Chapter 424
Chapter 424
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 424
Chapter Title: Chapter 19. Hide-and-Seek (5)
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Hyde was confused.
His eyes scanned the old man lost in the past and his home,
his ears listened to the old man's tale,
and his mind peered into footage of the man presumed to be the Warlord, as if it were his own memory.
As if it were his memory. As if...
'Is this... his memory?'
'If so, could the impulses and dreams that have plagued me for so long be connected to this?'
He couldn't be certain, but it felt that way. A memory that was hazy yet vivid, intensely etched into a single moment.
He didn't yet understand why this was happening to him, but a strong conviction gripped him—he had to learn more about this.
Hyde carefully chose his words as he questioned the old man across the weathered desk.
"You met him twice. Once you spared him, and once you killed everyone. Is that right?"
"Yes."
"When exactly were those encounters?"
"The first was about twelve years ago. The second was four years ago."
"Twelve years ago and four years ago. What brought you together?"
"....I saved him when he was collapsed. Amid horrors too gruesome to describe, he was the only one left alive."
As the word [saved] left his lips, the old man's grip tightened, knuckles popping out.
"If only I hadn't brought that murderer home...."
Regret shone clearly even in his aged, clouded eyes.
While the old man dwelled on the past, Hyde saw what lingered behind his silence.
Six trains at a rail junction, riddled with bullet holes as if they'd fired at each other.
People torn and exploded in every conceivable way, just like the ragged trains.
And amid the battle's aftermath, the old man from a decade ago scavenged unbroken weapons, gear, train parts,
『Huuuugh!』
and from the carnage, that man crawled out.
'Six trains. Including engineers, Aura users, and Shard Knights, elite forces numbering at least eighty, plus a bunch of mutant corpses mixed in. Their levels... aren't that high.'
'Junction. Wrecked heavy mining equipment. That's gear for extracting mana stones. Not a huge operation, profit margins probably slim... but it's a mana stone mine nonetheless.'
'Two human groups fought over the mana stone mine, the battle dragged on, mutants heard the commotion and joined in, turning it into a three-way brawl. Classic idiot stunt at the front lines near a major dungeon.'
Land was the most precious resource, but if defending it uprooted a city's foundations, any sane person would abandon it.
Likely, the two groups in the footage were from isolated forward outposts cut off from rear support. At the front lines, where mana cannons melted from constant fire, a nearby mana stone mine was a lifeline. Unable to split that thin vein, the adjacent outposts clashed over it.
Screeech—screeech—
Into the fierce artillery duel between the two groups slipped the man.
Tsssss—!!!
"Ugh!"
Suddenly, a horrific screech overwhelmed his mind, like nails on steel.
A sensation so intense it buried the memory. Gunfire, flesh exploding, screams of humans and mutants mingled.
'This guy's a real monster?'
The first footage had ended with him trudging through soft soil, but this one, though scratched and fractured, hazily revealed his battle.
'....Ah! That lunatic... stop him from breaking through!'
'Aaaah!'
'Damn fast... crossfire overlapping-'
'....He's using us!'
Even for a forsaken outpost, with trains as their only transport, it was the full might of two outposts that had held rocky terrain against mutants. Add the horde from the nearby major dungeon, and it was chaos.
Weaving freely through the barrage with no safe footing was eerie, awe-inspiring.
Mastery of a massive Arcane Shooter, overkill even for fixed emplacements.
Using overwhelming firepower and blast waves to carve tunnels of vacuum, redirecting concentrated fire like blades at the three factions—it transcended individual combat prowess, dominating the entire battlefield under his gaze.
Of course, even that prowess couldn't fully evade the trains' area barrages; he collapsed atop the other fallen.
=========
"....Cough."
"Oh. You're awake, sir?"
"Where... am I...."
"Please lie back down. This is a bit away from where the knight was collapsed."
"....You should've left me there."
"This old man didn't bring you here for nothing, so no need for humility. Just recover, then grant our small request...."
.
.
.
.
=========
The old man's words resumed as the footage showed the man rising from a shabby bed.
