Chapter 322
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Fox and Crow 1
Blood reeked through the southern provinces.
The sole survivor atop a field already littered with hundreds of corpses cried out.
“Please spare me…!! My mother’s home alone…!!”
But his plea never fully escaped his lips.
A single swing from a woman wielding a notched blade severed his head clean off.
“I have family too.”
A hollow gaze from her sole remaining eye peered out from within her black locks.
Lyn Canary.
The girl who gripped a sword alone while everyone else at the academy clutched pens.
Having lost her parents young, she had only one option to survive with her little brother.
Joining the Black Thorn Squad.
A group forgotten by the world even in death.
Exceptional talents trained from childhood solely as assassins.
That upbringing let her take lives without hesitation.
But still.
No amount of training could easily erase that lingering guilt.
“Lyn, Captain. You okay…?”
“Yeah, let’s head back.”
She turned at the voices of her comrades from behind.
But when she did.
“Huh…?”
Her comrades, who should have followed, were nowhere in sight.
They were already submerged in pools of blood.
“…”
Another hallucination.
And that hallucination stemmed from her longing for comrades she yearned to see again.
Lyn’s eyes twitched beneath as she confronted her unraveling mind.
She squeezed her eyes shut tight to shake off the ringing in her ears.
But what awaited her instead…
“Ugh…!!”
Was only the madness swallowing her whole.
Dozens of hands erupted from the blood pools.
Grasping her ankles, dragging her into the crimson depths.
“You think you can go home after all you’ve done?”
The countless souls she’d slain twisted together, forming a monstrous chorus.
The deafening roar echoed wildly in her skull.
“It’s starting again…”
But.
She no longer struggled.
She was truly exhausted now.
“…”
Hearing pleas of waiting family as she killed.
Worrying if she’d make it home alive to her brother today.
She wanted no more of it.
She just wanted to bury herself forever in this madness and drift off.
Forever.
With that thought, she lay herself down into the blood sea.
――――――
“Haaah… Haa…”
The ragged breathing reached her ears as she kept her eyes clenched shut.
The Black Knight Order Captain instinctively snapped open her one good eye.
“Rito…!!”
She’d dozed off crouched by the bed.
She bolted up, checking on her brother under the covers.
“Sis… It hurts so much…”
Rito writhed, drenched in cold sweat.
“This is weird… He was fine after the elixir Veil gave us…?”
He’d seemed nearly cured during those two days on the medicine.
But the sudden spike in fever left her flustered.
Killing was familiar.
Saving lives? This was new.
“Just hold on!!”
Lyn rushed to the living room, rummaging through the medicine box.
She found the usual powder.
But.
After the werewolf elixir improved things, she hadn’t restocked.
The powders were all gone.
“…”
The Black Knight Order Captain exhaled roughly.
Waking from nightmares into dizziness, her head throbbed like she’d caught what he had.
She forced herself to focus.
“No choice. I need to fetch a doctor…”
She dashed outside to find one.
But no clinic was open in this predawn hour after waking.
“His personal physician, at least…!!”
Imperial healers mostly stayed in the palace.
In her haze, she remembered and wrapped her legs in black mana.
Even the power she’d hesitated to use against a Grand Master—she tapped it now, staggering wildly as she ran.
――――――
Her Swordmaster speed still got her to the palace gates swiftly.
The guards recognized Lyn and saluted hurriedly.
“Captain Lyn, what brings you here so late?”
“A doctor… I need a doctor…!! Are the palace physicians inside?”
Their awkward glances met at the sudden request.
“We’ll check inside first.”
“No, I’ll ask myself.”
Lyn barreled into the palace corridors.
Disheveled, she wandered until.
She bumped into me scratching my head in the hall.
“Oh, Captain Lyn?”
Fresh from a nap, out for a midnight stroll, I eyed her disarray.
Soaked white tee and shorts.
Deep dark circles, gaunt features.
She looked like she’d leaped straight from bed.
“What’s up in the dead of night?”
“Looking for a palace physician. My brother’s sick…!!”
The Black Knight Order Captain always so cool and composed.
Even fighting me, she’d kept her cool.
But her face rushing here for her brother? Pure twenty-something worry.
“Physicians won’t be here. They’re all in the capital for training.”
“What…? Why now, of all times…”
Lyn leaned blankly on a pillar.
Watching her silently, I added carefully.
“What’re the symptoms?”
“Improved after the elixir, then fever spiked suddenly…!!”
Improved, then sudden high fever.
I furrowed my brow slightly.
I had a hunch about the cause.
“I’ll come with.”
“You know a treatment…?”
I shook my head at her question.
Instead, mana wrapped my legs as we leaped together.
“Yeah, seems familiar.”
We vaulted the walls in a flash.
Sailing under the starry sky to her modest home.
――――――!!
We landed on the balcony together.
Approaching her brother’s ragged breaths under moonlight.
Around ten years old.
Face flushed red—definite high fever.
I pressed a hand to his forehead.
Feeling the scorching heat.
“Can you fix it…?”
Her single gray eye pleaded desperately.
I replied calmly.
“I’ll give it a shot.”
I closed my sly eyes tight.
