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Chapter 54 – Governing Council (2)

As the tall man suddenly stood up, Yuldrick’s mercenaries put on a fierce look as if they were ready to charge at him any second. Yuldrick also grabbed his ax and approached the tall man.

“Filthy apostates. You have no idea how we were treated because of you bastards. You think you can just interfere now out of nowhere and…”

The old knight blocked Yuldrick before he could even finish his words.

Yuldrick tried to push him away and shout, but his legs instantly froze to face the old knight. Yuldrick could proudly say that he had been through a lot in his life, but the old knight’s aura was overwhelming enough to make him freeze up. His sense of danger which had been trained on the battlefield for a long time quickly identified what his opponent was capable of.

‘One more step and he will smash my head.’

Yuldrick belatedly noticed the hammer which the old knight was holding in his hand—it was the size of an adult’s head. Only then did Yuldrick recognize his opponent’s identity; there was only one person who used such a weapon within the Order of Huginn.

“Blacksmith Dilmond…”

Yuldrick’s mutter instantly echoed in the room .

“What? That old guy is the bloody blacksmith?”

“He’s the one who uses people’s shoulders as an anvil and treats their head as a cast…”

“I heard he killed three Templars from the Order of the White Crow…”

Diamond didn’t seem too pleased to hear his nickname, but it was clear that everyone feared him.

Everyone’s gaze then turned to Anya. They had considered her to simply be a messenger from the Order of Huginn, but hearing Dilmond’s name changed their perception of her; Anya’s name was also legendary.

“She can’t be Annabelle Allen, the beheading raven?”

“They say she learned to behead people before she even learned to speak…”

“She’s skilled at both assassination and necromancy, so she enters the war alone and exits with an army.”

Only then did the people in the assembly hall only come to their senses, and recognized who they were pointing their sword at.

The Captain of the Order of the White Crow was certainly one of the empire’s most powerful men and an elite among elites. However, the three people standing in front of them were legends themselves—they were the ones who had been inheriting a living legend ever since the era of the emperor until now. Although it was a negative legend, it was only natural for people to be in awe.

“The Captain?” Ardin muttered.

Despite the commotion and the rowdy atmosphere, Ardin was careless and recalled the words Anya had spoken.

‘Who does she mean by the Captain?’

Ardin remembered a name he had heard a long time ago, but could never forget. The owner of the name he had thought of was the youngest adopted child of the emperor, the Captain of the Order of Huginn, and also one of the Six Apostates that assassinated the emperor.

Ardin’s gaze turned to the tall man wearing a robe, giving off the most overwhelming and eerie aura out of anyone, who had yet to reveal his identity. If they were from the Order of Huginn, there could only be one person they serve—A living legend and a threat to the empire to the extent that the Order of the White Crow was formed for just one person. Everyone in the assembly hall could guess his identity.

“Ras Raud…”

Ras slowly took off his hood. Screams and groans broke out from everyone upon seeing the blue flame burning inside his skull.

The unusual combination of small skull and the large size of his body instilled an unidentified anxiety and fear in people. Even Yuldrick, who had a lot of experience cracking the skulls of undead, could feel his body freeze up.

“Hmph! This bastard has nothing but bones left. What could you do anyway?” Yuldrick smiled and pretended to be calm.

Although he realized that his opponents were more powerful than he had imagined, they had no reason to fight with Hiveden. Yuldrick believed that they were simply protesting against the council’s decision.

‘Good thing that I kept the talisman I got from the Order of the White Crow.’

Yuldrick had a talisman he got from back when he used to work for the Order of the White Crow in his pocket. It was a necklace made of tin, and the power contained within it could block the unholy energy and prevent the undead from resurrecting. The necklace was collectively retrieved by the Order of the White Crow after the mission, but Yuldrick had stolen it from one of the dead mercenaries.

Holding the talisman in his hand, Yuldrick drew out his ax.

Ras raised his right hand, and the inside of the robe opened gently along with his action; there was nothing but a dark void inside.

