Side Story Chapter 50
A temporary watchtower had been newly built on the western border. Cain climbed up the tower, as he usually did, and took a look around at his surroundings. Today, however, he tilted his head in confusion.
“…Huh?”
Everything to the front side of the watchtower remained the same. Numerous tents were pitched on the open plains, housing eighty percent of the western rebel army. On the south of the camp there was one big, dense forest, which led to the castle on the mountain that was the rebels’ headquarters.
The forest wasn’t far from the border, so the remaining, elite twenty percent of the western rebel army could attack the national army any time. Since the trees provided cover for the rebels to move without fear of being spotted, the rebels had set up a camp in the strategically best location. But… the forest was changing.
“…What is that?” Cain frowned. Two people basically bounced out of the forest.
Although Cain was dozens of kilometers away at least, it wasn’t a problem for a knight like Cain to observe if he focused his mana into his eyes.
“Wa-Wait, His Highness?” Cain jumped down from the watchtower as soon as he realized who those people were.
A swarm of pursuers was pouring a rain of arrows onto Kireua and Anna, from within the safety forest. The national army called those chasers ‘rangers’; they could move like elves, the people of forests. Inside the forest, the rangers were the strongest people on the continent.
The moment Cain landed on the ground, he turned to a middle-aged man with a mane of white hair and yelled, “Ranger!”
The knight looked up and blinked.
“His Highness is in danger!”
The atmosphere immediately took on a palpable tension. Ranger was a veteran of countless battles, so he instantly understood the situation without needing to make an observation of his own.
“Captains of the Seventh and Eighth Squads! Get on your horses right now. Gather your men and follow me!”
* * *
“You’re crazy, Your Highness!” Anna yelled, scowling.
She was already covered in wounds that seeped blood. Naturally, things weren’t all that different for Kireua, either. While protecting Anna, he had been hit by an arrow in his shoulder.
“It was obvious that our enemies were hiding in the forest, so did you have to choose the forest as a part of our escape route?” Anna complained.
“You’ve seen how many tents there are. We couldn’t break through those enemies directly.”
“We could retrace the path we used before—take a detour to the south and regroup with our allies!”
“That would be too slow. Since their demonkin have been discovered, there’s no telling what those rebels would do,” Kireua answered calmly.
“You said we don’t have to worry about them! With your great ability, you’re like their natural predator!” Anna snapped.
Kireua had thought so up until a few hours ago, but the situation changed because at some point, Coal had stopped answering him.
‘Coal,’ Kireua tried again.
He still received no response. Did Coal absorb too much demonic power? Or was Coal suffering from a side effect from everything they had gone through?
‘Stop pretending to be asleep and answer me right now. I told you that I won’t interrogate you about your identity anymore!’ Kireua plied.
‘Are you going to keep doing this? I’m serious. I’m going to get angry.’ Kireua threatened Coal.
Nothing worked. The one silver lining was that they were out of the forest. However, Kireua could still detect hundreds of rebels, possibly even more, on his tail. On top of that, he had to travel dozens of kilometers more while holding a wounded woman in his arms, so things weren’t looking good.
“Give up now, prince.”
The voice came from not so far behind Kireua; it belonged to one of the rebel rangers, dressed in green from top to bottom as all of them were.
“You know that the chances of you rejoining your allies in your current state are very slim,” one of the rangers, who seemed to be the leader, continued.
“Did the idea that you guys were being lured out here cross none of your people’s minds? Where are you going to hide now?” Kireua responded.
“Heh—are you still going to act tough even at this moment?” The leader smiled crookedly. His men even blatantly sneered at Kireua.
“Hehe, captain, putting the Prince aside, can we have fun with the girl? It’s hard to find a beauty like her even in the west.”
“I’m itching after spending all that time cooped up in the forest. Please, captain!”
“We can’t become like those gay guys in the castle, can we? We have to get a sniff of a girl whenever we have a chance or we’re going to lose our marbles!”
The rangers behaved the same as those animals possessed by demonic power. The problem was, unlike in the castle, that Coal, their natural enemy, wasn’t responding. Nevertheless, they were out of the forest, so the chances of Kireua and Anna emerging victorious weren’t zero.
“Anna, I need a favor,” Kireua said.
“If it’s about leaving your last words, don’t even try. I’m going to survive no matter what.”
“If I create fire, can you direct the fire toward the forest using your wind? You’ll have to be careful not to extinguish the fire.”
Anna glanced at Kireua. “What’s your plan?”
“Surviving is our priority, right? This was my last resort, but I have no other choice.”
“Are you trying to create an inferno or something?” Anna asked, her voice dripping with disbelief.
“Yeah, there’s no risk of us getting caught in the fire now.”
“…Are you sure about this? That forest is part of the Empire.”
“I’m sure the people in the Palace will understand if I explain our circumstances,” Kireua quietly muttered.
Kireua stopped worrying about his next move. He brandished his sword, and with a majestic roar, a giant flame rose into the sky.
“White Wolf!” Anna summoned her highest-ranking wind element spirit, just in time.
The rangers panicked. Kireua’s aura of flame was very noticeable even from far away, and they could clearly see a huge white wolf howling at them, despite being transparent.
“Argggh!”
