/
Left Behind, Forgotten, and Returned (3)
Dawn broke.
The darkness that had assailed Winter Castle throughout the night disappeared. However, evidence of its existence remained. Corpses were scattered everywhere.
The soldiers of Winter Castle were gathering up all the bodies, as well as any severed limbs. All these remains were piled up high on the field before that castle gate.
And then, the pile was lit.
The bodies of those who had not known proper burial for centuries were now burned, and an acrid smoke rose from the blazing pile of corpses. No one spoke; rangers and knights alike watched in silence. I also stood with them on the wall as we watched the bodies burning. I watched as four hundred years of history became an ash and was scattered upon the wind.
The fire did not die out until the sun had set.
* * *
“There are quite a few injured, but none have died.”
The knights who had charged out with me had all miraculously survived the battle. Perhaps it was due to the weak connection between the undead and the frozen corpses they had inhabited.
Thanks to that, many soldiers had teeth-marks and nail-scratches, but not one of them had died.
“I have thoroughly debriefed the soldiers,” Vincent stated.
“Don’t worry.”
Vincent did not leave after giving his reply, and I noticed that he still had something to say.
“What?” I asked.
Vincent hesitated for a while and then said, “It’s a bit late, but congratulations.”
“For what?”
“Are you not the youngest Sword Master of the kingdom?” Vincent asked with a smile.
His congratulations may have been belated, but that did not mean I was in a situation where the leisurely giving and receiving of praise had any worth. I smiled and said that I had to get some rest, but Vincent seemed to have more words weighing on his heart.
“I am also sorry,” came his sudden apology. “Balahard will never forget Your Highness’s sacrifices.”
His face was filled with regret. I could not understand his apology at all.
“I will become stronger. The Winter Knights, too. Your Highness will never again have to carry the burden alone.”
When I tried to ask him why he was saying such things, he just kept his silence. His expression was tight, but it revealed his absolute commitment. Whatever his reasons, I was not about to ruin his convictions. So I just told him that I would be looking forward to it.
Vincent left, and the High Lich visited me. I told her about what transpired with the Death Knights.
“There seems to be a mission that they had not yet achieved,” Ophelia said.
“All the obligations placed upon them four hundred years ago have been completed. There is nothing left for them to do.”
“Don’t be impatient. You’ll know what it is when the time comes – when they tell you of it.”
I became convinced by her words, though I didn’t want to be.
Even if they were dead men, the knights still had upright and noble hearts and would not do anything to harm the kingdom.
My main concern was Gwain and the other knight candidates. I had watched as the disappearing ghosts had seeped into their bodies. Ophelia spoke up again.
“Don’t worry. They did not hurt them much, and they were not forced out of the bodies. They just needed a place to sleep for a while.”
I had to admit, Gwain and the candidates had pretty good bodies for the Death Knights to rest in.
They all had the same mana hearts and the same blind loyalty to the kingdom.
The wavelengths of their souls and their bodies’ energy were on the same level.
“Right,” I said as I glanced at Ophelia and then poured myself a drink. I did not like alcohol, but I figured I had to drink a little today.
I emptied the cup in memory of the soldiers and knights who had fallen four centuries ago upon Mount Seori. I emptied another cup in memory of the spirits of Balahard, who had never had a true funeral.
“For the loyal knights.”
Even if it would kill me, I offered and downed another cup to the knights who had been loyal to the king till the very end.
* * *
Three days passed after the battle with the undead.
“There are ugly rumors going around the castle.”
“Some say they see ghosts or moving shadows hidden in the dark.”
It seemed that the wounds of the dead weren’t only skin-deep. I heard childish rumors spread among tough men, who had not even retreated from the terrible monsters. These soldiers seemed to get scared by mere ghost-stories.
“It is not strange for them to see things in every corner. They did hear ghosts cry to them, and they did see the dead come back to life. But this will all be forgotten over time.”
I knew that such vain ghost-tales would disappear from one mind to the next as time passed. Well, I had thought so, at least. As the sun set the next day, I explored the castle, and I found them.
