33-3. Even glass roses have thorns.
***
The Grand Duchess of the North and her reinforcements were busy searching for the Apostle of Wrath.
A mountain where white snow fell and the whole world turned to pure white.
At that location, the four figures were crossing a group of monsters approaching fiercely.
Even deer and rabbits that seemed docile, as if they had been attacked by the apostle’s power, rushed to bite them.
“It is dangerous to be surrounded!”
The Grand Duchess, a strategist, began to lead. It was at this moment that her quick and brilliant brain shined.
“hahahahaha!! Know!!”
Drake pulled out a longsword as long as his height from behind, and laughed loudly to stop the monsters.
The dragon slayer’s swordsmanship was slightly different from Licht’s. It feels like a modification of what was originally written.
「Contrast Slash!!」
From the beginning, he was the founder of the Drake style swordsmanship, and he had told Licht that he could apply it in this way.
It’s not as good as the ultimate, but it strengthens the ‘concept’ of cutting dark targets like shadow slash and damaging bright ones.
“This should be enough!!”
At that long horizontal slash attack, the monsters in front of me were blown away like lanterns in front of the wind.
“Thank you. Dragon Slayer…!”
“I’m Sangvis’ daughter, so I don’t need to say thank you!”
Wielding a spear with an ice tip, the Grand Princess of the North, who blocked the teeth and claws of bears and wolves, had long black hair.
“Sophie, be careful.”
“Thank you, Fine.”
Beside it, the princess, Fine Grancia, was protecting it by creating an alter ego made of glass. A sword attack struck by a transparent illusion-like alter ego.
“..As expected, she is Locke’s daughter.”
As dozens of heavily armored knights defended the flanks, Asha Aureus spoke in a voice that could not be heard.
A force similar to that of the Emperor Locke he saw in the war in the past, capable of turning even solid ice golems into powder in an instant.
It didn’t make sense to have that kind of physical strength in the form of a delicate girl, but it was possible to some extent if she had ten blood.
Nex also had a natural talent for spirits, but it just didn’t bloom.
「Helios Midnight.」
Asha, like someone else, floated a large sun in the air, preventing the demons around her from being able to withstand the heat.
“Everyone will be fine until here.”
The golden phoenix, a spirit, was currently roaming the northern defenses, preventing enemies from descending, so she could only use weak skills.
It would be nice to use the cradle of the phoenix as before Licht and the others came, but it would be impossible to move within the range of use.
In the end, if the apostle is not dealt with, it will inevitably become a war of attrition. The living sun was in the back row because it couldn’t use the spirits properly.
At that time, the golden wolf eyes in the glass helmet sensed something was wrong.
“Sophie. All of these guys are weird.”
“Pine? What’s strange about it?”
Fine’s eyes caught a little awkwardness for being an angry monster. Aren’t they trying to attack themselves like a trained army?
They looked like low-ranking monsters, but the speed at which they attacked was constant. Besides, they don’t fight among themselves.
“..There is someone giving orders.”
“You also thought so.”
Upon hearing those words, the Grand Duchess lowered the black bear’s ears and felt a bad feeling.
“Because we tried to destroy the walls of Caprostia as well.”
Actually, I was suspicious of trying to break down the wall by crashing my head into it. If it was just anger, there would be no way he would come down from the mountain.
“If you invade the Northern Territory and make people angry, it will be dangerous….”
Sophitia, who noticed this in advance, opened her mouth. Her spear-swinging movement sped up,
“..There is a reason I asked for help from the Empire.”
She took the basic stance that Licht showed her the other day, and it immediately led to a variation of her movement, which changed to her slashing movement.
「White bear strike.」
Deuk deuk. A bear carved out of ice was created from the tip of Sophitia Coldheart’s spear, and the pure white bear scratched the ground vigorously, wounding the enemy.
It was a big attack enough to shake the ground, but the offensive did not show any momentum.
“Fine, actually, the surroundings should be tidied up by now.”
Despite Asha’s spiritism, Drake’s swordsmanship, Fine’s glass magic, and her own spearmanship, she did not risk her death, and she spoke calmly as she watched the swarming monsters.
“But no!! These guys don’t know the fear of death!! Just like my disciple!”
“..Licht.”
It was a grand sword master who fired several sword strikes similar to the stabbing and bursting the front like a balloon, but the angry monsters crossed over even with the corpses piling up.
“Asha-sama, let’s burn only this area.”
“Okay. Grand Duchess.”
Sophitia took out a small bottle from her bosom. A hip flask that looks like a container for drinking. The lid opened with a click,
“Smells like vodka, Sophie.”
The princess, a person with a sensitive nose, noticed the contents inside.
“How is it, unlike in the past, now we are adults. Blood.”
Vodka. Northerners living in cold places sometimes drank strong alcohol to forget the cold.
“I like beer….”
Seeing her friend who noticed that fact, the Grand Duchess of the North laughed a little. Looking at that expression, Fine felt a strange sense of difference, but
“Dragon Slayer, take this!”
Since the Grand Duchess immediately threw the bottle in front of Drake, she did not have time to ponder the change of the moment.
“hahahaha!! I know this!”
In order to use a technique that twisted the air a bit, Drake repositioned himself. The weakness of his swordsmanship is that it takes a long time to prepare and requires prior action.
