The steel came down fast, glinting red in the dying sun. Walter didn't move his hands both stayed sunk deep in his coat pockets
but his left leg snapped up. Iron rang against his leather shoes. The knight's sword halted there, sparks dying at Walter's shin.
The man's arms shook. His shimmer,the faint glow of mana wrapped tight around his body-flickered, guttered, then died. Bare steel quivered uselessly against Walter's boot.
"Stand down," Walter said, voice flat. "Don't make me repeat myself."
The knight bared his teeth, sweat trailing his temple. His question cracked through the silence.
"Why is a magic knight from the capital here?"
Walter's heel pressed the blade harder into the stone road, and he tilted his head just enough to glance at the crowd. Civilians were still huddled on the road,broken men and women with hollow eyes. "Go," he ordered without turning fully. "Leave."
Feet shuffled, hesitant, but the people obeyed. A murmur of relief and fear drifted away as they stumbled into the shadows. Walter exhaled through his nose. At least they would live tonight.
"You didn't answer me!" The knight barked again, voice cracking. He shifted his grip, ready to try again.
Before Walter bothered to speak, another hand shot out, clamping across the man's mouth. His partner dragged him back, breath quick and uneven.
"You fool,shut up! Do you want to die here?"
The first knight jerked his head free, chest heaving. "But it doesn't make sense, what's he doing..."
"That's Vice-Captain Walter," the second knight hissed.
The name froze him cold. His eyes widened, color draining from his face. A beat of silence passed before panic jolted through his limbs. "Vice-captain… here?"
Walter watched the recognition spread, dull and predictable. Fear always tasted the same.
The two knights turned sharply, boots clattering against stone as they sprinted toward the central tower. Their silhouettes shrank into the blood-red light of the sunset. Walter didn't chase. He didn't need to.
The knights' footsteps vanished into the distance. Walter lifted his leg and brushed the dust off his boot, the dent in the road marking where steel had kissed stone through him.
The sun sagged low, its edge bleeding into the horizon. Shadows stretched thin across the cobbled street as Walter walked. The crowd was gone, the cries swallowed by distance, but their fear lingered in the air. He ignored it.
His eyes lifted. At the far end of the street stood the bar,an old wooden husk leaning against the dusk. In the doorway, a man pushed through first, moving with a stiffness Walter eyes narrowed .
Walter followed, boots echoing steady against the floorboards. The smell of stale ale and firewood wrapped around him, familiar, unwanted. He slipped into the dim room and let the door close behind him.
Arthur was already behind the counter, sleeves rolled up, pouring amber liquid into a glass with the precision of habit. His back was to Walter .
Walter's eyes fell upon the diary, Lying open in front of him.
"Pour me one," Walter said. His voice didn't rise, but it carried across the empty room.
Arthur's hands kept working, not hurried, not slow. He set the drink down, foam settling in the mug. Walter moved closer, the boards creaking under his weight.
And then,silence.
The back door slammed shut with a finality that did not belong to the wind. Walter glanced, but no one had touched it.
A coin rang out on the counter, sharp against the wood.
Arthur turned at once. The mug still sat on the bar. The coin glimmered in the lamplight, but the stool beside it was empty.
Walter was gone.
Only the faintest ripple in the air suggested he had been there at all.
Walter didn't bother to chase. His shadow stretched long as night swallowed the street. Somewhere above, a paper butterfly lifted from the rooftops, its wings carrying whispers into the central tower.
It landed in the palm of a massive man sprawled across a bed…
"What? Walter is here?" The man sat up, the bed frame groaning beneath his weight. His belly swayed as he leaned forward, black hat with a red flower above it, tumbling from his head.
The knight kneeling before him lowered his forehead to the floor. His long blue coat pooled around him. "We don't know, my lord."
"Damn it," the man muttered. "I thought I'd enjoy them longer." He squeezed the butterfly and unwrapped the message. As his eyes traced the words, a laugh burst from his throat,cold and sharp enough to make the kneeling knight's skin crawl.
"My lord, wh..."
"Take your best men. Kill that bastard." The paper crumbled in his fist, drifting as ash.
"But my lord, he's a vice-captain. If..."
"You love your wife and children, don't you?"
The knight's blood drained from his face. "Forgive my doubt, my lord." He stumbled backward and fled down the corridor.
Lamps floated above the streets like drifting stars. Walter walked beneath them with Arthur's diary in his hand, eyes scanning the page, the words pulling him forward.
The road cracked.
Stone erupted at his feet. Walter slid one step aside as a knight burst from the crater, sword shimmering under the light. Two more landed with him, long blue coats snapping in the lamplight.
Walter sighed. "So this is the welcome a vice-captain gets?"
The first knight lunged. Walter lifted his leg, shin catching the shimmering blade again, sparks raining across the cobblestones. He didn't even look up from the diary. Another knight slashed down, but his sword found only air. A third struck from behind,Walter twisted, body slipping past the strike as though he were water. The diary never left his hand.
A flash split the night.
Paper shimmered into existence,skikigami planes, slicing through the air. One struck Walter's chest, driving him back. Blood spilled across his coat. He gasped, knees buckling.
The knights pressed in.
A clap echoed. Slow. Mocking.
Beneath a tree beside the scene, Walter stepped into the lamplight unharmed, the corpse on the road collapsing into ash. He slid the diary into his coat and drew his blade. Its shimmer blazed so bright that the floating lamps dimmed.
The serpent knight snarled: "Your trick won't save you twice, bastard."
The clawed one grinned, blood on his teeth: "Tear him, tear him apart...!"
Kat's voice was quiet, clipped: "Don't rush. He's reading us, even now."
The serpent knight's sword unraveled into a serpent, fangs snapping for Walter's throat. He cut once,clean, perfect and the serpent scattered in a shower of scales. The man's scream ended as Walter's follow-through split him down the middle.
The clawed knight tore free his own arm, fingers unfurling into claws that slashed from impossible angles. Walter's sword whirled in arcs of light, intercepting every strike. Sparks fell like meteors. One final sweep severed the limb, and the knight's chest followed.
The last knight whispered words that dragged on Walter's limbs, heavy as water. The shimmer binding him slowed his steps only for a heartbeat, but enough for Kat's shikigami to swarm. Paper planes rained like daggers, silver slicing from all sides.
Walter's shimmer surged. His body flared, each movement burning through the drag.
His blade spun once. Paper split, steel cracked, scraps fell burning to the stones.
When the haze cleared, two knights lay dead. Only Kat and one wounded man remained.
Walter leveled his blade, voice calm. "Now. Shall we finish this?"
The broken knight staggered forward. "Kat, run. I'll hold him." His blade lifted, trembling.
Walter shifted, stance slower than before.
"But what about you?" Kat stepped back, eyes torn between loyalty and fear.
"Run," the knight barked. "If you live, maybe you can help Arthur. Don't you say you work harder for his sake? Go!" His body shimmered, the air around him screaming like locusts.
Kat hesitated, retreating step by step. His eyes flicked back,just as the man's body cracked with light.
Walter moved.
The knight's chest split open before he understood. Blood poured, breath failing, vision blurring.
"Damn it… why now? How did he know so much about us… did someone betray us?" His thoughts stuttered as his body collapsed.
Walter planted his feet firmly on the stone, blade still warm with shimmer.
A voice broke the silence.
"Arthur?!" Kat's eyes widened, confusion and horror twisting together. "Why are you here? Go back,it's dangerous!" He turned his head, searching under the lamps for Walter.
His words cut short as blood welled in his throat. His body staggered. The night turned cold.
Kat fell.
Walter stood alone, behind Kat.The lamps casting his shadow long across the cobalstone road.