🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 52
“…Right!”
Crack!
Rashian barely pulled his hand back from the ground just as an undead’s fist smashed into that spot.
Bang!
After dodging a few attacks by mere moments, he started to feel a bit confident. He couldn’t counterattack yet, but at least he wouldn’t get hit.
“If only my body could keep up… damn stamina!”
Amid the writhing corpses, his eyes met Ariletti’s. The girl’s wide, sharp eyes were watching him carefully. She shouted sharply,
“Don’t get swayed!”
A chill ran down his spine.
“Don’t get eaten! No one’s coming to help!”
With those piercing teal eyes, it felt like she was shouting, “You can only rely on yourself! Your own strength, now!”
Her warning snapped him awake.
His vision split. One eye saw a few seconds into the future, the other saw the present reality in front of him.
It was unbelievable, but not too difficult. Compared to the countless days he spent crushed under thousands of possible futures, unsure what was real or not… this was easy.
A skeleton swung its scythe at his head.
“Dodged!”
This time, he didn’t stop there. His vision caught the skeleton’s exposed knee joint. Feeling a surge of excitement, Rashian swung his sword. The skeleton’s knee shattered, and its bones crumbled to the ground.
“…!”
His attack hit for the first time.
He stared at his hands in disbelief. It was the first time his arms moved as he intended, and the first time his sword actually cut something.
Even if it was a small counterattack…
For the first time in his three lives, Rashian saw hope. The hope that maybe, he could really do this.
“Your Highness! Inside the cave!”
The youthful voice snapped him out of his thoughts. This was no time to daydream.
“If we just secure the innermost part of the cave, it’s over!”
He reconnected with the unconscious vision of the future. Something caught his eye in the foresight he had through the skeletons.
Someone was hiding in the dark shadows deep in the cave. Not aiming at him, but at the carriage.
“…!”
The figure dashed out of the darkness toward the carriage. Judging by the build, it was a normal adult man.
The girl crouched on the driver’s seat raised her eyebrows slightly as the man grabbed the carriage cover.
“I found it. This is mine…!”
A magical circle began spreading over the entire carriage. The man spotted Ariletti on the driver’s seat and reached out aggressively.
“Move!”
The small girl was almost snatched, and Rashian forced his foresight to cut off. He shouted with all his strength,
“Glenn, toward Aril!”
Glenn, smashing through the undead horde, stomped the ground like lightning.
Almost at the same time, the man jumping from inside the cave collided midair with Glenn, who had leapt over the corpses.
“Ugh…!”
“So this is the main body?”
The shockwave of aura revealed the man’s face, removing his hood. Pale as paper, with ash-gray eyes and long light-purple hair covering his neck, he looked ordinary except for the deep red under his eyes, like blood.
“Don’t hold back! Strike him!”
The man gritted his teeth, drawing a magical circle with speed that was clearly unusual. Glenn’s sword descended mercilessly on the barely lifted shield.
BANG!
The deafening noise echoed as the man tumbled to the cave floor.
“Oh my, our teacher.”
Duncan seized the moment, grabbed Ariletti, and leapt off the carriage.
Meanwhile, Rashian ran through the skeletons. His lungs burned, and his throat tasted of blood.
Near the cave’s end, something strange appeared.
A black curtain. Instinctively, he knew what was behind it was the “enemy’s weakness” Ariletti had mentioned.
Rashian gripped his sword with sweaty hands.
Almost there!
The undead army chasing him abruptly stopped.
“Huff… huff… huff…”
The boy aimed his sword at the hesitating corpses. His crimson eyes burned like flames.
“Stop. If you come closer, I’ll cut whatever’s inside here.”
In the distance, a scream came from the carriage side.
“No, Eliza! Eliza-!”
Whack! Glenn smashed the back of the man’s head with his sword. The scream stopped, and the undead who lost their “main body” froze in place.
“It’s over.”
Rashian, seeing Glenn tie up the unconscious man, staggered and collapsed. His arms shaking as if they would fall off, and his legs numb from running.
“Oh, Your Highness!”
Duncan rushed over and helped the boy sit up.
“Oh, blood! Blood!”
The royal blood dripped onto the cave floor. Rashian felt a burning sensation in his nose.
Glenn, tossing aside the dark wizard, ran over with Ariletti tucked under his arm.
“Rashian, are you okay? Let me see!”
“I’m fine. I’m not hurt.”
Just running this distance had drained his energy. It was absurd, but also strangely satisfying.
Glenn stomped in frustration.
“Never do that again! Do you forget who you are? A royal must always be protected. You shouldn’t go to the front!”
The one who had pushed the prince forward stepped forward.
Ariletti wiped Rashian’s bloodied nose with her sleeve, now stained red.
“Huff… huff…”
“Don’t lift your head. You’re still bleeding.”
She spoke to Glenn, probably telling him to bring the dark wizard they had left behind.
Rashian laughed weakly, like air escaping from a balloon.
“Hehe… they pushed me, then saved me… giving me trouble but also help…”
“You’re not crazy, right?”
“No… maybe a little?”
Breathing out, Rashian lifted his head. His red eyes glowed.
Vitality, maybe.
He rubbed his messy nose and spoke, excitedly,
“I think I can do more.”
“Do what, how?”
“I need to train my body. So I can keep my mind focused even when splitting my vision. So I can react quickly. If my body keeps up, nothing is impossible.”
“…”
“Faster, stronger, thinking a step ahead…”
He might not fully understand how to wield his power, but he had succeeded. Ariletti’s tense expression relaxed slightly.
“Good. I knew you’d figure it out.”
— Oh, this kid is still reckless…
Needle muttered. The rabbit doll’s ears twitched in disapproval.
— Awakening a power that eats away at your life… I thought you’d stopped, master, but you’re ruthless after all.
“Of course I won’t let him be like me. Rashian Federka must live a long life.”
Even if he becomes king, dying after a few years serves no purpose.
Ariletti offered the potion Rashian was to drink. He stared at her and pushed it away.
“I’ll pass. You drink it. I don’t want to rely on your life.”
“Using power selfishly costs life.”
“If you don’t use it recklessly like me, you don’t have to sacrifice life.”
Despite his drained energy, Rashian was mostly fine. Had he taken the full shock of combined aura and mana in his body, he couldn’t even speak.
“Maybe it works differently for me.”
Ariletti drank the unused potion.
“Well, we’ve got the main body, teacher.”
Thud. Glenn, taller than the man by a hand, grabbed the man by the collar. His usually warm eyes were cold and sharp as a mountain glacier.
“A wizard who controls corpses… so he needed ice materials?”
Glenn kicked the man over. He was unconscious, eyes rolled back.
“Wake up, Reggie.”
Ariletti tapped the man’s shoulder with her toe. His frail body wobbled.
“One more hit and he might wake.”
“No. There’s a more certain way.”
A black curtain, almost blending with the darkness, hung at the cave’s innermost point.
Ariletti walked straight to it.
“If you don’t wake now, I’ll take ‘Eliza,’ Reggie.”
The man, who seemed dead, opened his eyes wide.
