Chapter 74: Assault (2)

 

“It’s severed.”

 

A man, with his eyes obscured by black cloth, spoke impassively.

 

His covered eyes pointed precisely toward the spot where the monster he created had fallen. Yet, akin to his unseen eyes, he had no way of knowing what happened there.

 

Normally, he could have shared the monster’s viewpoint, but for some reason today, that connection was jammed.

 

All he could do now was issue simple commands and understand where his unleashed monsters were located. Discerning the detailed occurrences on the battlefield was impossible.

 

He hadn’t formed any attachment to them, thinking of them from the start as mere expendables, and understanding they’d be destroyed like this. Nevertheless, the man could not turn his head away.

 

Still, the entity that just lost its connection was specially constructed among this batch, knight-class; made with ordinary Aura users’ capabilities in mind. He had judged that it could devour mediocre knights, and this was not confidence in his abilities but a strictly objective evaluation.

 

It was quite ironic that the one he put some effort into died earlier than the others.

 

In the man’s mind, there were certain expectations from that monster. And the result now visible to him showcased the lowest expectation he had imagined.

 

Beside him, his colleague, blankly staring at the forest, nudged the man with a foot before his previously sealed lips parted.

 

“Walter. Habilis got hit.”

 

“Already? Wasn’t it put forth with quite a bit of confidence? Did the black dragon enter the forest or something?”

 

“No. They haven’t entered the forest yet. If they had, the trees wouldn’t be this quiet.”

 

“True... then it might be the Knight Commander. If it’s him, he’d handle that kind of monkey easily. Bad luck. The altars you painstakingly built will pause suddenly, and thinking the monkey would buy some time, it gets destroyed from the outset. Are we sticking with the plan?”

 

“Of course. Excluding the altar matter, the rest is still as expected. Besides, even if not, we can’t abandon the plan.”

 

The colleague who had asked the man a question, the one called Walter, quietly nodded his head.

 

From the moment the plan was enacted, there was no one who didn’t know it was inevitable that the Kraus family would enter the forest.

 

Once they set foot into the woods, their lives would no longer matter. Even if all the trees in the forest were felled, they would have found and killed them because Arthur Kraus, the head of the Kraus family, possessed such skill and determination.

 

So, in the end, all that remained for them was the success or failure of the plan.

 

Knowing this, the man was able to answer Walter’s question without any hesitation.

 

“Even if the black dragon moves, the distance from the Children of the Sun is already sufficiently wide. While he may take our lives, he will not be able to prevent their deaths.”

 

The man who answered so confidently stood and turned his head toward where his monster had fallen. Although he spoke confidently, the current situation was not favorable in the context of the plan, so he needed to minimize the risk of failure as much as possible.

 

“Due to the altar’s incapacity, it’s become difficult to supply monsters from the forest. I’ll lure them at the front line, meanwhile, you deal with the prince and princess.”

 

At some point, an odd wave reverberating through the forest began to cause confusion in the connection with the monsters. Probably, the altar’s incapacity was highly likely due to this wave.

 

The monsters were released at random. Initially, he didn’t think much of the severed connection, viewing them merely as a diversion. But after Habilis, a monster he had somewhat high hopes for, was swiftly killed, he decided to change his thinking.

 

First, he restored the connection to the severed monster.

 

Since close-range wave interference could be ignored, he now had to manually control the monsters, becoming a decoy to draw their eyes himself.

 

It was nothing more than a simple delaying tactic, but this was the only way to reduce the possibility of failure, even slightly. An incomplete check was worse than none at all.

 

If he dropped a bomb powerful enough that they absolutely could not ignore it in their front yard, whether they wanted to or not, their eyes would have to turn to him.

 

“This, doing something easy alone feels a bit off.”

 

“Don’t get careless and miss something. The prince is quite a competent magician, if given an opportunity, everything will turn to foam.”

 

“I’ll be mindful.”

 

Enough had been said about the strategy. As the conversation seemed to draw to a close, Walter promptly left his seat. While there was a possibility they might never see each other again, no pleasantries or farewells were exchanged between them. Neither held any expectation that their own lives would continue, regardless of how the plan unfolded.

 

“Oh, Almighty...”

