The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 32 – Templar (3)

Juan immediately chased after Arwain like a crazed animal.

At that moment, a dagger flew out and struck Arwain’s helmet.

The second Arwain flinched as his helmet tilted, Juan thrust Talter’s short sword deep into his neck.

“…?!”

Arwain tried to let out a scream, but not a sound came out of his mouth. Arwain touched his neck in shock, only to realize that something sharp and metallic had pierced his neck. Blood was draining out of his neck, drenching his entire armor and hands. Arwain soon toppled down to his knees.

“You call yourself the emperor’s fist, but turn your back against the enemy? How dare you call yourself a knight of the empire!” Arwain’s helmet flew off and rolled over a puddle of mud as Juan kicked his chin.

Juan grabbed Arwain by his hair and repeatedly slammed his face against the ground as blood spewed out of his broken nose. Puking blood, Arwain squirmed to try and get away from Juan. Juan only stopped slamming Arwain’s head against the ground when Anya placed her hand on his shoulder.

“You shouldn’t have stabbed him in the neck. We still had lots of information we could have gotten out of him.”

“Didn’t you tell me that Templars are elites?” Juan glared at Anya as if he was going to stab her too.

“There are always exceptions, like yourself. You are unlike any other normal boy from beyond the border.”

“If all Templars are like this fellow, I don’t think I’m going to be too fond of any of them.”

“You’re not the first to dislike them. There’s not a lot of people who like the Templars.”

While Arwain groaned heavily in pain, he turned his head to the side and saw Anya. Arwain’s eyes widened as he saw her face, and his mouth gaped, but Anya swung her stiletto at his eyes with a slight smile on her face. Losing his eyes so suddenly, Arwain’s body trembled once again, blood foaming at his mouth.

Looking at him shuddering and barely able to breathe, yet still somehow alive, Juan frowned.

“Why isn’t he dead yet?”

“Templars are not only bestowed Grace upon their equipment but also their body. Eyes, heart, liver, intestines, brain, and even their lungs,” Anya explained.

“What a waste of effort for such trash.”

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Juan had devised all sorts of methods to make humankind stronger even back during the war against the gods, but he had never thought of or seen such a thing as ‘bestowing Grace’ upon someone’s organs.

At this point, it was hard to even call Arwain a human.

“Doesn’t that mean he can still fight?” asked Juan.

“Maybe, if he was a normal Templar. But it seems like he lost all his will to fight. Heck, he even refused to fight back when he was in a much better condition earlier,” replied Anya.

Juan recalled Arwain using the Spear of Wrath. Although Juan felt lightheaded as the Spear of Wrath pierced his body, it did not leave behind any real injuries on his body. It was only after Arwain saw this that he lost his will to fight. Juan had thought he wasn’t injured because the spear was made of fire, but now…

“What was it that you used against me? The ‘emperor’s Grace’ or whatever you call it?” Juan asked while touching his own chest.

Arwain opened his mouth and mumbled in reply, but it was not what Juan wanted to hear.

“My identity?” Juan snickered and bent down toward Arwain.

Arwain felt chills across his entire body. As a Templar serving His Majesty, Arwain had always considered His Majesty as his sun and faithfully followed his words like the moon. In the light and heat of his sun, he felt intact and warm. But now that his eyes and voice had been taken away, he felt nothing but a dark void—not even His Majesty’s light could reach him.

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”

Arwain’s jaw dropped wide open as Juan whispered a few more words in his ear. Looking at Arwain floundering and puking blood as he screamed without a voice like a lunatic, Juan laughed out loud in delight.

“What did you say to him?” asked Anya in curiosity.

“Not much.”

Juan remembered promising Arwain that he would make him go either blind or insane. Juan felt good to have kept his words faithfully.

***

Soldiers waiting outside the village witnessed the outer wall of the village being destroyed by a loud explosion, as well as the rising flame. As the surroundings brightened up, the soldiers realized that Arwain had used the Spear of Wrath.

“Templar!!” Soldiers hurried into the village, having realized that battle had broken out.

But what they encountered was Arwain screaming with his hands on his neck. It was obvious that he wouldn’t last long with a short sword stuck in his neck.

“W-What happened?”

“Captain, it’s the black-haired boy that Sir Arwain was looking for!”

Only then did the captain locate the boy with black hair. It wasn’t hard to recognize him, as they had been looking for him for several days.

Although the village guards were surrounding the boy, no one dared to get closer to him.

“Besiege him!”

Soldiers quickly closed in around the boy. There was a woman standing beside him, but she couldn’t be identified with the hood covering her face.

The captain managed to have the boy surrounded, yet he had no idea what action to take next. His heart was bleeding when he saw Arwain on the edge of life and death.

‘Why a member of the Ilde family out of all people!’ the captain sighed.

