EP.97 The End? (Modified)
The road back to the Prona Kingdom.
Leslie’s mind was full of things about Shedia.
‘That kid is more capable than I thought.’
To be honest, her first impression of Shedia wasn’t very good. Although she had a cute face, she looked stupid because of her characteristic blank expression.
However, that thought was reversed on the first day of the trip, when she witnessed Shedia popping out of the shadows.
She don’t know what principle it was, but she was able to move freely in and out of the shadow.
It’s a very useful ability even for Leslie, who has high eyes, to see. That must be the reason why Katarina and even Cloud seem to trust her.
‘It was probably not in vain to say that she could kill me.’
When Leslie is careless, it pops out of the shadows and pokes it out, and it’s over. It must be very easy for Shedia.
Naturally, Leslie did not neglect this risk factor.
“There…”
Shedia turned her head and slowly approached Leslie. As she got closer to the street, she hesitated, but Leslie spoke to her first.
“Do you want to see magic today?”
Leslie looked carefully at Shedia to eliminate the potential danger of assassination. Thanks to this, she knew that Shedia likes something strange or beautiful. Leslie immediately approached Shedia and showed off her magic, and the effect was outstanding.
Shedia was wary at first, but soon fell in love with the sparkling snow crystals and the wonderful ice sculptures.
Leslie smiled as Shedia nodded her head in anticipation.
“Like. I’ll show you. Instead, please call me sister from now on.”
“Yes..?”
“Why are you so upset? It’s not a difficult request, is it?”
“That’s but…”
Shedia glanced forward and hesitated to answer. Leslie reassured her because she knew she was looking at Katarina.
“If you’re worried that Katarina will get angry, that’s fine. It’s just a matter of making friends with her co-workers. She won’t be able to say anything to Katarina as she is what Cloud wants.”
“Is that so?”
“of course. Only I believe.”
Shedia was persuaded by her confident voice. She looked in front of her once and then closed her eyes tight.
“Oh, my sister!”
“It’s not your sister, it’s Sister Leslie.”
“Sister Leslie!”
“Well done. Shedia is a good kid. I should give a gift to a good girl.”
A chill rushed over Leslie’s palm and began to take shape. In less than a minute, a statue of a war horse made of ice was created. The statue was delicate enough to express even a hair cut.
“Swimming…”
Shedia, who was handed the statue, smiled haphazardly. Leslie spoke to her more and she replied with her smiling face, Shedia too. And Katarina looked at them with a fat face.
“Betrayer.”
“It’s even called betrayal. It’s just being friends with colleagues. Why don’t you talk to Leslie a little too?”
The fat eyes shifted to Cloud.
“Why? Do you want me to get to know her and let her marry you? If that’s the case, wake up. I have no intention of sharing you with anyone.”
Katarina leaned her back against Cloud’s body and said firmly.
Cloud smiled bitterly.
“I don’t know if you will be able to make friends with other kids with this.”
“The colleagues you talked about last time waiting in the capital? If that’s the case, don’t worry. It’s not that I’m not sociable, I’m confident I’ll get along well. She’s just a stray cat, so I just hates it.”
“I’m glad if that’s the case, but…”
“More than that, what are these three people doing?”
“Did I never tell you?”
Katarina nodded her head.
“I said my colleagues were waiting, but I never told you about them.”
“Yes? I guess you forgot. Can you tell me right now?”
“Yes. You should know this in advance. So it’s easy to make friends, isn’t it?”
“Yeah then…”
Cloud rubbed Katarina’s breast with his left hand. As she looked into his eyes what he was doing, Cloud said with his brazen expression on his face.
“Why do you want to touch mine?”
“…in any case, you really like breasts.”
As Katarina shook her head, Cloud grinned and started talking about his former comrades.
“Eri is an outstanding wizard who reached 4 stars despite her young age. She’ll have a little tik tok with her baby, but if you get it right, it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Four stars? What is it?”
“Oh, you might not know. In Magic Tower, wizards are judged based on various criteria, such as spell comprehension and mana depth. The result determined in that way is the grade. Ratings range from 1 to 9, the higher the better.”
“I didn’t know that magicians had ranks like dancers. So, how many 9-star wizards are there in the world?”
There are three first-class dancers in the Kingdom of Alitia.
So, how many 9-star wizards are similar to first-class dancers? Since the continent is wider than the kingdom, wouldn’t it be more than three?
Katarina asked with such a simple thought.
However, the answer that return was a little different from what she thought.
“No? Rumor has it that the Lord of the Empire has 7 stars. Unless the Archmage is hiding somewhere on the continent, there will be no 8-star or higher wizard.”
