Chapter 1468

The group defending the young nobles managed to respond to Gargantia's surprise attack, but couldn't stop it completely. Perserque had anticipated that something was coming, but the spell had been far too sudden and far more elaborate than she'd imagined.

The method of leaving a mark, retrieving it, and warping everyone branded with it was such a high-level spell that even she couldn't dispel it right away.

After a flash, all that remained was an empty space bearing the traces of the massive spell.

Without a word, she looked at the bruise on her arm and wrapped it in a bandage. She hadn’t suffered it from a direct blow, however. It was an aftereffect of pushing herself too hard during the intense clash of mana.

“Haah.” She’d managed to protect most of the young lords and young ladies, fortunately, but had unfortunately lost four to Gargantia.

They included Prince Khrones; Young Lady Rune Bertas who was always causing trouble; Eosha Patrick of the Patrick family; and Laura Mel, a young lady from a marquis family of the Lyndis Empire.

Two of the young ladies happened to be love rivals competing for Prince Khrones, and Eosha, who intensely disliked both of them, had been taken away along with them.

Perserque should've been able to stop it entirely and save them all. Sure, she might've gotten hurt in the process, but it definitely wasn't something she couldn't possibly handle.

Or at least, that would have been the case if there hadn’t been one troll that made her mess up.

Evangeline turned to someone and shouted, “Go ahead, say something! Tell me what you have to say about this mess your idiotic decision caused!”

A considerably large boy was sweating profusely, desperately avoiding eye contact.

“Say something!!!” Evangeline grabbed and shook his collar. Her eyes were filled with a chilling murderous aura. “Don't you feel sorry for everyone who was taken away because they tried to save a piece of trash like you? I told you not to move! I told you I'd protect everyone!”

“Ugh. Geez! Let go!” In a panic, the boy tried to shake her off and back away.

Infuriated by his unbelievable reaction, she was about to roughly toss him away into a wall. Instead, the nearby Ratius and Crama reflexively grabbed her arm to restrain her.

“Please calm down, Princess!”

“Hey! Calm down! You're seriously going to kill him!”

She was still incensed. “Let go! Can't you see my mom got hurt because of this asshole?!”

Once Evangeline finally released him, the fat boy frantically ran off and hid behind a piece of furniture smaller than himself.

He then screamed at the top of his lungs, “Didn't you promise to protect us?! And yet you couldn't even stop the enemy's magic! This isn’t what you promised us!!!”

Hearing him argue back, Evangeline froze.

Crama flinched, excusing himself from the confrontation by backing away from her.

Evangeline drew her divine dragon sword and began walking toward the instigator. “Hey, say that again.”

The fat boy shrieked and tried even harder to run away.

He may have been educated enough to boast to his princely pride, yet, to Evangeline, whether the troll in front of her was a prince or a commoner didn't matter one bit.

“Hee. Heek!!! I. Is anyone there?! Protect me! I am of noble blood... GAAA!!!”

Before he could finish his desperate cry, Ratius punched him in the face. Even before Evangeline could step forward, he was already frantically stomping on him.

“Hey, shut up!!! Just shut up, you son of a bitch!”

“GAAAH!! H-how dare the mere son of a noble family attack a prince!!”

POW!!! POW!!!

Ratius showed no mercy. Considering his nature, it was quite natural. He shouted, “You idiot! Shut your little pie hole of yours! There's a time and place for your damn pride!”

The true purpose of his assault was lost on the boy, however. If Ratius hadn't stepped in to hit him, he would’ve surely been sent flying through the air a few seconds later. The prince was so foolish that he didn't even realize he'd crossed the line by a mile.

Of course, Ratius knew he couldn't just let the bastard die, which was why he'd stepped in. But Evangeline didn't care about any of that.

“Young Lord Ratius. Move.”

Despite being overwhelmed by the chilling aura, Ratius still instinctively stuttered, “N-no, Princess! P-please, let me take care of this!”

He froze the moment his eyes met Evangeline's. A murderous intent far more terrifying than when he'd first confronted her weighed down on everyone around her. “I won't say it twice. Move.”

‘Ah, she never intended to stop in the first place.’

Evangeline walked toward the frozen boy. In a flash, she already had Twilight pointed directly at his neck. “Since you're the prince of a nation, I’ll grant you one last request. Bark what’s on your mind.”

Instead of responding, he desperately squeaked out, “D-do you think you’ll be safe after doing this?!”

“Let me ask the same of you,” she shot back. “How do you plan to survive whatever is coming from my dad after leaving that kind of injury on my mom?”

“Hmph?!”

“I clearly told you to not move. I made sure you knew not to touch or step on the mana formation around you carelessly.”

