Chapter 297

Yosef Haider’s Ars.

Solagarmr (Sun Hound).

Oh, how immense.

A wolf sprang out from the old man’s shadow.

It looked twenty times larger than Yosef Haider, who resembled a stunted dwarf.

That giant wolf was Yosef’s soul. It seemed capable of swallowing even the sun.

A majestic form. Dripping shadows, the King of Wolves stood tall toward the sky. Stylish, powerful, and noble.

That’s why he hated it.

Yosef hated that splendid soul of his more than anything.

He couldn’t understand why he hated himself so much for shamelessly living on after sending all his children ahead of him.

What use was a noble wolf, what use was it being beautiful to others, when his insides looked so utterly rotten.

“Ha.”

Because he hated himself, he grabbed the wolf’s maw.

The upper jaw and the lower jaw separately.

The wolf allowed itself to be caught obediently.

Its fangs dug into Yosef’s hands, drawing blood.

The one-eyed old man didn’t care. Instead, he forced a loud laugh while grimacing.

“Ha, haha, ha—!!!”

He tore open the maw of his own Ars.

The shadow wolf tore in two with a ripping sound.

Yosef Haider tore the ‘Sun Hound’s’ maw like that, and draped the upper part, which had become like peeled skin, over his body.

As he draped the shadow wolf skin, it clung to his body.

The shadow stickily became one with Yosef’s body.

Yosef giggled, enjoying the irreversible transformation.

His stunted body changed, becoming sturdier, tougher, and more ferocious.

“Ah, I lived to the fullest.”

He looked half wolf, half human.

His head changed to look like a wolf’s, and shadow fur sprouted thickly all over his body.

His nails also turned sharp. Yet Yosef remained one-eyed, walked on two feet, and was human.

His size didn’t increase, but he overflowed with even more power.

“And, I fought to the fullest!”

Ha, haha, ha. A refreshing sound of laughter.

The one-eyed old man, wearing his Ars, charged.

He was surprisingly fierce, like a cutting wind.

Even wielding a double-edged axe larger than a human head, he couldn’t have been swifter.

Sen Hostanio silently raised his sword.

Flames blazed on his sword.

He didn’t back down even against Yosef’s axe. Yosef bared his fangs and laughed.

The old man swung his axe as if driving a storm, as if biting.

Everything caught in its trajectory was cut in two.

Regardless of whether it was a tree or a stone.

There was only one thing that wasn’t cut in two, and that was Sen Hostanio’s sword.

“Your skill with the sword is still the same, Sen!”

“Your axe-wielding is the same too.”

Two-Flame Grand General Sen Hostanio.

He utilized amazingly precise swordsmanship.

Apart from his blazing appearance, he didn’t lose his composure for even a moment.

Sen Hostanio was that kind of man.

Sen Hostanio’s beard and hair were all flames.

They always blazed bright yellow. He was born like this, born with a flame-like blazing nature.

That was why he had to learn composure.

Because he was a blazing fire, he couldn’t live without learning how not to lose his center at any time.

Even when he had to kill countless innocent citizens of enemy nations whom he absolutely did not want to kill, even when he had to shamelessly live on despite that, he had to keep his center.

Because he was the Two-Flame Grand General.

Because he knew too many young people lived looking up to him as a lighthouse.

Because although the gazes of the young were a burden, he couldn’t lay them down.

Sen Hostanio had to blaze again today, despite all the agony and shame.

“I’ll get serious now.”

“Come on then!”

Sen Hostanio’s Ars.

‘Old Fire’.

Fire ignited.

The Two-Flame Grand General’s soul, which was already like a fireball, ignited all at once.

There didn’t seem to be anything more to burn, but heat from an unknown source was added to him.

The flames enveloping him went beyond bright yellow and became transparent.

Then, all creation melted down. Sparkles began to appear in the soil they stood on.

Proof that the sand was crystallizing.

Leaves disappeared and trees became charcoal.

They were given no time to spark or burn.

Everything transformed into the result of having been burnt up in an instant.

Even Yosef, covered in shadows, felt his skin melting.

“Acting rashly at your age.”

Yosef leaped up.

The closer he got to Sen Hostanio, the more intense heat he felt.

So he was even more excited.

Because Yosef used to enjoy jumping into crises.

“How can you get excited all alone like that!”

“Your expression is vulgar.”

Sen Hostanio frowned.

He didn’t like this situation right now.

To think he had to bring out his Ars when he didn’t want to fight.

But it couldn’t be helped.

The opponent was Yosef Haider.

Sword and axe clashed.

In the space of scorching heat where even a single breath was difficult, only Sen Hostanio was free.

No, he was rather swifter.

Yosef giggled despite becoming exhausted by the scorching heat.

Keul.

However, Yosef was a seasoned fighter.

He used the axe best, but he didn’t use only the axe.

Pretending to swing the axe, he threw what he held in his hand.

It was the iron buckle of his belt.

At the unexpected throw, Sen Hostanio jerked his head away.

But he couldn’t dodge completely, leaving a long gash on his cheek.

“You rat-tit one-eyed bastard!”

“Ha!”

Yosef pulled up the corners of his mouth.

It was an obvious sneer.

“You scholarly brat! You’re just pale and weak, you can’t even curse properly!”

“…Me, a scholarly brat?”

Sen Hostanio was dumbfounded. How many people were there who would call him, the 2nd seat of the Ten Great Generals of the Empire, a scholarly brat?

