The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 9 – Sand Dyeing (2)

During her knight training, Sina had studied the history of the emperor\'s era. Thus, she had discovered that the colosseum’s current activities were similar to what the heretics of old used to do. But Daeron had proven himself as a faithful believer of the emperor. The priests judged that Daeron’s faith and love toward the emperor had no issues, though no one knew if some of them had been bribed by Daeron. Actually, there was a chance that none of them had been bribed. Numerous people were killed in the name of the emperor at the colosseum while others praised and glorified the emperor fanatically, and that was the only thing that mattered to the Church.

“Speaking of which, aren’t you the one who needs to prove your faith, Dame Sina?” Daeron asked.

Sina frowned and questioned Daeron, “What are you trying to say?”

Daeron then replied, “His Majesty emphasized the importance of obedience and discipline. From what I know, you are not the captain of the Order of the Blue Rose, yet I seem to be seeing you way more often than him. The captain has never seemed to have a problem with me, so could these investigations be your arbitrary and unauthorized actions…?”

Sina retorted, “Don’t distort His Majesty’s words. ‘Submit to a better will. Although there is no wrong, there is always a better.’ And, ‘The discipline that binds people together isn’t considered submission. An individual is only a small stone, but tied together through discipline, you will become a formidable fortress wall…’”

Sina was about to start a lengthy speech about the holy war, but stopped as someone knocked on the door, causing Daeron to frown.

Sina felt embarrassed for having fallen for Daeron’s provocation, getting agitated and almost starting to ramble. She was here to interrogate Daeron, not to teach him about history. In spite of that, she was the one who had ended up ranting.

“What’s the matter?” Daeron asked.

“M-Manager, there’s been some trouble at the colosseum,” a soldier replied.

“Trouble?” Daeron asked as he got up with a frown but stopped upon seeing Sina. “Dame Sina, it seems today’s not a good day. May I take my leave first?”

“It’s alright. If there’s trouble at the colosseum, it would probably involve violence, wouldn’t it? Let me give you a hand,” Sina replied. ‘Daeron’s having trouble? This could be an opportunity for me.’?

Daeron hesitated for a moment but nodded nonchalantly. They hurried over to the arena.

When they arrived, they saw soldiers shouting. “Shoot him! Turn him into a porcupine!”

“What’s happening here?!” Daeron shouted, causing the soldiers to stand down immediately. Daeron and Sina walked past them and peered into the arena.

Daeron then muttered, “That’s…?”

The situation within the colosseum was gruesome, and there were very few soldiers left standing. Most of them were either dead or screaming as they watched their own intestines flow out. Some could also be seen trembling as they stood glued to the wall. The arena was filled with bleeding corpses, dyeing the sand crimson. There was only one person on his feet in the center of the arena, and he had arrows stuck all over his body.

“The manager is here! Hold!” one of the soldiers shouted. As the arrows stopped, the man who had been turned into a porcupine slowly collapsed, revealing the young boy that hid behind him.

***

When Juan had thrust a sword through the supervisor’s neck, the soldiers still weren’t aware of what had happened. Even though this was the colosseum, their opponents so far had only been slaves, madmen or drunkards who couldn’t put up much of a resistance. They would have been a little nervous if they had been up against a healthy and strong man, but they couldn’t imagine a ten or so-year-old as their enemy. The scene where the supervisor collapsed almost appeared to be a prank, but it certainly wasn’t one, as Juan then charged toward them.

“A-Arghhhh!” someone screamed.

The soldiers only realized what was happening when they heard a second scream. By then, Juan had already moved on, attacking a third person. Usually, it would be impossible for a child to cut off a person’s head, unless they were swinging their weapon downward with all their strength.

However, Juan had spent an entire lifetime on the battlefield as the emperor. His experienced eyes could pinpoint the location of the soldiers’ neck joints and cleanly slash through that needle-like gap between the joints. The sight looked ridiculous, as the heads of strong, healthy adult men dropped to the ground one after another. The soldiers wondered if all of this was a dream.

Juan had cut down six people before he felt troubled due to having run out of breath. Even if they weren’t strong opponents, the soldiers were still armed adult men. They were larger than him and easily outnumbered the boy.

In order to compensate for the differences in their physical abilities, Juan shifted some of the mana that was maintaining his body towards increasing his mobility. Juan could still escape if he used his mana to escape instead of fighting, but he continued wielding his sword.

He swung, slashed, and cut people down. His swordplay was concise with no wasted movements. Juan’s motions were similar to a farmer harvesting wheat, but the difference was that he was harvesting human heads. He used repetitive, mechanical movements in order to reduce his mana consumption as much as possible, which only intensified the soldiers’ fear.

“Don’t charge recklessly!” the commander shouted.

Even without his orders, whoever was left among the soldiers had already retreated quite a distance. The trembling spear tips were a clear indication of their terror.

The commander counted the remaining soldiers and was left in shock at how many had been killed in that short period.

Fortunately, Juan looked exhausted. The commander thought they would have a chance at winning if they were to continue attacking. But he wasn’t sure if the soldiers would attack at his command. Even now, his subordinates were distancing themselves from the boy as they glanced at the commander.

During this stalemate, Juan managed to take a break and catch his breath.

.

‘This feels strange.’

When he had been the emperor, his heart would ache at even the loss of one human life as if it were his own. Of course, he understood the value of sacrifice, and he had also ordered his own people to lay down their lives on several occasions. Those that had sworn fealty to the emperor obeyed his orders willingly, and Juan had ensured that their sacrifices weren’t in vain. As he had mourned them, Juan had blamed himself for not having been able to do more for them.

