The Elephant Prince
"What on earth have you been doing, sneaking out in the middle of the night lately?"
"Hmm… hunting bandits, I suppose?"
"Hunting bandits?"
At that, the prince's uncle tilted his head — then clapped his hands with a sudden cry of delight.
"That's it! If you're looking out for the people, then I, Kshanti — your uncle and a general of this nation — can hardly sit idle. Come on, let's go! We'll wipe out those bandits who torment the common folk!"
"Ah, hahaha…"
When his uncle declared he would tag along, the prince offered his characteristic awkward smile.
This was hardly what he had hoped for.
"He's starting to look a bit more like the Sunya I know."
Watching this, Inanna thought of her husband.
The prince's demeanor was drawing closer to Sunya's in real time, and observing it left Inanna with a strangely mixed feeling.
"…"
Enki, on the other hand, was preoccupied with something else entirely.
At any rate, the uncle and the prince slipped out of the palace in secret to suppress the bandit gang. The two moved at great speed, racing through the forest like fleet-footed beasts.
The uncle glanced sideways at the prince running beside him.
I've always felt this, but he truly doesn't seem like a man who can't see.
If anything, he was far more keen and swift than ordinary people. He must have expanded his senses through Prana to that degree — easy enough to say, but replacing sight so near-perfectly was no trivial feat.
There were cases of warriors who had lost their eyes fully adapting their senses and reclaiming their skill. But considering that such recovery typically took decades, the word "genius" sprang to mind unbidden.
Talent… is it?
A disciple's growth is a master's joy. And all the more so when watching the son of his late sister grow by leaps and bounds each day — it filled him with pride. Even so, there was a mischievous urge to put this sky-high upstart in his place.
Well then, let's see what you're hiding.
Before long, the prince's party arrived at a cave presumed to house the bandits.
What, so it really was bandit hunting?
Looking at the men standing watch with torches lit, the uncle's face openly showed disappointment. He had wondered what secret the prince might be concealing, but if he had truly come out to hunt bandits, the air went out of him. Then he shook his head.
No — if that were the case, he could simply have told my brother-in-law and had soldiers sent here. Why go to the trouble of sneaking out alone in the dead of night?
The reasonable doubt rekindled his interest.
Regardless, the prince moved at once. As if by prior agreement, the two struck the backs of the necks of the bandits on watch and knocked them unconscious. Then, muffling their presence as much as possible, they entered the cave.
Inside, the bandits seemed to be holding a feast with their plundered food — every last one of them eating, shouting, and singing. Their attitude was excessively optimistic, but they could not be taken lightly: the giant presumed to be their leader radiated a presence far too strong for a mere bandit.
Hmm, with my nephew's current skill, this might be a bit difficult…
Just as he thought that, the prince quietly gestured somewhere to his uncle. Looking where he pointed, he saw kidnapped children and women locked in a wooden cage.
"You want to free the captives first?"
When the uncle asked, the prince nodded.
The two approached the cage, staying out of the bandits' sight. There were guards, but they subdued them before any sound could be made. When strangers approached, the women looked thoroughly startled.
"Shh! Stay quiet. We've come to rescue you."
So saying, he broke the cage lock with raw strength and quietly led them out.
"Th-thank you."
Among them, one woman stood out as particularly beautiful. She was far more striking than the other women in the cage, drawing the eye at once. By chance or not, she seemed around the same age as the prince.
Don't tell me…?
The uncle shot the prince a lecherous sidelong glance. His fierce face flushed red at the cheeks, eyes curved into crescents of white — a thoroughly unpleasant grin.
The prince ignored him and spoke to the woman.
"Follow this man and run. That should be enough."
When the prince dumped the captives on him without so much as a consultation, the uncle was flustered.
"What are you talking about? What about you?"
"I have to deal with the bandits."
"You're deliberately taking on the risk? Just so you know — that big one among the bandits is exceptionally strong. Even for you, he's no one to take lightly."
"That's exactly why I came here in the first place."
"What?"
