Chapter 28

At the bottom of the valley, the battle was still in full swing. It was chaotic with the sight of the living and the dead eating each other.

So Lena’s smile, which was in full bloom, was rather ridiculously pretty.

The Marquis looked at his daughter, who was as clear as a sun, and said in a hoarse voice, “You’re playing with me from the beginning.”

“It’s a misunderstanding, father. I don’t play with you.”

Lena laughed at the Marquis’ sighs.

“Don’t assume that I’m malicious. Because I really mean to give you a chance.”

“A chance to destroy me?”

“There’s a chance to correct a mistake, right?”

Despite the Marquis’ grudging question, Lena answered lightly. Then, she added as if she was sad.

“Of course, you might not think so. Each person’s conscience weighs differently. That’s why I’m giving you this opportunity. If you have no regrets or remorse anyway, you should do something.”

Lena’s veiled accusations were refuted with a painful face of the Marquis.

“Don’t treat yourself as a heartless monster.”

“A monster?”

Lena asked as if she had heard something interesting. Then, she suddenly threw her gaze down the valley.

“Do you know? Why they wander around like that.”

What Lena pointed to was those who swallowed the first cry.

It was a sudden question, but the answer wasn’t difficult at all.

Those who swallowed the first cry said they had a lot of regrets, so they repeated what they regretted as a curse and punishment.

A few passages of Empress Niheal’s biography immediately came to his mind, but the Marquis chose silence, he didn’t like the abstract story. So, Lena answered instead.

“They killed their own children. Like father.”

The Marquis had never heard of this before. However, Lena went on as if it were not a very special story.

“Isn’t it funny? There are so many people who have ‘eaten’ their own children.”

Lena’s smile thickened.

“So I don’t think father is a monster or a demon.”1

At the same time, both eyes again captured the Marquis.

“You’re just an ordinary coward person.”

Lena Rubel, who held her father in her eyes, whispered, and it brutally struck the heart of the Marquis. He shook it off and stared at his daughter.

He wanted to ask what she knew. He wanted to figure out how she dared to evaluate him, who struggled from the bottom up to this place.

However, he endured the words that filled his throat.

“That’s right, it doesn’t make sense for someone like me to be a monster.”

The Marquis pressed down his anger and gambled on it.

“You’d rather be the one who fits the word ‘monster’. You are a real monster who shows mercy to your bad father,” said the Marquis and slowly rose.

The moment he stepped on the ground, his ankle was sore. He must have fallen off the horse and hit the stirrup.

What a ferocious sight. Then, he approached Lena, thinking so. But Lena didn’t stop her approaching father.

“…You’re not even vigilant.”

He wished she couldn’t be too shallow.

As the Marquis approached, he slowly stretched his arms. Nevertheless, Lena didn’t even move. The same was true even after the Marquis’ two hands eventually covered her shoulders.

The Marquis, who also considered her as contempt, said with an afflicted face, “Yeah, what can humans do to monsters? You’re all right. I am powerless, so I just bow down and obey.”

That’s what the Marquis said, and gently pressed Lena’s shoulder in his grasp.

“But I still don’t know if the chance you’re talking about is mercy or revenge.”

“Ugh!”

A sharp pain stuck in Lena’s shoulder. She was astonished by the fire sensation and pushed her father away.

The Marquis withdrew his hands carefully. There was a ring between his open fingers. It was a ring with a spiky spout, spilling poison.

Lena groaned, realizing what her father had done.

“Father…”

“So let’s check it out.”

“Like this again…”

“What you are.”

He ignored Lena’s sobbing and shouted low. Then, he pushed Lena, who was still staggering with his thorny hands.3

????????????

The Marquis’ ring poison was much stronger than the poison used by the butler. The poison that the butler poured in Lena’s teacup secretly.

However, what was on the Marquis’ ring was a poison aimed at the immediate death of the opponent.

After using the last poison, he looked down at the wall. Fortunately or unfortunately, Lena’s body was not seen because of the endless mass of the dead.

He mumbled in a tired voice, ‘If you live again, I’ll admit it.’

That she really became a monster.

The Marquis turned away with a throbbing body. Then, he walked almost an hour back to the camp.

“Lord!”

The Lieutenant who found the Marquis became contemplative and shouted. But, the Marquis answered before he even asked.

“While searching for the castle’s intrusive path, I met the dead. All the knights who accompanied me were lost.”

It’s a lax excuse. The Lieutenant thought so, but he didn’t ask. The monster’s words were all right. Those who had no strength simply bow down and obey.

“How is the situation?”

“….The damage is great. We’ve already wiped out the dead three times, but they’re coming back from the castle and fighting is still going on. It’s pointless to fight more.”

“Retreat.”

“But The Prince…”

The Lieutenant turned his head to the other side of the valley, blurring his words. A sharp strike was still roaring, aiming at the dead.

An hour had passed since the battle began, and Ruvid was striking a nasty blow.

The Marquis rode on the Lieutenant’s horse and ran to Ruvid. Not surprisingly, Ruvid’s face turned pale and was breathing hard.

“Your Highness, I will order you to retreat.”

“What a bullshit…”

Ruvid growled with red bloodshot eyes. He was full of nerves because of the seldom-captured castle and the constant rush of the dead.

