Chapter 77: 045. Imperial Prince is Hunting Beasts -1 (Part One)

The lycans were burning away.

As a matter of fact, they couldn’t even howl out in pain and simply turned into pieces of open-mouthed charcoal.

Once no more demonic energy could be sensed in his surroundings, Raphael pulled off the dirty rags covering his eyes and mouth with his hands. However, he couldn’t undo the steel chains still shackling his wrists, eventually giving up after a brief period of struggling.

“Eh-whew, look at my life. Why did I have to go and choose to serve the Imperial Family…?”

While lamenting his life choices so far, Raphael ruthlessly stepped on the lycan remains, turning them into powder. After rummaging through the piles of ashes, and finding the keys to the prison door, he quickly undid the locks.

Hilda watched him and nodded in satisfaction. “Excellent. As expected of you, your eminence.”

“Your highness, this was going too far. Do you know how worried this old man was?”

“That’s how much I believed in you.”

“Even if you say the exact same thing as his majesty, I…”

“If I didn’t come here, then you’d also not have stepped foot in this place, correct?”

“Well, that is true.”

Hilda shifted her gaze over to the dwarves in the next moment.

“No one is hurt and we can even procure weapons too.” While saying that, she turned her gaze back to Raphael with a radiant smile on her face. “We are now blessed with an opportunity to eliminate the nest of the beasts who soil my fiefdom in one fell swoop. Is this not a satisfactory outcome? It won’t be any more perfect than this situation. Therefore…”

She patted on Raphael’s shoulder.

“Archbishop Raphael, allow me to ask you for a simple favour. Do your best and attract the attention of the beasts, please.”

“…”

“I shall lend you my support soon afterwards.”

Now normally, a Priest needed someone to guard him. However, he couldn’t exactly ask the Imperial Princess to protect him from harm, now could he?

But that also didn’t mean he could entrust his protection to these dwarves who weren’t even adequately equipped yet.

This left him with only one option.

…It was time for him to toil away, then.

But still, he didn’t forget to protest a little bit. “The lycans are strong in close-quarter combat, your highness.”

“Isn’t your magical prowess enough to handle them?”

“Are you saying I should omit spell chanting?”

“Isn’t it fine to pray a little bit every now and then? It should be more than doable if it’s you, archbishop.”

“I don’t have my crosier with me.”

“It’ll be alright, you can do this.”

“But your highness, I’m not so young anymore…”

“I’ll leave it in your capable hands.”

Hilda responded with a smile and all Raphael could do now was groan.

He figured that two days worth of non-stop muscle ache would be in store for him now.

“My biggest regret in life is choosing to serve the Imperial Family, your highness.”

“And we, the Imperial Family, considers having a loyal retainer such as you one of the greatest blessings the gods have granted us.”

She was truly Kelt Olfolse’s granddaughter. Hilda didn’t even give up an inch during this exchange.

Raphael thought to himself. ‘…Looks like I won’t live for long at this rate.’

Who would doubt her being the Holy Emperor’s granddaughter when she was this aggressive?

Now think about it for a second; which princess in history would willingly become a hostage?

All these scions from the Imperial bloodline just didn’t know how to moderate themselves. Not only did they turn the imperial palace into a sea of blood, a princess of all people stepped forward and personally became a hostage, all for the sake of taking the enemy leader’s head after she found out the location of the enemy camp.

Despite everything, these grandsons and granddaughters were still much better than their grandfather. The Holy Emperor, for instance, was mad enough to face the Necromancer King with only Raphael accompanying him.

Just how close was he to wetting his pants back then?!

And now, just thinking about his own granddaughter deciding to serve this very bloodline, and how she would have to face all the trials and tribulations associated with that, he quickly lost all hope for the future.

“I ask of you for this favour, oh Raphael Astoria.”

When she called out to him using his full name, he stared at her with a face filled with dissatisfaction before sighing deeply away.

“In that case, I should offer my prayer right now…”

He then closed his eyes.

“Oh, dear goddess of life, Gaia.”

He began gathering divinity to himself.

“Your faithful servant, Raphael Astoria, humbly begs thee…”

Divinity permeated into his body and was rapidly sucked into the surroundings.

“Grant this one a shield to block the undead, and…”

A formless shield made out of divinity materialised in front of him.

“…And a sword to pierce through the undead.”

And then, a sword formed out of pure light was summoned right next to the shield.

Raphael’s eyes opened up.

**

Redmoon saw itself as a smart creature.

Not only did it manage to escape from the domination of the Vampires, it even successfully settled down here and grew its forces.

On top of all these accomplishments, it even discovered the close ties between the dwarves and the Imperial Princess, and by using the short ones as hostages, it managed to succeed in bringing her here, too.

