Watching the Brawl (2)
The two knight orders faced each other at a distance of roughly fifty meters. The Raven Knights numbered around two hundred, while the Orchid Knights barely exceeded a hundred. In sheer manpower, the Ravens overwhelmed the Orchids.
They simply stared each other down without moving an inch. If the distance closed any further, bloodshed would be unavoidable.
Before long, a single knight from Mabel's side rode forward. He stopped his horse at thirty meters out and spoke in a slow but forceful voice.
"Halt! You are trespassing on and destroying farmland owned by Quercus."
Laughter rippled through the Raven ranks.
"Look at these knights, playing errand boys for a merchant."
"Quercus's land isn't just private property — it's one of the only farms in the duchy untouched by the famine. What you're doing right now amounts to cutting the throat of the duchy's food supply."
"You're worse than mosquitoes. Why do you keep buzzing and whining? Is that sword on your hip just a decoration?"
Mabel's knight fell silent for a moment before answering in an icy tone.
"A knight cannot draw his sword without his lord's leave. That applies to you as well."
"Lord Chris gave us standing orders: anyone who lectures us like a self-righteous prig gets his nose flattened with a fist, any time, any place."
"If you use force without just cause, what separates a knight from a thug?"
The Raven Knights snickered as if they'd heard a delightful joke.
"You lot who spend your days painting flowers on your tunics can't even fight without permission, I see. Fine, then — stand there and watch while we cut off the 'duchy's food supply,' hiding behind your lord's leave like good little boys."
The Ravens went back to trampling the fields. Mabel's knight pulled hard on his reins and shouted orders to his men.
"No weapons! Stop them with your bodies!"
Mabel's knights threw themselves bodily in front of the Raven Knights. And then, without anyone needing to go first, they dismounted and began swinging fists and boots at one another in earnest.
"You block-headed bastards!"
"Go tend your flowerbeds!"
The sound of flesh striking flesh echoed savagely across the field. Men went flying backward and forward through the air.
"Hmm..."
Laszlo turned to Vitten and asked, "Does this kind of thing happen often, sir? Knights... brawling with their fists?"
The other members were every bit as bewildered. Fully armored knights, scabbards swinging at their hips, pummeling each other without mercy — it was not a sight you saw every day.
"Nope. So watch carefully while you've got the chance."
"Why would they do this?"
"Because if anyone draws a weapon here, it stops being a scuffle and becomes a civil war."
They knew perfectly well that with my father still alive and well, if anyone carelessly sparked a civil war, it would be their own lords who'd be crushed for it.
These were superhuman fighters, every one of them blessed with an Awoken Ability, so a fistfight here was nothing to sneeze at. They gnashed their teeth and butted heads like rams in rut, hammering each other's skulls with everything they had.
Just as this large-scale free-for-all was in full swing, a third banner rose above the castle walls. The flag that appeared this time belonged to no faction — it bore the sacred symbol of Solitas.
"STOP THIS INSTANT!"
An old man on the ramparts bellowed in a voice that thundered across the field. I recognized it and couldn't help but grin.
The voice belonged to Bishop Colin. The old man was still brimming with energy.
"You wretched fools! You trained in the martial arts, and all you do with it is scrap like street brawlers! If you've got energy to waste, go out and do some charity work! From this moment on, if even ONE of you keeps fighting, I swear on Solitas Himself that your knight order will never so much as sniff another spell of holy magic again!"
A miracle occurred. Hundreds of knights who had been cursing each other and clawing at one another's throats all stopped fighting at a single word from the old man.
The only reason knights could fight like there was no tomorrow was the miraculous efficacy of holy magic — and now the healer was threatening to withhold treatment if they misbehaved. What threat could possibly be more terrifying than that?
"Consider yourselves lucky today."
"If it weren't for the Bishop, YOU'D all be dead, got it?"
Supporting their wounded, the two knight orders limped back toward the city. Once they reached the temple, Colin would take a second bite out of them, but that was their own doing.
After the whole circus, the first day of training at the special camp officially began.
