Chapter 128. Got to Get What Needs to be Gotten
Edward stared at Caron with a hollow expression, the weight of failure pressing down on him. He wondered where things had all gone wrong, because this wasn't supposed to happen.
The plan had been simple. They just had to neutralize the elves' spirits, then raid their village, weakened and defenseless. It was a straightforward operation, but the result was different from his expectations.
Boom!
"Argh!"
"P-Please, spare my life!"
It was a complete disaster.
The subordinates who had followed Edward since his days in a knight order were now cornered, teetering on the brink.
Some had been taken down by the dimwitted brutes of the White Shark Pirate Crew, while others had succumbed to Bessic's poison. Even those fortunate enough to hold their ground were gradually being picked off by the elves' spirit magic.
It's over, Edward thought. What he'd once dismissed as an easy victory had turned into his grave.
"...How can this be?" he murmured.
A bitter resentment toward the Queen, the one who had abandoned him, rose from the depths of his heart. He couldn't comprehend her choice. All he had done was follow her orders, carrying out her will to the letter. So he couldn't understand why she had chosen this moment to discard him.
Although deep down, he already knew the answer.
Clang!
It all stemmed from that cunning brat, Caron Leston, the one that was closing in on him. From the moment their operation fell apart, to the Queen's sudden change of heart...
Edward's mind understood this all too well, but his heart refused to accept it.
"Caron Leston!" he roared, gathering every ounce of mana he had left.
Despite the exhaustion weighing down his body from his combat with Bessic, Edward forced his drained mana reserves to the surface. He couldn't die here. He had to survive, and live long enough to repay this humiliation.
But with his battered body reaching its limit, it was impossible.
Clang!
As his blade lashed out, it struck Caron's dark blue sword, only to lose its strength instantly. Every clash of their swords scattered the last remnants of Edward's mana.
This mere boy of seventeen—a child, really—was unnervingly precise, exploiting every opening with ruthless efficiency.
The battle was already lost. And yet, Caron didn't hurry to end it. Instead, he dismantled Edward's defenses one by one, as if mocking him.
He's a demon, Edward thought bitterly.
As a knight, he was supposed to respect his opponent's honor, even in the heat of battle. But Caron... There wasn't a shred of honor to be found in him.
Boom!
"Argh!"
A violent surge erupted from beneath Edward's feet, slamming into his torso. Blood poured from his mouth in torrents.
His vision blurred, but through the haze, he saw Bessic fall. The man, who had fought with relentless fury, had finally met his end at the hands of Caron's comrades.
Edward thought that if they had fought together from the start, perhaps they could have overcome this. But now, such regret was meaningless.
"Ah..."
On the entire vast battlefield, Edward was the last one standing. The few pirates who survived the elves' spirits had lost even the will to resist and were fleeing for their lives, but the golems of Etyron allowed no such escape. The nagas were no exception, either.
Those who should have been providing support with magic had been paired with an immensely powerful figure. Even at a glance, it was clear that the figure was as mighty as a 8-Star warrior. For the first time, true despair crept into Edward's heart. There was no way out of this place now.
"Caron Leston," he said, his voice heavy as he adjusted his grip on his sword and fixed his gaze on the young man before him. "Don't disgrace the last honor I have left."
His voice was low, trembling slightly as he stared at the demon in front of him. "Face me with your best swordsmanship. That's all I ask."
Edward hoped for at least that much mercy, but the response he received couldn't have been further from his expectations.
"Honor? For a pirate?" Caron's voice was mocking, sharp as the blade he wielded. "The idea of an honorable pirate is like saying there's such a thing as a 'benevolent dark mage.' Utter nonsense—something that doesn't exist in this world."
He smirked, raising his sword with deceptive ease, and swung it in a simple, unrefined arc.
It wasn't even worth calling a sword technique—it was just a basic slash. But Edward, pushed to his very limits, could barely muster the strength to block it.
Thwack!
That seemingly effortless strike shattered pieces of Edward's armor one by one. His body couldn't withstand the aura infused into Caron's blade any longer.
"You came here to destroy the future of innocent elves," Caron said, his voice dripping with disdain. "And now you talk of honor?"
