Chapter 71: Enemy of the Kingdom (2)
After the bloodbath swept through the mansion, the Viper Organization members waiting in the nearby forest gathered at the mansion’s main gate all at once.
“It’s Gaiard!”
“Target…”
But the moment they saw his face, with a single gesture from Gaiard, they were all torn to shreds.
Before Evan could even take a step.
“Can’t you leave those guys to me?”
When I grumbled, Gaiard brushed it off.
“I said we don’t have time. The moment I left the mansion, I no longer know when I’ll die. I might even die within the next hour.”
When Gaiard had stayed quietly in the mansion, there was a set time for the subjugation force to come for him.
Even before that, the capital had made thorough preparations for any potential emergencies prior to forming the subjugation force.
That’s why it had taken a full day.
“Since we’re going to stir up the hornet’s nest, it’s better to go when they’re at least slightly off guard to buy a bit more time. They wouldn’t expect me to come to them on my own.”
“Fine, whatever. But if you take them all out like that, what am I supposed to do?”
“Take care of some yourself. Or move faster than me, how about that?”
Gaiard snorted.
It carried a hint of disdain.
Should I just fight him here?
I thought about it but didn’t act on it.
I wasn’t foolish enough to misjudge the gap between myself and him.
That executive guy, an Expert, I could somewhat handle, but to go toe-to-toe with this guy, how long would it take?
The aura I felt from Gaiard now was at the level of a Sword Master.
That was a realm several times stronger than an Expert, so if I fought him now, I’d definitely lose.
Besides, we had a common goal to achieve together, so I held back for now.
“Alright. Let’s see who takes out more first.”
“Don’t feel too bad. You’ll meet plenty whether you like it or not once we reach the palace. Pray you don’t die on the way.”
“By the way, when are we getting there?”
The spire of the palace loomed high in the distance.
It was visible to the naked eye, so it wasn’t too far, but it wasn’t exactly a distance I could run to either.
“We’ll fly.”
Gaiard offered a simple solution.
He grabbed my clothes roughly and took off without even spreading wings.
“Ugh!”
With a shockwave strong enough to shake the surrounding trees, we soared into the air.
Flap!
Once airborne, Gaiard spread wings made of blood.
“From now on, we’ll break through to the capital at full speed. If you fall and die, I’m not responsible, so hold on tight.”
With that brief warning, he shot toward the capital.
Whoosh!
I grabbed Gaiard’s arm, which was holding my clothes.
“Urgh!”
Gaiard in his prime was definitely something else.
When he had flown from the Hydra to the Citadel, he could barely carry my body.
But now, it felt like I was being dragged along by a massive wyvern.
The wind was so strong that my clothes puffed up as we tore through it.
One wrong move, and I’m done for. At this speed, we’ll reach the capital in no time. But…
Did the people of the kingdom really not know the power I’d just glimpsed from Gaiard?
Especially if Gaiard had fought in the war, he wouldn’t have hidden his strength—likely, he’d have shown even more.
So, the people in the capital were surely preparing.
Of course, Gaiard knew that just as well.
“Be careful from now on. It’s going to get a bit dizzy.”
A distance that would take five or six hours on horseback was covered in no time.
Before long, the walls surrounding the city came into view,
and large ballistae were positioned on the walls.
They were all aimed at Gaiard.
Thud!
With slight time differences, the strings were pulled and released, and dozens of pillar-like arrows flew toward us.
“Arrows ahead!”
“My eyes aren’t blind.”
Gaiard said indifferently and dodged in midair.
Amid his flashy movements, I unleashed sword aura, splitting a few arrows.
Crack!
“Not bad.”
“Ugh!”
“Oh, crap!”
But perhaps because of the intense flight, I felt nauseous, on the verge of vomiting.
Noticing this, Gaiard threw me forward.
You bastard! Whose fault is this?
Suddenly, I was in danger of being torn apart by the oncoming barrage of arrows.
I calmed my stomach and drew up my qi.
