Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 62 Behind the curtains(2)

Translator: BaeBae Editor: BaeBae

Dilmond smashed undeads apart again and again.

With his own hands, he was cutting down those that he once called friends, those that he fought along side by side, those young knights that he’d personally trained not only yesterday.

Although he found undeads distasteful at first, in time he became accustomed to them. So much that he could comfortably go to sleep beside them. He never thought they’d become his enemy so soon.

“Bring it, you bastards!”

After being hit with Dilmond’s hammer, a zombie’s head disappeared.

It was a half breed that had asked if he would become an honorary knight when Lars’s name would eventually be restored with honor.

Dilmond who was flying through the battlefield, felt his hammer become more heavier with each blood that it was stained with.

He wanted to give up, lie on the ground and go to sleep.

“Dilmond kyung. Are you alright?”

One of the Hugin knights asked him worryingly when he saw Dilmond struggle to breath and cough up blood. He was one of the few that had survived till now.

“I’m alright. Get going.”

Dilmond gave him a push, urging him to go on. The knights were looking for Anya.

Now that Lars was dead, the Hugin knight’s commander was Anya, and knowing that she was taught in the field of necromancy, they were hoping that she knew a way out of this.

‘Anyways, would she have even survived…..?’

They’d called out to her repeatedly but there was no reply. In this chaos, even Anya would have found it difficult to survive on her own.

Then, they saw a knight wearing white armor, stumble towards them.

In the darkness, a Paladin’s white armor stood out. They weren’t exactly sure where his helmet and shield had disappeared to.

“Hey! Don’t go into the darkness by yoursel…….”

The knight swallowed his next word. They saw that the Paladin’s eyes were burning in rage.

“You traitors! What have you done!”

The Paladin raced towards Dilmond. The knight quickly stopped him and pushed him away. The Paladin ignored the, and tried to attack again.

“That’s enough! It’s not the time for us to be fighting each other!”

“Not the time to be fighting each other? We clearly saw with our eyes, what that evil traitor Lars Raude did! And in this darkness I saw one of your friends, eat my comrade alive! And you still think we shouldn’t be fighting?”

The knights didn’t know what to say.

They understood their point of view. It wasn’t like their minds weren’t inhumane.

Till now, not once did they regret joining the Hugin knights. But now, finding themselves in this chaotic situation, even they started to question and doubt.

“Reveal your true colours! You group of dev……”

The Paladin didn’t get to end his sentence. Puu ssuk. Dilmond had flattened his head with a gruesome sound.

The blood sprayed onto the onlooking knights.

Dilmond kicked the headless Paladin’s body onto the ground.

“Lets go.”

The knights followed Dilmond without uttering a word. Dilmond noticed the doubts on his men from the silence that followed.

Was Lars really a seed of evil? Was he someone that had gone against the emperor? Was he wanting to turn all the city’s innocent into slaves of death?”

“………..I know what you’re thinking, but.”

Dilmond silently spoke.

“I think it’s reasonable to have doubts. Right now, it would be natural to have suspicions.”

“But remember one thing. The reason why you joined the Hugin knights.”

The knights all nodded at Dilmond’s words. Each and every one had entered the Hugin knights order after having experienced the injustice, the inequality of the empire’s church.

Families massacred. Their entire wealth stripped. Being tortured without a fair reason. Escaped from discrimination …..

The Hugin knights weren’t ashamed of their heritage.

Dilmond felt the resolve returning in their steps.

But their road was dark. Looking at the reactions made by the Paladins, cooperation looked out of the picture for now……. Unless they found Anya soon…..”

[Dilmond.]

Dilmond’s head sharply turned. The knights flustered at seeing Dilmond stare into the darkness.

“What’s wrong, Dilmond kyung?”

“Did anyone hear my name being called?”

The knights all made confused looks. Some even wore scared looks.

Confident that he’d heard a voice call out to him, Dilmond walked towards that general direction. The knights all had expressions that screamed ‘not that way’.

“Wait, Dilmond kyung. Maybe you heard a whisper of ill intent, and it’s luring you into a trap…..”

“Annabelle.”

Not before long, Dilmond arrived to find Anya shivering in a small ditch.

Dilmond quickly went to Anya and checked her condition. Her pupils were uncontrollably shaking but it looked like she hadn’t been hurt.

“Annabelle! Wake up!”

“There’s….too, too, too many……undeads……god of death.”

Dilmond figured out what was wrong with Anya.

As a necromancer, the resurrection of the god of death was too much for her to cope, thus sending her into shock.

“Several, thousands, tens of thousands…….No, there’s no end. The master of death and his undeads are coming.”

“Who cares how many there are. Since when did we ever care about how many the enemy were? Wake up!”

Dilmond slapped Anya’s cheek. The knights stepped back in fright at seeing a palm the size of a hammer slap Anya.

Her cheeks reddened.

Anya shook herself for a bit before spitting blood onto the side.