"I lived pretty far from the city and the rails. Teldrat's all open plains, so spots like that are rare, but Lordric region's dotted with little rocky zones here and there."
"....Were you a retired Shard Knight?"
"Not me—my son. Lucky case. Earned enough, kept most of his memories intact, even found a lifelong partner. So he wanted out of the Shard Knight life, but that meant vanishing from the world."
Most Shard Knights' ends were miserable. Hunted by Fragment Hunters coveting absorbed shards, turned monstrous by devouring memories to survive, or just died in battle.
So Shard Knights who chose 'retirement' vanished entirely, as the old man described. Built shacks on remote cliffs or worthless rocky nubs, cut off from the world where no one came.
Hyde had seen Fragment Hunters who specialized in tracking retired Shard Knights, so he knew the basics.
They shunned showing their faces, lived with someone who traded their knight-earned coin for water and food from distant cities—usually family, holing up together.
The old man's son had retired with two other weary Shard Knights and their families—three households total. Bought rainwater collectors, inedible mushroom seeds that grew in barren soil, scavenged preserved rations posing as ruin explorers, hid it all on that unknown crag, built homes.
Hard-won peace.
And if such recluses scavenged battlefields and dragged someone home, the answer was obvious.
"Money ran so low you had to risk exposing the hideout, huh."
"That too, but then my son and his wife had a kid. He grieved that his child would be trapped in this wasteland because he was a Shard Knight."
"So you saved the Warlord and brought him back?"
"....He was a knight with impressive gear. Outpost folks scraping by couldn't afford such pricey shard weapons. Figured he was dispatched from a big nearby city, so if we earned his favor... maybe secure spots for grandson and daughter-in-law.... Got carried away and did something stupid...."
Thus, the Warlord survived the massacre, recovered in their home.
'....He's conflicted.'
Hyde couldn't pinpoint why, but the Warlord from twelve years ago was deeply torn. Anxiety in eyes gazing at expectant faces. That gaze replayed poor but peaceful lives, his bloodied gear leaning against the wall. Face softening faintly, then drowned by crushing emotions.
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"Citizenship for a newborn child and one adult guardian."
"I-I know it's a huge ask! But... as a Shard Knight yourself, don't you understand my son's plight? What crime did the child commit to rot here forever?"
"....Understood. Then on my way back, I'll take your daughter-in-law to the city."
"W-what? At least wait till the baby's born.... Even a few years later...."
"Better if I never return."
"Oh...."
"If not, I'll go alone."
"N-no! Please! But you must keep your promise! Secure spots in a safe big city for the child and one adult."
"....I promise."
=========
With that, the Warlord from twelve years ago left the old man and the weary Shard Knight's hideout. With rations, water, and the heavily pregnant woman.
Three months later, a bundle left by the rocks held a dried umbilical cord, the mother's letter, and an address. That night, the old man's son couldn't sleep; next morning, the old man faced an empty bed.
Four months on, the son returned beaming brighter than anyone. Baby boy, tiny clay imprint of his footprint, tales of worldly joys long missed. After that, he visited the city every six months.
Then one day, he didn't return. The old man warned of dangers, begged him to stay safe from afar, throat hoarse—but paternal instinct trumped his. The old man waited years for his absent son.
Time dragged on, until four years ago.
'Y-you're that guy from back then...?'
'....Business nearby.'
Hoping for news of son and daughter-in-law, the old man welcomed him warmly; the Warlord replied thus.
"He seemed a completely different man from twelve years prior. Eight years had scarred every inch of exposed skin."
Fewer words now, he silently handed a small bundle: priceless train tickets, dried mushrooms, a bottle of water—as the old man had once mentioned.
=========
"Engineers have sharp eyes. Just hold the ticket by the rails at the scheduled time—they'll pick you up."
"I-is this... a real train ticket?! Heavens.... Why show this old man such kindness...."
"....Not yet worth serving me. Just a reason to keep you alive."
=========
The old man packed his scant belongings, bid farewell to his dwindling neighbors—now just two households.
