Published at 5th of August 2023 4:43 pm

Volume 12, Chapter 5 – War Maiden, Part 5

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

“…..Well, Your Highness Celia Estrella, you seem to be in a good mood.”

As Stryer said this, the red-haired Liz, who was blocking the “Demon Creation” of Five Demon Emperor Swords, glared at her with eyes tinged with anger.

“Even so, your sister, you say….. This is another different story.”

Stryer knew the reason. She witnessed the moment when Liz picked up Cerberus. For a girl who has lived a solitary life, the white wolf she had lived with was like family. That is why Stryer wanted to provoke her anger by taking her away from Liz but failed to kill her. She had not expected Liz, who had been fighting on the front lines in the center, to show up here.

“Aura-sama really does seem to have a great ability to anticipate things.”

She was supposed to crush the Grantz army with her overwhelming numbers but was surprised to find that they had conversely launched a siege-and-destroy tactic. But Stryer noticed that the right wing of the Grantz army―Weiss―was lagging behind the main camp as she was fighting Verona and intended to break the siege-and-destroy tactic.

“Sending Your Highness Celia Estrella in person; this is another bold move she has taken.”

The right-wing was that important, but by now, the center of Grantz must be fighting a hard battle because of Liz’s absence.

Absolutely… Aura’s wisdom was out of the ordinary, Stryer thought.

“In a world where there are holders of the World’s Five Greatest Treasured Swords, I am impressed that a girl with no power at all can attempt to compete with only her brains.”

“Aura is a genius. She is the War Maiden, the pride of the Grantz, so her talent is not inferior to that of the holder of the World’s Five Great Treasured Swords.

After pushing back the Demon Creation, Liz took her hand off the hilt of her beloved sword and looked at Stryer once again.

“…Demon Creation… So you’re in touch with the Faceless King, after all.”

“I wonder. It is true that our interests were aligned, but now we are not in contact. Neither they nor I have any use for each other now.”

Stryer drew the greatsword. Her eyes widened as she was lightly pushed away.

In the civil war in the Principality of Lichtine, Liz had been forced to fight a hard battle against the demon race Ghada, who had once possessed this Creation Demon. She was on the verge of defeat when she was rescued by Hiro.

She had been ‘watching’ for a long time. Stryer had been ‘watching’ Liz’s growth with her ‘eyes.’

“You have really grown, haven’t you?”

Not only did she gain strength. Her spirit had become really strong. Perhaps it was because she had experienced many hardships, but she did not break easily. Using the Demon Creator’s blessing, ‘Impact,’ Stryer observed Liz as she attacked and defended, but her opponent still seemed to have some leeway.

If that was the case, then – with Demon Creation in her right hand, she summoned one of the Five Destructive Holy Principle Swords on her left hand, the ‘Phantom Haze and Purification.’

When the beautiful tones of the bell echoed throughout the world, multiple objects with the same shape as Stryer descended to the ground. They were the shadows created by ‘Replication,’ the blessing of Phantom Haze and Purification. In their hands, they held the Demon Creation.

“Now, can you win against twenty people who possess the World’s Five Greatest Treasured Swords?”

Liz clicked her tongue and slammed her fist on the ground.

“No matter how many hundreds of them there are, I’ll deal with them.”

A crack appeared around the fist that slammed into the ground.

Stryer and the others endured the shaking ground while losing their balance. The surrounding area was filled with violent shaking and the sight of Vanir Three Kingdoms soldiers whose feet were caught in the cracks in the ground. Stryer’s cheeks twitched at this phenomenon, which could never have been caused by ordinary people. It was probably due to the “monstrous power” of the “Flame Emperor”, one of the Five Emperors of the Spirit Swords, but even so, there are limits to what can be done. The shaking was so violent that even Stryer couldn’t help but laugh. It was such an unbelievable sight.

But then――,

“I would never be frightened by something like that.”

Stryer and the others jumped at Liz at once.

With blades coming at her from all directions, Liz intercepted them while protecting Weiss behind her back.

