The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 103 – The Arrested (1)

It was early in the morning. Juan came out of his room at the sound coming from the military training ground. Upon seeing Juan come out of his room, the soldier who had been guarding the door looked at Juan with perplexed eyes.

“Are the soldiers in the middle of their morning training?” Juan asked.

“Uh, um…Yes…Yes Sir.”

The soldier stuttered as if he was confused about how he should treat Juan, since Juan was both a sinner and a guest of the duke at the same time. However, the soldier soon showed a respectful attitude to Juan, almost as if he was overwhelmed by Juan’s aura.

“I’d like to take a look,” Juan said.

“Ah, yes. I will guide you to the military training ground.”

The soldier willingly guided Juan, but Juan figured that there seemed to be an order from the duke stating that it was okay to let Juan move freely within the area as long as he was under surveillance.

The military training ground was larger in size than Juan had expected, but it felt narrow due to the thick and high walls surrounding the entire training ground. The atmosphere created by the soldiers who were swinging their swords with simultaneous shouts of concentration was quite fierce.

Juan noticed that the soldiers training in the middle of the military training ground were swinging their swords in an unusual way, and he soon realized that the soldiers were practicing the basic positions of the Baltic Sword; however, they weren’t very skilled at it.

“They use swords when they’re only soldiers?” Juan asked.

“Ah, they are the soldiers personally managed by Her Grace herself. She said that she was planning to select a few of them and train them to become either centurions or knights.”

Juan nodded; the trainees certainly seemed to be built strong and had firm eyes. However, Juan soon lost interest in them. None of them seemed to even have half of the talent Sina had. Juan felt that Hela’s attempts at training knights would end with only moderate success.

What attracted Juan’s attention was the strange group of people standing in a corner of the military training ground. The group consisted of a diverse range of people regardless of their age or race—anyone from young soldiers to bearded middle-aged men, and even demi-humans were mixed in the group. They seemed much more messy and exhausted compared to the other trainees, almost as if they had been training since dawn.

‘Are they conscripts?’

The Imperial Army did not employ conscripts. Although the citizens were considered to be soldiers during the early days of the founding of the empire as well, the conscription system was eventually ended when most of the enemies who were capable of attacking the empire disappeared.

Juan initially thought that they must be the conscripts, but soon corrected his thoughts. Their hands and ankles were chained with rustling chains.

“I thought only dogs and sinners were chained in the eastern territory?” Juan remarked.

“You’re right, Sir. They’re a punishment unit. They are the rebels from the northeast who decided to convert,” the soldier nodded his head and answered.

“A punishment unit?”

Juan frowned upon hearing the soldier’s explanation. A punishment unit was a unit composed of prisoners that weren’t punished legally, but rather sent to a dangerous front line to operate in a war.

Juan recalled how much Harmon Helwin hated punishment units. He was extremely disgusted with the concept of punishment units; not only did it lower the morale of the other soldiers at the front line, but there were even many cases of prisoners escaping and looting at the frontline, and thus causing trouble. Due to these reasons, Juan hadn’t expected to see a punishment unit within the empire.

“What are they being punished for?” Juan asked.

“Sorry? I thought I already told you. They are rebel converts.”

Juan was about to ask the soldier the reason why the rebels who converted were being used as a punishment unit when they should be treated properly after rooting out the spies, but closed his mouth instead.

‘The rebels of northeast… the survivors of Arbalde and the city encroached by the Crack.’

Juan thought that the rebel converts must have been contaminated by the Crack as well. In Juan’s memory, the northeast was the first place in the empire to be encroached by the Crack. The northern territory, which was famous for being the hub of the Crack, was originally a territory built around the boundary between the empire and the Crack in the first place.

Gerard Gain had tried to stop the Crack from encroaching the eastern territory, but had failed—his first failure. His failure was what gave rise to the tragedy of Arbalde.

“But they are victims of the civil war in a way, aren’t they?” Juan asked.

“Yeah, well. I guess you could say that since they came here instead of joining the rebels of Arbalde in the end. Fortunately, there is no one singing weird songs or muttering random names, since the encroachment of the Crack isn’t too severe. They won’t be further encroached upon by the Crack as long as they live in asceticism for the rest of their lives.”

