Otherworld Adventure

At first he thought it was only a sick nightmare, but that nightmare was reality. Now he wouldn"t be able to have his way with any more women and indulge in any carnal pleasure.

Albert quickly made his way to Armano"s tent once he caught news of his awakening. When he arrived inside, Albert saw the mess his brother had created.

"f.u.c.k... f.u.c.k! f.u.c.k THAT b.i.t.c.h AND THAT BUTLER!!!"

"Calm down you fool!"

"B-brother! Brother! You have to avenge me! They...they took away—"

Albert smacked his brother"s face harshly and Armano was sent sprawling on the ground with his hands clutching his cheek. His face was still injured from Serilla"s thrashing and hadn"t quite healed yet. When he saw his reflection on a piece of shard gla.s.s on the ground, he screeched out in horror once again.

"Silence, Armano! Look at how unsightly you"re acting!"

"M-my face...my face..."

"Tsk... that wench...she"s much more powerful than what I expected... This M-Jammer that the Merkruz forces have doesn"t seem to be affecting her abilities..."

"R-right, where... where is that b.i.t.c.h? And that f.u.c.king butler?! He, he did this to me!"

"...they"ve already left. Thanks to your stupid actions, we lost one great a.s.set of this kingdom!"

"a.s.set? Fatima"s nothing more than some b.i.t.c.h from a backwater kingdom!"

Rowan was just about to enter the tent when he suddenly heard Armano scream and insult.

"Hahaha! It won"t matter anymore! Those f.u.c.kers, they"re all going to die!" Armano said manically.

"What?"

"I sold out the information about our attack plans to the Princ.i.p.ality in exchange that they would deliver those 3 girls to my chambers! Now this works perfectly well! I"ll torture them once they"re caught, those f.u.c.kers are dead! Hahahaha!"

"You...you sold our strategy to the enemy?! YOU b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Albert immediately grew infuriated and he smashed his fist onto Armano"s face and sent him sprawling onto the ground once again.

"GAHAAACCKK!! b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Don"t think you aren"t part of this! You l.u.s.ted after that other b.i.t.c.h as well! You"re no different from me!"

"I may have l.u.s.ted after her, but I didn"t do such a disgraceful thing like attempted **** and selling out one"s country to the enemy! You...I should have you put to death! Your actions are equivalent to treason!"

"Bah, f.u.c.k you Albert! If it wasn"t for me, do you think you"d be able to sit comfortably on your chair as crown prince?! Everyone in the kingdom knows that Rowan"s a much more capable candidate than you!"

"SHUT UP!"

Rowan, who was still outside, couldn"t help but stumble back in horror. He was just about to turn around and chase after Fatima"s entourage, but one of his men immediately rushed up to him and reported.

"Your Highness, Lady Fatima"s entourage has encountered an ambush on their way back to the kingdom!"

"What?!"

"One of the soldiers a.s.signed to Fatima"s escort had rushed back and reported it!"

"d.a.m.n! Armano, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Rowan was just about to rush out again, but he ultimately steeled himself and walked into the tent his two brothers were in.

Albert had just finished punching and berating Armano when Rowan walked in.

"Rowan...what do you want?"

Rowan took a look at his battered brother and only eyed him coldly before reporting, "Brother, it appears that Fatima"s been ambushed on their way back. One of the soldiers I a.s.signed to her has just reported back to me."

"I see..."

"We have to support her brother!"

"We?"

"Y-yes!"

Rowan tried one last time to put his trust into his brother, but he was dismayed at Albert"s response.

"What does that have to do with our Kingdom?"

"...What?"

"Her sister-in-law"s actions earlier were a direct slap to our kingdom"s face, and they"ve essentially fallen out with us. So tell me why I should send my precious troops to go save them?"

"She"s my fiancée! Fatima"s still a part of our kingdom, our family! Have you already forgotten her contributions to our kingdom?!"

"We"ve repaid all that by helping her in her search for her missing brother," Albert responded.

"Repaid? You call that repayment?!"

"I see that as a fine repayment. She"s already found her brother and now we have no debt to each other."

"No debt?! We didn"t even do anything?! All the kingdom has done is use her to fight our battles time and time again! Not only did we not repay her, we"ve responded to her kindness with enmity!"

"And what of it? Fatima is your fiancée, is she not? Shouldn"t it be her obligation to help us without expecting anything in return?"

"..."

Albert shook his head at Rowan. "This is why you aren"t fit to become king. You are too nice, too gentle. You won"t be able to survive in the kingdom"s court with such naive thinking."

"So you"re not going to help her?"

"I"ve already made myself clear—"

"Fine!"

"..."

Rowan glared at his brother and walked out of the tent.

"Where are you going?"

"To save my fiancée."

"Save? I heard this was all a plan concocted by Armano to steal away your woman and those other 2. The forces ambushing them are most likely big. They want to take away Fatima from the scenes because she"s a hindrance to their plans of conquering us."

