Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1959 1931. Betrayal of War Ashes
"what is that?"

The soldiers around the execution platform cried out in alarm, which immediately brought with it a series of sharp, clattering sounds as swords were drawn from their sheaths.

"Take him down!" Mare Mare shouted through the thick, fragrant smoke. "Take down the prisoner!"

However, the powder smoke did not only erupt from between Elonmer's hands.

Throughout the castle's mid-level terrace, puffs of incense smoke, large and small, erupted from various locations. Upon closer inspection, besides the execution platform, there were three other explosive points scattered throughout the area.

And those positions... were originally occupied by perfumers!

The powdery smoke spread across the entire area very quickly and evenly.

In just a few seconds, the nasal passages of everyone present were filled with an intense, nauseating aroma.

"Whoa!"

Wherever the fragrance wafted, the soldiers of Sunshade City suddenly developed a strange, sickly pale-green complexion.

He then knelt down and vomited up foul-smelling gastric juices like water being released from a sluice gate.

The feeling of those stomach refluxes was almost the same as the poisonous swamp outside Sunshade City!
However, the aroma and smoke, just like ordinary smoke, cannot last long in an open area like a terrace; they dissipate almost immediately in a gust of wind.

After the smoke cleared, the panic people felt due to the change in the scene had turned into anger and...fear.

Because the soldiers of Sunshade City, and even Lord Mare Mare himself, were lying on the ground, their vomited gastric juices beneath them.

Only a few dozen outsiders, who seemed to have heard about Elonmeier's arrest and had come to watch the execution ceremony, stood frozen in place, chilled to the bone.

They were just civilians and family members of victims. They were unarmed, had no weapons, and had no combat experience or training. They were completely non-combatants.

And on the execution platform where Elonmeier was supposed to be punished... the prisoner remained standing in the same spot!
"Clap clap."

The knight from a foreign land, bound by iron thorns, brushed the lingering fragrance and dust off his hands.

His demeanor was unhurried and relaxed, showing no sign of the tension or urgency one would expect from a captured criminal in the executioner's castle.

On the contrary, he seemed to be the one in charge here.

The iron thorns on his body were actually barbed wire; each strand was quite thin, but when bundled together, they formed a set of shackles.

This was also the standard instrument of torture used to bind serious criminals during the Golden Dynasty.

But amidst the lingering, faint scent of smoke, a deep red light appeared on Elonmer.

The red light seemed to possess the power to interfere with matter; the iron thorns that were wrapped around Elonmer's body, under the influence of the red light, began to unravel from his body, one coil after another, as if they had come to life.

Beneath Elonmeier's helmet, a low chuckle seemed to never cease.

The slender iron spikes were unraveled by the red light, stretching out to the sky in concentric circles.

From a distance, Elon Meier looked like a terrifying, chilling, glowing red spider!
The iron spikes were untied from his body, severing their connection with the ground spikes.

Elonmeier regained his freedom of movement.

He flexed his wrists, and the iron thorns that swayed to the sky behind him scattered their red light and crashed to the ground.

Perhaps because he liked it, Elonmeier did not remove all the barbed wire from his body. Instead, he kept some of it on without affecting his movement, wrapping it around his body—the part he had previously used to commit crimes.

That part, stained with the blood and rust of the victims!

It seems he really enjoys collecting loot, including the storage bells of wandering merchants that he neither cares about nor uses, and these blood-rusted iron thorns that are completely useless.

He didn't care about the practicality of these things at all; he just enjoyed the feeling of taking something away from other people's screams and wails.

"In a poisonous swamp, using alcohol brewed from poison to counteract the chronic damage caused by long-term living sounds perfectly reasonable."

Amidst the complex stench of perfume and gastric juices, the feeble groans of the soldiers of Sunshade City, and the panic of the outsiders who came to watch the execution.

A low, mocking sound came from beneath Elonmeier's helmet.

"However, when a group of people all share the same eating habits, it becomes a bit too easy to target them. Besides, there's quite a bit of room for manipulation with your alcohol anyway."

He seemed to know Sunshade very well, not only about the castle's structure and defenses, but also about its external features.

They even learned about the lifestyle and habits of the people in this castle, to such an extent!

As he spoke, [Iron Thorn] strolled unhurriedly to a pile of wooden crates beside the execution ground.

With a 'crack', the ordinary wooden box was as fragile as a candy wrapper in front of this renowned knight.

Elonmer pulled a large square shield from behind a pile of wooden crates.

