CH 323

Deadly Fight! …Deadly Fight?

Ludwig and Dion were travelling while Mia’s mind was full of thoughts about poisonous mushrooms.

When they met Gilbert, Ludwig was able to fully understand how dangerous the House of Yellowmoon was. When he realised this, he decided that intelligence alone wasn’t enough. Instead, he would use a “divide and conquer” strategy to put pressure on the enemy while still gathering information.

This was a trick that was often used against big businesses. The more of them there are, the more different groups they belong to. Even if a group was very big, it couldn’t be a monolith. There were always people in the group who could be pushed, tempted, or otherwise persuaded to leave.

If the House of Yellowmoon was meant to attract people who were against the empire, it would be silly for him to think that everyone under its banner was his enemy. The first people he looked at as a possible non-enemy were the outland nobles, who were looked down upon by the central nobles. If they went to the Yellowmoons because they didn’t have any other friends, he should be able to get them to leave by giving them another choice.

With this in mind, Ludwig decided to go see Outcount Rudolvon in hopes that he could help convince the other outland nobles.

“The sun has set already…”

From the window of his carriage, he sighed as he saw the sky getting darker. Even though the path to his destination wasn’t too dangerous, it would still be risky to travel by moonlight. Usually, it’s time to set up camp for the night.

“Slow down a little, but keep going. Time is running out,” he told the driver, telling him to keep going.

Dion gave a nod to show he agreed.

“Yeah, it’s best to go on.” He said with narrowed eyes, “It’s best to keep up the speed, too.”

“You mean what?”

A wild animal’s howl could be heard in the distance just seconds after Ludwig frowned at this.

“What was that in the world?”

He got his answer when a guard rode up to the window.

“Sir.”

“What’s going on?” asked Dion.

“Wolves, sir. They look like they’re coming for us.”

The mounted soldier also gave a short answer. Short but clear, so there’s no way to get it wrong. Still, Ludwig couldn’t help but question what he was hearing.

“Wolves? Out here?”

The soldier nodded and then shot an arrow of fire into the darkness behind them. It moved through the air in an arc of light. As soon as it hit the ground, it exploded with light that pushed away enough darkness to show the shapes of black wolves. There were three of them, and they were very big.

“Impossible…” Ludwig was confused and said, “I’ve never heard of wolf packs that attack people inside the empire’s borders.”

“These aren’t your average wolves.”

Dion opened the door to the carriage and leaned out, squinting into the darkness behind them.

“I can faintly hear the sound of hooves.”

In a smooth burst of movement, he got his bow ready and pulled the string tight. The string’s creaking tension matched the tense mood in the carriage.

A moment without a breath went by. Then, his fingers started to twitch, and his arm started to blur. With three sharp twangs, three bright arrows flew through the night.

They saw a dim crescent flashing in the middle of the wolves. Ludwig realised a beat later that it was the shine of a blade in the moonlight.

The guard fired another fire arrow at their enemies, but it was cut in half by another swing of the sword.

Dion whistled.

“Hey, not bad.”

Ludwig whispered as he looked backward from the carriage, “Is that…a man on a black horse?”

“A man on a black horse who can knock arrows out of the air in the dark.”

Dion grinned.

“I like the guy, I think.”

“Is he alone?”

“Probably. Well, I guess it depends on whether you count the furry friends he has protecting his flank.”

“A wolfmaster? Something you don’t see very often… Still, I think this means that we’ve become a big enough problem for them to send assassins. Even though it seems strange to send just one person…”

Ludwig was confused, but Dion didn’t feel the same way. He just shrugged.

“Well, no. Right now, there are only about a dozen of us. If it were me, I could definitely kill them all and take your head on my horse. Wouldn’t be surprised if our enemy sent a person with the same level of skill.”

Then he gave a sign to the three guards who were riding the closest to the carriage. All of them were great soldiers who had worked for him since the time he was in the Imperial Army. Even so…

“Stay with the carriage, you three. Go straight to Outcount Rudolvon’s estate and ask him to protect you. Your only goal is to protect Ludwig. Make sure he gets there without getting hurt.”

“What about you, Captain?”

“Me? Ha ha, I’ll have the time of my life keeping our fine assassin busy. Oh, give me one of your horses.”

“By yourself, sir? Are you sure? We can—”

With a shake of his head, Dion silenced the soldier.

“The enemy is an expert. The truth is that no one else has a chance.”

He laughed after stealing a horse from one of the guards.

“All right. It’s time to say goodbye, good Ludwig.”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine because I know you, but…”

“Of course I’ll do that. Let’s be honest: I’m not really into carriage rides, and I’ve been itching to get some exercise. This guy seems like he’ll be a good fit,” Dion said with a smirk.

