Chapter 74 – What lurks in the darkness of the Imperial City (II)

By the time they left the Wandering Bird’s Nest, it was completely dark outside. After escorting Cornelia to the palace, Wynn, Locke and Leticia, who lived in the dormitories of the Knights’ School, were walking down the main street. It was past dinner time, but you could still see people coming back from the taverns and dining areas.

“Hey, about what you said earlier. The goodwill visit of the Prince and Cornelia-sama. Was that ostensible? And is the rumor true that they will form a military alliance against Petersia?”“Who knows, I’ve heard the rumors too. Locke, you haven’t heard anything about that from the captain?”

Royce was not a high-ranking Knight, but they both knew that Alfred had a close relationship with the Count.

“I don’t know. At this point, the captain is concerned about the kidnapping case. I haven’t heard him talk about anything else but that. Leticia-sama, are you still willing to follow Wynn?”“I think it is more likely that I will be part of that goodwill visit.”

Leticia replied as she walked with her hands behind her back.

“Raul was my companion, and I think we’ll go in search of deepening old friendships.”“If Cornelia-san and Letty go, that would also make a good impression on the people of the Kingdom of Lyon. They are both beautiful, and they are a princess from another country and the Brave…”

That’s when Wynn suddenly became silent. He had a serious look on his face, with both eyes glazed over somewhere in the distance. The aura around Leticia also changed suddenly.

“A scream?”

Leticia, who let out that low rumble, immediately jumped into a side alley and started running. Wynn followed her.

“What’s going on?”

As they ran ahead of him. Locke, who had not heard the scream, rushed to follow them. Wooden barrels, boxes, trash, and all sorts of things were scattered in the narrow alleyways. It was so dark that even your feet would be hard to see. One false step and you could trip. But Leticia did not slow down at all, running towards where she heard the scream. Wynn followed behind her.

‘Damn… that’s it!

Locke felt his chest fill with admiration. Both Wynn and Leticia were used to running in the dark, as they had been running in the dark night streets since they were children. The distance between them and Locke, who didn’t know the terrain, was growing.

“Letty, let’s change! Right now, I’m more familiar with these streets than you are!”

Wynn told Leticia, who was in front of him. Wynn knew the road better than Leticia, who had been traveling for four years.

“Onii-chan, did you hear that?! It was another scream!”“It’s this way!”

Wynn switched places with Leticia and took the lead. Behind those two, Locke followed from a distance. The first scream was inaudible to him, but that last one reached his ears as well.

…Someone was being attacked up ahead!

At the end of the alley, there was a square that seemed to have been created by demolishing an empty house. Several pieces of the collapsed stone wall were still on the lot, and some figures could be seen trying to drag a person away.

“What are you doing?”

At the sound of Wynn’s angry voice, four figures attacked, raising their white swords. The men who approached had almost all medium sized bodies, were dressed in dark clothes, and their faces were masked so that only their eyes were visible.

“Onii-chan!”“Letty! Don’t kill them!”

Leticia, who had followed Wynn out of the alley, ran into the men who were trying to get to Wynn. The men, of whom there were three, also noticed Leticia’s presence.

The men’s swords glowed with a pale light.

‘These guys use magic?’

Like knight’s swords, these swords were imbued with magical power. As in the battle against other knights, Wynn realized that he was at a disadvantage in terms of power, and he diverted the sword from the man coming towards him.

“Tsk!”

He snapped his tongue, moved away from the place where the man was about to cut with his sword again, with a small gap, and struck the place where he had pushed before. When all attacks were prevented, the man held his sword after a short interval. Wynn’s sword also shone pale in the darkness with its magical power. The man knew that Wynn was a knight, at least an opponent who could use magic to magically strengthen his sword.

“Wynn!”

Locke’s cry was heard, he was late.

“Locke, I’m all right, you go after those who ran away!”“All right!”

If it was face-to-face, even if it was a knight using body strengthening magic, he wouldn’t be at such a disadvantage if he took an offensive position. Locke passed by Wynn into the street where the figures dragging the other one had disappeared.

Wynn restrained the man in front of him from going after Locke, and looked sideways at Leticia, who had attracted the other three. If Leticia used her true power, whether it was three against one or three hundred against her, it was unlikely that she would lose in a decisive head-on battle, but he was still worried.

However, his fears were unfounded, and out of the corner of his eye, Wynn saw that Leticia had already brought down two of them and was about to neutralize the last one. The man who, like Wynn, had turned his attention to Leticia, looking slightly worried. Unlike Wynn, he could not expect a delicate and almost ephemeral girl to neutralize one after the other in such a short amount of time. You could see why he was worried.

