Chapter 148 : Chapter 148

Chapter 148 : Krause (3)

At the Aldenfort mansion, in Noser's bedroom.

Knock- knock-

"Come in."

A man closed the door and quietly stepped inside.

He removed his mask and put his right fist on his left chest to show his respect.

It was a unique form of etiquette for the Imperial Capital Knight Order.

"I have confirmed that Bihen Benkou is heading toward the Krause mansion."

"...As I thought."

Noser, who had been sitting at the table and savoring his tea with his eyes closed, blinked.

The tea was hotter than he expected.

"Is it okay if we just watch?"

"Hmm, what do you mean?"

"If we leave him alone, Bihen Benkou certainly won't be unharmed."

Noser nonchalantly nodded.

"He won't be."

"Excuse me...?"

"But this is the best option."

The man who had been thinking to himself carefully asked again.

"Are you saying that letting Bihen Benkou die is the best option?"

"Of course that's not what I mean."

Noser chuckled softly.

The man furrowed his brows slightly.

His superior often did this.

He enjoyed throwing out strange remarks and observing the other person's reaction.

He wondered if this was one of those times.

"How many requests for the Imperial Capital's military intervention do you think we get a year from various parts of the Kingdom?"

"Not more than ten, I would say. Excluding border areas like the North and the far West."

"Wrong. Last year, there were exactly twelve petitions."

"...Ah, yes."

"And how many of those do you think His Majesty gave his approval to?"

The man, who had been listening half-heartedly, began to look more focused.

He had traveled all over the place with his superior, but he suddenly realized that most of their purposes had been far from mediating local disputes.

"Just one."

"If that's the case, then the imperial authority's intervention that the vassals have been so wary of... wasn't actually a real thing, was it?"

"Exactly. But do you know what's even scarier?"

The man swallowed hard.

"What is it?"

"That even you, my closest confidant, have only just realized this fact now."

The man nodded.

"You're right. I've traveled to many regions for various missions, but I never really consciously thought about what our purpose was or what we accomplished."

"Precisely."

Noser set down his teacup and continued.

"We were always busy traveling and fighting, far from just wasting time and doing nothing, but we were still missing this crucial fact. Why do you think that is?"

"If it was intentionally designed from the beginning to prevent us from having such doubts..."

Noser stood up and walked over to the man, patting him on the shoulder.

"Congratulations. You've finally come one step closer to the truth."

"...? Th-thank you."

The man watched Noser's retreating back with a puzzled look.

How did a report about Bihen Benkou lead to all this?

'...'

Noser clasped his hands behind his back and looked out the window.

That was all he could say.

It was already publicly known that Zisair's influence had reached deep into the Imperial Capital Knight Order.

No matter how close one was to him, this was a time when everyone had to be cautious.

'Up until now, Zisair didn't show much interest in anything outside the Imperial Capital.'

But this time was different.

Zisair had given a direct order.

To me, a pillar of the Imperial Capital Knight Order.

'He specifically mentioned the Krause family by name and told me to find out what their connection to Conwell was.'

And so, Noser had come to know that the Krause family and Conwell were involved in the Aldenfort dispute.

'...Now that I'm here, it turns out the main culprits of the commotion are Bihen Benkou and some Imperial trading company.'

Noser let out a short breath.

He had always prided himself on being a complete knight, a master of both the literary and martial arts, but this time, he was completely lost.

'Zisair, what is his objective?'

In this dispute, which involved so many different interests, he must have a clear goal.

'Does he have a particular family among Aldenfort, Krause, and Conwell that he wants to protect or bring to ruin?'

Noser shook his head.

Zisair wasn't that shallow.

'I can't approach his schemes on a superficial level.'

Every great plan begins with a small misalignment that leads to a crack.

'...And that misalignment right now must be Bihen Benkou.'

First, I intervened in the fight between Conwell and Krause as ordered.

I didn't care who won.

I had just fulfilled my official duty.

'The important thing is to set the stage for Bihen Benkou to create more chaos.'

The problem was that this variable could be broken before it could even shake the stage.

Whoosh!

The rain was getting heavier. The overwhelming downpour looked as if it would swallow the entire town.

"What a shitty weather."

Noser, who had been quietly watching the outside, suddenly spoke.

"Did you happen to hear the rumor? Bihen Benkou's efforts alone were the ones that practically settled the civil war in Conwell."

"Ah, I heard that too, but the story is a bit exaggerated, so I don't really trust it. There are also rumors that it was a joint effort between Conwell's staff and the Wild Dogs and Sewer Rats."

Noser gave a small nod.

"A rumor is just a rumor."

***

Anne Krause was the second most powerful person in the Krause family after the family head, Valen.

She was young and had a stunning appearance, so she was highly anticipated as a future leader of the family.

Everyone in the family praised her, and she accepted their expectations as a matter of course.

She had been strong since she was a child and was always on the winning side.

It had always been that way.

She always kept daggers and poison close to her, but her consciousness of death was always far away.

That was true until today.

"Anne! Snap out of it!"

Rumble!

A familiar voice and the sound of thunder crashed into my ears.

Anne's eyes shot open.

When her consciousness, which had briefly stopped, returned, a rough breath escaped her mouth.

She couldn't tell if the liquid streaming down her face was rainwater, blood, or cold sweat.

Tears began to fall.

The moments she had just witnessed were too overwhelming and terrifying to remember and hold on to.

Anne convulsed, gasping for breath, as if pushing them out of her consciousness.

"Wh-where is he?"

"Stop! Don't say another word! Your wounds will open!"

Rumble!

Having been born and raised in Aldenfort, she was sick of the torrential downpours and thunder.

But for some reason, the sound felt especially strange and unsettling today.

Anne slowly moved her gaze.

