Kwaaaang!

  A large altar hidden behind the veils of darkness collapsed.

  “W, we have destroyed it!”


  One of the Taemusas shouted while raising his sword. Hearing that, Pierce Newman gave a new order with a swing of his spear.

  “Chase them! Do not let a single one escape!”


  “Yes, sir!”


  The knights, Taemusas and the soldiers replied as one and kicked off the ground as their crimson armours with the insignia of the Rinse Corps shone brightly within the moonlight.

  Slash! Swing!

  With the sharp ringing of the swords, the men that had been running off to various directions lost their lives and collapsed.

  “Damn! A, are you guys ghost corps or something!”


  “There are already more than five altars broken!”


  While being chased down by the Rinse Corps and Pierce, they screamed with sorrowful voices.

  The ones running away were a mix of various races. Starting from humans wearing a brown costume, there were beastmen, orcs with boorish appearances, as well as dark elves with their signature grey skin.

  They were the ones that were in charge of building the altars for the rituals to unseal the Gates of the Boundary, after being ordered by Latio of the Tallian Church and the Mad Dragon, Lunark.

  “Disgusting trash!”


  Reaching out with his spear, Pierce twisted his ankle.

  Sphat!

  The spearhead dissected the dimension and cleanly decapitated the dark elves and the orcs.

  The subjugation mission was a great success – the altar was broken and the enemies had been annihilated. However, Pierce’s expression wasn’t looking good as his eyes pointed beneath the broken altar.

  “Mhmm.”


  A low mutter escaped.

  His vision was filled with a gruesome scene. The ground was wet with red blood, above which were corpses of people have died with their eyes open. There were the old and the young, male and female.

  They were the innocent citizens of the kingdom that had been forced to be sacrifices for the savage ritual.

  ‘Although we were trying to be as fast as possible……’


  Since they didn’t know the exact locations of the altars, they had always been slightly late like this.

  “Recover the bodies.”


  Pierce bit his lower lips as his heart screamed in pain.

  Soon, the soldiers approached and recovered the bodies with careful hands. Turning around, Pierce faced the soldiers of the Rinse Corps. They were evidently exhausted from the continuous searches and battles but now wasn’t the time for breaks.

  “As you can see, we have succeeded in the subjugation but couldn’t protect the citizens.”


  His voice trembled slightly as the faces of the soldiers stiffened. Their eyes were full of grief.

  “I know very well that you all are tired and exhausted but……”


  Power etched into Pierce’s voice and eyes.

  “Even in this very moment when we are collecting our breaths, our innocent citizens are becoming victims of the horrible rituals and losing their lives.”


  As soon as his words ended,

  “We are not tired!”


  “Let’s move right away!”


  “We can still run, and still fight!”


  The soldiers, knights and Taemusas of the Rinse Corps screamed from the bottom of their lungs. A strong aura and passion flowed out from them, as Pierce nodded with a faint smile.

  ‘As expected of my soldiers.’


  He felt proud. Grabbing tightly onto the spear, Pierce stared at the Grain Mountain Range as the smile hanging on his lips deepened.

  “Good. We will postpone the rest then.”


  Pierce kicked off the ground before anyone else.

  “Rinse Corps, move!”


  Finally, the order left his lips. Excluding the small number of soldiers recovering the bodies of the dead, the entirety of the Rinse Kingdom threw their bodies towards the depths of the Grain Mountain Range. It was yet another start of the restless searches for altars and the subjugations.

  This mission was not limited to Pierce and the Rinse Corps and the large-scale subjugation was currently happening throughout the Amaranth Kingdom simultaneously.

  Thanks to that, unlike other empires and kingdoms of the continent, the Amaranth Kingdom no longer had missing people and the slow encroachment of the dark aura had also stopped.

  Although small, it was now delaying the plans of Latio and Lunark.

  However, not all things in the world flowed according to Roan’s will.

  And the wind had always been selfish.

  *

  “Hulhulhul. Officer Vaint. Thanks for your hard work.”


  The owner of the Devesis Church as well as the top ruler, Pope Beldrica had a rare satisfied smile on his face. His eyes reflected several cardinals as well as a middle-aged man standing in between.

  Unlike the cardinals, the middle-aged man had simple clothes with a sword hanging on his waist. He was the Great Priest Vaint, who was the Head Officer of the Inquisition this time which had opened after Beldrica’s orders.

  “I had only listened to Your Holiness’ orders to judge the heretics and it wasn’t anything special.”


  Hearing Vaint’s words, Beldrica made a slight frown.

  “Officer Vaint. Your words call for a misunderstanding. Uhum.”


  He let out a small cough.

  “Ah……”


  After realising his mistake, Vaint altered his words.

  “Everything is the wish of God Devesis.”


  Only then did Beldrica nod with the previous faint smile resurfacing.

  “You’re right. You’re right. I’m only relaying the god’s words.”


