Regnum Aetern: Dual Rebirth

Chapter 156: Peace and chaos

At the northeastern borders of the empire, where the never-ending war of conquest against the Caelwyn kingdom still raged on, there were finally a few moments of peace.

The battles today had not been anything more than minor skirmishes. The injuries sustained by the imperial soldiers were minor, and there were no casualties.

All the imperial soldiers wished for this peace to last just a bit longer.

In the moonless night, where the only source of light was the myriad of stars twinkling in the dark sky above, two young men sat on the grassy ground near the camp of the fourth legion of the imperial army.

The two of them were supposed to be standing guard. But since their shift was going to be over soon, they were chatting to pass the time.

One of them rummaged through his pocket and took out what appeared to be a letter. He handed the letter to the other young man.

Being suddenly handed the letter without explanation, his comrade tilted his head.

"What is it?"

Seeing the confusion on his comrade’s face, the young man smiled knowingly.

"Just read it; you’ll know then."

His comrade gave him a doubtful look, then proceeded to open the envelope and began reading the letter inside. But the longer he read, the more his mouth hung open unconsciously.

By the time he finished, the man had a dazed look on his face and an expression of utter disbelief.

"This... this can’t be..." His comrade turned to him and muttered. "You’re getting married soon... and to a merchant’s daughter at that...?"

"Did you read that part?" The young man added, smiling proudly. "The part about how much of a flower my future wife is?"

But his comrade seemed not to have heard him, still muttering in a daze.

"How could... anyone agree to marry... a bum like you? Poor girl..."

The young man’s lips twitched as he made an annoyed face.

"Hey now, buddy, that’s going too far. I understand that you’re jealous, but there’s a limit to being delusional. I’m going to make the girl so happy that whenever she looks back at her life, she will think that marrying me was the best decision she ever made in her life."

His comrade sighed.

"I hope those aren’t just empty words. If they are, I am going to help sister-in-law exact her revenge on you."

The young man smiled.

Then the two of them looked at each other. And—

"Ahahaha!"

"Hahahaha!"

—They both burst into laughter.

With the surroundings utterly quiet, the sound of their laughter seemed far louder than expected.

Their laughter continued for quite some time.

As he finished laughing, the young man turned his gaze to the night sky.

’So peaceful...’

If things were normal, he wouldn’t have even imagined having the luxury of laughing and chatting like this. All his focus would’ve been on killing the enemy and trying to survive. Even a proper sleep was something hard to come by in this place.

Only fighting and killing.

...And wondering whether he’ll be able to experience tomorrow or not.

This wasn’t the case only for him; it was the same for every soldier.

’Sometimes I’ve even wondered... just what am I even fighting for? Just what were we all fighting for?’

But the young man quickly shook his head.

’Now is not the time for those strange thoughts—um?’

Suddenly, the young man noticed something strange in the night sky.

A string of light extended from a star and connected to another. And then another string of light extended and connected two stars. This happened repeatedly as the connected stars soon formed a pattern.

...A constellation.

The young man’s eyes widened in horror as chills ran down his spine.

Without even thinking, he screamed with everything he had.

"It’s the Starshaper!!!"

He hurriedly turned to his comrade.

"We have to run—!!!"

...But his comrade was gone. All that the young man saw in his place was a pile of ash, twisting his horrified expression even further.

"No—!!!"

But before he could react, a beam of light fell from the sky and struck him down. Being struck by that light, the young man, too, turned to ash.

Soon, a cold wind blew, taking the ashes with it.

The quiet was broken, replaced by screams of terror and desperation as more and more beams of light fell on the imperial legion’s camp.

A petite young woman with silver hair and cyan eyes floated above, looking down at the camp.

The beams of light fell without pause, and the screams coming from the camp soon died down. The surroundings once again grew quiet. But this silence felt different from before.

It felt empty.

The silver-haired woman slowly descended below. She wore an expression of utter boredom, and her gaze seemed rather uninterested.

She grumbled as her feet touched the ground.

"It’s done... Ugh, why do those living skeletons have to send out for trivial things like this? I have a life to live too!"

She looked around but could not spot any signs of movement. After waiting for a bit, she turned around, as if to leave.

But suddenly, the earth below her feet moved. A massive stone hand rose from the ground and reached towards her as though aiming to grab her petite body.

Seeing that, a glint appeared in the young woman’s eyes.

"Interesting."

Before the stone hand could reach her, a beam of light fell on it from above, shattering it.

But she could already see several figures rushing towards her from all directions, the pressure from their presence distorting the air itself. Moments later, dozens of cataclysmic spells were flying towards the spot where she stood. The figures holding weapons covered in element-infused mana were also nearly upon her.

Seeing all this, the young woman’s lips stretched into a wide smile. At the same time, stars in the night sky began connecting and forming a constellation.

"Fine, let’s see how long you fools can last."

***

Hours later, the silver-haired woman was holding the last one of the attackers by the neck as they struggled under her grip.

The entire landscape around her had been overturned by the devastating clash to the point that it was no longer even recognizable. Corpses of the ones who had attacked her were strewn across the area.

Yet the young woman herself didn’t seem to have gotten even a single scratch.

Looking at the man squirming in her grip, she sighed. Tightening her grip, she broke his neck, and the man’s struggle ceased.

Casually tossing the corpse aside, the woman turned around.

"What a waste of time."

But she suddenly paused as she looked at the sky.

...It was slowly turning blue, and the stars had all disappeared.

Her eyes widened in realization.

"So that was their plan!"

She hurriedly turned around, only to see a dagger covered in dark energy coming towards her throat.

The attacker, who was still half-invisible, cheered.

"I’ve finally got you now, Star bitch! This is the end!!!"

She instantly knew she wouldn’t be able to react in time.

But the dagger froze just as it was inches away from her throat. The half-invisible attacker suddenly turned completely visible.

"Cough!"

He coughed up a large amount of blood, and she saw a dagger’s blade sticking out from his chest. The attacker looked at the dagger’s blade in confusion.

"H-How?"

A boy was standing behind the attacker, smiling amicably as he twisted the dagger, widening the wound in the attacker’s chest.

He spoke in a light tone.

"Does it matter how? After all, you are going to die anyway."

Light slowly faded from the attacker’s eyes, and his body grew limp. The boy released his grip on the dagger’s hilt, causing the attacker’s body to fall to the ground.

Still smiling amicably, the boy turned to the silver-haired young woman.