants and the grandeur of nature itself, curious humans occasionally came here for research or adventure.
It was known that monsters lived within the great forest, but unlike the Kron Mountains, there had never been a single sighting of anything truly monstrous.
According to people who loved conspiracy theories, ancient species from the distant past or rare, hidden races were said to lurk here in secrecy—but that was all it was: a conspiracy theory.
The most dangerous monsters actually seen in Akala Great Forest were the dumb-minded troll packs.
I remembered the incident because the Western Kingdom of Focala had requested help from the empire as soon as the trolls were discovered, and my men had been dispatched.
“Is that it?”
“Yes! We got here faster than I expected!”
Far ahead, the dense stand of trees had finally begun to appear.
Wide open plains stretched out, and then, rather abruptly, trees rose up in a wall of green.
It was a grandeur that suited the name of a great forest perfectly.
Even from a distance, the majesty of nature pressed against the chest.
“Still, there are more humans here than when I came.”
Kabin muttered under his breath as he scanned the surroundings, sounding puzzled.
We had left Schupelben and reached Akala Great Forest in just a few days.
That was all thanks to being able to use a warp portal.
If we’d come overland, it would have taken at least two weeks, and even on horseback it would have been a minimum of a week.
Having one’s identity firmly guaranteed—and, on top of that, belonging to the military—was advantageous in more ways than one.
“There certainly are a lot of humans.”
Along the road leading to the great forest, I could see several temporary barracks.
They’re all here because of the monster purge, I suppose.
Most of the people around us were soldiers.
We hadn’t even reached the forest yet, and there were already this many troops gathered.
The empire’s declared war on monsters was clearly sweeping across the continent.
“Kabin.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s avoid revealing who we are if we can. We didn’t come here on any ‘official’ mission, after all.”
“Of course.”
At my words, Kabin tightened his grip on the strap of the bag slung over his shoulder and answered as if he understood.
It would have helped in some ways to reveal that we were soldiers of Schupelben, but doing so in this matter would not have been wise.
What Kabin and I were here to do wasn’t to slaughter monsters, but to take one away.
Come to think of it.
After months of training, I too had begun to acquire the basics of a vampire, little by little, much like Kabin and Sophia.
Starting with the ability to restrain my impulses at the sight of blood.
I can’t sense any blood scent.
And even the ability to sense traces of a clan that carried True Blood.
Perhaps because we hadn’t entered the forest yet, there was nothing to feel for the moment.
“Kabin.”
“Yes, I still don’t sense anything either!”
Kabin spoke up first with a pleased expression, as if he had guessed what I was about to say.
In just a few months, that boy had become remarkably perceptive.
Still, this forest was said to be the size of the entire empire’s territory.
Trying to sense someone without even stepping into it was probably asking too much.
With every step, we drew closer to the dense forest.
Murmur-murmur—
“Hmm.”
“Something’s going on.”
As expected, the closer we got to the forest, the more people there were.
The gaps between the barracks grew narrower, and the roads became busier with people moving back and forth.
But something about the atmosphere was strange.
Everyone looked unsettled.
The closer we came to the forest, the clearer that unease became.
So Bernice has sent troops too.
Once we nearly reached the entrance to the forest, I spotted a banner all too familiar to me.
A flag bearing the ornate emblem of the Bernice Empire.
Those soldiers were probably the ones sent directly from the imperial capital.
Compared to the other city troops, each marked with the insignia of their own city, they were likely on a completely different level.
Murmur-murmur—
Hmm.
Feeling strangely glad for a moment, I searched the imperial troops’ barracks, but there wasn’t a single soldier wandering around outside.
They must have been operating inside the forest.
“Did you hear? They were wiped out. Every last one of them!”
“That’s impossible. How could the Bernice Empire’s army...?”
What?
The sound made me stop in my tracks.
“I heard there were even three knights from the knight order there, and they were all killed.”
“The Bernice Empire’s knight order was taken out? In Akala Great Forest, there’s a monster that can threaten imperial knights...?”
“Wait.”
Before I knew it, I had cut in on the conversation between two soldiers.
The two men, who had been talking in hushed but intense voices, jumped when I called out. Then, realizing I wasn’t their superior, they gave me annoyed looks.
“What is it?”
“That story. Can you tell me more?”
“That story?”
“You said three knights from the Bernice Empire Knight Order died.”
“Ah.”
One of the soldiers glanced at me and then at Kabin, who stood beside me with a backpack, before he spoke again.
“You must have just arrived, judging by the fact you don’t know the news. Just as you heard. Three knights from the knight order dispatched by the Bernice Empire were found as corpses this morning.”
“Knights...?”
It was hard to believe.
Even though I was no longer their commander, a knight belonging to the Bernice Empire Knight Order was on a completely different level from an ordinary soldier.
At the very least, they had all mastered imperial swordsmanship, and if they were stationed here, they would have to be intermediate knights capable of using sword aura.
And three such experts, together—taken down by mere monsters?
“It wasn’t just the knights. Dozens of soldiers sent from the imperial capital were killed too! Seems they came as some kind of vanguard.”
“...”
“Thanks to that, the whole mood around here turned strange overnight. Wiped out, the Bernice Empire was. Hah.”
