Compared to how the Pershion Kingdom’s western and southern regions suffered damage from the chaos of the war, the situation at the northeastern region was on a bit better side.
But even so, it wasn’t always a peaceful place either.
This was because various monsters thrived around the widely spread forest.
Due to that, Pershion Kingdom had a separate regional troop that undertook monster subjugation.
But with the Byron and Istel Kingdom’s invasion, the regional commanders who oversaw the monster subjugation were all transferred to the front line and a gap was created.
Through that gap, the monsters were attacking the northeastern region’s villages.
This was the very false situation that Prince Reitas Pershion convinced Prince Ma.n.u.s Pershion of.
“It’s over the hill on the right, sir.”
Baron Baites Inges spoke with a slightly nervous look.
He didn’t particularly say what was there.
Since either way, Reitas would also know.
Clop. Clop.
The sound of horse hooves rode the northern wind and spread.
About twenty knights followed Reitas and Baites’ back.
“Hhm.”
Reitas, who climbed up onto the hill, leaked out a quiet groan.
Even though it was something he had already resolved himself plenty for, the sight that spread out beyond the hill stabbed his eyes and tore through his heart.
‘Ma.n.u.s……’
The corpse lying face down on the ground.
Although there were several corpses next to it, Reitas was instantly able to recognize Ma.n.u.s.
He slowly went down to the bottom of the hill.
His gaze was stuck on Ma.n.u.s’ back.
Clank.
Getting down from his horse, he moved his feet.
A slightly distanced spot from Ma.n.u.s.
He couldn’t go closer than that.
“Ma.n.u.s.”
The end of his voice shook.
“Hhm.”
Reitas needlessly coughed once and stared straight at Ma.n.u.s’ back.
“I had no choice but to kill you.”
It was an unavoidable choice.
“I was born to be a king and lived to become a king. To such me, you were an insurmountable wall and an unbearable pain.”
And so, he could only destroy it.
“It would’ve been better instead if you weren’t born……”
They were words streaked with his innermost feelings.
With a short sigh, Reitas shook his head and raised his right hand.
“Collect Roan Tale’s corpse and Ma.n.u.s’ corpse. We will disguise it as if a foreign n.o.ble had a.s.sa.s.sinated Manu……”
The moment he spoke up to that point.
Rustle.
Reitas doubted his eyes.
Ma.n.u.s’ corpse that was lying with its face on the ground intensely shook.
“Uuh!”
“Wha, what the!”
Baite as well as the knights behind him became startled and yelled.
That is to say, Reitas hadn’t seen it incorrectly.
“Just what is……”
With a frown, Reitas stared at Ma.n.u.s’ corpse.
Rustle. Rustle.
Ma.n.u.s’ corpse shook up and down several times, then pushed up the ground with two hands and stood up.
That was not a corpse.
“Older brother Reitas.”
The quiet and troubled voice was definitely Ma.n.u.s’.
Standing straight on two feet, he stared at Reitas’ face.
“You really……”
He looked as if he was suppressing a burning thing within his chest.
“Tried to killed me.”
He didn’t believe it.
He didn’t want to believe it.
But everything was revealed to be true.
“Huu.”
Ma.n.u.s exhaled a long sigh.
“How are you alive?”
Reitas frowned as he asked.
Although he was momentarily taken back, he soon regained his composure.
“That is……”
When Ma.n.u.s had spoken to that point.
Rustle. Rustle.
The corpses that were spread around all moved up and down.
“Huugh!”
“What!”
Baite and the knights gasped at that sight.
A moment later, Roan and Clay as well as the young commanders who escort Ma.n.u.s brushed dirt off their clothes and stood up.
Amongst them, there was not a single person dead.
No, there wasn’t even anyone who was hurt.
The blood on their clothes were surely of other people’s.
Seeing that sight, Reitas formed a bitter smile.
“It seems I’ve thought too easily of you. Ma.n.u.s.”
Ma.n.u.s shook his head at those words.
Turning around to Roan, he opened his mouth.
