Chapter 84
Chapter 84
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 84
Chapter Title: The Stirring Viper
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Kubel's rebellion had come to an end in Kraidel territory.
While the lord worked to repair the damage from the uprising and punish the remaining rebels, the key figures who had suppressed the revolt were resting up in luxurious lodgings.
"That's the Shadow Knight, right? Not what I pictured a knight to be."
"How long has it been since the Kingdom of Eschric fell? You still holding onto those prejudices?"
"It's only been a year, you idiot."
"Oh, right."
The special team made up of Jane's Shadow Knights and the Imperial Guard.
The territory's citizens praised their exploits.
The king's knights had driven off the monsters invading the land and brought peace back to the people.
There was no better story to soothe the wounds of the rebellion.
And among them, two stood out as the protagonists of this tale.
"What do you think the Fairy Knight's been up to lately?"
"No idea. It's classified."
"Even what she's doing?"
"That's even more classified, you moron."
The guards on night patrol chatted while gazing at the lodgings.
Jane, the protagonist of this story and the Fairy Knight, was frequently on people's lips.
The knight who had sworn himself to the girl kept his promise and returned her to her family's embrace.
Not only that, but he had racked up achievements in the process—a classic heroic tale that bards would love.
With countless swords strapped to her back, wielding various spirits and flashy swordsmanship, she had earned the name Fairy Knight.
And whenever the Fairy Knight was mentioned, another figure naturally came up.
The Nightmare of Kraidel.
It was the moniker given to the old butler who had faced off against them on the ramparts.
Just recalling those gleaming golden eyes amid the burning walls made the remnants of the rebel organization foam at the mouth in terror.
Thus, the name Nightmare of Kraidel was born.
But the citizens had another way of honoring the old man:
"Any word on when the Guardian Knight's funeral will be?"
"Supposed to be next week."
The top contributor to this war—and its sole casualty.
The Fairy Knight's master.
Countless people had witnessed Jane clutching the old man's lifeless body, tears streaming endlessly down her face with eyes closed. Naturally, they were curious about the story.
The connection between Dominic and Jane spread like wildfire, and people began honoring the hero who might have been the fairy's master—or perhaps even a parent figure.
"So the Fairy Knight will attend next week, right?"
"Of course she will."
The two guards recalled the rumors that the Fairy Knight hadn't left her room much, gazing at the lodgings with worried eyes.
Hoping the hero would rise above her wounds soon.
And the Fairy Knight they were so worried about...
"Hey, hey, Duke. Say that thing, you know."
"Mm."
"Dreams are entrusted."
"Mm."
"Entrusting your dreams to someone and throwing yourself into the fight with everything you've got. What's that feel like?"
"Mm."
Was clinging to the back of the hero they'd thought was dead, acting spoiled.
Back in time to the moment Dominic closed his eyes.
No matter how good Duke was at acting, he couldn't fake being a corpse.
So before the undertaker could declare him dead, he swapped himself with another body.
And right on cue, Jane successfully pulled off her role-play.
While all eyes were on her, Duke swapped the dummy for himself, and Jane kept up the act without missing a beat.
Their performance was flawless.
No one doubted Dominic's death, and no one imagined Duke and Dominic were the same person.
And this grand play was set to conclude in a week.
"Just play with me until you come back next week~"
Jane whined, hanging off Duke's back.
A week from now, Duke—the kingdom's second-in-command—was scheduled to attend Dominic's funeral.
For his alibi, he was traveling from the capital to this territory with the scarecrow knight he'd once used in the old Sneria fief.
Until then, officially, Duke hadn't arrived in the territory yet.
"You can't even leave this room anyway~"
Only Jane, Hana, and the kingdom's upper echelons knew the truth of this play.
The knights Jane had led during the suppression didn't know Dominic's true identity, so Duke couldn't leave the room.
Naturally, Duke found himself half-forcibly confined to Jane's room.
"Play with me. Play with me. Play with me."
"Mm."
Having realized this, Jane had regressed to a childlike state, tormenting Duke day in and day out.
She'd seemed to grow by entrusting her dreams, but she'd only gotten weirder, leaving even Duke flustered.
'Threatening her with telekinesis... probably not.'
Back when she first clung to his back and started whining.
Duke considered channeling the charismatic Demon King's fury on her.
But as a man with a conscience,
He couldn't coldly cast her aside with a "Dominic's gone to America now!"
Besides, the character was an issue.
The kind tall uncle from her past couldn't abruptly turn cold on the girl who'd inherited even his dreams.
So he decided on a strategy of non-reaction toward her.
