Chapter 188: Mentor (5)
༺ Mentor (5) ༻
A blunder.
Her over-excitement ended up causing her to make a mistake.
The silver wolf, whom she had been chasing after for a long time, was finally discovered at the Chapel of Xeruem.
The reason for that was simple - he must have gone there to save his kindred, who were imprisoned in the lands of Xeruem, which they referred to as the deadlands.
For a long period of time, there had been a long strife between the Xeruem Order and these unidentified group of beastmen, who refused to share their headquarters despite the intense persecution and torture they had to endure.
It seemed that Estelle knew who they were but refused to tell her the truth.
However, that didn't matter. Miriam was sure that at least one of them would eventually spill the truth so she continued chasing after them with her subordinates.
Each and every one of her subordinates that she took out on those 'hunts' were high-grade guardians and she also took hundreds of private soldiers with her.
She considered that to be enough and...
"They caught me off guard."
She ended up falling into a trap.
Fairy Shift.
It was a skill that swapped locations of different people like the pranks of a fairy. They didn't have the delicate control over dimensions that the Great Witch Josephine Clara had, but they were nonetheless successful in isolating Miruam to a mountain by herself.
-AWOOOOOOO—!!
The mountain range under the night sky echoed with the howling voices of wolves. It was evident that the werewolves looking for her were quite angry.
"Fuu... Quite irritated, aren't you?"
She could feel their hatred and fury from all the way here. She vividly sensed their hatred with her skin, but that failed to affect her in any way.
It was because she hated them even more.
***
Miruam Elizabeth El Rath was born as the 2nd Princess of the El Rath Kingdom.
Just like Estelle, who was already showing signs of the Saintess, Miruam was at the center of expectant gazes of those hoping that she would be a great queen in the future.
Her nanny from a young age, the maids that had been looking after her ever since she was a baby, and the royal mage teaching her magic...
『 Miru, my daughter! 』
And more than anyone else, she had her mother who loved her the most.
-AWOOOOOOOO...!
-AWOOOOOOOO...!
That night was the same as today, in the sense that she could hear the howling wolves all around her.
Their destination that night was the mansion not so far from the Chapel of Xeruem to the west. Her mother was a devout believer of the Xeruem Order, and they were thus visiting the chapel for a religious festival.
She could still remember falling asleep from the long and exhausting carriage trip...
"Uun... Mommy?"
As well as how she woke up from the bed hearing the commotion outside.
"Your... Highness."
"Nanny?"
Her nanny, who used to gently talk to her every time, looked powerless and dispirited.
-Flop!
"Nanny? I'm scared. Wake up..."
She rocked the powerless body of her nanny, but all she got in return was a feeble voice that resembled a weak ember on a matchstick in a storm.
"Your Highness... Run away..."
Her head dropped to the ground as the nanny stopped moving. Soon, something rusty started to create a puddle underneath her.
"Ahh..."
Miruam looked past the nanny, beyond the door of the carriage.
It was filled with blood no matter where she turned.
That was the day when she lost everything in the world.
.........
......
...
Despite being isolated in a mysterious mountain range, Miruam was able to hide from the eyes of the wolves for a lot longer than expected.
『 Dogs rely heavily on their sense of smell to track down their prey. As long as you can do something about that, it shouldn't be that difficult to escape from them. 』
That piece of advice, which she rebuked for being worthless for her at the time, and her experience escaping from the Blood Dog leading Hounds were a lot more helpful than she initially thought.
She unleashed her serpents to the Hounds that were receiving commands from the werewolves, killed one of them, and covered herself with its blood and skin.
Although she wasn't a diligent student, she was a genius at making use of what she knew, which had a great impact on her ability to escape from the werewolves.
'It's as if... he knew this would happen.'
He knew something - and it was apparent that he knew a lot more than she had initially assumed. She wanted to have him; with him by her side, it was certain that these wolves wouldn't even be able to serve as a threat.
However, she met her limits before long.
Although she tried her best to hide her scent and remove her traces, werewolves were still masters of hunting and tracking.
