There were no guards experienced enough to confront the beast at the moment. Knowing that he was in danger, the emperor turned to the one who could fight off the dire wolf. Regis, who had just left his daughter without any explanation, stood before the emperor with a blank expression.
He would definitely be able to slay the beast. The emperor contemplated for a moment whether he should order Regis to attack before shaking his head. If he did that, all of this would be useless.
Just then, he saw Mikhail run in from the entrance of the arena.
Right on time. Although the plan had gone awry, it had at least succeeded in instilling fear among the nobles. Now, if Mikhail subdued the dire wolf, no one would object to him becoming the winner.
The swordsman rushed toward the beast, his action reminiscent of a heroic knight in a fairytale.
"Come, dire wolf!" he shouted valiantly. Unfortunately, the animal ignored Mikhail and turned toward the Floyen family's seats.
It seemed like it was true that dire wolves were obsessed with the scent of snow hares. A strange light shone in the emperor's eyes.
"Everyone, run!" Jubelian shouted. She had made somewhat of a wise decision. The only problem was that her shout seemed to aggravate the dire wolf even more. Wagging its humongous tail, it revealed its fangs. With a vicious growl, it began to pursue Jubelian and her companions.
The emperor stared at the entrance to the arena. It was a pity that Maximilian was missing this.
I thought the stadium's sturdy walls would protect us, but the walls soon crumbled down like broken crackers. I swallowed nervously once the dire wolf appeared and blocked us from making our escape.
Terrified, both Catherine and Mary Ann screamed. I pulled out the silver flower from my coat pocket.
It would definitely avoid us once it saw this, I thought, bringing out the flower with confidence, but the dire wolf continued running toward us without hesitation anyway. I didn’t understand. The beast was behaving differently than I expected.
"Your Highness!"
I turned around to see Mikhail rushing toward us on horseback. Still, he was too far away. The dire wolf now had its mouth open and was running toward us. Todd and Victor swung their swords against the beast, but I knew that it would be useless since they weren’t first-class swordsmen.
I flinched, expecting bloodshed, but then my eyes widened in shock. Crimson blood flowed from the dire wolf's neck and the beast was now making a hasty retreat.
"Phew, that was a close one."
A faint green light surrounded Victor's blood-stained blade.
"Madam, do you think Sir Victor is doing well?"
Fresia grinned at her subordinate's question. She recalled the first time she had met Victor.
"I asked you to help me run away from the place, not get kicked out."
At that time, she had never imagined that the frail boy would become the crown prince's body double, not to mention such a powerful swordsman.
"He’ll be fine. Although he's a little flippant, you can't deny his great swordsmanship."
"You're right,” the man said. Then, he placed the documents on the desk. "This is the information gathered today, Master. Please review it."
It wasn't a huge pile, but considering its thickness, reviewing it was going to take quite some time.
Fresia sighed. "All right."
A few moments of drowsy-eyed reading passed, and Fresia frowned. She thought they already discarded the data about the dire wolf... She grinned as she read through the newly obtained information.
Once they find a piece of prey with magical powers, they could overcome the paralyzing poison? Interesting. If the sorcerers of the past were still alive, they would have exterminated these beasts.
I was taken aback by Sir Victor's performance. It was obvious that he knew how to use mana.
The mercenary knight grinned and laughed. "
I truly am a genius!" he rejoiced.
I couldn't deny his boasting. Only a select few could become first-class swordsmen, and they had to be chosen by the power of mana to reach that level. Therefore, they were rather uncommon. Still, I didn’t want to boost his ego. I shook my head slightly once I realized he was being cocky.
The dire wolf slowly bared its fangs. It seemed to be immune to the effects of the flower I was holding. I didn't understand why it was chasing us despite the paralyzing poison in my hand, but then I remembered something I had overlooked.
In the original writing, the dire wolf had targeted Bea, ignoring everyone else. I thought of reasons why the beast would trail the princess and recalled the differences between her and all the others: she was part of the royal family and the blood of dragons flowed in her veins. Also, she had the potential to become a sorceress. One of those aspects might have caused the beast to persistently chase her around.
But, if that was the case, why wasn't it drawn to the emperor? Did this exception mean it was because of Bea’s potential to become a sorceress, after all? As I pondered this, a trembling hand touched mine.
Then, I realized Bea must have been scared out of her mind. She was a quick-witted person, so it was probably obvious to her that the dire wolf was after her. Squeezing her hand tight, I consoled her. "Don't worry,” I said. "We have two first-class swordsmen by our side. We can defeat it."
Her crimson eyes swayed slightly at my reassurance. I met her gaze for a moment before turning to Mikhail. There was a chance he could defeat the beast this time since he had done it in the novel.
Our eyes met and he sent me a confident look as if to urge me to watch as he slew the beast.
"Sir Victor, I’ll get the wolf's attention, so try to find its weak point," he ordered.
Then, he swung his blade toward it. Unfortunately, the beast simply avoided the attack.
However, the offense didn’t end there. Mikhail quickly swung his blade again in an attempt to reach one of the beast's vital points. The dire wolf continued its dance around the stabs, and I observed the situation with concern.
Once the beast was solely focused on Mikhail, Sir Victor quickly approached its rear. It didn’t seem to notice that another person was so close by. Intent on not wasting the chance, Sir Victor thrust his sword into the beast's side. Just then, however, Mikhail suddenly launched another attack. It was like he had given up on his original role of drawing the beast's attention and was trying to slay the creature himself. Startled, it went wild, and Sir Victor's ambush amounted to nothing.