My Slain Dragon Bride

Chapter 246. The Knight’s Prayer

A knight was riding his horse in the dead of night.

The man knew how dangerous it was to ride down a road without a single light in sight, but he shook the reins and urged the horse onward.

There were children in the knight’s arms.

There were four of them riding on the horse with him, perched precariously on the saddle.

The knight protected them as much as he could, shielding their bodies with his own.

He could afford to give up neither speed nor safety.

Prrr! Prrr!

The horse’s snorting grew harsher.

It was telling him that it had reached its limit.

William stopped the horse.

"We’ll have to walk from here."

William helped the children down one by one.

When he placed a girl who had been held in his arms on the ground, her body swayed violently.

"Are you all right?"

"...."

The girl did not answer.

A relatively larger boy answered in her place.

"She says she’s just a little dizzy. She’s okay."

"Should I carry her?"

"I’ll do it."

The boy bravely turned his back toward the girl, and she carefully climbed onto it.

One adult and four children, traveling on foot.

It was far from an easy journey.

William apologized to the horse.

"I’m sorry. Go somewhere far away for a little while."

William slapped the horse’s rump, and the startled horse immediately began running wildly.

That should delay their pursuers a little longer.

William decided to move through the bushes.

"All of you, just follow my footprints. Understand?"

"Yes."

William created a torch and took the lead.

Since not even the light of the moon and stars reached this place, it was incredibly dark.

Just like his future.

What am I supposed to do now?

William knew exactly what he had done.

It was on an entirely different level from what he had done when he became a refugee.

Back then, he had only been a cadet, so there were excuses he could make.

But now, he was a knight.

A knight who had defied his lord’s wishes and was fleeing.

He had smuggled away prisoners who were scheduled to be executed the following morning.

He had committed the gravest crime imaginable, to the point that dying without being tortured on the spot would almost be considered a merciful death.

He would have to spend the rest of his life running.

William asked himself:

Was this a mistake I made?

And he answered himself.

Even if it were a mistake, I would have done it.

If there were ten thousand possibilities laid before him, he would have chosen the exact same option all ten thousand times.

The children were victims.

He could not simply leave them to suffer so terribly and then die.

That went against William’s beliefs.

So what am I supposed to do now?

The reality that he had no idea what lay ahead still stood before him.

There is one way I can get money immediately.

The ceremonial sword he had received from Duke Yurei as his final keepsake.

If he sold the jewels and gold embellishments attached to it, he could probably settle down in some quiet rural village.

Wouldn’t that be enough?

At that moment, the boy stopped walking.

Following him, all the other children stopped at once.

"What’s wrong?"

William raised the torch and examined his face.

The boy was sweating cold sweat, frightened by something.

"They’re, they’re coming."

The pursuit team?

William had expected them to arrive quickly, but not this quickly.

It should have taken them at least another three hours.

There is a Dragon Spawn beside the Regent....

He knew that she was extremely powerful.

If he fought her, his chances of winning were zero percent.

There was no doubt that he would be subdued without even being able to properly resist her.

"It’s, it’s the Demon Race."

He almost wished it had been the Dragon Spawn instead.

The boy’s eyes turned bright red as he surveyed their surroundings.

"They’re surrounding us as if they knew we would come here."

"...."

William could not even ask whether he was certain.

He, too, was beginning to feel it.

The aura of death that suited this dark forest.

Will we be able to make it out alive?

William thought about it again and again, and eventually reached his conclusion.

"What’s your name?"

William asked the boy’s name.

"I’m Ruderic."

"Ruderic, listen carefully to what I’m about to say. Take your siblings and hide over there in the bushes."

After making sure they were well hidden, William gave them another warning.

"Do not come out until I tell you to."

William extinguished the torch and drew his sword.

Alone in the middle of a forest where not even a trace of moonlight properly reached, he stood against them.

Red death gradually drew closer, surrounding William.

Kihihihihit....

Hahahahat....

Laughter echoed through the forest, sending chills down his spine.

William’s body kept turning as he focused on the voices coming from the darkness.

And then.

His sixth sense.

William possessed the highly trained instincts of a knight.

Those instincts went beyond conscious understanding, making his body move before his mind could react.

Clang!

An attack struck precisely along the trajectory where William had raised his sword diagonally.

For an instant, sparks flew, but in that brief flash he could see its form.

Black skin suited to this dark night, pointed teeth.

And red eyes.

It was such an unmistakable form of the Demon Race that it could have been printed in a textbook.

