Chapter 88

Traveling the continent alone, wielding only a sword, is a suicide mission. Even in a world where legendary knights exist who can slaughter dozens or hundreds with a single blade.

Moreover, the probability that this ‘traveler’ standing right here, right now, possessed such prowess was close to zero. Logically speaking, someone of that caliber would have no reason to wander about in such a shabby state to begin with.

The Marcel Mountains, blocking the path to Guild City in the southern empire.

Therefore, the bandits of ‘Greenwood’ camped there did not hesitate. They blocked the path of the traveler clad in black robes, drawing their weapons to strip him of his possessions.

It didn’t necessarily have to be valuable gold coins.

Guild City, beyond the southern Marcel Mountains.

The living people there are commodities traded at exorbitant prices. In that sense, Greenwood’s bandits are no different from subcontractors who periodically deliver ‘goods’ to Guild City.

And with the Grand Guild’s tacit approval, their business was thriving immensely.

“Heh heh, look at this fearless fellow.”

At least, that was the case until that very ‘traveler’ came looking for them.

“To see you step foot in our territory without fear, you must be a visitor from out of town?”

“Indeed, that’s exactly it! What terrible luck I’ve had!”

Greenwood’s gang chuckled, while the traveler remained silent. In the pouring sunlight, the shadow cast beneath the hood was exceedingly dark.

“…Looks like you’re running some kind of human trafficking operation here, huh?”

The traveler in robes spoke.

His voice sounded somewhat youthful, impossible to judge by appearance alone.

“……!”

Yet, at that utterly unflinching demeanor, a momentary silence hung over Greenwood’s gang. After all, not many could maintain such composure in the face of bandits.

“Then again, what’s the point of talking at length with a mere piranha?”

The traveler, Dale of Saxony, muttered. As if it didn’t matter.

“You… you bastard…!”

A look of caution settled among Greenwood’s gang. The silence didn’t last long either.

One of the bandits, axe in hand, lunged forward, kicking off the ground.

Swoosh!

At that very moment, Greenwood’s gang couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.

Only the arm holding the axe vanished. Blood spurted from the severed limb, but that wasn’t the end. A ‘blood-red thread’ coiled around the bandit’s body. From the crown of his head, down his lips and neck, then straight from his chest to his groin.

Immediately afterward, another crimson thread was drawn, and before long, dozens of blood vessels were coiled around his body.

Thud!

The thief’s body began to collapse, like hundreds of diced pieces. Like the opening scene of the movie “Cube,” without even a moment to writhe in pain or scream.

“He… from the shadows…”

Seeing their comrade crumble into pieces, Greenwood’s gang muttered.

“A… a monster appeared…!”

Beside Dale, a shadow with substance had taken form.

It wasn’t a monster, but the silhouette of a person.

Beneath the black helmet, jet-black hair fluttered like dark ink.

Armored in the black armor symbolizing the Night Crow Knight, he held a knight’s sword in his hand, not a single drop of blood staining it. This was no ordinary Night Crow Knight. He had sworn an oath of silence, the Saxon family’s ultimate force protecting them from within the shadows.

He cared not for knightly nobility or virtue, nor did he hesitate to become an assassin’s killing blade when necessity demanded it… The strongest knight force, wielded strictly according to the Saxon House’s methods.

The Grave Guard… Aurelia was there.

Lady Shadow.

Not the Duchess of Saxony, but a knight who remained utterly loyal in Dale’s shadow.

That day, Aurelia willingly chose to become Dale’s shadow. Through the ‘Book of the Black Goat’, she embraced both her shadow and Shuv’s darkness simultaneously.

That was the pact made between the ‘Mother of the Ancient Darkness’ and the Holy Maiden Aurelia, and in Aurelia’s form, one could find no image of a more noble Holy Maiden.

“They are those who must die. Kill them all.”

“As my lord commands.”

Dale spoke. Aurelia hesitated not. She thrust off the ground and charged, swinging her sword once more. Flesh and blood and bone scattered. With every human life she took, ecstatic pleasure surged through the tip of her blade.

“Please, please spare me…!”

The screams begging for mercy were so utterly delightful she couldn’t bear it. Was this what pleasure felt like?

“Ahhh…”

The ecstasy of slaughter. Like a child unaware of emotion gradually learning about the world.

Freed from the shackles of the gods, Aurelia faced the world with her own desires and will. Without turning her head away from her own darkness and shadow.

Where did his own will end, and where did the darkness tainted by the Book of the Black Goat begin? It no longer mattered.

Only the prayer of the Holy Maiden Aurelia never reached the goddess until the very end. The ‘Black Prince’ drove the Holy Maiden to ruin, and within that ruin, he extended his hand. That day, the Holy Maiden Aurelia made a pact with the devil.

In exchange for the empire’s ruin.

Amidst the thieves’ pleas for mercy, Aurelia’s sword swung.