Now behold! The Imperial Family that even the Vampires were scared of, was currently moving according to Redmoon’s wishes! By taking full advantage of this opportunity, the Vampires wouldn’t be able to treat the lycanthropes as their pets anymore.

Understandably, Redmoon was full of arrogance right now.

But as it was walking away, it began sniffing the air.

-…Divinity?

The thick stench of divinity could be picked up in the surroundings. And a second later, nasty goosebumps broke out on its whole body.

All the fur on its body stood up.

A chill ran down its spine as fear began rushing in.

Redmoon hurriedly dashed into the underground tunnel.

A short while later, it came to an abrupt halt and stared at the event taking place up ahead.

Within the darkness, the lycans were standing around, looking clearly wary of something. One of them growled menacingly and pounced forward, only to be pinned mercilessly against a wall in the blink of an eye.

-…!!!

Redmoon stared in shock at the lycan pinned to the wall by the ‘sword of light’.

This lycan thrashed about and howled in pain, but then, blue flames erupted and burned it out of existence.

Redmoon turned its head, that’s when it saw him.

It saw a skinny and frail-looking old man holding a shield made out of divinity walking forward.

“This wasn’t the image I had in mind…”

Raphael was smacking his lips.

The reason why he was dispatched to this area was to subjugate the lycanthropes.

However, the original plan was to meticulously search through the forest for a long while under the protection of the Crimson Cross and support from the Verdant Cross. They wouldn’t even suffer a single casualty if nothing went wrong.

Then, after uncovering the nest, he was to subjugate the Progenitor lycanthrope.

Raphael shook his head before locking his gaze on Redmoon.

“Oh, dear Gaia…”

Raphael pulled together his still-bound-in-chains hands and bowed his head, offering a prayer.

Divinity expanded and quickly gathered in him.

The remaining lycans began shaking uncontrollably from pure fear. Terror also began filling up inside Redmoon’s eyes.

This place was supposed to be a graveyard. No matter what, this place was far closer to being a Negative Field rather than a Positive one, and yet, the old man was still able to gather an unbelievable amount of divinity right now.

He needed to be killed before his prayers could be completed.

-What are you all waiting for?! Kill him!

“Please let your grace bless this land…”

Raphael opened his eyes and glanced at the lycans.

Divinity coalesced mid-air into the shape of a sword. The blade of light flew out and quickly pierced straight past the lycans.

He was currently using a prayer, and at the same time, he was also casting multiple magics as well.

“…So that your humble servant can…”

The other undead were rushing towards his position. They crashed into the divinity shield and ungainly flailed their limbs about.

“…Save the souls of these undead.”

In that very instant, rays of bright light exploded forth from Raphael’s body.

The lycans that were rushing towards him were burned by the light and turned into ashes.

Redmoon’s eyes gradually turned bloodshot as it took in this spectacle, and a short moment later, actual blood began gushing out from them.

-Uwaaaaaahk?!

Redmoon urgently shielded its face. Its whole body was being scorched by the rays of divinity.

It couldn’t help but stumble back from the horrifying pain.

It was then, the ground seemed to rock under its feet.

While still shedding tears of blood, Redmoon turned its head.

Its blurry gaze caught the figures of the dwarves.

The short creatures were wielding all sorts of weapons that were originally meant for the lycans. Hilda could be seen standing among them.

She held a spear in her hand with an arrogant expression on her face.

The aged Priest was currently slaughtering the lycans while the Imperial Princess thought to be locked away in a prison had escaped.

Redmoon gnashed its teeth.

-How disgraceful, Imperial Princess! You openly fawned over me only a minute ago, and yet you dare point your blade at me?!

“Fawn over you? What are you even talking about?”

While tightening her grip on the spear, Hilda tilted her head in confusion. However, she began nodding as if she managed to recall something.

“It seems that it’s easier than expected to tame an animal.” The corners of her lips curled up, but the light in her eyes remained frigid as her glare locked on Redmoon. “Honestly speaking, I quite like the look of you as well.”

-If that’s the case, then why…?!

“I just had an opening on a wall inside my castle for a stuffed animal, you see?”

Redmoon’s expression instantly hardened when it heard those words.

“The master dwarf craftsmen live in this area so by capturing you alive and letting them work on you, I’ll have a brand new addition to my collection. Or, you might even serve as a great gift for his majesty.” Hilda was grinning with her eyes now. “If I capture a Progenitor lycanthrope and present it to his majesty, it’ll be acknowledged as an outstanding achievement. Wouldn’t you agree that this is a wonderful outcome?”

Hilda then fixed her grip on the spear.

Redmoon’s expression distorted in pure rage.

-You insane b*tch…!

“You seem to have figured it out now. We at the Imperial Family…” While tightening the grip on her spear, she lowered her posture. “…Have to be mad enough in order to hunt you monsters down.”

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