Chapter 155
Seventh and Eighth (3)
“In the dark, moonlit night”
“Rust upon my sword shined blue”
‘Krcchk,’ the sword keened as if scraping across iron.
“Under a pale moon do I scrape away the rust,
“And sharpen my sword for when the wolf howls”
The hue of the brilliant Aura Blade looked like the soft moonlight. Bernardo Eli continued to stare at me. He quietly studied the light, before nodding and swinging his sword with vigor.
‘Wssska~’ an arc of light like a crescent moon shined in the air, and he sliced vertically, his Aura Blade cleaving the air.
“How is it, my poetry?” Eli asked me as he sheathed his sword. Instead of answering, I looked at my hand. A strange chill had settled into my palm. I closed my eyes and tasted the energy of muhunshi. I tasted the energy of a descendant of a fallen family and his extraordinary will to overcome the hurt that had been handed down from heart to heart.
“I tried to express the scene of a family that was going to fall due to the use of mana rings with the expressions of dark night and the rusty sword. By mentioning the moon after that, my poem talks of there being light at the end of the deepest darkness. In other words, my poem can be seen as an allegory for the deep night and the coming dawn.”
I never asked Eli to explain the meaning of the poem to me – I just wanted to taste the spirit of it a little more.
“Tchu,” I clucked my tongue and clenched my fist. The chill that had hovered in my palm faded away.
“The pale moon symbolizes the moon I had seen in the forest, and the scraping off of rust is a metaphor referencing the fact that I had finally broken through the wall of becoming a Sword Master. Also, the wolf howling represents the fact that I have found a new path in my battles with the monsters.”
Bernardo Eli was talking about his dance poem. This was the first time I had heard someone interpreting dance poems in such a manner, and it was absurd.
As I stared at him, Eli talked even more excitedly.
“How did I compose my muhunshi, you ask? While wandering through the forest, I suddenly chanced to look at the sky. It was the same sky we see from Leonberg, equally dark and deep. So, I suddenly thought of something that I had pondered on before. Naturally, I-“
“Stop.”
“..recalled the life I have lived, all the tough times and tribulation that have beset-“
“Stop!” I shouted. If I left him like this, he would be talking about his sad, sloppy past until the night passed into day. Eli looked at me with a gloomy face, and his gaze held resentment.
“Okay, so tell me the name of the poem,” I asked, ignoring his look.
“I haven’t named it yet,” came his clear answer.
I was amazed. Here he was, running into camp straight away and waking up Gwain’s troupe in the middle of the night to tell them of his woven dance poem. And he hasn’t even named it yet.
“I am… Well… No.”
I wondered why he was hesitating when he suddenly suggested, “I don’t think it’s bad if you name it.”
It was surprising, as I had thought he would be making up a big name right on the spot, for he loved the sound of his own voice. I did not turn down the offer.
Some of the dance poems have indeed been named by someone other than their composer, and many of them became [Heroic]. I hoped that Eli’s poem would also reach that level.
“Don’t you want to name it?” asked I.
“No,” replied he.
There was a name that came to mind.
“I name it the [Poem of the Full Moon].”
The night was empty, gloomy, and Eli was staring up at the crescent moon.
I was hoping that the sickle moon he had in his heart would escape its prison and at long last become a full moon.
“Ah!” Eli exclaimed. “The full moon…”
Over and over again, he thought about the name I had given him.
“That’s a romantic name,” he said with a laugh after a while, and he was pleased.
“Congratulations, Eli.”
“So let’s get some sleep,” Eli responded, his face proud, and he sketched a bow.
* * *
Eli went in and out of the forest to refine the verse of his poem. Having risen to the level of Sword Master, I knew that we had no reason to worry about him. So, I let him wander the forest for a few days.
Berg Berten informed me of the war, saying that the imperial army has begun to withdraw from the forest after they suffered so greatly from the monsters. The front had shifted to the South Sea.
Berg told me tales I could hardly believe, such as the fact that the Sky Knights were unable to prevent the landing of the imperial armada. I didn’t understand – Battleships floating upon the great sea were surely easy targets for the Wyvern Knights.
The imperial fleet should have been helpless if the Sky Knights carried wizards with them to pour magic from the skies. I learned that the Sky Knights had, in fact, attempted a bombing run by employing wizards.
And it failed.
“The power of the imperial wizards is tremendous.”
It wasn’t just that they were powerful, but that their response to the wyverns has been well-organized. Berg spoke on.
“As I have it, the imperial navy formed a single unit of wizards. Without doing so, they could surely not have formed such a systematic response to the Wyvern Knights.”
I had never before encountered such a thing. Wizards were rarely formed into such combined squads, as, if the squad was to be wiped out, the loss would be considerable.
Spreading your wizards out is common sense in war.
“The people on the southern front report that the entire unit has been named the Imperial Wizards.”
It seemed that the emperor had overturned that common sense, for he was a wizard and a knight. He could think like both and had the power of an entire empire at his disposal.
“The empire’s fleet lost only six of its two-hundred warships, and now it’s up to our southern forces to stop them,” Berg said as he stared at me.
His eyes seemed to be telling me: “The war is now in the south, not the west, so don’t hesitate to leave.”