For reasons I couldn't quite fathom, watching the two knight orders brawl had set the members' spirits ablaze. Following Thalia's instructions to the letter, they rolled around the training ground floor without a single word of complaint.
While the members trained hard, I stopped by the alchemy workshop.
"How did it go, Kaspar?"
"It's finished!"
Kaspar handed me a black pill with trembling hands.
This was the world's first dan-yeok — an alchemical pill created by fusing my pill-refining arts with his alchemy.
It wasn't the finished product, of course. We had distilled a single whole Scarlet Blaze, but the distillation process was crude, and nearly half the essence had been lost in the process.
We still had a long road ahead before we could release a proper version. But for now, this modest result was more than enough.
I carved the pill precisely into pieces, one for each member. Then I dropped a fragment into their drinks, completing the so-called Caroi-style Special Tonic, Prototype Edition.
"You want us to drink THIS? The reddish sludge?"
"What's wrong with it?"
"The color is far too violent, my lord. What exactly did you put in here? You didn't... grind up a demon into it, did you?"
Vitten asked, suspicion dripping from every word.
"Chug it. It's good for you."
While Vitten hesitated, Shaka stepped forward. She downed her drink in a single gulp, then wiped the red juice of the Scarlet Blaze from her lips with a slow, deliberate swipe.
"I can feel myself getting stronger. Would you say I'm one step closer to being the strongest?"
The moment her words landed, every member — no exceptions — lunged for the drinks.
"I really do feel it! Strength is surging!"
"Even if there's a demon inside, I don't care!"
The members who drank the tonic bounced around the camp, forgetting their exhaustion entirely.
Five days later, I brought another pill and split it up for them. In between, I fed them shameless amounts of 5th- and 6th-grade mana stones procured through the Adventurers' Guild.
All this while, the members had been grinding through combat experience at breakneck speed, fighting illusions inside my formations. What they needed now was the mana to turn that experience into real strength.
As the training camp wore on, the rift between Mabel and Chris only deepened. By now, the two of them seemed to have no awareness of my existence at all. Barely a day passed without news of the Ravens and the Orchids clashing.
Consequently, the mood in the city had grown unbearably sour. Word even spread that the refugees were heading home faster than before.
It was around this time — one day before the end of the special camp, with four days left until the Feast of Saint Rochand — that members returning from a supply run into the city brought urgent news.
"The Treasury was attacked?"
"Yes, my lord. The Raven Knights broke through the main gate's defenses and set fires inside."
"When?"
"We just heard."
So Chris had finally done something catastrophic. He must have judged that letting the audit materials fall into my father's hands would end badly for him.
"I'll be making a quick trip into the city."
"You're going to the Treasury, my lord?"
"I am."
I was the one who had set Mabel and Chris at each other's throats, but the bureaucrats of the Treasury had only been doing their jobs. Innocent people getting hurt was never part of what I wanted.
"The situation on-site won't be pretty. Please allow us to assist you."
"I'll head out first. Follow me."
Every second counted. I slipped out of the camp and tore across the open fields using the Art of Fleetfoot.
In an instant I reached the outer wall, planted a step on empty air, and vaulted clean over it. For a moment in midair I glanced back — the entire knight order was chasing me across the fields. They clearly hadn't expected me to simply breach the wall like that, and astonishment was written all over their faces.
I landed lightly on the roof of a house and pressed on, hopping from rooftop to rooftop.
The Treasury occupied a converted old castle as its headquarters. Flames were now pouring from its windows and bell tower. The closer I got, the darker the smoke grew.
A huge crowd had gathered around the castle, among them firefighters who had turned out to fight the blaze. Yet all those people stood frozen, unable to move a muscle under the menacing presence of the Raven Knights encircling the castle.
"Back off if you value your lives!"
"Murderers!"
"There are people in there! Someone has to go in and save them!"
The firefighters and Treasury staff tried to push through the main gate, but a single irritable gesture from the knights sent them sprawling.
I stepped forward in front of the staff.
"Lord Eden!"
Someone recognized me.
"There are so many people inside...! Please, Lord Eden — show us your divine presence!"
