Blood splattered over Simon’s body as the knight’s severed head fell on his lap.
He felt a chill crawl down his spine as images of the behemoth slaughtering his brothers in arms replayed in his mind.
“Boy, grab that blade, quick!” he heard someone command him.
He looked up and saw a bearded knight’s face looking out from inside the carriage.
“Grab that blade and protect yourself, you idiot!” he repeated.
Hands shaking, he took the fallen knight’s sword, just in time as another knight appeared from behind their carriage.
Simon raised to his knees, still half out of his wits, and rammed the sword at the incoming knight.
---
“What’s happening now?” Juno asked his ward Rode.
“I can’t see clearly, your highness,” the butler replied. “I saw Prince Simon fall off his wagon earlier, while a bearded knight killed two of the other knights... now, your brother Simon and that bearded knight are fighting the ones coming from behind,” he reported. “I can’t see the rest of the fight, since their carriage is blocking the way...”
“Eli, Trix,” Juno called to the two knights attending him outside his carriage, “go look at the situation,” he ordered. “Go see if the ‘hero’ is as heroic as he claims to be.
---
“Parry down low!” yelled the bearded knight.
Simon was just in time to block a knight’s blade that was meant to knock him off his feet.
“Now up!”
Simon raised his blade up to stop a sword rushing down on his right shoulder.
“Left! Now right!”
Simon parried left and right.
He couldn’t believe he was actually fighting with knights from the kingdom!
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Back when he was still in training, his brothers would laugh at him as he dragged his bastard sword around.
They would push him and trip him and kick him on the ground for being such a weakling that could hardly raise his weapon of choice.
“Now, forward!”
Simon thrust his blade forward.
He felt a slight resistance as his sword went through metal and stabbed into flesh.
‘So, this is what it feels to tear through flesh,’ he thought deep inside, his mind slightly fogged, as his body followed the bearded knight’s every command.
The knight in front of him fell on his knees, gasping.
Simon let his blade drop as the body before him fell on the ground.
“Good,” he heard the bearded knight say. “Now rest.”
---
“Simon!”
Simon heard another voice.
He turned his body around, his eyes wide open, his face pale as death.
“Are you alright, little brother!?”
It was his brother, Prince Juno who went close to him and knelt by his side.
“What happened here? Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?”
Simon stared as his brother.
Scenes of blood and carnage from the Dark Forest was again, passing in front of his eyes, but here, now, is his beloved eldest brother, ready to save him.
“B-brother Juno!”
Simon suddenly burst out crying.
“Brother... these men... they just suddenly attacked me!”
“But aren’t these our loyal knights?” Juno asked in feigned disbelief.
“Your highness, they seem to be different men,” said one of Juno’s personal knights.
“Is that so, Eli?” Juno’s forehead creased. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, your highness,” replied the other. “Perhaps they are impostors dressed up as knights of the Twin Kingdoms to betray us!”
“Trix, Eli, check the rest of the knights!” Juno ordered the two. “Make sure there are no other traitors left alive!”
“At once, your highness!” replied the two.
Juno looked with disgust at the young man trembling in his arms.
‘I can’t believe this bastard actually killed three of my best men!’ he thought to himself. ‘I have been secretly training those knights for years! It should have been impossible for this worm to even defeat one of them! So how...’
Juno bolted upright as he felt a cold stare full of malice from behind him.
He quickly turned his head and looked around, but there was nobody there but Trix and Eli.
It seems the bearded knight he saw earlier has left the scene. Perhaps he decided to leave after Simon went berserk.
That’s right, berserk was the best way to describe it.
How else could a flimsy worm be able to win against five of his men?
He did instruct his secret knights to turn coats as soon as they confirmed that Simon really does have some kind of power, and it seems that this power he holds is of supernatural origin indeed.
He could still remember the look on his brother’s face as he sat on the ground earlier, surrounded by the dead bodies of three of his knights.
It was as if he wore a death mask.
A face without fear of death or killing.
A face devoid of any life.
Even the body he is currently embracing is as cold as ice.
‘It seems that I can’t just simply get rid of this bastard now,’ he thought to himself. ‘I guess Largos was right. Perhaps a god really is watching over him...’ he considered. ‘And I wouldn’t be surprised if that god is the god of death himself.’
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Go to Part 41
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