Chapter 104
Chapter 104
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 104
Chirp, chirp, chirp.
Birdsong drifted in through the window. Brilliant sunlight leaked between the curtains as if announcing the morning. The dogs, apparently displeased about something, were barking fiercely.
Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!
"Well, I'll be. Birds sound the same and dogs sound the same, whether it's our homeland or here."
"They sure do."
The Gauri soldiers who had opened their eyes frowned at the noise from outside and grumbled as they rose from their beds. But their movements halted the moment their gazes landed on the one empty bed.
"Didn't come back after all."
"A sparrow isn't exactly going to just walk past a mill..."
Mong Ryu-hwa's bed was tidily arranged, looking untouched by human hands, exactly as it had been when they first entered this place. Shaking their heads, the soldiers went downstairs one by one for breakfast.
"Hey, did you sleep well?"
"Well, I slept, but..."
The Gauri soldiers who had slept in the other rooms exchanged morning greetings. But it didn't take long before they noticed Ryu-hwa's absence.
"Honestly, he's an admirable captain."
"Right. In his own way."
The soldiers' gazes as they looked at Ryu-hwa's empty spot held a mix of emotions, envy chief among them.
"Oh! You all slept well!"
Ryu-hwa's voice rang out from the top of the stairs. He must have bathed first thing in the morning, because his skin and hair, still damp and glistening, were more than enough to rub salt in the soldiers' wounds.
"Come on, let's eat breakfast."
"Yeah, let's eat."
As the saying goes, rank has its privileges. No one spoke up, but mealtime was unbearably awkward.
"Why's it so quiet in here?"
Ryu-hwa wasn't oblivious to this atmosphere. When he chuckled and tossed out a joke, a veteran soldier off to the side replied in a gruff voice.
"They say fortune flees when you chatter during meals."
"So sulky."
Amused by the soldiers' reactions, Ryu-hwa smiled as he spooned up some soup and brought it to his lips, murmuring offhandedly.
"So, Rebecca mentioned she has some friends gathering and said she'd arrange a group meeting. But you all don't seem to want—"
Ryu-hwa's words went no further. It was too much pressure to suddenly receive the gaze of a dozen men, innocence and sparkling eagerness all mixed together at once.
"We always trust you, Captain."
"Absolutely!"
"Don't worry about us!"
The suddenly warm and cheerful breakfast table grew lively just like that.
Because Mong Ryu-hwa and the Gauri soldiers were disguised as a small mercenary company, they couldn't simply do nothing but eat and laze about. Not that money was an issue. The valuables they'd squeezed out of the Stone Trio more than covered their operating funds and then some.
But if they hung up a mercenary-company sign and did nothing but throw money around while playing, who wouldn't grow suspicious?
Their mission was critical, however, so they loitered around the Gate Region, taking on work like monster extermination and short-distance escort. Escort duties for trading companies, unexpectedly, yielded excellent results for gathering all sorts of information.
The trading companies of the Haian Kingdom possessed the fastest intelligence-gathering on the continent—a crucial aid for survival in the disadvantageous geopolitical position the Haian Kingdom occupied.
Serving as escorts for such trading companies provided an excellent position for overhearing things.
Meanwhile, as word gradually spread that Gye Ung-sam's party—the ones who had used a pit trap to harm a priest of the Holy Empire in the capital—likely had already escaped the capital, Ryu-hwa and the soldiers slowly widened their own search area.
Having accepted a commission to escort a single carriage, Ryu-hwa and the Gauri soldiers were entering a quiet city.
"Not much to do this time either."
"For sure."
The murmuring conversation of the Gauri soldiers signaled that their escort mission was once again coming to an end. Compared to the ornate carriage, the escort force was extremely small. The Gauri soldiers were the only actual escorts. Even so, the distance wasn't especially far, so they reached their destination with ease.
"Hohoho!"
"Hahahaha!"
Inside the carriage, a man and a woman sounded like they were laughing merrily.
"Tch."
One soldier clicked his tongue.
The man's voice belonged to Ryu-hwa. The reason he had wormed his way into the carriage was his thought that he might obtain some information, since the carriage had come from the capital.
Admittedly, the Gauri soldiers who'd had to listen to nothing but laughter the whole way thought differently.
After arriving at their destination, a mansion, and while the soldiers were organizing the luggage, Ryu-hwa quietly summoned his subordinates.