“No. Instead of me, brother underestimated Baron Tale. Since this is all his work.”
Already, there was strength in his voice.
“Hmm.”
At those words, Reitas looked at Roan with a quiet groan.
Roan quietly stared back at that burning gaze.
‘In the end, it became like this.’
In the end, Ma.n.u.s’ wish wasn’t realized.
Suddenly, he heard Ma.n.u.s’ voice.
“Did you really have to do it like this?”
“Yes. This was the best.”
Reitas calmly replied.
For a moment, Ma.n.u.s clenched his teeth, then spoke as if to spit out each and every word.
“If brother asked me to disappear, I would’ve done it. If you told me to live as if I was dead because I’m getting in the way and bothering you, I would have done it.”
In the first place, he had no interest in politics or authority.
If Reitas wanted it, he would had done it like so.
Reitas quietly stared at Ma.n.u.s, and then slowly shook his head.
“That’s living like one was dead, not dead.”
He widely opened his arms.
“Ma.n.u.s. You are truly brilliant and have an incredible talent, but you in fact know nothing of politics and authority. You’ll live as if you are dead? Then do you think everything will be solved? Far from it.”
Reitas’ voice slowly became bigger.
“The faction that supports you will await your return. They’ll increase their power, strengthen their foundation, and struggle to place you at the top of authority. They may even point their swords at me.”
“That’s just a conclusion brother arbitrarily thought and came to.”
Ma.n.u.s creased his brows.
At those words, Reitas made a faint smile.
In a quiet voice, he spoke as if to whisper.
“Ma.n.u.s. The people of the world are a lot closer to me than you. They obsess over things like authority, wealth, and honor. It means that even if you act n.o.ble by yourself, the things around you will ultimately create a mess.”
Reitas pointed at Ma.n.u.s.
“As long as you live, the seed of strife won’t disappear. As well as the unease and powerlessness that suffocate me……”
He took two steps back.
At the same time, the knights who were lined up behind him walked forwards.
On Ma.n.u.s’ side, there were only about ten with Roan and the young commanders together.
Compared to him, the knights numbered more than twenty.
“Older brother Reitas.”
Ma.n.u.s was calm.
“I wished to believe in brother. But that belief was amusingly shattered like this.”
A light circled in his eyes.
That was a cold and hard light.
It wasn’t the light of Ma.n.u.s who lived soft and complacently saying good things are good.
“You were anxious because of my talent? That I was an insurmountable wall? So you could only kill me?”
He looked straight into Reitas’ eyes.
“Don’t say such cowardly words.”
“What?”
Reitas unknowingly asked back.
It was that he was slightly fl.u.s.tered since this side of Ma.n.u.s was a first.
Ma.n.u.s continued his words.
“Light Kingdom’s founder Madison Von Light had five younger brothers below him. They were all excellent individuals. Especially the third younger brother Plapp was much greater genius than King Madison. Then did King Madison kill him? Far from it. King Madison gave Plapp the command right to command the entire army. After that, Plapp led that army, led countless wars and battles to victory, and set up the foundation for the Light Kingdom to be found.”
“That is……”
When Reitas tried to say something.
“Brother.”
Ma.n.u.s cut him off.
Fire flickered in his eyes.
“Brother isn’t fit to become the king.”
“For you to say something like that, amusing.”
Reitas snorted.
Not minding that, Ma.n.u.s continued to speak.
“Could a man afraid of his own brother lead a country? That’s what is truly amusing.”
The words became a thorn and pierced Reitas’ chest.
Ma.n.u.s looked at Reitas with an expression full of pity.
Reitas couldn’t take that expression and look.
Reitas temperamentally shouted.
“Ma.n.u.s. Die already!”
Irritation soared.
Although he had seen through the trap and survived, the opportunity was still there.
If he were to definitely end the things now at least, there won’t be any problems.
“So you’ll kill me after all?”
“Now, we cannot turn back.”
At Ma.n.u.s’ question, Reitas answered shortly.
“Huu.”
Ma.n.u.s let out a short sigh.
