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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: selkie
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It began as a small spark. But soon, it swelled into a crimson wave that engulfed the Black Orc tribe’s village.
The Red Tower Master, Berenus Kale, used the power of the Flame Shower to spread flames as far as possible without harming the task force.
“Kreeeeek!”
The clustered Black Orcs scattered, screaming. Even among the notoriously fierce Orc tribes, these warriors were helpless against unquenchable fire.
Shamans struggled to suppress the inferno, but the flames—fueled by a high-ranking mage’s mana and a unique magical artifact—raged relentlessly.
“I’ll clear a path,”
Berenus said calmly, though his face had turned pale from the immense mana expenditure.
“I’ll clear the way.”
The fiery curtain split open, revealing devastation in its wake. The task force advanced, stepping over black ash left by the storm.
They marched without rest for thirty minutes. By the time the armored knights’ breaths grew ragged, the Blue Tower Master, Lysfield Dior, detected traces of suspicious mana and alerted Raymond.
“It’s a cloaking spell. There’s also an alarm enchantment nearby.”
Upon hearing Lysfield’s assessment, Raymond gathered his attendants and explained the plan.
Raymond gathered his team and laid out a plan: while Lysfield’s forces lured the High Assassins and Ghost operatives into the open, Raymond and a small group would infiltrate the hideout’s depths to rescue Lord Crayer.
Since Raymond was once again taking on the greatest risk, Cassias, and others strongly opposed the idea. But using the excuse that time was running out, he pushed forward and got his way.
“Let’s begin,”
Lysfield declared, summoning the Heart of the Sea. As mana surged into the blue gem, hidden Ghost operatives revealed themselves.
“Now!”
Raymond’s shout echoed as he led the remaining forces through the barrier.
Alarms blared, but most Ghost operatives had already rushed out to confront Lysfield’s decoy. Only a handful remained to face Raymond’s squad.
“Aargh!”
“Keugh!”
Cassias and Cron cut down Ghost agents with swift sword strikes, their blades slick with blood.
“Ice Spear!”
With a sharp cry, a magic circle formed at Desia’s fingertips, launching a spear of ice straight through a Ghost Unit operative’s chest.
“Ghk—!”
With a pained gasp, the assassin collapsed, and Cassias and Cron pushed forward into the depths of the cave without hesitation.
The cave was poorly lit, with no proper lighting installed, making it feel as if a High Assassin could leap out from the darkness at any moment. But there was no room for fear in them now.
“KRAAAAH!”
As they advanced relentlessly, a scream erupted from ahead. An ambush in the darkness.
They turned their gaze to where the scream had come from, but all they found was the corpse of a fallen knight, bleeding profusely with no sign of the attacker.
“Light!”
Raymond shouted, using magic to dispel the darkness. Mana gathered above his head, emitting a powerful light. However, the attacker remained invisible.
“It’s a High Assassin!”
Raymond exclaimed. Even in the light, if someone could remain hidden, it had to be a High Assassin. Gestain moved closely beside him, and Desia prepared a defensive spell. The knights raised their swords, vigilant.
“They are nearby,”
Gestain whispered softly. Even a high-ranking knight could only sense the presence of someone in hiding through pure instinct, unable to pinpoint their exact location without being a top-tier mage.
“They’re coming,”
Sensing the invisible force rushing toward the Fifth Prince, Gestain stepped forward to block the attack. His blade, infused with mana, clashed with the High Assassin’s dagger.
The assassin also used mana to counter the mana sword, automatically dispelling their stealth. However, the subtle presence remained detectable.
“Be cautious, elite guards! There’s more than one High Assassin!”
“Imperial Army, protect the Fifth Prince!”
Two elite guards and one Imperial Army knight rushed to his side. Cassias and Cron stood back-to-back, scanning their surroundings.
“Aaah!”
Gestain deeply slashed the throat of a High Assassin. Before the body even hit the ground, more High Assassins emerged from the darkness.