  Biting into a fruit, he looked towards the cardinals.

  “Since Head Officer Vaint is working so hard, shouldn’t the cardinals have some results as well?”


  His voice was amicable and soft but the cardinals listening to it had their faces stiffening up.

  Gulp.

  They tried their hardest to settle their beating hearts. One of the oldest cardinals, Isle walked up to the front.

  “As you have said, thanks to the hard work of Officer Vaint, the heretics of the empire have all disappeared. Let alone the imperial palace, none of the nobles and citizens would be able to oppose the holy letter of the Church.”


  He forced his words to sound as calm as he could but the ends of his sentences quivered.

  “According to the reports, even Duke Edwin Voisa has secluded himself in his house after the death of his daughter and is not doing anything to gather the forces or anything of the sort.”


  Isle lifted up his head and stared at Beldrica.

  “Now is the time……”


  His voice turned powerful.

  “To gather the crusaders.”


  As soon as he finished.

  “Hulhulhul.”


  Beldrica nodded his head with a strange smile. He searched through his table and picked up 9 envelopes.

  “Cardinal Isle.”


  “Yes, Your Holiness.”


  Isle quickly walked up and kneeled on one knee. When he did, Beldrica first handed him 8 different letters.

  “Send the holy letters to the Estia Empire, the Lucia Empire, the Byron Kingdom, the Persion Kingdom, the Rite Kingdom, the Istel Kingdom and the Aimas Union.”


  The letter itself was simple. It was to immediately gather the forces to annihilate the Amaranth Kingdom and revive the fallen Rinse Kingdom back up.

  “Your will is my command.”


  After Isle received the envelopes with his two hands, Beldrica sent a small envelope at the end.

  “Send this to Roan. It is a holy letter that tells him to realise his own mistakes, and come to the Church alone if he wishes to receive punishment.”


  It was a suggestion that didn’t make sense and there was no way it would ever be accepted. However, Isle didn’t show any of that on his expression and politely received the last letter.

  “Hulhulhul.”


  Beldirca let out a weird laughter with a strange smile as Isle bowed his head once before leaving the palace with the letters in hand.

  On that day, the holy letters with astonishing words of gathering the crusaders spread to every nation immediately through the communication portals which connected the Church to every palace.

  Finally, the winds of the Great War were starting to blow.

  ***

  Dududududududu.

  The sounds of horse hooves rang noisily. With Vance Vonte in the lead, the army of Baron Vonte, the troop under Manus and the Istel Kingdom’s Special Corps charged down rapidly in ranks.

  At the middle of the troops were Manus Persion, Aerea Britz, Peid Neil and others. Even while kicking their horses and controlling the reins, they glanced behind constantly to see Roan Lancephil.

  Roan was closing his eyes without even grabbing onto the reins.

  Dudududududu.

  And yet, the horse did not fall out of the ranks and stayed in line with other troops. Staring at Roan, Manus let out a short sigh and was baffled.

  ‘It has already been three days since we departed the Eviance district. Being in that state for three whole days must be hard though……’


  Throughout the whole trip from the Eviance area to Castle Altus, which was the capital of the Persion Kingdom, Roan had his eyes closed. Even during short breaks and sleeps, he sat down at one place with closed eyes.

  It appeared like he was in deep contemplation but in fact, it was a bit different. He was in deep meditation to completely absorb the powers and memories of Felius and Flamdor. Fortunately, the absorbing of the powers and the organisation of the memories were being carried out without trouble but because of the sheer amount of memories, it took a lot longer than he had initially thought.

  “Hu.”


  Finally, Roan heaved out a deep sigh and opened his eyes that had been shut tight. It was when Castle Altus was starting to creep out from past the horizon.

  “Have you finished?”


  Manus who had been reorganising the troops walked up slowly as Roan replied with a faint smile.

  “Yes. I barely made it in time.”


  His eyes pointed at Castle Altus in the far distance.

  “Fortunately, we were able to arrive safely.”


  Hearing that, Manus shook his head with a bitter smile.

  “Yes, you’re right. I have no idea what my brother, Reitas is thinking.”


  Whatever the truth of the matter was, from the outside, it appeared like Manus himself was leading soldiers to attack the capital. From Reitas Persion’s side, it was a situation that called for an urgent call for arms but for some reason, there were no troops that approached and stopped their march.

  In fact, the armies of the nobles that they came across during the march to the capital made way for them by changing their directions.

  ‘Baron Vance Vonte said he had come to the Eviance district to investigate the case of missing citizens and solve the problem.’


  He said that it was definitely not to help or aid Manus. In fact, he didn’t even know that Manus was in the Eviance area in the first place.

  ‘Not fighting against me after meeting me on the battlefield was the personal decision of Baron Vonte, not the will of my brother.’


  That was why his head became all the more muddled. It was then that he heard Aerea’s voice from the side.