Sparks flew when she flicked the sword, groans leaked when she hit them in the face, bones cracked when she kicked them in the chest, and when they dodged her blade, a furious thrust pierced through the air and pierced their necks, killing them one by one.

“Burn them to the ground.”

As Liz slammed her palm into the ground, the red sword’s blade pattern shook, and flames erupted from the cracks in the ground. The raging flames that engulfed only the enemy soldiers, without any damage to the allies, scorched the sky and dominated the ground. Stryer quietly watched her shadow burn and die in agony. Then she looked at Liz’s expression and then deepened her smile.

“I noticed something before. At the time, I was surprised by the power of this skill and did not understand, but after all, Your Highness Celia Estrella, it seems to me that this skill is very consuming.”

Seeing Liz sweating profusely was the same as the answer, and Stryer’s expression deepened more and more.

She saw Liz use the blazing net several times, but never when she was using it extensively. She could use it twice a day at best, but that would have drained her strength to the point of losing consciousness. Therefore, even if the Grantz forces were outnumbered, she never used the blazing nets on the front lines. She was restraining herself so as not to use it at the wrong time.

Perhaps she decided that it was unnecessary to use it, but looking at her current state, it was not too far off the mark.

“Flames that won’t go out are a nuisance, but flames that have lost their momentum don’t scare me.”

Stryer created other shadows. She created herself in large numbers, up to the limit, as if to make her presence known to the world. A number of them―thirty of them―started running toward Liz all at once.

Watching from a safe distance, Stryer’s face also showed signs of exhaustion―sweat pouring out of her face.

“The sun of the Grantz will set on this day.”

With her fiery spirit, Liz wielded her “Flame Emperor” and decapitated the shadows. But the shadows had no fear of death. It was a desperate soldier leaping at Liz. She grabbed their legs and trampled them down, grabbed their arms and beat them to death, and wrapped herself around their necks and splattered brain fluid from their heads.

But the rain of attacks did not stop. Liz was able to pass on the impact of the Creation Demon, but her strength was gradually being drained away, and her body was covered in countless wounds――,

No―she was unharmed.

Stryer looked around in shock and trembling.

“…..No way.”

There was one weapon in the Five Emperors of the Spirit Swords that had that unique ability.

It was said to have the mysterious ability to give fresh vitality to its possessor, cure even incurable diseases, and grant eternal youth. It was said that the weapon has abilities that those in power at the time could not obtain even if they wished to.

In fact, there was a record of a man who lived to be over eighty at a time when the average lifespan of the human race was as short as forty years.

That man was Altius, the first emperor of the Great Grantz Empire.

He continued to be involved in politics until he passed the throne to the second emperor. He built up a long-term government and established the foundation of the nation. Therefore, even when the imperial brother who opposed the exclusion of other races that occurred during the reign of the third emperor revolted, the Great Grantz Empire was not shaken.

In the present day, the person who possessed the Five Emperor of the Spirit Swords―the Wind Emperor―was Liz’s father, Emperor Greyheit. He maintained his youthful appearance and won many wars in person. It was said that this was all due to his Wind Emperor ability.

Now that it was under Liz, Stryer remembered.

“I had forgotten… that you had that ability.”

Even so, it should not be possible to regain lost strength. If she was unable to inflict a wound, there was no need to be anxious. There was no need to be upset and miss the chance to win but to thoroughly crush the enemy in front of you without doubting yourself.

At that moment―the wind blew.

A gentle breeze passed over the battlefield.

The smell of death disappeared, and the air was filled with freshness. The breeze was so pleasant that they unintentionally stopped fighting, and the wind washed away their clouded minds――,

――The great fire covered the world.

At first, there was no understanding of what was happening. But when she felt the strong ‘wind,’ Stryer realized what it all meant.

Stryer’s shadows, which had surrounded Liz, were engulfed in a muddy stream of flames. As if to remove the threat that loomed over her, a net of flames was built up all around her, consuming her enemies.

