Vol 1 Chapter 44 (1/2)

Chapter 44

Confession Beneath the Tree of Light (Part 2)

With his dying breath, the chief’s second-in-command cast an explosion spell.

As he intended, the boom successfully caused his allies to return to Doria Village, but the sound also alerted Royce to the fact that the situation had changed.

Royce, along with the young woman who was waiting with him, hurried towards Doria Village.

“Are you scared?”

Breathing heavily as he moved, Royce asked her a question. Her face hidden in the hood she wore, the young woman didn’t answer. She merely set her eyes straight ahead as she walked.

Impatience, Fear, Grief.

She was headed to a battlefield, but she felt none of those emotions, but rather, a solid determination.

She focused on walking straight ahead. She didn’t answer the question, nor did her eyes waver.

Royce silently mocked himself as he moved his gaze away from the girl to stare forward once more.

‘Well, it’s a natural reaction.’

She had accompanied Kelvin, Wynn and Locke when they met back up with Royce. At that time, he could plainly see the wariness on her face.

Despite being in his mid-thirties, his belly was as fat as a beer barrel, his head was bald, his face was round and squishy, and his chin was flabby. Moreover, his sharp, appraising eyes made it look like he was always plotting something sinister.

Royce himself didn’t realize how repulsed females would be upon seeing him for the first time.

She already didn’t have a good impression of him, and also just had a bad experience. She couldn’t be faulted for being wary of Royce.

It used up energy to talk while they moved.

Royce did not try to start another conversation with the girl.

It was three against two hundred.

Against such an overwhelming difference in numbers, Wynn’s side would normally have no chance of winning.

But the enemy was wary of the fact that there were only three of them.

Sure enough, the aged man who appeared to be the leader sent five knights and around a dozen bandits under his command at them.

They probably suspected some sort of ambush lay in wait for them.

If they recklessly charged into the plaza, they might face a coordinated garage of ranged attack magic from all sides.

“Split up!”

Wynn and the others were lucky that there were only a few people.

The three ran off to different parts of the village.

Wynn dashed into a nearby two-story building.

He could never win against mounted knights, so he moved to a place where the knights couldn’t stay on horseback.

“Stop there!”

“Aren’t I acting like a delinquent right now?”

Wynn ran up the stairs.

Kicking open the wooden door, the three men rushed in after him.

“Hehehe… you ran into a dead end.”

“I’ll slaughter ya fer lookin’ down on us.”

They charged at him.

Waiting at the top of the stairs, Wynn sidestepped their spears and slashed the first man.

It would be a different matter if he were facing magically strengthened knights, but against simple bandits and mercenaries, Wynn’s diligent training gave him the advantage.

While he was thrown off balance by the slash to his chest, Wynn kicked him with all his might.

“Whoa!”

“s.h.i.+t!”

The man fell over, b.u.mping into the two people behind him, and they all ended up falling down the stairs.

Without a second glance at the men at the bottom of the stairs, Wynn dashed into the room at the top of the stairs, and then jumped out of one of the windows.

Before he ran into the

building, he confirmed that there was a shed beside it. He planned to land on top of it.

For a moment, Wynn was worried that the planks that made up the roof would give in, but he landed safely.

He dashed across the roof.

Then, he jumped once again.

“Wha? Yo– Agh!”

He rammed into a knight on horseback, and they both tumbled to the ground.

One of them had expected the fall, while the other didn’t, so the one that did, got up quicker.

The armour they wore was also different.

Wynn’s leather armour was lighter than the metal armour the knight wore, so he got up faster.

Ignoring the fallen knight, he raced towards the horse, and grabbed its reins.

“Locke!”

Wynn rode towards Locke, who was fighting in an alley between two houses, where horses didn’t fit.

“What!?”

Seeing his opponents hurriedly jump out of the way, Locke ran towards Wynn’s horse and jumped on.

“You saved me there, Wynn”

“They’re behind us! Some magic would be nice!”

“Those two are over here!”

Having already stolen a horse, Kelvin took the lead. His body was soaked in blood. Wynn decided that it was probably his opponents’ blood.

As Wynn and Locke neared where Kelvin was fighting, they saw a horse that had lost its right leg. Beside it, they could see the figures of two slain enemies.

Wynn wondered how Kelvin even defeated a mounted knight.

Seeing that they had stolen horses, the enemy realized that there was probably no ambush.

All of the knights sprang into action.

“Locke!”

“I’m on it!”

Clinging onto Wynn’s back, Locke used wind magic to deflect the arrows. They were lucky that there were only two horses,

“Into the forest!”

They rode into the narrow forest paths

The knights pursued them.

“You helped me with the arrows.”

Locke thanked Wynn.

Locke could deflect the arrows with wind magic, but Locke couldn’t completely defend against the barrage of magic.

At first, the three of them weren’t riding horses, and wore lightweight armour. The knights must have thought that they were merely adventurers or mercenaries.

Neither their magic nor their arrows. .h.i.t their target.

On horseback, it was hard to cast attack magic, and even if they fired arrows, Locke would change the arrows’ trajectory using magic.

The knights were slowly catching up to Wynn and Locke. Even though the knights were equipped with heavy armour, their horses could still move faster than a horse with two people on it. On the other hand, Kelvin’s horses, unburdened, had already left them far behind.

“Shoot, another one!?”

Locke, who had been watching their backs to avoid being hit by arrows, called out.

At that moment–

“Captain Royce!”

Kelvin called out to Royce, who he had spotted running with heavy footsteps.

“Hah… Hah… The people… fled into the forest… Quickly… I leave the rest to you.”

Kelvin stopped his horse right beside Royce. Meanwhile, Wynn and Locke’s horses ran past them.

That was when the battle began.

“Hey, Onii-chan…“

Leticia smiled, her face illuminated by the puffs of light emanating from the tree.

“I understand well why you tell me not to fight. I really needed to realize that I had gotten Onii-chan involved–”

Cutting off Wynn’s protest, Leticia gently stroked Wynn’s cheek.

Her eyes were filled with affection. They momentarily became clouded with pain, but soon cleared up.

“Thank you, Onii-chan. Thank you for worrying about me, but I must apologize.”

Pausing for a moment, Leticia looked down. She then looked back up, resolution in her eyes..

She looked straight at Wynn with an unsmiling, serious expression.

“I am sorry. The one who taught me the warmth human of human kindness was you. The one who taught me how to fight was you. Because I met you, I realized that I wasn’t alone in this wide world. That’s why I want to walk alongside you. I want to fight alongside you. Even if I hurt others, even if I get called a monster by others, even if I am called a Demon Lord by humanity. I still want to walk alongside you. That is my selfishness. I will fight of my own free will.”

‘Even if the world doesn’t acknowledge me, as long as you do, that is enough.’

Wynn and Locke ran past Royce. Then, the person beside Royce moved.

It was only for an instant, but the hooded figure met Wynn’s eyes.

Wynn bit his lips in frustration.

‘Right now, I am not worthy of standing by her side. But someday…’

Kelvin pulled Royce up onto the horse, as he looked towards the hooded figure and the enemy knights.