Chapter 9: One Who Understands the Three Worlds (9)
Chapter 9: One Who Understands the Three Worlds (9)
"Sir Goffrey is said to be here. Do not let your guard down for an instant."
At their lord's words, they all nodded with tense faces.
No one made the obvious retort: 'Wasn't it just one man, anyway?'
For anyone who lived by the sword on the Continent, the fame of the Knight of Prophecy was impossible to ignore.
It was an age ruled as much by superstition as by faith. Anyone who had seen Goffrey fight even once inevitably came away in awe.
He dodged without looking, survived every assassination attempt, and seemed several moves ahead in both attack and defense.
Even in tournaments, where reading an opponent's moves was everything, he had never suffered a single defeat. Before becoming the Knight of Prophecy, he had been known as Goffrey the Invincible.
To some, he would appear to be a man blessed by God, even one who received divine favoritism.
"We charge straight in. Stand aside, Dosen."
The subordinate who had been leading with a buckler fell back.
Marcus and Aaron, clad in metal armor, exchanged glances.
"Going in!"
Aaron swung his mace, smashing the old latch, and drove his shoulder into the door.
CRASH!
A foul stench billowed through the shattered doorway.
As they descended underground, iron-barred cells came into view along the walls. Lady Maria and her two maids lay inside, collapsed in deep sleep.
'Young lady!'
'Maria!'
Marcus and his party swallowed their cries. The reason was the sturdy man in a dark monk's habit standing before them.
Eugene felt as if he had been struck by lightning out of a clear sky.
When he focused his hearing, the sound of many footsteps coming straight this way reached him.
'Could we have been discovered?'
That was his first thought. Perhaps someone else besides himself knew of the secret passage.
'No, that can't be.'
Eugene discarded the hypothesis.
It was a clandestine passage that could only be found by practically living in the foul underground dungeon. Moreover, had the monastery known of its existence, they would have long since sealed it shut.
To play dumb, he had left the cell and bent the iron bars back as close to their original positions as he could.
BANG!
Just as he finished the work, two heavily armed knights and soldiers burst in, looking utterly murderous.
"So there was a jailer."
Marcus said, looking at Eugene.
"I am not a jailer..."
"You jailer scum! Hand over the keys if you wish to keep your life!"
Aaron shouted, leveling his mace.
"I am not a jailer..."
"You wretch! Will you only come to your senses after your limbs are broken?!"
"Would you listen when a man tries to speak!"
Before Eugene's words were even finished, Aaron charged. Along with two soldiers following behind him.
'Knights, honestly. What were their ears even for?'
Eugene was the odd one out. Most knights in this world lived by 'my way or else.' They had already decided what answer they wanted and expected everyone else to provide it.
Of course, Marcus's party had infiltrated enemy territory and had women to rescue, so some degree of leeway could be granted.
'Damn, it's too many to fight barehanded.'
Because of the incident with Goffrey, it was forbidden to enter wearing a sword, so he was unarmed.
Thump!
Eugene stomped the ground. The shockwave spread the surrounding dust outward in a circle.
"What is this!"
Aaron was taken aback as the distance widened in an instant. It felt almost as if an invisible giant hand had snatched his opponent away.
Immediately after, Eugene picked up a barrel as large as a full-grown man with one hand and hurled it, and the shock redoubled.
WHOOSH!
The massive barrel came flying with a terrifying sound of tearing air. For a moment, it created an illusion as if his entire front had been filled with wood.
"Ghk!"
Aaron swung his mace with all his might, and the barrel shattered.
Even though nothing was inside it, an impact that felt as though his arm might be torn off followed. It was only because Aaron was a truly exceptional knight that he did not lose his grip on his weapon.
Clang!
However, the mace that rebounded backward unluckily struck the cheek of the soldier who had been following.
Since he was wearing a helmet, his cheekbone was not shattered, but the heavy impact sent him staggering and sprawling. He collapsed face-first into the cell's iron bars and passed out.
Without even a moment to feel sorry, Eugene, hidden among the scattering wood splinters, arrived right in front of Aaron.
'Chainmail, is it.'
The enemy knight wore a surcoat on the outside.