"And she"s also the only reason why those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds haven"t conquered us yet! Instead of going out to save her, you plot with Armano on how to take away her life!"

"I had no hand in his plot, what he"s done is essentially treason against our kingdom!"

"Then why are you refusing to help her?! What? Was it only because your puny little pride and ego was damaged? You are weak!"

"Rowan, you take that back or I will—"

"Will what? Fight me? Just know that you will lose. I"ve already crushed Armano once before and he was supposed to be the best of us 3, oh wait, I guess that makes me the best now..."

Albert halted in his tracks when he heard this. He"s been wondering why Armano had begun to tread lightly around Rowan during the past few months, but now he understood. Armano was defeated by their little brother and Albert could guess that Rowan fought with Armano because of Fatima.

"Hmph," Rowan sneered at his brother and began relaying orders to his men.

"You, on whose authority are you to mobilize this kingdom"s troops?! I"m still the high commander!"

"Keep your puny army. Without Fatima and her strategies, we"re only a paper tiger anyway! Years of peace and complacency has blinded you, brother. You place more importance on authority and pride than what"s right and what"s wrong! Even after Armano has committed the crime of attempted ****, what sort of punishment will you give him later, imprisonment?"

Albert flinched when he saw Rowan glare at him angrily.

"Heh, I knew it. Such leniency, all because he"s a member of our family, you and father tolerate all his wrongdoings and constantly clean up after him. Isn"t it tiring?"

"..."

"This is the path you"ve chosen brother. A path of oversight and complacency, remember, once those Merkruz b.a.s.t.a.r.ds have finished dealing with Fatima, they"ll resume their attacks on you. What will you use to escape then? You won"t have Fatima or anyone to help you."

Albert remained silent. Rowan could only shake his head in dismay at his brother"s response. The least Albert could do was take back his orders and send some troops with Rowan to support Fatima and get her out of her tight situation.

"I"ll be leaving now," Rowan said as he mounted his horse.

"You"ll be leaving behind all your authority as a prince if you leave now! We"re still fighting a battle and this amounts to desertion!"

"I don"t care! This war has already been lost the moment we offended Fatima!"

"You! You"ll regret this!"

"I probably won"t! Why do you think Merkruz attacked us now during our time? It"s obviously because they"ve seen us weaken to our current state!"

Rowan left behind those words before he rushed off into the distance, bringing with him a small company of his private soldiers.

******

Over at Fatima"s side, the Wanderer and the men a.s.signed to Fatima were currently running away from a large contingent of Merkruz soldiers.

"Madam, please be careful! They have an M-Jammer with them!" Quinn reported hastily to Lucia who was just about to flip onto the wagon"s roof.

"Dammit... it"s that annoying thing!"

"Lulu, you stay put with sis-in-law! I"ll protect the wagon!"

"O-okay, Seri!"

Captain Randolph was riding alongside the wagon and was ordering everyone to quickly surround it from behind in a V-formation so that the enemy"s attacks would not reach their Lady.

The enemy forces were still some ways away in the distance, but the problem was is that the Merkruz army was driving them away from the Regulus border. The enemy had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and it caused some casualties to occur within Fatima"s group, but they were able to safely break away.

However, it was now a cat and mouse chase with neither side gaining ground against the other. This was because the Merkruz forces had deployed the M-Jammer and with no mana, this naturally lowered the speed of all the mounts caught within the weapon"s area.

Sleipnir was no exception, but because he was an ranked monster, he was naturally much faster than the standard-issue warhorses that the Merkruz cavalry was using. Sleipnir was able to stay far ahead of the enemy, but he had to slow down to let the Regulus soldiers escorting them keep up.

The chase continued until they arrived close to the border, but they saw that the Merkruz army was still sieging the border. When they appeared, it was as if the Merkruz army already knew about their impending arrival and had sent a contingent of soldiers to pursue them. With the enemy at the front and behind, they could only divert their direction to the Sky Piercing Mountains.

Over the past years, Fatima had her men scout out the areas in the Sky Piercing Mountains and was able to create a detailed map of the mountains". When they changed their course earlier, Fatima planned to use the complicated terrain of the Sky Piercing Mountains to lose their pursuers.

It was dangerous because of all the high ranking monsters present inside the mountains, but it was much better than getting caught in a pincer between those two Merkruz armies.

If Lucia wasn"t affected by the M-Jammer, they could have tried to break through the Merkruz army a.s.saulting the border and regrouped with Karen, but with Lucia in her helpless state, it was much too dangerous to try something so foolhardy.

Once they reached deep within the mountains, Fatima expected that the Merkruz army wouldn"t pursue them that far, but contrary, the army had stubbornly followed after them. She didn"t know what their goal was, but seeing how many attacks were directed towards the Wanderer, it was clear as day that the Merkruz army wanted to take either her or Serilla"s life.