Chapter 15
Chapter 15
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Twilight Forest Ambush
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“Your Majesty! It’s dangerous to go any deeper! We need to form the escort formation...”
“I hate anything cumbersome. It’s faster alone.”
Edel panted heavily as she blocked his path.
But Darcor waved her off irritably and hopped down from his white steed.
It was treacherous terrain that made even the finest warhorse back away.
“Edel. You wait at the entrance.”
“But Your Majesty! There are assassins in the forest...”
“That’s why. Watch if the rats flee or lie in wait.
It might be dangerous, after all.”
Darcor’s voice was firm.
This was not the emperor who usually toyed around.
His eyes were colder than ever.
“Understood... But you must retreat immediately if there’s even a hint of danger!”
Edel bit her lip and had no choice but to step back.
Once she vanished from sight,
Darcor finally cracked his stiff neck.
Crack.
“Phew... Now I can breathe easy.”
Darcor tilted his head crookedly toward a corner of the forest.
“About time to show yourselves. I can smell you.”
Rustle.
The bushes shook violently,
and crimson eyes gleamed from the darkness.
“Grrrr...”
It was a pack of starving Alma wolves.
Their hulking frames were several times larger than ordinary wolves.
A dozen or so Alma wolves, known for devouring people bones and all, drooled as they closed the distance.
“What? Just trash mobs.”
Darcor stifled a yawn of disappointment.
They were decent enough for a warm-up, though.
“Kraaang!”
The lead Alma wolf shot forward like an arrow.
Just as its razor-sharp fangs aimed for his throat...
Crunch.
He didn’t even need to draw his sword.
Darcor’s fist cleaved the wolf’s head cleanly in two.
“Kyaaang!”
The Alma wolf with its skull burst rolled pathetically across the ground.
“Next.”
Darcor shook the blood from his hand and crooked a finger at the rest.
In that instant, the Alma wolves—fierce enough to crunch human bones—were reduced to neighborhood strays.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ In the eastern part of the forest, an incongruous clamor had replaced the beasts’ howls.
“His Majesty must have come this way. My heart tells me so.”
A woman in a lavish dress pushed through the underbrush.
It was Empress Elena.
In her hand was an ornate lunchbox.
“Your Majesty, please turn back. My feet are killing me.”
Saintess Chloe trailed behind her, looking utterly miserable.
Every muddy puddle made her brand-new shoes scream in protest.
She’s insane. I only followed just in case, but this place is pure hell.
Chloe wanted to cry.
Her plan to win the emperor’s favor and score big was crumbling thanks to the hopelessly directionless empress.
The escort soldiers had long since fallen behind.
“Just a little farther. I can smell His Majesty from behind that bush...”
Rustle.
What burst from the bush Elena pointed to was not the emperor.
“Guek!”
It was a horde of goblins with green skin and grotesque fangs.
They leered lustfully at the elegantly dressed women.
Prey. Frail and delicious prey.
“Kyaa! G-goblins!”
“How dare you!”
As Chloe screamed and stumbled back,
Elena’s reaction was entirely different.
Blue flames ignited in her eyes.
“Disturbing my love with His Majesty? Unforgivable!”
Elena swung the lunchbox in her hand like a flail without hesitation.
Whoosh!
The hefty container smashed into a goblin’s skull.
The impact cracked the lid slightly open.
Psssh.
Purple smoke seeped from the gap.
It was the hellish tonic gas that had nearly dragged Darcor to death’s door the day before.
“Gu... ek?”
The goblins’ eyes rolled back upon catching the scent.
Soon, they foamed at the mouth, convulsed violently, and collapsed.
The tonic gas’s potency was formidable.
“Oh my? What’s wrong with them?”
As Elena tilted her head in genuine confusion,
one surviving goblin lunged at Chloe.
Its claw targeted the sparkling blue diamond necklace at her throat.
“Oh? Has this thing lost its mind?”
Chloe’s eyes flipped in fury as she backpedaled.
Her life was one thing, but this? Never.
“Filthy creature!”
Flash.
Holy light enveloped her fist.
Holy Knuckle—divine blessing transmuted into raw physical force.
Thwack.
With a crisp impact, the goblin’s solar plexus caved in,
and it flew off in the opposite direction.
“Guek!”
“Hmph. Dare go after my baby?”
Chloe huffed indignantly, caressing her necklace.
The empire’s two most noble women were far fiercer than one might expect.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ “Captain. The tyrant has entered striking range.”
In the deepest, darkest heart of Twilight Forest,
ashen-armored figures lay in ambush within a misty ravine.
The Ashes Knights.
They waited for their prey, not even breathing.
At the vice-captain’s report, Gauss slowly opened his eyes.
