“Poohahahahaha!”
Lexion finally couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.
After writhing on the sofa for a while and falling to the floor with a thud, he continued to laugh and pound the floor for a long time.
“Hahahaha! Wow, this is a real masterpiece! He got it right the first time?”
That guy was a real monster.
Alois, who hung out right beside him, didn’t even realize that he was a fake, but the guy far away guessed his identity based on circumstantial evidence alone.
“If I had known this would happen, I would have picked up a few ghouls and sent them with him. Sigh.”
Lexion barely managed to stop laughing and roughly wiped away the tears hanging from his eyes.
“I didn’t expect much, but this is too much.”
He set out to have fun, both to find the items and to punish the Crown Prince who was running wild without knowing what he was doing, but he also wanted to deal with that arrogant human knight while he was at it.
No matter how inferior a person was, he was of the same species.
As a human being, he should be held responsible for making a spectacle of his own kind.
“But if it turns out like this, it’ll feel like I got hit.”
He had to retreat like a dog that runs away with its tail tucked in without getting anything.
“But a dragon still has face…”
While he was slightly lost in thought, a sound interrupted his thoughts.
An unexpected person was standing in front of the door.
He blinked his eyes a few times in confusion, then smiled broadly.
“Huh?”
“…Huh? Huh huh?”
At that moment, a strange scream erupted from Alois.
Arendt, who had raised his gaze quickly, noticed that magic power was slowly beginning to stir around the Crown Prince.
“What is this? Huh huh?”
The ominous moving magic seemed like the calm before a storm.
The moment Arendt took a step forward, thinking that he had to stop him, a sharp attack came rushing at him.
“…!”
Kaaaaang!
A heavy impact was applied to the reflexively raised sword.
A young man with a blunt face appeared, blocking Arendt’s path.
It was clearly a face he was seeing for the first time, but the strangely vague presence felt familiar.
“You’re such a bastard, you can use a sword quite well?”
“If you want to serve someone of higher rank, you have to do this much.”
A calm reply came back in a somewhat hoarse voice.
Meanwhile, a sudden, violent storm of magical power swept over Alois as if it were going to tear him apart.
Alois screamed as the trees shook and the grass in the garden tore up, and he was so engulfed in magic that he could not even be seen clearly.
“Wait a minute. Whoa! What is this? Help me!”
“Hey, you idiot! Calm down for now… Oh, really!”
Arendt, who was shouting at Alois, was unable to finish his words as he was forced to fend off Stellar’s attack that suddenly rushed in.
His fingertips that blocked the flying sword felt quite tingly. This meant that Stellar was quite skilled.
Arendt cried out, alert to the enemy.
“Did you get anything from that guy named Lexion?”
“What, what?”
“Didn’t you receive anything before coming here?”
Alois, who had been standing there blankly, only then began to hurriedly search through his arms. Even at that moment, Stellar continued to corner Arendt with light movements.
Even with the huge magical storms swirling around from all directions, Stellar paid no attention at all. His steady movements as he continued to strike with his sword seemed unusually nimble and light.
As expected, it wasn’t the sound of an ordinary human being.
Arendt clicked his tongue.
“I’m so busy, you’re annoying me, really.”
But there was no time to think about anything else for long.
Alois, who was barely able to pull something out of his bosom and throw it away, let out a scream again.
“Ahhhh! Get off! Get off!”
Alois was struggling to get the thing out of his hand, but the unidentified black mass was stuck to his palm as if it had taken root and showed no sign of coming off.
Soon the Crown Prince’s entire hand turned black, and slowly began to encroach on his arms.
The black shadows that jumped out from Alois transformed into beasts and flew in all directions.
The largest of them, a wolf-shaped beast, lunged for Arendt’s neck.
But the very next moment.
Kuuung!
A man fell from the sky, landed right in front of Arendt, and cut down the huge beast with one stroke of his sword.
It was Laius who jumped from a nearby building.
Arendt asked in bewilderment as he watched him calmly assume his stance.
“What? Why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be guarding above?”
“It’s my will.”
But the answer he got back was incredibly shameless.
Matthias, who had been listening to the conversation between the two with a blank expression, suddenly raised his head.
Above, on the dark balcony, Cantares was seen leaning out, surveying the situation. Behind him, Crown Prince Victor was anxiously trying to get the Crown Prince of the Empire back into the room.
“No way?”
Matthias, muttering absentmindedly, looked at Arendt.
The apprentice knight had brought his brother here in the hopes of obtaining solid evidence, using himself as bait.
Surely, representatives from other countries were also gathered in that room and watching the situation from beginning to end.
Several beasts, noticing Cantares’ presence, kicked off the wall and leapt towards the balcony, but soon after, they too were cut in two by the swords of the two knights who had rushed in, and turned into a handful of ashes that scattered into the air.
It was Arthur and Richt.
“Everyone has taken their positions. We are engaging the intruders near the garden.”
“Those strange beasts will be taken care of by other seniors. There are two people who have gone up to where the VIPs are, so you don’t have to worry.”
“Well done.”
Arthur added to Richt’s neat report. Then, Stellar’s eyebrows, which had been expressionless before, furrowed in annoyance.
