I Became the Youngest Prince in the Novel Chapter 38

Became the youngest prince in the novel Episode 38

Chapter 13 Illusionary Army (3)

That place was the sea.

A sea made up of countless corpses.

From the end of the field of vision to the end.

A battlefield where only corpses exist, without distinction between humans and monsters.

A broken spear, a sword stuck in the ground with its blade gone, and a crushed helmet lying around.

“… … I have a favor to ask.”

The knight whose entire lower body had disappeared in the sea of ​​corpses slowly opened his mouth to the man who was looking at him with blank eyes.

“Live the life of a leader.”

The blood is spreading and the eyes are gradually fading.

“No more protecting others, no more sacrificing, just live the life of a leader.”

The driver looks at the man and grins.

“I got married, had children, and started farming, which I love. That’s my, no… … “This is our last request.”

With those last words, the light of life completely disappeared from the knight’s eyes.

“… … .”

From the mouth of a man who looked at the corpse of a knight for a moment.

“Shall I retire soon?”

A low voice came out.

* * *

“Mister, please teach me swordsmanship!”

A girl with brown hair and blue eyes who looked to be about fifteen years old was shouting.

The girl’s name is Perna.

Perna’s eyes were looking longingly at a man in his mid-30s who was planting carrots in the garden, paying no attention to what he said.

“I don’t know anything like swordsmanship.”

A man who answers without even turning his head towards the girl who shouts like that.

The man’s eyes were only focused on the carrot seeds he was planting.

“Then, please teach me spear skills, or at least some other weapon skills. I’ll also pay tuition fees… … .”

“I don’t know any of that, so just go away.”

Perna’s eyes changed to a look of bewilderment at the man’s answer.

It’s already been a year since the man came to this Kurdish village, but the villagers, including Perna, didn’t know much about him.

Because the man had never talked about his past.

All I know is that the man’s name is Liam and that he likes farming.

“Wow, that’s really expensive. “If it were me, I would at least pretend to be worried.”

But Perna was confident that the man, Liam, knew how to fight.

Numerous scars carved into Liam’s body.

That’s because the scars caused by the weapons were so clear that even Perna, who was unfamiliar with combat, could easily tell.

“Mister, why did you come to this rural area? To be honest, I’m not that good at it, right? “So you’re retiring early and farming here?”

“… … .”

I deliberately tried provoking Liam to see if he would react if I made him angry, but it had no effect on Liam.

“Teach me a sword lesson!”

“I don’t know. And even if you know, they won’t teach you. So don’t disturb me and just go. “If you want to go to a big city like that, study and become a civil servant.”

“Oh, kinda!”

How much of a fight would there have been?

About 10 minutes later, Perna finally got tired of the task and came out of Liam’s garden with her shoulders slumped.

“under… … .”

Perna sighed as she walked down the path from Liam’s house to the village.

I had been begging Liam every single day for several months now, but the result was always the same as today.

It feels like I’m talking to a wall.

“I have to leave here quickly… … .”

I hated it.

This village is so remote that only outsiders visit once every few years.

The friendly village people treat even outsiders without discrimination.

The peaceful atmosphere of the village.

In particular, Perna really disliked the peace in this village.

Because this peace is like glass that can break at any time.

The girl learned this fact after losing her parents in an attack by bandits a few years ago.

There was no one in the village to stop the bandits, and the empire did not send troops to these remote corners.

I was helpless.

I couldn’t do anything.

The village people bowed their heads and offered their wealth to those who killed her parents and other members of their family.

I begged and begged them to go away without killing any more people.

‘Being weak is a sin.’

From then on, this thought was deeply ingrained in Perna’s heart and has not changed at all to this day.

That’s why she wanted to get stronger and leave this village, but there was nothing she could do on her own, having just entered her mid-teens.

Meanwhile, the person who came to town was Liam.

“Okay, if you keep looking for me like this, eventually I’ll get tired and teach you a few moves.”

As of now, I couldn’t give up because this was the only way to become stronger.

As I said a moment ago, I didn’t think Liam’s skills would be that good, but it was much better than not learning at all.

at that time.

“… … uh?”

Perna’s eyes widened.

Two figures walking towards her from the other side of the path she was walking on.

Because those people were not the villagers Perna had ever seen.

‘Outsiders?’

They were truly unique people.

A man with transparently pale skin and dark gray hair, and a woman with impressive red eyes and black hair.

Among them, there was a woman who gave me an eerie feeling just by looking at her.

The sight of a man walking slightly ahead of the woman made it impossible for her to take her eyes off.

Even though it was still daytime and the sun was still up, for some reason, the man’s surroundings seemed as dark as night.

The ominous and strange feeling that comes from it.

At the same time, the man’s languid eyes, as if looking down on everything, made her lower her head.

“… … .”

A man and a woman pass by the girl who is standing there blankly.

“Who is it?”

Perna couldn’t take her eyes off the two until they disappeared completely.

* * *

“So, master, are you saying that the phantom army appears here?”

“okay.”

Kurd, a village located on the outskirts of the empire’s capital, Hubris, far to the west.

Zion and Liu Sina were walking along a long path extending into the outskirts of Kurdistan.

“Why in a place like this?”

A young question appeared in Liu Sina’s eyes.

Because she had heard something from Sion, she knew that the phantom army was not something that occurred naturally, but was a phenomenon that appeared due to something.

However, this Kurd village is a rural area with nothing special about it.

There was no reason to create a welcoming army in a place like this.

“There’s someone here they need to kill.”

As Zion answered, he looked at the log cabin at the end of the path he was walking on.

“them?”

When the doubt in the witch’s eyes deepens at the unknown words.

Zion arrived at the log cabin and saw a man planting carrot seeds in the garden next to the house.

