The Regressed Son of a Duke is an Assassin

Chapter 282: The Current for His Sake (2)

In the midair amidst the flames, a crimson aura fluttered like a mirage around the four-sided blade. Belkarion, gripping the blade in his right hand, slowly approached; both Arin and Lunab could only watch him helplessly. With each advancing step, despite the decreasing distance, neither of the two women could muster a response.

They wanted to take action, but their bodies refused to comply. Their legs had solidified as if rooted to the ground, and not a trace of mana surged from their fingertips. Having come face to face with the true visage of the Demon King, their once fully functional bodies had ceased responding, as if their capabilities were nothing but lies.

“Haa, haa…”

Only coarse breaths escaped ceaselessly from their lips.

While the women remained powerless, Belkarion had already reached them. His gaze on the fear-stricken duo was indifferent.

-Swish!

In the midst of this, someone boldly blocked the Demon King’s path, attempting to halt his advance.

“…”

It was none other than Nana.

She faced Belkarion, her expression neither smiling nor blank but something ambiguously in between.

“I don’t recognize your face. Who are you?”

Belkarion tilted his head as he regarded her, but then, with a hint of a smile, he continued.

“You’re not human, are you?” The playful laughter followed. “You don’t seem to be from the demon tribe either. By your looks, you might be mistaken for a Devil Dragon who has polymorphed… but even that vibe is a bit off. What are you?”

Despite being pressed with questions that carried the weight of an inquisition, Nana remained silent, her eyelids half-closed as she silently faced him.

“Nana, be careful! It’s dangerous!” Arin couldn’t stand by and watch; she barely managed to open her mouth to whisper-shout at Nana.

Yet, despite Arin’s warning, Nana made no response.

Instead,

“Hehe…”

She responded with an unusually bright smile, her lips stretching towards her ears.

“Mister. Do you give off a nice scent?”

Belkarion’s face instantly stiffened.

“It’s not a scent from your body? Strange. It is certainly a scent coming from you, isn’t it?”

Nana tilted her head from side to side questioningly, then suddenly, her bright eyes turned in one direction.

“Ah, is that where the scent is coming from?”

Naturally, Belkarion’s eyes followed hers. Unless Nana was looking at something invisible to others, her gaze was clearly directed at the four-sided blade that the Demon King held in his hand.

“Are you talking about this?”

Belkarion pushed the blade forward, as if to confirm.

“Yes! It’s really interesting! It’s my first time smelling something that isn’t alive…among all the scents I’ve experienced in my life, this is by far the most delicious smell…”

Nana even stuck out her tongue slightly, her lips pouting as if savoring a taste.

“Can I… can I eat this?”

A daring, almost reckless question.

No word in the world could adequately describe the sheer horror of such an inquiry.

With an enigmatic smile still on his face, Belkarion glanced sharply at Nana before suddenly swinging his blade.

“Nana, watch out!”

At that moment, Arin, who had regained control of her body, dashed without hesitation and embraced Nana. Even with the target moved, the blade did not halt. Arin closed her eyes as the shadow of death loomed over her, but then,

-Thump!

A resounding echo accompanied by a ripple effect shattered the impending doom.

Realizing she was alive, Arin cautiously opened her eyes to find a transparent shield glowing like sunlight above her head.

A light attribute defensive spell—Guardian’s Shield.

Of course, Arin hadn’t cast the spell, nor had Lunab. The one who conjured the magic was none other than Duke Bert.

“Former knight! Protect the princess from the Demon King!”

Following the Duke’s command, the knights swiftly formed up and counterattacked against the Demon King.

Caught off guard by the unforeseen circumstances, confusion painted Arin’s face.

“…”

Belkarion, however, received the knights’ counterattack with a strangely amused smile.

“Are you okay, Arin?”

Nana caressed Arin’s face with concern.

“You could’ve been in big trouble, Nana! What were you even thinking…?”

“I was fine though?”

Nana blinked, seemingly clueless about what she had done wrong.

“Princess!”

Just then, Duke Bert grabbed Arin’s wrist, hurriedly pulling her away from the Demon King.

“What are you doing, Duke Bert?”

“I’m trying to protect the princess.”

His answer was absurd to the point of disbelief.

“Now, of all times?”

“The princess should not have been in this place from the very beginning.”

Nonetheless, Duke Bert’s eyes showed a seriousness that could only be described as steadfast and resolute.

“I’m aware that my actions are not normal and that the princess may not understand them. But my heart’s intention to protect your safety is sincere!”

Both Arin and Lunab, who had quickly joined her side, were dismayed by his words.

“We’ll buy time. In the meantime, escape from here.”

“I cannot understand. All of a sudden, why…?”

“I’ve already crossed the point of no return, and I must pay the price here and now. But the princess is different. On behalf of me, on behalf of the emperor, you must protect the Usyph Empire! And secure the destiny of humanity!”

A guardian of the continent for many years, his eyes showed nothing but integrity and determination. Perhaps Arin was finally, truly, facing Duke Bert.

“Can I truly see you as the Duke Willyerus Bert that I once admired?”

“A guardian who has protected the empire and the continent for decades cannot have their convictions so easily broken.”

Duke Bert answered firmly.

With her head swirling with doubts, and the situation still full of questions, time wasn’t on Arin’s side. She made her decision.

