Chapter 132 - Dragon Slayer (2)

The Royal Knights arrived at the scene.

"What is this..."

"Just what happened here..."

The knights with nerves of steel, who wouldn't bat an eye even with a sword at their throats, wore overwhelmed expressions.

The battle hadn't even unfolded before their eyes; they were merely looking at the traces left behind after it was all over. Yet, just from that alone, the kingdom's greatest knights were shaken.

Normally, this would be the point where their leader would bellow at them.

Telling them to snap out of it, to regain their composure.

However, the Commander of the Royal Knights remained silent.

With a deep frown, he simply examined and re-examined the scene.

It was not strange.

He was a knight of the Quad Chain, a Silver Lion, of which there were only a few in the kingdom. He was a powerful figure who had reached a higher state than anyone gathered here.

That was why he was shaken more than anyone else.

If his subordinates were merely overwhelmed by the bizarre sight before them, he was feeling a hint of genuine fear.

["It was a sight as if a dragon had swept right through."]

The report from the subordinate who had first visited the scene flashed through his mind.

He had planned to give him a stern reprimand later for spouting such absurd nonsense in what should have been the most objective report.

But now, he couldn't even do that.

The thoroughly torn-up ground, and the massive scar running in a straight line right through the center.

If a dragon had dragged its belly and sprinted across the earth, it would look exactly like this.

The Commander drew his sword. He gathered an Aura Blade at the tip of his sword. Gathering and gathering it until he could handle no more.

Then, with the Aura Blade at its absolute peak, he struck the ground.

CRASH!

With a loud roar, dirt and dust billowed up.

"C-Commander!"

Startled by his sudden action, his subordinates cried out in shock.

Regardless, he simply waited with a stiff face for the dust to settle.

Finally, the dust settled. The trace of the slash he had poured his soul into revealed itself.

"Mm."

A groan escaped him involuntarily.

He had already expected it, but the revealed sight was even more miserable.

With just a single slash, more than half of the mana inside his body had been depleted. His grip on the sword was torn, dripping with blood.

And yet, it didn't even leave a mark worth noting.

A single faint trace had merely been added atop the scar carved into the earth.

If forced to make a comparison, it was nothing more than a snake throwing a tantrum over the path a dragon had swept through.

The kingdom's greatest Silver Lion had poured in all his strength, yet that was all it amounted to.

He couldn't even fathom how much power had to be applied to leave a scar of that magnitude.

He would rather deny it.

That the scar before him was left not by a human, but by nature; a trace created by a typhoon or something of equal measure.

He wanted to believe that.

But he couldn't.

The instincts of a knight who had reached completion told him.

That was absolutely not a trace left by nature. It was the trace of a slash.

He quietly fell into thought.

It was impossible to even imitate with four circuits. Would it be possible if another circuit was added to that?

He couldn't know.

That was an affair in a realm he had never experienced. He could only make a vague guess.

If that scar was truly made by a human, and if by some chance the one who left that trace was the missing First Prince.

It would mean the kingdom's very first Penta-class knight had been born.

"There's no way..."

As someone who had briefly served as his teacher, instructing him in Swordsmanship, he couldn't believe the First Prince had created a sight like this.

That was because it was on an entirely different level from the known-to-be-incompetent First Prince accumulating mana in his heart to reach the level of a Sword Master.

And that meant the one who created this absurd sight before his eyes was a third party.

An entity possessing such ruthless power had arrived just a stone's throw away from The Capital, yet no one had known. It felt as if a blade was pressed against his throat.

This was not the time to scatter their forces and send them out of the palace. If by any chance the entity that created this trace targeted the King, they would be completely helpless.

"We will not pursue."

Sheathing his sword, the Commander of the Royal Knights ordered their return with an unprecedentedly rigid voice.

* * *

They had dispatched an order of knights including a Silver Lion to investigate the scene, but there were no results.

Rather, they only heard even more gloomy news.

That a knight of at least the Penta-class had intervened, and if the First Prince was the target, his survival could not be expected.

If the one giving the report had not been his dear Silver Lion, the King would have exacted a price from him for daring to speak so frivolously about a royal's life.

Even so, it wasn't as if his anger hadn't flared up, so the King furiously raged at the Commander of the Royal Knights.

Telling him to go out and search again right this instant.

But he couldn't send the Royal Knights out again.

It was right after the Commander of the Royal Knights had argued the necessity of strengthening the royal palace's perimeter, suggesting the possibility that the culprit was still hiding nearby.

It was a situation where they were debating whether or not to summon the other Silver Lions present within the kingdom.

They couldn't disperse the palace's forces.

Furthermore, while the Royal Knights were excellent knights, they weren't particularly excellent trackers.

It was far more efficient to mobilize a hundred soldiers to thoroughly comb the vicinity than to use ten knights.

The King drafted portions of the Central Army and troops from the Capital Defense Force, ordering a massive search operation.