‘I guess that’s right.’

Shion smiled inwardly as she saw the man who stopped what he was doing and turned his head towards him when he and Liu Sina appeared.

A muscular body full of scars and short-cut hair.

From the bushy beard to the steadfast eyes that seem to never waver.

It was just as it was described in the chronicles.

‘Liam Reiner.’

The reason why the phantom army appeared here this time was because of that man.

Even though the Demon Territory had ostensibly stopped all invasions over a hundred years ago, the war itself did not completely end.

Skirmishes, large and small, were still occurring on the border between the Demon Territory and the Empire.

Therefore, there were numerous troops stationed at the border at all times.

Liam Reiner was one of the commanders leading such an army and the leader of the Annihilation Squad, the most elite unit in anti-monster warfare.

He was the greatest war hero for mankind, and at the same time, he reigned as infinite fear to monsters.

‘I’m retired now.’

Retired hero.

These were the words that best fit the current Liam Reiner.

The object corresponding to the ‘coordinates’ that are currently causing the phantom army was in the hands of the demons.

As soon as they realize that Liam is here, they use the ‘coordinates’ to raise an army.

And as a result, the war hero faces death here in the Kurdish village.

Zion intended to change the outcome.

“Master, can I kill you?”

“no.”

Shion walked towards the man, stopping Liu Sina, who spoke with a redder face than usual, perhaps because she was excited to see a rare strong man.

“Who are you?”

Liam stands up without even wiping off his muddy hands, looks at Zion with emotionless eyes, and asks.

Shion looks into his eyes and opens her mouth.

“Sion Agnes. “It’s my name.”

Liam’s expression changed strangely at Zion’s answer.

You could tell that he was a person related to the imperial family the moment you looked at his hair color.

However, I couldn’t believe that the man in front of me was the ‘abandoned pureblood’.

No matter how retired he may have been, Liam did not live with his eyes and ears closed, and that is why he had heard rumors about Sion Agnes to some extent.

However, the man in front of me right now did not match the rumors in any way.

‘The rumor is wrong. Or maybe he’s been hiding his true self all this time.’

After making that decision, Liam asked Zion.

“What brought you here?”

Even though he learned of Zion’s identity, only his tone changed and Liam’s attitude did not.

He retired anyway and had no intention of ever having anything to do with the Empire again.

Towards Liam, Zion opened his mouth in his characteristic languid tone.

“Come under me.”

A sudden remark that doesn’t match the tone at all.

“I thought I would accept it… … .”

When Liam was about to open his mouth as if he was dumbfounded by the endless proposal.

“This village will soon be destroyed.”

Zion’s voice continued.

“… … !”

It was an unconventional statement, but at the same time, it was a natural thing to say.

There was no way the phantom army would just kill Liam and disappear.

“In return, I will save you and the village once.”

With those words, Zion’s quiet eyes turn to Liam.

“… … .”

Liam looked into Zion’s eyes for a moment with his mouth closed, then slowly opened his mouth.

“I refuse. Not only do I not believe His Majesty’s words, but if… … Even if this village is truly destroyed, all we have to do is get out of the way before that happens.”

Then all the villagers would die, but it didn’t matter.

Because he had no obligation to protect this village.

No, there was no longer any obligation for Liam to protect not only the village, but anyone else.

Not only was he no longer an extermination unit that guarded the border with demonic forces, but all the people who were important to him were already dead.

“Okay, I understand.”

Zion looked at Liam for a moment with eyes that could not tell what he was thinking, then smiled and turned around without any regrets.

“What, you didn’t force them into submission like I did?”

A 1,000-year-old witch follows behind him with a gloomy expression.

Liam’s eyes, as he watched the two of them getting further and further away, slowly turned to the nearby forest.

“… … “I don’t need to worry about it.”

After murmuring, Liam turned his head without any hesitation and walked back to the garden.

* * *

“Are you really giving up like this?”

Liu Sina, who was walking next to him, turned his head towards Shion and asked curiously.

“If the owner comes to visit him in person, he’s a pretty great guy. I didn’t know he would back down so easily. “If this is going to happen, why did he tell me not to kill him?”

Shion looked into Liu Sina’s eyes.

Her red eyes are both eerie and fascinating.

Shion thought that it might be true that in the past, when she was called a thousand-year-old witch, there were people who were bewitched by those eyes and sacrificed their own lives.

“Are heroes born or made?”

Shion turns his head forward again and slowly opens his mouth.

“What are you talking about? suddenly.”

At those words, Liu Sina looked at Shion as if asking what nonsense she was talking about.

To her, heroes were simply beings that were harder to kill than others. Because she had never thought of such a thing.

“I think it’s the former. A hero’s fate is determined from birth.”

It’s as if your lifespan is predetermined from the moment you come into the world.

“That’s why you can’t go against it.”

No matter how much you try to go against it, your surroundings, no, the entire world blocks it.

“That’s why the author won’t be able to go against it in the end.”

“So what the owner said… … “Are you saying that the guy from just a moment ago was a hero?”

Shion grinned at Liu Sina’s question.

“It’s already called that.”

“Well, if the owner says so, then so be it. “So what are you going to do now?”

Liu Sina shrugged her shoulders as if it didn’t matter what happened and asked Shion again.

“first… … .”

Shion suddenly stopped walking at that question and glanced around.

At the same time, the image of Zion seemed to disappear like an illusion.

Sreuk-

I appeared in front of one of the trees rising on either side of the path.

Quad deuk!

Zion’s hand pierces the center of that tree without a moment of hesitation.

“We have to deal with the rats first.”

The moment when Zion’s eyes draw an arc.

Fuhahahaha!

Bright red blood burst out from inside the tree.

fantasy,