Chapter 16

Far away, at the end of a winding, shadowy alleyway.

“Here! Here!”

The child who had been urgently tugging at Charlotte’s skirt stopped in their tracks, and the wailing that had filled the air just seconds before abruptly ceased.

“Why, why are you like this? Where is your mother?”

After that, the child fled away from the two of them.

“Careful.”

Dale quietly reached out, restraining the flustered Charlotte.

“Oh dear, what on earth!”

From beyond the stone wall at the end of the shadowy alley, a figure emerged. Waving several daggers held in hand as if to show them off.

“What brings the noble young master to such a shabby place?”

Shadows that had been lurking in succession now block their path, surrounding the two like a barrier.

‘Five in total.’

One was a high-ranking Shifu, the rest several ranks below him.

Though they hadn’t formally trained in aura techniques like knights, they wielded aura power in their own way through self-cultivation.

Their combat prowess is likely sufficient to easily subdue two or three escort knights of the Duke’s household.

Experience honed through countless battles at the bottom is never something to be taken lightly.

Dale coldly assessed their numbers and skill level, while Charlotte, belatedly grasping the situation, raised her hand to the hilt of her sword.

“Master, please step aside quietly.”

Watching this, the senior Shifu ‘Jade’ spoke up.

“Our target remains that little girl.”

“……!”

At those words, Charlotte’s expression froze coldly.

“I cannot hand over the young lady of the Orhart family to vagabonds like you.”

“Ha! How noble of you to protect the lady.”

Sif Jade continued with a mocking tone.

“However, young master, there are certain matters in this world that require discerning the appropriate time and place.”

I will never lay a hand on the Saxon family’s young master. So withdraw quietly now.

Abandon Charlotte.

In short, that was the gist of what they were trying to say.

“…….”

Dale remained silent, offering no reply. Charlotte glanced over at him. For a fleeting moment, a faint flicker of unease washed over her—a fear that Dale might abandon her.

“I, Dale of Saxony, swear by the name of the duke’s house to protect the young lady of the Orhart family.”

Therefore.

“There’s no need to worry.”

“De-Dale……”

Dale answered with a smile.

“I promised you.”

Dale’s promise to protect her in the name of House Saxon, until the day her sword could reach the heart of the Holy Knight.

“It seems you’ll have to taste a bit of the world’s bitterness.”

Seeing that, Jade quietly clicked her tongue. The conversation ended there.

All that remained was to demonstrate his skill.

Subdue the Duke’s eldest son without leaving major wounds, then take the girl alive. Just as he was about to signal his men.

Dale extended his finger.

Magic surged along his fingertips.

‘Magic!’

The Duke’s prodigy possesses unparalleled talent in both swordplay and magic. Sensing this, Jade lunged forward before the spell could reach her.

Five Shifts charged simultaneously, with a young boy and girl positioned at their center.

Distance is life in a fight against a mage. Besides, no matter how exceptional Dale’s talent was, he was still just a nine-year-old child. He couldn’t compare to Jade’s blade, hardened by countless battles.

That should have been the case.

Whoosh!

At that very moment, the wind blew.

‘Wind?’

No, it wasn’t the wind. Not even a breeze stirred in this place, yet the cloak draped over Dale began to flutter wildly.

One subordinate, failing to grasp its meaning, charged at Dale to subdue him.

“Get out of the way, you fools!”

Jade felt a chill run through her entire body as she stepped back in terror.

Whoosh!

Shadow blades erupted from beneath Dale’s feet. Transforming into jet-black spikes, they lunged toward the nape of one subordinate charging from behind.

Through the gap in his Adam’s apple.

“Guh, gah!”

Splatter!

Blood spurted and splattered.

“That makes four.”

Without even glancing up, Dale muttered. His voice held not a shred of emotion.

Shadow Blade, the first form of the artifact ‘Shadow Cloak’ that Dale possessed.

But that wasn’t all.

Toward the subordinate who had been fatally pierced through the throat by a skewer, Dale flicked his finger.

Dark magic surged through the Shadow Cloak’s blades like a wire.

Squelch.

The target’s body twisted at impossible, grotesque angles. Simultaneously, the corpse began to vomit.

“Gurgle, gurgle-gurgle!”

Every organ inside its body poured out through its throat.

Heart and intestines, lungs and stomach and rectum… parts of life utterly useless to the dead.

And into the hollowed-out body of the corpse──a ‘shadow’ surged from Dale’s cloak, sliding down its throat.

Like a living serpent. To escape the shadow beneath his feet, to take on another independent form.

The Shadow Cloak’s second form.

“Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Shadow Parasite.

