TNRSF 17

Chapter 17

Death Knight (3)

Kagagak-!

Rudel’s sword and mine tangled together as they collided.

‘The opening strike is a thrust. If I predict the move that comes in after a point attack…!’

Kirilick?!

At the same time as twisting aside Rudel’s sword that stabbed forward, I burrowed in and stabbed back in reverse.

-Hooh, to think a Necromancer could use swordsmanship at this level!

As if genuinely impressed by the unexpected sight, Rudel’s voice echoed out.

I had already watched Delain and Dunkel’s battle, as well as the earlier fight between Heinkel and Garrison.

The principles and methods behind the techniques used back then had already been fully organized in my head.

All that remained was to use them in actual combat and learn how to link them together!

Kaang-!

Rudel’s sword slapped my thrusting blade away, knocking it upward.

-My front was completely exposed.

As if he had seized the advantage, Rudel’s sword shot toward my chest.

‘Just a little more like this…!’

But even this situation was part of the blueprint I had intended.

Just like in my duel with Randel, I planned to get behind him and subdue him at the decisive moment.

‘Now!’

Just as the blade was about to touch my shoulder.

I kicked off the ground and twisted my body in the opposite direction.

It was Delain’s footwork, slipping into the opponent’s embrace and taking their back.

-Where do you think you’re going!

But the moment I tried to swing my sword after taking his back.

Thump!

I felt a sharp ache flash through the corner of my vision.

‘I didn’t take his back. I was deliberately taken!’

The instant that conclusion formed, I twisted my sword path and defended my side.

It was a pure defensive instinct screamed out by my body.

KuKwaaang-!

And that instinct, regrettably, was spot on.

“Keuuhhh-!”

A side attack that crashed in at the moment I thought it was frontal.

He had seized control of two sword paths almost simultaneously.

“Hack…! Huhk…!”

The extreme tension rapidly drained my stamina.

‘If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve built up my endurance like Delain said.’

Recalling Delain, who showed no signs of fatigue, I hurriedly steadied my breathing.

…To block a second strike with a body that has no mana, that’s remarkable talent.

Rudel too seemed surprised that I had stopped it, evaluating me with his free hand gripping his chin.

-Not Heinkel’s movements. You’ve been influenced quite a bit by the Red Carriage Knights.

Rudel muttered while looking at me.

What Delain had shown me was the foundation of Leinrant swordsmanship.

Combined with movements referenced from Dunkel.

‘Unlike Delain, it doesn’t even sink its teeth in.’

Watching him now, I felt it anew.

Rudel Leinrant.

He was also someone who had once claimed the title of the continent’s strongest knight.

Worthy of that might, he had analyzed all of my swordsmanship in that fleeting moment.

“I didn’t expect my bottom to show this quickly.”

After barely stabilizing my breathing, I reset my stance.

-Huh, what’s this now.

The stance I took for the first time after revealing every move I could use.

Seeing it, Rudel muttered as if dumbfounded.

“It’s a stance I’ve seen a lot before. Isn’t that right?”

The stance I had copied from Rudel just before we crossed blades.

When I took it again, the smile on Rudel’s face as he watched me deepened.

-You’re full of bluster. It’s not something you can master just by seeing it once, you know?

I smiled and replied to Rudel as he spoke.

“Well, it didn’t seem like such a difficult sword technique?”

A provocation meant to hide my fatigue.

Hearing that, Rudel instead lowered his stance with an amused look, glaring at me.

-You really do spout nonsense.

And the very next moment after he said that.

Kiriliririck-!

In an instant, Rudel took my back and swung his sword at me.

I had long since given up on following it with my eyes.

I simply swung my sword one beat earlier, guided by instinct and prediction.

‘The sword path is a horizontal cut, direction is the side!’

I seized control of the sword path as I confronted the incoming blade.

What I saw of Rudel was an attack coming in from behind.

But the direction my instincts warned me about was elsewhere.

‘The first strike is a feint. From there, predict the most natural follow-up…!’

Despite clearly seeing the sword approaching from behind, my sword path turned to the side.

And then, the next moment.

Kaang-!

My sword, knocked up to the side, struck away the black sword Rudel was holding.

-Incredible! To think you’d break the Phantom Sword after seeing it just once…!

Rudel’s spirit body spoke as our swords met.

Phantom Sword.

A sword technique that could be called the signature art of the Sixth Duke, Rudel Leinrant.

And because of the complexity of its forms, it had now become one of the techniques that had nearly fallen into obscurity.

-The worst Necromancer who tried to swallow the continent, and now you’ve even mastered the sword?

Saying that, Rudel knocked our locked blades apart.

Kang!

We each retreated several steps, entering a brief lull.

But the outcome was clear.

“Huuk…! Huuk…!”

While I gasped for breath as if I might collapse at any moment, Rudel’s spirit body remained perfectly fine, without the slightest sign of expenditure.

“The amount of mana contained in a spirit body… It shouldn’t be any different from an average knight…!”

-You mustn’t underestimate the fuel efficiency of northern swordsmanship.

A northern knight produced maximum results with minimal mana.

‘So he’s saying he’ll drag this into a war of attrition with that absurd swordsmanship….’

Feeling its power all over again, I sank down where I stood.

“Huuh!”

Seeing me like that, Rudel relaxed his attack stance and asked me.

-Akimond, do you…. truly intend to restore Leinrant?

“Would I be doing all this otherwise?”

When I said that, the black smoke surrounding Rudel wavered even more uneasily.

-If it hadn’t been for the first duke, Lord Berkel, you would have swallowed the entire continent and then some.

“That’s true.”

When I acknowledged it briefly, Rudel questioned me again.