Yuldrick flinched and took a few steps back upon seeing the dark void while clutching his necklace as if it was the only thing he could rely on. Yuldrick thought he had made a mistake by messing with Ras, but his senses trained from his long time on the battlefield were telling him that there was no danger yet. Yuldrick couldn’t sense any malicious intent from Ras.

“Y-you really wanna fight, huh? You seem to underestimate the Red ax mercenary, but there are five hundred of my men stationed right outside, ready to…”

Yuldrick suddenly realized that his words were cut short against his will. He tried to move his tongue and puffed his mouth, but not a single word came out. Only then did he realize he had been cut in half from his left elbow to his right shoulder while still holding the talisman. At that moment, he saw an armed knight of the dead walking out of Ras’ robe.

While his vision collapsed, Yuldrick saw his amputated left hand still holding a talisman which broke in half. Yuldrick’s body slanted and toppled down to the floor.

With a loud thud, a heavy silence filled the assembly hall.

“I would like to express my condolences for the death of your colleague, Sir Ardin,” Anya opened her mouth to break the silence.

Ardin swallowed a gulp.

Meanwhile, Ras slowly straightened his back, and more armed knights of the dead walked out of his robe one by one in silence.

Everyone stared at the appearance of the undead with a dumbfounded look.

“Let me introduce you to our knights. These are our great senior knights Cleo, Yure, Milea, and Mark. I know it’s hard to recognize their faces, but they can be distinguished if you pay close attention. I would appreciate it if you could keep that in mind.”

There were four knights who walked out of the robe in total, and they were all wearing rusty armors and had a huge military weapon regardless of their different body size. Inside of their white skulls burned a blue flame, and any living person would naturally feel a sense of rejection to their eerie appearance. The faces of all the council members had turned pale.

“It’s the knight of the dead…” someone muttered quietly.

People felt chills upon realizing that they weren’t hallucinating when they saw the knights of the dead. The air inside the assembly hall had frozen up with the appearance of not just one, but four knights of the dead.

“Kni-knights of the dead? What the hell is that?” Celpha’s teeth chattered as she pulled Ardin’s arm.

Ardin bit his lips as he looked down at Yuldrick’s head on the body that was cut in half.

“...Consider them to be the Templars of the undead. Instead of using His Majesty’s Grace, they use the unholy spirit and death. They are known to be just as powerful and fast as the Templars, but their abilities are beyond the Templar’s since they don’t get tired or hurt,” Ardin explained.

“W-what? Such things actually exist? I thought they only existed in the old fairy tales!”

“It’s only natural that you didn’t know since they disappeared with the death of all the necromancers during His Majesty’s era. Of course you thought they were only from a fairy tale.”

“Then why did they show up again at this time?!”

Ardin couldn’t answer Celpha. He had heard that the Order of Huginn could summon the undead, but thought the stories about the knights of the dead had just been rumors. It was rare, but sometimes people turned into undead naturally upon death. Nevertheless, high class undeads such as the knights of the dead had disappeared a long time ago.

Ardin recalled from his memory that it had been Ras Raud and the Order of Huginn who killed all of the necromancers in the past; it wouldn’t be too strange if they had obtained the knowledge of the necromancers. Besides, the names of the knights of the dead that Anya had just introduced were just as famous as Dilmond’s name.

“Please don’t act out rashly. Sir Ras Raud considers them as comrades and respects them as members of our knight order, so we don’t control them too strictly.”

People didn’t need the warning; they already knew that the only people here that could move were the knights of the Order of Huginn.

Ardin was well aware of what the appearance of the four knights of the dead meant. The forces inside the assembly hall would have to risk their lives to even fight against four Templars. But in front of their eyes were the knights of the dead, who were more powerful than even the Templars.

“T-there are five hundred of our men stationed outside the assembly hall. If you want to fight, you will have to c-consider that…” Ardin spoke while he questioned his own sanity in saying those words.

Even though there were five hundred soldiers, Ardin wouldn’t be surprised if they all ran away the moment they encountered the knights of the dead. After all, they were a group of soldiers that had been gathered for the sake of their own interests rather than loyalty.

