Chapter 9 — After the Attack
Chapter 9 — After the Attack
Translation: Godtl
"Hah... hah..."
Kalix collapsed right there and pulled out the dagger stuck in the wolf's neck.
Because of his injured ankle, heat was rising throughout his body. He was breathing roughly, as if just keeping his eyes open was burdensome.
"Kalix!"
Lelia, who had been standing blankly, finally came to her senses and hurriedly ran to him. Griffith also immediately checked Kalix's wounds.
"Damn... if it was a real wolf... you should have told me it was real... you bastard..."
"I did tell you! You idiot!"
Lelia held back the urge to grab and shake Kalix's collar even in this situation. Kalix looked like he was about to pass out again.
"Griffith, is your arm okay? We need to go back quickly."
"...I can endure it. But if you blew the whistle earlier, won't the priests come?"
"No, they'll be gathered at the mountain entrance. It's a whistle meaning to gather at the mountain entrance."
"...Then why did you blow it?"
"I thought the culprits who made the wolf appear would be surprised and run away with the wolf again..."
At those words, Kalix turned his head to look at the wolf's corpse.
That's when it happened. The wolf's corpse scattered like sand, unbelievably, crumbling away. Watching that scene, Kalix's eye twitched.
"It was... real. My uncle really..."
Kalix muttered, sobbing, with his teeth clenched.
The wolf itself wasn't sorcery made of sand, but the magic used to erase the wolf's corpse was sorcery using sand.
Magic used only in the desert country, the Ascard Empire.
"...Kalix, calm down. Still..."
Your arms are intact...
But she couldn't bring herself to say those words.
Lelia swallowed those words and knelt before Kalix again, offering her back.
"I'll carry you."
"You're hurt in the stomach. No."
Lelia rejected Griffith's words and urged Kalix.
"Kalix, get on quickly. There's no time to wait like before. I don't have the strength to knock you out either."
"...Damn it."
Kalix shed hot tears but clamped his teeth and held back his sobbing.
Even so, he slowly raised his body and got on Lelia's back of his own will.
Lelia tightly secured Kalix's legs, enduring the pain from her lower abdomen.
The three of them went down the mountain in tatters. Kalix cried on Lelia's back for a long time, sniffling.
Before they knew it, the sun had risen and the dawn light was shining.
"...But why does my right ankle hurt so much? The injured one is the left."
"...."
While trudging down the mountain, Kalix, who had stopped crying at some point, muttered.
Lelia, stung by conscience, had to confess.
"I'm sorry. When I knocked you out and carried you, I accidentally stepped on it."
"...This bastard."
"...."
Griffith looked at the two like they were strange bugs, but soon sneered.
It should have been painful from the arm that was bitten and torn by the wolf, but for some reason, it didn't hurt much.
Just this moment somehow felt like a dream, like a lie.
It was a strange feeling.
And more than that, Griffith thought these two were even stranger.
Just as they had nearly descended the mountain, the priests who discovered the three people came running with faces shocked as if they would faint.
And Lelia, Kalix, Griffith.
The three of them, side by side, as if they had made a pact, fainted together in perfect harmony right there on the spot.
When she opened her eyes again, what she saw were red pupils. With tears falling drop by drop.
"…Oscar?"
"Hic… Y-you're awake? Captain?"
"Awake?"
Soon Romeo's voice was heard as well. Lelia frowned slightly and slowly raised her upper body.
Lelia looked around. It seemed to be the infirmary inside the temple.
But the beds to her left and right were completely empty.
"You've awakened, Your Highness the Crown Prince."
A priest standing to one side approached. It was a female priest with an extremely calm voice.
"W-where are the others?"
"The other two woke up long ago. They received healing and went out to meet the High Priest for a moment."
Lelia looked down at her body. Her belly seemed to have been torn open, but thanks to healing magic, she felt no pain.
"…That's a relief. But… gasp!"
Lelia sucked in a breath and opened her eyes wide. She was wearing intact priestly robes.
That meant someone had changed her clothes.
The clothes she wore coming down from the mountain would have been a mess, even her undergarments covered in dirt.
Then who changed her undergarments….
'My identity must have been exposed!'
The Emperor would kill her!
Seeing Lelia's expression instantly fill with fear, the female priest bowed her head.
She whispered quietly into Lelia's ear.
"Your Highness's clothes were changed by me, and I alone saw. No one else saw anything, so please calm down."
"…."