Katarina’s eyes widened slightly.
“Is it that hard to become a 9-star wizard? Rather than becoming a first-class dancer?”
“I mean, if you did that to another wizard, would they try to turn you to ashes?”
…It’s hard to become a first-class dancer.
Katarina’s expression darkened a little.
“Uh… um, that’s right. So, Eri is a great person, right? Magic Tower Mastee is a 7 star, but she is already a 4 star.”
“I said An excellent wizard.”
“If there is such an outstanding wizard, isn’t it necessary?”
She pointed her thumb behind her back.
“Is Leslie on the same level? And their magic is different.”
“Twitter.”
“…Neria is a knight. Because she uses a shield and a one-handed sword, she specializes in defense rather than attack. She’s a strong guy, so in case of emergency, go hides behind her back.”
Cloud continued, pretending not to hear Katarina licked her tongue.
“Finally, Ophelia. She is a saint chosen by the goddess. Her main job is to heal her wounds and bestow her blessings.”
“I see.”
Katarina murmured to herself, trying to memorize the things he had told her about the three people.
“Magician Eri. Knight Neria. Saint Ophelia… Huh? How come they all have feminine names?”
“It’s a woman.”
“…?”
At Cloud’s words, Katarina’s body hardened.
That was when she wondered.
Her stiff body began to tremble.
“Oh, isn’t it…?”
She was crying
“Yes, no. Even you wouldn’t have done that. Is not it?”
In a voice full of sorrow.
“Say no. please. yes?”
I shook my head wildly.
Cloud couldn’t figure out why she was suddenly doing this. She was so she was silent for a moment, but how she accepted the silence, Katarina’s expression turned into despair.
“Why, why don’t you say anything? Maybe… Really? Is that so!?”
She wet the corners of her eyes and grabbed Cloud’s collar.
“You, you, you, you… Have you ever lost an enemy with me in a previous life? Why are you doing this to me? Why are you like that..!”
She grabbed him by the neck and started shaking him.
“What are you talking about? Why is the previous life coming out again? What does that have to do with my colleagues…”
Cloud stopped talking. Then Katarina also stopped waving. She said looking at her weeping yet anticipatory face.
“You think I even had a 4 party orgy with them—”
“Hey you bastard!!!”
Katarina shook Cloud so strongly that it could not be compared to before.
“Stop, stop! I didn’t do any orgy, so stop shaking it. I will fall for this.”
“Lie!”
“It’s not a lie. I didn’t even hold hands with them.”
“I will! I’m sure you’re holding their chest, not their hands!”
“No, really isn’t it? They are just good friends.”
“Then! So how would you describe your night skills? Why are you so good!”
“…Talent?”
“Are you going to play with me now!?”
“Why am I playing this prank? If you don’t believe it, you can ask them directly. it just came If you go over this hill…”
Cloud narrowed his brow. He tilted his head as if looking at something strange.
“What, what? It’s no use changing the topic… huh?”
When Cloud’s body suddenly stopped moving, she turned her head to follow his gaze, in bewilderment, and stiffened with her eyes wide open at the sight unfolding before her eyes.
“Cloud? Why are you? Do you have any problem…”
Leslie, who followed, stiffened at the same time.
Only Shedia exclaimed, ‘Wow.’
“…Cloud, is that the Prona kingdom capital?”
“That’s right, but…”
Cloud scratched his cheek as he looked at the capital of Prona Kingdom.
“I don’t think it is anymore.”
In the city, a giant purple octopus was slowly devouring the palace with its numerous tentacles.
‘What the hell are these three doing?’
I left them there to stop it.
* * *
“Are you really okay without an escort? Of course, if any ungodly person would dare to harm Candidate Saint, you never know…”
“Because it’s really good. My body can protect itself.”
Ophelia pointed to the mace around her waist. Seeing the heavy mace, the priest swallowed his saliva. Because she’d seen her wielding that mace freely a while ago.
“Yeah, that’s right. I guess I was worried about something. Then please proceed with caution.”
After seeing off the bride, Ophelia left the church. Only after she left the church and the church building was out of sight did she release her smile.
‘I’m tired.’
It took over a week just to get permission to go out. She had to wrestle for a long time to get rid of the idea of attaching an escort.
‘I can’t get used to it.’
It wasn’t like this in her childhood.
It was because there was no reason to care so much about her, who was only a young nun. But after she became a candidacy, it was different. The church tried to monitor her every move.
It still is.
Aren’t the two tails following from behind?
‘This never happened when I was traveling with the hero.’
Without him, it immediately looks like this.
‘It would have been better if it wasn’t like a candidate for a saint…’
She sighed and moved on. After a while she arrived at a shabby inn. She had only one guest at her inn, and that one was the one she was looking for.
