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Side Story Chapter 37

“D-Do what?” Kireua stammered.

“Hahahah! Look at you. What were you thinking?”

“Huh…?” Kireua tilted his head in confusion.

“Do you want me to kill them?”

“A-ha.” Kireua awkwardly scratched the back of his head. He had spent his entire life swinging a sword, so he was a fool in this kind of area.

“Huh? Were you looking forward to it?” Anna asked mischievously.

“Looking forward to it, my ass!”

“You might be fine boyfriend material…” Anna narrowed her eyes.

“Shut it! Remember our age gap.”

“I told you before, age and affiliation don’t matter in love. Love supersedes all limits.” Anna raised her fingers in amusement.

“I told you to cut that out, you shameless old lady.”

“Awww, you’re shy. Hahahahaha!” Anna burst into laughter, forgetting the fact that they were taking cover.

Since she’d surrounded them with walls of wind, no one heard her laughter.

“I’m joking, just joking. Anyhow, you know that reinforcements will come instantly if we don’t take those two out at the same time.

Kireua nodded. The rebel soldiers were patrolling the area in groups, maintaining a certain distance from one another, but that wasn’t the only problem.

“Can you feel those buried magic traps and alarm spells? There are hundreds of them—at least—around us,” Anna observed with a small, troubled frown.

“Those trash…”

“They set magic traps all over the mountain. Wow, they must have burned a whole bunch of money!” Anna exclaimed.

Kireua’s face crumpled. He had seen similar things in the south, so he didn’t need to look into how the rebels had gotten the necessary money. They must have wrung the people of the west dry using the civil war as an excuse, just like what had happened to the people in the south.

“I need to get information out of them first.” Kireua nodded.

“Do you need help?”

“I’m fine on my own,” he said with certainty.

Although he wasn’t talented with spears, he had swords and a variety of other areas that he was gifted in. His stealth skills were especially good; even she had praised it.

After the Imperial Family’s surname had become “Sanders”, the entirety of Avalon had been thrown into chaos for a while. That was understandable; although there was no innate requirement to becoming an emperor, the Britten family had been the Imperial Family for hundreds of years, so it was inevitable that the people would be unsettled. However, the state of affairs in Avalon had stabilized quickly with the help of the Heaven’s Mind and the five friends of the new Emperor of Avalon who had always stayed by his side.

One of the five friends had taught Kireua stealth skills. Since she wasn’t a human, perhaps she was living somewhere, still looking just as she had when Kireua had her as a boy.

“…Teacher Aisha.”

“Huh? What? I’m right over here, but you said another woman’s name?” Anna asked dramatically.

“I’ll get going.”

Ignoring Anna, Kireua disappeared into darkness in a way as remarkable as it was subtle. Even Anna, who was right beside Kireua, neither felt nor heard a single thing.

Her jaw dropped. “His stealth skills are…?”

Meanwhile, Kireua was on the move. After sliding down from the tree, he slid into the shadows again. Using the technique of Aisha Sestropi, the current Darkness Emperor, Kireua moved from shadow to shadow.

“…Ugh!”

A series of loud smacks followed by two groans so close together they sounded like one noise came from the rebel guards. Everything happened in a flash. Kireua subdued the much larger men, then cracked his knuckles.

“Now, next is…” Kiruea mumbled.

He darted forward, creeping close to the ground.

“Urgh!”

“Wha—!”

There were at least ten guards in a thirty-meter radius, each at a certain distance from one another. However, the torches that the guards were holding disappeared. And then there was only pitch-black darkness and the creaking of bugs.

Anna slowly climbed down the tree.

“That was incredible,” Anna exclaimed, genuinely amazed.

“This is basic,” Kireua shrugged as he walked back to her.

“Hmph. I guess arrogance is hereditary.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your father was just like you.”

Kireua stared at her, speechless, for a moment, and then turned his attention to the two baldies that were discussing unmentionably filthy things. Kireua had made up his mind right at the beginning that he was going to get information from them.

His hand danced across acupressure points, waking them up. It didn’t take long for one of the men to start squirming and blinking.

“Hey, was your name Jack?” Kireua asked. Jack flinched. “I’m right here now, so what do you think? You said that you wanted to rape me or something. Do you really think so right now?” Kireua tilted his head.

“Urgh! Arghhh!”

Jack’s mind reeled. He hadn’t been gagged, but he couldn’t speak. That was, of course, Kireua’s work. Mana was very versatile.

Kireua’s menacing smile deepened. “I’ll let you talk, but don’t even think about raising your voice. Well, no one would be able to hear you anyway.”

Right on time, the air around them buzzed. Jack was bewildered when he noticed the opaque barrier that Anna had erected around them.

Kireua untied the thread of mana around Jack’s mouth.

