3. Rosharran>“Uuugh…….”
Rokum swept his terrified gaze around.
The Tian soldiers, himself included, had ultimately been defeated by the army of the dead, and the northern fortress he had been guarding had been taken.
The surroundings were already filled with the bizarre army he had fought earlier.
The ones among the soldiers, himself included, who were called the army of the dead were no longer charging at them as before. Of course, there was no need for them to do so, since they had already been taken prisoner.
But the fact that the ones who had devoured them were now so quiet only made the atmosphere even more terrifying.
It was even worse when he saw the way they looked at him with what seemed like pity. Their gazes seemed to hint that something terrible was about to happen to him.
Just then, a small commotion suddenly broke out among the army of the dead that had been silently watching them.
‘…
What is it?’
Rokum was terrified, but precisely because of that, his gaze was drawn toward the commotion. No matter how bad the situation was, it did not seem possible for anything worse to come. Any element that might change the current situation was welcome.
A commotion spread among the army of the dead, and they stared fearfully at a single point.
Before long, the dead parted in a line, and something suddenly popped out from between them.
Because the blood pooled in his eyes made it difficult to see what had emerged, Rokum shook his head to dislodge the dried blood, then narrowed his eyes as he examined the thing that had suddenly appeared.
When he identified the unknown creature, he frowned.
‘…
A fairy?’
It was impossible for a creature like that to be here, but judging by its appearance alone, it was unmistakably a fairy from legend.
It had the body of a small child and four wings growing from its back.
Whenever those wings fluttered in every direction, tiny silver particles scattered through the air.
And its face was unbelievably cute… Rokum could not tell whether it was male or female, but it looked like the sort of creature that would suffer terribly if captured by perverted nobles. Gender would hardly matter to them, anyway.
The prisoners, Rokum included, were momentarily stunned by the appearance of such a beautiful being, utterly at odds with the cannibalistic army of the dead.
At the same time, a small glimmer of hope arose within them. Perhaps a being like that would save them… The fairies in the books enjoyed playing tricks, but they were certainly benevolent creatures.
However, it did not take long for Rokum to realize that this was merely a delusion he had desperately conjured up in his terror.
☆ ☆ ☆
The twenty-seventh daughter,
Ever since they had fled to the Great Forest to escape the monstrous creature that had devoured them all and destroyed their kingdom thousands of years ago, the Queen had never been in a good mood. But over the past four hundred years, nothing but pleasant things had happened.
It had all begun four hundred years ago, when the imperial monkeys who had threatened them and prevented them from ever leaving the Great Forest were all wiped out. Six hundred years ago, when those creatures had expanded their influence right up to the edge of the Great Forest, Larokura had eagerly rushed to attack them. If they enslaved those creatures again, they could lead comfortable lives. Life in the Great Forest without slaves had been far too difficult for them.
But the monkeys they encountered again after thousands of years had changed completely. Who could have imagined that creatures who had once done nothing but serve as their slaves would acquire such bizarre powers and grow so mighty while they hid in the Great Forest?
They had been forced to flee deep into the Great Forest after suffering a bitter defeat. The humiliation had been all the greater because they had been driven in by creatures who had once been treated as slaves.
How could she not be happy when all of those creatures had vanished? Even better, quite a large number of them had somehow survived the great calamity. In the past, she had feared them when they could gather together and use the thing called magic, but those who had already been reduced to dust were not frightening at all.
In the Great Forest, where only Harijans—difficult to turn into slaves because they required too much blood—remained, it had been difficult for them to expand their power. Naturally, they could not help but rejoice that so many monkeys and other races of a suitable size had survived.
Her people, who had lived concealed within the Great Forest, immediately began enslaving those scattered across the vast land, just as they had when they built their kingdom thousands of years ago.
After several centuries of effort, their influence had grown quite immense. It was said to be nothing compared to the height of their prosperity thousands of years ago, but Larokura herself was more than satisfied simply to have secured a place in the Great Forest.
Her mother, however, did not seem satisfied in the least. Perhaps longing for the days when their kingdom still stood, she wished to continue expanding their power. In fact, she had constantly searched through the territory of the former empire in an attempt to enslave the survivors who had remained alive.
But her people and their slaves could not descend any farther.
The farther down they went, the stronger became the presence of the monstrous creature that had devoured them thousands of years ago. It was too terrifying to approach. The monstrous creature with six horns that had invaded their kingdom back then, when it had flourished dozens of times more than it did now.
Countless slaves had charged forward to buy them time to escape, but it had been utterly meaningless.
The monster had simply walked toward them and swallowed all of their fleeing kin in its enormous mouth. The surviving Queen and her people had fled madly into the Great Forest, where the monster would not pursue them, and barely managed to survive. Fortunately, the Great Forest belonged to another Krona, so that creature, Dragona, had not invaded it.
The Queen still seemed to bear the terror of that time. Indeed, even when sentinels carrying the monstrous creature’s presence passed through their territory, she left them alone instead of attacking.
They could not leave through the opposite side of the Great Forest, either, so even after their power had grown strong, they had been forced to remain hidden within the forest for some time.
Then, not long ago, an event occurred that made their entire race tremble with joy.