The Black Sword of Saxony, wrapped in an aura of pitch-black darkness.

The Castle of Greenwood.

The black Valkyrie was slaughtering the Greenwood bandits. In that avatar, who could possibly recall the noble maiden of the island of Britannia?

She bore no wings of pure white light, nor a single glimmer of radiant, noble gold. Only an unmistakable thrill was contained in each swing of her sword.

That day, confronting her own shadow through the Book of the Black Goat was entirely her decision. And that decision made her what she is now.

Lady Shadow, the Black Maiden.

The hem of the black Valkyrie’s cloak rose, writhing like a living creature. Much like Dale’s ‘Shadow Cloak’. It became pitch-black spikes, piercing the thieves’ bodies from all directions.

Blood spattered everywhere.

“Ah, aaaah…”

Dale stepped toward the leader of Greenwood, who had collapsed in terror.

“I have questions.”

“P-Please speak!”

At Dale’s words, the Greenwood leader knelt and pleaded.

“Among the ‘Great Guilds’ of Guild City, is there anyone making contact with you?”

Officially, the major guilds each claim to represent industries like finance, textiles, commerce, or law… yet simultaneously, each one extends its reach into all manner of criminal enterprises that cannot be publicly acknowledged. Through the network of guild cities that dominate the entire continent.

In other words, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Guild City itself is one massive criminal organization.

The scale of the Thief Guild ‘Cycloscope’, which once raided Dale, is incomparable.

Even the Black Tower of the past was said to receive ‘test subjects’ from them on a regular basis.

Therefore, separate from becoming a customer of the black market, I had to find a way to penetrate the darkness of Guild City, reaching its deepest depths.

“Ah, I know! I know it all!”

The leader of Greenwood pleaded desperately.

“There are people who come regularly to collect the slaves we capture! I know them!”

“Well, it’s fortunate you know them.”

Dale said. The black Valkyrie had already sheathed her sword. Leaving the corpses strewn about behind her.

The terrified leader wet himself, and Dale added as if to reassure him, “Don’t worry.”

“That information will be your lifeline.”

A few days later. When someone from Guild City visited Greenwood Castle to receive the periodic ‘delivery’ of goods.

“……!”

Faced with the horror unfolding before him, he was utterly speechless.

There stood a man clad in robes.

Wrapped in a black robe, the hem of his cloak fluttered ominously in the still air. Beneath the hood, deep shadows lingered in the pouring sunlight.

Beside him, the leader of Greenwood trembled violently, kneeling on the ground.

‘What… what happened…?’

At first, I couldn’t quite grasp the situation. Could it be that an expeditionary force had come from outside Guild City to wipe them out? Then who exactly is that man over there?

“I must say, Guild City’s ‘business diversification’ truly leaves me in awe.”

The man spoke, pulling down the hood he wore. Beneath it, the face of a child who hadn’t yet shed his baby fat was revealed.

“Well, this is perfect timing.”

But the moment he saw the ‘skull ornament’ in his hand, a blood-curdling terror gripped his heart. It was an invitation from the Black Market. An entity of a level that a lowly nobody like himself wouldn’t even dare to dream of.

That a mere twelve-year-old child held it meant only one thing.

The Empire’s greatest genius. No, the Saxon family’s prodigy, whose fame surpassed even that.

“Well, young master of the Saxon family…!”

“No, surely this band of thieves wouldn’t dare be rude to the young master…!”

The man from Guild City cautiously asked again, and Dale nodded.

“As for the disrespect they owed us, we made them pay the price.”

Dale said.

Pwoosh!

Simultaneously, from the shadows beneath his feet, a jet-black sword shot upward. Toward the trembling, kneeling leader of Greenwood.

The black sword shot out from the shadows and vanished back into them.

“Guh, gah…!”

His throat was severed, blood spurting forth.

“But I came here seeking you.”

Saxony’s ‘Black Prince’ continued speaking without a care.

“Regardless of the Black Market’s clients, I am solely acting as the ‘proxy of the Dark Mage Tower’…”

In a voice devoid of even a trace of emotion.

“I have matters I wish to discuss with the Grand Guild of Guild City.”

“The, the major guilds…!”

“Fortunately, the person who will take me to the Grand Guild happens to be right here before me.”

“……!”

The proxy of the Black Mage Tower. At Dale’s words, the person from Guild City gasped.

‘C-could it be… they’ve come to negotiate providing another ‘test subject’ to the Black Magic Tower?’

There was no denying that the Black Tower had once been one of Guild City’s largest clients. That was why the people of Guild City smiled through their fear.

“Joe, that’s fine!”

It was that characteristic business smile, unyielding in any situation.

“Since the Saxon Duke’s household, and moreover, the representative of the Black Magic Tower has come…”

He began calculating swiftly in his mind.

“Our Guild City’s Grand Guild must also offer the appropriate courtesy, of course.”