Arwain was the youngest of a family with a powerful influence in the capital. Taking the blame for Arwain’s death would be inevitable once it was reported that he died fighting the enemy alone. Biting his lips, the captain fell into endless agony.

“C-captain, what should we do now?” asked a soldier.

“Shit, I don’t know. We would have to bring that bastard’s head at the very least to spare our lives…”

But how were they supposed to defeat the enemy that had killed someone as powerful as the Templar?

All of a sudden, the captain felt a piercing gaze from the boy.

“Hey, you there.”

“W-what do you want, you heretic?!”

“Why is…why is everyone here an arle?”

“Boy, no one uses the term ‘arle’ these days. Even they themselves are more used to being called ‘beastmen.’” Anya pointed out as she noticed confusion among the soldiers.

“So now they know what an arle is. I’ll ask again. Aren’t you all part of the imperial army? Why are there only arles here?”

As Juan said, all the soldiers surrounding him were arles. Considering the vigilance and ostracism from the empire toward the arles, such a composition of the army was rather odd.

“They are the Laus Mountain Scouts. It is a squad made up of beastmen that excel at mountain climbing. They are brave and tight-lipped, since they usually work for the Order of the White Crow and their Templars,” Anya answered for the soldiers.

“Hmm,” Juan didn’t retract his question even after Anya’s warning.

Anya felt a little anxious. The soldiers seemed intimidated after witnessing Arwain’s defeat, but the Laus Mountain Scouts were a skilled archer force. Things could get complicated if they decided to attack from a long distance.

“Boy, I will give you further explanations later, so for now…”

“Then were you the ones that plundered those villages?” The soldiers flinched at Juan’s question.

“Plunder?! All we did was faithfully assist the Templar with his work as we were given a mission by the Church. We simply carried out our creed!” The captain hurried to answer as if he was making an excuse.

“Yes or no is a good enough answer,” Juan said.

Juan quietly stared at the soldiers’ rounded horns, shaggy hair and inverted knees—they were goat beastmen. He told the captain, “It’s nothing too important, but someone came to my mind when I saw you guys. He was a good mountain climber and I suspected he might have been a soldier. I’m going to need a few of you to stay and solve my curiosity.”

The soldiers couldn’t understand what Juan was saying, but Juan did not intend to give them time to understand.

Anya sighed and took a step back as she saw Juan’s body spring toward the soldiers.

The fight didn’t last too long. It hadn’t been long since Juan fought against Arwain, yet he felt strong energy flowing through his body, which had been intensifying ever since he was struck by the Spear of Wrath. Juan defeating ten beastmen soldiers came as no surprise, given that they were discouraged after Arwain’s defeat. None of them died, but they were lying in the mud with broken bones. Juan walked up to the captain, who seemed to have significantly more broken bones than others.

“D-don’t come near me! W-why only me……!” the captain cried.

“Because torturing the leader is the most efficient.”

“I-I am the leader of the empire’s scout force! Torture won’t get you any information out of me!”

“What’s your point?”

“Promise me that you won’t kill me, and I will tell you everything!”

Juan looked at Anya, and Anya shrugged. “There are over a thousand soldiers in the Laus Mountain Scouts, and he is part of the minority. I told you there are always exceptions. Plus, it would be foolish to believe every slogan of imperial propaganda.”

“Fine. I’ll go easy on you since you are so eager to open your mouth.” Juan sheathed his short sword and grabbed the captain by his horn.

“W-what do you wish to know? Supply route through the Laus Mountains? Locations of secret shelters? Assembly locations? Just name it and you will get it. The supply route of the Laus Mountains is important since the majority of the goods from the South are transported through that path. You are guaranteed to stop 20% of the North’s food supply if you block the route. Secret shelters are used for spies and secret operations, so the operation radius will be limited if you destroy the shelters. For the assembly…”

“I don’t need information directly related to the empire’s core security.”

Anya was visibly disappointed, but Juan ignored her and carried on.

“I knew a goat arle like one of you. Was there any soldier with an imperial army background out of your scouts that became a slave recently?” asked Juan.

Hesitant to answer, the captain flinched at Juan’s question, unlike when he had willingly offered to give up information related to the empire’s safety. He answered only after Juan unsheathed his short sword.

“I-I’ll speak. Put down your sword.” The Captain sighed deeply and opened his mouth. “As you know, we are soldiers of the empire. But we are treated more like guard dogs rather than a military force. Working as guard dogs, some of us are ‘disposed of’ if they misbehave. And we had one like that among us.”

“Be concise.”

“……We attack villages on the mountain once in a while, usually those that demi-humans live in. The purpose of it is to capture slaves; It’s done under the orders of a great noble family in the capital, but most slaves are sold off to the South,” the captain explained.

“Tantil?”

“Yes, including Tantil. We made a raid on a village that was deeper in the mountain two months ago. Once we arrived, we realized it was a hidden village of elves.”

Juan’s heart started to pound.