Chapter 74
Chapter: 74
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 74
>Chapter Title: Flame Image Decision (5)
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>That morning, on his day off, Karmen got ready to head out early.
He was dressed lightly in casual clothes instead of his knight order uniform, with just a single sword at his side.
"Look at this guy. Aren't you tired? These days, everyone else just crashes in the barracks on their days off, but you head out every single time without fail?"
"Bet he's got a girlfriend now. Who's the girl? Is she pretty?"
"......"
Karmen glanced at his fellow knights, who were making their lame jokes, then turned away without a word. They weren't the type he cared to associate with.
"Man, that jerk! What's with that attitude lately?"
"Hey, leave him be. You know about the prince these days......"
"Oh, that thing with the Second Knight Order......"
He could hear them whispering whatever they wanted behind his back.
Karmen gritted his teeth.
Karmen stopped by the city to pick up various foodstuffs along with a pretty decent bottle of liquor.
It was a bit pricey on a knight's salary, but it was worth it. He'd get nagged for wasting money every time, but the bottle was always empty by his next visit.
He hurried along and arrived at a slum on the outskirts of the imperial capital by late morning.
But the neighborhood he was visiting after nearly ten days felt strangely tense.
Armed guards were patrolling the streets, and inquisitors from the Order of St. Marthias occasionally caught his eye.
And everyone had come out of their homes, murmuring uneasily.
"...What's going on?"
Karmen asked as he approached the crowd.
Right then.
Crash!
The sound of furniture shattering rang out loudly from across the street.
Guards and a single inquisitor were tearing apart the one small clinic in the neighborhood.
"Any more patients hiding here?"
"Sir Knight! These are just skin disease patients. It's not the Devil's Curse!"
"Don't talk nonsense. Rashes are an early symptom of the curse! Keep interfering, and we'll haul you off as a devil worshiper too!"
"Mercy, sir! At least let this child go! He's just got a fever, that's all!"
"Enough! Take this one too!"
Soon, people were being dragged out one after another by the guards.
As Karmen stood there dumbfounded, watching the scene, an old man next to him clicked his tongue.
"As you can see, the heresy inquisitors showed up. Word is they're hauling every rash patient straight to the Heresy Tribunal today."
"Rash patients? Why all of a sudden......"
The old man shrugged.
"You know that curse going around lately? The one that turns people gray and makes them go mad?"
"Oh, the gray plague."
"What? That's a plague, not a curse?"
It was already common knowledge among those in the know. But it seemed the news hadn't fully reached even the slums yet.
So why was the Heresy Tribunal, which surely knew the truth, rushing to drag these people away?
The old man tilted his head in confusion before continuing.
"Anyway, anyone hit by that curse has been dragged to the Heresy Tribunal, right? But according to the inquisitor, rashes show up early in the curse. So now they're rounding up every rash patient too."
"Ah, I see......"
"Word is they're combing every slum in the city these past few days. This might be the last one."
"I see."
Karmen watched the dragged-away people with a heavy heart, then turned away.
The decisions of the higher-ups were often hard to understand.
Maybe some of the bigwigs still believed it was a curse and were acting on that. Before guidelines for managing gray plague patients were set, they were probably trying to round up as many as they could.
Karmen quickened his pace and soon reached a rundown shack at the edge of the slum.
"Captain, it's me."
He knocked twice on the door, then entered without waiting for a reply, as always. But a strange, musty smell unlike the usual one filled the house.
"...Captain?"
Puzzled, Karmen scanned the dim interior and spotted a man collapsed in the corner, wrapped in a blanket.
"Captain!"
He rushed over and shook the man.
"Captain, what's wrong? Are you unwell?"
But the man didn't react at all to Karmen's calls.
In just those few days, his body had wasted away, and his temperature was abnormally low.
Only the faint twitching of his bushy beard indicated he was still alive.
"The clinic! I'll get you to a clinic right now!"
In his panic, Karmen tried to hoist the man onto his shoulders and run. But he froze mid-step as a chilling realization hit him.
