Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: The Knight's Confession
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“What was that noise?”
“What? I didn’t hear anything.”
“No, I definitely just...”
Kweeeek...!
A scream carried on the wind from the dark depths of the dungeon, where glow grass sprouted here and there.
“Damn it!”
The mercenaries jumped up, grabbing their weapons.
“Calm down! Everyone, be quiet!”
Partek stepped forward quickly.
Aaaah...!
Partek exchanged a glance with Brin at the second scream and said,
“Everyone, get into combat formation and stand by!”
“Fuck this! Stand by for what? Sir Maverick went that way!”
One of the mercenaries who had followed Maverick bellowed.
Partek pointed his short sword at him.
“Sir Eugene ordered us to wait here. Anyone who doesn’t obey will be cut down.”
“You little shit! Who the hell are you to...”
The mercenary approaching Partek hesitated and shut his mouth.
Glad and Raban, along with Brin and his team mercenaries, were all aiming their weapons.
“Keep flapping your gums if you wanna die.”
“We follow Sir Eugene’s orders. Drop your sword, asshole.”
The twelve men’s murderous aura made the faces of Maverick’s followers change instantly.
With only a handful of able-bodied men left, they couldn’t dare resist.
“You weak fucks who couldn’t cut a goblin’s dick are all bark. Shut your traps and form up.”
“Urk...”
Brin spat curses that perfectly matched his rough face, forcing Maverick’s team mercenaries to form up reluctantly.
A moment later, a single flickering torch appeared from deep in the dungeon.
“Oh, he’s coming!”
Everyone stared tensely at the torchlight.
“Sir Eugene!”
Spotting the plate mail gleaming in the firelight, Partek and a few mercenaries rushed forward.
Eugene’s appearance was grotesque—his armor splattered with blood everywhere, carrying a torch and short sword.
“We were attacked by monsters. We move out right now.”
“Yes!”
The mercenaries and porters hurriedly followed behind Eugene.
After walking a few minutes, a horrific sight unfolded before them.
“Urp!”
“Bleeech!”
Some of the weaker-stomached porters dropped to their knees, vomiting nonstop.
Dozens of monster corpses scattered everywhere, interspersed with mercenaries torn limb from limb and butchered.
The stench of blood mixed with the excrement shat out by monsters and men before death was unbearable.
“Goblins... And hobs too!”
“Wiped out? No, over there!”
Not everyone was dead. The sole survivor was huddled in the corner, legs drawn up.
“S-Sir Maverick!”
Confirming the chain mail, the mercenaries rushed over.
Maverick, draped in Eugene’s black robe and sitting there, slowly raised his face.
“...!”
The mercenaries’ eyes widened at his unfocused, clouded eyes and deathly pale face.
It had been less than thirty minutes since the scouting party left, but Maverick looked like a completely different person.
Staring blankly at the mercenaries, Maverick suddenly gaped his mouth wide.
“Hyaak! Kreeeek!”
His face twisted in terror as he let out monstrous shrieks.
“Sir Maverick! What’s wrong? Pull yourself together!”
“Kreek! Kheheek! Uhheuh, uhheuh.”
With the robe pulled over his head, Maverick began trembling and emitting beast-like groans.
“What the hell...”
“He got bit in the neck by a war boar and started acting like that. Had to handle the bastard alone because of it.”
“War boar!?”
The mercenaries paled in shock.
Among mid-tier dungeon monsters, the war boar was known as the most ferocious alongside trolls.
“Where’s the war boar?”
“I took care of it. The corpse should be a bit further in that direction.”
Brin and three mercenaries dashed off in the direction Eugene pointed.
Eugene looked down at Maverick again and said,
“Looks like the shock broke his mind. Slapped him, tried everything, but he wouldn’t snap out of it.”
“Huh! Huh! Huuuh...”
The mercenaries’ expressions went slack as they watched Maverick tremble like a leaf.
Some of them had seen cases like this before.
Men whose minds shattered from combat trauma and overwhelming fear looked just like Maverick now.
A vegetable, plain and simple.
Maverick was done as a knight.
No, as of today, he was no longer fit to be called human.
“Hey! Give us a hand!”
Just then, Brin and the mercenaries who had gone to the war boar dragged back a massive corpse the size of two or three normal boars, grunting with effort.
“It’s real! A war boar!”
“Look at those tusks.”
The mercenaries crowded around the war boar, unable to hide their awe at its arm-thick fangs.
Its body was covered in stab and slash wounds, and Eugene’s spear was deeply embedded in its broad forehead.
Anyone could see Eugene had slain it single-handedly after a desperate fight.
“With things like this, we butcher the monster corpses here and head back. Maverick’s men, recover your comrades’ bodies.”
“...Yes, Sir Eugene.”
The survivors, led by their broken leader with most comrades dead or crippled, bowed their heads limply.
* * *
“Hey, doesn’t Sir Maverick seem kinda off?”
“Hmm.”
At Raban’s words, Partek glanced back at Maverick huddled in the cart.
Wrapped head to toe in Eugene’s black robe, still trembling and groaning, he no longer looked like a knight.
“He hasn’t eaten or drunk anything. Tried feeding him an emergency mana crystal, but you saw him—screaming like a lunatic.”
Subjugation teams got one or two mana crystals. Not for just anyone—of course, they were for knights with grievous wounds.
Eating one wouldn’t heal a dying man completely, but it could keep him breathing a while longer.
“Surviving a war boar bite is miracle enough, but why won’t he take the mana crystal?”
