Ch.208EP.47 – Knights’ Night March (2)

Ihan is a knight with a diverse career.

Among his experiences, the most unusual one would undoubtedly be:

-Assassin.

…A career that would terrify others if they heard about it.

A knight with assassin experience was both rare and difficult to believe.

Well, it’s not like Ihan trembled in fear of being discovered.

It wasn’t exactly a career he was hiding.

He wasn’t going around announcing “I’m a former assassin!” everywhere, but most of his close acquaintances knew about it.

There was another reason he could reveal it without hesitation:

– I never actually killed anyone, so I have nothing to be ashamed of.

Though he was certainly trained as an assassin, his organization collapsed before he could properly start his “career,” and Ihan suddenly found himself free.

This resulted in the birth of a half-baked assassin who had learned assassination techniques but never killed anyone. Later, following the mercenary path and then the royal soldier path, he had abandoned most of his assassination skills.

However, even so.

‘I haven’t abandoned the [knowledge].’

Assassination skills weren’t just combat techniques.

Rather, what the organization emphasized more were various intelligence and spy techniques like “infiltration,” “reconnaissance,” “map reading,” and more.

Thinking about it now, <Black Moon> probably wanted him to fulfill not just the role of a combatant, but that of a ranger as well.

At the time, he thought they were teaching him all sorts of unnecessary things, but…

“Ah, found it.”

It seemed that the saying “everything you learn will be useful someday” was true in this case.

5 hours and 45 minutes.

That’s how long it took to find an entrance into the Grand Temple.

Well, as for the entrance…

“My, that’s one ferocious current.”

-It was indeed a river one could drown in if they fell in.

* * *

Information about the Grand Temple is strictly controlled.

What does this mean?

To put it simply, information about the Grand Temple is almost non-existent, and it’s not even marked on maps.

…I know it sounds absurd that it’s not marked on maps.

But there’s a good reason for this. The Grand Temple houses “sacred relics,” “tombs” and “monuments” honoring the kingdom’s great heroes, and even “100,000 volumes of books.”

In other words, all historically valuable <cultural heritage> was stored in the Grand Temple, and in case the royal capital was breached during war, the Grand Temple had the “duty” to protect all cultural heritage.

Therefore, the geographical location of the Grand Temple wasn’t shown on maps, and even if it was, no one except the military’s commander-in-chief or the king himself could get their hands on a map showing everything in the kingdom, not even high nobles.

However…

– I can’t get you a map, but I can teach you what the Grand Temple is like.

Among his connections was a princess who was incredibly close to the pinnacle of this country, and thanks to her, he was able to engrave information about the Grand Temple, which was classified as top-secret, into his memory.

– The Grand Temple appears to be a massive temple on the outside, but it’s essentially a fortress with iron walls. A barrier made of holy magic surrounds the temple 24 hours a day, and this barrier extends from underground all the way up to the clouds.

It wouldn’t be difficult for a knight of Ihan’s caliber to break through such a barrier, but doing so would be as foolish as openly declaring “I’m going to invade the temple!” So he absolutely couldn’t breach it from the front.

– Even without the barrier, it’s built by carving into a mountain, making it comparable to a fortress in terms of being impregnable. To others, it might just look sacred and modest, but…

Not only that, because it was built by carving into a mountain, the entrances were limited, and there were virtually no routes for infiltration.

– There’s even a large farm and abundant water source inside the Grand Temple for self-sufficiency, so even if enemy forces infiltrated Pendragon and targeted the Grand Temple, it could easily hold out for a year without outside support.

It was truly a fortress blessed by both holy magic and natural defenses.

It was understandable why the Grand Temple housed various relics.

However.

– …You mentioned an abundant water source? Is there groundwater, or is there a flowing river?

– There’s a flowing river.

– Hooh…

– Stop right there. That’s not a wise approach.

– …I didn’t say anything?

– You were thinking of infiltrating through the river, weren’t you?

– …I told you not to read my mind.

…Nothing in this world is perfect.

And so, currently.

“-What kind of river is this… Why is it so heavily guarded?”

Ihan had become utterly exhausted in just five hours.

He had only tried to infiltrate near the river, but the number of guards around the river was terrifying.

Even now…

-Woof woof!

-Grrrr!

Despite it being the middle of the night, hundreds of personnel maintained an iron defense, and various military dogs were fiercely howling.

If he hadn’t dug tunnels and moved through them intermittently on his way to the river, he would have been discovered long ago.

‘Is this just the manpower gathered to guard one temple? …Is this a temple or the Pentagon?’

It was unbelievable.

More thorough than the royal palace.

At the same time, it was impressive.