The Queen cried out with a face filled with delight. Her words excited all of their kin. Every obstacle standing in their way had now disappeared.
They had long since finished preparing. Their army of slaves had been complete for a very long time. They had been unable to touch the humans to the south beyond the Sky Mountains because they could not cross them, but things were different now.
The presence that had once made them afraid was gone, so there was nothing left to hinder them. While the Queen prepared other things, they put their assembled slaves to work and advanced steadily southward.
And then they discovered the monkeys’ fortress.
To be honest, Larokura had been a little worried on the way down. She had been there six hundred years ago, when they had suffered defeat. The magic those creatures used had been quite frightening, and she had no idea what developments they might have achieved in the intervening years.
But the creatures they met again after so long had instead regressed. No—in precise terms, their swordsmanship had become somewhat more useful. However, the field of magic, which they feared, had deteriorated terribly.
She had no idea what those foolish monkeys had been doing all this time, but it seemed they had focused more on swords than on magic.
That was excellent news for them. At least their slaves feared magic more than swords. No matter how they received their power and became incapable of dying, they would be unable to move if all their limbs were burned away.
But if they were cut by swords, they only had to eat and recover.
Now that it had been confirmed that their slaves could defeat those creatures, the task was simple.
Her brothers and sisters were probably working hard to increase their own slaves as well.
Larokura smiled as she looked at the candidates for slavery before her. They could not even imagine what was about to happen. They had not seen her people for thousands of years, after all. Back then, at least, her people had been the embodiment of terror to these creatures.
Larokura lightly bit the tip of her finger. Unlike the slaves who could not die, she was fragile, so she had to be careful.
Before long, a tiny drop of blood seeped from the tip of her sixth finger. But no one would have called it a drop of blood at a glance. Blood was supposed to be red, not golden.
This golden blood was proof that her clan, the
Strength and weakness were not what mattered. The one they called the general of those monkeys was probably stronger than Larokura herself. Yet she was the one who ruled in the end. A noble was not someone strong, but someone who ruled.
Gazing at the glistening drop of blood shining at her fingertip, Larokura let it fall into the mouth of one of the monkeys beneath her soldiers, unable to offer the slightest resistance. The creature before her appeared to be a Master by their standards. In that case, one drop should be enough. It ought to be grateful for having received even a single drop of her blood, more precious than gold.
Besides, was her blood ordinary? Was it not miraculous blood that bestowed ‘immortality’? Monkeys who could live for only a hundred years or so ought to be grateful to her. In fact, most of the army here had been created after the empire fell, so they had already lived for three or four hundred years by default.
As the golden blood flowed into its mouth, the creature beneath her fought against it, refusing to swallow it, but the attempt was meaningless.
The instant the drop touched its lips, it moved as though alive, rolling along and sliding down its throat.
Now all she had to do was wait. She did not have time to stand around watching it change. Although her brothers and sisters were here, there were still more than several hundred slaves left to subjugate.
Leaving the monkey rolling around before her, Larokura moved down the line, letting a drop of blood fall into each slave’s mouth in turn. As she did so, she felt slightly dizzy. Her body was not particularly large to begin with… and the feeling was even worse after increasing their numbers for several days without a moment’s rest.
But she had no time to rest. She had to expand her influence as quickly as possible and establish a greater power than her sisters if she wanted to receive the Queen’s favor.
While Larokura steeled herself and continued her work, murmuring arose from the surrounding army.
Already exhausted, Larokura was trying to concentrate on her task when the noise around her grew louder. She glared irritably at them.
At Larokura’s angry shout, everyone trembled in terror. They had personally experienced what happened when Larokura became angry over the past four hundred years.
But one brave creature looked toward the sky in that direction and spoke.
“Th-There’s something flying toward us from over there.”
Only then did Larokura look up at the sky. Something was flying toward them from far away.
Seeing the two objects flying across the plains at an astonishing speed, Larokura sensed that something was wrong. She did not know what they were, but she decided she could not let her guard down and ordered the slaves around her.
The slaves immediately began stacking their bodies into a wall. There were still slaves she had not subjugated, but it did not matter much if they died. If those suspicious things injured the slaves, she would need food with which to restore them anyway.
Soon, surrounded by a barricade of slaves, Larokura gazed into the air with a slightly calmer heart.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
The two objects, flying in at tremendous speed, smashed into the ground as they landed. But their power was far weaker than Larokura had expected, and she wrinkled her slightly cute face. She had assumed it was magic fired by the human bastards and expected something far more powerful. At this level, there had been no need to build a barricade.
Once the clouds of dust settled, the nature of the things that had flown in became clear.
Two ordinary human figures. But Larokura did not let down her guard. There was no way ordinary creatures could fly through the air like that.
And when one of the figures—a man—spoke, she grew even more tense and used the slaves to tighten the encirclement.
“Um… Are you the ones called the ‘Rosharran’?”
All the people on the continent who knew of her race had already become her slaves. Thus, when he accurately spoke the name of her race, Larokura answered tensely.
“Oh, you must be the one. I came because there’s something I need from you. Well, if you don’t mind…”
As the man made an embarrassed expression, Rarokura frowned.
