“Kkuaaaaak!”
An awful scream that shook hearts just from hearing.
The sound of scream did not end from every direction.
“Who, who is it this time?”
“Don’t know. Maybe Sir Baron Mott?”
“Sir Viscount Leonnels, Sir Viscount Polk, Sir Viscount Tris and Sir Baron Mott following……”
“Just what is going on……”
It was an event that had already been going on for three days.
The knight order that poured out from the palace was arresting and executing close-aide nobles of Simon Rinse and their families.
At first, the Miller Castle’s residents thought that Tommy Rinse or Kallum Rinse’s forces had conquered Miller.
Because it was an event that hard to understand.
But soon, the one who was commanding at the head of this event was revealed to be Simon.
Because it was an event that happened so lightning-fast, and because it was something no one had expected at all, the heads of countless nobles who supported Simon were cut off without putting up single proper resistance.
The nobles who were in their fiefs instead of Miller were also the same.
A situation where the majority of them had sent one of their children to their mansions in the capital, Miller.
It was a decision made to show one’s own loyalty as the throne succession war unfolded.
However, that decision had now become a shackle that chained their own ankles.
“To arrest and kill all the close aides when the kingdom still hasn’t been calmed down……”
“You said it. What would he do if the other princes cooperate and invade…… ehuu.”
The situation where Tommy’s death still hadn’t been known.
“According to the rumors, they say even Sir Count Lancephil has become distanced from his majesty the king.”
“It’s ominous, really ominous. And how will he fill all those empty seats of nobles……”
Worrisome stories followed on and on.
However, these worries were merely baseless fears.
Because right after the influential nobles who were residing in the capital, Miller, were all executed and as if they had been waiting, new individuals were employed in groups to the important seats that had become empty.
Especially for the seat of prime minister that would replace Bradley Webster, who was Simon’s maternal grandfather and one of the kingdom’s four dukes, a young man who just passed his mid-twenties was named and brought large shocks.
The young man, who somehow was exuding a dreary feeling, was unusually wearing glasses.
*****
< Viscount Konce Leisi has cut off Prince Tommy Rinse’s head and has surrendered to King Simon Rinse! >
One rumor shook the entire Rinse Kingdom.
However, the rumor that spread at the same time was even more shocking.
< Duke Bradley Webster and influential nobles had schemed a treason but were discovered and all executed! >
Simon’s faction was greatly shaking and Tommy’s faction collapsed.
Kallum was collecting his breath in his territory and was increasing his army.
A large change had appeared in the throne succession war.
“The screams are not ending in the capital right now.”
“They say the plaza’s floor has been completely colored with blood.”
“They say corpses are piled like a small hill outside the western gate.”
Horrendous and frightening reports continued.
However, an even bigger problem was the story that followed afterwards.
“This cruel and horrendous act of execution has gone beyond the nobles and is continuing on even to the ordinary citizens of the castle.”
It was the truth.
After executing all the nobles of the capital, Miller, Simon dragged out even the ordinary residents of the castle who had records of sympathizing with them and cut their necks as he wished.
Not only that, he increased the members of vigilance, arrested and ripped off the limbs of all those who casually gathered and chatted or made statements that were even a little critical of the royalty.
A literally gruesome reign of terror was being executed.
“With the capital, Miller, at the center, the people……”
A momentarily hesitating sound.
Soon, the rest of the words continued with a short sigh.
“Are calling his majesty the king the Mad Monarch.”
“Hhm.”
Many people leaked quiet groans.
From listening just to the rumors, it was something that would more than plentily would have had happened.
The people’s gazes headed towards the head seat.
The young man rubbing his forehead with his right hand and submerged in contemplation.
‘In the end, it’s flowing exactly like the last life.’
His head throbbed.
The young man’s identity was Roan Lancephil.
‘I was complacent.’
Roan clenched his teeth.
Originally, he planned to immediately led the Fief Regiment and charge if a large misfortune happened in the capital, Miller.
Because of such reason, he had intentionally set up his main army’s camp near the capital, Miller.
However, he couldn’t check whether that large misfortune would be Simon’s death or Bradley’s death.