There were about five of them. Though the cave passage was relatively wide, it wasn’t spacious enough for more than ten people to engage in combat comfortably, leading to a chaotic melee.
Two elite guards and one Imperial Army knight were overwhelmed by a single High Assassin and fell, bleeding profusely.
“My lord!”
Gestain rushed to Raymond’s side, but three High Assassins blocked his path.
Even for a high-ranking knight, handling three High Assassins was no easy task, especially since he hadn’t fully mastered the single-handed sword technique.
“This is the end!”
A High Assassin emerged from the darkness with a dagger imbued with mana.
Using mana to dispel their stealth and launch a surprise attack. Gestain was fighting three High Assassins, while the two Tower Masters were outside, leaving only the high-ranking mage Desia by his side.
“I assure you, your blade will not breach my barrier,”
Desia declared, as a massive magical circle emitted mana that formed a shield.
“This damn shield!”
The High Assassin’s dagger struck the mana shield but couldn’t penetrate it.
The realization that their mana-infused weapon was ineffective left the assassin momentarily stunned. But they quickly abandoned their dagger and tried to retreat—only for glowing blue mana chains to shoot out from the shield, wrapping tightly around their legs.
“This… this can’t be!”
“Well done, Desia! Keep holding him!”
Raymond drew his ethereal sword and raised his mana. Despite feeling like his mana flow was disrupted, he didn’t stop.
“Mist!”
Since he wasn’t skilled enough to use the high-level spell Blind, he summoned a fog to temporarily obscure the High Assassin’s vision.
A thick, white mist filled the air. Though one might expect the assassin to panic, they remained composed, smoothly retrieving their short sword to block Raymond’s incoming strike.
At the same time, they deflected Raymond’s attack with practiced ease and aimed their other dagger at his throat.
A master assassin indeed—swift, precise, and ruthless. But Raymond dodged it effortlessly.
“What the hell… who are you?”
The sword strike just now was fierce, and the evasive movements were far from ordinary. The High Assassin, wary of Raymond, aimed his dagger at him.
‘He’s not someone to be taken lightly.’
He revised his assessment of Raymond. Meanwhile, Gestain had already plunged his sword into the heart of one of the High Assassins blocking his path, and Cassias, having shaken off his opponent, was charging forward.
Dragging this out would only be unfavorable for the High Assassins. His eyes, visible through the slit of his mask, glinted coldly as he raised his dagger.
“I have a thousand knights behind me, so it won’t be easy,”
Raymond said, charging towards the High Assassin. A brilliant white mana sword sliced through the air, and blood splattered everywhere.
“Aaah!”
“Your Highness!”
The first to let out a groan was none other than Raymond, the Fifth Prince. Losing his balance, he collapsed onto the ground, a dagger embedded in his thigh.
Seeing this, Cassias gasped in horror and sprinted forward, while Gestain, displaying superhuman strength, cut down another High Assassin.
While everyone else was shocked and enraged, only Raymond, despite his pain, curled his lips into a smirk.
As Cassias rushed to his side to support him, Raymond silently pointed forward with his finger. There stood another High Assassin.
“Your Highness, the Fifth Prince! I will protect you!”
Imperial Army Commander Cassias shouted valiantly, brandishing his sword. But the High Assassin did not move an inch.
The moment Cassias found this strange, the assassin’s head dropped limply and rolled across the ground. His body collapsing like a broken doll.
“He… he took down a High Assassin…?”
Cassias was in shock. He had recently grown somewhat close to Gestain, who had mentioned that the Fifth Prince possessed extraordinary swordsmanship talent. But he never imagined it would be to this extent.
The ‘High Assassins’ were an elite assassination unit, renowned even within the Edryger Kingdom, which ruled over the night.
Even if their movements were restricted, killing a High Assassin was no easy feat.
“Your Highness… what in the world…?”
“Stop the bleeding first. We don’t have much time.”
The fact that the High Assassins had moved meant the hideout was already aware of intruders. There was no way they would let Marquess Crayer live, which meant they could execute him at any moment.
In other words, they didn’t have much time.