-Then how can someone like you so calmly say that you’ll help the family of your enemy?

Not hostility, but pure curiosity was directed at me.

He was already a dead man who had left this world behind.

Under normal circumstances, there would be no reason for him to discuss the reason for my life, nor any will to do so.

How were you able to cast aside your lingering attachment to your life so easily?

Even so, there was only one reason he asked me.

‘He regrets it.’

How many years had I spent dealing with the dead as a Necromancer?

I couldn’t see his expression through the smoke, but just by hearing his voice, I could tell.

‘It’s not enough to simply let his soul pass on. I’ll have to untie the knot weighing on his heart.’

Having finished that thought, I spoke to Rudel.

“Because I saw hope.”

Hope?

The great plague that swept across the entire North.

Yet what drove twenty million northerners to their deaths was not the plague, but the indifference of other humans.

‘If the northern population decreases, we can send in troops and expand our territory.’

Watching people die within that cold calculation, I grew disillusioned with humanity and came to hate the world.

I granted bodies and weapons to vengeful spirits who held the same feelings as I did.

I turned those spirits into millions-strong undead legions and swept across the continent.

“I saw someone who suffered the same pain as me make the exact opposite choice.”

‘He will give birth to a new hero. The next generation’s Berkel Leinrant.’

Recalling the words I had heard before his death, I used my sword as a cane and pushed myself upright.

“I thought I’d finally die in peace thanks to him, but things turned out like this instead. So I had to do something.”

…….

Rudel’s soul seemed to mull over my words, falling silent for a moment.

“The contents of the contract don’t change. If you help me, you’ll achieve what you want and leave in peace.”

I spoke to him once more.

“Choose, Rudel Leinrant. Come with me, or become a wandering spirit here.”

How much time passed after I said that?

-I can’t bring myself to think that meeting you here was mere coincidence.

Slowly nodding his head, Rudel approached me.

-I, Rudel Leinrant, accept the contract with you.

A short sentence.

At the moment his consent was given, a contract circle appeared beneath Rudel’s feet.

Pachit-!

“Man, that took annoyingly long.”

I released demonic energy and wrote my name into the contract circle that appeared beneath my feet.

Rudel also extended his hand and, using his own mana, wrote his name into the contract circle.

“It’s not a subordinate contract, it’s a mutual one. It’ll take a bit longer.”

I explained the structure of the contract circle beneath Rudel’s feet.

Unlike a subordinate contract where the caster completely binds the soul, a mutual contract is formed while preserving the will of the soul.

Handling a pure soul without going through a ritual consumes even greater stamina.

‘Even if I squeeze my demonic energy to the limit, I’ll only be able to perform a proper summoning once. The contract maintenance period will be at most a month.’

Under normal circumstances, this contract would be the height of inefficiency.

Even so, there was only one reason I insisted on this method.

Because it allowed me to preserve as much as possible the power of a man who had once been the Empire’s strongest knight.

‘Rather than leading a numbers game with half-baked undead, it’s better to use abilities on par with Heinkel even once.’

After death, the place I would head to was the heart of the collateral forces.

In a situation where I could handle skeletons well enough, increasing the number of mediocre undead further would be meaningless.

-The pain will be considerable. Are you sure you’ll be fine?

At Rudel’s words, a hollow laugh escaped me.

Klein’s still-young body couldn’t easily accept a soul of such high rank as Rudel’s.

It would be better to modify the contract circle at least a little….

“No.”

The absurd situation where the contracting soul worried about the caster instead.

Even so, I firmly rejected his suggestion.

“I’m already turning my ancestor’s soul into a Death Knight. If I go as far as a subordinate contract, I’d be a real villain.”

-Hah, so you were at least self-aware?

Rudel asked back as if incredulous.

‘If he saw his father’s soul bound in a subordinate contract, he’d burn me at the stake on the spot….’

Leaving me to think that inwardly, Rudel extended his hand and began chanting the contract circle.

-I hereby declare: the dead Rudel Leinrant entrusts his resentment and will to the guide.

The dead initiate the contract first.

The runes engraved into the contract circle rose up and began to envelop Rudel’s body.

-I hereby declare: the guide Akimond inherits the resentment and will of the dead.

Next, the runes of the dead that Rudel had inscribed rose, approached the back of my hand, and began to seep in.

-Until the moment his wish is fulfilled, the guide Akimond shall illuminate his path.

Chijijijik-!

The rune carved into the back of my hand heated up, and pain like being seared by fire swept over my entire body.

As I endured it, Rudel extended his hand and chanted the final clause of the contract.

-Until the moment his wish is fulfilled, the dead Rudel Leinrant shall become his sword.

Kiiiiiing-!

With a harsh activation sound, the rune floating in the air entered straight into Rudel’s spirit body.

At the same time, the contract circle disappeared, and the surroundings grew silent, as if darkness had fallen.

“Huuh….”

With a deep sigh, I looked at the place where the contract circle had been.

Click. Click.

The sound of armor made of a spirit body colliding.

As if responding to that sound, the moon that had hidden behind the clouds revealed itself once more.

-What are you planning to do if you’re already this weak after just one contract, Akimond?

The voice of the dead, brimming with demonic energy, called out to me.

“…Call me Klein from now on. If you mess up, we’ll be exposed.”

I replied to him while forcibly holding open my eyes as they kept trying to close.

Black armor that glimmered faintly under the moonlight, and the black smoke flowing out from it.

Even in my dim consciousness, on the verge of collapsing at any moment, my face wore a satisfied smile.

“For a first creation, it turned out pretty well.”

Standing before my unsteady vision was a knight clad in black armor.

A Death Knight created from the Duke Leinrant.