Kuro no Maou

Chapter 459

White Dragon’s Nest

It soon turned into a blizzard . Nothing but white as far as the eye could see . It was a furious snowstorm .

It seems that blizzards in Pandora are called ‘White Dragon’s Nests’ . Of course, this doesn’t mean that all winter storms are due to swarms of Rank 5 White Dragons flying around in the sky . The vast majority of them are due to natural causes, though some snowstorms actually can occur when White Dragons fly in swarms .

In any case, the saying ‘shifting like the weather in the mountains’ has never been more appropriate . The bright blue sky from earlier in the morning felt as if they had been an illusion all along . Was the weather just casually clear that time we climbed the Asbel Mountains?

Just like that, Galahad Fortress was trapped within a barrier of wind and snow... No, it would be better to say that it was being protected by it . This sudden blizzard had forced the Crusaders to stop their assault completely .

“It doesn’t seem to be stopping for quite a while . ”

Two hours had already passed since the forced ceasefire . I was still stationed in the castle walls . Of course, I was not in the winding passage leading outside, but inside the walls themselves .

These gigantic walls have two sets of stairs that are used to reach the top, one being outside and the other one leading inside the fortress . When seen from outside, the walls look flat like a dam, but looking from the inside, a large cylindrical tower can be seen, which extends itself all the way to the top as if it were a supporting pillar .

This tower’s inside is nothing but a spiral staircase, leading all the way up to the outer passage . Its gloomy stone walls make it look a bit like the ‘Revival Catacombs’ .

In short, I was sitting on that spiral staircase’s steps, taking a long break . Our camp was located close to the summit so that we could reach the walls easily from there . I could not see anyone else around . That wasn’t because other adventurers weren’t willing to be there or anything, but probably because our camp was rather incomplete .

In fact, the top of the stairs is packed with steadfast Spada soldiers, who remain vigilant even under the furious blizzard . It’s possible that there were some other people stationed in other places as well . Everyone was working very hard even under such cold weather .

However, I wouldn’t exactly say that it was warm and cozy in the tower’s spiral staircase . It was very likely that there was no such thing as internal heating, so the temperature there wasn’t very different from outside . Staying in this tower would be impossible without some sort of cold resistance . Thankfully, ‘Diabolos Embrace’ does provide enough cold resistance so that sitting on those steps wasn’t so painful .

“It’s better that I rested for a while after all . ”

Both my white breath and my voice came out feebly as I spoke .

I was sitting on those stairs by myself . Lily and Fiona were resting elsewhere . Even though those two still had some energy left to spare, they don’t have a monstrous amount of stamina as I do . They were better off taking this opportunity to recover . By that time, they could even be enjoying some late lunch at Galahad Restaurant .

I felt as if I had been fighting for a long time, but when it was all over I realized it just took all morning . If not for that sudden blizzard, we would still be fighting those chimera soldiers to prevent them from entering through the hole made by the Taurus . Even worse, the entire Crusader Army could have been swarming us by then .

They hadn’t lost a single Crusader soldier . They might have been merely treading water by using those chimera soldiers . The only true victories we have obtained in this battle so far were that slow Taurus and the Fulltune that King Leonhart managed to cut in half .

In any case, there wouldn’t be any convenient Crusader casualties by exposure to the blizzard, so there’s no doubt that the battle will simply be postponed . This was far from over .

“...Who’s there?”

My voice echoed over the spiral staircase with such intense sharpness that it surprised even myself .

“You don’t need to be so alert . ”

After a brief moment of silence, I received a reply from a voice that carried no malice within .

“It’s a bit rude to be staring over there without saying anything, Farkius . ”

“Ahahaha, sorry, sorry, my bad . ”

Spada’s number 1 Gladiator was standing on the spiral staircase, carrying the kind of elegant smile most maidens can only dream of . Both his platinum blond hair and his white cloak sway with every steady and loud step he takes .