“I know it isn’t exactly proper, but please donate some blood. It’s a matter of saving four lives.”
When she saw the impudent fellow take out a container, Rarokura’s patience finally reached its limit.
That insolent slave species was treating her like a blood bank!
“……”
“Haha! Little brother, I was right again this time, wasn’t I?”
At that, the army surrounding the two of them from every direction began to charge, and Stil leaped toward the troops rushing at her with eager excitement.
☆ ☆ ☆
When Sian saw the enemies charging at them, he recalled receiving a video call from Ragaofe.
More precisely, he remembered the conversation he had shared with Ragaofe.
“You’re saying there’s a race called the Roshara in the Great Forest?”
Sian had intended to leave as soon as Miss Stil woke up, but when she showed no sign of getting up, the bored Sian began asking Ragaofe all sorts of questions.
What he needed to obtain was the blood of the Roshara race. Naturally, he became curious about the Roshara themselves.
“What kind of property does it have?”
“Oh? Then does that mean you won’t die at all if you consume it?”
Sian asked because it reminded him of the Granain he had once fought. If they possessed such a trait, it seemed they would be completely incapable of dying.
Ragaofe shook his head emphatically.
What Ragaofe told him was as follows.
First of all, you would not die. But that only meant that your soul could not leave your body; it did not mean your body would remain undamaged. If your body were injured, you would have to remain within it while continuously feeling the pain. That, too, would last for the rest of your life.
The unusual thing was that, as long as the necessary materials were available, the body could be regenerated. But there was a major drawback. In the case of the Granain, their shells supplied an enormous amount of energy, granting them bodies close to self-regenerating immortality. The Roshara, however, possessed no such trait. In other words, they had to regenerate themselves, yet had nowhere to obtain the energy or materials needed to restore their destroyed bodies. The easiest source was the corpse of one of their own kind.
Thus, to escape the pain of their damaged bodies, they ate corpses and regenerated themselves. If no corpses were available, even a living member of their own race would do.
And they became slaves to the master of the blood. They could not attack their blood master and had no choice but to obey that master’s commands. Until their blood master released them, they would remain bound to that body for the rest of their lives. But from the master’s perspective, there was absolutely no reason to release a slave, so they would be trapped inside without even being able to die.
In other words, their souls would be imprisoned within their bodies. Worse still, they could never escape—a life sentence with no possibility of parole. If they happened to consume blood, even by mistake, they would have to live forever as the slave of the Roshara who had fed them that blood.
☆ ☆ ☆
‘So that’s how they’re using it……’
Sian gave a bitter smile as he watched the army charging toward him. If they made good use of those properties, they could indeed create an invincible army that could not die.
They could neither die nor fail to regenerate. On top of that, they obeyed orders without question. No army could be better suited for battle. But seeing the despair on their faces, Sian could guess what they were thinking.
They had lived as slaves for hundreds of years and would have to continue living as slaves for thousands more. Driven to despair by that reality, they charged forward as if begging someone to kill them.
And Miss Stil was fulfilling that wish admirably.
Boom! Crack! Crunch!
Every time Miss Stil swung her fist, the soldiers were blown away as nothing more than powder. There was a limit to how much a soul could remain bound to its body. If they took a shock from a Vander that powerful, the blood’s shackles themselves would be shattered.
‘Could it be… Miss Stil is going to all this trouble to free them?’
Wondering whether it was true that people changed when faced with the threat of death, Sian rubbed his eyes. Someone at Stil’s level had no need to do this. A single stomp into the ground would turn hundreds of them into bloody pulp. There was no reason for her to go to the trouble of striking them down one by one.
“Wahaha! This is really relieving all my stress! I love it!”
‘No, she isn’t.’
People supposedly changed when they were on the verge of death, but seeing Stil’s consistent attitude, Sian was relieved to find that this was apparently not the case. Perhaps sensing instinctively that they could be liberated by reaching Stil, the slave soldiers ignored Sian and all rushed toward her.
Thanks to that, a sudden storm of blood raged around Miss Stil.
It was a good thing. Sian had no business with the slave soldiers anyway.
Before the Roshara before him could issue another command, Sian hurried over and stood in front of him. Up close, the Roshara possessed remarkably beautiful features. He looked cute, yet he had no qualms about treating people as slaves… Once again, people should never be judged by their appearance. Even Stil over there was turning people into bloody pulp with a face like that.
The fairy-like Roshara wore a thoroughly unnerved expression as he watched Stil’s destruction.
‘Is this his first time seeing an Overhuman…? Why is he so surprised……?’
According to what Ragaofe had told him, the Roshara lived in the Great Forest and possessed extremely long lifespans. Even if Overhumans were difficult to encounter, a race that lived for hundreds of years should have seen one or two. Yet the race before him spoke as if this were his first time seeing an Overhuman.
But after thinking about it a little more, Sian decided there might not be any Overhumans in the Great Forest. It was not a place where humans lived, after all. And this fairy might simply be young.
‘But that’s not important right now……’
Sian looked at the Roshara before him and opened his mouth.
“Well… You would have been better off giving me some blood. But from what I saw earlier, you were spilling it quite freely. I thought it was extremely precious, but seeing how freely you were pouring it out, I figured it would be all right for me to take some.”
