Prologue: The Conqueror’s Departure for War

In the imperial capital, the Garnet Empire’s greatest city that stood at the center of the nation, a hundred thousand soldiers had been assembled as First Imperial Prince Arthur’s subordinates. Among them, thirty thousand were from the Knights of the Silver Hawk and another thirty thousand from the Knights of the Red Tiger—both orders composed entirely of nobles. Then there were twenty thousand soldiers from Arthur’s private army, and the last twenty thousand were hired adventurers and mercenaries.

Such were the forces that Arthur had gathered to subjugate his younger brother, Second Imperial Prince Lance. He had called together all the soldiers that could move freely within the empire, the only exceptions being the men Arthur had posted in foreign countries. One look at the impressive size of this army would show just how serious he was about eliminating Lance.

The soldiers were preparing for their march, stocking provisions and weapons. And when they were done, they would head toward Lance’s current position—Berwick.

The greatest quarrel between brothers in the history of the Garnet Empire—the decisive battle between the two imperial princes—was right around the corner.

〇 〇 〇

“Thousand Blades!” the man screamed. The next instant, bluish-white mana spread across the floor, and countless blades sprouted like plants. Then the man stretched out his robust arms to brandish two swords, and he turned to face his target.

“I see. So this is the Thousand Blades, huh? A fitting name. No wonder some call him a warmonger despite being an assassin,” Arthur Garnet muttered to himself, somewhat impressed by the trespasser before him.

Arthur was Millicia and Lance’s older brother and had been the ruler of the imperial capital ever since their father had fallen ill. Facing him inside one of the rooms of the palace was an intruder—a man in the prime of his life with a body like a fortress of muscle, bearing the scars of countless battles. He was the Thousand Blades, a renowned assassin who had come to take Arthur’s life.

“I know that my siblings and I are being hunted by assassins, and my subordinates have killed a few already, but you’re the first one to actually make it to me. Bravo,” Arthur praised the Thousand Blades. Strange as it might seem to extol the abilities of someone trying to kill him, anyone who knew Arthur would say this was exactly the kind of thing he would do. He was someone who truly respected power.

The Thousand Blades didn’t answer, however. Instead, he silently readied his swords born from the magic that gave him his namesake, measuring the distance between himself and his target.

“So you’re not one for words and prefer to let your weapons do the talking, huh? I’m starting to like you even more.” Arthur’s smile widened as he unsheathed his sword. “I won’t let my subordinates deal with you, then—I shall defeat you myself!”

“Here I come!” the Thousand Blades said, charging at Arthur as though he had been waiting for the prince to make the first move. However, instead of slashing at Arthur with his own swords, he did something unexpected—he threw them.

“Oh?!” Arthur widened his eyes in surprise, deflecting the blades with his own sword.

The Thousand Blades didn’t miss the opening in Arthur’s defense. “Die.” He pulled new swords from the floor and attacked Arthur with one of them.

“Hmm, I see. You’re not half bad!” Arthur kicked the side of the blade slashing down at him, shifting its trajectory, and followed with a swing of his sword.

The Thousand Blades quickly crossed his swords to defend himself against the helm-splitting blow. However, although his magic blades were just as tough as real steel, they easily broke under Arthur’s peerless strike.

“Ugh!” The Thousand Blades groaned in pain as Arthur’s sword smashed into his skull. He collapsed on the floor, and his magic was dispelled, making the countless blades it had created vanish.

“That was a short but exciting battle. If you have anything to say now, I shall listen,” Arthur said.

“...I am satisfied.” And with that, the Thousand Blades passed away.

Arthur shook the blood off his blade and sheathed it.

“Were you hurt, Your Highness?” asked a black-armored knight after entering the room, followed by the guards of the castle.

“Ah, Gawain.”

“I apologize for my late arrival. I was slowed down by other intruders.” Gawain bowed. He was Arthur’s close aide—one of his Twin Wings—and the leader of the Knights of the Silver Hawk. He was also known as the Black Knight. “Please punish me as you see fit.”

“I don’t mind. This was a good distraction,” Arthur replied contentedly. He wasn’t lying—he had been tired of all the paperwork that needed to be done before the march and had been lacking exercise recently. His fight against the Thousand Blades had been short, but it had been perfect to relieve the stress he’d been building up, and it had left him refreshed.

“Still, I suppose assassins shouldn’t be underestimated,” Arthur continued. “I didn’t expect one to reach me.” He cast a lingering glance at the knights as they dealt with the Thousand Blades’s corpse, then remarked to someone behind him, “Did you predict this, Merlin?”

“No, I didn’t,” answered a beautiful woman with a big pointy hat who had suddenly appeared behind the prince. She was Merlin, the other half of Arthur’s Twin Wings, and she had been hiding her presence with magic.

“Merlin!” Gawain snarled at her, angry at the fact that she hadn’t done anything despite being present while her liege was under attack.

“Calm down. I would have intervened if he had been in actual danger,” Merlin replied.

“This is what I wanted. Don’t be angry at her,” Arthur said.

“...Understood.” While annoyed, Gawain backed down.

Merlin snorted at him before returning to Arthur’s question. “That was an unexpected development. I must lack the information to make a reliable prediction.” She shrugged.

Merlin possessed the power of foresight, but without enough information, she couldn’t accurately predict the future. The assassin’s appearance had been unexpected and completely outside of her predictions.

“I see... Interesting.” Arthur laughed joyfully despite the circumstances. “A conqueror can’t be born from peace. Only strife can create a champion who will lead the empire to dominion over the entire continent.”

Arthur didn’t doubt for a single instant that he was the one who would seize victory and glory.

“We were delayed by the assassins, but it’s finally time for us to march! We shall defeat Lance and make me the ruler of the empire!” Arthur declared.

“What about your sister, Your Highness?” Gawain asked.

“If she surrenders, I’ll spare her life. But were she to stand in my way—she shall die,” he answered without hesitation.

“As you wish.” Gawain knelt, accepting his liege’s dispassionate order.

The showdown between the two forces was rapidly approaching. Now, it was merely a week away.

Chapter 1: Lance Garnet

After overcoming the assassins, Caim and his companions had finally arrived at the easternmost town of the continent—Berwick, the port city that Lance, the second imperial prince, had made his stronghold. Lance had informed the group that Millicia’s eldest brother and first imperial prince, Arthur, would attack in a week.

The decisive battle that would decide the next ruler of the Garnet Empire, the greatest military nation of the continent, was right around the corner.

“Arthur has a lot of subordinates, but the most troublesome one is the Eye of Heaven—Dame Merlin,” Lance calmly explained to Caim and the girls. “She has the power of foresight, which works by calculating possible outcomes based on the information she has gathered. I’ve heard it’s only accurate ninety percent of the time, but during war, that’s plenty. In a way, she’s even more dangerous than Ser Gawain.”

The ability to see the future and predict an opponent’s next move was very troublesome, even if it wasn’t one hundred percent accurate.

“Well then, how do we overcome Dame Merlin’s ability?” Lance continued. “I thought a lot about it, and I came up with an answer: chaos. We just need to bring chaos to the board!” he declared confidently.

Caim and Millicia didn’t understand, so they asked Lance to explain further.

“What I mean by chaos is uncertain information. By feeding a ton of uncertainties to Dame Merlin’s foresight, we’ll overload its capacity and prevent her from predicting the future accurately. In short, we need to create so much junk intel that probabilities will become impossible to calculate.”

“...And what does this have to do with the current situation?” Millicia asked her brother, her tone harsh after listening to everything he had to say.

Currently, Caim and the girls, as well as Lance, were at a private beach on the eastern coast. The sun was shining, white clouds drifted through the sky, and they could hear the sound of the waves from the blue sea. At first glance they appeared to be clad in their underwear, but of course they were actually wearing swimsuits.

In other words, even though war awaited them in a week, they had come to play at the sea.

“Just after reuniting, you invited us to the beach, so I thought you wanted to talk somewhere private so as not to be overheard by anyone else,” Millicia continued. “But then you told us to bring swimsuits. Considering the situation, we have not come here simply to relax, have we?” she asked with a smile—and a blue vein starting to throb on her forehead. Millicia was angry—very angry at her brother and his carefree attitude.

“Of course not,” Lance proudly denied, wearing swimming trunks and sunglasses. “Didn’t I just explain? We’re creating chaos to confuse Dame Merlin’s foresight!”

Millicia stared at him silently.

“Think about it. How could she possibly predict that we would go have fun at the beach just before the war? By doing unexpected things like this, we’re creating chaos! I am absolutely not using this as an excuse to drop all my work and play around! Nor did I want to flee from the insufferable prewar mood!”

“You liar! You just could not bear the serious atmosphere and just wanted to take it easy!” Millicia couldn’t stop herself from retorting loudly. “How can you be so carefree?! The war against Arthur is on the horizon, and yet you do not look nervous at all!”

“Hey, don’t worry. My subordinates are very capable.”

“That is even worse! How can you, their liege, play while they work?!” she scolded him.

As they watched Millicia tell off her brother, Tea pulled at Caim’s hand. “Hmm... Is he really all right?”

“Yeah, I’m not sure either... I’m starting to have some doubts—heck, make that some regrets—about having him as our leader,” Caim replied, and they both sighed.

Lance Garnet had been acting like this ever since they’d met him. He was nonchalant, carefree, and flippant. They had come this far because Millicia wanted to make him the next emperor, but the way he acted had started to make Caim rethink that choice.

“Um... Despite how he acts, Prince Lance is actually a very capable man.”

“Lenka...”

“Please forgive his behavior,” Lenka, who had been listening to Caim and Tea, said apologetically. “Prince Lance isn’t stupid or dim-witted... Though I do understand how you would feel that way, seeing him act like that.” She sighed as she watched Millicia lecture her brother. “He’s a master negotiator. The way he acts puts people off guard, but he’s actually pretty sharp. His carefree behavior makes people think he’s an easy target, but they all end up agreeing to unfavorable terms.”

“So you mean to say that he’s just acting?” Caim asked.

“I don’t think it’s all an act, but I can’t deny that he might play it up to make people underestimate him. He is very popular, after all. He also has many capable subordinates, and while we’re doing nothing here, they’re preparing all for the war.” Lenka turned toward Berwick, which was a short distance away. “Prince Lance assigns the right people to the right positions and gives them full authority for their work. He’s the complete opposite of Prince Arthur’s one-man dictatorship. He also has many allies in other countries, which is why the princess wants him to be the next emperor.”

Lance advocated diplomacy and Arthur military expansion, so naturally, it was safe to assume that other nations would support Lance, as they did not want to go to war against the empire. Though Arthur was a military man and Lance a pacifist, it was impossible to know who was superior until they actually clashed.

“Good grief... Lance is always like that...” Millicia complained, returning to Caim after finishing scolding her brother.

“You’re done?” Caim asked.

“Yes. In exchange for letting him slack off today, I made him promise to work diligently starting tomorrow,” Millicia said with a pout, showing her annoyance.

It was the first time Caim had ever seen Millicia act so childishly, and he couldn’t help staring at her curiously. “I guess you guys really are siblings, huh?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what I said.”

When Caim had seen Millicia and Lance talk, he’d realized that was how normal siblings acted. Despite having a little sister of his own, Caim had no memories of ever playing, or even quarreling, with her. All he could remember was her ignoring him or tormenting him because she thought everything was his fault.

I wonder if we could have been like these two if I hadn’t received the Poison Queen’s curse...

“...Yeah, no, that’d be weird.” Caim smiled bitterly, immediately crushing the small feeling of envy that had sprouted in his chest. It was useless to waste time thinking about a possible future that would never happen.

That future was lost the instant that man decided to transfer the curse to me. No point in thinking about it.

“So, what do we do now?” Caim asked, changing the subject.

“He told us to have fun, so... Well, I suppose we should make the most of it and enjoy ourselves to our heart’s content!” Millicia shouted, giving up on being serious. She had been fed up with Lance’s antics, but it didn’t matter anymore. They would fight Arthur and his army soon, so this could be the last time they would be able to relax. “You should have some fun too, Caim! Even if something happens while we are playing around, it will all be Lance’s fault!”

“Well, if you say so. It’s my first time swimming in the ocean, so I should enjoy it.”

“You know how to swim, Master Caim?” Tea asked, tilting her head. “I’ve never seen you swim.”

“No, I don’t.” Caim had been too weak to swim before fusing with the Poison Queen, and swimming was not something she’d known how to do. And while he had bathed in rivers before, he had never actually been swimming.

“Then Tea will teach you. I’ve dove in rivers to catch fish before.”

“I know exercises for learning how to swim. I’ll show you.”

“I’m not that good, but I’ll help too.”

Lenka and Rozbeth immediately followed after Tea.

“I am not a great swimmer, but I should be able to help you a little.” Millicia also volunteered timidly.

“Thanks, everyone.”

Thus, Caim went to swim in the ocean for the first time in his life, taught by four beautiful women.

〇 〇 〇

“Yes, like this. Relax your muscles and you’ll float naturally.”

“Do not be afraid to open your eyes in the water.”

“You’re doing great. Now, swing your legs up and down.”

“I’m here. Come and catch me.”

Under the bright sun, Caim was being taught how to swim by Tea, Millicia, Lenka, and Rozbeth. Lykos wasn’t involved, however. At first, they had feared that she might have drowned, but occasionally she would come to the surface with a fish in her mouth, so they all figured it was fine to leave her alone. As for Lance, he had been resting on the beach at first, but then he had vanished somewhere with a fishing rod and a bucket, likely heading for the rocky area to do some angling.

“You know, it really feels like you’re treating me like a child...” Caim said, slightly annoyed. He was glad the girls were instructing him so carefully, but he couldn’t help feeling like he was being mocked. “You’re not making fun of me because I can’t swim, are you?”

“No, of course not.”

“My heart is definitely not fluttering at seeing you act so cutely, even though you are usually so reliable.”

“Exactly. I’m absolutely not thinking that because I always lose to you, it’s great to have the upper hand once in a while. Not at all.”

“You’re welcome to show more of your pathetic side... Oops, slip of the tongue. Ignore that.”

The beautiful maidens—Tea, Millicia, Lenka, and Rozbeth—in swimsuits replied, all smiles. Caim was sure they were enjoying themselves at his expense for not being able to swim—they were clearly looking at him like a child.

“Damn it... I’ll remember this...” Caim groaned, humiliated, then stared at the girls.

“Let’s do it again. Do your best, Master Caim!” Tea was wearing a red bikini, and her melon-like breasts bounced up and down every time she moved.

“I will support you if you start to sink, so be at ease.” Millicia was wearing a white bikini with a pareu around her waist. While the color conveyed a sense of purity, it was also somewhat sensual, making her look like a newborn goddess.

“Come on, flap your limbs harder!” Lenka was wearing a black bikini. It had a sexy design, with the straps crossed over her chest. Her slightly tanned skin and well-toned muscles were exposed to the world, showcasing her athletic charm.

“Keep at it.” Rozbeth was the only one not wearing a bikini, instead sporting a monokini with deep slits up the sides. Her chest was smaller than the other three, but she was slender and had a great figure. Her long limbs moved both powerfully and beautifully under the sun, cutting through the water.

“Hmm...” The gorgeous girls, all with different body types and swimsuits, truly were a sight for sore eyes and worth more than a mountain of gold. It’s humiliating to be treated like a child, but... Well, I guess it’s worth it. As shameful as it was to admit it, Caim thought it was fine to suffer a little bit of disgrace if it meant being surrounded by such beauties in swimsuits. Once again, he realized how lucky he really was.

“Just you wait—I’m gonna master swimming in an instant!” Fueled by his frustration, Caim practiced as hard as he could, and just as he had declared, it didn’t take him long to figure out how to swim. He had exceptional physical abilities and good instincts, so once he had grasped the basics, it was just a matter of practicing them. Before long, the girls had nothing more to teach him.

“You’re no fun... It’s boring if you get good so fast.” Rozbeth pouted.

“Hah! Serves you right,” Caim replied proudly.

“Then I suppose we need to test you.”

“Indeed.”

Lenka and Millicia grinned impishly.

“What do you mean?” Caim asked with a frown.

The four girls spread their arms as though showing off their glamorous bodies, and then Tea announced, on behalf of everyone, “Let’s play tag! Try to catch us, Master Caim.”

Then the four of them swam in different directions.

“So you wanna test how good I’m at swimming, huh? Fine, bring it on! I’m gonna catch you all immediately!” Caim vigorously dove into the sea. Underwater, he looked around, searching for the nearest target.

First is...Millicia.

Millicia was the slowest swimmer, so Caim quickly caught up to her, capturing her slender body.

“Aaah!”

“First one.”

“Aaah... Please, do not be so rough...” Millicia moaned sweetly as Caim firmly groped her breasts. Despite her protest, she didn’t resist—in fact, she even wrapped her arms around Caim’s neck and rubbed herself against him.

“Jeez, was that your objective from the start? Are you just in heat all day long?”

In short, it was that kind of game. Caim was exasperated at how horny his lovers were, but considering today was supposed to be their day off, he decided to cut loose and do as they wished.

Caim wrapped one arm around Millicia’s waist and groped her chest with the other. As he played with the mound of flesh that fit perfectly into his palm, he licked her neck, eliciting a moan.

“You’re all salty,” Caim commented. Of course Millicia’s skin would be salty—they were in the sea. But strangely, he didn’t find it unpleasant, and he alternated between kissing her nape and playfully biting her ear.

“Aaah... Please... I want more...” Millicia begged, twisting her body to face Caim. She stared at him with glistening eyes and extended her tongue.

Caim answered her plea and kissed her deeply, intertwining their tongues. As they exchanged saliva, which had become quite salty because of the seawater, Caim stripped off Millicia’s pareu, slid aside the bottom of her bikini, then touched the slick place between her legs, making her moan loudly. He could feel how wet she was even through the seawater, proving how much pleasure she felt, and her private parts twitched in anticipation.

“Caim... I cannot endure it any longer... Please, I want you!”

“Don’t beg like that. We’re still in broad daylight,” Caim reprimanded her, digging his finger in her damp cleft.

Millicia twitched in pleasure and moaned every time Caim moved his finger. Her blue eyes fixed on him lustfully, asking him for more. Thankfully, no one was around, so Caim thought it wouldn’t be so bad to do it under the blue sky with the bright sun shining above them.

“I’m gonna put it in, so don’t tell me you don’t want to do it anymore.”

“I would never— Aaaaaah!”

Caim unsheathed his “sword” and stabbed Millicia with it. Her back arched as the huge “sword” that felt like it existed to make women scream in pleasure buried into her to the hilt. It didn’t take long for Millicia to climax, her sweet and loud moans resonating in the blue sky, startling the seabirds.

After enjoying his time with Millicia, Caim brought her to the beach. Climaxing had exhausted her, so he placed her under a parasol to sleep before heading out to search for his next prey.

“I’m here, Master Caim!” Tea shouted, waving her arms at Caim from the shallows. The concept of the game was for Caim to swim and catch the girls, but apparently that had already gone down the drain. “Please come and catch Tea!”

“Don’t tell me you’re just gonna let me catch you?”

“Don’t worry! I’ll dodge, so try your best.”

Caim snorted and tried to grab Tea’s arm, but she nimbly evaded.

“Oh?”

“I won’t let you catch me that easily.” Tea chuckled, kicking the water as she dodged Caim’s hand. As a tiger beastfolk, Tea’s reflexes were exceptional and on par with Caim’s. Her white hair fluttered, and she moved so swiftly her red bikini left afterimages behind. “Is there a problem? Tea is right here!”

“You little... Then what about this?!” Caim got slightly annoyed at Tea’s provocation and used Mana Compression to create tendrils of condensed mana that untied the knot of her bikini top. Tea yelped as it came undone, her breasts jiggling free, and she quickly covered herself with her arms. “You’re wide open!” And of course, Caim wasn’t going to miss the opportunity—he easily grabbed Tea’s arm and caught her.

“That’s unfair! You cheated!”

“We didn’t even set any rules. It’s my win.”

“Ummm... Oh well, then you can do as you wish with my body!” Tea threw her chest out, her uncovered breasts—which were the largest among Caim’s lovers—bouncing, their pink tips attracting Caim’s eyes.

“Don’t mind if I do, then.” Caim nimbly moved behind Tea and groped her breasts, eliciting a moan from her. His fingers sank into her soft, plump flesh as he enjoyed squeezing them into different shapes.

“Grrraow... You’re being so rough right from the start...” Tea said, moaning sweetly as she bit her thumb. But despite her protest, she didn’t resist, so Caim didn’t hold back, unreservedly groping her breasts as if to show they were his. He relentlessly played with her abundant fruits, mercilessly digging his fingers in her flesh, tapping her breasts from below to make them bounce, or squeezing them from their roots to their tips.

“Aaaah... Mmmmh... Grrraaaaow...!” Tea’s lips played a coquettish melody every time Caim’s fingers moved. Then, when he pulled at her hard tips, she let out her loudest moan yet. “Master Caim...” she called the name of her lover in a sweet voice, rubbing her rear against his crotch, stimulating his “sword.”

Despite having just tasted Millicia, Caim’s “sword” quickly stood ready from the feel of his maid’s soft buttocks. It pressed against Tea’s bottom, as though urging Caim to devour her.

“I’m putting it in.”

“Grrraow!”

Caim stripped away Tea’s bikini bottom, making her fully nude and revealing her crotch; then he grabbed her waist and thrust his “sword,” eliciting a loud moan as he reached her deepest part. Caim firmly held her body to prevent her from sinking into the water as he furiously swung his hips. Despite how roughly he was treating her body, only sounds of rapture emerged from Tea’s mouth.

“Here I come!”

“Aaah... Ah... Grrraaaaaaaaaaooooooow!” Tea came, roaring like a beast.

When she was done, Caim lifted his lover’s listless body and carried her to the beach.

“Two more to go.” Caim was feeling a little tired after having sex with Millicia and Tea and was now resting on a rock in the ocean, his feet soaking in the water while he stretched his arms. “I wonder where Lenka and Rozbeth are.” He looked around, searching for his two remaining lovers, but couldn’t find them. Just where could they be?

“Pwah!”

“Whoa, don’t surprise me like that.”

Right when he was thinking about the girls, one of them—Rozbeth—had emerged from the water between his legs.

“You just wouldn’t go after me, so I came to check on you,” Rozbeth said.

“Sorry for making you wait.”

“That’s fine. To be honest, being chased isn’t really my thing. I prefer being the one doing the chasing,” Rozbeth replied, sliding down Caim’s swim trunks.

“What are you—”

“Helping myself.” Rozbeth had exposed Caim’s “sword” without his consent. Despite having just tasted two women, his great “weapon” was still hard, slapping Rozbeth’s cheek as it stood valiantly. “Naughty as usual. Just like you.”

“Shut it.”

Rozbeth chuckled. Then, her cheeks tinged pink with a lustful blush, she extended her long tongue and licked Caim’s “sword,” making him moan in surprise.

“My, what a cute reaction. It’s pretty fun to be the one on the offensive sometimes.” Rozbeth grinned mischievously as she continued to lick Caim’s “sword.” She went from its root to its tip, covering it in saliva as she tasted it like she would a delicious piece of candy. “You’re so hard that you wouldn’t think you’d just devoured two women.”

“...You’ve become quite good at this,” Caim said, praising her technique.

Rozbeth was so skilled with her tongue that no one would think she had been a virgin until recently. She accurately attacked Caim’s weak spots and controlled her pace perfectly to keep him on edge.

“I may not look like it, but I’m a very hardworking and devoted woman. Aren’t you glad to have such a wonderful girlfriend?”

“Bragging much...? Um!”

“Well then, I think it’s time to get the first shot.”

Rozbeth put Caim’s “sword” inside her mouth and used her impressive lung capacity to suck it hard. The pleasure was so great that Caim immediately climaxed, hot, white liquid erupting from him like a volcano. Caim groaned in ecstasy as Rozbeth almost choked, slowly swallowing everything that had been released in her mouth.

“Quite the impressive shot... Well done.”

“Why have you been acting so patronizing since earlier?” Caim asked, patting Rozbeth’s head. She narrowed her eyes in pleasure, her expression similar to a cat basking in the sun.

Man, I never expected a heinous assassin like her would get so attached to me, Caim thought as he gently caressed Rozbeth’s wet hair, soaking in the afterglow of his orgasm.

“Only Lenka’s left. Just where is she?” Caim muttered as he looked around the beach, not finding her. “She hasn’t drowned, has she...?”

“Sir Caim!”

He finally found Lenka as she called his name from the rocky area at the edge of the beach, beckoning him. Caim swam to her location and spotted her hiding behind a rock.

“Why are you hiding?” Caim asked.

“Uhh... I...”

“Actually, never mind. I get it now.” Caim immediately understood the reason when he looked behind the rock—Lenka’s upper body was naked. She was still wearing the bottom of her bikini, but the part supposed to cover her abundant fruits was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a mollusk with eight wriggly tentacles—an octopus—covered her chest. “That’s actually really funny. How did you manage to wind up like that?” Caim asked, astonished by the view of Lenka wearing an octopus instead of a swimsuit.

“I-It stuck to me while I was swimming and it stripped away my swimsuit... Could you help me to remove it?”

“Can’t you do it yourself?”

“The tentacles have suckers and stick really hard. I can’t get it off no matter how much I pull...”

“You end up in situations like this so often that sometimes I wonder if you’re doing it on purpose...” Though Caim supposed an incident like this couldn’t be easily arranged just because she wanted it to happen. He sighed and grabbed the octopus, pulling on it.

“Ow! Wait, it hurts!” Lenka complained.

“Don’t you like pain? Just bear with it.”

“Not this kind of pain— Ow!”

“It’s really clinging to you, huh? Then how about this!” Caim pulled with all his force, and Lenka screamed as the octopus finally came free.

But it didn’t end at this. In one last act of resistance, the creature spewed out black ink.

“Whoa?!”

“Eeek!”

Caim let go of the octopus in his surprise, and the animal quickly fled into the sea.

“I didn’t think it could spit ink... Still, it’s a shame we couldn’t catch it. I’m sure it would taste great if we grilled it,” Caim commented.