Simply because this guy was standing here quickly made the gloomy staircase look more brilliant, almost with a stunning effect . Not that I cared much for that, really . The only thing floating in my mind was the “What do you mean, my bad?” that I wanted to reply to his comment .

“Please say something like any normal person would next time around . ”

“Oh, I’m happy that you want to meet with me again on another occasion . ”

What kind of answer was that? If you were to say that same thing to a lady, wouldn’t it be somewhat off-putting? Though when you’re someone as handsome as Farkius, some women would actually allow for that kind of talk and even be pleased by it . Me? I probably wouldn’t even get a reply .

“So, can I help you with anything? I don’t suppose you came here just for a friendly chat . ”

“I wish that was the case . If not for the fact that His Majesty has spoken, I would have done just that . ”

“What did you say? Does King Leonhart need me?”

“But I suppose it wouldn’t hurt if we chatted for a while, don’t you think?”

I was very concerned about the King summoning me . Farkius, who didn’t seem to be as interested in that as I was, quickly sat beside me as if we were going to have a friendly conversation . Too close, as always . Why did he need to sit so close that our shoulders touched each other? I need my personal space .

“That’s why I’ve been looking for you all over the place . ”

Farkius waved his blond hair away in such a way that it reminded me of a certain commercial for women’s shampoo . The sweet, faint fragrance of flowers that drifted about tickled my nose . It wasn’t the smell of a man, or rather, it wasn’t the smell a man naturally emits .

“And I’ve finally found you . ”

I would have preferred for him to stop looking at me with such a persistent glance as if we were destined to meet . And to back away a little!

I had already managed to put myself about two clenched fists put together away from this guy . But I wondered if I could get even farther away .

“Well, Galahad Fortress is pretty huge . If you had found either Lily or Fiona and asked them, they would have told you where I was . ”

“Oh, I did find those two . They were having lunch at Galahad Restaurant . ”

“Then you could have asked them instead of looking for me, don’t you think?”

“That witch’s daughter was eating a huge stack of Fortress Special with such a straight face! It didn’t seem appropriate to interrupt her . ”

How considerate! Oh well, it can’t be helped . It really is best to leave Fiona alone at times like those .

“But more importantly, I watched your great performance out there earlier . ”

“Come on . I didn’t do that much . ”

I would have turned my eyes away from him even if he wasn’t staring that much .

“I’m sorry, I know you weren’t going all the way back then, but still . ”

“It’s not that... It’s just that no matter how serious I could have been out there, I still would not be able to stop that Fulltune Taurus’ charge . ”

I knew it, my power was still not that great . I was well aware of my limitations .

“But His Majesty really is something else . I’m no match for him one-to-one . I’m sure he would be able to easily two, no, even three of me at the same time . ”

King Leonhart must really be something special for someone as self-confident in his own strength as Farkius to say something like that . Perhaps that red flash from earlier is but one of his many techniques .

“He is really strong . He took one of those Ancient Golems all by himself . By the way, those things are called ‘Taurus’? You seem to be well informed . ”

Speaking of which, are we still the only ones to know that name?

“That’s because Lily was able to get a lot of intel from one of them using her Telepathy when we got into its cockpit . ”

“I see, so those things were manned . I’ve heard that there are some ancient relics that are magical items for telepathic control, but... I see now, by taking down its pilot, you can defeat those Taurus without actually having to damage them . ”

“Lily also said that next time they would strengthen their defenses so that is no longer possible . ”

“Strengthen their defenses?”

“A countermeasure for further telepathic hacking or something like that . I don’t know the details . ”

It’s well outside my area of expertise, after all . But I figured it would be something like a computer’s security . It’s almost like those brilliant hackers who crack their way into highly classified state information in those Hollywood movies . The little girl Lily would make a posed look and say ‘Checkmate!’ as she hits the Enter key! I could almost see it .

“Since there’s so little we know about ancient weapons, to be able to obtain some intel from one of them is a big success in itself . It’s quite different from me, who could only manage to defeat one of them . ”

“Did you defeat one too, Farkius?”