"Gladly left the crag village that day; he was already gone. Makes sense. First time, we talked plenty; he hated magic trains then due to circumstances. Figured he took the creaky handcar like last time. Too excited to notice anything."
Hyde felt the old man's voice sinking.
"But... he should've just left. I remembered too late—I'd left the box with grandson's cord and daughter-in-law's letter...."
In a life of tending mushrooms and scraping dew alone, his sole joy was imagining his family's happiness in some distant city, stroking that box of traces. How could he forget it?
Train time still far off, he climbed the familiar crag village steps without thought.
There, barely half an hour after seeing him off, he met those people again.
All collapsed as if asleep,
the knight who'd granted his family huge favor.
And neighbors stacked neatly atop a pyre of dismantled homes.
=========
"Wh-what happened?! Why are they—f-for what reason—no, what the hell...."
"...."
"Are they... dead?"
"...."
"Did you do this, knight?!"
"...."
"I'm asking if you killed them! Did you slaughter these people and plan to burn them!!!"
"....Yes."
"Why?! What reason!!! Then why spare me like this! Whyyyy!!!!"
=========
"Forgot hesitation. That's what he said, lighting the pyre. He watched the corpses burn beside my screams, never explaining why he spared me, then left."
"You alone survived... and he killed everyone in that no-name crag village?"
"Yes. While I was briefly down."
"The other two households—retired Shard Knights like your son and their families?"
"Venter and Gareth. No colored shards, but solid colorless ones, several each."
"Dead ones looked asleep, no wounds. No battle traces in the village?"
"I know what you're implying. I asked. He confessed: he killed them. No more hesitation. The Warlord is indeed the murderer who slaughtered everyone there."
Ziiing-!
『No way!』
"No-"
"Hm? What was that?"
"Ah, nothing. Stomach's acting up today. Haha...."
Hyde swallowed the instinctive retort bubbling up at the old man's words.
No reason why, but deep in his chest, something screamed the Warlord wasn't that kind of man. A thought surging before thought itself.
Really no way?
'....Something's off.'
Piecing together info so far, inconsistencies glared.
Before the old man, witnesses said the Warlord cleared three dungeons solo and left—no harm to nearby outposts.
Twelve years ago: adrift in conflict, anxiety, pressure, yet did a somewhat burdensome good deed. Circumstantially, he tossed that bundle to the crag. If footage feelings held, he even felt relief promising "one child and guardian." Despite massacring train knights in the nearby mine.
Four years ago: cold killer slaughtering the old man's neighbors.
'Which is the real him? Criteria for killing? Or events between changed him drastically?'
Even Hyde, adept at reading people, couldn't grasp what this Warlord was.
Sure things: avoided magic trains, traversed regions by handcar.
Terrifying combat power and equal battlefield smarts.
And, inexplicably, deep ties to Hyde himself.
"....After he left, I boarded the train he'd prepared, heart full of unease and confusion. Only then did I hear how the world turned. Old Lordric fort-cities fallen by the dozen. Nobles too distrustful for alliance. Most fleeing war-torn lands to Teldrat Imperial fort-cities. My train headed not to Kingsland—Lordric's sole metropolis—but here to Wigen."
"Wealthy passengers gossiped Warlord horror stories. House Brasstol, great nobles rooted in Lordric, on brink of ruin. Hundreds of soul mages they hired betrayed en masse, handing fort-cities to him wholesale. No force on continent could stop his army now."
At Brasstol's name, Pablo flinched mid-note. Info tied to great nobles—dangerous; hearing it could draw hunters.
"Guided by that neighbor-slayer, I arrived in Wigen. No son, no daughter-in-law. Just the label 'Lordric refugee' swarming in hordes. That's my tale. Hope it wasn't too long."
"Worth every minute—packed with value. Truly grateful, elder. Time to go. Pablo, up."
"Huh? Wait, not done noting—waaah!"
"I memorized it all. Story dragged dangerously long, as elder said."
Hyde brushed off a goodbye, hoisted squirming Pablo underarm.
"Took too long?"
"Yeah. Time. Noticed midway, but too compelling to bail."
Bam!