The soldier clicked his tongue and shook his head, still looking as though he couldn’t believe it.
And neither could I.
I wasn’t feeling pity for the knights who had once been my subordinates, but something about this felt wrong.
My instincts as a knight—the very instincts that had saved my life more than once—were telling me so.
There was definitely something here.
“So you two should... if you can, don’t push yourselves. Turn back if you can.”
The soldier gave us a patronizing once-over, as if doing us a favor, and said that with Bernice wiped out, many of the remaining soldiers would probably be pulling back as well.
With that, the two soldiers disappeared somewhere.
The troops sent from the capital, and three of them knights at that, were wiped out?
It was a report that left me with a bad feeling.
These were soldiers who, even in times of peace, trained every single day in real combat drills to uphold the empire’s prestige.
And they had been annihilated without a single survivor.
Unless they’d run into an absurdly powerful monster, that should have been impossible.
Not some troll that charged on instinct without intelligence, but a high-ranking monster with a mind of its own.
Hmm.
As that thought took hold, my unease deepened.
The blood aura Kabin had said he’d sensed in the forest.
The annihilation of Bernice Empire soldiers, including at least three intermediate knights.
Even if I didn’t want to connect them, those two facts kept linking together in my mind.
No, let’s not jump to conclusions. Vampires can suppress their bloodlust by default.
Unlike when I’d faced Sylvia, this was something other vampires could do naturally.
There was no reason for them to attack humans.
“Kabin, hurry up and let’s go.”
Erasing the hypothesis that kept surfacing in my head by force, I called out to Kabin.
I felt as though we needed to get into the forest and do something, anything, as soon as possible.
“…Kabin?”
When there was no answer, I finally turned my gaze to where Kabin had been standing.
He had definitely been there a moment ago, with the large backpack on his shoulders, listening to the soldiers with me—but now he was nowhere to be seen.
I frowned slightly and looked around.
He’d been standing beside me until the two soldiers finished their last words, but it seemed he’d vanished while I was lost in thought.
And the missing Kabin was not far away.
He was up ahead, engaged in an animated conversation with someone.
“Oh—ah! Lord Evan! Over here!”
Maybe he felt my gaze, or maybe it was just coincidence, but Kabin happened to look my way at that exact moment.
When our eyes met, he waved at me with a strangely proud expression.
He looked as though he had not even a single ominous thought in his head, much less the suspicions I had.
Was that because his trust in the clan ran so deep?
He must have believed that the clan in his mind would never harm humans.
The soldier in uniform standing beside the waving Kabin gave me a half-hearted bow.
Step, step—
Not knowing exactly what was going on, I headed toward where Kabin stood.
“Lord Evan! I found someone who knows the information well!”
“Information?”
“Yes! About what those two men were just saying. About the Bernice Empire army being wiped out in the forest.”
“I see.”
So that was why he had looked so pleased.
Was this what Kabin had been thinking?
He found more information about something I’d shown interest in, and that would satisfy me.
It was simple, and very much like Kabin.
“Th-that’s right. I was the first person to discover the bodies.”
The soldier beside Kabin opened his mouth cautiously.
On the left side of his chest, where his uniform was fastened, was a familiar insignia.
The Hailon emblem?
Not the emblem of the empire, but the emblem of Hailon, the imperial capital.
That meant this man wasn’t one of the soldiers from the imperial center, but one from Hailon.
If the account came from a Hailon soldier, then it would certainly have some credibility.
And he’d likely know more about what happened at the scene.
Unexpectedly, Kabin had handled things well.
“Can you explain it to me? Start with what the scene looked like.”
“Well...”
The Hailon soldier looked frightened, but he continued his explanation in a calm voice.
If I were to sum it up, it was this:
It looked less like the aftermath of a battle and more like the traces of a one-sided slaughter.
There was no sign that the knights had used sword aura at all.
Every soldier who had fallen was dead with a hole through the heart.
Blood had been splashed everywhere around the site.
If all the causes of death are the same, then this was the work of a single culprit.
I hadn’t come here to investigate the truth behind the annihilation of the capital soldiers, but I found myself thinking about it anyway.
The fact that the intermediate knights hadn’t even managed to unleash sword aura meant they had been taken down before they had a chance to respond.
What on earth could have done this?
I couldn’t easily imagine it.
A monster that left dozens of soldiers and three knights helpless, without even the chance to fight back.
My unease only grew.
Not the fear of the monster’s danger, but the fear of what it actually was.
“Th-then...”
“Hmm?”
I had been about to thank him and leave, assuming the story was more or less over.
Then the Hailon soldier called me back in a voice full of expectation.
“Are you going to lead us?”
“...What?”
“I heard you’re from Schupelben, and that you’re even the commander of a special detachment...”
At my dumbfounded reaction, the Hailon soldier’s gaze slowly drifted toward Kabin, standing beside me.
Kabin, who had been listening seriously to the soldier’s story alongside me, nodded with a grin he couldn’t quite hide.
Ha.
It felt like it had been less than thirty minutes since I’d told him not to reveal our identities on this mission.
Separate from the Hailon soldier’s expectant eyes, I couldn’t help thinking that this mission was going to become far more complicated than we’d expected.