EWH Chapter 159

Since it’s a sacred relic, is it somehow different?

He suddenly wished he’d asked Nathan more about it. Normally, to learn about sacred relics in detail, one would need to go to the royal palace or temple. If not those… seek out Melchiel. But after returning from the dungeon, all three options had been impossible. He should have at least asked Nathan, who seemed to know the next most about such things, but he’d felt oddly hesitant. Instead, he’d searched through the library, that repository of knowledge, for information about sacred relics, but without much success.

“Your Highness, over here! ‘Amin’! Take care of this one!”

Dylan’s approach snapped Azar quickly from his thoughts. After handing the unconscious knight to Dylan, who passed him to another knight, Dylan drew his sword and stood beside Azar.

“The situation is bad.”

“…Indeed.”

“Will you be alright?”

“What choice do we have if I’m not? Is there anywhere to retreat to?”

“It would be better to leave this to us than die putting on airs.”

Azar let out a small laugh at that.

“You think I drew my sword without thinking?”

“I saw you wobbling with that sword earlier!”

Dylan grumbled in response.

“Well, we never had the chance to see Your Highness’s swordsmanship before. Perhaps you were actually a Sword Master all along… Haha, surely not… right? Hey? Why aren’t you answering?”

Dylan tried to lighten the mood with a joking question. But as Azar remained silent, his eyes began to waver. Azar considered how to respond before simply shrugging and shaking out his sword-wielding wrist.

“It’s coming again!”

With those words, Azar immediately kicked off the ground and moved backward. The monster’s foreleg swiftly passed through where he had just been standing. Landing on broken debris behind the torn-up wooden floor, Azar steadied himself.

Done being cautious, are we?

Bang!

Lightning struck closer than before. For an instant, all sound disappeared as light burst through the darkness. The flash briefly illuminated the monster’s outline. Azar frowned.

It looks somewhat like a bear? No… there seems to be some wolf mixed in too…

The black, elongated form resembled a four-legged beast. Azar tilted his head. It felt somewhat different from the monsters he knew.

Well, that’s not important right now.

Azar gripped the sword he wasn’t quite used to yet and charged at the monster. Though he wanted to experiment with the sword, he knew this wasn’t the situation for it. So Azar channeled magic into the blade, aiming to dispatch the monster quickly.

Slash!

Graaaah─!

“?!”

But Azar couldn’t help being surprised again. The monster fell far too easily. With a dumbfounded expression, Azar looked first at his sword, then at the monster dripping black blood from its severed limb, and let out a deflated sound.

Had cutting down monsters ever been this easy?

Normally, instead of slicing through like cutting radishes, he would only manage to inflict deep gashes. This one had looked tougher than other monsters. And yet…

“Huh…”

Dylan, watching slack-jawed from behind, let out a sound that could have been either a sigh or admiration. Though this prince might not be a Sword Master, he clearly possessed remarkable skill. The familiar form of his swordplay suggested he might have learned from Pavan, who’d reportedly gone to the Academy.

Just then, another monster burst from the darkness.

“There’s one more! Stop that one!”

Dylan shouted as he gripped his sword and rushed forward. Other knights followed, but the cramped space made movement inefficient. Moreover, with no light and the fearsome downpour limiting visibility, conditions were terrible. The dining car they stood in was swaying dangerously in all directions, so after deflecting the monster’s foreleg, Dylan quickly issued orders.

“‘Anje’! ‘Piati’! The rest of you are just in the way right now! While His Highness and us three hold back the monster’s legs, the rest of you cross to the rear car! Check on the young lord first! And cut the coupling connecting to this car!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Anje leapt in to help Azar, while Piati guarded Dylan’s side.

“Good luck!”

“Don’t die!”

While they drew the monster’s attention, the remaining knights each shouted a word of encouragement as they jumped over debris and rushed forward.

“No, this is just… obviously strange, isn’t it…? There have never been any reports of such monsters appearing near the capital!”

Piati swept back his rain-soaked hair and spoke with disgust as he looked at the monster before him.

“Complain later!”

Dylan snapped at Piati while swinging his sword again. Piati ran beside him across the debris, rolling across the floor to slice at the monster’s stumbling legs.

“Vice Captain─!”

Piati, quickly rising to his feet, screamed like he’d spotted something. A monster had appeared silently from the darkness outside the broken train beside Dylan. The rain interfering with their senses had delayed their detection. Though Azar and Anje rushed over at the cry, they were already too late.

Seeing the massive muzzle suddenly thrust before him, Dylan bit back a curse.

“…Fuck, what rotten luck.”

Chomp!

The monster opened its mouth like a deep-sea creature and caught Dylan’s entire torso, then its massive body struck the train.

Boom─!

For a moment, everything tilted sideways, and the train derailed.

Screeeech─!

Once again, an ear-splitting screech rang out as sparks flew in the darkness. But no one had time to be startled by this.

When the monster crashed into the train, not only Azar and the two knights but also the monster holding Dylan were thrown clear of the train and rolled across the ground. As the front twisted, the other connected cars had no time to react before they too derailed and overturned in succession.

For a moment, he seemed to lose consciousness.

Azar forcefully swallowed back the scream threatening to escape. As he pressed against the rain-soaked ground trying to quickly get up, his vision swayed as if he’d hit his head somewhere, and his arm suddenly gave way.

“…?”

Falling face-first back to the ground, he blinked in confusion. Now he noticed his ears were muffled too. Though he could clearly see rain falling through his blurry vision, everything was strangely quiet. It seemed his ears were the problem. Then he heard a ringing sound. The lost sounds were gradually returning.

…Sha…aaa…

So the monster rammed the train and…

Azar shook his head while pressing a hand against his spinning head. Then he suddenly remembered. He’d definitely seen the monster catch Dylan. As he recalled seeing Anje and Piati also being thrown from the train like himself, Azar hastily looked around. His dizzy vision and waterlogged ears had returned to normal by now.

“Is everyone alright?!”

Getting to his feet, he called out while roughly wiping the rain from his face with one hand. A faint reply came: “O-over here.”

Azar immediately ran toward the voice.

Looking around now, everything was in complete chaos. The train, whose coupling they hadn’t managed to break, was tangled up, and as if that weren’t enough, it had crashed into trees lining the tracks, with broken trunks now strewn across the overturned cars.

The voice from earlier belonged to Anje. He was easy to spot, caught on a tree not far from where he was. Azar hurried to free him and laid him on the ground.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m sorry. I can’t move my body…”

Anje said with a pale face, eyes tightly shut. Azar quickly used holy power. Anje’s spine was broken. While healing him, Azar turned his head to look for Piati. Piati was sprawled near the train. But he could see him clutching his head and rising with a groan. Hearing him say things like “Ow, I’m dying…” suggested he wasn’t seriously injured.

“Your Highness! Are you alright?!”

“I’m fine.”

“Your head is bleeding!”

“It’s stopped.”

Azar answered Piati’s concerns dismissively before asking,

“What about Dylan? Where is he?”

As he spoke, Azar extended his spirit sense. Through the sound of rain, he could hear what might have been screams or groans.

“That way, that way!”

Piati, who had also extended his spirit sense, shouted. Azar carried Anje on his back and followed after the running Piati.