Chapter 260
Chapter 260
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 260
Chapter Title: 73. Blossoming in Turbulent Times (6)
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Without any orders from me, the Rangers climbed onto the fortress walls and took aim with their crossbows. The Winter Castle knights drew their swords and surrounded the elves.
That bastard Ilai looked ready to explode at any moment, his energy surging wildly, while Adelia panted heavily, her eyes gleaming with yellow and red light. Kals stood rigidly in front of me, raising his shield.
Vincent, too, had climbed the walls, glaring down at the scene below with eyes as cold as ice.
In the tense atmosphere on the verge of eruption, the mercenaries staying in the camp outside the fortress rushed out, clutching their swords and spears with grim faces, milling about in confusion.
Beyond them stood a woman with half her face shrouded by a cloak.
The hateful fairy, Sigrun.
Just seeing that face made flames of rage surge within me.
"I asked what brings you to the kingdom."
I ground out the words through clenched teeth, and her lips, visible beneath the cloak, twitched.
"Our parting wasn't exactly beautiful, but considering we were once engaged, treating me so coldly feels a bit hurtful."
Sparks flew from my eyes.
Even now, closing my eyes brought back the dying screams of the sword maidens with their tongues cut out, like the howls of beasts. The image of their torn cloaks and splattered blood droplets fluttering in the wind felt like it had happened yesterday.
How dare she stand before me after that.
Unknowingly, my aura leaked out. My grip tightened on the sword hilt.
Then, suddenly, I looked at Sigrun's face.
"Oh dear. It seems your anger hasn't fully subsided yet."
Sigrun pouted as if genuinely hurt.
The moment I saw those red lips, my head, burning hot as if engulfed in flames, cooled sharply.
Instead of spewing my rage outward, I swallowed it down.
Sigrun was deliberately provoking me. Intentionally stoking my anger and hatred.
To greedily devour the emotions I would vomit forth.
I suppressed my fury and reined in my hatred.
So that my feelings toward the sword maidens wouldn't become mere entertainment for her, and so the fortress's forces wouldn't get swept up in my boiling hatred.
"Hoo."
I took long, deep breaths several times, burying the churning emotions deep within.
I gazed past the loathsome Elder High Elf, at her shoulder.
A hundred elves with sword-like auras, and among them, a towering flagpole with a banner fluttering in the wind.
A stark white tree branch and three leaves etched on a faded green background.
My expression twisted involuntarily.
That was something Sigrun had never once brought with her, no matter how many times she had visited the kingdom's lands before.
No, to be precise, it wasn't that she hadn't brought it—she hadn't been able to.
After their defeat in the Great War, the fairies had been forbidden from displaying any kind of military insignia.
Yet now, Sigrun was boldly stepping onto the kingdom's soil, flying the flag symbolizing her status as an Elder High Elf. And with a hundred Sentinels from her clan dangling like ornaments.
The implication was far from light.
It meant the oath engraved in the armistice declaration no longer held any power, that the wicked fairies were about to break free from their shadowed forests into the world.
It also meant humans could no longer claim to be the undisputed masters of this land.
I had always known it would come someday. It was a situation I had anticipated.
Yet my breath caught in my throat all the same.
It was far too soon.
I had thought it would take at least another ten years. I hadn't even finished dealing with the uprisings of the other races within the kingdom. The kingdom's knights weren't ready yet.
And already, the fairies had been unleashed upon the world.
A fantastical scene floated before my eyes.
Crumbled cities, burning fortresses, mothers bereft of children wailing, children robbed of mothers screaming, mountains of lifeless corpses piled high.
Dizziness washed over me.
I gritted my teeth and endured the vertigo.
Forcing strength into my eyes, I glared once more at the Elder High Elf's banner.
Three leaves symbolizing the status of an Elder High Elf.
Not yet. There was still time. The armistice declaration's effect hadn't fully vanished.
If it had, fluttering in this place wouldn't be the Elder High Elf's banner, but the king's.
And Sigrun wouldn't have come to see me before that.
She would have simply rampaged. Just as she had in the past.
But Sigrun was here before me now.
I could confidently say her visit was anything but personal.
An official visit, important enough to bring a hundred clan Sentinels and fly her banner.
I glared at Sigrun.
Seeing my expression, the Elder High Elf licked her lips.
As if regretting that my anger and hatred had been reined in before she could feast on them.
But that lasted only a moment. Her trembling lips twisted sadistically.
"By the way, where are the sword maidens? I seem to remember leaving a few alive. Or did you accidentally kill them all?"
Blood surged reverse through my veins.
The rage I had barely suppressed reignited like fire, racing through my body.
My breath came short. My heart pounded madly. The mana within it rushed toward my hand.
Just as that energy reached my sword through my hand,
Clack.
I released my grip from the hilt.
Sigrun's intent was obvious.
She wanted me to lose my reason to rage and lash out.
Perhaps to savor my overflowing fury and sate her base gluttony, or maybe to find an excuse to avenge the humiliation she had been forced to retreat from in the past.
Either way, I had no intention of playing along.
"I'll ask again. What business do you have in the kingdom's territory?"
The twisted lips beneath the cloak warped further.
"That day."
Swish.
Sigrun removed the cloak covering her face.
And on the angelic features revealed, there was a mark that didn't suit her.