Beyond her older brother, who was staunching the wound on her abdomen, she saw her fallen family members.

Limbs that had been detached from their owners were scattered everywhere, and the puddles were all stained with blood.

"The Inner Court has been breached. He's now rummaging through the Main Court."

"..."

The Krause mansion had a three-layered structure.

The Outer Court where the servants stayed, the Inner Court where the direct family members lived and the Main Court where the elders and the family head resided.

"He went straight through the Outer Court and into the Inner Court..."

"Br-brother!"

Her brother couldn't finish his sentence and spat out a mouthful of blood.

Anne shot up her upper body.

She then noticed that both of his legs were gone.

The trail of blood, as if painted, continued behind her brother and made a long tail, refusing to be washed away by the rain.

"I'm not the problem, Anne!"

Her brother pushed away Anne's hand, which was trying to help him up, and instead grabbed her shoulder firmly.

At that moment, another stream of blood poured from his mouth.

"You know very well that the family head is in the middle of a special training session in the Mystic Turtle Cave...! If he were to show up there, the family head would fall into a Heart Demon and never wake up...! If that happens, our Krause family will be...!"

"Brother..."

"You, you have to stop him, no matter what...!"

Her brother bowed his head as if he had fulfilled his duty.

Anne couldn't even sob.

The transience of life hit her hard.

"Anne! You're alive!"

At that moment, a voice came from behind her.

It was her peers, the Krause Seven Dragons.

Six of her age group came running, kicking off the collapsed wall and the muddy ground.

"Are you okay?! Can you get up?"

Anne stood up without a word.

Her eyes, which had endured the fear of death, were now just empty.

The family members who had arrived all gasped at the sight of the carnage.

The scene unfolding before their eyes was hard to believe.

"Why would he do this...? Didn't we agree to a trial by combat? To ambush us before that, why on earth!"

But the word 'ambush' didn't quite fit either.

It wasn't a group that had attacked, but a single person who had broken in.

The Krause family dealt with poison and hidden weapons.

Even the Imperial Capital Knight Order couldn't touch them easily.

The fact that this had happened to them was unbelievable and perplexing.

"This is insane. For our Krause mansion to be breached like this. By a single person..."

"He's not touching the servants, only attacking the armed family members. The combat squad is pretty much wiped out."

"His goal is to get to the Main Court quickly. If he breaches the Mystic Turtle Cave, we're truly finished."

"Did he know the family head was in the Mystic Turtle Cave and targeted him? What a vile bastard! Even so, how could he be so reckless to do this alone...!"

The family members beside her continuously let out voices of lament.

In the middle of it all, Anne spoke in a low voice.

"...We have to stop him."

Anne raised her head.

For a moment, her eyes shone with the sharp light of a dagger.

"I will definitely kill Bihen Benkou."

The family members surrounding her all lowered their chins at the same time.

To repay a favor twofold, and vengeance tenfold.

At this moment, the young Seven Dragons vowed to follow their family's rule, even if it meant their deaths.

Whoosh!

The Krause Seven Dragons followed the trail of the 'intruder,' Bihen Benkou, and cut through the interior of the mansion.

The sight they encountered as they passed by tightened the young assassins' hearts.

The blood-soaked corridors, the broken decorations, the shattered walls and doors—it was a living hell.

'How can a person do something like this...!'

Anne gritted her teeth.

Her entire body trembled with rage.

'Before, I couldn't even raise a hand and was just defeated.'

She couldn't even guess how long she had been unconscious.

When she came to, the mansion was already in this state.

'All of this, by one person...'

That question wasn't Anne's alone.

It simultaneously came to the minds of all the Seven Dragons.

What they had seen wasn't just an intruder but a disaster that had come to swallow the mansion.

"There he is-!"

One of the Seven Dragons shouted.

It was right after they passed the banquet hall just before the Main Court.

First, they saw the back of a blood-soaked family member kneeling, and in front of him stood that person.

'Bihen Benkou!'

Shhh.

As the family member's body fell limply to the side, the intruder's figure was fully revealed.

He was slowly pulling his sword out of the family member's body.

The eyes in his blood-stained face were utterly serene.

Our gazes met.

"..."

Horror swept across the faces of the Seven Dragons. Cold sweat ran down their spines.

He was staring at us as if he had been waiting, and there was not a single emotion to be felt.

It was an oppressive aura that only someone who had crossed the line between life and death countless times could exude.

An arrogant dignity flew toward them like a dagger.

"You damned bastard, how dare you-!"

Anne rushed past her companions who were running alongside her.

Her instincts were warning her.

That she had to move before she was consumed by fear.

Ping-!

Anne forcefully spread her crossed hands.

Dozens of daggers, the size of a finger joint, shot out at once.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Bihen raised his sword and blocked the daggers.

The daggers that hit his blade sparkled and bounced off in all directions.

Whoosh!

Anne adjusted her grip on her sword.

The sword, which had rotated once, was now firmly in her hand.

The daggers were meant to be a distraction.

She didn't expect him to be hit by them.

Buying time to approach him was enough.

Anne instantly closed the distance and entered Bihen's range.

K-ang!

Anne's eyes bulged.

The sword path, which had been soaring diagonally, stopped just short of his head.

The tingling recoil made her hands numb.

"Huh."

Between the two crossed blades, his face was visible.

His lips were curled into a sneer.

"Not bad."

"..."

"Did you come here to die on your own? I was kind enough to let you live."

"Sh-shut uuuuup-!"

It was the moment Anne gritted her teeth and went on the offensive.

Piiiing-!

A gust of wind carrying a sword's edge came flying from behind and rushed toward Bihen.

The other six had finally arrived.

The young assassins shouted in unison.

"Seven Dragon Poison!"

A hazy, poisonous fog instantly covered the entire area.

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