Chapter 92
With one comrade dead and two incapacitated, the black knight who had challenged them to single combat charged forward, screaming curses.
Now that things had come to this, he seemed determined to take Haines down with him.
Just as Haines flinched for an instant at the black knight’s charge—he had abandoned defense and seemed intent on dying together—Jade’s voice cut through the air.
Then the ground heaved.
“Tch! Something this small…!”
As the ground instantly turned to muck, the black knight gritted his teeth and channeled mana into both legs.
He had already resigned himself to death.
Therefore, the black knight did not hold back his mana.
If the earth tried to hold him down, he intended to smash through it by force.
Wham!
But he failed to accomplish that.
The heavy pain in his back turned his mind blank.
Bwoooom!
Though the black knight could not hear it, Noes roared after slamming into him with satisfying force.
Noes was thrilled to have sent flying a Sword Master, one of the strongest among humans.
Crack! Craaack!
Haines subdued the black knight Noes had rammed in the form of a rhinoceros without difficulty.
Since there was a great deal of information to learn, not least his identity, Haines had captured him by severing the tendons in all four limbs.
Since his tendons had been severed, he would be unable to recover fully unless treated by a high priest.
“Looks like we’ve got things more or less under control.”
“Thanks to these fellows’ plan, we got away with far fewer casualties than expected.”
“Well, the war isn’t over yet.”
“Surely they won’t attack after four of them have been killed or captured like this? Won’t they surrender?”
Even if the one remaining black knight was a Sword Master, he was still only one man.
In contrast, the Polstein Kingdom still had three Masters in fighting condition.
The tide had already turned decisively, so Arelia shook her head.
She couldn’t imagine them fighting a war whose defeat was a foregone conclusion.
“Who knows? Humans are selfish, so I don’t think they’ll surrender right away just because the tide has turned against them.”
“Come on, they still have common sense.”
“If surrender means certain death, would they? The soldiers may want to surrender, but the Fifth Prince won’t.”
Arelia’s pupils widened.
No sooner had she finished speaking than Solad Castle erupted into commotion.
She saw countless knights mounting their horses.
“...They really mean to see this through to the bitter end?”
“If either way ends in death, there’s only one answer. They’re saying they won’t go quietly.”
“Then let’s go now.”
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
Haines, having decisively subdued the black knight, approached and spoke.
His slightly pale complexion showed that he was not in good condition, but his eyes were still intense.
Then the sound of hooves came from behind them.
Lloyd, Gent, and the knights approached with the cavalry, riding the Silairon Jade had summoned in advance.
“Marquis Jade!”
“It seems the Crown Prince has had the same thought as I have.”
“Hmm.”
Jade’s gaze shifted to Lloyd, who was almost hanging from Silairon’s back, and Gent, who was madly driving his horse beneath him.
The expression on Gent’s face made his thoughts obvious even without hearing him, and Jade nodded.
He, too, knew well how they needed to move in order to reduce unnecessary deaths.
Though these deaths had nothing to do with him, that was no reason to let them die if he could prevent it.
‘I never thought I’d have to worry about the continent’s political situation, though.’
The number of nobles, knights, and commoners cut down in the Fifth Prince’s bloody purge alone was considerable.
If they suffered another major loss in this battle, the foundations of the Arhan Kingdom would inevitably be shaken.
And that would give the Faithe Empire an excuse to reveal its ambitions.
“Will you be all right? Haines looks like he needs to rest, to me.”
“I’m still all right. Now that I’ve drawn my sword, I intend to do my job properly and rest afterward. Besides, I am the sword that protects Your Highness the Crown Prince. Wherever Your Highness is, that is where I must be.”
“Ugh, can you stop saying that? I’m sick of hearing it.”
“Ha ha ha.”
Arelia spoke as though she were fed up, but Haines laughed.
He knew that she was joking to lighten the mood, which was beginning to grow heavy.
“I’m going. I have to avenge Clora. I can give up the others, but not him.”
Killing intent gleamed in Arelia’s eyes.
Though she was a half-elf, Clora was also a member of the War Elf tribe, like Arelia.
That was why Arelia could never yield the masked bastard.
“Marquis Jade!”
In the meantime, Lloyd and Gent arrived.
Shock still lingered on Gent’s face in particular.
He had never imagined that they would be hit by such a counterattack.
Moreover, he was truly shocked to learn that Jade was a Sword Master.
“If the two of you are going, I only need to clear the way.”
“Come on, since we’re here, come with us. Don’t you think we should at least see the face of the fellow who brought us all the way here?”
“First, neutralize them. Silairon.”
As Lloyd dismounted from the back of the high-level wind spirit Silairon, he blinked.
He was puzzled because Silairon had already been summoned, yet Jade was calling for it.
But the scene that followed left Lloyd no choice but to nod.
Sssshk!
With six Silairons summoned on each side of Jade, Lloyd found himself nodding involuntarily.
Because they had been summoned deliberately where they could be seen, everyone could see all twelve Silairons.
“Cry.”
Screeeeech!
The result was as concise as the command.
Under the sonic attack unleashed by the twelve Silairons, the soldiers gathered around Solad Castle all clutched their ears and collapsed.
And the knights were no different.
They fared only slightly better, but the result was the same.
“W-what...!”
The spirit mages the Fifth Prince had practically scraped together were especially unable to contain their astonishment.
For them, summoning thirteen high-level wind spirits at the same time was nearly impossible.
If the Fifth Prince had not scraped together spirit stones in preparation for Jade’s spirit arts, they would have been little different from the knights and soldiers.
