Chapter 256

Bloom in Difficulty (2)

There was something about Crown Prince Adrian Leonberger that stimulated the people’s curiosity and excitement. He had moved beyond his past notoriety and stigmas, became the savior of the north, and was now considered the future of the kingdom.

Unsurprisingly, when the people of the kingdom gathered, they praised the young hero born into the kingdom until their throats were dry. Then, when they had told all of the Crown Prince’s tales, the people again began to speak, this time about the five knights following Prince Adrian.

“Chief of the Balahard family and renowned as the kingdom’s shield, the first Duke in the kingdom for nearly a hundred years, Hertzog Norden, and acclaimed supporter of the Crown Prince, Vincent Balahard.”

“Arwen Kirgayen, the Steel Knight, widely known for her swordsmanship and knightly nature, a rare Master in her early twenties.”

“Bernardo Eli, a descendant of the kingdom’s finest knights, who gained notoriety as the scion of a fallen high family, but who made great strides in the recent imperial war and in the monster extermination of the past year.”

“A young man who has been named as the next palace knight commander by Count Schmilde Stuttgart, Carls Ulrich, renowned leader of palace knights, who became famous for his graceful appearance and outstanding elegance.”

has proven her mastery by attaining the title of champion in just a few years after being a maid who had never clutched a sword.”

All of them were people who gained fame incredibly quickly, and all were young enough to have great futures to look forward to. But among them, a figure veiled in mystery.

All that was known about her was that she had originally been a maid, was then recognized as a knight by the Crown Prince, and was widely ridiculed with the stigma of being his concubine until she received the title of champion.

From tales by Carls Ulrich, who had seen less combat than the other knights following the prince, and through the maids and servants of aristocrats traveling to and from the royal palace, Adelia’s graceful appearance and serious and noble character became widely known.

It was not known exactly what kind of woman Adelia was.

If one listened to the maids of the First Palace, who once worked with her, they greatly cherished her elevated status. But if one accidentally met a northern knight or soldier and asked them about Adelia, their faces turned pale.

“She’s gentle, sensitive, and good — but scary, cruel, and fearless.”

Sometimes, even if people managed to get lucky and unlock a northerner’s tongue, they then had to listen to a tale filled with contradictions that were difficult to understand.

“A good woman who can’t kill a single fly.”

“A cruel woman who values all life like a fly’s.”

Then, in the end, people came up with two conclusions that couldn’t coexist at all, and they could not figure out what was true.

Some chattering enthusiasts gave Adelia the nickname ‘Cruel Angel.’

“Exactly!”

“Who thought that up? It’s weird!”

The soldiers in the north who heard the strange nickname strongly sympathized with it, punching their knees or slapping each other’s backs as they talked about the moniker’s aptness.

When it became known that even Adelia’s master, the Crown Prince, had heard her nickname and admired its suitability, the populace began to call her ‘Adelia Bavaria, the cruel angel.’

However, only a few of the people who called her that truly knew the nickname’s meaning.

And now, Turk and five hundred mercenaries who had wandered into the kingdom were on the verge of being included among those select few.

Of course, they didn’t know what Adelia was at first.

“To find such a treasure in a corner like this.”

“Yeah. The other things seem normal, but the eyes and skin are awesome.”

Turk and the mercenaries could only admire eyes, saying she was a rare attraction within the world.

“I can’t bear it. Kill them all, I’m taking her with me.”

Eventually, Turk was so fascinated by the cruel light in Adelia’s eyes that he thought of taking her by force.

“Kill all the men, elders, and children. Just keep the women alive.”

“Then those women-

“Do whatever you feel like. I just need this girl.”

The mercenaries cheered at Turk’s words.

“Leader! Look at her clothes! It’s the Leonberger crest! Maybe she’s a royal woman!”

Only Yols, once vice-commander but now critic, gave a strong warning.

“You shut up. How great if she’s a princess of this country!”

“Let’s hide and grow our forces! Let’s build our own kingdom! If you touch that woman, Leonberg’s army will move on us!”

“Ha, really… Yols, you’re a little bitch to the end. Even the Empire was facing trouble and struggled to stop us, so how can this country have the troops to pursue us! Right now, they could only spare a hundred cowards and thirty knights! You always pretend to be so smart, Yols — I don’t know why!”

“Something’s weird about this! Please, leader!”

Yols continued to scream, but Turk wasn’t listening.

“What will we do, boys?! Before we flee, let’s let them pay for it! It’s okay if we run away, since when the hell have we thought and worried about the future!”

The mercenaries’ spirit had been stifled for a while when they heard the army might chase them; now their spirits soared again.

Turk, who watched the men heading further into the village, turned to the woman again.

“The more I see you, the more I know you’ll be most fascinating.”

Holding his crotch, Turk stepped forward, and the woman suddenly shed tears.

“Don’t be scared, pretty. It doesn’t hurt.”

Turk said that she was even attractive when crying, and he laughed insidiously as he continued to rub his hand over his pants. He didn’t know what those tears meant.

“I promise, serve me with sincerity and follow me as your master-”

Turk, who had been talking in a world of his own, experienced a strange sense of incongruity that made him shut up.

His vision was somehow blurry, distorted as he looked around. He saw that that the officers who had been heading into the inner village on his order had somehow halted, stiffened like stone statues.

“What are you doing-” Turk spoke in annoyance, but before his words were done, he heard the sound of something falling. He turned his head and widened his eyes as he saw a head roll across the ground.

‘Hwaak!’

A headless body, right next to Turk, spouted blood as it collapsed with a thump. That was the beginning- ‘Tuk~ Degur’ dozens of heads rolled to the ground as blood fountained from dozens of corpses.