The staff prostrated themselves on the ground, pleading in desperate voices. I walked toward the main gate, step by measured step. The crowd held their breath, eyes darting between me and the knights.
"You can't go any further, my lord."
A hulking knight crossed his arms and blocked the way.
"Oh? Why not?"
"It's far too dangerous. This is for your own safety, so please understand."
"Safety, you say."
I drew upon my Daoist power and stretched my hand forward. A wave of freezing cold surged out and flash-froze everything between us and the main gate.
"There. It's safe now. Can I go in?"
The knights shuffled backward, clearing a path on either side. I crossed the road of ice and entered the old castle.
Inside was a maelstrom of fire and smoke. The blaze burned so hot the stone floors were on the verge of melting. I clasped my hands together and chanted an incantation.
The Water Spirit Arts — the Verse of Summoned Rain.
A whirlwind of gale-force air swept through, driving the smoke out of the castle. In its wake, dense clouds bloomed and billowed into being.
The black clouds drifted beneath the ceiling and dumped a sudden localized downpour. To give you a sense of the spell's power — shortly afterward, people were standing ankle-deep in water.
Where the flames had passed, a fair number of people lay collapsed. None had suffered burns, but most were slowly suffocating from the smoke.
"Haaah... haaah..."
They dangled at the threshold between life and death. There wasn't even time to send for a priest. If nothing was done right now, they'd be carting out corpses by the cartload.
I pried open a man's mouth and activated a spell.
The Wind Spirit Arts — the Verse of Calling Winds.
A mass of air compressed powerfully in my palm. I shoved it straight down the man's throat without ceremony.
My master had once saved a suffocating man this very way. When someone has breathed in smoke instead of air, the only remedy is to force even more air into them, he'd said.
"Hck—! Hck...!"
The man curled up and broke into violent coughing. Life was returning to him. I had no time to tend to him further. I laid him on the floor and drove an air mass into the next person's lungs.
"Lord Eden!"
"Lord Eden, are you all right?!"
I was still restoring breath to the victims one by one when the members finally poured into the castle. Without turning around, I gave my orders.
"Theo — go fetch a priest! Fred — get over here and help me triage the patients!"
"Yes, my lord!"
"Everyone else, search for more wounded!"
Thanks to the members arriving in time, we managed to complete the emergency treatment before it was too late. Among the staff we barely managed to pull back from the brink, I found a familiar face. Chief Clerk Opils.
"L-Lord Eden..."
He leaned against the wall, gazing at me through a face blackened with soot.
"I'm... I'm so sorry. The audit materials..."
"Don't talk. Rest. What I did was only a stopgap."
Opils's eyes slowly drifted shut. I confirmed once more that breath still moved in him, then slipped out of the castle to assess the situation outside.
The mood beyond the castle walls had shifted in the span of moments. The Raven Knights' numbers had multiplied several times over — and it wasn't just their numbers that had grown. Their swagger had swelled right along with them.
I could guess why. Their lord had arrived.
Chris stood surrounded by the Raven leadership, dressed head to toe in immaculate black formal wear.
He had shot up in height over the past few years. His presence had grown far more imposing as well — the talent everyone had hailed as genius since his childhood had now flowered in full.
Opposite Chris stood Mabel, flanked by a horde of his own knights.
"Chris, my dear brother."
Mabel spoke with his signature benevolent smile.
"Brother though I may be, I cannot overlook wrongdoing indefinitely."
"And what wrongdoing would that be?"
"Are you seriously going to feign ignorance of the countless crimes your men have committed these past two weeks? Must I, your own brother, expose your shame in front of all these people?"
"What a laugh."
Chris said with a sneer.
"I can't stand that sanctimonious smile of yours, Mabel. That revolting hypocrisy — the way you play at being the only good person while pinning every fault on everyone else. Shall I tell you what you really are, hm? If your character is so exalted, Acting Lord — why did you investigate only your brothers' merchant guilds and leave your own untouched? Why does your lofty sense of justice always seem to swerve around you? Care to reveal the truth?"