A hideous black scar running from her forehead across her cheek, crossing her eye.
As if to show it off, she raised her hand and touched the wound.
"A scar Your Highness left on me."
Thus, with one eye covered, she whispered to me.
A sinister voice like a hissing serpent. Her gleaming blue eyes made every muscle in my body tense.
At that very moment,
Clack.
The elf Sentinels stomped their feet.
Clack, clack. Clack.
A discordant noise, off-beat from any normal rhythm, clawed at my heart.
For an instant, my stomach churned.
The ominous energy embedded in that off-beat clamor pressed down on me like it would crush my surroundings.
The Sentinels weren't High Elves, but they were the cream of the crop among regular elves. Far more threatening than the immature High Elves I had encountered before.
Soon, my surroundings were enveloped in the cacophony they created, drowning out everything else.
But that was all.
Before the tune from a hundred elf Sentinels could pin me down, before the mana in my heart could burst forth.
Thud, a noise pierced through the elves' melody to reach me.
A heavy sound incomparable to the light steps of the fleet-footed elves.
I turned my head.
Bam!
The Winter Castle knights pounded their breastplates.
Bam!
The Royal Knights slammed their shields into the ground.
Thud!
The Rangers on the walls stomped vigorously.
Sounds so harmonious and rhythmic, unlike the elves' discordant tune.
And amid them, low voices began singing a marching song.
It was that bastard Ilai. Adelia. Vincent. Kals. And all the soldiers.
My heart began to pound. Before I even realized it, a massive aura rose and resonated with the marching song.
"Your Highness."
A voice calling me from atop the wall.
I looked up to see Vincent gazing down at me.
Eyes as steadfast and unyielding as the fortress walls.
In a tone like the fortress itself, Vincent spoke to me.
Recall the day the orc overlord surrendered.
Remember what the knights said then.
No sooner had he finished than that day flashed in my mind.
Before the old orc blathering about granting peace if we wished, the men of Winter Castle shouted, their voices echoing like hallucinations in my ears.
"Even if spears break and bodies tear asunder, may our unyielding spirits remain unbroken."
"We are not burdens for the lord to bear, but swords and spears for the lord to wield."
"What we seek is victory at the end of struggle, not peace bought through compromise with cowards!"
"We'll die with eyes wide open before closing them for peace."
"If someone must die, let it be me."
At the end of the hallucination, Vincent's voice rang out.
"Do as your heart wills."
In that moment, I realized.
What I must have looked like in Vincent's and the others' eyes right now.
Like I was cowering before a mighty foe. Like I was reciting countless excuses in my head for why we shouldn't fight an unwinnable battle.
My face flushed hot.
All the nagging about the crown prince's duties must have made me overthink without realizing it. The thought that their lives hung on my shoulders had unconsciously brought compromise to mind.
Since when did I back down because the enemy was strong?
Against the warlord, when drawing my sword toward the Empire—I had never once held the stronger position.
I straightened my posture.
Shoulders back, spine rigid. Chin raised.
As always. Looking down at the elves before me.
"If you're here as a herald, deliver your message and get out. Sigrun."
At my words, Sigrun, still covering one eye with her hand, widened her remaining eye.
But only for a moment. Her eyes narrowed.
Into the soulless, expressionless face of a true elf, one I had seen before.
From her body flowed millennia-honed killing intent and malice.
Twisted desires accumulated over a thousand years pressed mercilessly down on me.
I did not retreat.
I poured strength into knees that threatened to buckle, standing even taller.
"I've waited so long for this day."
Sigrun murmured lowly.
"Now that it's here, it's not as enjoyable as I thought."
The air trembled uneasily with the killing intent and malice within her words.
But I remained unshaken.
From behind me came the military spirit raised by the Rangers and knights.
Now I understood Agnes's resolve.
Why she had been so fearless before countless giant legion soldiers.
Though those standing behind me now couldn't match the iron-blooded knights she had led, they were more than enough for me at this moment.
The Rangers' fighting spirit, the knights' will to battle—they propped up my knees, keeping them from folding.
Their resolve told me.
That humans do not yield. That just as in the past, we will fight and win someday.
Snap!
My aura, crushed by Sigrun's overwhelming presence, suddenly reared up.
The ashen light rising from my body spread instantly in all directions.
Vowing it in my heart, I glared at Sigrun with my eyes.
"I thought Your Highness would understand."
Sigrun whispered slyly.
"That I have the power to reduce this pathetic fortress to ashes anytime."
Before her threatening warning that seemed about to take form,
"Try it."
I gripped the hilt of my true blade.
"I'll struggle with everything I have."
If need be, even half my remaining lifespan—no, more than that—as a sacrifice, I would stake my life against hers.
With those words, I drew my true blade.
At that exact moment.
Thud thud thud thud.
Faint hoofbeats echoed.
I turned my gaze.
Dust clouds rose from the plains beyond.
From east, west, south, north—every direction.
Beneath the billowing dust clouds, fully armored knights in full gear charged forward.
Flying the kingdom's golden lion banner.
Bwooooooo!
The horn blasts followed a beat late.
Sigrun, who had been watching the rising dust clouds from all sides, turned back to me.
I raised my chin and said.
Humanity's power is not as feeble as you think.