C997
“Ah…”
The first thing Merlin saw upon arriving at the village was Philip, who always greeted her kindly, being stabbed by a blue blade. Philip, who used to pat Merlin’s head with his warm hand, collapsed on the ground clutching his pierced stomach without even a scream.
The knight who stabbed Philip didn’t treat him like a person, but looked at him with cold eyes as if he were dealing with an insect, and pulled out a black stake.
He used the stake to nail Philip’s hand to the ground.
“Aaaaargh!”
Philip screamed, but the knight didn’t pay him any attention and got up. The knight immediately found his next prey. The boy Philip had been protecting. He also nailed rusty black stakes into the boy’s hands and feet.
“Aaaaargh!”
Seeing the boy who used to mock her now screaming and bleeding from his hands and legs, Merlin’s mind went blank. The warmth that enveloped the village, the blood splattered on her body, everything seemed like a dream.
Merlin knelt down, unable to bear the dizziness. This scene of slaughter was too much for someone as young as her.
The knight who had nailed stakes into the boy’s body seemed to notice Merlin and approached with a twisted smile.
“Ah…”
Just as Merlin trembled as she saw the knight’s thick hand falling towards her head, Mela pushed the knight with her body, saving her.
“A-Aunt…”
“Quick! Run! Go to Lady Cela!”
She gestured with her hand, telling her to run to Cela while she held off the knight. But Mela couldn’t block the blue light that erupted from the knight’s sword, and she was split in half. Blood pooled on the ground. Merlin never imagined that so much blood could come out of a person’s body.
“Aunt?”
She never dreamed that Mela, who always stopped the children from bullying her and gave her dried fruit, would die like this, losing her legs.
“Hurry…”
Mela gestured with her hand telling her to run even as she exhaled her last breath. She knew that people died, but seeing it happen right before her eyes made everything feel unreal.
“You fool!”
Another knight gestured angrily at the one who had killed Mela.
“Didn’t I tell you not to kill them?”
He frowned, saying they had to be captured alive no matter what.
“Sorry…”
“Hup!”
As the knight in front of her bowed his head, Merlin ran towards the center of the village. After seeing Mela’s death, the only thing on her mind was Cela.
“Lady Cela!”
She called out Cela’s name as she ran towards the house, but the only thing she could see were villagers impaled on stakes. It felt like being in the middle of hell.
‘Wait…’
Merlin stopped running towards the house. She felt a familiar mana pulse from the center of the village.
‘It’s Lady Cela!’
Only Cela in the village could use such pure mana. It seemed like she was fighting the knights.
‘Wait. On purpose…’
Why aren’t the others using magic? The mana flows as usual, why aren’t the people using magic?
‘No, I don’t have time to think about that now.’
Merlin bit her lip and ran towards where she felt Cela’s mana. The knights were being thrown back with shattered armor and collapsing. It was Cela. She was using flames, ice, and telekinesis to protect the fallen villagers and repel the knights.
“Lady Cela!”
“Where have you been!”
Cela bit her trembling lip, saying she had been looking for her.
“I’m so glad you’re safe.”
Cela hugged her, saying she could finally relax.
“Y-I’m sorry.”
As she was held in Cela’s warm embrace, everything that had happened so far felt like a dream, and her racing heart began to calm down. But this situation wasn’t a dream. The smell of gunpowder and blood still reached her nostrils.
“Stay back for a moment.”
Cela pushed her back and stood in front of the knights. As she extended her hand, shapeless magic activated, crushing the knights who were charging along with their swords. Flames blocked the knights coming from the right, while those on the left were trapped in ice, unable to move.
The sight of Cela holding back dozens of knights by herself was reminiscent of an iron wall, despite being a mage.
“Haa…”
But even she seemed to be getting tired, wiping the cold sweat from her forehead with a trembling hand.
‘To think that Lady Cela would fight like this…’
Cela possessed immense magical power even among the Para. She couldn’t understand why someone who could use magic all day without getting tired was already sweating.
“Impressive.”
The man who seemed to be the commander of the knights nodded as he raised his visor.
“According to the Sage, you shouldn’t be able to use magic, but you are so capable. As expected of a race that sold their souls to demons. You beasts.”
He clicked his tongue, saying he had no choice but to acknowledge it now.
“Demons? What nonsense!”
Cela glared at him with fury, gnashing her teeth.
“We received information that you Para are connected to demons. I was confused when I took on this mission, but now I understand.”
The knight commander nodded, saying he could now use all his strength.
“I can now treat you as monsters.”
“Are you crazy? Do you expect us to stand by and let you attack us?”
Cela slammed her foot on the ground with rage, telling him to come to his senses.
“...It doesn’t matter either way. A knight can only follow his lord’s orders.”
The knight commander said he had no choice but to obey once the order was given, and pointed his sword at Cela.
“If you surrender quietly, I won’t kill you.”
“So that’s how it is. You scoundrels.”
Cela bit her lip and clasped her hands. Mana rubbed harshly like sandpaper, causing a massive explosion in front of the knight commander. But even in the face of such a powerful explosion, the knight commander didn’t flinch at all. He simply shook off his blackened armor as if he hadn’t felt any impact.
“Since you resisted first, I will respond in kind.”
As the knight commander nodded and swung his sword down, wind enveloped in a red aura poured down from the sky. Cela concentrated mana to form a wall, but the knight commander’s sword strike was so powerful that she was forced to retreat. Two villagers she had been protecting rolled to the knight commander’s feet.
“You must be the leader of this village.”
The knight commander said she was clearly different and swung his sword again. He seemed determined to capture not only Cela, but all the Para who were here. Cela blocked the knight commander’s consecutive strikes by forming mana into a mirror-like shield, seemingly too exhausted to respond.