“You should worry more about your own head. Make sure you keep it while I’m gone, okay? If not, it will be hard to work with you.”

With that, he pulled out his sword and turned his horse around with the joy of a child who just got a new toy.

After a few seconds, the three wolves ran down the path and attacked him.

“Sorry, dogs, but I’ve fought too many wild animals to be interested in you. Get out of my way!”

He moved easily through their snapping jaws and shot straight at the dark figure, who had sent his wolves after Dion and was now going in circles to catch the carriage.

Both the horse and the assassin were covered from head to toe in black. The horse was covered in fur, while the assassin wore a mask and a robe.

Dion aimed at his masked opponent and hit him. His sword cut through the air with a deadly swing, threatening to tear apart anything in its path, whether it was metal or bone.

The assassin quickly turned his body and managed to hang at such a dangerous angle that it looked like he should have fallen off. He barely avoided the blow. It seemed like the horse and rider were one.

Dion yelled with joy at this show of horsemanship skill.

“Bloody good show! Also, you were smart to avoid my sword. If you tried to meet it, we’d be done.”

He turned his horse around again as he laughed. The killer did the same thing, and both he and his horse did a perfect pirouette. They clashed once, twice, three times, and four times. Sparks and loud clanks filled the air, and Dion knew right away that he didn’t have the upper hand.

Huh. Bugger me sideways. He’s better when he’s on a horse. I beat him in terms of strength, but he beats me in terms of speed. And he rides his horse like a bloody acrobat.

The assassin’s sword flashed as it was thrust with great force. After a breath, it went right through Dion, with half of it sticking out behind him.

The movement was smooth and almost pretty.

And, as Dion’s sly smile showed, useless.

“There’s no reason to fight on your own turf, is there?”

In fact, the blade barely touched his side and did little damage. But Dion now had the assassin’s arm locked in his elbow.

“Would you like to exercise? You won’t mind if you fall off a horse if it’s a big guy like you, right?”

He jumped off his horse and launched himself backward while holding his enemy’s arm tightly.

There was a brief feeling of not having any weight… Their bodies fell off their horses tangled, but they didn’t stay that way when they hit the ground.

Instead, they split up in the air, each spinning away to land on their feet and strike with a spinning attack. They hit each other again before moving away.

“Okay, then. Enough with your tricks with four legs. Let’s fight like real men with both feet on the ground. Slow down for now. We have all night to bleed each other dry, and I want to enjoy every minute of it,” Dion said as he pulled out his second sword with a smile.

“Before we start, do you mind telling me your name?”

The killer in a mask replied with a quick thrust. Dion smacked away the simple strike and let out a whistle.

“That was not very interesting. Too obvious. Which is the point, since you want me to stop thinking about the wolves that are circling behind me. Good for you. You get extra points for having a real plan.”

Behind him, he heard a flurry of pawsteps that quickly got louder.

He laughed as he heard their wild breaths getting closer.

“Bloody hell. How about that? I’d really like to know how you keep the furballs under control.”

He kicked his opponent without warning and used the force of the kick to launch himself backward.

He slashed horizontally with his sword as he turned in the air. In the moonlight, the blade flashed in a dangerous way. Even though they were dangerous animals, the wolves couldn’t help but run away from him.

He landed on his knees in front of them, looked at their scared faces, and then shrugged.

“Well, well, well, it looks like beasts will be beasts, for better or for worse. You were smart to stay away from me. Still, if you all had charged me, one of you might have caught something. There was a chance lost. Instinct can tell you when to avoid a sword to the face, but it can’t teach you when to take one. And I guess that’s why you’re just animals.”

He gave the sword in his left hand a spin while the one in his right hand rested on his shoulder.

“Of course, if you had tried to attack me, I might have just killed you all instead.”

He gave the wolves a hard look, and they ran away. At that moment, it was clear who was the leader, and it was him. For animals, there was no other way to see it. To challenge a clearly stronger enemy by sheer force of will was a mistake that only humans made.

“Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get back to talking,” Dion said as he faced his two-legged foe again.

The killer took a sudden step back.

“Hmm?”

Dion raised an eyebrow, then smacked his head when he realised what was going on. Just then, a black horse raced by, and the assassin flipped onto its back.

“Oh, I forgot about the bloody horse… Should have expected that. If he can get the strays to do what he wants, he must also know how to handle horses.”

A quick look around showed that the wolves were no longer there.

“A clean retreat. Pretty impressive. But I think I bought everyone enough time. Now, Ludwig should be safe. I have to say, though, that guy wasn’t very talkative. I was hoping to at least hear his voice, but he didn’t say a single word. Also…”

He moved his head from side to side and gave a shrug.

“What the hell happened to my horse?”