Chapter 24: Battle’s End (Double Chapter)

Darlos’s mouth gaped open, the flame of life already extinguished in his eyes. But his sturdy, muscular body began to tremble involuntarily with Julian’s words, starting to dance. At the same time, condensed, semi-transparent light appeared from his ears, eyes, and mouth, swaying and flying towards the black sword blade that had pierced Darlos’s neck, then disappearing into that black sword body, vanishing without a trace.

“Hum!”

A low, resonant sound spread out. It didn’t sound like the roar of any creature, but it gave people a strange fear, as if it were the harbinger of some ominous thing that had been sleeping, about to appear in this world.

If someone observed carefully, they would find that at this moment, the longsword in Julian’s hand had split into two. One was still the Darknight Mithril longsword he held in his hand, used to kill Darlos, with faint blue light flickering along its patterns. The other sword had no physical form at all. It was merely a phantom, overlapping with the Darknight Mithril longsword. Since both were black in color, at first glance, there seemed to be no difference.

However, the other phantom longsword was a hundred times more beautiful than the Darknight Mithril longsword Julian held in his hand. Its sharp, keen blade was straight and slender, almost one-third longer than the Darknight Mithril longsword. The patterns etched on it were exquisitely beautiful, even far surpassing the murals carved by elves. The reverse guard was modeled after outstretched giant claws, presenting a fierce and violent posture. And right on its blade tip, those patterns were now constantly condensing, constantly gathering, then converging into a sentence that no one could understand.

A pillar of black light shot up into the sky.

Finally back, my beloved sword.

Looking at this phantom longsword, Julian’s lips curled slightly. Then he sheathed his sword, and with this action, Darlos’s body, now turned into a mummy, slowly fell to the ground. Then, before everyone’s eyes, it turned into sand and completely disappeared.

“Run!!”

After seeing this scene, the bandits no longer had any intention to fight. Although they outnumbered the opponent ten to one, even Darlos, a high-rank swordsman, and those five intermediate swordsmen had been killed. What could the remaining bandits, who only knew how to idle away their days, do? At this moment, someone shouted, and then the bandits immediately scattered, fleeing in terror in all directions.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

The Wraith Warriors, who had already formed an encirclement under Julian’s orders, were now ready. In front of them, the bandits’ resistance and struggles were all meaningless.

Julian, who had sheathed his sword, stretched lazily, looking around with boredom, then waved to Ophariel.

“Come, we still have things to do.”

“Things?” Hearing this, Ophariel immediately walked to Julian’s side. Although around them, there were shouts and the sound of weapons clashing everywhere, no fool dared to try to attack Julian. He was someone who could easily kill even a high-rank swordsman in just a few moves. Even idiots wouldn’t choose to be his enemy.

“Of course,” Looking at Ophariel, Julian smiled and shrugged, then turned and walked towards the depths of the stronghold.

“We’re going to rummage through Mr. Darlos’s property. We might find some good stuff.”

“Treasures again?” Hearing this, Ophariel was speechless, unconsciously touching the spatial pouch at her waist. Along this journey, Ophariel couldn’t fight or command, but there was one job only she could do… that was identifying treasures.

Bandits always bundled their loot to take home, sometimes not even knowing what they had stolen. But a princess born in the royal court obviously wouldn’t be as poor in knowledge about artworks as these bandits. So Julian had given her this job of identifying the spoils of war – now in the spatial bag at her waist, all sorts of things were crammed in, including paintings by famous artists, precious decorations, plus over five thousand gold coins Julian had plundered from the bandits. If all these were sold, the operation of Twilight Castle shouldn’t have any problems for a while.

“Of course, that’s one reason,” Julian shrugged, turning his head back, looking at Ophariel with a meaningful smile. Faced with Julian’s gaze, the girl frowned slightly. She unconsciously looked at a bandit’s corpse nearby, paused for a moment, then showed an expression of sudden realization. Then, Ophariel quickened her pace, walking to Julian’s side.

“My lord.”

“Hmm?”

“If you have to choose between the Sebo family in the southern territory and the Kazel family in the western territory, I personally suggest you choose the Kazel family. Their family has served in the military for generations and is loyal to the royal family… Moreover, they are mortal enemies of the Bird family. I believe the Kazel patriarch would be willing to pay a high price to do this business with you… provided we indeed have the goods.”

