TFPW 49

Chapter 49

“Come to think of it, it seems like all we ever do is run away together.”

At Kazar’s attempt to change the subject, Eluana picked up the conversation.

“We were running away the first time we met, too. Oh, right. Did you find that guard who stabbed you in the back and break his legs?”

“Hawk… was dead.”

There was such emptiness in Kazar’s eyes when he turned to face her that Eluana could only mumble awkwardly,

“I see.”

The wind blew. It carried away some of the thoughts clinging to their hair before circling around the two of them and disappearing. After a brief silence, Eluana examined the numerous cuts covering Kazar’s body.

“Let’s head toward the village. You need treatment.”

Eluana lightly tugged on Kazar’s clothes. Kazar circulated a small amount of aura throughout his body before getting to his feet.

The two began walking slowly. Eluana moved her legs diligently, determined not to become a burden. Every now and then, they encountered masked men searching for them, but because the two were using the stealth artifact, the assassins failed to notice them.

They continued toward the village. Just as they spotted another masked man and were about to take a slight detour, a dagger flew from behind a tree, grazed the hem of Eluana’s dress, and fell to the ground.

The masked man who had thrown the dagger randomly met Eluana’s eyes.

“Huh?”

The attack had deactivated the artifact’s stealth function, revealing Eluana and Kazar.

Kazar immediately seized Eluana’s hand and pulled her behind him.

“We’ve used up all the stealth charges.”

Before Kazar could react, the masked man blew the whistle hanging around his neck. No sound could be heard, but it was obvious enough that he had called for his comrades.

The masked man grinned.

“Are you going to keep running away like a rat, Your Highness?”

As he approached, masked men began appearing between the trees. Realizing they had been completely surrounded, Kazar sneered.

He glanced over his shoulder. Eluana was surveying her surroundings with fierce eyes.

He had wanted to protect her, but it seemed this was as far as he could go.

‘I wonder what kind of disaster will occur if you die.’

Suppressing his anxiety, Kazar asked arrogantly,

“Do you still have daggers left? You brought quite a lot.”

“Throw them all!”

At the masked man’s signal, daggers came flying from every direction.

Kazar coated his sword and entire body in aura. He deflected the ones he could and blocked the rest with his body. Daggers that failed to pierce his aura-covered skin merely left scratches before falling to the ground.

But aura was not limitless.

The moment his aura ran out, every one of those daggers would be buried in Kazar’s body.

Eluana’s expression twisted.

“I don’t want you to die because of me. Don’t die. Just run away instead.”

She hated pain. She hated death, too.

But she hated being protected like this even more.

Her heart pounded so violently that she could hardly think.

Then she saw a dagger flying straight toward Kazar’s heart.

“No!”

At Eluana’s scream, every dagger flying through the air suddenly stopped.

Hundreds of daggers hung suspended in midair, as though firmly grasped by something invisible. Slowly, they changed direction.

The blades turned toward the stunned masked men and shot forward at an unbelievable speed, burying themselves in the assassins’ throats.

Most of their forces collapsed to the ground in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, life and death were decided.

At the same moment Kazar let out a breath, Eluana’s body went limp.

Realizing she had fainted, Kazar lowered her gently to the ground and whispered,

“You did well.”

The reduction in their enemies was highly encouraging. Only three remained. Even considering his current condition, they were still opponents he could handle.

The masked man who had given the initial signal looked toward the unconscious Eluana. The composure that had filled his eyes disappeared, leaving only murderous intent.

“She’s already using her alchemy ability properly? We absolutely cannot let her live.”

He slowly began drawing his sword, but his expression suddenly wavered.

“Why is this happening?”

Clink.

The blade fell to the ground.

Only the hilt remained in the masked man’s hand.

The same thing happened to the other masked men. Whether it was a dagger or a sword, every blade they tried to draw separated from its hilt.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

One after another, the blades fell into the bushes and disappeared.

Almost as if they didn’t want to hurt their friend.

Now, Kazar was the only person holding an intact sword.

“This makes things too easy.”

One corner of Kazar’s mouth slowly curled upward.

“This way.”

With his face covered in tears and snot, Louis pointed in one direction. The group had just emerged from the cave and was running along the forest path, following Louis’s gesture.

“This way.”

The child confidently pointed out the direction guided by the particles of light.

Sing moved first, while Alex followed with Louis in his arms. Four knights surrounded them in a protective formation.

At first, the knights had been skeptical. But whenever traces of Eluana appeared exactly where Louis said they would, they gradually stopped questioning him.

“No. This way.”

At Louis’s words, Sing, who was leading the group, changed direction.

Alex felt a strange sense of unease every time.

“How is this even possible?”

“They said Lord Louis is a genius.”

Sing immediately answered, but that couldn’t possibly explain it.

Alex wondered what being a genius had to do with tracking human footprints, yet Louis continued making his choices without hesitation.

Sniffling as he looked over the terrain, Louis muttered,

“If we go this way, we’ll end up on the opposite side of the village.”

“There are signs that they hesitated here…”

Alex couldn’t finish his sentence before every muscle in his body tensed.

“People!”

Sing spotted the presence ahead and immediately rushed forward.

He pushed through the bushes and found a man walking toward them, covered in blood.

Eluana was in his arms.

“Give our young lady back!”

“Take her. She’s heavy anyway.”

The man’s blunt response contained no hostility. Realizing this, Sing relaxed slightly and shouted indignantly,

“Our young lady isn’t heavy!”

Sing took Eluana into his arms almost as though snatching her away before he could finally relax.

Her breathing was steady, and unlike the blood-covered man, she didn’t have a single injury.

