Chapter 69
Chapter 69: Raging Wildfire (Part 7)
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“Cough cough——”
Another bout of violent coughing.
“…That’s right, at least, cough cough, I think I am.” His eyelids were drooping, “Girl. Next time, if you… see people like us… remember, you need to cut off their heads… otherwise, before burning up all our blood… we won’t stop…”
“…Doing this, what’s the point of——”
Before finishing her sentence, she suddenly saw the flames on Valarr’s body extinguish.
Then, his skin visibly withered, his hair started losing color, his face became extremely gaunt and thin, his eyeballs turned white and lifeless, as if he had aged many years in an instant.
“Can I… ask you… one thing…”
“No.”
I refused immediately.
“No… 3 years ago… I went alone… to the cliff bottom… looking for you… I searched for you… I couldn’t find you…”
Valarr, now like a decrepit old man, mumbled these words hoarsely, leaving me stunned for a moment.
Then I focused my gaze, looking seriously at his face: “Nobody, ever looked for me.”
But he couldn’t hear anymore.
“So… please…”
“If you see… Elna… tell her… I tried my best… I love her…”
“Miss Elna…”
He opened his cloudy eyes wide, as if in a dream.
“I saw her… in the moonlight… she was carrying a sword… she was so beautiful…”
“She… was so beautiful…”
Hiss——
A neighing sound came from behind.
The silver-haired woman dismounted from the horned beast, looking at the mess of snow and scorched earth everywhere, with slight shock in her gaze.
“Miss Peylo… are you hurt?”
I shook my head.
“You are?”
“Shanter Army Second Team Captain, Bella.”
The woman’s expression was indifferent, showing no particular emotion on her beautiful face, then she looked at the person pierced full of holes by ice spikes, who had already lowered his head.
“Is this Valarr?”
“Yes, he’s dead.”
“Am I too late?”
“Not really… um…”
Before I could finish speaking, she already knew what I wanted to say.
“I came ahead with some men, the Duke will arrive shortly.”
“Oh.”
I responded to indicate I understood, looking back at the man with the ruined face on the ground, then turned my gaze to Valarr, lingering for a moment on his emaciated body.
Perhaps finding my reaction too bland, Bella started explaining about the Duke on her own.
“Valarr burned through the chains, killed several people, and escaped from the cellar. Later, patrol hunters discovered something wrong at White Gate, I was worried about delaying too long, so I set out with gathered men first, only sending someone to notify Shanter Castle before leaving.”
I gave her a sweet smile.
“I know, let’s go.”
Then I dropped the extreme ice sickle in my hand, turning to walk towards the battlefield behind that was nearly finished.
Thinking about Valarr’s last words, whether he was lying to me, or if it was true as he said that he really went down to the cliff bottom to look for me three years ago… none of that matters anymore.
What’s done is done, trying to make up for it afterwards has no meaning, right?
“Was he from the Gate of Truth?”
“Yes.”
“…Heretics.”
Bella mounted the horned beast, moved her body backward, leaving space in front of the saddle, then extended her hand to me.
“Miss, please get on.”
I hesitated slightly, then grabbed her hand and mounted.
Actually quite poor at horseback riding, having no talent for it at all. In my previous life, I even fell off a horse once, almost got trampled to death, and had been traumatized since then, and the horned beasts of this world are more than a circle larger than the horses of my previous life… but it might be a bit embarrassing to show it directly.
Feeling slightly scared inside, I heard Bella say from behind: “Miss, hold on tight.”
The horned beast let out a neigh and galloped forward with iron hooves.
“Whoa—”
I stumbled, my small hands frantically not knowing where to grab, and ended up hugging Bella from behind.
There wasn’t any feeling of warmth or such, Bella’s leather armor was cold and hard, making my back hurt where it pressed against me, and the jolting sensation below followed the “clop clop, clop clop” of iron hooves, rising and falling making my bottom ache too. Seeing me in such a awkward state, Bella seemed somewhat surprised.
“Miss, you can’t ride?”
“I can… a little bit.”
“Oh.”
She wasn’t a talkative woman, responding once and saying nothing more, just silently freeing one hand to support my waist.
The night grew deeper.
The horned beast galloped past the battlefield.
The gentle wind brushed past our faces, bringing the smell of blood and death to our noses.
We passed by numerous hunters rushing to finish things up, and city guards who had become prisoners after being wounded — most of them were people who had fallen after being frozen by me at the beginning, I had deliberately lowered the temperature of the ice mist then, so they wouldn’t die… but these people ultimately made up less than 20% of the total.
The vast majority of soldiers, their heads were severed, arms and legs thrown who knows where, some were split in half, intestines wrapped around their necks… they had already spilled all their blood on this land, resting in peace forever… or perhaps unable to rest at all.
Among them, many probably didn’t know what they were going to do before setting out, perhaps they would tell their wives and children: I’ll be gone for a few days, I’ll be back soon.
Then never return.
The feelings were somewhat difficult to describe.
I wasn’t sympathizing with them, they were still enemies after all, pointing their swords at me not long ago, if I were just an ordinary girl, or like Peylo from three years ago, I might have died already.
I could emerge unscathed from the battlefield not because of their mercy, but because I was strong enough, this principle I certainly understood.
I just hate war, hate those so-called nobles who can make others die meaninglessly with just a few words.
Perhaps I haven’t adapted to the rules of this world yet. That kind of survival of the fittest is completely different from the bloodless battles in the business world of my previous life.
Death is laid out so nakedly before my eyes, impossible to pretend not to see.
The horned beast continued galloping forward, soon more and more hunters gathered around, not far ahead, Lafayette and his guards were surrounding a disheveled lame man walking forward.
“Let go, release me——”
“I am the Crown Prince of the Valen Empire! How dare you treat me like this!”
That man struggled and fell to the ground, probably hitting his wound, he cried out in pain, then lifted his head, under the messy black hair, hiding Edward’s handsome but somewhat dirty face.
Only to see Lafayette giving him a slight bow: “Good evening, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
The guards and hunters nearby, seeing this scene, laughed loudly without restraint.
“Hahaha——”
“Good evening indeed, hahaha——”
Some even imitated Lafayette’s gesture, bowing to Edward who was sprawled on the ground, saying the same words, making the laughter even louder.
Edward lowered his head, silent.
“What, nothing to say?”
“…What is there to say. Lafayette, you won this time. Next time——”
“You think, there will be a next time?”
Lafayette’s lips curled up, his eyes narrowed, shooting out cold light, making Edward’s face turn pale with fear.
“Lafayette, what are you planning to do…” his eyes widened, his voice slightly trembling, “You want to kill me… no, you wouldn’t dare kill me… the Church won’t let you do this, they won’t allow you to do such things…”
The horned beast let out a neigh, stopping at the edge of the crowd, Lafayette heard the sound and looked up at us.
“Is it finished?”
I nodded.
“Yes.”
“Perfect, I just finished here too.”