The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 28 – Pursuit (2)

“Any leads on the bastard?” Sina asked.

Ossrey shook his head causing Sina to bite her lip. It had been two days since Juan escaped from right under their noses at the Ash Tower.

They were approaching the Laus Mountains, which divided the capital and the south. A strange fog had been following them wherever they went, forcing them to split up into smaller units for the search, but to no avail.

“We’ve decided to pause the search because the fog was too thick. Our knights keep getting ambushed as well. Although there aren’t any casualties, Captain Haselle also agrees that there won’t be any progress even if we continue. Does that kid have some kind of ability allowing him to cast fog?” Ossrey reported.

Sina felt frustrated as she looked at the fog outside the tent. She was afraid that Juan was hiding somewhere underneath all the thick fog. Juan was already tough to deal with despite being a child; if they were to be ambushed by him in this fog, they would have no chance of winning against him.

“This fog is definitely not a natural occurrence, it reminds me of the story that the Ash Tower’s outer walls are made of fog. Maybe this is related to the Ash Tower’s collapse,” Sina remarked.

“To think that he even obtained the Ash Tower’s power... Just what is he? Even His Majesty’s relic didn’t work on him,” Ossrey spoke anxiously and bit his lips.

Sina regretted the fact that she could not do anything herself as she looked at Ossrey.

Sina was being treated in a temporary tent. Although she did not suffer any major injuries, she had bruises all over her body, and her dizziness did not go away. Had a Priest been here, she would have been healed immediately. The only person with a Priest’s Grace was Kato, but he was bandaged all over his body and had turned half insane.

Sina spoke as she looked at Ossrey, “I’m curious about Juan’s identity, but there’s something that I’m even more curious about. Since when did you get the White Crow Templars’ shield? I don’t recall hearing that you’ve received the title of a Templar.”

“I’m embarrassed to say this, but Sir Kato lent it to me. He said that you would be his sword, and asked me to be his shield. I’ve heard of others getting severely punished when they weren’t authorized to use Templar equipment, but Bishop Rietto apparently permitted temporary use,” Ossrey explained, blushing.

Sina had never heard of someone who was not a Templar using a Templar’s equipment. It was a great honor to receive such blessed equipment as it was not accessible to most. It would make more sense to just dispatch one of the Templars themselves.

Sina was frustrated with all the various exceptions made recently. A normal knight borrowing a Templar’s equipment as well as the Inquisitor who tried to pass himself off as an assassin. She felt as if she had been swept into some huge conspiracy.

“You should have reported that to me first,” Sina remarked.

“Um, Sir Kato said that I’d probably never need to use the shield... And that if we succeed, Dame Sina and I—” Ossrey hurriedly closed his mouth.

“What about you and I?” Sina questioned.

“It’s nothing. I guess all this doesn’t matter, since Sir Kato is in this state. Plus the relic needed to track that Juan bastard is broken...”

Sina found Ossrey’s attempt to change the topic suspicious, but there was a much bigger and more important issue at hand.

She muttered, “If this fog isn’t natural, it’s going to be tough continuing the pursuit. We might have to stop it all together. I can’t think of any way to catch him... Hopefully Kato doesn’t lose his sanity any more than he already has. Logically speaking, it’s better for us to stop here.”

“I don’t think we’ll stop here though. I saw him grinding his teeth in anger earlier,” Ossrey remarked.

“That’s why this is a problem. There will be an even bigger problem if we continue like this,” Sina responded.

“What is it?” Ossrey asked.

Sina frowned and hesitantly said, “Just a bit further ahead is Raven’s Land.”

However, Ossrey looked clueless. It was only then that Sina realized how weak their knowledge was regarding the empire’s history.

She sighed and asked, “Do you know about Ras Raud?”

“Ah, one of the Six Apostates...”

“Yes, Ras Raud, the last adopted son of His Majesty, was one of the six who led the assassination. During the assassination, Ras’ Order of Huginn was supposed to enter the capital from the south, but failed. They were stopped at the Laus Mountains by General Barth Baltic’s Order of the Capital,” Sina explained.