Her skilled combat techniques suggested that this wasn’t the first time she had fought knights.
She continued to block not only the knight commander’s attacks, but also those of the other knights, protecting the villagers to the end.
“Wouldn’t it be better to surrender now?”
The knight commander shook his head as he placed his foot on the heads of the villagers who had collapsed at his feet.
“Not only will you be hurt, but so will they.”
“Don’t worry.”
Cela shook her head calmly and clasped her hands.
“No one else will be hurt now!”
As she extended her mana, a blue light enveloped the entire village and the bodies of the fallen villagers began to glow faintly.
“This is…”
The knight commander’s jaw trembled as if he had realized Cela’s plan.
“Next time, I will be the one to find you.”
Cela bit her lip as she activated a mass teleportation spell. But just before it completed, the magic circle lost its light and faded uselessly.
“Huh?”
Cela gasped, looking at her hands where the light had disappeared, as if she couldn’t have imagined this situation.
“The Sage emphasized two things as the most important when preparing this operation.”
The knight commander raised his finger towards Cela.
“First is to block your magic. And second…”
He smiled as he looked at the dark ground.
“Completely block teleportation magic and scrolls.”
The knight commander shook his head, saying there was no way they could escape.
“Ah…”
Cela bit her lip as she looked at the village that had begun to burn again.
‘Damn it…’
She had barely managed to attract external mana to use teleportation magic, but she never expected it to fail so miserably. It seemed like there was an expert shaman among those who planned this attack.
“Now, to finish this…”
Just as the knight commander was about to bring his sword down on Cela, seemingly exhausted:
“Lady Cela!”
The villagers who had collapsed at his feet grabbed the knight commander’s ankles.
“Run!”
“We’ll be okay!”
“These bastards won’t kill us!”
“Please, go!”
The villagers shouted for her to escape and blocked the path of the knight commander and his men.
“You, miserable things!”
The knights trampled and cut the already wounded people as they ran towards Cela.
“Ah…”
Cela looked back and forth between the falling villagers and the trembling Merlin behind her, then seemed to make a decision and jumped back.
“I’m sorry. I promise…”
Cela nodded as she enveloped herself and Merlin in a blue light.
“I promise I will save everyone!”
With those words, she vanished into the light.
“Did she change the spell formula in that short time?”
The knight commander narrowed his eyes as he looked at the ground that had frozen.
“They really are a dangerous race.”
He nodded with cold eyes, as if vowing never to let his guard down again.
“Clean up quickly!”
* * *
When Merlin opened her eyes again, she saw a dark forest she didn’t recognize.
“Ugh…”
Cela coughed up black blood, seeming to have overexerted herself.
“Lady Cela!”
Merlin approached Cela with trembling hands.
“Are you okay?”
“Were you scared?”
Cela smiled reassuringly, as if she hadn’t been coughing up blood.
“Y-I’m okay. But Lady Cela…”
Merlin bit her lip as she looked at Cela, who could barely lift her arms.
“I’m okay too. I just overdid it a bit.”
Cela patted her back, telling her not to worry.
“More importantly, let’s move.”
She struggled to stand on her weakened legs.
“What? Wouldn’t it be better to rest here first and then…?”
“I forcefully activated teleportation magic, so there’s a high probability that they’ve detected our location. We need to get out of this place first.”
Cela said that getting out of this place was the priority as she cast a spell to erase their tracks. She seemed a little calmer now that they were out of the magic suppression matrix.
“O-Okay.”
Merlin lowered her gaze and nodded. As she breathed in the fresh air, she felt heavy-hearted thinking about the villagers captured by the knights.
“Everything will be okay.”
Cela hugged her and smiled gently.
“We will surely meet again.”
She repeated that they could live together, as if making a promise to herself rather than to Merlin.
“Let’s go now.”
Cela seemed to have regained her composure quickly as she took her hand and walked towards the distant lights of a village. The blue moonlight shining behind the young mother and child spilled out as if it were shedding tears.
* * *
"Indeed..."
The king nodded as he observed the Para imprisoned in the palace dungeon.
"Their eyes are different. They really can be considered monsters."
He muttered about monsters as he looked at the people, as if he were brainwashed by the Sage.
"We killed some as an example, but we captured most of the people, no, Para in the village."
The knight commander nodded calmly as he looked at the people with stakes nailed into their arms and legs.
"Hmm..."
The Sage narrowed his eyes as he examined a Para with a rope around his neck like a slave.
"Wasn’t there a woman with golden hair and red eyes who seemed to be the leader of the village?"
He gestured towards the knight commander with his chin.
"I was about to report on that matter."
He bowed before the Sage.
"There was a woman among the Para as you described. She..."
The knight commander told them how Cela had tried to save the people, but ended up escaping with only Merlin.
"Sigh, that’s no good..."
The Sage frowned and shook his head.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
The king trembled his chin as he approached the Sage.
"That woman the knight commander let escape is the most important person to us. Because she is Para royalty."
The Sage shook his head, saying they could have made up for the lack of Para numbers with royal blood, but it seemed like they had failed.
"What are we supposed to do now that you’re telling me this?!"
The king waved his hands as if demanding an answer.
"There’s no need to worry."
The Sage shook his head calmly.
"From what the knight commander said, it seems like she will come to us on her own."
"She will come on her own?"
The king blinked with his hazy eyes as if he didn’t understand.
"Yes. Don’t we have excellent bait here? If we use it well..."
The Sage smiled as he ran his hand along the prison bars holding the Para.
"She will take the bait herself. However..."
He smiled faintly as he looked at the king who seemed to have aged even more.
"I would like you to give me some authority to move the other knights as well."
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