Then, I swung my sword, cutting down all the approaching arrows.
“Uwah!”
But without wings, avoiding a fall was tough.
At that moment, Gaiard snatched me back.
“Well done.”
For a moment, I seriously considered raising my sword to stab Gaiard.
But I didn’t need to dwell on it.
The moment we crossed the wall, the clear sky flashed, and lightning struck toward Gaiard.
Boom!
As a result, Gaiard and I were split apart and fell, and I grabbed my sword, flipped it, and stabbed it into the wall in front of me.
Clang!
Enduring the pain as if my arm was tearing, I pulled the sword out and landed on the ground.
Damn, my arm.
The only silver lining was that I hadn’t been hit by the lightning.
The reason I was unscathed was because Venus had absorbed its power.
But I was separated from Gaiard.
Standing on a deserted road, I scanned my surroundings.
I managed to get in somehow…
The capital stretched out with rows of two-story houses.
It was like a maze.
The winding, branching paths were impossible to navigate.
The only landmark was the towering spire of the palace in the sky.
Damn it. I shouldn’t have gotten separated from Gaiard.
The problem was that this was my first time in the capital.
I didn’t know the way, and the complexity made it even worse.
And then—
Ding! Ding!
The sound of bells echoed through the city.
The scattered lights in the residential area went out all at once.
Now, the only thing illuminating the city was the moonlight obscured by clouds.
Looks like those bells were a warning.
In response, soldiers suddenly appeared, and I hurriedly hid in a shadowed alley, observing them.
“Hurry, over there! Gaiard has entered the city!”
“Move quickly!”
The soldiers moved in perfect coordination.
Among them were a few aura-level fighters.
They’re not enough to stop Gaiard, but I’m a different story.
My goal was to infiltrate the palace in Gaiard’s stead and confirm if she was truly dead.
So, I couldn’t afford to waste a single moment.
I’ll conserve my strength as much as possible and infiltrate the palace while Gaiard buys time.
A massive battle was already unfolding far away.
The ground trembled, and lightning and meteors fell from the sky.
Has that Ernst I’ve heard about shown up too? Even better. I’ll break through while their attention is diverted.
I focused strength in my thighs.
Crack.
I pushed off with enough force to crack the stone beneath me and shot forward.
Tap tap!
I zigzagged through the maze-like paths, heading toward the center.
Haven’t I been here before? Damn it.
But the paths were so complex that I couldn’t reach the palace in one go.
What I thought was a path turned out to be a dead end, and I ended up circling back.
After wasting more time than expected, I finally saw the gate leading to the palace in the distance.
But the bridge, the only entrance to the palace, was being raised.
Damn. A moat, of all things.
If the bridge was fully raised, getting in would be tough.
But it was already too high to jump across.
In that case…
I unleashed a sword aura, cutting one of the chains supporting the bridge.
Clank!
The bridge tilted and came down on one side.
As the height lowered, I dashed toward it.
Tap!
“Intruder!”
The soldiers on the wall fired arrows in unison.
Swish swish swish!
I slid across the bridge and entered the palace.
Not my style to make such a loud entrance.
In front of me, dozens of soldiers had already surrounded me, spears pointed.
“You think this is enough to stop me? Compared to Gaiard, you’re underestimating me too much.”
Feeling insulted, I charged in to show my strength.
At the same time, the soldiers split into two groups.
Huh?
As a path opened, two massive shields greeted me.
Thud!
Instinctively, I lifted my foot, pushed against the shield, and used the force to leap back and land.
Clang!
Two shields towered higher than an adult man’s head.
As the shields parted slightly, two identical figures appeared.
“Centurion!”
“Stand back. He’s not someone you can handle.”
“No, he isn’t.”
Looking at the twin-like pair, I adjusted my stance.
Oh? Even though I kicked with some force, they didn’t budge an inch. And those shields…
They were made of the same black iron as my sword, Venus.
A simple sword aura wouldn’t cut through them.
