The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 107 – For Freedom (3)

Horhell turned his head. “Hey.”

As if responding to Horhell’s words, the dragon curled up inside the valley exhaled a long and deep breath through its nose. The dragon seemed to be in a pretty bad condition due to its injury, but desperately rubbed its face against Horhell’s torso as Horhell approached it.

Because the dragon was much larger and heavier, the impact from the fall was much greater for the dragon than it was for Horhell. One of its wings was broken here and there, and thus left limping. It was rather fortunate that the injury was only limited to this, thanks to falling between the valleys and rolling at an angle.

Horhell could instinctively feel that the dragon was in a pretty bad condition, to the extent that it couldn’t fly. That alone was already fatal for the dragon.

“Haha,” Horhell laughed helplessly.

Horhell had never thought that his journey would end in this way. He had abandoned his morality as well as his honor, all to save this dragon. But he was about to face such a ridiculous end. There were less than two hours left before sunrise. Horhell had already given up all hope, as surrendering was nothing but a long and terrible death.

From the side of the valley came low humming sounds, almost like a chorus—it was the song sung by the rebels.

Horhell clutched his sword, but he knew that it would be difficult to fight, given the current condition of his body. He looked back at the dragon for a moment. The weakened dragon was staring at Horhell with its transparent eyes. Leaving behind his dragon, Horhell started to run to the other side of the valley.

“The bastard…!”

‘The bastard is on that side!’

That was the sentence Horhell intended to shout. His plan was to lure the enemies as far away as possible, buying some time for the dragon. Horhell hoped that the dragon would then be lucky enough to be found and rescued by someone.

But even before his words could come out of his mouth, someone ran into Horhell. Horhell groaned at the sensation of his broken ribs stabbing into his lung as he crashed into a stranger.

Horhell saw white fangs and rough skin covered with fur in the dark. Horhell opened his eyes wide.

‘A wolf?’

“Centurion Horhell, please keep quiet for a moment,” the wolf suddenly opened its mouth and spoke.

Horhell didn’t know much about the wolf beastman, but he had seen him once.

‘There was one member of the punishment unit who was a wolf beastman.’

Horhell tried to say something, but his voice failed to come out properly; only a wheezing sound could leave his mouth.

“Did the search party… come to find… me?” Horhell managed to spit out a few words.

Horhell’s mouth foamed with blood as he spoke, but Ranhal seemed to have understood him.

“People did come to find you, Sir. But…” Ranhal muttered with unease.

At that moment, something approached Horhell and Ranhal along the slope of the valley. It came with a rustling sound, and made a loud thud as it hit the rock, causing Horhell to tense up. The moment Horhell tensed up, he could smell the scent of blood. A dead body fell from above.

“What the hell were you trying to do?”

Juan appeared from the other side of the dark valley. Although no blood could be seen on Juan’s body due to the dark clothes he was wearing, Horhell could smell a strong scent of blood from him. However, none of the blood seemed to be Juan’s own.

“...I was trying to distract the rebels away because I thought the dragon might be caught.”

Juan smirked at Horhell’s words.

“Are you in love with your dragon or something? You’re quite lucky to be alive.”

Then, Horhell saw troops coming down the slope of the valley. Horhell could tell at a glance that they were the members of the punishment unit. Every one of them was covered in blood and looked completely exhausted. Quite a few of them seemed to be injured, and they were all glaring at Juan with murderous intent in their eyes.

Horhell couldn’t understand why they were drenched in blood and looked the way they did. He thought that they must have infiltrated as he didn’t hear a fight anywhere.

‘Did they kill all the rebels they met on their way here? Every single one of them?’

Horhell thought it couldn’t be, but nothing else that came to his mind made sense.

On Ranhal’s back, Horhell guided Juan to the place where the dragon was.

Juan made a displeased expression upon seeing the dragon’s wounds.

“There is no way it can move in this state. I thought it might at least be able to walk. It won't be able to recover with rest alone. It will die unless it gets treated.”

Horhell bit his lips when Juan brought up the scenario of the dragon’s death.

“Put me down. I’ll stay with the dragon,” Horhell said.

“Centurion Horhell.”

