Chapter 47: Crucified

It was only when he arrived there that he learnt, in part, the reason for the Grand Duke’s madness at the time: his wife and fourth son had been abducted by the enemy.

He was there when they finally found the child and his mother; and, let’s just say, it was not the best sight a person could ever see. The Grand Duchess’s body had been torn to pieces, and strange symbols had been drawn using her blood and her body; the son was crucified in the centre of the symbol, his entire body cracked and burnt, with a gash in his chest where his heart lay, and vultures were feeding on his body; yet, miraculously, the child was still alive... and fully conscious.

To cut a long story short, for a father who saw his child in this state—

a sight that had nothing to do with him, or with the North itself, or those terrifying creatures—he could never forget it. He was struck with terror in his heart as a father and has remained fearful for his children regarding things such as abduction to this day, right up to his latest decision to send his empress and her children to the Marquis, as he sensed the Grand Duke’s goodwill towards the Marquis and chose safety over refusal—and thus avoiding a tragedy for his family—despite all the other doubts filling his mind.

Even from the intelligence reports he receives from time to time, he hears of the extent of this child Alexander’s misery; in fact, news had already reached him a few days ago that the child had once again lost his mind and attacked his servants, but his knights intervened and subdued him, and he remained in a coma for four days until he regained consciousness.

Normally, he does not really care about the internal affairs of the nobility unless they have a significant impact on his empire or his imperial family; but let us just say that this child had made a deep impression on him, and he felt sympathy and sorrow for him.

Therefore, he had grown accustomed to following his news, especially after he became emperor five years ago, when he specifically sent one of his spies to hover around the child and report back to him on everything concerning him.

Call it instinct, call it curiosity, but for some reason a desire persisted in his heart to keep track of the child’s news and even to follow his trivial daily routine—which, for some reason, also seems to be kept strictly under wraps; no matter how diligent his spy was, he could not even see the titles of the books the child was reading

Anyway, back to the main point...

Entrusting a thousand of your elite forces and sending them under the command of a mentally unstable sixteen-year-old... into enemy territory that has plunged your entire land into endless chaos for four decades... It must be said that Serafim’s mind works in a truly creative way. Is this his instinct to get others into trouble for no reason?

Also, what is going on with this man? Why is he handing out his Death Knights like this? Even if someone told him right now that the Grand Duke intended to break up the family, he’d believe it.

Even the Imperial Family has no more than a hundred of these fearsome men; and even if they had plenty—let’s say two or three hundred at most, if he wanted to exaggerate!

He couldn’t even imagine more than that, because Korvekar had entered a losing war some four decades ago that lasted for over a decade and drained much of its forces; and even that war was nothing compared to what happened ten years ago. Within a matter of months, the death toll among Korvekar’s forces reached astronomical figures due to Serafim’s recklessness and madness, as he led his army literally without any caution, and pushed deep into the Black Winter lands. In the space of a single week, he covered a distance that should have taken a month if approached with caution; and when he found his child, he retreated

but he himself witnessed the deaths of more than fifty of Korvekar’s Requiem Knights at that time on a single front alone—and that was the strongest front, where Serafim himself and his entourage were stationed!

It is therefore difficult to imagine that they even have a hundred active Death Knights, even if we assume they have secret forces; it’s not as though Death Knights grow on trees!

But Serafim is literally handing them out left, right and centre, even giving them as gifts to others

According to all analyses, and over the past ten years, only 40 active Death Knights have appeared in Korvekar

each of the Grand Duke’s children has always been accompanied by two of them, and each of the Grand Duke’s siblings has had one under their personal command since the days of the previous Grand Duke; the Grand Duke himself is accompanied by just one Death Knight, whom he chose some nine or eight years ago after his previous knight was killed in events ten years ago.

As for the rest, they were scattered throughout his armies and along his borders, except for one who had been sent by the Grand Duke specifically a year ago to remain near Berth after he had been the target of an assassination attempt and his Knight had died in his place.

So, as for the other twenty-two Knights,

he has now handed over five of them to the Marquis Olyzhar and eleven to the expedition—or perhaps even more—leaving him with only six Requiem Knights to command his armies, whose whereabouts have been unknown for the past five days!...

...

As far as he knew, the Marquis Olyzhar himself possessed only one Death Knight, whom he treated as true treasure; so you can imagine how delighted he must be now that he’s got five more for free!

Had he been wrong to choose Korvekar as his target? If he’d known Serafim to be so decisive and generous, he wouldn’t have minded begging Serafim to give him something as well, and he wouldn’t have minded kicking so-called imperial dignity into the dust.

But there is another question: did he overestimate Korvekar’s strength?... After all, the last two wars Korvekar fought were so devastating that the imperial capital itself intervened, and troops were even sent from Dravarius to support them; indeed, for a time, they were the only forces present to guard the western front against the western tribes three decades ago, when the former Duke of Korvekar was forced to mobilise all of Korvekar’s forces in full to the northern front

He even raised the black flag at the time, signalling the possibility of Korvekar’s very fall. However, the situation was somehow averted after the enemy suddenly retreated for some reason, and things returned to normal for a while.

so the former Emperor issued orders to the former Grand Duke to halt any advance northwards and rebuild Korvekar, and commanded him to fortify the borders without crossing them under any circumstances—unless the enemy launch an attack.

So... even he no longer knew the truth, because Serafim makes decisions that defy logic, however you look at it.

Does this man want war, or does he simply want to give up everything?