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Side Story Chapter 38

“Does that mean that they abandoned the castle and walked out of it?”

“It’s still a few of them. Since Vice-Commander Ranger’s goal is to hold out, there’s no way he would attack first with his main force since eighty percent of our forces are there.”

“Then couldn’t they really be scouting?”

“They’ve been scouting more often over time. Their usual routine was to scout once a day, and they just took a peek around our headquarters from afar. However, they’re observing at a much closer distance, and their numbers have increased drastically.”

Seated at the head of the table, Marquess Turtler just listened to his subordinate executives talk. Explaining and discussing were subordinates’ jobs while a leader’s job was making a decision. That was Turtler’s principle, but if the discussion wasn’t going anywhere, he set them on the right path.

“Could it be related to the Second Prince?” Turtle asked.

All the executives turned silent. They had actually been talking about Kireua Sanders the Second Prince all day; the discussion topic had finally started to change, but they were back to square one.

“That is a possibility.”

“Am I misunderstanding something? I thought one of you said that the national army would never dispatch troops to the southwest border to greet the Second Prince.” Turtle tilted his head.

“Yes, we would reach the southwest border quicker, so if the national army sent one, the scouting party would just get slaughtered by our troops.”

Turtler frowned slightly. “You do realize that those two sentences don’t add up, don’t you?”

“That’s because we’re talking about a prince.”

Turtler chuckled, dumbfounded. “You mean he’s someone they have to protect even if they get slaughtered?”

“That is what I think.”

“They’re overdoing themselves,” Turtler said.

“If something happens to the Second Prince, their morale would immediately drop.”

“No, I don’t think so.” Turtler shook his head.

“Pardon…?”

“If the Second Prince died here, the national army’s morale would temporarily decrease, but they’ll unite more than ever, becoming incomparably stronger than before.” Turtler rested his chin on his hand. The executives weren’t sure what Turtler was saying, but his voice filled with confidence. “There are only two people with the right to inherit, so if one of them died, everyone would unite with the First Prince as their leader.”

“Ah…!

The executives started to exclaim one after another.

“Th-That is true.”

“Then we must capture him alive if we find him.”

“After we capture him, maybe we can win the hearts of the people if we use him properly.”

“It’s possible if the Second Prince has the slightest interest in the throne, but… I’m not sure.”

The executives resumed their discussion, but they were unable to reach a definite conclusion. Therefore, wrapping up the discussion fell to Turtler once again.

“Does anyone else other than us know that Kireua Sanders might be involved with the Demon Spirit?” Turtler asked.

“I don’t think so. According to the people who returned, the Second Prince was away from his group and was on his own when he used ebon flame. That must mean that he wants to hide his power from his allies.”

Turtler tilted his head. “Aside from those people, did anyone else mention the rumor?”

“No, sir.”

Turtler’s smile deepened. He was certain that the rumor was false.

“The Demon Spirit was already killed by the Emperor, so I don’t believe it. Even if such a being still exists, the Prince is his son, so there is no way Prince Kireua would make a contract with such a being unless he took a warhammer to his head.

“That is true.”

“I’ll dispatch Lacoon and my three immediate knight orders to the southwest,” Turtler declared.

The executives\' eyes widened at the name Turtler brought up.

“Lacoon is the strongest knight in the west, second only to me, so he’ll be more than enough to bring in the boy.”

* * *

“Your Highness, you seem to get crueler over time,” Anna commented.

“They’ll just cause trouble in the future if I spare them.”

She smiled. “I was actually complimenting you.”

“That isn’t a good compliment.”

“What was with the last question?” Anna asked.

“What question?”

“Why did you ask about what had happened to the castle’s original owner? Isn’t that obvious?” Anna tilted her head.

“...That’s because I know them.”

“Hmmm? What’s with the look on your face? Wait a minute. Is the owner a woman?” Anna’s eyes narrowed like a predator homing in on its prey.

“It’s none of your business.”

“Hmmm…. Well, yeah, it really isn’t,” Anna readily replied, but her face darkened nonetheless.

Regardless, Kireua had a lot on his mind as he eyed the mountain ahead.

‘Could he be dead?’ Kireua wondered. Prisoners were very useful in wars, and the people that had started rebellions in all four regions were invaders. Killing every noble lord in the places they claimed would do more harm than good.

It was quite obvious. In wars, defeat was equivalent to death, so the lord’s knights and soldiers would fight to the death. Therefore, Kireua could only hope that the castle’s original owner would still be alive.

‘Come to think of it, I feel like she’s glaring daggers at me…’

Kireua was currently walking up the mountain. It was just as the gay baldie had said—when Kireua examined the upper part of the trees, he found a thin thread was hung around them, making it easy to find the path. Anna was walking behind Kireua.

-Jealousy! She must like Kireua!

‘The hell.’ Kireua frowned at Coal’s remark. He was actually considering the possibility. At this rate, he really might end up waking up in the bed of a lady that was as old as his aunt.