“Put me down.”

Ranhal looked at Juan with timid eyes.

Horhell was confused upon seeing Ranhal’s attitude. Although Horhell was only a centurion, it would be no exaggeration to say that he had the highest authority in the fourth division after Duke Henna. However, the members of the punishment unit were waiting for Juan’s orders rather than listening to Horhell.

It was only after Juan nodded and gave permission that Ranhal put Horhell down on the ground.

“Ranhal, you go and tell Hela our location. Tell her that she must come before sunrise,” Juan ordered.

“Pardon me? Isn’t coming before sunrise almost impossible? The mounted troops won’t be able to come up the mountain,” Ranhal answered with his eyes widened.

“Then make them run on all fours. Tell Hela that Horhell, the dragon, and I will all die if she doesn’t come by then. If that happens, then Hela would soon die of anger too, right? Do you think you all will be able to live any longer if Hela dies?”

Ranhal seemed fully convinced by Juan’s persuasion. Horhell watched Ranhal disappear into the darkness, then opened his mouth.

“Well, that was a lie. You have no intention of dying here.”

“Yeah, well… He’s too stupid and needs proper motivation,” Juan shrugged.

Juan first took the armor off of Horhell and examined his body. As Juan had seen many wounded soldiers before, he could easily recognize Horhell’s condition at just a glance. Horhell had minor scratches here and there, and the injury on his left arm seemed like it would be able to fully recover after recuperation. However, his broken ribs seemed to have punctured his lungs. Juan measured the fracture area and figured that there was a risk of his heart getting stabbed if he was moved without caution.

“How did you even fall?” Juan asked.

“I have no idea. I have very little memory of before and after the crash.”

Blood spewed out of Horhell’s mouth as he spoke. Yet he only looked at the dragon without paying any attention to his own injuries.

“What about the dragon? Are there any ways it can be treated?” Horhell asked.

“I’ll be honest with you. This kind of injury wouldn’t kill a dragon. What is killing him right now are the restraints you put on him,” Juan answered Horhell’s question in a firm voice.

Horhell remained silent. He had had also thought that the dragon was suffering due to the restraints. A crash like this wouldn’t be a problem to ordinary dragons in the first place. However, Horhell’s dragon was different. His dragon was particularly weak due to the long term starvation as well as the remodeling of its body done to weaken it.

“The restraints you put inside its bones and joints are worsening its wounds and eating his life away. I mean, I understand that you did what you had to do, since the dragon would have died a long time ago otherwise. But it seems like it can’t afford to escape in its current state.”

“...I see.”

Horhell leaned against the cliff, almost as if he had given up. Horhell closed his eyes as he realized that his guess was correct.

Then, Juan beckoned the members of the punishment unit. Upon seeing Juan’s beckon, the members of the punishment unit hid among the rocks in the valley without complaining.

Juan began to collect the stones and branches around him after ensuring that the members of the punishment unit had properly hidden themselves, and Horhell wondered if Juan was planning to build a temporary camp here.

“Don’t do anything useless and just go. Tell Duke Henna that she doesn’t have to come either,” Horhell said.

“Why? Do you want to choose this place to be your grave?”

“I’ve always known that I would never die in a peaceful way anyway.”

Juan snorted at Horhell’s answer and continued to move. But everything seemed meaningless in Horhell’s eyes. In fact, the thought of dying here seemed to be some kind of relief. Horhell had imagined his own death countless deaths before, but the situation he was in now wasn’t the worst that he had imagined.

“Juan, there’s something I didn’t tell you.”

“What is that?”

“I was the one who killed the knights of the Order of Lindwurm.”

***

Juan didn’t show a change of expression. Instead, he simply stopped moving and looked back at Horhell in silence.

“I was expecting it already. What else can I think when you’re the only one who survived the internal conflict of the Order of Lindwurm? It’s obvious. Besides, there’s no way that a knight of the Order of Lindwurm and his dragon were forgiven without paying some sort of price,” Juan said as he tilted his head at an angle. “Did you destroy the Order of Lindwurm in order to save the dragon?”

“...Yes, but it was inevitable. The Order of Lindwurm had already been encroached upon by the Crack.”

