If You Take the Enemy Prince as Your Knight Chapter 147

“W-What is this?!” Emilio, who had approached closer, cried out in horror.

 

The knights had not been standing guard. They had been pinned to the trees as if staked there, their chests pierced through by swords. And those three gruesomely displayed corpses were not all. Beyond them stretched an even greater scene of devastation. The two orders of knights Emilio had summoned were all dead, their bodies rolling across the dirt ground.

 

Annihilated…?

 

The shock did not end there. As a war strategist, Emilio possessed the ability to analyze traces of battle. What had occurred here was clearly a chaotic melee in which large numbers had clashed against large numbers. If so, there should have been enemy corpses alongside the bodies of his allies. Yet no matter how hard he looked, all he could find were dead men wearing Lohengrin uniforms. There were even allied soldiers who had perished together, swords plunged into each other’s stomachs.

 

“Ma-Marquis…”

 

One survivor remained who could answer his questions. Emilio hurried over, grabbed the knight by the collar, and demanded, “What happened here?!”

 

“Error… trap…”

 

“Speak clearly!”

 

“The detached force… pursued the target… Disrupted by the bad weather… the detached force… mistook… the main force… and attacked…” The report, squeezed out with the last remnants of life, ended there.

 

Emilio pieced together the fragmented information. From what he could gather, the detached force sent to pursue Regenhart had mistakenly attacked the main force, resulting in allies slaughtering one another. A fatal mistake had produced a horrific outcome.

 

Suddenly, Emilio felt a sense of déjà vu. It happened around this time last year. Before Emilio had betrayed the kingdom, there was a tactic he had used to reduce the overwhelmingly larger imperial army. Before two imperial forces could merge, he had exploited the period when friend and foe couldn’t be distinguished, sowing confusion within their ranks and inducing mutual slaughter amid the chaos.

 

Only a single kingdom soldier had been deployed in that top-secret battle. A man whose abilities were exceptional not only in combat, but also in surprise attacks, ambushes, disruption, and tracking. Enough to carry out the insane strategy Emilio had devised. The hero of Lohengrin, praised as possessing the greatest martial power since the age of myths. He had accomplished everything alone.

 

The man who was practically Emilio’s eternal nightmare emerged through the rain. “So you’ve finally arrived, Emilio.”

 

“Regen, hart…!” Gasping out the name, Emilio lifted his head. They were three steps away. He met the cold golden eyes staring directly at him.

 

“As expected, you’re a good strategist. Your tactics are always useful.”

 

“…”

 

“You weren’t a good friend, though.”

 

The flat, low voice pierced Emilio’s ears with chilling clarity. At the same time, Emilio was seized by hallucinations. It felt as though the unseen scythe of the Grim Reaper had sliced across his neck dozens of times.

 

There was no longer anyone left here to serve as a human shield. Emilio trembled from head to toe as though he were breathing in Regen’s killing intent instead of air. Left all alone, the traitor was nothing more than a cowardly, pathetic fool.

 

“H-How…?”

 

“…”

 

“How are you still alive?”

 

“…”

 

“You definitely drank the poison…! Not just enough to stop you from using mana for a while, but enough to make it run wild in reverse…! It should have been a lethal dose for you…!” Overcome with confusion and fear, Emilio ended up confessing his own malice.

 

Regen finally spoke. “Elrich told me something once. He said that even my resistance to poison should remain a secret from the likes of you.”

 

“…”

 

“It’s amusing. One of the best things I ever did was listen to my friend, and one of the things I’ll regret for the rest of my life was also listening to my friend.”

 

“…”

 

Regen had owed his life twice to Elrich now.

 

Around that time, Emilio’s crafty mind began functioning again. The situation became clear. The rockslide incident had also been Regenhart’s doing, and the princess had been helping her personal knight. From the very beginning, she had never once intended to follow Emilio and become his woman.

 

A traitor writhing in betrayal was a ridiculous sight to behold. Yet not even the faintest trace of a smile appeared on Regen’s face, stripped bare of all humanity.