"There's no time for this. If we dawdle, we might get caught for nothing."
At the prince's urging, the uncle frowned, yet curiosity about what he would do made him comply. The prince he had known until now had never been so reckless.
Unfortunately, the uncle did not know his nephew nearly as well as he thought.
Getting out of the cave proved surprisingly easy. Everyone was thoroughly drunk, and not one of them noticed the women and children slipping out.
"Easier than expected. If we just leave like this, call the soldiers, and then wipe them out…"
That was when the prince did something unexpected.
The moment the women and his uncle left the cave, he grabbed a torch from the entrance and hurled it inside. Whether he had doused the place with oil beforehand or not, the cave mouth went up in flames at once.
"Elephant Prince? What are you—"
"Uncle, take the women and children and go back as you are. From here on, I'll handle things myself."
Without hesitation, the prince went back into the cave.
"Damn it! What the hell are you thinking?!"
Of course he could not leave the prince alone like that. To the uncle, the prince's safety mattered far more than a bunch of strangers — women and children he had never met.
"If you keep going northwest from here, you'll reach Pila Fortress. Explain the situation and they'll take you in — just keep going."
Having told the women that, the uncle followed the prince into the cave.
The bandits were all in a panic over the sudden fire. Looking at them, the prince spoke.
"If you surrender quietly even now, I'm prepared to show a measure of leniency."
The bandits found the prince's words absurd. There were only two of them in sight — where did that confidence come from? They numbered over fifty in this place.
"Is this guy insane?"
"Hey, where did all the women go?"
They were a thoroughly rough lot. Even with their hideout on fire, once they realized there were only two opponents, their swagger returned and they radiated killing intent. The giant presumed to be the leader, however, did not rage like the others — he seemed to be analyzing the situation.
"You won't surrender?"
the prince asked.
"You stupid bastard! Would you surrender?"
"Where'd you stash the women, you little girl?"
"Kill him!"
The bandits hurled curses at the prince and charged.
"Good."
Watching the bandits pour toward him, the prince drew his sword.
This kid…
In that instant, the uncle was startled by an expression he had never seen on the prince's face. The way he lifted the corners of his mouth, baring his teeth in a grin — it was like a beast, no, like an Asura.
The prince's martial achievement exceeded expectations.
He calmly swung his sword and thrust his spear, neutralizing the bandits. Yes — neutralizing, not killing. He stabbed eyes with a spear, severed ankles with a blade, and smashed shoulders with clubs and the like. One by one, methodically, he reduced their numbers.
The uncle took it as the prince's own way of showing mercy in his techniques.
Then, midway through smoothly cutting down the bandits' numbers, the prince clicked his tongue and discarded his weapons.
"What are you doing, Siddhartha!"
The uncle shouted, but the prince did not answer.
The bandits were puzzled, yet the fact that their opponent had thrown away his weapons revived their momentum and they charged again. Indeed, the unarmed prince was weaker than moments before.
—Crack
Even so, he was still vastly stronger than the bandits. Whenever the prince's fists, legs, knees, or elbows struck a bandit's body, bones broke, massive bruises bloomed, or eyeballs burst.
"What are you doing? Your opponent is bare-handed — nothing in his hands. And you can't even properly handle one unarmed brat?"
It was the kind of thing a leader might say — but remarkably, it was the prince himself who spoke. From the moment the fight began, the prince had worn a look of dissatisfaction.
"Die!!"
Someone loosed an arrow. The arrow grazed the prince's cheek, leaving a small cut. Even so, the prince burst out laughing.
"Yes — use your heads even like that. Throw rocks from a distance if you must. Corner me!"
"Crazy bastard…"
Faced with the prince's unfamiliar madness, the bandits who had been thrashing about moments earlier now looked cowed.
"Entertain him."
At that moment, the giant who had still been tearing into meat even amid all this spoke.
"B-but, Boss…"
"Anyone who stands there scared dies by my hand."
"Ugh…"
In the end, cowed by their leader's threat, the bandits charged the prince.