Margrave’s Bastard Son was The Emperor - Chapter 206

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 206
The Imperial Guards
“Ugh…”
Barsabe clutched her right side with a groan, her entire body slick with sweat, blood, and relentless rain. Everything clung to her skin with sickening wetness.
She wrung out the blood that had soaked through her upper body. Even if she attempted emergency healing with magic, she had exhausted herself maintaining her doppelgänger technique for far too long to evade her pursuers. With no strength remaining, her body was now as fragile as any mortal’s.
Barsabe curled herself into a tight ball, suppressing the agony.
‘I wonder if that fool pulled it off. God, this hurts so much.’
She had taken refuge in the corner of an abandoned warehouse. The patter of rain hammering the roof seemed unusually loud—tap, tap, tap. To Barsabe, it sounded like the footsteps she had made hours earlier, each stride driven by desperation to survive.
Tap, tap, tap!
She had lured four armored soldiers away and fled toward the outskirts. Had she possessed even slightly more power, she could have sent her doppelgänger in the opposite direction to create chaos across a wider area. But reality was merciless, and Barsabe, her doppelgänger, and the armored pursuers maintained a constant distance as the chase continued.
Yet at some point, something felt wrong. Rather than a pursuit meant to kill, it felt like they were herding her—as if they wanted her to take a different path.
‘I won’t mistake this for coincidence.’
With the Imperial Palace’s fate unknown, Barsabe stood at a crossroads: flee and protect herself, or venture down the path her enemies seemed to avoid. To strike at a vital point, one must draw close enough to do so. The price was a body too broken to move, but such was the cost.
A soft breath escaped her.
She gazed down at her left hand, which no longer obeyed her commands. Upon it rested a ring—her father Petreio’s ring.
Not long ago, she had failed to understand her father’s resolve when he chose death over abandoning her. Now, she was beginning to comprehend it. A life lived with death always near, for the sake of struggle. That was the life of a knight.
She pressed her lips to the ring, steadying her resolve.
‘Just hold on a little longer. When dawn breaks, people will come. If the body is discovered, the Guard members will arrive as well. It will be fine.’
Chetuhr. A district dense with manual manufacturing workshops, where goods destined for the Central region were stockpiled. Large manufacturing guilds, merchant companies, and blacksmiths dominated the trade, yet smaller organizations also formed their own communities in keeping with the district’s character.
One of them clearly had roots in Haimanga.
‘There’s no Haimanga bank here. Yet the people of District 3 showed no suspicion upon seeing the Black Armor. They must have witnessed it frequently in this area, and given the district’s nature, it’s likely connected to Black Armor manufacturing.’
It was probably a storage facility for materials. If it wasn’t the Black Armor itself, all the better—she would uncover another variable that Haimanga was concealing.
Barsabe repeated her best-case scenario over and over in her mind.
The corpse wearing her face would be discovered quickly, and the Imperial Palace would use it to launch an investigation into the surrounding area. Thus would come the identification of their base and the seizure of their supplies. Once all of this was complete, her survival would be officially confirmed.
“Hey, did you check over here too?”
“No. That area’s still left.”
“You head right first. I’ll go this way.”
“Over here! Move over here!”
Splash, splash!
Then, faint sounds of movement echoed from a distance—the voices of her pursuers. The corpse still hadn’t been discovered.
She pressed herself even tighter and held her breath. As the night deepened, the cold intensified. When her breath began to mist faintly, Barsabe shut her eyes completely.
‘Damn it.’
Creeeeak.
She prayed like a chant—pass by, pass by—but it was useless. The warehouse door swung open carelessly, and light poured in from the pursuers’ lanterns. They swept their gaze across the interior, then casually scattered the stacked goods.
Thud! Boom!
“Be careful. If something breaks, it’ll be a hassle.”
“Yeah, right.”
Barsabe tensed so severely she felt nauseous. Every sense was heightened, as if to commit this final moment to memory. Fortunately, the pursuers seemed ready to leave empty-handed.
“Doesn’t seem like she’s here.”
“But you’re sure she’s actually around somewhere, right?”
“I don’t know. The Knights said they lost the trail nearby, and since Ani hasn’t returned… we can’t help but be suspicious.”
“This is annoying. Come on, let’s check the next warehouse.”
“They say there’s not a single limb intact, so she must be hiding somewhere.”
Ani. That must be the name of the woman Barsabe had dealt with. The one who attacked me the moment we crossed paths in Sector 3.
She bit her lip firmly and listened intently. Footsteps were heading outside. Just as they were about to leave the warehouse eaves.
“Wait.”
One man raised his hand. Then, glancing down at his feet, he turned to look behind him. A faint trace of red mixed in. I wondered if it was just the lantern’s reflection, but it didn’t seem to be.
“Lift your foot.”
“My foot? Why?”
“Do you have any wounds?”
“No. Why are you suddenly asking?”
“…”
Instead of answering, the man drew his sword. He had stepped in the blood of someone wounded and hiding. His response startled his colleagues, who immediately took combat stances.
Sling.
A sound I had heard hundreds, thousands of times. The desolate cry of a blade leaving its sheath.
Barsabe instinctively realized she had been discovered. She bit her lip hard and opened her eyes. Now it was truly over. Before they killed her, the time had come to show the pride of a swordswoman one last time. She would not cower and die. At least, her death would be her own decision.
“Is she here?”
Crash! Clang!
“No. Then here?”
The pursuers smashed large crates in one blow, swinging their blades, slashing through cloth-wrapped objects and stabbing everywhere Barsabe might hide.
Whoosh.
Slash! Scream!
“Aaaahhh!”
