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Chapter : 55
The Blade Is Sharp
Dusk pushed its mouth up through the ground.
“An earth-spider hatchling!”
A fully grown earth-spider monster was about the size of an adult human.
It looked as though it had just broken out of its egg—its body slick and sticky with viscous fluid.
When it spat dirt, the ground was covered in sand.
The floor of the Imperial City had been entirely paved with bricks.
Those bricks crumbled finely like sand, then sank beneath the surface as the sand settled underground.
“Tsk! A sand grave!”
“Watch your footing—don’t let your feet sink into the sand!”
When the royal guards drew their swords and drove them into the ground, the earth-spider overturned the soil and hid itself.
“Even if it hides, it’s still under the sand!”
“Damn it—another monster?!”
Those with swords twisted their grips and drove the blades straight down into the holes where it breathed.
“Desert-region monster! Earth-spiders spit viscous fluid to create sand graves and collapse the ground! Kill them before that by finding their breathing holes! Because of those holes, they’ve dug paths underneath! When the ground sinks, stab your swords into the floor and cut off their mouths first!”
“If your foot sinks into the sand, it becomes a real nuisance!”
That was why earth-spiders were such a bother.
“If your foot gets caught in a sand grave, stab your sword beneath your feet!”
Their habit of making sand graves underground and dragging people down beneath them was what made them so troublesome.
“Your Majesty! If you step down from the carriage—!”
Thud! One wheel twisted and sank.
Charlophe stepped lightly down, placing a foot on the threshold.
“It seems someone is trying to bind my steps here again.”
A guard opened the door and extended an arm.
“Please, take my hand! We’ll move you to safety!”
“Just a moment… lend me a sword.”
“Yes?”
“With a hairpin, I can stab, but it’s too shallow. I’d like something deeper.”
He held the side hairpin adorned with a white flower. It wasn’t even a span long.
Too shallow.
This won’t reach underground.
Charlophe extended his straightened arm and held out an empty palm. A scabbard was placed into his pale grip. Katarina handed over her sword.
“Earth-spider monsters feed on tree roots and insects. They shouldn’t directly harm humans, but please be careful.”
“……”
“I’m worried.”
“It hasn’t even been a day since the family told me not to get entangled.”
“You don’t have to be entangled.”
“That’s not something entirely up to me.”
When he drew the sword from its scabbard, the blade gave off a cold, chilling aura.
“It feels familiar… yet unfamiliar.”
“The blade is sharp, Your Majesty.”
The hilt fit snugly into his grip.
The long, thin blade was light, but keen.
With a twist of his wrist, the blade lay at an angle.
When he lightly sliced through the air, the blade cut across emptiness as if cleaving something real.
I see you getting entangled again.
Those words kept brushing against his ears.
“Yes. Grandfather. It seems I’m getting entangled again.”
Charlophe narrowed his eyes.
“They say a life grows harsher when you keep blades close. It seems mine intends to be quite harsh.”
He stabbed straight down.
The sword pierced through the soil and struck beneath it.
Something foreign met the blade.
When he pulled the sword out, spider silk clung to it, tangled like a net.
“Is that a spiderweb?”
“……Something’s been cut.”
“It looks like an underground web collapsed.”
The sand scattered faintly, like an illusion.
As if it had all been a mirage, every grain of sand disappeared.
The guards thoroughly examined the ground.
Traces of spiderwebs once buried beneath the earth appeared here and there.
“It was their web, indeed. Fortunately, they hadn’t fully established their nest—the web’s core was exposed outside. The monster trap has been dismantled.”
Charlophe turned his head.
“Is it over?”
“This area has been dealt with. There may be more webs remaining. If we dismantle them all before the nest is fully established, that should be the end, but…”
“Why?”
“How did you know the web was there?”
“I haven’t encountered many monsters. I don’t know much about webs or spiders either. I just sensed a foreign presence gathering beneath, and thought that if I cut that loop, the connection would be severed.”
Charlophe sheathed the sword. The blade scraped against the edge of the scabbard. As Katarina took the sword back, she asked,
“Have you ever handled a sword before?”
“Why do you ask?”
“You seem… accustomed to it. Stabbing, withdrawing—you keep getting mixed up with monsters despite having no reason to. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t trouble you with idle talk.”
“……I haven’t. Not in the past, nor now.”
For some reason, his body felt increasingly stiff and sore.
“I’ve only ever handled a crossbow.”
“We’ll search for more webs.”
Another web was found shortly afterward.
“Daybreak is coming, and people will soon flood the streets. Hurry.”
The ground was completely torn up.
“Find one person as well.”
A tree had been ripped out by the roots and overturned.
Spilled earth and falling rocks were mixed together, leaving the ground in chaos. Village livestock wandered nearby.
The imperial investigation unit, handling the village incident, hoisted logs onto their shoulders and erected supports.
“Watch out for falling rocks. If you get injured too, the recovery will only slow further.”
They gathered soil and moved the injured to a safe zone.
“My child—my child is inside! Please, at least tell me whether they’re alive or dead! Please… ahhh!”
“We’re sorry. We’ll conduct a thorough search, so please move to the safe house.”
The area was at risk of rockslides.
The ground was still unstable. A sheer cliff had collapsed into the village, burying everything beneath it.
“When the mercenary group evacuated people under their arms, they sensed a monster’s presence. The earthquake had twisted the ground so badly that civilian evacuation took priority, and they couldn’t investigate afterward.”