“Sir Ardin. Please don’t tell me that you think this is the only force the Order of Huginn has got,” Anya smiled and tapped Ardin’s shoulder. “Quite a few of my senior knights don’t prefer cramped spaces. So you’ll be able to meet more of them outside.”

‘We have already lost .

’

Ardin was sweating bullets already. There were only two paths he could choose from at this point; but the problem was which side to choose. Holding hands with the Order of Huginn meant they were turning the entire empire into their enemy—they would die one day for sure. However, holding hands with the Order of the White Crow meant they would die right this moment.

Yuldrick’s bloody corpse that was split in half on the floor caught Ardin’s eyes. Ardin was quick to decide.

“W-what do you want from us! Hiveden will cooperate with you! Of course we will!”

Gino, the owner of the casino, shook his head in opposition. They were bound to be charged with treason if they decided to be involved with the Order of Huginn, as the Order of Huggin’s knights were bluntly labeled as heretics.

But before Gino could even shake his head a second time, blood splattered. With a thud, Gino’s head fell and rolled on the floor.

“It seems he startled Sir Cleo by shaking his head too fast. I ask you all once again to refrain yourselves from actions that might appear threatening.”

Ardin stared blankly at Gino’s head being cut off almost as easily as a flower being plucked with just one swing of the knight of the dead’s ax. Gino’s body took some time before it toppled down to the ground, almost as if his body just realized that he had been beheaded.

“Anyway, sir Ardin? What were you saying about Hiveden?”

Ardin continued to stare at Gino’s head dumbfoundedly without an answer. He had thought Gino would be the one to live the longest life out of all of them, but his ridiculous death was shocking.

At that moment, Ardin felt something hot pouring over his head. He looked up, frightened to find Celpha’s body dropping down as her neck had been pierced by a long spear.

“No one leaves the meeting until it’s over,” Anya said as she clicked her tongue in pity.

Ardin couldn’t tell whether Celpha had really tried to make a run for it when she had been frozen in fear just a moment ago, but her blood pouring over his head was more real than anything.

Ardin desperately nodded while being conscious of how fast he was moving his head.

“Order of Huginn and Hiveden are old friends! Everyone knows that!”

“So does that mean you will fully cooperate in our cause?”

“Well, of course! It is the duty of the citizens to resist when the empire makes an unreasonable request!”

“I see. Thank you so much,” Anya smiled and placed her hand on Ardin’s shoulder. Anya then continued to whisper into Ardin’s ears which made him tremble. “I really appreciate you fully cooperating with us. In fact, there were quite a few of us who argued that it would be better to just kill everyone to turn them into the undead to use them as our soldiers, rather than going out of our way to try and convince everyone. Don’t you think the undead would be much better than ragtags that might betray us at any time?”

Ardin’s face turned even paler. Ardin could suddenly smell the stink of urine from somewhere in the room; a few of the guards had peed themselves. Ardin didn’t blame them because he was about to pee himself as well.

“N-No! Not at all! We will fight with all our might. We will show you how brave we are!”

“I see. I’ll believe you,” Anya grinned. “It wouldn’t be too late to turn everyone into the undead after they die brave deaths anyway.”

Ardin was speechless.

“You seem to have an issue with that. Well that’s what happened to our senior knights, you know? Perhaps you have a problem with our seniors?”

“We couldn’t be more honored to fight alongside the Order of Huginn! H-haha! A-anyway, why don’t we discuss more practical things! What role do you want us to play in this war? Will it be a siege? I’m not sure if you know this, but Hiveden is completely unprepared for foreign invasion…”

When Ardin desperately tried to change the subject, Anya decided to stop teasing him. She smiled and stated her requirements.

“It’s not a very difficult role.”

Ardin bit his lips. Everytime someone began their words like that, whether it was one of his superiors or the Church, things were never easy.

However, what Anya said next was completely different from what he had expected.

“I’d like Hiveden to fully cooperate with the Order of the White Crow.”