Focusing on the heat roiling inside the boy.
The source: werewolf elixir, as expected.
The elixir’s energy clashing with his illness.
Suppress it, and it should resolve.
“Whew…”
I gathered my Grand Aura into my palm.
I’d struggled regaining mine too.
But it taught me to control overflowing energy.
Like Lea’s mana soothing my aura.
My aura tamed the excess elixir in him.
Leaving just enough to devour his illness.
His breathing steadied.
“…”
Soon, Rito’s breaths softened.
Color returned gradually to Lyn’s face.
“Rito…!!”
“He’ll be fine now. The elixir was just a bit strong for him.”
The black-haired woman hugged her brother tight.
Murmuring in a trembling voice.
“Thank goodness… Really…”
I stood, giving them space.
Heading to the living room alone to wait.
“…”
The Black Knight Order Captain’s home was spartan.
Just a sofa, table, bookshelf—no frills.
A lone framed portrait filled the empty space.
“Rito, huh.”
It showed Lyn and her brother beaming.
His name, Rito, scribbled in the corner.
――――――
Five minutes later, the door creaked.
Lyn approached, her expression softened.
“How’s your brother?”
“Much better, thanks to you.”
She fiddled awkwardly with her messy hair, standing close.
In casual clothes, gazing up at me.
“Didn’t mean to drag you home.”
“Yeah. Want some tea?”
I waved off her move to the kitchen.
Patting the sofa invitingly.
“Nah, you rest. You’ve had it rough.”
“…”
We sat side by side on the moonlit sofa.
Her sweat-soaked tee from the run clung tight.
Releasing the subtle, womanly scent of a twenty-year-old.
Fresh soap aroma.
“Thanks for tonight… I’ll repay you someday.”
“Forget repaying. Take care of yourself first. You don’t look great either.”
Lyn tilted her head at that.
“Me…?”
“Yeah, check a mirror.”
She eyed her reflection.
The deep dark circle under her one eye.
“When did this happen…?”
She poked her soft cheek sheepishly.
Then, realizing she was alone with a guy her age, swallowed hard.
“Nightmares every night?”
“Yeah, tonight too, actually.”
Like me as a leader.
I gave her a wry smile, heavy with shared burdens.
“They won’t vanish easy. Not till your heart’s at peace.”
I interlaced fingers behind my neck.
Gazing at dust motes floating in the moonlight.
“Can they ever disappear?”
Lyn stared wearily at the dust like me.
Our reflections side by side in the wall mirror.
“I’ve taken hundreds of lives. If they all haunted me one by one, it’d take years.”
Trauma from killing.
Knights like us Swordmasters carry it lifelong.
Most turn to booze or smokes.
Lyn enduring this far? Thanks to her sole family, her brother.
So, I wanted to advise her more, keep her standing.
“Mine used to show up daily too. But this made ’em fade.”
I gazed intently at the captain.
Her gray eye blinked.
“How…?”
Answering with a sleazy squint of my sly eyes.
Shaking my head teasingly.
“What, you gonna make me spell it out?”
Her cool facade cracked into a blank stare at my cheeky line.
I turned serious again.
“Our duty isn’t reveling in kills.”
Hand to my left chest.
“It’s the noble task of protecting family and self.”
Then, sincere advice from the heart.
“Not saying ditch the guilt for those you killed. But…”
I pointed at Lyn’s lovely face.
Her gray eye gleaming purer in the moonlight.
“If those lives you took let you safeguard precious ones, shouldn’t you live happier for it?”
Lyn’s red lips parted at advice she’d never heard.
Silent a beat, then softly.
“I see…”
Like realizing something she’d overlooked.
“I’ve slain countless foes on the front lines too. Their final moments still flash sometimes.”
“Yeah, even now.”
A faint smile touched her lips, like finding common ground.
First time sharing this.
“But even if time turned back, nothing changes, right?”
“Yeah, best choice in hindsight.”
To survive, kill the foe.
The ultimate survival pick.
So here we are, talking.
Protecting family from villains.
“Yeah, we made good calls always. Time for our rewards.”
Rewards.
Lyn, who’d never had any, stared blankly up.
“What kind…?”
I grinned down at her, sly fox eyes glinting.
“Start with a good night’s sleep?”
Sleep.
The absurd word drew an involuntary chuckle from her.
“Rest up today. As Foreign Minister, I’ll specially grant you leave.”
I snatched a sofa pillow.
Pointing to her bedroom.
“Leave? What about the squad…?”
I shook my head firmly.
“Your squad hate a boss who shows up daily?”
First time wielding power like this.
Lyn, exhausted as captain, slyly followed without turning.
“Here, lie down comfy. I’ll watch till you sleep.”
She eased onto the bed cautiously.
But fatigue didn’t bring sleep easy.
“Sorry, but I can’t sleep watched.”
Blushing, she murmured softly.
I scratched my head.
“Yeah, guess so? I’ll head out then.”
I started rising from bedside.
Lyn’s voice grew a touch louder.
“Alone… I don’t think I’ll sleep either…”
Like a girl feeling her big brother’s warmth for the first time.
Eyes saying just a bit more would let her drift off.