Chapter 61

The horned white snake Lacrosha was dead.

Its body, longer and thicker than a magic train, was in dozens of pieces, rolling on the ground.

A double-edged sword had ended its thousand-year life in vain.

The owner of the sword had jade-green eyes.

“Forgive my rudeness in greeting you in such a messy state, Your Highness.”

Amethus wiped his face.

It was covered in blood.

Thick and red, fresh blood, no different from a human's.

A terrifyingly intense jade-green gaze that was not hidden even by the thick blood, but rather intensified his presence.

“It is right after a difficult battle.”

“…Do you know Amethus? That snake was a mythical beast that had lived for over a thousand years.”

“Is that so? No wonder it was strong.”

Amethus nodded, looking at Lacrosha, who lay dead.

Cutting the horned white snake into dozens of pieces was not easy at all.

Each scale was harder and sharper than a renowned sword, and for a mere snake, it spammed powerful magic of the four stars, and even summoned a swarm of hundreds of thousands of poisonous snakes.

And it even used a strange Ars, a skill, even though it wasn't human.

“Still, I had no choice. It dared to claim this valley, the territory of the Empire, as its own. As one who lives off the bounty of Cordis, I could not tolerate it.”

“There was a story that it received permission a thousand years ago.”

“It has no effect under current laws. It should have been renewed in time.”

“I didn't know you enjoyed joking.”

“I am also human, Your Highness.”

“That's also something new I'm learning.”

Amethus did not reply further.

Instead, he gripped his double-edged sword and descended from Lacrosha's head.

Then he quietly looked at me.

The scent of blood, the moonlight, and the jade-green flames mingled, making me feel as if my spine was being gouged out.

“Your Highness Zionis.”

He asked.

“Do you remember the first time I greeted you?”

“…It would be the day the Succession War was proclaimed.”

“Yes, that is correct.”

The first day after my regression.

The time I had an audience with the Great Emperor Continua and was caught by Ferbias.

I had used pumpkin pie as an excuse to pretend to be a child and escaped.

Amethus was next to him.

“Actually, from that time, I felt a deep unease towards Your Highness.”

He didn't talk about intuition.

However, I, Shion Pollinglight, knew the man with the nickname of 'fortuneteller'.

Amethus also somehow felt that I knew about his intuition.

“It was strange. The unease was clear, but I couldn't find a reason. At that time, I only knew Your Highness to be truly a child.”

“I'm just an eleven-year-old kid. Isn't that enough?”

“That is not what I mean.”

How resolute he was.

I forced a smile.

Amethus did not smile.

He was reviewing the actions of the Fifth Prince Zionis.

Obtaining the Treasure from the library, joining Secundus's faction, devising stratagems during the Grand Convergence…….

But it hadn't stood out.

He hadn't known all of it during the Succession War.

However, looking back on it now, it gave him the chills.

A child with a slightly suspicious side.

He had thought I was ordinary, but it seemed I did indeed inherit the blood of the Great Emperor.

Ferbias and Leniar also considered me to that extent.

I had made them think that way.

However, Amethus was different.

He was no longer deceived.

“Do you know what I, Amethus, felt first when I heard the news that Your Highness had lost his life in the Sobel mountain range?”

“Well. I'd be grateful if you grieved. We're not that close. So what was it, then……”

I, Shion Pollinglight, stroked my chin.

“You must have felt refreshed? Because a troublesome tooth had been pulled, you see.”

“No, Your Highness. You are lying again, even though you already know.”

I fell silent.

“It was suspicious.”

“……”

Amethus's eyes boldly crossed the line of lies and secrets.

“To feel such a strong conviction without reason, I thought I had finally gone mad. Yet I couldn't shake it off……”

Phew.

Amethus ran a hand over his face.

“…Truly, truly, you were alive like this……”

Snake blood was on his fingertips.

He roughly wiped it on his clothes.

