The Sweet Alpha Crown Prince Loves Me So Much Chapter 124

Chapter 124

Carl Lindbergh and Adrian Heineken met the Count when the two crossed the last magic circle.

Some of the soldiers who had been staying at each intermediate point followed along, and the group had gradually grown to about the size of a platoon.

Perhaps glad to see a familiar face, Carl Lindbergh ran up to the Count in one go.

“Count!”

Seeing the worry and tension on Prince Carl Lindbergh’s face, Count Bourbon couldn’t help but smile with a fatherly heart.

“You’ve come a long way, Prince.”

Ah, and Your Highness the Crown Prince, too.

Adrian Heineken was freshly shocked when the loyal Count Bourbon added belatedly as if he had forgotten to greet the Crown Prince.

“All I did was not fall off the horse. The people fighting on the front lines are the ones working hard. Are there any peculiarities?”

“It seems they are looking for a blond man with blue eyes.”

“What an unnecessarily luxurious taste.”

Even with the Count’s brief explanation, Adrian, who realized what Mugicha Parman wanted, openly bared his teeth and showed his displeasure.

“They don’t have a shred of reason, but they pause at the sight of any blond, blue-eyed man. If I had known this would happen, I should have organized a separate unit.”

Adrian’s forehead creased at the not-so-joking joke, and Carl Lindbergh stroked the nape of his neck, thinking it was a good idea to have imprinted beforehand.

“How are the soldiers? The damage must be significant. Has their morale been broken?”

Looking over the chaotic area with hazy dust and noise, the Prince asked, and the horse he was riding took a step in place, as if representing its owner’s feelings.

It clearly showed that he wanted to run over there right away.

Adrian Heineken moved his position in front of the Prince in case the horse bolted, and Carl Lindbergh awkwardly smiled and wiped away his cold sweat when he made eye contact with him.

His bangs were soaked with tension.

“Fortunately, there are only a few deaths. The wounded are recovering quickly, so don’t worry.”

“Deaths…”

No matter how many times he heard it, it was a word that made his heart sink.

Carl Lindbergh, whose eyebrows drooped, shook his head.

Deaths in battle were inevitable. It was not the time to be swayed by useless emotions.

“You haven’t entered the castle yet, have you?”

Tensing the muscles of his heart, Carl Lindbergh pulled the magic tool he was holding closer to his chest.

To prevent further damage, it was best to finish things quickly.

“We haven’t entered, but when you two arrive, we can open a path for you.”

The size of the troops, how many troops to use to clear a path, and how to escort and break through. Carl Lindbergh, who had listened carefully to the Count’s detailed explanation, narrowed his eyes and stood blankly.

He strained to see through the swirling dust that obscured his vision and instead opened his ears wide.

Clang, clang, the sound of armor joints colliding.

Swoosh, the sound of a sharp blade being drawn from its scabbard, chillingly precise.

He could also hear the occasional sound of gunshots, perhaps from magic being used.

The battle cries he’d expected, the roaring and cheering… they were probably just dramatic embellishments in stories.

Carl focused on the screams, groans, and the bizarre cries of the monsters.

How many more people will be hurt to break through there while protecting us?

Even if this platoon joins and protects the empty troops, it’s a matter of escorting the Crown Prince and the Crown Prince’s consort, so the most elite of the elite will follow.

“Carl?”

Adrian called him, breaking his reverie. Carl, who had been sitting blankly, hugging the magic tool like a precious object, gave an unenthusiastic “Uh?” and smiled awkwardly.

Instinctively feeling an ominous premonition, Adrian placed his and Carl’s horses side by side and looked down at him silently.

Carl Lindbergh shrank his shoulders.

“What… what is it?”

“I was wondering if you were having any unwelcome thoughts.”

Carl, startled by Adrian’s sudden glare, smiled awkwardly, showing his teeth for no reason.

“Thoughts? No, I’m not.”

The way he averted his eyes was strange.

“Whatever you’re thinking, tell me in detail.”

I told you I don’t like secrets.

When Adrian added that, Carl reluctantly nodded.

“I was just trying to gauge how difficult it would be to break through there.”

Things like how many people would be needed.

Carl pointed beyond the dust with his fingertip. Adrian sighed.

“Just think about getting in and out safely.”

“Of course, I will. But still.”

Carl closed his mouth again, and Adrian, instead of urging him, held the reins.

At a slightly slower pace than before, Carl Lindbergh and Adrian rode.

Count Bourbon thought, ‘He’s a strange person in many ways.’

Before a battle, ordinary people don’t look back. They don’t send such an anxious look towards the place where the battle is taking place.

Especially if the battle has no direct connection to them.

Carl Lindbergh did have some influence in this conflict with Parman, but the root cause was Parman revealing their dark intentions, and the Empire was merely stopping them.

They had set the stage because the Prince said he had a way to stop Parman, but they had also found three or four other methods.

The Prince must know that, too.

The Prince, who could never get used to seeing blood and death, couldn’t hide his fear but was determined to go that way.

It was also peculiar that his disposition became more pronounced when it wasn’t his own business.

It didn’t seem like he was simply a righteous person. He seemed strangely detached, and Count Bourbon felt sorry for Carl Lindbergh.