"An interesting piece of information has come in."
"What is it?"
"It seems General Gye's party rescued a man called Baron Gowin. And that fellow Priest Palo, or whatever his name is—he didn't fall into a trap the General's party set. The accurate facts are this: the General's party dug a pit beneath an old tree and hid there, escaped, and then that bastard passed by afterward and fell in. The important part is that, judging by the food remnants and traces inside, they numbered roughly seven or eight."
Ryu-hwa's explanation continued. Unlike the fragmentary facts they'd known until now, the details were remarkably thorough, so much so that the Gauri soldiers even looked at Ryu-hwa in wonder.
Aware of their gazes, Ryu-hwa smiled slowly and spoke.
"The husband of the lady we escorted here is the man in charge of this matter. A Viscount Biken or something has taken it on, so the wife came here and the viscount stayed behind, using soldiers to pursue them, I'm told. But it seems he hasn't found a single lead yet."
"You finally scored one!"
"Heh heh heh."
At the soldiers' admiring exclamations, a smile spilled from Ryu-hwa's lips. Until now, they had cast a wide net along escape routes, but after hearing concrete news, they judged they should narrow their focus further inward.
After all, the group hadn't fled immediately after the capital incident—they'd been hiding until quite recently.
"First, I'll have to go extract a bit more information. Opportunities this good are rare."
"Right now?"
"Yes."
At Ryu-hwa's words, the soldiers, as if by prior agreement, simultaneously turned their heads toward the window. The brightly shining moons seemed embarrassed by the soldiers' gaze and hid themselves behind the clouds.
"It's night..."
"We're supposed to return tomorrow, so it can't be helped. Don't worry about me. Everyone rest up for tomorrow's movement."
Leaving those words behind, Ryu-hwa vanished like the wind. The soldiers stared wordlessly at the door he had exited through.
"He really went for information, right?"
"We have to believe so."
They had reached a dangerous state of distrusting their commander, and the night only grew deeper.
Viscountess Biken gazed out the window and let out a long sigh.
What good was being the viscountess of a central aristocrat?
There was no pleasure in it...
What good was money piled mountain-high?
There was nowhere to spend it...
What good was taking care of her looks?
The one who should admire her was busy day in and day out at the capital's Council of Nobles, veins bulging in his neck...
The viscountess's sighs deepened along with the night. Abruptly, the mercenary captain of free-knight origin whom she'd been chatting with earlier came to mind.
"Hmph."
Mong Ryu-hwa's cheerful words, which somehow seemed to scratch exactly where she itched, drew a smile to the lips of the viscountess, who had been lost in rumination.
"You haven't retired yet."
The very man who had lifted her from those ruminations was the one who had caused her to smile. A small exclamation, mixed with gladness and wariness, escaped the viscountess.
"Ah!"
Had the night air cooled? Heat haze shimmered around Ryu-hwa's body. And his sweat-dampened hair added a masculine edge to his handsome features.
For a moment, the viscountess stared wordlessly at Ryu-hwa's figure. Then, as if collecting herself, she opened her mouth toward him.
"You must have been training."
"That's right."
Ryu-hwa's smile as he looked up at her from beneath the window seemed soft and warm. He was good-looking enough to be counted among handsome men, but not so striking as to be called stunning. His strength lay in knowing how to read a woman's heart.
"Hup!"
"Oh my!"
THWACK-THWACK-THWACK!
Ryu-hwa's foot kicked off the tree in front of the window, and in one bound he landed on the windowsill of the viscountess's room. The viscountess was startled by the suddenness of it, but far from screaming or reproaching this rude behavior, she felt a strange flutter.
Lightly settled on the windowsill, Ryu-hwa's hair seemed to catch the moonlight and shimmer faintly. Was it because of the sweat droplets?
"Forgive me if I've been rude. I merely thought, since the moon is lovely, might we share some conversation..."
"Hmph. Not at all."
At Ryu-hwa's words, accompanied by an almost innocently pure smile, the viscountess covered her mouth with her hand and laughed. His occasional boyish, almost mischievous expression made her feel things she normally didn't.
Of course, this reaction owed much to Ryu-hwa's efforts during the escort here, gradually diluting the status barrier of being a mercenary captain of free-knight origin who was the son of a fallen noble.
