Shadowless Night - Chapter 46
With that sharp sound as the opening, the Illavenia delegation split in two. The knights who had drawn their swords started running away on horseback in the direction of a colorfully decorated white carriage on the left side and a beige colored carriage on the right side. The raiders were stunned for a moment.
Janan only barely managed to suppress his instinctively energetic body, which was caused by the third carriage left in the empty field. The escorts who were left behind, unable to escape, soon came to their senses and moved to protect the carriage. Their number only totaled around ten.
Janan then realized. These people are discarded pieces. In order to preserve his own life, the 2nd Prince even threw away his subordinates. His heartlessness and cowardice could be clearly seen.
The commander of the Knights of White Night skillfully parried a sword attack. A normal person would have broken either the sword or the arm. He backed away immediately after he collided with Tyreng. He seemed to be wary of Tyreng’s strangely strong power. The knight commander rode his horse out of the empty field straight away.
Tyreng and Janan watched the Knight Commander. It was publicly known that Ricardis’ carriage was white, but there was no certainty that he himself was in it. The prince wouldn’t sit quietly in his carriage unless he was an idiot, so he must have swapped the carriage with someone. The 2nd Prince’s limb and the strongest sword of the White Night is Starz Falhas. If not him, who will protect Ricardis? Wherever he goes, the 2nd Prince, Ricardis, must be there.
However, as if betraying their speculation, the knight commander followed the white carriage running to the left. It was a situation that betrayed Janan’s expectations to the point of disappointment, because this implied that some other idiots must have been right.
“Team 1 and 2 will chase after the white carriage, Team 3 will chase after the other one! Team 4, deal with the rest!”
At Tyreng’s voice, the raiders dispersed. Janan, the leader of the 2nd team, had to follow the white carriage immediately at the command of the captain, however, he just stopped and looked around. A strange, unfamiliar sensation gripped his ankles.
‘Something… Something is strange.’
A knight with a somewhat different atmosphere stood out. She was wearing a cloak, so he couldn’t see her face well, but she made eye contact with him once. She had green eyes that would glow bluish if they received sunlight. It was like the calm waters of a lake. It was the eyes that did not feel any fear or despair about this situation.
The knight seemed to have noticed Janan’s gaze and turned the cloak that was covering her head back. Her black hair that was tied up high was exposed, and it began to get wet in the rain. It was a woman. There is no way a female knight would be entrusted with an important person in the delegation. Janan came to a conclusion that there was nothing to gain from the third carriage left in this empty field.
He thought his anxiety was an unnecessary inclination, as there were some things left that had to be sorted out quickly.
“Group 4, clean up the site and cover Group 1 and 2.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Yes, sir.”
The team members slightly bent their bodies and soon stood. The escort knights around the carriage showed signs of nervousness.
“Kill them all.”
At Janan’s words, more than 20 people moved at once. Swooosh. The faint sound of the wind struck the knights of Illavenia. Even without ‘Fragment’, getting rid of this number of people shouldn’t pose a problem. Janan jumped over the roof of the carriage. Thud. And the carriage shook loudly.
Chaeng.
Even under the rain…
Gwang!
…the swords of both sides collided and sparks arose. It was a sound so strong that it was hard to believe that it was produced by thin metal. Janan turned his gaze to the sound. The woman’s, with whom he had made eye contact with earlier, movements were so quick. If only she wasn’t a weak woman by birth, she would be an even better knight…
She was fighting fiercely with a Black Moon, whose body was artificially enhanced beyond human limitations. It was amazing.
Her fighting style seemed accustomed to improvisation, with actions such as pushing the enemy by the shoulder and kicking them to widen the distance. The other male knights around her look slower in comparison! At the time of her kick, a team member flew in and crashed into the carriage Janan was on, and he barely managed to recover his swaying body. Janan corrected his evaluation for this female knight. She was already a very good knight.
She flew around. Not only did she attack the enemy before her, she continued to butt in other knights’ battles, as if saying, “My hands were playing without me knowing.”
Janan inserted his sword into the back of the knight who was fighting near the carriage and pulled it out. The knight vomited blood and slumped down. The extraordinary skills shown here were interesting, but he was not in a situation where he could afford to take it easy, as he had to quickly pursue the 2nd Prince.
