Chapter 14

The Genius Knight Who Devours Memories

Chapter 14

“Aaagh!”

A sharp scream rang out.

Inside the officers’ room of the Black Dawn Knights.

The silver-haired woman was clutching her eye.

Dark red blood soon streamed down between her fingers.

“Lady Myuria!”

The guard protecting her from nearby was startled by the sight and hurried toward her.

“Leave me.”

He reached out toward her, but Myuria slapped his hand away and rose from her seat.

The blood vessels leading to her eye had all ruptured from the pressure.

This was precisely why she had been reluctant to share vision with her familiar...

It had happened because the visual connection had been forcibly severed when her familiar died.

Yet rather than pain, intense anger radiated from her.

“You dare deceive me?”

She had spent the entire day sharing her familiar’s vision and had been able to witness many things.

With one hand covering her eye, Myuria quickly began organizing the information.

‘The report was false.’

The report claiming that one-third of the White Wolf Knights had been poisoned to death was a lie.

She did not know how or why a false report had arrived through a familiar, but the knight order she had seen was perfectly intact.

‘The infiltration team inside is all dead too...’

She had seen the heads of four of the five people she had planted within the White Wolf Knights hanging from poles.

The head of Hans, the remaining one, had not been there, but it was reasonable to assume he was already dead.

And lastly.

‘What was that brat?’

The one responsible for killing the crow.

The brat had even gone up onto the platform for being credited with helping kill the spies.

In the end, it meant that brat had killed both the spies and the familiar.

‘Unless he noticed the familiar’s existence...’

No, he clearly had.

Presumably, he had gouged out Rainer’s eye to lure the familiar in.

Myuria had seen everything vividly.

The familiar reacted to the eyeball and descended toward the boy, and at that moment, the brat twisted the crow’s neck.

Without even the slightest hesitation.

“Ahahaha!”

Myuria suddenly burst into hearty laughter.

Thinking about it, the fact that Rainer’s eyeball had come out of some little brat’s clothes was absurd enough on its own.

Displeasure mixed with intense curiosity stirred within Myuria.

‘Just how much do you know?’

Myuria wiped away the blood caked around her eye.

Knowing about the spies was one thing, but he even knew about the familiars and how to summon them?

Those were things no one except Myuria’s closest associates could possibly know.

‘No. That’s not what matters.’

She organized her thoughts.

What exactly the brat was could be dealt with later.

The greatest problem was that their operation had been exposed... and that they had nearly been manipulated in return.

Having finished organizing her thoughts, Myuria called for her guard.

“Vedev.”

“Y-yes!”

“Summon the officers immediately. It’s an emergency meeting.”

“The officers... all of them?”

It was still dawn, when everyone was asleep.

Instead of answering, Myuria slowly turned her head.

Her bloodshot eye, every blood vessel ruptured, turned toward Vedev.

Vedev flinched, swallowed dryly, then answered.

“Yes, understood. I’ll summon every officer immediately.”

Vedev left the officers’ room, and Myuria watched him go while brushing back her silver hair.

‘What exactly is that brat?’

The boy had worn an expressionless face the entire time.

His eyes had been empty, as though he felt no emotions at all.

And yet the expression on the boy’s face in the familiar’s final memory had been...

A smile.

‘Interesting.’

The corners of Myuria’s lips twisted upward.

She had a feeling she would become deeply entangled with that brat before long.

_____________

Clang clang clang clang―!

The sound announcing morning rang out.

Rohan had stayed awake all night.

As always, there was meat on Fourth Squad’s breakfast tray today.

Judging by its shape, it seemed to be some kind of bird.

“Where the hell do you keep finding prey like this?”

Kaisen spoke while letting out a huge yawn.

Rohan shrugged and answered.

“Eat.”

“No thanks.”

As though he had gotten used to it by now, Kaisen did not pay much attention.

Besides, today’s prey seemed to give off some sort of sinister aura, making it look unappetizing.

While the squad members were getting ready, Creed finished arranging his bedding and spoke.

“Let’s go.”

