Chapter 100: Even If Luck Doesn't Favor You (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 100: Even If Luck Doesn't Favor You (2)
"Do you really have to bring that longsword?"
It was just before they departed from the camp that served as their garrison. Finn pointed at the gear Encrid and Torres were lugging.
"Is there a problem?"
"You've never scaled a castle wall before, have you?"
Of course they hadn't. Scaling a fortification wasn't exactly a common pastime.
"I'll say it again: travel as light as possible. If you wear that thick gambeson, you'll collapse before you even reach the battlements."
Finn was right.
Crossing the rocky mountain was an ordeal in itself. By the time they cleared the peaks and arrived before the towering castle wall, Encrid was glad he had listened to her advice.
As light as possible.
That was the key.
Finn lowered her stance, pressing herself against the base of the wall. Encrid and Torres followed suit, keeping low as they crept forward. Torches flared brightly from the defense towers situated at intervals along the wall.
Is it even possible to sneak in?
A chill ran down Encrid's spine. The grass beneath their feet barely reached their shins, offering no cover whatsoever. Nor was it a cloudy night with dim moonlight; the sky was clear. It would be one thing if it were raining and visibility was poor, but here, everything was exposed. Even without the torches, spotting someone moving across the vast plains seemed incredibly easy.
His heart pounded. He felt as though he would be skewered by arrows before he could even attempt to climb. If not for the Beast's Heart, his legs might have been shaking.
Encrid kept his eyes locked on Finn’s back. She moved forward without hesitation, her steps devoid of doubt.
Does she have something up her sleeve?
He couldn't tell. Regardless, they finally reached the wall. The distance they had covered while sweating bullets was substantial. Of course, if they had run with all their might, they could have crossed it in an instant, but the flickering shadows atop the defense towers made them dare not try.
"Did the route we just took allow us to avoid the towers' line of sight?" Torres whispered the question as soon as they pressed their backs against the cold stone, clearly feeling the same tension.
Finn's reply, however, was absurd.
"No, I was just planning to run like hell if we got caught."
"…What?"
"But we didn't get caught, did we? So it's fine. I’ve noticed before that the guards get a bit lax on bright, moonlit nights. If they were our guys, there's no way we'd make it. Seriously."
It wasn't some grand technique; she had simply relied on luck.
"This is insane," Torres muttered.
Encrid felt similarly, but on second thought, it actually made some sense.
If we get caught, we run.
To catch a ranger on foot, the enemy would need cavalry. But what kind of land was this? It was a realm of monsters and demonic beasts—the worst possible conditions for cavalry to operate. Imagine if a griffin, known for its fondness for horse meat, decided to swoop down. Unless one was at the Knight level, dealing with a griffin required at least a platoon of elite soldiers.
He didn't know if there were griffins here, but regardless, cavalry would stand no chance.
Then the answer was clear: you simply pick a day when you're unlikely to get caught and stride right up to the wall. If you were unlucky, arrows would fly. But what marksman could accurately hit a faint shadow in the dead of night? It was a bold approach, exploiting the enemy's complacency on a bright, moonlit night.
"Did you wait a day specifically because you planned to scale the wall tonight?" Encrid murmured. Choosing a night when the Dual Moon was out must have been intentional.
Finn turned her head. The moonlight illuminated only half of her face, making one side look dark while the other shone like silver. She pursed her lips in a whistle of admiration.
"Oho, sharp, aren't you? I told you, the guards are lax when the Dual Moon is out. Did you see the shadows lingering in front of the defense towers? There were two at most. That means their numbers are low, too."
Encrid nodded and shifted his gaze. There were four defense towers rising above the wall, with two guards per tower. Not many.
Once we get up there, there should be a corridor-like passageway.
The path running along the top of the wall wouldn't be very wide. Since the walls of Border Guard and Cross Guard were built during the same era, their structures should be similar. He drew a mental map, planning his movements for once they scaled the heights. There was a massive difference between moving with a plan and just winging it.
Encrid wasn't the only one thinking ahead.
"I just hope we don't drain all our strength climbing the wall," Torres whispered, worried about the coming exertion.
