Chapter 294: Is It Because of Puberty? (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 294: Is It Because of Puberty? (2)
A strange curiosity sparked within him.
It was a bit late to realize it, but Devlan smiled quite often. And because the meaning behind that smile was so difficult to gauge, it strongly reminded him of a certain someone living on the floor below.
– An exchange… It seems I have misspoken.
A sudden question crossed his mind.
– To think I appeared that desperate.
If his younger brother’s insolent servant were here, would he be able to discern the true meaning behind Devlan’s smile?
Was he smiling because he found it amusing?
Or was he chuckling because he found it laughable?
– If I have misunderstood, I offer my apologies.
– Not at all. There is no need for an apology when I am not offended.
That was all Devlan said.
He didn’t get angry at the second prince of a foreign kingdom for proposing a deal involving his life; instead, he smiled. How incredibly generous.
– By the way, what could possibly be worthy of exchanging for my life? Ordinary things would hardly suffice… Nothing comes to mind. At this rate, we will only waste time instead of making a deal. If I ever become curious about prolonging my life in the future, I will give it some thought then.
– I understand.
Franz replied readily. Devlan looked down at him for a long moment before turning and leaving without another word.
From the beginning, Franz hadn't expected Devlan to agree. He knew Devlan wasn't the type to blindly trust the words of a foreign prince whose intentions were a mystery—not when even his own son, Chase, had turned his back on him.
If he were that gullible, he never would have dragged Calian to this country in the first place. Rather than trusting Franz, he would have implanted Zeon's Black Pebble into his heart to heal himself long ago or sought treatment in the elven city as Grand Elder Narzan had suggested. There would have been no reason for him to make this journey.
However, whatever Calian had discussed with Devlan, Franz was certain of one thing: knowing Calian’s personality—so wild he’d seemingly skipped puberty entirely—he definitely hadn’t spoken with the polite, gentle language of a proper gentleman. Therefore, Franz had brought up the topic simply to draw some of Devlan’s attention away from Calian and onto himself. Any gain beyond that would be a bonus, but it didn't matter if there was none.
Thus, after Devlan left, Franz finished his leisurely walk and returned to the annex.
“It is an honor to meet you, Prince Franz of Kairis.”
And there, he reaped a truly unexpected reward.
One of the knights guarding the annex blocked Franz’s path.
“I have something urgent to tell you.”
“...It seems the knights of this country do not bow, even when blocking the path of royalty.”
The man claimed it was their first meeting, but it wasn’t. In fact, the man’s face was so remarkably unremarkable that it had left an even stronger impression on him.
“My apologies.”
“Forget it.”
Franz recalled a face he had briefly glimpsed among the many escort knights who had accompanied Chase to Kairis a few months ago. He regarded the man with half-closed, languid eyes.
“Speak.”
Are you Devlan’s man, or Chase’s? Franz wondered, sizing him up. Or perhaps neither?
* * *
Whether Franz had met with Devlan that afternoon, or whether one of the knights from Kairis had sought out Franz… none of it mattered at the moment.
“Two.”
He had taken down two. Two remained.
Calian, who had been rushing toward a brown-haired warrior, suddenly vanished. He reappeared behind a blonde warrior, piercing his heart in an instant. Seeing Calian abruptly switch his combat style after relentlessly targeting a single opponent, the remaining two warriors backed away to create some distance.
Seizing that brief window, Calian’s mind began to wander again.
To be thinking so much in the middle of a fight.
It was agonizing.
Not long ago, he had let his thoughts drift during battle, ended up with a hole in his stomach, and gotten an earful from Hina. He couldn’t even eat. Calian hadn’t forgotten the hunger of that day. More accurately, he hadn’t forgotten the sight of meat disappearing into Franz’s mouth.
In any case, he needed to focus, but his mind kept drifting.
I don’t understand this at all. What on earth is going on?
Calian only ever drew his sword when necessary; he never enjoyed it. And after Alan, Franz was probably the person who best understood how much he hated getting blood on his hands.