Stryer couldn’t help but laugh as she felt as if she had been plunged from heaven to hell. When everything was burned away like this, there was nothing left to do but to laugh.

She had run out of options. There was nothing she could do against it with the cards in her hand.

Until this point, she had discarded various things and aimed to overthrow the Grantz. Using her family, she had even killed them in order to push forward on the path of destruction, taking over several nations, doing everything in her power to make things happen, and thinking that she had run the world as she wished, but now she realized that it was nothing more than an illusion.

It was ironic that she was prevented from doing so by the very thing she had abandoned in the first place.

“…Your Majesty Greyheit, did you love your daughter that much?”

At the last minute, she was interrupted by the presence of her family.

There was also clumsy love; she thought as she gazed at Liz, who had the flame lions with her.

“If I had been loved by others as you were, could I have lived a different life?”

The wind protected the flame, and the flame strengthened the wind.

That fire was in limbo.

That flame was hell.

That blaze was purgatory.

Its crimson burns the world and sprouted new life.

A lion, driven by the wind, was raging, about to devour the world with its huge jaws.

From this day forth, the gods would fear the birth of a ferocious warrior god.

From this day forward, the gods will be awestruck by the birth of a beautiful goddess.

“A thousand branches――the raging fire is like a flower…”

As she reached for Liz, Stryer was instantly engulfed in a muddy stream of flame.

She did not resist. She didn’t even try to stir. She knew it would be futile to struggle.

“Fufu, not a bad way to end up in… karmic retribution.”

She wanted freedom.

She wanted to be free to go her own way without anyone getting in her way.

Not the first princess to be abandoned. Not the princess shrine maiden to be flattered. Not the revered Pope.

Not anyone.

She wanted to be born into this world as an ordinary person, as an ordinary individual, as ‘Nameless.’

She wanted the right to choose and to live freely as she wished.

So, in order to fill the void inside of her, she put a lid on it in the name of revenge.

Somehow, she came to believe that revenge was her purpose, and she began to live only to satisfy her own greed. Sometimes she was fed up with herself. She wanted to leave this boring world and considered taking her own life on several occasions.

However, she met a girl who was in the same situation as she was.

She was a red-haired princess who was born unwanted, and she had decided to watch her as her mirror.

Where Liz ended up, she wanted to find out where she’s aiming and which one was the correct answer.

“Oh… has the sun risen…?”

The sun rising in a bright red world―Stryer stretched out her hand and smiled contentedly.

Even if everything was burned up, the flames will not stop, and the fire will rule the ground as if it were its own.

The red-haired Princess Liz watched this gruesome scene with a solemn attitude.

She wiped the sweat from her forehead, turned around, and rushed to Weiss, who was injured.

“How are your injuries?”

“I’m fine. More importantly, you should get back to the center…”

Weiss said, and at that moment, a horn blew from the main Grantz camp.

The sound signaled the completion of the siege and extermination tactics, and from this point on, the slaughter by the Grantz began. It was a death sentence for the Vanir Three Kingdoms, but they were still unaware that they were surrounded. From this point on, they would realize it as they slowly dwindled in numbers. They realized that they had nowhere else to run and that the only way left was to die.

“Even if they could escape… they would be killed in the Grand Duchy of Drall.”

The Grand Duchy of Drall would not warmly welcome the Vanir Three Kingdoms who crossed their borders with an air of arrogance. It’s even worse if they were defeated soldiers, and if they entered the territory of Drall, they would not survive. They would probably be killed to prevent looting. They had it coming, and Liz had no intention of helping them. After all, she didn’t have time to worry about them.

“Then, hurry up and get to the Great Imperial Capital! Hiro is there, isn’t he? We have to help him!”

Liz nodded vigorously at Weiss’ words.

“Yes, that’s of course; I hear our Little Military Master-sama has a plan.”

Liz did not let her concern show on her face, but she did have one concern.

It was too far from here to the Great Imperial Capital. She wasn’t sure if she could make it in time.

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