“Who knows.”
“But Sir Maverick... he’s really lost it, right?”
Raban whispered, pressing close to Partek’s indifferent reply.
“Who can say...”
Partek furrowed his brow, equally baffled.
Maverick’s skin had turned a corpse-like bluish pallor, and his behavior grew more bizarre.
He’d suddenly growl like a beast and lunge at mercenaries, only to cower flat when Eugene intervened.
Eugene hadn’t hit or attacked him—just stood in the way and glared.
Yet Maverick froze, trembling on the spot like prey facing a predator.
Once outside the dungeon, symptoms worsened.
He couldn’t even lift his head or straighten his back, just whimpering helplessly.
Without Eugene, they’d have abandoned him. Body and mind both ruined.
And seeing Maverick like this, the mercenaries all started thinking the same thing.
‘Cursed?’
‘Bitten by a monster and cursed!’
As men for whom violence and murder were daily bread, mercenaries were superstitious.
To them, nothing else explained Maverick’s eerie transformation.
“Anyway, that knight’s finished.”
“Yeah. Whew, thank god for Sir Eugene.”
The broken Maverick contrasted sharply with Eugene, proudly riding horseback in the faint sunlight.
Naturally, no mercenary knew that this dazzling knight was the one who’d reduced Maverick to ruin.
* * *
“What? No, what the... Ha!”
Kamara was speechless at Eugene’s tale, returning days earlier than planned.
“Couldn’t push the subjugation further. Sir Maverick ended up like that, half his mercenaries dead or maimed. Didn’t meet the minimum quota, but I did my part.”
“Tch.”
Kamara clicked his tongue low, eyeing Maverick huddled and shaking between Partek and Brin.
Maverick’s fate meant nothing to him, but he couldn’t really argue Eugene’s point.
“Killed plenty of low-tiers anyway. Got a mid-tier war boar too—not a bad haul. Good work, Sir Eugene.”
“Mm.”
Eugene nodded slightly to Kamara and turned his gaze.
Bertel, gaping blankly, flinched.
“Oh yeah, Sir Maverick had an interesting story.”
“Huh? What’s that?”
Not to Kamara tilting his head, but to Bertel—sweat beading on his forehead—Eugene continued.
“Someone paid him to kill me in the dungeon.”
“What!?”
Kamara, more shocked than at the dungeon tale, approached Eugene.
“What’s that mean? Someone paid to kill you? Why? Who?”
“Ask your brother.”
Kamara whipped his head around at Eugene’s icy voice.
“Y-You...?”
“Brother, have you lost your mind!? What are you implying!?”
Bertel bellowed, glaring at Eugene like he’d devour him.
“Sir! I have no idea what nonsense you’re spouting. You’re seriously slandering my honor without proof...”
“Just ask Sir Maverick, then.”
“...!”
All eyes turned to Maverick, panting like a beast.
“What are you saying? A madman can’t testify!”
“Let’s ask anyway. What’s your will, Lord Tiwin?”
“Hmm.”
Kamara’s face grew complicated.
He wanted Bertel gone, but implicating his brother in ‘knight assassination contract’ was another matter.
Even in domain wars, captured knights weren’t killed lightly.
It was ancient custom to ransom brave foes, honoring their valor despite enmity.
But assassinating a knight in a dungeon? Not even wartime?
During his own family’s dungeon subjugation?
He’d be branded the ultimate coward, dragging the entire family’s honor through the mud.
As Kamara agonized, Eugene’s low, cold voice whispered in his ear.
“If Lord Tiwin refuses, I’ll go to Maren and request a formal trial.”
“Gasp...!”
Kamara snapped alert, meeting Eugene’s eyes hurriedly.
‘A threat?’
If this reached Maren, with trial overseen by the mayor and priests, it’d blow up worse.
Eugene, gifted armor by that mayor, could’ve gone straight there without telling him.
Yet he spoke first.
‘Then this is... giving me a chance?’
Tiwin family versus one Bertel. Kamara chose swiftly.
“Fine. Let’s hear it.”
“Brooo!”
“Shut up! Like you said, Sir Maverick’s mad and can’t speak properly! No testimony, no problem!”
“...!”
Kamara turned from trembling, ashen-faced Bertel and approached Maverick.
“Sir Maverick Rowan.”
“Huuuh.”
Kamara asked firmly, if softly, as Maverick barely raised his head.
“Did you try to kill Sir Yan Eugene of the Eugene family in the dungeon?”
Maverick’s constantly shaking eyes fixed on one spot, his cracked lips slowly parting.
“Yes...”
“Bro...”
“Fuck! Shut your mouth!”
Silencing Bertel with un-noble curses, Kamara pressed Maverick again.
“Was it your doing alone? Or were you paid to do it?”
“Huuuh! P-Paid... yes.”
Kamara involuntarily squeezed his eyes shut.
But he drew a deep breath and fired the final question.
“Who... paid you to kill Sir Eugene?”
“T-That was...”
Maverick’s face slowly turned one way.
His trembling finger pointed there as he spoke.
“T-That man... Bertel Tiwin paid me...”
“Nooo!”
With a tearing scream, Bertel drew his dagger and charged Maverick.
Klang! Thwack!
Eugene’s short sword batted the dagger like lightning, dropping Bertel on the spot.
“Urk! Guk!”
Pinning Bertel’s back with his elbow as he fell forward, Eugene whispered,
“You’re finished now.”
(To be continued)