Chapter 221
Chapter 221
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 221
Chapter Title: Sun Castle, Bara.
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The stench wafting in from outside the castle was so horrific that the soldiers standing atop the walls were constantly tormented by dry heaves.
“Please…….”
Starving children had bellies swollen green with hunger, while adults died endlessly, their eyes sunken deep in their sockets as they suffered nonstop diarrhea.
“My child is sick, please, the gates…….”
Ashuka, the west gate warden, had to close his eyes amid a sigh.
‘The luminous stone that absorbs the sun’s light to illuminate the darkness of night, this triangular fortress built solely from those wondrous rocks…….’
What a sight for this stronghold, originally built to block the Abyss.
To think it was now blocking fellow humans—citizens of the same nation.
When a woman staggering toward the gate with her dead child in her arms approached, Viscount Shantani, the first dispatched overseer, bellowed.
“Woman, come no closer! If you dare bring that profane plague to the sacred gates of Bara, you will not be forgiven!”
The woman either didn’t hear him or perhaps believed her child would be healed the moment she touched the gate.
Even after Shantani’s shout, she didn’t stop her tottering steps but kept approaching the gate.
Veins bulged on Shantani’s wrinkled, ugly, aged forehead.
“Archers!”
The bowmen blankly alternated their gazes between Shantani and Ashuka.
“What are you fools doing? Fire! Turn her into a pincushion!”
Ashuka couldn’t believe his ears either.
“You mean kill her?”
The nobles claimed the citizens had rioted and besieged Sun Castle, but in truth, they had simply gathered out of a desperate will to live.
No one had committed any violent acts—not yet.
They merely begged for food and shelter. The ministers’ response had been to seal every gate of Sun Castle.
“This is a crucial first measure to prevent the plague from spreading into this great city. Hurry!”
“That woman is a citizen of this nation!”
“Are you defying me, you mere gate warden? I’ll throw you in prison and teach you how grave the crime of insubordination is!”
Shantani roughly snatched a bow from a nearby archer.
In Solond, archery was part of the basic training for nobles, so Shantani could shoot with skill rivaling any.
In the tense silence where everyone held their breath, the bowstring twanged, and soon the woman collapsed to the ground. Her throat pierced through.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
Thousands—no, tens of thousands—of eyes stared at the scene.
In the overwhelming silence that choked the air, only Shantani adjusted his disheveled clothes from firing the shot and flew into a rage at Ashuka.
Unaware that, in that instant, the fury and resentment the citizens had bottled up toward the dead queen as a symbol had exploded all at once.
“Kill them all…….”
“Why do only we have to die……?”
“They say there’s so much food inside the castle…….”
The sick, who could barely move, began rising one by one.
One person’s mutter swelled into thousands, tens of thousands, becoming a massive roar that shook the castle walls.
The faces of the soldiers looking down from above paled white.
Thud.
Within those souls, within the dark human emotions, the Abyss pulsed faster as it spread.
Among the citizens surging toward the gate, some began screaming. Their skeletons twisting and snapping grotesquely.
When one primitive creature climbed the walls with freakish fingers, Shantani gasped and scrambled down the wall stairs.
The soldiers panted for breath.
Still unable to properly grip their spears and swords, they looked to their direct superior, Ashuka.
“My lord, what should we do?”
“Shoot? Shoot? You really mean shoot?”
“Pour flaming pitch? My lord? My lord?!”
Ashuka’s mind spun wildly.
He couldn’t think straight at all.
What should he do? How? The gate warden’s duty was to protect the royal castle from the kingdom’s enemies, but were these people before him truly enemies?
“The barrier. Activate the barrier first! Don’t kill them! You mustn’t kill them! It’s all over the moment you do!”
The defense mage on standby at the turret immediately blew a flute.
Two bells built into the turret amplified the sound massively, sending a heavy bass note out beyond the gate.
Solond was a nation advanced in music magic; the bells’ melody wrapped around the citizens like ropes, binding them.
‘This country is going mad.’
No, it already has.
When the queen was alive, even the king’s tyranny couldn’t shatter the peace everyone enjoyed.
What was Regent Predal doing?
He sealed the gates on citizens who hadn’t even caught the plague yet, and this was the result.
‘If only the queen were still alive…….’
No.
If only the prince were here.
‘This country has no king. That’s why the mad king’s brother runs rampant as regent.’
