Chapter 29 – Pursuit (3)

Juan took a look at the condition of the fallen knights. They were killed so swiftly that they did not even have the chance to scream.

For Anya to be able to kill the knights who had been wearing heavy armor so quickly meant that her skills were way better than expected.

‘It might even be because of the clothes she’s wearing.’

Anya now wore a black leather armor that was easy to move in, different from what she had on before. A faint trace of mana could be felt from it.

“I thought something happened here because the fog was so thick. Did you like my goodwill gesture, boy?” Anya asked.

“Is that the only way you know how to show your goodwill?” Juan refuted.

“That’s because it didn’t seem like you’d enjoy sweets,” Anya responded.

Juan remained silent as Anya swung her stiletto to shake off the blood on it and put it back into its sheath.

“I watched what you did just now. I thought you would kill the knight but you stopped. These jerks are the dogs of the empire; there’s no need to spare their lives. That thick bloodlust that came out of you was real, so why did you spare him? Did you feel sympathy for him at the last moment?”

Juan stayed silent.

“You don’t have to answer me since I like how you don’t speak a lot. But I never imagined you to be the sympathetic type… that’s why I was wondering about the reason you did that. You…” Anya said as she smiled, looking curious.

“I still have a lot of things I don’t know about the empire,” Juan said, but he thought it was funny since he had once ruled over the empire.

He felt like there was some truth in what she had said. As time passed by, Juan felt like there were more and more things he did not know about the empire, including the things that he had intentionally ignored.

“It’s hard to hate what you don't know, that is why you’re becoming weaker,” Anya told Juan.

“I’m becoming weaker?” Juan asked in a sarcastic tone.

“I’m not talking about physical strength, I’m referring to your heart. Regardless of whether it’s physical or emotional strength, they’d get stronger the more they’re refined. But it seems there isn’t anything testing your heart at the moment,” Anya explained as she approached Juan, reaching for his wet hair and lifted it with her finger lightly.

“Seeing as how your heart has weakened so drastically ever since the Ash Tower, you’ve met a nice person, huh? I wonder who that person is. The only people you’ve met ever since you left the Ash Tower should have only been that clumsy knight order though. Why did you end up liking a knight of all people?” Anya asked.

Juan did not reply.

“You want to become stronger, right? I can tell when I see how you behave, but you won’t be able to become as strong as you want at this rate,” Anya whispered near Juan’s ears.

“If you want, I can give you a ‘present’ to help you become stronger,” Anya said.

‘Sina Solvane’s life.’

While Anya didn’t say Sina’s name out loud, it was as if she had whispered it.

Juan suddenly grabbed tightly onto Anya’s finger. Before Anya even realized what was happening, Juan had bent her finger at a weird angle; it sounded like a branch snapping. Anya grabbed her finger in pain but Juan did not stop there. He then punched Anya’s stomach with all his might.

“Argh...!” Anya gasped, the blow sending her flying. She took deep breaths as she fell to the ground. While Juan did not punch a hole through her stomach, Anya was not able to breathe properly.

Juan then used his toes to lift Anya’s chin up.

“This is the perfect eye level we should have.”

Anya opened and closed her lips as if she wanted to say something, but Juan ignored her, “If you dare say you want to give me a ‘present’ again, your life will become the next present for me.”

Anya nodded furiously at Juan’s words. Juan turned around to leave as Anya remained on the ground.

“Wa... Wait a minute...” Anya barely spoke those words quickly as she gasped for breath.

Juan stopped at her words. Anya then crawled towards Juan as she pulled at the grass on the ground. Juan frowned as she looked messy with wet leaves all over her.

“I... I’m sorry...” Anya apologized hoarsely. “I... simply wanted to... be on friendly terms with you... but... it seems I have a talent for making you unhappy. If... you tell me... what you want... ”

“Never appear in front of me again,” Juan stated firmly and left.

***

Juan looked down from the top of the mountain as he wondered how much time had passed.

The mountain was not steep, but it was slippery because of the fog and autumn rain.

He had been walking for two days after his fight with the Order of the Blue Rose. It would have been normal if he had been tired, but he just felt a little sore in his legs. After all, his rate of recovery was faster than the rate of his muscles breaking down from just walking. Thanks to that, his stamina had actually increased.

‘I guess I don’t have to worry about the pursuit squad, the problem would be...’

Juan glanced back upon feeling the presence of Anya, who was still trying to catch up after a day. She had been desperately trying to catch up to Juan because of the lead that Juan had, but it was obvious that she was tired. It was pretty hard for a human to cross the mountains in rain without any sleep. The distance between her and Juan had been growing due to her injuries as time passed, but she finally managed to catch up.

‘Should I just kill her?’

That might actually make things a lot simpler, but strangely, Juan did not feel like doing it.

Anya had a familiar smell. The unique smell of someone who had a void somewhere within them.

‘She’ll probably give up after a while.’

Just then, he saw a village at the feet of the mountain. Since Anya was already exhausted, Juan thought she was likely to either faint or stop tracking him.

Juan headed towards the village but when he approached it, he smelled something strange. While it was faint because of the rain, Juan could definitely smell blood. Juan walked toward the edge of the village that had the fewest people. It was a small settlement, with about eight families.