“Where could brother’s soldiers waiting to ambush and kill me and Baron Tale have gone?”
A suddenly thrown question.
Unexpectedly, Reitas answered with a calm look.
“You guys probably took care of them.”
As soon as he said those words, a hill rising up to their right became uproarious.
“Prince!”
“My lord!”
The thing that suddenly appeared without a commonplace troop flag was a single troop with Harrison and Brian at the head.
The troop, made up of about five hundred soldiers, had been hiding themselves after cleaning up Reitas’ soldiers who were waiting in ambush.
“Our side’s soldiers number over five hundred.”
Ma.n.u.s spoke in a coldly composed voice.
“Brother has no more chance.”
At those words, Reitas shook his head.
“No, the chance is still there. Since I could kill you before they come down the hill.”
“Try it if you can. Since I don’t have any thought of stepping back anymore than this.”
His expression and voice were resolved.
Ma.n.u.s had thrown away the vain hope that he held towards Reitas.
Reitas didn’t wait any longer and waved his right hand.
“Kill him.”
A cruel order fell.
Tat!
Twenty knights kicked the ground simultaneously.
Although the soldiers on top of the hill began to move a moment later, the distance was rather far.
“Die!”
The knights screamed and pounced.
At that moment.
Puuk!
Suddenly, a black and long pole hit the ground a step in front of them.
“Huugh!”
“Kuk!”
Two knights, who had been running fiercely, couldn’t quite dodge and rolled on the ground.
“Wha, what!”
With ferocious spirit, the knights glared with their eyes.
Suddenly, an elongated stick soar through the air and left behind an afterimage.
“Huugh!”
“d.a.m.n it!”
Dodging the pole stabbing through their gaps, the knights shook their body left and right.
Amongst them, there were some who swung their swords and parried the pole away.
Paat!
With a hazy afterimage, a young man stood in front of the knights.
The owner of the black pole.
He was Roan.
“I’m sorry, but the ones who will be dying aren’t us, but……”
He turned his wrist.
Chang.
At the tip of the black pole, a long spearhead shot up.
The Trivias Spear had revealed its full form.
“You.”
Tat!
The instant he finished his words, Roan kicked the ground.
The long spear that had tore through the knights’ gaps instantly shrunk.
“This b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”
“To dare to come at us alone!”
The knights thought that Roan was throwing around reckless courage.
Then.
Pat! Pavat!
In front of the knights’ eyes, a ball of light about two fingers big appeared.
“Kuugh!”
“Ugh!”
At the sudden situation, most of the knights squinted their eyes and turn their heads.
‘I’ve did it.’
Roan inwardly cheered.
It was because the light spell using the Brent’s ring had shown effectiveness even in a real fight.
Using the Kalian’s Tears to read the flows of knights’ mana, Roan shook his spear following them.
The sharp spearhead danced and pierced through the bodies of knights done in by the light spell.
“Kuuk!”
“Kuk!”
Death throes.
Four knights, without even offering a decent resistance, fell.
“Hhm.”
“Ah……”
Ma.n.u.s and the young commanders who followed him leaked out a quiet exclamation at the scene that suddenly happened.
They stared at Roan’s back that stood in front of them.
‘Is this the skill of the Crimson Ghost?’
‘What was that light just now?’
Gulp.
They subconsciously gulped.
They felt slightly confused.
Roan of now was different than Roan they knew.
He was a person who always shared various stories of numerous subjects with a friendly smile.
He felt more closer to a scholar than a warrior.
But Roan of now was.
‘Emanating a thick smell of blood.’
‘This kind of pressure isn’t something that’s naturally made.’
It was an incredible pressure that could only be earned after walking through the battlefields for tens of years.
Right now, Roan was radiating such pressure from his entire body.
‘It feels suffocating even when I’m standing behind him.’
Ma.n.u.s fully opened his chest and breathed in.
Considering how he himself was feeling such pressure, Reitas’ knights in front of Roan must had been breathless.
Ma.n.u.s bitterly smiled and picked up a sword that was on the ground.
“Let’s start as well.”