Among them was a Ranger of Ballorhard, skilled in search and reconnaissance.

"Damn it! Damn it! He seriously can't stay still for a single moment!"

The Ranger Yorden cursed as he left The Capital. The Prince's knights followed behind him.

And they finally arrived at the scene.

Traces of an unimaginable, colossal battle—a sight that would even leave a Ranger who had witnessed the Warlord's ferocity up close completely dumbfounded—spread out across the plains.

"Fuck! Fuck! If something went wrong, I swear...!"

Yorden spewed profanities.

He swore that if the Prince was truly dead, he would find him and curse him out even if he had to bring him back to life to do it.

It was an atrocious and impious statement, but no one blamed the Ranger.

They, too, shared the same sentiment.

The Prince was always acting on his own, but this time he had crossed the line. Why hadn't he told anyone when facing such a powerful enemy? If he had considered the problems that would arise after his disappearance, he absolutely shouldn't have done this.

"Have you served His Highness for so much longer than I have, yet you still do not know his temperament?"

These were the words of Siorin Kirgayen, who had volunteered to join the search party.

"I heard the Silver Lion who inspected the scene confirmed signs of at least a Penta-class knight having been involved. But could any of you have faced such a person?"

"It's not a matter of whether we could face them or not!"

At Karl's sharply edged voice, Siorin clicked his tongue.

"Yes. You were those kinds of people. Loyal knights who would throw your lives away like blades of grass for His Highness, regardless of who the opponent was. That is why His Highness didn't tell you."

"What do you..."

"I heard that when Winter Castle fell, countless knights voluntarily threw their lives away to protect the unconscious His Highness, causing him to shed tears of blood."

They weren't foolish enough to fail to understand Siorin's words.

Thus, they lost their words.

Their hearts shattered at the realization that the Prince they were supposed to lay down their lives to protect had instead disappeared alone to protect them.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

The rigid Karl Ulrich, who had never cursed once in his life, repeatedly spat out profanities. The other knights erupted in anger as well.

That was an anger directed at no one else but themselves.

Because they were lacking, because they were weak, the Prince had headed to the jaws of death alone.

It felt as if their world was collapsing from anger and self-reproach.

Watching them, Siorin hardened his expression.

Perhaps he would incur great resentment from his daughter.

But he had no regrets. His daughter was currently facing a crucial juncture.

She needed to refrain from releasing aura and keep her mind and body pure until the newly woven circuit fully solidified. Considering that her fourth circuit had already become unstable from being overworked in the empire, it was right not to convey the Prince's news.

Because she would obviously receive a massive shock.

Perhaps to the point that her painstakingly woven fourth circuit would go wrong.

"Wait."

At that moment, the Ranger raised a single finger.

"It's distracting, so everyone shut up for a second."

Everyone fell silent at his irritated remark. If there was anyone among them who could track down the Prince's whereabouts, it was only the Ranger.

And right now, he was acting as if he had found something.

Scrape, scrape.

Sniffing the air and groping the ground with his hands, the Ranger headed somewhere.

Then he sharply raised his head.

And he began to run somewhere.

The knights immediately followed behind him.

They chased the trail for quite some time, and before long, the night had grown so deep that it was difficult to continue the search.

The Ranger stopped his steps and examined the ground.

"Mm."

The Ranger had stopped numerous times along the way to grope the ground, find traces, and reorient himself.

The knights assumed the Ranger would start moving again this time as well.

"God fucking damn iiiiit!"

But the Ranger didn't move. He simply lay face down, slamming the ground repeatedly as he screamed.

"I won't give up. I definitely won't lose it."

Then he crawled across the ground like a madman.

It was a desperate struggle to find the trail.

"You can do it, Yorden. You can do it, Yorden. Damn it. You know you can do it!"

The knights watched the Ranger with stiff faces.

Praying that the Ranger's flailing wouldn't end in fleeting despair.

At that moment, a woman who had been lagging behind suddenly stepped forward.

It was Adelia Bayern.

"Sir Adelia. The clues could be compromised, so step b—"

SWOOSH!

Karl, who had tried to stop her out of fear she might interfere with the Ranger's work, withdrew his extended hand at the horrifying aura.

A golden trajectory remained vividly in the spot where his hand had just been.

Karl turned his eyes.

He saw the back of the incredibly fragile woman.

Gripping a sword dripping with golden aura, she stepped forward.

Karl raised his hand to stop the knights who were about to step forward again.

It was only for a fleeting moment, but he had seen Adelia Bayern's eyes.

Beyond her hollow eyes, seemingly devoid of a soul, two different kinds of light were flickering.

The fragile woman who had been searching for her master with tears and snot streaming down her face no longer existed.

All that remained was a bloodthirsty woman with eyes as dry as grains of sand, having cried until she completely dried up.

Touch her, and she will explode.

He had seen the madness-consumed woman run amok a few times. When she was like that, her usual gentle and delicate demeanor vanished without a trace, and she moved solely to see blood.

