Awakening the Great Chapter 78

Chapter 78: At the Crossroads of No Return

Soone's arrival changes the air in the corridor.

Thud. Thud.

Footsteps that were, in themselves, entirely ordinary. No windows rattled. The ground did not tremble. And yet, unmistakably, a force beyond comprehension was drawing near.

The first to react were the Imperial Guard.

They followed the sound of those footsteps, retreating half a step at a ti, one by one. A chill ran down their spines, and a ceaseless alarm rang through their ears. An invisible pressure bore down upon them from crown to sole, crushing the whole of their bodies.

It was not mana. Nor wind, fire, or the power of darkness.

It was the aura that only a being who had reached the apex could carry—wondrous and alien. A standing that could not be nad, an order that could not be explained. The kind of force that, by the re fact of existing in a space, caused that space to be drawn inward.

Suffice it to say, it was fundantally different from power built upon renown and authority.

"Y-Your Majesty. Imran Akran, the Empire's Supre Sword, requests an audience."

"……Bid him enter."

And so he passed through the gates of the Imperial Palace and into the Great Hall.

He wore no armor. He bore no insignia, and not so much as a single sword hung at his side. Yet his very existence alone overwheld all within the room.

One of only two Masters in the Empire.

Across the entire continent, only nine in total.

That exalted being did not utter a single word. He did not speak his own na, did not glance around the room, and did not even bow his head to the Emperor.

He simply walked in.

The Emperor slowly lifted his gaze.

"You will have heard the reports from behind the front lines as well. This matter……Must be resolved, without fail."

The tone was calm, yet the eyes held sothing feral. The fury within was layered over like a thin shell, and upon his shoulders rested the full dignity of the Empire.

Yet Imran Akran did not answer at once. He regarded the other man for a mont before opening his mouth at a asured pace.

"What of giving him another chance?"

"……?"

"I have heard that Dakar Raihe, Knight Commander of Blutspheer, is requesting a second opportunity."

In that instant, two forces collided within the Great Hall.

Fine lines appeared at the corners of the Emperor's eyes.

"It cannot be done. He is incapable of killing the monster."

"Then it is simply a matter of making him capable."

"We have already said—it will not be done."

"……."

The relationship with the Elvra Holy Empire had soured. It was also true that the aid of the clergy could not be obtained, but the real issue was one of face. Imperial decrees were inviolable, and to defy one was sothing that could not be permitted—not even of a Master.

"Do you intend to refuse Our command?"

His voice lowered naturally. The ministers swallowed their breath, and the hands of the Imperial Guard tightened around their weapons without them realizing it.

It was unlike him—the Emperor was laying bare his emotions. It had gone beyond anger; he was snapping irritably. It was all the more so because Imran Akran's thoughts could not be read.

Still……. He cannot be read.

One of the original neural accelerators was embedded in one of the Emperor's eyes, yet not a single piece of information flowed through it.

Incomprehensible, difficult to control—a chronic source of trouble. A Master was the Empire's most powerful weapon and its greatest threat to Imperial authority alike.

And so the Emperor swept a hand along the armrest and produced his final proposal.

"Akran. Do not forget where your na cos from."

The nearly singular chain. He invoked his house as a threat. For words from an Emperor, it was truly petty—yet at the sa ti, it was all the more effective for it.

Imran Akran, his expression unmoved, gazed silently ahead. A long silence. And at the end of it, he gave a dry nod.

"This ti, I shall follow Your Majesty's will."

His voice was far too composed. There was no anger, no sense of suppression. It was arid and flat—as though he were reciting a line determined in advance.

Gulp.

Several ministers swallowed. He had accepted the command, yet not one of them believed it to be obedience.

Sure enough.

He turned imdiately afterward and walked out of the Great Hall. No farewell to the Emperor. He did not bow his head, and he did not even leave behind so much as an expression of loyalty.

Like a breeze blowing along a riverbank, he had passed through in an instant and was gone.

Once Imran Akran departed, the air of the Great Hall finally settled. The weight had, at last, lifted. But a heavier unease remained in its place.

The ministers watched the Emperor's expression.

Crack.

The sound of grinding molars rang out. From his eyes, hatred blazed forth—hatred for a re rcenary company that had brought him to this humiliation.

"……Antelopes."

One na was seared into the Emperor's pride like an afterimage.

* * *

It is easy to speak words, yet difficult to take responsibility for them. Calix felt this to his very bones. People ca flooding in at once.

First twenty, then a hundred, then……. The aning of counting the numbers vanished.

n with packs on their backs, won carrying infants, a boy with his head bandaged, an elderly man bundled onto his child's back like a sack, a beggar dragging one foot, a small child with tear tracks dried on their face. Those who had been wandering with no direction seeped one by one into the Antelopes' fold.

When he ca to his senses, the number of wanderers alone had reached a staggering three thousand.

