Chương 36: The Black Deer Wakes

"Greetings to you, Lord Blackwood." The young hisker bowed, his thick tail wrapped around his waist, purple scales catching the light across the vast hall.

"My name is Sigrud." Enel returned the bow, though his eyes moved briefly toward the hall behind them. The voices from the testing grounds had not faded at all, despite their efforts to move away from the crowd. If anything, they were growing louder, and several footsteps were already spilling into the corridor.

"It is good to meet you, Lord Sigrud."

"Not lord," Sigrud said.

"Oh." Enel blinked.

"Then... Sir Sigrud?"

"Not sir, either." Tiny, standing behind Guinevere, leaned closer.

"I have never seen a hisker look so fancy. Are they not usually... poor?" Guinevere glanced at Tiny, but didn't entertain his question at all and only focused on Enel and Sigrud... and at the crowd at the end of the hall slowly moving toward them. Enel also glanced at the incoming crowd, then at Sigrud.

"Then how should I address you?"

"Sigrud is enough." Sigrud's voice was calm, though there was a hiss beneath some of his words.

"Then please, you may call me Enel."

"I will." Sigrud looked at Enel from head to toe, his dark eyes studying every corner and bend of Enel's silhouette.

"I wish to know why you are—""That's him! Oathrunner!"

"Ah!" Tiny waved his hands as he saw the trainees drawing near. He immediately placed himself in front of Enel and Sigrud, still waving his hands wildly.

"Stop. Stop! One at a time if you wish to meet with the Oathrunner!" No one listened to him, some did not even bother looking at him at all.

"Lord Blackwood! My name is W—""Who cares about you?! Did you really kill hundreds of barbarians in the north?!"

"Is that your real hair?"

"Oathrunner. Are you married?"

"Is it true you ran across half the realm without sleeping to fulfill your oath?!"

"We heard you killed a barbarian hero just by looking at it?!"

"Who is stronger, you or Lord Commander Duncan?!"

"Can I touch your hair?"

"Stop!" Tiny raised his voice, now pushing the trainees away. Enel didn't really know where to start with them. They were asking so many questions that the only thing he could do was take a step back—he was used to being surrounded like this in Widow's Wall. But they were either younger than him or a lot older. He'd never been face to face with this many people his age and status. Enel knew that if he said the wrong word, the weight of it would fall upon House Blackwood.

But even more so, he thought he would quickly feel like he belonged in this place. After all, they were all nobles. So, why were they all looking at him differently? Sigrud watched without speaking. His tail tightened around his waist once, then loosened again. And after a few more moments, when he realized the crowd wasn't going to disperse any time soon, he lightly hissed and walked away. It was only then that Guinevere stepped forward.

"Enough." The students froze. Not all of them, but enough that the rest noticed and slowly quieted down. Guinevere did not raise her voice. She only stood there with her book beneath one arm, her dress still touched by the road, and her hair not completely fixed from the ride. Still, everyone's eyes widened upon looking at her, and one of the younger boys quickly bowed.

"Instructor Guinevere." Tiny turned to her, and Enel did too.

"Instructor?" Enel asked. Guinevere looked at him.

"Yes."

"I... was not made aware you were an instructor here, My Lady." Enel looked genuinely awed.

"What do you teach?"

"Fortification, supply routes, emergency settlement planning, siege adjustments, field sanitation, basic Script infrastructure, and introductory governance failures." Tiny stared at her as she listed her entire curriculum. Enel stared as well, though for a different reason.

"Governance... failures?" he asked.

"Like Widow's Wall?"

"Unfortunately so, yes." Guinevere nodded.

"Widow's Wall is in the syllabus."

"Oh." Tiny winced at Guinevere's words, then winced even more when he saw Enel lower his head. Guinevere seemed not to notice at all, however, as she just turned back to the trainees.