The only one who could control her in that state was the Prince. And right now, the Prince was not here.

Even though this wasn't a battlefield, it was precisely because of the Prince that her madness had relapsed.

Karl drew his sword and quietly watched Adelia Bayern. If she caused any harm to the Ranger, he was ready to strike her down immediately.

Because the only one they could cling to right now was the Ranger of Ballorhard.

But the situation he feared did not unfold.

She brushed past the crawling Ranger, who was chasing the trail, abruptly stopped her steps, and lowered her body.

Then she grabbed a handful of dirt and brought it close to her face.

At a glance, it looked like she was just examining it, and at another glance, it looked like she was smelling it.

After performing that incomprehensible action for quite some time, she suddenly threw the dirt away.

Tap.

Kicking off the ground, the woman began to run somewhere.

It was as if she had discovered something.

The Ranger and the knights scrambled after her. Just how far had they gone?

The entire wasteland was filled with large and small piles of rocks.

The woman stopped in front of one of them.

It was a pile where relatively massive boulders were stacked layer upon layer.

It had the shape of something big enough to hide a single person.

The woman threw her sword down and groaned as she tried to push the boulders away.

Karl and the knights hurriedly ran over and assisted her.

Thud.

A boulder fell away.

Thud.

Another boulder tumbled far away.

The tomb-like pile of rocks was dismantled.

And beneath it, someone's back revealed itself.

A back that had been slashed and torn into rags; amidst the all-consuming scarlet stains, patches of grass-green fragments could be seen.

"Ah!"

Karl pushed the boulders away with trembling hands.

Eventually, the boulders were completely cleared, and a blood-soaked figure was revealed.

Draped in a ruined grass-green cloak, wrapping around something.

It was a being they knew well—the leader of the mute elf swordswomen.

Grab.

Adelia Bayern roughly peeled away the ruined elf.

Then, what had been pinned underneath revealed itself.

It was the very person they had been searching for so desperately.

Drenched in blood, breathing so faintly it seemed it might stop at any moment, yet even in that state tightly gripping his sword—the First Prince was there.

"Y-Your Highness!"

Adelia Bayern clutched her cheeks and screamed.

The knights rushed over and lifted the Prince into their arms.

Drip, drop.

Blood spilled out.

The Prince lay limp and did not move.

The Ranger shot the flare he carried in his pocket up into the sky.

SWOOOSH! BANG!

With a loud noise, sparks blossomed over the dark night sky.

Flap, flap.

The sound of flapping wings could be heard from somewhere.

BWWWOOOOO!

The Ranger took a horn out from his coat and blew it without rest.

And not long after, a massive wyvern appeared.

"Huh?"

The wyvern rider's eyes widened when he saw the Prince, who was barely breathing.

"There's no time to explain! Hurry and take His Highness the Prince to the palace!"

The moment the wyvern landed on the ground, Karl loaded the First Prince onto it. He strapped the elf onto the saddle as well. Then he untied his cloak and wrapped it around them in several layers.

Because it would be disastrous if their body temperatures dropped.

"Go!"

"Then I'll see you at the palace!"

The rider, Jean Catherine, said that and immediately flew toward The Capital.

Whoosh.

Following the wyvern flying through the sky, the woman sprinted. The Ranger and the knights followed behind her.

"H-How is His Highness!"

And when they arrived, the First Prince had already received emergency treatment.

"There was a royal command to let you in the moment you arrived."

The royal knight guarding the door to the Prince's bedchamber stepped aside for them.

They flung the door open and entered the Prince's bedchamber.

Several people were gathered inside the room.

The King with a stiff face, the Queen full of sorrow, and the Second Prince with his head bowed.

And right in the middle, the Prince lay on the bed as if dead, his face devoid of any color.

Unaware of his mother stroking his hand, covered by a white cloth, he did not stir.

Seeing that sight, Karl collapsed onto his rear.

"Y-Your Highness..."

In that state, he crawled over to the bed.

"Your Highness!"

The Ranger and the knights followed him, clinging to the bed and shedding tears.

"Your Highness! Your Highness!"

Unable to even form proper words, they kept calling out to the Prince, when...

"Ah, so loud."

A faint voice, so quiet they wouldn't have heard it if they weren't paying attention, reached them.

"Huh? Huh?"

The dumbfounded knights raised their heads.

With a bloodless face, the Prince only moved his eyeballs to look at them.

"Y-Your Highness! Are you okay!"

Karl clung to the Prince and shouted with a bizarre face that was neither laughing nor crying.

"Does this look okay to you right now?"

At the grumbling words of the Prince who was half-dead, the knights let out a sigh of relief.

Seeing that he could talk, it seemed he was fine. Finally releasing their tension, they asked what had happened.

"Just what on earth were you doing out there..."

At those words, the Prince's lips parted slightly.

"Breaking off my engagement."