Chapter 151 – Chapter 29: War Destruction #2
In-gong showed the order to Felicia, Silvan and Caitlin. Felicia narrowed her eyes and said,
“Why Anastasia unni?”
It would have been nice if he was sent as support for Chris or even for Baikal. Even though it was better than going to support Zephyr, it still wasn’t an easy task for In-gong.
However, this had been decided by the Merits Department. Unless there was a reasonable justification, he couldn’t refuse the mission just because their factions were different.
‘Of course, that doesn’t mean there is no method to do it.’
He could give up the mission by using illness as an excuse. However, that was merely a workaround. It was obvious it would have an adverse effect on the achievements he had accumulated.
‘It is time to face her.’
He couldn’t avoid his other siblings forever just because they were in different factions. Moreover, unlike Zephyr, In-gong had no intention of murdering the other children of the demon king. If it was possible, he wanted to form a friendly relationship with Baikal or Anastasia.
‘It seems quite difficult.’
Although Baikal was unknown, Anastasia was hard to deal with. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that her desire to become the demon king was the greatest among all his children.
What would happen if Anastasia became the demon king? Although she was called the female Zephyr among the Knight Saga fandom, she wouldn’t cause the Day of Massacre like Zephyr would.
‘But… she might carry out a political purge.’
In any case, it was clear she was better than Zephyr. At Baikal’s tea party, she hadn’t expressed any direct hostility to her other siblings. Moreover, it might be In-gong’s own thoughts, but Anastasia seemed quite favourable to Baikal. Not only were Anastaia’s and Baikal’s factions different, but they were also strong contenders in the fight against the demon king.
In-gong recalled Anastasia’s face as he thought about something else. Why was he being sent to support Anastasia? According to the information gathered by Nayatra, Anastasia didn’t require support. The western area, where she was staying, was peaceful.
There were two possibilities he could think of:
Either the situation had changed in the past few days, or there were some hidden intentions regarding the mission.
Just like Evian which In-gong had been in charge of, the information from the west wasn’t delivered to the Demon King’s Palace in real time. Even if Nayatra had a gift with information, there was a limit to what could be gathered after just entering the Demon King’s Palace. Perhaps the western situation which had been reported to In-gong today was based on information from a few days ago, while the Merits Department had more updated information.
‘If the situation hasn’t changed, is someone behind this?’
However, who would do this?
Unlike the previous mission on the Enger Plains, this mission wasn’t one from the demon king. The duties assigned to each child of the demon king were established with fairly high standards by the Merits Department. Therefore, it was difficult for someone to manipulate the missions.
Of course, a captain was capable of doing it if they were determined. However, it was easy to be discovered, and the risk was too great. There was also no reason for the captains to manipulate this mission.
‘Richard and Yecaderina are capable of doing so.’
However, there was no motivation for either of them to do so. Richard had used the march toward Evian to try and test In-gong’s skills, but he had gone quiet after that. Moreover, he was now on the northern frontier, not at the Demon King’s Palace.
‘Although he is walking on a tightrope, he isn’t the type to do this.’
Similarly, the succubus captain, Yecaderina, was too smart for something like this.
Based on the laws of elimination, In-gong presumed the situation in the west had changed. Or maybe In-gong was just making it more complicated than it was.
Unlike the other children of the demon king, ‘Shutra’ had completed his first task for the Merits Department at 14 years old. The number of missions he had completed were inevitably fewer than the other demon king’s children.
The Merits Department treated the children of the demon king as fairly as possible, ignoring the relationship between factions. It was possible the mission to support Anastasia was a belated mission.
While In-gong was thinking about this alone, Felicia, Caitlin and Silvan had different thoughts. Among the three, Felicia was the first one to open her mouth,
“Then I will go with Shutra.”
Felicia spoke suddenly. She shrugged and said,
“You are going to see Anastasia unni, not some other person. Didn’t everybody see it at Baikal’s tea party? I can’t send Shutra alone.”
Felicia had fended off Anastasia’s remarks during Baikal’s tea party. The two didn’t have a bad relationship, but Felicia alone had blocked all of Anastasia’s strikes toward In-gong.
“Moreover, there is the issue of reinforcements. The dark elves and lycanthropes can’t send reinforcements without Caitlin or me being there.”
Her words were irrefutable. It was controversial for reinforcements to be sent to those who weren’t of their own blood. There was no objection to this statement.
Silvan, who was supposed to return home with Felicia just a few moments ago, had an expression of regret on his face, but he nodded in agreement.
In response to the dark elf siblings, Caitlin licked her lips in distress, but in the end, she gave a long sigh.
“I will go to help Chris oppa as planned. Anastasia unni and Victor oppa are in the west, and Felicia unni will follow. There isn’t any apparent danger, and… I feel like I have left Chris oppa alone for too long. So, I want to see Oppa.”
Despite the different factions, the siblings would still fight together, and Caitlin truly had a lot of affection for Chris. Caitlin’s words brought warmth to everyone’s faces. Among them, Silvan was especially impressed as he stared at Caitlin with moist eyes.
“I’m envious of Chris. He has a praiseworthy sister.”
Silvan stroked Caitlin’s head, unable to hide the envy in his voice. Caitlin turned bright red at Silvan’s remark and said,
“Well, aren’t I also Silvan oppa’s sister?”
“Heok.”
Silvan grabbed his chest like he had been struck. It was obvious his heart had received a hit.
“I-I see. You are already my sister. B-but Felicia…!”