Everyone followed the squad leader toward the training ground.

A tension unlike usual hung over the unit.

Orders to deploy had been issued.

The mission assigned to the White Wolf Knights was a transport operation.

Transport operations were extremely disadvantageous to those carrying them out.

Those who had to leave their sanctuary and move while protecting supplies were like weak prey separated from the herd in the eyes of the enemy.

The grumbling whispers of soldiers could be heard here and there.

- Fuck. Why did it have to be a transport operation?

- What are they thinking, going through Niagara Gorge?

Niagara Gorge.

A long gorge also known as the Gorge of Death.

Unless one wanted to take a detour lasting half a month, they had to pass through the gorge to reach the Imperial capital.

Because the gorge was long and narrow, it was disadvantageous to those traveling through it.

There were countless threats that could arise inside the gorge.

‘I’ll take the egg during this battle.’

Rohan’s gaze turned toward the supply wagons.

Among the goods they had to transport was a phantom beast egg.

An egg that had yet to hatch.

No one knew what would emerge from it, but it was precious enough that the Empire itself had ordered its retrieval.

‘The problem is.’

Simply possessing the egg did not mean one could control the phantom beast.

There was no guarantee the hatched phantom beast would obey its owner.

Nor did he know how it had to be tamed.

But there was a way.

‘Myuria.’

The silver-haired woman he had seen in the crow’s memories.

She had shared vision with the crow.

She had controlled a familiar from far away.

And through the crow’s eyes, she had observed this place.

Perhaps techniques for controlling familiars could help with taming a phantom beast.

Maybe that was also why Myuria was so obsessed with the place.

‘I need that woman’s memories.’

If he killed Myuria, he would find out.

The phantom beast egg, and Myuria’s memories.

There were two things he needed to obtain during this operation.

‘But how?’

The crow’s memories and the memories of the Noxis soldiers he had killed.

The Myuria within them was strong.

Fast, agile, and possessing considerable strength as well.

As he was now, he could not defeat her, but...

‘Then I just have to create a way.’

Rohan’s gaze swept over his surroundings.

Before long, it stopped in one place.

At one corner of the training ground, Kaisen was bickering with the person beside him.

‘I need one strike that can catch her off guard.’

The answer was over there.

His thoughts did not continue for long.

“Everyone, prepare!”

Because the company commander gave an order.

Basic training was already underway on the training ground.

When it became Fourth and Fifth Company’s turn to run, the soldiers formed ranks.

Rohan also took a running stance within the formation.

“Men. Run!”

At the shout, the two companies began running simultaneously.

It was an impressive sight, with roughly two hundred soldiers from Fourth and Fifth Company running in formation.

Even the men who normally ran lazily were moving as though their feet were on fire today.

Half a month of peace had been more than enough to lower the stamina of lazy soldiers.

The soldiers knew that as well.

Soon, even soldiers who had fought through countless battles began panting.

“Huff, huff. What the hell is that?”

Someone was overtaking those soldiers.

It was Rohan.

Before they knew it, Rohan had moved ahead of the others without even panting.

The soldiers watching him murmured.

“Haaah... What the hell is with that bastard?”

“Wasn’t he dead last not long ago?”

“Huff, huff. D-don’t talk to me.”

By the time they completed all ten laps around the training ground, countless soldiers were lined up behind Rohan.

But Rohan’s gaze remained forward.

There were still many people who had finished before him.

Despite his rapid growth, he still could not catch up to the soldiers who had maintained their stamina and exercised consistently.

‘I still have a long way to go.’

Rohan thought as he looked at them.

One of the soldiers panting behind him placed a hand on Rohan’s shoulder.

“You... you really got fast.”

Rohan did not bother answering.

______________

During personal maintenance time after the morning run, Rohan and Creed faced each other in a secluded area.

Creed asked Rohan.

“The Knight Commander still doesn’t know we fed false information to the enemy. When are you going to tell him?”

“He doesn’t need to know. They already found out anyway.”

“What? How?”

“There was a familiar.”

Rohan briefly explained.

