Chapter 79 : Chapter 79
Chapter 79. Logaris: What on earth is this guy talking about?!
Kane and Ulzok exchanged a silent glance before returning to their respective legions.
At the same time, each of them summoned more than a dozen centurions from among their most trusted subordinates.
These were all men who had followed them through life and death, officers they could trust absolutely.
Inside the command tent, the atmosphere was grave to the extreme.
Everyone else had been dismissed.
Only these core officers remained.
There was no trace of Ulzok’s earlier fury left on his rugged face.
What remained was only a mountain-like heaviness.
He swept his gaze across the men before him and issued an order in a tone so serious that it left every one of them baffled.
“Pass down my command.”
“In three days, deliver it verbally to only the most reliable squad leaders.”
He paused for a moment, then emphasized his next words.
“In the coming battle, no matter how the fighting develops, and no matter what orders are given…”
“Keep your troops under control.”
“Absolutely—absolutely—stay away from every single person wearing black robes.”
“Maintain a distance of at least three hundred paces.”
“No one is allowed to approach them.”
The centurions looked at each other in confusion, their faces full of question marks.
Stay away from those muttering bishops and priests?
Why?
Were they not here to bless their army?
One particularly bold centurion could not help asking, “General, why?”
Ulzok’s gaze turned razor-sharp.
“There is no why.”
“That is an order!”
He took a deep breath and spoke word by word.
“This is for the safety of every one of you!”
……
Elsewhere, some time earlier, in the Dragon Mountain Range, the wind and snow still howled without end.
As Kane’s tall figure finally disappeared completely into the far end of the canyon, the oppressive atmosphere that had made breathing difficult at last dissipated.
Lilith let out an exaggerated sigh of relief.
She crossed her arms in front of her chest and rubbed them nonstop.
“Oh my God, he’s finally gone!”
Her whole face scrunched into a miserable knot as she complained, “That scared me to death!”
“The way that old wolf was looking at me was genuinely terrifying!”
“This cursed place is no place for human beings.”
“It is freezing, and it is terrifying.”
“Let’s hurry back.”
“I want to soak in a hot bath.”
In sharp contrast to her complaints stood Alectos beside her.
The Demi-Human prince was completely immersed in overwhelming excitement and hope.
All his earlier unease and anxiety had been swept away.
He suddenly turned around to face Logaris, who was calmly straightening his robes at an unhurried pace.
Those golden eyes of his were brighter than ever before.
“Mr. Logaris!”
His voice trembled slightly from emotion.
“Thank you so much!”
“Really, thank you!”
“If it were not for you, I probably would have died somewhere in a corner of the Dragon Mountain Range long ago.”
“And I never would have had the chance to reconnect with Uncle Ulzok and Uncle Kane!”
The young prince was overcome with emotion and became a little incoherent in his excitement.
He took a deep breath of the icy air, as though trying to calm himself, and then made a solemn promise to Logaris in an incomparably earnest tone.
“Professor Logaris, if…”
“I mean, if one day I can return to the royal capital, clear away all the false charges against me, and ascend once more to the throne that belongs to me—”
“I swear it!”
“I will erect a pure gold statue of you in the central square of the Imperial Capital!”
“I will make sure every citizen of the Demi-Human Empire remembers your kindness forever!”
His words rang out with force, filled with the dignity and sincerity of a royal prince.
However, Logaris merely gave a calm “Mm.”
He pulled a clean white velvet cloth from his coat and slowly removed the rimless glasses from the bridge of his nose, the lenses blurred by wind and snow.
Lowering his head, he focused on wiping them.
“There is no need.”
He did not even look up as he replied.
“A pure gold statue has an extremely poor cost-effectiveness ratio, and it would also take up an excessive amount of valuable public urban resources.”
“With that money, you would be better off building more Enlightenment Schools across the Demi-Human Empire, promoting basic education, and raising the overall level of public knowledge.”
“That is the true foundation of national strength.”
“……”
Alectos was instantly choked speechless by that response.
All the words of gratitude he had prepared became lodged in his throat.
He had no idea how to continue.
The corner of Alectos’s mouth twitched slightly, but in the end, he revealed a knowing smile.
As expected of Mr. Logaris.
His way of thinking truly was different from ordinary people.
Alectos quickly adjusted his state of mind.
Then he changed the subject, speaking in an even more sincere tone, one that even carried a trace of teasing.
“Then… all right.”
“The schools will definitely be built.”
“But at the very least, after I reclaim my throne, I hope that as the ruler of the Demi-Human Empire, I will be able to offer my most heartfelt blessings at the wedding of you and Princess Sylvia.”
Crack!
A crisp, unnatural sound suddenly rang out in the silent canyon.
Lilith, who had been rubbing her hands together while gleefully watching the show from the side, suddenly widened her eyes.
Logaris’s hand, which had been wiping his lenses, froze abruptly.
The frame of his glasses had actually been crushed—
snapped clean in his hand.
“Pfft—”
The moment Lilith saw this, she could not hold it in any longer.
She was just about to burst out laughing, but forcibly swallowed it back down, her beautiful face turning bright red from the effort.
Her shoulders shook up and down, making her look absurdly comical.
For the first time, a visible crack finally appeared on Logaris’s eternally expressionless iceberg face.
He suddenly lifted his head.
Those pale blue eyes locked tightly onto Alectos, and his tone carried an unprecedented panic, even tinged with a hint of embarrassed anger.
“Y-You brat, what kind of nonsense are you talking about?!”
“A w-wedding?!”
This genius Archmage, who could calmly converse and laugh even in front of enemy commanders, now had a voice that had practically gone off-key.
Alectos was completely dumbfounded by his violent reaction.
He blinked innocently with those clear green eyes of his and asked in confusion, “Huh?”
“Did I say something wrong?”
“But… isn’t the relationship between you and Princess Sylvia obvious to everyone?”
His naturally pure gaze, utterly free of ulterior motives, was like a mirror.
It rendered the ten thousand words of rebuttal Logaris had prepared utterly pale and powerless.
Seeing that Logaris still wanted to stubbornly deny it, Alectos simply raised a finger and pointed righteously at Logaris’s waist.
“Besides, Princess Sylvia even gave you the Fang of the Winter Wolf!”
“I may not be from the Northern Territory, but even I have heard of it.”
“That is the heirloom passed down through generations of the Winterhold family in Winter City.”
“It is the symbol of military authority over the entire Northern Territory!”
“It is something only the head of the family and their closest heir are allowed to possess!”
“For Her Highness to entrust something so private, so important, to your care…”
“Doesn’t that already express the utmost possible level of trust and intimacy?”
“What difference is there between that and entrusting her entire life and fortune to you?”
“……”
Logaris turned completely to stone.
His mouth hung slightly open.
His mind had gone blank.
He still held the broken half of his glasses frame in his hand as he stood there, frozen in place.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA—!”
Lilith, off to the side, finally could not suppress it anymore.
Clutching her stomach, she dropped straight into a squat in the snow, laughing so hard that her whole body trembled.
Tears nearly shot out of her eyes as she let out the loudest and most unrestrained mockery she had displayed since being “captured” by Logaris.
“I can’t do this anymore… I’m dying… hahahaha…”
Amid the wind and snow, only the genius Archmage’s embarrassed, reddened cheeks and the female assassin’s utterly undignified laughter echoed through the Dragon Mountain Range for a long, long time.