“Yes. Understood.”
The young commanders quickly took up swords.
Moving their feet, they stood on Roan’s two sides.
Seeing this sight, Reitas flashed a cold light from his eyes.
“We don’t need the others. Focus only on killing Ma.n.u.s.”
“Yes!”
The knights answered in one voice and then kicked off the ground.
Glaring at the knights rushing towards them, Roan spoke in a quiet voice.
“Prince Ma.n.u.s. Will you be fine?”
“Yes. I have already resolved myself.”
Ma.n.u.s answered with a composed look.
Roan glanced at him and the young commanders once, then nodded his head.
“Then, should we put an end to this work?”
The instant his words ended, everyone kicked the ground.
Taat!
Roan and Ma.n.u.s as well as the young commanders and Reitas’ knights violently rushed at each other.
And finally.
Boom!
With an explosion, the two group merged with each other.
Chang! Chaang! Chang!
Sparks flew along with the metallic noises.
A tie.
Although the number on Roan and Ma.n.u.s’ side was much smaller, the overall situation was equal.
The reason was.
Spaat!
“Kuuk!”
Due to Ma.n.u.s of brilliant swordplay and.
Ssskuk!
“Kuugh!”
Roan of precise and destructive spearmanship.
As if they had matched themselves before, they showed a natural coordination and pressured on the knights.
And all the while, the troop, which was coming down the hill, was almost upon them.
Reitas moved his gaze away from the chaotic battle spreading in front of his eyes and looked up at the blue sky.
‘The winter sun is still nice.’
But it felt different than the sunlight he saw from the office window.
If the sunlight from then was warm, the sunlight of now was cold.
The northern wind tore through his clothes and entered.
It was cold.
Sseureng.
He pulled out the sword on his waist and slowly moved his feet.
His gaze was once again towards Ma.n.u.s.
‘I will personally cut off your neck with my own hands.’
If they just looked at their skills swordsmanship, Ma.n.u.s was a step, no several steps above him.
But.
‘You cannot cut me, but I can cut you down.’
However much he made up words pretending to be cold, Ma.n.u.s was Ma.n.u.s.
Reitas thought so.
Clenching his teeth, he kicked off the ground.
The target was solely Ma.n.u.s.
Then.
Spaat!
A light flashed and then a spearhead popped out in front of his nose.
“Kuk!”
With his teeth clench, Reitas swung his sword.
As if it had been waiting, the spearhead in front of his nose abruptly moved back.
Swuung.
The sword amusingly cut the air.
“Hhm.”
His balance broke.
The spearhead that had backed off suddenly approached once more.
Needless to say, the owner of the spear was Roan.
“This is the end.”
Roan shrunk Travias Spear’s length as he slowly approached.
Reitas looked straight into Roan’s eyes.
“Roan Tale. It seems the work has been spoiled because of you.”
Roan shook his head at those words.
“The thing that ruined your work is that squalid ambition of yours.”
“There is nothing squalid to ambition. It merely burns.”
Reitas put strength into the grip holding the sword.
He stared behind Roan at Ma.n.u.s, who was pressuring away the knights.
“Don’t intervene in a sibling affair.”
Reitas had a work he had to finish.
Roan twisted his wrist as he straightened his stance.
A cold smile hung from his mouth.
“Then in the first place, you shouldn’t have involved me in a sibling affair.”
He looked absolutely without a sign of stepping back.
Reitas stared straight into Roan’s two eyes and clenched his teeth.
And then.
“Roan Tale!”
Shouting at the top of his lungs, he kicked the ground.
The anger and despair he had been forcefully suppressing had exploded out at once.
Reitas’ sword cut through the s.p.a.ce with an incredible pressure.
“I’m not naive enough……”
Roan smoothly moved his feet and quickly whipped his arms.
“To lose to an opponent who lost his calm, sir.”
Simultaneously, the spearhead jumped up as if flicked.
A light flashed between Roan and Reitas.
That was a light so blindingly bright and cold that it somehow felt even sad.
< Veiled Strife (4) > End.