Ch.392Rune

“How dare you think you can assassinate His Majesty and escape unharmed!”

“He’s gravely wounded! Cut off his limbs and subdue him!”

I dodge the incoming spears and swords with deliberate, narrow escapes while silently swinging my sword.

“……”

To be honest, I wasn’t feeling particularly good about this.

King Danon deserved to die a hundred times over, but these knights hadn’t necessarily committed any sins worthy of death. Probably.

They were just knights of an enemy nation doing their duty.

Well, once someone decides to live as a knight rather than choosing any other profession, losing one’s life in battle is unavoidable.

My mind felt somewhat subdued.

Yet even so, my battle-trained body extended merciless strikes without hesitation, adding new corpses to the room already filled with the scent of blood.

“Kuhurk! Y-you bastard…!”

A knight whose left arm had been severed at the elbow gritted his teeth and swung his sword with his remaining hand.

I deflected his blade with mine and kicked him in the side, sending him flying, only for other knights to immediately thrust their spears at me.

“Lord Fabio! This son of a—”

“Haaaah!”

I rolled backward to avoid the spears, then grabbed the leg of a knight in front of me, flipping him over as I sprang to my feet.

“What the—!”

I yanked his ankle while pushing his upper body with my other arm, causing the knight to lose balance and fall backward.

I mounted his body and stabbed him straight through the heart.

That makes four.

Pretending to be “an assassin exhausted after fighting two Masters” was making dealing with these enemies quite troublesome.

Still, they were the royal guard after all.

Though not Master-level, they were all quite skilled and determined.

Perhaps they arrived late not because they were complacent, but simply because the third floor was too far away.

“Be careful! Though he’s exhausted, he’s the one who killed Lord Andrea and Lord Marcello!”

The guards became even more vigilant after witnessing four of their comrades killed in an instant.

During all those deaths, the only attacks I had allowed were a few blade strikes that merely grazed my armor.

The cuts on my skin stung a bit, but the wounds weren’t deep.

“A Master-level assassin? Where could such a person have come from…!”

The knights tried hard to determine my identity, but there was no way they could figure it out.

I was going through all this trouble precisely to avoid revealing my identity.

They would have many suspects. Too many, in fact.

It could be Dane’s betrayal, or the Holy State cutting ties.

It might be an imperial assassin, or even the work of bastards aiming for the throne.

As long as I didn’t reveal any characteristics that would identify me as the culprit, they would never know my identity.

I deliberately avoided using Imperial swordsmanship, suppressed my strength to that of an ordinary Master, and even forced myself to breathe roughly and tremble as if exhausted.

“When will Lord Cesare arrive?”

“We’ve sent someone to his mansion, so he should enter the palace immediately!”

Cesare?

Ah, that’s right, they mentioned there might be one more Master.

Not one of King Danon’s guard knights, but a knight serving in the capital.

So if I stall for more time, he’ll arrive? That’s problematic.

If I fight a Master-level knight, my pretense of being exhausted might be exposed.

Is Eleonora’s rescue still far off?

While engaging with the increasing number of knights, I glanced through the window at the palace landscape, but there was still no sign of fire rising from the annex where she was supposedly confined.

I need to stall for more time…

With no other choice, I continued fighting the knights while rolling around inside the royal chamber.

=======[ The Annex ]=======

“For Volberg!”

“How dare you Danes come here!”

Fierce fighting was also taking place in the annex.

Despite being confined, Eleonora was still of imperial bloodline and Queen of Panam, so members of the royal guard were stationed at the annex.

The intelligence department’s combat operatives, disguised as Danes, wielded swords and axes against the royal guard.

Most of the palace forces had headed toward the main palace, otherwise they might have been annihilated instead.

With each enemy they brought down, the operatives also had to endure considerable bloodshed.

“Kuhurk!”

As an operative beheaded a royal guard knight, spear tips from other guards pierced his body in succession.

His body convulsed as the spear blades penetrated his chain mail and tore into his internal organs.

“Val…halla awaits me—!”

‘Long live the Empire—!’

Uttering completely different words outwardly and inwardly, the impaled operative lit the oil container at his side.

Since they were disguised as Danes, they couldn’t leave evidence of being imperials.

– Whoosh!

The oil ignited instantly.

Engulfed in flames, the operative threw himself at the guard who had stabbed him.

“Aaaaargh! Fire! Fiiiire! Gyaaaah!”

The guard screamed as the flames spread to him.

