kscans

Chapter 68 - The Last Forest and the Little Person

"There it is!"

As the morning sun began to rise palely from behind them, a small shadow finally came into view in front of the Frontier knights, who were advancing with a thunderous roar. The group squirming on the horizon was undoubtedly fleeing northwest.

Spotting them, Romel leaned out of the carriage and shouted to the bees that had been following them.

"Is Pochiko-san here?"

In response to his shout, a single bee began to hover near the carriage. On the back of the bee, which appeared to be Pochiko-san, was a frog called Mugita. The peaceful sight, so out of place on a battlefield, made Romel's lips twitch into an involuntary smile. He tightened his expression and whispered sternly to the two.

"Can you tell which carriage Chihiro is in? If you can, I want you to guard her before we attack."

Pochiko-san stared at Romel for a moment, then, as if to say ‘understood,’ circled lightly and flew straight as an arrow toward the group ahead. Watching her go, Romel sent messengers to each of the knightly orders. Their top priority was to secure Kobito-san, and they were to cut down anyone who stood in their way without mercy.

"Crush them so completely that they never even think of laying a hand on Frontier again!"

The knights roared in response. Every one of them had their eyes wide with ferocity, their hearts filled with rage at the poisonous insect that had infested the very core of the royal family.

However, they were still about half a day from the Castrato border.

There was a possibility that the enemy's army was also heading their way. They wanted to retrieve Kobito-san before it arrived.

The Frontier knights impatiently closed the distance. Then, there was movement in the group they were pursuing ahead. The carriages that had been running at the rear, accompanied by knights, split into three directions. The forces were not biased toward any one group, but were divided perfectly into three. The Frontier side was momentarily confused by the enemy's neat dispersal, but the monsters were one step ahead. Every one of the scattering carriages ground to a halt, as if dragged by their horses. With a loud clatter, the carriages' wheels seemed to have come off, and they were only dragged a short distance.

And the group that had split off to the left, the bees charged toward them.

That's it!

Human eyes could be deceived, but the magical power that the monsters sensed could not be hidden. Kobito-san was in the group on the left. They must have realized that escape was no longer possible. The Marquis's knights turned back and charged at the approaching Frontier knights.

Here, the final battle in Arcadia's recorded history began.

"What happened?"

Struggling with the violently shaking carriage, the Marquis supported the chair to shield Chihiro, who was in Cyril's arms. Before the people inside could even think, the carriage came to a stop, and the surrounding knights threw open the doors in a panic.

"The axle has broken, the carriage is unusable! Take the Golden King and escape on horseback!"

Though flustered by the unexpected words, the Marquis got out of the carriage to assess the situation. The carriage's wheels were completely off. Looking at the axle, which seemed to have snapped and flown off, he saw countless deep scratches, which appeared to be the cause of the break.

There should not have been any negligence in maintenance. So why?

The Marquis heard a sharp, whistling sound. At the same time, a scream went up.

What the Marquis saw when he turned was a swarm of bees around Cyril and a little girl lying on the ground. His sons, trying to pick up the girl, were unable to even touch her and were running around in confusion.

He could see a shimmering membrane around Chihiro.

What is that? What happened?

The Marquis was at a loss for words at the scene before him.

When they had abducted Kobito-san and fled the residence, many of the guard bees had hidden themselves, clinging to the undersides of the carriages. The hidden bees, sensing that Romel and his forces had caught up and that Pochiko-san had arrived, used their knife-like stingers and wind magic to mercilessly slash the axles. Then, the strain and vibration of the accelerating carriages caused the axles to snap on their own, bringing all the carriages to a halt. Then they attacked Cyril as she got out of the carriage, separating her from Kobito-san, and Mugita immediately put up a shield.

If she had been held, the shield would have protected Cyril as well, but once she was separated and the shield was up, there was no longer an opening.

With Mugita's guard and Pochiko-san and the bees' escort.

Oblivious to the panicking Marquis and his men, Pochiko-san lifted Kobito-san into the air, carried Mugita on her back, and soared into the sky with a buin.

"Wait! Wait, return the King to me!"

The Marquis shouted, casting aside all shame and decency.

How true the saying, as bold as a thief.

The incomprehensible men, who were demanding the return of the child they themselves had kidnapped, pursued Pochiko-san on horseback, but there was no way they could catch up to a bee flying through the sky. The detached units, noticing the Marquis and his men chasing the bees with a great clamor, hurriedly turned back and rejoined them. In the direction the bee was flying away, the official Frontier army was approaching, raising a cloud of dust.

