Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Fate (2)
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On the way back, he'd confirmed via messenger bird that the protesters would arrive in the capital by tomorrow morning. He hurriedly pulled out paper and a quill pen, jotting down everything he'd seen and heard.
The princess is the distortion in this world.
But the moment he wrote about the princess, the words vanished as if magic had been cast-like ink dissolving in water. Not just the word "princess," but even sentences that didn't mention her. He even tried writing in code as a test, but it was no use.
Any words he wrote with awareness of the princess simply wouldn't stick.
"So I can't even talk about or record that woman, huh. What'll happen at the protest? And she said she'd kill me... that sword, sword... Ah! Holy Brazier."
Iven scribbled "Holy Brazier" like a madman. Thankfully, it held this time. He immediately dug into books on the Secula Church and the Holy Brazier. He hadn't even flipped through many pages when he realized it.
Like how things invisible under a magnifying glass come into view when your sight expands, he grasped what was wrong.
Everything in the empire was connected to the princess, like a spider at the center of its web.
The knight orders' limited appointments, the ritual of drawing swords from the Holy Brazier, the central bureau's real authority-all of it could have been controlled by the princess if she could manipulate the emperor.
So what was the princess's goal? Power? No, she could just use the emperor for that.
Or honor? That didn't fit either. She already had it. Protests or revolutions could be handled with the knight orders anyway, without the church batting an eye.
Then why reveal her true nature to him, knowing about the protest and even cursing him to ensure his death? Why him, of all people-not Bulki?
'I'm already looking forward to the protest. With your death, the Hero will ultimately be mine.'
The princess needed the protest. She planned to kill him for her amusement. And in the end, that would make the Hero follow her.
In that instant, Iven figured out the princess's objective.
"No way... She wants the protesters to kill me? That's why Bulki..."
Iven quickly steadied himself. He had to tell Bulki the truth.
"I need to save Bulki."
Hoping Bulki would catch on, he picked up the pen again.
You've always been the protagonist of my story. Whenever we start another tale, just like always...
"Please figure it out. I trust you. My most precious friend."
***
The battle dragged on far longer than Bulki had expected.
It wasn't a mountain giant they were facing. The moment Bulki charged, the massive, tree-woven body split into about ten pieces and scattered. They whipped vine-like branches with a foul stench.
Bulki couldn't help but falter at the unfamiliar demons, but what shook him more was the attitude of the fairy who'd come to help.
"Foolish human! What do you think you're doing, splitting the polluted ancient tree by its branches?!"
The fairy diligently drew her bowstring, leaping this way and that as if gravity didn't apply to her alone, dodging the corrupted trees' attacks.
"Compared to the Red Blood Savages, their strikes aren't that strong."
Bulki kept slashing the trees down. Thanks to his carpenter days, he targeted their grain effectively-no solid hits until his body would've been cleaved in two.
"My sword, Chedikahema, spew forth flames!"
"Make your strikes count!"
Gil ignored the trees' condition and wildly swung his flaming sword, invoking its name. Saint Holden focused on trees his size.
Then Rondnel shouted at the group.
"Everyone, fall back! Gil! Remember our first mission!"
Rondnel gripped his shield with both hands, hunching behind it like a shelter, then banged it to draw the enemies' attention. The knights and fairy backed off at his call, and all the trees targeted him.
"We end this in one go! Focus your strongest firepower!"
Rondnel sank inch by inch into the ground, hammering away attacks like nails with his hammer.
"I'll raise a wall around Rondnel-when I signal, everyone attack!"
"Hey, windbag, can you whip up a gale?"
"Right away!"
Bulki raised his sword high overhead.
"Attack!"
Bulki slammed the ground. A wall erupted around Rondnel. Saint Holden spun and kicked the air, unleashing a gale that carried Gil's sword flames like a massive wave crashing on shore.
'[Exploding Justice]'.
Boom!
The attack synced perfectly, like battle-hardened comrades, but two foes still stirred.
