“Regulus, don’t interfere… we have orders to follow. For now, you aren’t considered an enemy of the empire, but if you do any more, that will change.”
“I was considered an enemy of the empire from the day I was born, so it is fine either way. I am fine with letting you guys go and then follow your merry way later, but you guys had the bad luck for me being around this time. I won’t interfere in this war unless I am forced to. So, retreat. Unless you want to end up with arrows in your legs.
“Pretty confident… Aren’t you?!”
Remi charged at me. And he probably used some sort of skill to cross the distance between us in a single moment. Still, when he swung his spear, he found nothing in front of him. In the next moment, he got hit on his leg with an arrow that pierced through his flesh and armor as well. When he looked behind him, he only saw Ulric in that place, but he didn’t use a bow.
In the next moment, I appeared in front of him when he fell on his knees and began to sweat cold thanks to the pain.
“You are my brothers, even though we never got along. So, I will repay your first attack with this. The second attack will make you lose your limbs, and I can’t guarantee what the third attack will do, so think well. As for your friend knights, they won’t have the same mercy. Retreat now.”
“... We will be retreating now.”
“Are you messing with me? We aren’t going to retreat! We can defeat this asshole.”
“I guess knights’ honor is truly a myth. Ganging up on a single enemy, hunting down unarmed civilians. Rayner must be proud.”
“Why you!”
Ulric didn’t hesitate in hitting Remi with the handle of his sword and then knocking down and then grabbing him before he could fall. The other knights decided to follow him as well, but they still kept their hands on their weapons. It looked like they weren’t expecting much resistance and since I was an unknown factor, they didn’t want to take any risks for now. Or perhaps they didn’t want to kill me because of my family name.
“... It is a pity, Regulus. Father is still searching for you.”
“You can tell him to stop. He has done a poor job so far trying to look after me. Doing things half-assed is never a good way to do things.”
Ulric stopped and looked at me with a serious expression for a moment, but then turned around and said nothing while the others were keeping their guard up. He believed in my words, but the others didn’t. Come to think of it, he had no reason to believe me since eight years had passed and a person can change a lot in eight years. Moreover, a kid can be molded by their surroundings pretty easily.
‘Now that I put a target on my back, I need to use my head more… let’s try harder to avoid those guys.’
This operation was a lot larger than I had imagined. If they were going as far as sending those two, they were pretty certain that they would succeed in whatever their goal was. Most likely, it was the total destruction of the Skarnash Tribelands.
I wondered if this was considered a genocide… Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people based on their ethnicity, nationality, race, or religion. It involves acts such as killing, causing serious harm, creating conditions to destroy the group, preventing births, or forcibly transferring children. Genocide aims to eradicate the targeted group, either in part or entirely, and is recognized as one of the most severe crimes against humanity. That was a fact back on Earth.
It was a war for revenge for the previous war. If they don’t go all-out, that would only cause other wars. Was that justified? I couldn’t say, nor did I have the time to think about it. Now I had time to remain here… moreover, since my best option would be to leave and then head to the Aeloria kingdom, those two will probably inform Rayner of my presence here and try to get me here or there.
I decided to use camouflage and then disappear and then wait for the night to move again…
… …
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When Remi woke up, it was already night. At first, he got a bit confused when he saw the ceiling of a room, but then he felt a sharp pain in his leg and then on the back of his head. Then he recalled everything and then tried to get up. He raised his upper body, but his wounded leg refused to move as he wanted.
“Don’t move yet. We healed you, but the internal damage will take some time to disappear completely.”
“You asshole! You attacked me from behind!”
“I just knocked you down because you were too noisy and hasty. You saw what happened before. Well, you didn’t see it, but you should have an idea. We couldn’t take down Regulus.”
“I could! I would never lose against a coward like him! We are a family of knights, and he used a bow…”
“If you believe that, then why did you say before that we should have attacked him together?”
Remi grunted in annoyance. His younger brother was usually pretty meek, but he becomes quite annoying when he starts using his head logically.
