Chapter 88: Chapter 88

The interrogation room door slammed shut with a heavy sound.

The punishment given to him was one day of confinement.

First, Arnold's fault for drawing his sword first and the fault of the Klaus family children who had insulted the symbol of the Imperial Army unit.

His self-defense was recognized and there would be no penalty, but the charge of blasphemy for killing a knight at the Emperor's banquet had been applied.

"Even if it was self-defense, one day! Where is such a slap-on-the-wrist punishment!"

"It is His Imperial Majesty's decision. Will you disobey?"

"N-no, that's not what I meant...!"

Baron Klaus's protest, raised in a loud voice, melted away like snow at a single word from the guard.

Disobedience was treason-a capital crime.

"I thought Cain had brought a hunting dog, but it turns out to be a mad dog with its leash off."

At the deep voice coming from one corner of the interrogation room, Yaan lifted his head.

Emperor Cardias, not in the dress uniform worn at the party but in light outdoor clothes, was looking at him.

"Your Imperial Majesty..."

"The formalities are over. I have something urgent to say, so I deliberately arranged this place."

A monarch who burns his people's lives for the Empire's profit. Yaan bowed his head, but he could not erase the discomfort lodged in one corner of his heart.

"You killed more than I expected. Hiram's face was quite a sight."

"I merely carried out the given mission."

"Ha-ha, yes. Let's say that's so."

Emperor Cardias, smiling kindly, took glasses from his pocket and put them on.

The Emperor shifting from sovereign to scholar-Yaan felt a chill at the bizarre change.

"It gave a little fun to a dull banquet and showed some blood, so by my nature I ought to give you a reward rather than punishment, but circumstances force me to speak here."

"I am grateful for the grace Your Majesty shows."

To kill a knight was mere entertainment.

The Emperor before Yaan's eyes was just like Alienor.

'He's not in his right mind...'

The Emperor, smiling thinly as he watched Yaan think that, opened his mouth.

"I heard you took the central-front fortress with Cain. That fortress was thought impregnable; breaking through it with just a hundred knights surprised even me."

"It was thanks to the Commander's guidance."

"Indeed? Then you are saying it was not your doing?"

Had he not relied on Glaepnir's performance to fight the knights? The Emperor was asking Yaan that.

'Do they have no information on Commander Cain?'

Even as he thought that, Yaan did not stop answering.

"My unit and I were only tasked with diversion; the main force of the battle was House Lorenz contingent."

"Good. Then my information was correct. Cain Lorenz has mastered aura blades."

As expected. He had known all along.

The reason he had summoned Yaan was simply for confirmation.

"The age of swords. A time to call back that glorious age, and the one who heralds its beginning is the Empire's Duke... Heh, things are getting very interesting."

Emperor Cardias, muttering words Yaan could not understand, rose as if his business were done.

"I have confirmed all I wished; you may leave whenever you like."

"Your favor is boundless."

Emperor Cardias looked at Yaan bowing his head. Presently, as if recalling something, he looked at Yaan again and spoke.

"By the way, I heard your unit and Frames were badly damaged. How do you plan to restore them?"

"The Frames at the capital maintenance yard, and the unit... I intend to make up the numbers from my territory."

Hearing Yaan's reply, the Emperor opened his mouth as if interested.

"Then, while you're at it, let me give you one more task. Will you hear it?"

"Command me, Your Majesty."

As he said that, the Emperor, curling his lip, handed Yaan a sheet of paper.

"It looks familiar, does it not?"

Drawn there was a colossus. It was a hurried sketch by an informant, but one thing was clear.

Twice the size of any other colossus and with an enormous upper body.

"Has a Delta Colossus appeared in the colony?"

"Indeed, and not just one. Thanks to them, the Imperial Army bases in the colony are falling one by one."

Having said that, the Emperor looked at Yaan and spoke.

"Knight Yaan Verkut, I command you: suppress the colony's rebellion."

"Knight Yaan Verkut accepts Your Majesty's order."

When Yaan knelt and said that, the Emperor smiled and addressed him.

"I will give you a dwarf named Brak shut up in the Diana territory. He will be of help."