Of course, the ‘rest of their lives’ meant nothing to the people in the punishment unit. As long as they were in the punishment unit, they would be sent to the most dangerous parts of war—the front line, and most of them would die within half a year.

“Hold your swords straight! Are your fingers broken or something!?”

The one standing in front of the punishment unit and screaming at them was a centurion just like Horhell. The centurion walked in front of one of the prisoners and slapped his trembling hand. The prisoner instantly dropped the sword in his hand.

“Did you bastards rip apart your mother’s womb and join the Crack even before you were fully developed and delivered? Is that why your fingers are so dysfunctional, huh?”

The prisoners glared at the centurion with eyes filled with murderous intent, but no one dared to confront him.

Juan was quite impressed with the prisoner’s eyes. All of their ages, gender, and even race were diverse, but Juan could feel a persistent vitality and intense emotion from them—It was a strong will to survive no matter what might happen.

‘That’s probably why they became rebel converts at the risk of being used as a punishment unit.’

It was only natural, since they would end up just like the knights from the Order of Lindwurm that Juan saw in the dungeon of Durgal if they were fully encroached upon by the Crack. Juan raised the corners of his mouth and grinned.

Then, the centurion who had been yelling at the trainees noticed Juan and turned his gaze toward him.

“What are you? How dare a fresh trainee fool around like this when you should be busy training?” the centurion said.

The eyes of all the prisoners turned toward Juan. Juan certainly seemed like a fresh young man, so it was only natural for the centurion to mistake him for a trainee.

“Are you expressing that you don’t need my teaching? What a cheeky trainee you are. You’re acting so tough, but you even seem like you’ve never even slept with a woman before,” the centurion said as he fiddled with the wooden sword.

Juan had no intention of falling for the centurion’s provocation, but the centurion didn’t let Juan go.

“Bring me a wooden sword! I must see how good he is,” the centurion ordered.

The prisoners showed no particular curiosity toward Juan. Such a situation didn’t seem to be new for them, as there had always been recruits who were either rebellious or overly confident in their skills.

However, Juan wasn’t dressed as a trainee and had a soldier guiding him.

Juan looked back at the soldier who guided him to the military training ground, but the soldier didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping the centurion or explaining Juan’s identity.

‘Either the discipline of the eastern territory’s army is a mess, or…’

“I heard that the barbarians from beyond the border are nasty as hell. Let me see how nasty you are,” the centurion said.

Juan looked at the wooden sword in his hand.

‘A wooden sword, huh…’

Juan had rarely held a wooden sword for practice. This was because a wooden sword became a lump of charcoal as soon as even the slightest of his mana was injected into it. No ordinary material could handle his mana unless it was made out of a special material.

‘I guess it will not matter, since I’m wearing handcuffs that restrict my use of mana.’

This time, Juan had to fight the centurion using only his physical skills without the use of magic. Juan stared at the centurion without raising his sword.

Meanwhile, the centurion had been maintaining a relaxed attitude as he said he wanted to test Juan’s skills, but he showed a sharp change of attitude as soon as they began sparring.

Then, the centurion suddenly charged at Juan and brought down his sword at Juan with all his power. It was a powerful attack that was tricky to dodge. One might even end up getting hit by their own sword if they attempted to block such an attack.

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The centurion’s attack was incredibly clean and precise, almost as if this was not a spar; Juan could feel his murderous intent which had been honed and polished through practice.

Juan saw the centurion’s spirit and clicked his tongue as if he had expected the centurion’s movements.

Crack!

A short cracking sound suddenly echoed throughout the training ground, and the centurion felt a sharp pain in his hand. The wooden sword the centurion held in his hand was split in half. Upon turning his head, the centurion saw Juan looking at him with an unpleasant look while holding his wooden sword with only one hand. That wooden sword was stabbed in between the split parts of the wooden sword held by the centurion.

The centurion couldn’t believe everything that just happened. The wooden swords that had been soaked in seawater and then dried were extremely hard and firm.

‘And he split such a wooden sword vertically…?’

The centurion had never seen anyone who had the skill to do so, nor had he thought that anyone was capable of doing so. The centurion couldn’t close his mouth for quite some time and didn’t even notice the blood that was flowing out from a cut he received from a wooden sword.

“This is a bit unpleasant, Hela,” Juan said in a low voice as he scattered his murderous intent.