Franz wasn’t the type to orchestrate a situation like this just to play a prank or stab his younger brother in the back. Because of that, Calian’s mind kept wandering to other possibilities.
– It seems Dame Seiren or Dame Grace used magic. I could not hear what Prince Franz said to them.
What message had Franz secretly passed to Kyrie after hearing about his conversation with Devlan? Why and how had Franz drawn out Zeon, and why had he kept it a secret from him?
“Could it be… is he really going through puberty?”
I don’t think I was like that at his age.
Whoosh!
As Calian chased his fleeting thoughts, the brown-haired warrior’s sword lunged at him. Unlike a standard blade, this one caught his eye with its jagged, saw-like teeth lining its spine.
It looked designed to tear flesh from bone, and Calian’s handsome brow furrowed slightly.
“What nasty taste,” he muttered, his feet already in motion.
Clang!
Clatter, clang! Clang-clang!
Unlike the first two who had fallen with disappointing ease, the remaining two fought with seasoned experience. Calian began to engage both of them simultaneously.
The brown-haired warrior blocked Calian’s strike with the serrated edge of his blade, then twisted his sword to deflect it. A few of the saw-teeth snapped off against the red aura-clad sword, but the warrior couldn’t afford to care.
If they blocked the front, Calian’s sword flew in from behind. If they turned to block that, a blade rained down from above. In between, daggers and magic flew, accompanied by a relentless barrage of sword strikes. Lacking even the time to register the minor cuts that were already healing on their skin, the warrior focused all his attention on parrying Calian’s onslaught.
Taking advantage of the moment the brown-haired warrior backed away, the grey-haired warrior pulled out a mana bomb and threw it.
The instant a soft thud sounded on the sandy ground, Calian’s figure vanished.
Boom!
A colossal roar reverberated through the air, like the crashing waves of a storm-swept sea.
Deploying a Shield to weather the blast, Calian briefly glanced toward the distant shoreline.
He saw Arsen.
Arsen wasn't intervening. This meant something had happened that required him to protect Franz instead of helping Calian.
“I can…”
A slow smile spread across Calian’s lips.
“…do that too.”
The wind gathered.
In the very center of that darkness, the wind began to blow.
Whoosh…
A vortex of mana swirled toward Calian. His black cloak, tinged with a reddish hue, fluttered wildly.
Knowing all too well how foolish it was to give a mage time to cast a spell, the two warriors closed the distance. At that exact moment, the sand between them and Calian erupted.
Roar!
Three man-sized pillars of wind spun menacingly, blasting sand in every direction. Having blocked the warriors’ vision with the tornadoes, Calian kicked off the ground and threw himself between the swirling columns.
Simultaneously, the grey-haired warrior thrust his sword, aiming for Calian’s neck.
Crash!
Compressed wind exploded beneath the warrior’s feet, scattering sand everywhere.
Instantly leaping backward, the grey-haired warrior landed some distance away. Swept up by the blast, the hem of his clothes was shredded to tatters.
Lightly deploying a Shield to protect himself from his own attack, Calian deflected an incoming sword strike and tilted his head. Four red daggers materialized behind him and shot toward the brown-haired warrior. He completely ignored the grey-haired warrior, who had yet to close the distance again.
Swoosh!
Clatter! Clang!
The brown-haired warrior dodged three of the daggers slicing through the chaotic sandstorm, but one grazed his neck. Before he could even frown at the stinging pain, Calian’s sword was upon him.
Boom!
Another explosion erupted beneath the feet of the grey-haired warrior as he rushed forward. Having anticipated the same attack, he had already evaded it and arrived right in front of Calian.
Watching the sharp tip of the sword swing toward him, Calian moved. The strike sliced through the empty space he had occupied a moment ago, and a slender spear of wind shot toward the warrior’s neck.
Clang! Clang, clatter!
Clang! Clang!
Whenever the grey-haired warrior took a step back, the brown-haired warrior’s serrated sword lunged at Calian. When Calian deflected it, the grey-haired warrior’s longsword aimed for his neck once more.