Perhaps because of that, she didn't suspect him even though he had appeared effortlessly in a guarded location. Rather than suspicion, she might even have been grateful for the guards' negligence. Of course, that guard was currently lying unconscious like a dead tree, but no matter.
"May I beg a glass as well?"
"Certainly."
When Ryu-hwa broached the subject while eyeing the wine glass in the viscountess's hand, she smiled and replied skillfully. As she poured the wine, she felt as if she'd returned to her maiden days—the time before her political marriage, when her heart was full of flutters.
Drinking wine and carrying on a quiet conversation, Mong Ryu-hwa watched her expression and furiously racked his brain.
'As I thought. It's nighttime, so steering the conversation that way is difficult.'
He had infiltrated with a purpose, but now that he couldn't draw out the necessary conversation, he was starting to feel a bit anxious.
"Sir, have another glass."
"An honor."
Perhaps because the alcohol was getting to her, a flush rose on the viscountess's face. Ryu-hwa smiled at the sight but felt troubled inwardly.
'At this rate, I'm going to become the chief culprit of a wrecked home.'
Ryu-hwa, who held a personal ironclad rule—don't touch a woman who's already taken—began to feel conflicted as he looked at the viscountess.
'No. This, too, is part of the mission...'
The whisper of instinct flitted through Ryu-hwa's mind.
'If I get caught, it'll get cut off.'
But then the voice of reason arose with the thought: what if things go wrong?
"Oops!"
"Oh dear, how clumsy of me!"
While Ryu-hwa was busy agonizing on his own, the viscountess, perhaps a little tipsy, spilled wine over the glass. The overflowing wine soaked into Ryu-hwa's top and trousers.
"Ah, it's fine."
"This will stain. Take them off for a moment."
Ryu-hwa's top was white, so the viscountess's words held merit. But inside Ryu-hwa's head, alarm bells were ringing.
'This is a seduction!'
Ryu-hwa was convinced the viscountess was using a method he himself had often employed in the past.
'What kind of woman is this strong?!'
Ryu-hwa clicked his tongue at the viscountess's forcefulness as she spread his clothes open left and right.
"Ah."
Where his clothes parted, sweat beaded on firm muscles and gave off a subtle scent. Momentarily captivated by the sight, the viscountess let out a short breath of admiration. Those firm, lean muscles, not overly bulky, were beyond comparison with her husband's potbelly.
But at that moment!
Clatter!
"What is the meaning of this!"
"Hurk!"
"Oh my!"
Ryu-hwa's romance came to an end.
Seeing his wife with her face buried in a young man's exposed chest—merely appearing that way—and seeing Ryu-hwa with his clothes pulled open, Viscount Biken drew his sword.
"You adulterous wretches!"
Shhhing!
"Kyaaaak!"
Viscount Biken's fury cried out for his hand to show no mercy. Potbelly or no, the sword the viscount swung was deadly enough to kill. But it was not especially refined.
"Damn it!"
Whir-r-rick!
Though the room was cramped, Ryu-hwa's short spear reacted swiftly. The spear spun, deflecting Viscount Biken's sword, and in a flash, it cracked him across the back of the head.
Thwack!
Thud.
With a crude sound, Viscount Biken collapsed like a dead tree. Relieved, Ryu-hwa looked at the viscountess.
"Are you alright?"
"Hurk! Uh... your face! Your hair!"
The viscountess's eyes were filled with shock. At her near-horrified expression, Ryu-hwa tilted his head and asked in return.
"Pardon? What do you mean..."
Clink.
A small sound came from near his feet. Slowly lowering his head, Ryu-hwa's face drained of color.
"..."
There on the floor lay the necklace enchanted with Transformation Magic. Most likely, it had fallen off when the viscountess forced his clothes open, followed by the abrupt movements to block Viscount Biken's sword.
Slowly turning his head toward the mirror beside him, Ryu-hwa looked at his own face, now restored to its original form, and sighed.
"My lady. A time will come when the truth shall be revealed."
With those final words, he left the viscountess behind, still dazed, and exited through the door.
"Ah... wait!"
"I am sorry."
Leaving a rueful smile for the viscountess as she called out urgently, Ryu-hwa swiftly vanished. Behind him, the voices of soldiers burst out. Gazing at the open door while Viscount Biken lay collapsed, the viscountess murmured unconsciously.
"That way is the opposite direction..."
Only a worried voice lingered in the air.