Chapter 299: Bear with It, Brother (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 299: Bear with It, Brother (2)
I had left five of them with my brother and charged the two warriors wielding the power of Zeon. Yes, that much was correct. Up to that point, there were definitely two. But I killed one, so why were there still two left?
…No, it’s just one again.
There were definitely two a moment ago, but looking again, there was only one. Well, of course. There were two, I killed one, so the bastard standing before me should be just one. That’s right, but why did I see two earlier? Strange.
Blink.
I blinked slowly, trying to clear my hazy, blurred vision. Only then did my focus return, and the warrior who had looked like two came sharply into view as one.
“Ah… right, there’s only one. You almost scared me. I thought the guy I just killed had come back to life.”
I thought another freak like me had appeared.
I blinked again to double-check. Yes, definitely one.
Tap, tap. I kicked the ground a few times with the tip of my foot. Squeezing my hand around my sword’s hilt, I forced my fading senses awake.
Blink.
A short distance away, I could see five figures trading blows. Just in case, I blinked a few more times. Since one of the five had to be the Pea, one of the enemy swordsmen must have already been taken down.
He could have just played along and stalled for time until Sir Hertz arrived. Or, since he practically acts like he’s on our side anyway, he could have just stood by and watched amicably until the Third Prince died. But no, the man didn’t have a single shred of flexibility in him, so he just had to go and reduce their numbers by one. Stubborn to the very end.
“He must be getting thoroughly pickled over there.”
Of course he would.
Whoosh!
Just as I was about to let out a short sigh, the warrior, having caught his breath, lunged at me. Without a moment to even draw a proper breath myself, I raised my sword.
Clang!
Clash! Clang! Claaang!
The successive rings of clashing metal jolted my hearing back to life.
I still couldn’t feel anything around my waist, but the sharp pain rising continuously from my heart kept my fading consciousness firmly anchored. In a way, it was a blessing.
Barely able to tell whether my feet were treading on solid ground or stepping on shadows, I moved to dodge the warrior’s lunging blade. Gripping my sword with stubborn resolve, I thrust it toward him.
Four killed by the shore. One killed just moments ago. And the one standing before me now. That made a total of six warriors of the Great Desert sent by Zeon.
“You must not have been very close with those guys, seeing how you just stood there staring while nearly thirty of them were slaughtered.”
I asked, partly out of curiosity, partly to fight off the encroaching drowsiness. He had stood perfectly still, like someone watching a house fire across the street, while all those swordsmen died. How could anyone consider them allies?
“We were still on awkward terms.”
I hadn’t expected an answer, but the bastard, locking blades with me in a contest of strength, replied in a low voice.
Still on awkward terms.
Different factions. They had either met recently, or today was the very first time.
I simply nodded. There was no further conversation. I sent my sword instead of words, and he parried it upward with immense force.
Claaang!
Sparks flew. I quickly pulled back my sword and swung again, shearing off a few strands of his gray-streaked hair, which fluttered to the ground. I had started seeing double again, and though I thought my aim was true, it seemed I had missed by a hair’s breadth.
A surge of blood rushed up my throat.
Out of habit, I swallowed the metallic lump welling up. A laugh escaped me.
To think I’m this weak.
At this rate, I’d lose all right to tease that fragile man for being as delicate as a parsley sprout.
Clang! Clash!
I knew that the moment I stopped, I would die. So I kept my feet moving and my arms swinging without pause. The same went for him, of course, but at least he wasn’t in a state where he saw his opponent as two. I had to move even faster, even more stealthily, searching for any opening.
Thump!
My brow furrowed.
The sharp sensation radiating from my heart was something I could never get used to. The dull, indifferent thumping of my overtaxed heart rang loudly in my ears.
…Thump!
The sword that had been radiating a red glow flickered and vanished.
“Haa…”
I blinked.
I checked the distant figures again. I could see him dealing with three now. He had taken down another one.
At this rate, that parsley sprout is going to completely wither.
Hummm!
Squeezing out every last drop of my strength, I manifested the sword again. I blinked. I moved my feet. I swung my arms.
“You look like you’d drop dead if I left you alone, yet you’re holding out remarkably well,” the warrior remarked.
Instead of answering, I laughed.
Because if I admitted it, it felt like I would be denying the words of a certain very smart person who had declared I wouldn’t die, turning what had finally been made into a truth back into a lie.
I deflected the warrior’s blade once more. My sword vanished again. I manifested it once more. If I had known it would be like this, I shouldn’t have struck the previous guy’s sword so hard that it shattered. As my sword threatened to disappear yet again, I laughed once more, feeling as though I were hanging on by a thread.