With those words the Emperor left the interrogation room with a smile.

Following the Emperor's order, Yaan's confinement was lifted; as soon as he stepped out he took the letter a guard handed him and opened it.

The sender was listed as the steward of the Verkut territory.

After reading the letter Yaan's face twisted. Nothing had gone right all day.

"The Rubra Liberation Army? Aren't they the rebels spread along the border?"

On the train passing through Loren toward Rubra-Vailsar, the Empire's colony.

In the carriage sat Yaan, Dandel, Irene, and Ren, discussing the letter on the table.

"We inform the lord of the Verkut territory: this territory has been occupied by the Rubra Liberation Army and will serve as a forward base to liberate our proud homeland. If you value your life..."

Irene, having read that far, pressed her forehead in disgust. Yaan felt the same; he could only sip his coffee in frustration.

"I can't believe the territory was actually taken..."

"The nearby border zone was definitely under Belkuth's supervision, wasn't it?"

Ren spoke up amid the stunned muttering.

"The Liberation Army is a group that formed from the regular troops stationed on the defensive line during the Rubra invasion. They have no colossi, but their infantry organization and command structure equal the Imperial Army."

"They broke through the defensive line while the knights were concentrated on the central front and pushed all the way to the territory."

Recalling the Belkuth knights massed at the central-front base, Yaan muttered that.

Yet no matter how concentrated the central front became, the basic garrison should not have been pulled out.

"They deliberately allowed the invasion."

The Verkut territory was Yaan's land, an area protected by Belkuth knights. If it had fallen, reports of attack should have come from other territories as well.

Yet no nearby territory had any news of such an invasion.

"They may be on the other side, but they're still of the Empire-how could they go this far..."

"The Verkut territory is fine that way."

It was Ren who answered Dandel's grumbling.

Irene, curious as well, asked Ren.

"Before the war with Alfraia, Verkut was a place of exile where the Empire imprisoned anti-government figures and criminals. Only criminals would die there even if it were left undefended."

"Wait a minute, that's just like..."

"Similar to the Penal Corps."

The territory given to a knight from the Penal Corps was land populated by the same convicts.

"The lordship is a hollow title. His real job is policing the criminals who keep flowing in."

"Hardly different from a warden."

The only advantage was that the steady influx of criminals provided ample labor.

For any other lord controlling these people would be taxing, but before them was Yaan Verkut, who had lived on the front lines for ten years among hardened criminals.

There could be no territory more suited to him.

"The fact that this letter bears the steward's signature... means the territory's residents have been taken hostage by the rebels?"

"Hostages. No one there speaks Imperial, so they must have forced the steward to write it."

While listening to Dandel's speculation and gazing blankly at the passing scenery, Ren tilted her head in puzzlement.

"This-there's a code."

When Dandel and Irene asked again, Ren nodded quietly.

"If you take the first letter of each line, a place name appears. A primitive cipher."

"I didn't notice...."

As soon as Ren spoke, Dandel and Irene muttered while looking at the code that began to appear.

"Everyone's heads have gone stiff."

No one could refute Ren's single remark, spoken with eyes lowered.

Including Yaan, who sipped coffee and feigned indifference.

The road to Verkut territory was a winding mountain path.

A few soldiers looked bewildered by the steep slope they hadn't even experienced in the Great Forest of Kerdan, but it still wasn't enough to seriously hinder the unit's movement.

"Company commander! This is the marked area!"

When Dandel waved toward Glaepnir, Glaepnir stopped in place.

Before them lay a village almost in ruins.... No, it was better called the rubble of what had once been a village.

[Life signs detected in surrounding area. Count roughly 2000.]

"Display the locations."

Along with Nill's voice, the silhouettes of people hiding in the buildings began to appear.

They had hidden in terror at the sudden appearance of a colossus, but a few could be seen armed.

- All halt. I'll enter first.

Having said that, Glaepnir started walking toward the village.

From every corner of the small village, situated on a clearing halfway up the mountain, people cautiously showed their faces.

- Is there a person in charge here?

At Yaan's voice echoing across the village center, figures appeared one by one.

Their opponent was a colossus; no handful of guns could stand against it.

