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Side Story Chapter 249

Whenever Cain tried to use his mana hall, the mysterious poison stopped his mana circulation. It was some kind of mana-scattering poison.

‘Ordinary poison can be driven out by pushing it into one place. If I can’t expel it, cutting off the affected parts is an option, but I’m able to do neither with this poison.’

Cain smiled bitterly once he finished analyzing his condition. The one silver lining was that the dagger had missed his heart.

“Sh-She’s strong!”

“Everyone, be careful! She’s at least a Master.”

“Protect Sir Cain!”

The moment that Cain’s knights realized that Isaac was their enemy, all five hundred rushed in to attack her, but she hopped from tree to tree, neatly avoiding their encirclement.

‘Does she believe that buying time will put her at an advantage?’ Cain wondered.

He felt pathetic. The fact that the knights had to worry about him, rather than Kireua, who had stayed behind… In any case, Cain couldn’t just stand around after what he’d said—not that he was planning on that in the first place.

The knights flinched, blinded by the sudden radiance of Cain’s blindingly bright aura.

“S-Sir Cain?”

“Are you okay?”

Cain pushed his mana hall as hard as it would go, filling the area with his majestic aura in a few breaths.

“I’ll handle her.”

Cain vanished and almost instantly reappeared right in front of the branch Isaac had just landed on.

Cain frowned at her. “You fight dirtier than I expected.”

Isaac hastily raised her arms to protect herself from the gold-clad greatsword Cain was bringing down on her head.

“Huh…?” Despite the loud explosion that resulted, Cain was puzzled.

It was a collision between unyielding metal and delicate human flesh, but Cain’s hands were—to his complete surprise—numb.

‘What in the world…?’ Cain\'s eyes widened. Isaac had used the collision to distance herself and now stood on another branch.

Isaac’s sleeves were gone without a trace, but her arms gleamed red in the light.

“That’s…”

“These are gauntlets made from red dragon scales,” Isaac answered.

Knights usually used gauntlets to protect their hands, but it was difficult to find a knight above the level of an Expert who still used them. They simply weren’t effective against an enemy who knew how to use their mana. On top of that, gauntlets were heavy and would only slow down the knights when they swung their swords.

Nonetheless, any knight would wear gauntlets made from dragon scales. They were hundreds of times sturdier than iron, but light as a feather. To a blacksmith, they were divine treasures that they could only dream of handling.

“Ah, yes. The Battle God eradicated the dragons… I guess he had no reason to leave behind their byproducts after the trouble he went through,” Cain bitterly said.

The dragons’ lairs had all sorts of treasure and magic artifacts in them. In fact, it was said that the horde of an adult dragon could buy an entire country.

Bel had killed dozens of dragons at minimum. The chances of Bel hiding the treasures he had acquired in Hubalt’s palace was high. Cain thought that it was such a shame they hadn’t taken any with them.

However, that was just the beginning of the surprises.

“Huh?” Cain tilted his head in confusion.

The dragon scales spread down Isaac’s arms, eventually covering her entire body. Before long, every part of her except for her eyes was red, and a tail hung from her waist.

“You look…” Cain trailed off.

“It would be rude of me to fight the Combat Emperor without putting my cards on the table.”

“Wait, is that a magic artifact?”

“Avalon isn’t the only country with craftspeople,” Isaac replied with a shrug.

Cain’s face darkened once again. Knowing that the Magic Tower was the Emperor of Avalon’s ally, other countries couldn’t count on being able to use the Magic Tower’s artifacts and potions if they came into conflict with Avalon. That was why they had been training wizards and craftspeople of their own in preparation for such contingencies. Without that, Isaac wouldn’t be in possession of such an artifact.

“Consider it an honor. Only a very small number of people in my country have seen me in this state.” Isaac clenched and unclenched her fists several times.

“You killed the rest.”

Isaac landed nimbly on the ground. “They call me the Red Empress. If you aren’t in your best condition… the chances of your victory are zero, Combat Emperor.”

“We’ll just have to see about that,” Cain casually answered as he landed opposite of Isaac.