「Heolong Cham!!」
Unlike the one Licht uses, a blade of wind flying in the shape of a dragon. Dragons with multiple heads appeared, like hydras,
“Drake, I’ve been talking about this before, but give me a signal.”
The bottle that the Grand Duchess of the North had thrown in advance was so black that the paper cut off her paper. The moment the contents inside are scattered forward by the wind.
“Because it is difficult to match the muscle and brain.”
Asha Aureus snapped her fingers and summoned a small spark. She is a little sparrow that flies like a fire bird at the same time.
「Phoenix Ignition.」
Rest. Golden feathers fluttered in the air, mixing the two techniques. The blade of wind that turned into flame burned the monsters in front at once.
“It is dangerous. The fire spread…”
Finé hit the glass wall to block the sparks from flying in strange places and spreading the fire.
The attacks of the monsters that kept coming around were blocked by walls and flames, and even if they lost their reason and rushed into the rage, they were repeatedly burned to death.
As soon as a gap was created to breathe,
“Pine, you seem to have changed something.”
“Sophie, too.”
The Grand Duchess of the North, who saw it, pricked up the bear’s ears and showed interest. Not to be outdone by this, the princess also noticed the change in the girl’s behavior and refuted it.
“Did you get caught? A new person has come to the North.”
A smile unlike Sophitia, who had a heart like ice.
“..Who is it?”
Looking at it, Fine felt a little bit of her kinship. It was because her friend, who seemed cold to her, suddenly seemed bright.
She would have been a lonely and sad figure like Sophitia in her memories if it had not been for Licht, who also wore the black knight’s helmet.
“Should I say a strange man who is extremely good at chess?”
“Strange man..?”
Unable to accept Sophitia’s sudden change, Fine kept tilting her head and trying to figure out who the person was.
He’s a good chess player, so he’s not Licht. He never played chess when he was with him, and he didn’t seem to know the Grand Duchess of the North.
His jealousy almost burst out, but the glass knight managed to calm himself down.
“Yeah, at first I thought you were some sort of bear who would shut himself up in my palace and eat or drink.”
Sophitia, who was looking after the organized monsters and adjusting the charter, smiled thinking of the man who remained strong in her memory.
“I was invited to dinner to poison myself…. He said something strange.”
“Sophie, did you try to do that again..?”
He brought up a scary story that didn’t match the face. Goosebumps Fine Fine wrapped her arms around his shoulders and sighed.
Like this, Sophitia Cold Heart is a northern lord who will take care of things if she thinks that they are not on her side.
Having lost her father in a war in her past, she quickly became ruthless towards her human armies.
“At first I thought the apostle was at the top. Blood.”
The explanation continued, saying that that was the only reason monsters that usually lived at the top came down to the foot of the mountain. But Sophie shook her head.
“But he said, maybe the Apostle of Wrath used bait or something.”
“Huh? Sophie…? Excuse me….”
Fine pointed her finger at the cave, which was revealed by a large fire burning around it. No monsters came out of it.
“We came to a consensus after sharing her opinion. To hide in a safe place deep in the mountains.”
As if trying to defend the place, only strong enemies were placed around it.
“In the end, it turned out as he said..”
Only then did the Grand Duchess of the North nod her head as if everything went as planned. She judged her opponent, and came to the conclusion that if they ambush her, she can dispose of them.
“Anyway, when the story was over, they poured poisoned food into their mouths. I tried to dry it right away, but it was too late.”
“Oops. Oh my god..?”
The Grand Princess of the North pointed to the cave and signaled to Drake and Asha, who were around, to prepare to enter.
“I fell right on her table and barely detoxified.”
“Sophie, that was harsh..”
“Me? Ha, Phinea, it’s because you didn’t see him do it.”
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Other angry monsters couldn’t come over because of the glass walls and flames. As she watched her, she let out a chuckle and said a word to her glass knight.
“As it turned out, he was a madman who ate poison even after noticing he was poisoned.”
“…”
“As a grand duchess, the poison I give is a reward or something…. He’s a strange man anyway.”
She frowned as if recalling her memories of that time, but a small arc was drawn on her lips. It seems that it was not her memory that she hated.
“..It’s similar to Richt.”
“Then suddenly I have to mend my heart, I am also an idiot who left Northern Hollang.”
Sophitia stabbed the ground with her spear again.
As if to show the dignity of the ruler who rules the land of iron blood.
“I’m all right. I don’t even know what I’m doing right now. Really.”
With a loud noise, a flower made of ice bloomed and froze the high-level monsters blocking the entrance of the cave.
“There was a story about a warrior who did something like Licht before. Blood.”
“What..? Really..?”
Leaving behind her enemies who had turned into pieces of ice, she stepped into a dark cave with no end in sight.
“The guy who looks like the black knight is crazier than he is, so be careful.”
“More than the man Sophie said..?”
A black-haired girl with a ponytail shaved off a certain black knight who was not present.
“Yeah, that’s why I tried it last time.”
Fine pouted as she puffed her cheeks in her glass helmet at the feeling of gossiping her dearest person,
“Because we shouldn’t have perverts around our noble princess.”
“The right one is… the same.”
She was right in the end, so she had no choice but to agree.