I am the Monarch – Chapter 283: The Dark Elves (5)

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“Fu.”

Pierce Newman heaved out a deep breath as the tense nervousness attacked his lungs.

‘It’s the first time.’

The first time he entered the barracks; his first war; when he had first met Viscount Reil Baker; trained at Grain Mountain Range; when he met the maddened Simon Rinse and the when he stood before Roan Lancephil who was called the God of War… An immense pressure unlike any of those before could be felt.

Gulp.

With a gulp, Pierce glared at the red-haired beautiful young man standing at the end of his spear. With a bright smile, he had an extremely relaxed expression.

“Giving the blessing of Astrum…”

He still spewed out incomprehensible nonsense.

“You! Who the hell are you!”
“How dare you!”

Several deputy leaders each took out their weapons and surrounded the beautiful youth. Due to that, the soldiers of the Rinse Corps that had been in training all stopped their actions and stared towards Pierce and the deputy leaders.

“What?”
“Who’s that redhead?”
“Sir Leader and Sir Deputy Leaders took out their weapons?”
“E, enemy?”

Confused, rowdy voices escaped from all around, and seeing that, the centurions in the leading positions quickly made gestures.

Pabat!

The entirety of the Rinse Corps flowed softly like one body; the previously rectangular formation instantaneously changed to a circular surrounding formation.

“Oho. They’re trained well.”

Looking at the deputy leaders and soldiers surrounding him, the red-haired young man made a strange smile, as if he was facing a cute child. Pierce once again felt cold sweat flowing down his back.

‘We can’t move carelessly.’

It was an instinctive decision. However, the deputy leaders and soldiers under him did not have sharp judgment abilities like Pierce.

“Catch the intruder!”
“Catch him!”

From their eyes, the red-haired young man was an intruder that had entered their Kingdom’s training area without permission. In addition, the fact that they did not notice anything until he appeared right next to Leader Pierce made them feel guilt, bewilderment and rage.

Taat!

The deputy leaders ran towards the red-haired young man.

“Stop!”

Pierce immediately bellowed but it was already too late.

“Oho.”

With an intrigued expression, the red-haired young man looked at the deputy leaders before casually waving his right hand.

“Kneel.”

A calm voice, but at the same, an intense pressure was given off from his body.

“Huhup!”
“Kuk!”

Feeling the intense aura that had their breaths forcibly suppressed and their sights darken, the enlivened deputy leaders gulped. Their fierce legs and arms became solid like statues but their legs still trembled and the knees that couldn’t stand against the aura were bent.

“Uuk! Kuk!”
“N, no!”
“Damn!”

The deputy leaders relied on the Amaranth laws of mana to contend against the young man’s aura. However as time passed, his aura became stronger and stronger.

Kung.

In the end, they had to kneel both of their knees and lower their heads. The aura being emanated from the youth’s body suppressed their bodies and made it hard to even breathe.

“Ah…”
“Uhup.”

Even the soldiers of the Rinse Corps that had been faraway started to kneel due to the pressure given off.

“Uuuuu.”

Some of the soldiers tried to fight against it and clenched hard but it was pointless. In the end, all of them had to kneel before the beautiful youth, but there was one person guarding his spot standing.

He was Pierce.

“Oho.”

Making a strange smile, the red-haired young man stared at Pierce. He was trembling his body slightly and had his teeth clenched, but his two eyes shone brightly and fiercely, while the sharp spearhead was still pointing at the intruder.

He should be feeling pain as if all the bones within his body were being broken but he did not let out a single mutter.

“As expected of the owner of Astrum. Or rather…”

The smile hanging on his lips deepened.

“The one that had once been the owner huh… Kukuk.”

Smiling strangely, he soon waved his right hand and immediately, the intense aura that had been suppressing Pierce, the deputy leaders and the soldiers disappeared like the spring snow.

“Hu.”

Letting out a little breath, Pierce stared at the beautiful youth. Unlike the deputy leaders and soldiers that were feeling puzzlement and even fear, he was extremely calm and nonchalant.

“Introduce yourself.”

Pierce did not give in and was still bold.

“That’s unexpected. I thought you’d at least kneel if I showed this much power.”

With a faint smile, the youth tilted his head while on Pierce’s face, an undisguisable trace of pride surfaced.

“I only…”

Power was etched into his voice.

“Bow to His Majesty Roan Lancephil.”
“His majesty Roan Lancephil, huh…”

The man slowly nodded his head.

“By Roan Lancephil, you mean the one who founded the Amaranth Kingdom after taking down the Rinse Kingdom right? The only existence who a person at your level would kneel to… I must meet him once.”

In the first place, there were several reasons why he had to. And the most important reason from those was:

‘Roan Lancephil. It is highly likely that that guy was the one who had received the blessings of Astrum.’

The beautiful youth reached his hand out towards Pierce. By pure instincts, Pierce increased the distance with his spear still pointing forward.

“There’s no need to run away. Come with me.”
“Come with you? For what?”

Pierce gave a frown but the youth replied shortly with a smile.

“To save the world.”

It was an extremely carefree voice, expression and words, but oddly enough, Pierce could not give an immediate response.

‘To save the world…?’

His heart thumped. It wasn’t the good kind like when he was thinking of Katy Rinse and instead gave him an uncomfortable and unpleasant feeling.

In that instant,

“How dare you go anywhere!”
“We’ll catch you and judge your sins!”

As soon as the deputy leaders came to themselves, they started shouting. The youth stared directly at them with a bright smile.

“Sorry but thus far, no-one was able to stop me. Even Europas was not able to.”

His smiles deepened.

“No-one can stop me.”

Once again, the intense breathtaking pressure stormed in.

“No-one can stop me, this Kalian from doing whatever he wants.”

Kalian. The red-haired youth was the Red Dragon Kalian that had shown itself in the outside world, following the Gold Dragon Europas’ will. However, it had already been centuries since the dragons had hidden themselves, and even when hearing the name Kalian, there was no-one that seemed to realise that he was a dragon.

Due to that, Kalian was a little flustered.

“What? You don’t know me?”

He, who had made an enthusiastic self-introduction, made a slightly embarrassed expression.

“You just said; Kalian right?”

One of the deputy leaders replied indifferently.

“Tch. I must’ve been in the mountains for too long. To think that they had forgotten my name…”

When his words reached that point,

“Let’s go.”

Putting his spear away, Pierce spoke with a low voice. Those were very simple and certain words. Stopping the long complaints he was about to give, Kalian stared at Pierce whose eyes still shone brightly and fiercely.

‘Quite a good pair of eyes for a human.’

With a smile, Kalian reached out his right hand.

“Good. Hold my hand.”

After staring at Kalian for a bit, Pierce slowly matched it with his own right hand.

“Sir Leader!”
“You mustn’t! Sir Leader!”

Several deputy leaders shouted with surprised expressions but Pierce only turned his head back to stare at them.

“I’ll be back soon.”

After a little hesitation, he continued with a difficult voice.

“Please say everything carefully to Castellan Katy.”
“Ah…”

The deputy leaders let out low mutters while Pierce consciously gave them a smile as he grabbed onto Kalian’s.

“Your hand’s quite cold.”

Kalian talked about some pointless things and Pierce replied softly like a whisper.

“Instead, something else is warm.”

That was the end of their conversation. With a smile, Kalian tilted his head slightly and then

Paaat!

A white pillar of light enveloped Kalian and Pierce’s body as it reached into the sky.

Sphat!

The bright pillar of light soon hid itself and Kalian and Pierce who had been right before them until just then had disappeared along with it.

“T, teleport?”