“Hungry, hungry, hungryyy!”

The voice that had echoed like an auditory hallucination in its own ear is now vomited forth through the corpse’s vocal cords.

Squish!

The ribs, no longer needed to protect the viscera, rose like blades from the corpse’s hands.

The bone sword, sharp as a razor.

Recalling the basics of the Dead Soldier technique his father had taught him, a new Dead Soldier, fused with the malice of the Shadow Cloak, emerged. The ‘Shadow Soldier’ burst from the ground.

There was no need for separate commands. Driven by the Hunger and the will of darkness that had taken root within the dead as its host, it moved.

The shadow cloak draped over Dale still fluttered in the place where not even a breeze stirred.

It cannot be approached easily.

“Block that corpse!”

Jade gave orders to her subordinates, then gripped her blade firmly once more.

This was no time to be lenient just because he was of the Duke’s bloodline.

Any responsibility the organization might later demand for his actions was secondary. A moment’s carelessness meant his head could roll right here.

──Is that the ‘realm of talent’ a mere nine-year-old child can wield? Impossible. Having spent his entire life risking his life in the underworld, he could sense it instinctively.

The techniques unfolding from that child’s hands right now.

It was not something that could be understood by the fact that he was a genius prodigy of the Duke’s family or the son of the Mage Tower Lord.

It was something far more sinister, far more vicious, pure evil itself, devoid of even a shred of nobility.

“Monster brat…”

Jade gripped his blade tighter and once again drove his foot into the ground. Circulating the power of aura through his body, he achieved a speed transcending the limits of human flesh.

Simultaneously with the thrust, the daggers in his hand scattered in a fan-shaped pattern.

But countless jet-black shadows surged from beneath his feet, rising like shields to meet his blades head-on.

‘This is the opening!’

The shadow blades that cloak can generate will be proportional to the amount of magic power expended. No matter how prodigiously talented the duke’s eldest son may be, the magic power he just consumed for defense was no small amount.

Thwack!

Jade sprinted, dodging the shadow spikes erupting from the ground beneath her feet.

Once more, he scattered the daggers in his hand in a fan-shaped pattern, forcing the shadow cloak to expend its power on defense before his charge.

The distance closed in an offbeat rhythm.

“──.”

The element of cold, densely concentrated at the tip of Dale’s finger.

Yet even if a bolt spell were fired right before her eyes, Jade was certain she could evade it.

For skilled archers, dodging a shadowless bolt fired right in front of them is not particularly difficult.

No matter how much additional reinforcement is added to the bolt spell, it still falls short of the destructive power and speed of an actual arrow.

At least, that was true of the ‘bolt magic’ he knew.

“「Double Barrel」 · 「12-gauge 00 buckshot」.”

That was the case until the incantation of ‘words from another realm,’ utterly incomprehensible to Jade, was uttered.

Ice crystallized along Dale’s fingertips, and Jade concentrated his senses to read the trajectory of the crystallized ice.

But when that massive ice shattered, scattering and shooting forth once more as nine ice orbs.

“……?!”

Escaping the hail of ice pellets scattered like shotgun pellets was nearly impossible.

Even as countless ice shards embedded themselves in his body, Jade did not retreat easily.

Gritting his teeth through the agony of his flesh being torn to shreds and his insides crushed, he held his ground.

‘Not yet, not yet…!’

‘Not yet.’

His opponent had reinforced his body with aura, and Dale’s Ice Bullet couldn’t compare to the stopping power of a real firearm.

Barely avoiding a fatal wound, Jade moved her legs while enduring the agony of spitting blood and her insides burning.

Once more, the distance closed.

Zero distance.

‘I’ve won!’

Confident in victory, Jade gripped the sword hilt tighter. Unable to even imagine the meaning of the words ‘Double Barrel’ Dale had muttered just before.

Two barrels.

To understand the ‘words from another world’ Dale had muttered in this realm, he probably should have said it like this.

──Memorize (Spell Load).

Bang!

The final moment. Literally, when the 12-gauge buckshot fired point-blank scattered once more into ice pellets.

‘This monstrous bastard…’

There was no longer any human form left there.

But the fight wasn’t over yet. No, it couldn’t even be called a fight to begin with—it was a massacre.

“Hungry, hungry, HUNGRY!”

The shadow soldier, its hands torn apart, swung the bone blades protruding from its hands like claws.

The white blade, tinged with a sinister blue glint, ripped open the gang member’s abdomen. Through the gaping wound, entrails spilled out in a gruesome heap.

Leaving the echoing screams behind, Dale turns his head.

Without even glancing at the carnage unfolding behind him, he looks toward Charlotte, whose legs are shaking violently beside him.