Roan, through the information he gathered until now and the hexers’ memories, judged that the possibility of Simon dying was slightly higher.
Regrettably, that judgment was wrong.
Although the memories of the hexers Roan absorbed were definitely useful, they too hadn’t known all of the plan.
‘I originally planned to attack Bradley who killed Simon, catch him, and make him pay for his sins, but……’
Everything had become erred.
The plan to interrogate Bradley and sweep up the faction and Clay that participated in the treason also became void.
Of course.
‘I can simply build plans up again.’
There was no reason to be greatly depressed by just that.
Although it was an outcome different than the expected, Simon killing Bradley and rampaging was something he already experienced in the last life.
He knew exactly what he would have to do from now on.
But the thing Roan was pained by was.
‘Blood that didn’t have to be spilled has been spilt.’
The countless people who died from Mad Monarch Simon’s hands.
Failing to protect them hanged on his heart.
“Huu.”
A long sigh naturally came out.
Austin, who had been watching, cautiously asked with a solidly stiffen expression.
“My lord. What should we do?”
Other numerous retainers were also the same.
Roan couldn’t easily answer.
He was truly at a loss on how to explain to them the events that would unfold from now on.
At that moment.
“You, you can’t!”
The outside of the barrack became noisy.
Everyone’s gazes turned towards the exit.
The thick cloth was roughly pushed open and soon a middle-age man of a large stature showed up.
A truly troubled look.
“Eh?!”
“Uhm!”
The Count Lancephil House’s retainers including Austin all stood up from their seats.
Reflexive actions.
Roan too stood up with a slightly surprised look.
“My lord. I’m sorry. He went in obstinately that we couldn’t quite……”
The guards who followed in a step late flustered and lowered their heads.
Roan lightly waved his hand.
“It’s fine. Go out for now.”
The guards glanced at each other, then soon saluted and went out of the barrack.
Roan quietly stood and stared at the middle-aged man who suddenly came into the barrack.
An odd silence fell down inside the barrack.
A moment later, the middle-aged man lowered his head first and opened his mouth.
“Greetings to Sir Count Lancephil.”
A polite yet bold and daring presence was felt.
Roan too lowered his head.
“I didn’t know that I would meet you here like this. Viscount Ruin.”
The middle-aged man, surprising, was Simon’s right-hand man Viscount Tio Ruin.
Tio bitterly smiled and nodded his head.
“I too didn’t think I would visit you like this.”
A voice rubbing off with thick regret.
With calm eyes, he looked at Roan.
“Sir Count Lancephil.”
Roan, instead of answering, nodded his head.
He calmly awaited the words to follow.
Tio, spitting out a long sigh, added on.
“Please kill……”
A truly pained expression.
“His majesty the king.”
Boom.
For an instant, a giant shock stormed inside the barrack.
‘Did I hear it right just now?’
‘No way. Sir Viscount Tio wants his majesty the king to be……?’
‘They’re completely unexpected words.’
The Count Lancephil House’s retainers couldn’t continue the conversation as if dazed.
Understandably, Tio was a man like a clone of Simon who lived his entire life only for Simon.
Even when the throne succession war intensified and Simon gave out cruel orders, the very one who did not leave his side and protected him until the end was Tio.
Because so, there were even stories coming from certain groups that the person closest to Simon wasn’t his sister Katy Rinse, his fiancée Rodite Page, or even his maternal grandfather Bradley Webster but Viscount Tio Ruin.
That he was making a request to Roan right now to kill Simon.
Roan deeply breathed in.
He asked with a calm voice.
“What had happened, sir?”
At those words, Tio answered with a sad expression.
“It’s a little long story.”
No one dared open their mouths.
Tio, reminiscing old memories, added on.
“Everything began the year his majesty the king turned thirteen.”
*****
“Huff. Huff. Huff.”
The scant breath filled up to her throat.
Her ears were stunned and the view in front of her eyes were blurry.
But she couldn’t rest even a little.
‘The pursuit troop has approached right behind us.’
Everything would end the moment she was caught by them
She could only clench her teeth and hurry her steps.
That was the only way to maintain her life.