Finn shrugged. "Now that we've made it this far, we have to go. I'll trust in your stamina and grip strength."
Encrid looked up, measuring the height of the wall once more. It looked to be roughly three or four times his own height.
"This way."
Finn led them to the outer edge of the wall, a spot where the moon cast a deep shadow behind a defense tower. Pressing themselves flat against the stone, they were plunged into pitch blackness. In the distance, torches blazed atop the towers, but right beside him, he could only feel the presence of Torres and Finn.
Hoot—!
The cry of a night bird echoed from far away. Aside from that, there was only the bright moonlight illuminating the ground just ten paces away, contrasting sharply with the darkness enveloping them.
In the gloom, he could see Finn's eyes. Though they were brownish during the day, they now glinted like points of light in the dark.
"They don't guard the walls as thoroughly as you'd think. Especially when it comes to stopping people from scaling them—that's incredibly rare. We just need to avoid the patrol's eyes."
"You don't know the patrol schedule? You don't have someone bribed?"
"Do you think I would?"
"Relying on luck again, then," Torres whispered back.
To Encrid, this didn't feel like a plan entirely dependent on luck. The moonlight. The complacency. Once they scaled the wall, they just had to disappear into the city.
"The area just past here is the slums," Finn noted. "As long as we hide well, we'll be fine."
The frequency of patrols there would be significantly lower. And why wouldn't it be? Even Border Guard was like that. What soldier would willingly patrol through foul odors and desperate beggars? In the dead of night, they might even get jumped by half-crazed vagrants. Therefore, even if these movements weren't meticulously calculated, the infiltration was steeped in experience.
"You've done this before."
"You really are sharp."
Who would expect someone to scale a castle wall? That was precisely why security was so lax. Especially when they had already dug a dog hole elsewhere. Very few would choose to scale the wall to enter Cross Guard. Thus, it had become the safest method.
Of course, suffering was guaranteed. From the trek over the rocky mountain to the climb itself, nothing about this was easy.
Ptu.
Finn spat on her hands, rubbed them together, and adjusted a leather pouch at her waist filled with stone powder. Coating her hands, she began to scale the wall. Finding crevices to hook her fingers into, she kicked off the ground and clung to the stone. Even though it was built straight, a wall constructed from interlocking stone blocks had plenty of gaps.
As Finn climbed, she began inserting wooden pegs from her belt into the crevices at an angle, slanted downward. She looped ropes over the secured pegs, letting them dangle, before resuming her free climb.
"Do you think we can copy that?"
"Me? No way."
Encrid and Torres conversed with their heads tilted back, hiding in the shadow. Finn looked like a nimble squirrel as she worked. Once the ropes were set, Encrid and Torres grabbed hold and began their ascent.
The angled pegs creaked, shedding stone dust, yet they held firm. They didn't rely solely on the ropes; whenever they spotted gaps between the stones, they wedged their toes in and hung on by their fingertips. Both of them coated their hands with stone powder, alternating between the ropes and the wall's crevices, pausing to catch their breath whenever they found a stable foothold.
When they had looked up from below, they thought they would reach the top in no time.
I feel like I'm going to die.
It was far more grueling than expected. Even Encrid, whose body was tempered by the Isolation Technique, felt his muscles screaming. His forearms, in particular, throbbed despite the constant training of swinging a sword every day.
The muscles you use differ with every movement.
Audin's words came to mind. Scaling a wall was, in its own way, an excellent application of the Isolation Technique.
Looking up, Finn was making steady, rapid progress. In any case, everything that has a beginning must have an end. After struggling up the wall, they finally reached the top. Carefully hooking his hands and feet over the edge, Encrid hoisted himself over.
As his feet touched the stone floor, Encrid sensed that no one was around. His intuition told him so. He felt a brief wave of relief, but—
"You've gone to quite some trouble climbing up in the middle of the night."
A voice rang out, as if it had been waiting for them. It was a clear, elegant woman's voice.
Then, a sharp snap echoed.
Whoosh!