“Oh, I think I’ve heard about that. They made the mountains steeper in order to stop the Order of Huginn...” Ossrey responded.

“...I think that’s a bit exaggerated, but they did accomplish a great feat. Because of them, the Six Apostates were isolated and eventually met their doom. But it’s said that, unlike the others that were disbanded, the Order of Huginn is hiding somewhere within the Laus Mountains, waiting for the empire to divide and biding their time. Ras Raud won’t just ignore Juan.”

“Hmm, in that case...” Just as Ossrey was about to ask a question, a knight soaked in rain stepped into the tent.

“Dame Sina, the Inquisitor is asking for you.”

***

“What is this nonsense?!” Sina exclaimed.

The rain was pouring, but the Order of the Blue Rose was preparing to move out despite the rain. Even with all the commotion, Sina could only hear the loud beating of her heart.

“As I’ve already said, Dame Sina. Our goal is to capture that heretic and kill him immediately,” Kato said firmly. Wrapped all over in multiple layers of bandages with blood and pus oozing out from various spots, Kato’s appearance was strange, to say the least. His voice sounded rough as if a fragment of the sheath had hurt his throat.

“Our goal is to capture and kill that heretic bastard immediately,” Kato ordered.

“I won’t argue any further on that since he carried out armed resistance, but isn’t it enough to just organize a search team like what we had planned initially?!” Sina argued.

“How?” Kato questioned.

Sina could not answer his question. The relic needed to track Juan was gone, the thick fog made it difficult for the Order of the Blue Rose to see anything, and the sudden downpour was erasing Juan’s tracks. There was no way for the heavily-armed knights to chase after Juan.

“Maybe with wanted posters, or we could create a special force...” Sina suggested.

“Do you think that'll work?” Kato asked.

Sina could not reply.

“Just behave yourself and carry out my order,” Kato warned Sina.

Sina bit her lips as she glared at him for some time.

Sina eventually swung her fist down onto the desk in front of her in frustration and cried out, “But how can we burn down a village full of civilians?!”

Kato glared back at Sina without any reaction to her outburst. “Purification is the way to deal with apostates.”

“Wasn’t that from decades back?!” yelled Sina. “It was last used in Tantil before I was even born! Such tactics that had been used to capture the instigators of His Majesty’s asassination, you wouldn’t be be able to get away with them in this day and age, even as an Inquisitor .”

“It’s still used in the west.”

“The west...!” Sina was speechless at Kato’s ridiculous reply. “... I do not wish for my hometown to become like the west. The people there are barely surviving in that hell. I’m not doubting Creed General Dismas’ faith, but I don’t want to follow in his footsteps. I’m sure the other knights feel the same.”

“I am afraid I have to agree with her, Sir Kato,” Haselle remarked as he walked into the tent. It was unusual for him to say that, since he had taken a back seat and handed most of the authorities to Sina, who was the Captain of this Pursuit Unit.

One could feel Kato’s deep frown through his layers of bandages. Instead of seeing the wrinkles on his face, one saw blood seeping through his bandages as he asked, “And your reason for saying that?”

“It’s simply an issue of what’s possible and what’s not. If we start wiping out every village we come across, it’ll delay our pursuit. I agree that we should look for him everywhere thoroughly, but if he is on the run and not hiding, that will set our progress back significantly.”

“I’ll mobilize another knight order then,” responded Kato.

“Do as you wish, but I don’t know if there would be a knight order that’d be willing to come all the way here in the mountains in the midst of a downpour just for this task. It would even be tough for us to dispatch someone to deliver the message in this weather,” Haselle refuted.

“You say that, but aren’t you just afraid of the Raven’s Land?” Kato mocked.

Haselle didn’t react to Kato’s mocking. “It would be a lie if I said I wasn’t afraid, but I’d like to say that there is no one in my knight order who would run off if they were to face one of the apostates. Please reconsider this, Sir Kato. Whether it would be better to have everyone fight as heroes and meet their deaths while at the same time, also fail to capture the boy; or to return now, admit our failure and ask the capital for help. The choice is yours.”