“Uhh... I’m all gooey...” Lenka whined, tears in her eyes. Caim had also been hit by the ink, but it was nothing next to Lenka. Her voluptuous body was completely covered in black ink, making her look rather silly.

“Didn’t something similar happen not long ago...? Oh well, whatever. I’ve taken care of your problem, so let’s do it now.”

“Huh?”

Caim was getting tired from having sex repeatedly in such a short time and just wanted to get it over with. He made Lenka place her hands on the rock nearby and moved behind her.

“I’m putting it in.” Caim didn’t wait for a reply, just stabbing his “sword” in with no foreplay, eliciting a loud moan from Lenka as he thrust his hips relentlessly.

“I-I don’t exactly hate when you treat me so roughly, but— Aaaaah!”

“Come!” Caim thrust in especially deep and Lenka easily climaxed, screaming in pleasure before collapsing listlessly. “And that’s it. I’ve done it with everyone and met my quota.”

Caim wiped the sweat off his brow contentedly as he carried Lenka’s limp body away.

〇 〇 〇

“Mmmh!”

“Huh?”

As Caim and his lovers rested on the beach after playing in the sea, a little girl emerged from the water. Her wet green hair, which looked like seaweed, clung to her petite body, and despite being expressionless, her eyes were full of life. She was the last of the group’s companions—Lykos, the wolf girl.

“Where have you been until now?” Caim asked. He hadn’t seen her for a while, and she usually just did her own thing, so he had supposed she must have been playing somewhere.

“Mmmmh!” Lykos pulled something out of the water, as though answering Caim’s question.

“Is that a crab?” The red creature in Lykos’s hands was indeed a crab. It was bigger than Lykos’s head, and it was struggling, waving its pincers as it tried to flee from the girl’s grasp. “It’s pretty big, so it should make a great meal. Did you catch it for us?”

Lykos nodded. She cared more about food than romance and was more interested in seafood than having fun in the water like Caim and the rest.

“Hmm? Isn’t that an emperor crab?” Lenka, who had recovered after her rest, approached Lykos and took a closer look at the crab. She was now wearing a shirt instead of the bikini top she had lost.

“Are those rare?” Caim asked.

“Yeah, it’s not something you can find in the shallows. It’s a kind of monster that lives in the depths of the sea.”

“Wait, what? You mean it’s a monster?” Caim examined the creature. True, it was bigger than normal crabs, being larger than a human head, but Caim still found it too small to be a monster.

“That one’s just a baby. Adult emperor crabs can be as big as wyverns,” Lenka explained.

“Seriously?” Caim reflexively stared at the crab in Lykos’s hands. He had thought it was rather large, but apparently it was only the child of much bigger crabs. But what had a creature that should live in the depths of the ocean been doing in the shallows?

Don’t tell me Lykos dove all the way down into the deep sea...? Nah, no way.

While it was true that Lykos wasn’t a normal girl, having been raised by the Lycaon King, and that Caim had seen her take on the appearance of an adult during their battle against the assassins on Mount Garank, he didn’t think she was able to dive so deep.

“Well, whatever its size, a crab is a crab. Let’s boil it for dinner,” Caim said.

“No, we should let it go. I don’t know why it was in the shallows, but if its parents find out that it was caught, they might come for revenge,” Lenka warned him.

“They care about their kin? What a pain.” Caim turned toward Lykos. “Sorry, but you’ll have to let it go,” he told her calmly.

Lykos whined.

“Hey, don’t look so sullen. Even without it, we should have quite the feast tonight... I think.” They would sleep at an inn Lance had prepared for them. The imperial prince had made the reservation, so the inn likely would prepare quite a sumptuous dinner for them.

Caim managed to convince Lykos, and while reluctant, she gave him the baby emperor crab.

“Thanks. Now, I just need to throw it into the sea—”

Just then, a great pillar of water erupted from the ocean.

“...Well, I guess we’re too late.”

A giant crab over twenty meters long had emerged from the water. Lenka had said they could be as big as wyverns, but this particular crab was even larger. The creature stared at Caim and the girls as it began to swim their way.

“It’s so big... To think that there are monsters that big living in the sea!” Caim exclaimed. This was the largest monster he had ever seen. He had heard about whales, fish, and squids in the ocean that measured dozens of meters, but actually seeing one stunned him. “The sea truly is an unknown world. Fascinating!”

“Sir Caim, now isn’t the time!” Lenka pulled his arm. “If it reaches land, who knows what kind of damage it will do!”

“Yeah, you’re right. Guess I need to defeat it, then.” There was no guarantee that the crab would leave once it had retrieved its offspring, and if it got too close and began to attack ships, that would be a problem. “First, let’s see how it deals with this.”

As the roaring giant crab neared them, Caim stood in the shallows and manipulated his mana, pointing his index finger at the monster.

“Poison Shot.” A blob of purple liquid shot from his fingertip and struck the emperor crab that was still tens of meters away. However, the projectile was easily repelled by the creature’s hard shell. “Seems like it has a solid defense.”

He’d used a strong acidic poison, but it hadn’t damaged the emperor crab’s shell at all. While Caim’s toxins might still have worked if he could pour them directly into the monster’s body, it seemed that there was no point in continuing to shoot poison at it.

“Welp, guess that means I need to fight at close range—not that I mind.”

The emperor crab was now a little more than ten meters away. Caim leaped and ran along the surface of the water toward the monster—he wasn’t running on the water, though, but creating mana footholds above it.

“KSSSSSHHHHHH!” the emperor crab hissed, swinging its pincers at Caim.

“Shut it! You’re noisy!” Caim dodged and jumped onto the monster’s hard-shelled back. “Ouryuu!” He then released a shock wave of compressed mana inside the creature’s body using one of the basic techniques of the Toukishin Style.

The emperor crab cried out in pain. No matter how hard its shell was, it was useless against an attack that could bypass defenses and strike directly inside the enemy’s body. The monster furiously swung its giant pincers at its back, trying to hit Caim.

“I guess your size isn’t just for show. A single blow isn’t going to be enough,” Caim commented, impressed by the emperor crab’s vitality. He avoided the pincer that had been about to crush him and swung his right arm using another basic technique of the Toukishin Style. “Seiryuu!”

Creating a high-frequency blade of condensed mana, Caim aimed at a joint that wasn’t covered by the crab’s hard shell and severed its pincer, causing the monster to screech in pain.

“Now that I think about it, I read somewhere that in a foreign country, they call crabs ‘kani’—which can mean ‘an insect easy to take apart.’” Smirking, Caim used Seiryuu on his other arm and struck them together, making a metallic clang. “I guess I should follow the meaning and take you apart, then. Lykos should be glad to have more to eat.”

The emperor crab whined, retreating fearfully. It finally understood that it had attacked someone it shouldn’t have.

“It’s too late to run away. Now that I’ve mastered swimming, I have no weakness.” If the emperor crab had attacked while Caim still hadn’t known how to swim, he might have let it go, but he had no reason to do so now.

Caim grinned savagely as he slashed at the giant monster. The emperor crab tried to flee, but Caim cut off its escape. Unable to hide due to its enormous body, it ended up in pieces ten minutes later.

“I’ve never had crab before, but man, it tastes great,” Caim said happily as they ate boiled crab on the beach.

The large pot before them was filled with the remains of the emperor crab, and next to it were shrimp, shellfish, and other seafood, releasing a delicious smell as they cooked. Just after killing the emperor crab, a passing fisherman had offered to exchange some of his haul, a pot, and a grill for part of the monster Caim had just killed.

“The soup is delicious. The broth, in particular, is exquisite.”

“Yes, it has such a rich and deep flavor. I feel revitalized.”

Millicia and Lenka both commented on the crab soup as they drank, their faces relaxing.

“Grrraow... This fish is so good.”

“This shellfish seems to be ready to eat. I’m sure it’ll go well with butter.”

Tea and Rozbeth, meanwhile, were focusing on the barbecued fish and shellfish.

As for Lykos, she simply ate anything within her reach without stopping, stuffing her cheeks like a hamster.

Swimming, playing, and eating—everyone was enjoying the brief moment of peace at the beach.

“Hey, that looks delicious. Do you mind if I join?”

“Lance...” Millicia stared at her brother, who had gone fishing. He was holding a bucket with several fish in it. “It seems you have been enjoying yourself as well.”

“Yeah, it’s been so long since I’ve had a holiday. It was great. Also, as you can see, I caught quite the haul, so do you mind if I grill them with yours?” Not waiting for an answer, Lance removed fish after fish from his bucket, skillfully gutted them with a knife, and then skewered them before lining them on the grate.

“Huh. I didn’t expect a prince to be so good at this,” Caim commented.

“I fish as a hobby, so I’m used to it. In the past, Arthur and Millicia would sometimes come with me too,” Lance said with a nostalgic smile. “Do you remember that time, back when Father was still healthy, when Arthur and I competed to see who could catch the biggest fish?”

“Yes, I do. The two of you got really serious about it... I could not possibly forget,” Millicia replied.

“Everything was so much better when Father was in good health. Arthur wasn’t so focused on becoming the emperor, and there was no discord between us. We even promised to come back and play again together sometime...”

Hearing her brother’s words, Millicia’s expression clouded, and her gaze grew distant as she lost herself in the memories of her bygone childhood.

“I knew I would never be able to come here with Arthur again, so I’m glad I could at least be here with you, Millicia... Though you just flirted with your boyfriend instead of spending time with me.”

“L-Lance...”

“I’m not angry. In fact, I’m relieved to have found a man I can entrust my little sister to... Ah, seems like it’s ready.” Lance took a grilled fish, blew on it to cool it down, then bit into it, savoring its taste.

“...Is there no way to return to those days?” Millicia asked.

“I don’t think so... Even if we can, Arthur can’t. He is a military man to the core. If we manage to defeat him, I’m sure he would rather kill himself than be shown mercy anyway.”

Millicia fell silent, chewing on her lip. She agreed with her brother—Arthur Garnet would never submit. He would fight until his last breath.

“Hmph... Who cares about that?”

“Mmmgh?!”

“Enough with the gloomy talk. You’re ruining our dinner,” Caim said, annoyed, as he pushed some crab into Millicia’s mouth. “Haven’t you and Arthur already made your choice? Then stop wasting time brooding on stuff like that.”

“...Yes, you are right. Sorry,” Millicia apologized.

“Just forget about it and eat. It’ll make you feel better. Eat until you feel like throwing up,” Caim said, pushing some crab and grilled seafood in front of her.

“I-I cannot eat that much!” Millicia protested, though she still tried to eat everything she was given.

Lance chuckled, gazing at his sister with a heartwarming smile.

Chapter 2: Prelude to the Civil War

The day after having fun at the beach, Caim and the girls went to the meeting room in Lance’s residence. Inside were several men and women sitting at a large round table, and they all turned to look at the new arrivals.

“Well then, now that everyone is present, it’s time to begin our war council. Let’s make this a productive meeting!” Lance declared with a smile, clapping his hands.

Caim and Millicia found vacant seats, while Tea, Lenka, and Rozbeth stood behind them. As for Lykos, it was pointless for her to be present at the meeting, so they had left her in their room.

“First, let me introduce the new arrivals. This young woman here is my little sister, Millicia Garnet. She has come to help us.”

“Pleased to meet you all.” Millicia bowed slightly in greeting, and the people at the table bowed back silently. None of them seemed surprised, so they must have been informed of her presence in advance.

“And next to her is her fiancé, Caim.”

Everyone gasped in astonishment, but one person in particular—the young man sitting opposite of Lance—suddenly stood up, knocking over his chair.

“Her Highness Millicia cannot possibly have a fiancé!”

“Stand down, Audy!” the slightly older man next to him ordered. “You’re in the presence of Their Highnesses! Don’t act so unsightly!” He then turned toward Lance. “Please excuse my subordinate, Your Highness.”

Pressed by his superior, Audy bowed reluctantly.

Lance waved his hand. “It’s all right. Of course you’d be surprised. Even I only learned about him yesterday.”

“If you would allow me, I would like to ask a question. Who is Sir Caim? Is he a noble?” asked the man who had scolded Audy.

“No, he’s a commoner and an adventurer. In other words, their love crosses social boundaries,” Lance explained.

“I see...” The man nodded, and Audy clicked his tongue next to him. That caused the man to elbow him, which made Audy look away, sulking.

“Well then, now I’ll introduce everyone else. The man who just spoke is Louivi Ildana, the captain of the Knights of the Blue Wolf.”

“I am Louivi Ildana. It is an honor to make your acquaintance, Princess Millicia,” Ildana said, bowing to Millicia.

“I know you. You are the brother of Sharon, the guildmaster of Jarro’s Adventurers’ Guild, yes?”

“Oh? You know my sister?”

“Yes. She helped us greatly when we were staying in Jarro.”

Jarro was the post town where Caim and the girls had spent a few days just before entering the Forest of the Lycaons. There, they had met the guildmaster, Sharon Ildana—and in Caim’s case, he even had the opportunity to know her more intimately.

The Knights of the Blue Wolf, which Ildana was the captain of, was a knight order following Lance whose members were all commoners.

“And next to him is the vice captain, Audy Iscow,” Lance continued.

“I have always wanted to meet you, Princess Millicia!” Audy bowed deeply, overcome with emotion, before scowling at Caim resentfully.

Wait... Is he in love with Millicia? Caim cocked his head, ignoring the death glare. Millicia was an extremely beautiful girl, so Caim wouldn’t have been surprised if she had hundreds of admirers.

“Hmph...” Caim snorted at Audy, which made the young man grit his teeth in vexation. No matter how much he loved Millicia, she was already Caim’s and would never be his.

So this is what they call a sense of superiority, huh? Interesting. So even I am capable of feeling like this. Caim became aware of the dark joy welling inside him that came from being envied by another man. He also realized once again that he had obtained a woman that other men could only dream of having.

“Next are the Knights of the Black Dragon’s vice captain, Ikkaku, the guildmaster of the Merchants’ Guild, Abus, the guildmaster of the Adventurers’ Guild, Graylie, and finally, next to me is my secretary, Elza,” Lance introduced everyone sitting at the round table in turn.

The one who caught Caim’s eyes the most was the Knights of the Black Dragon’s vice captain, the large woman named Ikkaku. She had long, ashen hair, and the sharp horn on her forehead marked her as a beastfolk.

If I remember correctly, the members of the Knights of the Black Dragon are mainly made up of foreign mercenaries. Still, why is the vice captain present and not the captain? Caim wondered.

“Ah, yes, there is something you must know,” Lance said, as though reading Caim’s mind. “You might be wondering why Vice Captain Ikkaku is present but not her superior, right? Well, something troublesome has happened.” Lance smiled, not looking troubled in the least. “Debardan, the Knights of the Black Dragon’s captain, has switched sides and now serves Arthur. Ah, and he also took half of the soldiers with him.”

Everyone except Lance and Ikkaku gasped. They were even more shocked than when Caim had been presented as Millicia’s fiancé.

“Previously, Arthur controlled the Knights of the Silver Hawk and the Red Tiger, while the Knights of the Blue Wolf and the Black Dragon were on my side. That balance of military force has now been upset, though. Dear me, what a pickle,” Lance said casually, which earned him a critical look from everyone, stunned to learn about the betrayal of the Knights of the Black Dragon’s captain.

“Explain yourself, Lance,” Millicia asked on behalf of everyone present, glaring at her brother. She was not only irritated by the news, but also by how flippantly Lance was acting.

“I mean, it’s exactly as I said. Debardan, the captain of the Knights of the Black Dragon, has changed sides along with half of the soldiers. Vice Captain Ikkaku and the other half have remained, but it doesn’t change the fact that our forces have greatly decreased.”

“But the members of the Knights of the Black Dragon are mostly beastfolk and immigrants—that’s quite the disparity with Arthur’s supporters, who are mainly nobles. Why would they betray us?”

“Well, to put it simply, the answer is money. A lot of money,” Lance answered his sister, shrugging his shoulders. “It’s not as though I was stingy. I even paid them in advance. And yet, they switched to Arthur’s side to get double the reward. A pretty shameless bunch, don’t you think?”

“I am deeply ashamed,” Ikkaku apologized, her ashen hair drooping as she bowed.

“I’m not blaming you, Vice Captain Ikkaku. In fact, I’m grateful that you stayed, unlike your captain.”

“Trust is paramount for mercenaries. If it becomes known that you have betrayed your employer for money, nobody will want to hire you anymore. I would never follow a man who gave in to his greed,” Ikkaku said in a clear, firm tone. Mercenaries worked for money, but they did have their pride, and there were some lines that should not be crossed. “Still, this does not change the fact that the captain and half of the Knights of the Black Dragon have abandoned us. I apologize for the difficulty.”

“Well, you’ll be the captain from now on. I hope you’ll continue to lend me your strength.”

“We have already received our payment, so naturally, I have no reason to refuse. We shall do our best to meet your expectations.”

While Lance and Ikkaku reaffirmed their master and subordinate relationship, a certain middle-aged man sitting at the round table wasn’t happy about the situation.

“Wait a minute! Now that Captain Debardan has left us and we have lost a lot of our soldiers, are we actually able to defeat Prince Arthur?!” interjected the guildmaster of the Merchants’ Guild—Abus. “Our forces have decreased, and the enemy’s have increased. I do not see how we could possibly win!”

“Numbers alone don’t decide the outcome of war,” Lance placated him.

“But they are led by Prince Arthur, a veteran of the battlefield! We are not just outmatched in numbers!”

Arthur was a military man, and Lance a pacifist. The difference between their armies wasn’t just in the number of soldiers they commanded, but in the abilities of their leaders too. That was why Abus was growing anxious, becoming almost certain they would lose.

“We’ve been at a disadvantage from the start. That’s why we’ve been making all these preparations, no? We have no reason to panic yet,” Lance explained calmly, but Abus was still pale, his expression sour as his lips opened and closed, not knowing what to say. “There’s no need to worry, everyone. We have Millicia on our side.”

“M-Me...?” Millicia asked, surprised to be named so suddenly. She started to open her mouth to protest, but she stopped herself just in time, not wanting to interrupt her brother.

“My reliable sister has come to help us. You can relax, everything will be fine,” Lance said cheerfully, but the statement was so irresponsible that it only made Abus’s face turn even paler.

The meeting continued after that, but by the time it ended, more than half of its participants did not seem optimistic. And while Caim had little opportunity to speak, he was strangely bothered by how grim the guildmaster of the Merchants’ Guild had looked.

Caim and his lovers were now back at the lodgings that Lance had prepared for them at the most luxurious inn in the city, which was also the closest to Lance’s residence. Their room was very spacious, and it was furnished with expensive-looking furniture.

“So, what will we be doing in the end?” Caim asked.

“I will be in charge of treating the wounded. As for you, Caim, I am sorry, but you will have to fight on the front line as usual,” Millicia answered, looking apologetic. After the reveal of the Knights of the Black Dragon’s captain’s betrayal, the meeting had continued, and they had established a clear course of action, assigning roles to everyone. “While Arthur is not loath to use tricks, he takes a direct approach on the battlefield. He will likely lead his army and charge head-on, so you will need to fight them alongside the other soldiers.”

“The battlefield, huh...? I’ve been through a lot, but it’ll be my first time fighting in a war,” Caim commented. While Caim had experienced plenty of battles, he had never stood on a battlefield among countless soldiers.

I might be a little inexperienced, but I’ll manage, Caim told himself. He possessed the memories of the Poison Queen, after all. When she had still been human, she had worked as a mage for her country and had fought in many wars. As long as he applied her knowledge correctly, Caim should be fine.

“As I did not think you were the type to take orders well, I asked Lance to let you move freely on the battlefield.”

“Oh, thanks. Yeah, I don’t want to obey someone weaker than me.”

“As for me, I’ll fight together with the Knights of the Blue Wolf,” said Lenka, who had been standing next to the wall. “While I won’t be close to you, Sir Caim, I’ll also be on the front line. There is nothing to worry about, however, as I am used to it from when I was working at the capital.”

“Really...? You’re not going to act shamefully like you usually do?”

“I won’t get aroused in the middle of a war! What do you take me for?!”

“My she-dog?”

Lenka whined, a hand on her chest. “Being treated like your property made my heart race, and now I’m all wet! How are you going to take responsibility for this?!”

“See? A real bitch in heat.” Caim’s shoulders drooped in exasperation. While Lenka was ordinarily a serious warrior, at night she was a she-dog who loved to be spanked. Unfortunately, the latter was so ingrained in Caim’s mind that he had a hard time imagining her standing valiantly on the battlefield.

“Tea will fight with the Knights of the Black Dragon,” Tea announced, next to Caim. “They have many beastfolk like Captain Ikkaku in their ranks, so I should be able to mingle with them easily.”

“And I’ll do whatever I want,” said Rozbeth, who had also been leaning against the wall a little ways away from Lenka. “I’m an assassin. I’m not made to cooperate with soldiers. So I’ll just move around freely, hunting the heads of the enemy commanders.”

“Please be careful, Rozbeth,” Millicia said. Going off on her own to behead enemy leaders would put Rozbeth in far more danger than Lenka and Tea, who would be cooperating with other soldiers.

Still, Rozbeth wasn’t particularly nervous about it. She had once infiltrated the imperial palace to kill Arthur—she had nerves of steel. “Don’t worry. I’ll retreat if I’m in danger.”

“Please do. Last is Lykos, but...she is not present.” Lykos had been absent since before the meeting. She was likely walking around town and would return when she’d become hungry. “Oh well. She is not part of the plan and will stay here during the war.”

Lykos was no mere child, and their battle at Mount Garank had shown that she possessed a mysterious power. However, none of them knew if she could use it at will, so it would be safer for Lykos to stay in town.

“We only have a week before the war begins, so we must use that time to prepare properly,” Millicia declared calmly, a hand on her chest. Despite loving peace and disliking conflict, she was oddly resolute and calm.

It’s when push comes to shove that a person’s true nature is revealed, Caim thought. Maybe this was Millicia Garnet’s true nature—under her meekness was a true imperial princess, someone born to stand above others, who could stay composed no matter the situation.

“Could you participate in the Knights of the Blue Wolf’s training tomorrow, Caim? Captain Ildana wants to see how strong you are.”

“I don’t mind, but... Well, to be honest, I’m not eager to see him...”

Millicia cocked her head, not understanding his reticence.

Caim didn’t explain himself and sighed as he thought back on the woman he had slept with previously.

〇 〇 〇

The next day, Caim went to the soldiers’ training ground to demonstrate his abilities, as requested by the Knights of the Blue Wolf’s captain. Only Lenka was with him, as Millicia was talking with Lance, Tea was meeting with the Knights of the Black Dragon, and Rozbeth and Lykos were off doing their own things.

At the training ground, the soldiers were swinging their weapons—either swords or spears—in preparation for the coming war in a week.

“Once again, I’m Louivi Ildana, the captain of the Knights of the Blue Wolf.” A man who looked to be around thirty years old, whom Caim had met at the war council, greeted him as he arrived. “I’ll be leading our army in the coming war—though only on the battlefield, of course. Our supreme commander is Prince Lance.”

“I’ve been thinking this ever since I first saw you, but you’re pretty young. I’m surprised you’ve managed to reach the top rank of a knight order at your age,” Caim commented.

“The empire is a meritocracy. As long as you have the skills, age doesn’t matter.” That meant that Ildana was simply outstanding enough to ignore seniority and become the commander of an army at his age. “You’re Princess Millicia’s lover, and you’re going to move freely on the battlefield, right?”

“Yeah, that’s what I heard.”

“Can you really do that? To be honest, I don’t understand why your presence is valued so much.”

“Do you doubt the princess’s words, Ser Ildana?” Lenka asked with a frown.

“I know of your strength as a member of the Knights of the Golden Lion, Lady Lenka. But I do not know of his strength, and I can’t entrust my life to someone I know nothing about. You should understand that much, no?”

“I...”

“Only special people receive special treatment. Unless he can prove he deserves it, I will not allow him to do whatever he wants on the battlefield, even if he has Princess Millicia’s endorsement. Naturally, I intend to say the same thing to Prince Lance.”

“I see...” Caim’s lips curved up at Ildana’s harsh words. In short, he was indirectly picking a fight with Caim. “Fine, I get it. So, what do we do? Are we gonna fight?”

“Yes, but I won’t be your adversary. There is someone who wants to face you.” Ildana turned around as a soldier who had been training approached them.

“I will be your opponent.”

“You’re...” Caim tried to remember the soldier’s name, recognizing him as the young man who had sat next to Ildana during the meeting.

“Audy Iscow, the vice captain of the Knights of the Blue Wolf!”

“Ah, right.”

Audy had lost his temper when Caim had been introduced as Millicia’s lover. Even now, he was glaring at Caim hatefully, as though trying to kill him with his gaze.

“I don’t think you’re worthy of Princess Millicia! I’m going to expose your true colors!”

“Sounds like a personal grudge... Are you sure it’s a good idea to have this guy as your vice captain?” Caim asked Ildana.

The captain looked away. “Audy is a brilliant knight—on the battlefield, at least.”

“If you say so. Anyway, I just need to fight him, right?”

“Indeed,” Ildana replied with a sigh before continuing his explanation. “You’ll spar, but it will be under the same conditions as a true battle with real weapons. Naturally, however, you are not allowed to kill your opponent.”

“I am gonna kill him. I’m gonna tear apart that damn insect who soiled Princess Millicia! I won’t let him get away alive!” Audy mumbled.

“Looks like he’s pretty intent on killing me, though...”

“It should be fine... I think.” Still, Ildana looked awkwardly away. “Princess Millicia said you were a peerless martial artist who could compete with Ser Gawain and Dame Merlin. You should be fine.”

“Well, yeah, I guess it’s not a problem.” Caim scratched his head, accepting the duel. He didn’t mind the mock battle. In fact, he welcomed it. After all, first impressions were important, and he didn’t want people to underestimate him. “But he won’t be enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“Gather everybody who doesn’t approve of my participation in the war,” Caim declared arrogantly with a savage grin. “I’ll fight them all at the same time. I’ll hold back, so you don’t need to worry about anybody getting hurt. Just relax and bring it on!”

