Chapter 8 We Are Now Rebels.
Chapter 8 We Are Now Rebels.
Chapter 8
The Imperial Guard had already established a siege cordon at the entrance of the dungeon.
At its center, a white-haired knight reminiscent of a lion stood with a greatsword slung over his shoulder.
"Quite bold. To think you would come to rescue a rebel who raised a hand against the imperial family, Ernst von Eisenwald."
Seureureung.
Kaiden, the knight known as the Emperor's Sword, slowly drew his blade.
A blue aura bloomed over the sword blade.
"Sir Kaiden. Is that you?"
Walter's voice hardened in front of an opponent with whom he shared a long history.
Kaiden's gaze also landed on Walter.
"Count Clausen. How unfortunate. To think you turned against the imperial family."
"Do you truly think of me as a traitor as well?"
"That is not for me to judge. It is a matter for the imperial family to decide."
"Sir Kaiden... even you..."
Walter could not bring himself to continue.
As a fellow soldier, the Captain of the Imperial Guard declared that he stood on the side of the imperial court.
"Attempting to break a criminal out of prison. Young Lord Eisenwald."
Kaiden's gaze shifted back to Ernst.
Ernst took a step forward.
"Count Walter is not a traitor."
"The imperial family will be the judge of that."
"Not the imperial family, but the Empress's judgment, isn't it?"
Kaiden's eyebrows twitched.
Ernst had hit the nail on the head.
"Watch your tongue."
"Get out of the way."
Ernst also said as he stared down Kaiden.
"If it's right now, I can pass by without cutting down you and your men."
Ernst gave the advice while scanning the Imperial Guard glaring at him.
At that, Kaiden let out a low chuckle.
"Do you think everyone must step aside for you just because you defeated a Great Duke of the Demon Realm?"
Kaiden's voice was tinged with emotions that had festered for quite a long time.
"Northern Army. War Hero. Sword Master. Shield of the Empire."
Kaiden gnashed his teeth.
"The capital was always protected by the Imperial Knights. Protecting His Majesty's side, stopping traitors, and maintaining the order of the Empire. Yet once the war ended, everyone looked only at you."
Ernst watched him silently.
"Her Imperial Majesty the Empress gave us a chance. She raised up falling families and reached out to those who were abandoned. Yet you criticize her."
"We merely demanded the rightful compensation we deserved. Nothing more, nothing less."
"That is greed."
Kaiden's blue aura flared fiercely.
"Soldiers are beings who fight and die. Yet, simply because you protected the Empire, you try to stand above it."
Ernst's eyes sank coldly.
"We never tried to stand above the Empire. It is the Empire that trampled on us."
Ultimately, Ernst reached out his hand as well.
At that moment, a sword slipped out from the waist of one of the Imperial Guard soldiers and flew into Ernst's grip.
In the very next instant.
The two moved simultaneously.
Ka-ang!
Grey aura collided with blue aura.
The walls at the entrance of the dungeon trembled.
The torches flickered wildly before sputtering out one by one.
Kaiden was strong.
He was different from the White Rose Knights.
They were not noble ladies putting on airs in decorative armor.
His sword trajectory was meticulous, and his aura was stable.
The title of Captain of the Imperial Guard and Commander of the Knights was not just for show.
Ka-ang! Ka-ga-ga-gak!
Sparks flew as the two swords clashed over and over again.
"Keuk!"
Ernst was pushed back a step.
"Ern!"
The female prisoner shouted.
No, the woman claiming to be Eleonora called out in worry.
"Huu."
Instead of answering, Ernst checked his physical condition.
The long wound stretching from his shoulder down his back pulled tightly.
The wound sustained during the battle against Balgras, the Great Duke of the Demon Realm, had not yet fully healed.
'The situation is unfavorable.'
Above all, Count Walter and the woman were behind him.
He couldn't retreat freely.
"How is it? You seem to be in quite a pinch."
Kaiden knew this.
He stubbornly targeted that weak point.
"Why don't you step back?"
Kaiden's sword grazed Ernst's shoulder.
Chwa-ak!
Crimson blood spattered.
"Is it because of that old traitor and that mystery prisoner?"
"Shut your mouth."
"No. I must speak."
Kaiden swung his sword once more.
