Chapter 197
Light a Fire (3)
I deflected the lightning bolt that thundered my way. I cut through the flames that wished only to devour. The spear of snow and ice flying at my heart was smashed into fragments mid-air.
I looked at the wizards behind the translucent barrier. Whether white, distorted in pain, or with eyes so wide that they almost tore from their sockets – each wizard had a different facial expression, but the emotions welling up from them were the same: Embarrassment and surprise.
They had never expected how easily and how many times their magic would be destroyed. But what could I do about that? There were still many surprises left. I sliced my sword from top to bottom.
‘Qshcuap!’
The shield woven by magic tore apart like a paper sheet. As the mana fragments scattered, the pale wizards all cried out, “Paladin!”
Through their pleasant screams came a sound like a snake’s flickering tongue. At the same moment, three lines of energy flashed out, three strikes of an Aura Blade. I had already dodged away, coming to a standstill before an old wizard, the only one among the five who had not yet manifested his magic.
His deep wrinkled eyes stared at me, and they shook as if there was an earthquake. The old wizard’s thick lips constantly muttered as his two hands drew complex shapes in the air. The old man was steeped in magical craft, making Ophelia and the unknown mage who attacked me in the forest look like children.
“You’re a mage,” I said, and the wizard flinched at my words, his lips moving quicker.
‘Goo-ooh!’
A great energy wave began to sway around the old wizard, indicating that the completion of his magic was imminent. Even if he had not yet completed his spell, with his magic not yet having revealed its shape, I was able to realize the magnitude of it immediately.
He would soon unleash magic upon the world so powerful that it was incomparable to lesser spells. The flames, ice, and lightning of the other wizards had just been a diversion. The translucent barrier had merely been a safety mechanism to buy time.
The real thing was the old mage’s magic. I didn’t know its form, but I knew that the entire area would turn into hell once he unleashed his magic. The mana stored by the old man had the power to do so. Unfortunately, there was no way for me to discover the nature of the mage’s magic. The old wizard’s spell was left unfinished forever.
“I’m sorry.”
The wizard’s head was separated from his body, rolling over the ground.
‘Kurruroong~’
The mana that the mage had gathered up to that moment shook…
‘Dwaang!’
…and it exploded.
* * *
The battle ended swiftly, with the aftermath of the explosion neutralizing the imperial wizards. They all collapsed before our swords, their resistance futile.
The imperial paladin and knights resisted fiercely, but they only bought themselves a little time.
The shock of the explosion stunned the paladin, throwing him away from the third princeps. Percival stabbed him, with the paladin not getting the chance for a proper fight. The imperial knights were all beheaded by our knights and me.
It was an unbelievable battle, considering that it had included a paladin and a mage. The way things played out, all their power had existed in vain. If this were a proper battle, these powerful men would have left countless of Leonberg’s knights and soldiers bleeding out. However, they had not been given a chance to use the might of their minds and bodies properly. They all became corpses stretched out upon the ground.
All who survived was the foolish third princeps.
“There are no injuries. It seems he just passed out. So, it’s okay to assume that he’ll be sleeping for a while,” Percival reported to me after confirming the status of the princeps.
It was as Percival said: I heard his soft breath when I listened intently.
Even if all his talented protectors had been wiped out at once, the princeps was far too easygoing, napping like that. I was disgusted.
Still, it was far better to have the third princeps in such a state. If he had been awake, it would have been a real headache trying to keep him under control. In that situation, the princeps would not have known what to do, considering that he had voluntarily declared me to be his brother.
So, it was ideal that he was unaware of my presence and my capability.
Of course, even if unconscious, he was still giving me a headache. It had certainly been a pleasure to smash a dent in the Empire’s power, taking a paladin and a mage, but the question now was how to get the princeps back to his camp. Leaving him just as he was would make the entire situation seem unnatural. Waiting for the imperial reinforcements to come to his rescue and giving him away was not an option because we did not know how long it would take.
Fortunately, Percival came up with a solution.
Since his soldiers are from the Empire, they would be perfect, acting like a surviving band of troops coming to the princeps’ rescue. If they pretended to fight with us and forced the princeps to make his dramatic escape, the imperial army would believe that a group of soldiers who had remained on the front had sacrificed themselves to save the princeps. I couldn’t think of another way on the spot, so I decided to follow Percival’s plan.
“Well, now, we wait.”
Percival had left for the citadel, and while we waited for him to return with his former soldiers, the third princeps groaned. If I left him like that, he would wake up, so I slammed the flat of my blade against his head. He passed out again with a yelp.
“Huh?”
I tilted my head as I looked at the unconscious man. The moment my blade had hit the back of his neck, an unknown energy had touched my sword. It was strange; I knew his mana reserve was scant, barely that of an apprentice knight. The energy I had felt in that short moment of contact was several times fiercer than that.
I used my power of [Judging] in any case, and my eyes almost fell out.
[—]Apostle of the Full Moon[—]
A trait I had never seen before was clearly displayed on the princeps’ character screen. It was something I knew well: Those bizarre beings, neither human nor beast, that we had encountered in Dotrin’s forests. They were ferocious hunters who spread their mutating plague. [Apostle of the Full Moon] was a title that described one-half of the Plague Lord’s followers.
“You? You’re infected?”
It was not difficult to guess where the third prince had caught the full moon plague. The forests of Dotrin, within which both of us had stayed at for a while, had become a territory ruled by the full moon clan. And now, a man born with the innate traits of [Deathbringer] and [Destroyer] was also an [Apostle of the Full Moon].
It was absurd rather than surprising, and it felt far more amazing than merely being absurd. When a full moon plague strikes, nine out of ten victims die during their transformation, with only one surviving to become a half-man. And only about one in a hundred of those who had completely transformed become apostles, gaining savagery and vitality.