As was usual, Ophelia had thrown me out of my room because she viewed me as a distraction. I had felt quite depressed since a few days ago, so on this day, I aimlessly wandered about the castle.
It was a peaceful night, and the time was such that none were awake except the guards upon the walls. I heard noises coming from one corner of the fortress.
There was a rustling sound and then: ‘Wachak, Wagjak!’ ‘Klangelangelang!’
I sought the source of that annoying sound and finally found myself before the kitchen.
“Well?” someone asked, and I looked into familiar faces.
It was Gwain and the other knight candidates. I figured that they were hungry after practicing all day, so I made to turn around, but Gwain and the others saw me and bowed their heads.
“Let’s finish eating it all,” he then said. I shook my head and once more turned away, but then my face hardened, and I turned back.
The three men who were ravenously devouring the kitchen’s stocks stopped eating and stared at me.
“Would you like to eat with us?” Gwain asked as our eyes met, and he then squeezed a lump of meat, dripping with blood, into his mouth.
His was a common enough greeting, and on the face of it, there was nothing special about it. If they weren’t all former secret knights of the royal family who wanted to kill me, that was.
These were all men who held daggers dripping with hatred and resentment to my back. Since our visit to the capital, they haven’t been so openly hostile to me as before. But that in no way meant that our relationship has improved to the point where they would bow their heads to me out of respect.
These guys had bowed their heads, even if their greeting had not been formal or cultured.
It was strange. In fact, it was an utterly incomprehensible behavior.
So I asked them, “Who are you?”
Gwain responded quite naturally to my question.
“How can you not recognize your loyal subordinates?”
I gave a bloody laugh. Any dog that happened to pass by at that moment would also laugh were he to hear Gwain claim that he was under my command.
“Don’t bullshit me.”
Gwain and the other men exchanged glances upon hearing my words. And then, a strange wave of energy suffused my senses. It was the transmission of will, a wave of thought, something which cannot be grasped by human senses.
I now thought that I knew who they were.
“Reveal yourself.”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
Gwain’s tone and expression were very familiar to me.
“Eus?”
Upon my question, Gwain – or Eus, the Death Knight puppeteering Gwain – grew stiff. He looked at me as he shut his mouth and turned his head to his companions. With him was a man with slitted eyes and a man who looked at me with an awkward face.
“Ekion and Edar. I told you not to do this.”
As I spoke, their distinctive thought waves began to flow in a frenzy. I listened in on their telepathic exchange.
‘What is he talking about? Did I say that the meat is good?’
‘It’s frustrating – it’s frustrating.’
The ghost-stories were real enough. I continued to feel their thoughts flow through my mind.
‘Should we jump?’
‘I think it would be better to just pretend that we don’t know until the end.’
‘Or maybe we can beat him, and then run away?’
‘I’ve already considered everything, and your plan means nothing. It is impossible to subdue him – consider his actions and high level that we saw that night.’
‘There is no sword at his hip. And here, we have a knife.’
‘A knife for meat, yes, but it is no sword.’
Their absurd musings flowed through my mind as if it had entered through my ears. I finally cried out, making it clear that if they tried something, they would lose by it.
“Whoever tries to beat me will get thrashed in turn.”
‘Has he heard us?’
‘I think he’s heard us.’
‘You’re correct, so shut up!’
The thoughts exchanged by the three Ekyon brothers suddenly ceased. As I saw all three men look at me with awkward faces, I brought my hand to my forehead.
Now I remember.
The three Ekyon brothers had reached levels beyond extraordinary. They had been among the best Royal Knights, as well as being the most promising where prospective talent was concerned. They had been the youngest Royal Knights, ever.
When the three brothers had died on Mount Seori, Ekion was twenty, Eus was nineteen, and Eidar was eighteen.
Apart from their skill, they were surely of an age to cause trouble.
“Okay. I know you were all quite bold back then,” I said as I recalled the past.
Gwain rolled his eyeballs.
“Eus, it is obvious that you were inciting your brothers,” I continued.
In the past, the main fire-stoker had been Eus, the ever-cheerful second son.
“No,” was all that Eus said.