Juan had already expected such a thing; after all, he had felt the strong energy of the Crack from the traces of the Order of Lindwurm back in Durgal. What mattered was to what extent the knights of the Order of Lindwurm had been encroached upon by the Crack. Juan could barely feel any energy of the Crack in Horhell.

“You don’t look like you’ve been encroached upon by the Crack,” Juan said.

“It only looks like I haven’t. The people of the eastern territory, especially the troops, have all been encroached upon by the Crack to some extent. It’s the songs sung by the rebels that affect everyone,” Horhell answered.

Juan turned his head and focused his attention on the low humming sound coming from beyond the valley. Juan recalled how the members of the punishment unit looked distressed and delirious whenever they heard it.

“Don’t pay too much attention to it. The Crack will immediately start to encroach upon you the moment you casually start to sing along.”

“I don’t care about a wailing like that. Just tell me about Gerard Gain. Had Gerard also been encroached upon by the Crack? Since when?”

“Yes. Captain Gerard Gain had also been encroached upon by the Crack. Everyone simply assumed and speculated that he was encroached upon by the Crack, but being an Elite Knight of the Order of Lindwurm, I saw everything from the moment Captain Gerard decided to commit himself to the Crack to receive a new name. Because I’m…” Horhell hesitated, but soon continued. “...I’m the one who caused Captain Gerard Gain to be encroached upon by the Crack.”

Horhell inhaled a short breath as soon as he finished speaking. Horhell suddenly felt as if Juan’s black eyes were burning in the dark.

“Explain everything in detail so that I don’t misunderstand you even a little,” Juan said after a moment.

Horhell gulped and opened his mouth.

“Juan, since when do you think Captain Gerard Gain started to plan the assassination of the emperor?”

Juan shook his head; he had no idea. He was neither able to anticipate it nor notice any signs. The only person who had felt that something was off about Gerard Gain had been Harmon Helwin. If Harmon hadn’t figured out the details, no one other than those closest to Gerard Gain would’ve known anything about his plan.

“Do you know when the people of eastern territory began to be encroached upon by the Crack?” Horhell asked.

Juan slightly tilted his head upon Horhell’s gaze. “Forty-five years after the founding of the empire—two years before the assassination of the emperor. What about it?”

“At that time, the Order of Lindwurm had already started seeing the signs of the encroachment of the Crack and we had been doing everything we could to prevent it. Captain Nienna Nelben had actively instructed us on how to defend against it. The way to defend against the encroachment of the Crack was much simpler than I had thought.”

“I know about that as well.”

The best way to defend against the encroachment of the Crack was to kill all those who had already been encroached upon. The Crack had the ability to constantly encroach upon and encourage one to cause destruction by entering one’s mind when one starts to find more about the Crack. It would only be a matter of time before a single person who had been encroached upon by the Crack caused dozens or hundreds of people to also be encroached upon. The only way to stop this was to unconditionally kill any who had already been encroached upon by the Crack.

“Preventing further encroachment through a painful process of asceticism after a period of quarantine is possible in the early stages of the encroachment. However, complete recovery is impossible—just like those from the punishment unit over there. There’s no way to deal with those who have been encroached upon to a certain extent. So what’s the next step?” Horhell looked back at Juan and continued. “The ways to deal with the encroachment weren't known in detail at that time, since Captain Nienna Nelben was thoroughly isolating the Crack in the northern territory, to the extent that everyone was relieved. But when the first incident of the encroachment of the Crack happened, we… no—I took things too lightly.”

Horhell continued with a bitter smile. “There was one family—a family who fled from the Crack who had already started to be encroached upon when they were reaching here from the north. Captain Gerard Gain and I found them and interrogated them. The parents seemed fine, but their daughter who was still an infant showed signs of the encroachment of the Crack. The family was devastated and clung to Captain Gerard’s legs, begging him in tears. But Captain Gerard firmly shook his head. That’s when I said something to the captain. I still remember exactly what I said at that moment, even to this day.”

Horhell paused for a moment, then continued with trembling lips.

“...Captain, I think the baby is just babbling, not singing.”