Chapter 158 : Subjugation

‘There are too many of them.’

Rauel, who had hidden herself in the forest, frowned as she felt the presences approaching from behind.

‘The Piercer’ was already activated with an arrow in hand.

It was no exaggeration to say that everyone within this small forest was within her sensory range.

Shaking off the enemies would have been a piece of cake, but.

“Damn it, damn it, for me to be in this state……”

Because of the burdensome baggage that was throwing a tantrum even while being dragged by the scruff of his neck, she had no choice but to exclude running away from her options.

In that case.

“Be quiet, for a moment.”

“What?”

Rauel didn’t answer and counted the number of arrows in the quiver at her side.

‘Thirty-two arrows.’

Including the one in her hand, thirty-three.

It had been a long time since she felt the capacity of her familiar quiver to be so disappointing.

‘If I had known this would happen, I should have brought one more quiver.’

It can’t be helped.

She had to make the most of what she had.

T-zing.

The moment she drew the bowstring, Rauel felt time slow down.

Every movement within the forest entered her sensory range, and their paths began to be read clearly.

From the trajectories of people, animals, or insects, to the subtle flow of the air.

Among them, there were exactly 112 movements that seemed to be enemies.

But.

‘Six of them look like knights.’

Take out the leaders first.

The moment she decided on her target, the string, wrapped in a blue light, was released.

Ting.

The arrow, imbued with azure mana, cut through the wind and flew.

And riding the wind created by the cold midnight air colliding with unfamiliar movements, it bent ever so slightly, several times.

The arrow, imbued with mana, far surpassed its original effective range, flying over 300 meters to reach its target.

Puk.

“K-keuheuk!”

A knight, with his eyes wide open, collapsed from an arrow that suddenly flew out from behind a tree and pierced his neck.

“Sir Kimbel!!!”

“Sir Kimbel is down!!”

The moment a commotion arose around him.

Another arrow, which had been shot high into the sky from the other side, silently lodged itself in the head of a knight who had carelessly taken off his helmet.

“Kuh……?”

Thud.

“Sir Roman!”

“Sir Roman has fallen!”

A commotion began to rise again in the quiet forest.

And that commotion continued exactly three more times, bringing an ever-increasing disturbance to the enemy camp.

However.

– Tang!

Soon, Rauel felt the last of the six arrows aimed at the knights get deflected by a sword swung by its target.

At that moment, she also felt that knight rushing towards her at a terrifying speed.

‘He knows my location?’

How?

Separate from her bewilderment, her judgment of the situation was quick.

“Run back to where you were.”

“What!?”

She didn’t wait for Zayd’s answer and leaped into the forest.

And while calculating the enemy’s movements, she released the bowstring in succession.

Pababak.

T-ing.

Arrows were fired in succession from the bowstring, which had its elasticity and strength enhanced by gathering mana.

A perfect predictive shot that even calculated the flow of the wind and the enemy’s movements.

But the approaching enemy deflected Rauel’s arrows in succession.

– Tadadadang!

And immediately began to run towards where she was.

At that moment, the assessment was made.

‘Sensory and speed-specialized. Armor is also substantial.’

The most difficult type of opponent for her.

Rauel went back out of the forest and headed for a wide-open clearing.

“Why! Why!?”

Zayd, who was returning to the original campsite, shouted in surprise upon seeing her approach.

“Ugh!?”

Whirl.

Rauel grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and threw him into the middle of the clearing.

“What is this……!”

For a Corporeal Arts user, Zayd twisted his thrown posture and landed.

Confirming his position, she slid back and drew her bowstring in succession.

T-iiing!

As if playing a single-stringed harp, the mana-imbued bowstring let out a series of clear notes.

The fired arrows headed straight for the front of the knight who had appeared as if waiting.

“Found you!!”

Tadadadang!

A slender knight, fully encased in full plate mail and with his helmet pulled down.

He was deflecting all the arrows aimed at the gaps in his armor and approaching her with a fearsome momentum.

The curved katana-style sword from the east was astonishingly fast.

As was his charging speed.

The distance closed in an instant.

Thud.

Rauel’s back, which had been slowly retreating, touched Zayd’s body.

T-aang!

“Got you……!”

The moment the knight who had deflected an arrow from less than 10 meters away let out a thrilling cry of victory.

Puk.

“Keuk!?”

The first arrow that had been fired in the clearing accurately pierced the joint of the knight’s shoulder armor.

He expressed his surprise with wide eyes inside his helmet.

“Eek! Still……!”

The moment he tried to force himself to charge again.

Woong.

A small crossbow popped out of Rauel’s right hand.

“The end.”

Pushuk.

A short word, three arrows fired with a small noise.

They pierced directly into the heart of the knight who was trying to close the distance again.

Pupupuk.

“H-how could this……”

The light in the knight’s eyes inside the helmet faded.

Soon, the helmet of the collapsed knight rolled on the dirt floor of the clearing.

Though their traits were polar opposites, he was still just a 4-Star-level knight.

His abilities were far from enough to make her ‘calculations’ go awry.

Rauel turned around with a nonchalant face, as if she hadn’t just fought a fierce battle.

“H-hehehe, damn it……”

Zayd, who was looking back and forth between the corpse and her with a dazed expression.

She asks him.

“Freddie, should I kill him?”

A direct blood relative of the family she once served. As she uttered his life and death with her own mouth, Rauel felt a strange sense of pleasure.

But Zayd’s choice was unexpected.

“……You can’t kill him.”

“That bastard was after you, wasn’t he?”

“I want to kill him too! But, too many Aslan knights have died today. Anymore, and Father……”

“Hmm?”

“Damn it! Freddie, that stupid bastard, doing such a moronic thing!”