“Ah, understood.”
Despite the wound, Raymond’s determination to lead for the sake of the Philios Empire deeply moved Cassias, who hurriedly wrapped a bandage around his thigh.
Standing behind them, Desia cast a healing spell, while Gestain finished off the remaining High Assassins before rejoining them. The middle-aged one-armed knight looked pale.
‘This was my mistake.’
A cold chill ran down his spine at the thought that he had almost lost his lord. If the High Assassin’s body had been fully intact, that dagger could have been lodged in Raymond’s throat instead of his thigh.
“My lord…”
“Sir Cassias, take the lead.”
“Yes! Understood!”
Gestain was about to speak, but Raymond cut him off by issuing an order to Cassias instead.
“I will clear the path!”
Imperial Army Commander Cassias charged forward. They ran for about a minute in tense silence. Then, a sharp gust of cold wind howled through the tunnel.
They had exited the cave passage and arrived at a wide open space.
“I see Marquess Crayer. There are five Ghost Unit agents in hiding… It looks like they’re using the Marquess as bait to lure us in.”
“Then we strike from a distance.”
Desia had enhanced her vision with mana and reported the situation. The enemy had set up a trap, waiting for them to approach, but unfortunately for them, they seemed unaware of the high-ranking mage on Raymond’s side.
“Desia, can you handle it?”
“Of course! Leave it to me.”
As she extended her hand, a storm of ice swept through the area. In an instant, the Ghost Unit agents hidden near Marquess Crayer were neutralized. Turning to Raymond, she beamed, her expression like that of an eager puppy seeking praise.
Raymond gave her a quick nod of approval before limping toward Marquess Crayer, with Desia by his side.
Cron, Cassias, and Gestain followed closely, keeping watch over their surroundings.
“Your Highness, the Fifth Prince?”
Marquess Crayer’s voice trembled as he confirmed Raymond’s face up close. He never imagined the Fifth Prince himself would come to rescue him.
Along with gratitude, he felt a deep regret for ever doubting him.
“Marquess Crayer, you look terrible.”
“I was tortured, so that’s to be expected.”
At Raymond’s remark, Marquess Crayer let out a dry laugh.
The Ghost Unit had tried to extract information from him using their infamous torture techniques, but he had kept his mouth shut and revealed nothing.
Just as they were about to schedule his execution, Raymond had arrived to save him.
“Take this.”
Raymond accepted an extra sword from Cassias and handed it to Marquess Crayer.
In a place this dangerous, one should at least be armed. Marquess Crayer, being a swordsman who had reached the level of a high-ranking knight, would be able to defend himself despite his injuries and exhaustion from torture.
“Your Highness, the Fifth Prince, you are my savior. I will never forget this debt.”
Marquess Crayer accepted the sword and spoke in a steady voice.
The Fifth Prince had come to rescue him before anyone else. To him, the rumors of the prince being a wastrel no longer mattered. The Fifth Prince was now a benefactor of House Crayer.
“Save your gratitude for after we get out of here.”
“That wouldn’t be a bad idea.”
Raymond took a step forward—or at least, he tried to.
“W-what is this?”
Something was binding his legs, preventing him from moving.
“Your Highness!”
“It’s a binding spell! I’ll dispel it right away!”
Desia quickly gathered her mana. The spell was dispelled instantly, but under the light of the floating illumination magic, her complexion appeared pale—likely due to the considerable amount of mana she had just expended.
“How interesting.”
From the darkness, a young woman’s voice rang out as a mage in a brown robe stepped forward.
The strange chain-shaped emblem hanging on her chest and the long violet hair spilling out from beneath her hood made it easy for Raymond to identify her.
Her name was—
“Elphis.”
“Oh my, you know my name?”
She didn’t deny it. That confirmed his suspicion as fact. Raymond bit his lip. Of all the enemies he wanted to avoid, she was one of them.
‘I didn’t expect to meet her this soon.’
She was a villain who was supposed to appear in the latter half of Volume 1, yet here she was, much earlier than anticipated.
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