Chapter 39
If Sharen and Zarha were there, we could defeat Hadem without any trouble.
The problem was that, if so, Hadem would be unlikely to fight.
Even if the two of them hid nearby, there was a high risk that their mana would be detected.
Then how could we make use of them both?
The answer was simple.
They just had to be far away.
If they were far enough away that Hadem thought they could never participate in the battle, he would mistakenly assume that Calix had rushed out without bringing them.
So the two of them decided to wait in the Kron domain until the battle began.
If Hadem did not attack, they could simply remain in the Kron domain.
But if Hadem attacked…
Fweeeee- Whumm-!
“The signal has come!”
The soldier waiting for the signal with a telescope shouted.
Upon receiving the signal, Sharen spoke to Zarha, who was waiting in the magic circle.
“Lord Zarha, I’ll use teleportation magic. It may make you a little dizzy, so please be careful.”
“Yes! Understood, Mage.”
Teleportation magic had the tremendous effect of leaping across dimensions, but it was an advanced spell that consumed an equally tremendous amount of mana and mental strength.
Because of that, Sharen would be unable to participate in the battle immediately after using the spell, but that was fine.
From Hadem's perspective, Zarha possessed combat strength equal to his own and was a force he had excluded from his calculations. Zarha's sudden arrival could greatly affect the outcome of the battle.
Sharen gathered her mana and used teleportation magic.
"Teleport!"
Fweeeee- Whumm-!
A black hole suddenly appeared and swallowed Zarha.
Nothing remained above the summoning circle, and Sharen suddenly felt all the strength leave her body.
Rana, who had been waiting beside her, quickly ran over and supported her.
“Are you all right, Sharen?”
“I’m fine… I’m just a little motion-sick.”
Having fulfilled her mission, Sharen gazed at the magic circle.
She wanted to help more, but by the time she recovered her mana and flew over, the battle would already be over.
“Everyone… stay strong.”
Sharen prayed with all her heart for her comrades' victory.
Please let everyone make it through without getting hurt…
* * *
Hadem was enraged when he saw Zarha standing before him.
Hadem acknowledged Zarha as a warrior.
That was why he had wanted to settle things properly with him someday.
He wanted to fight on an honorable battlefield, not on one where schemes were met with counter-schemes.
“Have you become the salt peddler’s dog, Warrior Zarha?”
“I have become the warrior of the King of Liberation, you foolish lion.”
Zarha brushed off Hadem's words without concern.
After Calix began ruling Dreihart, the domain developed spectacularly and became a much better place to live.
To repay that kindness, Zarha was willing to fight in any battle.
Then he heard that there was a battle to liberate a domain from a lord who had come to suppress it, and that his strength was needed.
Zarha immediately ran to Kron.
“Come. I will dedicate this battle to the King of Liberation.”
No more words were necessary between the two men who knew each other's strength.
They both unleashed their powers.
“Grrrrr!!!”
“Uwoooooo!!”
When Hadem and Zarha used their powers and transformed into beasts, all the nearby knights cleared out of the area.
Following Dreihart, the battle between the Red Lion and the Blue Dragon began once again.
At that moment, an unexpected development began among the Ryan Knights, who were surrounded by Rikain's shield troops and the rear cavalry archers and were being attacked one-sidedly.
The completely cornered Ryan Knights spoke to Lagos, who was commanding them.
“Lord Lagos! What should we do!?”
The Ryan Knights were hoping that Lagos had some way to secure victory.
The answer that came from Lagos's mouth was astonishing.
“What else can we do? We retreat.”
“What!?”
“Retreat?”
Retreating while their lord was fighting was unthinkable for the Ryan Knights.
The terrified knights asked Lagos,
“Are you betraying the lord?”
”I’m keeping my promise to the lord. To the future lord, that is…”
“What?”
In fact, before coming here, Lagos had received an offer from Vara along with a large sum of money.
If Hadem had remained his usual self, Lagos would have continued to stand by him.
But the Ryan family's domain was steadily running a deficit.
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before his pay became a problem.
That was when Vara approached Lagos.
Vara offered to pay him twenty percent more than his father did if he worked for him.
Of course, Lagos was not foolish enough to betray Hadem immediately for money alone.
But he was smart enough to understand the situation.
Knowing that Kron stood behind Vara, Lagos thought that Hadem was finished and that he had more than earned his pay.
If that was the case, changing masters did not seem like a bad idea.
“Everyone, retreat!!”
“Retreat! Retreat!!”
Led by Lagos, the Ryan Knights began to withdraw.
Rather than pursue them, the Kron Knights began focusing on Hadem, their target.
Warrior Zarha was already difficult enough to handle, and then the arrows of countless mounted archers began converging on Hadem.
Whoosh-! Whoosh-! Thunk-!!
“Gack!! You bastards!!”
