Chapter 53: As Expected (4K)
“Well, it doesn’t make much sense to deal with him now.”
Even though Princess Xue Fei was still covering her eyes, she could sense the layout of the outside world.
With a casual wave, the Third Legion Chief of Staff, Bryant, who had fainted on the other side of the stone wall, was suddenly thrown down into the snow behind Xue Fei.
Despite being a five-winged demon, Bryant had only fainted for a few minutes before waking up from the tremendous impact of crashing into the stone wall.
“What the hell… what happened… huh?!”
As he regained his bearings, groggily swearing and holding his dizzy head, he saw the six-winged figure a few meters away and realized he was no longer under the enemy’s control, instantly clutching at straws!
Not just any straw.
The royal family was a faith for every demon!
“Your Highness the Princess! Murolov is just a phantom substitute now! His real body isn’t here!”
“It seems… you are quite eager to atone for your sins.” Belis frowned, noticing that her strikes were gradually losing effect, so she retracted the meaningless assault and glanced sharply behind her, “If you have any intel, think quickly and speak up; perhaps it can earn you some opportunities in the future trial.”
“I…! Ahem, I’m definitely cooperating to the fullest! His real body is…! The real body… damn! Where is his real body?! Damn, he never told me! He’s too cautious!”
He hit his head in frustration, but information he didn’t know wouldn’t come to him no matter how hard he tried.
After spending days with the enemy, realizing they were merely a non-physical substitute was already impressive.
It seemed he had nothing useful to say.
Moreover, the mind-altering magic in the sky made his thoughts incoherent.
Even among five-winged demons, there were differences; Belis’s royal blood allowed her to stand tall at many times, subtly trending towards six wings, but she was well aware of the chasm between them.
No, there was someone else who was aware: the Queen Sister.
Belis slowly lowered the arm that was covering Xue Fei’s eyes.
After all, the horrifying blood mist was no longer present.
The phantom created by that blood mist had re-coalesced, and the unharmed Murolov looked as if he had merely bathed in the morning sun, stretching his neck leisurely.
Suddenly.
As if sensing something, his expression froze for a moment, not quite believing what he was seeing.
—He glanced towards the misty eastern horizon.
“Mm…?”
“What’s wrong?” Xue Fei had already guessed what had shocked him, “Your cowardly companion behind you, the sealing magic he takes pride in, hasn’t been broken, has it?!”
“Your Highness the Princess, please don’t gloat. The breaking of the sealing magic doesn’t help your side at all; I’m just quite surprised… it seems Your Highness has a capable assistant?”
“Me… at a disadvantage? How come I didn’t know…?”
“Senior Bryant?” Murolov suddenly looked at Bryant, his tone cold as he delivered this startling statement, “Please draw your sword against the two princesses.”
“What did you say?!”
Bryant, the veteran who had been stationed at the border for decades, had devoted half his life to loyalty to the royal family.
Now Murolov actually asked him to fight the princesses, which was absolutely absurd!
Bryant resisted the mental interference with all his might, beads of sweat forming on his forehead, drawing his machete and swaying his bulky body to point the blade at Murolov.
He was utterly furious, the scar on his face looking so menacing it seemed it would split open.
“Murolov Yalin! You’re completely beyond salvation! I don’t even know where your real body is! But I absolutely won’t allow you to speak rudely to the two princesses!”
Hah.
Belis, look, our demon race still has loyal subjects!
Xue Fei was quite moved and silently considered whether she should improve the official reward and punishment system in the future.
This loyal uncle, who had wanted to blow some smoke rings when he was so passionately excitable, seemed to have run out of cigarettes and awkwardly retracted his hand.
How can we let such a loyal subject be without money for cigarettes! That’s ridiculous!
But Murolov didn’t seem to think so.
After all, this wasn’t his real body, even when pointed at with a blade, he felt no psychological fluctuation.
He actually found it somewhat amusing.
“Pfft… Senior, you’re still so brave and foolishly loyal, unable to see the bigger picture. I’ve said I’d take you to see a brand-new world, but you refuse to learn and waste the good intentions of that great person. Then I guess I have no choice. Let me think… how about this?”
Murolov raised his right hand, touching his thumb and ring finger together, making a snapping gesture.
“You can be brave and fearless! Luckily, under the Third Legion’s camp, I’ve already prepared an Explosive Magic Array! So, if I count to ten, if you still don’t point your sword at the two princesses you respect, I might have to take some of our brothers with me? Ten… nine…”
“You bastard!! Murolov! Do you have any humanity left?!”