In terms of probability, the princeps’ transformation was a very rare case, with the odds being one to a thousandth against. The fool before me had been reborn as an [Apostle of the Full Moon] against all odds. Is there anything as sublime as this in the world?
I looked at the princeps in detail once again, and I found out that, embarrassingly, he had only gained a single of the numerous abilities of an apostle. He didn’t have the hunter’s [Tenacity], nor the predator’s [Wildness]. The princeps did not have the [Toughness] of the full moon warriors, and neither did he have the [Ferocity] of the half-men.
The only trait he had was the [Vitality of the Plague Lord]. It meant that his wounds could heal quickly and that he had a lifespan twice as long as normal humans.
For the third princeps to live on while the probability was against him, to become a [Apostle of the Full Moon], only for him to gain the single ability of [Vitality of the Plague Lord] – I wasn’t sure if I should call that lucky or unfortunate.
After thinking about it for a while, I reached a conclusion.
“This is good.”
It was an end to my worries about the blitzing guy blindly getting himself killed by a sword-thrust on the battlefield. Anyone who posses [Vitality of the Plague Lord] would not easily die under the bite of a blade. Still, just to be sure, I decided to try it out.
I drew twilight and cut into his forearm.
‘Plluchgk~’
White froth rose from the long cut as it quickly healed. As I looked at his white, scarless skin, I gave a satisfied laugh. The kingdom’s hope had grown stronger; the Empire’s disaster was mightier than before. It wasn’t bad at all. I conducted several more tests on the third princeps’ body until Percival returned with dozens of men. They were all soldiers from Malcoy’s legion, who had been Leonberg’s prisoners up to a while ago.
As we had discussed in advance, we created the appropriate scuffs and traces to simulate a battlefield.
“Let’s start.”
Once we were done, we immediately began our mock battle. Of course, it would be useless if we thought for a hundred days straight, so we woke up the third princeps…
‘Pwak!’ …in a rather drastic manner.
“Eh?”
Just like a true [Apostle of the Full Moon], the princeps quickly shook off the shock of the blow.
“Your Highness! Run away! We will buy time!” Percival cried out to the princeps, who watched the battle in a haze. Percival’s imperial language was pure, leaving no doubt about his allegiance.
“You!” the princeps gasped.
“Now is not the time for leisurely introductions! Come on, get out of here! We will guard your Highness’s retreat with our deaths!” Percival exclaimed fiercely.
The third princeps’ face hardened for an instant. It seemed that even in such a situation, Percival’s direct tone annoyed the princeps. The stupid princeps did at least realize that getting away from the fight was his first priority, so he soon turned around and started running.
He didn’t run in the direction of imperial territory, however. He ran in the direction of Leonberg’s citadel. Some of Percival’s soldiers got a hold of the princeps and gave him proper directions. They didn’t forget to play the part of getting struck down by our blades after that.
“I will remember you!” the third princeps shouted in an excited voice as he stopped running and turned around. He then fled without a backward glance. As we stared at his back, we continued to mimic the sounds of battle, striking our blades against each other ineffectually. We soon stopped.
“The things I have to do to win a war,” I muttered as a sense of embarrassment came upon us. We glanced at each other and swiftly returned to the citadel after sheathing our swords.
Once there, I told Malcoy about the situation. He was greatly astonished, saying he had not expected the third princeps to conduct a dangerous scouting mission directly.
“I told you. The guy is an idiot.”
Malcoy was somewhat troubled by the presence of the third presence so near our lines and said that such reckless behavior was bound to lead the man into a fatal accident. I didn’t want to let Malcoy worry too much, so I provided him with some good news.
“Don’t worry about it. He’s not going to die anymore.”
Malcoy was amazed when I told him about the princeps’ new abilities. His wonderment lasted only a while, for he soon began to devise new ways in which to use the ‘kingdom’s hope’ to strengthen our position.
“I will make the princeps a hero,” said Malcoy. “Our worries about him getting fatally wounded have disappeared.”
“Tread gently. It will be a big deal if he does die,” I warned Malcoy, just in case. When I made to leave the council room, Malcoy stopped me.
“By the way, now that your Highness has noticed it, isn’t it a matter of time before the emperor knows what happened to the third princeps’ body?”
I nodded. Although the emperor did not have my power of checking people’s traits, he was a man who possessed great insight when it came to studying others. The emperor would easily notice the nasty changes occurring in the body of his son.
“The emperor doesn’t care if the third princeps becomes a dog or a half-man.”
I was not worried about the emperor knowing, and it was more of a certainty than a vague feeling.
After facing the emperor in his capital – after being under his gaze and against his energy for a few days, it was the conclusion I had reached. I had confirmed his disposition.
“I don’t know if it’s due to his basic nature, but the emperor seemed to view the succession as irrelevant.”
If it hadn’t been so, then I would have had no reason not to defeat the third princeps, who would surely become a fire raging through the Empire in the future.
“Maybe so,” said Malcoy. “We can say that it’s a competition, then. The emperor keeps encouraging his sons to challenge each other so that one can rise above the rest.”
Malcoy admitted that my viewpoint made sense. However, it wasn’t the emperor’s obscure intentions that we had to be concerned about, but rather the immediacy of the war. Shortly after the third princeps ran for the hills, the imperial legions crossed Leonberg’s borders.
Battles were fought everywhere. Arwen and Eli raged like crazy toward the Empire’s mainland while the Imperial Army ripped into the kingdom’s territory.
Meanwhile, the cold season was gradually drawing to an end – and spring finally came.
“Your Highness! Some Sky Knights who left with the Eastern Fleet are back!”
Spring began with an extraordinary rapidity this year, strolling shyly out of winter like a fresh-faced girl, much like a timid boy.
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