 

Left alone, the man gazed up at the sun hanging in the sky and uttered a call to God.

 

Even as he beheld the brightening sun, only darkness was reflected in his obscured vision.

 

***

 

“This...is a creature unlike any we’ve encountered before.”

 

After examining the separated head and body, Sir Gwen informed me that it was a species he had never encountered before. Few people were as knowledgeable about monsters as the commander of the Black Dragon Knights in the South, where all kinds of beasts run rampant.

 

If he was so certain, it was almost guaranteed that this was the emergence of a new species.

 

Of course, it could have been written off as a simple mishap if that was all there was to it.

 

“However, it seems less like it naturally came into being and more like someone intentionally created it. Though it’s well covered, there are signs of tampering on the head.”

 

“An abnormal monster invading the hunting competition attended by the Prince and Princess, and on top of that, a monster that’s been manipulated by someone. This is a major incident.”

 

“That’s right. A major incident.”

 

It was driving me mad.

 

I felt a distant dizziness at Sir Gwen’s words.

 

While extremely rare, there have been instances when monsters dwelling deep within the mountain ranges descended during times other than winter. It was so infrequent that one might assume it didn’t happen at all, but I had encountered monsters descending just two years prior.

 

‘Not just a stray monster, but nearly a legion of them.’

 

A single monster descending from the pack of mountains was as unlikely as plucking a star from the sky, let alone a legion-sized group of monsters. A prime example of my lackluster luck.

 

So, when I first captured this monkey-like monster, I didn’t give it much thought. Even though it was rare for a monster to come down from the mountain, it wouldn’t be strange for someone like me to experience it a few more times.

 

But upon closer inspection, the issue was not as straightforward as I initially thought.

 

‘A legion of monsters would have been better than this. This is really...’

 

The previous incidents could be chalked up to sheer misfortune, but what was happening now was planned and executed by someone. Discerning who was behind it, given the manipulation and control of the monsters, was not at all difficult. The problem was that the suspected perpetrator was too obvious.

 

In the original work, there was only a single instance where the monsters were moved by someone, not by accident.

 

‘Heretics.’

 

Commonly referred to as the ‘True Night,’ the villainous group in <The Princess is Loved.>

 

Setting aside the Seven Magic Towers pursuing the truth, only they could handle the monsters. And, ironically, the very place where they incited the monsters to act was right here in the Luneproud Mountains, where I now stood.

 

There was a fleeting thought that my existence might have hastened the South’s demise, but I decided to shelve such thoughts for the moment. After all, the timing of the monster’s appearance was quite different from what I originally knew.

 

In the original, the monsters’ invasion was quiet and cautious. They started by consuming villages near the forest during non-winter days, gradually severing connections between one village and the next.

 

However, this place, Legion, was too large to be their initial point of attack.

 

Although it was not winter now, key figures were gathered in one place, and security was tighter than ever. Furthermore, skilled knights have gathered under the guise of a hunting competition, not to mention my father, who could be considered the South’s ultimate power.

 

If an invasion occurred here, a defensive line would instantly be established under my father’s leadership, easily repelling them. There was no merit in it. Unless, of course, they had a different objective.

 

“Was it indeed problematic that Orcus and Noel participated in the hunting competition...”

 

From what I recall, it hadn’t been long since the royal family conducted a large-scale purge of the Heretics. I believed that currently, they were focusing on increasing the number, but it seemed I thought too lightly of them. They were acting faster than I anticipated.

 

Even if they were to act fast, I thought they would move when I was at the Academy...

 

“Sir Gwen. Right now... damn it!”

 

In the middle of trying to converse with Sir Gwen, as the situation seemed to be taking a severe turn, a curse involuntarily escaped my lips. Sir Gwen, who suddenly heard me curse, didn’t seem to mind. Perhaps feeling the same as I, he too was staring at the same place, fire in his eyes.

 

The sensation of the monsters, rustling vividly through the forest, was felt distinctly, though I hadn’t unleashed my suppressed senses. However, what agitated my mind more than those was the peculiar energy that flowed in from beyond.

 

I had encountered it once before in Merohim, but unlike that time when only remnants remained, now that energy was certainly revealing its potent presence without concealment. Merely confirming that fact felt akin to facing a pit swarming with bugs, enough to induce a sense of nausea.