Had he failed to block the sword strike, his head would have been cleaved in two.

William immediately launched a counterattack.

Yet despite his swift retaliation, the demon casually evaded it as if it were a child’s game and increased the distance between them.

During that brief exchange, the red figures completely surrounded William.

"You actually blocked that?"

"After receiving His grace, you couldn’t even finish off a human in one blow? Aren’t you ashamed?"

"Shut up!"

The demons chuckled and chatted among themselves.

There were about six of them.

Just as William was assessing their numbers, a sharp pain suddenly shot through his thigh.

He felt the warmth of blood.

As if to prove that blocking the previous attack had been nothing but luck.

"See? That earlier one was purely luck."

The demons circled William, surrounding him and mocking him.

It was as though they were surrounding a beast trapped in a cage, each holding a spear.

They could stab him whenever they wished and withdraw at once, while William could do nothing but be toyed with at their hands.

The wounds on William’s body continued to increase.

Yet he blocked every attack that could have killed him, allowing him to remain alive to the very end.

"Persistent bastard."

The demons were gradually becoming bored.

At the same time, they attacked together, intending to cut off his breath.

"Stop."

A heavy voice halted the demons.

William also stopped instinctively upon hearing that voice.

There were few beings capable of making his body stop reflexively with nothing but their voice.

And so William denied it inwardly.

There is no way that person could be among these demons.

"I’ll handle this."

And then he stood before William.

William could not believe his eyes.

"....My lord."

Perry Yurei.

The man who had once been called Duke Yurei stood at the head of the group.

His middle-aged face had regained its youth, and his skin had turned pitch-black, but William clearly remembered the features of Yurei.

There was no doubt.

It was Yurei.

"Duke Yurei.... Is that really you?"

"Yes. Perry Yurei. That was my name."

"Why.... did you become a demon?"

"Sigmund showed me."

The emotion contained within his eyes was—

"Just how meaningless this life is."

Emptiness.

Yurei’s face was completely hollow.

"And you accepted it?"

"At first, I resisted. It was a foolish time when I believed that life had even the slightest meaning."

A sigh escaped his lips.

"I should have let go of everything and become a demon much sooner."

"......"

Yurei could never have said something like that.

He had marched into the Heinkel Kingdom, ready to throw away his life for the sake of the future.

A man like that could never spout nonsense about life having no meaning.

And yet, at the same time, this was undeniably Yurei.

William asked:

"So.... did you come to punish me?"

"I have no intention of punishing you. What happened in the past is meaningless."

"Then...."

"Those things you hid. I merely intend to retrieve the items Linne created."

Yurei’s finger pointed precisely at the bushes where the children were hiding.

"Those children will be used for His sake."

"So you already know where they are."

"Yes."

"And yet you still wanted to speak with me? If you have no intention of punishing me, why are you having this conversation with me?"

"To give you a chance."

Yurei threw something at William’s feet.

It was a syringe.

"You smuggled away death-row prisoners, William. Once you lose those children, there will be nothing you can do. You will become even more relentlessly hunted."

"..."

"What reason would you have to continue living while suffering like that? I will give you a chance to cleanse your sins. Inject it into your body. Then become one of us."

William looked down at the syringe.

Whatever was inside it must have been a drug that would turn him into a demon.

William picked up the syringe.

"This isn’t cleansing my sins."

The fighting spirit in his eyes had not faded.

"Sin isn’t something that can be forgotten this easily!"

William hurled the object to the ground.

"How foolish."

But he heard no sound of the syringe breaking.

Instead, a sharp sensation pierced William’s neck.

"Urgh!"

The syringe he thought he had thrown away was now embedded in his neck.

One of the demons had dashed forward at lightning speed and plunged the object into William.

"You never had a choice to begin with."

Hot liquid flowed through William’s body.

The moment it reached his heart, it spread throughout his entire body in an instant.

"Ugh.... Uggghhhhh!!"

"Just accept it, William. Become one of us."

Black liquid rose from within his body, attempting to consume him.

William knew.

The moment I lose consciousness here, everything is over.

He would be driven into that distant abyss, unable to resist it, just as gravity could not be resisted.

He resisted.

And resisted again.

"Wow, he’s putting up quite a fight."

"Other humans would be finished in ten seconds."

Even after five minutes, William had not become a demon.

Instead, the black blood that had been creeping upward began to be pushed back by William’s will.

That did not mean he had the advantage.

The pain remained, and the moment he let his guard down, he would be consumed.