“Oh...” Ildana narrowed his eyes and smiled slightly. “I hope you’re good enough to back up your boast. Well then, you heard him, everyone!” Ildana turned toward the many soldiers behind Audy. They were all scowling at Caim, hungry for blood.

“How dare he become Princess Millicia’s fiancé?!”

“I’m gonna kill him... I’ll never forgive him for laying a hand on our goddess!”

“I’ll tear him apart and feed him to the dogs!”

“Man... Millicia sure is popular...” Caim was a little put off by the frenzied soldiers as he moved to the center of the training ground. His opponents numbered around a hundred—that was more than he had expected, but he didn’t intend to back down.

Audy shouted toward the assembled soldiers, “Our adversary is Princess Millicia’s self-proclaimed fiancé! There’s no need to hold back!”

“Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaah!” the soldiers replied in unison.

“He deceived our angel—I mean, our princess—and defiled her! He wants us to come at him all at once? Then let’s show him what we’re made of!”

“Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaah!”

“Wow, he’s good at motivating people. I guess that, in that sense, he is a good leader.” Caim smiled wryly. Audy had been pretty rude to him from the moment they’d met, so Caim had wondered if he really was fit to be the vice captain of the Knights of the Blue Wolf. Apparently, though, he was rather popular among the soldiers. Audy had spread his zeal among the hundred knights, and they were now acting as a single unit. “He dyes his men in his colors and takes charge on the battlefield... I guess that’s another quality necessary in a leader.”

“Hey, you!” Audy called out.

“Name’s Caim.”

“Well, Caim! I’m warning you—this is only a spar. Yeah, we’ll use real weapons, but killing the opponent is prohibited! However”—Audy pointed at Caim—“we have a hundred soldiers on our side! So, if something unexpected happens and you end up dying, well... You were the one who asked to fight everyone together! Got it? It’d just be an unfortunate accident, so don’t blame us!”

“He’s totally serious about killing me...” Caim wasn’t sure about the other soldiers, but at the very least, Audy seemed to be feeling something more than just loyalty and adoration for Millicia. If that was the case, then Caim couldn’t lose here. Millicia was his woman, and he didn’t like to be told he wasn’t worthy of her by people he had only just met. “I’m gonna make you beg me to let you say I’m worthy of her. Enough talk, though—bring it on!”

Audy clicked his tongue. “Can’t shut up until the very end, huh? Well, I’ll at least admit you’ve got guts!” Audy raised his arm. The soldiers behind him all readied their weapons, full of murderous intent. “Get ready, everyone! Time to kill him!”

“I’m ready too. Send the signal.”

“Fine.” Ildana, who would be serving as the referee, nodded. “Well then, may the mock battle...commence!”

“Chaaaaaaaaaaarge!” Audy ordered, and the soldiers obeyed, rushing forward all at once.

“Diiiiiiiieeeeeee!” they shouted in unison, thrusting their spears at Caim.

“Jeez... Obsessed fans are terrifying...” Caim muttered. True, they had been stirred up by Audy, but it was clear that the knights’ rage was genuine.

Unbeknownst to Caim, while Millicia was serving as a nun, she had been in charge of treating injured soldiers. For the commoner knights, Millicia, who had treated them with kindness and tended their wounds with great care despite being a princess, was basically a saint. The morale of the soldiers had gone through the roof when it had been announced that Millicia would be joining Lance.

“Oh well, not that I care...” Caim smiled savagely and placed his palm on the ground. “Ouryuu!” With that, he drove a shock wave of condensed mana into the earth below.

The next instant, the ground exploded, forming a sandstorm that blew away the soldiers in the front and obscured the vision of those behind them with a curtain of brown dirt. Screams echoed everywhere as the men fell into disarray.

“What’s wrong? Didn’t you want to kill me?!” Caim provoked them with a sneer as he jumped into the cloud of sand. Just like the soldiers, his vision was obstructed, so he had to rely on his other senses to find his targets. “Kirin!”

Caim released a spiraling shock wave of compressed mana, incapacitating several men. If he had been serious, he could have easily pulverized their skulls, but he had held back, only knocking the soldiers down instead.

The knights were bewildered by the unexpected cloud of dust and the sudden attacks, so Caim continued to defeat them one after another. Opponent after opponent screamed in pain as he punched them in the face, struck them in the stomach, or kicked them away. It was almost comical how easily these robust soldiers were defeated. Only a minute had passed since the beginning of the battle, and yet, more than half of the knights had already been knocked down.

“I see there was a reason Princess Millicia chose you! You’re not just some weakling with a pretty face!” As his subordinates had either been defeated already or were losing their will to fight, Audy Iscow valiantly thrust his spear at Caim, proving he wasn’t the vice captain of the Knights of the Blue Wolf for nothing.

“Oh? You’re not half bad. You’re pretty strong and agile.” Caim was rather impressed as he avoided Audy’s strike.

That didn’t stop Audy from trying again, however. He pulled back his spear and thrust it repeatedly at great speed. An ordinary person would have been unable to dodge such an attack and ended up with a body full of holes.

“I guess you deserve a little praise. No wonder you became vice captain at your age.”

“Who do you think you are to patronize me like that?! Die for defiling our goddess, you thieving scuuuuuum!” Completely forgetting about the mock battle’s no-killing rule, Audy charged at Caim, fully intent on murdering him.

Then, finally, after countless failed attempts, Audy’s spear managed to strike Caim’s head. However...

“Genbu.”

“What?!”

The tip of Audy’s spear was repelled easily, not even scratching Caim’s skin.

Genbu was a basic technique of the Toukishin Style that protected the user by focusing condensed mana on a small area. Audy’s spear was a good weapon, and it had even been reinforced with mana, but...

“Unfortunately for you, it seems my body is harder than your spear.”

Audy gasped, his eyes widening in shock. He couldn’t believe that his deadly attack had been so easily deflected—and that created the perfect opening for Caim to counterattack.

“Hebi.” Caim used the technique that was commonly paired with Genbu, creating a whip made out of compressed mana to strike at Audy’s neck.

“Gah!”

“You tried to kill me, so you won’t mind getting a little hurt, right?” As Audy fell forward from the unexpected counterattack, Caim mercilessly kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying all the way to the edge of the training ground with a loud scream.

“Well then... I defeated your leader. Still wanna continue?” Caim asked the thirty or so soldiers left standing.

No one answered. Silence reigned for a few seconds until finally, the knights dropped their weapons and fell to their knees. They all had lost their will to fight, their spirits broken by Caim’s overwhelming power.

“And that’s that. It’s my win!” Caim declared his victory with triumph.

The duel was over—Caim had defeated the hundred soldiers and the vice captain of the Knights of the Blue Wolf. Faced with such an unexpected result, Ildana, who had been watching a short distance away, was left speechless.

What strength... To think that not only the soldiers, but even Audy wouldn’t be able to strike back! Ildana thought.

Ildana was the captain of the Knights of the Blue Wolf, and Audy, as the vice captain, was his direct subordinate. Audy was in his early twenties and was the hot-blooded type, which made him lose his cool easily. Still, his spear skills were the real deal, and he was pretty popular with the soldiers, both of which made him a good fit to be vice captain.

And yet, Audy lost... And it wasn’t just a defeat either—Audy was knocked down before he could even manage to wound his opponent...

“So, what do you think? He’s the man the princess has chosen—our Sir Caim.”

“Lady Lenka...”

“Sir Caim is a peerless fighter. He’s in no way inferior to Prince Arthur, Ser Gawain, Dame Merlin, or even the captain of the Knights of the Golden Lion. Your men aren’t weak, Ser Ildana—it’s just that Sir Caim is so strong there is no way he could possibly lose to a paltry few hundred soldiers!” Lenka boasted, proudly throwing out her abundant chest.

Ildana was genuinely surprised by the complete faith he could hear in Lenka’s words. He had known about Lenka for years. She had a reputation for being fierce as a lioness, and she had managed to enter the Knights of the Golden Lion—the order under the direct control of the imperial family—and become Princess Millicia’s guard despite only being a girl in her teens. While she was still young and inexperienced, there was no doubt that she would one day become an important force that would support the future of the empire. Moreover, her beauty had stolen the hearts of many young men, but because she had refused them all, it was rumored that she hated men. And yet, here she was, showing complete devotion to Caim.

“He was introduced as Princess Millicia’s fiancé, but could it be that you are in a relationship with him too, Lady Lenka?” Ildana asked. Lenka didn’t answer, though her cheeks reddened slightly. “I see... Indeed, as you said, he seems to be quite the man.”

Caim had not only managed to win the heart of Millicia, who had devoted herself entirely to her faith, but also Lenka, who had been a stoic female knight with no interest in men. Only someone truly great could accomplish all that.

They do say that great men tend to be womanizers. To not be satisfied with Princess Millicia and still want more bewitching beauties by his side... He must be a very great man indeed...

In this world, there existed warriors who were a match for a thousand men, such as Gawain and Merlin, Arthur’s Twin Wings. Ildana himself was a strong knight who could easily deal with one or two hundred soldiers. But Caim? Ildana couldn’t gauge his strength. And so, he couldn’t help but think that, just maybe, Caim might be capable of defeating Arthur.

“Well, I’ll rely on the man you and the princess chose, then,” Ildana said to Lenka as they watched Audy kneel before Caim.

“Our defeat is absolute! Please allow me to call you Sir Caim from now on!” Audy was a hot-blooded man with simple reasoning—Caim had defeated him, which meant that he was worth respecting, and he could entrust Millicia to him. “Please take care of Princess Millicia!”

“U-Uhh... Okay...?” While dumbfounded by the sudden change in Audy’s behavior, Caim accepted his handshake.

〇 〇 〇

As the war slowly drew closer, preparations continued in the port city of Berwick.

The military prince’s forces were strong, and on top of that, half of the Knights of the Black Dragon had betrayed Lance, greatly diminishing his army.

Thankfully, Millicia had joined Lance’s camp. She was a skilled priestess who was kind, compassionate, and even beautiful, which made her very popular among the masses. Ever since arriving in Berwick, she had been using her Sacred Arts to heal the sick and the wounded, which had garnered her even more support. Thanks to that, all the people she’d healed were now redoubling their efforts to make Lance the next emperor, thinking it would help Millicia.

The final preparations for battle were progressing steadily.

While the town was beginning to unite as one, unsettling moves were being made behind the scenes.

“I’m here.”

“Oh, finally. Please, enter.”

It was the middle of the night. On the second floor of a certain office on the main street of Berwick stood a room belonging to the man who controlled the Merchants’ Guild of Berwick—Abus.

“I have been waiting for your arrival. Please, have a seat,” Abus said to his guest. He had a cheerful smile plastered on his face, and his fat stomach, a show of his wealth, wobbled every time he moved.

However, the black-hooded guest didn’t sit as suggested. The attire alone made them look suspicious, but they were also wearing a white mask to conceal their age and sex.

“Why did you call me?” the masked person asked.

Abus was unsettled by the emotionless voice of his guest, but he continued to smile nonetheless. “I want to accept your previous offer and join Prince Arthur’s side.”

The masked individual was a subordinate of the first imperial prince, or to be more precise, a member of the Ladies of the Lake, the name given to the disciples of Merlin the Great Mage.

Abus had been offered a deal to join Arthur’s side previously. In exchange for betraying Lance, he would be guaranteed to keep his current position and wealth after the war, and would later be named the new governor of the city.

Until now, Abus had been putting the offer on hold. While the reward was very attractive, he hadn’t been ready to commit to betrayal. After all, it would end badly for him if his treachery was discovered, and even if everything went smoothly, traitors were not viewed favorably. For a merchant, losing people’s trust was fatal.

Still, that doesn’t mean that I should stay on a sinking ship. Prince Lance has been good to me, but I don’t want to die for someone so foolish, Abus grumbled in his head.

Abus had finally decided to take the plunge after the betrayal of the Knights of the Black Dragon’s captain, which had drastically lowered Lance’s already small chance of victory. Abus no longer believed that Lance could emerge victorious.

If I’m going to side with the winner, I should do so quickly. It’ll be too late once the war has started. Betrayal before the outcome was decided would leave a better impression than switching sides after defeat had become certain. He would lose some trust, but it was better than being destroyed along with the rest of the town.

“I see. That will make a great report for Master Merlin,” the member of the Ladies of the Lake replied, and Abus felt like they must be smiling behind the mask. However, that slight hint of joy immediately vanished, and they went right back to being emotionless. “However, I hope that you don’t expect to show up empty-handed. You need to prove your loyalty to Prince Arthur with a suitable gift.”

“Naturally. I have just the thing in mind.” To prove his loyalty, Abus decided to sell off the intel he had just obtained. “The noble forces who are currently in the neutral faction will join Prince Lance the day after tomorrow. To avoid spies, they plan to stay away from the main road and travel through a mountain pass.”

“Hmm...”

“The pass will have many places to hide, so I suggest ambushing the neutral faction’s forces before they can reach the city.”

The masked mage pondered Abus’s advice.

A few days ago, one of the most influential nobles of the neutral faction, Count Atlaus, had contacted Lance, saying he would join the prince’s side and send reinforcements.

Count Atlaus had been a neutral party that had refused to side with either Arthur or Lance, but after Caim had saved his territory from wyverns, he had sworn to help Millicia, and thus Lance by extension. He had lost many soldiers to the wyverns, but had managed to convince other nobles from the neutral faction to support Lance along with him.

“The neutral faction’s forces number around twenty thousand. If they were to be added to Lance’s army, which is already fifty thousand strong, they would become a substantial threat,” the masked mage mumbled, thinking over Abus’s proposal. Then eventually, they made their choice. “Fine. We shall try to do as you have suggested.”

“Then...”

“First, we must check the veracity of your intel. If it is true, and we manage to decimate the neutral faction’s reinforcements, only then will you be able to join Prince Arthur’s side.”

“...Thank you.” Abus was displeased by the arrogant attitude of the masked mage. They had invited him and he had accepted, so why did he have to keep acting so subservient?

They’re an unpleasant bunch, but I must endure...

Abus was a merchant. He would join the side that brought him profit, even if that meant buttering them up or licking their boots.

Abus bowed, hiding his true thoughts—all so that he could survive and continue to rise in the world.

“And that’s it. So I need your help, everyone.”

The mage from the Ladies of the Lake joined their comrades after their talk with Abus.

Several individuals wearing black robes and white masks had gathered inside a deserted storehouse on the outskirts of Berwick. All of them were members of the Ladies of the Lake—disciples of Merlin.

“Can we trust what that merchant said?”

“I used Lie Search. He was telling the truth.”

“Then it must be true.”

“The reinforcements must be dealt with before they can join Prince Lance’s army. We are the only ones who can do that right now.”

“Did you receive Master Merlin’s permission?”

“No. Our master is too busy preparing for the war. We can’t bother her with trivialities.”

“Then what about Prince Arthur?”

“His Highness is leading his army here. He wouldn’t make it in time, and the neutral faction’s army would be able to join Prince Lance. We can’t allow that to happen.”

“Indeed.”

“If we did, our master would scold us.”

“Thankfully, our master gave us the right to act on our own if necessary. This should fall within the limits of what we’re allowed to do.”

The mages from the Ladies of the Lake all agreed that Count Atlaus had to be stopped before he could join Lance.

“Abus said they will head through the western mountain pass to avoid being noticed by spies. Unfortunately for them, that makes it easier for us to prepare an ambush.”

“For capable mages such as ourselves, twenty thousand soldiers are nothing.”

The members of the Ladies of the Lake had all been trained by Merlin and were very skilled. True, it would be difficult to kill twenty thousand soldiers with just the ten of them, but they didn’t need to eliminate every single person. Just creating a landslide with magic while the army was traveling through the pass would be enough to stop their advance and scatter the weakest soldiers.

“We could also simply assassinate Count Atlaus. Once he’s dead, the neutral faction is done for.”

“Good idea.”

“Indeed. Let’s go with that.”

“All for Prince Arthur and our great master Merlin.”

“Let’s punish that insolent rebel—Lance Garnet—and all the fools who have sided with him!”

The next instant, the members of the Ladies of the Lake—the elite mages of the Garnet Empire—all vanished, making their move to obliterate Count Atlaus and the neutral faction.

〇 〇 〇

Count Atlaus was an important member of the neutral faction.

A group of nobles had distanced themselves from the power struggle in the imperial capital to focus on their territories, forming what was called the neutral faction. In other words, they had no intention of backing either Arthur or Lance.

The situation, however, was subject to change. In this case, Count Atlaus had decided to side with Lance after being saved from a wyvern outbreak in his domain. With the help of his friends in the neutral faction, he had managed to raise a twenty-thousand-strong army that was currently heading through a mountain pass in the direction of Berwick.

“I’m sorry for involving you in my affairs,” Count Atlaus remarked to the man next to him as they marched at the center of the army.

“I don’t mind, Brother. We’re family, after all,” answered Viscount Wieber. Not only was he the husband of Count Atlaus’s little sister, making him Atlaus’s brother-in-law, but their families had known each other even before the marriage, and the two of them were sworn friends.

“But it’s obvious that Prince Lance is at a disadvantage against Prince Arthur. I might be leading you to a losing battle,” Count Atlaus said, his expression clouded. Both of the princes had their strengths and weaknesses, but when it came to warfare, Arthur was far ahead of his brother. Most of the nobles were practically certain that Arthur would win. “I decided to side with Prince Lance because of my debt toward Princess Millicia, but that doesn’t apply to you.”

“Never mind that. Even without the matter of owing Prince Lance and Princess Millicia, I would still help you. You’re always taking care of me, after all,” Viscount Wieber replied with a smile, as though all of this was nothing. Then he continued, “Also, to be honest, I don’t want Prince Arthur to become the next emperor. If he does, it’s basically guaranteed that we’ll start to invade the neighboring nations.”

He wasn’t the only noble who thought this. After all, Arthur was quite belligerent and didn’t even try to hide his desire to expand the empire. If he became the new emperor, he would surely go to war against otherwise friendly countries.

“If such a thing happens, then even the nobles from the neutral faction will be forced to fight, leading to the deaths of many of our people...” Viscount Wieber continued. The neutral faction stayed neutral because they had no desire to fight. However, if their neutrality led to them being drawn into even more conflict, then it was a pointless pursuit. “No matter how strong the empire is, I don’t think we can win while surrounded by enemies. If we want to protect our country and our people, we must ally with Prince Lance.”

If they sided with Lance and lost, they would forfeit their domains—or worse, be executed as rebels. Still, that was better than letting the nation go to its ruin.

In the end, both choices had their consequences, and there was no guarantee that either answer was correct.

“You’re right. We should have joined Prince Lance’s side from the start. But we lacked the resolve...” Count Atlaus agreed—they should have allied with Lance, but they had been too afraid of the consequences for their lands and their people, so they opted to sit on the fence instead. “But now that we’ve decided to help, we’ll fight with everything we have to repay Princess Millicia for saving my territory and make Prince Lance the next empe—”

An explosion rang out before Count Atlaus could finish his sentence. He and Viscount Wieber quickly tried to calm their horses, which had been surprised by the noise.

“What’s happened?!” Count Atlaus asked one of his subordinates.

“W-We don’t know! Only that something exploded—”

Another explosion echoed, followed by several more. Were they being attacked? Count Atlaus couldn’t see anything amiss in his immediate surroundings, at least.

“Look!”

“Smoke...”

They spotted black smoke rising from afar.

“Is that a wildfire?” Count Atlaus was confused. What exactly was happening? Should he order his army to resume its advance, or should they stop to investigate?

Just as Count Atlaus was about to voice instructions to his men, someone suddenly landed next to him. “What?!” he exclaimed.

“Stand back, Brother!” Viscount Wieber and the nearby soldiers quickly turned their weapons toward the intruder.

“Wait... Aren’t you...?” However, the individual was someone Count Atlaus knew, and he couldn’t help but widen his eyes in surprise at the unexpected arrival.

A little earlier, when the neutral faction army arrived at the mountain pass, the mages from the Ladies of the Lake started to make their move.

“Well then, let’s eliminate the traitors!”

“The mountain pass is narrow, which means a large number of troops will have trouble fighting there. We’ll block the entrance and the exit with earth magic to cut off their escape. Then we’ll create explosions to collapse the pass and send them to the bottom of the ravine!” declared one of the mages clad in black robes with a white mask.

With this strategy, they could fight even though they were outnumbered—in fact, because the pass was so narrow, being numerous was actually a disadvantage. Soldiers might end up striking one another in the confusion or sliding down the mountain pass.

“For exceptional mages like us, this is a trivial task. As her disciples, let us fight well and not bring shame upon Master Merlin!”

“Yes, let’s! For Master Merlin!”

“And for Prince Arthur, the greatest conqueror of all!”

All fired up, the mages began to manipulate their mana for casting magic. If their plan succeeded, Lance would lose the help of twenty thousand soldiers, putting him at an even greater disadvantage.

Unfortunately for the members of the Ladies of the Lake, though, Count Atlaus and his men weren’t the ones who would be dying today.

“I see. So that’s how you’re gonna do it. Awfully courageous of you to take on twenty thousand men with just the ten of you,” someone suddenly interjected.

The masked mages turned toward the source of the voice and found a young man with purple hair.

“What?!”

“When did you get here?!”

“I’ve been here for a while... Like, seriously, how did you not notice me?” The young man with purple hair—Caim—scratched his head, exasperated. While he had concealed his mana and thinned his presence as much as possible to creep up behind the members of the Ladies of the Lake, he had never expected to get so close without being spotted. “You’re too specialized in magic. You should train your bodies more.”

“Wait, isn’t he...?”

“Yes, he’s the rebel who attacked the imperial palace!”

The mages’ enmity welled up within them. While this was their first time seeing Caim, they had heard about him—he was the young man who had targeted Arthur, fought Gawain and Merlin, and managed to escape the castle alive despite the strength of his three opponents.

“He’s Princess Millicia’s paramour!”

“Hey, don’t call me that. It sounds indecent,” Caim protested, offended, though it wasn’t that far from the truth. “Oh well, whatever. Not like it matters what people call me if they’re just gonna die soon.”

“Kill him!”

The mages started to activate their spells to murder Caim, but they had waited too long to make their move.

“It’s too late, you slowpokes.”

“Gah!”

Caim had thrust his hand like a sword in the nearest mage’s throat. Blood gushed from the wound, soiling the ground.

“You failed as mages the instant you let me get so close to you.”

Allowing an opponent to approach was a fatal mistake for a mage—an enemy could hit them before they were able to activate their magic, after all. Unlike Caim, who could fight both at long and close range, mages who specialized in long-ranged combat were doomed once their opponent had closed in on them.

“Get crushed,” Caim declared, grabbing the heads of two mages with his hands and smashing their skulls together, smashing them like eggs. “I heard you were elite mages, but you’re pathetic. Guess people who use magic really are weak once you get close enough.”

“How could youuuuuu?!” The other mages grew furious at seeing three of their comrades killed. They attempted to cast their spells, but Caim was faster. He closed in on the next mage and swung his arm.

“Seiryuu.” Caim cut the mage’s body in two with a blade of condensed mana, not giving them enough time to use their magic.

“We need to stop him! Don’t let him just do whatever he pleases!”

“Instead of giving orders, how about trying to do it yourself—if you can, that is!” Caim provoked them while skewering another mage.

To be fair, the Ladies of the Lake weren’t weak. In fact, they were some of Arthur’s best subordinates. They possessed great talent, and they had been trained by Merlin the Great Mage herself. They were truly a group of elite mages.

Yet, in the end, they were only “normal” prodigies. Even ten of them put together couldn’t compare to Caim, who far exceeded the bounds of mere natural talent. Caim was an unprecedented monster who had inherited the martial prowess of the Master Pugilist, the greatest martial artist of this era, and the mana of the Poison Queen, the daemon feared as a calamity.

Caim killed yet another two mages, meaning that fewer than half of the Ladies of the Lake remained. Their defeat was imminent, and yet they didn’t give up.

“We’ve got no choice!”

“Indeed—let’s drag him to hell along with us!”

The last three mages then pulled out their trump card. Bloodred geometric patterns appeared on their bodies, shining brightly.

“I won’t let you!” Naturally, Caim didn’t just stand and watch—he extended the length of his condensed mana blade and decapitated the remaining mages in one swing.

“It’s...too late...”

“The pact...was sealed...”

“Glory...to the empire...”

Even separated from their bodies, the mages’ severed heads began to laugh.

Caim frowned, and the next instant, black smoke gushed out of their corpses. It came from the wounds in their necks, then gathered in the sky, forming a humanoid figure.

“The pact has been sealed. I shall grant your wish in exchange for your souls,” three voices announced in unison as the black smoke dispersed to reveal a three-meter-tall humanoid figure with three goat heads, a hairy, muscular body, and an ominous aura—a demon. It had been summoned from a different dimension by the mages before their death, at the cost of their souls. “As per the contract, I shall now exterminate you, their enemy. Listen, pitiful and diminutive human. If you don’t want to suffer, then obediently surrender your life to me.” The three-headed goat demon sneered, calmly crossing its arms as it looked down at Caim.

However, Caim only stared at the demon curiously with deep interest. “Oh... I heard it was possible to summon demons with magic, but this is my first time seeing it. It’s pretty interesting.” Caim wasn’t intimidated in the slightest by the demon’s horrible appearance and evil aura. “It’s said that you guys live in hell or the demon world or whatever, but is that true? Does the afterlife really exist? Also, what do you do with people’s souls? Do you eat them? Are they tasty?”

“...Have you lost your mind from fear? You humans are so weak,” the three goat heads said, snorting. Then the demon raised its left arm and created a bright red fireball above its human-head-sized palm. “Burn in hellfire, you ignorant hu—”

“Poison Shot.”

“—man— Gah?!” Caim’s toxic projectile had hit the demon’s fireball and made it explode. “What are you doing, you puny human?!” the demon screamed, enraged. One of its heads had been burned in the explosion. Unfortunately for it, Caim wasn’t done.

“Purple Poison Magic—Nidhogg!”

“What?!” The demon was taken aback by the purple dragon that emerged from Caim’s hand and coiled around its body. The demon tried to grab the dragon to tear it off, but as it was made of gas and lacked a physical form, the demon’s hands couldn’t grasp anything. “Damn it! Get away from me!”

