Anima had been restraining a smile as he listened, but he finally couldn’t take it anymore and burst into laughter.
“Eden? A utopia of dragons and humans? You’re dreaming.”
“You won’t know until you try.”
Anima laughed in amusement and said, “True enough. The future you describe sounds nice. It makes me laugh.”
“Don’t laugh, I’m serious. A few hundred years from now, this kingdom will be a place where people and dragons can live and laugh together.”
On the other side of the door, a man stood listening to their conversation.
It was Bernstein. He’d gone to speak with the knights to make an effort to understand the situation. Then as he had been about to return to the room, he had overheard the two of them speaking impassionedly, so he’d eavesdropped without thinking.
The two of them were still talking about their dreams for the kingdom. Hearing them from behind, Bernstein thought this was very nice. Having young people like this would make the future of this kingdom bright.
Whether the dreams they spoke of would come true or not wasn’t really the issue. Their energy would invigorate the kingdom.
“Just…” Smiling, Bernstein murmured at a volume only he could hear, “Anima, I laid my claim on her first.”
Seeing the two of them speak in such an intimate manner made the tiny flames of jealousy burn in his heart. He had lived a long time since becoming a dragon, but even so, it seemed he couldn’t escape his human nature.
Bernstein looked up at the night sky from the window. A moon that was the same color as his eyes was sparkling beautifully.
Even the irritation of jealousy was mysteriously pleasant. Surely, those feelings were a reflection of just how foolish his beloved was.
The next day, the trio and the knights returned to the capital. Brunhild and her friends were under the protection of the knight captain, so they were no longer pursued by any knights.
They waited at an inn for the moon to rise. The plan was to launch an attack at night, right at midnight.
As they were waiting, Alois was clearing people out of the royal castle. Preparations were moving along smoothly. Now there would be no one there to get in the way of Warren’s assassination.
They would be carrying out the assassination in ten minutes.
Alois headed for the great hall of the castle.
He would be meeting up with Brunhild and company here.
They would be coming in ten minutes, but he had told the twelve knights to gather in five. Even at the scene of an assassination, he couldn’t be keeping the princess waiting.
The great hall was pitch-black. This was because he’d cleared everyone out—but still, it was rare for all lights to be out at the castle.
He’d have hoped to at least have moonlight, but the light of the moon which he’d expected to be pouring in from the windows was blocked by thick clouds.
I’ll light a light.
If they gathered in the dark like this, they wouldn’t be able to tell who was who.
Alois approached the light.
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of his armor on the floor rang out loud in the darkened hall.
Suddenly—
He sensed a presence.
“Who is it?!”
He whipped around toward the presence.
A tall, shadowy figure stood there.
Because there was no moonlight, it looked like an all-black shadow.
But he could tell even from behind who it was.
“Lord Warren…”
The shadowy figure replied, “Alois.”
Alois had served many years as the knight captain.
His skills were the real thing. That was why he instantly understood.
So our plan has been exposed.
If not for that, there was no way the target of their assassination would appear right before they were supposed to carry out the act.
He could think of many reasons the plan could have been exposed. One of Warren’s men could have reported Alois for strange behavior, or Warren himself may have figured out that Alois had recently made a bold move in order to make contact with Brunhild. Or perhaps when he had seen Warren stab Kriemhild, Warren had also noticed him. At the time, Alois had worn an expression of clear hostility toward Warren.
The shadowy figure said to him. “Alois. You have been ardent in the education of the younger generation. You’ve trained twelve knights.”
“Yes, when considering the future of the knights, one must nurture the next generation.” He answered appropriately to the conversation Warren had started. He was hoping to drag it out as long as possible.
There was no way he would beat Warren on his own.
So he would wait for his allies.
Before long, his allies would be coming to this great hall.
Five minutes. If he waited just five minutes, then the twelve knights he had trained himself would come.
With them all under the same roof, they would be able to match this old soldier, with his monstrous strength.
Then if he could keep him another five minutes, Brunhild would come.
They had a chance at victory.
So he would buy as much time as he could.
The shadowy figure chatted on as if he hadn’t realized Alois’s intentions. “I never nurtured the next generation. I am no more than a genius…but no one could keep up with a mere genius. In the end, it was faster for me to do everything myself.”
“Ha-ha.” Alois laughed. “I envy that natural talent.”
The shadowy figure looked a little irritated, and Alois tensed.
Had he said something wrong?