I kept to my own thoughts as I heard him speak. These were loyal knights, but they acted like feral dogs with fleshy bones.
I wrapped my head around the possible accidents that could flow from these youths’ brazen poltergeisting.
* * *
“It is unfair. It’s because I can’t sleep quietly these days,” Gwain, that is Eus wearing Gwain’s body, made his excuse. He said that he could not stand his lack of a body. He wanted to enjoy things that could only be enjoyed by those with corporeal forms.
“Is that all you want to do? Eat?” I asked.
“For some reason, I can’t resist my appetite. Even if you think it’s funny, it’s a serious problem for us.”
Contrary to Eus’s words, I did not consider their desires to be ridiculous at all. I understood it all. When I had gained my human body, the first thing I enjoyed was food. At that time, I thought it was enough to be able to eat as a human, so great was the pleasure.
Although they could not fully remember it, having been undead for so long, their appetites were still hale and hearty, as mine had been when I awoke in Adrian.
It wasn’t that they were completely claiming these bodies, nor were they extorting the lives of others.
I wasn’t even that they were filling someone’s stomach by stealing their body.
It was just a brief stroll into the night while the body’s owner was unconscious.
“You must avoid harm to the owner of the body. You must have self-control,” I told them.
“I bet I haven’t done anything that hurts this body.”
“Yes. I feel rather proud, because our energy would weaken if we did not do this.”
“But do you truly understand?” I demanded.
There was nothing to understand. How could I blame them if I was walking around in another’s body? Even if they didn’t understand, would they be careful, as I had demanded?
I shook my head. No way.
So, I offered the troublemakers and appropriate compromise.
“An hour each day. However, no one must know.”
I laughed as they so eagerly nodded.
“By the way, I respect you all,” I stated.
“For now, I have an identity,” came Eus’s quick reply.
“That’s good, but behave, and be quiet.”
At my words, Eus, the current Gwain, said in a subtle tone, “And if our existence benefits them as well, no one is hurt.”
‘There is unusable mana scattered throughout my new friend’s body. It is the first time that I see such a thing, with the fragments distributed all over the body. It should be quite painful for this body to channel mana.’
‘It may not be possible in a short time, but if you work hard at it for a long time, you will not feel pain every time that you leave. And if you’re lucky, you can finally absorb all that energy.’
‘Wouldn’t that be enough of a reward for using their bodies?’
The mindless thoughts of the three brothers made me consider things seriously. I figured that I knew what mana fragments they were talking about. It was evidently the remains of the mana rings that had been shattered due to the original owner of my own body.
In other words, the energy of the mana rings had exploded into the bodies of Gwain and the candidates. I looked at the three Ekyon brothers.
‘But it is a big mistake to use the flesh of the living against their will. I will be self-respecting and-‘
“No,” I said as I cut off Ekion and his guilty telepathic musings. “It has nothing to do with being self-respecting. You just have to cross that line. Do what you have to do,” I said as I watched the three Ekyon brothers, and then added, “and it would be better if you passed into others as well and absorbed the fragments of mana spread in their bodies.”
It seemed that the ruined knights, the betrayed knights, could be healed in order to reach their previous level faster than I had ever thought.
Laughter flowed from my lungs.
It was not my mistake, my betrayal, but it had become the karma that I had to bear in the end. And here was a way to somewhat balance that karma. Still, it might not make the knights smile, and I would never be able to compensate them for the time that they had spent as broken men.
“Are you really closing your eyes?” Eus asked me with some curiosity.
“I’ll pretend I don’t know from now on,” I told myself.
It was not my body that had sinned, so the karma wasn’t truly harming me.
There existed no reason to miss such a golden opportunity.
* * *
Three more days passed after I met with the Ekyon brothers, who now roamed every night.
After finishing my preparations for leaving the castle, I headed to the capital with only a few knights in my retinue.
The war of winter was won, and I had passed the king’s test. All that remained was to finish the business that I had started, and for so long put off.
My horse ran on without pause. We finally arrived at the capital, and I immediately went to the king.
“I came to receive the prize you had promised me.”