“Give up. It’s already over. You were way more boring than I expected...” Caim leaped back to gain some distance from the demon, then snapped his fingers. This created a spark that ignited the gas in the air, and the flames spread to the poison dragon. “Poison Flare!”

“Gaaaaaaaaah!” The demon was immediately engulfed in fire. The dragon had been made of highly flammable gas, and the combination of Caim’s spark and the demon’s hellfire had produced a massive explosion when it had ignited. “That’s impossible... J-Just how...?”

“Your stupidity’s the impossible thing here. Being defeated so easily after disparaging humans like that? Pathetic.” Caim looked down on the demon, exasperated. The creature had lost most of its body in the explosion. Only its heads and torso were left, lying on the ground. As it was still alive in such a state, at least its vitality was impressive. “I thought demons would be way stronger than this, but in the end, you’re not that different from orcs and wyverns. But is it just that you’re weak and stupid, or are all demons like this?”

“You...little... I shall remember this...human...!”

“Don’t care. Die.” Caim swung his arm and bisected each of the demon’s heads with his blade made of condensed mana, ending its life.

The demon’s remains turned into black smoke that scattered in the wind.

Some time later, Caim had just finished explaining what had occurred to Count Atlaus.

“...And that’s what happened. In short, a group of mages was after you, but I took care of them.”

“I see...” Count Atlaus nodded in understanding. “You have saved me once again, and you have my gratitude for it.”

“You’re here to help Millicia, aren’t you? I should be the one thanking you, in that case.”

“There is no need. We don’t want war with our neighbors, so we would have sided with Prince Lance in the end. Princess Millicia only gave me the push needed to steel my resolve. I am deeply grateful to her.” Count Atlaus paused for an instant, then continued. “Incidentally, how did you find out that mages were planning to kill us?”

“It’s all been part of his plan... He plays the fool, but the man we’re trying to make the next emperor is actually a clever fox. You can’t let your guard down around him.” Caim shrugged and gazed toward the eastern sky in the direction of Berwick with a pitying smile, thinking of the poor fool who had been outfoxed.

〇 〇 〇

“I’ve been waiting for you, Abus.”

“...I will always answer your call, Prince Lance.” The Merchants’ Guild’s guildmaster broke into a cold sweat from being called to Lance’s residence.

Wh-Why was I called here? Was my betrayal discovered...?

Abus had switched his allegiance to Arthur and leaked information to the Ladies of the Lake—namely, that Count Atlaus and other nobles from the neutral faction had decided to support Lance, and that reinforcements from them were coming from the west through the mountain pass. That was a clear act of disloyalty, and if it were discovered, Abus would surely lose his head.

N-No, that’s not it! Prince Lance isn’t acting differently from usual, so he must not have found out about it yet!

In the mansion’s parlor, Lance smiled at Abus as he drank the black tea a maid had brought in earlier. He would never act like this if he had discovered Abus’s betrayal.

Yes, I just need to feign ignorance. Everything will be fine.

“Can I ask the reason you have sent for me?” Abus inquired.

“Of course. We’ve decided to buy weapons from another country. Magic weapons, to be precise.”

“Oooh! What a wonderful idea!” Abus exclaimed cheerfully, but he clicked his tongue in his mind. After all, obtaining powerful weapons would strengthen Lance’s army, and that wasn’t good for someone like Abus, who had just switched sides.

Oh well. It should still benefit me if I inform Prince Arthur about it.

“Unfortunately, they’re very expensive.” Lance sighed, shaking his head. “We’re already spending a lot on mercenaries and provisions for the soldiers, so I’ve been wondering where I could get more money.”

“Ah, I see. You want me to finance it.” Abus once again clicked his tongue in his mind as he realized that he had been called to lend Lance money. For merchants, money was their lifeblood—their soul. If Lance lost the war, Abus would never be repaid. No sane merchant would lend money they would never get back.

If I’m never going to see my money back, I should ask for precious items as collateral. He’s a prince—he should have a national treasure or two in his possession.

“Naturally, I would not mind lending you funds. However, I am a merchant. I cannot just do it for free...”

“Hmm? I think you’ve misunderstood. I’m not asking you to lend me money,” Lance said.

“Huh? Then what do you mean?” Abus was perplexed. From how the conversation had been going, he was certain this was what Lance wanted. Once again, Abus found himself confused about Lance’s motivation for calling him here, but it was all blown away by his shock at Lance’s next words.

“I’m not asking you to lend me money. I’m asking you to give me money.”

“...What?”

“I want you to give me money for free—no interest and no repayment. You’ll donate all the money your firm holds. All for the future of this city.”

Abus gaped like a fish, stunned by Lance’s shameless request. “I... I do not understand...” He finally managed to say. He could understand if Lance had asked him for a loan to pay for the weapons. While he would have found the request bold, he would have offered some support in exchange for suitable collateral. But Lance had been even more brazen than that—he had asked for free money with no interest, no collateral, and no repayment. “Is this a joke...? I do not find it funny.”

“I’m not joking. I’m deeply serious.” Lance took a sip of tea with his usual carefree expression, then continued. “We need the weapons to win against Arthur, but unfortunately, I don’t have the money. Thus, I’m asking you to pay for me. Easy to understand, no?”

“...It seems our talk has come to a close. I shall take my leave.” Abus did his best to contain his fury as he stood up from his chair, ready to exit the parlor. Was the prince really such a fool that he would believe that Abus would accept?

I was right to switch sides to Prince Arthur. I don’t want to waste my life for an idiotic prince who makes unreasonable demands.

“By the way, Abus. Do you know about an organization called the Ladies of the Lake?” Lance suddenly asked, just before Abus could reach the door of the parlor.

Abus froze in his tracks, startled, but managed to keep a calm expression as he turned around. “No, I do not know of it. It is an elegant name, however.”

“It’s a group of mages working under Dame Merlin, one of Arthur’s Twin Wings. They’ve been hiding in the city, spying on us and scheming.”

“...My goodness. This is terrible,” Abus replied, his expression unchanged. He was a seasoned merchant—he had perfect control over his face.

He has no proof that I am connected to them. He’s trying to trick me.

“If you wish, I shall investigate them. Was that all you wanted?” Abus asked.

“You don’t need to. They’ve already been dealt with.”

“...Huh?”

“They tried to ambush Count Atlaus at the mountain pass, but were eliminated by the assassin I sent there beforehand. Isn’t that a relief to hear?”

Abus gasped and, for the first time, his expression changed to one of surprise.

They acted so arrogantly, and yet they failed? What a bunch of incompetents!

“If I hadn’t made preparations to deal with them, Count Atlaus might have died. You know what that means, right, Abus? You are the only one I informed of Count Atlaus’s arrival, after all.”

Abus answered with silence, finally realizing that he had been tricked by Lance.

He knew that I would betray him and used it to his benefit!

Lance had told Abus about Count Atlaus’s route knowing that Abus would leak it to the Ladies of the Lake, and at the same time he’d sent someone to deal with them. That way, Lance had killed two birds with one stone—he had revealed the traitor in his camp and taken care of the spies in the city.

Lance Garnet... What a crafty man, despite his innocent looks!

“...Will I be spared if I lend you the money free of charge?” Abus asked, finally giving in. He could try to persist and say that Lance had no proof, but at this point, struggling in vain would only put his life at risk. No, it was better to bargain for his survival instead. “And will you execute me if I refuse?”

“No, not at all.” Lance spread his arms humorously. “You’re a very capable businessman and the head of the Merchants’ Guild. If you died or lost your position, chaos would ensue. That’s why I want you to keep your position.”

Abus listened silently.

“But if I die... Well, everything will be over for you,” Lance declared with a calm smile. “After all, from Arthur’s point of view, doesn’t it look like you feigned betraying me to trick the Ladies of the Lake and wipe them out?”

“Well...”

“If I lose and Arthur captures the city, I’m certain he will kill you. While Arthur doesn’t hesitate to use any means at his disposal to win, he hates turncoats. He won’t forgive you for betraying him after promising your support. Your death will be inevitable.”

If Abus had been a mere merchant on Lance’s side, Arthur might just have given him a fine. But he had given false intel, which had resulted in the deaths of Arthur’s subordinates. There was no way Arthur wouldn’t make him pay for that with his life.

“In short, you have no other choice but to make sure I win the war. You have to support me wholly by giving me a large amount of money free of charge. Our fates are tied—don’t ever forget that.”

“...Understood,” Abus said after letting out a long, deep sigh. As Lance had just pointed out, their fates were indeed tied—Abus wouldn’t survive unless Lance won.

So I’m in limbo, huh... In a way, that’s worse than a swift execution...

Abus realized that he had made an enemy of a truly fearsome man, drooping his shoulders and cursing himself for his poor judgment.

Chapter 3: The Night Before

“Make way! We march!”

“Behold! We are led by Prince Arthur himself!”

A large army was marching out of the Garnet Empire’s capital, and at the head of the ten-thousand-strong army was Arthur Garnet, the first imperial prince.

“It’s finally starting...”

“What will happen to the empire...?”

“Another war, and this time it’s between the princes... That’s so stupid.”

The people grumbled as they saw the army off. If the soldiers had been going to fight an enemy nation to protect the empire, then they all would have waved their hands, encouraging them. But no—Arthur was on his way to fight against his brother, Lance Garnet, a fellow imperial. That made it impossible to cheer for him.

“No matter which of them wins, the country will fall into chaos... I just hope the neighboring nations won’t use the opportunity to attack us...”

“What is the emperor doing? Why isn’t he stopping the princes’ feud?!”

“Rumor has it that he’s sick in bed and doesn’t have long. That’s why the princes are fighting over the throne.”

The masses gossiped, but the soldiers paid them no mind and continued their march. Their supreme commander was Arthur Garnet, the militaristic prince extolled as an unparalleled warrior, so naturally the men’s morale was at its peak. They couldn’t have cared less about the populace’s chatter.

“Make way! This is an imperial march!” the leading soldier shouted, blowing his trumpet.

Seen off by the people, Arthur exited the capital to slay his brother.

“How are things at Berwick, Merlin?” Arthur asked from atop his horse at the head of the army.

The next instant, a beautiful woman appeared, floating in the air. “I sent around ten of my disciples from the Ladies of the Lake, but I’ve lost contact with them.”

“What?” Arthur said with a frown.

“Explain, Merlin,” demanded the Black Knight—Gawain—on the other side of Arthur.

“I had my disciples scout the city and also asked them to try swaying some influential people. However, the last message I received was about Abus, the leader of the Merchants’ Guild, joining us. There’s been nothing since then. They must be dead.”

“Did that man trick them?” Gawain asked.

“I assume so. He must have given my disciples false intel, so they made a mistake.” Merlin spread her arms with a slightly troubled expression. “My disciples are talented mages, but they’re still inexperienced. I suppose they must have been too eager to prove themselves.”

“...Your disciples failed. Don’t act as though it doesn’t concern you,” Gawain chided.

“I allowed them to act at their discretion, so their failure is their own responsibility. I am sad that my disciples died, but what can I say? This is war.” Merlin’s tone was fairly light despite the loss of her disciples, showing she wasn’t that sad about it. “Also, they did manage to convince half the Knights of the Black Dragon to join us. They did a good job, so stop criticizing me.”

“Hmph...” Gawain snorted, displeased. He didn’t like Merlin’s attitude, but she was right. The Ladies of the Lake had done a good job.

“But you should be careful, Your Highness. The Demon of Laplace tells me not to trust them. They will betray us if things don’t go well for them.”

“I know that much. I don’t need foresight to tell me something so obvious.” Arthur nodded to his retainer’s warning. “They betrayed Lance and pledged themselves to my banner for money. Anyone who can be bought off cannot be trusted.”

Arthur was meritocratic to the bone—he would give important positions to anyone, even foreigners, as long as they possessed the necessary skills. But he didn’t like opportunists and turncoats. Unless they truly proved their loyalty, he would never trust the Knights of the Black Dragon.

“I’ll have them fight on the front lines to their last breath. If they show even the slightest hint of changing sides, shoot them in the back,” Arthur ordered.

“As you wish.”

“Okay, will do.”

His Twin Wings acknowledged his command in completely opposite tones.

“Well then, Lance... I, your brother, have no weakness! I am eager to see how you will try to defeat me!” Arthur spurred his horse into a run, laughing joyfully as he imagined the upcoming battle with his brother.

“Tsk... Don’t look at me like that.”

“Captain... Did we screw up?”

“Shut up! It’s too late now!” Debardan, the captain of the Knights of the Black Dragon, shouted at his subordinate, irritated.

Debardan was a dark-skinned, two-meter-tall man with bright red hair. An extraordinary warrior, his overwhelming strength had allowed him to climb all the way to the top ranks of the army despite being a foreign mercenary and a beastfolk. At first, he had worked under the Second Imperial Prince Lance, but he had switched his allegiance to the First Imperial Prince Arthur. Now, he was accompanying the army heading for Berwick.

“Of course that damn prince isn’t going to trust us! I knew that from the start! But it still doesn’t change the fact that I’m on his side now!”

Debardan had joined Arthur along with half of his men. Most of the Knights of the Black Dragon were mercenaries who worked for money, not loyalty to Lance. So when a member of the Ladies of the Lake had offered them an amazing reward to change sides, they had accepted.

“But, Captain... I’m sure they’re just gonna use us as sacrificial pawns.”

Hearing his subordinate’s words, Debardan made a bitter expression. He was starting to regret accepting the offer to join Arthur’s camp. Arthur didn’t trust the Knights of the Black Dragon, and so it was likely that they would be sacrificed.

I knew that damn prince would look down on us, but it’s still better than fighting a losing battle for Lance. And we’re even getting paid handsomely for it.

Debardan wasn’t stupid. He had known from the start that traitors like them wouldn’t be treated well, but he had judged that it was still better than losing the war.

“Anyway, we’ll just fight well enough not to die. They’ll want us to do more, but...as if we’d sacrifice ourselves for them.” Debardan had been used as a shield for an army’s main force multiple times in the past, so he knew how to deal with this kind of situation. “We’ll just do what we usually do: create a mess, pull the enemy to the rear, then find an opening to kill the enemy general to distinguish ourselves. The world has no place for us mercenaries. We take the field to earn money. Don’t think about useless things—just focus on surviving,” Debardan told his subordinates. He didn’t care which of the two princes would become the emperor. He would kill the enemy, and if it looked like he was going to die, then he would flee. Debardan was a mercenary, and as such, he had no pride. He didn’t care how many people called him a traitor or treated him like a stray dog.

“Let’s side with Prince Lance, Captain Debardan! If he takes the throne, I’m sure he will make the empire a place where we can live!” Debardan remembered what his vice captain had said, choosing to stay with Lance.

You shouldn’t hold such hopes, Ikkaku. After all, you should know how people in power treat us.

Ikkaku, the Knights of the Black Dragon’s vice captain, was also an immigrant. She had lost her family during a war and had fled to the empire. Because of that, she yearned to find a homeland and create a family. She adored Lance and had decided to continue serving him along with the other half of the Knights of the Black Dragon.

Ikkaku wasn’t the only mercenary who respected Lance. The prince treated everyone equally, even foreigners, and he was different from the influential people Debardan hated.

Once we reach Berwick, we’ll have to fight Ikkaku and the rest... No, I shouldn’t feel down about it. It’s not that rare for that kind of thing to happen in the mercenary world.

For mercenaries, fighting between people as close as siblings was a common occurrence—even when it went against their wishes.

Debardan let out an aggravated sigh and slowly shook his head.

“Please don’t glare at me like that. What will you do if I wet myself?”

Among the nobles in Arthur’s army, not all of them were getting along well. In particular, two aristocrats on horseback were currently clashing with each other—an old man and a middle-aged man. While they both supported Arthur, the two of them clearly weren’t on good terms.

The older man was Count Beock Lyzbeth.

The middle-aged man was Marquis Jagliese Eberle.

Though the two served the same man, they shared a complicated history, and their relationship was far from friendly. Which was natural—after all, Eberle had kidnapped and killed Lyzbeth’s daughter twenty years ago.

“Do you still believe I killed Feena even though you have no proof?” Eberle sneered. He knew the old man hated him—it was obvious from the death glare Lyzbeth was giving him. And yet, Eberle didn’t care. In fact, he even enjoyed the strained mood between them. “Feena betrayed me. I was her fiancé, and yet she conceived a child with another man. She received divine punishment for that. Indeed, her being attacked by bandits on the way to that monastery wasn’t my fault—it was just retribution.”

“Shut up, brat. Don’t you dare say my daughter’s name with your filthy mouth!” Lyzbeth snarled like a lion threatening its prey. “I know it was you! I will never forgive you for taking away my daughter and grandchild!”

“This is why I can’t stand old men with a foot in the grave. You can’t have a proper conversation with them.” Eberle sighed and shrugged exasperatedly at Lyzbeth’s show of hostility. “I told you—Feena only got her just deserts for betraying her fiancé. As if going to the temple would be enough to forgive what she did. Death was the only atonement.”

Lyzbeth’s daughter had once been Eberle’s fiancée. However, she had been unfaithful and had even become pregnant by another man. Adultery was taboo for nobles, so her father had banished her and sent her to the monastery, but she had been kidnapped en route. The culprit was unknown, but Lyzbeth was certain it had been Eberle taking revenge for his fiancée’s infidelity. In other words, Eberle had murdered Lyzbeth’s daughter, and thus he was Lyzbeth’s enemy.

Naturally, Lyzbeth didn’t think that his daughter was without fault, but he didn’t think that what she had done deserved death either. Exiling her to the temple should have been enough. Eberle punishing her of his own accord was inexcusable. Even if they served the same master, Lyzbeth would never forgive nor forget what Eberle had done.

“We’re allies in this war, and I outrank you, so let’s get along,” Eberle said.

“...Shut up.”

“Do you want me to report you to Prince Arthur for disturbing the order in the army?”

“I told you to shut up! Don’t talk to me!” Lyzbeth yelled and had his horse gallop away.

An unsettling grin spread across Eberle’s face as he watched the old man leave. “This feels so good...”

Eberle enjoyed the hostility and spite Lyzbeth aimed at him. Every time the old man glared and shouted at him, it reminded Eberle of his late fiancée, relishing the memories of when he had tormented and killed her.

“I shouldn’t have thrown away that baby girl. If she were alive, she would be nineteen now... I would’ve been able to have a lot of fun with her.”

Eberle was a psychopath—a scumbag who loved to make the people close to him suffer. If he hadn’t been born into a noble house, society would have dealt with him like any criminal long ago. He was the kind of person who should never be given any power, and Lyzbeth’s daughter wasn’t the only one he had trampled underfoot.

“Ah, Feena... Even twenty years after your death, I still haven’t found a woman I love more than you. If I had known, I wouldn’t have killed you so quickly...” The homicidal marquis smiled sadistically as he spurred his horse forward.

Carrying hidden agendas and numerous seeds of conflict, Arthur Garnet’s army continued to head east.

The war between the two imperial princes would start in just a few days.

〇 〇 〇

“The battle will begin soon! Prepare to depart, everyone!” Lance ordered, having received news that Arthur’s army was approaching. He was holding a new meeting with the influential people of Berwick. “We need to move fast and make camp on the plains west of here before Arthur arrives.”

“We’re gonna fight there? Isn’t it more advantageous to hole up in the city?” Caim asked, cocking his head with his arms crossed. Naturally, he was also part of the war council. At first, he had just been an outsider who happened to be Millicia’s lover, but now, the others recognized his worth. Not only had he proven his strength against the Knights of the Blue Wolf, but he had also wiped out the Ladies of the Lake, saving Count Atlaus.

“Indeed, this is a solution to make up for our lack of manpower,” Lance started to explain with a smile. “Fighting in the city will only work if reinforcements come to aid us, however. If they don’t, the defense line will slowly collapse, and we will lose.”

The defenders held the advantage during a siege battle, and it was often said that the attackers would need five times the number of soldiers to defeat the defenders. Unfortunately, holing up in a city wasn’t enough to actually win. Provisions would steadily diminish, and it wasn’t possible to replenish weapons, materials, and soldiers. If no reinforcements came to help, the defenders would eventually lose.

“I see... Sorry, I should have known that an amateur like me shouldn’t interrupt,” Caim apologized.

“I don’t mind. Don’t hesitate to point out anything you notice. But anyway, let’s talk about our positioning.” Lance had his secretary hang a large map depicting the territory west of Berwick on the wall so that everyone could see it. “Arthur will attack head-on. He can use tricks and schemes when he needs to, but he generally prefers a direct confrontation for the decisive battle. So we’ll meet him the same way.” Lance pointed at a part of the map with a stick. “In the center will be the Knights of the Blue Wolf. The Knights of the Black Dragon will take the right side, with reinforcements from the neutral faction on the left. I’ve hired foreign mercenaries via ship to assist the Knights of the Black Dragon, who are now down to half of their numbers. The leaders of each force will be Ildana, Ikkaku, and Count Atlaus.”

Lance paused for a moment, then turned toward his sister. “Millicia, you’ll help treat the wounded soldiers in the rear. As for you, Caim, you are free to move as you wish. You don’t need to wait for my instructions—just go and attack Arthur directly.”

“Understood.” Millicia nodded.

“My task’s pretty important, huh? Oh well, that suits me.” Caim grinned. Going for the enemy’s general was a big job, but for Caim it was easier than cooperating with others to fight rank-and-file soldiers.

“Knowing Arthur, he won’t stay safely in the rear. He’ll be on the front line, giving commands. However, he’ll have Ser Gawain and Dame Merlin near him, so it won’t be easy to take him down,” Lance added.

“That’s perfect. I’ll be able to take my revenge against all of them.” Caim clenched his fists, ready to fight and dispel the humiliation from being forced to flee at the imperial palace.

“Also, I have one more request for you, Caim. I heard you could use large-scale magic. Could you please perform the opening strike?”

“You want me to use my magic to do the very first attack of the war?”

“Yes. A large-scale spell should greatly impact the enemy’s morale. Can you do it?”

“Well, sure, I don’t mind.” Caim didn’t have any reason to refuse. The enemy’s army outnumbered them, so reducing their numbers with the opening strike would make the rest of the battle easier.

“Well then, now I’ll explain the plan in detail. First, based on what I anticipate the enemy will do...” Lance then explained their course of action while listening to everyone’s opinions.

The meeting only ended late at night, when they’d finally completed the strategy they would use against Arthur.

〇 〇 〇

The war council ended, and everyone was assigned their roles.

Caim would go out on his own to strike at Arthur.

Millicia would tend to the wounded in the rear.

Lenka and Tea would accompany the Knights of the Blue Wolf and the Knights of the Black Dragon, respectively.

Rozbeth would, just like Caim, move freely around the battlefield.

And Lykos...would wait in the city. Of course they wouldn’t let her participate in the war. When they announced that to her, she whined, swinging her arms around in protest.

“Sorry, but I won’t let you stand on the battlefield,” Caim said firmly.

Lykos started to cry and clung to Caim.

“I won’t budge even if you cry... Or rather, don’t cry.” Caim was troubled by Lykos’s tears, but he wouldn’t change his decision. He would never agree to let Lykos participate in the war.

Eventually, Lykos got tired from crying and fell asleep, clinging to Caim’s clothes with swollen eyes.

“Jeez, taking care of a kid is hard...”

“Good job, though, Master Caim,” Tea said as she watched him pat Lykos’s back.

“I’m pooped... Even though I should rest for tomorrow’s battle...”

“It doesn’t look like Lykos will let you go, so I suppose we won’t have sex tonight.”

“That was never in the plan. I just said we have to rest up for tomorrow’s battle.”

“What a shame...” Tea drooped her shoulders.

Even worse, Tea wasn’t the only one. Millicia, Lenka, and even Rozbeth looked pretty disappointed too.

“It is truly regrettable...”

“So I won’t be spanked tonight...”

“Well, I don’t mind.”

“You serious...?” If not for Lykos, the girls would have been totally up for having sex tonight. Caim was once again exasperated by how much his lovers resembled succubi. “We’ll be able to do it as much as you want after the war, so just rest for tonight.”

“But, Sir Caim... That won’t be true if we die,” Lenka said, looking down gloomily. “We are going to war, and our opponents are Prince Arthur and his elites. Nothing guarantees that we’ll all survive... So isn’t it natural that we want to be together one last time?”

“That’s what you’re worried about?” Caim was truly exasperated. “If so, then just don’t participate and hide behind Lykos in the city. You’re being ridiculous.”

“What?! You don’t have to go that far!”

“Yes, this is very cruel, Caim!”

Lenka and Millicia were angry, but the same was true for Caim.

“Just don’t die,” Caim declared firmly, shutting the girls up. “Don’t get yourselves killed. Survive no matter what.” He looked at his lovers one after another. “If you think you’re gonna die, then run away. You’re not allowed to die without me.”

“Master Caim...”

“Caim...”

“Sir Caim...”

The girls were moved by Caim’s words. Even Rozbeth, who had stayed silent, blushed bashfully.

“Understood. That’s a promise!”

“Indeed... We shall not die.”

“Yes. I’ll survive and have you spank me again.”

“Fine. I hope you’ll make up for it after the war.”

The night before the decisive battle, Caim and his four lovers swore to survive no matter what. They connected three beds, and the six of them all slept together.

The night, however, was not yet over. If it were, the day would have ended on a moving note—but unfortunately, things never went as one wished.

An uninvited guest made their appearance in the middle of the night.

“You are a bad boy for making that child cry.”

“Huh...?” When he came to his senses, Caim was lying down in an unfamiliar plain. He was surrounded by tall grass, and the moon in the sky was shining a bright red. “Where am I...?”

“This is the entrance of the realm of the dead, the border between life and death. You may think of it as a dream if you wish, however.”

“And you are...?” Still lying on the ground, Caim looked up at the woman staring down at him. She was a beauty with strange hair that was a mix of black and red, and she was wearing a glamorous traditional dress. “Wait... Are you the Immortal Butterfly? The famous assassin.”

“Indeed. So you know me.”

“Yeah, heard about you from Rozbeth... Though you’re not as small as she said.”