No matter how fierce an expression the winged fairy tried to make, he was not very frightening.
“If you keep doing that, I may just turn around and leave.”
At that, the fairy before him made a strange expression, as if wondering why Sian would offer him such a wonderful proposition. From the fairy’s perspective, Sian leaving was obviously the better option, but he had only thought one step ahead and failed to consider the second.
“I’ll be taking that woman with me.”
It would take Miss Stil less than ten minutes to grind the entire army here into dust. Even though she was destroying them one at a time, her speed was astonishing.
Naturally, once all her playthings here were gone, the fairy before him would be next.
“Actually, I could take more blood if I did that… but wouldn’t it be better for both of us to avoid such bloodshed? Let’s resolve this peacefully.”
How much do you need?>
In the end, the Roshara before him seemed to accept reality as well. Sian made a slightly embarrassed expression, and the fairy grew suddenly uneasy upon seeing it.
“Well, it’s nothing much. Just fill this up, please.”
As he spoke, Sian took out the specially made container he had received from Ragaofe. Ragaofe had explained that a small subspace had been formed inside the bottle, allowing the blood placed within it to be transported without any alteration whatsoever.
And when the fairy saw the bottle, he understood why the man before him had looked embarrassed.
You shameless bastard…….>
“Well, what else can I do? It isn’t as though I want to do this either, but I’m in a bit of a hurry myself.”
In Sian’s hand was a bottle nearly half the size of the fairy’s torso. Drawing that much blood would not kill him, but he would barely have enough life left to cling to. Still, he had no other choice.
If he refused this offer, his life would be in danger by another means—one far more violent and dangerous.
“Haha… Still, once we part this time, we probably won’t ever see each other again, will we? Just put your mind at ease and draw it all out.”
Sian handed him the small blade fragment he had prepared. It was his way of telling him to hurry up and cut himself. He had felt a little guilty on the way there, but after seeing what his fairy friends in the forest were doing, he no longer felt there was anything to be guilty about.
Having encountered an unexpected bandit, Rarokura’s face gradually grew pale as she watched the golden blood drip into the bottle. But she could no longer voice any complaints—not after hearing what the man said next.
“If it gets too difficult, try looking over at that woman. It may help you endure it.”
“If the blood isn’t coming out well, should I hang you upside down? I read in a book that it increases the pressure and makes the blood flow faster.”
“Well, if you don’t want that, never mind.”
Watching her army being reduced to bloody fragments, Rarokura could say nothing and silently focused on donating blood. Still, she consoled herself with the thought that, if the man was telling the truth, she would never have to see him again.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Mr. Ragaofe, you’ve arrived.”
“Haha! It’s good to see you, Mr. Sian. You made the trip quickly. Mr. Stantal… This is our first meeting, isn’t it? A pleasure to meet you. My name is Ragaofe.”
“Hm? Another Overhuman was still alive?”
“Ah… You hadn’t told her about Mr. Sian.”
“Oh dear……”
Come to think of it, Miss Stil knew of no Overhuman other than Groin. Since there had been so many other things to discuss, they had only touched briefly on that subject.
Ragaofe and Sian began explaining the matter to Stil, and the moment she heard about it, she made a fascinated expression.
“Wow… Something like that exists? Why didn’t you make one for me?”
“We did make one for you. At the time, Mr. Groin went and……”
“Oh, that’s what he was talking about? That man stuttered so much… What a thing. Haha! If I’d known, I would’ve gone after it more aggressively five years ago. Tsk.”
“You mustn’t do that. Even if Miss Stil had a Soul Gem, she wouldn’t be able to revive because she has no descendants.”
Sian scolded Miss Stil for trying to get brave, and Stil stared straight at him upon hearing those words.
“Hm… Descendants.”
“……”
‘I haven’t felt this before in a long time.’
Feeling embarrassed under her familiar glare, Sian hurriedly changed the subject.
“Ah… Mr. Ragaofe, speaking of which… I got it. Here.”
As he spoke, Sian abruptly took the bottle from the subspace in his palm and handed it to Ragaofe. The knife he had obtained last time, Karnain, possessed a function that could tear open space and create a storage area within it, so he had been putting it to very good use.
Ragaofe smiled as the golden liquid sloshed inside the bottle.
“Ah, Mr. Sian, you worked hard. Now that the materials are ready, all that remains is to make it. Please give me the other three bottles as well.”
“What?”
“Hmm? Didn’t I tell you? One bottle is enough for one person.”
“……”
“Oh my… No wonder you came back so quickly.”
“Darn……”
“Well, is there really a problem? You can just go and get more.”
Ragaofe spoke as if it were nothing, and Sian nodded at that. He intended to keep his promise. It was not as though he had to go back to that particular Roshara.
From what he had heard, they were a race, after all. There were probably many of them left. He could simply visit them one by one.
☆ ☆ ☆
The Queen of the Roshara.
With eight wings on her back, she gazed at the human army in the distance and smiled with satisfaction.
Flutter, flutter, flutter.
She was so excited that the wings attached to her back trembled of their own accord.
