Are You Sure Our Empire's Knight Order Captain is a Yandere? - Chapter 4

“What do you mean they’re in trouble?”
“Just what I said.” Branchen rattled the chains on his wrists, his tone utterly indifferent.
“Start talking, now.” Jingū Yoru’s grip tightened on the scabbard, barely restraining herself from striking him again.
“I’m going to sleep,” Branchen replied, shaking his head and clearly dismissing her.
“Oh, you dare to dismiss me?” A cold scoff escaped her lips. A dismissal? What kind of nerve did this guy have?
“Ooh-ahh-ugh—why—is—there—electricity? Huihuo! Ugh! Hah?” Branchen’s whole body was a mess of painful spasms, convulsing violently as he struggled to force out coherent words.
“What do you mean they’re in trouble?” Jingū Yoru stroked the light blue scabbard, the impromptu torture tool, repeating her question with deadly calm.
“They… they walked straight into a High-Tier Demon…” Branchen managed to say, wincing as the residual pain from the shock subsided.
“Dixian is strong enough, surely.” Jingū Yoru frowned, a touch of scorn in her voice. She had personally selected all five Vice Captains; their combat strength was crucial.
“Dixian is an Archer…” Branchen knew Dixian was clever.
“Wufeng.” Jingū Yoru knew exactly what the youngster was implying: Dixian couldn’t handle close combat, but her younger brother could.
“His strength isn’t enough. The little brother’s ‘fangs’ haven’t sharpened yet.” Branchen closed his eyes, shutting her out.
“But they should be fine as long as it’s not a Demon General or higher, right?” Jingū Yoru’s voice held a note of desperation; she knew Branchen was speaking the cold, hard truth.
“They’ve run into a Hundred-Handed Giant.” The moment Branchen closed his eyes and sensed the immense aura, he felt a flash of pity for the knights’ terrible luck. The demons had only just reappeared, and the team had already stumbled upon a Demon General.
“Are you certain?” Jingū Yoru’s composure fractured.
“Yes, the aura is unmistakable,” Branchen nodded confidently. “I need to go out for a while.”
“Remember to wear a mask,” Jingū Yoru pouted.
“Branchen, tonight I… I always… will…”
Her small face was now burning, easily matching the color of the flames flickering behind her.
“I know. I’ll be back before nightfall.” Branchen sprang down from the wall, the chains that had bound him falling away in fragile, biscuit-like fragments.
“Just watch yourself.”
“Hmph!” Hearing this unexpected concern, Jingū Yoru swiftly forced her emotions into check, letting out a dismissive scoff.
“He’s not even that old himself…”
“Alright, alright.”
“Idiot.”
Wufeng felt a cold certainty settle in his gut: he wouldn’t survive this. He honestly believed it.
The Quick-Draw Slash had done its job, cleanly shattering the first giant tree, but the Hundred-Handed Giant offered no moment of reprieve.
If the first massive blow missed, the second would connect. The arms wielding the second tree had multiplied to ten, all surging towards the two pinned-down knights.
Drat it. His sister had warned him that the Quick-Draw Slash demanded brutal physical fitness because it forcibly bypassed the necessary power build-up. That was why, at the academy, she’d insisted on five thousand press-ups every day.
Since graduating and joining the Imperial Knights, Wufeng hadn’t slacked off, but his training was nothing close to his student days.
“Aaaah! Ahh!” Was this really it? Just sheer, desperate endurance? Was he relying on some final death-throes burst of power? Wufeng forced a grim smile.
“Mind if I borrow this?” Wait, what? Who asks to borrow a sword in the middle of a battle?
Before Wufeng could fully process the words, the Katana was smoothly pulled from the scabbard on his waist.
“A Quick-Draw Slash?” Wufeng spun around in shock. Behind him stood a stranger wearing a fox mask, holding his sword and completely ignoring the charging Hundred-Handed Giant.
Carter frantically tugged Wufeng’s sleeve. “Senior!”