Bursting out, unlike entry, the Lordric refugee camp lay deserted—no human trace.
As if pre-evacuated. From half-shut door behind, old man's voice:
"....Sorry for the deception."
"It's fine. You hinted midway."
"Uh, Mr. Hyde? What's going on...."
"Elder said it: old Lordric's a full warzone, Warlord leads an army now, trashed mighty Brasstol. And this refugee influx started four years ago."
"S-so?"
"'So' nothing. Four years of chaos, yet in Wigen and surrounds, Warlord's urban legend? Doesn't add up. That's no legend—living, breathing one. Ongoing."
"Uh... yeah?"
"His movements unknown in a metropolis like Wigen for four years means nobles clamped down hard, smashed every leaker. Rumors of great houses crushed by one man could shake rule."
And we're in a 'Lordric refugee' camp.
"Think bloodshot nobles blocking news would miss infiltrators from their turf? Sole entry: trains. More such camps nearby, right?"
"Wh-wha?!?!"
"Not 'refugee camp'—'managed containment zone.' Locked from sunlight, luring truth-seekers like us with monologues till nobles alerted: 'Warlord hunter here—nab him.' Then poof, village empty."
"B-but you said! Livelihoods unsolvable! They need income too—"
"Noble lapdog gets mushroom rations. Holding us was their lifeline, per my words. Rushed excited, got played like fools."
Clack. Clack. Clack. Clack.
Metal boots nearby.
Scanned nonstop while explaining, but ant-nest maze offered no exit.
'Entry path... blocked first if smart. Perfect trap.'
Herd Lordric refugees, bait truth-seekers. Bonus: last hostages if Warlord raids.
"Sent that guy?"
"Y-yeah, that person's...."
"Yeah, the one we all know."
Knight strode in from our entry path, roles reversed. Nobles' brains ticked brilliantly.
Twisty paths. Wigen's narrow rock tunnels. Region's poster boy—spy if you didn't know him.
"Stone Knight gracing back alleys? What brings you?"
Master Knight Tachellm—Stone Giant, master-level Shard Knight, rock-magic shard synergy king.
True to name, tiny stone pillars sprouted in his footsteps.
"Three times weekly rat-hunts make it routine. Impressive insight matching your rep, Pathfinder."
"I'm Ash?"
"Know you well. City watches rich lingering at stations. Especially noble-famous like you."
"Honor."
Lowering slowly, set Pablo down. If rumors held, we were in his range.
'Draw?'
Hand hovered near sword hilt.
"Hyde, and boy. For city security violation—"
-Rrrumble!
"Cooperate!"
"Screw that!"
-Craaaash!
"Hoo. Heard you were Aura Knight. Fun ability? Defected? Alchemy?"
Walls closed unwittingly; bronze structure blocked.
"[Portable Outdoor Party Frame]. Imperial relic, punk."
Hyde cursed grabbing the 500k sil relic over sword.
"Before leaving...."
....Click!
Grrrrrind!
Ignition crumbled stone walls, bronze expanding.
Golden Age Imperial relic: frame, furniture, decor separable. For nobles' lavish 'extreme environment' parties.
Their 'extreme': molten metal, ocean depths, hurricanes. Modern blocking/isolation earth-magic in metal.
Flaw: single-use. And—
Crack!
Shatters sans pricey 'Imperial mana stone.'
Still, brief reset opened the path plenty.
"Pablo! Path! Path!"
"P-Pathfinder, aren't you?!" "Not that kind! Hurry!"
"Up! Upper left crawl tunnel!"
Pitter-patter!
Tachellm's brief lapse: Hyde scooped Pablo, vanished into crevice.
"....Fleeing swift as fame."
Tachellm withdrew hand from rock tunnel. Shard pay exceeded weekly quota.
And,
"....If pinned right, could bankrupt Wigen's lord in payout."
That sword-draw instant, senses screamed.
"....Nada. Security violator escaped tunnels. Catch as you will."
Formal report done, Tachellm glanced at Hyde's path, tuned out.
City-wide eternal vigil, protection—that alone earned his pay.
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