She was in an exceptionally good mood. She had no choice but to be. After thousands of years, the time had finally come for her people to reclaim the splendor and glory of their former golden age—the age when they had been called the
At the same time, she glanced behind her at the army and wore a faintly displeased expression.
Countless Masters and massive military forces. Even various other races were mixed in among them.
Moreover, even death could not threaten them.
Anyone could see that it was a threateningly vast army, but it was nowhere near enough to satisfy Rosharran. Compared to those days when they had occupied and lived across the plains between mountain ranges, both its quantity and quality were utterly pitiful.
It was an army she found far too unimpressive to adorn this moment, the moment that would herald the kingdom’s splendid beginning.
Of course, slaves were exceedingly weak at first. But if such creatures lived for hundreds or thousands of years and continued to experience battle, they could not help but grow stronger. Moreover, as their numbers continued to increase, they themselves—the Rosharran—had been able to display their brilliant might.
Back then, there had been nearly a hundred Grade 1 slaves, monkeys who had grown strong to their very limits. That was why even the six-horned Harijans could not recklessly challenge them. The difference between a six-horned Harijan and a Grade 1 slave was vast, but a difference of several hundred was enough to overturn the odds.
However, the army they had amassed over thousands of years had all been devoured by that monstrous Dragona.
The current army had existed for only about four hundred years, and its size was far smaller than before. There were a mere eight Grade 1 slaves. It was only natural that there should be a great difference in scale between an army gathered over hundreds of years and one gathered over thousands, but she could not help feeling displeased when she thought of those days.
‘Hah… It reminds me of when I first crossed over to this side…….’
The queen suddenly recalled the first time she had arrived here—Ra-Sian, as it was called in their language—alone and unaided. Her situation back then had been even more difficult than it was now.
Thinking of those days eased her mind. All she had to do was turn every one of those creatures before her into slaves. This battle would mark the beginning of their kingdom’s resurrection.
She did not even consider the possibility of losing. From what she had heard from the creatures they had enslaved this time, each country had only three or four Grade 1 slaves, and even those were not united.
Once they won, time would take care of the rest. If they worked those creatures for hundreds and thousands of years, the number of Grade 1 slaves would continue to increase.
Because this was also an important battle for them, all her sons and daughters had gathered here as well, each leading the slave soldiers she had summoned. Seeing the army multiply several times over in so little time filled her with pride. This was why one had to play in the wider world. Thinking of the days when they had been trapped in the Great Forest made her grind her teeth.
In truth, Rosharran had been deeply worried—more precisely, ever since the incident six hundred years ago when they had been thoroughly defeated in their clash with the empire.
While those creatures who had been no more than slave monkeys had advanced so far, they themselves had been trapped in the Great Forest for thousands of years. She had feared that they had failed to adapt to the changes and had been left behind.
That was why she had been slightly concerned about this march as well, but once the lid had been opened, the results had been deeply satisfying. They were still powerful.
As Rosharran basked in her pride, she realized that one of her children was nowhere to be seen.
At those words, Rosharran wore a puzzled expression. Though Larokura had only four wings, she was a daughter Rosharran favored. That was because she resembled her mother more than any of the others.
She possessed endless desire, yet knew her own limits. That was why, since birth, Larokura had been the child who increased the number of her wings the fastest. Given that their strength increased according to the number of slave soldiers they possessed, Rosharran had expected that once this invasion ended, Larokura would have no trouble growing six wings, even if seven was too much. But she had collapsed?
The Larokura Rosharran knew was absolutely not the sort of child who would overexert herself like that.
Feeling that something was suspicious, Rosharran asked the son beside her.
Rosharran had thought Larokura knew how to restrain herself, but it seemed she had supplied too much blood. If one drew out an excessive amount of blood in order to keep too many soldiers beneath one’s command, one’s control could become disordered, sometimes resulting in the loss of every soldier. In such cases, even if the main body recovered, the soldiers would scatter into a handful of blood mist. That was why they were told to be absolutely cautious, and yet something like this had happened……
Rosharran’s interest in Larokura abruptly vanished. She likely would not see her again even after this war ended. Losing control was the stupidest thing imaginable for a people whose very foundation was domination. Without soldiers, one had to act with one’s own hands. That was truly undignified.
Leading the five Grade 1 slaves who were not among the three guarding her, Rosharran began marching their slave soldiers forward. Her daughters and sons likewise began advancing their own armies, each of them leading tens of thousands of slaves they had gathered from various places.
☆ ☆ ☆
“They’re coming……”
King Narasha swallowed a groan as he watched the army of the dead marching in the distance.
They had not been fighting those creatures for very long, but it had been long enough to understand how terrifying they were.
They were not merely an army that did not fear death. They were an army that charged forward because it wanted to die.
No one could help but fear the sight of them rushing forward. And now King Narasha could understand the despair on their faces as well. If they lost, they would join that army. The dead he had seen at the beginning must have ended up that way through the same process.
Moreover, despite their efforts to minimize casualties, the enemy’s numbers had gradually increased, boasting an army several times larger than the one they had first seen.
The one fortunate thing was that their own forces were by no means insignificant. The moment he realized their opponent was formidable, King Narasha had conserved his troops and gathered them for this decisive battle.