Seizing a split-second opening, I glanced toward Franz again.
And I couldn’t laugh anymore.
“Why on earth…”
I saw the Pea.
Yes. I saw him. I thought about blinking, but I just stared. He didn’t look like two. He appeared clearly as one person. So I just stared. I couldn’t even laugh anymore; I just stared.
Just as I had imagined, a thoroughly pickled Pea came into view. He was running toward me. Why?
“Calian.”
He called my name.
The guy who had the brilliant idea of running over with three armed bastards hot on his heels called out to me.
“…Catch.”
A sword came flying through the air. I caught it.
Ah.
My brother must have lost his mind.
He was doing something foolish again. He must have forgotten that the sword didn’t split into two just to look cool. He must have deluded himself into thinking his swordsmanship was good enough to fight properly with only half a blade. I thought he was smart, but I guess I was wrong.
He really must have gone mad.
Truly, out of his mind.
I lunged toward the warrior. Vanishing and reappearing, I thrust my sword from behind him, then from the front. I cornered him. But then he started looking like two again, and I ended up stabbing empty air instead of his neck. Damn it.
Clang!
Nearby, I heard the sounds of Franz and the swordsmen aiming for each other’s lives. It was the sound of the Pea blocking. I guess if I’ve learned to understand his clipped words, I’ve also learned to decipher the sound of his parries.
The ear-splitting din should have been coming from my side, yet the sounds from over there rang much louder.
Clang!
The Pea blocked again.
He dodged the next attack—no, it looked like he got hit. Was he badly cut? Stabbed? I couldn’t tell. One of the sounds vanished. The Pea must have taken down another one. Seeing that, maybe he wasn’t cut too deeply. I didn’t know.
My heart twisted again. I didn’t know. How long could the Pea hold out with only half a sword? I didn’t know that either.
Claaang! Clash! Clang!
Driven by pure instinct, I coated that sword—which of all things had to be blue-silver—with aura and unleashed my killing intent. I swung the blade as if baring my claws and teeth. Even in the midst of this, my perfectly fine ears ignored the clash of my own fight, faithfully tuning in only to the sounds from the other side. How amusing.
The Pea’s attack was blocked. I couldn’t hear the next sound. Why? I tore my eyes away from the warrior in front of me and looked toward the source of the sound. I saw the ash-colored sword caught in the opponent’s grip.
I could see it all so clearly.
I could see exactly what he was thinking, what he had given up on, and what useless worries he was harboring.
“You…”
Don’t let your thoughts get ahead of you and drop your sword first.
I had told him that.
“You foolish Pea.”
I ran.
The warrior pursued me, swinging his sword. Did it hit my back? I didn’t know. Did it hurt? I didn’t know. I just ran. I swung my sword at the hand gripping Sinasta. I grabbed the Pea by his shoulder and pulled him behind me. The scent of blood grew thick and heavy.
My back throbbed with pain.
Foolish bastard, forgetting everything I taught him. Damn him. What a nuisance of a brother.
“No.”
He wasn’t dead.
Then that was enough.
That much, I knew.
*
‘Wouldn’t it be too unfair to back down like this, Prince Franz?’
In a corner of a garden filled with nameless red flowers, a knight who introduced himself as “someone who couldn’t bear to see the neighboring prince’s pitiful plight” had spoken those words. I briefly considered stuffing all those flowers down his throat, but I held back. Once. When I nodded for him to continue, the bastard went on.
‘Prince Calian is the one who murdered Prince Franz’s mother.’
The path where I held my mother’s hand and lived as if I were dead.
The path where I let go of my mother’s hand so everyone but me could live.
I was the one who chose the latter. The one who killed my mother was not Calian, but Silike herself, and the Brissen family who abandoned her. Both Calian and I knew this, but that bastard didn’t. Since he spoke out of ignorance, I let it slide. Ignorance, they say, is not a sin.
‘Furthermore, is he not the one who stripped Prince Franz of everything he owned?’
What had I ever owned to be stripped of?
Was I stripped of Brissen?
—Even if you’re surrounded by grass, a pea is still pea-colored.
My younger brother was trying to shake Brissen off of me, but was that considered “stealing” it? That didn’t seem right. If not that, then what else could he have taken? My brother had carved out his own flesh to give me so much; I couldn’t fathom what he could have possibly stolen from me, nor could I recall anything I had lost.
I wondered if that was how it looked to those Brissen-like fools who could only see the surface, so I held back a second time. Ignorance might not be a sin, but stupidity like Brissen’s certainly was.