"I-I am the village head, Albert. To what do we owe a knight's visit to such a humble village...."

'They said it was a den of criminals, but they look surprisingly docile.'

Expecting a firefight, Yaan had entered first; yet as soon as Glaepnir arrived, he watched people throw down their weapons and tilted his head in puzzlement.

At the single trembling question from the village head, Glaepnir's hatch opened and Yaan appeared.

"Look at that! It's the Imperial Army!"

"Damn it. What are we supposed to do now?"

"Still, a colossus came-surely something will happen?"

Leaving the murmuring territory folk behind, Yaan stepped onto the ground and gestured; the Greyhounds began to emerge one by one.

The villagers, who had watched them warily, breathed a sigh of relief upon recognizing Imperial uniforms, then trembled in fear at the Penal Corps brand on their shoulders.

"Quiet! They'll drag you off alive!"

"First the Liberation Army storms in, and now it's the Penal Corps...!"

Seeing the villagers' despair, Yaan sighed, called the village head over, and spoke.

"From today, I am the new lord appointed to manage this territory, Yan Verkut. Are the other territory folk being held elsewhere?"

At the question, the village head doubted his ears for a moment.

"P-plunder or murder and such...."

"Then these Penal Corps members...?"

"They are the soldiers under my command. They won't cause trouble, so please rest assured."

Hearing those words, the village head seemed to age ten years on the spot.

"W-well then.... M-my lord.... At least, a-a drink...."

With those words the village head collapsed, and a young man who appeared to be the leader of the armed group took over guiding Yaan and his party.

"They joined the Liberation Army!?"

Inside the village head's house. Dandel's shout of shock at the thunderbolt news filled the house.

"Y-yes.... For a long time this territory has been ruled not by a lord but by someone called the Boss."

An Emperor's direct domain that was in truth a criminals' den. It was easy to imagine what kind of ecosystem had formed in what amounted to a frontier prison disguised as a territory.

"That man secretly exchanged letters with someone while the Imperial garrison was here.... One day he killed every last soldier and threw in with the Liberation Army. Said he'd rather die a criminal than die without taking a shot at the Empire...."

Listening to the territory's tale, Yaan let out a hollow laugh. After seeing the Boss's crimes listed on the inmate-no, territory folk-register, the laugh came naturally.

"Thirty-two counts of murder, eighty-four of rape, and as for robbery-hardly worth counting."

Crimes so severe one wondered why he hadn't been executed long ago.

"Those who remain here?"

When Yaan asked, the village head Andrew answered.

"We are natives who have lived here for generations. We led the territory folk who fled the Liberation Army and have been barely surviving in this village."

Looking around the house-cracked and holed, on the verge of collapse-Yaan finished his thoughts and rose.

"From now on we will crush the Liberation Army and reclaim the territory."

"How will you deploy?"

"I'll go in alone. The whole company will wait in the village. Protect the territory folk."

At that, Dandel nodded, then asked as if just remembering.

"About five hundred territory folk joined the Liberation Army. What do you intend to do with them?"

At the question Yaan looked at Dandel's face and gave a small smile.

A fresh smile carved on a mask newly made.

"A colossus, shit! Nobody said anything about this!"

An emergency was declared in Varkus territory's inner keep due to the sudden intruder.

What appeared before them was none other than a colossus-bearing the seal of House Lorenz.

'A keep, really? What is this, the middle ages?'

Gazing at the old-fashioned Varkus keep-proof of the territory's age-Yaan muttered.

- Ah, ah. Can you hear me?

Hearing the voice from the colossus, Boss Unt rushed onto the keep's balcony.

- Liberation Army. And to the territory folk who have joined them, hear this.

"Hmph! Trying to make us surrender? Don't make me laugh! I'd rather die than surrender to you-!"

Unt's attempt to rally his men halted mid-sentence at Yaan's next words.

- Do not surrender. Every last one of you will be killed inside the keep today.

At the absurd declaration through the colossus's loudspeaker, Unt's eyes snapped wide.

Only seconds after the words, Glaepnir had already burst into the keep and was loading the machine guns mounted on both arms.