The genesis of the incident was simple.

At the time, Gargantia was observing the meeting through one of his undead. He surreptitiously activated a forced warp spell centered on several young lords and ladies he'd marked beforehand. The magic was his own creation, and in reality, his level of mastery was at a point where even Perserque wasn’t sure if she’d be able to dispel it without issue.

After all, magic favored those who were more prepared.

His unique warp magic completely bypassed all the concealment and disguise defenses Perserque had set up. It was made possible because he had carved a special spell onto the fat boy ahead of time.

The boy had panicked when a massive surge of magical light erupted from his body. He’d immediately screamed and begged for someone to save him.

Perserque, who had been busy maintaining the barrier, was forced to divide her attention and hurriedly check his condition. It was a spell she had never seen before, and she couldn't dispel magic at incredible speeds like Davey always did. Instead, she’d quickly prepared a counter-spell that would normally be sufficient to neutralize such a forced warp.

Gulom, the burly Prince of the Ahm Kingdom, had screamed frantically that his body was about to explode. Perserque, of course, calmed him down and cast a counter-magic circle around him.

- Do not move, no matter what. If you move now, others might get caught up in it.

Evangeline, still upset, chided him, “If you hadn't moved, this situation wouldn't have happened.”

That much was right. If he hadn't moved, Perserque wouldn't have been attacked in the magical battle, and the four young lords and ladies wouldn't have been forcibly warped despite her best efforts.

However, terrified by her mana wrapping around and flowing into his body as the large scale warp spell activated through him as a medium, the boy had ignored her warning. When push came to shove and he was faced with apparent danger, he’d run out of the magic circle.

Normally, dispelling magic was more difficult than casting.

Her spell effectively lost its core when he moved away from the fixed coordinates, causing it to collapse and spiral out of control.

Knowing that leaving it alone could harm the others, she contained the rampage by locking it into one of her arms. That was what had led several blood vessels in her arm to burst.

As a result of his interference and tampering, four others were caught in the partially activated warp magic.

Khrones, the Prince of the Sparta Kingdom. Young Lady Rune Bertas, the daughter of Pallan's Imperial Court Mage Commander, someone who was still oblivious to what her father had done. Laura Mel, the talented young lady of Lyndis's marquis family, who was flirting with Prince Khrones along with Young Lady Rune Bertas. And finally, Eosha Patrick, who disliked all three of them.

Gargantia, unable to completely cast his magic because of Perserque, was only able to warp a few individuals. Though the targets had been random, the combination that ended up transported was utterly terrible.

From a certain point of view, Prince Gulom was, in a sense, a bigger menace than a simple traitor or an undead.

“H-how am I supposed to control my fear?! I... I'm a prince! I carry the noble blood of the Ahm Kingdom! If I get even a scratch on my body, can you take responsibility for it?!”

“Is that so? Then if the Ahm Kingdom disappears from the map, everything will be solved, right? You'll be the prince of a ruined nation, so you won't need to take responsibility.”

As Evangeline's Fear, more intense than usual, crushed him, he shamelessly curled up and screamed, “Heeek!!!”

Just as she was about to cut off his head, Perserque calmly finished tying the bandage and spoke to command, “Eva. Stop.”

Still worked up, she shot back, “Mom, aren't you angry?!”

“How could I not be angry? But blaming him now won't bring those four back. Dealing with what comes next is our priority.” Gulom, who was relieved by her elegant voice, turned completely pale when she finished by saying, “We can decide his responsibility later.”

Even as a prince, he couldn't disregard Pallan, Lyndis, and the recently emerging strong nation of Sparta.

He desperately pleaded, “L-listen, Princess! This was an accident!”

“I clearly told you not to move,” she coldly responded. “I warned you that we didn't know what would happen the moment you did.”

He desperately cried out, “H-how dare you threaten a prince of a nation like this!”

The others simply looked at him with cold expressions, devoid of sympathy.

“T-this whole catastrophe is ultimately because the Grand Duchess imprisoned us here, isn't it?!”

He once again crossed the line.

Hearing his claim, Perserque closed her eyes, and Evangeline went into another full-blown rage.

“Fine. So you want to die, is that it? I blame myself for ever bothering to save a piece of trash like you.” The look on her face made it clear she'd really cut him down if no one stopped her.

At that moment, a young man rushed forward, grabbed Gulom by the collar, and shouted, “Shut the fuck up!! Is your stupid ass aware that my fiancée has been kidnapped because of you?! You piece of shit!!!”

He was none other than the fiancé of Eosha Patrick, who had become Evangeline's friend.

“Ugh. UGHHH!!! Let go of me, you bastard! D-do you kn—GAAA!!!” The young man slapped him across the face, then mercilessly stomped on him as he fell. He continued squealing, “W-will someone stop this madman?!”

