Chapter 143 : Somehow
Chapter 143: Somehow
Louise Berfht.
After the incident in Ormus, the Second Princess of the Berfht Kingdom spent a fairly long period in self-reflection.
It had already been several months. Her daily routine was simple.
She either shut herself away in the annex palace to learn etiquette and academics, or went out into the garden to swing her axe.
But today was different. Added to her original schedule was a very small errand to visit the royal workshop.
Whii—
She whistled cheerfully. She stroked the blue battle axe that fit snugly in her hand.
The weapon she had ordered from the royal workshop had just been completed and delivered.
The sharp blade, the chill it gave off, and even its beauty and sturdiness. Everything pleased her.
‘It’s a shame it’s not from Roger, but....’
She did not think Roger was the absolute greatest craftsman.
Of course, he was counted among the very best, but Berfht was the kingdom of the dwarves, and there were many excellent artisans.
Still, the reason she had gone out of her way to seek a weapon from Roger was because of his special nature as both a hero and a craftsman.
Unlike other heroes, he could not use the power bestowed by the dimension as his own ability, but instead had the peculiarity of imbuing that power into equipment.
A weapon that allowed even non-heroes to possess a hero’s power, if only indirectly.
That was why Roger was special. That was why she had wanted Roger’s weapon.
Now that Roger had disappeared, it had become meaningless.
She arrived at the annex palace garden where she always swung her axe.
When she lightly swung it, a piercing sound cut through the air. The appropriate weight and balance pleased her even more.
“With this, there’s probably no head I couldn’t split...?”
That was when it happened.
Pak—
The rock wall on one side of the garden shook. A part of the solid rock burst upward. What looked like rock was dirt. And that dirt came crashing down over Louise.
“....”
“....”
Then, through the hole that had formed in the rock wall, a face popped out, and their eyes met.
‘...A secret passage?’
No, that wasn’t the problem.
‘An intruder?’
This was the annex palace garden of the royal palace, and without Louise’s permission, no one could enter.
Let alone some secret passage she did not know about.
Louise did not think deeply.
There was a secret passage she did not know about in the annex palace of which she was the owner, and someone had entered through it.
There was no way this was an official guest. Nor could they be clean.
So she acted as she always did.
Which meant she swung her axe without hesitation.
Kwa-jik—
The axe bit into the rock wall. Unfortunately, the intruder had already crawled out of the tunnel.
‘Fast.’
She twisted her body at once. Kicking off the ground, she poured strength into the hand gripping the axe.
Sa-ak—
A few strands of the intruder’s hair fluttered away.
It was a beautiful red color.
Kwa-deuk—
The axe was caught. Aura and flames tangled together.
The tendons in Louise’s arm bulged as she clenched the axe. Their eyes met. A red even deeper than his hair.
“Who are you?”
Louise growled.
Berje could not answer easily.
Majestic palaces were visible in the distance. Around them, there was no sign of anyone else besides Louise.
‘Damn dwarf bastard, you should at least have said where it was connected to!’
If he applied the situation Louise Berfht was currently in, this was the annex palace. The garden of the annex palace where she was confined.
Of all places, the end of the breached secret passage being the home of a crazy princess rampaging around with an axe—
It was the kind of unbelievable coincidence that could not have happened unless Roger had deliberately tried to screw him over.
‘What should I do?’
If he had known this would happen, he should have entered while still a demon. Then, even if he was discovered, it could have been brushed off as the Demon King’s doing.
But Louise Berfht was staring straight at the face in Pale form, which meant that the one status that allowed him to safely roam the continent was being erased.
If he did not kill her, the identity of Pale could no longer be used.
The dwarven kingdom would never show mercy or tolerance to a heterogenous intruder who had infiltrated the annex palace.
There were two choices.
Either he fled like this and abandoned the identity of Pale.
Or he made sure there were no witnesses...
“Who are you, I asked.”
Berje’s thoughts were cut off by the dense killing intent.