Mabel was still smiling, but his eyes were not.
"You've misunderstood. My guild is scheduled for investigation as well. The Treasury has simply been overwhelmed, and the timeline has slipped somewhat."
"Oh, is that so? Then how about this: the first place a Scarlet Blaze was ever discovered was a farm in the outskirts. Of the three of us brothers, who is the only one who owns a farm?"
Mabel's eyebrows twitched. Chris smiled, sensing his advantage.
"I did some digging too, Mabel. You're not the only one who knows how to use people. If catching whoever caused the famine is so important, why has no one ever announced that the famine's starting point sits right beside your farm? What are you so desperate to hide?"
"Chris, I came to arrest the arsonist who set the Treasury ablaze and obstructed the firefighting — not to trade insults with you. If you do not conduct yourself appropriately, I will have no choice but to demonstrate, before all these citizens, that the law applies equally to all."
"Equality, my ass. Spare me the horseshit."
Mabel signaled with a flick of his eyes. The Orchid Knights drew their weapons in unison.
"Arrest Chris Esterzy and every suspected arsonist on the spot."
"There it is. I was wondering when you'd show your true face."
Chris bared his teeth in a grin. The Raven Knights drew their weapons as well. In formation, they looked for all the world like a single raven spreading its wings.
"Show me just how equal that precious law of yours really is."
The two knight orders crashed together. The onlookers scattered in every direction like a swarm of locusts.
"Die, you crow bastards!"
"Die, you hypocrites!"
The plaza in front of the old castle descended into pandemonium in the blink of an eye. War cries and screams filled the air, and every manner of Awoken Ability ran rampant. This time, perhaps because their lords had given the order, they showed no hesitation about using weapons either.
Amid the chaos, the statue of my father that stood in the plaza took a stray blow and shattered, its pieces tumbling across the ground. A mess beyond all messes.
The castle fire had still not been fully brought under control. I had done no more than emergency first aid — the victims urgently needed proper care. But nobody spared a thought for them. All anyone could do was burn with hatred for the enemy in front of their eyes.
And then—
"His Grace the Duke has arrived!"
A voice, not especially loud, poured cold water over the entire escalating situation.
"...What?"
Chris and Mabel turned to stare at each other.
"...The Feast of Saint Rochand is still four days away?"
That was the moment. Magnificent trumpet calls rang out from the walls on every side.
"F-Father is coming from where?"
Mabel asked. It was the first time I had ever seen him look so flustered.
"He has already passed through the city gates!"
War cries echoed in the distance. Thousands of mounted soldiers were approaching, the ground shaking beneath their hooves. In that instant, the Ravens and the Orchids couldn't even decide whether to form ranks for inspection or rush to protect their lords.
Amid the general panic, knights appeared clad head to toe in gray barding and walls of iron armor.
The Steel Guard — my father's personal guard, and the strongest knight order in the duchy. Neither the Ravens nor the Orchids dared so much as meet their eyes. While the others had been squabbling over petty privileges in the city, those men had been hunting demons at the Empire's northernmost frontier. Warriors tempered in the very flames of hell.
Once the Steel Guard had arrayed themselves across the plaza, a man of markedly greater bulk than the rest rode forward. The moment I laid eyes on him, my chest swelled.
My father — Duke Drek Esterzy.
It was as if time itself had stopped. In truth, while my father rode to the center of the plaza, not a single soul dared to breathe freely.
He pulled his reins and halted his horse. His gaze fell upon the old castle, where black smoke still billowed skyward.
"Talon."
"My lord."
"Extinguish the fire at the Treasury and rescue the victims."
"At once, Your Grace."
The tall adjutant led a detachment of guardsmen away.
My father's gaze now turned to the wreckage of the plaza. His eyes came to rest on the statue lying toppled, its head sheared clean off.
"F-Father..."
"Allow me to explain everything, Your Grace."
Mabel and Chris stood there helplessly, like children caught red-handed. My father paid their words no heed. Instead, he spoke in a cold tone I had never once heard from him before.
"You will both follow me to my study. Now."