“What is this…?”

Turk look at the decapitated heads with a vague face.

“I never want to hurt anyone.”

Then, there came the soft sound of crying. Turk turned his head.

“But I hate being useless to his Highness.”

The woman was there, with a face as if she would sink down and weep right away; her bloody sword hung in her grip, pointing to the ground.

“That’s why my heart hurts.”

The woman looked at the bodies with a gloomy face. “But…”

After a while, she turned to face Turk again. “Not as much as I thought.”

“What the hell do you mean! No, what did you do!” Turk shouted.

“His Highness’s words were right.”

However, the woman continued to talk to herself as if she didn’t care about Turk.

“He’s always right. There’s nothing wrong with what he said. You must not doubt his words.”

The woman lifted her sword.

“So it’s the same again this time.”

Her tone was full of grief as her weeping began to subside.

“If his Highness says that you are beasts, not men…”

Then, at a certain moment, the woman’s face became insidious, like that of snake hissing.

“Then, you are beasts.”

Little by little, the red and yellow lights that flickered deep within Adelia’s eyes grew brighter.

“And I’ve cut into non-humans so much that it’s become boring.”

Turk felt cramped as if choking — the woman’s shining gaze was nailed on him.

Instinct told Turk that the two lights he had considered mysterious and beautiful a little while ago were actually the eyes of a nocturnal predator crouched in the shadows of the dark forest. His body responded to this instinct immediately, a habit that had been hardened in him over many years.

Turk’s hand moved toward his sword’s hilt, and mana from his heart flowed to his hand in an instant. However, neither his hand nor his mana reached their destination.

‘Sasak!’

Turk felt a subtle pressure passing through his shoulder, and when he realized what it was, it was too late. Turk gazed down. There lay a chunk of hairy meat that had been someone’s arm. Turk, who was staring at the piece of flesh, suddenly saw his body. There was an empty spot where his shoulder had been cleanly severed, and blood was pumping out rapidly.

“Where is my arm?” Turk mumbled like a madman, picking up the limb that had fallen to the ground.

‘Sasak!’

Just then, a golden flash struck, as if having awaited this moment.

‘Tuk!’

In the next instant, Turk’s remaining arm plopped to the ground. With a blank face, Turk looked at the two limbs that had once been an indispensable part of his life but were now obsolete chunks of meat.

“Ah?”

He opened his mouth, and his speech sounded dull at first.

“Urghh.” It quickly became a pained groan-

“Ahhhh!” and finally turned into a terrible scream.

“My arm! My aaa—aa-arm!” Turk screamed.

“When I cleanse my sword,” the woman whispered, “blood into a river flows, and the flesh enriches the land.”

At that moment, a brilliant golden aura covered the entire area, then its light faded away. All that remained were corpses crushed into unrecognizable shapes and Turk’s own body.

“Waah,” Turk muttered as he sank to the ground, coming to a sit as his mouth trembled. He sighted a corpse that had half its body missing. It had been vice-commander Yols. One side of the head, cleaved in half just like the body, was facing Turk.

‘I swear commander, you’ll one day get stabbed by a girl’s knife.’

What Yols had told Turk all his life sounded in his ears like a hallucination. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!” he screamed.

‘Waschack!’

In the next moment, a golden flash of light came out of nowhere and cut his scream short.

‘Duk,’ Turk’s head rolled over the ground.

* * *

“This time, we won’t get the chance to go out,” a ranger who was looking at the village from a distance said jokingly.

“The villagers will have to find another place to live.”

“Yeah, all the houses are gonna collapse.”

The rangers joked with each other, but it was clear that they pretended to be cheerful; their faces were drawn and pale. Eventually, they stopped making meaningless jokes and shut their mouths.

As their surroundings became quiet, the screams from afar became clearer.

“Help me!”

“Please forgive me!”

The petitions and shouts of those beset by terror were intermixed. However, the pleas and cries soon turned into screams of despair, and even those grew quiet as time passed.

“It must be over,” one ranger said after a while.

“It can’t be over. His Highness was very insistent! Don’t move until it’s over!”

“To be precise, he told us to stand back and watch the situation, even if it was over. He said it would be better if we waited for Sir Adelia to return first.”

“Yes! Then, we have to wait some more.”

The rangers shut their mouths for a while and then started talking again, finding the silence too hard to bear.

“But are you sure there was no one left in the town?”

“We made sure. There was no one. And even if there was, they won’t be there now.”

“Don’t say such things!”

“It’s true. Look — who can survive that?”

“Ugh. I won’t see it. I can’t see it.”

These weren’t mere words; the rangers’ eyes looked everywhere other than at the village.

However, because they were on a mission, they couldn’t completely turn their heads away; sometimes, they had to look in that direction.

“Uh- It’s all over,” said one of the rangers who took turns to watch the village. “Now. Go.”

The rangers headed into the village reluctantly, finding dead mercenaries scattered around and within.

“It’s hell.”

The rangers stepped lightly as they avoided corpses and blood puddles, their faces shocked. However, the dead were too many, and a lot of blood flowed from them. So, the rangers’ leather boots quickly became stained red. They waded through the pools of blood and reached the village center, finally meeting the one who had caused such carnage.

Between piles of crushed corpses, a blood-soaked woman stood in the dark.

‘Gulp,’ one of the rangers swallowed his spit.

‘Shh’ Just then, Adelia turned her head, facing the rangers with her multicolored pupils.

After a moment of silence-

“Balahard Rangers!” Friendlies! Allies!” the rangers shouted all at once, even throwing their beloved crossbows into the gore as they desperately raised their hands.