Barsabe threw her dagger at the man with his back turned toward her. She aimed for his neck, but her body was too weak and she missed. The dagger sliced off the man’s ear and embedded itself in the wall.
Barsabe seized the moment and quickly tried to flee the warehouse. Or rather, she wanted to flee. But with one foot severely limping, she was barely walking.
“Ha!”
The pursuers rushed out in surprise, then laughed at the sight. With a condition like that, she was no better than a rat trapped in a cage.
“Blood! Blood!”
“You bastard, you’re not dead. Just stop the bleeding.”
“Hey! Shorty! You might as well roll. That’d be faster.”
They scraped the ground with their swords as they slowly followed Barsabe. Only the sound of rain, wet earth beneath their feet, laughter, and her ragged breathing could be heard.
It was a meaningless escape, but Barsabe kept walking. She judged that if she resisted outside rather than inside, someone might see her. Though time was a factor, the foul weather meant no one was visible.
Splash! Splash!
“Huff, huff…”
“Too fast. Let’s go slower!”
In the distance, shadowy figures flickered. People. They all held umbrellas and were smoking. For a moment, Barsabe’s eyes widened with hope. Until she saw the black armor standing tall among them.
Whoosh!
The pursuers toyed with her, slashing from behind. Barsabe tumbled forward and fell. Her hands clenched tight to endure the pain. Dirt clung to them.
“Leave the face alone. They said we get one gold coin for the head. We need to confirm the identity anyway.”
“Damn… you bastards…”
“I can’t hear you. What did you say?”
Clang! Clang!
The pursuer’s blade descended at a right angle, aiming for Barsabe’s neck. She rolled to the side and barely parried the strike, and in that same moment, the Man with Torn Ear rushed forward and unleashed a barrage of kicks.
“How dare you!”
“….”
“My ear!”
Thud! Crack!
Barsabe clenched her teeth and suppressed her groans. She couldn’t let pain show before these dogs. That bastard Berik. Without molars, this clenching was far from easy.
“Die! Die!”
One final strike—just one more. Take one more of them with me. As Barsabe resolved this, she gripped her sword hilt tightly.
Whoosh.
Suddenly, all the lantern lights extinguished.
The moon had hidden itself behind storm clouds. In an instant, the world seemed to be dyed in darkness.
The pursuers hesitated and peered at the lanterns. The glass covers were sealed shut, yet somehow they had gone out.
“Does anyone have fire?”
“Why did it suddenly go out….”
Boom!
Then, a thunderous crash erupted and a man was crushed mercilessly. As if he’d been struck directly by a meteor falling from the sky.
Barsabe opened her eyes narrowly. Her vision was blurred and she couldn’t see properly.
“What, what is this!”
“Hey! Help here!”
And then once more.
Boom!
A wet cloak fluttered endlessly. Barsabe found herself prostrating, releasing a sigh of relief. Tears flowed with that sigh, but she would attribute them to the rain.
“Barsabe.”
“Ah….”
“Are you alright?”
Her colleagues. They had unleashed their mana fully, bending even the scattered raindrops from their trajectories. The one with the severed ear died in a single blow. So brutally that even the torrential downpour couldn’t wash away his blood all at once.
“Ugh, urgh! Hey!”
Tap! Tap!
One by one, Imperial Guards appeared, piercing through the rain curtain from somewhere. Though their expressions couldn’t be seen in the darkness, they were relieved by Barsabe’s survival. One colleague removed his robe and threw it to Barsabe.
“Barsabe. We’ve been searching for you.”
“Ah, everyone. Really….”
“We will die together on the battlefield. So will you.”
Barsabe pulled the crimson cloth close and prostrated again. Now she had no strength left to even straighten her back. At the sudden appearance of enemies, the pursuers cried out loudly.
“Here!”
They were calling for the Black Armor. But that soon became his final death cry, and like her colleague, his limbs were torn asunder and he fell to the ground.
Whoosh.
Splash.
The Imperial Guards faced off against the Black Armor, leaving Barsabe behind. Those who had assessed the situation began spreading out in different directions to request reinforcements. It seemed that quite a significant battle would unfold in Chetuhr today.
Zing. Zing.
The mana-infused armor that had defeated Riama. The opponent’s core force—something even Barsabe and Berik combined could not overcome.
The Imperial Guards unleashed their mana endlessly, taking offensive stances. Their light shimmered hazily through the downpour.
“We are Imperial Guards. Are you a knight of the Haimanga? And did you do this to our Barsabe?”
Someone shouted, but the armor gave no answer. Instead, it simply swung its massive fist and charged forward.
Crash! Splash!
As its fist struck the ground, water erupted in a clean arc. One guard grabbed Barsabe’s arm and dodged; the others leaped into the air in unison and swung their blades.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Five Imperial Guards struck the armor simultaneously—front, back, left, right, and crown. Force poured in from all directions, yet the armor merely staggered rather than fell. The guards fell silent and retreated.
“What in the—”
What was it made of…?
Cracks had formed in the armor, but the knight inside seemed unharmed. Just as they steadied themselves to resume their assault, three black armored figures came thundering toward them from the distance.
Three in total. The same ones that had pursued Barsabe.
“All units!!”
Flash—!
Boom!
Lightning and thunder crashed down. Simultaneously, Jairot’s commanding voice fell from the heavens. He stood atop the warehouse roof, his sword pointed at the armor.
“Commander!”
“I’m changing our operational objective.”
Zing. Zing.
Jairot’s power—unleashed only when facing monsters. A desolate, dark aura swirled around him.
“Total annihilation. We will annihilate the enemy without exception.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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