That was the large shield that was placed separately from him when he was escorted into the city!
Marre Marre lay sprawled on the wrecked ground, struggling to lift his head as he looked at the scene through his mask. The situation was crystal clear—Elommel had deliberately been captured and brought to the City of the Sunshade!

And he has an inside man in this castle!
"It's...cough cough! It's you?!" Mare Mare's white hair fell slumped to the ground. He looked up with difficulty and surveyed his surroundings. "Why is it you?!"

Under the watchful gaze of the Lord of Sunshade, all the soldiers and servants in Sunshade collapsed.

Only one group of people stood there—the perfumers.

However, this group, which has served the Marley family for generations and is theoretically even one of the original builders of Sunshade City, is among them.

But no one gave the fallen soldiers and city lord a second glance.

They ignored Maré Maré's questions and stared intently at Elonmer on the execution platform.

"We have done what you asked us to do. Now, it's your turn to satisfy us."

At that moment, Elonmer strolled leisurely past the head of the Marley family, and, despite the man's feeble resistance, snatched away the long box that had just fallen beside him.

The box was opened, and the serious criminal who should have been executed was now holding the execution sword that was supposed to be used to kill him, admiring and caressing it with great care.

It was a very plain-looking execution sword.

The so-called execution sword, of course, refers to the sword used during execution. Since the target cannot resist or dodge, there is no need to consider using faster or more flexible thrusting techniques when using the execution sword.

It was designed purely for chopping.

Therefore, the tip of the execution sword was either flat or rounded.

The same goes for the family heirloom sword of the Mare family.

The sword has a dark, heavy, cast iron texture and is simple and unadorned.

Holding it in the hands of Elonmeier, who was about the same size as Lann, the blade of this sword was a full hand and a half wide!

At the level of an ordinary person, it is enough to be called a giant sword.

The only distinctive feature is perhaps the blood-red stain on the sword, which seems to seep into the steel, appearing and disappearing, yet impossible to wash off.

Throughout the long history of the Golden Dynasty, it has become impossible to record exactly how many criminals the Mare family executed with this sword.

The blood of sinners among the people of the Golden Tree has been mixed with steel and cannot be washed away.

“Ah~ look at this sword.” Elonmer’s fingers lightly brushed across the rough, dark surface of the sword. “One of the legendary weapons of the borderlands! And now it’s in my hands.”

His voice carried a sigh of pleasure, as if simply touching the blood-soaked execution sword was a great pleasure.

After he finished enjoying himself, he looked up at the groups of perfumers standing on the wooden walkway around him.

"Don't be impatient, guys. The Mother of Truth will surely bless you, without a doubt."

As he spoke, Elonmer directed the red light that had been controlling the numerous iron thorns on his body to cover the [Mare Family Execution Sword] in his hand.

"And once you receive the blessing, obtaining [Cursed Blood] will be a piece of cake. That sweet, fragrant, and stimulating blood! It's endless and inexhaustible!"

"Trust me, you'll have a blast!"

Maré Maré's eyes were bloodshot beneath the mask.

In the blink of an eye, the roles of the executioner and the condemned have been reversed.

It's like the enjoyment and perverse pleasure of robbing someone else's things and taking them as spoils.

Elon Mel was speaking openly with the perfumers who had betrayed Sunshade City when, right in front of Marley Marley, he imbued the entire Marley family execution sword with his deep red power.

He wrapped iron thorns around the hilt and guard of the sword, and took out a whetstone knife, and began to scrape the blade of the Marley family's execution sword.

As he scraped, even though no scratches appeared on the sword's surface, a handful of white ash was scraped off out of thin air.

That's not normal dust; it's actually the embodiment of the warriors' soul power. It's the obsession, killing intent, perseverance, and relief that warriors left on their weapons... which is what's known as "battle dust"!
"No, no, no! Don't!"

Mare Mare reached out with trembling hands, trying to catch the dust of soul power scraped off by the whetstone knife, the [Battle Ash].

But with a 'crack', Elonmeier's boot, adorned with blood-rusted iron thorns, stepped on Marey Marey's hand, rendering him powerless to intervene in the criminal's insult and desecration of his family's heirloom sword!
【Battle Ash】Although it is a weapon attachment that can be changed at the border, just by looking at the pile of dust on it, you know that changing it actually requires a very careful technique.

Unless you don't care about the discarded war ash at all and it's okay to let it blow away with the wind.

On this open castle terrace, the moment Elonmer used his whetstone knife to scrape the execution sword of the Mare family for the first time, the original battle dust on the sword was essentially declared damaged.

(End of this chapter)