Chapter 114
Chapter 114
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: The Severed Arm
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Phew… I finally managed to slip away.”
After breaking free from the Emperor.
I headed alone to the mortician.
Truth be told, I knew nothing about sorcery.
It had just been a desperate improvisation to avoid getting suspected by His Majesty in this vicious cycle.
That said, it didn’t mean I had no way to dispose of the corpse.
The ringleader of the attack was undoubtedly from Lydia’s hostile faction that supported Hakim.
If I handed it over to her, she’d dig into the suicide spell on her own.
With that in mind, I made my way to the palace morgue tucked away in the farthest corner.
As I opened the morgue door, a hunched old man greeted me.
“I see you, knight. To what do I owe the visit?”
“I’ve come to retrieve the body of the perpetrator from yesterday’s incident.”
I spoke leisurely, hands clasped behind my back.
But…
“Pardon…? That body?”
The mortician’s eyes went wide upon hearing me.
“Yeah. Is there some problem?”
“Well… Just a short while ago, another knight came by order of His Majesty to take the body… I already handed it over to him…”
A knight under imperial orders?
That was supposed to be me alone.
“When did that knight come and go?”
I asked in a serious tone.
He muttered back in a terrified voice.
“Just moments ago, sir… He took it with a single cart puller…”
I bolted out of the morgue.
And ran in the direction the mortician had indicated.
‘The Crown Prince beat me to it… That sly bastard. He’s quick when it comes to stuff like this.’
Passing through a dim palace corridor, I reached the path leading down to the city streets.
There, I spotted the imperial knight and cart puller the mortician had described.
“Hey, hold up a moment!”
At my call, the two stopped dead in their tracks.
Then they slowly turned to face me.
One was unmistakably an imperial knight in blond hair and white uniform.
But the cart puller was Eastern.
“I’m in charge of handing over the body, so leave it there and go.”
I beckoned them with an open palm.
“…”
The two exchanged strange glances.
Then the imperial knight glanced my way and…
“Forgive me, but I received orders first, so I can’t do that.”
Unlike the arrogant imperial knights, this guy was awfully diligent even with dirty work like body disposal.
“I have orders from His Majesty the Emperor. So you don’t need to bother.”
I replied firmly, my voice making it clear he had no say.
The imperial knight let out a deep sigh…
“Honestly, wouldn’t it be a hassle for a lofty capital knight like you to handle corpse disposal?”
He quietly scanned the surroundings.
Then, flashing a broad smile, he spoke cautiously.
“How about I handle it specially for you, and we both walk away happy?”
The imperial knight clasped his hands together.
And proposed it with a generous expression, as if bestowing a favor.
But.
Seeing his friendly face only made me smirk.
I replied with a cold, expressionless stare.
“You’re no imperial knight, are you?”
A chilling remark.
It pierced him, and he furrowed his brow.
“Pardon…? What do you mean by that?”
I approached the flustered knight casually.
At the same time, I pointed at the stiff white uniform he wore.
“Imperial knights usually ignore morticians completely.”
I began channeling mana into my hand.
Gripping my fist tight, I opened my mouth.
“They’re never this nice.”
“…”
The imperial knight and cart puller listened silently.
They exchanged quick glances, signaling each other.
At that moment.
The cart puller bolted toward the city streets.
The knight drew the regulation sword from his waist.
As if it were a pre-planned maneuver.
“Yeah, just as I thought.”
I swung my fist at the knight’s head.
But he ducked with agile footwork.
Unlike the heavy imperial knights, he was incredibly nimble.
“…!!”
As he bent low, he slashed with one hand gripping the sword.
I retreated, dodging the resolute strike.
And I realized.
His swordsmanship wasn’t imperial either.
It was awkward, like wielding a weapon that didn’t fit his body.
“Hya…!”
With a short kiai, he lunged honestly at my throat.
I seized the strike with my mana-infused hand.
“No need to hide it. Draw your fancy curved blade.”
His eyes flashed at the sight of me grabbing the blade barehanded.
No matter how hard he gripped with both hands, the sword wouldn’t budge.
“Grr…!!”
He had no choice but to let go.
Instead…
“How dare you obstruct the great cause…”
He reached behind his cloak-covered back with both hands.
“Even if I die, I’ll take you with me…!!”
The Eastern knight disguised as an imperial knight shouted.
He drew two curved swords hidden on his back.
“…!”
The blades crossed and surged toward my throat.