Rozbeth had told him that, despite being the oldest assassin, the Immortal Butterfly looked just like a young girl. And yet, the woman before him looked like a mature woman in her late twenties.

“I am far older than you, and as this world is a dream, I can alter my form as I wish.”

“If you say so... But why am I even here in the first place?”

“Because I called you, of course. I wanted to meet the man that child chose.” The Immortal Butterfly suddenly brought her face close enough to Caim’s that their noses almost touched, which surprised him.

“Hey... What are you doing?” Caim asked.

“Hmm... You’re not bad-looking. You do not exactly have the face of a good person, but it doesn’t look like the face of a villain either. Your trained body proves that you are a martial artist, but I cannot sense much talent in terms of magic. What a shame, considering how much mana you have.”

“Who the hell gave you the right to appraise me like that?” Irritated, Caim tried to manipulate his mana to deal with the woman before him. He still wasn’t sure if she was the real Immortal Butterfly, but either way, she didn’t look like an ally, so he needed to be ready to fight. However...

“Huh?” He’d failed to control his mana. He could neither invoke Purple Poison Magic nor condense his mana like usual.

“You are wasting your time. Did I not tell you that this world was a dream?” The Immortal Butterfly spread her arms exaggeratedly. “I created this world, which means I control it. As long as I forbid it, you will not be able to use your mana—unless you have absurd magic skills like that insolent doctor.”

Caim narrowed his eyes.

“Be at ease. I cannot harm you either. At most, I can show you a nightmare so frightening that you will wet your bed.”

“Might as well kill myself if I’m gonna wet my bed at my age... Please don’t.”

While he didn’t understand how it worked, it seemed that Caim truly couldn’t do anything against the woman in this strange world. But even though she’d said that she couldn’t harm him, he just couldn’t bring himself to trust her completely.

“Do not worry. I shall leave once I am done appraising you. Just count the stars in the sky until then.”

“Mmph?!”

The Immortal Butterfly suddenly kissed Caim, not leaving him enough time to dodge. She immediately followed by pushing her tongue inside his mouth, invading it. She traced his gums and twined her tongue with Caim’s as she sucked on it.

This woman is good...! Caim shuddered at the woman’s superior technique with her tongue. Caim had accumulated quite a lot of experience by having sex with his lovers almost every night with his bottomless stamina. And yet... She’s in a league of her own! Tea and the girls can’t hold a candle to her!

That was natural. After all, be it Tea, Millicia, Lenka, or Rozbeth, none of them had ever had any partner other than Caim. So even if they were all beautiful, they were far from being skilled in bed.

On the other hand, the Immortal Butterfly clearly had experience with many men. While it seemed like she was just randomly moving her tongue inside his mouth, she was in fact searching for Caim’s weak spots, and every time she found one, she would attack it relentlessly.

“Pwah! That was good. It has been so long since I have tasted the lips of a young man. So fresh and delicious!” She finally stopped violating Caim’s mouth after five minutes, separating her lips from his. She licked her red lips with the tip of her tongue, her elegant face taking on an obscene expression. “You are still green, though. You seem to have some experience, but this is far from enough.”

“Why are you even doing this? Did you really just come to assault me?”

“Well, yes... But this is still foreplay. The real appraisal shall begin now.” The Immortal Butterfly reached for the front of her dress, and teasingly, she slowly opened it, revealing her beautiful, pale mounds. At the tip of the moderately big fruits were nipples the color of raspberry, erect beneath Caim’s gaze. “Oh? The look in your eyes has changed. It’s adorable how easy young brats like you are to understand.”

“...Don’t mock me. They’re not even that great.”

“And yet you are aroused by my meager breasts, as proven by the hard thing between your legs.” The Immortal Butterfly composedly replied to Caim’s quip, proving once again she was the more mature and experienced one. “Still... Um, you have quite a fine weapon there.” She stripped Caim of his pants and underwear, exposing his “sword.” Despite Caim’s protest, his “sword” stood tall, ready to stab into the woman before him. “What a pronounced curve... This is quite the amazing lady-slaying blade.”

“Ugh...!” Caim groaned as the Immortal Butterfly caressed his “sword” with her long fingers. She gently traced from the root to the tip, stimulating it to the point Caim felt like it would burst. “You...little...!” He gritted his teeth, not wanting to climax just from her fingers. His face went completely red as he did his best to endure.

Eventually, the Immortal Butterfly let go of his “sword” and kissed its tip. “You’ve done well. If you had come just from that, you would have failed to meet my requirements.”

“Don’t underestimate me... As if that would be enough...”

“Putting on a brave front, huh? Then how about this?” The Immortal Butterfly straddled Caim’s crotch, pushed the hem of her dress aside, and rubbed her private parts against Caim’s “sword.” She was careful not to insert it inside her, instead skillfully stimulating its sensitive areas. “Do you want to put it in now?”

“Ugh...!” Caim groaned, doing his best to endure.

“You do not need to resist like this. Just let yourself go!”

“You’re really...underestimating me...!” Caim moaned painfully. For many men, it was a disgrace to climax before their “sword” could pierce the woman they were sleeping with; Caim didn’t want to be one of them, so he did his absolute best to endure the Immortal Butterfly’s fierce assault.

“I see... You are a tougher opponent than I expected. I will admit that much.” The Immortal Butterfly stopped moving her hips after a while. “The Poison King, huh? I will have you know that she greatly praised you. She said you were her life’s greatest work.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“That is not important right now. I have ascertained that your size, hardness, and endurance were above average, and I find you an acceptable candidate for taking care of that child.” The Immortal Butterfly nodded to herself, but Caim didn’t understand what she was talking about.

“What the hell are you on about? First, you assault me out of nowhere, and now you’re acting all satisfied... Explain yourself.”

“I just wanted to verify if you were a good enough man for that child. And sexual intercourse is the best way to measure a man’s abilities, no?” The Immortal Butterfly licked her lips, then she pushed her hips down deeper than before. “Mmm!”

Caim moaned as his “sword” plunged into the Immortal Butterfly’s weak spot. After all the teasing, it easily pushed into the cleft, reaching deep inside.

“Mmmmh! It is even bigger than I thought. I can barely take it...!” The Immortal Butterfly’s tongue darted from her mouth in pleasure. “Long ago, I also had a man I loved. Not a lycanthrope like myself, but a human man.”

Caim looked at her questioningly.

“Unfortunately, he died in bed when he was sixty.”

“Wait... You mean, like, during sex?”

That wasn’t impossible. In fact, it was rather impressive that he had still been able to go at it at the age of sixty.

The Immortal Butterfly nodded sadly. “Lycanthropes like myself have very long lives—and women, in particular, get lonely easily and crave company. It’s not unusual for some to suck the very life out of men. That is why we made a hidden village—to avoid more tragedies.”

“Again, what are you on about?!”

“I was worried the same would happen to that child, but... Well, it seems you are rather capable. You should be fine for a while.”

“What?”

The Immortal Butterfly then snapped her fingers, and Caim was finally able to move again.

“Anyway, as thanks for listening to me, I shall allow you to do as you please.” Caim’s “sword” was already right where it should be. All that was left was for him to move—to thrust. “Now, try to satisfy me... If you can, that is.”

“Hah! You’ll see—I’m gonna make you pay for doing whatever you want to me!” Caim channeled all the frustration he had built up and thrust his hips up.

“Aaaah!”

“If I can move, then you might as well be mine for the taking! You’ll be sorry you ever made a pass at me!” Caim had been teased by the Immortal Butterfly up until now, but he was the kind that preferred going on the offensive. Now, he thrust his hips up and down like a wild horse.

“Mmm... Aaah... You are so full of energy. How voracious!”

“You bet I am! It’s finally my turn after having to endure all your teasing!”

“Oh? You think you can handle an experienced woman like me?”

“Just you wait... You won’t be in a state to move that mouth of yours soon enough!”

“Mmmph!” The Immortal Butterfly moaned, her pride as the older one making her do her best to keep her voice down as Caim continuously attacked her with his youth and stamina. Still, the pleasure was such that she couldn’t help but let some sweet moans escape her red lips.

“Come! Come from a man you called a young brat!”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaah!” The Immortal Butterfly moaned loudly from Caim’s deep thrust.

They both climaxed together, and Caim basked in the pleasant afterglow of having triumphed against an older woman.

“It’s morning, Master Caim.”

“Uh...” When Caim woke up, Tea’s face was right in front of him.

“We’re departing soon. If you don’t get up now, we’ll be late.”

“...Yeah.”

Caim sat up on his bed and looked around. He was in an inn room, not a plain surrounded by tall grass. And, of course, there was no woman in a traditional dress. His comrades were already up and making the morning preparations. Only Lykos was still clinging to him, sleeping against his chest and looking somewhat sad.

“That was a dream...right?”

It should have been, but Caim’s body clearly remembered the sensation of thrusting his “sword” inside the woman and the feeling of orgasm.

“So that was the Immortal Butterfly, huh...? What a terrifying foe...”

Caim had been forced into an unexpected preliminary skirmish right before his battle against Arthur—and it was possible that he would have to fight her again in the future. The thought caused him to shudder and swallow instinctively.

Chapter 4: Fierce Battles

Two great men were going to clash beneath the bright sun today.

On the Beta Plains, west of Berwick—the easternmost city of the Garnet Empire—two armies awaited the beginning of the battle.

On the eastern side was Lance Garnet’s army of seventy thousand. They stood in a simple line abreast formation—the Knights of the Blue Wolf at the center, with the Knights of the Black Dragon and the neutral faction reinforcements to the right and left, parallel to them. Lance was at the rear, taking command of the entire army.

On the western side were Arthur Garnet’s forces of a hundred thousand, in a triangle formation with the apex facing east, with Arthur at its center. While this was a good formation for charges, it wasn’t usually employed in open-field battles, as it prioritized attack over defense. That wasn’t an issue for them, though, as they outnumbered their opponents.

“That’s Arthur for you—focusing totally on offense. He’s confident in his victory, and rather than go for a safer formation, he prioritizes crushing the enemy,” Lance said with a wry smile, Caim and Millicia standing next to him. “We somehow managed to gather seventy thousand, and the enemy is a hundred thousand. It’s going to be a great battle that will go down in history.”

“How can you be so carefree, Lance...” Millicia complained, exasperated by her brother. If not for his retainers around them, she would have smacked him on the head.

“Well, I thought the difference would be larger, so I consider us lucky that it ended up being only thirty thousand. I wonder if that was thanks to the chaos I created here and there.”

“You talked about that before, but what did you actually do?”

“Just some nonsense. Anyway, time to get started.” Lance clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention. “Positions, everyone. Knowing Arthur, he won’t attack us until we’re ready. We may be outnumbered, but don’t be afraid. Give it your all!” Even now, Lance was as flippant as always, as though they were going on a picnic.

“I guess we can say that he has nerves of steel, in a way... Is that another quality you need to be a great ruler?” Caim cocked his head as he moved to his position. He leaped into the sky and fixed himself in place with a mana foothold, looking over the enemy army. The weather was perfect, without a single cloud, as though God was sneering at the humans below who went to war for foolish reasons. “Well then, time to use that big attack I promised.”

Caim glared coldly at the enemy forces with his mana-reinforced sight. When he focused his eyes on Arthur, he noticed that Arthur was glancing back at him.

“Hmph...”

Arthur moved his mouth, and though Caim couldn’t hear him, he was certain the prince had said, “Don’t look down on the overlord.”

“Say that after you’ve won,” Caim said. “If you lose here, there won’t be any overlord or conqueror left to speak of.” Caim grinned savagely, gathering a huge amount of the poisonous purple mana he had inherited from the Poison Queen.

“Purple Poison Magic—Tartarus!” That was the Poison Queen’s strongest spell, the one she had used to slaughter armies—and it also was the strongest attack Caim had ever used since becoming the Poison King.

A toxic wind surged toward the western army like a muddy torrent, as though the land of death itself had manifested on the battlefield.

The poisonous tsunami swept toward the hundred thousand soldiers of Arthur’s army. Everyone screamed in fear as the purple wind drew near them, clearly understanding they were going to die. The ones in front were so terrified they froze in place.

However, this wasn’t going to be the end of the western army.

“Jeez, making me work right from the start...” A woman wearing a sensual robe—Merlin the Eye of Heaven, one of Arthur’s Twin Wings—appeared in the sky above the army and extended her right hand toward the toxic wind. “Highest Rank and Range Barrier Magic—Archangel Sanctuary!”

Several magic circles with geometric patterns appeared around Merlin, and a translucent dome covered the western army, protecting it from the poisonous spell. Only the soldiers who had gone too far ahead were caught in the attack.

“A barrier, huh...? Is that the same kind of magic Millicia uses?” Caim wondered. While it was similar, the scale and protective power had been completely different, and it had successfully repelled Caim’s strongest spell. “I thought barriers fell under the Sacred Arts.”

“After living as long as I have, I can at least do that much,” Merlin answered Caim’s monologue despite being hundreds of meters away. “I didn’t expect to meet the Poison Queen here. I made some preparations, but to think I’d need to use my trump card right from the start... You’ve really tired me out.”

“Do I look like a queen to you? I’m the Poison King,” Caim replied, irritated, and snapped his fingers, creating a spark that ignited the toxic gas in the air. “Poison Flare.”

The next instant, an immense explosion occurred. The western army was still protected by the barrier, but the fire created a black veil of smoke and soot around the battlefield.

“Now, attack!” Lance shouted to his army. Trumpets were blown, serving as the signal for them to move.

The eastern army obeyed, promptly charging toward Arthur’s forces.

Everything was going according to Lance’s plans. Caim would use a powerful spell, spread poison gas, then ignite it to obstruct the enemy’s sight, allowing the eastern army to attack by surprise.

“Stop cowering! Attack!” Arthur yelled. Cavalrymen spurred their horses into a gallop, and the foot soldiers charged with their spears. “Break through the enemy ranks and bring me Lance’s head!”

Caim’s massive spell and the gas explosion had frightened some of the soldiers, but Arthur’s outcry easily blew their fear away, and they charged toward the eastern army.

“Gaaah!”

“Ugh... Help...”

However, a few shrieks could be heard among Arthur’s forces. Several soldiers had been too close to the eastern army already, so they hadn’t been covered by Merlin’s barrier and had been showered in poison. Caim’s spell, Tartarus, was less virulent than his other spells in exchange for its wide range. It wasn’t lethal and could only paralyze.

Because of that, their final moments were truly pitiful—unable to move, lying on the ground, they were trampled by the countless soldiers and cavalrymen of the two charging armies.

“Damn iiiiiit!” cried one of the collapsed soldiers who had been on the front line—a member of the Knights of the Black Dragon, who had betrayed Lance. Befitting of traitors, they died in agony as they were trampled to death.

“I can’t get enough of this. The air, the smell—this must be what they mean by feeling right at home,” Arthur said with a manic, joyful laugh.

The scent of scorched soot in the air from the aftermath of Caim’s explosion.

The sound of screams, battle cries, and weapons clashing.

The feeling of countless lives being reaped around him.

Arthur’s expression was truly content as he appreciated it all.

Arthur Garnet had been literally born on the battlefield. His mother had been visiting an allied country when a civil war broke out, which had forced her to give birth in the midst of battle. He was a child of war, and maybe that was why he could feel so much joy here, grinning gruesomely amid the slaughter.

“Jeez, our boss is so carefree,” Merlin, who had reappeared next to Arthur, commented, exasperated by her liege acting like a child making merry, while Gawain stayed silent on the other side.

“Oh, you’re back, Merlin.”

“Yes, and I’m veeeery tired.”

“Good work. We might have lost immediately if you hadn’t stopped that spell. You did great.”

“I didn’t do ‘great’... Jeez, that’s why I hate Demon Lord classes. I end up completely exhausted every time I fight one...” While she looked like a beautiful woman, Merlin was actually several hundred years old. She had fought Demon Lord-class beings like the Poison Queen in the past, so she knew how fearsome they could be. “The Sea Fiend of Delta, who created a void no boat can pass in the northern sea; the mad Handsome Monkey God, who came from another realm; the Invisible Vampire, who arrived here from beyond the stars; and now, the Poison Queen, who destroyed entire nations. Demon Lord classes are all immortal monsters whose very presence produces chaos. Honestly, I don’t think you ought to rely on my foresight for the rest of this war.”

“I didn’t think he would be that much of a threat... That damn Millicia, she truly caught herself an outrageous man,” Arthur muttered, impressed.

Millicia had always been like that. She had no desire, no ambition—and yet, in the end, she was the one who’d always had it the best. She was blessed with immense fortune at every turning point in her life, as though she were loved by God.

“Lance and I always envied that side of her... Oh well, that’s nothing new.” Most thought Arthur had the advantage and would win, but Arthur himself was different. He suspected the goddess of victory was on Lance’s side. “And that’s why this will be a worthy challenge. By defeating Lance, who has Millicia as his goddess of victory, I’ll prove that I am the true overlord!”

“Well, I hope you’ll manage to do it, but don’t expect much from me. I’m already down to twenty percent of my mana.” Merlin shrugged. She had made it look easy when she’d stopped Caim’s spell, but the truth was that she had used up most of her mana and wouldn’t be able to use any more large-scale magic. “The Poison Queen...or rather, he vanished in the explosion, so we need to stay close to you.”

They had lost sight of Caim, and from their fight against him at the imperial palace, they knew he was strong enough that he may be able to defeat Arthur in a one-on-one battle. So Gawain and Merlin had to stay with Arthur to prevent him being ambushed while they were away.

“If that was his intention, then I guess he’s rather clever. Still, I wonder why the Poison Queen became a man...”

“I don’t care about any of that.” Arthur interrupted Merlin. “No matter who my opponent is, if they stand in my way, I’ll crush them. They could be a Demon Lord, God, anything—I’ll overcome all enemies and hardships to become emperor. That’s all there is to it.”

Gawain and Merlin fell silent.

Arthur’s declaration went beyond courage—it was just plain reckless. And yet, Arthur Garnet was a man who always followed through on his words. He was stronger than anyone and knew no fear. That was why Gawain and Merlin had decided to make him the next emperor.

“Let’s go. We shall head straight into Lance’s camp,” Arthur declared.

“Understood.”

“Fine. You truly are a slave driver...”

With Arthur at its center, the western army advanced, pushing toward the eastern army using their strength and advantage in numbers.

〇 〇 〇

Two knight orders clashed at the center of the battlefield—the Knights of the Blue Wolf and the Silver Hawk, both the main forces serving their respective princes.

“Shoot!”

“Charge! Break their ranks!”

Both armies were about equal, neither giving an inch as swords and spears crossed. While the western forces outnumbered the eastern ones, they were still a little frightened by the poison gas attack from earlier. Even if Arthur had somewhat raised their spirits, the Knights of the Blue Wolf’s morale was still higher.

“Hang in there, everyone! This is a crucial moment!” shouted one of the warriors contributing to the fight—Lenka. Though she was a woman, she resolutely swung her sword, slaying soldier after soldier in Arthur’s army.

“Ugh... Don’t get carried away, woman!”

“Who do you think we are?! I am the third son of Count Cymbal—”

“I don’t give a damn!” Lenka clad her sword in mana and beheaded the man who was about to name himself. “Don’t act so high and mighty just because I’m a woman—especially not when you’re losing to me! You’re the ones acting like sissies here, even though you’re all men!”

“You cheater!”

“How could you attack him while he was introducing himself? Don’t you know the etiquette of war?!”

The western army’s soldiers criticized Lenka’s sudden attack as unfair. The Knights of the Silver Hawk were one of the five knight orders, and they were composed of high-ranking nobles. They took formalities seriously, so they couldn’t forgive Lenka’s surprise attack.

“There’s no such thing as ‘fair’ on the battlefield! Do you think the enemy will just play along with your rules?!” Lenka snapped back, her expression cold.

Before, Lenka would have fought courteously. However, in the past few months, after battling against monsters, bandits, and assassins, she had learned that manners were useless in a fight.

A one-on-one duel is one thing, but there are no rules on the battlefield where friends and foes all fight against each other. Only winning matters!

Being defeated meant losing everything, just like when she’d been drugged by the bandits and nearly been raped. Losing meant having your pride and dignity trampled underfoot.

And she wouldn’t be the only one—the person she wanted to protect more than anyone would lose everything too.

“Victory matters more than pride to me! If you really want a fair match, then lock yourselves in a room and play chess or something!”

“How dare— Gah!”

“You— Ugh!”

“Hiyaaah!” Lenka mowed down the angry soldiers coming at her one after another.

The Knights of the Silver Hawk weren’t weak—far from it. They were truly the elites. Still, compared to Caim, whom Lenka was used to training with, they were nothing. She easily dealt with them, not even giving them a chance to counterattack.

“Oh, what a surprise. I didn’t expect to find such a beautiful flower on the battlefield,” a man on horseback suddenly said. He had long blond hair and seemed to be in his late twenties.

“...And you are?”

“Ah, forgive me—I forgot to introduce myself. I am the vice captain of the Knights of the Silver Hawk—Slaine Tito. O flower blooming on the battlefield, would you grace me with your name?”

“It’s Lenka!” she shouted, slashing at him with her sword before he could ready himself. Yet, despite the surprise attack, Slaine repelled her blade with the gauntlet on his left arm.

“What a terrifying flower... But as I thought, you are truly beautiful!” Slaine smiled ecstatically. Coupled with his noble looks, it made for a picturesque smile, but for some reason, it really gave Lenka the chills. “Truly beautiful blossoms cannot grow in greenhouses. Only by surviving in the wild can they truly flourish and become gorgeous! And this is what you are—a flower that bloomed out of a wasteland, a beautiful red rose! How wonderful!”

Lenka stepped back, revolted. “What is wrong with this man...? He’s creepy.”

Lenka was even more disgusted by this man than by the octopus that had stuck to her at the beach. His every word gave her goose bumps.

On the other hand, Slaine seemed very pleased as he combed up his hair. “I have decided!”

“...What?”

“I shall make you my wife!”

“How did you reach that conclusion?!” Lenka snapped back, utterly confused. She couldn’t understand how the conversation had led to this.

“I have decided so, thus it will happen. Now, take my hand, and let us ride down the aisle together astride my white horse!”

“Die!” Lenka yelled in an unusually violent tone, aiming a stab at Slaine’s throat, but he easily parried the blow with the spear in his left hand.

“I see... To gain your love, I must first defeat you in battle. Just like a tragedy where the hero and heroine are enemies...” Slaine descended from his horse and gracefully readied his spear. “Well then, come at me! I shall defeat you and make you mine!”

“...Pervert,” Lenka muttered, completely forgetting how she usually acted. She didn’t know how things had ended up like this, but at this rate, a fate worse than death awaited her if she lost. “I must kill him.”

Her resolve renewed, Lenka increased her bloodlust and tightly grasped the handle of her sword. She then struck the ground and leaped at the man before her.

“Hiyaaaah!”

“Ha ha ha ha ha!”

Lenka swung her sword right, left, up, down—in all directions—but Slaine parried them all with his spear. He was on a different level than the soldiers she had defeated so far.

“He’s...strong...!” Lenka groaned, her expression twisting bitterly. Slaine was a creep, but his skill was the real deal. Befitting the vice captain of the Knights of the Silver Hawk, his technique with the spear was practically an art.

“Charm me more! Make my pulse race! Pierce my heart with your blade!”

“Stop it! You’re creeping me out! I will stab you in the heart as you wish, though, so let me kill you!” As asked, Lenka aimed for Slaine’s left breast with her sword, but he repelled the thrust with his spear.

Slain chuckled. “You are quite the stubborn little mare, my precious kitten.”

“Make up your mind! Am I a flower, a horse, or a kitten?!” Lenka yelled, then gritted her teeth as she regulated her breathing from the intense exertion.

He’s a disgusting man, but damn is he strong. Slaine had easily defended against all of her attacks. While it was true that there was a difference in reach between a sword and a spear, in this case it was just that her opponent’s skill was far better. Also, although Lenka was going for a lethal blow, Slaine wasn’t. As he wanted to make her his wife, he was waiting for Lenka to give up without killing her.

“Are you done? While you have been resting, I have thought of a hundred different ways to propose to you,” Slaine said.

Lenka almost retorted, but instead she endured it and took a deep breath to calm down.

I’m not only losing in skills, but in spirit too... Slaine’s every word was disturbing, which weakened her. Losing my calm will only make it harder to control my mana. I need to sharpen my mind like a blade!

“If...” Lenka started.

“Hm?”

“If you can defend against my next attack, I’ll become your wife.”

Slaine grinned creepily, which annoyed Lenka, but she wouldn’t lose her composure this time. Instead, she focused her mind and poured mana into her sword.

“So you finally understand, my beautiful flower! Fine, I am ready whenever you are!”

“Here...I come!” Lenka closed the distance between them. Then, when she sensed that Slaine was focusing on her weapon, she turned around mid-charge.

“Huh?” Slaine was stunned to see Lenka suddenly show her back to him. Anyone would be bewildered if their opponent charged at them running backward.

You’re a noble knight who has learned all the proper manners of battle. Surely, nobody has ever done this to you before!

“Hah!” Using the opening caused by Slaine’s confusion, Lenka pivoted on her right foot and slashed at him.

“What?!” Slaine’s spear was blown away, and shock painted over the creepy grin on his face.

Lenka had come up with this tactic by chance while training with Caim. By suddenly showing her back to the enemy during a serious battle, she made them too stunned to react for an instant, and she would use the opportunity to rotate her body and deliver an attack at full strength. That was more trickery than swordsmanship, but the more the opponent was used to deadly battles, the more effective it was.

The short reprieve from the tension of a mortal struggle is like a poison that only gets stronger the more experienced you are in battle!

“Hiyaaah!” Slaine had lost his weapon, but Lenka didn’t stop. Instead, she swung down her sword, aiming for the crown of his head.

“Ugh!” Slaine groaned as he stopped the blow with his gauntlet-covered right arm, which granted him enough relief that his unsettling smile returned. “Ha ha ha ha... I stopped it! Which means you are now my—”

“Boneless Man!”

“Gaaaaaah!” Slaine screamed in pain as his right arm was suddenly severed, even though he had successfully defended against Lenka’s sword. Strangely, his gauntlet wasn’t damaged at all.

