The Protagonists of Romance Fantasy Novels Have Escaped

74 – 74. The Enemy of the Holy Maiden’s Party (1)

—-

The girl with flowing silver hair gazed endlessly at the impregnable fortress.

Faintly, she could sense it.

It was the unmistakable presence of Edanant.

Edanant had arrived at the impregnable fortress.

What story would he share with the Black Castle?

Anxiously, she waited, wondering if Edanant would engage in battle with the Black Castle. The mere thought of the Apostles of War and the Black Castle colliding filled her with dread, imagining the catastrophic disaster that would unfold.

“If Edan finds Beatrice’s whereabouts this time…”

Through the devastating calamity caused by the Black Castle in the Pug Kingdom, he could infer.

Beatrice had not fled.

There must have been a reason why she had descended from the stage where she had been active until now.

There was a hidden truth.

There must have been a reason for her sudden departure.

“She must be a woman covered in a flowery garden to the core… I thought she might have hidden herself to escape the plague with the lovers she carried around.”

Upon hearing the news that the lovers cherished by the great Second Saint who had vanquished the Demon King had gone missing, she didn’t pay much attention.

She would return soon.

She believed that Beatrice would return, showing her usual natural appearance.

However, despite two months passing, Beatrice’s whereabouts remained a mystery.

Jeblinne let out a heavy sigh and raised her head.

“How is the situation in the Voemon Kingdom?”

“Most likely, they have withdrawn most of their forces. There is no one near the castle walls.”

Was it out of concern for the clash?

Or was it to make way for Edanant and Regnas?

As if expressing her anxious heart, she gnawed on her nails.

The ominous soon turned into reality.

As soon as the Apostle of War and the Black Castle met at the fortress, a massive magical energy surged from the west.

The direction where the stronghold, led by numerous monsters, was located.

“West, Lady Saint! The monsters are descending!”

“Phew….”

Dust rose as if going mad.

The troops of the Voemon Kingdom, who had threatened with sharp swords, noticed the temporary withdrawal. Consequently, the monsters, who had been cornered by successive subjugations, began to writhe in unison.

The Holy Knights of the Sanghwang Kingdom moved.

Jeblinne, too, took action to respond to the sudden attack.

“Rue, stick close to my side.”

“Yes!”

With a rough roar, the clear sky darkened in an instant. Subsequently, pure white lightning struck down, illuminating the once dark sky.

Thunder rumbled again.

Sharp lightning scattered in all directions like spiderwebs.

Witnessing the majestic spectacle as if the heavens and earth were unfolding before their eyes, the Holy Knights marveled.

“The White Dragon of the Sanghwang Kingdom…!”

“To us, Lady Saint is here! Everyone, raise your swords!”

The lightning of the White Dragon, guarding the land, descended upon the monsters crossing the battlefield.

─────!!

────────!!!

Lightning struck down.

Each time, the monsters that rushed fiercely were valiantly vanquished. Despite their fierce charge, they could not reach the Lady Saint in the end.

The sky and the ground were bathed in pure white radiance.

Jeblinne’s skillful control of the sharp lightning, scattered like rain, reminded one of Edanant, who had demonstrated overwhelming firepower in the racial war. Mimicking the Apostle of War’s battle tactics.

-Grooooooan!!!

When most of the monsters that had rushed forward were defeated,

A roar echoed.

The moment the leader who had relentlessly plagued the Voemon Kingdom, commanding numerous monsters, appeared. The sight of the monster collapsing the mountainside and rising its upper body made the Holy Knights gulp in fear.

“…Since reuniting with Edan, nothing seems to be resolved easily.”

From Noble mtl dot com

The Saint reached out to the fairy watching beside her.

In response, the fairy ran towards her with quick steps and handed over the staff she had been holding tightly with both hands.

“Shall we try using Beatrice’s sacred artifact that the Sanghwang and the Chugyeongs boasted about?”

She raised the scepter adorned with ivory.

The Royal Hall of the White Night.

The scepter Rue handed to Jeblinne was the Sanghwang Kingdom’s sacred artifact preserved in the fairy paradise.

With the sacred artifact in hand, the Saint blocked the monstrous evil like a holy guardian. Despite the ferocious monster’s repeated advances, it never wavered in the face of the fierce shockwaves.

* * *

When the triumphant forces dispatched to the Kingdom of Vomon initiated the confrontation,

Edanant and Regnas focused solely on their opponents as if disregarding the thunderous roar of the storm.