Heresy inquisitors.
They were rounding up every gray plague patient outside right now.
"No way......"
In the sunlight streaming through the open door, the man's condition finally became clear.
The rash covering his body, the patches of skin turning gray.
A cold shiver ran down Karmen's spine.
'...He's done for! If we go out now, the captain goes straight to the Heresy Tribunal and gets executed!'
Clutching his trembling jaw with one hand, Karmen desperately tried to think with his pale face.
Think. Come on, think.
Sneaking the captain past the inquisitors from here was impossible.
They had to hide until the search ended, until the neighborhood was asleep at night.
Then head to the imperial palace medical center once night fell.
That place would surely have proper treatment protocols for gray plague patients by now.
He couldn't even remember how he managed it afterward.
He changed the man's clothes, soaked in vomit and filth, and burned everything he'd been wearing as kindling.
He aired out the obviously neglected, filthy shack and threw the food he'd brought into a pot to make some indiscernible stew.
So when the inquisitor arrived with guards, Karmen was able to greet them with a smile, pretending to eat.
"Just you living here?"
"No, sir. This is my uncle's place. I'm staying a few days on leave. He went into the city and should be back tomorrow."
He avoided claiming it was his house, in case they asked around the neighborhood.
"...Hmm, is that so?"
The inquisitor eyed the shack sharply.
His gaze lingered on the empty bed and wardrobe, then he nodded to the guard behind him.
The guard strode in without permission and stabbed his sword into the bed. Poke. Poke.
Finding only straw, he thrust it into the wardrobe next. Thunk. Rip.
"Hey, if you ruin the furniture like that, what am I supposed to tell my uncle?"
As Karmen complained with a woebegone expression, the inquisitor snorted.
"No one's hiding here. On to the next house."
After the inquisitors tromped out,
Karmen stood there for a long while, watching outside, then shoved the table aside once he was sure it was safe. Scrape.
Lifting a floorboard revealed a small space used as a liquor storage.
He pulled out the man he'd crammed in there, laid him on the ruined bed, and wiped his face with a damp cloth.
The man's pulse and breathing were so faint they wouldn't register to an inquisitor's senses.
"Captain, please hang in there. Just a little longer, and I'll get you to a clinic."
He repeated the words like a mantra, massaging the man's rigid limbs, stiff as logs.
The hours dragged on like decades.
Finally, on a moonless, pitch-black night,
Karmen carefully hoisted the man onto his back and began their escape from the slum.
It went smoothly at first.
As an imperial palace knight, Karmen was a capable aura user, and carrying one adult man barely slowed him down.
He sensed the sparse patrols of guards and inquisitors keenly and slipped out of the slum at high speed.
But things changed once he reached the main street with houses.
The patrols were far denser than usual, and the wide-open avenue offered nowhere to hide.
"Hey, you there! Hold up!"
In the end, a capital guard patrol spotted Karmen and called out.
Hiding his tension, he stopped casually.
"Yes? What is it?"
"What's the rush this late at night? And who's that on your back?"
"Oh, my uncle. He got so plastered last night, he won't sober up, so I'm taking him home."
Karmen prayed the expensive liquor he'd soaked his clothes in would pay off.
"Is that right? Then why's his face all wrapped up? Got a rash or something?"
The guard approached, raising a torch over the man's head.
In that instant, Karmen realized.
'These guys are under the Heresy Tribunal's thumb. No talking our way out!'
His decision was swift.
As the guards blinked in surprise, Karmen wrapped aura around his legs and shot forward.
"Hey! You bastard! Stop right there!"
Tweet!
A shrill whistle pierced the air, and the capital guards in the area began pursuing him en masse.
"Huff, pant, huff."
His breath came in gasps up to his throat.
Darting through alleys, Karmen tried his best to shake them. But with the net tightening from all sides, he couldn't evade them all.
The chase didn't last long. Karmen ended up trapped in a dead-end alley, blocked by several guards including two armed knights.
"Huff, pant. You bastard! Making us work for it!"