Still, in the eyes of Yosef Haider, who had rolled around in mountains and caught beasts with his bare hands since childhood, Sen Hostanio was a scholarly brat.

“Ah, you graduated from the academy!”

“…It’s the Empire’s regular curriculum, you one-eyed bastard!”

“That’s a scholarly brat, what else! You lived holding a pen until you were nineteen. I was trimming reindeer hides back then!”

“…No!”

The Two-Flame Grand General felt suffocated. Of course, his swordsmanship wasn’t dull at all.

He expressed his utter disbelief.

“You! Yosef Haider! You were the eldest son of the Haider chieftain at the time! You could have attended the academy if you wanted to!”

“I could have attended!”

Yosef snorted.

“But I didn’t want to!”

“Hey!”

The Two-Flame Grand General forgot his age and screamed like a child.

“You didn’t go because you didn’t want to, so why call others scholarly brats!”

“That’s how curses work originally, you moron! As expected of a scholarly brat, you don’t know anything!”

Yosef Haider giggled in excitement.

He was over seventy.

Sen Hostanio was the same.

Yet somehow, it was no different from a fight between little kids.

They exchanged sword and axe blows while chattering incessantly.

The sword was swift and the axe was heavy. Naturally, wounds were exchanged and blood flowed.

Yet it was satisfying.

Fighting, this damned fighting.

This was just a fight.

A fight no different from when he was a five-year-old kid who didn’t even know how to make a fist.

But strangely, there were many bastards who considered this fighting to be something great.

Just for being good at fighting, they were praised as one of the Volmark Six Warriors or the Ten Great Generals of the Empire.

When fighting is always just fighting.

Yosef Haider was a fighter, and so he was always frustrated.

Because the number of bastards who knew proper fighting was becoming rarer by the day.

But he met a proper fighter called Sen Hostanio.

It seemed they could even share that frustration.

“This is the best.”

The one-eyed old man muttered without realizing it.

He was being faithful to Leniar’s command, he had saved me and he could show all his strength against Sen Hostanio.

He realized he had always been waiting for this moment.

The sword dug in.

Yosef blocked but couldn’t block.

The sword of scorching heat cut the axe in two and struck at his neck and finally, it began to pierce through the skin.

Feeling his neck being split, Yosef pulled up his beard-covered mouth as much as he could and laughed.

“It’s the best death.”

Ha, haha, ha—!

***

Velgil ran.

Carrying me on his back.

“…Ugh….”

“Are you conscious?”

“…Lately, I often flee while being carried by someone.”

I muttered.

I suddenly recalled the jade-eyed man who used to carry me and run.

Sadness dug between my collarbones, but I recalled four syllables. Poesia.

I felt the will to live again.

“…What about Yosef?”

“…The Two-Flame Grand General chased us.”

“……Is that so.”

I asked no more.

If it’s Sen Hostanio, he is a powerhouse of the Empire second only to Deballo Debius.

Even for Yosef Haider, there was no way to stop him without risking his life.

I bit my lip.

I had asked Yosef.

To risk his life to protect me, I had to live longer.

Yosef kept his promise.

Even though seven years ago, he had tried to kill me.

“Just endure a little longer, Your Highness. Soon now….”

“Soon now?”

Velgil stopped speaking.

The heat was intense.

“Soon now, continue speaking.”

“…He chased us quickly.”

I spat out the words.

Bright yellow flames blocked us.

That blazing sword was proving that its master was Sen Hostanio.

“Did you meet a wolf or something, Two-Flame Grand General? You look terrible.”

“I did. A very fierce and vulgar one-eyed wolf.”

Sen Hostanio was missing his left shoulder.

Naturally, the arm attached to it was gone too, and part of his neck was torn, bleeding profusely.

He looked as if he had been mauled by a huge wolf.

“Look at the face of what kind of wolf it was.”

“…….”

Sen Hostanio threw a head.

It was one-eyed and had a bushy beard. It was Yosef Haider’s severed head.

Even with his head cut off, the one-eyed old man had the corners of his mouth pulled up high, as if something was so amusing.

It looked as if he would laugh Ha, haha, ha at any moment.

I met the eyes of the dead Yosef.

The old man seemed to be saying this. ‘Well, I am sorry, Zionis, Your Highness.’

‘For all my showing off, I couldn’t buy much time.’ ‘Still, I did my best, so handle the rest yourself.’ I smiled bitterly.

“…Another person died because of me.”

“You know it well.”

Sen Hostanio glared at me.

Even his pupils blazed like flames.

“Zionis, Your Highness, you are the seed of discord. I don’t know what schemes the higher-ups have for you, but I must kill you.”

“…I agree with that too.”

I felt a sense of déjà vu.

Seven years ago, Yosef Haider had tried to kill me while spitting out similar words.

Back then, I couldn’t empathize.

I thought he was mistaken about me, a regressor who went back in time to stop the Empire.

But now I could empathize with those words.

I was indeed the seed of discord.

However, I still couldn’t die for them.

“But you are late, Sen Hostanio.”

I said as if declaring it.

Even as a one-armed man, Sen Hostanio could kill Velgil and me in a single stroke.

Velgil was still young and I still had a hole in my heart.

But I was certain that I wouldn’t die.

“Velgil was mistaken. ‘Soon now’, my foot.”

I gestured with my chin toward the ground.

A land boundary stone was visible in the distance.

A stone dividing the boundaries of the land.

We were outside the boundary, outside the Cordis Empire.

“This is already the Silver Dragon Magic Kingdom.”

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