Obviously, my work in Dotrin was over.
The world has changed, and in that changed world, the borders between Burgundy and Dotrin have also been drawn. The forest has now become a realm where the full-moon race, demon trees, and countless other monsters live. If the empire wished to invade Dotrin by land, they would have to cross through the forest.
It was no easy task, and the monsters now guarded Dotrin’s borders.
Still, the situation was not wholly in favor of Dotrin, for all those areas of forest were now lost to the kingdom. Even though the monsters still stopped the imperial advance, the loss was painful.
And just as the Imperial Army could only now enter Dotrin by sea, so Dotrin could only access the continent by taking sea routes. But that was something for the king and nobles of Dotrin to worry about, not me.
All I could do was wish Dotrin the best of luck.
“It looks like you’re leaving right away.”
“Yes, because I have nothing more to do here.”
Berg straightened as he heard this.
“The Berten family will never forget your devotion and sacrifice to Dotrin, Prince of Leonberg. I hope that your kingdom will be reborn as a beacon in the north.”
“I, as Adrian Leonberger, hopes that Dotrin will finally win this war. I also hope that Berg Berten and his knights will always remain in good health.”
Berg reached out to me, and when we clasped hands, he gave me a deep look. As I met his gaze, I added, “Gold is heavy and bulky. Yes… It should be gems.”
I had to collect my payment for fighting for Dotrin.
* * *
Berg Berten sent one of his old knights to fetch some gems from his estate. While I awaited my salary, the mages and wizards of Dotrin arrived. They did not stay in the camp for long, as they only left one mage in the camp, all of them then heading for the southern front.
As they came and went, Berg’s old knight returned.
“Here you are,” Berg said as he paid me up front, and I handed the bag to Eli, who looked through the bag of gems meticulously to gauge their value. While he did this, I bid farewell to the elderly knights.
“I hope there is only luck.”
“It was an honor to do battle at your side.”
“May the day come when we can repay your good faith.”
“Unless we get old and die first.”
While the old knights chatted with me and said their goodbyes, Eli finished studying our paycheck and nodded to me. I gave a last, proper look at the military camp.
Even if this wasn’t my kingdom, I was leaving Dotrin after being here for near on a year.
I felt like a new man.
I engraved the faces of all these good men into my memory and mounted the waiting wyvern.
“But are you really going to leave us like this? Even if you don’t reveal your identity, you are still the hero of the forest. Why not leave with a grand farewell ceremony?”
“No dice. I like to be sneaky.”
Berg nodded at my words, saying he knew what I meant.
“Well then, onward and upwards,” I said to the Wyvern Knight, nodding.
“Stay back!” the knight ordered Berg Berten and his elderly knights.
The wyvern beat its wings and flew skyward. Instead of flying away at once, the knight brought his mount into a low glide, and we circled the camp.
As Dotrin’s soldiers and knights saw the wyvern, they ceased their tasks and waved at us.
Some of them screamed at the top of their lungs that we had to come back soon and safe, making the assumption that we were going off on a mission. Others shouted their goodbyes and wished us the best of luck.
“That’s enough.”
Upon my order, the Sky Knight yanked on the reins.
‘Kyeaah aah!’ the wyvern cried and soared higher, ever higher.
Over the sounds of its great wings flapping, I could hear Dotrin’s knight’s crying out: “May the reputation of the Veil Mercenaries spread across the continent.”
“Veil Mercenary Commander Ian, we wish you luck!”
So many of them shouted that none had to shout with mana.
And that was how I left the camp.
* * *
Instead of flying straight to Leonberg, the wyvern flew to the royal castle of Dotrin.
It was there that I reunited with the King of Dotrin to discuss the changes in the world and our continued mutual cooperation. One king and one prince – I wasn’t a king, but he cared little.
He swore to me that when the day came for Leonberg to rise up against the empire, Dotrin would be with us. On my account, I promised to aid Dotrin with all my heart and all my might in the coming times of tribulation.
We didn’t need to sign treaties or melt wax. It was enough for us to make an oath with the bond of our word.
The king and I made such promises, and then we parted. The wyvern bore me to Leonberg.
We flew north and further north, the wyvern going ever on.
The hot climate quickly cooled, and that cold peculiar to the north of the continent pierced my lungs as I inhaled with all my might.
The territory of Leonberg was spread out below – so unlike the verdant land of Dotrin, these were desolate regions. Only as I saw the snow-covered and barren land below did I truly realize that I had returned.
By night, the capital began to appear in the distance.
“The Eli family’s Bernardo has finally returned – as a Sword Master!” Eli shouted several times in a thrilled voice. Normally I would have chided him, saying that he was being noisy, but this time I decided to let him shout his heart out.
Meanwhile, the wyvern gained the capital and began descending. We touched down on a secluded field some distance from the capital.
“Are you heading straight to the southern front?” I asked the knight.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“I hope things go well there.”
“And I hope fate will be with you. You have worked hard for us.”
After our brief goodbye, the Knight of the Sky took to the air once more upon his wyvern.
I gazed up and then turned away.
“Let’s go.”
I began walking to the distant gate of the capital, with the seventh and eight champions of the kingdom following me.
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