Swordmaster of the Great Wall Chapter 26

"What filthy luck."

A grumbling voice ca from behind Erich. Frederick was muttering, yet still dutifully followed Erich's lead.

Even though Frederick had earned the nickna 'Muteneer', he had already witnessed Erich's power in the recent incidents, so he did not seem to think Erich was unqualified.

And that was exactly as Erich intended.

"Why, are you worried you might hang yourself after seeing a ghost too?"

"Wha, what are you talking about? There's no such thing as ghosts. I just don't like working as soon as I get here, that's all."

Though he said that, Erich could read fear in Frederick's tone. No matter how much of a veteran one is, this kind of fear was easily contagious.

It was sothing that no one could avoid, regardless of how long they had been in the Watch.

"No! Even if I don't think it's a ghost, I'm still uneasy! But do you have any idea what's going on?"

According to Sergeant Kurz, there was one thing all the dead mbers had in common. They had seen sothing climbing the Great Wall.

And after witnessing that, they inevitably t their deaths.

From that commonality, one thing was clear: you should not see whatever is climbing the Great Wall.

However, Erich gleaned sothing a little different.

'To put it another way... it could an soone wants to hide sothing.'

But Frederick responded to Erich's simple deduction as if he had lost his enthusiasm.

"That doesn't prove it's not a ghost."

"So you were thinking it was a ghost, after all."

Frederick frowned. Seeing his reaction, Erich smiled with amusent.

"Whether it's a watchpost or a fortress, anywhere there's a Watch, this place is as good as the middle of nowhere. And such places always have ghost stories. Most of those tales have so reason behind them."

There couldn't possibly be any ghosts. Erich was certain of that. But it wasn't just a baseless assumption, nor was it a statent made out of a simple belief that ghosts couldn't exist.

'In the near future, from the mont I beca the commander, ghost stories ceased to exist.'

At this ti, each unit of the Watch was acting independently, which was necessary because there were too few officers at the Black Citadel to micromanage everything.

However, for the sa reason, the Black Citadel couldn't closely monitor all the units, which made it extrely difficult to keep track of everything happening at each squad, outpost, or fortress.

But after Erich beca commander and unified all the systems, eliminating all those ills, incidents like sudden disappearances or ghost stories vanished.

'In the end, it all ca down to omissions in the reporting process—in other words, human error.'

That ant that even this incident was probably not due to ghosts or ghost stories, but for so other reason.

Having reford the Watch as its commander, Erich could be sure of that.

The direction of Erich's deduction was clear.

'The Watch's own problems. From black market dealings to Orca-roid. Even the power struggles among the fortress lords. All those things are the cause of incidents like this.'

So this, too, couldn't possibly be the work of a ghost. That was Erich's judgnt.

"If it were barbarians, beasts, or any other external threat to the Watch, the mbers would have eventually figured out its nature. But none of them have any idea at all."

Frederick's face grew grave. Erich's words were simple and clear.

This whole series of 'suicides' happening now ant that sothing truly horrific was happening within the Watch itself, not because of ghosts or anything of the sort.

Frederick quietly climbed the frozen steps of the Great Wall, then asked.

"I don't care for this dump at all, but I still think the others are doing their best at their jobs. But to think soone would go as far as to do sothing that horrible..."

"Is that so? From black market trading to human trafficking—even sowhere within the Great Wall, isn't there a village of barbarian half-breeds created by Watch mbers?"

The Watch was a military organization with nurous mbers. Their numbers were overwhelming, even compared to any of the Empire's other military units, and operations were intricately connected to northern lords, villages, and even the comparatively friendly barbarian tribes.

And wherever there are people, problems and horrible deeds will arise.

That was precisely the point Erich was making.

Celibacy, abstinence, and prohibition of alcohol. All those vows, and these people had promised to devote their lives to guarding the Great Wall; these scandals were their dark secrets.

"... Well, you're not wrong."

Frederick paused. He looked at Erich with a subtle gaze, and then, as if sothing dawned on him, his shoulders shook.

'Perhaps he realized he's being swayed by .'

A veteran of the Watch, being swayed by the words of a newly arrived noble officer. Frederick seed to realize that and was secretly shocked.

Moreover, that newly arrived officer, Erich, already had a deep understanding of the Watch's light and dark sides—that was surely no small surprise as well.

But Frederick asked no further questions. Erich had already lumped all that under the excuse of 'reading it in a book,' which worked well with people like Frederick.

"Well, if sothing seems off, we can just beat it out of them then and there."

