Vyvyan checked her surroundings. Elf corpses were scattered all over the ground around her. She frowned. Her keen smell helped her notice the scent of poison in the air. The inhabitants of this village were killed with poison, and the poison was designed to specifically work on elves. It was poison from humanity, but it didn’t seem like it was prepared to poison these elves in order to steal their gold since they were all armed. It looks like they were preparing to attack someone or something, but ended up getting killed first. That means that this group were intending to harm my son, but wounded up getting poisoned before they could.
It must’ve been the handiwork of one of the girls with my son. I can’t deny the fact that those two girls have saved my son. But after taking a deep breath, Vyvyan was somewhat angry because it begs the question, if this didn’t happen this time, who was the poison intended to be used on?
But Vyvyan didn’t want to bother with that right now. Even if she had to pursue the matter, it would have to wait until afterwards. What Vyvyan needed to do right of this moment was find her son. She took in a deep breath. Like a hunting-dog, she located the direction her son went in by tracing her desire for her son and his breath. My son is currently moving at high-speed in the field.
It looks like he’s chasing something, or maybe running from something.
One of the members of the shadow squad panted as he ran up to my horse, wiped the blood on his face and reported: “Your highness, we have tried our best. We stopped two horse-carriages, but one of them managed to get away.”
We can only say they did their best. The shadow squad is a small squad, but they nearly killed all of the mercenaries in the forest. However, those merchants were highly experienced. They didn’t turn around regardless of how chaotic things got behind them. They just loaded the girls onto the horse-carriage as fast as they could. After killing the mercenaries, the shadow squad did their best to chase the two horse carriages and kill everyone aboard.
I dismounted, jumped onto the horse carriage and opened the door on the side. Using a fire torch, I checked the faces of all those on board.
Luna was neither on the first or second horse-carriage.
There were only three horse-carriages in total, so Luna must be on the horse-carriage that got away.
I clenched my teeth. The shadow squad can’t possibly catch up to the fleeing horse-carriage on foot while all we had to go and unnecessarily slit the horses’ legs. My horse is the only horse capable left. I don’t have any fighting abilities. I can catch up to it, but what can I do?
No, the question isn’t what I can do, but what I should do.
I turned around to face their captain and held my hand out. He looked at me blankly, not understanding what I was after. I said: “Give me your sword, hurry.”
“Ah! Right away!”
He handed me the long-sword in his hand. I attached it to my belt and mounted my horse. I then said: “You guys rest here. Then go back to another village and send a letter to the capital addressed to her highness! I’m going to go and stop that horse-carriage. Oh, right, the horses in the stable have all had their legs slit. So if you want to ride the horses, take it slow.”
I didn’t give them time to respond. I kicked my horse hard and the horse stood up on two legs. I desperately whipped the horse but it wouldn’t stop neighing and resisting. I don’t want to be so violent either, but if I don’t get rough with you, then they’re going to get rough with my Luna.
I will not hand Luna over to anyone, nor will I abandon her. Yes, Luna is just my personal servant, and the things she went through meant that she was fated to never be with me, but I like her. I really like that gentle, kind and strong-willed girl. I don’t mind her past. I want to give her happiness. I want to give that girl a well-deserved future and happiness. I didn’t know her in the past, but she’s now my maid. I can’t let her go through hardship again. She’s so beautiful. The sea of flowers should be her reward. Her future should not be locked up in a broken-piece-of-trash horse-carriage!
The fields had been harvested so the space was vacant. The dark clouds in the sky finally moved away, allowing the moonlight to shine through onto the ground. I could see the reflection of the horse-carriage’s ceiling moving in the distance. It looks like they’re going as fast as they can as well. But because the horse-carriage is heavy, I can definitely catch up to them.
I touched the long-sword at my belt. You’re right. I don’t know swordsmanship. This thing is useless to me, but I’m still going to go. I must save Luna. I must. If I must die, it’ll be on the way I save Luna. I cannot accept having another person I cherish die before my eyes. I’ve already made up my mind resolutely and tried so hard. If I still end up letting the girl who loves me close her eyes in despair in front of me, then what would be the point of continuing to try my best? I won’t allow it to happen again. I won’t let anyone else I cherish die! I’m going to save them, not for glory, but just for my efforts and my dream!
I continued closing the gap between us. The rocking atop the horse meant that I had no way of sitting down. A merchant standing on the carriage poked his head out and stiffened up when he saw me. He then quickly picked up his bow. I saw the metal tip of an arrow flash in the air and zip past me.
But I couldn’t get the horse to evade left and right at the moment, because I would get flung off into the distance if I forced it to turn at this point in time.
*Stab!!*
I got hit in the chest with an arrow. The strong force of the shot almost shot me off my horse. I grabbed onto the reins tightly and desperately stabilised myself. The Earth Dragon armour was the perfect defence. I just felt something deal me a heavy blow. The arrow didn’t pierce my flesh.
But it still hurt like hell.
The shooter was shocked to see me still fine. He quickly hid himself. We were now very close. I took out the “shock potion” from my belt, kicked my horse’s abdomen one last time to speed up and pulled up to the side of the horse carriage.
If I blew up a tyre on the horse-carriage it would become lop-sided, but with all the dirt in the field, it should serve as sufficient cushioning for the impact.
“Go to hell!!!”
Just as I was about to toss it, I looked up and got a fright. That merchant raised up a grenade that was like a mini-bomb while wearing a hideous grin. He pulled off the safety-pin and laughed aloud as he threw the grenade at me. I quickly sped up. I had no choice but to leap off my horse at high speed because there was no other path.
But I don’t want to!
Once I leave my horse and let it slow down, Luna will vanish before my eyes. My horse has already sped up twice to reach this speed. If I slow down, I’ll be forced to watch Luna leave. I’m not going to take that. I’d rather die. If it explodes at such a close range, the horse-carriage will suffer too.
“Go to hell!!”
The grenade flew toward my head. I whipped my hand and threw the potion towards the horse-carriage’s wheel……
You want to go?! Bring it! Let’s gamble. I won’t let you take Luna away even if it costs me my life! If I survive, I’m going to slaughter the lot of you!
I’m not taking a single step back for Luna’s sake!
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