Of course, now that the Crown Prince was firmly by his side, there was nothing more Count Bourbon, a complete stranger and only a vassal, could do for him.

 

***

 

The scene beyond the dust was more vividly horrific than Carl Lindbergh had imagined.

It wasn’t about the sword fights and death.

The twisted, ugly monsters, fixated solely on killing humans indiscriminately, and the expressionless faces of the holy knights in white, wielding their swords, were surreal.

‘This is the world I’m standing on.’

The platoon that followed Carl’s group naturally blended into the fray.

The terrain was flat, but most of the combatants were dismounted for better mobility, and the crawling monsters mostly had short legs and were close to the ground, so Carl could easily witness the battle scene.

Some surrounded Carl Lindbergh and Adrian, guarding them from all sides, and within that circle, Carl felt as if he were a Roman emperor watching gladiators fight from the best seat, and an unknown sense of discomfort washed over him, making him frown.

Behind them were dozens of ramparts, and in front of them was a cylindrical castle made of damp, black bricks. And the garden between them—or what was presumed to have been a garden—was devastated by a small-scale local battle.

Suddenly, a scene of a soldier’s shoulder being torn off by a monster’s teeth caught Carl Lindbergh’s eye.

“Ah!”

His body involuntarily leaned forward, and if Adrian hadn’t held him, he would have run out again.

Even as blood spurted into the air, the soldier managed to plunge his sword into the monsters’s neck with his remaining arm before collapsing to the ground.

Then, a knight who came from behind swung his sword, creating a temporary barrier around the fallen soldier, and others quickly recovered the soldier.

“The Imperial Army considers it an honor and duty to sacrifice their lives for the safety of the Empire, so please do not concern yourself.”

At Count Bourbon’s words of comfort, delivered to the back of his head, Carl Lindbergh closed his eyes tightly.

Even if it ended in injury and not death, it was uncertain whether that shoulder would heal properly, but still, Carl clasped his hands and took deep breaths, desperately hoping he would live.

‘For now, it’s right to watch. I’m no longer a paramedic or a commoner. If I get hurt or die, it’s a bigger deal.’

Even so. How different could the weight of his life be from his own? Unable to even fathom it, Carl Lindbergh couldn’t even finish the thought.

Count Bourbon and Sir Juniper were planning to move with other knights to break through.

Carl Lindbergh straightened his constantly hunching back and gritted his teeth.

People kept getting hurt. Every time someone screamed or someone gritted their teeth with bulging eyes, every time the monsters, even with their bodies split, crawled on the ground and grabbed the legs of living people, seeking their body heat, Carl Lindbergh also swallowed a scream inside.

The musty smell of earth, the smell of blood, the sticky air, and the sharp noise.

The battle, felt through all five senses, kept reminding Carl Lindbergh of how comfortably he had lived before coming here.

He felt like he might bury his face in his hands and sob.

It was too shameless to do that in front of those who were fighting, so he desperately held back.

Then, Adrian suddenly switched to Carl Lindbergh’s horse.

A warm palm covered Carl Lindbergh’s eyes.

“Shh, it’s okay.”

He firmly supported his back with his chest and pulled him close with one arm around his waist.

Even if he pretended to be strong on the outside, Adrian couldn’t be unaware of the heartbreaking feelings in his fragile heart.

Carl Lindbergh placed a hand on his forearm and finally sobbed softly. The low voice murmuring “it’s okay” in his ear was so comforting.

After a moment of trembling and swallowing his tears, Carl whispered.

“…I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Just. For everything.”

Instead of answering, Adrian buried his lips behind Carl Lindbergh’s ear and rubbed.

Carl was honestly worried. At this rate, he wondered if he could stand by Adrian’s side as he ruled the Empire. Before that, he wondered if he could even defeat Mugicha Parman. He lost confidence.

At the feather-like kisses landing behind his ear, Carl let out a short sigh and blinked away the tears clinging to his eyelashes.

It was his job. In his career, he had witnessed hundreds of incidents, and about half of them involved dead bodies.

And about half of those died before his eyes.

The seniors, watching Woo-young twisting his body when he returned to the center, told him that his personality was not suitable for being a paramedic.

He knew that much himself. He easily sympathized with people and was plagued by guilt.

He was able to overcome it by engraving in his mind, like self-hypnosis, that he couldn’t save everyone because he wasn’t a god.

Carl Lindbergh slowly stroked Adrian’s forearm. Adrian tightened his arm, making his veins stand out. I want to be this strong, or even a little stronger. As Carl Lindbergh repeated it to himself, Adrian said, “How great it would have been if you had done nothing and instead dumped all the responsibility and duty on me.”

Carl turned to face Adrian. Seeing the green eyes, filled with worry and regret, his confidence, which had fled far away, surged back.

We’re not alone. You and me. The one who will become his lover and family was supporting his back.

“Adrian, if you were standing here alone, I would have been twice as tormented.”

I probably wouldn’t be able to sleep every night, imagining the worst.

Carl held Adrian’s hand tightly. If they couldn’t stop Mugicha, they had no future to dream of anyway.

“Let’s win and go back. You might not like it, but I can’t go back like this.”

Adrian hugged Carl’s back tightly again, and Carl scanned the castle with bloodshot eyes, and then, very subtly…

He made eye contact with the only person inside the castle.