If I’d been too close, it could’ve been dangerous.
But.
I simply caught the long sword he’d dropped.
And before his short blades could target my throat, I swung first.
Clang—!!
His twin blades clashed with the long sword.
I pressed forward relentlessly in that lock.
“Wh-what strength…!”
The Eastern knight blocking a one-handed sword with both hands.
He strained desperately to hold the locked blades.
But that was all.
Soon, his short swords couldn’t withstand the overwhelming power difference and slipped aside.
The freed long sword cleanly sliced off his arm.
“…!!”
In the sudden pain, he couldn’t even groan.
He just stared blankly at his right arm rolling on the ground.
“Ditching a perfectly good long sword for short blades. What good does that do?”
Only then did the knight realize.
My taunt had been a mere ploy to disarm him.
I moved to sever his remaining arm and chase the cart puller.
But.
There was no need to go that far.
Because the cart puller was coming back from afar.
“Why…!”
The one-armed knight stared blankly at the cart.
Just from that look, I could feel their desperation.
“Master…? What brings you here?”
Tau in uniform and Batsch.
They had caught the suspicious cart puller and were bringing him back to the palace.
“Well done, Tau. You’re finally living up to what I’ve taught you.”
“We were patrolling nearby and saw a shady guy leaving the palace, so we grabbed him.”
The cart puller was thrown down beside the fallen one-armed knight.
Now the two were nicely surrounded by us.
“But why are you here instead of guarding Lydia?”
I asked while wiping the dripping blood from the long sword.
Batsch answered in my place.
“Lydia is in a meeting right now with the royals from Samad. We were ordered to patrol the area instead.”
Batsch folded his arms alone.
He looked down at the suspicious cart puller and the disguised Eastern knight.
“Who the hell are these guys?”
“Who knows? Take a good look. You might recognize them better than I do.”
I slid the cleaned sword back into its sheath.
“…”
The two Eastern knights stared at the one-armed man.
Then, as if remembering something, they furrowed their brows.
“This bastard… He’s a Samad royal guard, isn’t he?”
They glared at him incredulously.
Then they grabbed his hair and yanked off his wig.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
With the golden wig gone, his distinctly Eastern black hair was revealed.
“I can’t say…”
“You think you have the right to stay silent now?”
Incensed, Batsch raised a massive fist.
I warned him while rummaging through the cart.
“Watch him closely. He might self-destruct like that corpse.”
I lifted the cloth covering the body.
The terror ringleader’s body appeared, charred to a crisp, enough to wrinkle noses.
“Urk… Is this the guy His Majesty mentioned?”
“Yeah, you have no idea how much trouble this bastard caused me.”
I clicked my tongue at Tau’s question.
Then I poked at the blackened body with the sword sheath.
‘They tried to sneak this out, so there must be something incriminating.’
As I searched the body, I noticed something odd.
One arm was missing from the corpse.
Just like the knight I’d lopped off.
“Strange. Where’s the other arm?”
“Maybe it got blown off in the explosion?”
I examined the severed stump with the sheath.
The cut was too clean for an explosion.
“No, someone deliberately cut this off.”
I glanced back.
Then looked at the cart puller in his baggy clothes.
“And recently, too.”
The burly, muscular Eastern men loomed over the small cart puller.
A dark shadow fell over his sullen face.
“Ugh…!”
The two seized him like a toy.
They frisked him roughly and found the charred arm.
“Arm’s here.”
“Yeah, let’s see what our noble desert royals were so desperate to hide.”
I took the arm from the reliable knights.
As I examined it closely…
I spotted a hexagram tattoo right below the palm.
“Batsch, any idea what this mark is?”
Batsch, from noble stock, took the arm.
He studied the pattern intently and nodded.
“This is… the crest of Lady Tinda, Hakim’s wife.”
“Hakim’s wife? That lecher had a wife?”
I snorted, and Batsch nodded in understanding.
“Yeah, it was a political marriage, so they were basically strangers.”
Hearing that, I smirked.
Tinda, Hakim’s wife, needed him out of the empire to solidify her position in the kingdom.
She’d played along with the Crown Prince’s scheme to rescue him out of necessity.
‘She came to retrieve her subordinate’s tattooed arm to erase evidence that she was behind it.’
“Is this Tinda lady in the meeting room right now?”
The Eastern deputy captain nodded at my question.
“Yeah. She’s meeting with Lydia as we speak.”
