IARMDH Chapter 24

 

 

 

As they neared the Hos forge, the number of people passing by decreased. Upon stepping into the alley beside the forge—run by a rough-looking man—the atmosphere took on a strange air.

 

“He said to look for a tent with red tassels.”

 

“Is that it?”

 

A red-tasseled staff stood in place of a sign in front of a yellowed tent wedged between rickety wooden shacks.

 

“It seems so. Oh? That’s the man!”

 

Just then, the man who had told Judith she was possessed by something sinister stepped out of the tent.

 

“That guy?”

 

“Yes. Why? Do you know him?”

 

Oh, I know him all too well—too well, in fact. Erne pulled Judith’s robe hood over her head and turned away.

 

Roam? Why is that bastard here?

 

“Are you sure that’s him?”

 

“Yes, I’m sure. He’s the one who told me something evil was attached to me. But why are we leaving? Sir Erne, do you know him?”

 

“That guy isn’t a medium.”

 

“Then who is he?”

 

“A traitor.”

 

A traitor? Why would a traitor suddenly appear here?

 

“He used to be in the same knight order as me. Let’s get out of here first. I’ll explain later.”

 

If he was in the same order as Erne, that meant he was part of the 3rd Knight Order—the very knights who guarded the Empress Consort’s palace. In the original story, the Empress Consort and the 3rd Knight Order were in league together. Only Erne was different.

 

The 3rd Knight Order had been created by forces loyal to the Empress Consort. Erne, however, was assigned there only because his notoriously difficult personality got him expelled from the 1st and 2nd Knight Orders.

 

Not one to be sociable, Erne never got close to the other knights. Likewise, they never tried to befriend him.

 

Meanwhile, the Empress Consort was secretly plotting to kill both the Emperor and the Crown Prince—leaving only the Crown Prince’s unborn child alive.

 

After ensuring she had possession of the female protagonist, who carried the Crown Prince’s child, the Empress Consort launched her coup.

 

At the time, she used the protagonist as a hostage to restrain the Crown Prince. However, because Erne—who was tasked with guarding the protagonist—let her escape, the Empress Consort’s rebellion ended in failure.

 

The Empress Consort regretted to her dying breath not recruiting Erne to her side sooner.

 

In the end, everyone tied to the Empress Consort and her faction was purged—everyone except Erne, the one who had saved the protagonist.

 

So why was someone from the 3rd Knight Order still alive?

 

“Damn it.”

 

While walking with his arm around Judith’s shoulders, Erne suddenly changed direction.

 

“Another one survived.”

 

No, they were all supposed to have been executed.

The story had wrapped up neatly with a tightly sealed happy ending.

 

So why were there so many living criminals?

 

Judith kept her head down and quickened her pace.

 

“This way.”

 

Erne guided her through narrow alleys, his arm wrapped protectively around her. When he spotted an abandoned house, he led her inside without hesitation.

 

There was hardly anywhere to hide within the cramped space. Erne pressed Judith into the corner between the door and window, then stood in front of her, facing the wall.

 

“……….”

 

All of Erne’s attention was on the sounds outside. The worn-out shutters creaked eerily in the wind.

 

Trapped between Erne and the wall, Judith didn’t know where to put her hands. If she let them drop, they would land on Erne’s hips. If she grabbed his waist, it would seem like she was hugging him. And if she raised them, they would end up on his chest.

 

Placing them on his shoulders or neck felt even stranger. No, that would be the weirdest option.

 

In the end, Judith settled her hands somewhere around his ribs.

 

“Stop groping. Even in this situation?”

 

Erne’s low voice murmured near her ear. Judith flinched and quickly curled her fingers into fists, trying to minimize contact.

 

“Groping? There’s just nowhere else to put my hands!”

 

“Nice excuse, Miss Harrington.”

 

Still keeping his gaze on the door, Erne leaned down slightly and whispered.

 

“So, how does it feel?”

 

“…Firm?”

 

Firm? Honestly, it didn’t feel bad at all.

 

“Even now, you’re so blunt.”

 

Says the one making jokes in this situation. Judith wanted to retort, but just then, the sound of footsteps grew dangerously close, so she clamped her mouth shut.

 

“……Yes, sir.”

 

“……Look.”

 

The voices outside had drawn near enough to distinguish words.

 

“I saw them come in here.”

 

Creak—

 

The wooden shutters groaned as they were pushed open.

 

Judith bit her lip to keep from making a sound.

 

“Are they in there?”

 

“Doesn’t seem like it. But are you sure? You said he was definitely a knight.”

 

“You can tell just by the way they walk. One of those two was a swordsman—someone who learned swordsmanship from the basics.”

 

Were they looking for Erne?

 

“They might not be searching for us specifically.”

 

“We need to be sure. Let’s check over there.”

 

The footsteps gradually faded into the distance.