Beside him stood the six Grang-Vanders that Taran was so proud of. Usharan, too, had realized the seriousness of the situation and deployed the Grang-Vanders and Kel-Lupuns. Despite such overwhelming strength, King Narasha could not feel at ease.
It was because of those fairy-like creatures standing over there.
The moment those creatures arrived, dead men of Grang-Vander caliber, who had not even been visible at the start of the war, appeared as reinforcements. Eight of them.
Until then, the northern region had barely managed to hold out. But from the moment those creatures arrived, it had begun to be torn apart. Though three of them had remained behind to guard the queen, five alone had been enough to destroy the northern fortresses.
Moreover, their combat power was far from negligible. Those with fewer than five wings were practically powerless, but from six wings onward, they were quite strong. A creature with around seven wings was difficult even for a Grang-Vander to handle easily. It was fortunate that, for whatever reason, they rarely stepped forward. Had they actively participated in the fighting, the war would have become far more difficult.
“Hah… I wish I could see that child Sian……”
King Narasha sincerely wished to see Sian. They said he was never around when needed, and even after making inquiries, there was no sign of where he had gone. Not that he had ever expected to find the movements of a transcendent being who had deliberately chosen to act on his own.
As King Narasha sighed, Taran’s champion, Jagron the Unbeaten, approached him.
“Are all preparations complete?”
“They are. Hah… I hope the title ‘Unbeaten’ still clings to you after this battle is over.”
King Narasha spoke with a bitter smile, and Jagron earnestly agreed. He had always wanted to win, but he had never wanted victory as desperately as he did in this battle.
He, too, had watched the battle footage. If it looked as though he were going to lose… he would kill himself immediately. He could not go on living in such a state.
At that moment, something strange entered Jagron’s field of vision. Two suspicious meteors came racing across the distant plain.
“Hmm……?”
Jagron heightened his vision to observe the approaching meteors. The two streaks were flying in a straight line toward the army of the dead.
Jagron was not the only one curious about what those objects were. King Narasha, standing beside him, narrowed his eyes and stared intently toward the meteors.
Then, all at once, he began to let out a hearty laugh.
“Wahahaha! You came!”
Hearing that undignified laughter, Jagron wondered who could possibly have arrived to make King Narasha—the raccoon famous for never revealing his true feelings—so delighted. When he sharpened his vision and confirmed the identity of the meteors, he too began laughing loudly.
“Hwahahahaha! Your Majesty! His Majesty has arrived!”
Only Prince Raccoon, commander of Usharan’s forces, failed to grasp the situation, frowning as he looked from one laughing champion to the other.
But he soon learned why the two champions were laughing so heartily.
☆ ☆ ☆
What is that…….>
Raum, Rosharran’s third daughter, muttered unconsciously. With seven wings, she was one of the pillars supporting the Rosharran bloodline.
She wore a puzzled expression as she watched the meteors flying toward them in the distance. But her hesitation was brief. Whatever it was, she would eliminate anything that might threaten her mother.
First, she summoned the Grade 1 slaves she trusted most. In terms of combat power alone, these slaves surpassed them, making them extremely reliable.
Then she began building a barricade. If the meteor happened to be some sort of explosive supernatural feat, she could not allow her mother to be injured by it.
Even after doing that, she was not reassured, so she called over her siblings nearby as well.
Liun, her twin born at the same time as her, asked in puzzlement after seeing Raum’s excessive preparations.
The sisters around them nodded at Liun’s words. The meteor was flying toward them at tremendous speed, but it gave off no particular feeling.
‘Could she have sensed something I do not?’
Liun had been wearing a slightly excited expression at the thought that her twin, who was always either ahead of her or behind her, had seen something more than she had. Then Raum’s next words made her realize what she had overlooked.
Liun looked at her mother’s expression and saw that, indeed, she wore a hardened face. She must have seen something they could not.
Only then did Liun realize the gravity of the situation as well, spreading her seven wings and beginning to draw up her strength.
Kuwaang!
The rapidly approaching meteor lightly leaped over the army blocking its path and landed. Of course, even that landing raised a considerable cloud of dust, but compared to the speed at which it had been flying, it was as light as a swallow alighting on a tree.
Whoong!
Curious about what was inside, Raum flapped her wings and blew away the dust. Though her body was small, the gale produced by her wings was unbelievably fierce.
“Hmm? Thank you.”
Amid the blown-away dust, a figure walked out, offering his thanks.
A monkey? What in the world!>
Raum made an incredulous face. How dare a mere slave species stride so boldly into their midst!
Raum was not the only one to react that way. All the blood kin around them were venting their fury at the insolent monkey.
But they did not charge forward. Not because they sensed something from him. It was simply because their mother stood there silently, staring at him with a rigid expression.
Their mother was not merely more violent than herself; she was by no means gentle by nature. Her strange behavior made them all hesitate, unable to move.
“Hmm… Since you are all gathered here, it will make things easier to discuss. Last time, I think I drew too much from one person, but this time I can take it evenly from all of you.”
The moment they heard the incomprehensible man’s words, a strange sense of unease began to rise in the blood kin’s hearts.