“First time you’ve seen someone die, huh?”

At least, it’s your first time seeing someone die this horribly.

“……Yeah.”

Charlotte nodded hesitantly, her face pale as a frightened child.

Dale, holding nothing back. His skill was incomparable to when he had accepted the duel wielding a single stiletto.

He couldn’t even draw the rapier he’d placed his hand on the hilt of.

His situation was so pathetic and shameful he couldn’t bear it.

“Ice Bullet.”

Dale aimed his finger once more.

Finally, one man, desperate to survive, fled without looking back. The element of cold condensed at his fingertips shot toward the man’s ankle.

Thud!

With a scream, the man’s ankle vanished entirely, and he collapsed face-first into the filthy gutter.

“Hee, heeek, don’t come, don’t come…!”

And just as the shadow soldier moved to hunt down the last survivor,

“Come back.”

Dale snapped his fingers.

“Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

The corpse screamed, its body exploding outward. After the explosion, the ‘shadow’ that had been moving by using the corpse as a host was drawn to Dale’s feet.

Dale simply kept walking. Toward the man whose ankle had burst, leaving him unable to move.

“S-spare me! I’ll tell you everything I know!”

“What you know?”

“Yes, yes! I’ll tell you everything! I’ll tell you, so please spare me……”

Dale tilted his head.

“There’s nothing you could possibly tell me.”

With eyes that were incredibly dark and black.

“I don’t particularly want to know either.”

He said it flatly, his voice devoid of any emotion.

“But why should I save you?”

He tilted his head, then Dale answered. Pointing his finger at himself once more.

“Monster, you monster brat…!”

That word again.

Thud!

And with that last word, there was no scream echoing out. Because the mouth that should have screamed was gone.

“This is…”

After the silence, Dale turned his head toward Charlotte.

“This is the true face of the House of Saxony that people fear.”

And he cloaks his actions in the Duke’s infamous reputation.

“As per our promise, it is also the power of the Duke’s family that will protect you.”

“……”

At those words, Charlotte quietly bit her lip.

“Afraid?”

“……Yes, a little.”

Charlotte nodded at Dale’s words. Her legs were still trembling violently.

“……But you fought to protect me, didn’t you?”

But Charlotte pushed her fear aside and smiled softly. With quiet resolve.

“Thank you.”

Charlotte said. No matter how scared or terrified she was, she would never point a finger at Dale and call him a monster.

“You said you’d buy my future.”

Dale nodded silently.

“I didn’t.”

No? For a moment, he didn’t understand the meaning and tilted his head.

“You taught me about the future.”

Charlotte said with a bitter smile.

“…To me, who knew nothing of reality.”

Leaving the scattered corpses and bloodshed behind.

“A future where I can protect our Orhart family with my sword.”

I thought there was nothing but despair. Even if protected in the name of the Duke of Saxony, I believed nothing would change.

But that wasn’t the case.

Only after finally grasping the ‘true reality’ of her situation could Charlotte comprehend the weight of what Dale had said.

That day, what Dale gave Charlotte was hope beyond compare. Hope that she could protect the things she loved with her own sword.

“……”

“So, I’ll be your sword.”

Clang.

Drawing her rapier, Charlotte continued.

“I’ll train even harder.”

Even if I must remain one-sidedly bound to this vow for now.

“Until the future me can become the sword wielded for you.”

“……That’s reassuring.”

Seeing that, Dale quietly smiled.

He didn’t think there was any sense of obligation toward Lord Bader. Taking her in was purely an act for himself and the duke’s house.

No.

Therefore, her voluntary choice to become ‘Dale’s Sword’ held far greater significance than Dale had imagined.

After the situation was resolved, a messenger from the Duke’s household delivered a letter to the Count of Brandenburg.

The letter bore the name and signature of the Duke of Saxony himself.

‘I anticipate this will be a most difficult journey, but I wish to invite Your Excellency to the Duchy of Saxony.’

It was written with the utmost courtesy, yet carried an unspoken pressure that made refusal impossible.

‘For the sake of our sincerity, I implore you not to refuse.’

It was not difficult to grasp the situation.

The plan to kidnap the daughter of the Divine Sword had already fallen through—it wasn’t even an issue anymore. Not long ago, his own spy, who had been instructed to make contact with the Shif Guild, had gone missing.

“Those damn bastards, messing up the job…!”

The Black Count summoned him to demand accountability for the situation. It was tantamount to walking into a trap of his own making.

Yet, faced with the pressure exerted by the empire’s foremost noble, even the world’s greatest holy swordsman had no other choice.