Lelia blinked her eyes.
The priest briefly pressed her index finger to her lips, then removed it. A silent signal that she would never speak of it.
"…."
Lelia gulped.
"Captain, what's wrong?"
"I, I don't think I'm, I'm normal yet…."
"No, I'm fine…. Hah, but anyway…."
Just then, the door burst open.
"Are you awake?"
"…."
The ones who opened the door and entered were Kalix and Griffith.
Both of them also looked perfectly fine, perhaps having received healing magic. Lelia especially noted Kalix's arms.
'Thank goodness.'
If his arm had been cut off as in the original work, even healing magic couldn't restore it. It was fortunate it ended with just an ankle injury.
"…You look fine."
Lelia murmured with a sigh of relief, and the two approached with serious expressions.
Griffith spoke.
"You need to go meet the High Priest too. We're going to formally protest this incident."
"…What?"
Lelia looked up at Griffith.
"So you're not going to? You're the Crown Prince of the Auraria Empire. I'm royalty too, and so is that guy."
"…."
Lelia hesitated.
The priests would be in an uproar holding emergency meetings.
An incident this large was something that had to be reported to their home countries.
But Lelia knew what the result would be. She turned her gaze to Kalix.
"…."
Kalix had a slightly sour expression, though he was trying not to show it.
Kalix knew too. What kind of result would appear if this matter became public.
Each empire would be in an uproar.
'Of course, the Emperor of Auraria won't even care….'
In the original work, an accident occurred where Kalix's arm was actually cut off.
When the children from each nation learned of this fact, they reported to their home countries and caused an uproar, and the Temple intervened to mediate.
However, the victim Kalix's home country, the Ascard Empire, tried to simply bury the matter.
The Ascard Emperor said this even though his nephew had lost an arm:
"Right now, our five empires have gathered our strength with the Temple to raise heroes. Of course, anger and sorrow that tears my heart apart comes first regarding my nephew's wound, but still, now is not the time for this. Didn't we gather so we wouldn't point swords at each other?"
When the emperor of the victim's country took this stance, the other empires couldn't make a big issue of it either.
Of course, some empires asked for their children to be sent back since they could no longer entrust them, but the Holy Emperor personally stepped forward.
The Holy Emperor personally apologized to each nation's emperor regarding this incident and pledged to take greater care in the future.
With the Holy Emperor taking such a stance, everyone had to merely request caution.
After that, the priests actually served with extreme dedication for the children's safety.
In that situation, what about Kalix who had lost an arm?
'It absolutely must not be made public.'
Though he didn't show it, Kalix would have received an enormous wound. One that could never be healed. Like his severed arm.
Nevertheless, Kalix doesn't yield.
After returning to his home country, he gives up his royal authority himself and leaves to become a mercenary.
Thus he enters the Mad Dragon subjugation party with the qualifications of a mercenary king, and achieves greater merit than anyone.
Kalix was that kind of person.
Someone with a strong will and conviction that Lelia couldn't even imagine.
But right now….
'Even so, he's just a ten-year-old child.'
Thinking of the wound that ten-year-old child would have received was horrific. Though he didn't lose his arm this time, he would bear a similar wound.
No, since he wasn't greatly injured this time, the Ascard Emperor might act even more shamelessly.
Lelia wanted to prevent that by any means.
"…."
Lelia looked at Kalix's eyes that somehow seemed anxious, then asked.
"This incident, do the other children know about it?"
"…No. Not that yet."
That was fortunate at least.
"Then let's not tell them. I want to pretend this incident never happened."
"Are you crazy?"
"Are you crazy, you?"
"Captain, are you crazy?"
"C, crazy, I think. Captain…."
The four people said the same thing, but Lelia was resolute.
"Please, I'm begging you. Keep this incident a secret."
"Why on earth?"
"Well… if my father finds out, something big will happen."
"…."
"My father treasures me enormously. How much does he treasure me, you ask… to the point he used to kiss me and hug me to sleep every day! But if he finds out I was injured, he'll raise hell, Mad Dragon or whatever!"
"…Crazy bastard. You kiss your dad? Papa boy, this bastard."
Kalix sneered, but Lelia continued speaking.
"Right! So please let's keep it a secret. Huh? My dad might even cry. He'll sob his heart out! Then my heart will tear apart!"
"…."
'Actually, far from kissing, he'll try to kill me for causing trouble….'
It was fortunate just to survive with her life.