The blood-soaked man spoke.

“She fainted. I think she exhausted herself by using her alchemy ability beyond her limits.”

“Thank you. For protecting our young lady.”

Sing bit his lip.

Eluana getting into danger had all been his fault.

No matter what orders he had received, he should never have followed them.

Still, she was safe. That was what mattered.

Now all they had to do was find that Fourth Prince or whatever he was called.

“Where is His Highness the Fourth Prince?”

Just as the man raised one corner of his mouth in a faint smile, Louis, who was being held by Alex, spotted Eluana.

He squirmed and shouted loudly,

“Sis!!”

“She’s all right. She only lost consciousness.”

Sing hurriedly reassured him.

Louis immediately burst into tears.

Alex comforted the sobbing child as he approached.

“Are you all right, Your Highness?”

“I’m fine. Let’s skip the formalities.”

At the word prince, Sing flinched.

‘This blood-covered man is a prince?’

A man with messy, weed-like hair had collapsed while saying he was with the prince. Even so, Sing hadn’t thought that the man who had appeared with Eluana was the prince himself.

Why would a prince protect their young lady to the point of ending up like this?

Could it be… love?

‘Well, our young lady is pretty lovable.’

He’s fallen for her.

He’s completely fallen for her.

It must have been love at first sight.

While Sing continued building his own misunderstanding, Kazar pressed one hand against his shoulder to staunch the bleeding.

“What about Rine?”

“If you mean the man with the weed-like hair, he’s in a relatively safe place.”

Alex hesitated, so Sing answered awkwardly.

Ring and the soldiers were with him, but they had left Rine by the roadside.

“As long as he’s alive, that’s enough. More importantly, did you deal with Laplancia? We’ll have to burn the corpse. Otherwise, it’ll attract wild animals.”

“I’ve already instructed the soldiers from the castle.”

“If you go that way, you’ll find the bodies. Take care of them. And make sure to recover every dagger and sword whose blades have been separated from their hilts.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Alex answered solemnly while holding Louis.

The child’s eyes were red and swollen from crying. He tugged on Kazar’s clothes.

“Big brother.”

“Here we are again.”

Kazar smiled faintly.

“Thank you for saving my sister.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Louis burst into tears again, apparently overwhelmed by his emotions.

Kazar rarely showed such tenderness, but he gently stroked the child’s hair.

“It’s hard for me to take credit for saving her. Your sister protected herself, just like she wanted to.”

Leaning back in a chair, Kazar took in the sight of sleeping Eluana and Louis sitting beside her, desperately trying not to cry.

To Kazar, the bond between these siblings was almost fascinating.

Eluana, who had sent every knight to her younger brother despite knowing how dangerous the situation was.

And Louis, who had sobbed as though the world were ending simply because she had no injuries.

To him, brothers and sisters had always been nothing more than people who threatened his life.

Even with Princess Evelyn, whom he had the most peaceful relationship with, they could hardly meet without trying to tear each other apart.

Of course, Kazar did have a sibling he cared about.

An unnecessarily cheerful, troublesome child.

An idiot who had coughed up a mouthful of blood and still said he was glad his older brother hadn’t eaten.

Come to think of it, that child had pink eyes too.

Perhaps that was why Kazar was so weak against these siblings.

“Lord Louis, blow your nose.”

Ring, who had been watching from behind, approached at just the right moment. She wiped Louis’s nose with a handkerchief, her own eyes welling with tears.

The girl named Ring was just as strange.

Seeing her crying so sorrowfully alongside Louis, Kazar had assumed she was an old friend who had grown up with him in Aden.

Yet she had only been a maid for four days.

Perhaps sensing Kazar’s gaze, Louis sniffled and approached him.

“Thank you for saving my sister. I’ll definitely repay this debt. Louis promises.”

Kazar’s lips curved upward as he heard the forty-eighth expression of gratitude.

Rine’s eyes widened again beside him, but Kazar ignored it and replied,

“I’ll remember that.”

He was about to leave it at that, but clicked his tongue.

If they returned like this, something would continue to bother him.

Kazar looked into Louis’s eyes again.

Clear, light pink eyes without a trace of impurity.

‘Those pink eyes really are the problem.’

Kazar stared at the particles of light clinging to Louis’s hair.

He had tried to ignore them, but the densely packed glowing particles were impossible to overlook.

“If you want to live long enough to repay that debt, you can’t use that power like this.”

“Hmm?”

Louis tilted his head, clearly not understanding.

The sparkling lights gathered around Louis were visible to Kazar.

There was no way Aden, with its low mana density, could contain that much mana.

When Kazar had first met Louis in prison, there had been no light gathered around him.

That meant those lights must have followed him all the way from the Spes Duchy.

“It’s true that mana likes you. That’s the problem.”

“Mana?”

Louis looked completely bewildered, and Kazar furrowed his brow.

“You didn’t even know that? The sparkling lights around you. That’s mana.”

“Can you see them too, Big Brother?”

“I can, but other people probably can’t. Don’t tell just anyone that you can see them.”

“I wanted to tell my sister, but suddenly I got scared.”

“Usually, something bad happens when you tell people. That light responds to your wishes, doesn’t it? It helps you?”

Louis flinched before slowly nodding.

“Yes. They’re my friends.”

“It’s true that mana likes you and willingly helps you. But there are side effects. If you want to use that power without suffering from them, tell the Duke of Spes. He’ll make you stronger.”

“Stronger? Strong enough to protect my sister?”

Kazar looked firmly at the child’s red, swollen eyes.

“Strong enough to protect everyone you love.”