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Volume 2 Chapter 4 Part 4

「Ugh, Ghaaa…!!! 」

Assaulted by the crushing force, Emma let out an anguished voice.

「Stop it! 」

When Franz saw it, he aimed his loaded heavy crossbow at the witch.

「Enough! The Werewolf Queen is dead, and her Chaos Core has been incorporated into Elmer’s Crest! We already achieved everything we set out to do, so there is no need for us to kill children! 」

「You are too kind for you own good, Lord Franz, even though many of your friends have been brutally killed just now. However, there is one thing that you are mistaken about. The Werewolves are not humans like you or I. They are nothing more but lowly beasts, so there is no need for you to feel pity for them. 」

The witch calmly looked at the heavy crossbow in Frantz’s hands and said as such. But nevertheless, she put back her broom and freed the Werewolf girl from the bindings of her spell.

With her freedom of movement regained, Emma crouched down on the spot and started coughing violently.

「Even if that is the case and they really are mere beasts, that still does not justify hunting them all blindly like bloodthirsty maniacs! 」

Franz returned an angry voice at Yana, with his heavy crossbow still pointing at her.

「How many of us died? Or rather, how many of us survived? 」

Then he called one of the heavy knights to gather all of the people who survived the fight with the Werewolf Queen together.

「Five people in total, including Lord Elmer. 」

After a while, the heavy knight replied to him in a somber voice.

「Is that so? 」

Franz bit on his lip.

「You see? Eight heavy knights of Waldrind died in such a dishonorable battle! 」

Franz turned to Elmer and said angerly, not hiding his frustration.

「I’m sorry…」

Elmer hung his head low.

「This is where I am signing off, Elmer. I do not wish to see the Deon Lord resurrected. 」

Franz spat those words out, as he helped the Werewolf girl get up from the ground. The Werewolf girl looked at Franz with a puzzled look on her face.

「Run away from here, girl. Go back home to your friends. 」

Franz said to the girl, and she sprang to her feet and ran away without asking questions or looking back.

「It is fine for you to say that you want to go home, but do you really think will be able to safely cross the border? 」

Yana mocked Frantz mercilessly.

Certainly, because of what has transpired over the last few days, the borders between Waldrind and Artuk are all strictly blocked, and the number of soldier patrols on the highways has been increased severalfold. But as long as the borders between these two countries have walls and fences dividing the two of them, an opportunity for a successful escape should present itself to him sooner or later.

was strictly blocked, and soldiers were patrolling the highways. But there are walls and fences on the border, so he is. There must be a place to escape.

「Whatever happens to me, it no longer has anything to do with you. 」

After saying that, Franz left the clearing where the battle with the Werewolf Queen took place.

After the remaining heavy knights looked at each other, they followed after their vice-captain. They never looked back at Elmer even once. Elmer simply stood there dumbfounded and watched the figure of Frantz from behind as it grew ever so distant from him.

The two of them had been best friends since his days as a lowly squire. Elmer, was a senior heavy knight whose father is the Deputy Knight Commander, while Frantz was a junior heavy knight who was a child of a low-ranking Knight, just like other heavy knights. Because of that gap in lineage, there was always a certain distance between Elmer and the rest of the heavy knights, but Frantz was the only one who was always treating him normally despite all of their differences.

They learned all about alcohol, women, and gambling together. He won numerous championships in heavy crossbow and swordsmanship tournaments, and his audacity was widely known during his time as a squire. Any captain would have wanted him to enlist into his unit, but he kept on refusing any offers and invitations that have been sent his way because he was waiting for the moment where Elmer would rise up in the ranks enough to have his own squad so that he could join it and continue serving together with his best friend. In order to repay him for his loyalty and friendship, the moment that Frantz joined Elmer’s unit, Elmer immediately made him his second-in-command, none of the other squad members voice any particular complaints about that decision.

He was the first person to whom Elmer revealed his plan, and at the beginning Frantz stood in fierce opposition to it. However, he still ended up following along with Elmer’s plan and he was actively recruiting more allies to his cause, and once they were all gathered, he infiltrated Artuk together with them, and it was definitely thanks to him and his efforts that they all managed to get as far as they did.

But now that Frantz has turned his back against him, Elmer felt lost and confused, almost as if someone went and ripped half of his heart out from his chest.

「Elmer… 」

The Black Witch Yana came to Elmer and hugged him from behind.

「Now it is just the two of us again, isn’t it? 」

Yana whispered into his ear, but Elmer did not respond to her at all.

(Good grief…)

Yana sighs. She manipulated her breath to make it seductively hot and stimulated Elmer’s earlobe with it, but even then Elmer did not flinch one bit.

Yana turned around to face Elmer, huddled her chest against his chest and pressed her lips against his lips, but even then there was no response from him. Annoyed at that lack of reaction, Yana licked some of her own lipstick and stuck her tongue into his mouth. Elmer’s tongue reflexively tangles itself around hers when the two met each other, and finally, after a short while, Elmer’s arms moved to gently wrap themselves around Yana’s waist

「Come on now, let us go to where the Demon Lord is waiting for us. After all, if you want her to grant your wish, you have to wake her up first. 」

Yana whispered into his ear when she pulled her face away from him.

「Yes… I have to wake up the Demon Lord in order to plunge Artuk into eternal chaos… 」
Elmer said that with an ecstatic expression.

* * *

In the meantime, Franz and his three companions trudged along the narrow paths of the Forest of Eternal Darkness while their hearts felt heavy the sense of irreparable loss. It was just like the witch said when they were leaving: they were all perfectly aware that there was no way for them to return to Waldrind safely under the current circumstances. And even if by some miracle they managed to return home in one piece, the only thing that would be waiting for them would be a severe punishment at the hands of Marine Kraische.

There was no doubt that he would be stripped of his Crest. It wouldn’t be strange for him to be sentenced to death either. Even so, the least that he can do in this situation is to bring the Crest back to Lady Marine.

Even thought some time has passed since he left Waldring, Marine should still have some trust in him, which was evident by the fact that she did not sever the connection between them, and him still being able to utilize the power that Marine’s Crest gave him and the other heavy knights. And it should go without saying, but there was no way that Frantz would ever abandon his own loyalty to Marine.

Everything that he was doing, he was doing with the well-being of Lady Marine and the Kraische family in mind, because everyone knew that if the hated Earl Vilar Constance and Artuk were not defeated, then that would mean that the Kraische family would be doomed to perish sooner rather than later.

That was the reason why he agreed to go along with Elmer’s plan, but he never would have expected that the plan was never Elmer’s to begin with, but that this was nothing but a cunning scheme thought off by Yana the Black Witch. And to add the fuel to the fire, Vampire King Dimitri was also working together with her on this scheme, and Elmer, Frantz and the rest of the heavy knights were nothing more than disposable pawns in their game. And as for their plan?