“Argh!” Jack panted.

“My name is Kireua Sanders.”

“The Se-Second Prince…?”

Kireua coated his body in mana and dropped onto one knee without hesitation, instantly crushing the top of Jack’s foot.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!”

“I warned you to not scream,” Kireua coldly admonished. He ruthlessly drove his knee into Jack’s upper shin, drawing a long, grisly crack. Even Anna grimaced.

“Urgh… Ahhhh….” Jack tried really hard to not scream despite the overwhelming pain and all-consuming fear filling up in his mind.

“I’ll ask you three questions. Think hard before you answer, ” Kireua instructed.

“Ye-Yes, Your Highness!”

“My first question is, how many soldiers and knights are in the headquarters?”

“A-As far as I know, fifty thousand.”

Kireua and Anna met each other’s eyes and nodded. The number of western rebels near the border had been estimated to be a hundred thousand, and Kireua had assumed that about twenty thousand soldiers and knights in the headquarters.. Jack’s numbers were within the expected range.

“I’m going to your headquarters now, so here is my second question: isn’t there a certain route you have to use? If you go off track, the traps will activate right away,” Kireua assumed.

“Umm… Yes, that’s right.”

“Go on,” Kireua prompted.

Jack hesitated, despite having to bite back a scream. If he really told Kireua, he would be treated as a traitor and the rebels would have his head.

But once again, Kireua didn’t hesitate.

“Ahhhhhhhh….!” Jack rolled around on the ground after the top of his remaining foot was crushed.

He realized that the Second Prince was really serious about killing him.

“I forgot to mention this, but patience isn’t my strongest suit,” Kireua coldly informed the soldier.

“Yo-You can look at the trees!”

“The trees?”

“If you look at the trees closely, there’s a string tied around c-certain trees. You can follow… the string.”

“Can you swear that on your mana?”

“O-of course.” Jack nodded eagerly.

Jack was telling the truth, so Kireua stopped threatening him and stood up.

“This is my last question: where is the original owner of this castle now?”

Jack panicked.

“…I see,” Kireua bitterly said. He didn’t need to ask Jack any more questions because Jack’s face said everything. Kireua stepped in front of the other unconscious man and moved his hand again.

“Urgh!” Conrad woke up before long.

“Do you want to live?”

“Yes, please d-don’t kill me,” Conrad quickly answered. He was born good at reading the air in the room, so he instantly understood what was going on.

“It looks like you know me.” Kireua tilted his head.

“A-Are you really His Highness Kireua?”

“How did you know?” Kireua asked.

“Well, you’re just like the rumor…”

“Okay, so I’m here now. What do you think? Do you really want to have a good time with me?” Kireua’s eyes became cold.

Conrad turned pale, realizing that his worst nightmare had come true.

“You two were having a pretty interesting conversation earlier.” Kireua raised an eyebrow.

“W-We were joking! Please forgive us, Your Highness! When men are together, they talk about that kind of stuff!” Conrad pleaded.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to feel scared; I asked because I’m intrigued.”

Jack and Conrad didn’t understand what they had just heard. Was the Second Prince voluntarily saying that he was into men?

However, Kireua went way beyond the two’s expectations once again.

“Do what you talked about. I’ll allow it.” Kireua gestured at them.

“Are you s-serious?”

“Of course; I want to see it, so try it, you two,” Kireua said.

“Hup!”

Jack and Conrad’s faces paled as they finally realized what Kireua meant.

“Yo-Your Highness, m-mercy, please—!”

Kireua pointed at them. “Both of you, take off your pants. Now.”

“W-Wait!”

“Didn’t you say you want to live?”

The rebels shivered.

“If you don’t want to, then die right now.” Kireua slowly drew his sword.

Jack panicked since he already knew that Kireua never hesitated. If Kireua Sanders said that he was going to do it, he would absolutely do it. Jack immediately dropped his pants. Although his legs were in horrific pain, that didn’t matter to him right now.

“Wh-What are you doing, Jack?!” Conrad shouted.

“Take it off, Conrad. Do you really want to die?”

“You crazy bastard! You’re seriously going to do that with me? Are you out of your mind?” Conrad couldn’t believe his ears.

“It’s better than getting butchered.”

Conrad’s eyes swam because he could see from the look on Jack’s face that there was no way out of this.

“Enjoy it if you can’t run away from it,” Jack said

“Errrr…”

“Do you want to start or shall I?”

Conrad cringed.

“I’ll do it.” Jack nodded.

Conrad couldn’t bring himself to answer the question, so Jack began to approach him, his hairy legs bare to see.

An arc was drawn in the air and two heads thumped onto the ground, one after the other.

Kireua flicked the blood off of his sword with a disgusted expression. “I can’t take it anymore. It’s too sick.”