But just now, he had taken numerous lives with his own hands. Yet, strangely enough, Juan didn’t feel sorry for them. He could only hear the voices of the supervisor that worshiped the emperor, the goat-horned man as he made lame jokes, and the crazy women who called him “my child” in his head.

Juan tightened his grip on the sword. The hilt contorted under the pressure and was on the verge of breaking.

‘Am I… angry right now? I was worshipped as the guardian of mankind, but here I am, beheading humans in anger at the death of two demi-human slaves.?My teacher, Dane, would laugh if he ever heard about this. Or maybe he’d get mad?’?Juan suppressed these unnecessary thoughts, however.

‘...Whatever, I don’t care.’ He quickly refocused on the ongoing fight. He checked on how much mana he had left, and judged that there was enough to kill the remaining soldiers. The problem was what would happen next. The soldiers around him weren’t the end of it. Even now, there were archers aiming at him from afar.

“Loose!” the commander shouted. In response, Juan quickly picked up a dead soldier as a shield.

Although he was a lot healthier now, Juan still had the body of a frail nine-year-old. While dodging would be easy, he would have to use mana for that. That was unsustainable, since he had limited mana. As such, he used the corpse to block most of the arrows.

An arrow pierced through the corpse and scraped against Juan’s skin. He endured the pain, gathered his strength and thought, ‘Another opportunity will come.’

Numerous arrows struck the corpse and a few of them brushed against Juan’s feet and calves. Juan still held onto his breath as he waited for an opportunity. Suddenly, Juan heard someone shouting, and crouched down after realizing that it was the voice of the manager that he had seen just now.

“What’s happening here?!” Daeron yelled.

“The manager is here! Hold!” one of the soldiers shouted. The rain of arrows stopped as Daeron entered the colosseum. Juan dropped the corpse and charged forward from his crouched position. Daeron’s shocked face was within his sword’s reach.

But before the fear in Daeron’s eyes could change into pain, Juan’s blade was stopped. The sound of two swords clashing rang clearly throughout the colosseum.

“Who the hell are you? How…?” An unknown female knight had stopped Juan’s attack.

***

Sina was taken aback. She had reflexively pulled out her sword to block Juan the moment she saw him charged toward Daeron. She wouldn’t have cared if Daeron died multiple times over. But if he died before she found any evidence of heresy, then a new manager would simply take over his position.

However, the moment she clashed with Juan, she had a different problem.

“How do you know the Baltic Sword?”

A powerful frontal thrust as one charged forward with their sword—one of the basic sword techniques that all knights of the empire learned. Each knightly order had their own swordsmanship, but they were mainly based on the Baltic Sword that His Majesty had apparently taught his disciples.

Currently, the Imperial Guards still used the Baltic Sword in the exact same way His Majesty had taught it. Once mastered, it was said to be on par with magic. But even if one had only learnt the basics, it was still a powerful style, practical for live combat.

Juan’s footwork, swordplay, and posture were all perfect; this was no coincidence.

Instead of answering the question, Juan swung his sword and attacked Sina. She was startled and took a step back, as she couldn’t believe the bloodlust she sensed from such a young boy.

However, she was a top graduate of the Knight Academy and Elite Knight of the Order of the Blue Rose, one of the knight orders overseeing the Southern Imperial Army. While the Knight Captain was chosen based on experience and leadership, an Elite Knight was chosen purely based on skills, and Sina was talented enough to rise to that position at such a young age.

“Do you have a teacher? The Baltic Sword is not meant to be taught to just anyone. Even more so for…” More so for black-haired barbarians. Sina swallowed her words as she saw Juan’s hair.

Teaching a black-haired barbarian that came from outside the ‘border’ was an obvious act of heresy. It was to the extent that as a knight of the empire, Sina would have to kill Juan right away. Sina looked like she was being pushed back for a second but recovered immediately. She could see that Juan was exhausted, wounded and had really bony arms.

‘Did he really slaughter all these soldiers and attack me with that body?’

Sina could kill Juan immediately, but hesitated. She might have found an unparalleled genius. She then shouted at Juan, “Surrender!”

But Juan swung his sword instead of replying. Sina bit her lips and parried Juan’s attack, destroying his sword in the process as it was already chipped and cracked.

Nonetheless, Juan still held onto the sword hilt. ‘I guess this is it for me.’?Juan stumbled and collapsed on the spot. It was clear he had lost consciousness as the whites of his eye could be seen.

“This fucking bastard…” one of the soldiers shouted as he charged toward Juan with a spear.

“Stop!” Sina shouted hurriedly.

Juan—who was thought to be unconscious—dodged the spear by a hair’s breadth, grabbed the spear shaft, and pulled. The soldier stumbled and fell before the boy, who then bit off a chunk of his victim’s neck. The soldier squirmed and struggled to get away from Juan, but he eventually stopped moving.

Covered in the soldier’s blood, Juan glared at Sina.

Sina shivered at the thought that she could have been in the same situation if she had let her guard down and approached Juan. No one dared to approach the bloodied Juan.

A while later, Sina finally confirmed that Juan had lost consciousness with his eyes open. It was for real this time. The female knight then picked the boy up.

Daeron approached her and asked. “Dame Sina, this boy is…?”

“A slave gladiator, it seems.”

Sina smirked at the manager.

“What are you doing? Shouldn’t you be exclaiming, ‘His Holy Majesty has descended!’ right now?”