“Eight… seven… six… hahahaha! Hurry up! Only five counts left! Let the princess kill you, or you kill the princess, that way you can save your brothers! What about your righteousness! Let me see how generous you truly are!”
【Triple Sealing Barrier】
Xue Fei clenched her fists, three dark purple barrier magic arrays enveloping Murolov.
But this made Murolov laugh even more mockingly!
“Hahaha! Has the princess given up too? You don’t think sealing me away will prevent the explosion, do you? Just watch with Princess Belis from the side and see your loyal subjects in despair! Four… three…!”
Bryant’s hand trembled to a degree even he couldn’t believe.
Having been stationed in the frigid snowy lands for years, he thought he wouldn’t bend to the biting cold winds of winter again.
But looking at the many brothers fighting alongside him…
For a moment, he saw the endpoint of his life.
Yet, he slowly managed to smile in a way that was not rough.
Guarding the frontier for years, the lights of countless homes flickering.
How could the petty man’s treachery cost lives before an army?
Bryant felt that his recent encounters… were like a nightmare.
Strange and filled with killing intent.
Since he couldn’t escape…
Then why not die at the end of this nightmare?
Could this be considered a somewhat dignified end as a general?
“Two…!”
He didn’t point his sword at the royal family.
Nor did he choose to engage in meaningless combat with Murolov’s phantom.
Instead, he turned the blade around, pointing the hilt at his own chest.
If I die, then you won’t have to trouble those brothers anymore.
A warrior, fearless and smiling.
“One…! Hahaha!”
“Go to hell! You little bastard! You’re not worthy of stepping onto this land that we have guarded for generations!”
As if it were the last words of his life, it echoed from the mountaintops, causing even the distant warring armies to pause.
Yet the fearless blood flowers that should have bloomed on the iceberg did not flourish.
The blade pressed against a place almost touching his chest could no longer advance.
It wasn’t that Bryant feared death and didn’t apply force, but rather that he did apply force—yet a small defensive magic array appeared at his chest, stopping the blade from proceeding further.
Xue Fei didn’t turn back, unclenching her fist, and the knife in Bryant’s hand was abruptly knocked away by some inexplicable force.
Xue Fei remained silent.
But this light yet heavy action expressed the attitude of a princess towards a loyal subject.
The damned didn’t die, and those who shouldn’t die, why should they?
Besides, you didn’t hear an explosion, did you?
Bryant stared blankly back at the battlefield.
He found that the two armies fighting over there were still engaged in a far less intense ranged confrontation than before, but the massive explosion he imagined didn’t occur.
I… was deceived?
Murolov was bluffing?!
“In fact, you didn’t prepare the [Explosive Magic] at all, you could have left the Third Legion behind with no other purpose and not marched them here.”
Belis tucked her silvery hair, blown forward by the wind and snow, behind her ears.
The calm princess was the stabilizing force of this country at all times.
“You just wanted to force Bryant to draw his sword against us, prompting us to retaliate and kill him out of defensive considerations, then you could publicly claim to the Third Legion, ‘It was the two princesses who killed your trusted Chief of Staff Bryant.’ Is that right? Treacherous scoundrel… your aim is to incite panic and provoke hatred?”
“……”
Uh.
That was a bit… beyond Murolov’s expectations.
Even though he had arranged everything, hearing Princess Belis’s deduction caused his expression to freeze momentarily.
This time, he couldn’t even manage a smile.
Because the spell Xue Fei had set up was already prepared to launch.
Xue Fei slowly raised her hand and clenched her small fist tightly.
【Triple Sealing Barrier: Spirit Destruction】
Three differently colored barriers rapidly converged toward the center, quickly compressing into the size of a small box.
Murolov’s spiritual body was crushed and destroyed in an instant.
This time, his spiritual manifestation showed no signs of recovery, vanishing without a trace as the purple, blue, and red barriers collided and dissipated.
This had never been a sealing magic.
Instead, it was a spirit destruction magic created by Xue Fei after seeing the so-called human god Aimeres without entity during their last encounter.
If she thought summoning a spirit body would keep her safe and invincible, that was too naive.
The advancement of magic lies in creation, just like Xue Fei constantly innovating with different explosive spells.
The crisis was suddenly lifted, and Bryant collapsed onto the ground.