“Princess. This way. Hurry!”
Guardian knight Abel Raimos, who was walking a step ahead, shouted in a desperate voice.
“Huff. Huff. Huff.”
The woman called the princess, without even being able to answer, merely moved her steps.
At that moment.
Ssweaaaaak!
A sharp sound of impact hit the ears.
Simultaneously.
Puuk!
“Kuk!”
With a horrifying sound, one young knight who was guarding the princess’s back lost his life.
“Block them! Don’t show a gap!”
When Abel shouted, another knight soon blocked the princess’s back and stood his place.
“Hhuhhk.”
The princess’s lips sharply trembled.
Tears welled up on her large eyes.
But even during that while, her steps didn’t stop.
Abel, watching that sight, tightly clenched his fist.
“Princess Katy. Please don’t cry. We will definitely protect your highness the princess.”
A resolute expression floated up fully on his face.
“Th, thanks.”
The princess effortfully smiled and nodded her head.
Bleached white face, completely scared eyes.
The princess was in fact Simon’s sister of same mother, Katy Rinse.
“It’s the Grain Mountains if we go a little bit more. Once we enter into the middle of the mountains, we should be able to throw off the pursuit troop. Once we throw the pursuit troop off, we will send people to the capital, Miller. A little more. Please endure a little more.”
Sadly, they did not know of the trouble that happened in the capital, Miller.
Simon was no longer the Simon they knew.
“I, I got it.”
Katy nodded her head.
She too knew very well that there were no good solutions right now.
‘To think elder sister Rodite is trying to kill me……’
She couldn’t believe it.
Fiancée of her brother and king Simon, Rodite Page.
When she was invited to Marquis Page’s fief, she went out with the thought of occasionally getting some fresh air.
Because the place Page Marquisate was located in was the kingdom’s western region, it was a safe place that didn’t have to worry about throne succession war or foreign nation’s invasion.
Katy, who lived almost as if imprisoned in the palace due to the continuing war and veiled strife, brought only a small number of escorting soldiers along and headed to Page Marquisate.
A truly elated feeling for once.
But the thing actually awaiting Katy when she arrived at the Page Marquisate wasn’t a welcoming event but knights and soldiers who thickly exuded killing intent.
When she was being bewildered, Rodite and her father Marquis Abrie Page appeared.
They abruptly tried to kill Katy.
‘I don’t understand.’
However much she thought, she couldn’t find a reason why Rodite, no, Rodite’s house was trying to kill her.
Thanks to the escorting knights’ desperate fight, Katy was able to barely pierce through the encirclement and run away.
However, Rodite and Abrie formed a pursuit troop and tenaciously chased Katy’s back.
Ultimately, Katy couldn’t return to the capital, Miler, where Simon was and could only run towards the Grain Mountains in the West.
“We just need to go a little further!”
Abel shouted aloud and pulled up the morale.
In front of their noses, the forest that spread below the Grain Mountains was seen.
The other numerous knights with desperate looks too effortfully formed smiles.
But tragically, their steps could continue no longer.
Dududududu!
With noisy sound of horse hooves, cavalry troops appeared from the left and right.
Simultaneously, tens of arrows cut through the air and flew towards them with sharp sounds of impact.
“Block!”
“Block them!”
The knights, pulling up their mana, swarmed around Katy.
Pububububuk!
Although few arrows hit the armors and swords and were bounced off, others were planted on the bodies of the knights.
“Kuk!”
“Guguk.”
Few knights whose level of mana was low couldn’t endure them and passed away.
“Are you alright, your highness?”
Abel and the knights asked in one voice.
“I, I’m fine.”
Katy quickly nodded her head.
Thanks to the knights’ devotion, she didn’t receive a single wound.
Abel, looking at the cavalry that already surrounded them, bit his lips.
‘Damn it. Even though the Grain Mountains is right in front of us……’
Furthermore, there was the forest that spread below the mountains if they went just few steps forwards.
If they could at least have entered into the forest, they would have been able to seal the cavalry’s mobility.
‘It can’t be helped.’
There was only one way to overcome this crisis.
‘We will at least send princess to the forest.’
