Shadow Guard

Honestly, Gawain had been quite surprised to see Amber actually bring someone back alive—if he had seen this an hour ago, he probably would not have been so surprised, but ever since this Shadow Master had been slapped flying by a bank salesperson named My Little Pony, he had completely given up hope in her combat ability. Rather than sending this girl out to stand guard, it was more like releasing an alarm...

After all, Amber's shadow techniques really were superb. Having her spot an assassin or scout and raise the alarm should not have been a problem... but who would have thought she would directly capture one alive?

Just as Amber dragged the man back, another set of hurried footsteps sounded outside the study. Knight Byron then burst through the door. "My lord, what happened here?"

He had originally been guarding the main entrance downstairs, but the commotion on the upper floor had been too loud and had alerted him.

As for when Melita had visited earlier... Amber had been sent flying in a single exchange then, so there had not been much of a disturbance.

"It's nothing, just a petty thief. He's already been caught," Gawain said, waving Byron off. "Go back and stand guard. Tonight won't be peaceful."

Byron looked around the study in confusion. He saw the smug Amber and the Stealth Expert lying on the floor, but before an order, the middle-aged knight merely nodded. "Yes."

"How did you catch him?" After Knight Byron left, Gawain looked at Amber in surprise. "You beat him?"

"What's with that look?!" Amber was deeply dissatisfied with Gawain's reaction. "My frontal combat ability might be just a tiny bit lacking, but it's not like I can't beat anyone at all, okay? I even took down one of those monsters you called Aberrants before..."

Gawain continued staring at her.

"Of course, the main thing is that this guy was stupid," Amber continued, as expected. "He might have won if he'd fought me head-on, but he insisted on showing off his Shadow Step—so I kicked him right out of his shadow state. His mind got jolted between the Shadow Realm and the Material Realm, and he passed out."

Gawain stared at her in astonishment, thinking that only a freak like her could pull off such a crude and barbaric maneuver.

Shadow Step was the signature skill of Stealth Experts. Those who made their living in that line of work generally knew a trick or two of "Shadow Walk," but ordinary people's Shadow Walk was fundamentally nothing like Amber's utterly unreasonable ability. It could even be said that they belonged to entirely different skill trees. Normal Stealth Experts could at most temporarily conceal themselves in the Material Realm and move through the gap between the Material Realm and the Shadow Realm—the place mages called the "Shadow Boundary." This was an extremely dangerous technique, requiring precision and caution like dancing on a blade's edge. One wrong step could send them falling into the shadowed side, where the unnameable things of the Shadow Realm would tear them to pieces. But Amber... heaven knew what kind of ability hers was.

Normally, Stealth Experts only needed to focus on their own steps. As long as they did not misstep, they would not have to worry about falling into the shadows. Shadow Walk was also called the lonely road; every Stealth Expert knew that not even the most skilled Shadow Master could step into another person's shadow path. Therefore, as long as a Stealth Expert was sufficiently skilled, they could handle this "dance on a blade's edge" with ease—but that was under normal circumstances...

It was different when, in the middle of your dance on a blade's edge, a freak with the combat power of 1.5 geese suddenly jumped out beside you and kicked you.

Amber was still proudly chattering away. "It was so funny! This guy struck this especially idiotic pose, then whoosh, he entered shadow form—but I could see him perfectly clearly! I watched him hunch over and sneak up beside me, waving a little knife around. So I pretended not to see him, and when he stepped onto the edge, I kicked him..."

Rebecca paid no attention to Amber. Instead, she crouched beside Gawain and examined the uninvited guest with him. "He isn't going to stay unconscious forever, is he?"

Gawain shook his head. "Hard to say. If a normal person gets hit while in the Shadow Boundary, they either die or become an idiot."

As he spoke, the Stealth Expert lying on the floor suddenly twitched, then slowly regained consciousness.

Under normal circumstances, a trained Stealth Expert would have remained perfectly still and continued pretending to be dead. He would even seamlessly control his heartbeat and breathing so that onlookers noticed nothing. But the impact he had just suffered in the Shadow Boundary had prevented this professional from controlling himself. By the time he realized something was wrong, he was already staring directly at Gawain.

The unnamed young man looked somewhat dazed, as if what had happened before him was far beyond his expectations. He then tried to bite through the poison hidden in his mouth and kill himself, only to discover that someone had removed it at some point.

He could only close his mouth and remain silent.

"What is your name?" "What was your purpose?" "Who sent you?"

Gawain fired several questions at him in succession, yet received no response at all. The other man acted as though he were deaf.

Amber took out her little dagger and spun it rapidly across her fingers. "Want to torture a confession out of him? I'm not exactly a professional, but back when I sneaked into dungeons to steal things, I did at least see some real operations..."

Rebecca looked utterly bewildered. "What did you sneak into dungeons to steal?"

"You wouldn't understand," Amber said smugly, launching into an explanation. "After many jailers take valuables from prisoners, they hide them in the nooks and crannies of the dungeon first. They have to wait until shift changes to move the goods out, otherwise patrolling officers or the lord will find out—I specialized in striking at those times..."

"Forget it. Torture won't work," Gawain interrupted Amber's boasting. "He's a Royal Shadow Guard, specially trained to serve the king. He's an elite among elites. Aside from all kinds of special combat techniques, their willpower is terrifyingly strong. It's really fortunate that you managed to stumble into capturing an expert like this. You'll have enough to brag about in taverns for at least half a year."