Despite his pleas, the others stayed still and looked at him with even colder expressions.

In the midst of all that chaos, Perserque rose from her seat. She left the hideout and headed toward the emperor's audience chamber.

“Grand Duchess Perserque! His Majesty the Emperor is expecting you. Please enter.”

Guided by the royal attendant, she entered and saw Sullivan sitting on the throne, holding his forehead with one hand.

“Grand Duchess, you’re here.”

“I spoke with confidence and gave you assurances, but the situation ended up like this,” she admitted, apology clear on her face.

“No,” he responded. “I've already heard the whole story. If it hadn't been for the Grand Duchess, no one would've been able to stop such high-level magic. We're fortunate that you managed to protect everyone else.”

He stood up with a weary face.

“You've been through a lot. Pallan has once again received help from Heins...”

“What happened with the conference?”

At her question, he recounted what had happened at the meeting. Then, he briefly glanced at her and said, “Also, I informed Grand Duke Davey of the current situation through a personal channel.”

Perserque didn't flinch or get angry, nor did she show any particular joy at the remark. She just nodded calmly, saying, “He has withdrawn from worldly affairs. He sacrificed a lot to protect the world.”

Whether intentional or not, he had saved Tionis several times.

She went on, “But with those who are supposed to replace him being swept away like this, there will be no room for excuses.”

“I am sorry... Originally, there was no reason for the Grand Duchess or my younger sister to be deeply involved in this matter.”

“Since I also ultimately failed to fulfill my duty, how could I blame you?”

Sullivan added, “However, the Grand Duke said something strange.”

“Something strange?”

Sullivan hesitated briefly, then spoke with a slightly disgusted look that he was so done with Davey. “He said it’d be a good experience for the two youngsters. Do you perhaps know who he is referring to? His expression was too grim for me to feel it appropriate to ask him...”

At those words, her expression stiffened.

‘Two youngsters...?’

She instantly realized what Davey was up to.

“It is probably nothing much. If that is the case, is it safe to assume that the enemy had noticed the survival of the young lords and ladies?”

“Yes. Since there’s no point in hiding it anymore, I believe it's best to resolve the issue at once and turn everyone's attention toward the enemy. I'll have people I trust escort all the young lords and ladies back to their respective nations.”

Sullivan nodded. “Please do so.”

Perserque bowed slightly to Sullivan and left the audience chamber, then chuckled to herself. “I’m here going through all this hardship, and he’s elsewhere playing around with those kids...”

She thought he had been traveling to different worlds because of Heins's funding problems. Yet, apparently, he'd been enjoying a vacation at Evangeline's lair all along.

Of course, he seemed to have immediately snapped and taken action upon hearing the news that Evangeline was caught up in the incident, but he was annoyingly shameless nonetheless.

She put on a beautiful smile.

“I can't exactly fold him in half, can I?”

She laughed eerily and sent a message to Davey, repeating to herself, “Davey, don't you dare take the final blow. I’ll rip them up myself.”

Her bloodshot red eyes flashed with a chilling light.

* * *

Davey tore open the empty air and clapped his hands, announcing, “Alright, kids! We're changing the training regimen.”

Then the two individuals, clad in bizarre armor, walked out from beyond the rift like zombies.

“Davey... what’s going on?”

He smiled warmly at the figures that spoke to him in a dying voice, shooting back, “You know exactly what’s going on.”

“You... you told me to live a normal life...”

“Quit whining. You're the one who asked me to be your master so you could become stronger, Aris.”

The other girl argued, “But I didn't ask for that!”

“Shuneria Recken. You asked for strength every time you prayed, didn't you? Am I wrong?”

“Ugh...”

The two disheveled figures in armor were none other than Shuneria Recken, Davey’s saintess from the outer dimension, and Aris, the Hero of Troy.

Aris was still a young girl compared to Shuneria. That was why Davey told her to stop wielding a sword and live like a girl her age. However, it hadn’t taken long for her to seek out Davey again. As someone who had spent their entire life fighting imps, a normal life was virtually impossible for her. She was simply too accustomed to the battlefield, having strayed too far from the qualities needed to live a normal life.

Of course, her former companions, the fairy Mary and orc Girul; a transcendent being who had promised to look after her; and even officials from various nations had all tried to give her a normal life. Alas, she couldn't easily shake the obsession that had taken root deep inside her.

Aris had carried a heavier burden than anyone else, leaving her in even worse shape than Mary or Girul. While she looked fine on the outside, those around her couldn't bear to watch her rapidly waste away in monotony.