Between the torch stands, right where the moonlight fell, several more torches flared to life. She had lit them with a mere snap of her fingers. It was a trick one would expect to see in a circus, but Encrid didn't freeze.
Huff.
The moment his eyes stung from the sudden light, Encrid sucked in a breath and immediately flicked his wrist. A dagger slipped into his hand and flew through the air. Since the Whistle Dagger's sound was a drawback for stealth, this was an ordinary throwing knife. However, his technique was incredibly sharp.
Thud!
Right behind Encrid's dagger, another one flew with a sharp hiss, but even though no shield blocked them, both daggers were deflected in midair with a sound like a drumstick striking a hollow drum.
"Well, this is some rotten luck," Torres said, his tone filled with dismay.
"Why?" Encrid asked without looking back, quietly gripping another pair of daggers.
"It's a Mage."
A Mage? Here?
Only then did Encrid clearly see the figure standing between the torches. A woman stood where the moonlight and torchlight intersected. She had long, wavy hair and eyes with vertical slits like a snake's. The distance was barely ten paces. Fewer than ten soldiers surrounded them, all with crossbows aimed at their chests.
This is bad.
"Get down!" Finn's voice rang out.
Encrid reflexively pressed himself flat against the narrow corridor wall.
Whoosh!
A heavy tearing sound echoed. Something massive rushed past Encrid's face, displacing the air. He felt the rush of wind vividly against his cheek.
An axe had been thrown.
Grasping the situation, he looked ahead and spotted a transparent barrier reflecting the moonlight.
Clang!
The spinning axe slammed into the barrier. A sound entirely different from the daggers rang out, and fine cracks began to spiderweb across the surface. The axe stopped in midair, looking as though it were embedded in glass.
"Jump!" Finn shouted.
The axe was instantly crushed in midair. The blade shattered, the handle warped, and the pieces clattered to the floor. Having dismantled the weapon, the Mage curled one corner of her mouth into a blatant sneer.
Torres was the first to jump at Finn's shout. Moving with agility, he grabbed the rope on the outside of the wall to slow his descent. Right after him, Finn leapt off the wall, practically flying down. It was a height equivalent to the fifth floor of a building. One bad fall meant death, yet they didn't hesitate.
As for Encrid…
If we have to escape anyway, I’ll land a blow first.
He lowered his stance and gathered strength in his thighs, recalling a Squire's technique he had tried to mimic.
Crunch, boom!
He kicked off the stone. Closing the distance in an instant, he lunged toward the Mage's neck, his Guard Sword leading the way. If the barrier could be cracked by an axe, he would shatter it with brute force and split her head open.
He had killed a Mage before. All he had to do was get close and slash. He would dodge any invisible spells by instinct. It was a confidence born of experience.
As he closed the distance, Encrid locked eyes with the woman. Those vertical slits. The moment he met her gaze, his limbs almost went limp, but the Beast's Heart surged, keeping his muscles firm.
I've got her.
But certainty could be poison.
There are those who can deceive your sixth sense. They are dangerous. Mages are like that.
Sachsen's words flashed through his mind.
Squelch.
The sound of flesh tearing. Followed by sharp, white-hot pain.
"You idiot!" Finn's voice shouted from below.
"Cough!"
With his senses sharpening as death approached, he heard Torres coughing. When Sachsen had discussed Mages, Encrid had let the advice go in one ear and out the other because he had already killed one.
I was so stupid.
Were all soldiers the same? Were all Knights the same? Then why would all Mages be the same?
Encrid looked down at the thorny vine wrapped around his arm, which had ultimately pierced through his neck. The moment he thought he had overcome her gaze, something had surged from the floor. A rose vine.
"I am Letsha of the Rose Vine."
With those final words, Encrid closed his eyes.
It was the end of his second 'today'.
*
When his third 'today' began, Encrid trained his body and swung his sword just as before. After practicing Torres's Hidden Knife technique, he swapped out his thin practice stone. It was an act to remember this third iteration.
And then, he spoke.
"Did you say we could disguise ourselves as a merchant guild at dawn?"
He asked about the third method of getting past the wall.