Chapter 23
A cute cry sounded like a reply.
Hallucination?
As Dylan, startled, forgot about the battle and was about to turn around, Kuwaaaang! A lion that cried out in pain flew far away.
The noisy battlefield becoming quiet in an instant was a bonus.
All humans’ gazes converged on one spot.
The beast with short legs that was sad—no, Asil was panting.
“Pihya, pihya, pihya.”
“Wow, she really came all the way here.”
Next to her, Selena was jumping down from her horse while dusting off.
Asil had sensed the noise outside and was about to rush out, so thinking with those short legs when would she get there, he had taken a horse from the stable and brought her.
Asil glared at the enemies with a piercing look.
‘Why are they so far away!’
They should be near the castle!
While glaring like that for a long time, Asil suddenly looked up at Dylan. Precisely, she looked at Dylan’s sword.
To that, Dylan unwittingly nodded and slightly lowered his sword.
In the midst of such an intense battle, why was he suddenly lowering his sword? At the sight that seemed like stepping back one step to observe, the nearby knights were flustered.
“You right now-”
“What are you doing?”
“Lady Asil dislikes weak humans running rampant.”
“……?”
“……??”
While the knights hesitated at the incomprehensible reply, an eagle with sharp claws charged in.
Damn it! As Dylan’s comrade flinched and hurriedly raised his sword, that was the moment.
“Piya!”
Puk!
The eagle that was flying sharply flew off to the opposite side.
Dylan’s comrade, who had unwittingly become a footrest for Asil, was bewildered.
What just passed by?
“Piya!!!”
Asil, who cried out powerfully, threw a front paw punch.
The tiger sacred beast that was charging vigorously disappeared to the back in an instant, as if it had grown wings.
“Pi-iya!”
This time, she threw a back kick.
The leopard that was thrusting sharp fangs as if it would bite the nape at any moment let out a painful scream, grrrrng! and fell right in the center of Biante’s retainers.
“……Th, this is an illusion. It’s an illusion seen due to the fatigue of battle.”
A nearby retainer muttered with a face pale as a sheet.
However, soon at the sight of the wolf sacred beast flying away with a loud noise just like the leopard, he panicked completely and dropped his sword.
Monster.
Unless it was a monster, it couldn’t have sent the sacred beasts flying like that.
“Piyat! Piiyat!”
“Uwaaaak!”
“Save the people!”
“It’s a monster!”
The retainers who had lost the will to fight started hurriedly turning their horses to withdraw from the battlefield.
“Where do you think you’re going! You think you’ll survive just because of that!”
Viante, driven to a corner, shouted in rage, but it was useless. They ran away without even looking back.
Behind them, the knights of Edenber, whose morale was high, pursued.
“Catch them!”
“Not a single one should escape!”
“Uwaaaak!”
“P, please spare me! I only did as vViante ordered!”
In an instant, the tide of battle turned. Now, the ones who had seized the momentum were on Edenber’s side.
The retainers who had lost their fighting spirit were captured one by one.
With the capture of Viante, who struggled desperately until the very last moment, the civil war came to a complete end.
“Waaaaah!”
“Long live the Duke of Munlepe!”
“Long live Lady Asil!”
The knights let out cheers of victory. Edenber, standing at the center, looked at Asil beside him.
The guy who had fought so well was gone, and now she was frozen stiff in surprise at the cheers.
He gently picked her up as if handling something precious and met her gaze.
“Thank you.”
As he whispered, Asil, who had been staring at him intently, gently placed her front paw on his cheek.
It was warm. The warmth transmitted from his cheek made his heart swell softly.
At the feeling that something precious that couldn’t be exchanged for anything had filled his chest tightly, Edenber smiled brightly for the first time in a while.
* * *
Viante was classified as the ringleader of the rebels and imprisoned in a solitary underground cell where not a single ray of light entered.
Even though his body was a mess of wounds, his eyes were still fierce.
Glare at the spiderweb hanging long from the ceiling, he ground his teeth.
“That damned lizard in the end-!”