Isaac was quite composed; she seemed certain of her victory.

“She finally landed! Everyone, surround her!”

“Yes, sir!”

The knights immediately tried to trap Isaac again.

“Don’t get in my way!” Isaac shouted.

“Arghhhhh!”

“What?”

Isaac spun around, catapulting all of the knights away. Their armor crumpled like dry leaves. The blood dripping out of their mouths was further evidence of the ineffectiveness of their armor.

A moment later, the tree behind Isaac split in half and collapsed.

“…You can actually use your tail? I thought it was just for the intimidation factor.” Cain shook his head.

Isaac was indeed the daughter of the Martial Emperor. He had used his entire body as a weapon, so her tail couldn’t be taken lightly—especially since it was made from dragon scales.

“You must be thinking that you’ll be able to detoxify the poison eventually, but it’ll eat away at you for your entire life unless you do it now.”

“What?”

“The poison is made from dragon blood.”

Cain\'s eyes widened. Dragon blood was so acidic that ordinary people would melt into a puddle if they so much as touched it.

“I… feel like I’m fighting a dragon, not a human.”

“Impatience is something you must avoid. It leads you to make mistakes in battle,” Isaac said, revealing why she kindly explained the poison.

“…I really have to ask now. The Battle God isn’t someone who would give away such treasures to other people after all the trouble he went through as he wandered the continent,” Cain said as he steadied his mind and body. “How are you related to the Battle God?”

“He’s…” Isaac hesitated for a moment but answered, “…my fiance.”

The revelation hit Cain like a punch in the gut. The puzzle pieces scattered in his mind came together. The reason why Bel could leave Hubalt to Kurz despite his greed was that Bel trusted Isaac.

‘The Battle God… inherited everything from the Martial Emperor, and it didn’t take long for him to surpass the Martial Emperor,’ Cain thought.

Zactor, the Martial Emperor, would have recognized Bel’s gifts first; he must have wanted to form a blood tie with Bel.

“Since when were you his fiancee?” Cain asked.

“My fiance has always been him, even before I was born.”

“…Now that’s another thing I didn’t see coming.” Cain frowned.

If Isaac was the practical ruler of Hubalt, the entire mission to assassinate Kurz was meaningless.

‘…No.’ Cain shook his head. ‘It wasn’t entirely meaningless. Hubalt’s nobles are shaken up, and I saw signs of them turning against each other. Besides, the other countries will be more supportive of Avalon when they learn that the emperor of Hubalt is dead.’

Still, it wasn’t good. Cain could feel his condition quickly worsening, just like Isaac had said.

‘...This poison really is nasty.’

However, he couldn’t let his people know how bad it was, so he infused more mana into his sword. He was going to show Isaac how scary a cornered beast was.

Isaac raised an eyebrow. “I’d advise you to not push yourself.”

“Your mercy will only become a noose around your neck.”

“You’re the one who’s going to die if you keep this up.”

“You aren’t going to let me do that anyway, so you can stop whatever you’re trying to do,” Cain answered.

Isaac’s eyes shone wickedly. “Hahaha. Was it too obvious?”

“…You sly wretch.”

Isaac, seeing no need to continue the conversation, leaped for Cain with a mighty boom.

“Stop her!”

“Protect Sir Cain! We need to buy him time!”

Cain could faintly hear the knights shouting at the top of their lungs, but Isaac’s assault was as persistent as it was quiet.

Just then, Cain lost track of her presence completely.

‘—This is bad!’ He tensed.

The knights around him were looking around, unaware of what was going on.

In contrast to them, Cain could feel it viscerally.

‘…She’s coming from above!’

Cain quickly looked up. There was Isaac, who plummeted toward the ground like a veritable bolt of red lightning.

“Die!” Cain immediately swung his sword. However, at this critical moment, the dragon blood poison scattered his mana again. The poison had pushed him into a crisis.

‘I’m going to die at this rate!’

Alarms were ringing Cain’s head, when suddenly, a telepathic message graced his mind.

-Leave the rest to me.

Cain’s eyes widened.