 

“Ha!” Instead, it was Emilio who let out something close to a laugh. As if determined to become even more pathetic, he ranted accusingly, “Regenhart, you monster…”

 

“…”

 

“You should have just died already! Why do you survive every single time?!”

 

“…”

 

“Your survival does Lohengrin no good! Lohengrin’s elevation to an autonomous territory is right around the corner, and a royal like you can’t be allowed to live! Please, realize that your very existence is a risk factor! If I were you, for Lohengrin’s sake, I would immediately take my own li— Keugh!”

 

A kick sent Emilio tumbling sideways. He tried to get back up, but his head was immediately crushed beneath a boot and slammed mercilessly into the ground.

 

“Emil, it seems we agree on something.”

 

“…”

 

“I have no intention of letting you die comfortably, and it seems you don’t wish to die comfortably either.”

 

“…”

 

“Am I wrong?”

 

Even the tone in which he exuded murderous intent was filled with elegance. That grotesque contrast only deepened Emilio’s terror.

 

Regen brought his right hand to his left hip. Panicking, Emilio hurriedly wagged his deceitful tongue in an attempt to negotiate. “W-Wait! Think of the princess! Princess Silver Bird!”

 

“…”

 

This was something Regen could not help but listen to. Seeing that, Emilio smiled triumphantly with half of his face still pressed into the dirt.

 

“I can get Princess Silver Bird out of the imperial palace.”

 

“…”

 

“I know your tastes better than anyone. You want the princess, don’t you? You’re dying to hold her, aren’t you? Of course you are. I know.”

 

“…”

 

“So let’s do this. Spare me, and I’ll sneak Princess Silver Bird out. I’ll hand her over to you completely. The safe house I was going to use, and the princess herself, I’ll give them all to you. Then you can hide her in my place and do whatever you want with her…!”

 

Without a word, Regen raised his sheathed sword. Then he drove it straight down.

 

“GAAAAAH!” The sound of something shattering beneath Emilio’s back was swallowed by his scream.

 

Looking down at the pathetic writhing of the man squirming like an insect, Regen muttered, “you dared to treat the princess like a concubine to be kept in a safe house.”

 

“Khk… gghhh…”

 

“And on top of that, you dared to…” Yielding her, giving her over. Regen could not even bring himself to utter the words that meant treating her like an object. The killing intent dominating the area intensified further.

 

“Re-Regenhart…! N-No, Your Highness…! W-Wait, aaagh!”

 

Once more, the blunt end of the sheath struck Emilio’s back. One by one, his bodily functions were destroyed from the inside. Blood sprayed from his mouth, splattering far enough to stain the nearby red spider lilies an even deeper crimson.

 

“S-Stop, I was wrong…!”

 

Regen did not listen. He had no need for a traitor’s apology. There was only one thing he wanted from Emilio now. As if offering a prayer, he recited. “This place is the sanctuary for my family, my friend, and my subordinates. It is only fitting to offer your blood instead of flowers to comfort their souls.”

 

Punishment continued to rain down upon the traitor’s back. His overwhelming rage instead made Regen seem dry and detached. At this moment, his humanity was thoroughly restrained. If he surrendered to his emotions, he might kill Emilio too quickly.

 

As time passed, the writhing became convulsions, and the screams faded into groans. Only after exacting the price of his sins as many times as the number of his ribs did Regen’s arm come to a halt. No reaction remained from the crushed body of the traitor. A deed too solemn to be called revenge and too cruel to be called an execution finally came to an end.

 

“Haa…”

 

All Regen had done was swing his arm a few dozen times. There was no way the hero of Lohengrin would tire from just this, yet his chest heaved heavily. His arm holding the scabbard dropped limply to his side. Looking like a man worn out after completing a long penance, he tilted his head back and gazed upward. Rain poured from the gray-blue skies of Lohengrin, soaking his beautiful face.

 

He was the prince of this land. Unable to fulfill his duty and responsibility to protect the kingdom’s people, he had survived at the cost of his friend’s life. Today, it felt as though he had repaid a small part of that debt.

 

Streams of water flowed endlessly down his cheeks. The fall rain should have been cold. Yet for some reason, it felt lukewarm.