But the shadowy figure continued on. “If I had worried myself over the kingdom’s future, then I would have regretted not having fostered the next generation every day for these past ten years. But happily, just the other day, I finally found him—a boy worthy of succeeding me. He is not only blessed by a weapon—though he doesn’t realize it himself, he has martial talent. And most of all, his bloodline is fine. He was born to protect the kingdom.”
“That’s wonderful.”
That was when the clouds moved outside the window.
Pallid light shone in from the cracks in the clouds.
That light made Alois relax a little. It was a mental reaction, due to the light shining into the dark hall. The presence of light in the darkness alone put him at ease.
The moonlight lit the shadowy figure.
“Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”
The color of the coat the shadowy figure wore could now be seen.
“If you’re going to nurture the next generation, then you should make no compromises in quality.”
Warren’s coat was bright red.
Alois knew Warren’s coat was supposed to be black, like the night.
So then this red coat meant—
Alois’s throat turned bone-dry.
He hadn’t even noticed that five minutes had passed.
Reinforcements would not come. Ever.
Because the shadowy figure had killed the twelve men.
He had found the most careless of the knights, tortured him, and then killed them one after another.
Alois drew his sword and cried, “Princess Brunhild! You mustn’t come!”
It would be five more minutes until Brunhild’s trio arrived.
Five minutes was more than enough time for the shadowy figure to kill Alois.
Fresh splattered blood soaked the splendor of the palace.
Right on time, Brunhild and Anima headed to the castle riding the amber dragon.
When they approached the castle, the amber dragon said doubtfully, <I can hear the sound of fighting in the great hall. Though it’s faint.> He had better hearing than a human.
<It can’t be they’re already fighting…? Hurry. We’ll assist them.> Brunhild pointed to the window of the great hall, and the amber dragon burst through it like an arrow.
Making a sound like a scream, the window shattered. The trio rolled into the great hall.
It looked as if it were covered in a carpet of red.
But it wasn’t.
Red filth stuck to Brunhild’s clothes as she rolled across it.
It was blood.
The hall was a sea of blood.
Alois was lying there.
“Alo…is…”
Brunhild was about to rush up to him but stopped.
Because she realized there was no head on his body.
Warren was standing there, illuminated by the moonlight.
In his left hand was a bloody stiletto.
In his right hand was Alois’s severed head.
He was holding him by the hair, dangling there. Alois’s face was in a foolishly relaxed expression.
Seeing the death of the knight captain, Brunhild understood all the knights had been wiped out.
Anima trembled.
“No way… The knight captain…”
Eyes like a hawk’s looked down on Brunhild.
“This is what happens when you carelessly rely on allies.”
With things like this, they had no choice but to fight.
Instead of a reply, Brunhild summoned her Thunder.
Or she was about to.
But Warren was faster.
Before she could prepare to fire the Thunder, he stepped forward.
In response, the amber dragon and Anima made their moves.
Warren threw Alois’s head at Anima. The head of an adult man was heavy. He meant to wind Anima by hitting him in the gut with the head and disabling him.
Anima had never imagined he would use a severed head as a weapon, and he failed to react.
So his spear made to respond instead, but it was too slow—since the sight of a severed head flying at him made Anima’s body stiffen up.
But the spear nevertheless moved.
The spear sliced Alois’s severed head in two. That was a mistake. It had actually meant to strike it away, but the stiffness had gotten in the way. One half of the split head, the right half, flew behind Anima, but the left half struck Anima in the stomach.
“Guh…”
Even split in two with half the weight, the head hit him hard. Anima doubled over.
Now the only shield to protect Brunhild was the amber dragon.
The amber dragon came up to Warren to defend her.
The old warrior commenced disposing of the dragon. It was convenient that the dragon had come up to defend his princess. Warren saw him as the greatest threat of the three of them. The dragon was large and strong. Even Warren, with his talent for dragonslaying, could not beat a dragon in a pure contest of strength. Warren wanted to disable him quickly in order to keep the situation from becoming a brute-force struggle.
Warren dodged the dragon’s fangs, then made to pierce his heart with a stiletto. The amber dragon blocked the strike with a claw. The tip of the blade deftly got between the scales to pierce the claw. He drew three more stilettos and threw them. He pierced the dragon’s limbs with them. The dragon was pinned with the blades, just as he had been in their fight before. Warren’s strikes were continuous and flowing.
Warren was about to go deal with Brunhild, the last one left. Brunhild, appearing from behind the dragon as it collapsed, had already fired her Thunder. The arrow of light she’d woven while he’d been fighting with the dragon was right in front of his face. But it was easy enough to dodge it, even at that close range.