Karmen glared at the guards and shouted.
"I'm an Imperial Palace Guard knight! What do you think His Majesty will do when he hears about this? You think it's okay to round up innocent capital citizens like this?"
"Imperial Palace Guard?"
The capital guards, about to charge, murmured in surprise at his unexpected identity.
They couldn't take his word at face value, but his aura made it hard to dismiss as impersonation.
"...Then why make things complicated if you know better?"
"He's no innocent citizen. Devil's Curse victims are to be detained or dealt with by end of day. That's a direct order from above."
"It's cheeky running off like that, but hand over the cursed one, and we'll let you go."
Karmen clenched his teeth.
He realized the order came from high up, and securing patients was their top priority.
Detain or eliminate if they couldn't.
Would it have been better to hand the captain to the Heresy Tribunal and report to the palace for a rescue?
No, no one ever came out unscathed from there. Especially not in this near-death state......
He slowly lowered the man from his back to the ground and gripped his sword hilt, facing forward warily.
Two armed knights and five guards.
Could he do it? But brute force was their only way out.
The reason Karmen hadn't drawn yet was his instinct that spilling blood against the capital guard would snuff out even the slim hope they had left.
And right then.
Karmen saw a rear guard aiming a crossbow at the man.
No time for second thoughts—he lunged toward the man.
Whoosh! Thud!
The bolt missed, striking the ground and ricocheting.
"Urk, you rascal!"
"Hey! We can't kill an imperial knight! Peel him off first!"
The guards swarmed, grabbing at him roughly. But Karmen bit and fought every hand, clinging desperately to the man.
How long did it go on? Soon, kicks rained down on his head.
"Get off him! Now!"
"You think holding out changes anything?"
"You wanna die with the cursed one?"
Thud! Thump! Thud!
Amid the violence that dazed his mind, Karmen curled around the man, shielding him as best he could.
Incoherent groans leaked through his clenched teeth.
Please, someone!
Anyone, just save the captain!
And then, into his ears.
"Hey, hold it right there."
A low, boyish voice bored into their ears with unnatural clarity.
"You lot with the capital guard? Why are you ganging up on someone in the street? Unless you've got a damn good reason, get ready for disciplinary action."
"......?"
"...Who the hell is this kid?"
The guards stopped beating and turned toward the voice.
There stood a boy loosely draped in a large cloak.
Pale blond hair, well-kept, gleamed yellow in the torchlight over what was clearly a knight order surplus cloak.
Karmen knew that slightly fierce-faced boy well.
'...Prince Mores?'
Why was that guy here?
The prince seemed to recognize Karmen too, widening his eyes before asking.
"Why's the guy Lady Claudia's been desperately looking for getting beat up in a place like this at night?"
"......"
"Ah, is that why you brought me here?"
"Who's this brat? Spouting nonsense? Get lost!"
One guard bellowed, but the prince didn't flinch.
"You're the ones who should scram. Or wait—maybe you shouldn't. If this was undue violence, you need to get beat just as bad right here."
"...What?"
The guards' faces twisted viciously.
"Kid, apologize and beat it while we're nice! Unless you want a taste for obstructing official duties."
Maybe his youthful look put them off guard. Two or three guards surrounding Karmen moved toward the prince threateningly, hands on their sword hilts.
Prince Mores slyly curled one corner of his mouth.
It was a sneer that infuriatingly pissed off anyone who saw it.
"That was official duty? For real? Looks to me like a pack of street thugs shaking someone down."
"Urk! This punk!"
Sching.
Finally, the nearest guard lost his temper and reached for his sword.
Karmen nearly screamed without thinking.
You idiots, that's the prince! Don't draw!
What kind of mess do you want later?!
If he hadn't been beaten breathless, choking on blood-clogged coughs, he surely would've yelled it.
Prince Mores eyed the half-drawn sword, scratched his cheek with an odd expression.
"Hmm, even if I told you who I am now, you probably wouldn't buy it. But here's a warning anyway. Draw that sword, and you'll regret it for sure."