Chapter 55

#055 I Won't Let It Slip (3)

- Bang! Thud! Thump!

"Hey, hey! Be careful! Be careful!"

Ack! I almost bit my tongue.

The speed was too fast, and the slope of the mountain was much steeper than I had thought.

Thump, thump! Even with Kristel and the prince on my back, my body bounced up and down.

I held Demy tightly with one arm and gripped the reins firmly with the other, lowering my body.

This was also thanks to Demy, who made it with vines. Crazy. Isn't that a cliff up ahead?!

"Turn left, turn left! Ahh!"

- Kiieee!

The monster, with its long tail and stingers, trembled and flew between the cliffs. And it had no wings!

The sensation of my brain floating, the goosebumps on my eardrums, and my heart plummeting to my feet.

The T-Express was nothing compared to this.

- Kiiii!

"Demy, it's okay. We're going with Brother Ga."

I shouldn't say such things to a child, but the situation was so crazy that my words were anything but normal.

Glancing down, I saw a pitch-black ravine with no end, its mouth wide open.

I squeezed my eyes shut and silently prayed for mercy.

The wind whistled past us.

From behind my neck, I could hear the steady breathing of the two troublemakers who were sound asleep.

- Bang!

- Kiieeeek!

Our bus landed safely beyond the cliff!

Without a moment to catch my breath, I held the second and final apple in my hand.

So far, everything had gone according to plan.

Thanks to carrying the two protagonists, my luck was incredibly good.

"Collect the additional fee!"

I threw the gray apple forward, and the hallucination monster, whether a scorpion or a centipede, stepped on the gas again.

The sensation of my upper body tilting made me swallow hard. This thing was truly obsessed with apples.

As soon as I threw an apple into the valley, it pounced on us,

- Kieek! Kiieeeek!

'Wow, the shell is so slippery! I really hate it!'

- Kii, kii!

It had been chasing the rolling apple like a madman.

It didn't even care that Demy and I were on its back.

The monster tore through the trees and grass at full speed, climbed up and down rocks, and its pincers clicked incessantly.

At this point, I almost felt sorry for its foaming mouth.

Was it possessed by the ghost of someone who died without ever eating an apple?

- Kit, kit! Kiik! Kiiiiik!

Then, it suddenly stopped, showing a reaction completely different from before.

I stretched my neck, thinking the apple might have gotten stuck in a crevice.

What appeared before my eyes was, fortunately, much better news.

"You've made it."

At the end of the hazy view, two large, white tents were visible.

They were the thousands of spectator seats set up on the broad plain in front of the Lord Dem's castle.

It seemed that 'Mars' Sword of Grace' had finally irritated the monster.

It would definitely head straight to the arena, with or without the apple.

That was good. The 'Monster Purge' was almost over.

"Yaaaaaah...!"

"...Hooray! Hooray!"

A faint cheer could be heard from a distance. I couldn't tell if the audience had spotted us.

I took a deep breath and turned around with difficulty.

Beyond the pink and black hair, the stinger of the monster's tail, which looked like a brush, was swaying.

"Demy, we need to deal with that."

- Kii

I whispered. That was certain.

Before waking the two protagonists and before the damned scorpion shell messed up the competition, we needed to prepare at least a little.

"Ugh!"

- Kiieeeek! Grrrr! Crick! Kit!

My head snapped up. The monster was making more aggressive noises and charging forward.

I gripped the reins tightly, trying not to lose my balance.

With my other hand, I quickly rummaged through my bag.

*

[Both of you, wake up.]

I thought I heard such a whisper.

- Thud!

Cedric Riester felt a stiffness all over his body as he slowly opened his eyelids.

However, his vision was blurry.

He couldn't be sure if he was still dreaming or if he had regained consciousness.

He was hazy about where he had been and what he had been doing just before.

The surroundings were as quiet as if he were buried in ashes. He moved his fingertips slowly.

- Flicker...

He flinched. The prince jumped up as if he had been electrocuted.

At the tip of his left hand, small sparks were continuously rising and fading.

He was bare-handed.

