The Sword and The Shadow

Annelotte’s Request

“Which bastard here dares to court death and block my sword?!” roared Londo. He turned around only to see Leguna snickering at him.

Leguna hadn’t managed to hold back in the crucial moment, so he almost caused Londo to fall. He felt rather apologetic about it and didn’t mind all the yelling he was getting. “Long time no see, Uncle Londo,” he said with a smile.

Londo looked rather shocked to hear that. He squinted at Leguna and asked hesitantly, “Who are you, little friend?”

The slow-witted man had forgotten Leguna almost completely after half a year of not meeting. Now, he only felt that the face looked familiar, but he couldn’t recall who it was. He didn’t doubt Leguna for being a Stokian, though as a Hockian badge bearing an eagle could be seen on his leather armor.

“You forgot me that soon?” Leguna said awkwardly. Even though he came over to greet him so forwardly, the man had completely forgotten about him. He waved his hand and let out some shadow impetus. “I’m Leguna.”

Londo’s eyes twitched when he saw the impetus. Even if he did forget Leguna’s name and appearance, the shadowy impetus was something he’d always recognize.

Back then, Leguna had chosen to deal with Londo to establish Kurdak’s superiority and he decided to go hard on the man. He used all sorts of tricks on Londo until his shadowy impetus made quite an impression on the man.

That was how Londo was able to remember who he was with a simple flash.

“Ah, Sir Dark Requiem,” Londo said. He gave a cursory cut to a soldier that tried to ambush him from behind and smiled. “What are you here for, Sir?”

“Uncle, you don’t have to be so courteous. Just call me Leguna.” He took out a rope from his dimensional ring and handed it to the low-order magus “I’ve come here on General Manhattan’s request to destroy the magic cannons.”

“It’s no wonder they all didn’t fire this time around, Si– I mean, Leguna. You really are capable,” he praised sincerely. He had witnessed first hand how terrifying the magic cannons were. Had it not been for Leguna, the attack might not have gone so smoothly.

Meanwhile, the magus tried to escape, but before he could turn around, Londo shot him a murderous glare. That fellow started in fear and hurriedly put the rope around himself to show that he won’t run.

“Since you’ve already made such a huge contribution, let us soldiers do the rest. Come, let me cut this wuss down first,” Londo said as he approached the magus with his sword.

“Wait, Uncle, we’re taking this magus.”

“Huh?” He scratched his head in confusion.

“Think of it as General Manhattan’s compensation for our work! The magi taken captive in this battle will all be dealt with by the bureau. So, please help us out here, Uncle,” Leguna explained.

“What do you want these fellows for? Even though the battle’s quite heated, it’d be more than enough to capture some three to four mid-orders. These low-orders are worthless. What are you going to do with them?” Londo hasn’t been one to think before he acted, so he asked whatever was on his mind.

How would I know?! Annie suddenly requested that of me this morning. How would I know what she’s thinking?

But given how rare it was for her to ask a favor of him, he didn’t hesitate before joining in the siege. He didn’t count on getting all the magi he could find, but saving a few from being slaughtered the soldiers was the least he could do. That was before he bumped into Londo slaughtering the helpless magi like pigs.

Leguna couldn’t bother to explain all that, however. He merely smiled and said mysteriously, “I’m afraid it isn’t my place to reveal it…”

“Oh! I’m sorry, I forgot about your position. I shouldn’t have asked about things like that!”

“No problem!” Leguna said forgivingly.

“Then I’ll give him to you. Since Sir Dark Requiem requested it so, I won’t get in your way. Alright! I won’t kill any other low-order magi I come across!”

“Thank you in advance, Uncle Londo,” Leguna said with a slight bow.

The man returned a salute before pointing at one corner of the walls. “It looks rather tight over there, so I’ll go help out.”

“Be careful. I’ll come help out when I’m free.”

“Haha, wonderful! Then I’ll be counting on you, Sir Dark Requiem!” He laughed heartily before charging into the Stokians with his sword.

Leguna looked at the magus behind him and tied the rope up proper.

“Alright, don’t be nervous. I won’t give you too much trouble. Just come with me.” He couldn’t bother to threaten the pitiful sod.

Unlike other Hockian soldiers, Leguna was born in the capital of Hocke, but his suffering in his youth didn’t make him particularly feel part of his nation. He also lived on Lance in the following years and he had never experienced the pain of losing family to Stokians and never shared hate for them. He never bothered seeing the Stokians as outright enemies and he only killed them for his personal gain and position.

Since Leguna’s mission now wasn’t to kill them, he didn’t bother to mess with the captives. Gahrona had repeatedly warned Leguna against senseless killing because that could nurture the bloodlust that would surface when he used Host of Darkness and turn him into a sadistic murderer.

“Okay…” Even though Leguna tried to appear as harmless as possible, the magus was still so terrified to the point that his legs shook. He had heard the brute call that man Leguna Dark Requiem. Could that youth really be the legendary assassin? The one who killed Haden?

Leguna looked at the expression of the magus and sighed helplessly. He wouldn’t go so far as to try to soothe the magus though. Only Eirinn would do such a thing.

He walked along the walls with the magus following behind while casually cutting two to three blind Stokian soldiers that got in his way.

He hadn’t killed many enemies along the way and only busied himself with looking for helpless Stokian magi who could on longer resist and brought them all to a nondescript building on the walls.

“Alright, just wait here. Don’t play around. If you leave this place, only death awaits.” Leguna shrugged nonchalantly. He wasn’t afraid that they would run. If they did, they would simply be cut down by the raving Stokians, anyway.

The magus who entered the building saw that there were seven others in the same field as him sitting within. Even though they were captured, they looked rather relaxed. One of them even looked up and smiled at him, seemingly saying, ‘Oh, you’re here too? We’ve been waiting here for a long time!’

“Alright, here’s another batch. I’ll have to trouble you with them,” Leguna said to a Hockian officer. Not only was that officer his helper, he was also a close acquaintance. He was none other than Eibron.

“Why is the company commander of the cavalry like me helping you out with your petty work?” Eibron said with his eyes rolled.

“It’s not like your cavalrymen can participate in this siege, anyway. What’s the harm of helping out when you’re free? It’s not like I’m asking you to put your lives on the line. Didn’t I clear this building out myself?” Leguna snickered and didn’t forget to smile at the riders that came with Eibron. “Sorry for the trouble.”

“It’s our honor to be able to serve you, Sir!” The other riders didn’t dare to squabble with Leguna like Eibron did.

Eibron clicked his tongue with dissatisfaction. “You better treat me to a drink when we go back!”

“No problem! I’ll go around for another round or two. Watch this place well.”

“General Manhattan will be giving these captives to you, anyway. I don’t know why you’re going out of your way to do this.”

“You don’t understand. I’m just paying extra attention.”

“You’re just vying for Annelotte’s reward, aren’t you? Why would you work so hard otherwise?”

“Tch, it ain’t fun anymore now that you said it!”

“Alright, fine. I won’t mention it anymore. Go do your thing!” He waved at Leguna with annoyance.

“Fine. Just be careful, okay? They’re all magi,” he reminded.

I can take a dozen magi without mana single-handedly! thought Eibron with dissatisfaction.