"Do that pose you made up for me when I was little!"
Jane, making rabbit ears with her fingers at Duke's helmet.
"Never happened."
"Tch."
He swiftly shut down her occasional lies.
'Why the childish regression...'
Maybe because he'd erased her remaining memories.
Peter Pan felt the weight of responsibility and endured all of Wendy's whims.
But Duke overlooked one fact.
Wendy—that is, Jane—had already left Neverland and grown into an adult.
Before the incident, she'd kept her childhood and adult selves separate, stuck in the past. Now, she'd successfully blended the past into the present.
In simple terms, she'd accepted Duke and Dominic as the same person and healthily saw the present with Duke as a continuation of the past.
Proof was that even while whining, she never crossed the line too far.
'This much is okay, huh!'
If it were Dominic, she might ask for tea or a massage,
But she never made such requests of Duke.
Only playful pranks she'd pull on a childhood friend.
The boundary she could push while respecting Duke's current position and authority.
"So what should we play?"
Of course, clinging to his back toed the line, but for some reason it felt acceptable, so she spoiled him freely.
"Maintain some dignity as the Fairy Knight."
"No way. I'm off duty right now."
Her subordinates would be disappointed if they saw her.
But what could she do?
The Fairy Knight protected children's dreams.
Couldn't she protect a bit of her own innocence too?
Thus, the Fairy Knight—who'd inherited not just dreams but shamelessness too—rested her chin on the kingdom's second-in-command's shoulder.
"Let's play chess then!"
"..."
Duke pondered.
If it were something childish like patty-cake, maybe not, but chess should be fine.
After some thought, Duke nodded.
"Huh?"
"What is it."
"Did you just nod?"
"Chess should be okay."
"...Woohoo!"
Jane just wanted to do anything with Duke, so chess was fine.
She rolled up her sleeves and placed a fancy chessboard on the table from somewhere.
"Heh. I was the guerrilla advisor for the Dracon territory forces, you know? Don't regret it after losing?"
"Is that so."
"What'll we bet? Limited-edition sweets from the capital?"
"Sure."
And so the two began their chess game.
Several hours later.
"Hey! How are you this good?! Cheating! Where'd you learn this?!"
"Basic education."
The basics for a second-in-command.
Master Go, chess variants—essential.
Extended to calligraphy, tea ceremony, gem appraisal, art criticism.
He'd even played Go over drinks for nearly a century with a certain Blue Dragon Duke during the Empire days, unbeatable in strategy games.
In the end, the guerrilla advisor knight couldn't match the regular army marshal.
The evening Jane suffered 50 straight losses to Duke.
After stopping her attempt to nullify the 50 limited-edition sweets bet with a sob story,
Duke stood alone by the window in the room where Jane slept.
"Mmnya... Dewey..."
Leaving the sleep-talking girl be, Duke draped an overcoat over himself.
There was unfinished business.
He opened the window and slipped out of the room.
He couldn't be seen publicly, but if he wasn't caught, it was fine.
There was something he had to check, risks be damned.
Slipping through the night's darkness, hopping rooftops, he soon reached a mansion.
The Vinka family estate, alchemists.
He bypassed the guards stealthily with familiar steps and headed to a certain room.
Hoo, hoo.
In the room Duke entered, an old woman lay in bed, hooked up to some advanced breathing apparatus ahead of its time.
Bald Vinka.
The matriarch of this alchemist family, remembering Imperial-era tech.
And the one who had hidden the Bagua Furnace until now.
Duke had many questions for her.
Where she found the Bagua Furnace, why she hid it, what her schemes were now.
But the old woman had been kidnapped during the rebellion, tortured mercilessly, and fallen into a coma.
From when Jane arrived to rescue her, until now.
She wasn't even in Duke's memories from past or present lives, so he pondered how to deal with her.
"..."
Duke silently looked down at the old woman barely breathing.
Every night, he visited this room.
And every dawn, he returned to Jane empty-handed.
Duke stared at the old woman's firmly shut eyelids.
Finally, he spoke.
"You're awake."
"Hoo... Well now, an unexpected guest, cough, has arrived."
"Not surprised."
"I had a feeling this would happen before I lost consciousness."
The old woman smiled with her wrinkled face.
"It's been a century, senior brother."
Duke's shoulder twitched at her words.
Kill her, or not.
Then he recalled the girl he'd been playing with alongside Jane, and withdrew his killing intent.
"What happened."
"Sorry. Cough, cough. Just woke up... my head, cough, isn't working right."
"How'd you survive."
"Because you spared me."
"I don't remember seeing you."