They could only use the remaining knights as shields.
Nod.
The knights instantly noticed Abel’s intention.
They all nodded their heads with resolved expressions.
At that moment.
“You’re finally caught.”
Together with a repulsive voice, a beautiful woman and an old man appeared.
Instantly, Katy’s face fiercely flushed.
“Rodite! Abrie!”
The identity of the beautiful woman who appeared riding a graceful horse was Rodite Page.
The old man who stood side by side with her was her father Marquis Abrie Page.
Rodite looked at Katy’s completely enraged face and shook her head.
“Why would you run so hard when you know you’re going to die like this either way? Do you know how much our knights worked because of you?”
Chiding words.
It truly was ludicrous attitude.
“W, w, wh……”
Katy couldn’t easily continue her words and trembled her body.
There was never a time she saw Rodite’s such look until now.
She was always graceful and elegant and acted courteously.
“Why are you doing this?”
Katy barely calmed her heart and asked.
She truly was puzzled.
However, Rodite had no particular thoughts of telling it to her.
“Ask your brother about that later.”
Waving her finger, she stepped back.
Simultaneously, knights and cavalry each pulled out their weapons.
Sseureng. Sseureng.
The sound of metal horrifyingly echoed.
Abel, spitting out short breath, pulled Katy behind him.
“Princess. Run towards the forest while we attack them.”
“Abel.”
Katy grabbed Abel’s arm with a sad expression.
In her eyes, anger, fear, regret, and many more emotions were storming.
Abel effortfully smiled.
“Please don’t worry. We’ll soon follow you too.”
The moment his words finished.
“That’s right. We’ll definitely follow you, your highness.”
“There’s no way we’ll leave princess alone.”
Many knights brightly smiled and echoed him.
“Funny.”
Rodite who had been watching spat out a cold laughter.
“What are you all doing? Kill them quickly!”
A sharp order fell.
“Yes! Understood!”
The knights and the cavalry answered in one voice and moved their steps.
A tense nervousness stormed the entire battleground.
At that very instant.
“Wow! Why are there so many people at such a remote place?”
Together with a bright voice, a young man of ragged appearance showed up from the forest.
The appearance of the young man who casually walked out of the forest spreading below the Grain Mountains was that of most wretched beggar amongst beggars.
Perhaps not having grasped the mood at all, he brightly smiled and stepped onto the battlefield.
“Is there some sort of a fight?”
The beggar young man’s eyes twinkled with light.
An expression that was truly being curious.
‘W, what?’
Abel creased his forehead with a flabbergasted expression.
He looked long at the beggar young man.
His hair was bushy and was wildly covering his face, and the piece of cloth draped over him was worn out and frayed to a point of being embarrassing to call it a cloth.
The revealed skin was darkish with a dirty look and black dirt were crammed beneath his nails.
An undeniable look of a beggar.
Suddenly, Abel’s eyes twinkled and shone with light.
‘Spear?’
The beggar young man was holding a long stick that seemed to be a spear on his left hand.
It was a shabby spear made with a long piece of metal without even a blade wildly stabbed onto an end of a solid wooden stick.
‘No. Calling that a spear is an insult to spears.’
Abel shook his head back and forth.
Suddenly.
“What’s that beggar creep supposed to be?”
Rodite’s sharp voice pierced through the ears.
The beggar young man, brightly smiling, brought his left hand to his chest.
“I’m……”
An abrupt introduction.
Of course, he didn’t succeed.
Because Rodite coldly laughed out.
“Hmph. I’ve no interest in the identity of likes of you.”
She coldly smiled and added on.
“Since I can just kill you all.”
“Kill me?”
The beggar young man asked back in a shocked voice.
Sadly, there was no answer.
Instead, Marquis Page House’s knights and cavalry raised their weapons and approached.
“Damn it.”
Abel spat out a curse at that sight.
“Oi. It’s dangerous so stay still behind me.”
He entreated to the beggar young man and pulled out his longsword.
The beggar young man, who was pushed back without regards to his volition, looked intensely at Katy at his side.
“Who are they and why are they suddenly trying kill someone?”
Sound of asking in a quiet voice.