The two burned together in a friendly embrace.

“Th-those madmen… setting themselves on fire…!”

The royal guards were intimidated by the operatives who literally threw away their lives in battle.

Though they were Panam’s royal guards with their own pride and excellent mental fortitude, they weren’t prepared to fight against people who would set themselves on fire.

‘Why should we fight these madmen? To protect a woman the King has half-abandoned?’

‘The royal guard’s duty is to protect His Majesty. Shouldn’t we be defending the main palace instead?’

‘Right. I’m not retreating—I’m going to protect His Majesty…’

Excuses to rationalize their actions began to form in the minds of the demoralized guards.

That was the moment their defeat was decided.

“The War God demands your blood—!”

“Uwooooooh!”

Noticing the enemy’s wavering, the operatives roared and pressed forward, causing the intimidated guards to begin retreating.

“L-look at the main palace! His Majesty must be in danger! I’m going to protect His Majesty!”

Some knights openly deserted the battlefield, and even those who remained fighting no longer showed their previous determination and were ultimately suppressed.

After annihilating the annex’s royal guard, the operatives burned their comrades’ bodies to conceal evidence and headed deeper into the annex.

“How many did we lose?”

“Carmen, Jin, Luke, Milon, and Ferman are down. Ten operatives remain. We can’t even assess the losses of the operatives handling the diversion.”

“We’ve lost quite a few… this won’t be easy.”

The commanding operative clicked his tongue as he advanced through the annex corridor.

Maids who encountered them screamed and fled, but the operatives didn’t bother to cut them down.

Or rather, they had neither the time nor energy to waste on such things.

Though they had annihilated the royal guard, their enemies still remained.

Right there, before their eyes.

—-

“…You are not our kinsmen.”

“Imperials? Or internal strife in Panam? Well, it doesn’t matter either way.”

Like the operatives, warriors wearing chain mail blocked the corridor leading to Eleonora’s chamber.

“Non-kinsmen who don’t even worship the same god, yet imitate us and call upon His name. Truly blasphemous.”

“You who have called upon the War God’s name and shouted the name of the Celestial Palace. Volberg is watching you, and now is the time to prove your worth.”

There were four of them.

A middle-aged man with a two-handed axe resting on his shoulder.

A young man wielding a short, broad sword typical of Dane and a round shield.

A female warrior holding a long spear, and a gray-haired warrior with two axes.

These were the true Dane warriors who frequented the annex, the final obstacle to Eleonora’s rescue operation.

“Everyone, prepare for battle! Once we take these guys down, we’re done! Give it everything you’ve got!”

At the intelligence commander’s order, the operatives all drew their longswords.

All the Panam people had either died or fled long ago, and only the real Danes remained.

There was no longer any need to disguise themselves as Danes.

It was time to fight with their most familiar weapon, the Imperial longsword.

“Longswords, so it was the Empire after all?”

“That’s uncertain. Panam knights also prefer such weapons.”

“We’ll find out after we kill them.”

The four warriors approached the operatives with their weapons pointed.

Eleven operatives against just four warriors.

Despite being outnumbered three to one, they advanced with unwavering confidence.

“Foolish ones who have deceived the War God. Witness His power clearly.”

The middle-aged man at the front stroked his axe and smiled.

‘Volberg’s power…? Could they be Crusaders?’

Alarm bells rang in the commander’s mind.

If they were truly Crusaders, the odds weren’t good.

Crusaders, whose own skills were enhanced by the War God’s blessing, were powerful enough to handle two or three knights single-handedly.

However, the light that colored his vision the next moment wasn’t Volberg’s gray holy light, but a strangely intense glow of mana.

As the operatives flinched at the sudden mana light, the four warriors closed their eyes and uttered strange words.

“ūruz [ ᚢ ]”

The old man’s muscles instantly swelled to twice their size.

“þurisaz [ ᚦ ]”

Lightning coiled around the female warrior’s spear tip.

“īsaz [ ᛁ ]”

Frost formed on the young man’s sword tip, and suddenly appearing ice covered the surface of his shield.

“kenaz [ ᚲ ]”

Flames bloomed on the middle-aged man’s axe blade.

The flames consumed the surrounding mana as they burned. The axe blade began to glow red-hot.

“Mages…?!”

“Yes. This is the power bestowed by Him, the power of ‘Kenaz’!”

As the operatives were caught off guard by this unexpected information, the warriors imbued with magic charged at them like lightning.