Even transformed into a lion by his blessing, arrows striking Hadem's weak hide still pierced his flesh.
When the pain brought him back to his senses and created an opening, there was no way Zarha and Azel would miss it.
“Uwoooooo!!!!”
Kuum-!
“Cough!!!”
Zarha's full-force tackle slammed into Hadem.
Hadem collapsed, experiencing the greatest pain of his life, but it was not over yet.
“Jus! tice! Ex! e! cu! tion!”
KABOOM-!!!
“Graaaagh!!”
Azel's sword, wrapped in the power of moonlight, pierced straight through Hadem's shoulder from above.
The blow tore through Hadem's body with enough force to nearly shatter his shoulder joint, and it dispelled his lion transformation.
At that moment, Hadem felt his defeat.
“Cough…”
After confirming that Hadem had been completely subdued, the knights made way.
Calix then approached along that path.
Hadem found Calix's downward gaze hateful and spoke with difficulty.
”Do you think it ends…just because you won by laying a trap?…His Highness the Prince will not forgive you.“
“That will not happen. Because all of this was ordered by His Highness the Prince.”
“What!?”
At Calix's words, Hadem could not utter another word.
Although Hadem had caused many problems, his loyalty to the prince had been genuine.
Hadem simply could not believe that the prince had abandoned him.
“Noah.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Noah handed Calix a letter.
The imperial seal was clearly stamped upon it.
“That…”
“It is an imperial edict sent by His Highness the Prince.”
The prince had ordered them to strike at Hadem.
How had it come to this?
The plan had begun when Hadem sent his own soldiers disguised as bandits.
Garche, who had been captured by the people of Kron while disguised as a bandit, had officially been declared dead, but Hart had kept him imprisoned in Kron's prison.
The reason they had kept him alive was to turn him into a witness if an unforeseen situation arose.
House Ryan's raids and attacks while pretending to be bandits were, of course, serious criminal acts.
It was one of the basest ways to attack a rival family, and a lord subjected to such an attack gained enough authority to publicly denounce even the other lord's ancestors.
If this came to light, the prince's political image would suffer fatal damage for having tolerated Hadem. Yet if he abandoned Hadem, his control over the southern region would be weakened.
At that point, Calix—or, more precisely, Noah—conveyed Calix's wishes as follows.
‘Please, in His Highness the Prince’s name, allow me to condemn that butcher Hadem.’
No matter how far Hadem had crossed the line, if Calix attacked him on his own authority, it would necessarily be an act that greatly displeased the prince.
But if Hadem were expelled in the prince's name, it would mean that the prince himself had stepped forward to uphold justice. At the same time, it would send the other factions a message that Kron might belong to the prince's faction, allowing him to display his influence.
The rampaging rusty axe and the newly rising silver-white arrows—
The prince sided with Calix.
”…Therefore, in the name of Kailos Sword Novarens, First Imperial Prince of the Empire, I strip Hadem Ryan of his right to rule.“
After hearing the prince's edict, Hadem understood the entire situation.
And he realized that he had been completely defeated.
In both martial ability and political power, he had lost completely to Calix.
Faced with a defeat so complete that it was almost cathartic, Hadem could do nothing but laugh.
”Hah…hahahaha!!! Amazing, Calix. Yes…you won.“
Hadem acknowledged his defeat.
And he accepted the fate of the loser.
”Kill me. A lion does not beg the victor for its life.“
As Hadem waited for Calix's blade, Calix refused to grant him his final wish.
”You are a lord, not a lion, and I am a human being, not a victor.“
“What does that mean…”
Hadem was trash, but he was still a warrior, and he had wanted to die in a fight to the death against a strong opponent.
Although it was not in the form he had expected, Calix was a strong man whom he acknowledged.
Hadem felt uneasy when that strong man called himself a human being, and his unease proved justified.
”From now on, you will be confined to the northern castle of the Ryan domain.“
“What!?”
There was a very sturdy castle in the northern part of the Ryan domain that had been built as a prison.
Hadem could hardly have been unaware of it.
Hadem himself had built that castle so that it could imprison even a ‘Blessed One’ like him.
“You will be confined there, and your son Vara will take over in your place.”
“You bastard! Are you going to take even an honorable death away from me?!”
Calix still believed that there was no such thing as an honorable death.
Especially not for a butcher who played gacha with people's necks.
”Watch from there…the Ryan family as your son builds it into something that denies you….“
”No! Kill me! Like a victor! I said kill me!!“
Hadem was the lord of House Ryan, and directly killing him would obviously have placed a political burden on Calix.
Besides, death was too easy.
Being imprisoned by the weak son he had despised most and suffering in prison for the rest of his life was a fitting end for him.
That day, it was publicly announced that Hadem, the lord of House Ryan, had retired due to a chronic illness.