"……Is this so kind of joke?"

"This is……. Way too many."

The dismay was everyone's.

Hadiya and Zahira exchanged words with grave expressions, while Royce worked through alternatives in repeated discussions with the Vice-captain.

The original plan was for the Antelopes to capture the enemy's attention, and for the wanderers to slip out beyond the encirclent in that opening. When the headcount had been two hundred, it might have been feasible—but now the body had grown far too large, and it was impossible.

Yet before a new plan could be ford, the hand of the Niboria Imperial Army reached them first.

Early evening. A stretch of open plains.

Thudthudthudthud.

Just as dusk blood in full, the sound of hoofbeats erupted without warning.

"Enemy!"

"Imperial cavalry!"

Calix looked ahead. The wanderers were strung out in a long column, moving forward. The mounted unit drove into the right flank of the formation before anyone could act.

Aaaaaaargh!

With the screams, human flesh and blood were reduced to pulp.

The back of a woman running with a child in her arms was torn apart in shreds. Horse hooves ca down like hamrs upon the ground, and the tips of blades cut through the air in search of their next victim. From all sides ca the sound of infants wailing and bones breaking, shrieks and wailing that swelled to fill the space.

The Antelopes rushed out in haste, but the Imperial cavalry—satisfied with a single charge—sliced cleanly back through the formation and withdrew.

"You bastards! Don't run!"

"What in the……."

The outco of the assault was plain. The Antelopes were unscathed. In their place, so eighty wanderers lay dead. Torn apart in the charge, cut by blades, trampled beneath hooves.

But this was only the beginning.

* * *

Ti passed without rcy.

A day, then another day.

Every road the Antelopes traveled left corpses behind. The assaults were relentless, and burying the dead was a luxury no one could even contemplate.

"How many today?"

"Thirty-eight."

"At least……. Fewer died."

It was a voice exhausted without exception. The Antelopes groaned under minor wounds, and Ella, who had been offering prayers for the dead, had lost her voice.

That night, rain fell.

As a violent storm raged, the wanderers huddled together to share warmth. Cutting through the harsh noise, two voices rose in a shout.

"So you're saying we abandon them all?"

"If there's no other way, then yes!"

One was Volga, and the other was the veteran rcenary Hagen.

He struck first before the other could answer back.

"We've lost our speed. Naturally, we've lost the initiative on the battlefield too. We chose to isolate ourselves with a moronic decision!"

"That's sothing everyone agreed to."

"Yeah, it was our choice. But kid, look at reality with cold eyes."

The man whose face was covered in scars shook the rainwater from his armor and continued.

"Originally, we had more than enough ti to cross in two weeks. And now—where are we? Three weeks have passed and we haven't even crossed half. And that's not all? The Imperial Army has changed their response and is dragging our feet, and that monstrous bastard Draug even vanished at so point!"

"……."

Volga's lips moved silently several tis. It was too much to comfort himself with the fact that no Antelope had been seriously injured—the situation was rapidly deteriorating.

"At this rate, we all die. If necessary, another choice has to be made."

"……The captain will have sothing in mind."

"He'd better. We've fought all this ti to survive. Not to kill ourselves like this."

As mortifying as it was, his words were correct.

* * *

Night passed, and the rain stopped. People sat hunched on the muddied ground in the open field. Huddled together, sharing warmth, enduring—yet even in the midst of it, soone had gone far away.

Before dawn, a woman wailed. Clutching a child gone cold to her chest, she scread through the dry silence.

"That's enough……. Let's send them on."

"Please bury her. Please, just put her in the ground."

But there was no one to help. They had no strength left even to dig the earth.

Then, Volga stepped silently forward. Using the iron rod he had received from his teacher, he wordlessly drove it into the earth and began to dig. Deep and heavy, he turned up soil that had hardened solid.

"Thank you, thank you……."

As he showed signs of flagging, the dwarf approached and shoved at his side with the sole of his foot. Taking Volga's place like that, Zahira and the rest joined in—and even the thoroughly prickly veteran rcenary, Hagen, lent his hands.

Calix watched it all in silence.

The breath he had chewed down and swallowed burned his insides as though it had beco molten rock. A feeling of being stifled and heartbroken. Another child had gone.

'We can't hold out any longer.'

The truth is always bitter. Yet only by swallowing a dicine that bitter could one move on to the next step.

The Antelopes had lost the power to control the situation.

'Draug's movents have gone beyond what was predicted. He isn't moving as actively as before. He's clearly nearby……. But he won't co and go as expected.'

The sa was true of the Imperial Army.

Despite their overwhelming nurical advantage, they did not engage in an all-out battle. They rely dragged their feet through a series of raids. Maintaining their distance, they followed quietly in their wake.

'Strange. It's as though they're trying to stall for ti.'

Calix let out a small sigh.

Not because he couldn't read the enemy's intent. In truth, there was a far more serious problem than that.