“Sorry, but this technique uses condensed mana to send a slashing mana shock wave straight through armor!” Lenka said coldly.

Lenka’s new technique—Boneless Man—was based on Caim’s Ouryuu. By compressing her mana into a slashing shock wave, she could bypass armor and cut the opponent directly. It needed intense concentration, however, so Lenka had to be perfectly calm when using it.

“My arm! Aaaaaargh!”

“Unfortunately for you, my heart already belongs to another man. Also... I don’t have the slightest desire to be spanked by you!” Lenka declared, then severed Slaine’s head before he could reply. He had been a tough opponent, but she had obtained victory. “Phew... I won.”

“We must retreat, Lady Lenka!” a soldier shouted at her. “Prince Arthur’s army is advancing with incredible momentum. We won’t be able to hold this position for long! We need to withdraw and regroup!”

“Out of the frying pan and into the fire!” Lenka gritted her teeth in vexation as she looked westward. At one point, she might have stayed and continued to fight, but now she remembered Caim’s words. “I can’t die here,” she murmured.

Lenka couldn’t die here. The only one who was allowed to kill her was Caim in bed. So as instructed, she retreated alongside the Knights of the Blue Wolf.

〇 〇 〇

Another fierce struggle was raging on the right flank of the battlefield.

“Advance! Don’t fall behind Prince Arthur!”

“Break through their ranks and crush them!”

The Knights of the Red Tiger from the western army were full of ardor as they rushed toward the enemy. All of their members were viscounts and lower nobles, so the way they fought wasn’t as elegant as higher aristocrats, but as they hailed from remote regions, they had more battle experience than the Knights of the Silver Hawk. Their morale was high as they resolutely attacked their foes.

“Hold the line! We must stop them!”

Among the eastern army, the Knights of the Black Dragon were the ones defending against the assault. They were largely foreigners and mercenaries, and just the other day, their captain, Debardan, had left with half of the order’s knights. The former vice captain, Ikkaku, had stepped up to command in his place, and Lance had hired foreign mercenaries to fill the gap that the traitors had left, but they hadn’t had the time to train the mercenaries’ coordination. As a result, they were struggling against the Knights of the Red Tiger.

“Vice Captain Ikkaku! We can’t stop the enemy’s momentum!”

“If you’ve got the time to complain, then swing your sword! Also, it’s Captain Ikkaku now!” Ikkaku shouted at her subordinate as she wielded her spear on the front line. Being a beastfolk, she possessed extraordinary physical capabilities, which allowed her to easily mow down multiple enemy soldiers with each swing of her three-meter-long spear.

Unfortunately, even Ikkaku’s strength couldn’t stop the western army as they advanced.

Just as things were starting to look bleak for the eastern army...

“Grrraaaaow!” A beastly roar rang out, and the sudden appearance of a new warrior stunned both armies.

“A maid?!” exclaimed a knight from the western army, watching as one of his comrades was struck by a white tiger beastfolk in a maid’s uniform—Tea.

Tea swiftly swung her three-section staff, knocking down enemy after enemy. “Grrraow! I’m here to help!”

“You’re stronger than I expected!” Ikkaku commented, impressed. She’d met Tea beforehand, but hadn’t realized Tea was this powerful. True, tigerfolk—white tigers, in particular—were renowned for their might, but Tea had exceeded Ikkaku’s expectations. “Your name was Tea, right? The enemy is strong and numerous. Will that be an issue?”

“Not at all! I’ll kill every last one of them!”

“Good! Then let’s go!”

Their conversation over, the two of them faced the enemy. They had only exchanged a few words, but perhaps because they were both beastfolk women, that had been enough for them to understand each other.

Ikkaku and Tea let out battle cries, leading the Knights of the Black Dragon’s counteroffensive.

Some might think that Tea taking the field wouldn’t change much, but there was a flow to every battle. Just when the western army had been launching an all-out assault, a woman in a maid’s uniform had appeared and had begun defeating their soldiers one after another. It had dampened the western army’s morale, and that in turn had changed the tide of battle.

“Come on! You can’t lose to a couple of women!” A man yelled, stepping forward. He wore bright red armor, and his hair of the same color stood straight up in spikes like fiery flames. “You’re pathetic! Do you really want to shame your ancestors like this?”

“Who is that?” Tea asked.

“He’s the captain of the Knights of the Red Tiger—Diague Kurs!” Ikkaku groaned.

Diague Kurs commanded the Knights of the Red Tiger. Despite being the eldest son of a viscount house, he wasn’t named the heir because his mother was only a concubine. Instead, he had joined the knight order. He was daring, resolute, and fought like a tempest, which had caught Arthur’s eye and earned him a quick promotion to the rank of captain.

“We can’t fall behind the Silver Hawks! This is our shot at glory, so don’t disgrace yourselves in front of our liege!” Diague shouted.

The Knights of the Red Tiger were made up of lower-ranking nobles and were always competing with the Knights of the Silver Hawk, who were higher aristocrats. This rivalry was a great source of motivation for Diague and his men, and by achieving success in this war—for example, by managing to kill the enemy’s supreme commander, Lance—the Red Tigers could prove that they were better than the Silver Hawks.

“Hah!” Diague swung his halberd down at Tea, who quickly leaped back to dodge. The blow struck the ground instead, cracking the earth. Had Tea been any slower, she would have met the same end.

“Grrraaow! That one is very strong!”

“Of course he is! That’s how he became the leader of the Knights of the Red Tiger!” Ikkaku replied. “He defeated the special forces of an enemy nation all by himself, armed with only his halberd! He’s a match for a hundred, so be careful!”

“Follow Captain Diague’s lead! Charge!” yelled one of the enemy soldiers. The Knights of the Red Tiger had recovered their momentum thanks to Diague’s appearance.

“Let’s go, boys! Exterminate the enemy!” Diague ordered, taking the lead.

Tea readied herself. The tide of battle had returned to equilibrium, but that could change at any moment.

“AAAAAAH!” However, something unexpected happened that stopped both the western and eastern armies in their tracks. A shadow suddenly leaped out of the earth and ripped into Diague’s body with sharp claws.

“Gah! No way...” Diague gasped before collapsing in a pool of his own blood. Even a strong warrior like him could easily be defeated by a surprise attack.

“Stop taking me for a foooool! I’m gonna massacre you allllllll!”

“Captain Debardan...” Ikkaku muttered, dumbfounded.

Indeed, the one who had suddenly leaped out of the ground was the former captain of the Knights of the Black Dragon—Debardan. He had served Lance until he gave in to the temptation of the Ladies of the Lake and switched to Arthur’s side. As he was a traitor, he wasn’t trusted, and so he had been positioned on the front lines. That meant he should have been swallowed by Caim’s Tartarus—and yet, here he was.

“What are you doing, Captain Debardan?” Ikkaku asked her former boss. Why had he killed the captain of the Knights of the Red Tiger, who should have been his allies? Confused, Ikkaku couldn’t help but demand an explanation. “Didn’t you defect to Prince Arthur? So why did you—”

“Shut up!” Debardan snapped at Ikkaku, glaring at her with bloodshot eyes. “Shutupshutupshutup! Just SHUT UP! Every last one of you... You’re all taking me for a fool! What’s so bad about being a mercenary?! Stop looking down on me, you worthless trash! Diediediediediedie—I’m gonna kill you all!”

Ikkaku gasped. Debardan, completely lost to his wrath, was now attacking nearby soldiers with his sharp claws.

As she was meeting him for the first time, Tea couldn’t know this, but Debardan wasn’t just a foreigner—he was also a molefolk. He had most likely avoided Caim’s spell by burrowing into the ground.

“DIIIIIIIEEEEEE!” Debardan continued to slaughter western and eastern soldiers alike, one after another.

“Wh-What is happening...?”

“Focus, Ikkaku! This is our chance!” Tea shouted encouragingly to Ikkaku, who was bewildered by her former captain’s behavior. “The enemy is in disarray after the death of their leader! If we act now, we can defeat them easily!”

“You’re right. We must make use of this opportunity.” Ikkaku nodded and instructed her subordinates to attack.

“Tea will take care of that weird man!”

“Thank you... Please put him to rest,” Ikkaku said with pity in her voice before leading her subordinates in the charge against the Knights of the Red Tiger.

“GRAAAAAAAAAH!” Debardan screamed.

“Just you wait! I’m gonna kill you!” Tea stared at Debardan. In all honesty, his sudden appearance had saved them. He had killed the enemy leader, creating the opportunity for them to counterattack and reverse the tide. “We don’t need you anymore, though. It’s time for you to leave this world!”

A burst of powerful mana erupted from Tea. As a beastfolk, magic wasn’t her speciality, but she was good at using mana to strengthen her body. Moreover, having sex with Caim so often had increased her mana reserves by the day—and more mana meant more strength.

“Huh?! Don’t get in my way, woman!” Debardan turned toward Tea, having noticed her intention to fight. He brandished his sharp claws and snarled to intimidate her.

“Grrraow! Stop talking and bring it on. Kill or be killed—such is the law of the beastfolk!”

“Then die!”

Debardan took a stance with his claws, and Tea threw away her three-section staff, leaving her weaponless.

Tigerfolk versus molefolk. Beastfolk versus beastfolk. They faced each other bare-handed using the original fighting style of their wild, primal races.

“GRAAAAAAAAH!”

“GRRRAAAOOW!”

The battle reached its conclusion in an instant. Their claws crossed. One pair of claws shattered, while the other tore the opponent to shreds.

“Ugh...”

“It’s my win,” Tea declared, victorious. Debardan’s blood dripped from her claws, falling onto the ground. Strengthened by a huge amount of mana, her nails could easily tear apart even solid stone.

“Why...? No... Where did I go wrong...?”

“Who knows? But at the very least, it was a mistake to challenge Tea. Between a tiger and a mole, there’s one obvious winner.”

“Yeah... True enough...” Debardan collapsed, a massive quantity of blood gushing from his wounds.

If Debardan had remained calm, he could have fought in another way, such as burrowing underground. His betrayal of Lance had led to Arthur using him, and the wrath it had incurred had brought Debardan to his death.

With neither glory nor money, the man who had once stood at the head of an army now passed away, becoming one corpse among many on the battlefield.

〇 〇 〇

The left flank of the battlefield, meanwhile, had reached a stalemate.

“Ugh... Damn you! You’ll pay for that!”

“Fire! Shoot more arrows!”

Here, the nobles supporting Arthur and Lance had clashed. The western side had more soldiers, but they were unable to leverage that advantage, which created the deadlock.

“Just where did they get ahold of such good armor?!” one of the leaders of the western army exclaimed, gritting his teeth.

That was the reason for the standstill—the eastern army had very good armor. Every single one of them—including Count Atlaus, who was leading them—was wearing armor made of dragon scale. As the name indicated, it was indeed made from precious scales that could only be obtained from a dragon or one of their subspecies. Its defensive capabilities were exceptional, which was how the eastern army had been able to endure the western army’s onslaught.

“Wasn’t there a wyvern outbreak in Count Atlaus’s domain? Maybe they made the armor from them.”

“What are you saying? Five wyverns are enough to destroy a small town. How could they have dealt with an entire outbreak of them?”

Unfortunately for him and the western army, his comrade’s assumption was correct. The armor used by the eastern army was made from the scales they had obtained from killing the wyverns with Caim’s poison. Because they hadn’t had much time, they had been made hastily, but the quality of the material was good enough to be effective in battle.

“At this rate, we won’t be able to break through their ranks. We might need to make some sacrifices to force our way through...”

“No need for that. Continue like this,” interrupted a dignified, bearded old knight.

“Margrave Backsten...” the young nobles muttered.

Despite being well into his seventies, Backsten’s body showed no sign of physical decline, and his presence was sharp and intimidating. It was obvious to anyone that he was no mere old man.

“Impatience leads to ruin in war. There is no need to be hasty. Let’s take our time and wear them down.”

“But, Margrave Backsten... If we do that, Prince Arthur will leave us behind...”

“So what? We just need to keep the enemy here,” Backsten said calmly, his composure unaffected by the battlefield. Of course he was unaffected—he was a margrave, meaning that he was in charge of protecting the Garnet Empire’s border. Skirmishes with other nations were part of his routine, which was why he was the one in charge here.

“Prince Arthur will slay Prince Lance before long. Keeping the enemy here so that they don’t impede him is enough. If we attack recklessly, we will only play into their hands. We must stay vigilant and keep pressuring them.”

“I-I see...”

“I would expect no less from you, Margrave Backsten. You truly are a veteran.”

The young nobles were impressed by the margrave. They knew that if they followed him, everything would be fine. Having regained their calm, they were now ashamed of their thoughtlessness.

“If the people at the top get agitated, it will affect the soldiers. You must keep your composure and—” Backsten suddenly stopped talking.

As the young nobles stared at him, perplexed, Backsten collapsed.

“What?!”

“Margrave Backsten!”

“How disappointing. I didn’t think it would be so easy,” said the beautiful woman who had been hidden behind Backsten until just now. She had navy blue hair worn in a braid and was holding a bloodied knife. This was Rozbeth the Headhuntress, a former assassin who was currently Millicia’s bodyguard. “I suppose even the Fierce General Backsten can’t win against old age. What a letdown.”

“How could you?!”

“There’s an intruder! Kill her!”

“Oh, shut it and die like the insects you are.”

The nobles readied their weapons in a frenzy, but Rozbeth sprang into motion before they could act. She moved her lithe body with feline grace, darting between the nobles as she beheaded each one.

A moment later, they were nothing but bloody fountains.

Rozbeth smiled gruesomely as she was showered with blood. “I must do my job. With this, the left flank should be taken care of. Now, where should I strike next?” She vanished before the soldiers could even notice what had happened to their commanders.

A little after that, the stalemate broke. Deprived of their leadership, the western army lost its cohesion and fell apart, easily crushed by the eastern army under Count Atlaus.

Later, when Count Atlaus and his men arrived at the location the commanders had been, they could only cock their heads in confusion at who had killed the nobles.

“Well then, who’s next?” Rozbeth muttered as she took another general’s head.

Rozbeth’s role in the war was to assassinate the enemy commanders. No matter their numbers, in the end, armies were like living beings—if they lost their head, it was over for them. And so, Rozbeth had been using her assassin skills to their fullest, infiltrating the enemy’s ranks and killing their commanders. Every time her navy blue hair fluttered as she swung her dark gray knives, a flower of blood blossomed. She also killed ordinary soldiers while she was at it, so the knights of the western army felt as though they were trapped in a nightmare as their comrades were murdered one after another.

“It would be best to hunt Prince Arthur’s head, but I don’t think I can do it...” Last time she had tried at the imperial palace, the Twin Wings had obstructed her, and she had been forced to flee. “I’m sure those two are protecting him today too, so it’d just end the same way... Hm?”

Rozbeth suddenly sensed an ominous presence. Puzzled, she headed in its direction.

“I summon you, high demon! Defeat our enemy!”

“We have prepared these offerings for you! You may take their lives!”

An evil ritual was taking place in a corner of the battlefield. Unconscious men bound by ropes were lying on the ground at the center of a magic circle, surrounded by people wearing robes. The robed people were chanting an incantation, trying to summon some unknown being.

“Aren’t they from the Ladies of the Lake?” Rozbeth wondered, observing them with a frown from her hiding place. She had heard about them from Caim—they were mages who had tried to ambush Count Atlaus at the mountain pass. “Are they trying to summon a demon?”

Rozbeth was right. The remnants of the Ladies of the Lake had captured soldiers from the eastern army and were offering them as sacrifices to call forth a demon. By chance, Rozbeth had noticed their ritual.

“Well... I suppose I should stop them.” Her decision made, Rozbeth acted immediately. She emerged from her hiding spot and threw several knives at the mages.

“What?!”

“Who’s there?!”

“Oh?” Rozbeth was surprised to see that her knives had been repelled by an invisible wall. Apparently, they had made preparations for defending themselves during the ritual beforehand.

The mages turned her way.

“An assassin!”

“Don’t hinder us, woman!”

Rozbeth took out new knives,

“You’re too late! Our ritual will soon be over!”

“We’re summoning a high demon! It’ll crush you foolish common folk like worms!”

“Is that so? I’m not going to let you do that, though.” Rozbeth threw knives once again.

The mages were about to activate the same spell that had protected them earlier—but contrary to their expectations, the knives missed them.

“Ha ha ha ha! Where are you aiming?”

“Why did you even come here, you foolish woma— Huh?”

“Gah!”

Screams rang out.

The mages turned around and saw corpses with knives stabbed into their necks. The captives who had been placed on the magic circle as sacrifices were all dead.

“The sacrifices need to be alive, no? Demons sure are a picky bunch for only eating live bait,” Rozbeth said.

“Wh-Wh-What did you do?!” one of the mages shouted as the light from the magic circle died out, having lost its catalysts.

“Weren’t they your allies? Are you even human?!”

“I don’t want to hear that from people like you!” Rozbeth used their confusion to draw close to them. Then, covering the point of a large knife with mana, she stabbed them one after another, piercing through the magic wall that protected them.

“Gah!”

“H-How dare— Ugh!”

“I’m hunting your heads now.” Rozbeth beheaded them rhythmically.

Stabbing someone directly was more damaging than throwing a knife—even more so with mana covering the tip of the blade. Thanks to that, she was able to pierce through the mages’ barriers. Moreover, they were already exhausted from using most of their mana for the ritual, so they didn’t offer much resistance.

With that, the remnants from the Ladies of the Lake, Merlin’s disciples, were annihilated in a corner of the battlefield before they could even achieve anything.

〇 〇 〇

“It seems the war is hitting its peak.”

Approximately five hundred cavalrymen were running in a different direction from the battlefield. At their head was a middle-aged man smiling cheerfully—Marquis Jagliese Eberle.

“...Are you sure about this, Eberle? Isn’t this desertion?” asked the old man next to him—Count Beock Lyzbeth—as they got farther and farther away from the battlefield.

“I have Prince Arthur’s approval to do whatever I want.”

“...I see,” Lyzbeth replied gravely before falling silent.

The unit the pair was leading was heading toward Berwick, the port city under Lance’s control. In other words, they weren’t deserting—they were raiding the enemy’s stronghold while its master was absent.

“I doubt they ever expected their home base to be attacked while they’re away. I can already picture the look of despair on their faces when they crawl back here.” Eberle grinned nastily. He had been the one who had come up with this plan to have a unit to destroy the enemy’s stronghold so that the enemy would have nowhere to flee.

This man has a truly wicked personality... He’s a genius when it comes to doing what people hate. Lyzbeth grimaced in distaste.

Eberle’s scheme was an effective one. Not only would it prevent Lance from holing up in Berwick, it would also prevent him from fleeing to another country via boat.

In Eberle’s case, though, he just wants to slaughter the weak.

Marquis Eberle was a bloodthirsty serial killer. Rather than fighting soldiers on the battlefield, he would rather kill defenseless citizens.

This is the perfect mission for this man—he gets away from the danger of the battlefield, can satisfy his murderous urges, and he’ll be able to fill his pockets during the pillage.

Lyzbeth was truly irritated by this, but the most vexing thing of all was that he had to cooperate and obey Eberle’s orders.

Why was a man like that born a marquis? He is a brute and a pest who shouldn’t be allowed to live!

For an instant, Lyzbeth felt the sweet temptation to stab Eberle in the back.

No, I need to calm down... I could kill that man a thousand times and never be satisfied, but I can’t cause trouble for Prince Arthur. I owe his mother, the empress. I must repay my debt.

Lyzbeth had chosen to side with Arthur because his territory had been saved thanks to the empress’s aid in the past.

If not for that, I would never have become the subordinate of Feena’s murderer!

“Oh?”

“Hm?”

Eberle, who had been cheerfully smiling, and Lyzbeth, who had been seething with murderous impulses, both let out their voices in surprise at the same time. Someone had appeared ahead of them, and it wasn’t an enemy soldier—it was a young child.

“Oh my, I didn’t expect to find a child here,” Eberle said.

“Wait! What are you going to do?!” Lyzbeth asked.

“When a child is walking outside the city without a guardian, it’s an adult’s job to scold them, no?” Eberle replied, licking his lips. Naturally, he wasn’t going to lecture the girl—he was going to make her his plaything to satisfy his sadistic urges. “What luck! To think I’d find the perfect hors d’oeuvre before taking care of the main dish that is Berwick!”

“Wait, Eberle!” Lyzbeth shouted.

“Catch her!” Eberle ordered his subordinates, ignoring Lyzbeth.

“Yes, sir!” Two soldiers obeyed and galloped toward the child.

As they drew closer, Lyzbeth noticed that the child was a young girl who seemed to be less than ten years old, which reminded him of his late daughter. He pictured his daughter’s face in her childhood, comparing it with the young girl ahead.

“Huh...?” Lyzbeth blurted out, shocked. The faces matched completely. The young girl looked exactly the same as his daughter—Feena Lyzbeth—had when she was young. “How...? Is that you, Feena?!” Lyzbeth extended his hand toward the girl.

Naturally, she was too far away for him to reach—and something unexpected happened instead.

“Mmmh!”

“Gah?!”

The girl sprang at the soldiers who had come to catch her, and like a bear snatching a salmon, she swung her arm in a wide arc and tore through their heads.

“Huh?!”

“What?!”

Eberle and Lyzbeth exclaimed, shocked.

Meanwhile, the cute young girl with long green hair—Lykos—threw her arms up in triumph with a cry of victory.

“How could she...? Just who is that girl?!”

“That face... Feena?!” Eberle, just like Lyzbeth, also noticed that Lykos resembled Feena. While Feena was Lyzbeth’s beloved daughter, to Eberle, she was the former fiancée he had killed himself, so his face went pale as though he was seeing a ghost. “Wait... Could she be the baby?!” he mumbled. “I didn’t want to see the child of some unknown man, so I had her thrown into a forest to become monster fodder. To think she was still alive!”

“Are you saying that she’s Feena’s daughter, Eberle?!” Not caring that they were both on horseback, Lyzbeth grabbed Eberle by the collar, almost pulling him from his horse, but Eberle slapped his hand away.

“That happened twenty—no, nineteen years ago, so this girl looks too young to be her daughter, and yet... Ah ha ha ha ha! As I thought, Feena is the best woman ever!”

“What are you...?”

“I’m so glad I’ll be able to kill you again! I don’t know how you survived, but I thank you for appearing before me! Ha ha ha ha ha! I ought to hug you and shower you with kisses!” Eberle shouted, his expression ecstatic. He licked his lips like a small boy presented with a sumptuous meal. “Capture her! Don’t let her get away!” he ordered.

“I won’t let you! If she’s Feena’s daughter, then that makes her my granddaughter!”

“Shut it and butt out, you shitty geezer!”

“Stop him, even if you have to kill him!” Lyzbeth commanded his subordinates, and they began to struggle with Eberle’s men. At first, it was a mere scuffle, but it quickly devolved into fistfights and, finally, into a deadly battle using weapons.

“Mmmh?” Lykos cocked her head, looking curiously at the chaos before her and wondering what they were doing. But eventually, she realized it was useless to think about it. She didn’t need to know their intentions to accomplish her goal, after all.

A powerful howl echoed, and everyone turned toward its source. What they saw there, however, wasn’t a young girl, but a beautiful young woman with the same colored hair and eyes. Her rapid growth had torn apart her clothes, making her attire rather risqué, but that wasn’t what took the two nobles’ breath away.

“F-Feena?!”

“That’s impossible... How could she be alive?!”

Lyzbeth and Eberle were completely captivated by Lykos, who looked just like Feena Lyzbeth, the woman they both loved in different ways.

“Feena, my daughter! You have come back!”

“Ha ha ha ha! No way. I killed you and ate your flesh, skin, and bones, so how could you—”

“Quiet. You talk too much,” Lykos said to the two men, who were still dumbfounded by how much she looked like Feena. “Master forbade me from approaching the battlefield, so I decided to lie in wait here just in case, and it appears I was right to do so. However, I find it deeply annoying that you seem to be mistaking me for someone else.”

The young girl who had only been capable of whining earlier spoke fluently now that she had become a grown woman. She stared at the western army’s soldiers in exasperation, narrowing her eyes.

“I do not know why you are here, but I shall defeat you for my master’s sake. I promise not to take your lives as long as you do not resist.”

“Wait, Fee—”

“Here I come.” Lykos declared, then closed the distance in an instant, as though gliding along the ground. She did it so naturally that no one was able to react as she knocked aside a soldier standing next to Lyzbeth.

“What?!”

“Next.” As though dancing, Lykos dealt with the soldiers one after another, either punching, kicking, or tossing them away. Naturally, some tried to resist, but they could do nothing against Lykos’s overwhelming strength.

“Please wait, Feena! It’s me, your—”

“I am not Feena, mister.” Lykos grabbed Lyzbeth’s arm strongly, not allowing him to escape. “I do not know who you are mistaking me for, but you should stop acting senile and face reality!”

“Whooooa!” Lyzbeth was flung away by the woman who looked like his daughter, landed on his back, and lost consciousness.

“You are the last one. What will you do?” Lykos asked Eberle. She had defeated all the soldiers and Lyzbeth, which meant he was the only one left.

Eberle’s lips trembled as he was stared at by the beautiful woman covered in the blood of her victims. “I’ve always regretted killing you, my beloved.”

Lykos cocked her head in confusion.

“I loved you from the bottom of my heart. That’s why I couldn’t forgive you for conceiving a child with another man. I couldn’t endure it,” Eberle said, his teeth clattering together behind a disgusting smile. “So I killed you.”

Lykos didn’t reply.

“I peeled away your nails and carefully shaved off your skin one layer at a time. I lashed you every night, your screams singing me to sleep. And yet, despite how I treated you, you surprised me by giving birth to a healthy child. I was jealous of how lovingly you looked at her, so I had a servant throw her into a forest. Even now, I haven’t forgotten your expression, full of despair at losing your daughter... Every time I close my eyes, it appears again!”

Lykos still didn’t answer.

“That’s why, ever since you died, I’ve been killing people, enjoying the despair on their faces. All so that I could fill the hole left by you dea—”

“You talk a lot for a corpse,” Lykos finally said, unable to bear it anymore.