“Oh?” Hearing this, Julian turned his head to look at Ophariel. The girl’s sapphire blue eyes sparkled brightly in the sunlight, determined with a hint of cunning.

“That’s a very good suggestion, Ophariel,” Julian withdrew his gaze.

“I’ll consider it carefully.”

Although the bandits’ dwellings in the stronghold were a mess, it wasn’t difficult to find Darlos’s house. Throughout history, whether for bandits, pirates, armies, fortresses, or cities – finding the central figure’s residence was always very simple. Just look for the most imposing, luxurious, largest, and tallest building.

Darlos naturally couldn’t escape this custom.

When the two arrived at the door of the house at the highest point of the stronghold, twice as large as the other wooden houses, the killing shouts around had gradually weakened. Julian turned his head back, looking towards the forest not far away. He reached into his bosom, took out his pocket watch and checked the time again. As planned, Julian had scheduled to end the battle within fifteen minutes. Now the situation was better than he had imagined. The battle ended within ten minutes, and those bandits probably wouldn’t live much longer. Plus the partial clues left earlier to deliberately mislead the Pale Hawk, it should be enough to support him until he finished plundering the spoils and retreated… hopefully.

“We’ll go from the north,” Julian said out of the blue, putting the silver watch back into his bosom. But Ophariel didn’t show surprise, instead just nodding, as if she completely understood what Julian was saying. Then, Julian pushed open the door and walked into the room.

The stench of alcohol and blood wafted out, making Ophariel frown. Although this wasn’t the first time she had experienced these things during this period, it wasn’t easy to adapt to things one wasn’t used to. The entire hall still maintained the chaos from before Darlos went to battle. Overturned tables and chairs were scattered on the ground, fruits and food, wine spilled everywhere. The poor Kyle’s corpse still lay in the center of the hall. It seemed Darlos had left in too much of a hurry, not even preparing someone to collect his body.

“What a pity for these good clothes,” Julian looked regretfully at the clothes Kyle was wearing, sighing helplessly. Then he made a gesture, asking Ophariel to stay put, while he leisurely walked forward. Although bandits generally wouldn’t use a lot of traps like mages or nobles to protect their property, they did have their own crude methods to deal with everything, to prevent their hard-earned gains from being easily stolen by others.

Darlos’s room was just behind the main hall. Whether it was because this high-rank swordsman was very confident in his own strength, or for some other reason, Julian didn’t find traps set up like other bandits when he entered his room. But thinking about it, it wasn’t strange. The reason those bandits set traps to protect their property was mostly because they were too weak, setting up insurance measures to prevent others from surpassing them later. But Darlos himself was already a high-rank swordsman. Trying to steal things from under his nose wasn’t an easy task. Of course, even so, Julian didn’t think he would really be arrogant enough not to set any traps.

However, in Julian’s view now, there was an unexpected gain.

Julian raised an eyebrow, looking at the bed before him.

On that soft large bed, a woman was lying at the moment. Although from the surface, she wasn’t as peerlessly beautiful as Ophariel, she was still quite eye-catching. At this moment, this woman was lying on the bed, fallen into a deep sleep. From her appearance, she seemed to be completely unaware of what had happened.

But this wasn’t a problem for Julian. He walked to the bedside, casually pulling up the fur covering the woman’s body.

“…Mmm… Eh?”

The cold air eroded the woman’s body, making her moan involuntarily, then slightly open her eyes. After seeing the young man before her clearly, the woman’s face suddenly changed. She hurriedly jumped up, curling up in the corner of the bed, vigilantly watching Julian.

“Who are you?! How did you get in here? You…”

The cold sword edge immediately made the woman close her mouth. She frowned, then looked towards the door – it was empty. The bandits who should have been guarding there had disappeared without a trace. This made the woman realize that something might be wrong.

“This is Darlos’s room, are you tired of living?”

“Darlos is already dead, miss,” Julian smiled and bowed slightly.

“And I’m here to take over his belongings… So, beautiful miss, you shouldn’t mind helping me with this, right?”

