Chapter 610 — Breakout and Siege
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
Belk Loren walked step by step along the path leading to the castle district of the inner city, the sharp stings from several small wounds on his body constantly goading his exhausted mind, goading him to stay awake.
The fog had thinned, but the smell of blood lingering in the air still clung stubbornly, and suspicious shadows still flickered past, footfalls sounding from deep within the nearby streets and alleys—every shadow and every footfall might be a lurking monster, one that might already have completed its transformation, or might be in the midst of it; in any case, Belk could not afford to take the risk.
That voice still lingered in his mind:
"Ending up like this... eat rocks and you can live... my lord."
For that reason alone, a person could willingly turn into a monster.
In that moment, the young marquis suddenly recalled a sentence he had read in a report:
...Grain requisitioned six times in the aforementioned region, households emptied, leaves all eaten, the number of starving...
Once it had been merely a description, a few figures; he had found it shocking too, but only shocking.
Now, at last, he had seen with his own eyes what that "world" looked like.
What was hard to believe was that between that "world" and his own "world," there was only a city wall, only a castle.
He finally understood why most of His Highness the Prince's decrees were so hard to carry out, finally understood why those noble lords could never be relied upon.
The people who lived inside the castle could not imagine what the world outside was like.
Belk raised his head and saw that the main gate of Solinborg was right before him; the drawbridge... had not been raised, and there were no guards in sight.
An indescribable unease suddenly surged up in his heart, and Belk at once quickened his pace.
Gripping his longsword tightly, he crossed the drawbridge, passed through the empty courtyard and the barracks area, pushed open the main keep's door, which had been left ajar, and entered the ground-floor long hall, likewise deserted and empty.
No living figure moved anywhere in sight, yet an unsettling stench of blood was everywhere; all through the long hall were traces of battle—human blood, and shattered fallen crystal clusters.
This was no invasion from outside; the fighting had erupted from within. The guards had resisted briefly, but within a very short time they had voluntarily ceased fighting...
Belk swiftly drew these dreadful conclusions from the traces at the scene, and without slowing his steps he raced by memory up to the second floor, toward the great hall on the castle's second level.
The doors of the hall stood wide open, and again no guards were to be seen; and in the center of the hall Belk saw the sight he least wished to see.
A tall figure clad in black armor stood there—Edmund Morn, hearing the commotion from the doorway, turned his head, and a face overgrown and fused with crystal clusters came into Belk Loren's eyes.
Belk felt his heartbeat skip a beat, and at once he drew his sword and readied for battle; but soon he realized that Edmund Morn's gaze toward him was not wholly confused and mad—in those eyeballs already close to becoming crystalline, a glimmer of human reason still remained.
He approached cautiously: "Your Highness—can you hear me?"
Edmund Morn stared fixedly at Belk, his body trembling slightly, as though two wills were contending for mastery of this body; and in the midst of that struggle a hoarse sound came from his throat: "Kill me. Do it now."
That dreadful command left Belk's mind briefly blank, but two seconds later he came to his senses and made the calmest judgment.
He raised his longsword and strode forward: "Yes, Your Highness."
Phantom yet searing firelight kindled along the longsword; knowing full well what strength the prince before him possessed, Belk gathered all his magic into this one strike, and with a shrill tearing of air his blade thrust toward Edmund Morn's heart.