It was too hard for the limping princess, who was always under the protection of knights and mages, to escape them and—
"Found you."
She was soon surrounded by the wolves.
The one who stepped up to the lead was a silver-haired werewolf.
"You..."
"Been ten years, Princess."
『 Mom? 』
She still remembered that accursed silver fur, and his nails that pierced through her mother's heart.
"Been a while, hasn't it? I got the guy that drove his nail into my leg but I couldn't find you anywhere."
"His name was Beckel."
"I know. I made him spit out everything from his place of birth to his wife's name. But he just refused to talk about where your doggy headquarters were."
Torture.
That was one of the most infamous things the Serpent Princess did to the beastmen for the past 10 years. Hunting beastmen all over the Kingdom, she tortured them in horrifying ways and at times even used the corpses to bait more beastmen.
"That damn bitch...!"
"Why are we even talking to her right now!? Let's kill her immediately!"
"Rip her limbs to pieces and console the souls of our brothers!"
10 years was a long time. How many beastmen died under her hands, and where did this chain of hatred begin?
"Let me apologize, first of all, Princess."
"...!"
"Mr. Ku Shee!"
The werewolves were startled by his sudden apology whereas Miruam...
"...!"
She stayed there glaring daggers at Ku Shee with a wretched gaze.
"Mere words...!"
"However, I do not regret it. Even if I went back in time 10 years ago, I would have tried to do the same thing. But... I wouldn't have let you go... instead, I would have killed you on the spot."
『 Let her go, Beckel. 』
『 Sorry? But, Mr. Ku Shee! This girl is that bitch's daughter! 』
The beastmen raided Queen Maria's carriage. Despite the numerous knights, mages, and soldiers protecting it, they could not stop the onslaught of determined werewolves.
It was also because Ku Shee the Silver Wolf was a descendent of a sublime bloodline, who was as powerful as a semi-Unique Grade knight.
That night, he led the beastmen to murder Queen Maria and let go of Miruam.
"It was worthless pity and a momentary conscience clouding my judgment. Back then we... or I should have made sure you were dead."
"Huhuhu..."
Miruam retracted her wretched gaze and started to giggle. Her giggle sounded so fearful and insane, that no one would be able to link that to a 17-year-old young girl.
"Hihi. Of course. Of course, you should. Of course, you should regret not killing me back then!"
Being pitied did not mean her grudge wouldn't build up.
"I will kill every single one of your race without leaving a single seed behind. I will poison all of you to death."
Ku Shee admitted he should have done the same.
"Your mother was hell-bent on discriminating and killing us. She sent our kindred over to the wicked priests of the Deadlands, under the name of 'cleanse' and 'reformation'!"
He still remembered the day he led the beastmen, who could not hold themselves back anymore, to the queen's mansion and ambushed the carriage despite the discouragement of the union.
"That was... how my daughter died as well."
That was why he killed the queen. Unlike King David and Queen Asher, Queen Maria was a believer of the Old Faith and saw demi-humans as ones that had to be cleansed.
"This is just that kind of fight where one side must fall. That's all there is to it."
As such, he did not regret his actions because he would have killed the queen regardless.
"I agree," said Miruam. "However, one thing I can say is that I won't be the one falling."
"You can't beat me."
"For now, yes. I would probably be killed."
She took out a stone from her dress - she took out Lia Fail, the Stone of Destiny, which had the luster of a finely cut piece of gem.
"However, this is not what my fate is supposed to be."
It was then.
After immediately sucking out Miruam's mana, Lia Fail let out a brilliant light as the dimension started to crack before it.
Lia Fail.
The symbolic treasure of the King of Gods, which either altered or ascertained destiny. Even the goddesses winding the strings of fate could not unwind the destiny enforced by this stone.
Every treasure, including the three other great treasures, existed under a rule but that rule did not apply to Lia Fail. Lia Fail, regardless of the process, was able to enforce an outcome under the name of 'destiny'.
For example...
"Thank goodness I was next to Lady Josephine."
It could suddenly summon a helper who could jump through the dimension.
"Josephine Clara? Korin Lork?!"
"What's going on!?"