“……If you’d believe me, a flick on the forehead would’ve been enough, Dilmond kyung. I can feel the depth of the distrust that you have towards me from your hand.”

“Good to have you back. If it happens to me, you can stick a knife in me and we’ll call it even.”

Anya tried to get up while grumbling at how her teeth were now loose. Her legs were still shaking which made it hard for her to stand.

“Is Nigrato’s presence making it hard to stand?”

“No. I think I got concussed from your slap. Help me stand up.”

Dilmond decided to rather piggy back rather than help her walk. Anya had no reason to decline.

“If you feel anything or know where to go, tell me. Can’t see a damn thing in this darkness.”

Anya wondered something at Dilmond’s words and asked.

“And where are we going?”

“Anywhere, away from this hell. I prepared myself to even die for the Hugin knights but not like this.”

“Get out of here?”

“Is there a problem?”

“Hmm, well…..The fact when Lars nim died, the one person that was suppressing Nigrato went, your ‘way out’ is crawling with 17,382 undeads, and even if there aren’t any obstacles to this ‘way out’, soon Nigrato is about to ascend and the dead wind is going to turn the countless undeads into stronger undeads. This may be a problem if we want to be really picky.”

Dilmond was hit with what Anya was really trying to say. In one word.

“So it’s hopeless?”

“It’s hopeless.”

There and then, Dilmond gave up on escaping. However, he wasn’t the type to be sitting down crying just because the situation was dire.

Dilmond turned his head.

“Well, when was it ever not hopeless. We are a group of less than 50 that have fought against an empire for 50 years. Don’t make me laugh. We aren’t giving up now.”

“Alright then, forget about running away. You want to fight, let’s win.”

The Hugin knights strided forwards.

*****

Tes was a Hiveden’s native resident.

It was hard to find a native resident of Hiveden, when most came and went just as quickly. Unknown parents. Likely one of the many seeds that had been dragged into Hiveden.

Tes grew up with orphans, and because of this he didn’t have a fantasy of his real parents. The only thing he firmly believed in was the dagger that he’d worked on making, for a long time.

When the Paladins entered the city, Tes thought they’d pass through like wind just like they always did.

Even as Tes saw those around him get slaughtered, he believed this would soon come to a pass. As a native resident, he was going to keep living here.

However, the Laus scout that he’d stabbed to death got back up and stabbed him back. Then he realised that it was him the wind had picked up and brought here.

The resurrected Tes spewed a mouthful of blood as he rejoiced at the return of the old king of the world. He quickly looked around, searching for something to offer to his master.

Sheela was a sowing bud of the White crow knights order.

She was training hard and serving a Paladin to her utmost best. It would be more correct to say her title was an ordinary soldier.

But right now, she was cutting the neck of the Paladin that she was supposed to serve. Her face was covered in tears and blood.

The Paladin had actually died a while ago.

A zombie had come out from the darkness and bit his neck.

Losing blood, the Paladin didn’t last 10 seconds before his final breath.

There was no way a Paladin should be dying from such meager injury, but it was happening before everyone’s eyes. The Paladin lifted himself up not long after his life had ended.

Looking at the Paladin’s black eyes, she realised it was too late.

She needed to behead the Paladin before getting bitten.

Finally, upon cutting the knight’s throat, Sheela exclaimed in relief.

Then, immediately following, an undead knight took her head.

The undead knight went by the name Karl.

But he’d forgotten his own identity a long time ago.

Those Hugin knights respected and adored were called sunbaes, and unlike the undead knights, Karl’s ego had long been worn down from a while back.

If the will of his master that he served could be felt, he’d follow, and if not he’d search for his masters enemies. That was his entire consciousness.

Karl cut down another enemy. As the blood sprayed over him, he recalled a knight that he failed to kill a short while back.

Although he’d disappeared into the weather, his face was recognisable.

He’d gone past him seeing as they served the same emperor from their memories. However, something told him that he was making a mistake.

Then suddenly, something appeared from beyond the darkness.

A familiar face. It was the knight with the hammer that he’d failed to cut down earlier. Determined better late than never, Karl stepped forward towards him.

As Karl approached, the enemies readied their swords. Karl quickly dispatched the nearest knight by smashing him and his sword in one stroke.

Screams and roars erupted. The knight with the hammer ran at him. He unleashed a fierce swing but it lacked the strength behind it.

As he was about to cut the knight down, some unknown urge stopped Karl from doing so.

A woman was pouring her will onto him. But it wasn’t enough. Compared to the power that Karl had been bestowed with, her will was about annoying as cobwebs to him.

Karl was about to finish off the knight with the hammer when.

Kwak!

Something pierced his head.

Flames roared from the dagger that had been inserted into his head and Karl’s skull exploded into pieces.

The flames from the bits of pieces moved towards the rest of the body, burning it. The remaining bits of his body were squashed into dust.

“So, you’re still alive and kicking huh.”

“Juan!”

Juan had returned.