In the next moment, the centurion was thrown back and Juan’s wooden sword was tightly held in Horhell’s hand as if it was about to break. Juan took his hand off the hilt of the wooden sword.

“Stop fooling around.”

The centurion looked like he had no idea what just happened. He was in a daze upon seeing the split wooden sword until just a moment ago, but his vision suddenly changed and he was rolling around on the military training ground. On top of that, Juan’s wooden sword was now held by Horhell. And at that moment, the centurion could see Duke Hela approaching them from a distance.

“Well, what a heated morning. It’s time for breakfast. Everyone, go inside and eat,” Hela said.

The prisoners stared at Juan for a long time; he had easily knocked down the centurion. Then all of them soon started moving toward the canteen.

At the same time, Hela beckoned the centurion who was still lying down on the ground to head to the infirmary.

Soon, only three people were left in the military training ground.

“So, were you trying to kill that poor centurion just now?” Hela asked in a jolly manner.

“Didn’t you say that one should always train with a mindset as if they are in an actual battle?” Juan glared at Hela.

“That’s right. There might be times when one dies during training. But the incident of a trainee beating and killing an instructor should never happen.”

“Well the centurion seemed to have attacked me with all his might, thinking that he couldn’t care less if I died.”

“Well, that’s because I ordered him to do so. I told him that he shouldn’t be worried and spar with all his might, since he wouldn’t be able to win against you anyway.”

‘As expected…’

Juan didn’t feel any annoyance when he found out that Hela was trying to test him, as Juan was also curious about the level of the army led by Hela Henna. Juan and Hela were quite similar in the regard that they both tried to check the other’s skills.

What Juan was displeased with was the centurion. It was not that the centurion’s skills were bad—they were rather good. Juan even felt that he was much better than the knights from the Order of Blue Rose.

‘But.’

“Why did you teach the centurion how to use the Baltic Sword? Besides, it seems like you gave up teaching him in the middle of it,” Juan said.

Juan did think that the centurion was skilled, but this only meant that he was better than the ‘average’ centurions. Juan felt that the centurion would be much stronger if he just used simple hands-on swordsmanship rather than unskillfully trying to use the Baltic Sword.

“As expected. You recognized it at just a glance. Horhell is terrible at teaching since he is a genius with poor empathy. There were a few who understood Horhell’s teaching well in the past, but all of them are gone now,” Hela explained.

‘So he was taught by Horhell.’

Juan tilted his head in wonder as he recalled how Sina’s skill had dramatically improved in just a few days with just a few pointers from Horhell.

‘No—perhaps it’s simply that Sina’s talent is just that outstanding. Rather than Horhell being a good teacher, it's just that both Sina and Horhell were geniuses who became Elite Knights of their knight orders at extremely young ages.’

“So? What did you think about my skills? Was it disappointing?” Juan asked.

“Of course it was. I am very disappointed,” Hela answered.

Hela received Juan’s wooden sword which was being held by Horhell. The part which had been held by Horhell was compressed and distorted.

“I’m so disappointed that I’m starting to think that maybe I should keep you by my side. In case you didn’t know, I’m very fond of talented individuals,” Hela said as she fiddled with the wooden sword.

“Talented individuals?”

“That handcuff,” Hela said as she pointed to the mana-suppressing handcuffs around Juan’s hands. “I have never seen anyone who could fight properly even with those handcuffs on. And that’s especially true for those who think extremely highly of themselves. That centurion you just sparred with is one of the strongest centurions we have. He is good enough that even Horhell would have difficulty fighting against him with those handcuffs on. It takes a long time for a person to adapt to the sudden changes in one's body—but you’re different.”

A smile spread over Hela’s wrinkled face.

“You have been acting like a weak guy right from the beginning, and you have already figured out the most efficient muscle movements that best match your physical abilities. I’m sure that you’ll always be able to fight with the best of your abilities even if you grow much weaker than you are now. That is no longer the realm of a genius, but rather the realm of a monster. And I’m crazy about monsters.”

Juan looked at Hela with a puzzled look on his face, as if he couldn’t understand what she was trying to say. Hela’s eyes were full of greed.

“Lead the fourth division for me, Juan. Then I’ll give you the eastern territory.”