Chapter 288: Dragons (5)
The group that had appeared from over the Grain mountains were the elven warriors including Aily Lancephil. Quickly running up, Roan Lancephil grabbed onto Aily’s hands.
“What’s going on?”
Due to the sudden meeting, he asked with an excited voice while Aily wore a faint smile as she caressed his cheek,
“I missed you.”
And said the words she wanted to say first thing after reuniting.
“Ah…”
Roan realised his mistake.
“I missed you too.”
He hugged Aily tight. Although it was slightly late, his feelings towards her were properly relayed and Aily enjoyed the warm happiness from within his embrace.
The soldiers of the Western Army and the elves watched over the scene with a smile. The most beautiful, and powerful couple in the entire world was right before them, and soon, their long hug had come to an end.
Taking one step back, Aily stared at Gorg in his gruesome state.
“Who is this?”
Roan replied shortly.
“Gorg, the General of Great Strength of the Dark Regiments.”
That was all he knew, and hearing that, Aily frowned.
“Dark Regiments…”
Whispering with her red lips, she walked towards Gorg’s corpse. It was in a horrible state with the lower body torn apart but she was not disturbed a single bit.
“Mhmm.”
After inspecting the corpse, Aily let out a low mutter, to which Roan who had neared her asked carefully.
“What’s wrong?”
Making a slightly serious expression, Aily shook her head.
“This man, no, this existence is not a human.”
“Not a human?”
Roan frowned, but it was something he had been somewhat expecting.
‘Too large for a human.’
Silently staring at Gorg’s wound, she replied with a calm voice.
“To be exact, he’s not a pure human – seems to be a half. I can’t say it with certainty before examining more carefully but seems to be a mix of a human and an ogre.”
“A human and an ogre…”
Roan heaved out a deep sigh. He did hear about stories like a mixed blood of a human and a monster from way back.
‘But most of them I heard were half human and half orc…’
It was his first time hearing about a mix of a human and an ogre.
‘The reason behind his immense strength was in the blood of the ogres huh.’
Roan made a bitter smile. Only now did he understand what Gorg had meant when he continued saying ‘mere humans’ like a habit. He must’ve felt great self-pride in being a mixed blood.
‘Or that he hated humans because of something in the past…’
As his thoughts were about to diverge further, Aily let out a short sigh and stood up.
“But that’s not all. Auras other than those two races are mixed in as well. They’re too faint and complicated to find everything out but there’s one thing that’s certain.”
Roan silently waited for the next words with his eyes filled with trust. Smiling a little, Aily continued.
“In the body of this mixed blood, there’s the aura of dark elves.”
“Dark elves…”
It was something he had never expected. Roan stared directly at Aily.
“If it’s about dark elves, I’ve met them before.”
He was also well aware of the relationship between elves and the dark elves. With slight surprise, Aily asked back.
“Was it perhaps from the Blackburn area?”
“Un. You’re right.”
Roan gave a nod, and Aily heaved out another deep sigh in response.
“I knew it. In fact…”
She explained about the reasons for herself and the elven warriors’ appearance in the Inpec area.
“You were in the middle of going to the Blackburn area in search of the dark elves that had appeared?”
“Right. And during that we had felt great auras along with deafening roars so we came here thinking maybe. But…”
Aily’s eyes returned back to Gorg’s corpse.
“I wasn’t expecting to find the aura of the dark elves in this manner.”
It was a somewhat bitter voice, and Roan who had been nearby made a bitter smile as well.
“It seems that I’ve found one of the other auras.”
This time, Roan carefully inspected Gorg’s corpse and traced the wound with his fingers. Turning just his head over, he stared at Aily.
“From the various faint auras, there’s the aura of sorcerers.”
“Sorcerers…?”
Aily made a frown.
“But weren’t they all subjugated?”
And asked carefully.
“The thing is…”
After a short sigh, Roan talked about the mysterious altar, sorcerers and the dark elves that he had found in the mountains.
“Ah… How can they do something so awful…”
She let out a low murmur with a stiff expression.
“What exactly would that altar have been for?”
Unfortunately, there was nothing that came up in mind, and in the first place, it was hard to believe that the dark elves had allied themselves with the sorcerers.
‘Even the dark elves had a bit of hostility against the sorcerers though…’
Thinking of the old information, Aily tilted her head. Then, she heard Roan’s voice.