“The monsters’ webs?”
“They’ve been nesting here for some time. They hid the core well—it’s difficult to find.”
Spider silk was woven between clumps of soil like a net.
“Fall back!”
The creature spewed viscous fluid and flung spider silk.
“Damn it! The webs are slowing recovery more and more!”
“If we cut the web carelessly, the ground will collapse! Split into a suppression unit and a search unit!”
Knights cut through the webs with their swords. When the monsters re-wove the severed strands, the suppression unit severed their legs.
“There’s a monster trap here.”
The foreign sensation drew closer.
The warhorse sensed it first. The black horse pawed the ground and reared, and the knights tightened their grips.
The blade slit the monster’s throat.
Shhk!
A blue-tinged killing intent surged.
As Poputa’s suppression force joined them, Benjamin sheathed his sword. Draping his outer coat over his shoulders and pulling his hood low, the emperor narrowed his dark pupils until his gaze became razor-thin.
“A spiderweb.”
“It’s been torn.”
“They say the cliff above collapsed. Could that be why the ground gave way?”
“If that were the case, I’d say it collapsed—not that it was torn. This was torn apart.”
Someone had deliberately ripped it.
The investigation unit realized it as well.
“Someone took the baby spider’s web.”
“…The web—do you mean the baby monster’s shell?”
“Yes. It’s also called a monster nest. Tearing it out caused the cliff’s foundation to collapse. We’ve also found several monster traps deliberately twisted out of place. It seems someone stole the hatchlings.”
“…How many?”
“Three were taken. When the monster shells were torn from the web, traces were left at the joints.”
Benjamin rolled the sword hilt within his palm. His fingers clicked together. The calloused inside of his hand ground tightly.
“Your Majesty.”
The Poputa commander approached.
“The search for survivors inside is complete.”
It was a small village. Since residents already knew one another, the search concluded quickly once manpower was fully deployed.
A child crawled out from beneath a log.
The child brushed off dirt, sobbing.
“Mom!”
Long hair caught the light.
Each step the child took seemed to strike the ground with a heavy thud.
The royal guards reported after collecting all the monster traps.
“All spiderwebs have been removed.”
“The sand graves were identified and dismantled as well. Further recovery will be handled by the city guard, and ground repairs should be finished by afternoon.”
As dawn broke, merchants opened their shops. Passersby gradually filled the streets. Broken bricks would be replaced, and the ground reinforced with manpower.
“There really aren’t any webs left?”
“There were only the two.”
Charlophe looked down at an old man collapsed on the ground.
The man had lost an arm.
His body, tainted by black magic, was unlike that of a normal human. He had burst his own arm to bind the guards’ feet.
Even after destroying his own body, new arms keep growing back!
Only after losing both arms did the old man finally collapse.
His body stiffened, movements sluggish, and his white eyes—pupils translucent—were deeply unnatural.
“They used to say that ancient black magic cultists offered their own bodies as sacrifices while chanting their spells.”
“Ah. A soul standing close to death.”
The whites of his eyes narrowed. By offering his body continuously, even his eyes had become part of the sacrifice.
Why didn’t I know?
Why did I know none of those around me?
Connections from a previous life slowly intertwined.
Past and present lives ground together awkwardly—and those ties reached him.
“Why… death… earth… such a strange aura… How curious. To never lose one’s eyes… Who are you? Where did we touch?”
The old man crawled flat against the ground.
“The imperial taboo has never intervened this deeply—so this is as far as it goes?”
He bit down on his staff and bent his back.
The connection from his past life was utterly different now.
What was this grotesqueness?
“A blade at an old man’s neck—are you telling me to die of iron poison?”
“That would be a gentler death, at least.”
The guards’ blades radiated killing intent.
Unlike the gloomy aura of black magic, the swords carried the raw, fierce spirit of knights. That killing intent was honest—because they were killing monsters, not people.
“Are you Haden Kriker?”
“So you even know this old man’s name. I never thought it would be remembered in this age. Perhaps it truly is my time to die—tsk, tsk. I’m glad someone remembers.”
“……”
“To speak a name not even recorded.”
Charlophe watched the old man from beyond the alley.
He’s human, but he lacks the aura humans should have.
Perhaps that was why the sense of foreignness had been so strong.
“How do you know the name?”
“Wasn’t it in the intelligence officer’s report?”
“There was some investigation.”
“……I happened to glimpse a report near Your Majesty.”
That wasn’t true.
The man hated even the idea of being entangled—he would never have shown such a report.
Still, the name remained in memory.
The old man’s mouth clicked repeatedly.
“This is the limit of the taboo.”
Was it earth?
Wood?
It felt like a hard chunk of wood.
“Ghk! Guh—!”
The old man neared death, his skin draining of blood and drying out.
Click.
He entangled a black magic spell and offered his own body as a sacrifice, detonating the imperial capital’s surroundings.
“Take cover!”
A thunderous roar erupted. Pale smoke surged upward, and heat rushed out.
That was all.
A solid chest pressed against Charlophe’s arm.
“Are you all right?”
“……”
“……Shar—Charlophe?”
Strength drained from his body.
Everything grew hazy.
His vision slowly reddened.
As if sinking into a vast lake.
Deeper.
Further down.
His body collapsed.
It felt as though he were submerged underwater.