Haselle left just as suddenly as he entered after finishing his sentence.

Sina was slightly flustered that Haselle had helped her, but everything he said was right.

Kato frowned but he remained silent. As Haselle had said, it was clear that the Order of the Blue Rose was not willing to cooperate with Kato, and he realized that he had no other choice; at least within the Order of the Blue Rose.

***

Just as a raindrop fell onto his forehead, a large two-handed sword fell toward Juan. It was so slow that Juan dodged it easily.

The knight quickly pulled back his sword after he missed and swung yet again. This basic move was awfully slow and full of loopholes.

It was clear as day that this knight was heavily lacking in real combat experience, just as expected of a knight stationed in this remote area in this peaceful era.

Juan dodged another swing, and then an incoming stab. He stuck out his leg and tripped the knight.

The knight fell to his knees as he flailed. From this angle, there was no way Juan would get hit even if the knight swung his sword.

Juan had countless ways to kill the knight but he just dodged the sword instead.

‘This reminds me of the time when I used to train knights.’?

There was a time when humans were no different from mountain bandits. Juan taught them, transforming them into an imperial knight order with enough power to control the empire, but that took a very long time to achieve. The Order of the Blue Rose was not that weak, but to Juan, there was not much of a difference. He thought that they were alright for a knight order in a remote area.

“Y-you bastard! Kill me now if you’re going to!” the knight exclaimed. He seemed to have lost morale, but he was still swinging his sword.

Juan decided to grant the knight’s wish. He took out his short sword as the knight stabbed his sword at the air clumsily. As the knight’s sword and the short sword clashed against each other, they made a loud screech. The knight let go of his sword in fear as sparks flew. Having already gotten into range of the knight, Juan let out a sigh. Instead of stabbing the knight, he kicked the man’s nether region.

The knight fell to his knees, gasping.

Juan knocked out the knight by striking the back of his head.

‘The third one.’

He had more or less figured out the knights’ skills. Juan was using body strengthening ability with mana to increase his mobility. Talter’s short sword was pretty useful as a weapon, but it consumed a lot of mana to heal when Juan got injured. Since he was already pretty light to begin with, his attack style naturally involved hitting and dodging quickly.

‘Even so, these knights are too slow.’?

Juan had once faced humans as an enemy when he was an emperor. On that occasion, he had approached them with utmost tolerance. But not anymore—he felt no guilt even if he killed every single human he came across.

“But their standards are so low...”

Juan wasn’t as angry as he had been back in the colosseum, and there was nothing to gain from killing them. Thus, he felt no desire to kill.

Had he felt some kind of threat from the enemy, he’d have wanted to kill them, but he felt no threat at all. He felt that the standards of the knight orders had declined over time.

‘Of course, it’s partly because these bastards do only what they have to do.’?

It was hard to deny that this was partly Sina Solvane’s fault as well.

Juan had liked Sina the most out of all the people he had met after his reincarnation. He did not feel good about hurting her colleagues. He felt annoyed, but decided that this amount of generosity was good enough.

Sounds of the pouring rain filled the forest, as the moisture and the clouds combined.

‘It’ll be hard for them to track me anyway.’?

Even with multiple knight orders, since they had no divine relic to track him, it was only a matter of time before they would lose him completely.

Just as he was about to leave, he felt the presence of knights from across the fog.

‘Are they looking for their comrades?’?

He didn’t need to assess their skills anymore. Juan slowly hid himself with the gray cloak. As long as he did not make any movements, the knights wouldn’t be able to find him hidden within the gray cloak in the fog. He waited a long time, but no knights came.

However, a faint scent of blood came from beyond the fog. Juan stayed hidden in his gray cloak and went in the direction where he felt the knights’ presence.

There stood a woman with red lips and her hair tied up in a ponytail. It was Anya. She pulled a stiletto out from the neck of a knight as she greeted him. “We meet again, boy.”