Yet thanks to his hearing, which he had just been sharpening to a razor's edge, he could perceive the sound of countless interlocked iron rings shaking.
Eugene's kick struck Aaron's abdomen squarely. Even though chainmail stops edged weapons well, it is weak against overwhelming concussive force.
"Guhk!"
Aaron was lifted into the air, slammed into one soldier like a bowling pin, and sent crashing into the wall.
Trembling, he tried somehow to rise, then collapsed sideways and fell unconscious. A thin trickle of blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
Eugene snatched the shield and mace that Aaron had lost as he flew, plucking them out of the air.
"Uwaaaaah!"
The lone remaining soldier of the three who had charged, driven by fear, swung his sword at Eugene.
CLANG!
Eugene struck it away with the mace, shattering every tooth of the blade and throwing the soldier off balance.
He then slammed him with the shield, and without even a scream, the soldier spun like a top.
After three rotations, the soldier lay sprawled before Marcus. His eyes were rolled back, but given that his chest rose and fell, he did not appear to be dead.
"..."
The overwhelming display of violence left every intruder speechless.
Aaron was the strongest of the six knights who had dueled Marcus. A knight of honor who had once won a city tournament. And he had been felled in a single blow?
"The fanatics were raising a monster."
Marcus gritted his teeth and clenched his sword.
The strong recognize the strong. Marcus realized that the opponent before him was the worst enemy he had ever met.
The soldiers behind him trusted their lord and readied their weapons, but Marcus had no confidence he could defeat this monastery knight.
And this man was far too young to be Goffrey. What if Goffrey himself joined the fight as well?
'Should we retreat?'
Losing a battle is understandable, but a commander who misses the moment to retreat is the worst of all. Marcus agonized between the lives of his men and Maria.
"That just now was self-defense."
Eugene turned both palms upward. The mace and shield rested across them as he gently rocked his hands from side to side.
It was a gesture that clearly showed he had no will to fight.
"I'm neither a jailer nor a priest. I can't stand the monastery bastards. This habit, anyone—including laborers—who lives here can wear one. It was your side that attacked without giving me a chance to answer."
Eugene dusted off the introduction the girl had rejected and tried it again on the intruders.
Judging by the shifting mood and the soldiers stealing glances at the girl, they had likely come from a Blood Kin family to rescue her.
He had no desire to make enemies pointlessly, so he had controlled his strength. Those who had fallen were likely not dead.
"Sir Marcus."
"Please."
The soldiers wished to retrieve the young lady through negotiation, without having to fight this nightmarish warrior.
"Who are you, Sir?"
After ordering his men to tend to the fallen, Marcus asked,
"Eugene Meyer."
It was a name he had never heard. Marcus glanced over his shoulder, but everyone shook their heads as if they didn't know it.
"If what you say is true, we have no desire for pointless battle either."
"You came to rescue those women, I take it?"
Marcus nodded.
This was no time for concealment or schemes. Better to ask directly and skip the bargaining.
"I won't interfere, so please take them and go quickly."
Eugene stepped aside and gestured for them to enter.
After a moment of hesitation, Marcus stood before the cell door, and the soldiers shuffled after him.
"Feed these to the knight who collapsed over there."
Eugene took two small pills from his bosom and tossed them to the squire who was supporting Aaron.
"Wha-what is this?"
The squire had unwittingly slipped into using honorifics.
"Medicine for internal injuries. It'll help until you reach proper treatment. Give him one now and the other in three days."
"I offer thanks for your mercy, Sir."
Without a moment's hesitation, Aaron gulped down the pill in the squire's hand. He was such a straightforward man—whether it was simple-mindedness or foolishness was unclear—that Eugene, who had given the medicine, was taken aback.
"Sorry. I suppose this is a bit like causing the injury and then offering the cure."
Marcus regarded Eugene with a peculiar look in his eyes, then shook his head clear. His immediate priority was rescuing his sister.
The bars, as well as the door itself, were far sturdier than he had expected. It was not a lock that could be broken by force.
But the men under Marcus's command had diverse talents, and among those he had brought today was a prodigy at picking locks.
"Can you open it?"
He asked the subordinate who had slung his buckler onto his back and taken out a Rogue Kit.