If they’re set on blocking, this will take time.
Facing the two standing like mountains, I moved to the side to avoid them.
I’ll blind them with a flash of lightning.
I unleashed the power stored in Venus.
Crackle!
Lightning shot out, accompanied by a flash, striking the soldiers around.
“Argh!”
“Gah!”
But the twins weren’t just strong.
They anticipated my path and moved in advance, slamming their shields into the ground.
They’re this fast while carrying those shields?
Then, they swung their shields to knock me back.
Clang!
“We are the shields of the kingdom! You’ll never get past us!”
Back in my original position, I changed my approach.
“I was hoping to get past without killing, but that won’t do.”
The two shields moved as one.
Instead of my sword, I picked up a spear lying nearby.
It was from a soldier struck by lightning.
Heavy.
Then, I threw the spear.
Clang!
Naturally, it couldn’t pierce the black iron shields.
But I didn’t care.
I just kept throwing spears.
Clang!
Clang clang!
I grabbed a spear that bounced back toward me and threw it again.
None of them landed a solid hit.
After throwing all the spears around, I charged again.
“Useless!”
“Useless!”
The twins slammed their shields into the ground to prepare their defense.
Clang!
But something felt off.
“Huh?”
“What!?”
Looking down, a spear shaft on the ground had created a slight gap.
I didn’t miss the chance and thrust my sword through the gap, stabbing one twin’s foot.
“Ugh!”
As one’s stance collapsed, the solid shield formation broke,
and I slipped my foot in, kicking the shield with all my might.
Clang!
Then, I struck the exposed twin’s vital point with my fist.
“Urgh!”
“Brother!”
The older twin, worried for his brother, swung his shield.
I grabbed the younger twin’s hair and slammed it into the shield.
Boom!
As blood spurted from the younger twin’s face, the older twin withdrew his shield.
“You bastard!”
Of course, that was a mistake.
With his body exposed, I slashed his wrist with my sword,
preventing him from holding the shield.
“Aaagh!”
“Polish your shield techniques.”
Having taken down the centurion twins in one go, I moved inward.
After defeating the shield-wielding twins, the remaining soldiers and guards I encountered were no match for me.
But for a palace, the security isn’t that tight. Are they all focused on Gaiard?
My guess was half right.
Half of the kingdom’s elite had gone outside to capture Gaiard.
And due to the previous war, the kingdom had already lost many of its elite forces.
These two factors combined allowed me to move through the palace with relative ease.
But even so, the palace was the top priority, so the seemingly lax security was my misconception.
The reason there seemed to be so few soldiers
was because there was a reason for it.
Hm?
As I broke through the outer castle and approached the inner castle where the royals resided, someone stood in front of the wide-open gate.
That’s…
A woman with striking red hair.
She was holding a sword identical to my Venus.
Instinctively sensing danger, I stopped in my tracks.
Then, the woman directed a question at me.
“You look human, so why are you helping the kingdom’s enemy?”
Finally, a true powerhouse appeared.
A woman, no less, wielding the same sword as me.
I couldn’t help but feel intrigued.
“Well… to survive.”
“I don’t understand. Not even that sword you’re holding.”
“Don’t try to understand. You just need to give your all in this moment. I’ll do the same.”
A battle in a dream.
A feast of combat where the consequences didn’t matter.
For a Weapon Master and a warrior of the arena, could there be a more fitting place?
“Neither you nor I are the protagonists anyway.”
As Gaiard said, I didn’t have much time left.
Being unfamiliar with the place, I’d already wasted a lot of time.
So, finding the queen this time was likely impossible.
Yet, I raised my sword to face this unknown powerhouse.
And she did the same.
“Before that, let’s exchange names. I’m Evan Lafard. What’s your name?”
“…”
The woman paused for a beat before speaking.
“I’m Aster Vaberin.”
“What?”
The familiar name made me hesitate, and in that moment, a massive, ferocious gust enveloped me.