In the end, they suggested she become Davey’s disciple and properly learn the sword. It would allow her sword to become an even more integral extension of herself and help her grow stronger. And if the training ever became too much, she could take things slowly, live an ordinary life, and reclaim her own.

If she couldn't change her entire life overnight, then she could change it little by little.

Aris had thus asked Davey for help, and he’d accepted her as his disciple on one condition.

- Once you're my disciple, you'll always be my disciple. I'll train you until you can introduce yourself as my disciple without embarrassing me.

At first, she'd been thrilled. It was incredible that she was able to learn from someone as powerful as him, someone that had been a transcendent-level being in Troy.

Yet, that excitement shattered after just one day of training alongside his saintess, Shuneria Recken.

“T-this... I don't think humans are supposed to do this,” Aris complained.

Shuneria sympathized and responded in kind, agreeing, “I know. He certainly doesn’t seem human to me.”

“And actual combat...? He specifically told me I wasn't allowed to fight for real until I became an adult...”

“Don't worry,” Davey suddenly interjected. “Do you know what the difference is between actual combat and training? It’s whether you die or not. If I know for certain you won't die, then it's still just training. You two can beat that guy to a pulp, but you can't kill him. And he can't kill you either. Just think of this as advanced training.”

‘Look at that devilish smile...’

Aris had gone through training that was already far more brutal than Shuneria Recken's, his smile already having been cemented in her mind as terrifying.

Imps? Mutated monsters? Demon Lords? Insane dimensions? She was at the point where she’d rather fight all of them again.

For the first time, Aris felt an emotion she couldn't even describe.

“M-Monster...”

Trembling, Aris recalled the training Davey had put her through over such a short time. Unfortunately for her, it’d still take quite a while before she saw any significant results.

“But... isn't our opponent really strong? What are we supposed to do against someone like that?” one of them argued.

“Gain real combat experience. Whether it goes well or turns into a complete disaster, you won't know until you try.” Davey casually grabbed both of them by the backs of their collars and lifted them into the air.

Their armor weighed quite a bit, but he didn't seem to mind in the slightest.

Aris made one final attempt to resist. “I... I won't grow any taller if I keep wearing something this heavy...”

“Don't worry. Once training's over, I'll give you a full body massage and loosen everything up.”

She had trusted him to give her a massage once before, only to experience the horrifying sensation of every bone and muscle in her body being pulled apart.

Aris recoiled in horror, gasping, “N-no!”

Davey simply smiled.“That bastard scratched my wife's arm.”

The sudden change of topic threw them off. “H-huh?”

“I'm not going to kill him. It'd be a waste to let him die that easily.”

Gargantia had fought Evangeline. He'd also spouted nonsense at Illyna about becoming his mate while making ridiculous threats. He'd even wounded Perserque's arm during their clash.

That alone gave Davey more than enough reason to hunt him down personally and tear him limb from limb.

Yet, he hadn't.

It was because of the short message Perserque had sent him. She said she’d finish him herself.

Still, if the bastard had taken hostages across the continent, there was nothing wrong with Davey taking liberties and lending a little help. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

“I'll tell you what you're going to do from here.”

Davey handed Aris a sword and Shuneria a staff. Then, he snapped his fingers and crossed through space. Before they knew it, they were deep inside a forest.

“Grrr...”

Perhaps he had sensed the three. To their surprise, undead humans slowly began emerging from the forest. It was obvious that Gargantia had hidden something important wherever they were.

He had scattered his power across numerous locations as part of his plans. Yet, as a consequence of dividing it among so many places, he had failed to hide it properly. That had been a major mistake.

It seemed he had never imagined anyone could find and destroy his backups.

“As long as I don't kill the bastard myself, it's fine, right?”

Making him watch every tool of his become destroyed one by one sounded good enough. Of course, finding them wasn't easy since he had gone to great lengths to hide them. Yet he hadn't hidden them well enough to keep Willow from finding them.

Davey smirked. “Shuneria. Aris. Go tear them apart.”

Of course, the undead weren't the only things waiting for them. Gargantia had naturally used a bit of his own unique magic to protect whatever he had hidden.

Just as Perserque had said, it was an enormous and sturdy barrier spell with a structure that took an incredible amount of time to analyze.

“What an amateur. That's not how you use magic,” Davey mockingly mumbled. With a snap of his fingers, cracks instantly spread across the barrier.

[Dispel]

The same type of barrier that Perserque had spent more than thirty minutes analyzing at the Pallan Imperial Palace collapsed before Davey in just three seconds.

“I wonder what kind of face he'll make when he realizes everything he hid away is smashed to pieces.”

‘That’s what you get for stealing vitality and using it to create bizarre-ass places like this, dumbass.’