“…You…!”

Hearing this, the woman’s eyebrows rose, about to rebuke him for talking nonsense, but Julian just waved his longsword slightly, forcing her to swallow her next words, making her realize again that no matter what had happened, the power was definitely not in her hands now.

“What do you want?” The woman rolled her eyes, no longer struggling. She looked at Julian, unable to believe his statement that Darlos was already dead. What a joke, he was a high-rank swordsman, how could he be killed so easily? But obviously Darlos wasn’t here now. You know, even his confidants weren’t allowed to enter this room, how could such a young man enter at will?

What were those guards outside doing?

“It’s simple, I just need some small things,” Julian’s smile was very gentle and elegant, which made the woman’s originally somewhat panicked and uneasy mood gradually calm down.

“Mr. Darlos must have been corresponding with someone, and in fact, I really need those letters… Do you know where they are?”

“Letters?” Hearing this, the woman was stunned for a moment, then a cold light flashed in the corner of her eye. She glanced at Julian, then reached out her finger, pointing to the painting opposite.

“I remember Darlos always kept his most valuable things in the secret compartment behind that painting…”

“Could you help me?” Julian’s words were tactful and polite, but the longsword in his hand showed no politeness at all.

“This is after all Mr. Darlos’s room, it’s not appropriate for an outsider like me to act rashly. Why don’t you help, miss?”

The woman’s expression froze. Obviously, the other party had seen through her thoughts. In fact, there was indeed a secret compartment behind that painting, but it was merely a decoy to trigger the trap. If Julian just walked over like that, the poisoned arrows shot from the secret compartment would be enough to take his life. But now it seemed this strategy had completely failed.

What on earth happened?

With a puzzled expression, the woman listened carefully to the surrounding movements, but she didn’t hear the sound of battle. There was only silence.

But now, she obviously had no choice.

Thinking of this, the woman could only helplessly get out of bed. At this moment, she was only wearing a thin, semi-transparent nightgown. Under that thin silk cover, her snow-white flesh was faintly visible, full of allure. Obviously, this woman was very good at showcasing her assets and using them to gain the benefits she wanted. She looked at Julian smugly, trying to see in his eyes the same drooling over her beauty as other men, just like those men in the village where she used to live, and those bandits, and Darlos – even he, when looking at her, would carry uncontrollable lust.

Faced with the woman’s provocative gaze, Julian lowered his eyes, which made the woman chuckle softly.

Looks like he’s still an innocent little virgin.

“You’re very charming, miss,” Julian’s voice didn’t change at all because of this.

“So I hope you can cooperate obediently. If you’re willing to help me, then I won’t kill you.”

“Is that what you’re saying?” The woman pursed her lips, revealing a smile, then walked to the wooden wall on the other side, gently tapping twice, then crouched down, flipping the floorboard from the corner below. With a slight sound, the floorboard flipped and slid open, revealing a luxurious wooden box hidden inside. The woman picked up the wooden box, thrusting out her full, alluring chest as she walked in front of Julian. She could feel that his gaze lingered on her proud pair of peaks for a moment before turning to the wooden box in her hand.

Seems he’s not so different after all.

The woman raised an eyebrow, then opened the wooden box. Soon, the letters inside were presented before Julian.

Julian reached out, trying to pick up the letters in the wooden box to check, but the woman beat him to it, putting the wooden box on the table beside them. Then, she took two steps forward, getting closer to Julian.

“Don’t be in such a hurry, young man,” the woman giggled.

“You said Darlos is dead, so you should have plenty of time now, right?”

“To be frank, I do have some time,” Julian sheathed his sword and shrugged.

“In fact, I’m just here to take over Mr. Darlos’s personal belongings.”

“Oh? Is that so…” Seeing him put away his sword, the woman smiled, stretching her arms to encircle Julian’s neck.

“Then, can I be considered one of Mr. Darlos’s personal belongings? Don’t you want to take me over?”

“I think that’s not a bad idea,” faced with the woman’s seduction, Julian reached out, gently embracing her slender waist, while reaching down to caress this full and alluring body.

“Then, you should prove it with actual action.”

Feeling his caress, the woman began to pant lightly. She moved closer to Julian, pressing her breasts tightly against his body.