“I’m planning on having the Amaranth Alchemy Department, Technical Department and the Magic Departments inspect Gorg’s corpse.”
Hearing that, Aily got rid of the complicated thoughts and nodded her head slightly.
“Sounds like a good idea. We’ll send a few people ourselves.”
They might be able to find other information leading to the dark elves. Roan made a faint smile and nodded his head.
“Should we first head off to the headquarters of the Western Army?”
“I think that would be better.”
The dark elves from the Blackburn area must’ve already gotten rid of their traces, so there was no need to waste time going there. More than that, it was more important to stay together with Roan to share the information each party had. This might even allow them to discover something they had missed out on.
Roan heaved out a deep sigh.
‘As soon as I return to the headquarters of the Western Army, I need to carefully reflect on the memories of the previous life.’
Sorcerers, dark elves, the mysterious altar and the dark regiments… those were things that he had never gone through in his previous life.
‘This is not the future I know.’
Where did it start to go wrong, or was there something he was missing – it was time to look back at everything in detail. Turning his head, Roan faced the soldiers of the Western Army and with a conscious bright smile, he raised his right arm high up.
“We’ll return to the headquarters of the Western Army!”
As soon as he finished,
“Waaaaah!”
Cheers erupted out and at the same time, mountain wind started to breeze across. It was a somewhat sticky and cold breeze.
***
“The front has been completely blocked!”
Pulling on his reins, Romils Hotten shouted in a loud voice.
“We’ll turn towards the left! Head your horses towards the south!”
Manus Persion who had been following from behind examined the landscape before giving out orders. In response, the cavalry at the front faced another direction.
Dududududu!
Sounds of horse hooves rang but it didn’t continue for long.
“L, logs! There are logs blocking the road between cliffs!”
One of the men at the front shouted urgently.
“Damn!”
Romils let it out unconsciously. He didn’t even know how many times this had been. After entering the Meland area of the Istel Kingdom, it was difficult to even advance.
“Change the lead! I’ll lead from the front!”
Manus kicked the horse into heading to the front along with his guards.
“Sir Prince! It’s dangerous. We don’t know where that spider-like woman is staring at us from!”
With an urgent expression, Romils approached Manus but Manus replied with a shake of his head and a faint smile.
“If she was planning to kill us, they would’ve attacked already. Leaving a way through must mean that they want a conversation. In any case…”
Glancing around, he was baffled.
“Aerea Britz was it? An amazing woman.”
Romils and the nobles nearby made bitter smiles in response. An amazing woman – they couldn’t deny it in any way.
Aerea Britz. Being the youngest daughter of the Viscount Britz family, she was a female general that had just reached 30 in age this year. Despite her outstanding abilities, she was unable to become the leader of the family just because she was a daughter, and after focusing her all into the military affairs and making results, she had been placed as a defence captain of the Meland area in the north of Istel Kingdom.
She was one of the hidden talents that weren’t known publicly, and even Manus had thought that the only person to be careful of in the Istel Kingdom was the Fox of the Battlefields, Peid Neil.
‘Even that Roan Lancephil probably doesn’t know about her.’
Manus was sure of himself, but unfortunately his thoughts were wrong. Through the memories of his previous life, Roan had already picked out 3 people that he had to be beware of from the Istel Kingdom.
The Fox of the Battlefields, Peid Neil.
The Poisonous Spider of Meland, Aerea Britz.
The Black Shark, Jeff.
Peid was the first of the three that had proved himself and now Aerea was beginning to earn fame herself. At least so far, it was flowing according to Roan’s assumption, or rather, his memories.
“There she is.”
Manus who had been leading the group started to slow down. A large army had appeared at the end of that one open road, and from that group, a large flag along with the Istel Kingdom’s flag fluttered its greatness.
[Meland Defence Corps]
Aerea Britz had finally shown herself.
“On that table, is that, f, food?”
Staring at the meal placed in front of the army, Romils made a surprised expression.
“You must’ve been hungry from how that was the first thing you saw.”
Making a grin, Manus looked at the other side of the table. There was a lady sitting down alone in front of the food, with impressive large eyes, a sharp chin and red lips, Aerea Britz herself.