‘Therefore…’
‘We will help you. With just a little assistance from you, you can return to how things used to be.’
Three times. I held back.
‘It doesn’t matter when, just come out of the palace with us. We will clear away anything that stands in Your Highness’s path.’
I considered holding back one more time to commemorate my trip to the sea, but then I remembered my younger brother’s words: If you’re uncomfortable or don’t like it, you don’t have to endure it.
‘I’ll keep that in mind.’
So, I decided not to endure it anymore.
And then, I moved.
Chase’s involvement was the final piece of the plan. Calian wouldn’t care about his own life being targeted, but he would definitely oppose Chase leaving the palace. That was why I hadn’t told him. And that was why things had become a mess. Everything had gone completely awry.
I had acted without holding back to reduce the threats to Calian’s life and to identify the suspicious figures hiding among the nobles to hand over to Chase. If I had known it would escalate like this, I should have endured it just one more time. Or, I should have just told Calian before leaving.
“…I am late.”
In any case, what was done was done.
The crazy blue-haired mage had arrived.
Franz briefly stared at the long laceration on the back of his younger brother—the one who had carved away his own flesh and was now shaving away his very life—and simply nodded. At that moment, the ice barrier shattered. The enemies moved.
From the very beginning, their target had been Calian, not Arsen. Ever since Calian had cast a shield in front of Franz and one of the swordsmen had died at Franz’s hands, they had targeted both indiscriminately, but Calian remained the priority.
Thus, the swordsmen closed in on Calian, while the warrior swung his blade toward Arsen.
A deep blue chill gathered in Arsen’s hands.
Crack!
Whoosh! Whoosh!
As the ground beneath the warrior’s feet froze solid, three ice spears shot toward the swordsmen.
Crunch!
In an instant, two swordsmen collapsed before they could even reach Calian, their bodies impaled by thick spears of ice. Almost simultaneously, a deep gash appeared on the neck of the swordsman who had narrowly dodged.
The man, not even realizing that a blue-silver blade had sliced through his neck, froze in place. He stared at Calian for a moment before turning his gaze toward Franz.
Thud!
Or rather, he tried to.
Calian kicked the stomach of the man who hadn’t even realized his own death, sending him flying, and gripped his sword once more.
The warrior, momentarily halted by the frozen ground, channeled strength into his feet. The clinging ice shattered into glittering fragments as four more ice spears rained down upon him.
Whoosh!
Clash-clash-clang!
The warrior’s sword moved in a blur. Deflecting every single one of the rapid ice spears, he swung his blade at Arsen, only to be blocked by another wall of ice. A grating screech echoed through the air.
Arsen pointed his fingertips at the warrior once more. Dozens of ice wedges shot toward him as a frosty, pure white energy surged forward, attempting to envelop his body.
The warrior raised his sword. At the same time, Calian’s blade swung toward his heart. The warrior didn’t mock Calian’s noticeably slower blade, instead parrying it with cautious precision.
Claaang!
Clash! Clang!
Shaking off the ice beneath his feet, the warrior slipped out of the attack range, blocked Calian’s sword, and deflected it upward. Seizing that gap, another long ice spear flew toward him, but he blocked that as well.
Clang! Clash! Clang!
Calian stumbled. The warrior thrust his sword forward. Calian raised his blade. Franz stepped forward. Calian blocked him.
Creeeeak!
A sound like the Senyu River freezing solid in the dead of winter echoed. It was the sound of densely packed ice rapidly expanding. It was Arsen.
The tip of the warrior’s sword froze pure white. Like rainwater flowing over a parched, cracked riverbed, the frost branched out in all directions, creeping down the blade.
Arsen moved. The warrior’s hand froze. Calian moved, thrusting his sword. The warrior raised his arm. The two swords collided with a deafening roar, as if trying to shatter each other.
Claaaaang!
That was the beginning.
Starting from that point, cracks began to spiderweb across the warrior’s sturdy sword. The resilient blade, forged to channel aura, fractured. Arsen didn’t stop. He continuously, relentlessly poured freezing cold into the warrior’s sword. Calian swung once more, striking down on the blade.
Shatter…!
Unable to withstand the force, the metal let out a final shriek. It shattered, scattering fragments in all directions. Swiftly channeling his mana, Arsen cast a shield over Franz. He did not cast one over Calian, knowing it would only get in his way.
The warrior took a step back, picked up a discarded sword from the ground, and charged once more.
Calian reached out his hand.
Franz handed over the remaining half of his sword. Calian caught it. He merged the two blades into one. This time, Calian held the complete Sinasta in his hand.
