Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: The Death Order
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Demons, and the Demon King.
These beings, who sound like something from a fairy tale, are named as such purely from a ‘human perspective.’
The term ‘demon’ (German) does not refer to a specific species, but is merely a general term for any monster possessing a certain level of intelligence.
Orcs, goblins, and even grotesque monsters whose species are unknown.
And beyond the northern lands, in the domain of the Demon King known as the Dark Land, little is known.
When the Hero, alongside the Empire’s forces, once vanquished the being called the ‘Demon King,’ the people of the continent believed without a doubt that peace had finally come to the world. However, the Empire’s high command realized that this was merely a great migration by some of the demons, who were trying to survive the harsh environment of the Dark Land.
Not for some grand goal of staining the world with evil, but simply to survive.
For that reason, even after the Demon King was defeated, these large-scale southward migrations by the demons did not cease entirely.
Commonly known as the ‘Barbarian Invasions.’
The news that a massive orc warlord had begun moving south toward the Sachsen Duchy meant exactly that.
“Is another ‘Barbarian Invasion’ about to begin?”
“It would seem so.”
At Dale’s words, Duke Sachsen nodded silently.
“This will be a battlefield on a scale unlike any we have seen before.”
The most fearsome foes are those who fight simply to survive. In that respect, Dale understood the danger of the demons more deeply than anyone. As the Church claimed, the demons held no grand ideology of corrupting the world with evil.
Fortunately, however, war never breaks out overnight.
“We will need allies.”
“I have issued a summons to the lords of the north, the Black Magic Tower, and all our vassal knightly orders.”
“Is there no other assistance?”
Duke Sachsen fell silent at Dale’s question. It was a tacit confirmation. In fact, the Empire and his rivals would likely rejoice at the prospect of him shedding blood in battle against the demons.
“It will not be an easy fight.”
Duke Sachsen continued.
“It seems the time has come to teach you how to use necromancy on the battlefield.”
***
“Charge!”
The Sachsen cavalry, led by Lord Veil of Baskerville, roared. The pennants on their lances fluttered as the heavy cavalry began their gallop toward the wolf pack.
Monsters and beasts—both pose a threat to human survival. Both are beings that must be eliminated for the peace of the domain.
The lances of the armored knights plunged into the wolf pack, which fought back with a ferocity of its own, creating a bloody melee.
“As you can see, a Lance Charge like that of the Sachsen knights is not suitable for you.”
Dale spoke from a distant hill, watching his men fight, with ‘Knight Charlotte’ by his side.
Charlotte’s body is too small and frail to execute a cavalry charge using horsemanship and lance skills. The very fact that she could wield a Sachsen greatsword was an otherworldly feat born from the ‘power of aura.’
“...Yes.”
Charlotte’s expression clouded slightly at Dale’s words.
“However, as long as you can use aura, you can fight on equal footing with a grown knight, even in the body of a child.”
Dale continued nonetheless.
“You must draw out your given talents to their fullest.”
“My talents…”
Her talent for the sword. A blessing and a curse bestowed upon her as the daughter of the Divine Sword. In a sense, it was not so different from a ‘talent for aura.’
“I understand.”
Charlotte nodded quietly at Dale’s words. Aura and mana were similar in that they both utilized mana. Just as a master knight’s sword embodies their ideals, so too does a mage’s magic.
“Focus on standing on your own two feet and wielding the black sword of House Sachsen.”
Relying on the jet-black aura blade that was the pride of House Sachsen.
“From now on, you will gain more combat experience than you can stomach.”
The battle between the cavalry and the wolf pack was drawing to a close. Watching the scene, Dale spoke.
“Together, let’s find a sword style that suits you.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Charlotte replied to Dale’s words.
“I’ll train even harder, for you.”
She blushed shyly like a young girl.
“I’ll become a knight who won’t bring shame to the great ‘Black Prince’!”
But her resolve was completely free of hesitation.
***
That afternoon, in the Black Prince’s underground workshop.
The first lesson on utilizing necromancy on the battlefield had finally begun.
“What do you believe is the difference between a Death Knight and an undead soldier?”
A Death Knight. And an undead soldier.
“Isn’t it the difference between a knight and a common soldier?”
At Dale’s question, the Black Prince nodded.
“Then from where does the difference between a knight and a soldier originate?”
“I believe it is a difference in martial strength.”
Dale answered.
“You are fifty percent correct.”
But Duke Sachsen shook his head.
“Not everyone with great martial strength can become a knight.”
He extended his arm toward the corpse on the workshop’s altar. It was the body of a Night Raven Knight who had pledged loyalty to House Sachsen in life and had sworn to donate his body in death.
“Is it the presence of an aura blade?”
“Correct.”
The Black Prince nodded and snapped his fingers. Dark mana seeped into the knight’s corpse, and a figure armed with black armor and a knightly sword rose to its feet.