“Shut up and kill one more!”

Ruvid screamed and struck again. The young man, who was busy putting up the war, didn’t count the situation at all.

But the Marquis already knew that the Prince would come out like this.

“Forgive me for my rudeness.”

“Ugh…!”

So the Marquis, without hesitation, struck Ruvid’s stomach. Ruvid, who was about to collapse, lost his mind and fell.

The Marquis helped the fainted Prince and ordered the knights to retreat. Knights of the North used horses as bait and managed to elude the pursuit of the dead.

It was a painful defeat, but the Marquis did not worry. It was thanks to the South and the East.

The Southern Duke’s agent, who forced to advance the expedition, was killed in action. Even the Eastern Duke didn’t appear near the castle.

The failed South, the fleeing East, and the North fought valiantly alone. Although returning empty-handed, there was enough justification to avoid reprimand.

So the Marquis was satisfied with the complicated family affairs and tried to stop.

It was then.

“My Lord, the castle is falling!”

The Northern knights were still passing through the valley, and the King’s castle, which swallowed the first cry, suddenly began to collapse.

The castle collapsed as if it were melting snow, and the Marquis stopped walking in the unexpected incident. He ordered the knights to confirm. The report back to him was even more unexpected.

“All the dead are gone. There was nothing left around the castle.”

He couldn’t understand the situation. Eventually, he turned his head to where the castle was. As the knights reported, there was not a single dead left.

Moreover, the place that used to be a valley turned into a swamp. The melted castle seemed to settle in the valley, creating a swamp.

It was difficult to understand anything, but the Marquis ordered a search first.

From then on, the knights of the North had been digging through the swamp for five days. But they didn’t find anything.

There was no event to harvest, except that Ruvid, who woke up after only two days, had smashed the Marquis’ jaws.3

Five days later, the Marquis stopped the search and ordered to return. Everything remained a mystery, but what was important was the result anyway.

The castle collapsed and the dead disappeared.

As soon as the Marquis returned, he decided to ring the victory bell.

????????????

After a week, the North returned to Duham Palace. It was Cardinal Klavis who welcomed the knights at the entrance.

“The second returnee is the North. Oh, everyone was hurt.”

Even when he saw the terrible condition of the Northern knights, Klavis’ voice was cheerful.

Furthermore, his appearance was nothing different from when he blessed the knights. The same was true for other priests. The Marquis spent a week in the tomb, but only ten minutes passed outside the crack.1

He felt like he had a daydream, but he paid more attention to Klavis’ words, ‘the second’, rather than the oddity.

‘If we are the second, the first is the East?’

The Marquis mumbled inwardly. Then, Klavis added.

“Then, we have to wait for the East now.”

‘What?’

The Marquis opened his eyes to words that broke his expectations. He looked around the Palace reflexively, doubting his ears.

And his doubts soon became astonished. On the other side of the Palace, Lena Rubel, stood side by side with Duke Arles.

‘Why…’

After discovering Lena, his heart seemed to freeze. Then, Lena saw him. When their eyes met, she smiled and bowed beautifully.3

The dizziness resembling that smile hit the Marquis. He felt like he was really dreaming.

The image of Lena standing there was like the last thing the Marquis remembered. The torn and battered uniform was proof that Lena had gone to the tomb.

It was when the Marquis looked at Lena like a man who found a ghost.

“I like this tomb expedition more than anything else. We don’t have to wait a long time for the results,” Said Klavis to the crack.

Under the red sky, knights dressed in black appeared. It was the Eastern Duke and his knights.

When they returned from the tomb, they looked fine, unlike the North. However, as if they had spent quite a long time in the tomb, their faces were just a little rough.

“Welcome, everyone. Well, I think you’ve suffered a little there too, how long have you been in the tomb?”

Klavis asked Lynn, who had just returned.

However, Lynn didn’t answer and looked at Marquis Rubel with a dark expression. The Marquis didn’t notice because he was distracted by Lena. So Lynn turned his head after the Marquis’ gaze and was startled.

“Duke? Any problems?”

“…Nothing.”

Lynn, who found Lena, replied belatedly, hiding his surprise.

“So, how long have you been in the tomb?”

“Ten days.”

“Then, what about the North?”

“Seven days.”

Klavis laughed sarcastically at the reply of Lynn and the Marquis.

“You’ve both been there for a long time. Dame Lena brought the King’s heart in a day.”5

“The heart…?”

Klavis’ words made the Marquis dizzy from embarrassment. He didn’t understand a thing at all.

Whether or not he knew his feeling, Klavis stirred up the confusion.

“Then, what did the North and the East bring?”

There was nothing to bring.

When the Marquis was in trouble, the knights of the East pulled something down from the horse.

Large sacks came down to the floor with a sound ‘thud’. The sacks piled up on the floor was big enough to accommodate people.

“What is that?”

When Klavis asked, the Eastern knights tore the sack. When the knife was pressed, the sack was torn apart, unable to overcome the weight of the contents. Gold ornaments and candlesticks poured out through the gap.

As people’s eyes grew bigger in brilliant gold, the Eastern Duke said in a dry voice.

“It’s loot.”4