Chapter 75
Chapter 75
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: The Truth of the Blue Sparrow Knights
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The corridor of the Blossom Deer Guild's building.
Leyzon and Rafila were walking along.
"Ah, I feel alive again."
"Yes, it was the right call to wash up."
Steam was rising faintly around their bodies.
Given the timing, they had to stay here at least a day.
So Leyzon and Rafila had stopped by the bathhouse.
Thanks to that, both of them felt incredibly refreshed.
"By the way, you said you called the Serin Night Guild Leader."
"Yes, she should be arriving any moment now."
"Better hurry so we don't miss each other."
Leyzon turned to Rafila as he kept walking.
"More than that, Rafila—what exactly went down between you and the Serin Night Guild Leader?"
Rafila gave a wry smile.
"...Back then, I was pretty young.
I should've handled it more wisely, but pride got in the way."
"What'd you do?"
"It was a time when I hadn't even realized my own feelings, so I wasn't honest. Embarrassing to talk about."
Rafila cleared his throat.
He didn't know the details.
But it seemed like some dark chapter from the past.
"Might as well clear the air now. If things go well, we'll be seeing her plenty."
"I'll give it a shot."
She said she'd try, so she'd handle it.
Leyzon didn't pry further and arrived at the door.
He'd told Syria to rest in the room, so she was probably sulking hard.
As Leyzon opened the door to soothe her—
He spotted an unexpected figure from behind.
Silver bobbed hair came into view.
Leyzon remembered who it belonged to.
'Serin Night Guild Leader.'
Aegis Gaibel.
Then he noticed the person beyond her.
There lay Syria on the bed.
Syria was gazing at Aegis with a faintly pained expression.
Her eyes met Leyzon's at just that moment.
She must have been so absorbed in her book that she hadn't noticed anyone enter.
Syria was an undead, the Vampire Queen.
Being openly exposed like this was a problem.
'And besides.'
The Sword Saint believed Syria had wiped out his knight order.
His sister likely thought the same.
"Why are you just standing there...?"
Rafila voiced his confusion as he caught up.
He soon spotted Aegis as well.
"Serin Night Guild Leader?"
Aegis's shoulder twitched at Rafila's call.
Leyzon naturally took a step back and closed the door.
Aegis turned around.
Her face stiff, she looked at Rafila before speaking.
"...I don't think it's right to bring your lover to someone else's guild."
Rafila's face twisted in confusion at the word "lover."
But the moment he saw Syria, it hardened completely.
Rafila knew Syria's true nature.
He'd suffered at her hands before.
He wanted no part of that kind of misunderstanding.
"Lover? What are you talking about? It's not like that."
"It's fine, Rafila. If that's your type... I mean, yeah, it's fine."
Aegis muttered with a dazed, soulless expression.
It seemed she wasn't even registering Rafila's voice properly.
Leyzon watched impassively for a moment before casually stepping forward.
He passed the two of them and approached Syria.
"Syria."
"Leyzon-niim~."
Syria put on her coquettish act, rubbing up against him.
She must have forgotten to hide herself while reading and gotten caught—so now she was playing cute to dodge any scolding.
'From her reaction, she doesn't know Syria's the Vampire Queen.'
Some strange misunderstanding had taken hold, but...
Leyzon decided to let Rafila sort it out himself.
Syria immediately started kneading his shoulders.
"Leyzon-nim, your shoulders are so stiff!"
"Syria, that's all muscle."
"Oh! So it is!"
Leyzon bantered idly as he grabbed the leftover grapes.
Meanwhile, the conversation between Rafila and Aegis dragged on.
"What the hell are you even saying?"
"Just... back then, too. Rafila."
"Sigh. Really."
Rafila let out a long sigh.
"Aegis."
For the first time in ages, Rafila called her by her real name.
Aegis flinched, clearly caught off guard.
She stared at him in shock.
"Misunderstanding. I've never had a lover. That girl's not with me—she's Leyzon's companion."
In front of Aegis, Rafila dropped the honorific for Leyzon.
He glanced over, but Leyzon just shrugged.
A sign he didn't mind.
Finally, light returned to Aegis's eyes.
"...Never had a lover until now?"
"Yeah. I've been too busy for that."
"But Rafila, you were always so popular."
Rafila's eyebrow twitched.
But with the dam broken, Aegis held nothing back.
Leyzon's grape-eating picked up pace a bit.
"A guild leader constantly in the headlines? Popular my ass."
"Not your reputation—people who know the real you."
"No such people exist. They all say that, but they care about the rumors."
"Not me."
Aegis bit her lip hard as she spoke.
It was as if she were finally voicing what she couldn't back then.
"Not me."
Rafila stared at her, his lips parting slightly.
His face screamed volumes left unsaid.
But he couldn't bring himself to say them.
Leyzon felt a pang of frustration watching.
"Rafila Guild Leader, you still seem pretty immature."
Leyzon offered a bit of advice.
Rafila's shoulder jerked.
"You're still not being honest."
Past or present, it was the same story.