“Stop tugging!” Snatching his sleeve back, Wufeng impatiently shifted his gaze from the masked man to the direction Carter was pointing.
Black hair flowed around her, the familiar white robe unfastened as always, an aqua-ice coloured longsword held casually in her hand. Standing alone in front of the formation, her sheer presence caused even Rahl, who wasn’t the target, to visibly tremble.
“Sister!”
“Captain!”
“Senior!”
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The sharp sound of splintering wood pulled Wufeng’s attention back. The fox-masked stranger, standing behind them moments ago, had used Wufeng’s blade to forcefully slash apart the massive log with a raw, unpolished style.
“Here.” The fox-masked stranger tossed the Katana back to Wufeng.
“How could he…?” Carter’s eyes widened, his face etched with disbelief.
Roar! Hoot! Woo! On the other side, Jingū Yoru had engaged the Hundred-Handed Giant solo. Leaping off one of its continuously flailing colossal arms, her ice sword flashed repeatedly, piercing the key vitals on the Giant’s chest.
“He… he’s still moving?”
Wufeng sensed the danger. One stab was negligible, but his sister had landed at least ten precise strikes. Why hadn’t the demon even slowed down?
“He has the Demon King’s Blessing,” the fox mask muttered, standing silently beside him and watching the fight. “Huihuo!”
“?” Wufeng flinched slightly when he heard Branchen call Jingū Yoru by that name.
“Are we using that technique?” Jingū Yoru landed gracefully beside Wufeng and the others after a swift backflip, a frustrated pout on her face.
“I can handle this on my own.”
Roar! Woo! Roar! Wooo!
“Huihuo?”
“Fine!” Jingū Yoru stamped her right foot lightly, snapping in irritation.
“Rahl, Carter, Wufeng, Four-Man Formation. Cover me.”
“Yes, Captain!”
The instant Jingū Yoru gave the order, she leveled her ice sword and charged.
Branchen moved too. He pulled a small, black, palm-sized stone from his pouch.
He scribbled furiously on the ground, and in moments, the surrounding mud was covered with small, large, twisted, and serpentine unknown runes.
“Five more seconds!”
“Alright! Hurry up! I’m reaching my limit!” In mid-air, Jingū Yoru twisted her delicate body, pointing her ice sword to the sky.
“Carter, prepare the Combined Skill.”
The moment she spoke, the ice sword burst with a dazzling blue light. Though it always held a natural blue glow in the sun, the amplified light was now breathtakingly brilliant. Carter’s spearhead seemed to respond, faintly flickering with a crimson light.
“Demon King’s Blessing, Release!”
At Branchen’s command, the twisted runes on the ground slowly began to rotate.
The design he had been drawing was a Magic Array, and its serpentine center was now emitting a fierce purple glow. As the light intensified,
A Purple-Glow Spear was violently ejected from the light. The surrounding runes dissolved, channeling all their energy into the spear’s intensifying purple radiance.
“I’m ready!” Branchen roared across the battlefield.
He slapped his left hand onto the glowing purple spear, dropped into a low stance, and his pupils narrowed to slits. The spear became a blur—a purple comet—kicking up dust as it crossed half the battlefield, striking before Jingū Yoru’s team could even launch. It plunged straight into the Hundred-Handed Giant’s left eye.
“Rooaaarrr!”
“Carter, Pierce!”
Jingū Yoru and Carter seized the chance presented by the Giant’s pain, leaping into the air together.
In a brilliant flash of red and blue light, the Hundred-Handed Giant’s right eye was pierced for a second time. But this was no minor wound like the previous ones.
This time, the Giant’s right eye exploded with a blinding golden light, like a miniature sun.
“Roar!” CRASH!
The Hundred-Handed Giant toppled like a collapsing mountain, raising a massive cloud of dust and debris. Its colossal body dissolved and vanished into scattered particles of golden light,
Simultaneously declaring the Knights’ hard-fought victory.