At those words, Katy, who had been watching the situation, answered in a small voice.
“Sorry. It’s all because of me.”
“Because of you? Who are you?”
The beggar young man asked with a puzzled look.
Katy exhaled a short sigh.
“My name is Katy Rinse. A princess of the Rinse Kingdom.”
“Ah……”
The beggar young man let out a quiet exclamation.
Because he hadn’t expected possibly meet the kingdom’s princess at such an obscure place.
He turned his gaze and looked at the Marquis Page House’s knights and cavalry that neared right before them in no time.
“I’m not sure why they’re trying to kill princess, but……”
A smile hanged on the beggar young man’s mouth.
“I can’t stay still if they’re trying to kill me too.”
He tilted his neck left and right and moved his feet.
“Eh?!”
There wasn’t even a moment for Katy to stop him.
The beggar young man passed Abel of completely tense expression and stood in front of the Marquis Page House’s knights and cavalry.
“Wh, what are you doing you! Hurry and move back!”
Abel shouted with a shocked expression.
However, the beggar young man merely smiled cheerfully and showed no sign of moving back.
No, instead, he pointed at the Marquis Page House’s knights and cavalry with the shabby spear he held.
A somehow lax looking stance.
“Ah……”
Abel unknowingly let out a quiet groan.
‘A young man with a bright future in front him is going just like this……’
He felt a guilty feeling on his own accord.
“This guy is insane.”
“Is he saying he’s going to face us alone?”
“Kukuku. Does he think he’s Count Lancephil or something? Kukuku.”
Marquis Page House’s knights and cavalry loudly sneered and shook their heads.
Pulling up their spirits even more, they quickly kicked off the ground.
‘We’ll get scolded by the lady if we take any longer.’
‘Let’s quickly kill these guys and drink heartil……’
However, their thoughts couldn’t continue any further.
Because the beggar young man posing the lax stance cheerfully smiled and shook his spear.
Sss.
A single strand of gentle air blew.
“Eh?”
“Un?”
Marquis Page House’s knights and cavalry who were fiercely charging flinched at the wind that rode their skin and flowed.
At the same time, their entire bodies stiffly froze like stone statues.
‘Where did he go?’
The eyes greatly shook from side to side.
The beggar young man’s shabby spear that was leveled at them, its spearhead to be exact, wasn’t visible.
‘Even though he’s still doing a stance?’
Furthermore, the spear handle was definitely held in the beggar young man’s hand.
Only the spearhead disappeared and wasn’t seen.
Then suddenly.
“Kuhuk!”
“Kuk!”
“Huhuk!”
Their sights rapidly shrank and their breathes suffocated.
The entire world was colored black.
A simply incomprehensible situation.
Then suddenly, the shabby spearhead appeared again inside their hazy sights.
‘Just where did it……’
The thoughts couldn’t continue any further.
Kukung.
With a dull sound, more than tens of Marquis Page House’s knights and cavalry all slantly fell down.
Like one, there were large holes pierced on all of their necks and chests.
Not only that, even long wounds drawn along the foreheads and chins were carved.
“……”
A heavy silence fell down.
There was no one who dared open his or her mouth.
“Gulp.”
Abel and the knights dryly gulped with dazed expressions.
Then.
“Huu.”
The beggar young man spat out a long sigh and took back his spear.
Tilting his neck side to side again, he formed a faint smile.
Only then did Rodite came to herself a moment late.
“Who, who are you?”
The sharp voice shattered the silence.
The tips of the beggar young man’s mouth gently went up.
“Me? Even though you said you weren’t interested just before?”
An innocent expression and voice.
Rodite couldn’t restrain herself and shouted.
“A, are you trying to play with me right now! I said who are you! You creep! Who are you!”
Sound of screaming while even pulling one’s veins.
It was a really violent reaction.
The beggar young man snickered out a laugh and brought his left hand to his chest.
“I’ll teach you if you are so curious. Listen closely.”
A quiet yet powerful voice rode the wind and flowed.
“I am the best spearman of the continent……”
The smile hanging on the young man’s mouth became thicker.
“Pierce.”
< Amaranth (5) > End.