‘I’ll start dating someone as soon as this civil war finishes.’

Kireua had made that resolution time and time again since he had zero intention of leading a similar life to Cain.

Coal suddenly appeared and jumped up and down on Kireua’s shoulder. He shook his head, confused by the thing’s behavior.

‘You’re distracting me, so why don’t you go back inside?’

-I smell something yummy.

‘...What? What smell?’ Kireua drooled.

-Slurp.

Coal started drooling on top of Kireua’s head, to his irritation. However, he had never seen such a side of Coal. Although it whined everyday for food, it hadn’t told Kireua what it wanted[1].

‘...Wait, if I figure out what Coal likes, then maybe I can get a hint of its identity,’ Kireua thought.

-I dunno! I wanna eat it! It’s up there!

‘I wasn’t talking to you,’ Kireua grumbled.

He continued climbing up the mountain, lost in his thoughts. If Coal was related to the Angel Spirit, then it would be something related to divine power; otherwise, Coal would try to eat something with demonic power or human flesh.

“What about your stealth skill?” Anna asked, drawing Kireua’s focus to the present. “I’ve met all sorts of assassins, but it’s my first time seeing a stealth skill that can use the shadows so well.”

“Are you trying to get another person’s business secret for free, you old lady?”

“I just had an idea.” Anna shrugged.

“...An idea?”

“I heard that Joshua Sanders has five old friends and one of them is the best assassin in the current generation.”

She was right, although Kireua hadn’t met all of the aforementioned five friends either. Three of the friends were humans, and the other two were from other races. Every one of them was remarkable: Lilith Aphrodite was the leader of the Moon Gate, the continent’s biggest information guild, while the Mighty Akshuller was respected by a million mercenaries. Thetapirion Whitesox, the Master of the Magic Tower, was the first human to become a Class 8 mage, and Ashu was the last remaining High Elf. Aisha Sestropi, the Darkness Emperor, was also called the Night Emperor.

“Judging from the look on your face, it seems that I’m right.” Anna smiled. “There aren’t many people as mysterious as the Darkness Emperor. Some say the Darkness Emperor is a monster who is over one hundred years old. There is actually a rumor that the Darkness Emperor is a young man who was born as gifted as the current Emperor of Avalon… While some people believe that the Darkness Emperor is a very beautiful woman.”

“Those rumors aren’t amusing at all.”

“So which is the right one? Since you were personally taught your stealth skill by the Darkness Emperor, you must know, right?” Anna asked with sparkling eyes.

Of course, Kireua had no intention of giving her the answer she wanted.

“Why don’t we climb in silence?” he bluntly replied.

“Hmm…” Anna made a bizarre sound through her nose, then she shrugged. “So it’s a business secret again?”

Kireua raised an eyebrow at her. “If you want something from someone else, then you should pay the right price. This world is based on the principle of equivalent exchange.”

“Of all the things you could\'ve learned from your father, you only learned the bad stuff.”

“That’s lese-majeste, you know,” Kireua said.

“But you can’t use your stealth skill forever, right?” Anna prodded. “You might have fooled the other people, but you can’t fool me. When you hid in the darkness, I saw a lot of your mana coming out of you.”

No, she didn’t see it. There was a reason why Aisha’s stealth technique was called the best on the continent. It hid the user in shadows without leaving behind the slightest trace, so no one could notice a person using Aisha’s stealth technique.

“Well, you aren’t the Joshua Sanders. If you could use that kind of stealth technique all the time, then you would have no problem using spears,” Anna dramatically declared.

It was obvious what she was aiming for, so Kireua held back his rising anger. Besides, something was about to happen that shut the North Witch’s mouth.

“What? Why is it dark?”

“I bet they all put the lights out and went to sleep.”

“Marquess Turtler repeatedly warned us about it, so unless they’re crazy… there’s probably a problem, so let’s go—quickly.”

Guards were walking down from the top of the mountain to change shifts.

Kireua’s lips stretched into a wide smile. “This is good.”

He disappeared into the darkness. Anna opened her eyes and watched Kireua closely this time, but it was a bust again.

“How in the world does that work?” Anna tilted her head back and forth.

“Urgh!”

“Wh-What?!”

A series of smacks disturbed the darkness, followed by a chain of thuds. Judging from the number of the voices Anna had heard, there were at least ten guards, but the area was totally silent in less than fifteen seconds.

After a while, Anna became more confused. She couldn’t detect a single presence.

“Wh-What are you doing?” she stammered. “Stop playing around and come out.”

No one answered her, so Anna was about to summon her elemental spirits.

Suddenly, something touched her back. Anna nearly jumped out of her skin.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!”

“Why are you so surprised? You were so confident earlier when you said that you could see the flow of mana.”

Anna’s head creaked around like an unoiled pulley, and found Kireua grinning at her.

“You jerk!” she shouted, her face crumpling up. “You and your father are real assholes, you know that?!”

1. This is contradicted in Ch. 32 when Coal states that it wants to eat adamantium, but this is what the raws say. ☜