Even a third party like Leyzon could see it plain as day.
Rafila, the one involved, knew better than anyone.
He looked at Aegis.
Her clear eyes met his.
Aegis's gaze trembled with longing.
Rafila finally bowed his head.
"I... I wanted to be ready."
He laid bare his honest feelings.
"I wanted to be someone I could hold my head high in front of. That's why."
Rafila came from the back alleys.
He knew better than anyone what it meant to be looked down on.
He never wanted the people close to him to endure that.
So he'd fought desperately.
To one day stand tall before anyone.
"So."
Rafila opened the heart he'd kept locked away.
"When that day comes, Aegis—let's finish the conversation we couldn't back then."
The day he'd lashed out at her, nursing his own inferiority.
He wanted to cast it all aside someday and speak with her as equals.
For the first time, Rafila bared his true heart.
Aegis listened, her eyes widening.
Then the trembling in them softened into a tender smile.
"Yeah."
Leyzon set down the grapes.
This was getting too sweet.
"So, can I join the conversation now?"
Leyzon made his presence known.
Enough of being ignored.
"Ahem."
Rafila coughed awkwardly.
Only then did Aegis snap back to reality and turn to Leyzon.
Her face had returned to its usual icy composure.
But the tips of her ears were flushed red.
"Taking down Oberon—you must've had some lucky breaks prepared."
She smoothly changed the subject.
Leyzon decided to play along.
"Something like that. The Serin Night Guild Leader must be curious what that luck was, right?"
"The Steel Wolf Guild's recent changes."
Aegis cut straight to the heart.
"I can assume those changes are tied to you?"
Sharp as ever.
Leyzon slowly rose from the bed.
He settled into the chair Syria had pulled out for him.
His unhurried movements drew their full attention.
"Necromancers have been stirring up trouble lately."
With ears as sharp as hers, she'd grasp the implication.
Besides, she was involved in this mess.
"They say it's to track down the Blue Sparrow Knights."
Aegis's eyes sharpened.
She glanced at Rafila.
He smiled wryly.
"Don't blame Rafila too much. I asked.
He had no choice but to answer."
She quickly noticed Leyzon dropping honorifics too.
Leyzon kept his relaxed smile under her gaze.
"Blue Sparrow Knights Captain's sister, Aegis Guild Leader."
Leyzon laid all her info bare.
Aegis frowned.
"...I didn't come here for this."
"Is that right? Then maybe this will make you want to talk."
Leyzon leaned deep into the chair's backrest.
"I gave the order for the necromancers to find the Blue Sparrow Knights."
His tone shifted once more.
Speech shapes perception.
A change in tone signaled a shift in presence.
Leyzon smiled chillingly.
The meaning behind it was utterly transformed.
Aegis's eyebrow twitched.
At the same time, she felt the aura emanating from the girl standing behind him.
Pitch-black malice coiled around her like chains.
Even Aegis of the 16th Ascension struggled to shake it off.
Tension crept across Aegis's face.
"...You used Rafila just to see me?"
Her eyes grew razor-edged.
"Depends on how you look at it."
Leyzon didn't deny it.
Realizing this, Aegis shot Rafila a quiet glare.
She'd confirmed his feelings, at least.
But being summoned for this irked her.
Still, she couldn't dismiss Leyzon.
Neither he nor Rafila were opponents she could take lightly.
"...What do you plan to do once you find the Blue Sparrow Knights Captain?"
She asked cautiously, tension thick in the air.
"Clear up the misunderstanding that the Vampire Queen caused his death."
Vampire Queen.
At those words, Aegis's eyes slowly widened.
Then they snapped toward the girl.
The one who'd stood silently behind Leyzon the whole time.
White hair fading to black at the tips, crimson eyes.
And the fangs bared in her smile.
Ching!
Sensing danger on instinct, Aegis drew her blade in a flash.
Her blue rapier gleamed under the light.
Leyzon didn't stop her.
He simply read her eyes calmly.
Anger, shock, and icy resolve swirled within them.
But Aegis didn't strike first recklessly.
'She knows Syria's the Vampire Queen, yet she's far more rational than the Sword Saint.'
In other words, dialogue was possible with Aegis.
"The Blue Sparrow Knights Captain was killed by his own knights."
Aegis's hand trembled on her drawn rapier.
"And the one who issued those orders? The Imperial Family."
The Empire had deliberately erased all records of the Blue Sparrow Knights.
It looked like hiding a loss to the Vampire Queen.
But it could also mean concealing the orders themselves.
"As her master, the Vampire Queen's master, I guarantee it."
Leyzon slowly pulled off his mask.
Grey necromancer's eyes gleamed beneath.
His presence was on another level now—suffocating.
In the dim room, light flickering.
Leyzon's shadow stretched long across the floor.
He leaned forward, elbows on knees.
Chin resting atop, a smile playing on his lips.
"Aegis Gaibel—don't you want to know the truth behind the Blue Sparrow Knights Captain's death?"
The abyss parted its jaws to devour Serin Night.