How he had used Rainer’s eye to lure the familiar in, and how he had killed the crow and obtained its memories.

After hearing everything, Creed fell into deep thought.

“A familiar... I’ve heard of familiars, but this is the first time I’ve heard of someone actually sharing vision with one.”

Rohan once again thought about the White Wolf Knights’ intelligence capabilities.

The enemy sent spies and used familiars to wage an information war, while the knight order seemed to have absolutely no interest in that kind of thing.

Noticing Rohan’s expression, Creed spoke briefly.

“Don’t think too poorly of it. The reason our knight order is weak in intelligence warfare is because our strength makes up for it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Otherwise, how do you think our knight order became the Empire’s First Knight Order? Those idiots may look like that, but when they work together, they’re incredibly strong.”

Strong when united.

Did that mean they excelled at cooperation?

Rohan engraved the information Creed had given him into his mind.

“So, what are you going to do now?”

“I have a favor to ask.”

“A favor? Again?”

Creed’s eyebrow twitched.

But he soon regained his composure.

He also needed to find his younger brother, who was being held prisoner.

In the end, he had no choice but to follow Rohan’s words.

However.

“You don’t get it for free. You’ve been training nonstop, so come at me.”

Shing-! Creed drew his sword.

At some point, Creed had stopped using a wooden sword when facing Rohan.

Watching him, Rohan lifted the robe he was wearing.

Creed’s eyes widened.

“That’s...”

A one-handed sword hung on the right side of Rohan’s waist.

And on the left was Meiwa’s crescent-shaped sword.

“A one-handed sword? You’ll be at a disadvantage.”

Creed tilted his head.

The one-handed sword Rohan had brought had roughly half the reach of a longsword.

It was usually used by assassins who relied on agile movements, or as a secondary weapon by knights.

It was not a weapon suited to Rohan, who primarily used Karnia and Noxis swordsmanship.

The same went for the crescent-shaped sword he had taken from Meiwa.

The sword of the Nakandiya Tribe had a rounded curved blade and was about as short as a dagger.

Then why had Rohan chosen these weapons?

Creed already knew the answer.

“You already learned Meiwa’s swordsmanship? Is that why you asked to meet here?”

Creed looked around.

The place Rohan had requested for their spar was a densely wooded area between the training ground and the camp.

Tall trees grew closely together, surrounding the two of them.

Considering that the Nakandiya Tribe’s swordsmanship had been born in dense jungles, there could hardly be a better environment.

“Who knows.”

Shing-!

After uttering the cryptic words, Rohan drew his sword.

Contrary to Creed’s expectations, the weapon Rohan drew was the one-handed sword.

Rohan assumed a ready stance and spoke.

“There’s something I want to practice.”

“Fine, come at... me.”

Clang-!

As always, Rohan cut Creed off and attacked.

Creed nearly lost track of Rohan’s movement.

Because instead of attacking from the front, Rohan stepped onto a tree, leaped off, and attacked from the side in an instant.

‘It’s harder to block than Meiwa’s sword.’

It was not simply a matter of strength.

In terms of pure strength, Meiwa had unquestionably been far stronger.

Meiwa’s movements had also been more agile.

Yet for some reason, Rohan’s sword was harder to block than Meiwa’s.

Rohan charged using the trees once again.

A straightforward thrust.

Creed laughed inwardly.

‘You think I’ll fall for that again?’

Clang-! Sparks flew as Rohan’s sword was knocked away.

Just as Creed thought it was time to counterattack.

‘What the hell?’

He saw Rohan spin once in midair,

then a blade flashed in succession, followed by the sound of something being sliced—

and Creed saw his own severed strands of hair drifting down as though time had slowed.

‘What? I definitely knocked his sword away.’

Creed could not understand what had just happened.

A chill ran down his spine when he realized that if the blade had gone even slightly deeper, his face would have been cut.

“You... how...”

Creed stared at Rohan in disbelief.

Rohan stood in front of him, breathing heavily.

“Looks like the practice paid off.”

Rohan smiled faintly.

In his left hand was Meiwa’s crescent-shaped sword.