The powerful magical tool that had barely contained his unstable ether flow day by day was nowhere to be seen.

The tips of his ungloved fingers were like a fire vent, capable of igniting flames at any moment.

He frowned. This was dangerous.

He was a very ominous being.

"..."

Only then did he notice his surroundings. The surroundings were opaque and murky.

He remembered seeing a similar scene just before he fainted.

Precisely...

'Father. It's my fault.'

'It wasn't for me that you sacrificed yourself. I should have...'

There was long, black hair and deep, sea-blue eyes.

Alexandre Riester looked exactly like he did on the day he left the world, dressed the same.

His gently smiling eyes and caring lips were full of affection for his young son.

'It's okay, Sadi. Isn't it warm and nice because of your flames?'

Until a few months ago, this was a regular sight in the prince's nightmares.

He instinctively knew it was an illusion. Just a shallow trick by a mere creature.

However, the emotions that were stirred, the burning anger, were uncontrollable.

'...How dare you.'

'A monster like you, talking about my father.'

'I will not forgive you.'

After that, everything was red.

The world burned red, and his mind boiled, making it impossible to distinguish anything.

The marquis's land and mountains were all piles of ashes.

The cries of beasts and the soothing voice of someone mixed, making his ears dizzy.

The cursed power had run rampant. All because he couldn't control his anger once.

He had burned countless lives. Not just his father.

But again, it was fog.

"Ha..."

His breathing was disordered.

The painful hallucination could return at any time and turn him into a monster.

To burn everything in the world until nothing was left.

To pile up ashes like snow in the valley that had become a mudflat.

The prince clenched his left hand.

"Your Highness, if you're done resting, please cooperate."

His head snapped up. Cedric looked at the source of the voice.

"Still not feeling well? I gave you plenty of ether."

Through his disheveled golden hair, blood was visible on his white forehead.

The purple eyes that met his were sparkling like amethysts.

Despite being injured, his voice was filled with concern.

"..."

Then, the world suddenly became noisy. The muffled ears cleared up.

"Yaaaaah!"

"Prince, I'll take care of the entrance!"

"Sarnez! Sarnez! Sarnez!"

The cheers of thousands of people, captivated by the excitement of the purge, hit his ears.

Then came the heavy sound of waves, and the voice of Kristel de Sarnez echoed.

It felt like being at a crowded beach.

At least, he was sure it wasn't the mountain he had melted. It felt like he had teleported.

"This is the arena. We've descended the mountain. You can use your power freely now that I'm here."

"…This fog."

"It's just clouds that have fallen to the ground. It's just ordinary fog. I cut off the monster's stinger, so it can't produce hallucination fog anymore, damn it!"

- Bang!

A monster emerged from the fog and attacked the prince's circle.

Despite no significant damage, the prince seemed quite surprised.

Cedric slowly got up, seeing this.

His bones ached as if he had rolled down a hill.

- Flicker, flicker...

Hearing the sound of fire, the prince looked down at his left hand.

His chest tightened. He must have realized everything now.

Having witnessed the terrifying curse he had received up close.

"Are you afraid?"

"No, just..."

He looked troubled.

"Your Highness, you left your gloves behind. I forgot to pick them up."

"..."

"Fire is nice in winter, isn't it? Your hands won't get cold."

The prince smiled and adjusted the divine beast in his arms.

Bang! The monster rammed the sanctuary again. It looked like a mix of a wolf and a lion.

It wasn't a particularly powerful monster, probably a small one that had been drawn down by the ether of the Sword of Grace.

"Demy, do you want to? Shall we scold 'this guy'?"

- Kii!

The divine beast raised its front paws.

The prince silently watched the green vines shoot up from the pile of dirt on the plain.

Even as the monster, strangled by the vines, struggled and groaned, he felt oddly relieved.

"If you keep spacing out, the princess will take the victory."

The prince said. Cedric blinked.

'Ohhh!' The audience's exclamations poured out. The sound of a bull's neck cracking came from a distance.

"Over there, that's the 'Sword of Grace of Mars.'"

The prince pointed behind him,