Unfitting of the atmosphere, she wore casual clothes with folded arms and even crossed her legs up. From her large eyes one could see undisguisable self-confidence as she raised her hand at Manus.
“Prince Manus!”
Her voice seemed welcoming.
“The food’s going to cool down! Hurry up and come please!”
As if she was just inviting him out for a meal, she had a friendly expression and attitude.
“Y, you mustn’t. They might’ve put poison in the food.”
Romils quickly waved his hands and several nobles nodded their heads in agreement but Manus was nonchalant.
“They don’t have to resort to such a complicated method to kill me.”
It was true. The army that stood behind Aerea, the soldiers of the Defence Corps of Meland were several times greater than the numbers following Manus.
“T, that’s…”
Romils and other nobles couldn’t find any other words, as they knew how true that was. During that, Manus got rid of his helmet and armour to change into casual clothes before pacing towards the table. With an extremely calm expression, he sat on the other side of Aerea’s seat.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Manus Persion.”
Polite but not over the top. In response to such a greeting, Aerea smiled brightly and reached out with her right hand.
“The captain of the Meland Defence Corps of the Istel Kingdom, Aerea Britz.”
It was a very straightforward attitude, and Manus grabbed onto her hand after a light smile. A light handshake would follow – that’s what Manus had thought but,
‘Mhmm?’
Making a slightly surprised expression, Manus stared at Aerea. It was because her long tender fingers started to tighten its firm grasp around his hand.
‘Is she looking to see who’s grip is stronger?’
He hadn’t seen that coming at all and on top of that, Aerea was still hanging the same bright smile on her lips.
Grit.
The fingers dug into the back of his hand. It was a truly remarkable strength and at this point, Manus couldn’t stand back doing nothing.
‘Shall we try it then?’
Intentionally making a light smile, he put force into his right hand.
Grittt.
A grim sound echoed away. It was a fierce battle of strength but the two of them still wore relaxed expressions along with unchanging smiles.
Rumble!
The long table quivered itself due to their fight. With one mistake, all the food could end up on the ground and more importantly, one of the two could end up with an injury. But even then, Aerea showed no signs of backing off.
‘What Romils had said were exactly right. This woman is a spider.’
Making a bitter smile, Manus suddenly released the strength within his right hand as a sign of forfeit. He didn’t want to injure her.
Aerea made a strange smile.
“Interesting.”
She immediately retrieved her force and released the hand. At the same time, she raised her left hand a little and a man wearing baggy attires approached with a bottle of alcohol. His hair was messy and covered his face, making it impossible to see it.
The man poured alcohol into Aerea and Manus’ glasses. Raising the glass, Aerea asked softly.
“Did you lose? Or did you yield?”
Manus too raised his glass and shook his head.
“Who knows. Is that important?”
In response, Aerea asked again.
“Was it taken? Or did you yield?”
The subject was missing but it was clear what she was talking about – the Persion Kingdom. Manus shrugged his shoulders.
“Let me ask you back. Does it look like it was taken or does it look like I let him take it?”
Aerea made a smile and shook her head.
“There’s no way for me to know.”
She immediately emptied the glass and likewise, Manus followed suit. He wasn’t worried a single bit about poison.
‘She’s not that kind of person.’
He believed in his eyes.
Glug.
The man holding the bottle once again filled up the glasses. Manus and Aerea’s glasses were back full and,
Glug.
He poured alcohol into an empty glass next to him. It was a strange action.
‘Mhmm?’
With a slight frown, Manus stared at the man and it was then that the man let the bottle down before making a faint smile.
“In fact, whether it was taken or yielded is not important.”
A clear voice filled the area. With an intrigued expression, Aerea stared at the man while the man properly tidied up his unkempt hair.
“If it was taken, you can take it back, and if it was yielded, you can have it returned.”
The face that had been covered soon came into view.
“The important thing right now is not the Persion Kingdom.”
Incomprehensible words, but his calm voice was filled gradually with strength. Then, Manus made a slightly surprised expression.
“You are…?”
He was very familiar with the man’s face. Soon, the man lowered his head at Manus.
“Long time no see.”
The man and Manus – they were acquaintances. The man raised his head back up to stare directly at Manus’ two eyes.
“Peid Neil here.”
The man was a noble of the Istel Kingdom, known for being the Fox of the Battlefields, Peid Neil.
<Dragons (5)> End.
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