Although he had lost all his assassin skills, Ihan was armed with various other skills no less impressive.

With air walking, tunnel digging, and other techniques like Bow God Shadow Image, he could become a bird or a mole if he wanted to.

…But all of that seemed futile as the temple’s forces aimed arrows even at flying birds and meticulously stuck long spears into the ground as if checking for anything underground.

He was worried they might even set fire to the forest, but the temple was still a temple.

They didn’t turn mountains or fields into barren land.

‘Well, they did say the Light of Radiance also governs life.’

They wouldn’t carelessly damage nature.

…Though for a religion that governs life, they seem to treat human lives as insignificant.

Anyway!

Ihan finally reached the lake that served as the temple’s water source, using all the skills, knowledge, and experience he could muster.

There were still soldiers stationed around, but…

‘I am a turtle, a turtle…’

Ihan continued to move stealthily, extremely suppressing his presence.

They say turtles have slow heartbeats, just like their slow pace, don’t they?

‘Slowly, slowly, even slower…’

To beat only 6 times per minute.

Considering that the average human heart beats 60 or 100 times per minute, one might question if this was even possible.

It was a heartbeat as slow as a turtle’s pace, but considering that such a slow heart rate is why turtles live long, it wasn’t something to be taken lightly.

And…

‘It’s working, it’s working!’

If this turtle’s breathing method, gait, and heart movement were applied to humans, it would produce amazing effects.

A technique possible only for him, who could freely control the relaxation of his muscles and organs.

Hoo…

Haa…

──Hoo…

Saaaah-

– [Great Turtle Breathing Technique].

It’s often a secret technique of martial artists for playing dead perfectly, but Ihan had now evolved it into a technique for espionage.

Complete suppression of presence.

Completely blending with the darkness, no one knew that a person was crawling here.

Yet despite this, he was faster and more agile than a turtle, and as he blended more with his surroundings, fewer people noticed Ihan’s presence.

Eventually, even as he openly passed by five soldiers…

“Check.”

“No one’s here.”

“It’s quiet.”

“What about the hunting dogs?”

“No reaction!”

No one, absolutely no one, realized that Ihan was passing by them.

A situation as if Ihan was considered an inanimate object.

He wasn’t wearing an invisibility cloak, nor was any advanced scientific stealth technology in operation.

He was simply lowering his presence and distorting their senses as he passed by.

-Grr, grr!

There was a concern that the hunting dogs might notice his scent, but this is where the wisdom of a former assassin shone.

-…Whine?

-???

The herbs and various medicines he had applied to hide his scent were working perfectly.

Thwack!

Of course, while he could avoid hunting dogs and people, random arrows or spears still threatened him.

Whoosh…

“An arrow?”

“Huh? Was there a rock there?”

As long as he had ‘Diamond Body,’ he wouldn’t scream even if arrows or spears came flying at him.

And so.

Slip.

Ihan dived into the cold river water without hesitation.

Splash…

“What was that?”

“A water creature?”

“Don’t get too close. It’s full of giant crocodiles and poisonous water snakes.”

“Th-there are such things?”

“They were deliberately released, you know. To prevent any humans from infiltrating through the river.”

“What kind of crazy person would do that? The river’s water is like waves because of the holy magic.”

“That’s true.”

“Unless they’re a complete idiot…”

…Should I beat them up before I leave?

The knight who unintentionally earned the titles [Crazy Person] and [Idiot] barely maintained the Great Turtle Breathing Technique despite his anger and continued diving.

Diving deep enough that he couldn’t hear the voices of the soldiers who were provoking his anger…

*

*

*

Kwang!

A massive sound erupted.

A shockwave was created as a spear-shaped lance collided with an axe blade larger than a normal battle axe, seemingly tearing the air apart.

The speed, precision, and destructive power that even a high-ranking knight would struggle to react to.

It was undoubtedly a skill that had all three elements in perfect balance, but in reality…

“Let’s stop playing around, Hyunglang. If we get serious, there’s no point in infiltrating, is there?”

Play—it was dizzying to think that such a fierce clash was merely a greeting between the two.

However.

“You were the one who showed your presence first, Black Lion!!”

…The problem was that it was a prank without mutual agreement.

“In the North, it’s a sign of welcome!”

“Don’t lie so blatantly!”

Only he would call this a greeting, even among Northerners.

What an ignorant brute!!

It was a squabble between infiltrators who recognized each other despite wearing masks, and the masked person wielding the spear gritted their teeth.

For good reason, because of this ignorant fool…

-Intruders!!

-They’re underground! The intruders are underground!!

The meaning of their stealthy entry was being lost.

…This happened 30 minutes before a certain knight swam through the rough currents and entered the tunnel.