“The greater their mastery as an ‘Aura Knight’ in life…”
A Death Knight. Reborn with an immortal body, it exuded the same aura it had honed as a Night Raven Knight in life.
The razor-sharp edge of the knightly sword in its hand was wreathed in the jet-black aura blade that symbolized House Sachsen.
“And the better the ‘compatibility between their aura and mana,’ the more powerful a Death Knight you can raise.”
“...!”
The Black Prince’s words struck Dale like a hammer to the head.
Why did the aura blades of House Sachsen, of the northern Night Raven Knights, take the form of a ‘Black Blade’? It was because they had the greatest compatibility with the ‘black mana’ of the Black Magic Tower’s necromancers.
Dark mana, dark aura.
In other words, the Night Raven Knights hone their swords with the full expectation of being resurrected as Death Knights from the very beginning.
“You must remember that they are knights who held their pride, both in life and in death.”
The Black Prince said. He gazed at the Death Knight he had just raised, with the Sachsen black blade emanating from its sword behind him.
“...Follow me.”
After a moment of silence, the Black Prince began to walk across the workshop, with the Death Knight he had personally raised at his side.
“There is something I must show you.”
His voice carried a weight unlike any before.
“Yes, Father.”
The place the two reached after crossing the workshop was where Dale had once acquired the dark artifact.
The Black Prince’s underground workshop. But his steps did not stop there. He continued downward, toward a subterranean level that held an even deeper darkness. He walked in silence.
‘Where are we going?’
Dale followed him, also in silence.
“Do you know of the founder of House Sachsen, Frederick the Immortal Duke?”
Duke Sachsen asked as they walked. At his words, Dale momentarily thought of *The Book of the Black Goat* rooted in his heart. He thought of the girl with the horns of a black goat, who even now waited for him alone in the Abyss of Thought.
“Only what I have read in books and what you have told me, Father.”
Dale feigned ignorance, his words trailing off.
“He was a monster of truth.”
A demon so blinded by his craving for the truth beyond the veil of death that he did not hesitate to sacrifice his own daughter.
“And what I am about to show you…”
Thud.
The Black Prince finally stopped.
“Is the ‘darkness of a bygone era’ that he once pursued, and to which our House Sachsen is indebted to this day.”
He had stopped at the entrance to a vast underground cavern. The walls of darkness seemed to writhe as if alive. It was a chamber protected by a ward of a sophistication Dale could not even begin to imagine.
“Only those of the direct Sachsen bloodline may pass.”
With those words, his father, the Black Prince, stepped into the darkness. Dale followed without hesitation.
*Fwoosh!*
The impossibly powerful barrier of darkness did not reject the father and son of House Sachsen, but opened its abyssal maw. The bond of blood was undeniable. And at the sight that unfolded beyond, Dale’s breath caught in his throat.
Immortal knights were there.
Inside a massive tomb reminiscent of a pyramid or an imperial mausoleum, like the Terracotta Army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang…
There was not just one. Not two, three, ten, or even a hundred.
There were thousands by rough estimate.
“What in the world is this…”
Faced with such a scene, even Dale could not hide his astonishment.
An ‘army of the dead,’ composed of at least several thousand Death Knights, slumbered there.
A force greater than the entire knightly strength of a nation, complete with their undead warhorses.
But he soon realized. These immortal knights were not sleeping. They were merely silent. Waiting for the command that would be given to them.
…Whose command?
When his thoughts reached that point, a shiver ran down Dale’s spine.
“Long ago, the Immortal Duke discovered a way to animate the dead without a continuous supply of mana…”
Duke Sachsen continued impassively.
“Generation after generation, the heads of House Sachsen began to cultivate this army of the dead, known as the ‘Death Order.’”
The Death Order. A monastic order of dead knights.
Only then did Dale understand with chilling clarity.
“I am no exception.”
He understood why House Sachsen so stubbornly adhered to its isolationism. And why the Black Prince so strongly emphasized ‘morality’ in wielding the powers of darkness.
“This is our darkness.”
It was a hypocrisy so vile it was nauseating.
“And this darkness is also the shield that will protect us.”
From enemies without, and enemies within.
The Death Knight the Black Prince had just raised walked among the ranks of the Death Order. Dale knew that knight. He was from the left flank, the one who had died fighting for him in the Black and White Tournament.
And so, another knight had joined the Death Order.
Capable of wielding an aura blade, yet operating on a ‘perpetual motion’ that required no continuous supply of mana.
How was it possible? It was something that existed in a realm beyond even Dale’s imagination.
“Are you prepared to accept this darkness?”
Duke Sachsen asked calmly. At that moment, Dale’s heart began to pound violently.
The three mana circles, and furthermore, the ‘jet-black tentacles’ clutching Dale’s heart, began to squirm.
“...”
Ignoring the throbbing in his chest, Dale nodded silently.
“I have been prepared from the very beginning.”
There was no reason to hesitate. No matter how corrupt or evil that power might be.