Kireua swung his sword, and his flame charged forward. However, that wasn’t the end of his attack. The fire also spread to the forest—and they were in the middle of the dry season. The rangers were in trouble if their escape route was blocked.
“That crazy prince!”
“The fire! Put out the fire first! Or else we might end up being the ones stranded here!”
“Half of you focus on extinguishing the fire, and the other half will go after the prince!”
“Ca-Captain! We can’t pursue him if we don’t go through this wall of fire—!”
“Ah, fuck! That fire is nothing! His mana isn’t infinite, so we’ll get after him as soon as it goes out!”
However, the fire didn’t go out even after a long time. In fact, even Kireua and Anna hadn’t expected such a dramatic result. Wind and fire were known to synergize with each other, but they felt a deeper connection in their mana that couldn’t be explained by that alone.
“…Anyhow, I’m not sure how long I can hold out with how much mana I have,” Kireua mumbled.
Flame Emperor Secret Technique Number Eight: Inferno. It was Ulabis’s technique to use the minimum amount of mana to the maximum extent.
Of course, the technique was rarely used in one-on-one battles because it had been devised to take on multiple opponents at once. It was originally believed that mages were more useful than knights during wars, so Ulabis had continuously studied to upgrade his sword techniques to change that belief. The result of Ulabis's efforts was the main cause of the sight unfolding before Kireua.
“Mmm…” Kireua grunted quietly. He was at his limit. Although the technique was invented to achieve maximum efficiency, it was all relative; it wasn’t like the technique consumed less mana compared to Ulabis’s other secret techniques. Kireua was soaked in sweat in less than ten minutes.
“…We’re going to be in trouble at this rate.” Kireua gritted his teeth.
“Your Highness, just go first.”
“What?”
“The fire has already spread everywhere. I’ll use that to hold out, so get out of here first, Your Highness.”
“What the hell are you talking about right now?”
“I promised to become your loyal subordinate for the next ten years. Who in the world would think that a subordinate that runs away without her master is loyal?”
Kireua's eyes widened, then he bit his lip. It had been a while since he’d felt this powerless—not since the day he had voluntarily left the Palace.
“…Be quiet,” Kireua mumbled.
“Hmm?”
“I’m not going anywhere without you.”
Anna’s eyes widened in surprise this time. She grinned. “Is this a love confession?”
“Are you making jokes right now? Seriously?”
“Yup, I definitely am!” Anna continued to grin as she moved the wind around her to gradually push Kireua backward.
“What are you doing?”
“I don’t think you’ll leave unless I do this.”
“Urggh…!” Kireua planted his legs firmly on the ground, creating two deep furrows in the soil as he was pushed away.
“It’s time to say goodbye, Your Highness.”
“Anna, cut it out!”
Anna smiled faintly. “Cut it out yourself, Your Highness. At least one of us should survive.”
“Ah, shit…!” Kireua clenched his teeth tightly.
He wasn’t good enough. Despite his determination to protect his people no matter what happened, he was abysmally helpless right now.
“Your Highnessssss!”
Kireua froze.
Anna also heard the voice quite clearly, but she could hardly believe it. “Am I he-hearing things…?”
A moment later, Kireua and Anna heard the clatter of horses’ hooves against the ground and realized that it was real.
“Your Highness!”
After hearing the voice more clearly, Kireua’s face lit up. “Sir Cain!”
The next thing Kireua saw was a group of people he hadn’t met for a long time. Naturally, Kireua knew them very well.
“Oh my god. The Imperial Knights!” Kireua gasped.
* * *
In a dark alley of Arcadia, the capital of the Avalon Empire, a man was moving comfortably in the middle of the night.
“…Ugh!” He groaned painfully.
Someone had grabbed his head and slammed him against the wall as if they had been waiting for him.
“Wh-Who is it?” the man asked.
“Your routine is the same as ever, Zero. Are you sure you’re an agent?”
Zero's eyes widened.
“Or have you been getting lax because you’re part of the ‘strongest’ country on the continent?”
“Wh-What in the world…?”
He was an agent of an information guild, but he was also an intermediate-expert knight that could use his mana proficiently. However, Zero quickly abandoned his will to fight back when he felt the air around his nape getting cold.
“Have you already forgotten my voice? That would make me a little sad.”
“Wai-Wait, I definitely heard this voice from…” Zero’s jaw slowly dropped to the ground as realization dawned.
It was impossible.
“This doesn’t make any sense!” Zero shouted.
As an agent, Zero was peerless. He perfectly remembered the faces of everyone that he’d ever met as well as their voices, even if he’d only passed by them on the streets. That was why, after remembering whose voice that was, Zero couldn’t have been more surprised if his father had returned from the grave.
“If you’re still in Arcadia, then it’s safe to assume that you haven’t retired, right? It’s been a while, but I want to make a request.”
“Yo-You…”
“The people in the Hubalt Empire seem to be up to some cute schemes, so I think I’ll be more grateful if you let me meet your leader in person.”
The grip on Zero’s head loosened, allowing him to slowly turn his head. The first thing he could see was a beautiful woman pointing an icepick at his neck, and the surreally handsome man with black hair was standing next to her.
The man’s name was Joshua Sanders.
“The Ma-Mar-Martial God…!”
He was the missing emperor of the Avalon Empire.
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