It wouldn't do to slip when gripping his sword.

“I was not mad after all.”

Jade-green eyes and a double-edged sword.

Both were sharply aimed at me.

“Your Highness, Your Highness is a dangerous person.”

I did not deny it.

I was not a third-rate actor who knew it was useless yet still spun lies.

Amethus recited.

“I have seen many strong people. I have seen great people, and wicked people. But I have never once seen someone like Your Highness. Do you know what this means?”

He was the confidant of the First Prince Ferbias.

He had even fought and won against a former member of the Ten Great Generals.

However, I was more dangerous.

Regardless of strength, regardless of status, there was no one who could shake his soul as much as I did.

“No one in the Imperial Family will know. Even if I explain, they will not believe me.”

The Fifth Prince Zionis was not an ordinary child.

Sometimes he truly seemed like a child, but that's what made his true intentions even more unfathomable.

To be so adept at deceiving someone at merely eleven years old.

There was something more than that.

Something that couldn't be fully expressed by the term 'more than that' was filling him.

“Because only I, Amethus, have seen it. Your Highness Zionis, you are……”

He had always said it was a strange unease.

He had always equivocated, saying he felt uneasy when he saw me.

It was a lie.

In fact, it was more than just that.

When he first saw the Fifth Prince Zionis, Amethus saw something beyond intuition, something akin to an illusion.

“…You should not be here……”

What kind of illusion was it?

What did he see behind the eleven-year-old child?

“…And, you should not be alive……”

He had seen seven flames like a dazzling flash that gouged out his eyes, countless screams, and the stench of a soul as if flesh had clung to it.

He himself did not know how he had seen the screams and the stench.

Nevertheless, he had seen them.

He could only express it that way.

“…You are something that I do not know.”

“I am not such a great person. Look, I'm on the verge of dying at your hands, aren't I.”

“I will not listen.”

He had seen my soul, the lingering scent of my deepest secret.

Therefore, he was certain.

He didn't know what I carried, and he didn't know why my soul screamed so.

However, he was certain.

With a conviction deeper than all those questions, he raised his sword.

“Instead, Your Highness, forgive my rudeness.”

The man who had defeated the former Ten Great Generals caught his breath.

My body trembled at his mere aura.

“I must take your life.”

***

“Even if I make excuses, you won't believe me, will you? But may I correct just one thing.”

I snickered.

“You said you weren't mad, right? No, Amethus. You are already thoroughly mad.”

Gravel flew.

It was because I, whose secret had been exposed, got angry and kicked a few stones.

Amethus let them hit him.

One rather large stone hit his forehead and left a wound, but he didn't even care.

The name 'thousand-year-old monster' might suit him more than Lacrosha.

I sneered and spat out.

“So you're saying you saw through all of that with just intuition? You deceived even brother Ferbias and sister Leniar, and you alone didn't.”

“It wasn't easy for me either, though.”

He had deployed the Special Operations Unit to surround the cities, and Shadi Shandor had even paid a price.

And so he searched and chased and finally faced me.

Even so, it was absurd.

‘It wasn't easy? You open your mouth!’

I burst out in anger inwardly.

Amethus himself didn't know what he had done.

I, Shion Pollinglight, was a regressor.

Before my regression, I was a secret-keeper who worked as the Vice Commander of the Western Alliance, devising stratagems.

And he had uncovered my plan with just intuition!

‘…Ah, it's almost welcome.’

I drew out Valziart.

My opponent was Amethus.

A swordsman who could easily cut the horned white snake Lacrosha, a thousand-year-old mythical beast, into pieces.

It wouldn't be strange at all if I were to close and open my eyes and find myself in the afterlife.

It was not a situation to conserve strength at all.

‘Amethus, do you know? How often have you and I encountered each other like this before my regression?’

The laughter did not stop.

The first of Septem Arcana, ‘Fantasy Finger’.

The second, ‘The Unclosable Twenty Steps’.