"Lord Enel has only just arrived. Please, give him time to settle before you begin asking him questions." A few students lowered their heads as the tone of Guinevere's voice turned stern. Still, most of the young ladies had their eyes fixed on Enel. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Then, finally, one of them couldn't contain their curiosity.

"Instructor, is it true?" Guinevere blinked.

"Is what true?"

"That he came here with you."

"He did."

"Is... there any reason for that?"

"He is my betrothed." And just like that, the crowd froze. Only for a single moment before everything broke loose and the hallway quaked.

"What?!"

"The instructor is engaged to the Oathrunner?!"

"Why...? I thought he was supposed to find a bride here!"

"I was going to ask Father to send a letter to Widow's Wall!"

"Widow's Wall is in Woldmarch, right? What is their stance on polygamy there?"

"I wonder if—""Stop!" Tiny raised both hands again.

"Everyone, calm down! Yes, the Oathrunner is engaged! So, please...... just move back!" Meanwhile, at Widow's Wall, another war was being fought. The bells tolled without pause, the sound running across the barony along with the hurried footsteps of those who lived there. A vemon was climbing over the broken stones of the wall, but before it could hook its limbs further up, Lamb's sword cut it down.

It shrieked and twisted toward her, but that was the last thing it did as Lamb drove her blade into the side of its neck. Both Lamb and the vemon began to fall, but Lamb planted her foot on the vemon and kicked herself off the wall. She landed badly, however, and rolled across the dirt.

"What was that?!" Duke Gawen's voice roared from the top of the wall.

"Are you really good at fighting, or just lucky?!"

"What?!" Lamb pointed her sword up at him.

"Why don't you come down here and fight?!"

"I am old! And I would not need to go down there if you just fought better!"

"You said you were going to teach me!"

"Ha. What do you think I am doing?!"

"Watching!" Lamb raised her voice.

"I ought to have—" Another vemon lunged at Lamb, but she casually stepped back, her sword already moving before she even thought about it. The vemon's claw passed over her head, but her sword went through its jaw. The creature jerked once, then just dropped to the ground. Lamb pulled her blade free and spat beside it.

"Better," Gawen said. Lamb pointed the sword at him again.

"Come down here, and teach me!"

"No."

"Fuck you!" She cursed at him, and several soldiers nearby quickly pretended not to hear.

"Ha. Youth." Duke Gawen did not mind at all, even looking amused before he turned to Robert beside him.

"And where is your warrior wife?"

"She went to check the northern part of the forest," Robert said, his eyes not leaving the Veil.

"The attacks are emerging from more than one place now."

"Huh..."

"And with the Old Walls long gone... It-it is good timing that you are here, Your Grace. Widow's Wall, as it is now, simply could not protect the realm from the Dark Forest."

"I would be angry if I were you. My family and the Crown had abandoned this place." Robert's hand that was hiding away from Gawen's curled into a fist.

"I will not blame you for the sins of your father, Your Grace."

"And what about my sins?" Gawen looked at Robert.

"I have heard from Duncan what my soldiers have done. They are already being dealt with."

"Gawen." Robert's voice turned quiet as he straightened his back.

"You are the duke of the largest and most powerful duchy in Aldwyn, and I am the lord of a house so small you and the Crown had forgotten us. I know my place."

"You have the boy. You should be angry at us."

"I am," Robert said as he touched the wound on his face, but his voice was calmer now.

"I am seething from the injustice my people has been put through, and the inactions of the duchy and the Crown. I am enraged to the point that I want to curse the gods."

"You have the boy," Gawen repeated.

"He is a boy, Your Grace. And I would never teach him to seek vengeance."

"And why not?"

"For the same reason I have not yet pushed you over this wall, Your Grace." Robert bowed.

"You have seen my son. While I am weak and powerless against you, we are all weak and powerless against him. How many people would die through his path of vengeance? How many people would die following him? Because believe me, Your Grace... people will follow him." Gawen looked Robert in the eyes, and a smile crept across his face.