"The Northern Army should have quietly stepped down once the war ended. The moment a soldier dabbles in politics, it is treason."
Ka-ang!
Ernst blocked the sword once again.
"Politics?"
Ernst's voice deepened.
"Is asking for treatment expenses for a soldier whose arm was severed considered politics?"
Ka-ang!
Grey aura collided with blue aura, unleashing a sonic boom.
"Is asking for enough compensation so that the bereaved families of the fallen don't starve to death considered treason?"
Ka-ang!
The stone floor beneath Ernst and Kaiden's feet gouged deeply.
"Is asking to rebuild the Northern Wall Territory burned down by demons considered greed?"
"What?!"
Kaiden's sword wavered for a split second.
Ernst did not miss that fleeting opening.
Pa-a-at!
The grey aura erupted as his sword trajectory curved sharply inward.
"Eueuk!"
Kaiden hurriedly raised his sword to block Ernst's incoming strike.
However.
Ernst's swordsmanship was not capital-style fencing.
It was not pretty swordplay tailored to etiquette.
Nor was it a formal dueling style used by knightly orders.
A sword meant for killing.
A sword meant for surviving.
A sword forged before the Black Rift.
Ka-a-ang!
In the end, a thread-like crack formed across Kaiden's greatsword.
"This can't..."
Kwa-jik!
At the second strike, the greatsword shattered completely.
And then came the third strike—no, the next attack.
Peo-eok!
Ernst's foot kicked Kaiden's cuirass.
The silver armor crumpled as Kaiden's body was sent flying backward, slamming relentlessly onto the stone floor.
"Keo-heok!"
Blood spattered from Kaiden's mouth, nose, and even his ears.
"Kueueuk...! As if I would lose to a traitor...!"
Kaiden tried to stand up again.
But ruthlessly, his knees buckled.
"You had better stop."
Ernst stood before him.
The tip of his blade stopped right in front of Kaiden's throat.
"Kill me!"
Kaiden's pupils trembled.
Facing that earnestness, Ernst couldn't help but chuckle softly.
"Asking me to kill you? I have no intention of doing so. By the way, how easy it is for you. To be able to throw away your life like that at any given moment."
"Is it a shameful thing for an honorable and loyal soldier to stoically lay down his life for the imperial family, Young Lord Eisenwald?"
Kaiden asked back instead.
As a proud knight, Kaiden could not comprehend Ernst's words.
But Ernst thought differently.
"The soldiers of the Northern Wall Territory cannot die even if they want to. Because for the sake of their comrades, they must strike down even just one more demon. Honor? Loyalty? Trash like that is nothing more than window dressing."
"....!"
The eyes of Kaiden, as well as the Imperial Guards watching this situation, quivered incessantly.
Ernst von Eisenwald.
In those few words uttered by the war hero, the entire desperate reality of the Northern Wall Territory was contained.
In contrast, the Imperial Guard and Knights of the capital had been living far too comfortable a life.
"Therefore, what you protected was neither the Empire nor honor."
Ernst withdrew his sword.
"It was the Empress's vanity."
"Th-the Empress's vanity...?"
Kaiden's face distorted.
More than the bruises inside his crumpled cuirass, this single pointed remark from Ernst stung far worse.
Ernst spoke no further.
"Let's go."
Walter nodded with difficulty.
The female prisoner also bit her lip and followed Ernst.
"Stop us if you dare."
Ernst stared at the Imperial Guards surrounding the entrance of the dungeon.
"We failed to see Young Lord Eisenwald clearly!"
"May the fortunes of war be with you!"
The Imperial Guards parted to the left and right.
It was their final courtesy toward the war hero who had once slayed demons in the Northern Wall Territory to protect the Empire.
Thus, the three of them exited the dungeon.
Tteng! Tteng! Tteng!
Before long, warning bells began to ring from behind.
The imperial court had begun to move.
The temporary encampment located on the outskirts of the capital.
Ernst's loyal adjutant, Eileen, had already lined up the soldiers.
Northern Army soldiers.
Wounded soldiers.
Soldiers of foreign species origin.
Half-blood soldiers.
All who had survived eight years in the Northern Wall Territory were fully armed.
"Young Lord has returned!"
"Count Walter is here too!"
"He rescued the Commander-in-Chief!"