"Hm, why do you sound like you've already given up...?"

Frederick clicked his tongue, though he didn't seem to dislike such a straightforward solution.

Erich ascended to the top of the Great Wall and gazed at the blizzard howling before him. An endless snowy field stretched out before them. Blizzards mixed with shards of snow and ice.

He couldn't see very far, but it was as if Erich could see straight through it all.

'It's been a while. Brings back mories.'

Ahead lay endless snow-capped mountains and forests. In those lands, barbarians clustered together, and between them, Watch mbers threw their lives away daily to guard the Great Wall and prevent the barbarians from crossing.

But what Erich saw was not just that.

He glanced back to mories of the sleeping dead lurking sowhere far beyond. The sight of them awakening, gathering in dark masses before the Great Wall, spreading the terror of death, flashed across his mind.

Certainly, the Watch had the power to fight them. The Empire was the continent's greatest military force, unrivaled in producing swordmasters and the strong.

But they had disappeared before even facing the undead, sacrificed in pointless battles.

'I won't let that happen again.'

—Crack.

The faint sound of Erich's teeth grinding echoed. Now that he had this chance, he wouldn't miss a thing.

This ti, things would be different. He would make the Watch stronger than before, strong enough to face the dead.

That resolve surged within his mind.

"You learned how the Watch conducts its patrols from those books?"

"I did, but are you going to explain anyway?"

Frederick picked up a chunk of iron hanging on the wall. A thick rope was attached to it.

"You fasten this to your belt buckle. You probably won't have to stand watch personally much, but the end of the rope marks the farthest point of our watch route."

"And you keep patrolling the whole while standing guard?"

With practiced motions, Frederick secured the iron to his buckle, then handed another to Erich.

"Now, let show you how this works... huh?"

—Tsk.

"Damn it. Maybe you don't need training. Maybe we should just have everyone read books."

Seeing Erich connect the iron piece to his belt with practiced ease, Frederick grumbled. Of course, Erich's familiarity ca from experience.

Together, Frederick and Erich walked across the blizzard-blanketed Great Wall toward the guard hut.

Cutting through the knife-like wind, they soon saw the makeshift hut built atop the Wall, its light still on.

Once Frederick confird the hut, he glanced at Erich.

"If you barge in now, you could get stabbed, so pull the cord..."

"Already did."

Before Frederick even finished, Erich gave a pull to the cord, signaling to the mbers inside. Frederick's eyelids twitched.

"What's this? A natural talent? Was your father in the Watch, maybe?"

"Didn't you just ntion the vow of celibacy?"

Erich quietly smiled. For soone whose father had supposedly served in the Watch, which had a vow of celibacy, that was quite a fresh wisecrack—though from Frederick, it seed it was ant as high praise.

However, there was no response from the post. Erich quickly realized why.

"Co to think of it, since the one on guard here is dead, this side would be empty too."

"There weren't any people at the post to begin with. Naturally so."

Frederick planted the torch he'd brought inside the hut and spoke.

"Well, now it's just a boring job of standing here and watching the front lines."

"Hm."

Frederick and Erich stood side by side inside the hut. The howling wind and the blizzard's roar were all that could be heard during the night atop the Great Wall.

The storm scraped along the massive wall like a grim dragon letting out its chilling wails.

"Anyway, I'm not expecting to find anything right away. At most, maybe one person disappears a month. It'll probably take a long ti."

"No, I think today's the day."

Erich spoke while sharpening his gaze into the blizzard.

"If I were soone up to sothing suspicious, plotting sothing, now would be the perfect ti to act."

"What do you an by that?"

Frederick too, began scanning the blizzard sharply.

At that mont, Erich's eyes glinted with a subtle reddish hue.

"Aha. Just as I thought."

"... Wh-what?"

Frederick, startled, looked in the sa direction as Erich. Erich was staring down to a spot below the Great Wall, though the blizzard made it impossible to see anything distinctly.

"Damn it, I can't see a thing. Is there sothing out there?"

"There is. So, what should I do about it?"

—Thud.

With practiced ease, Erich climbed onto the top edge of the Great Wall, standing at a spot that looked as if he might fall at any second. Frederick, aghast, tried to stop him.

"H-hey, stop that! If you fall from there, they'll never find your body!"

"Really?"

Erich turned his back to the outside of the Great Wall and flashed a faint smile at Frederick.

Before Frederick could react, Erich's body dropped, vanishing downward toward the unseen ground.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=

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