Juan slowly ventured further into the village. The road was muddy from the continuous downpour in the last few days. With every step he took, mud and blood stuck onto his feet. Bloody water could be found everywhere. All the doors of the houses were open and the houses were in a mess, but there were no corpses in sight.

The blood had been spilled not too long ago, since the bloody stench was so strong and had not been washed away by the rain.

After searching for a while, Juan found some faint traces left in the village—there were footprints that were deeper than the others. Those were footprints of people who wore heavy armor.

Juan could easily imagine what had happened here. People wearing armor arrived at the village, forcefully dragged those living in the houses and lined them up in the rain for unknown reasons. Rough interrogations then took place as the armed people made a mess of the houses. Among those armed people, some probably carried forbidden items. They were not bandits, because bandits would not go through all this trouble. Some of the villagers attempted to resist and got pierced through the chest with a spear. The rest of the villagers got scared as the slaughter began. The armed people did not care about covering what they did here. The only trace of the slaughter was in the middle of the village.

Juan found a black flag on a well, with a white crow and the emperor’s symbol. There was a revolting smell of blood that came from the collapsed well. The corpses could not be seen as the rocks had buried them. As the rainwater and corpses filled the well, blood instead of underground water came out of it.

“Horrifying, right?” Anya’s voice could be heard from behind. She looked pale and gasped for air as if she was about to die. Her wet clothes that stuck to her body made her look smaller than she already was.

“Not really, such things were common in the past,” Juan replied indifferently.

In the past, gods used to create races or destroy them for the sake of their amusement. They were cruel and acted on their impulses because the strong had no need to be afraid of others or be polite to them. That was just how it was for the gods.

There was a race known as Hornsluine. They were the strongest race of all. They split the continent into three kingdoms and ruled over them. One day, they decided to defy the gods. Due to this, their race was annihilated within a week. The only survivor was Juan’s comrade, Barth Baltic.

Living in that age allowed one to see all sorts of strange sights. The current times felt rather peaceful as compared to the past.

“Looks like you come from a pretty ruthless place too. I guess things like purification would happen beyond the borders from time to time, right?” Anya said.

“Purification?” Juan questioned.

Anya pointed at the well that was in the middle of the village. She had applied a splint on her broken finger.

“If a village is suspected of heresy or if someone commits a crime, the whole village is interrogated. I don’t know what those beyond the borders call this, but you could call this ‘plundering’. This is just how nobles earn money and have fun. Or it could simply be a kind of stress relief for the knights. I heard it was the worst in the western parts, but such things happen from time to time in remote areas as well, since there’d be no repercussions coming from those poor people,” Anya explained.

“They killed them to get rid of traces indicating that they plundered this place?” Juan asked as he looked at the traces of what had happened in this village.

It was as Anya said. It seemed like the village was slaughtered for the sake of plundering or just because someone was bored.

But Juan had different thoughts. “No.”

“Pardon?” Anya responded.

“It seems this was related to me,” Juan answered.

While there were traces that the village had been plundered, there were also traces of interrogation. The interrogation was not done for fun; it felt like it was done with proper procedures. They started with children, then women and lastly, men. They did it so they could get information from a big crowd of villagers.

“This is related to you…? Could this have been done by the Order of the Blue Rose? No, I don’t think they’ve caught up yet... But if that’s what you think it is, then it should be the case,” Anya responded.

“It’s not them. Something’s closing onto me,” Juan said as he looked up at the shadow of death that roamed the village. Something was looking for Juan and Juan caught onto its stench.

“This is a familiar smell,” Juan said as he thought,

‘The smell of war.’

***

[Find the black-haired boy. Find him, kill him, burn him and feed his ashes to the beasts.]

The Templar that wore a white crow mask folded the letter and put it away. Along with the heavy rain that had been going on for days, it was a moonless night.

The templar’s white mask stood out a lot in the dark. It actually looked more like a crow’s skull than a mask.

The white crow that stood on the templar’s shoulder gave a long cry as he stood up. He wore massive heavy armor and also had a rectangular shield large enough to cover his huge body.

He lifted a hammer that was as big as a child up with ease, and said as he looked around, “My soldiers.”

The Templar had a trained body, along with equipment that had the emperor’s Grace. The templar’s voice alone exerted enough pressure to grip one’s heart; his low voice caused the soldiers to flinch.

They were the Order of the White Crow, formed with the express purpose of chasing after Ras Raud, one of the Six Apostates. They were famous for being the strictest and also most tenacious in pursuit. Many soldiers had their heads cut down by them because of wrong actions or answers.

“There are no heretics in this village either,” the Templar stated as he looked at the old man who lived through the interrogation.

The soldiers had used purification as an excuse occasionally, but they had never experienced a ‘real’ purification like this one.

The Templar sealed off the village thoroughly. He started his interrogation from the youngest and weakest of the villagers by breaking their fingers like a machine, one by one, and eventually gouged out their eyes. It was so cruel that a few of the soldiers opposed the Templar’s actions; they were all dead and floating in the well.

“There’s no need to pity those who have decided to get out of His Majesty, the Emperor’s protection.”

The remaining soldiers maintained silence at the Templar’s words.

“Inquisitor Kato’s orders are still effective. We’re heading to the next village,” the Templar commanded.