“I already informed the commander of what had happened. We won’t be punished for it.”
“You told him? Even though Father would want to capture him alive?”
“It is clear that Father worries more about the reputation of the family and what will happen to the rest of us if the family is targeted or criticized.”
Remi was surprised… from his perspective, their father gave Regulus a lot more leeway than he should have. He never showed or said what he was thinking, so it was hard to say for certain, but that was the reality from Remi’s perspective. Still, it made sense… a single life couldn’t be more important than the history of the family and their future as well. Remi didn’t like how things ended, but he decided to move on from it.
“What will happen now?”
“We secured the third town on our path, but some of the other groups are still working on the same. At this point in time, all the clans should be aware of the invasion and will be getting ready for an all out confrontation. We just have to prepare ourselves for when that will happen. Still, the commander said that he will give us the order to move if Regulus is spotted again.”
“Then I should get ready for it. Next time, I will get him.”
Remi went to look for his belongings and then soon found a potion in which he drank. Before long, he was back on his feet like nothing had happened. Ulric sighed when he saw that… they didn’t have many of those, and his brother would have recovered normally in just a couple of days.
“What do you think he was doing here?”
Ulric couldn’t help but ask that… he never understood Regulus, but his actions seemed even more confusing now. The people from the Skarnash Tribelands clearly didn’t receive people from other places well, much less a half-vampire. At the same, he wasn’t trying to hide who he was anymore. Nothing made sense.
“Who cares about that?”
“It is because you act and think like this that he was able to get you so easily.”
“I just dropped my guard a bit… it won’t happen again.”
“Remember what he said. If we try to face him again, we will lose a limb. Well, you will. I might end up with an arrow on my leg, too.”
“You worry too much. As usual.”
“And you don’t think at all, as usual. Didn’t you see the skills that he used?”
Remi stopped to think for a moment… a skill that made him disappear and then reappear behind Ulric, and then attack Remi instead. It was probably Shadow Step… three classes were necessary to get the Ninja class and then get that skill. Considering the distance he crossed, the skill should have been used. Who knows how many times?
He was also able to summon arrows and then enchant them with fire, and cause damage equal to a magic cannonball, and with the shock effect, and it was enough to paralyze the knights for several seconds.
“His main class should be Arcane Archer… right?”
“Indeed… that kind of class can only be obtained after clearing labyrinths with at least forty floors. He should have plenty of experience with fighting if he was able to get such a class. Few people would team up with him as well, so he most likely obtained it solo.”
Clearing that many floors in a labyrinth alone was no small feat. It wasn’t just a matter of skill and strength, a lot of things were involved to make that possible. Regulus should be more than a little resourceful to be able to pull that off.
“And that bow, did you look at it? It was nothing like I had ever seen before. It had a lot of power and it was enchanted, too. He should have a decent amount of strength and trained a lot to be able to aim that well.”
“So, he is being provided with items? Who would do that? He didn’t even want to help the targets until some of them were killed.”
“He probably did it on a whim for whatever reason… my guess is that he is heading north and we will block his path.”
Remi nodded and then considered what they should do. The commander probably sent some trackers to look for Regulus, but if he managed to remain hidden for five years, he wouldn’t be that easily found. They came prepared for a large-scale war, not to look for hidden enemies. The orcs, goblins and ogres weren’t that kind of target.
“We should question some of the enemies instead of killing them all… if we tell the commander the reason for it, he should be able to understand that. Since he wasn’t trying to hide his appearance, I have the feeling that Regulus tried to contact the people from this land.”
“I doubt that they will say anything to the people who are destroying their homes. You are as naïve as ever. Still, as long as that gives me the chance to fight him again, I won’t mind.”
“We know nothing about his mother and that must be the reason why father decided to protect him… you shouldn’t do anything too reckless.”
“I will just stab his legs and arms, too.”
Ulric sighed while Remi smiled. This campaign took a very unexpected turn…