"It's a triple lock, so it's tricky, but I will absolutely manage it. Just give me a little time..."
The subordinate's answer was cut off by the sound of shouts and clashing weapons.
"Are there others outside buying time separately?"
"Yes. They are strong and tenacious men, so they will hold out long enough."
Marcus answered.
True to the paranoid Orthodox Church, the prison's locking mechanism was abnormally strict.
"Do you know where you are, creeping in here? You wretches!"
"Brothers, do not fear death!"
Clank, clank.
Sweat poured down like rain from the forehead of the subordinate as he picked the first lock and attempted the second. It was already a difficult lock, and the sounds of fighting outside made his heart race with urgency.
On top of that, even though the man in the monk's habit had said he had no will to fight, the way he stood there impassively was terrifying. Concentration was barely enough as it was, yet his hands kept fumbling.
"You'd best hurry a bit more. I'll help."
Eugene said.
The more quickly Marcus's group left and stirred up a ruckus outside, the easier it was for him too.
"Don't tell me you have the key... no. If you'd had it, you'd have handed it over long ago."
Marcus stopped mid-sentence. For him to stand there just watching them struggle to pick the lock and then produce the key midway through—wouldn't that be the act of a madman?
"The senior priest probably has that. He's the sort who trusts no one but himself, you see."
The subordinate was still stuck on the second stage.
"Then how do you intend to open it?"
"Like this."
Eugene grasped the iron bars, which still bore the imprints of his hands.
"???"
Everyone stared at him, their faces seeming to ask, what in the world is this man trying to do now?
CREEEEAK!
Soon, the thick iron bars bent like taffy as a hair-raising screech echoed out.
'I won't need to worry about the aftermath this time.'
Since they would have to carry the women out, Eugene pulled with maximum force, holding nothing back.
"Good heavens!"
Aaron, who had regained his senses at some point, murmured with a dazed expression.
CRACK! CRACK!
PING!
The thick cast-iron pins fixed into the ceiling and floor were yanked out and shot off in all directions. One of them struck Marcus's greave with a clear ringing sound.
Going beyond merely bending them, he tore three entire bars out, completing an opening large enough for a person to pass through.
"I'll trust that this erases any grudge born of the scuffle earlier."
"Even had you severed my arm, I'd have forgotten it."
Eugene spoke calmly, and Marcus, already stepping through, found himself approving of the man's attitude.
"Maria. Wake up, now. We must escape at once."
While the soldiers lifted the maidservants, Marcus tried to wake the girl. But she lay as if dead, completely unresponsive.
"Was her name Maria? A pretty name. Right now she's in an extremely deep sleep, so waking her will be useless. I recommend you just hoist her over your shoulder and leave swiftly."
"That cannot be."
Marcus denied it flatly.
His sister was the one who had helped her incapable brother, living as if treading on thin ice within the society of the Nobility of the Night.
"Maria has long suffered from severe insomnia."
Snoooore...
"..."
Marcus was flustered by the cute sound that emanated from his bosom at precisely that moment.
"Then our business with each other is concluded. I'll take my leave first."
Leaving them behind, Eugene stepped out of the underground prison.
He had stayed wary of Marcus's party to the very end just in case, but there was absolutely no sign from them of any intent to harm Eugene.
As he exited, only the clattering sound of the shield and mace he had set down echoed noisily behind him.
"You impious vampire bastards."
"Do you have any idea whose threshold... hiik!"
A priest who had been charging forward hastily jumped back, narrowly avoiding a spear thrust between the shields that would have skewered his belly.
"Come on in if you're so confident, you fanatical wretches! Our elder will personally inspect the state of your entrails for you!"
Eugene gave a thumbs-up to the dhampirs, who were holding their ground and making a huge ruckus a little distance away. It was a perfect situation for slipping out quietly.
He vaulted over the monastery's outer wall in a single dash and landed, and someone came running toward him.
"Homi?"
Homi, running up with a glad face, handed him his sword.
"You thought of the danger I might be in and came running. Thank you."
Eugene embraced his quick-witted and loyal squire. It was as his teacher had said. No matter how fine a warhorse you had, it could never do this sort of thing for you.
"Let's go, quickly."
For better or worse, the time had come to leave this village.