In the headquarters of the western rebel army, which was also known as the “Castle on the Hill,’” a heated discussion had been taking place all night.
“The national army has been showing suspicious movement for the past several days. According to the report, reconnaissance parties have been dispatched to the western border continuously.”
“Does that mean that they abandoned the castle and walked out of it?”
“It’s still a few of them. Since Vice-Commander Ranger’s goal is to hold out, there’s no way he would attack first with his main force since eighty percent of our forces are there.”
“Then couldn’t they really be scouting?”
“They’ve been scouting more often over time. Their usual routine was to scout once a day, and they just took a peek around our headquarters from afar. However, they’re observing at a much closer distance, and their numbers have increased drastically.”
Seated at the head of the table, Marquess Turtler just listened to his subordinate executives talk. Explaining and discussing were subordinates’ jobs while a leader’s job was making a decision. That was Turtler’s principle, but if the discussion wasn’t going anywhere, he set them on the right path.
“Could it be related to the Second Prince?” Turtle asked.
All the executives turned silent. They had actually been talking about Kireua Sanders the Second Prince all day; the discussion topic had finally started to change, but they were back to square one.
“That is a possibility.”
“Am I misunderstanding something? I thought one of you said that the national army would never dispatch troops to the southwest border to greet the Second Prince.” Turtle tilted his head.
“Yes, we would reach the southwest border quicker, so if the national army sent one, the scouting party would just get slaughtered by our troops.”
Turtler frowned slightly. “You do realize that those two sentences don’t add up, don’t you?”
“That’s because we’re talking about a prince.”Thê source of this content n/o/v/(el)bi((n))
Turtler chuckled, dumbfounded. “You mean he’s someone they have to protect even if they get slaughtered?”
“That is what I think.”
“They’re overdoing themselves,” Turtler said.
“If something happens to the Second Prince, their morale would immediately drop.”
“No, I don’t think so.” Turtler shook his head.
“Pardon...?”
“If the Second Prince died here, the national army’s morale would temporarily decrease, but they’ll unite more than ever, becoming incomparably stronger than before.” Turtler rested his chin on his hand. The executives weren’t sure what Turtler was saying, but his voice filled with confidence. “There are only two people with the right to inherit, so if one of them died, everyone would unite with the First Prince as their leader.”
“Ah...!
The executives started to exclaim one after another.
“Th-That is true.”
“Then we must capture him alive if we find him.”
“After we capture him, maybe we can win the hearts of the people if we use him properly.”
“It’s possible if the Second Prince has the slightest interest in the throne, but... I’m not sure.”
The executives resumed their discussion, but they were unable to reach a definite conclusion. Therefore, wrapping up the discussion fell to Turtler once again.
“Does anyone else other than us know that Kireua Sanders might be involved with the Demon Spirit?” Turtler asked.
“I don’t think so. According to the people who returned, the Second Prince was away from his group and was on his own when he used ebon flame. That must mean that he wants to hide his power from his allies.”
Turtler tilted his head. “Aside from those people, did anyone else mention the rumor?”
“No, sir.”
Turtler’s smile deepened. He was certain that the rumor was false.
“The Demon Spirit was already killed by the Emperor, so I don’t believe it. Even if such a being still exists, the Prince is his son, so there is no way Prince Kireua would make a contract with such a being unless he took a warhammer to his head.
“I heard that Joshua Sanders has five old friends and one of them is the best assassin in the current generation.”
She was right, although Kireua hadn’t met all of the aforementioned five friends either. Three of the friends were humans, and the other two were from other races. Every one of them was remarkable: Lilith Aphrodite was the leader of the Moon Gate, the continent’s biggest information guild, while the Mighty Akshuller was respected by a million mercenaries. Thetapirion Whitesox, the Master of the Magic Tower, was the first human to become a Class 8 mage, and Ashu was the last remaining High Elf. Aisha Sestropi, the Darkness Emperor, was also called the Night Emperor.
“Judging from the look on your face, it seems that I’m right.” Anna smiled. “There aren’t many people as mysterious as the Darkness Emperor. Some say the Darkness Emperor is a monster who is over one hundred years old. There is actually a rumor that the Darkness Emperor is a young man who was born as gifted as the current Emperor of Avalon... While some people believe that the Darkness Emperor is a very beautiful woman.”
“Those rumors aren’t amusing at all.”
“So which is the right one? Since you were personally taught your stealth skill by the Darkness Emperor, you must know, right?” Anna asked with sparkling eyes.
Of course, Kireua had no intention of giving her the answer she wanted.
“Why don’t we climb in silence?” he bluntly replied.
“Hmm...” Anna made a bizarre sound through her nose, then she shrugged. “So it’s a business secret again?”
Kireua raised an eyebrow at her. “If you want something from someone else, then you should pay the right price. This world is based on the principle of equivalent exchange.”
“Of all the things you could've learned from your father, you only learned the bad stuff.”
“That’s lese-majeste, you know,” Kireua said.
“But you can’t use your stealth skill forever, right?” Anna prodded. “You might have fooled the other people, but you can’t fool me. When you hid in the darkness, I saw a lot of your mana coming out of you.”
No, she didn’t see it. There was a reason why Aisha’s stealth technique was called the best on the continent. It hid the user in shadows without leaving behind the slightest trace, so no one could notice a person using Aisha’s stealth technique.
“Well, you aren’t the Joshua Sanders. If you could use that kind of stealth technique all the time, then you would have no problem using spears,” Anna dramatically declared.
It was obvious what she was aiming for, so Kireua held back his rising anger. Besides, something was about to happen that shut the North Witch’s mouth.
“What? Why is it dark?”
“I bet they all put the lights out and went to sleep.”
“Marquess Turtler repeatedly warned us about it, so unless they’re crazy... there’s probably a problem, so let’s go—quickly.”
Guards were walking down from the top of the mountain to change shifts.
Kireua’s lips stretched into a wide smile. “This is good.”
He disappeared into the darkness. Anna opened her eyes and watched Kireua closely this time, but it was a bust again.
“How in the world does that work?” Anna tilted her head back and forth.
“Urgh!”
“Wh-What?!”
A series of smacks disturbed the darkness, followed by a chain of thuds. Judging from the number of the voices Anna had heard, there were at least ten guards, but the area was totally silent in less than fifteen seconds.
After a while, Anna became more confused. She couldn’t detect a single presence.
“Wh-What are you doing?” she stammered. “Stop playing around and come out.”
No one answered her, so Anna was about to summon her elemental spirits.
Suddenly, something touched her back. Anna nearly jumped out of her skin.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!”
“Why are you so surprised? You were so confident earlier when you said that you could see the flow of mana.”
Anna’s head creaked around like an unoiled pulley, and found Kireua grinning at her.
“You jerk!” she shouted, her face crumpling up. “You and your father are real assholes, you know that?!”
1. This is contradicted in Ch. 32 when Coal states that it wants to eat adamantium, but this is what the raws say. ☜