The demon's mocking laughter echoed in Edward's ears. In a burst of desperate rage, he forced his core into overdrive, his voice rising in a defiant shout. "Do you think I'll die so easily?"
This was the mana he had cultivated over a lifetime. Even if it couldn't change the outcome, he would make sure his death had meaning.
But at that moment...
Squelch.
Caron's dark blue sword pierced into Edward's chest. Mana surged from the blade, and a horrifying pain spread through him, as if countless insects were tearing apart his organs from the inside.
He couldn't even carry out the rampage he'd intended. Caron's mana spread through him in an instant, taking over his core and mana pathways with terrifying ease.
Thud.
Edward collapsed to his knees. His vision blurred as he looked up at the young man standing over him. Mustering the last of his strength, he forced out a final curse. "You... will meet a wretched end one day—"
Before he could finish his sentence, however...
Slash!
Caron yanked his sword, Guillotine , from Edward's chest. And without hesitation, he swung it cleanly through Edward's neck.
Thud.
Edward's severed head fell to the ground, his lifeless eyes still open.
Caron spat blood-tinged saliva onto the dirt, a crooked grin spreading across his face.
"A pirate, trying to give some grand last words?" he scoffed, shaking his head. He swung Guillotine lightly, flicking off the blood that coated its blade. Then, glancing at Edward's head with cold detachment, he muttered under his breath, "You died like the vermin you are. That suits you perfectly."
With that, Caron turned to look at his comrades. They weren't in great shape either.
Leo's hands trembled uncontrollably, as if the poison coursing through his veins had fully taken hold. Nearby, Leon's armor was battered and misshapen, bent grotesquely in places. Utula wasn't faring much better. Blood poured from his shoulder, where Bessic's ax had torn through even his iron-hard muscles.
Seeing their condition, Caron let out a dry chuckle and quipped, "What, is it that hard to take care of a dying enemy?"
Leo, stuttering through labored breaths, managed a weak reply. "A-A-Antidote... for p-poison... D-Do you have one?"
"Leo," Caron said.
"W-What?" Leo replied.
"Isn't there a saying that hardships in youth are worth going through? While you're at it, why not build up some resistance to poison? Just hang in there," Caron suggested.
"I'm actually g-going to d-die for real... I swear I'm gonna..." Leo stuttered.
"Nah, people don't die that easily," Caron said with a smirk, giving Leo a cheerful thumbs-up.
Without waiting for a response, he turned his attention away from his struggling comrades and glanced toward the back of the village.
"It's over," he remarked.
In the distance, a pack of elves riding wolves charged at full speed toward the battlefield.
Moments later, a massive bird made of roaring flames soared into the sky. It said, "I will burn every last one of you."
"Ifrit," Caron muttered.
The fact that Ifrit had revealed itself here meant that Orion, Ifrit's contractor and the elf patrol captain, had arrived.
"Don't let those who invaded the forest leave alive!" Orion instructed.
As the wolf-mounted elves arrived, the defenders within the village began to emerge as well, forming a united front.
Caron let out a long breath as he surveyed the scene. He mused to himself, "Well then, what should I demand this time?"
The battle was over. All that remained now was to hand the elves the bill.
His lips curled into a satisfied smile that only grew into a wider grin as he said, "Just thinking about it is making my mouth water."
***
Once the elves joined the battle in earnest, the battlefield was swiftly brought under control. The pirates had no chance of escaping. After all, this was the Southern Great Forest, and no one could hope to outrun the elves, who were blessed by the woods.
Whoosh.
Orion turned to Leo, who was still trembling from the effects of the poison, and summoned a water spirit to cleanse his system. Once the antidote had done its work, Orion quietly fixed his gaze on Caron.
In a low voice, he said, "If it weren't for you, we would've been gathering the corpses of our kin by now. You've helped us again, Caron. I'm not sure how we can repay this debt."
He glanced around the battlefield, littered with the bodies of pirates. Without Caron's group, the village would've been reduced to ruins long before the elves could mount a defense.
"I wouldn't have thought that the Queen herself would get involved," Orion muttered.