“Huh...?” Belatedly, Eberle noticed that he was lying on the ground. He looked around and saw the lower half of his body standing a little ways away. Everything above the pelvis had vanished, and a small part of the spine peeked out from the stump like a gruesome objet d’art. “Aaaaaaaaaah!”

“I do not know what you have been babbling about, but I feel a deep, visceral disgust for you, so I killed you instinctively. Knowing my master, he should allow such a small indiscretion.” Lykos lowered her right leg. She had bisected Eberle with a roundhouse kick so fast it had almost reached the speed of sound.

“Aaaaaaah...” Eberle moaned in pain.

“I am glad to have been useful to Master. A capable woman is one who does her best even where her husband cannot see her... Mmmh!” With that, Lykos reverted to her child form.

“It hurts! I don’t want to die!” Eberle continued to scream in agony, strangely still not dead. Lykos left quickly, ignoring him completely.

Chapter 5: Clash of Titans

While Caim and his companions were fighting in various parts of the battlefield, Arthur, the supreme commander of the western army, was carving his way through the Knights of the Blue Wolf, heading straight for the heart of the eastern forces.

“Our flanks were defeated, Your Highness. At this rate, we’re going to be surrounded,” Merlin reported to Arthur, who was leading the charge into enemy territory. The Knights of the Red Tiger and the noble army were being pushed back—at this rate, the eastern army was going to close in around Arthur. “I’ve also lost contact with my disciples. I really think we should retreat.”

“What a boring joke. Things are finally getting interesting,” Arthur replied, grinning belligerently. It wasn’t the look of someone who was cornered, but the smile of a bloodthirsty beast. “Only a bloody battlefield can give birth to a conqueror. This situation—this predicament—is exactly what will make me an overlord! Overcoming this crisis will be my first triumph as a newly born emperor!”

Merlin sighed. “Well, if that’s what you want... But there’s no guarantee Prince Lance is even there, you know. That’d be too obvious.” She shrugged.

Ahead of them was the heart of the eastern army—where Lance ought to be. But would they actually find him there? Despite his carefree attitude, Lance was actually quite a shrewd man. Would he really just sit and do nothing but wait for Arthur to come to him?

“Maybe we’ll find nobody there at all,” Merlin continued.

“That is indeed a possibility. But no matter what, I’m certain that my brother will surprise us.” Arthur smiled cheerfully, as though he was expecting a surprise party. A trap likely was waiting for him. He was certain of that. But even so, he couldn’t help but look forward to whatever his brother had prepared for him. “No matter what traps Lance has set for me, I’ll crush them and take his head. What I have to do hasn’t changed since the beginning of this war.”

“Am I allowed to say you’re an idiot?”

“That’s a step too far, wench,” Gawain rebuked Merlin for her impudent words toward their liege. The Black Knight stood on Arthur’s other side, trotting alongside him on horseback. “Isn’t it your duty to avoid His Highness getting in danger with your precious foresight, in any case?”

Merlin had the ability to predict the future, but it had proven useless in this conflict. Though she had somehow been able to perceive Caim’s opening strike, she hadn’t been able to see anything beyond that.

“Unfortunately, there’s too much chaos—that is to say, uncertain elements—so Laplace can’t make proper calculations.” Merlin pursed her lips. She didn’t predict the future by receiving a prophecy from on high, but by using mathematics to process every conceivable variable and calculate all possible outcomes. Chaos—uncertain elements—corrupted those calculations. “And it’s not just the Poison Queen. The entire battlefield is engulfed in chaos. That’s not something that can be done in a day—someone has been sowing the seeds for a long time now.”

“Must be Lance—which makes things even more interesting,” Arthur said. Merlin’s explanation had been intended to stop him, but all of it had only made Arthur even more eager to fight. “We’re charging straight ahead. Everyone, cover me!”

“Yes, Your Highness!” the soldiers replied in unison. They kept away the enemy, allowing Arthur to proceed forward.

Finally, Arthur reached a large tent—the base of operations for the eastern army.

“That’s clearly an invitation... Fine, I’ll take the bait!” Fully aware it was a trap, Arthur ripped into the tent’s fabric with his spear, tearing it open. Inside was...

“Hey, I’ve been waiting for you, Arthur,” said Lance Garnet, seated at a table and calmly drinking tea.

“...You never fail to surprise me, Lance.”

Arthur had never expected this. He had been certain that the eastern army’s strongest warrior—Caim—would be lying in wait. Failing that, he’d expected several soldiers ready to impale him with their spears, some sort of trap, or even an empty tent. But Lance simply waiting for him? No, he had never expected that.

“You really do know how to entertain me... You’ve earned my praise,” Arthur said.

“You’re acting so conceited. Do you think you’ve already taken the throne?” Lance smiled wryly at his brother’s condescending attitude, then pointed at the chair across from him, on the other side of the table. “Anyway, sit. Or you don’t want my tea?”

“Hmph,” Arthur snorted. His pride wouldn’t allow him to retreat in fear when Lance was alone with no enemy in sight.

“Your Highness!” Gawain exclaimed.

“Step back,” Arthur rebuked him. “This is a conversation between brothers. It would sully my pride to have guards while my little brother is here alone.”

Gawain and Merlin obeyed their liege and retreated to the entrance of the tent, staying on alert to be ready for whatever happened next.

“You’d better not serve me the dregs,” Arthur said, sitting.

“Hey, I know how to entertain a guest,” Lance replied, skillfully pouring black tea into a cup. The fragrance wafting from it alone proved that the beverage was made with very expensive leaves. “Some milk and... How much sugar do you want?”

“Five spoonfuls.”

“I see that you’ve still got a sweet tooth. You know, I find that side of you rather charming.” Lance chuckled pleasantly. Despite his appearance and attitude, Arthur loved sweets and couldn’t hold his liquor. Lance had always thought that made his brother feel more human.

When Lance placed the teacup in front of his brother, Arthur didn’t hesitate and heartily drank it in one gulp, not even stopping to check if it was poisoned.

“You should take your time and savor it. Dessert hasn’t even arrived yet,” Lance chided him.

“So. What did you want to talk about?” Arthur asked.

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb. All of this is because you want to ask me something, no? No need to beat around the bush.” Arthur silently placed his cup on the table. “When you wanted to have a difficult talk, you always tried to butter me up with tea first. You haven’t changed at all since you were a kid.”

“I don’t want to hear that from someone who needs five spoonfuls of sugar in his tea... Oh well, fine.” Lance poured Arthur another cup, then continued. “To cut straight to the chase, I want to know where our father’s will is.”

“Why? The emperor is still alive.”

“I doubt that... You can’t fool me, you know. You’re a terrible liar.” Lance raised three fingers. “First, there’s the fact that Father isn’t stopping us from fighting. Even if he were sick in bed, there’s no way he would stay quiet about it.”

Lance lowered one of his fingers as Arthur listened quietly.

“Secondly, the way you’re acting. You’ve always been pretty arrogant and conceited, but there’s no way you’d speak like this if Father were still alive.”

Arthur was still silent as his brother lowered another finger.

“Lastly, Millicia—”

“That’s enough,” Arthur interrupted Lance and snorted. “As you’ve guessed, our father is indeed dead. I’ve decided to keep that hidden until we’ve settled who the next emperor will be, so only a few people know.”

“I see... Then back to my question—where is his will?”

“Why do you care so much about that?” Arthur probed his brother with a glare, but Lance did not waver, staring at him without any fear in his eyes. He was perfectly calm.

“I can guess its contents, but I want to ascertain it with my own eyes. Or rather, maybe it would be more accurate to say that I don’t want to believe my guess is correct. I want to be proven wrong.”

“Hmph... Ridiculous.” Arthur picked up the teacup before him, but instead of drinking from it, he poured the tea on the ground. “He may be our father, but I have no interest in the words of a dead man. You’re right, I do have his will. But I don’t intend to reveal its contents to the public.”

“No matter what?”

“If you really want it, then take it—after defeating me.”

“Well, if you say so... I won’t hold back, then.” Lance snapped his fingers. The next instant, the tent flap behind him fell away to reveal soldiers from the eastern army standing about twenty meters away. They were not holding swords, spears, or bows—no, they were holding strange black weapons made of metal.

“Firearms!” Arthur quickly realized.

“Exactly. Well then, I hope you’ll enjoy the dessert.” Lance raised his right arm, and the soldiers fired, showering him and Arthur with lead bullets.

“Your Highness!” Gawain and Merlin did react, but it was too late.

There were three reasons for this. First, the distance between them and Arthur—he had ordered them to stand at the entrance of the tent, which meant the Twin Wings were too far away from him to protect him.

Second, the fact that the enemy soldiers were firing from quite far away. If they had been closer, Gawain and Merlin would have sensed their presence.

And lastly, the most crucial reason—the soldiers were aiming their weapons from directly behind Lance. It was impossible to shoot Arthur from this position without also hitting their own commander. That had confused Gawain and Merlin, making them freeze for an instant. They had only hesitated for a second, but that was long enough for soldiers to hit their targets.

Thus, the volley from the dozen soldiers riddled both Arthur and Lance with bullets.

“Ugh!”

“Ow! This hurts more than I thought...”

Arthur and Lance fell from their chairs. Lance collapsed on the ground, but Arthur managed to stay on one knee.

“So that’s your trump card, Lance?!” Arthur yelled at his younger brother, his face red with fury. However, the source of his rage wasn’t the fact that he had been tricked. “Did you truly think so little of me that you expected mere lead bullets would kill me?!”

The real cause of Arthur’s wrath was that Lance’s trap had been underwhelming. True, Lance had risked his life and managed to take Arthur by surprise, but Arthur’s wounds weren’t fatal. He had been struck by several bullets, but the wounds were shallow. He was hardly even bleeding.

This was why firearms weren’t very popular—it was difficult to reinforce bullets with mana because they were small and had to be propelled using an explosion of gunpowder, but people could easily use mana to strengthen their bodies in defense. So while firearms could be used by anyone, it was mainly useful for defending oneself against beasts.

That was exactly why Arthur was so angry. It was humiliating that his brother had even entertained the thought that toys like these could kill him.

“You’ll pay for this, Lance! I’m going to tear you a— Ugh?!” Arthur tried to stand and grab Lance’s collar, only to fall once again. And this time, he didn’t manage to fall on one knee—no, he fell on both knees, his hands on the ground. “What...is...?”

“Your Highness! What did you do?!” Gawain glared at the gunners behind Lance, standing before his liege to protect him.

Merlin crouched next to Arthur and touched his shoulder, examining him. “He was poisoned... And not just by a single toxin.”

“I’ve been...poisoned...?” Arthur repeated.

“Exactly, Arthur... I had Millicia’s boyfriend produce the toxins,” Lance said, grinning like a child who had pulled off a successful prank. “All the bullets were smeared with poison. While Dame Merlin might be able to neutralize one toxin, I knew that even she wouldn’t be able to heal you easily if we used multiple.”

“Are you planning to die as well, Lance?” Arthur asked. Lance, too, had been hit by multiple bullets, which must have also poisoned him. He could die at any moment.

“I knew that I couldn’t win against you without risking my life. Now, whether we will survive all comes down to luck.”

Arthur laughed cheerfully. His fury had vanished, replaced by pure joy. “I take back what I said earlier—this was a splendid trap, Lance!”

“Well, thank you... But I’m not done.”

“Oh? You’re going to entertain me even more? What are you going to—” Arthur was interrupted by Merlin, who suddenly raised her hands above him.

“Shield of Aegis!” A magic shield appeared above them just before the ceiling of the tent tore open and someone attacked them.

“Hmph!”

The magic shield shuddered under the impact, making a creaking sound, but it eventually stopped.

“I failed my surprise attack, huh? And here I thought my timing was pretty good...”

“You’re the one who attacked His Highness at the palace!”

“The Poison Queen!”

Gawain and Merlin both exclaimed in surprise.

“Stop calling me a queen. I told you I’m the Poison King!” retorted the newcomer—Caim. Strangely, he was also carrying Millicia on his back.

“To think I would be caught off guard... Impressive!” Arthur shouted as Merlin healed him. He hadn’t sensed Caim’s approach until right before his ambush, which shouldn’t have been possible considering the sheer amount of mana he possessed thanks to his fusion with the Poison Queen. “But how did you...? No, wait, I know! It’s because of Millicia!”

Arthur stared at his sister on Caim’s back, and she silently glared back at him. Just as Arthur had guessed, Millicia had been the one who had concealed Caim’s presence. After the opening strike, Caim had regrouped with Millicia, and then he had carried her while using Suzaku to fly around the battlefield. Millicia’s Sacred Arts not only allowed her to heal people, but also cast barriers—which is what she had done to conceal Caim’s mana. After that, they had stayed above the clouds, where even a mage of Merlin’s caliber hadn’t been able to sense his presence.

“I’d heard you were staying in the rear to treat the wounded, but I guess that, too, was false intel,” Arthur said.

“So you really did have another spy, huh? We were right to be careful,” Caim replied on Millicia’s behalf.

Lance had suspected that Abus wasn’t the only mole in the eastern army, so he had lied during the war council and told everyone that Millicia would stay in the rear.

“Anyway, time for our rematch. The others are getting quite rowdy too, so how about we join the fun?” They could hear the sounds of battle all around them. Lance’s and Arthur’s soldiers were fighting fiercely, creating a huge tumult. If it had been a festival, this would be the grand finale. “It’s the perfect time to settle things, don’t you think?”

“Indeed. I shall be your opponent.” Arthur accepted Caim’s invitation and stood up, but just as he was about to draw his sword, he coughed up blood.

“Do not be reckless, Your Highness!”

“Stop moving. You’ll die.”

“Shut up... Don’t make me—the overlord—lose face!” Arthur rebuked his Twin Wings. However, while he wanted to answer Caim’s challenge, the poison had weakened him too much. His legs trembled, and there was no strength in the arm that held his sword. Compared to when he had faced Caim in the imperial palace, he was like a completely different person.

And yet, the pressure he exudes hasn’t diminished... He really is an amazing man. Caim sincerely respected Arthur. Part of him even thought that if he had met Arthur before Millicia, he would have sided with him. As they both loved battle, they surely would have gotten along.

Caim faced Arthur, but he made no move to attack. That was his way to show his sincerity to the man he respected.

“Are you all right, Lance?!” Millicia asked her brother.

“Yeah, just peachy— Ack!” Lance also coughed blood.

“You are not! Your face is green, and you are practically bleeding from every pore!”

Millicia started to heal Lance behind Caim. Both princes were in a very bad state.

“Merlin, can you take His Highness and teleport somewhere else?” Gawain inquired.

“I can. Only him, though. I don’t have enough mana for both of us.”

“That’s enough. Do it. I’ll protect you.” The Black Knight exuded a powerful fighting spirit. He was ready to sacrifice his life to defend his liege.

“Wait... I can’t allow that! Gawain, Merlin! An overlord can’t flee from the battlefield like this!”

“Highest Rank Teleportation Magic—Fairy Road.”

“No!” Arthur tried to stop her, but Merlin activated her spell, and Arthur vanished, teleported somewhere else.

“He escaped...” Caim muttered, disappointed—though another part of him was actually relieved.

Wouldn’t be fun to kill someone so weakened anyway. And it was my poison that made him that way, so we can call that my win. Finishing Arthur off in such a weakened state wouldn’t satisfy Caim, so he was actually glad that he’d been prevented from doing so.

“I hope you two won’t run away as well. You’ll be my opponents, right?” Caim said.

“Of course.” Gawain drew his black iron sword.

“I suppose I don’t have a choice.” Magic circles appeared above Merlin’s palm.

I guess I’ll save Arthur for dessert and have my rematch with these two first.

“Well then, let’s do this.” Caim grinned savagely and leaped at the Twin Wings.

“Here’s a little help! Strength Up! Guard Up! Speed Up! Antipoison!”

“OOOOOOOOOH!” Gawain roared as Merlin cast her Support Magic spells on him.

“What pressure...!” Caim shuddered, stopping in his tracks.

“Don’t blame me for butting in,” Merlin said with a grin. “This is war, after all. There are no rules. Unfortunately, though, I’ve used up all of my mana, so I won’t be able to join myself. Have a nice man-to-man fight.”

“I wasn’t complaining... Whoa?!”

“Hah!” Gawain slashed horizontally at Caim with astonishing speed.

Caim immediately ducked down to dodge. If not for his amazing reflexes, he would have been cut in two.

Gawain assaulted Caim ceaselessly, his speed and strength far exceeding their ordinary limits thanks to Merlin’s spells.

“Come on, give me a break!” A cold sweat ran down Caim’s back as he continuously evaded the Black Knight’s onslaught.

Gawain was strong. He was already as strong as Caim’s father—Kevin Halsberg, the Master Pugilist—to begin with, but the Support Magic had strengthened him so much that a single instant of inattention would cost Caim his life.

“Genbu!” None of that, however, was enough to discourage Caim—he focused condensed mana in his arm and blocked Gawain’s powerful strike. And yet, even though he had perfectly defended against it, a sharp pain assaulted Caim’s arm. He then counterattacked with Hebi, creating a snakelike whip of compressed mana to strike at Gawain’s neck.

“Too weak!” Gawain yelled, repelling the blow with his armored gauntlet. Gawain wasn’t only protected by his black suit of armor, but also by a veil of mana so dense it rivaled the Toukishin Style. His defense was as exceptional as his offense, so no ordinary attack would be able to break through it.

“Hah!” Next, it was Gawain’s turn to counterattack. He swung his black iron sword so fiercely that he sent Caim flying, tearing through the tent.

Caim clicked his tongue. “His swordsmanship is flawless on both offense and defense. What a pain.” And with that, he landed perfectly on the ground with a roll and immediately stood up.

“I won’t let you get away!” Gawain leaped out of the tent, charging at Caim.

“Ouryuu!” Caim struck the ground with compressed mana. He had once done something similar to create a cloud of dust, but this time he had poured even more mana into his strike.

“What?!” Gawain exclaimed as the earth split, sending rocks and sand hurtling toward him. “Do you think that this will be enough to take me down?!” He deflected the rocks with his sword, but he ignored the sand, as it couldn’t hurt him. That created an opening, however.

“Gotcha!” Caim’s objective hadn’t been to actually hurt Gawain, but to conceal himself among the dust and rocks, which allowed him to approach Gawain unnoticed. “Seiryuu!”

A blade of condensed mana stabbed through a gap in Gawain’s armor and cut open his arm, blood gushing through the opening.

“This won’t be enough to defeat me!”

“Who said I was done?!” Caim kicked off the ground, leaping into the air. Using the scattered rocks as footholds, he jumped in all directions around Gawain.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!”

Caim showered Gawain with countless slashes as he circled around him. While the Black Knight was a fearless warrior who had experienced plenty of battles, he had never fought against someone coming at him from every angle at high speed. He was unable to defend against everything, and little by little, more cuts appeared on his body.

And yet...

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!” Gawain would not yield. He swung his sword down with all his strength, blowing away the sand and rocks, forcing Caim to retreat.

“Man, you’re really something...” Caim grimaced. He had wounded Gawain many times—certainly enough to defeat most opponents. But Gawain did not fall. He truly was absurdly strong.

“The feeling is mutual. Truly, the vigor of youth is astounding!” Gawain was just as impressed by Caim’s potential. Caim was clearly improving as the battle raged on, learning how to react to attacks he couldn’t have handled before. He was rapidly closing the gap between them. Caim’s youthful radiance was too dazzling for the old veteran.

“It’s too dangerous to let this fight drag out much longer... My next attack shall be the last!” Gawain declared.

“Yeah, our next clash really is gonna be your last,” Caim replied with a sardonic smile.

Gawain frowned. The next instant, his body was paralyzed by numbness. “This is...!”

“I told you, didn’t I? That I was the Poison King.” Even Caim’s mana was poisonous, and he had cut into Gawain’s body with it several times. Each new wound had added more toxin, and eventually there was too much even for Merlin’s Antipoison to counter it. “That poison could immobilize a wyvern. If you move carelessly, you’re gonna die.”

“...This won’t matter. I should have enough time to kill you,” Gawain answered. The poison had given Caim the advantage, but there was nothing more dangerous than a wounded beast. Even as the toxins spread throughout his body, Gawain’s fighting spirit only grew stronger. “This shall be my last battle... So that Prince Arthur will become emperor, you shall die here and now!”

“I’m not good-natured enough to say ‘yeah, sure’ to someone who wants to kill me... You’re the one who’s going to die!” An overwhelming amount of mana erupted from Caim like a volcano, engulfing his body. “Toukishin Style Secret Stance—Shiyuu.”

Caim had used his strongest technique, filling his body with ultimate power. He was truly going all out now.

“I shall kill you and offer your head to Prince Arthur!”

“No, I’m gonna kill you. I don’t think any of my lovers would want your head, though!”

Gawain readied his black iron sword, and Caim clenched his fists.

Then after a moment of silence, the two of them kicked the ground so hard it caved in beneath their feet, and they leaped at each other.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

“OOOOOOOOOOOOH!”

Purple and black crossed before they landed, their backs to each other.

Silence stretched on for a few seconds, until finally, Gawain spoke. “His Highness called Princess Millicia the goddess of victory, and he was right. We lost the instant we failed to capture her back in the imperial palace.” And then, he began to vomit blood before collapsing onto his back.

“Bravo. That was damn impressive for a last-ditch effort,” Caim said with a pained groan. He’d been slashed diagonally across the chest. Even though he had used Shiyuu, forcing all of his chakras open and covering himself in an overwhelming amount of mana, his defense had still been pierced by Gawain’s blade.

“Caim! Are you well?!” Millicia ran up to him, having observed the battle from a distance.

“Don’t worry, it didn’t reach anything vital.”

“I can see your ribs! This is a grave injury!” Millicia quickly began to heal him with her Sacred Arts, slowly closing his wound.

At that moment, the mage in a sensual robe—Merlin—approached them. “So he lost, huh?”

“Are you gonna be next?” Caim asked.

“I told you, didn’t I? I’ve used up all of my mana.” Merlin raised her hands.

Caim noticed that her fingertips and the end of her hair were crumbling into dust. “What the...?”

“I’m far older than I look. I extended my life with magic, so naturally, I can’t keep living without mana.”

Merlin’s body was slowly disintegrating, starting from her extremities. First her fingers, then her hands, then her arms—gradually, she was turning to dust. And yet, Merlin ignored all of that and knelt next to Gawain’s corpse. Drawing her face close to his, she planted a kiss on his lips.

“You did your best. I’m very proud of you,” she said lovingly to the other Twin Wing. “This isn’t the perfect ending I imagined, but it’s good enough. After all, the reason I’ve lived this long is so I could die with you.” Being dead, Gawain didn’t reply, but Merlin didn’t mind. She simply continued. “I love you, Gawain. I’m glad we could die together.”

Caim watched her with a frown as, finally, her body completely dissolved, her robe falling onto Gawain’s corpse.

“Dame Merlin...” Millicia said, looking down sadly as she continued to treat Caim.

“Were they lovers...? No, it feels more complicated than that,” Caim muttered.

Neither Caim nor Millicia knew anything about the relationship between Merlin and Gawain, but they both hoped that they had a satisfactory death.

Arthur Garnet’s Twin Wings died on the same day and in the same place. As for the prince himself, he had been teleported away by Merlin’s magic, likely to the imperial palace.

Having lost its supreme commander, the western army collapsed and fled the battlefield.

Thus Lance Garnet triumphed in the war of the Beta Plains. What had been expected to be a losing battle for the second imperial prince had instead ended in a crushing victory.

Extra Story: The Poison King’s Maidful Night

At nightfall, in a room at the inn.

“Ta-da! Sorry for the wait!”

“So this is going to be tonight’s theme, huh?” Caim said as he watched his lovers enter the room after changing their clothes.

The first to enter was Tea, his beastfolk maid. As usual, she was dressed in her uniform, but the other three were not wearing their normal clothes. Indeed, Millicia, Lenka, and Rozbeth were also wearing maid uniforms.

“Tonight, we’ll all be your maids and serve you, Master Caim!” Tea announced.

“We shall do our best... Still, this attire is rather embarrassing...” Millicia muttered with a bashful smile, pinching her skirt. She was a princess, and maids were servants, so naturally, this was the first time she’d ever worn such clothing.

“It’s a little tight. My chest is going to spill out...” Lenka complained, pulling up the fabric to hide her cleavage. She hadn’t found anything in her size, so she hadn’t been able to fasten the buttons, leaving the upper part of her chest exposed.

“Jeez... Do you often do this kind of role-play?” Rozbeth sighed, her expression showing her reluctance. Her slender figure matched the graceful outfit perfectly, so even though she was unaccustomed to such clothing, it suited her surprisingly well.

“Tea is one thing, but I’m surprised how good you all look in a maid’s uniform,” Caim commented.

“Tonight, all of us are your maids. Your wish is our command,” Tea said.

Four maids lined up before the Poison King, expectantly awaiting his orders.

“Hmm... Then, show me what’s under your skirts,” Caim ordered.

“You want to see our underwear? You could just command us to undress,” Tea replied.

“What would be the point of dressing like maids if you got naked immediately?” Caim retorted. They went to the trouble of putting on matching costumes, so he would rather they keep wearing them.

“Well then, please have a look...”

“Watch as much as you want.”

Millicia and Lenka lifted their skirts. Tea immediately followed, then Rozbeth too, though she was not particularly enthusiastic about it.

“Oh... You’re wearing some cute panties,” Caim said, impressed. The four of them were wearing lace lingerie, and unusually, they were all wearing the same color—white. The design was more cute than sexy, but coupled with a garter belt and stockings, they made for quite the alluring sight. “So you’re not just wearing matching uniforms, but matching lingerie too, huh? Not bad.”

“Can’t you just be honest and say you like it? Otherwise, what’s the point of wearing this?” Rozbeth complained.

“Yeah, my bad... But anyway, next, get yourselves wet,” Caim ordered.

“Are you asking us to...m-masturbate?” Millicia asked, blushing furiously. While she had once been a chaste nun, Caim had made her a woman. She knew what he was asking.