The scar across his face twisted grotesquely into a smile.
“Prepare.”
At his gesture, the knights produced red vials from their bosoms.
Madness Perfume.
A forbidden aphrodisiac that stripped beasts of reason, amplifying only their slaughter instincts.
Smash. Splash.
Vials shattered across the ground, scattering crimson liquid.
A foul, fishy stench began spreading through Twilight Forest on the wind,
and the air grew oppressively heavy.
“Kyaaak!”
“Grrrr...”
The beasts’ eyes flickered with eerie madness as they caught the scent.
“Howl, monsters. It’s time to devour the tyrant.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Darcor halted as he ventured deeper into the forest.
The silence was unnaturally profound.
Not even a bird chirped.
“Something stinks.”
Sniff sniff.
A piercing fishy reek assaulted his nose,
mingled with the wind-borne stench of nauseating drugs.
The old hag even resorted to drugs.
Darcor’s lips curled into a sinister smirk.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The ground began to quake.
Enormous trees snapped like toothpicks.
From the darkness emerged
a monster the size of a fortress.
A two-headed giant.
Cyclops.
A high-rank beast not native to these parts.
Its four eyes were bloodshot, radiating insanity.
Berserk Alma wolves and goblins swarmed in its wake.
“Well now, Mother prepared far too generous a gift.”
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Warning. Multiple hostile entities detected. Combat power unmeasurable. Recommend fleeing... Darcor swatted away the system window hovering before him.
“Shut up.”
Clench.
He gripped his fist with all his might.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Dawn Step “Come at me all at once. I’m not warmed up yet.”
Boom.
Darcor kicked off the ground amid a cloud of dust
and shot forward like a bullet.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The situation in the eastern forest had turned dire.
The madness perfume had blanketed the entire woods,
drawing berserk beasts straight to them.
“Y-Your Majesty! L-Look at those things!”
Chloe screamed, her face drained white.
Dozens of berserk Alma wolves charged toward them, slobbering hungrily.
Handling that many beasts was impossible.
“Your Majesty! Where are you? Your Majesty!”
Elena cried out desperately for Darcor, but only beastly howls answered—until
Rustle.
Gray shadows encircled the two women amid the chaos.
The Ashes Knights.
They had cleverly herded the beasts while
simultaneously cutting off their escape.
“Secure the empress. We’ll use her as a hostage.”
A knight issued the low command.
Insurance to ensure Darcor’s death.
“You scum... dare lay hands on the empress’s person!”
Elena bellowed regally and raised her lunchbox,
but a seasoned knight struck her wrist with his scabbard.
“Ugh...”
The lunchbox tumbled to the ground and rolled away.
“P-Please spare us! M-Money! I’ve got plenty of hidden funds!
Take everything except this necklace...”
Chloe, ever quick on the uptake, dropped to her knees and switched to groveling mode.
“Shut your mouth.”
Thud.
A knight’s fist slammed into Chloe’s nape.
The saintess went out cold without a peep,
and Elena, though she resisted, soon lost consciousness too.
“Move out. To the northern cliff.”
The knights hoisted their limp forms like baggage and melted into the darkness.
All that remained in the forest was the abandoned lunchbox and a single mud-caked shoe.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Rooooar.
With a massive crash, the Cyclops toppled.
Its two heads were pulped beyond recognition.
“Phew... that worked up a sweat.”
Darcor sat atop the Cyclops’s head, catching his ragged breath.
The surroundings were a mountain of beast corpses.
His black hunting garb was soaked in blood,
but his eyes were clearer than ever.
Ding.
⚔ STATUS ⚔ Defeated high-rank beast: Cyclops Combat-related physical abilities have increased. “Refreshing. Pretty high quality for a gift from the Empress Dowager.”
As he tossed aside his bloodied gloves and stretched,
Ding. Ding. Ding!
An ear-piercing, ominous alarm blared.
A crimson system window filled his vision.
⚠️ CRITICAL WARNING ⚠️ Warning.
Severe threat to key figures Elena and Chloe detected.
Status: Kidnapped. Life in peril.
Location: Twilight Forest, North Cliff
The easygoing smile vanished from Darcor’s face.
“What...?”
Kidnapped?
If Elena and Chloe died, the original story’s logic would collapse.
But more than that...
Who gave permission?
Darcor rose slowly.
The Cyclops’s head beneath his foot exploded completely.
Squelch.
Daring to touch without his permission.
“Gauss...”
Cold fury blazed in Darcor’s eyes.
“Let’s see that old mug of yours. I’ll peel the skin off nice and pretty.”
Boom!
Darcor kicked off the ground, soaring into the air,
then rocketed toward the northern cliff with a sound like tearing wind.