“You were eating.”
Ophelia approached Eri with a sausage in her mouth at the table in the corner of the inn. Even though she came pretty close, Eri just mechanically ate her sausage.
“Eri?”
“Wow! It’s a surprise! Ophelia? What if it suddenly shows up? You were surprised!”
Eri reflexively lowered the staff she was aiming for.
“I came to talk to you. Eri, you didn’t hear me.”
“…Is that so? I’m sorry. I’m out of my mind these days.”
“It’s because I don’t sleep at night.”
Eri’s eyes were dark and her skin was crumbly. There was no life in her eyes. It was the result of staying up all night for several days.
“I can’t help it. The research will be completed soon. How do you sleep in such a situation? If you sleep, you will be disqualified as a wizard.”
Saying that, Eri roughly put the remaining sausage in her mouth and got up from the table.
“I have to continue the rest of my research, so I’ll just go upstairs.”
Eri headed to the stairs, and Ophelia looked at her with worried eyes.
“Please sleep at night. Then it really breaks down.”
“You worry more about Neria than me. I use my head, but he uses his body, right?”
Eri shrugged and went up the stairs. Ophelia looked for a moment at the steps her Eri had climbed, then took a deep breath and came out of her inn.
“Yeah… More dangerous would be Neria…”
After leaving the inn, Ophelia headed to the royal palace’s dance hall. Numerous knights were honing their skills in her gymnasium, and Neria was one of them.
“Ha!”
A knight slashed his sword vertically towards Neria. After blocking her sword with her shield, Neria immediately turned her body to dodge another attack.
Block and avoid, block and avoid.
That alone seemed busy enough.
That’s right, she’s competing with eight people at the same time.
Also, eight knights, not eight ordinary soldiers.
‘I didn’t do this at first.’
Neria was not facing eight knights at the same time from the beginning. She quarreled with each other and when she beat them all, she started battling both at the same time.
As it continued, he had reached the level of dealing with eight knights at the same time.
It is obviously a great thing to have grown to this extent in a little over half a year. But it was also clear that she was overdoing it.
Because I went to church almost every day with big and small injuries, and even visited Ophelia myself when the injuries were serious.
Because of that, Ophelia was more concerned about her than proud of her.
“OMG!”
Neria pushed the last one back with her shield and hit her helmet with her wooden sword. After she had passed the ordeal of being eight knights, Neria sat down helplessly.
A white handkerchief appeared in front of her as she looked down at the floor and took a deep breath.
Knowing who the owner of the handkerchief was, Neria grinned.
“When did you come?”
“A little while ago. Thanks for your efforts. It’s amazing to be able to fight against eight people at the same time and win.”
“thanks.”
She wiped her sweat with the handkerchief that Neria had been handed over. Ophelia watched the scene and cautiously opened her mouth.
“At this point, you will think that the hero is great enough.”
The hand that was wiping the sweat stopped. The hardened expression on his face soon loosened up again. Neria smiled bitterly at her.
“… it might be.”
“right? The warrior is definitely…”
“But maybe not. You may think that I am not good enough even now.”
“Neria. The hero did not leave alone because he thought you were lacking.”
“…”
Neria did not answer. She just silently wiped her sweat. Ophelia felt her chest tight. Eri and Neria as well. She said that the reason Cloud left was because of their incompetence, so she came here, and she pushed herself endlessly.
‘I’m holding on somehow now, but…’
If you keep doing that, it will break sooner or later.
‘I have to dry it.’
Somehow, we have to bring back some peace to the hearts of the two of us.
It was when Ophelia was choosing words to persuade them in her head.
– pounding
Suddenly, her chest tightened strongly.
A terrifying sensation spread throughout his body, and a cold sweat soaked his back.
Ophelia slowly turned her head.
Palace.
An evil energy was flowing from within the palace. An aura strong enough to crush her candidate for a saint. Even that is suppressed and repressed.
And it felt as if the suppressed energy was about to explode.
Her lips trembled thinly.
“Degree…”
“Ophelia?”
“Run away! Everyone, get out of the palace right now!!!”
After shouting, Ophelia grabbed Neria’s hand and started running. There was a commotion behind her back, but there was no time for her to care. She suddenly asked why she was doing this, and she couldn’t even answer Neria’s question.
just kept running.
The moment they barely escaped from the castle.
– Kukugung.
The palace collapsed, revealing a huge monster with numerous tentacles.
An evil energy enveloped the entire city, and dark Clouds covered the sun.
Lupus, the capital and lively city of the Kingdom of Prona.
There the apostle of the end had arrived.