 

“They’re calling us.”

 

“Yes.”

 

Quite brazenly, they gesture for us to come and catch them.

 

While part of me would like to respond to that provocation, knowing their intentions meant I had no plans to comply.

 

“Young Master.”

 

Sir Gwen called me with a stiff voice. His voice, as though suppressing an imminent explosion of anger, was hard and hot. Knowing what he was about to say, I handed him a dagger that was strapped to my waist and spoke.

 

“At this point, they’ve likely noticed at the camp. Approach them while dealing with the monsters. That will make it easier to save people.”

 

“Understood. Then.”

 

As soon as the conversation ended, Sir Gwen disappeared into the forest. Without confirming his movement to the end, I looked in the exact opposite direction of where he ran.

 

To be honest, even if casualties occurred where Sir Gwen now rushed to, it was bound to be eventually suppressed. After all, my father was at the camp now. However, where they aimed for could not be dealt with in such a manner.

 

Unless one had advanced information like me now, finding the hidden answer immediately in the chaotic situation once an incident occurred was difficult.

 

I cycled the aura flowing within me, gradually awakening my dormant senses. Originally, when awakening senses to the extreme like this in the forest, due to the mana laid upon the forest, it felt unpleasant, like viewing a screen with static, but today it was only clear.

 

I softly muttered, gently touching the crystal hung around my neck.

 

“It’s not a magical tool, huh...”

 

After awakening my senses, it did not take much time to locate Orcus and Noel. There were very few who emitted a presence like theirs. If there was an issue, it would be that the culprit behind this incident, as suspected, was very close to them.

 

It seemed there wasn’t much time allotted for me.

 

I immediately ran to Robin, who was inspecting the child’s body near the monster’s corpse, and asked,

 

“Sir Robin, how’s the condition of the collapsed child?”

 

“He’s unconscious, but his breathing seems fine. There seems to be a possible fracture in the chest area, but aside from that, there appear to be no severe injuries.”

 

Robin responded with a voice that hinted relief. The knight and retainer appeared to have been killed by the monster, but still, since one had survived, it could be considered a silver lining amidst the tragedy.

 

The boy, lying with his eyes closed, looked a year or two younger than my current self, objectively quite young. Was that why? Seeing him down like this, memories of the past seeped in, unsettling my heart.

 

After becoming Damian, I, too, had hunted creatures at a similar age as that boy, but was I the same as him? To others, I might have seemed like a prodigy, but inside, I was a worn-out old man.

 

I understood that the era and culture of my previous life and my life now as Damian were different. However, even with intellectual understanding, my emotional perception wouldn’t necessarily align. Then, as now, the fact that a young child was injured before my eyes remained unchanged.

 

Whooosh...

 

A gentle, slender breath reached my ears.

 

The boy’s face, smeared with the monster’s blood, was red, but his face, with its eyes closed, appeared remarkably peaceful. Nevertheless, the fact that the boy was alive, not dead, held together my sanity that felt like it might snap at any moment.

 

Even though I had settled my resolve numerous times, seeing the boy with his eyes closed, I steeled my heart anew.

 

“I’ll borrow this for a moment.”

 

I strapped the boy’s sword, which Robin had collected while tending to the monster’s corpse, in the space left by the missing dagger. After briefly explaining the current situation to Robin, I pointed to the collapsed cart and spoke.

 

“Fortunately, the cart seems to be intact. Sir Robin, please put the boy in the cart and head straight to the camp. Along the way, blow the horn to check for nearby rangers, and once you arrive at the camp, explain the current situation.”

 

“Understood. Then, what will you do, Young Ma...”

 

“I have something I need to do.”

 

Knowing I wouldn’t be accompanying him, Robin looked at me with worried eyes. This wasn’t a concern stemming from a difference in abilities; it was a concern coming from him, a knight of Kraus, towards his lord. Therefore, fearing he might insist that I should not go, I deliberately cut off my explanation.

 

“Don’t worry too much. I’ll follow soon.”

 

There was no time to delay further, so after saying so, I departed on my way.

--- END OF CHAPTER ---

 

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