By the time chaos erupted at all three gates from the citizens’ “riot,” the royal council with all ministers present had concluded.
“49 in favor, 7 against. We urge the immediate activation of the Sun Star Formation, Your Highness.”
“Sun Star Formation……?”
“To do so, Your Highness must release the barrier over the Asahat Mausoleum, the tomb of Sun King Rigwind.”
“That is…….”
“Do you wish for all the people of this city to slaughter each other and succumb to the plague?”
Under Regent Predal’s icy gaze, the terrified Princess Obira’s eyes darted about before settling on Priest Ramas.
Obin had told her not to rely on Ramas, but……
Unlike the ministers who always wore frightening expressions, Ramas often showed a bright smile.
“If the Sun Star Formation activates successfully, the plague will end. The Rigwind Barrier can then be restored at Your Highness’s will.”
She couldn’t understand what it meant.
But if she followed the priest’s words, would this chaos end?
Would she no longer have to face the ministers’ terrifying glares?
“Your Highness, no! The barrier left by Sun King is a bulwark against the Abyss. Dismantling it like this…….”
“Speak sense! The capital will fall before we even block that Abyss, won’t it? What use is the barrier if the capital crumbles to plague?”
“We can guard it with our lives. Your Highness, uphold Great Mage Rigwind’s legacy and protect the barrier!”
As the chief of staff prostrated before the throne and pleaded, the other ministers raised a clamor to drown him out.
“Have you ever seen such ignorance!”
“Listen, chief of staff! Are you telling us to die? To let all of His Highness’s subjects perish?”
“You’d risk harm to His Highness’s sacred body. What a wretch. Your Highness, punish him at once to uphold royal dignity!”
It was all too frightening, ears ringing, chest aching.
The princess grasped the hand Priest Ramas politely extended. She rose from the throne and walked toward the corridor.
“Your Highness, Your Highness! No, please!”
The chief of staff and his agreeing retainers’ frantic pleas were buried under the other ministers’ opposition.
The Asahat Mausoleum stood at the center of the central courtyard. Precisely the heart of Solond Kingdom.
All royals had the tradition of offering dawn prayers at Sun King’s tomb to regulate their conduct for the day.
“Your Highness, here.”
The tombstone of Great Mage Rigwind bore engraved sheet music, readable and playable only by royals.
It told a story, they said. It evoked emotions.
Rigwind’s last words to his descendants, and his longing for his master Emitas.
- Ah, ah ae, ah oooo.
Princess Obira thought of Obin and clutched the ocarina precious around her neck.
Obin had carved and gifted it to her himself.
It couldn’t produce the exquisite tones of a craftsman’s instrument. Just feeble, deflated sounds.
But Obira loved this ocarina. Her playing was clumsy anyway, not worth fussing over tools……
The moment the princess put the ocarina to her lips, an irrepressible smile bloomed on Elramas’s mouth.
‘Yes, with this, it’s all over.’
The Dawn Legion members dispatched to each gate shared similar thoughts.
‘Trash has swarmed the castle like ants.’
Break through here?
Harder than fighting us in the city. By the time they did, everything would be finished……
“Hmph.”
Gaha (No. 2) at the south gate playfully flicked a gold coin.
He snatched it midair and checked his fortune. Heads, of course…… Hm?
Pel’s eyebrows blankly rose.
‘Tails?’
Around then, Daltta (No. 3), Jenyas at the west gate, furrowed his brow too.
‘Why’s the shadow suddenly so thick…….’
The weather was already overcast; no new clouds?
Only then did he notice the anomaly.
All soldiers and citizens stared blankly at the sky. More precisely, at the ship somehow rocketing up from the Meia River at enormous speed, now flying through the air.
“Ha, I can tell at a glance!”
Jenyas’s reason and instinct simultaneously reached a clear verdict.
“Hyahaha!”
Unlike humans, fairies who wielded all divine miracles had superior sensitivity to godly power.
“Jackpot, I’m the first hit!”
Now corrupted by the Abyss, embodying the [Forgotten Kings]’ power was effortless too.
“El Bek Desim Op art Kutzreha Arc tomb.”
Moisture in the air froze pitch-black, reeking of rot.
The ship, losing its levitation and beginning to fall under gravity, was surrounded as abyssal ice surged toward it.
Moisture in the ship’s timbers was instantly eroded by the Abyss, frozen, shattered to splinters—and the beings inside—
────!