He, too, had heard of the human woman they called the Queen. She was also known as the ruler of the southern seas. A warrior who had reached the pinnacle of 8-Star could never have been stopped by the strength of Eär Village alone.
"It's a relief she withdrew peacefully," Caron said. "Honestly, we didn't expect the Queen to show up either."
Even now, the outcome felt almost like a stroke of divine luck. If they hadn't met Kerra, or if the Queen hadn't been persuaded, the best they could've hoped for was to escape with their lives.
Orion asked in a curious whisper, "How did you convince the Queen?"
Caron responded with a grin, "Let's call it a charm offensive."
Orion's expression twisted ever so slightly. He asked, "You... went that far for us...?"
"...What kind of nonsense are you imagining now?" Caron shot back with a groan.
"Well, even as an elf, I'd say you're quite good-looking. It's possible you were her type..." Orion trailed off, clearly entertaining some rather dubious thoughts.
Caron raised a fist toward Orion and said, "Don't even joke about something like that! Do you even know how old the Queen is?"
"No idea," Orion admitted.
"She's at least eighty years old!" Caron protested.
Orion widened his eyes as if that didn't matter at all, then said, "Eighty? That's prime age. What's the problem?"
"Don't think about it in elf terms, for goodness' sake," Caron muttered, shaking his head.
"It's elven humor," Orion replied with a sly grin. His voice softened as he added, "But I really am curious about how you persuaded her to leave."
"She's a calculating person," Caron said simply.
"Calculating?" Orion asked.
"She weighed the cost of crossing me against maintaining some kind of relationship. In the end, she made her choice," Caron explained.
Orion nodded, his expression thoughtful as he said, "It sounds like the Queen holds you in high regard."
"Maybe. I guess so?" Caron replied with a shrug.
"If I were the Queen, I'd have made the same choice," Orion said.
"Was that a compliment?" Caron asked.
"It was," Orion confirmed.
With a casual wave of his hand, he conjured a towering wall of flame in the distance, ensuring no pirate would escape.
"Did you figure out what the Queen was after?" he asked.
"She was after Etyron's treasury," Caron answered.
"But with Etyron dead, there's no way to access it," Orion said, confused.
"There is now. A hatchling was born," Caron announced.
Orion blinked and said in disbelief, "That's hard to believe."
"We left the hatchling at the village for now. You'll see it soon enough. Besides, there's something I need to discuss with your elves about the hatchling," Caron said.
As the two continued their conversation, something unusual caught Caron's attention.
"What are they doing?" he muttered.
Unlike the scattered pirates, who were fleeing chaotically, the nagas who had been at the rear were behaving oddly. The great crocodile, Leviathan, had been cleaved in two by Kerra's blade, and Caron had expected the nagas to launch some kind of desperate last stand.
Instead, nearly a hundred nagas were kneeling on the ground, laying down their weapons.
Even Orion, who had battled nagas for years, frowned in confusion. He muttered, "Nagas usually choose death over capture. Why would they...?"
Before he could finish his thought, Kerra leapt from the nagas' location and landed lightly beside Caron. He looked between Caron and Orion then asked, "Caron Leston, who is this?"
"This is Orion Windkeeper, the elf patrol captain. Orion, this is Kerra Acht." Caron introduced them to each other.
"The knight of the Malevolent Emperor. So, this is the person you were looking for..." Orion said.
"Perfect timing," Kerra said, nodding briskly. He turned to both of them and added, "The nagas want to surrender. More specifically, they've asked to speak with you, Caron Leston."
"Me? Why me?" Caron asked, puzzled.
"How should I know?" Kerra replied with a shrug. He then glanced at Orion. "Oh, and by the way, this request comes from someone claiming to be the heir to the Naga Kingdom. Apparently, a royal is among them. Should I... just kill them all?"
That was certainly the safest option. The nagas were known for their dark magic, and it wasn't out of the question that they could try something treacherous. But with both Kerra and Orion standing by, there was no way the nagas could pull off anything foolish.
"If they were going to try something, they would've done it by now," Caron reasoned. After a brief pause, he said, "Let's hear what they have to say."
It wasn't until thirty minutes later that Caron realized this was the best decision he could've made.