“Perhaps you’d like to leave your mark inside my body?”

The woman took Julian’s left hand, pulling it between her thighs. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, her eyes flirtatious – looking quite alluring.

“Now that you won’t kill me, why not enjoy me, sir? Or do you find me so unattractive?”

“In my opinion…” Julian had now been led to the wall by the woman. Hearing these words, Julian suddenly changed his angle, pressing the woman tightly against the wall, then leaned close to her ear, calmly giving his answer.

“…Yes.”

“Eh?” Hearing these words, the woman was suddenly stunned, but at this moment, Julian suddenly pressed her hand to the side. With this action, a slight mechanical sound rang out, then the woman felt her wrist tighten. When she turned her head in surprise to look, she found that Julian had somehow already pressed her against the hidden trap’s secret compartment, and now her right hand was firmly controlled by the mechanism in the secret compartment, unable to move at all. A steel restraint had bitten into her wrist, limiting the woman’s further movement.

“I advise you not to move recklessly, miss,” Julian stepped back two paces, straightening his clothes, then smiled at the woman again.

“Perhaps you don’t know, this is a type of ‘concealment’ trap. Hmm… commonly used among bandits. I won’t explain in detail how it works, I just hope you know that if you try to pull your hand out forcefully now, or touch the wall inside the secret compartment, the trap will be triggered. I hope you can pay attention to safety and be careful.”

“You, what do you mean? Didn’t you say you wouldn’t kill me?” Hearing this, the woman indeed became careful. She looked at her right hand. Obviously, Julian had caught a very clever moment to control her body. At this moment, her right hand was suspended in mid-air, neither up nor down, but holding it like this wasn’t a long-term solution.



“I indeed didn’t kill you,” Julian shrugged, then walked to the wooden table, picking up the letters from it and starting to flip through them, while answering the woman’s question.

“Look, I’ve kept my promise, haven’t I? Hmm… I must say, you were very cooperative. I’m very grateful for that. Found it, this is it… It seems Mr. Darlos really had a rich harvest…”

In the wooden box were not only letters of correspondence between Darlos and those nobles, but because this high-rank swordsman had always been worried that the nobles would discard him after using him, he had also been collecting evidence of the nobles’ collusion with bandits. And now, these things were also lying in the wooden box, at Julian’s disposal to look through.

“Very good, thank you for your help, miss,” After satisfactorily obtaining what he wanted, Julian closed the wooden box, then nodded to the woman.

“Well then, goodbye. I hope my abrupt visit didn’t disturb your mood.”

The woman widened her eyes, staring hard at Julian as he walked towards the outside. At this moment, she probably wanted to swallow him whole, but Julian seemed completely indifferent to the woman’s gaze. On the contrary, when he reached the door, he suddenly seemed to remember something and turned around.

“Oh, right, you’ve been troubled for so long, I should show some appreciation. This gold coin is my token of gratitude. Don’t be polite.”

Saying this, Julian reached into his pocket and took out a gold coin, then lightly flicked it, sending the coin flying towards the woman.

“No!!!”

At this moment, seeing Julian’s action, the woman finally understood his intention. She cried out in terror, reaching out, trying to grab that gold coin. But Julian’s speed was incredibly fast. When the woman stretched out her left hand, trying to stop the gold coin, it had already flown into the secret compartment, lightly tapping on the woman’s right hand fingers, then falling towards the ground. And the woman’s fingers, due to this slight vibration, involuntarily stretched out, touching the cold steel inner wall of the secret compartment.

“Tch!”

Several spears suddenly shot down from the ceiling. The woman only had time to instinctively raise her hand to block, then was pierced by those sharp, keen spears, turning into a bloody, mangled corpse.

“What a terrible coincidence, accidents are everywhere…” Faced with this scene, Julian sighed. Then, he turned around and left the room.

“My lord, what happened?” Seeing Julian walk out of the room, Ophariel immediately asked. She hadn’t failed to hear the scream just now, and didn’t know exactly what had happened.

“Nothing,” Julian said, glancing meaningfully towards the bedroom.

“Just someone with really bad luck, that’s all.”

Note: This was originally a double chapter by the author