Hmm…….

As Zayd’s incomprehensible tantrum continued.

– Everyone, charge!! What are you doing!!

An enraged voice was heard from the other side of the forest.

“……Then for now, I’ll just subdue him.”

The bowstring was drawn again, and exactly three arrows were shot into the air.

What kind of magic did those arrows cast?

A moment later, the reaction of the voice changed drastically.

– Stop! Stop! Retreat! I said retreat, you bastards!

Zayd looked at Rauel with a stunned face.

Then, the words he uttered without realizing it.

“Can’t you capture him?”

He knew it was an unreasonable request, so he let out an awkward laugh after saying it.

But Rauel’s answer was unexpected.

“I’m already on it.”

“……What?”

Incomprehensible words.

But having seen her abilities that were far beyond his common sense, he couldn’t argue with her.

And at that moment.

– Aaargh!

A sudden scream was heard briefly from the other side of the forest, and then the area fell silent.

‘What on earth is happening.’

Not long after Zayd, who was half out of his mind from the midnight commotion, was staring blankly into the air.

A familiar face appeared before his eyes.

“As expected. It was easy to catch him thanks to you, Rauel.”

“Ah, it hurts!!”

A man dragging Freddie, who had an arrow stuck in his shoulder, bound in chains, with his hundred or so soldiers trailing behind him from a distance.

His companion, who was heating up the kingdom with his symbols of jet-black, murderous armor, helmet, and a huge greatsword.

It was the Black Knight, Muno Drasen.

“See? You’re a huge help.”

At Muno’s continuous emphasis, Rauel let out a chuckle.

“You were watching all along, weren’t you!”

“Well, you could have handled it all even without me, couldn’t you? Am I wrong?”

“……Well, that’s true, but.”

“If it were just me, I would have had to run around until my feet were sweating.”

“That’s……”

“You’re better at dealing with people than I am. So don’t ever blame yourself again. Got it?”

As Rauel, who knew why Muno was saying such things, gave an awkward smile.

The brothers, who were forced to meet again, were shooting sparks at each other with their eyes.

“You crazy bastard, you dare to aim for my life?!”

Freddie, who had momentarily lowered his eyes at Zayd’s murderous gaze, soon saw the corpse of the knight who had been struck by an arrow and was lying on the ground, and clenched his teeth.

And then he immediately shouted.

“It’s the same for you! You would have done it if you had the chance, wouldn’t you!? Right!?”

“Nonsense! Even if we’re fighting for succession, aiming for each other’s lives is forbidden! Are you saying you’ll openly break the rule that Father set!?”

“Don’t make me laugh, brother! You think Father has the mind to care about such things right now? If you disappear here without a trace, he’ll just treat it as a missing person case and be done with it!? You would have done the same if you were in my situation!!”

Zayd was at a loss for words at the sight of Freddie shouting as if he had given up on everything.

Was he intimidated by his brother’s ferocity?

No way.

As his brother said, he knew very well that if he had been in the same situation, he would have done the same thing.

But, the winner now was him.

“……Let me ask you one thing. No matter what, you wouldn’t have caused this mess just by believing in that. Who is behind you?”

“Bullshit……”

“Your treatment will be decided by your answer, Freddie.”

Zayd asked, trying to suppress his anger to maintain his reason.

But his brother didn’t cooperate.

“Don’t make me laugh. You’re going to kill me anyway!”

Freddie, with his body bound, shouted and looked back.

“What are you doing! You bastards! Run! You’ll all die if you stay here!!”

And then he shouts at the soldiers who had reluctantly followed him to save him, or to avoid responsibility.

At that, most of them froze, but a few immediately showed movement.

And the sniper who had dominated the clearing also moved with them.

Pabak.

An arrow shot into the air flew somewhere.

“I’ll kill the one who runs away first.”

As a very gentle voice echoed, the soldiers had no choice but to stop moving.

And in line with that situation, Zayd gave a chilling smile.

“Now, what shall we do, little brother? It seems there’s no one to run away. Do you all want to die together?”

At that sneer, Freddie clenched his teeth and lowered his head.

“Damn it……”

Soon, he muttered something while looking at the ground.

“Bro, brother. Please spare me, please. If, if you spare me just this once, I’ll give up the succession, I’ll give up everything. Please!”

He began to show a completely different, servile attitude from when he was shouting just before.

That complete change of attitude, rather, gave the onlookers the creeps.

“That, that, I’ll, I’ll keep my mouth shut about you joining hands with the Black Knight. You can kill all those guys over there. Just, just spare me. Huh?”

The very pinnacle of servility.

Zayd had a face that said he had a lot to say.

“Let’s finish this quickly, shall we? How long are you going to drag this out?”

“That’s right. I woke up from my sleep because of this.”

The master of this place was not him.

‘Those monsters…….’

One thing he knew for sure.

That assassin named Rauel had literally massacred Freddie’s closest aides, including a 4-Star-level knight.

The Black Knight was also known to be 4-Star.

‘Judging by that woman’s attitude, he must be a monster beyond that.’

They were the very top predators, the kind that seemed to be only a match for monsters like the Lightning Blade Sword or the flame burst user lurking in the family.

So, he had no choice.

“Let’s make this short, Freddie. If you just answer, I’ll spare you.”

“A-anything!”

“I asked you before, didn’t I? About what you believed in to cause this incident.”

Zayd tried to continue speaking as calmly as possible.

But.

“The conversation seems to be getting unnecessarily long.”

The moment the helmeted Black Knight showed a sign of displeasure, he had no choice but to shout as if making an excuse.

“That’s the most important thing!”

So scared that he ended up raising his voice without realizing it.

It was something the usual Zayd would despise, but the current him was not even aware of it.

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