Lexion didn’t just give one person to Alois.
He was scheduled to appear as soon as the battle began, but was caught by the Third Knights of the Caerleon Empire who were already camped nearby.
“You, take responsibility for it later. You got a lot of hate from your seniors.”
“Did you find all the guys who were hiding?”
“Aren’t you treating your seniors like fools? Of course we found them all. It was a bit difficult though.”
Arthur grumbled briefly as he prepared his sword.
“What the hell are they? They seem strange. Are they human?”
Although they were knights belonging to the Imperial Family, this time they had a hard time finding their enemies.
If Laius hadn’t pointed out the suspicious spot after inspecting the scene in advance, they might have wandered around for a long time.
“Let’s talk about it later. What should we do?”
“We have to save that idiot Crown Prince first. There’s a lot to hear from him.”
Even at this moment, Alois was struggling with his arms clenched.
Richt groaned softly.
“He’s being consumed by magic.”
His shoulders were already eroded by strong magical power.
The three men straightened their swords without saying who would act first.
Tsk, Stellar clicked his tongue and tried to run towards Arendt again…
Kuung!
He couldn’t help but turn his head at the threatening sound coming from behind him.
Laius stood firm, his sword slammed down on the ground, staring at Stellar with cold, sunken eyes.
“Your opponent is me. Don’t look away.”
“…”
Stellar’s face distorted horribly.
Meanwhile, the three who escaped the surveillance net kicked the ground towards Alois. The masses of magical energy in the shape of beasts rushed towards them, barking ferociously.
Arendt immediately activated his artifact, and the two also raised their swords.
In order to save the Crown Prince, they had to first get through that storm of magical power.
A wolf touched by the sword covered in pure white frost was torn apart and scattered into the air.
“Ahhhhh! Aahhhh!”
As if he wanted to escape from his own eroded arms, Alois was struggling, scratching at his skin. His eyes were rolled back, the whites of his eyes were visible, and he was foaming at the mouth, showing that he had completely lost his senses.
Arendt, who was about to charge forward, stopped in his tracks when he heard a noise approaching right next to him.
But before that, Richt moved and swatted away the large claw that was flying towards Arendt.
Kaaaaang!
Even though it was clearly a figure made of magical power, a harsh noise of metal clashing erupted.
Leaving Richt as he began to fight in earnest, Arendt headed straight for Alois.
As he got closer, the magical storm grew more and more intense, to the point where he could barely take a single step.
Taking advantage of his body’s loss of balance, the wolf-like enemy charged at him again, but this time Arthur intervened and blocked the attack.
Crunch.
The trees in the garden shook as if they were going to break, and the stones on the ground broke and shattered, flying in all directions.
Arendt lifted his head and checked Alois’ condition.
The Crown Prince’s screams could be heard from afar through the cracks in the wind that were like whistles. A murderous magical power stretched along his spine in the shape of wings that resembled those of a bat.
Alois’s body was on the verge of going berserk as it could not withstand the dragon’s magical power.
‘He must not be killed.’
There was a lot to get out of that guy.
It was his last chance now, with Richt and Arthur protecting him.
Arendt kicked the ground towards the glowing Alois.
In the magical storm that seemed to swirl with darkness, pure white frost scattered like jewels.
And the next moment, Arendt struck Alois on the shoulder.
The already blackened and eroded arm was severed and fell off, and the Crown Prince, still in a state of confusion, opened his mouth in shock.
But it didn’t end there.
The arm that had fallen to the floor began to wriggle on its own and emit even stronger magical power.
Arendt, who had been forcibly supporting his body, gathered the artifact’s power to its maximum and struck the core, which released magical power.
After a moment of silence.
Puk.
The sound of something cracking reached his ears.
The magical storm slowly began to die down.
The black beasts that Arthur and Richt were fighting against suddenly stopped moving, and after a while, they scattered into particles of magical power.
What had been Alois’ arm soon froze white under the artifact’s influence, and then, with a “clang!”, it shattered into pieces.
The trembling magical power completely subsided, and the air became calm again.
Only the messy garden proved that what had just happened wasn’t a dream.
Stellar, who was facing Laius, quietly observed the situation, then sheathed his sword and disappeared from that spot as if melting into the darkness.
Alois passed out in shock, and his shoulder was frozen white, so the bleeding had stopped.
It didn’t seem like there was any immediate danger to his life.
Only when he was sure that everything was in order did Arendt unsteadily stand up straight.
“Ah…”
Perhaps because he had received the tremendous magical power head-on, his eyes were spinning and he felt like his stomach was going to turn over at any moment.
Laius, his sword sheathed, approached his men.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m okay.”
“There’s no problem with me either.”
Richt and Arthur also looked at Arendt, seemingly uninjured.
“Hey, are you okay?”
“Not okay… Hey.”
Arendt, who was about to grumble out of habit, reflexively lowered his head at the strange feeling.
Blood spurted out onto his outstretched palm.
“…”
Blood was dripping from his nose.
As he stood there dumbfounded at the unexpected situation, Laius spoke calmly.
“It’s an injury. You don’t look okay, just like you said.”
“Hey, sir.”
Arendt kicked the floor in annoyance, holding his nose, which was bleeding profusely.