‘Why are
Rosharran felt as though she might faint when she sensed the beings before her, but with her blood kin watching, she desperately focused her mind to preserve her dignity as queen.
She could feel the startled gazes of her children around her, but she deliberately ignored them. The most important ability a leader could possess was judgment. And if she made the wrong judgment here… they would all die.
“Hmm?”
Sian found the queen’s unexpectedly calm attitude puzzling. It was certainly not because she had sensed the energy of his armor. His sisters-in-law had simply been unusual cases. Unless it was activated like this, its presence should not be detectable.
“By any chance… did the person who was carried away last time tell you about me?”
They had looked rather unsteady as they flew away, which made him a little uneasy, but judging by this fairy’s reaction, it seemed they had arrived safely.
‘They were attacked by these people… Larokura…….’
The queen felt sorry for her hasty judgment. If the ‘nobles’ had come rushing at them in the first place, there was no way they could have been defeated.
“……?”
Sian and Steel looked at each other, unable to understand what this fairy-like creature was saying.
“Lady Steel, is the fact that we are nobles important to this person?”
“I don’t know. And if being nobles were important, I don’t think they would have made them look like that.”
Steel then pointed at a slave standing near the fairies.
“That person is……”
Sian had seen him in a book before. Sian was not very good at remembering other people’s faces, but he remembered this man.
Because throughout his childhood, he had repeatedly vowed never to become like that.
A martial artist who had crossed the Great Northern Wall more than a hundred years ago in order to become stronger.
A major figure who had made Sian swear never to go that far when he was seventeen and agonizing over being blocked by the Wall.
Eclipse, once a noble of Taran during his lifetime, was now serving as a slave to the Rosharians.
‘Tsk, tsk… He crossed the Great Northern Wall and got himself into trouble…….’
As Sian clicked his tongue, Steel poked him in the side.
“Little brother, that’s not what’s important, is it?”
“Ah, that’s right.”
The nobles they were talking about might not be nobles in the sense that Sian and Steel understood. If they were a race living in the Great Forest, then surely even their words differed somewhat from those of outsiders.
But they would probably never meet again, so there was no need for Sian to study the fairy language just to understand that word. He only needed to take care of his business and leave. Besides, since they were behaving obediently, the conversation seemed likely to proceed quite smoothly this time.
“Well… I don’t think who we are is important… I came here because I have some business to take care of.”
‘They aren’t nobles……?’
Roshara looked puzzled when the man failed to understand their language. Judging by that powerful aura, which could be sensed through his blood, there was no way he was not a noble. She could not sense much from the man, but the woman was unmistakable.
More important than that, however, was ‘what they were going to demand of them now.’ Roshara focused all her attention on the man’s mouth.
“It’s nothing much… I’d like you to participate in saving some lives.”
As he spoke, Sian began taking several containers out of his palm one by one. Steel looked at him with a puzzled expression.
“Little brother, didn’t you only need three more bottles?”
“Ah… about that……”
Sian told Steel what Ragaophe had said before they came here.
After hearing that, Steel slapped her palm.
“Aha! Then it’s better to draw as much as possible.”
“Indeed.”
Hearing the two of them, Roshara asked with an expression that said she could not believe it.
“Ah, it’s nothing much. Please fill these containers with some blood.”
Sian did feel a little sorry, but since no one would die from it, he decided not to feel too guilty. And if doing this could guarantee his family’s lives, he was willing to do even more.
Roshara was dumbfounded when she saw the pile of containers before her. To fill all of them, they would have to drain the blood of their blood kin until they were on the verge of death.
They were asking her to have the blood that was the source of their power drained! If things went badly, their strength could weaken and the number of their wings could even decrease. In fact, Larokura, who had been brought here, had been on the verge of growing a fifth wing, but had ended up returning to four.
‘…
Should I fight them?’
Faced with such an absurd demand, Roshara briefly considered fighting them, but soon shook her head. If this had been before the Dragona attack, she might have hesitated for a moment, but if they challenged a noble with an army of this size, they would all be torn apart. In a way, it was fortunate that they were not being ground up and stuffed into those containers themselves.
Roshara sighed and decided to get through the situation for now. Their strength could be recovered later by subjugating the monkeys beyond the plains once these calamity-like beings from the sky had departed. For the moment, getting through this crisis was the priority.
Rium and Raum shouted with expressions of disbelief. They were only two monkeys, weren’t they?
Roshara did not want to mention the dark history she had never told anyone about, so she quietly kept her mouth shut. It was enough for her children to know about the single invasion by the Dragona.
Roshara quietly frowned, and when Rium and Raum saw that expression, they fell silent. That expression meant that something had displeased her greatly.
They did not know whether she was displeased with the situation itself or with them for voicing their objections, but one thing was certain: their mother was unhappy. And more importantly, she was not showing that displeasure outwardly.
The twins knew very well what punishments those who angered their mother received in the past, so they were able to infer the current situation from her reaction. The others had probably realized it by now as well.
Those two over there were overwhelmingly powerful, and therefore their mother could not refuse their demand.
In the end, Rium stepped forward first, cut open his arm, and began drawing his blood.
