Chapter 188
Chapter 188
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 188
Chapter Title: The Elf Princess
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‘Let’s go as quietly as possible.’
If word got out that he had arrived, it would surely cause a stir, and that chatty prince would find out right away.
That was why Eugene had mapped out a route with minimal foot traffic and moved as stealthily as he could.
The royal castle doubled as the city hall, making it bustling with activity.
But Eugene had been here before, so he knew the layout well. And as a vampire with a knack for concealing his presence, he was able to slip deep into the castle undetected.
“Huh?”
“Kie?”
Eugene and Mirian halted at the same time as they walked beneath a stone wall in an abandoned rear garden devoid of people.
Something alien had prickled at Eugene’s senses. It wasn’t a mage, a vampire, or an elf.
And it was approaching this spot at tremendous speed.
“What is it?”
Faced with this bizarre sensation he’d never felt before, Eugene gripped Wolfslayer and glared in the direction of the presence.
Shoooo…!
With a sound like a fierce wind sweeping through dense leaves, a deep green shadow vaulted over the wall and dropped right in front of Eugene.
At that instant, the aura—pure and crystalline, nothing else to call it—flipped into raw hostility.
Shuuuaak!
A streak of blue sword light sliced through the air like lightning crashing down.
“Kieek!”
The startled spirit cried out.
In that moment, the sword’s trajectory twisted ever so slightly.
Kaang!
Eugene didn’t miss the opening. He reflexively swung Wolfslayer upward to block the blade, then spun his sword and thrust straight ahead.
A lightning-fast parry flowed into a chain attack, sword wind howling along the silver blade. But the attacker was no pushover.
Kakang!
The assailant blocked and dodged three thrusts in an instant, then leaped backward.
A acrobatic flip without any wind-up!
A normal knight might have been awed or intimidated, but his opponent was Eugene.
Kwararak!
Eugene launched forward like a beast, his cloak trailing like a black tail caught in a gale.
“……!”
The assailant’s eyes widened in shock mid-air as their gazes locked.
‘The hostility just vanished?’
Trusting his gut that kicked in at crucial moments, Eugene eased his grip slightly.
At that point, the attacker shook her sword up, down, left, and right like she was flicking off dust.
Chaechaechaechang!
The two blades clashed repeatedly, ringing with a clear metallic chime.
“Urk!”
Even with the reduced force, the attacker groaned and was pushed back by the power in Eugene’s strike.
Finally, the two faced off, staring each other down. Then they spoke almost in unison.
“Who are you?”
“Who are you?”
Eugene’s low, icy voice contrasted with her clear, crystalline one.
The figure gripping a longsword gleaming with blue light in one hand was an elf.
A woman with her eyes below covered by translucent cloth, exuding a mystical blue aura from her entire body.
But Eugene wasn’t one to be swayed by looks or voice.
“Elven troops? What’s your connection to Master Prabo?”
“You know Master Prabo? Who the hell are you?”
“Coming into someone else’s home and swinging a sword first, then asking who I am—what kind of manners is that?”
“…….”
The female elf flinched, her lips parting as if to retort, but then her gaze shifted to Eugene’s side.
“Kie!? K-Kieee…….”
Startled, Mirian trembled and ducked behind Eugene’s shoulder.
Her deep green eyes followed the spirit’s every move.
“M-Master! Save me!”
Mirian’s voice was more pitiful than ever, sending chills down Eugene’s spine.
The elf glaring their way seemed to feel something similar—her eyes narrowed with a subtle quiver.
That look, like she was pissed, prompted Eugene to speak again.
“I asked who you are. If you won’t answer…….”
“Ch-Chu, chujuu…….”
A bizarre noise escaped the lips of the elf who wielded such immense power and skill—no way could this be a woman’s voice.
“……?”
Wondering if he’d misheard, Eugene narrowed his eyes, and the elf stared piercingly at Mirian, who was peeking out from behind his shoulder, pursing her lips again.
“Chuju. Good baby. Come here!”
“……Is she insane?”
“Kie?”
Eugene muttered in disbelief, and Mirian tilted its head like a pet reacting to its owner.
“Gasp!”
The elf sucked in a sharp breath at the sight, then suddenly shrugged her shoulders dramatically.
Thinking it was her steadying for another attack, Eugene raised Wolfslayer at the ready.
Somehow, her eyes seemed a bit red around the edges as she raised a trembling hand and beckoned to Mirian.
“C-Cute little undine. Come here. Chujujuju. Haa, haa…….”
The sword-wielding woman’s eyes bulged with bloodshot intensity as she panted hot breaths, her face cloth fluttering.
It was a grotesque scene hard to believe came from an elf.
“……A pervert?”
“M-Master. I’m scared.”
Mirian burrowed deeper behind Eugene’s shoulder, wings quivering.
“You.”
“……?”
The elf’s voice turned icy cold.
“Did you force that cute, adorable undine into submission? From what I sense, you’re of the dark kin—how vile a spell did you use to terrify the poor thing like that? So pitiful. So tragic.”
“…….”
Eugene was speechless at the utter nonsense.
Cute? Adorable? Who?
“Master. Up close, she doesn’t seem so bad. Someone who grasps my true essence so perfectly can’t be evil. Probably a great seer from a wealthy, noble house after rigorous training…… Kieek?”
Eugene snatched the spirit trying to sneak in a white lie.
“You! How could you do such a cruel thing!”
The elf’s eyes flashed with fury.
“Here, take it.”
Eugene flicked Mirian away with his finger.
“Kieek!”
“Ah! Aaaah!”
Mirian flew off tumbling, and the elf reached out with eyes full of rapture to catch it.