The beastmen were greatly confused as they saw Josephine, the Dimensional Witch, appear alongside Korin Lork, the hero of the Kingdom.
"I thought it would be my soldiers, or me teleporting out."
Miruam's question was answered by Korin.
"Even though Lia Fail is overpowered, it still does follow the rules of cause and effect. Of course, if it really can't make things 'look natural', then it does sometimes throw that rule down the drain."
Korin added another sentence, saying that it wouldn't be possible with her Mana Capacity.
"Lady Josephine, who can teleport, and me, who just 'happened to be next to her'. That would make more sense than your soldiers appearing out of nowhere. Right?"
It felt weird to hear him say that so confidently as if it wasn't his first time, but that was beside the point.
"I see. Well, whatever. Those guys have attempted to assassinate the princess. Kill them."
"I'll have to say no to that."
"What do you mean?"
Without replying to the princess's question, I approached Ku Shee and the beastmen.
"Your assassination has failed the moment we came here. Do you intend to fight me to death or run away?"
Neither was the best option, but Ku Shee was a wise leader.
"We'll fall back."
"Sir!?"
"We can deal with them!"
Ku Shee remained calm in the middle of the over-excited beastmen.
"We cannot fight two semi-Unique Grades with our current composition. The princess can still fight on top of that."
Saying that, Ku Shee led his group back, but lamented one last time before leaving the mountain.
"In the end... there's no other option than a frontal battle, huh?"
"No. You can still accept my offer."
"..."
He didn't respond.
He probably had a lot of things on his mind, including how he had to report to Mound about his arbitrary judgment to assassinate the princess and its failure.
"..."
The beastmen disappeared but Miruam continued glaring daggers at Korin. She was holding herself back quite a lot just by maintaining her calm on the outside.
"We should have killed them," she said.
"Fighting dozens of beastmen while protecting the princess is easier said than done."
"I can protect myself."
"But what if you die? How will you take revenge or whatever when you're dead?"
"Student Korin. That's..."
Josephine tried to intervene and remind him about his attitude but Korin stopped her instead. He turned to Miruam and looked straight back into her eyes.
"That's what revenge is," said the princess. "It's about putting everything on the line. My life is not even a part of the equation."
"From where till where is the scope of your revenge?"
"Everything and everyone. Korin Lork. Isn't it natural?"
"Don't fool yourself, Princess. There's no 'end' to 'everything', nor is it possible."
"Then what do you want me to do?"
"Draw the line. Draw the end goal of your revenge. Achieve that goal and put an end to it."
-Otherwise, there will be no end to your revenge.
***
The attempted assassination of Princess Miruam immediately after the kidnapping incident of the Saintess, was enough to send the Kingdom into another fit of chaos.
However, it was difficult for the Kingdom to respond to this incident, because it wasn't certain 'who' the target was. They knew that Ku Shee was a werewolf, but they didn't know where he was and which group he belonged to.
Who could possibly imagine that there was an underground city of demi-humans that has existed for centuries?
But that was when an unexpected testimony came from Xeruem.
『 The people that attacked Her Highness Miruam are from a union of demi-humans, called Mound. They reside in the underground city of Dana Shee and— 』
One of the bishops who escaped the New Faith from Estelle's purge reported to the Kingdom about Mound and Dana Shee.
Now that the direction of the Kingdom's sword had become clear—
『 I, Miruam Elizabeth El Rath, will eradicate the demi-humans that tried to assassinate the princess. 』
What followed was a natural course of events.
The Kingdom raised its army, and the Alliance gathered guardians to join the battle against Mound.
Xeruem Order dispatched Templar Knights as if they had been waiting for this moment and pressured Estelle and the Zeon Order, who could not voice out their protective stance for demi-humans due to the seriousness of the incident.
An army was being gathered to annihilate demi-humans and Dana Shee.
"It's a bit earlier than expected, but it's because of a mistake from your end. What are you going to do?"
I asked Ednar Illusan, the Queen of Cats, who came looking for me in a hurry.
"...Is the offer still valid?"
"Of course."
It was time for the next phase.