“Do you think I’ll just answer obediently?”
“What kind of nonsense is that. I’m simply granting you mercy. While reflecting on myself, I learned how to rein in my heart quite a bit.”
“Mercy?”
“The mercy of dying cleanly without your body being chopped to pieces.”
“That sounds like you disciplined your heart in a strange way.”
“For me, it’s great progress. Normally, my axe should already be lodged in your head.”
“I don’t know where that confidence comes from.”
“Confidence? Isn’t it obvious?”
A powerful rebound force shoved them apart. Louise raised her axe. The muscles across her entire body swelled vividly.
“I only trust my axe!”
─────!
A fist and an axe collided.
Ferocious aura perished together with flickering flames. Forcing its way through the gap, the sharp axe, carrying its owner’s strength, dug into flesh.
At the stinging pain, Berje’s brow creased.
Louise snorted as she looked at the blood smeared on the blade.
“If you blocked it, isn’t that your hand?”
“...That’s no ordinary weapon.”
“The best compliment for a weapon made by the greatest dwarven craftsman.”
“The greatest craftsman? From what I know, the greatest craftsman fled the Berfht Kingdom. Because of someone, no less.”
Her brow furrowed.
“What do you mean?”
“What do you think I mean?”
“You’d better choose your words carefully.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then you won’t even get the chance to beg me for mercy. I’ll split your head first.”
Louise growled. Berje poured more oil onto the raging flames.
“I met a dwarf. He claimed to be the greatest craftsman of Berfht. His name was Roger Friedrich, I think.”
“Roger, where the hell is that bastard right now!”
Louise kicked off the ground.
Kwaang—
A beat later, the ground, unable to endure the force, shattered as a crashing sound rushed in.
The axe cleaved through space, drawing a long trajectory.
Kwaang—
Berje stepped back one pace. Feeling the shock travel up his arm, he let out a hollow laugh.
‘She’s gotten stronger in just a few months.’
Why were the princesses of this dimension all like this?
The stray thought was cut short. Unlike before, Louise’s axe did not stop after a single swing. Aura and flames endlessly produced tearing sounds as their powers clashed.
‘Dragging this out is disadvantageous.’
Fortunately, the annex palace was somewhat removed from other areas, but it was still the royal palace. It was only a matter of time before dwarves came running after hearing the commotion.
Even so, subduing her easily was impossible. Part of it was that he had weakened due to being far from the tower, but also because Louise had improved tremendously in just a few months.
‘Avoid a frontal clash.’
Berje decided to shake Louise’s mind.
“I know where he is, of course. But I can’t tell you. Instead, I’ll pass along a message he asked me to deliver.”
“That bastard told you to pass a message to me?”
“Yes. He said he never wanted to make a weapon for a crazy bitch like you, so you should never look for him. He said just seeing you disgusted him.”
“...Crazy bitch?”
Louise’s face flushed red. If the one standing before her had been Roger, she would have split him apart a hundred times over.
But perhaps because she was too angry, her reason instead grew slightly calmer. No, more precisely, she realized something from the intruder’s face.
“I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere....”
If the hair that burned like flames and the eyes that resembled rubies were changed to black.
“You said Roger was in Tarta.... No, that can’t be. Hair aside, you can’t change your pupils....”
“No, you saw it clearly.”
Berje once more confined the flames within his heart. Then he faintly released demonic energy.
The moment his red hair and eyes turned black, Louise’s pupils dilated.
“You...!”
“Did you know? In truth, Roger was never in Tarta. He never went there in the first place.”
“You bastard...!”
“But it is true that I know Roger. I also know where he is. So how about it, shall I guide you?”
Berje’s hand slipped into Louise’s blind spot as her emotions wavered.
She tried to resist belatedly, but she was a step too late.
Raging flames tore apart all of her aura. Through the gap laid completely bare, a chill-radiating magic sphere spat out a beam of light.
Jjeojeojeojeok—
There was no longer a princess there.
