Chapter 45
----------------------------------------------------------------- Translator: Diva Chapter: 45 Chapter Title: Clash Over the Search -----------------------------------------------------------------
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Edric swiftly wove through the soldiers hurrying back and forth.
Less than an hour had passed since the battle ended, and the campsite—which had been utter chaos—was already being tidied up at a remarkable pace.
While soldiers recovered weapons from the wyvern corpses and cleared away the damaged tents, workers loaded crates and bundles onto wagons. The maids, meanwhile, gathered the bodies in one spot and set to work wrapping them meticulously in fine silk.
Darting through the camp at a brisk pace, Edric roughly tallied the corpses by eye.
A total of seventeen.
Adding those swallowed whole by the wyverns, it came to roughly twenty-five or thirty lives lost. Factoring in the wounded, the toll was far from insignificant. He clenched his fist.
'A whole pack of wyverns showing up in the season of fire...'
Wyverns typically awoke from hibernation at the end of the season of rest and only began forming packs once the season of water arrived. After breeding season, they paired off and scattered, so it was exceedingly rare for more than a dozen to appear together during the season of fire. On top of that, the terrain here wasn't suited for large monsters like wyverns to inhabit.
'Can't just chalk this up to rotten luck. Something feels off.'
Edric scanned the wyvern carcasses strewn across the hills with narrowed eyes, then shoved the nagging doubts from his mind. This wasn't the time for such distractions. With long strides, he headed straight for where the knights were gathered.
"Captain!"
Barkas, who had been issuing orders to the knights, turned toward him.
Edric flinched involuntarily and halted in his tracks. In the flickering firelight, his commander's face was smeared with dark red bloodstains. His own state was no doubt just as grim, but there was something unnervingly eerie about that cool, marble-sculpted visage splattered in gore, eyes gleaming coldly.
"Did you find it?"
Sir Sheerkhan asked in his signature flat, toneless voice.
Snapping to attention, Edric hurriedly reported.
"We spotted traces of a wyvern crashing to the north. Looks like it fell into the ravine below."
Barkas turned to gaze northward. The torches in the knights' hands cast a dim, ghostly glow on the shadowy forest. Who knew what other savage beasts might lurk within.
Edric spoke up anxiously.
"We need to form a search party right away. We can't waste any—"
"What search party?!"
A gruff voice cut in abruptly. Edric whipped his head around. The crown prince, his dark hair a wild lion's mane, was striding toward them with his attendants in tow.
Edric quickly bowed in respect. The crown prince ignored him entirely and marched right up to Barkas.
"It's obvious she's dead by now! Stop wasting time on pointless nonsense and get ready to move! If we dawdle and get ambushed by another monster horde, what then?!"
Edric's face hardened at the heartless words.
Clearly rattled by the sudden ordeal, the crown prince's face was paler than usual. A man who'd never faced so much as an ogre in his life, let alone a wyvern—it was no wonder he'd been terrified. But Edric felt not a shred of pity for the prince, who looked on edge to the point of pathos.
Glancing at Barkas with eyes laced in disdain for the prince, Edric checked his reaction. Strangely, the man was utterly silent.
He couldn't be thinking of going along with the crown prince, could he?
Even if she was born out of wedlock, Talia Roem Guirta was still the emperor's daughter. And the eldest child of the current empress, no less. They couldn't just abandon an imperial princess to become monster fodder out of the crown prince's personal grudge. This was a matter of a knight's honor.
Edric spoke urgently.
"If you form a search party, sir, I'll lead it myself to find Her Highness the 2nd Princess. Please, just—"
"You insolent pup, who the hell do you think you are to—?!"
The crown prince exploded, grabbing Edric by the collar.
Edric looked up at him with calm eyes. He'd grown numb to the prince's violent outbursts. Speaking as deferentially as possible, he said,
"My apologies. But we can't just leave Her Highness the 2nd Princess like this..."
"Princess?"
The crown prince let out a dry, hollow laugh right in his face, enunciating each word with venom.
"Listen up, you greenhorn. There's only one princess in this empire—Aila Roem Guirta. That Talia bitch was never meant to be born in the first place. Ending up as monster bait is the perfect fate for a bastard like her..."
"Enough."
Edric flinched at the low voice and turned to his superior. Barkas had always treated Gares with formal deference, no matter how much of an arrogant ass he acted. For him to not only interrupt but address the crown prince so curtly left Edric momentarily stunned.
The crown prince's eyes also widened in shock as he stared back. But Barkas remained utterly composed.
"Your Highness would do well to return to your tent and rest."
Barkas stated flatly, then nodded to the knights standing behind the prince.
"Fetch a mage at once. I'll select ten agile ones to form the search party."
The knights scattered to obey. The crown prince watched them go with a dazed expression, then released Edric's collar with a shove and advanced on Barkas.
"Are you... rebelling against me for that wench's sake?!"
"I was commanded by His Imperial Majesty to guard all three royals."
Barkas's voice was dry and emotionless.
"The crown prince's orders cannot supersede the emperor's, now can they?"
"Don't give me excuses!"
The crown prince blocked Barkas's path.
"You think I haven't noticed how you've been oddly protective of that Talia bitch all this time? Be straight with me. You and that slut—!"
"Gares!"
A sharp, high-pitched voice sliced through the tense air.
Edric, who'd been watching the two with bated breath, whipped his head around. The 1st Princess, flanked by two attendants, was gliding elegantly through the knights toward them.
She had taken charge of the maids right after the wyverns were slain, tending to all the wounded. Even with the heavy pall of fatigue still clinging to her unwashed form, she approached her brother and fixed him with a resolute gaze.
"Sir Sheerkhan is right. We can't just leave Talia behind. No matter what, she's still our blood."
"Are you serious right now?"
The crown prince glared at his sister with eyes full of betrayal.
"After the humiliation that bitch put Mother through, you say that?!"
"Please, be rational."
The princess cut him off with dignified authority. Despite being born mere minutes apart, she seemed far more mature than her brother.
Looking straight up at him, she continued steadily.
"If we abandon Talia and return to the palace like this, it'll drag not just Sir Sheerkhan but you into needless scandal. What's the point of taking that risk?"
Edric was momentarily speechless at the cold words from the 1st Princess, renowned for her benevolent nature.
She added softly, as if soothing her fuming brother.
"At the very least, let's recover her body properly and give her a fitting funeral."