 

Judith exhaled the breath she had been holding only after the sounds disappeared completely.

 

“They were all supposed to be dead. How many of them are still alive?”

 

What the hell was the Imperial Knight Order doing? Had those bastards also come back to life like him?

 

Frowning at the thought, Erne grabbed Judith’s hand. That question could wait. Getting out of here came first.

 

“We need to leave. Now.”

 

***

 

“We lost them. Apologies, Sir Roam.”

 

“No need. You were never going to catch him in the first place.”

 

Erne wouldn’t be caught so easily. Even after coming back from the dead, his ability to assess a situation and disappear into a crowd remained unchanged.

 

“Did you know him?”

 

“Oh, I know him well.”

 

Roam, the former vice-captain of the 3rd Knight Order, recalled his memories of Erne.

 

Every time he assigned Erne work, the man would vanish, slacking off somewhere. If told to train the junior knights, he’d beat them into the ground instead.

 

His skills were annoyingly good, so punishing him was impossible. Neither the 1st nor 2nd Knight Orders wanted him, leaving Roam stuck with him.

 

And yet, despite his usual laziness, why did he suddenly become so diligent right before the coup and ruin everything?

 

“Tch.”

 

How was it that there wasn’t a single good memory of him?

 

Roam, who had been smiling faintly, suddenly hardened his expression. At that moment, the tent’s entrance was pushed open, and an old man dressed as a medium stepped inside with a troubled look.

 

“Sir Roam, an order has come down to halt the operation.”

 

“We haven’t even done anything yet, and they’re calling it off?”

 

Frustration was evident in Roam’s voice. The medium looked equally displeased.

 

“Indeed.”

 

***

 

“They were definitely followers.”

 

Followers.

 

A tribe made up solely of the Shaltin people, yet also a kind of religious order. They worshipped an ancient ancestral deity called Duharita, and their goal was to overthrow the Empire.

 

They sought to dismantle the empire that oppressed and discriminated against the Shaltin, aiming to establish a nation of their own.

 

In the original story, the followers were the true masterminds behind everything—even the Empress Consort was one of them.

 

“What exactly are these followers?”

 

“Yes, criminals linked to the Empress Consort.”

 

Erne’s response to Henry’s question was brief and barely an explanation. Judith, who already knew the truth from the original story, simply nodded in silence.

 

Despite the Followers being the real masterminds, they remained relatively unknown, and the reason for that was the female protagonist.

 

The heroine was also from the Followers and had infiltrated the palace to seduce the Crown Prince and help achieve their goals.

 

But as the story unfolded, she inevitably fell in love with the Crown Prince and was even willing to sacrifice herself for him.

 

Now, she was the current Empress and mother of the next Crown Prince. Even now, her Shaltin heritage made people view her with suspicion. If it were revealed that she had once been part of a rebellious sect, things would be far worse.

 

To protect the Empress, the current Emperor kept all information about the Followers strictly confidential.

 

In the original novel, the story had ended with a supposed complete purge of the Followers. But was it really?

 

Erne scoffed at the idea. How could the Emperor not know that these traitors were freely moving about in the capital?

 

Judith clicked her tongue silently. The less she acknowledged about the Followers, the better.

 

“Are you going to handle this yourself?”

 

“Me? What’s a dead man supposed to investigate?”

 

Erne was making good use of his dead status.

 

“Just send an anonymous report to Marquess Mosley. He’ll take care of it.”

 

If these men had truly come back from the dead, then the reason for that was something Marquess Mosley would investigate as well.

 

With imperial resources at his disposal, he’d uncover the truth far faster than Erne could alone.

 

“You say that like I have to do it.”

 

“Well, Henry, would you rather do it, or should I—who is supposed to be dead—handle it myself?”

 

Erne dumped all the troublesome work onto Henry.

 

“But why did a traitor approach your wife?”

 

“That’s how they used to recruit new members. They’d claim people were cursed or suffering from bad luck and then lure them in.”

 

Roam wasn’t a medium—he was a knight. The odds of him actually seeing something attached to Judith were slim. He had probably just guessed.

 

Henry, nodding in agreement, suddenly froze.

 

“Wait… Then what about your wife? That medium was supposed to be her only hope of survival!”

 

“Oh, right.”

 

Oh, right?

 

Judith clenched her teeth. Was he really only just remembering that she was in danger?

 

“Wow. You’re finally worried about me. I’m so touched I could cry.”

 

Judith dramatically pretended to sniffle, but both Erne and Henry’s faces twisted in alarm.

 

“Uh… Madam? You actually are crying.”

 

“Huh?”

 

Judith wiped at her eyes.

 

A streak of crimson stained the back of her hand.

 

“Are… are you okay?”

 

“Maybe we should get a doctor—”

 

Judith blinked in confusion at the sight of her own bloody tears. Then, hiccupping in shock, she suddenly collapsed.