In that instant.
Whoooosh! Thwack!
“Guh!”
Closing the distance in a black blur, Eugene smashed the hilt of his sword mercilessly into the nape of the elf’s neck, who was utterly fixated on the spirit.
Thud.
Eugene slung the limp elf over his shoulder.
No clue who this lunatic was or why she was acting like this—he needed to meet Luke and Ranslo ASAP.
“Kkhuehuehuek! Master, traitor! You abandoned me!”
“Shut up with the nonsense and find Luke or Ranslo’s presence already.”
“Betrayal! Treachery! Kkhuehuehuek!”
He might as well dispose of this deranged spirit while he was at it.
* * *
Under Eugene’s threat to actually toss it away, Mirian quickly located Ranslo, and Eugene headed straight there.
“Master!”
“Sir!”
Luke and Ranslo, who’d been deep in discussion, greeted Eugene warmly.
“When did you arrive? We didn’t get any report…… Huh?”
“What’s that?”
As their eyes bulged, Eugene dumped the bundled-up elf on the floor like luggage.
“No idea. I was sneaking in to meet you two when this one attacked me out of nowhere.”
“What? This lunatic dared to attack Master?!”
Luke’s face darkened fiercely, proving his loyalty as he roughly flipped the prone elf over.
“Huh?!”
Luke paled in shock, and Ranslo, who’d been eyeing her gravely, froze too.
“What? You know her?”
“……You’re saying this person attacked you, Master?”
“Yeah?”
“……There’s a fist-sized lump on the back of her head.”
“Hit her pretty hard. With the sword hilt.”
“Gasp! N-No way she’s…….”
“I controlled the force, so she’s fine. So, do you know her?”
“Uh, Sir Eugene?”
Ranslo, who called him casually around close friends like old times, carefully lifted the upper body of the corpse-like elf and said,
“This…… no, this lady is the princess of Elrand.”
“What……?”
“The eldest daughter of the Elrand king, known as the Platinum Knight, Princess Lilisein.”
Ranslo gently pulled back the cloth covering the princess’s face as he spoke.
“…….”
Eugene glanced at the elf princess—tongue lolling out in a dead faint—then deliberately looked away.
“Looks like we’ll have to call off the marriage talks.”
“…….”
“…….”
It seemed the only option.
Faced with the unprecedented scandal of the king’s ward and ducal regent having bludgeoned the back of the head of a woman who might become queen, Luke and Ranslo exchanged a silent agreement with their eyes.
* * *
“So, Princess Lilisein attacked you first, Master?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m not doubting you for real, Sir Eugene, but…… could you think it over once more? Maybe you startled her, or your presence flared up……?”
“No way! This wise princess with eyes of truth who sees the essence of things perfectly betrayed and stabbed at Master first for sure!”
“…….”
“I see. But those modifiers sound a bit off……?”
“Y-You misheard! A-Anyway, this one will go tend to the elf princess now.”
Mirian glanced nervously at Eugene and zipped over to Princess Lilisein.
The princess was still out cold, sprawled face-down on the sofa, with a wet cloth on the massive lump on her head—the size of a child’s fist.
“Anyway, Luke. I can’t give you a lunatic like this as a wife.”
“Hmm. I’ll follow your will, Master, but…… why did she do that?”
“How should I know? And I don’t care to.”
Eugene glanced at Princess Lilisein and addressed the two.
“By the way, where are the other knights? On the way in, it looked like the forces were thinned out.”
“Ah, right after the coronation, we held a massive knighting ceremony. So some knights from Kaylor Kingdom went out to check their granted lands.”
“Oh, I see. Good call. The knights fought just for that—gotta settle accounts precisely.”
“It was just following Sir Ranslo and Duke Pitamoras’s advice. Nothing much.”
Even with the crown on, Luke scratched the back of his head shyly—he was still the loyal squire in front of Eugene.
“And Pitamoras?”
“He went to inspect the underground passages with Sir Randolf. But Sir Eugene, the trip seemed to go well, but where are Sir Galpredic and Lady Romari?”
“Well, about that.”
Eugene detailed everything that happened in the north. Then he pulled out parchment and a thick cloth bundle from his pack.
“This is a letter from the interim chieftain of the Tollo tribe I set up, and this is the former chieftain and his son’s heads.”
Ranslo’s eyes darkened gravely at the two orc heads, preserved by Romari’s magic and unrotted.
“It’d mean more if you did it yourself, but since things turned out this way, I figured you’d want to say something, so I brought them.”
Eugene, who understood vengeance better than anyone, truly felt sorry for Ranslo.
He couldn’t hand off beheading Holy Knight Dirhit to someone else, after all.
“It’s fine. I heard six other tribes are landing soon? I’ll vent on them then.”
“Thanks for understanding.”
“No, thank you. I’m the grateful one.”
Ranslo smiled brightly.
A knight who’d conquered Brantia in under half a year and racked up unbelievable feats.
The man who’d upended the northern orcs and mercilessly cracked the elf princess’s skull was apologizing and thanking him.
Regrettable not to avenge personally, but standing by such a man was the greatest fortune.
If anything, he was glad Eugene had done it for him.
Just then, Mirian—who’d been diligently rewetting the cloth on Princess Lilisein’s head—flew back in a panic.
“Master! Master! The elf princess is waking up!”
“……!”
All three heads snapped toward her.
Princess Lilisein stirred groggily, her head—with its child-fist-sized lump—rising up.
Her bleary green eyes swiveled creakily toward the three men.
The vampire origin, Brantia’s king, the lake knight.
Three men who bowed to no one anywhere tensed up without realizing it.
(To be continued in the next chapter)