Chapter 43: Shadow
Chapter 43: Shadow
Ethan didn’t approach him immediately, he waited until the shift finished and made further confirmation that the person he was looking at was really him... no matter how carefully he tried to disguise it, the footwork gave him away, and the quiet composure none of the other mining worker’s carried.
He observed him for a few more hours and made sure it was really him.
Only after the workers had disappeared into the evening traffic did Ethan leave the ridge.
Riverwood was busier than it had appeared from a distance. Miners crowded the streets as shifts changed, boots tracking mud across timber walkways while merchants called out the last of the day’s prices. Ethan drew a few glances.
Rune drew considerably more.
The cub had grown enough that nobody mistook him for an ordinary dog anymore, and Ethan caught more than one conversation dying as they passed.
He had no interest in becoming the evening’s entertainment.
The first inn with an open room was good enough.
He quickly withdrew and went to a nearby tavern. He could see a boy around fourteen years of age, similar in height to him, the boy looked at Ethan and immediately realized he was a knight.
Ethan booked a room for himself.... the inn boy introduced himself as Van and immediately showed Ethan to his room.
Rune followed behind him.
Ethan immediately took a warm bath and changed into a set of black clothes he summoned from the inventory....
He also brought out a piece of parchment and ink from the inventory he’d bought at Northwatch and began writing.
It took almost half an hour to write the breathing method, the circulation patterns, and the first two forms, and he put it back in the inventory.
Right after finishing it, he ordered a few dishes of two servings each for both Rune and himself....
These days, Rune’s appetite is increasing at a rapid pace....
Rune is already complaining, giving mean looks, for the past two days, and he didn’t want to make him wait any longer.
Ethan quickly finished the meal... while Rune voraciously ate his share.
After taking a short rest, Ethan decided to test the new combat art he wrote, which he’d acquired from an ancient ruin in the later years of his previous life....
Ethan stood in the center of the darkened room and closed his eyes.
The faint pressure that every cultivator unconsciously released folded back into his body. His breathing slowed. The soft sound of cloth shifting against skin disappeared. Even the floor beneath his feet seemed to stop acknowledging his weight.
Night Sovereign Art.
Shadowless Breath, first form.
Even the miniscule aura around Ethan immediately became concealed... he merged into the shadows, he could still feel the familiarity right after he executed the first form.
It still feels unreal, no matter how many times I do it....
I think it’ll work better for him than it ever did for me...
Let’s see if he’ll submit this time.
Ethan quietly withdrew from his room, Rune’s ear was already twitching when he left, a small smile escaping Ethan’s lips.
It was already night when Ethan stepped outside the tavern....
He quickly merged into the shadows of the street and found the room of the person he was looking for, he entered through the window using the movement technique.
Right after entering, Ethan could see the room, it looked almost empty, apart from a few sets of clothes and a bed....
How likely is he...
It’s almost time he comes back. I hope he recognizes its value.
Ethan quickly left the first two forms of the Night Sovereign Art, and a note.
Your daughter is still alive. If you want to take revenge, meet me at Coldvale village near the outer forest, tomorrow at dawn.
Ethan slipped back into the street and made his way to the tavern, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
It worked out faster than expected...
It’s time to complete the mission.
Nearly an hour after Ethan went back to his room, a man in his late thirties, brown hair, black eyes, entered his own room.
The footsteps didn’t make any sound, nor did his movements... the moment his eyes landed on the parchment near his bed, his eyes maintained the same composure as always. He took the note.
The moment his eyes landed on the first line, the rage consuming his heart is overflowed with something far greater... fear. Fear that the words may not be true.... he feared someone might be playing a prank on him, that the count found his whereabouts and was luring him in....
But what if it’s true....
No...
The Count.
It had to be.
Someone had found him. Someone knew where he slept, knew about his daughter, knew exactly which wound to press hard enough to make him move.
His fingers tightened around the note.
Then his eyes landed on the parchment on the bed, which was beside the note, he immediately took it, opened it....
The moment his eyes landed on the techniques, he could see the complexity and the profound principles which lay in each form.
"These, he realized, should be just the first forms... Shadowless Breath, and something called Night Veil... yet the principles behind each are something he could never have imagined on his own."
A hope bloomed in his heart, if he could learn this technique, his revenge is not a dream... it will be a reality.
He could imagine reuniting with his daughter....
But no matter how much he searched for the breathing techniques and circulation patterns, he couldn’t find any on the parchment, apart from the first two forms.
He realized that the person who did it left it deliberately....
And whether that person could be trusted at all....
Even though he found hope, he still couldn’t calm the uncertainty and anxiety at the edge of his mind.
Ethan has already returned to the tavern and saw Rune sleeping soundly at the edge of the bed.
This is the first step. I hope he doesn’t do his usual antics, or else I may have to be a bit rough.... I should depart early and finish the mission.
Ethan had already reached the outer forest before the sun rose above the Winterveil mountain range.
Ethan put his back to a tree and waited, from an hour behind the treeline, his sharpened senses detected movement from afar... the man moved with uncommon footwork, specialized for handling sensitive matters.
"Shadow," Ethan said, as he stepped out of the treeline.
The name stopped the man mid-stride, his head turned... a child. And for one moment, the hope shattered, and rage consuming him took over.
"You," Shadow said, the word came out as something closer to a growl than a syllable. "You made me believe—"
He didn’t finish the sentence, he took the dagger from his side and came at Ethan in the blink of an eye, thrust the dagger with the full movement of his body behind him.
Ethan didn’t unsheathe the sword, he took the scabbard and deflected the dagger, the impact traveled through his arm without giving ground... the increase in his recent stats made the impact much less significant.
Shadow adjusted immediately and went for Ethan’s neck, Ethan sidestepped and gave a blow to his ribs with the scabbard.... Ethan swung again toward an opening at his legs, which made Shadow stumble and nearly fall. The fight went on for a few minutes, one side fighting desperately, consumed by rage, the other trying not to let him make a choice he’d regret for the rest of his life.
The fight lasted longer than either of them likely expected... Shadow was strong, genuinely strong.... but he didn’t have a proper cultivation art to direct his aura, which made it possible for Ethan to use every advantage available.
He ended it with a strike to Shadow’s knee that dropped him hard into the ground, followed by a sword unsheathed from the scabbard.
The Eternal Sovereign Blade hung at Shadow’s neck.... Shadow knelt there, breathing hard, blood at his lips, broken ribs, staring up at a boy who looked no older than twelve... who shouldn’t have been able to do any of that.
He had the strength of a Great Knight, yet he was unable to defeat a kid two decades younger than him.
"Are you done," Ethan asked... there was no emotion in his voice.
The moment Shadow made contact with those grey-blue eyes, he felt a sudden chill crawl up his spine.... he felt like he was looking at a beast rather than a kid, his shoulders dropped, not in submission, but from losing even the last thread of hope hanging at the edge of his mind.
He didn’t answer for a few minutes, which made a sigh escape Ethan’s lips.
Ethan slowly reached into his collar and took out a small pendant... the Ravencrest insignia, Silver caught the first light of dawn. A raven above a shield unmistakable to anyone who’d spent time on the northern frontier, the shield that had stood between the empire and the eternal forest for generations.
"Ravencrest..."
Ethan lowered the Eternal Sovereign Blade from his throat.
"Now," he said, "are you ready to listen?"