Seeing this, Steel smacked her lips regretfully.
“What a shame……”
“Lady Steel, didn’t you get enough exercise?”
“No, I thought I’d get to use my little brother’s present over and over… but there’s less need for it than I expected. I thought I’d be using it a tremendous amount today.”
Seeing Steel clack the gloves on her hands together, Roshara felt gooseflesh rise all over her body. She had not noticed it earlier because she had been focusing on the man before her, but after seeing the blood circulating inside the woman who was smacking her lips, she knew for certain.
She really was a noble.
She did not know why or how they had come to such a remote place, but the important thing was that, unlike the man, the woman appeared eager to grind up every last soldier in Roshara’s army. Perhaps even themselves.
‘Leave already… after taking only the blood…….’
Roshara gnashed her teeth as she watched her children line up to have their blood drawn.
Although taking that much blood would leave them in a near-death state, if it was drawn carefully and evenly, their control would not be significantly affected. In any case, if those two were nobles, they would not pay attention to the monkeys over there… Once their bodies recovered, they could devour the monkeys and regain their strength.
Keeping that moment in mind, Roshara decided to endure the humiliation.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Hmm.”
Sian smiled proudly as he looked at the golden bottles filling his view. He had expected it to be difficult to obtain blood from a race living inside the Great Forest, but things had gone much more smoothly than anticipated.
Besides, this time he had solved the matter cleanly and civilly without resorting to violence, so it was a win-win situation.
“Shall we be on our way now, Lady Steel?”
Sian had finished his business and was about to leave, but Steel looked at him in confusion.
“Little brother? Why are you leaving?”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you say it would be troublesome if they went into the Great Forest?”
“Hmm… I suppose it would be somewhat troublesome.”
Sian made a displeased expression as he thought of Krona, whom he had seen in his memories.
“And didn’t you say the more blood, the better?”
“Indeed. But the containers are full now.”
They had said that the blood would be used for research as well as in the Soul Jade, so the more, the better. But they did not have enough containers.
Looking at Sian, Steel waggled her finger from side to side.
“Hehe… Little brother, you lack imagination. Why do you need containers?”
Roshara, who had been listening from beside them, felt gooseflesh spread over her entire body. She could guess what the crazy woman was about to say.
“Hmm? What do you mean……?”
“You’re so dense. Let’s just take all of them with us. Then we can lock them up somewhere and keep drawing their blood whenever we need it. Judging by their size, they’re tiny, so they probably won’t cost much to feed.”
‘She’s insane…….’
If they followed that woman’s suggestion, their entire blood kin would be dragged away just like this. Then they would spend the rest of their lives locked up somewhere, forced to provide blood for these people.
Desperate, Roshara hurriedly opened her mouth.
“Hmm? Why? Are you going to keep living here? That would make things easier for us, too. Then we won’t take you with us.”
Come to think of it, even if they continued living here, those devilish creatures would keep drawing their blood. If that happened, it would be the end of them. Everyone had already been drained of so much blood that their wings had withered weakly. If their blood continued to be taken, the number of their wings would keep decreasing.
The bigger problem was that the man beside the crazy woman was seriously considering her proposal. He had apparently never thought of it before, but there was no doubt that he found the suggestion extremely appealing.
‘Damn it… If this continues…….’
As Roshara, caught between a rock and a hard place, began considering one final struggle, Sian opened his mouth.
“Ah… even so, that would be a little too much……. Don’t you think that would be rather pitiful for these people? We have enough blood.”
“Tsk… Little brother, you’re too kind for your own good.”
“And you only want to try out those gloves, don’t you, Lady Steel?”
“…
Tch.”
Only after seeing the woman grumble did Roshara finally understand what was happening, and a chill ran through her. That woman had deliberately backed them into a corner because she was bored when they failed to attack.
‘Those crazy noble bastards…….’
Seeing Roshara’s horrified expression, Sian spoke.
“Well, finish up your business. Just don’t overdo it. See you next time.”
‘…
Next time?’
Roshara stared blankly at the two as they launched themselves into the air and flew away. After turning the final words over in her mind, she called to her children.
Roshara said through clenched teeth.
Seeing her children hesitate, reluctant to abandon the enormous number of monkeys before them, Roshara sighed.
Understood.>
The monkeys had come out in haste as soon as the unpleasant presence disappeared, since even the less mature ones were sufficient. But now, the situation had changed.
From what they had heard earlier, it was clear that the man found the Great Forest troublesome. They needed to hide as deep inside it as possible, build up their strength, and emerge again.
I will have my revenge then…….>
Glaring in the direction where the vampires had disappeared, Roshara gnashed her teeth, ordered her children to turn the army around, and soon began moving swiftly toward the Great Forest.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Little brother, you’re too kind for your own good sometimes.”
“…
What could I do? It felt wrong. Thank you for helping.”
“Hehe. I can act when I need to.”
Watching Roshara and the others head back, Sian let out a sigh of relief when things turned out as he had planned.
He had felt rather guilty about destroying the mountain range, and he would have been uncomfortable if he had not helped them at least this much.
After stealing a glance at Uncle Narasha, visible in the distance, Sian began running back toward Ravilan together with Steel.