"Of course not. That day the sect burned..."
The old woman closed her eyes gently, reminiscing.
Great Sage Pater's sect was a massive one perched atop high mountains.
Bridges connected the peaks, the entire range their domain.
Isolated in the harsh heights, folks below didn't know how it vanished overnight.
But she saw it clearly.
Junior disciple Duke slaughtering master and brothers.
"Yet why do you say I spared you?"
"You don't remember. The day you torched the mountains..."
Humans facing apocalypse react in two ways.
Flee for life or loot valuables.
Lowly Bald chose the former.
But looters caught her.
"They said it was in the manuals. How to make taboos."
Disciples rushed to the scripture warehouse.
Those who confirmed taboo manuals targeted Bald.
- "Senior brothers are impossible for us. You'll have to help."
Unlike higher disciples, lowers eyed easy prey Bald instead of unreachable trees.
She couldn't resist seniors and was dragged to the Bagua Furnace helplessly.
Seeing Duke guarding it,
- "Doesn't look like he'll lend the Bagua Furnace?"
- "Tch, have to fight after all."
They mistakenly charged Duke and self-destructed.
"That's when you saved me."
"Now I remember."
A lie.
He didn't.
Plenty eyed him en route to the Bagua Furnace.
Enough to line across the city.
Back then, Duke cut down anyone approaching armed.
But he couldn't say he didn't remember in this atmospheric talk, so he nodded vaguely.
"I saw you take the Bagua Furnace to the cliff too."
"Snuck it away then."
"Yes. No one could know you'd taken the ember."
Duke had overlooked one thing.
He thought people ignorant of the Bagua Furnace's secret; more precisely, they'd been kept ignorant.
Analysis would reveal circuits for special ember power.
But Bald showed no one, so none knew its core—the primordial ember.
"So they asked you..."
"Yes. How to make taboos with the Bagua Furnace."
"Did you tell?"
"If I had, cough, I wouldn't be like this."
"I see."
Duke quietly turned to the window.
"Why go this far."
"Because I'm human. One who knows favors, cough, cough."
Duke silently handed her water.
"Thank you. Haven't had water in ages."
"Four days."
"I see."
Bald sat up and gulped it down.
With each swallow, luster quickly returned to her wrinkled skin.
After three glasses, she looked twenty years younger.
Still 50s-ish, but anyway.
"Phew. Feels like I might live."
"You always talked like this?"
Earlier gentle granny tone; now scheming old lady vibe.
"Not important. Let's continue. I'm human who repays favors. Not a beast."
"I see. My thanks."
"No, I should thank you."
Bald telekinetically pulled a large family photo from bedside.
"Honestly, thought we'd lose at least one."
"You can tell right away?"
"Our family uses special blood serum. Real-time location and survival."
"Similar to His Majesty."
"Inspired by his ability. Not as precise or refined."
She stepped down from bed, snapped fingers.
Bedcovers became lab coat.
"Indebted again, senior brother."
"It's Duke."
"Pardon?"
"Pater sect is gone. I'm the kingdom's sword, you're Vinka matriarch."
At his sudden shift, she paused,
"Still the same as back then."
Recognizing his way of showing respect, she smiled.
"Understood, my lord. I'll comport myself as matriarch."
"Mm. So, questions about this rebellion."
"Ask away."
"Know who's behind it?"
Bald's smile faded.
Recalling something, she spoke with undisguised disgust.
"Religious fanatics... Sorry. Slip of tongue."
"No. I suspected as much."
Angel's Blessing name, regenerative villains, the undying priest Jane diced up.
Half-convinced already; her words sealed it.
"What's their goal?"
"I suspect."
"Then why ask..."
"Classified."
Classified for Duke specifically.
Original knowledge, after all.
'Moving this early is unexpected.'
Holy Kingdom first to touch Providence Kingdom and perish.
Reason: Rex.
Holy Kingdom specialized in souls/lives, eavesdropping whispers via oracles.
One day, Holy King hears Rex's bloodline via oracle.
Prophecy: He'll revive the Empire.
Spotting Rex's blood, Holy Kingdom sends delegation mixed with Holy Maiden for high-stakes marriage bid.
Blood mix for future influence.
Even if fails, Holy King treated as duke.
Of course, it failed, so destruction.
Plan assumed maiden loved Holy Country; who knew such hatred lurked.
'No one knew that gentle smile hid such loathing.'
Duke recalled Holy Country's aim, tossed meaningful bait to old woman.
"You'll know soon enough."
Duke thought of the official dispatch from above.
In a week.
The Holy Maiden was set to attend the funeral.