Clang!
Swoosh!
Mana imbued with physical force.
The wind spear Calian had unleashed was blocked by the grey-haired warrior's sword and flew far off before dissipating. Before they could even track its movement, the red aura-clad sword lunged at them again.
Pressed by an onslaught that granted him no time to breathe, the grey-haired warrior hastily bent at the waist to dodge the red blade. Then,
Squelch!
A chilling sound echoed from behind him.
Realizing what had happened, the grey-haired warrior ducked lower. He saw long, braided brown hair. Thick, red blood pooled on the sand around the serrated sword that had been dropped.
“……Three.”
A soft, beautiful voice reached the back of the grey-haired warrior’s neck.
* * *
Arsen appeared between Franz and the Secritian escort knights Devlan had assigned, a smirk on his face.
As a mage who loved close-quarters combat, Arsen knew all too well that if he excitedly jumped into the fray where Calian’s red sword was weaving its brilliant arcs, he would likely lose his head. So, standing beside Franz at a distance, he had briefly considered binding the feet of the remaining warriors but ultimately decided against it.
Roar!
He felt the wind mana gathering.
Before long, he saw several tornadoes form between Calian and the two warriors. Since that meant Calian had enough leeway to cast magic while maintaining his aura, Arsen decided not to intervene.
Besides, he knew that if he made a clumsy attempt to help and one of the enemies turned toward Franz, Calian would likely use the excuse of targeting that warrior to “accidentally” take Arsen out as well.
Swoosh!
Of course, that didn’t mean he was just standing idly by.
Driving an ice spear into the sand right in front of the escort knights who were trying to approach, Arsen glared at them with a fierce grin.
“I am Arsen Hertz, Vice-Commander of Kairis’s Valkan Mage Corps.”
He introduced himself, just as he always did. This was directed at the knights of Secritia—specifically, the two who Calian had assumed didn't know his face, who had just stepped forward from the front of the formation.
“If you take one more step, it will be deemed an attack on Kairis royalty.”
As Arsen delivered the stern warning, finally putting his reinstated authority as Vice-Commander to good use, Franz spoke.
“There shouldn’t be any danger.”
“I know. What escort knight in their right mind would attack royalty?”
“Then why?”
At the question of why he was bothering to threaten them, Arsen let out a short sigh.
“Is this situation going exactly as you anticipated, Your Highness?”
“Excluding the crazy blue-haired mage.”
“Did you also know that Zeon would get involved?”
Franz furrowed his brow at the question, listening to the distant sounds of Calian’s battle for a moment before speaking.
“Where is Dame Seiren?”
“The Association President isn’t coming.”
“Why?”
“Your Highness,” Arsen said, lowering his voice.
Franz hadn’t fully anticipated Zeon’s arrival, but he had prepared for it. Yet, instead of the two mages he expected, only the blue-haired one had come. Ignoring Arsen's question, Franz demanded, “Speak.”
“I saw the bracelet glowing. If you planned this to draw the Crown Prince of Secritia out of the royal palace, it didn’t work. Sir Bern remains in the palace. I don’t know what the Secritian nobles were trying to pull while he was away, but whatever it was, you should consider your goal achieved. You’ve confirmed the connection between them and Zeon.”
Franz didn’t reply, even to the quiet whisper the knights couldn’t hear.
“It seems this isn’t something I can just let slide. My head hurts too much from being backstabbed.”
Instead, an answer came from elsewhere.
Calian, having already dealt with the last warrior, was standing behind Franz.
He had heard Arsen’s final words. He knew exactly what he had to do.
Walking with measured steps, Calian stood before his brother.
A red light gathered at his fingertips once more.
“Explain.”
A cold blade touched Franz’s neck.
A voice colder than the blade flowed from Calian’s mouth. A killing intent colder still rang in Franz’s ears.
“……Explain yourself, brother.”
A thick drop of blood slid down the red blade and dripped onto the sand.