As he spoke, he lowered his head and glanced at the young man, whose face had filled with surprise. "But when I was alive, the Royal Shadow Guard were merely personal guards. At most, they were responsible for gathering intelligence in extreme environments. How did the Royal Shadow Guard degenerate into petty thieves after seven hundred years?"

The captured Shadow Guard stared at Gawain in shock, but before he could speak, Gawain continued, "You want to ask how I recognized your identity?"

The Shadow Guard nodded slightly.

"Obviously. I personally came up with your title back then, and I wrote your first training system," Gawain said, patting the Shadow Guard's face. "I was the instructor of the first generation of Royal Shadow Guards!!"

Amber stared dumbfoundedly at Gawain's nearly two-meter-tall frame. "You're a knight... and you became an instructor for Stealth Experts? You taught them how to sneak?"

Gawain smiled faintly. "No. I taught them physical training and two-handed swordsmanship."

Amber looked completely baffled. "Why would Stealth Experts need to learn two-handed swordsmanship?!"

"So they can kill every witness if they're discovered during a mission, of course."

"As Stealth Experts, if they're discovered during a mission, doesn't that mean the mission is already over?!"

"No. For Ansu Stealth Experts, being discovered is when the mission begins... though this one clearly did not complete those training courses very well. Or perhaps after seven hundred years, the courses I left behind became outdated and were eliminated?"

The Shadow Guard lying on the floor immediately looked miserable—so the hellish training courses had been left behind by the man before him...

Although seven hundred years had passed and all the courses had been updated countless times, the foundational courses had never been fundamentally replaced, no matter how much they were revised. Physical training and two-handed swordsmanship were two of them.

And when Gawain saw the change in the Shadow Guard's expression, he knew that the courses he remembered were apparently still around...

"Francis II sent you, didn't he?" He looked at the young man on the floor with a genial smile. "But I doubt His Majesty the King is muddleheaded enough to send an assassin to kill me when half the kingdom already knows I'm in the royal capital. So his order to you must have been surveillance?"

The Shadow Guard still said nothing.

"But he should have reminded you to keep your distance. After all, this carried tremendous risk. Even if the Cecil Family has declined, Gawain Cecil has not declined with it. So were you simply overconfident... or did you disobey orders?"

The Shadow Guard finally spoke for the first time. "I failed my mission. I will accept death. You need not trouble yourself."

"Accept my ass!" Gawain slapped him across the face. "Have you been living in comfort for so long that you've all degenerated into this?!"

The Shadow Guard looked at Gawain in confusion, apparently unable to understand what he meant.

"What are Royal Shadow Guards for? To protect the king, protect this country, protect this land! Your duty is to deal with villains who seek to overthrow this kingdom, not help a muddleheaded king spy on the Founding Grand Duke! If you had been captured on a battlefield against an enemy nation, I would give you some credit for saying that. But you're here, in my home! What the hell do you mean by failing your mission in front of me—are you saying I intend to overthrow this country, or that Gawain Cecil capturing you dishonors Ansu's dignity?! Could it be that, in the hearts of Ansu people of this era, the Founding Grand Duke and the kingdom he founded already stand on opposing sides?!"

Faced with Gawain's stern rebuke, the young Shadow Guard finally became flustered. "No... that's not what I..."

"It doesn't matter. Your opinion isn't important," Gawain cut him off directly, then stood up. "I'm not so petty that I would get angry with one of my own descendants, so you may leave now."

The young Shadow Guard had never expected things to develop this way—though probably every development tonight had been beyond his expectations. He stared blankly at Gawain, utterly unable to believe what he had heard.

Even Amber and Rebecca beside them could not keep their expressions calm.

Gawain repeated himself, "I said, you can leave—do you need me to see you out?"

The Shadow Guard slowly climbed to his feet. "Are you certain?"

"Of course. I cannot kill Francis II's man here, and I do not intend to bring you to Silver Castle tomorrow in front of everyone—though I really would like to. Unfortunately, I'm past the age of acting on impulse, so I can only let you go."

Rebecca seemed to want to say something, but under Gawain's stern gaze, she forcibly swallowed her words.

The Shadow Guard slowly moved toward the window. Before he left, Gawain suddenly spoke. "I have no interest in telling anyone about what happened today, so how you report to His Majesty the King after you return... will depend on you."

"...Thank you for your mercy."

Leaving behind those words, the Shadow Guard's figure gradually faded into the air.

Gawain curled his lip. "...Another one who uses the window."

Only then did Rebecca find a chance to speak. "Ancestor, you really just let him go?"

"Of course," Gawain said with a smile. "Of course I'm letting him go."

"But shouldn't he be punished? And His Majesty the King sending someone to spy on this place, that itself could also..."

"Rebecca, remember this: if you want greater gains, you must look farther ahead," Gawain said, patting Rebecca on the head. "Letting one foot soldier go is no great loss, but there will certainly be potential benefits."

"Potential benefits?" Rebecca blinked. "Like what?"

"That depends on how that young Shadow Guard reports after he returns. There are only two possible outcomes," Gawain said, spreading his hands. "Either Francis II won't get any sleep for the rest of tonight, or from now on, there will be one more Shadow Guard at his side... who isn't quite so loyal."

As he spoke, he turned around and gazed at the moonless night of this other world.

"Relative loyalty is absolute disloyalty—there's a lot of truth in that saying."