Janan put his hand on the carriage’s doorknob to finish his work here. ‘Time to get acquainted with the noble Illavenia delegations who held their heads high in Balta.’
Craagk. The carriage’s door was ripped open.
But inside…
“The carriage is empty!”
As if responding to Janan’s bewildered cry, the voices of the other team members spread everywhere. “The carriage is empty! Inside is empty! No one is here!” Janan shook his head. ‘Where did they go? Did they leave it empty in the first place? Why?’ He could see the team members were confused, but continued the battle. An uneasy air current that could not be formed just by the fact that the carriage was empty surrounded the crew. Janan looked around the wide open field where the battle was taking place.
The knights of Illavenia, who had been crawling on the floor with injuries before, were flying around. It was strange. Even the knight who had a sword in his back got up and started fighting again.
No matter how tough they were, they were human. In front of the might of the great Crean Tidanion, there is no way for mere humans to be their opponents. Something was odd. ‘Clearly there is something strange about this situation!’ Maybe it was because of the strange anxiety that gripped his ankles that he felt earlier. ‘What is it, what did I miss?’ Janan quickly traced his memory.
For a moment, her eyes were as blue as a tender leaf. Those eyes quickly passed through Janan’s mind once again. He looked for the dark-haired knight like a madman. He could see her in the distance. Kang! Kang! The harsh sound of metal clashing resounded. Janan realized. The battle of the knights gathered around her was shaped like a shield. Rather than rushing to get rid of their enemies, they were preoccupied with protecting something. Janan stared through them.
Behind the annoying female knight, a tall male knight who was fighting with a sword reached out to his injured comrade.
“!”
A faint light spread through the gray forest. It was the light of life that stopped blood and healed wounds. And there was no way Janan didn’t know what that meant.
‘This is crazy! Why is the prince still here?’ Janan roared. He had to let the others know that the 2nd Prince is here.
“The…!”
‘The 2nd Prince is here!’ However, he did not finish his speech. The woman, who was looking this way with her eyes shining, turned her foot wide. Her dark hair circled like a hurricane following her wild movements. She rushed in with the sound of the wind. The sword in her hand was nowhere to be seen. Cough. Janan coughed up blood. A sword was lodged precisely under his neck. The woman flew away even before checking whether he’d live or die. One couldn’t even measure her speed.
‘T- This is bullshit… N- No, it’s…’ Janan’s body collapsed and fell to the ground. His dripping blood ran through the puddles of rain.
***
The white carriage running along the bumpy road constantly rattled. Although the speed was significantly slower than that of his horse, Tyreng was still chasing only the back of the carriage. ‘This time… This time we will definitely catch it!’ The raiders vigorously kicked the horse’s side to gain speed.
It was then.
“Uwaaaaahk!”
“Aaaakh!”
Something descended from the sky at high speed, pounding past Balta’s raiders. It reminded them of a gangster pounding people on the shoulder on a crowded market floor. Of course, it was several times more painful and threatening than that.
There was a huge eagle the size of two or three humans that could easily devour them. For a moment, Tyreng thought that a demonic beast had appeared, but he immediately realized that this hypothesis was wrong. This was because it acted unlike normal demonic beasts, which did not know how to identify their enemy and just destroyed everything in their way.
Seeing that only the raiders attacked, it was clear that it had been tamed by someone. As the team members were ambushed, some fell on horseback, making the following team members caught and fell one after another to the ground.
By the time they almost recovered to their original position and pursued again, the white carriage was still far away. It was a repeating situation.
“God damn it!”
Tyreng groaned and spit out a swear word. Even when he threw a dagger in time when the eagle descended, it mysteriously avoided it as if it knew his tricks. And when their eyes met, the eagle even shook his head as if teasing him! This situation of being swayed by a single bird could not be explained by other words than shameful. Tyreng’s face turned red.
The Holy Empire Illavenia. Their god Idelavhim is said to have borrowed the form of an eagle when he appeared in the human world. Eagle was famous for being a smart species, but it shouldn’t be at the level of this flying beast floating over his head. This one seemed like something great and out of reach was draped in the skin of an eagle. ‘Could it be that this is the true messenger of Idelavhim?’