“Any idea what it’s about?”
Batsch hesitated, wondering if he could tell me, then spoke.
“With Hakim arrested, Lydia wants full authority over Samad Kingdom, including the capital east.”
Good for her.
Her biggest rival gone, the kingdom should fall into Lydia’s hands.
“But Hakim’s cronies are arguing he can easily become king again if released.”
“They claim since Lydia already governs the imperial east, her brother and a man, Hakim, should be Samad’s king.”
Tau chimed in with Batsch’s words.
He looked furious, calling their argument absurd.
“Why put a guy like that on the throne? What’s so great about him?”
I scoffed and shook my head.
“They want to prop him up as a puppet and take the kingdom for themselves. As payment for the rescue.”
“Lydia’s clever, and her own forces are strong too.”
I nodded at the knights’ passionate words.
Before long, they were spilling all the Eastern kingdom’s internal affairs to me.
“I see. Her Highness must be having a tough time.”
I nodded solemnly.
Then picked up the charred arm.
“What will you do?”
Tau asked with serious eyes.
Batsch watched me silently too.
I met their gazes steadily.
Then smirked and said.
“What else? Return it to its owner.”
I asked Batsch and Tau to handle the captured group.
They were key witnesses, so I ordered them kept alive.
“We shall.”
“That was the plan anyway.”
I placed the charred arm in a wooden box.
Then, carrying it at my waist like a gift box, I strolled toward the meeting room.
“Now, shall we go deliver a gift to our princess?”
The path to the meeting room was utterly quiet.
As if the whole area was sealed off for a grave discussion.
A dark corridor.
And a silent palace garden.
If Tau was right, the door beyond that garden was the meeting room.
I crossed the garden.
Along the way, I ran into a white-haired old man smoking at the meeting room entrance.
“Phew…”
White smoke rose like a sigh from his Eastern-style pipe.
His red eyes brimmed with worry.
‘Red eyes… Same color as Lydia’s?’
As I approached silently, the old man glanced at me.
Then he firmly extended his palm to block me.
“Sorry, but outsiders aren’t allowed here. Didn’t you see our knights controlling the area?”
The old man spoke in awkward imperial tongue.
He was clearly from the Eastern kingdom.
“I’m aware. But I’ve come on a matter concerning your ongoing meeting.”
I bowed politely in greeting.
At the same time, I observed his attire closely.
A white-based blue ceremonial robe worn only by Eastern royals.
And with a slight paunch, he seemed of high rank.
“You’re clearly an outsider, yet you claim to know about our meeting?”
“Yes, I think you’ll understand once you see the gift I’ve prepared.”
The old man took the wooden box.
The moment he checked the contents…
“This is…”
He saw it.
The crucial evidence that would be a game-changer in this meeting.
“Come inside for now.”
The old man guided me in with a grave look.
I followed him into the antique meeting room.
Even Tau from the East.
Even Batsch, who’d served Lydia his whole life.
Couldn’t enter.
Only Lydia’s ‘blood kin’ were allowed.
And now, a commoner like me was stepping into that sanctum.
￣￣￣.
The spacious meeting room was a sight to behold.
Eastern royals draped in splendid silk robes.
Sat in a row along the long table.
At opposite ends sat the faction leaders: Lydia and Lady Tinda.
The old man and I naturally approached Lydia’s side.
“…”
Perhaps due to the meeting, the Third Imperial Princess’s expression was fierce.
She wore a neat school uniform-style outfit with a graceful cloak draped over.
Unlike usual, her eyes were intensely serious and sharp.
Like a savage beast freshly independent.
But soon, spotting us approach, her eyes went wide.
Like an adorable kitten.
“V-Veil and Grandpa…?”
‘Grandpa?’
I glanced at the old man again.
Now that I looked, not just the eye color, but their features were subtly similar.
“How did you two end up together…?”
Suddenly, I found myself meeting the princess’s grandfather and family.
“Just stepping out for some air, I met a fine guest.”
The Eastern grand duke smirked.
And introduced me to his kin.
In a hearty voice and Samad tongue.
“Haa…”
Lydia flushed at her grandfather’s antics.
Gone was the cool sovereign she meant to show; instead, she became a girl freshly come of age.
The excited Eastern grand duke chattered on.
Praising the accompanying man like the lucky fox from Eastern myth.
At that, the girl bowed her head under the table.
“Grandpa, please…”
It was quite a while before she could lift her head again.