A ferocious flash, like lightning in an instant, exploded from the ship with a crackle.
“Guh……?!”
Jenyas, who had stared straight at the ship harder than anyone, felt his retinas burn in agony, losing vision for a moment.
“E-eyes…… Damn it, what the hell!”
Unaware that the veteran great mage at the swift ship’s prow had targeted exactly that.
“Found you.”
In that instant, the great mage, sitting cross-legged with eyes closed, snapped his open with a glint.
“Let’s go, Nen.”
[Arooo!]
Eyes blazing red locked precisely on the enemy coordinates targeting the ship.
First move: take their sight.
Second move: take their life. This was the great mage’s art of combat who quelled top black mages rampant in the chaos era.
“Rune alteration.”
Few mortals across history could match this great mage’s experience in long-range psychic battles.
“Island Thunder Heaven Strike Cannon.”
5-star, the magic circle crudely packed with only explosion runes now gained refined form.
He weaves in five new runes.
A feat only masters etched in magic history could perform: manipulating runes of an already-cast spell.
Cannon (砲), the muzzle.
Open (闡), it.
Exterminate (殲), the target.
Thunder (雷), with lightning.
Strike (激), crashing through.
So the blinding, savage dragon radiance from the sky could summon thunder and plunge savagely to the ground. To annihilate the target.
“………………………!”
In that dazzling, ferocious dragon brilliance, the fairy priest’s arrogant flesh and soul turned to ash in an instant.
The dragon’s falling thunder allowed no time even for a dying scream.
Even if it had, it would have been drowned in the thunderclap that instantly silenced the city’s devouring chaos.
“Rune alteration once more.”
The great mage incinerated the swift ship’s wreckage scattering across Sun Castle’s skies to harm no lives and shouted.
“Valensidis!”
“I know!”
The black mage promptly swung his fan.
Not to the great mage’s level, but displaying skill in controlling wind sorcery and telekinesis simultaneously.
Ensuring the three adults and one child aboard landed safely atop the walls.
“……?!”
Ashuka, the gate warden, widened his eyes at the intruders who appeared, leaving an indescribable first impression.
“P-Prince Your Highness?!”
As she moved to kneel, Obin, descending from Miria’s arms, urgently cried out.
“N-No fighting! N-No one hurts anyone! I-I can fix everything back to normal.”
How had the long-missing prince returned at this exact moment?
How could the mute prince now speak?
Countless questions swirled in her mind, but the trembling heat swelling in her chest overwhelmed them all.
‘The prince who so resembles the queen.’
True to the queen’s last words to embrace the lowly first, Prince Obin looked upon all the people just as she had.
The haughty highborn mocked him as a mute, but the powerless lowborn fervently supported Obin.
That was why the starving, plague-ridden citizens besieging Sun Castle had never truly rioted.
Because of expectation.
Because of that handful of hope.
“This situation—”
Valensidis, judging the moment’s silence as doubt or defiance, started to explain the crux, but Rain stopped him.
“—Trust my disciple a bit.”
At once, Ashuka bowed respectfully and spoke, with officers following suit.
“Your Highness, what must we do?”
Valensidis’s eyebrow twitched, then a hollow laugh escaped. Obin answered.
“F-First, stop Ramas. We have to go to the inner palace.”
“The path to the inner palace is guarded ironclad by regent faction soldiers.”
An officer replied, and Ashuka nodded.
“So we’ll need loyalist soldiers, Your Highness.”
“I-I’ll stay here, protect this place. Make sure no one dies.”
“Your Highness?”
Obin pointed at Rain, Valensidis, and Miria behind him with a smile.
That clear, pure smile was so reliable, so beautiful, the warden forgot to protest and smiled back.
“You’ve returned even more like the queen than before, Your Highness.”
“No time, Obin. From the looks of it, Elramas’s plan is already in motion.”
“I know. Then, please.”
The warden watched the prince hurriedly descend the wall stairs with the mysterious figures, wiping tears, then spoke to her adjutant.
“Banya, keep ringing the bells to control the citizens’ movements. Don’t kill. It’s the prince’s order.”
“Understood.”
“Spearmen except archers, follow officers to aid the prince as you’re able. Gavald, contact the signal corps and ring the relay bells. Five times.”
“Five times means……?”
The officer knew but asked in a trembling voice, still unable to grasp the situation. Ashuka grinned and nodded.
“Yes, the king’s triumphant return.”