The bear sacred beast incident was like that, the father’s poisoning was like that. Even the civil war that happened last, everything had gone awry because of that lizard.
He should have been wary of the lizard, not the father.
He should have poisoned the grape juice, not the alcohol!
“If I get out of here, I’ll definitely kill her.”
Somehow, he would definitely sever that guy’s neck, as he clenched his fist, someone entered the underground prison.
“No sign of remorse at all.”
It was Elcai.
Still, since the poison hadn’t fully left his body, he was leaning on his staff.
He muttered with a hollow expression.
“Did I expect too much?”
“It’s all because of you Father!”
Viante, shouting in anger, gripped the iron bars.
“If Father hadn’t only favored Edenber!”
“What’s wrong with me only favoring Edenber?”
“If brother had ruined the family with those deeds, naturally the next family head position should have come to me! Why does that kid whose blood hasn’t even dried on his head get the next family head seat!”
“……That’s why I didn’t give it to you.”
“What did I do!”
“A family head must be able to sacrifice himself for the family. But is what you’re doing now for Munlepe, or for yourself?”
“If I had become family head, I wouldn’t have gone this far!”
It was a tone that seemed maddened by the injustice of not even getting a chance.
Elcai slowly closed his eyes.
“Do you remember, right before deciding the next family head, when I sent you and Edenber to the snowy plains?”
“Yes, I remember. You said the one who survives a month in that barren field with nothing would become the next Duke of Munlepe. I also clearly remember that Edenber couldn’t walk on his own feet and came carried on someone else’s back!”
“Do you know why that child came carried on someone else’s back?”
“It must have been because he couldn’t manage his stamina. What else could it be if not favoritism to make such a guy a duke?”
“To test you two, I disguised a knight as a shipwrecked territory resident and sent him.”
For a moment, Viante’s face turned pale.
It was because he finally realized why Elcai had favored Edenber.
“You coldly cast that person aside because he was a bother. So that it wouldn’t reach my ears, you even checked if he was buried in the snow and dead.”
“Th, that was…….”
“On the other hand, Edenber gave to others even his own share, to the point of seeming foolish. How could I seat you, who turns a blind eye to a territory resident just to save yourself, in the family head position.”
“……If I had known he was a territory resident, I wouldn’t have abandoned him so heartlessly.”
Viante, who had been hesitating, hurriedly made an excuse.
“Since it was near another territory, I thought he was a resident from there-”
“Aren’t residents of other territories people too! That’s why you can’t become family head!”
At the sight of not admitting his fault until the end, Elcai roared.
He glared at his utterly hopeless son for a long time, then threw a heavy pouch.
As ciante unwittingly untied it, his face stiffened.
It was a dagger sharpened to a blue edge.
“You’ve already come too far for a momentary mistake to be overlooked.”
“…….”
“Considering the affection so far, I won’t take your life with my own hand.”
After finishing his words curtly, Elcai turned his back.
In his eyes came the portrait of Munlepe’s guardian beast, the fox, which had been hung to give a warning to criminals.
‘I forgot to have that one removed too.’
He let out a quiet sigh and exited the underground prison.
Thud, tap, thud, tap. The footsteps mingled with the staff sounds were heavy, as if weights were attached.
Left alone, Viante stared blankly at the dagger. Then suddenly, he burst into laughter like a madman.
“Hahaha- Hahahaha!”
It was too ridiculous. That he couldn’t become family head because of such a trivial reason.
If he had known that, he should have gotten rid of his father long ago.
Why on earth had he endured and kept quiet until this day?
At that moment, footsteps approaching this way sounded.
Probably the guard coming to check on his condition.
“It’s fine as long as I start now.”
He resolved, gripping the sharp sword tightly.
Kill the guard like this, seize the key, then eliminate his father.
Cut off Edenber and the black lizard’s breaths, seize power, and become the new Duke of Munrepe.
How easy and simple this is!
Thud, thud, thud.
The presumed guard gradually approached closer.
Viante stood attached to the iron bars, intending to stab as soon as they came.
However, the one who appeared before him was not a guard.
“……Hy, hyung?”
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By Anna 💓