He held his breath. He lunged forward. He thrust his sword. The warrior blocked. Calian didn’t care. With a cheap sword like that—
—Crunch!
—he couldn’t block it.
The sword the warrior had just picked up shattered instantly. The sound of the blade breaking was followed by the sound of his heart and the life within it being extinguished. The warrior’s body tilted and collapsed.
He was no longer breathing. He was dead. Calian had killed him. No.
He had protected him. This time.
That much, he knew.
*
Red flames surged upward.
It was Arsen’s fire, meant to incinerate the attackers’ corpses before the knights of Secritia arrived. Though he knew leaving the bodies behind would be a highly useful bargaining chip, he burned them all without hesitation.
It was for the same reason as always. If they left behind blatant evidence that not only Calian’s but now also Franz’s publicly known abilities were vastly different from reality, the fact of the attack might serve them well in the short term, but it would surely backfire later.
—…Calian must be badly injured. How is Prince Franz? I doubt he’s unscathed.
—They’re alive. Both of them.
Franz stared at the bandages Arsen had handed him, briefly wondering how to wrap them before giving up. If he had the strength to wrap bandages, he would have climbed onto Estina’s saddle by himself without needing the support of the crazy blue-haired mage.
In any case, Chase did not ask further about their condition.
The two of them were together, and if either were to contact Chase, it would have been Calian. Since Franz had been the one to reach out, what good would it do to ask about Calian’s condition?
—Don’t come out.
—I know.
Only now did Franz finally have a proper “conversation” with Calian. Whether Franz speaking and Calian barely nodding a few times could be called a conversation was debatable, but it was enough to understand what Calian had prepared before leaving the palace. Thus, Franz decided to completely discard his original plan.
After a long silence, Chase spoke again.
—If you go in the opposite direction from where you are now, through the forest and along the eastern road, you will find my mother’s villa. It is the best place for our father to vaguely catch wind of Calian’s injuries while keeping you both out of the other nobles’ sight. It’s managed by Arianne’s people, so you won’t have to worry about any rumors leaking. Once the two mages who went to the Bridget Forest return, I will send them along with Kyrie. It would be best for you to head there first.
—Quick-witted as always.
—Whose brother do you think I am? Of course I would know that much.
Franz let out a dry chuckle.
—Right.
—I will do what needs to be done here. Contact me if anything happens.
—Understood.
Having finished his conversation with Chase, Franz slowly raised his head.
The scent of blood, which he had temporarily forgotten, drifted back to him. Only now did he notice the dried bloodstains on his hands. After staring down at them for a long moment, he turned his head to look at Calian.
After the battle ended, Arsen—who had rushed in to attack without so much as an introduction—went about finding things to do on his own. Calian stood leaning against Raven, his eyes closed in silence.
Franz knew Calian was in such a terrible state that he couldn’t even spare the mana to speak with Chase, yet the boy showed no sign of it. Displeased by this, Franz was about to say something when Calian opened his eyes. He quietly gazed up at Franz, who was sitting atop Estina.
The cloak Alan had gifted him, his sky-blue jacket, his white trousers, and even the white shirt underneath had all lost their original colors. His once-vibrant hair was soaked in blood. He didn’t even think to wipe the dried blood from his hands.
Staring at Franz for a long time with a face that said he knew exactly what Franz was thinking, Calian let out a short sigh. Then, he channeled his mana.
[Clean]
The kid who couldn’t even channel mana into his communication bracelet had just cast a spell.
That insane blue-haired mage was perfectly capable of helping, yet Calian had insisted on cleaning the blood away with his own power.
"You…"
"No matter what you do…"
Calian cut Franz off.
A faint, lopsided grin touched Calian's lips. He raised a trembling hand, pointed at Franz, and rasped a single word.
"Pea-colored."
Thud!
He collapsed the instant the word left his mouth.
Fainted. Again.
At this point, Franz had to seriously wonder if he was doing it on purpose.
The blue-haired mage rushed over, catching Calian as he fell. Even in the darkness, Franz could clearly see the bastard’s shoulders shaking as he fought to suppress his laughter.
"…Don't laugh."
"I'll try my best, Prince Franz."
Swallowing his anger, Franz tilted his head back and stared up at the sky.
The stars looked just like green peas. He wanted to look away, but he couldn't. He’d been told not to hang his head, so he kept his gaze fixed on the peas floating in the night.
A pea is still pea-colored, even if it’s stained with grass.
My younger brother, who cannot lie, said it was so.
Then it must be true.