A cheer was about to burst forth.
But the soldiers quickly shut their mouths.
Walter's blood-soaked body.
Ernst's tattered military uniform.
And the gaunt woman standing beside him.
Everyone could tell that the situation was far from ordinary.
"Huu."
Ernst stood before the soldiers.
The night wind fluttered the military banners.
The sound of bells from the distant capital, Luminark, drifted over.
It was the Imperial Palace's alarm.
There was no time.
"Listen."
Ernst's voice resounded across the temporary encampment.
"The imperial family has branded Count Walter von Clausen a traitor."
The soldiers' faces hardened.
"They called our demand for compensation treason. And they called the Northern Army's anger incitement."
Ernst's gaze scanned each and every soldier.
"The Emperor and Empress have abandoned us."
"....."
A heavy silence ensued.
Those words weighed heavier than a sword.
"I, too, have been declared a traitor before the Empress. Imperial forces will soon arrive here."
A murmur rippled through the soldiers.
But no one ran away.
Ernst closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them.
"Therefore, I will say this."
His voice lowered.
"We are rebels now."
Someone gasped.
Rebels.
That word was heavy.
In the Empire, that word meant death.
Annihilation of the family lineage and confiscation of all property.
Punishment of everyone involved and the erasure of their names.
Ernst knew that.
"Anyone who wishes to leave, leave."
The soldiers' eyes widened.
"Those with families. Those who can fight no longer. Those who do not wish to become traitors. Those who wish to return home. I will hold back no one."
Ernst was sincere.
These were people who had survived eight years of living hell in the Northern Wall Territory.
He could not place the yoke of being rebels upon them as well.
"I do not blame you. Returning alive takes courage as well."
"....."
Silence fell.
A very long and heavy silence.
Not a single soldier moved.
'I have no right to decide their life and death.'
Ernst simply waited for the soldiers.
They had earned that right.
Because they had fought hard enough for eight years.
"Young Lord!"
At that moment, a soldier stepped forward.
It was a soldier missing his left arm.
He knelt before Ernst.
"My hometown has already been burned to the ground."
His voice did not tremble.
"I have nowhere to return to."
This time, another soldier stepped forward.
It was a soldier with a bandage wrapped around one eye.
"My younger brother died serving under Count Clausen."
He, too, knelt.
"I cannot follow an imperial family that calls the Count a traitor."
Yet another soldier drew his sword.
He drove the tip of his blade into the ground.
"If the imperial family abandoned us, then we, too, shall abandon the imperial family."
Those words served as the spark.
"We will stand together with Young Lord!"
"Count Clausen is practically like a parent to me!"
One by one, the soldiers knelt.
They thrust their swords into the ground.
The wounded soldiers.
The officers.
The soldiers of foreign species.
The half-blood soldiers.
Not a single person left this place.
"Young Lord. It seems the soldiers have made up their minds."
Adjutant Eileen stood beside Ernst.
Walter watched the sight with his bloodied face.
The eyes of the Commander-in-Chief, a battle-hardened veteran, were moist with tears.
"These bastards..."
Walter muttered softly.
"Refusing to listen to me until the very end."
Yet a smile hung upon the battle-hardened veteran's lips.
"Huu."
Ernst drew a breath as he looked at the soldiers.
Abandoned soldiers.
Comrades branded as traitors.
Those who now had nowhere to return.
They were looking at him.
They were awaiting orders.
"Very well."
Ernst spoke.
At that single word, the light in the soldiers' eyes shifted.
"As of today, we are no longer the army of the Arcadion Imperial Family."
Ernst slowly raised his sword.
"We are the Grey Revolutionary Army."
The night air of the temporary encampment seemed to freeze.
And in the next instant...
"Long live the Grey Revolutionary Army!"
"Long live Young Lord Ernst!"
"Long live the Northern Army!"
"Long live Count Clausen!"
Roaring cheers erupted from all corners of the temporary encampment.
The night sky above Luminark shook.
The Imperial Palace did not yet know.
That the soldiers they had abandoned,
That the military men they had branded traitors,
That the hunting dogs they had starved and trampled upon,
Had now turned into wolves and bared their fangs.
That night, on the outskirts of the capital of the Arcadion Empire, the Grey Revolutionary Army was born.
End of Chapter 8.