“As the princess of the Usyph Empire, I command you. Do not die, Duke Bert! You must thoroughly repent and reflect on the sins you have committed!”

For a moment, Duke Bert had no response.

“Answer me, Duke Bert!”

“I will… abide by the princess’s orders.”

That was all.

No more words were needed.

Arin fought to suppress the surge of emotions within her as she turned to leave.

Then, with Nana and Lunab, she began her escape in the opposite direction.

After they had vanished from sight, Duke Bert turned back to face the Demon King.

He knew it within himself.

That he wasn’t functioning normally. He had been deluded by an unknown force and was following his eldest son Eshel’s words without question.

But,

‘As a friend rather than as an emperor, I must ask you for a favor.’

Duke Bert had spent decades fighting for the empire and the peace of the continent, backed by the grace of the emperor; it was a conviction that not even the divine could sway.

And in this situation, he had to prove that conviction one last time.

“Duke, if I die before you… remove that child quietly. Please let her live as a commoner, with no ties to the royal family…”

Emperor Dione had made this request in the event of his death before Duke Bert, pleading for the princess Arin to be saved from the upcoming storm of bloodshed.

Neither the emperor nor the duke, nor anyone else, could have predicted at the time that princess Arin would become the only one capable of shouldering the future of the Usyph Empire and the fate of humanity.

“I will protect her with my life, Your Majesty!”

With a cry of allegiance to the emperor, Duke Bert channeled his magical energy into his sword.

“And my insufficient role as a father… I entrust to you. May you create the world you desire… Sian!”

With his last testament for his most reliable child, Duke Bert charged forward.

* * *

Following Duke Bert’s instructions, they had escaped, but the situation remained dire.

“I don’t mean to count the seconds, but the knights might buy us only two minutes; it’s hardly enough time for us to flee from Arem.”

Lunab had seen the Demon King’s power firsthand, and warned that they could quickly find themselves in the same predicament.

“We need to find Sian! Can you find him, Lunab?”

“With the clues at hand, it’s daunting. I only know that he passed through here, but beyond that…”

Hastily moving to not waste time,

“……!”

The three women felt a threat at the fork in the road and stopped in their tracks. They sensed someone lurking just around the left-hand corner, obscured by buildings.

Wary, Nana’s eyes sharpened as she glared menacingly in that direction.

-Thud, thud…

The foreboding stillness was pierced by the sound of clear footsteps. The source of the footsteps soon revealed itself before the women.

Needless to say, it was not a person.

Nor was it from the demon tribe.

The energy emanating from the mysterious figure differed significantly from ordinary demonfolk, and Arin’s eyes naturally turned to Nana’s direction.

The reason was one.

The unidentified being before them exuded an eerily similar aura to Nana.

“Devil Dragon?”

It suggested an encounter with a Devil Dragon, like the one Arin had first confronted upon her arrival in the demon world.

“…”

The mysterious being simply raised a hand in silence, and beneath them a black magic circle began to form.

Recognizing it as a teleportation circle, Lunab attempted to cast a counter-magic, but before she could act,

-Whoosh

The bodies of the three women were already enveloped in the light of the magic circle, transporting them to an unknown location.

* * *

“Ugh, this is driving me crazy!”

Lost and trapped in this unfamiliar space between spaces, unable to do anything, Mishuka felt this was an experience unique to herself across the entire continent.

What on earth was this all about?

While she grudgingly tolerated partnering with the human who tried to devour her before to fulfill the orders of their unchallengeable leader, what was intolerable was that the same human (who probably couldn’t really devour her)—after having connected these interspatial realms—had left her alone to disappear abruptly.

Left by herself, Mishuka couldn’t figure out what to do, having paced back and forth inside Sian’s pocket dimension for what felt like hours.

“Is this happening to me because I’m cursed to be entangled with that human? Now I’m in such a situation that I can’t even tell whether I’m alive or dead!”

She had tried multiple times to reopen the pocket dimension where Sian had entered, but once closed, it remained stubbornly inaccessible.

“No, come to think of it, what do I care about his life or death? Haven’t I done everything that I was supposed to, as Nagel commanded? That’s right, yes! I just need to leave this place, and that’s it!”

After much internal strife, Mishuka finally settled on a direction and cracked a tentative smile.

Then, she created a gate to exit.

“It’s not my concern what happens to you! Better if you never manage to leave… I’d welcome it!”

-Whoosh!

Just as she was about to leave through the gate, Mishuka was stopped in her tracks by a familiar sound from behind.

Another gate had opened, separate from the one she created.

Quickly turning to look, Mishuka couldn’t hide her shock.

“What, what are you doing here?”

The person who had emerged from the gate was none other than Sian.

However, he bore a different aura than when he had entered. He wasn’t physically harmed or in rick of life, yet he seemed mentally ravaged.

Looking up slowly, Sian caught Mishuka’s eye.

“Hey.”

At his weighty utterance, Mishuka flinched.

“What? Why? You disappear out of the blue and then show up hours later suddenly acting all serious?”

Trying to maintain her pride as a dragon, she would not be cowed.

“Why don’t you go with me to Arem?”

Mishuka found herself unable to refute the words that followed.

(To be continued in the next installment)