"Oh, I believe you. That is why I am here now. To pay old debts."

"You will not use my son as a political tool."

"But he already is. Not necessarily mine, but he is." The duke looked ahead to the Dark Forest.

"Men born from and of power are tools of the Crown before they could even utter their first words, my lord."

"Not my son." Gawen looked at Robert again, then scoffed.

"I suppose Aldwyn was lucky the boy was born in your family, then." Robert's curled fist lightly opened from Gawen's words.

"Bah. Enough of this talk. And why are these vemons only attacking Widow's Wall?" Duke Gawen squinted, then looked behind him to see the developing barony.

"Is there something... here? It does not make sense that—" Robert clapped all of a sudden.

"P-Perhaps because we are the nearest place with life?!"

"Hm. I suppose it matters not. Tch. Almost a hundred years asleep," Duke Gawen crossed his arms.

"Do you know why it chooses now to awaken?" Robert swallowed at his words, nervously glancing at him.

"N-no, Your Grace."

"Because the war with the Northerners had just ended."

"... Your Grace?"

"It is all over in the history of Aldwyn." Gawen scoffed.

"One tragedy ends, and the realm immediately finds another way to fuck us." Robert's eyes widened at Gawen's bluntness, but also relieved that he did not mention Enel at all. Of course, he didn't let his relief show.

"Agh. Spare me the face, young man." Gawen waved him off. He was about to say something else when they heard a scream from below. A soldier had lost his weapon and dropped to his ass. And before Gawen could even give an order, Lamb had already killed the vemon crawling toward the fallen soldier.

"That girl is a problem," Gawen said, the smile returning on his face. Robert looked toward Lamb.

"You... truly intend to train her?"

"I already am."

"She will not be easy to train."

"Ha! Those are the ones I like the most."

"Hm," Robert almost laughed, but another scream came—this time, from the Dark Forest. It was Mira, sprinting out of the Veil.

"Robb! It is alive! Robb!"

"Alive...?" Robert squinted as he watched Mira and her team of scouts hurriedly retreat, completely ignoring the vemons along their way. But soon, Robert saw why she was running. All of them saw. The Dark Forest... started to move. Not the trees at the edges, no—the entire forest. The ground began to shake, and Gawen had to grab Robert by the arm so that he wouldn't fall from the wall. Several workers stumbled and also caught each other.

The vemons, who had been clawing their way to Widow's Wall, froze all at once... then began backing away. Lamb swung, missing the vemon she was fighting as it quickly retreated away.

"What...?" she whispered. Mira screamed at her.

"Lamb! Go inside!" Of course, Lamb did not even dare question Mira. She quickly turned and retreated back to the wall. The fog covering the Dark Forest began to thicken, but it didn't roll forward. Instead, it gathered like threads toward a single area.

"What... in the Sovereign is that?" Gawen's face changed as a shadow stepped out of the forest. A shadow... much taller than the trees of the Dark Forest, and even taller than the wall he was standing on. His eyes then snapped toward the banners of Widow's Wall, where the insignia of House Blackwood rested. Then he looked back at the shadow. At first, it seemed like part of the forest had simply taken the shape of a beast. Its body was black, not like fur, but like soaked bark. Roots hung from its chest.

Moss clung to its legs. Its antlers reached upward through the fog, branching again and again until they looked like... dead giant trees.

"Oh..." Robert could not move. He could only stare at the creature standing at the edge of the Dark Forest, its hollow eyes fixed on Widow's Wall. It was a black deer. A behemoth. And when it lowered its head, the entire forest followed.

"Great Spirit Blakwud," Robert whispered as his blood went cold. Not Blackwood, as men wrote it now. Blakwud, the old name. The name the house was built under.

"The King of the Dark Forest. I thought... I thought it was dead?"

"Fuck..." Gawen looked almost angry now, though there was fear beneath it.

"It is worse... it has been corrupted by the Veil."