"How foolish, William."

Yurei asked him:

"Do you really believe you have hope?"

William answered as though it were obvious.

"If a knight abandons hope...... then what reason is there for a knight to exist?"

Humans were weak.

Without something to lean on, they were easily swept away and broken.

That support was what a knight was meant to be.

"Then let me teach you."

But that support, too, was ultimately nothing more than human.

Humans were humans in the end, and they could never transcend humanity.

"Just how futile that hope truly is."

Yurei raised his sword and pointed it at him.

"Ten times."

His sword was one of the finest masterpieces ever crafted by a master swordsmith.

"Block all ten attacks that will kill you. If you manage to block them all, I will quietly withdraw from this place."

"..."

"But if you fail to block even one, death is all that awaits you. What will you do?"

The answer came easily.

William rose to his feet and raised his sword.

If someone had witnessed the scene, they would have said this:

That is a mistake.

It was as reckless and foolish as running headfirst toward a storm approaching from the distance.

Even William secretly thought the same.

He realized it when he received the first attack.

Kaaang!

Overwhelming strength and Aura.

He was not a Sword Master, but he was a renowned swordsman, a knight among knights who had won countless duels against opponents without discrimination, even in one-on-one battles.

And now he was facing William with swordsmanship that had surpassed even the prime of that knight’s life.

Blocking it was nothing short of a miracle.

The next exchange immediately followed.

Kaaang!

The second.

William had no time to think.

As his thoughts became paralyzed, he grew impatient.

And as impatience grew, a gigantic wave of fear crashed over him.

Kaaang!

Kaaang!

The third.

His muscles tore.

Kaaang!

The fourth.

Even so, William’s body remained firm.

Kaaang!

The fifth.

The demonic blood that had been sinking into him began to seep into William’s heart.

Kaaang!

The sixth.

Even so, William did not lose himself.

Kaaang!

The seventh.

The resounding blows of the sword relentlessly hammered against William’s sword, his body, and his soul.

Kaaang!

The eighth.

William’s Aura scattered.

Crash!

The ninth.

His sword broke.

The blade flew far into the distance, leaving only the hilt in William’s hand.

Seeing this, the demons mocked him.

"How are you going to survive now, Sir William?"

"Try drawing out your Aura. If you do that, you might actually have a chance."

"They say humans can unleash superhuman strength when they’re desperate. Surely you can do it too, can’t you?"

Yurei asked William sternly and briefly:

"What will you do?"

A body battered beyond recognition.

A breath barely escaping his lungs.

It was the perfect condition for the black blood to consume him.

Even so, William did not break.

William simply discarded the broken sword.

Then he placed his hand on another scabbard.

He still had one sword left.

It was a sword far too ornate to be used in actual combat.

The moment the demons saw the shape of its blade, they burst into laughter again.

"Puhahaha! What are you planning to do with a toy sword like that?!"

"Does he think it’s powerful just because it’s flashy? What an utterly ridiculous bastard!"

"Shut up!"

Yurei’s roar silenced the demons.

Although he had lost himself, Yurei knew exactly what that sword was.

"So you still had that sword."

"....Yes."

"It will break."

"......"

William did not answer.

Yurei took his stance and prepared to deliver the final blow.

William held his sword upright and closed his eyes.

At the moment when death approached him, he was praying.

***

There was once a man.

He had been a man who could have become a promising knight, but instead of becoming one, he became the leader of the refugees.

The man later became the captain of the Public Security Force, and because his achievements were highly valued, he became a knight of the Far East.

But once again, the man betrayed his lord.

The consequences of that betrayal came immediately.

A faint breath.

A fading soul.

A flash of red light rushing toward him.

The man sensed his death.

At that final moment of his life, the man moved instinctively.

Some would beg for mercy, desperate to cling to life.

Some would lose their fighting spirit, forget what they were supposed to protect, and turn around to flee.

But what the man chose was prayer.

"God...."

This man named William is a heinous sinner.

In the name of his convictions, he betrayed two lords and scorned the laws of chivalry.

Please cast this wretched body into the deepest depths of Hell, and grant me a punishment heavier than death, so that I may serve as an example.

"But...."

For in the end, it must be humans who save humanity.

Grant this lowly soul permission to burn until the very end, and give me the strength to stand before evil until my final moment.

Have mercy upon the innocent souls, and save the souls who have lost their way.

With the end of his prayer, the man’s time began to move once more.

KAAANG!

The tenth.

The sword did not break.

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