Wynn took the opportunity and went on the offensive. With the aim of incapacitating the man, he tried to snatch the sword from him.

But the man came to his senses at the last moment and faced Wynn’s sword with all his might.

“Gu…”

The strong impact made his hands numb. Due to the body-strengthening magic, the difference in strength between the man and Wynn was as wide as that of an adult and a child.

Wynn, whose sword was repelled, almost let go.

“Onii-chan!”

Leticia gave a powerful circular kick from behind the man’s head, tossing him aside. Her body was small, but Leticia’s strike with magical power emanated a muted golden glow.

The man, who had probably been hit so hard that he bounced a couple of times on the ground, did not understand what had happened. He was completely unconscious on the floor.

“That was close. Thank you, Letty.”“Are you okay, Onii-chan…? Hey, wait, are you hurt?!”

Leticia’s eyes widened in surprise when she saw Wynn’s face. When Wynn wiped his cheeks with his hands, a sticky thing stuck to his fingers. He did not feel the pain immediately due to the excitement of the battle, but it seemed that the tip of the sword had brushed against him slightly when he hesitated for the second blow.

“It’s okay, it’s just a scratch. The guy is pretty good.”“He probably won’t wake up for a while.”

It seemed that Leticia neutralized her opponent with only her strength. At that point, a couple of guards finally rushed to the scene, apparently having heard the commotion.

“You there! What the hell is going on here?”

Wynn explained the situation to the guards while sheathing his sword to show that he had no hostile intentions.

“These guys could be kidnappers.”“What?”“So, this… was it your doing?”

The guards looked at Wynn and Leticia with suspicion. Aside from Wynn, Leticia’s appearance was that of a slender, delicate girl. She was not seen to be very skilled in martial arts.

“My partner is behind these guys’ partners. So, excuse me, but I’d like to question them.”“Wait, wait, who are you guys?”

Wynn had no choice but to reveal his identity.

“His Imperial Highness’ subordinate? You… no, you?”“I’m not on duty, so I’m in civilian clothes, and I don’t have any identification on me, but…”

The guards nodded to Wynn’s words.

Looking around, the four men scattered around the area were dressed in black and wore black masks. If there was any talk of who was more suspicious, it was definitely them.

When he told them that the men who had escaped were quite skilled and that his partner who had gone after them might be in danger, one of the guards offered to accompany Wynn.

“So, would you stay with me?”

Leticia was to remain there with the other guard. In fact, she was planning to go after them as well, but the guard who was worried about the safety of Leticia, who looked like the daughter of some noble house, suggested it. It was possible that the victim was just pretending to be in trouble, so going with Leticia, who seemed weak and could be quickly subdued even if she tried to escape, did not seem to be the best thing.

Leticia did not reveal her identity to avoid trouble, so she had no choice but to nod to the suggestion.

“These guys were as good as knights. Let’s hurry up.”

Wynn and the guard started running after Locke.

◇◆◇◆◇

What jumped out at Locke when he came out of the alley was the figure of a man who was attacking Wynn with his sword lit up in a pale glow with magical power, and his body collapsing into the shape of the letter “く”. And in front of him, his companions were incapacitated in the blink of an eye, and two other men entered the scene.

Leticia was about to turn the men’s bodies over when the other two arrived.

“Leticia-sama is good…”

At first glance, she seemed weak, but actually she was the strongest girl in the world.

“Wynn!”“Locke, I’m okay, you go after the ones who ran away!”

He called his friend, who had been a bit pressured to see if he needed help, but Wynn pointed to the end of the square with his eyes. He looked up and saw that two men were running away with a figure in tow.

He said, “Okay!”

Locke began to run. On the way, he had to pass by the man who was facing Wynn, but he could pass safely as Wynn kept him at bay.

“Gu…”

When Locke became silent, the coachman advanced with the carriage, blowing his nose and smiling with a triumphant look. On this street, the road to the next corner was still long. At that moment, if the two men in black had kept running, they would have been in Locke’s sights by the time he turned the corner.

‘Damn, after all, that carriage…’

Locke, feeling frustrated, moved out of the way to make way for the carriage.

‘Hmm? This crest…’’

There was a small family crest on the door of the wagon. It was deeply engraved in his memory.

‘Damn it, I can’t let this be the end!’

Locke gritted his teeth as he watched the carriage drive away, and then finally saw Wynn and the guard running towards them.