“Yeah. Play with yourselves while standing. And keep your skirts up.”

“You say that, but how are we supposed to do that while our hands are busy?” Lenka inquired.

“Just hold your skirt with your mouth. It should be long enough,” Caim said indifferently.

In other words, Caim was ordering them to hold their skirts up with their mouths, exposing their private parts while they masturbated.

“You’re a real pervert... How did you even come up with that?” Rozbeth stared at Caim with contempt.

“Say whatever you want. I don’t care what someone who’s flashing their panties thinks,” Caim calmly retorted. In fact, he even felt like he might be developing a fetish for women showing off their underwear while they scowled at him.

“Well, if that’s what our master desires. Let’s do it, everyone.”

“Th-This is embarrassing, but if this is your order, Caim...”

“Such sadism... You truly are the best, Sir Caim.”

“...Fine, I’ll do it.”

The four maids accepted Caim’s command with various looks on their faces, all of them putting the hems of their skirts in their mouths and starting to play with their private parts. Muffled moans filled the room as they did their best not to let their skirts drop while pleasuring themselves.

They caressed their clefts and dug in with their fingertips. In Lenka’s case, she even used one of her hands to grope her breast and toy with it. Even Rozbeth, who had complained earlier, obeyed the order dutifully, closing her eyes as she endured the pleasure she gave herself with her fingers. Tea enjoyed Caim staring at her, while Millicia sent him embarrassed glances.

The four maids entertained their master with their lewd performance, their knees trembling in pleasure.

“Man, I feel like a king... This is amazing,” Caim said, captivated by a sight that most people would never see. Just as he had ordered, the girls were all masturbating, their hot bodies trembling and their skin flushed. Even though Caim’s gaze was embarrassing, they also enjoyed it, finding it greatly arousing. “I haven’t even touched you yet, but you’re already all completely soaked. What erotic maids.”

His comment sent a shiver down the girls’ spines, intensifying their moans.

“You can stop now,” Caim ordered with a clap of his hands. He had noticed they were reaching their limits.

“Aaah... Grrraooow...”

“Haaa... You are so mean, Caim...”

“Once again, you’re toying with me...”

“Ugh... How humiliating...”

The four stopped masturbating, panting. Their skirts fell back in place, covering their previously exposed private parts.

“That should be enough foreplay. Time to enjoy the main event,” Caim said, tapping on the bed. The lascivious sight had had quite the effect on him, and his prized “sword” was already pushing hard against his pants. “You’re gonna service me, right? Go on.”

“Master Caim!” Now that they’d received their master’s permission, the four maids jumped at him like dogs who had been forced to wait for a treat and stripped him of his clothes. Then they pushed him down on the bed and started licking him all over.

“Slurp... You taste so good...”

“I could drink your sweat forever...”

As the Poison King, Caim’s fluids were like an aphrodisiac for women compatible with him, and they found them absolutely delicious. The girls greedily licked off his sweat and saliva in rapture.

“Me first!” Tea proclaimed, jumping onto Caim’s lap. Her cleft, dripping wet thanks to masturbating earlier, easily accepted Caim’s “sword.” “Grrrraaaoooooooow!” Tea immediately climaxed, as she was already near her limit, her back arching and her body twitching. “You’re as amazing as ever, Master Caim...”

“You, on the other hand, are tighter than usual... Was waiting that hard for you?” Caim asked.

“Grrraoow... How embarrassing...”

“Well, here’s your reward. Enjoy it,” Caim said, thrusting from below, eliciting a loud moan from Tea. He was so relentless that it was as though Tea was riding a wild horse, which brought her even more pleasure than before.

“This is it... This is what I— Aaaaaaaaaaah!”

“Tea looks like she is feeling so good... I am jealous...”

“Don’t forget about us.”

Millicia and Rozbeth complained on Caim’s left and right, so he unbuttoned the front of their uniforms and groped their breasts, making them moan louder.

“Sorry. I’ll show you plenty of love—don’t worry.” Caim dug his fingers into their flesh, fondling their breasts.

Because he was groping them both at the same time, he could really tell how much smaller Rozbeth was than Millicia, which made him sigh with pity.

“Wait, what are you sighing for?! You’re mocking me, aren’t you?!” Rozbeth snapped at him, noticing his pitying gaze.

“You’re imagining things.”

“Don’t underestimate a woman’s intuition! You’ve got a lot of nerve thinking that while you’re fondling my— Aaah!”

“I told you that it’s just your imagination. Don’t be so suspicious,” Caim chided her, pinching her nipple. “You don’t need to worry, anyway—it’s not like I hate your breasts or anything. In fact, you’re definitely the most sensitive, so I like toying with them.”

Caim wasn’t just saying this to placate Rozbeth—he was being honest. Perhaps because they were so much smaller, Rozbeth’s breasts were very sensitive, so he enjoyed her reactions the most when playing with her.

“Ugh... You can’t just toy with my chest like this!”

“Give up. That’s just the kind of guy I am, so you’d better just accept it,” Caim replied with another strong thrust into Tea, which brought her to climax.

“It’s my turn next! I won’t wait any longer!” Lenka declared, replacing Tea and straddling Caim with a lascivious expression, her breasts jiggling out of her maid’s uniform.

“That’s unfair, Lenka!”

“To think you’d slip past my guard... Not bad.”

Millicia and Rozbeth were both vexed to have been beaten to the punch.

“I have been waiting for an opportunity since earlier. I will not give my place to anyone—even you, my lady!” Lenka proclaimed triumphantly. “Well then, let’s do it, Sir Caim!”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it... Bring it on.” It was his second round in the cowgirl position for the night, and Caim didn’t hesitate to thrust his “sword” into Lenka from below.

Eventually, he made Lenka climax, then he followed with Millicia and Rozbeth after that. Naturally, they didn’t stop there—the maid role-play had really fired them up, and they continued to take turns until it was nearly dawn.

“Mmmh!”

But Caim’s maidful night wasn’t over yet. Just when he’d finally managed to get some sleep, he found himself in a forest with a woman assaulting him.

“Wait, you’re...!”

It was the green-haired woman from before. She was also wearing a maid’s uniform, but she must have been unused to wearing clothes at all because she hadn’t buttoned it correctly. It did, however, give her a rather lewd appearance.

“Mmmh!”

“Wait, don’t tell me you want to do it too?” Caim asked, surprised by the sudden appearance of a fifth maid. The green-haired woman quickly stripped him, her arousal clear on her face. “Jeez... Oh well, I suppose just a little won’t hurt.”

“Mmmmmh!”

While still exhausted, Caim fulfilled the new maid’s expectations as his “sword” stood tall once again.

Extra Story: Father Kevin Halsberg’s Ordeals

In every age, in every nation, one question always returns—who is the strongest?

The current era had multiple candidates for this title. The captain of the Knights of the Golden Lion, Gawain the Black Knight, and Merlin the Great Sage from the Garnet Empire; the S-rank adventurers known as the Storm King and the Magic Sword Princess; the commander of the church’s templar knights; the kung fu master from the east; Faust the Devilish Scientist; the Immortal Butterfly, the oldest assassin; or one of the seven monsters referred to as Demon Lords.

This topic had sparked endless debates, but in a small country at the center of the continent—the Jade Kingdom—the question of who was strongest had only one possible answer: Kevin Halsberg, the Master Pugilist.

He was an S-rank adventurer as well as one of the heroes who had defeated the Demon Lord known as the Poison Queen. As a reward and in recognition of his strength, he was given the peerage of a count. No one in the country doubted he was the most powerful, even the pure-blooded aristocrats who didn’t like his ascension to nobility. He even had the trust of the king himself.

However, though few people were aware of this, Kevin was no longer qualified for the title of strongest in the country. Indeed, he had been defeated by none other than his own son, who had inherited the poison curse—Caim, the Poison King.

And it was no mere defeat. He had only narrowly escaped death by Caim’s toxic mana. However, the aftereffects of the poison had sapped most of his strength, and the doctor had told him up front that he would never reclaim the power he had wielded in his prime.

Kevin was now nothing more than a shadow of his former self as the Master Pugilist.

〇 〇 〇

“To think my first visit to the royal palace in years would be like this...”

A man was standing in front of the royal palace in the capital of the Jade Kingdom—Count Kevin Halsberg, the Master Pugilist. However, while before he had been a tall and muscular man, he was now thin, with atrophied muscles and a hunched back like an old man’s, and he used a cane to walk. There was nothing left of his presence as the Jade Kingdom’s strongest man, and more than half of his fiery red hair had turned white.

I don’t see anyone I know, but would they even be able to recognize me anyway? Kevin thought bitterly, grimacing. Anyone who knew how Kevin had looked in his prime would doubt their eyes if they saw him right now. Who would believe the man who looked like an invalid was the Master Pugilist himself?

“Oh well, it’s no use dwelling on it...” Kevin mumbled. Time couldn’t be turned back, and the scars from his defeat would not disappear. His shoulders drooped in resignation, and he limped to the castle gate. “I am Count Kevin Halsberg. I was summoned by His Highness the fifth prince.”

“You are...Count Halsberg?” The soldier guarding the gate looked at Kevin doubtfully. He had never seen Kevin before, but he couldn’t believe the sickly man before him was the Kevin Halsberg.

“Here’s my identification and the letter from the prince.”

The guard received Kevin’s papers, and once he read them, he immediately straightened up. “Please forgive my rudeness, sir! I shall guide you to His Highness right away!” True to his words, he led Kevin inside the palace. “This way, please. Prince Roussel is awaiting your arrival.”

“Right...” Kevin’s expression stiffened.

Kevin had come to the royal castle, limping with his cane, because he had been summoned by Roussel Jade, the fifth prince of the Jade Kingdom. As for the reason behind his summons, it was because his missing daughter—Arnette—was there.

His beloved daughter had left home a few months ago in the pursuit of her twin brother, Caim, to avenge her father who had nearly been killed. Kevin had sent everyone he could to search for his missing daughter, which had caused a severe labor shortage in the Halsberg County. That was why he had to come to the capital all by himself.

Moreover, because the soldiers who ordinarily protected his domain from monsters had all been ordered to assist in the search, several villages in the territory had suffered considerable losses. Incidentally, many of the villagers affected by this were people who had once tormented Caim, scorning him as a cursed child by throwing stones at him and selling him rotten vegetables. Perhaps it was divine retribution that they had been attacked by monsters and had their fields devastated. They’d been injured and starved—which, ironically, put them in the same position they had once forced Caim into.

To think Arnette would be in the royal palace... But why did I receive a letter from Prince Roussel himself?

The prince’s letter had informed him about Arnette’s presence in the castle, but not how she had ended up there, so he didn’t know what relationship there was between his daughter and Roussel.

“Count Halsberg is here, Your Highness,” the guard announced when they arrived at the door to a room.

“Enter,” a voice answered from inside.

The soldier opened the door, and what Kevin saw inside shocked him.

“Huh...?”

Sitting on a chair inside the room was a young man who had once been handsome. However, now his looks were ruined. A part of his face was caved in, his nose was broken, and he had lost one of his eyes. Just what had happened to the handsome young prince?

“Are you...Prince Roussel?” Kevin asked.

“Ah, this is our first meeting, Count Halsberg. I’d heard you were sick in bed, and it seems you truly are in poor health,” Roussel replied.

“W-Well...” Kevin almost continued with “aren’t you in poor health as well?” but stopped himself just in time. Silence was golden. One of the things Kevin had learned when becoming a noble was that people shouldn’t open their mouths carelessly.

“Sit. I called you here for an important discussion,” Roussel said.

“...Excuse me, then.” Kevin pulled out the chair in front of the prince and sat down. Even as simple an action as this had become a grueling effort for him.

“I’ve summoned you here because of your daughter, Arnette Halsberg.”

“Yes, I read in your letter that she was in the royal palace, but I do not know the circumstances.”

“Well, to be more precise, she isn’t really in the castle proper anymore,” Roussel answered, his disfigured face twisting slightly. Because of his injuries, however, Kevin wasn’t able to read his expression. “She is now imprisoned in the dungeon as a criminal.”

“What?!” Kevin exclaimed in shock, trying to stand up. However, his weak knees failed him, and he fell to the ground with a grunt of pain.

“Hey there, are you all right?” the prince inquired.

“Y-Yes, do not worry about me... More importantly, just what did my daughter do to be imprisoned?!”

“What did she do, you ask?” Roussel pointed at his face. He didn’t even have to say anything—the gesture was enough explanation.

“Y-You mean she was the one who did this to your royal countenance?!” Kevin immediately went pale. True, Arnette had always been naive and free-spirited, behaving recklessly as any child would, but she was a kind girl. Kevin couldn’t believe she had raised a hand against royalty. “H-How did this happen...?”

“It would take too long to explain right now, so it will have to wait, but you should understand that there is no forgiving what she did, no? Even Healing Magic could not mend this. I was told that bone fragments might pierce my brain if I wasn’t careful, so it was better not to force it. In other words, I will look like this for the rest of my life.”

Kevin was struck speechless, his lips trembling. If Arnette had truly been the one to do this, then she would never be able to escape the death penalty. He suspected that as her relative, he had been called here to die with her.

“Everything is my fault for not being able to keep her in check,” Kevin somehow managed to say. He stopped trying to stand up and instead prostrated himself, rubbing his forehead on the floor. “So please, do not kill my daughter. My life is yours to do as you wish, so I implore you, spare her!” Kevin pleaded frantically.

Raising a hand against royalty was tantamount to treason, and the punishment implicated the offender’s entire family. The outcome wouldn’t change even if Kevin offered his head—and yet, he had to try. After all, Arnette was the last memento from his late wife and the only family he had left now that Caim had severed ties with him.

“Please, I beg you!”

“Be at ease. I do not plan to execute any of you,” Roussel reassured Kevin, much to the latter’s surprise. “Not out of compassion, however. This is purely political. You are the hero of our country, Count Halsberg. Revealing that your daughter has harmed royalty would cause much anxiety among the populace and might even create an opening for another nation to attack.”

Kevin was loved by the people as the hero who had saved the kingdom from the Poison Queen. He was also an important figure in the Adventurers’ Guild, even after becoming a noble. Announcing that the daughter of such a hero had injured the prince would sow unease and doubt among the populace. It would also erode the royal family’s relationship with the Adventurers’ Guild.

“Therefore, what Arnette has done will be treated as a mere unfortunate accident, and she won’t face punishment,” Roussel said.

“Your Highness... I thank you from the bottom of my heart!” Not caring about appearance, Kevin once again prostrated himself in tears before a man more than a decade his junior. Coupled with his emaciated body ravaged by poison, Kevin looked nothing like the hero he once was. Now, he was nothing more than a father concerned about his daughter.

“However... I will not do this for free. There is a condition,” continued the prince.

“A...condition?”

“Arnette must become my wife. You won’t object, will you?”

“What?!” Kevin exclaimed, shocked. He felt like he had just been thrown into the abyss. This was one of the most distressing things a father could experience—having his beloved daughter taken away by another man. “Wh-Why would you want her as your wife...?”

“Do you think any woman will approach me ever again with this face? It’s only natural that I demand the perpetrator to take responsibility for it, no?”

“B-But...!” Kevin reflexively tried to protest the idea of his beloved daughter being married off, but quickly stopped himself as he stared at the prince’s eye. It was murky, clouded by a complex mix of emotions—love, hate, obsession, longing, desire to possess, and many others.

Roussel had fallen for Arnette at first sight. He had been charmed by how, despite her cuteness and naivety, she was strong and resolute. But having his face ruined by the girl he loved had twisted his affection. While he still loved her, he also hated and resented her just as much, and his contradictory feelings had intermingled to form a complex obsession with Arnette.

“If you refuse our marriage, I won’t show any mercy. Arnette will be executed, and House Halsberg will also receive an appropriate punishment.”

Kevin groaned in distress.

“Think carefully, Count Halsberg. This is hardly a bad outcome. After all, Arnette will have to marry someday anyway. Indeed, it should be an honor that I, the fifth prince of the Jade Kingdom, will become her husband.”

Kevin didn’t reply, pondering this in silence. Roussel wasn’t wrong. As a provincial noble, Kevin should be weeping in joy that his daughter could marry into royalty. The issue, however, was that Kevin didn’t know what Roussel planned to do to Arnette. No father would give his daughter to a man with the look the prince had in his eye.

There’s no doubt that he resents Arnette. Does he want to marry her to take revenge...?

“Be at ease, for I shall take very good care of your daughter. I’ll even make sure that we produce an heir for House Halsberg. She’ll birth dozens of children. I’ll never allow her out of my sight—never!” Roussel declared with a smile that only confirmed Kevin’s fears.

Unfortunately, even if the prince’s objective was revenge, Kevin couldn’t do anything to stop him.

If I weren’t in this state, I could have freed Arnette, defeated the palace’s soldiers and knights, and escaped with her to another country! Had he been in his prime, Kevin would have been able to solve this problem with force, but that was impossible now that Kevin was so weak that even a rookie soldier could easily knock him down.

“Understood... Please take care of my daughter...” Kevin relented, dropping his shoulders. He couldn’t refuse. Without the power to protect Arnette, he was forced to rely on the prince’s mercy.

I lost my wife, forced a curse upon my son, and now can’t use my prized martial arts anymore. Arnette is the only thing I have left. And yet...!

If his wife had been alive, or if he could have entrusted Arnette to his reliable son, he would have been able to make a different choice. Once again, Kevin realized just how terrible a mistake he had made.

Roussel nodded contentedly, seeing Kevin’s resignation. “Then the matter is settled. We shall announce my marriage to Arnette to the public soon. Unfortunately, because of my face, the ceremony will have to be held in private, so—”

“Your Highness! This is an emergency!” a soldier suddenly interrupted, barging into the room.

Roussel frowned, displeased, and glared at the soldier who had interrupted him. “What is the meaning of this? I am in the middle of an important conversation!”

“B-But the criminal has run away! Arnette Halsberg has escaped from prison, defeated the soldiers guarding her, and fled the castle!”

“WHAT?!” Kevin and Roussel screamed in unison.

The tomboy princess slipped from the men’s grasp like a little bird, injuring the dozens of soldiers and knights who had tried to stop her prison break.

Roussel’s face grew red with fury at hearing that the girl he loved had fled. Kevin, meanwhile, went deathly pale and fainted on the spot at the new scandal his beloved daughter had created.

Afterword

Long time no see, everyone. This is LeonarD, the eternal chuuni author.

With this, we have reached the sixth volume of this series, so it once again takes the record for my longest-running work.

As usual, I am grateful to the readers, Won-sensei, and everyone who was involved in the publication of this book!

The cover this time features the Immortal Butterfly wearing a sexy kimono-like costume instead of her usual Gothic Lolita attire. I’m certain nobody saw that coming!

The story is reaching its climax with battles more intense than ever before. And with the increase in the number of heroines, the nighttime battles are also getting more intense!

Please continue to watch over Caim’s daytime and nighttime battles from now on too!

Until then, I shall pray to all the gods, Buddhas, and devils for us to meet again.

LeonarD

Bonus Short Stories

The Wolf Girl’s Secret

Lykos had been raised by the Lycaon King. Her age was unknown, but she had once appeared as an adult woman during the battle against the assassins at Mount Garank. While he had only seen her for an instant, Caim still clearly remembered the beautiful woman with green hair.

“Maybe I should try to learn more about Lykos,” Caim thought, on a certain day when they had stopped to camp on their way to Berwick.

“Let’s get the camp ready.”

“I will take care of dinner.”

The girls began to prepare the camp while Lykos headed toward the nearby forest on her own.

“She’s doing her own thing as usual... I should follow her this time.”

Caim tailed Lykos as she sniffed the air, following a scent, until eventually she reached a tree and started to dig the earth at its base.

“Mmmh!” Lykos exclaimed happily, having discovered something—a big caterpillar—which she didn’t hesitate to eat.

“Come on, don’t have a snack just before dinner,” Caim said in exasperation. He didn’t particularly mind the fact that she ate insects, having done the same before becoming the Poison King. “Can’t blame her, though. They’re crunchy and tastier than they seem.”

Lykos swallowed the caterpillar and resumed her walk. She followed another scent until she reached a tree with grape-filled branches.

“Mmmh!” She climbed the tree like a monkey, then plucked the fruits, eating them deliciously one after another.

“Another snack? Man, she’s such a glutton...”

Lykos let out a cute burp after her third bunch of grapes, then plucked a few more bunches and put them inside her clothes.

“Are those for us...?”

“Mmmh!” Lykos smiled contentedly once she was done filling the chest part of her attire with grapes. Her smile was so adorable and innocent that Caim no longer cared about who she truly was.

“Whoever she is, Lykos is Lykos,” Caim concluded. There were still many mysteries about her, but Lykos was already part of the group. While he was still curious about her secrets, he wasn’t too intent on pursuing the truth. “She should return to the camp soon, so I should also head back— Wait...”

Caim had noticed something: Even though there were a large amount of grapes here, there weren’t any animals nearby.

“Could it be...?!” Just as Caim came to a realization, a huge shadow jumped at Lykos with a strange cry.

“Mmmh?”

“Kirin!” Caim quickly fired a condensed mana shock wave, hitting the three-meter-large spider—likely the reason for the lack of animals.

It must prey on everything that comes to eat the grapes!

“Seiryuu!” Caim immediately followed by slashing at the monster with a blade of compressed mana, cutting into pieces and killing it instantly. “Phew, that was a close call.”

“Mmmh?” Lykos cocked her head curiously, surprised by the sudden appearance of the spider corpse—and Caim along with it.

Caim awkwardly scratched his head. “Don’t mind me, I was just taking a stroll in the forest.”

“Mmmh.”

“Anyway, let’s go back to the camp,” Caim said, internally sighing in relief that Lykos hadn’t noticed that he’d been tailing her.

However, before they could take a single step, another giant spider jumped at them from a tree.

“It wasn’t alone!” Caim clicked his tongue, staring at the angry spider. Perhaps it was the previous one’s sibling or mate. Either way, Caim readied himself to repel it.

“Mmmh!”

“Lykos?!”

Lykos leaped toward the giant spider before Caim could stop her. Her body grew, tearing her clothes and causing the grapes inside to fall to the ground.

“Begone, you lowly insect,” declared the now adult Lykos, rotating midair before tearing apart the monster in two with a sharp axe kick and landing on the ground.

“Lykos...?”

“Mmmh?” Lykos turned his way, back to her child form but with her clothes still torn, innocently tilting her head.

“...You know what? I don’t even care anymore.”

“Mmmh!”

“Let’s go back before everyone starts to worry.”

The two of them gathered bunches of grapes and returned to the camp.

Incidentally, Lykos ate all of her dinner despite snacking on the caterpillar and grapes. Also, while Millicia never found out about Lykos’s snacking, she did scold her for ruining her clothes.

Fishing Contest

During their trip, Caim and the girls came upon a river.

“It’s pretty wide. I don’t think the carriage will be able to cross it,” Caim commented.

“There should be a ferry nearby...” Millicia leaned out of the wagon, searching their surroundings. Eventually, she spotted a crowd a little ways away. “It seems there is something ahead.”

“Let’s check it out, then.” Caim drove toward the crowd and stopped by the nearest person.

“Good day, travelers. What brings you here?” asked the man.

“We want to cross the river. Is there a boat we can take?”

“Unfortunately, the ferryboat is under repair. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”

“I see...” Caim muttered. They’d have to camp here tonight. “By the way, is the crowd waiting for the boat too?”

“No, they’re here for the fishing contest. Do you want to join?”

“A fishing contest, huh? Could be fun.”

“We have nothing else to do, so might as well,” Millicia agreed.

And so, everyone—Caim, Millicia, Tea, Lenka, Rozbeth, and even Lykos—decided to join the contest. They each borrowed a fishing rod and bait before heading to the riverbank.

“It’s been a while since I last went fishing,” Caim muttered to himself. He had sometimes had to fish when he’d been living alone, so while he wasn’t that skilled, he had a decent amount of experience. “I wonder how it’s going for everyone.”

Caim decided to make the rounds of his companions.

Millicia and Lenka were fishing together.

“You need to hold the rod like this, my lady. Then you move it this way...”

“This is to lure the fish, right? Ah, I got one!”

“Well done! You are such a fast learner, my lady!”

Lenka was teaching Millicia how to fish, and they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

“Seems like everything is going great for these two. What about Tea...”

“Grrraow!” Tea roared. She was knee deep in the river, swinging her arm like a bear to catch fish. “I got a big one!”

“Mmmh!” Lykos emerged from the water, a large fish in her mouth.

“Oh, you’ve caught a big one too, Lykos?”

“That’s not fishing,” Caim deadpanned.

“This is against the rules. You are disqualified,” announced one of the people in charge of the contest.

“Then does that mean my method doesn’t work either?” Rozbeth asked, throwing a knife and hitting a fish leaping out of the water.

“No, it doesn’t. You are also disqualified.”

Can’t you guys fish normally? Caim thought, exasperated.

“Anyway, I should get to fishing myself.”

Caim found a vacant location and cast his line into the river. However, even after waiting for a while, nothing bit.

“Hmm... Maybe I should throw in some ground bait.”

Despite his words, Caim didn’t actually throw ground bait into the river—he used poison instead. Indeed, his toxins could not only kill his enemies, but also charm and arouse women compatible with him. He could easily create a poison that would attract fish.

“Oh, I’ve got a bite.” There was a hard yank on Caim’s fishing rod, and he hauled it back strongly.

“GYAAAAAAO!”

“Huh?”

However, what he’d caught wasn’t a fish but a monster. The three-meter long beast leaped toward Caim with sharp fangs bared, intending to devour him.

“Toukishin Style Basic Stance—Seiryuu.”

Caim created a blade of condensed mana on his arm and cut the monster fish to pieces.

“That wasn’t against the rules, was it?” Caim asked.

“Well... No, it wasn’t, but now that you have sliced it up we cannot measure it, so...” the man answered, troubled.

“Ah, yeah... Makes sense.”

“Better luck next time,” the man encouraged him.

Unfortunately, Caim didn’t manage to hook a big catch after that.

In the end, the winner was Millicia. Thanks to beginner’s luck, she caught a fish slightly over one meter long and took first place in the contest.