"Human, take the other one!"
The sun fairy loosed arrows like a hailstorm at the nearest one.
"Nia!"
Then the last tree, wreathed in flames, lunged a vine at Nia. Bulki spotted it and hurled his sword.
A mystical light flashed, thunder-like, shattering the vine. Bulki's sword clattered to the ground. The earth near the final enemy surged like swallowing roots, pulverizing it from base to tips. Tree remnants crackled in Gil's flames, and only then did the knights exchange smiles, battle over.
Right then, the sun fairy stormed up to Bulki, grabbed his pauldron, and demanded angrily,
"What was that light just now? Are you connected to that guy too?!"
"I was just helping you. We're imperial knights."
Releasing Bulki at last, the sun fairy shouted to the group.
"I am Shainelius, guardian of Deinaus Forest. Someone in armor just like yours defiled our woods, and the plague corrupted our ancient trees! Explain yourselves, vile humans."
"Calm yourself, fairy. I, Knight Rondnel, will explain... Wait, what eyes-like jewels. I feel like I've found my eternal sun..."
As Rondnel spouted nonsense, Saint Holden stepped in.
"We are knights of the great Sonain Empire. We merely aided one in distress; we know nothing of the forest's deeper woes. So, Shainelius, we request you explain the situation first."
"That request is formally approved by me, Riu, 1st Knight Order Captain."
"Captain!"
From the opposite side, where they'd faced off against one fairy, Riu appeared leading knights in bloodied armor. Without further words, she haughtily gazed down at the fairy and asked,
"You mentioned light. Care to explain, fairy?"
Shainelius slung her bow over her shoulder, composed herself briefly, and explained.
"Ten moons ago, a human appeared. He rode a golden Mir, claimed to be the Hero, and spoke with our guardian captain. For some reason, the captain let this nameless man into the forest. Days later, one ancient tree corrupted. Per sun fairy code, I came to investigate. But I have no doubt the human staying in the forest is the culprit."
"What proof? Treating knight orders this way without evidence demands formal recompense for this rudeness in your fairy woods."
"Proof? He wore the witch's cloak. I don't know why he had a witch's item, but he's definitely the one who corrupted the ancient tree. He'll raise all the polluted trees to strike the empire."
At "witch's cloak," Riu realized her suspicions were correct.
"Eden..."
Ten years ago, former 1st Knight Order Captain Eden Sonain-bearing the Hero title, seeking a golden Mir-vanished investigating rumors of a witch in the western continent's Somin forest. He'd returned.
"Captain, kids know from fairy tales that the age of gods and Mir ended, and the sun vanished. But Mir and curses? What's that mean?"
Bulki asked, baffled. Riu shouted to all knights,
"Knight orders! As the fairy says, this is our affair. With a new Hero emerged, Mir return-but it seems the previous era's Hero has returned as an undead. Thus, I order resolving the ancient trees' corruption in Sun Forest as our top priority. We stay, await reinforcements, then head straight to Sun Forest. Ready gear! Inherit your swords! We face one who was once this era's true Hero!"
***
"Hainelius, ready?"
"Of course, former Hero."
"May I ask why you sent your sibling from the forest?"
"Though our kinds differ, think of us as sharing a goal-like you and I, same kind but different aims. Anyway, have you gathered enough witch's potion?"
"Don't worry. Just what the Somin folk brought yesterday would corrupt every ancient tree in Sun Forest."
"Now regretting the trees withering?"
Hainelius slammed the table and stood.
"The empire's fall!"
Leaving Eden Sonain in the shadows, he moved to the moonlit window.
"To that one end, all guardians united behind you, Hero allied with the witch-even if it means our entire forest falls."
"Sorry. No intent to provoke. But rest easy. The false sword inheritance and empire's history end by our hands."
The middle-aged knight, waving dismissively, finished and rose. Turning to the furious fairy, he said meaningfully,
"Tomorrow, it all ends."