  “Well, maybe he had a guilty conscience.”


  She pushed her face closer towards Manus.

  “Maybe Prince Reitas realised his mistakes and is now asking his brother for forgiveness?”


  “That’s……”


  Manus couldn’t easily find the next words to continue his sentence. If it was the past, he would nod his head without a single hesitation because that was how much trust he had towards Reitas.

  However, now it was different. He constantly had a thought that there must be some different reason behind it.

  ‘That’s bitter.’


  Manus made a bitter smile. He couldn’t tell if it was himself that had changed or Reitas.

  “We’ll see after going to Castle Altus.”


  Peid who had just approached made a faint smile and gave the best answer to the doubts. Roan, Manus and Aerea slowly nodded their heads because they had been expecting a tough ride ever since they had decided on going to the capital city.

  “Shall we head off then?”


  With a smile, Roan got onto his horse. He had a relaxed, calm expression as a soft aura emanated out from his body. It didn’t seem all too different from before, but,

  ‘Something’s different.’


  ‘I think he has changed a little. I don’t know where though……’


  ‘Something has changed……’


  Manus, Aerea and Peid flickered their eyes in thought. They had realised that Roan’s aura had changed but that change was so subtle yet complicated, that they couldn’t form a clear explanation of how it had changed.

  All they could tell was that,

  ‘It’s comfortable.’


  ‘I have no worries.’


  ‘Why do I feel so happy?’


  Incomprehensible feelings filled their hearts. Shaking their heads, they came to themselves and quickly got onto the horses with quickened heartbeats. After staring quietly at the three of them, Roan casually caressed the horse’s head.

  Neighhh.

  The horse seemed to be in a good mood as well; it let out a noise before slowly carrying its feet across. In that instant, the horses of the knights and soldiers that were moving busily to form ranks lowered their heads and created a path in the middle.

  By no means was it something intended by the soldiers and knights.

  “Uh?!”


  “Uh, uh……”


  With startled expressions, they pulled their reins and kicked their horses but the warhorses showed no signs of movement. Only when Roan passed by them did they raise their heads and go looking for their own spots.

  Manus, Aerea, Peid and others who were following from behind could only point their respectful eyes and chase after Roan’s back.

  During all that, Roan rode the horse until he was at the front of the troops before breathing in deeply and turning around to stare at the soldiers.

  A soft, light silence filled the area before Roan slightly nodded his head with a smile.

  “Then, should we go?”


  It was a casual tone, like he was talking to a friend of his.

  Gulp.

  The knights and soldiers nodded their heads and gulped. For some reason unbeknownst to them, they felt a strange lump in their throats.

  Dudududududu!

  Soon, a race began with the sounds of hooves ringing across.

  The perfect march with not a single horse falling behind continued over the hills, through the forests and across the grasslands. Before long, Castle Altus which appeared like a dot was right before them.

  The gates were shut tightly.

  However, the drawbridge was lowered and there were no visible soldiers on the walls of the castle.

  “What? Do they want to fight, or no?”


  Aerea asked with a frown and in response, Roan replied with a faint smile.

  “They’re telling us to come in first.”


  When he said that,

  “Sorry? What do you……”


  “What do you mean by that?”


  Manus, Peid and others tilted their heads and asked back. Instead of giving them a reply, Roan kicked his horse and increased the speed.

  It was then.

  Kugung!

  A loud sound echoed away as the tightly sealed gates started being opened.

  “Can we enter? To me, it appears like the mouth of a tiger.”


  Aerea who had been giving complaints just a few short seconds ago now asked with a slightly nervous expression. Both Manus and Peid couldn’t readily give a reply because they couldn’t even guess what Reitas was thinking about. On the other hand, Roan was completely relaxed.

  “We will enter.”


  A smile appeared on his lips.

  “But……”


  His smile then deepened.

  “It’ll be just me, Prince Manus, Viscount Peid Neil, Miss Aerea Britz, and Baron Vance Vonte.”


  “Sorry? But why……”


  Romils Hotten from behind asked with a frown but Roan gave a short reply with a nonchalant expression.

  “Because that is enough of a bait.”


  At the same time, Roan, as well as the four men whom Roan had called out, had their horses running a lot faster than before. On the other hand, the horses of the remaining members reduced their speeds greatly as if that was the signal.

  “Huh?! What?”


  “W, what’s happening! R, run! Run I say!”


  “Quick!”


  The knights and soldiers, as well as Romils, kicked their horses with surprise but the warhorses remained motionless and in the end, they even kneeled on the ground.

  While that was happening, Roan, Manus, Peid, Aerea and Vance had entered the widely opened gates and soon,

  Kugung!

  A heavy roar resounded as the large gates went back to its own place. That form resembled a tiger closing its mouth after having fed on some food.

  “Ah……”


  Romils, the knights and the soldiers let out low murmurs as their eyes shook with anxiety.