‘You still easily see through my secrets……’

Forty invisible hands flew about, and an unclosable distance was created between me and Amethus.

Though it was an invisible Ars, Amethus noticed the presence and stepped back half a step.

I clicked my tongue, smiling.

Even Yosef Haider hadn't felt his Ars.

“…Still a monster, after all.”

Still?

Amethus tilted his head.

There was no great point of contact between him and me.

It had only been a few months since our first greeting.

There was nothing that would make him mutter as if with such longing.

I paid no mind.

It wasn't a word I had uttered, wanting him to understand anyway.

This might be the end.

No, it probably would be.

The fortuneteller Amethus was such a threat.

‘In the end, one last piece went wrong. It's always like that. One piece, just one, tangles everything up.’

As it happened, I had just received the gift my master had prepared, so my regret was great.

Still, I let it go.

I had to use all my strength.

Just standing was not easy.

My weak body wanted to kneel and foam at the mouth right away.

There was almost no chance of winning, but it was not unfamiliar.

‘If I survive, that would be good.’

***

I wrapped the rope around my arms.

Valziart covered it.

It was tougher and stronger than most steel.

Amethus, seeing that, moved his feet.

He was suddenly behind me.

“Your Highness, farewell.”

A fleeting moment, too short to even count.

Amethus swung his sword right beside me.

A coldness touched my neck and blood flowed.

“……?”

Amethus expressed his confusion.

I was far away.

I had been right in front of him just a moment ago, but suddenly I was far away.

When had I moved?

No, Amethus was the one who had moved.

Something had pushed him away.

One, two…….

…Exactly about twenty steps.

“It's an Ars that pushes away the opponent. I realize now why Lord Yosef couldn't kill Your Highness.”

“…Damn it.”

I touched the back of my neck.

Blood was on my fingers.

‘The Unclosable Twenty Steps’ did not permit the approach of anything with a will.

Not Yosef Haider or Lacrosha, Amethus was no exception.

However, the problem was.

‘He's ridiculously fast, though!’

Ars was the power of the soul.

Meaning that the soul's reflexive reaction couldn't keep up with Amethus's sword strike.

And this was ‘The Unclosable Twenty Steps’, which was almost invincible against a knight!

‘I need to narrow the gap.’

I clicked my tongue.

I adjusted the invisible domain.

It didn't have to be exactly twenty steps.

If I narrowed the gap, the pushing power would become stronger accordingly.

“Hmm.”

Amethus disappeared.

At least, that's how it looked to me.

‘Ten steps is far. Eight steps is close.’

I adjusted my second Ars.

‘Then, nine steps.’

A chill was felt from behind.

Again, the sword strike was faster than the Ars's reaction.

But it was not the same as before.

The ‘Fantasy Finger’ that had already been floating around my body blocked the sword.

Soon, Amethus was pushed back with a whoosh, before he even had a chance to frown.

A tsk sound was heard.

It was because I clicked my tongue, seeing Amethus rushing in again.

But his sword could not reach.

Indeed, nine steps was correct.

It pushed him back strongly, so he couldn't reach.

“The feeling is strange.”

Amethus could not wound me further.

However, I was definitely getting tired.

No, in fact, I felt like I would collapse from exhaustion at any moment.

It was natural, squeezing out all my Ars and strength.

On the other hand, Amethus leisurely touched his chin.

“The power that blocked the sword and the power that pushed me away seem to be different.”

“You don't want an answer and you're not asking, are you?”

“It would be nice if that were the case, but you wouldn't do that, would you? I will take your head and think about it carefully as I return.”

“It's interesting, but not welcome.”

My body swelled up.

It was Mana Armor Valziart.

Black armor, ropes layered five times.

A hard black that would not be damaged even if an entire steel building fell on it.

Amethus's response was simple.

He drew his sword.

And the valley split.

“…Damn.”

With me.

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