The end of the world was nearing.

To prevent the anticipated outcome, a ‘symbol of evil’ was required.

Only then did the questions begin to unravel.

Through Regnas’s explanation, Edanant finally grasped the full story of the gruesome massacre that had taken place in the Pug Kingdom. He also learned the reason why the wielder of the sword had descended to become the executioner of the king.

“…Do you intend to become the symbol of evil yourself?”

“Yes.”

The party of saintly warriors who had vanquished the demon king to save the world now contemplated embracing wickedness. At Regnas’s succinct response, Edanant’s face contorted in anger.

Corruption.

Or descent from grace.

Declaring allegiance to evil, forsaking the divine, was no different from embracing the abominable sin of Blasphemy, which the Kingdom of Triumph vehemently condemned.

Heroes of the past turning into villains.

Recalling the radiant image of Beatrice, Edanant clenched the grip of his firearm.

“You fools, you should have chosen me instead! If you needed a disciple to serve as the harbinger of war…! I could have perfectly replaced the fallen demon king! Are your minds so feeble?”

If he had heard that the world might be facing its final moments, he would have readily accepted the necessary evil.

An evil to stand in for ‘death’ was needed.

Then, raising the ‘war,’ also known as the ‘innocent evil,’ akin to death, was the only option.

Why.

Why on earth…!

He glared at his sword as if he were about to pull the trigger at any moment.

After a series of twists and turns, Edanant finally understood why the protagonists who had reached the epilogue had disappeared. Confronted with the truth he had desperately sought, Edanant expressed his anger and frustration with trembling eyes.

“It is truly regrettable. If the gods of tyranny and famine, who have threatened humanity like death and war, had remained in power until now, things could have been different.”

If the gods of tyranny and famine, who had posed a threat to the existence of humanity like death and war, had still held sway, there would have been no worry about the world’s end.

Unfortunately, tyranny and famine had long turned into phantoms.

The god of tyranny was vanquished by the heroes of the Evelas Empire, the predecessor of the Battaria Empire, and buried in the western desert.

And the god of famine was sealed by Belaciel, the daughter of the earth goddess and revered as the archangel of the heavens, and cast into the eastern sea.

Now, the only remaining ‘innocent evil’ was war.

Only a few, including the saintly party, knew this.

“Ethan, I have conveyed all I wanted to say to you.”

Regnas’s calm demeanor, like a warm breeze, suddenly turned into a fierce storm. He finally drew the hilt of his sword, which he had firmly gripped with his fist.

A sharp metallic sound rang out.

Simultaneously, the sharp tip of the blade was revealed.

“From now on, you are an enemy of the saintly party. Even if it means embracing the necessary evil of the world, as the hero representing the empire, you… inevitably must become our foe.”

“…….”

It was futile to say anything.

Those who followed the saint were all eccentric madmen.

He decided to accept the offer.

In response to Regnas declaring enmity, he also drew out Alderan to confront him.

“Regnas, you said you would never use force against the weak.”

“What an amusing joke. Why would you be considered weak, Ethan?”

Clang!

Before either could finish their words, their blades clashed fiercely.

The shockwave shook the castle walls.

Nevertheless, Edanant and Regnas charged forward without retreat.

Sharp strikes of the swords rained down repeatedly. As a result, the supposedly impregnable fortress walls crumbled like sliced vegetables.

“It’s an impressive swordsmanship. You’ve truly perfected the art of Maxemilian, haven’t you?”

“It’s been three years since then.”

The warlike edge of the swords blurred.

And the martial edge of the swords blurred.

At the same time.

In the same motion.

Just as Edanant mimicked the swordsmanship of the hero, Regnas did the same.

Were they trying to evaluate each other’s skills as judges would with a score? The sword monster who had mastered all the exceptional swordsmanship in the world deliberately used the same technique.

“I hold no personal grudge against you. Of course, it would have been different if it were Maxemilian.”

“I understand completely.”

The muskets deployed in the air simultaneously spewed forth flames.

Countless bullets discharged from the barrels rained down on Regnas like a hailstorm.

“I hold no personal grudge either.”

The form of the blade, flowing with the essence of the sword, transformed.

Shrrr-!

And with a roar that swept away hundreds of bullets in one go, he displayed his prowess.

Having pursued swordsmanship with madness, he was a rising star fitting to stand among the top ranks of the Seven Rivers nationwide. Edanant, looking at the bullets falling to the ground like scattered grains, clenched his teeth.