'……The purpose has been lost.'

Indeed.

The reason the Antelopes were being shaken from within was as simple as this. A hundred or so wanderers—those, they could spirit away with ease. That was why everyone had agreed to it. But the mont that number reached three thousand, the situation changed.

What were they moving forward for, right now?

When humans have a purpose, they willingly accept danger. Yet that very 'purpose' was hollow. To put it plainly—there was no way to get the people to safety.

Tap. Tap.

Just then, a wrinkled hand approached and carefully touched the hem of his clothes. He turned his head, and there stood the elderly person who had once entrusted Calix with a newborn infant.

"Calix."

"……Elder."

Hard of hearing, so the voice carried farther than intended. The heads of Hadiya and the other rcenaries snapped around.

"They ca? Who?"

The answer was Calix's to give. What he had prepared just in case had finally surfaced.

"I went around asking people if there was anything that might be of help. Fortunately, this elder made the connection for us."

"So what connection?"

From here, it was the Commander, Royce, who picked up the thread.

"There's a resistance force in the north. From what the wanderers say, it's led by Count Critang……. For now, the only place worth collaborating with is there."

The mont the word 'resistance' was spoken, the movent of the Antelopes stilled. They turned the aning over in their minds, and one by one, the light in their eyes changed.

"……Is there really such a thing as a resistance force?"

"There's no way a bunch of nobles would do that. Are they angry about losing their land?"

"So what—do they have a decent number of soldiers, at least?"

Those who had been groaning until a mont ago leapt to their feet and gathered in one place. At that, Calix turned back to the elder and spoke again.

"Would we be able to et them right away?"

The resistance force appeared shortly.

Within the mass of wanderers, three people dressed in worn sackcloth walked through the crowd toward them. On the surface they were every bit the vagabonds, yet their eyes were hard, and restraint was woven into the way they walked.

The young man at the front offered a slight bow of his head.

"I am Luma Critang, nephew of Count Critang. Though I am lacking, I lend what strength I have to leading the resistance."

The words were courteous, but the manner was sothing else. Wariness and caution, a gaze that seed to be sizing up the other party, ca flying over. Yet Calix, too, was no longer what he had once been. He had witnessed the deaths and despair of the weak, and he had co to know the weight that followed from his own choices.

And so, with the words of introduction—he cut them boldly short.

"We need a fleet."

The other man's eyes wavered faintly.

"……Pardon?"

"Ships. Not one or two—a large fleet. We must evacuate the people along the river. That is the only way."

A brief silence fell. As Hadiya let out a snort and hurriedly unfolded the map, Luma Critang shook his hand with a troubled expression.

"That is a……. Rather excessive demand. Our resources are limited——"

"I know this demand is too much. But within this recklessness lies the Antelopes' way of doing things, and it is with that that we have gradually twisted the flow of battle."

"……."

"We are trying to protect children, the elderly, and people whose nas we do not even know. If there is sothing we have learned in the process, it is that strength is not used only to survive. We are standing before a bold choice right now. So please—help us."

Calix did not asure up the other party. He did not speak in roundabout terms; he approached the heart of the matter and drove it in precisely. There was no hesitation.

Luma's expression wavered visibly. He then t Calix's gaze in silence. Whether he was weighing the burden on the other's shoulders, his brows trembled faintly.

A mont later, he fingered the hem of his collar and opened his mouth.

"Honestly, I am a little taken aback. I did not know the Antelopes thought this way. I am also……. Slightly ashad."

"……."

"We have fought all this ti to reclaim what was taken from us. Words about protecting the people were just that—words."

He then lowered his gaze slightly. It seed he himself was asuring why he had let those words slip out.

At that, Calix added his own.

"This is for the good of both the Antelopes and the resistance alike. To the extent that we take on the risk, attention on the resistance will thin. Count Critang must know that as well, which is why contact was made this quickly."

"……."

"I will ask once more. Please cooperate with the evacuation. You will not regret it."

It was not the sort of negotiation he had envisioned, but having added fitting reasons to a rightful cause, there was no room to refuse.

Luma Critang drew a long breath and raised his head.

Just then, a way to mobilize ships ca to mind.

"……Very well. You ant the river at the western end, yes?"

"Yes."

"There is a salt mine near there. Rock salt is worth as much as gold. They transported it in smaller boats and loaded it onto large vessels to move it, they say. It is within the Imperial Army's occupied territory, but those ships should still be there. I will see what I can do."

An uncertainty lingered at the tail of his words, but the Antelopes paid it no mind. What mattered more than that was the simple fact that a way through had opened up.

"Seems worth a shot?"

"We might actually be able to make it."

They simply rejoiced that hope had appeared.

At that, the veteran rcenary Gregor sprang to his feet with vigor.

"That alone isn't nearly enough, you lot!"

Sure enough, as he said——there were still things they needed to wrest out further.