Meanwhile, on the southern side of the battlefield, an entire block of factory buildings was devastated to the ground. Buildings were collapsed, destroyed to oblivion, all thanks to the great battle of two powerful individuals from each kingdom.
But, the only one standing was Cane.
"Well, that was really fun... But sadly, I know someone else who is better at both swords and lightning magic than you are... And she is far stronger than you."
Cane said as he inserted his sword back into his sheath. He is crouching on the ground after defeating Prym, who is right-handless on the ground with multiple burn wounds on his entire body.
"Sorry for going all out, there… I was sort of in a bad mood after missing the one year death anniversary of my friends. You'll regrow that arm later, right?"
Prym is still unconscious, not replying. Noticing this, Cane turned his gaze upwards.
Cane looked up to see a wave of rankers that was coming towards him. They looked pretty mad, indeed…
"O-Oh, that might be bad..."
"Cane!!"
A shout can be heard behind him, and Emily's invincible plane can be seen flying with everyone inside.
"Just in time!"
Cane leaped up really high, but Emily lifted the plane up just in time for Cane to miss.
He screamed as he fell, and crashed to the ground face first.
"Sorry, Fran told me to do that..."
"And I am very glad I did."
"F-Fran you jerk!!"
His face is a literal bloody mess…
Behind him, the rankers are getting closer.
Cane jumped again, and this time Brod was there to grab his hand.
Brod quickly grabbed Cane into the invisible plane just in time when the magic attacks were starting to aim at them. The explosion then occurs right on the spot where Cane's face kissed the ground and formed a crater.
But by the time the rankers charged another wave of attacks, the invincible plane was already flying away.
"What about captain?"
Cane asked while trying to stop the bleeding from his nose, and Rath shook his head.
"She had some... plans."
"And the princess?"
"-was too tired to continue running. Plus, she herself wanted to stay."
Hearing that, Fran quickly panicked.
"What!? That makes no sense, why would-"
Fran quickly realized something, and she chuckled.
"She wanted to be a hero as well…"
.
"Over here! We haven't checked this spot!"
"Right! Go, go, go!"
The sound of knights and their boots running outside was heard in every single building in Veldonia.
They are pretty much crawling everywhere before we are even here, but now they are truly everywhere. Much larger in size, too.
We can hear the knights outside screaming here and there looking for us, but we are pretty much hidden. After all, we already wore the black robes that I took out from my space ring.
We waited until they left the road before we walked out of the alley. Once they walked past us, we immediately walked out and quickly went inside an inn.
"A room for two, please."
I said to the inn lady after I approached her, and she chuckled friendly.
"Oh dear, even though it was rioting outside."
The inn lady gave us the key.
"Try not to mess the room up."
I don't get why she said that, but me and Lescia ignored her and left the room. We didn't exactly get to choose which inn to pick, so we just picked a random ugly looking one in the middle of the road.
And apparently, it wasn't all that ugly inside.
The quality is pretty much the same as my favourite inn back in the kingdom, only much larger and more furniture inside. A single bathroom is placed on the left side of the door, while a large queen bed is placed on the room. Two tables are placed on the left and right side of the bed, along with its chairs. At the end of the front corner is where the wardrobe is.
After entering, I looked around the room while ignoring everything else.
"Wow, this is better than I thought."
I mumbled as I sat on the bed. Lescia also noticed the room being good, but she didn't mind it as much as I did.
"What should we do now?"
She asked as she stood still in the center of the room while I shrugged my shoulders.
"We wait. We can't make a move with those knights running around."
I lowered my body and laid down on the bed, exactly in the middle. Lescia thought for a second and realized that my plan was right, so she sat on the bed as well.
"Say, Rize… do you think the villagers are okay?"
She asked with a really worried face, and I can tell she is genuinely worried for their well being.
"They must be. If not, they wouldn't be taking them, they would be killing them on the spot."
"… Right. Then, how should we save them?"
"I'm… thinking about it."
Things would be so much easier if I can just go on a rampage, but there are rules that I can't do. For example, if I went on a rampage, some of the civilians might get caught in the act and get hurt.
Just today, there are probably a few civilians that got killed from the explosions.
Casualties… even innocent ones, always exist in a war.
"The first target I would approach is someone high on the rankings within the knights corps. A general would suffice."
"But if you kidnap a general, wouldn't he be strong?"
"… Maybe, but that won't pose any problem to me. We just need to question him. And as long as we don't accidentally kill him, we can obtain the information."
"How are you so sure?"
"Well, I interrogated people before. I used… plenty of methods."
"I… I see."
Lescia nodded because she saw the truth behind my words and moved in more to the bed. She leaned her back to the wall while bending her legs.
"The people you questioned… were they bad people?"
"Definitely. They are the worst types of people."
Hearing that made her relaxed. She definitely doesn't want me to become a monster or something.
"… I'm not exactly a good person, Lescia."
"No, you are not. You were one, but you went through many things and changed."
Hearing that, I lifted my body a little bit and turned to her.
"I can read people, remember?"
"Right… I didn't expect you to read that much, though… Then, can you tell me what else you are reading?"
Lescia ponders. She definitely knew something, but she just didn't want to ask it. She mustered up the courage and asked.
"The way you talk, it's… it's like you are constantly in… stress… pain. It is kind of similar to mine, in a way."
"I guess that's true. But, you don't feel the pain anymore, right?"
Lescia suddenly opened her eyes wide from shock, and I simply grinned.
It won't take her the eyes of truth to know the truth.
"So it was… you…! You were the one who removed my curse!!"
She is… surprisingly mad?
"I thought for a while, why you didn't ask for me to heal you. Even though you knew I'm the Saint healer."
"… Because I doubt you can heal me."
"Whew. That's so demeaning."
"I'm serious! This curse isn't exactly a normal curse... It's not a sickness like my mother's, and it's not supposed to be something… healable…"
I lifted my body and placed my head on the pillow. I lifted one leg and used the other leg to support it in the air, and just swung it in the air while acting calm.
"Tell me everything."
"Do you really want to know…"
"Well, we do have plenty of time. And it's just like you said, it's quite a powerful curse. I want to know how it got there in the first place, and why it was there. Would you mind telling me?"
Hearing my very eager to know expression, Lescia let out a sigh and nodded.
"Fine. I guess we do have time after all…
But if I were to describe it as simply as possible, basically every royal family of a kingdom is bound to be targeted by their enemies. And I, as the only princess, is the easiest target the enemies can take advantage of."
I guess that's fair. She is the only daughter of the royalty. If Lescia dies, the entire kingdom could go chaotic.
Lescia let out another long breath and finally began to tell.
"It all started…
When I was merely seven."