Silvan looked at Felicia with a frown, and Felicia hit Silvan on the head with her fan. She spoke with a prim expression,
“It isn’t about that, and Silvan knows this perfectly well.”
Felicia wasn’t without any affection toward Silvan. She had wanted to go home to the territory of the dark elves due to Silvan’s fairy.
However, this had a higher priority. Silvan smiled like he understood and said,
“Yes, I won’t insist in this situation. Moreover, I am also Shutra’s knight. I can’t be too greedy. As soon as the maintenance of the Black Flame Dragon is over, I will fly to the west.
Silvan spoke in a simple manner while staring at In-gong with a serious expression. It was quite a burdensome sight, so In-gong quickly turned his gaze toward Caitlin, who smiled.
“Shutra, let me know if you ever need my help. Understand?”
“Noona as well. Please contact me if you ever need me. I will go running towards your location.”
“Faster than the wind?”
“Eung.”
The atmosphere was a bit embarrassing, but In-gong agreed. As In-gong and Caitlin smiled at each other, Felicia opened her fan with a loud sound and caught everyone’s attention.
“Anyway, the time we have is quite short. Maybe we should move after the reinforcements join, just like at Evian.”
They still had three days to spare, but today was almost over. They could save time by sending the reinforcements from Evian to the west, but Alita was the leader of the reinforcements, and she was currently in Karamis with the Black Flame Dragon. It was unreasonable to suddenly call her to the west.
It was at that moment that a new voice was heard from the entrance of the room.
“Well, it was noisy, so I thought everybody would be gathered.”
“Amita?”
Caitlin cried out reflexively. Indeed, Amita and Daphne were standing at the entrance to the room.
As all their eyes gathered on Amita, Amita laughed and then shouted with both arms wide open.
“This Amita has finished!”
Amita jumped down and ran toward the sofa in a good mood. Daphne put down a box in front of In-gong.
“Now, the improved version of Night Watch.”
Inside the box, there was a dark blue cloak. Amita spoke while their tail tapped on the sofa.
“The flying ability and defense capabilities have been strengthened, and the daily usage of Blink has increased from three to five times. How about it?”
“As expected from Amita.”
It was just basic specs work, but this was good too. Amita felt better after In-gong’s appropriate reaction and said,
“I also made the armour for the orc.”
“Oh, really?”
Carack asked with wide eyes. He hadn’t expected anything because his order was last in the sequence.
Amita smiled and replied,
“I tried to postpone it until the last, but I ended up finishing it. Come to the workshop later. I prepared something that fits a heavy but ignorant guy very well.”
“I understand, thank you.”
Carack smiled brightly at Daphne, who also smiled back. Maybe it was because of her that Carack’s order had been pulled forward.
“So, what were you talking about?”
Amita asked while flopping down on the sofa, and In-gong showed them the command from the Merits Department.
“A new mission has been received. This time I will go to the west. Do you know Curtis?”
“Uhh, west… is that Curtis? I dislike it because there is a lot of rain.”
Amita muttered with an upset face. Then In-gong smiled and asked,
“Do you want to follow me?”
“It isn’t following but being dragged along! Don’t talk like that while smiling!”
Amita stood up and banged their tail on the sofa. In-gong told Amita,
“It is okay. This time, please wait at the Demon King’s Palace.”
“What? Really?”
“Yes, it is fine.”
This was just a support mission. Whether he liked it or not, he was highly likely to encounter Anastasia several times, and In-gong didn’t want her to know about Amita’s existence.
‘I have to leave Nayatra behind as well.’
Her interrogation abilities were useful, but there was a task he wanted her to prioritize. Nayatra would lay down the foundations of the information organization as well as investigate the gandharva’s sins.
Daphne was in charge of Amita, so she would be left behind as well. This time, only Carack and Karma would go.
While Amita was expressing their happiness about not having to follow In-gong, In-gong tried to recall the western area of the Demon World from Knight Saga. The first things which came to mind were the giants.
They were a tough warrior species with a height of approximately eight meters. They were called the breakwater in the western part of the Demon World because they blocked the barbarians beyond the Western Limit Line.
After a bit of discussion about the future schedule, the party separated. As Felicia said, the time constraints were tight, so they had to hurry.
Four days later, at noon, Silvan and Caitlin had already left, while In-gong and Felicia were standing in front of the transportation formation. As they had planned originally, Amita, Daphne and Nayatra were left at the palace, so the only ones with Felicia and In-gong were Carack, Karma and Delia.
After saying goodbye to Nayatra and Daphne at the transportation formation, Carack took a deep breath and said,
“We should be prepared for an event.”
“Huh? Didn’t the additional information gathered from Nayatra say that it isn’t serious?”
During the past few days, In-gong hadn’t simply been waiting for the departure. Together with Felicia, he had conducted an investigation into the Four Knights of the Apocalypse, while Nayatra had collected as much information as possible about the west.
The west was currently quiet. Although there were a few small battles near the Western Limit Line, there wasn’t a case of the barbarians crossing over like in Evian.
“But now Prince is going there.”
“Yes. I’m going.”
Carack replied, and In-gong nodded like he was convinced. Felicia frowned from where she was standing beside the two men.
“Hey, can’t we just follow the flow for now?”
Instead of answering, In-gong and Carack looked at each other and laughed.
Green Wind whispered in In-gong’s ears,
‘Master, if the orc is correct, does that mean the 4th Princess in a pitiful situation right now?’
“We’ll see?”
Indeed, what would happen?
In-gong took a deep breath and straightened his posture.
The transportation formation was activated.