“Isn’t he even more incredible than the elves?”
“His swordsmanship is at the Sword Master level, and his spirit arts are good enough to summon and freely control thirteen high-level spirits... Is that even possible?”
“He’s insane...”
The spirit mages who had witnessed something unimaginable with their own eyes wore expressions of awe.
Although Jade was their enemy, respect blossomed within them.
At the same time, they realized why the epithet ‘the continent’s greatest spirit mage’ was so often attached to Jade.
“The war’s over, right?”
“Can’t you tell by looking? Four of the black knights the Fifth Prince was so proud of have been killed or captured. The one left might be a Master, but what can he do alone? They have three Masters over there. And all three are perfectly fine.”
“Marquis Kang is the most formidable. He’s a Sword Master and a high-level spirit mage.”
“Could he be a dragon? With abilities like that, wouldn’t it be normal to suspect a dragon?”
The spirit mages in relatively good condition whispered among themselves.
But even with a dozen or so spirit mages whispering, none of the others had the presence of mind to listen.
“Let’s go.”
“Whew! That’s Jade for you!”
“There’s no need to shed unnecessary blood, is there? We just need to take the head.”
“Exactly! How right you are!”
Gent looked at Jade with the same expression as the spirit mages of the Arhan Kingdom.
Though they were currently facing each other with weapons drawn, the soldiers gathered at Solad Castle were the people of the Arhan Kingdom.
They would become his subjects once the Fifth Prince was executed.
“I’m going too. The Fifth Prince is mine.”
“That’s true. Lloyd, you’re Clora’s grandson.”
“Yes.”
After dismounting from Silairon and mounting his own horse, Lloyd’s eyes gleamed ominously.
No longer a boy but a man, he radiated killing intent.
“I’ll escort you.”
After helping Lloyd mount his horse, Haines mounted his own horse, which the royal knights had brought, and spoke.
Then Jade and Arelia each mounted a Silaphe.
Since spirits were more comfortable than horses, the two of them moved toward Solad Castle following Lloyd and Gent.
“Throw down your weapons and stand down! The war is over!”
Gent, leading the way alongside Lloyd, removed his helmet and shouted.
He exposed his face fully so that the soldiers, knights, and nobles could recognize him.
Arrows and other ranged attacks might fly at them from afar, but Gent did not care.
They had no less than three Sword Masters on their side, after all.
Therefore, Gent did not hesitate to expose his face and shout.
Then those who came to their senses began to make way one by one.
“Uuugh...!”
Of course, it was not because they recognized Gent’s face, but because of the thirteen Silairons following as though they were escorting Jade.
Since they had deliberately made the spirits visible even to ordinary humans, the soldiers backed away in terror.
Some nobles who recognized Gent also ordered the soldiers to fall back.
“What are you all doing?! Can’t you attack already?! Attack at once!”
The Fifth Prince screamed from atop the castle wall.
He kept shouting without giving the mage time to use amplification magic.
But the battlefield was so quiet that the Fifth Prince’s voice carried faintly across it.
The Fifth Prince was also a swordsman who had reached the Sword Expert level, after all.
“Are you defying your king—!”
Enraged that no one was attacking, the Fifth Prince shouted.
Yet neither the soldiers nor the knights moved at all in response to his roar.
The nobles pretended not to hear him, either.
“The result of a tower built on blood is obvious.”
“He was never fit to be king in the first place.”
Following the path that opened of its own accord, Jade advanced slowly.
Since there was no need for him to take the lead, he moved leisurely alongside Arelia.
Even so, Jade’s gaze remained fixed on the top of the walls as though it could bore through them.
He kept careful watch in case Harol tried to escape.
“Steven.”
“You needn’t worry about the magic scrolls. Everyone is prepared.”
It was not only the knight order and cavalry who had come.
The Royal Mage Corps, led by Steven, had joined them as well.
A mage corps was also stationed at Solad Castle, but apparently sickened by the Fifth Prince’s brutality, they had shown no sign of moving yet.
The Third Prince, Gent, was with them as well.
“You worthless vermin! How dare you defy my orders!”
“Enough. Are you coming down on your own two feet, or do you want us to drag you down?”
“Gent!”
“Even so, he’s still my older brother. Isn’t it a bit much to speak to him so casually? It’s not as though it’s just the two of us here; there are easily more than 100,000 people gathered here.”
Unlike before, Gent spoke with a relaxed expression.
His attitude had changed along with the reversal of the situation.
“How dare a mere traitor like you—!”
“Traitor? I’ve only come to set right what was twisted.”
“You’re nothing but a fugitive!”
“That much I’ll admit. I did run away.”
Gent readily admitted it.
Since he thought he had no chance of winning a head-on fight, he had fled to the Polstein Kingdom without hesitation.
He had decided that he first needed to survive in order to set right what had gone wrong.
And that choice had ultimately proved correct.
“Don’t you realize what you’ve done?!”
“Get your words straight. You’re the one who started the rebellion, and you’re the one who started the war. You’re the root of all this, Harol.”
“Shut up!”
“It seems you have no intention of coming down on your own.”
Though Harol must have known that the situation had changed, he continued shouting furiously, so Gent shifted his gaze.
He looked at the knights who had not yet left their positions.
These were knights Harol had personally appointed, rather than the original knights, but all of them lowered their heads as soon as their eyes met Gent’s.
Unlike Harol, they had properly gauged the situation, so not one of them dared meet his eyes.