He gasped heavily, the sudden change from his conviction of certain death to survival left him at a loss regarding his emotions.
But he knew that the one who had saved him was the royal family he believed in.
Forcing himself to suppress his trembling legs, Bryant knelt on one knee, folding his five wings, and bowed deeply to the two princesses.
“Your… Your Highness! I am guilty! I… did not take good care of the Third Legion and caused these troubles! Please punish me, kill me, and warn the entire army!”
“Enough.” Xue Fei was honest, “I didn’t manage the Second Legion well either; none of us are better; let’s call it even, we all know where the blame lies, after all, it’s not on you.”
“Your Highness… you clearly turned the Second Legion into the strongest army of the demon race, yet you said this… ah! If I were to die, that would betray your kind intentions. I understand, I will fight for my life! I will repay the royal family’s grace!”
“So… okay, I got it; you’d better keep working hard from now on. With Aunt Ailer not here, you must take on the burden and not be careless.”
“Understood… I will obey!”
As soon as Xue Fei finished speaking, he was already kneeling on the ground, tears streaming down his face.
This was hard to say; it was always like this, and sometimes even Xue Fei felt confused.
In any case, Xue Fei didn’t think she had done anything worthy of such exaggerated praise from him.
Instead, each time Belis’s eyes sparkled with admiration, and she hopped excitedly with her hands clasped together, made Xue Fei feel immense pressure.
She was talking about herself now; see, she was bouncing around at high frequency again!
The sky “cleared up.”
The 【Mental Influence】 magic enveloping the Third Legion disappeared with Murolov’s phantom.
The battlefield became quiet in an instant, the Third Legion finally calming down without the influence of magic.
This rebellion seemed to have come to an end.
But in reality… it was far from over.
Oh right.
Xue Fei glanced at the still-kneeling Bryant, her fingertips brushing through luminous fluorescence, as if having done nothing, and she stepped aside.
Belis quickly followed, looking like a clingy little dog that couldn’t leave her sister for a moment~
“Sister, sister, what did you just do?”
“Murolov left a delayed explosion magic on his armor; probably in another minute, it would have blown him to pieces.”
“Uh… so what you just did was…?”
“Right, I canceled the magic.”
“Heh… sister, I feel that when we bring the rebels back to the capital, it won’t be as simple as just killing them, right? Remember, the warden of the capital’s prison is best known for studying what it means to be inhumane. Let’s just throw the rebels to him, shall we? Hehe…”
“That… that’s true! Wow, Belis, it seems like there’s some unknown black aura swirling around you; it’s too oppressive; you should control it!”
“Is there?!”
Absolutely!
There’s no way around it; Belis’s current level of agitation had reached an extreme.
Anyone showing disrespect to the sister was already sentenced to death.
He even intentionally inscribed the explosive magic on the loyal subject, hoping to have him blown up in front of the sister.
If that really succeeded, the shadow in the sister’s heart would probably be awakened.
This was no longer a matter of sin.
Let me tell you.
Reincarnation should not expect to go smoothly; death might not be an easy process for everyone.
Hehe… hehehe.
Xue Fei smiled bitterly and moved slightly away from Belis; her sister’s current aura was very dangerous!
Retreating to the back, she discovered Bryant was still kneeling there.
“Uh… you can stop kneeling now, go calm the Third Legion’s emotions; they can trust you. They’ve just recovered from the influence of the mental magic; my aunt is unreliable, and I don’t even know where she is right now.”
“Understood.”
“Okay, oh just a moment, I want to ask you something.”
“Your Highness, please ask; if I know, I will certainly answer without omission.”
“It’s just that I suddenly wanted to confirm something. Do you know the Chief of Staff of the First Legion, Salno Yalin? He’s the brother of this rebel.”
“Salno Yalin…?”
“Hmm, do you have an impression?”
Bryant pondered deeply; he didn’t dare respond carelessly to a question from the princess.
But scratching his head and thinking it over, he could only continue giving this response.
“Sorry, Your Highness… I truly don’t know this person. By the way, when did our demon race’s First Legion ever have a Chief of Staff? Besides, Murolov doesn’t have an older brother, right? He’s the only child of the Yalin family, isn’t he?”
“Are you sure?”
“It should… be sure? Ah! Definitely sure! How could I get this wrong? By the way, why are you suddenly asking about this, Your Highness?”
“Heh… as expected, knowing this is enough, thanks!”
“Thanks…? Your Highness is too kind!”