The Marquis was in tremendous agony at the sight of an army that far outnumbered his own few hundred knights. If he failed here, there was no future. He would be heading straight for ruin. He would have failed to carry out the imperial command received by his great-grandfather, and the bloody path his entire clan had staked their lives to open would all be for naught in his generation. If the princess returned to the Frontier side, they might not pursue them, but there was also the possibility that they would face a fierce pursuit and die a dog's death. His home country would not forgive their failure, and even if they managed to escape to Castrato, only a dishonorable condemnation would await them.

The Marquis's sons watched him, deep in agonizing thought, with looks of regret. The knights and attendants gathered around him also looked at their lord with pained eyes.

To have come this far......

As if embodying despair itself, the Marquis's family was given a sharp glance by the captain of the Marquis's knights, who raised his sword high.

"It is over! If it is hell whether we go forward or back, then let us strike a blow against them and die a glorious death!"

He must have sensed the Marquis's heart.

The middle-aged captain looked down at his lord with a formidable smile.

"Forgive my impertinence from horseback, but we have no obligation to Castrato. It is to Your Excellency Ansbackh that we owe a great debt. We will not forget the equal treatment we received in Frontier, where you protected us and treated us without discrimination. We will buy you time, so please, escape."

The Marquis's eyes widened.

The man before him was a criminal who had come from his home country several decades ago. Eighty percent of the spies sent to Frontier were criminals exiled from Castrato. Those with status or knowledge, nobles who were difficult to punish as criminals, were sent to Frontier as a chance to turn their lives around.

Some saw it as an opportunity to make a fortune, while others were exiled and became desperate.

A common thread among them was the despair of being cast aside as pawns. Their pride as nobles had been shattered, yet they had worked to clear their names for the families they had left behind in their home country.

The Marquis's house managed a wealthy domain by controlling the reins of this motley crew. Thanks to the blessings of the Western Forest, they were given a more prosperous life than they had in their home country, were able to send money to their families, and the criminals held a heartfelt gratitude to Marquis Ansbackh. They, who had been neglected by their home country, swore allegiance to the Ansbackh family, who had saved them and given them a decent, human life.

The Marquis, unaware of this, shook his head violently and looked at his sons.

"No, now that our true identities have been revealed, there is nowhere for our family to go. You are the ones who must escape. If you take off your armor and blend in with the common people, you can get away. Do you understand? You will not die a dog's death!"

That included his sons.

Sensing the unspoken words in their father's gaze, Kishaliu and Aubashia were distraught.

"What are you saying! You tell us to abandon our father and live on alone?!"

"Please, allow us to accompany you on your final journey. Let us thank the gods for the honor of witnessing the end of the Ansbackh house."

Not with false bravado, nor as a bluff, but with a terribly soft and natural demeanor, the two sons offered a faint smile.

"As expected of our lord's sons. We will surely open the path for that journey. If our lord has decided, then it is a knight's honor to follow. We will await you in heaven!"

No sooner had he spoken than the Marquis's knights charged out to disrupt the Frontier knights. Not a single rider was missing from their number.

Even the non-combatant stewards, who had learned the skills of spies, formed a protective circle around the Marquis's family, radiating killing intent.

Despite being given permission to flee, no one deserted the battlefield.

At the unbelievable sight, the Marquis's vision blurred with tears.

What is in the heart will show on the outside.

No matter how cold and harsh he may have seemed, the Marquis's feelings had been conveyed to his family and subordinates. Even in the heartless Ansbackh family, there was an overflowing love hidden within. Precisely because it was a twisted family line, there was a bond at its root that outsiders could not understand.

The Marquis's knights, prepared to be annihilated in a fierce assault. The stewards, prepared to die as martyrs to the last man. His sons, wishing to be with him until that very last moment.

"We will not let you bear the disgrace alone, Father."

"That's right. We are in this together, are we not?"

As Marquis Ansbackh retreated, protected by his retainers, a rising cloud of dust came into the view of him and his men as they headed for Castrato on horseback.

The Marquis and his party stared in astonishment at the countless troops visible in the distance.

Advancing as if to fill the horizon was the official Castrato army.

Having learned of Marquis Ansbackh's flight and the Frontier army's invasion from a fast horse sent by a spy, Castrato had immediately dispatched its army to assist.

Their number was a staggering fifteen thousand.

Castrato, well aware that Frontier was a magical nation, had deployed all its soldiers except those tasked with national defense.

There were no oversights in the formation of the reinforcements, and the greatest battle of the century was about to make bloody flowers bloom on the empty wilderness.