Only an ice statue called Louise Berfht remained.
“...This was unexpected, but either way, I need to move quickly.”
After stuffing Louise into subspace, Berje exhaled flames to completely erase the cold, then vanished without a trace.
“Her Highness the Princess has disappeared!”
What the dwarven knights, who came running after hearing the commotion, discovered were only the traces of a battle that had already ended.
* * *
Dwarves possessed exceptional manual dexterity.
They took pleasure in creating things, and many were especially absorbed in blacksmithing and magi-engineering.
The kingdom itself promoted technological advancement, and the countless workshops were the result of that policy.
When a craftsman of notable skill established a workshop, numerous dwarves gathered to learn his techniques, and the workshop rose to become a group that led the kingdom’s technology.
However, workshops also had rankings.
All dwarves wished to enter a more outstanding workshop, and the hottest of them all was the royal workshop.
Directly operated by the royal family, it was a place only the most carefully selected talents from across the entire kingdom could enter.
A glorious place where merely gaining entry was enough to inspire pride, and thus a place everyone desired to join.
‘At last.’
The craftsman, Kogen, entered the royal capital with his heart swelling with emotion.
It had been fifty-eight years since he began working as a blacksmith in a frontier city and set foot in the capital. Perhaps thanks to the reputation he had steadily built up, the royal family had finally summoned him.
It was an honor that would remain in his family’s history.
“Welcome, Master Kogen. This is the identification badge proving that you are a member of the royal workshop.”
“Ooh, this is....”
The golden badge embossed with the royal crest was indescribably beautiful.
“I will guide you to the workshop. The workshop master is waiting.”
“Yes.”
The workshop was not very far away.
“Hm? Where did the gatekeepers go?”
Seeing the empty entrance, the knight frowned.
“Ah, could it be that even the workshop’s knights were mobilized. My apologies for showing you such an unsightly scene.”
“N-no, it’s fine. But what exactly is going on?”
“It’s nothing serious. It will be resolved shortly, so for now, please go inside—”
The knight opened the door.
“What a chill....”
Feeling a bone-chilling cold seeping out through the crack in the door, Kogen tilted his head.
Cold, in a workshop where fires were always burning?
Thud—
“Huh?”
At that moment, the knight guiding him collapsed without making a sound.
A powerful force of attraction pulled him and the knight in, and the door closed automatically.
“Uh, uh...?”
The hammering sounds of the workshop had stopped.
Most of the flames in the furnaces were extinguished.
Their residual heat had been swallowed by the cold, making the place resemble a freezer.
And above all—
“...My heavens.”
Dozens of royal craftsmen, who should have been sweating as they worked, had all turned to ice, decorating the workshop as frozen statues.
“You’re the last one.”
From atop those statues, a red-haired man looked down at him.
“If you’d been a little later, I was going to just leave, but fortunately, this isn’t bad timing.”
“Who are you....”
Kogen’s words failed to reach an end. A sphere that flew in a parabolic arc struck his heart. The world was dyed white, and his consciousness vanished.
* * *
Taktak—
After stuffing exactly forty-nine ice statues into subspace, Berje brushed off his hands.
Fortunately, the kingdom had yet to show any particular reaction.
Perhaps everyone had gone over there after Louise disappeared.
‘Then I should use a different secret passage instead of that one. I can only hope it hasn’t been blocked.’
To avoid leaving any trace of cold, Berje added a bit of mana to the few remaining embers in the workshop and tossed them onto the floor. The flames slowly encroaching outward would soon engulf the entire workshop.
“Ah.”
Berje let out an exclamation as he searched for a new secret passage.
“...Would it really be okay to let Louise and Roger meet?”
For some reason, he could not imagine Roger coming out of that alive.
‘Well, it’ll work out somehow.’
If one were to get to the root of it, the cause lay with Roger, who had told him about the secret passage leading into the annex palace where Louise was confined.
He kicked off once more.