Crown of Thorns

Eventually, the war broke out. And instead of running away or succumbing to his doom, the Marquess of Tyran chose to fight. His chances of winning were pitiful, but he seemed to have been holding on to his last remaining pride. It didn’t matter anyway. He will be defeated, and the rest of the aristocracy will once again fight amongst themselves to devour what’s left of the Tyran Marquisate. I just wanted them to be as desperate as they could possibly be.

Count Phyletto had me on his back. I fought his fights, and I did everything he wanted.

However, instead of emptying mansions, I led to war. I wanted the nobles to self-destruct. They wanted to pour money, food, and troops into each other’s hands. So now that there’s a war going on around the Marquess of Tyran, I told Count Phyletto to absorb small forces first while the big fish are looking away from him. It wasn’t even a chore to coax him, as he was already blind. And since he seemed to think that growing his forces was a priority, he had fallen in love with the fun of swallowing people around him.

I gave him strength when I felt his defenses to be weak. I reduced his numbers when I felt his troops to be excessive. He drove the momentum he had into a winning streak. He got more and more and more. And as the number of aristocrats decreased, he became even more fierce.

When Count Phyletto started a war, he did so without rest nor hesitation. As a result, the rest of the land had become anxious. They struggled to build up its power. And the lack of both funds and troops needed to wage war had driven them to make alliances with each other. Similarly, while Count Phyletto built his strength, other aristocrats absorbed their surroundings and developed their own forces.

The whole territory had turned into a battlefield. There was no use crying for a cease-fire. If one didn’t want war, one had no choice but to willingly surrender or to wage war on weaker forces and build up strength so that no one would dare attack them. Forming alliances was a rather peaceful way to go about getting stronger. Usually, they would enlist all the people of the territory to their armies. And if that were not enough, they would seize the surrounding lands and forcefully add the area’s population to their troops.

Naturally, the discontent and fear of the people of the provinces grew. There was a global tragedy. They were enlisted by force. It became difficult to see a young man in the village. Those who had to fight to protect the people of the territory were busy filling the remaining nobles’ stomachs with their lives. Whether the people died or not, the troops to fight were the priority.

The screams went on. The locals, who had come to intervene in the territorial fights, cried out at the terrible reality. Only then did they resent the ruling class, not the darkness. Darkness did nothing to harm them, for it was the rulers who did. This was the truth that could no longer be ignored.

But that wasn’t the end. For the monster invasion had begun, starting from the outside. In the meantime, the continent has become wider and wider due to the constant violence and war, and the monsters that had previously been pushed back suddenly began to invade in groups.

The monsters liked the darkness. That’s why the witch’s tower and forest were swarmed with them. So what happens when those who use the power of Darkness deliberately lay and arrange the dark?

The present situation proved my expectations to be correct. The monsters had moved the way I wanted them to. All I had to do was open the way for them.

In the end, hell had spread both in and outside of the continent. The people were stuck.

Nevertheless, the Son of Heaven remains unmoving. However, fearing that they would be invaded, the security of all the palaces, including the Heavenly Palace, was strengthened. Perhaps after the situation had been settled to some extent, the last nobleman, possessing an abundance of powers on his back, might invade the palace. I wanted it to be Count Phillips. I was trying to make that happen.

And since the monster subjugation had to be done by both the state and ordinary citizens, the Son of Heaven had no choice but to divide his forces to protect both sides.

As usual, the Knights of Evan’s Order began to destroy monsters. From the beginning, Yohan was a man who only worked on the outside to destroy monsters, and he would probably stay outside unless the rebels invaded the palace.

That’s why I moved the monsters. I intended to make it even more painful, but I wanted Evan to be involved in something other than the war. Since it wasn’t time, I didn’t want to run into him just yet, and instead of murdering innocent people, he’ll be busy killing monsters. It wouldn’t be too late for him to come there on the day the imperial palace gets attacked.

I chased after Evan.

They were moving to where the monsters appeared. The road was really disastrous. Everyone’s faces were downcast. It would be heartbreaking to look only at women wailing through villages where there are no men to be seen except for old, dying grandfathers.

“If they want to fight each other, why must they involve the innocent?”

“My words exactly! What on earth did these people do wrong?”

Those that are driven to war and those who remain in villages will only want to live. And horrible, unforgivable things that ordinary people will never experience will be exposed to them both.

So it might be better for them to face a monster than to be driven to war. After all, it is much better to kill a monster than to slaughter their own kin.

Yohan and the Knights took the lead in fighting the monsters. Ordinary people who have never fought properly before were placed as far back as possible. It was to avoid having his Knights getting hurt trying to save them by blocking the way or making it hard to kill the monsters.

And Evan fought back as much as any other trainee.

Evan, with hair brighter than anyone else’s, and eyes more radiant than anyone else’s, he was so beautiful as he fought to the best of his ability. Every time he swung his sword, his fists that held it tightly, his arm muscles he had properly positioned, and his firm shoulders had unfolded like a painting. His tight jaw and sharp eyes were very manly and exuded strength.

His sword cut through the wind and tore the monsters open. More than ever, time seemed to stop. Evan, who grew up quickly and had a brain fitter than the people around him, was seen secretly to them as a manly warrior, acting as their shield and sword. He looked like an angel who appeared to save the people from hell on earth.

It was also because he was shining exceptionally in a world filled with darkness, for Evan was blessed with light in the midst of a pitch-black world.

Watching Evan like that, I was very nervous about the sudden change in the situation. Evan, who was fighting well, made a mistake.

“Uh…”

He swung his sword between two monsters and lost his balance. The monster, which did not miss the opportunity, stretched its long clawed arm toward his face. Evan hurriedly turned around and tried to back off, but the distance was too narrow. The monster’s claws were about to tear Evan’s face. His eyes opened wide.

I rushed and grabbed the arms and legs of the attacking monster. The monster’s claws, which could not be blocked entirely, only scraped Evan’s cheek and passed by him. He turned only his eyes and looked at his own grazed cheek. His drooping white eyelashes caught my eye, but he quickly raised his eyes again and rushed at the monster.

His slightly frowned eyebrows, sharp eyes, and twisted corners of his mouth, Evan, who ran with a strange look on his face, seemed to be aiming at me, so I left the monster and lagged behind. It was a thoughtless act, but I felt unpleasant feelings toward myself. I shouldn’t have dodged it. But it was not the time yet, so I comforted myself by saying, “I have to avoid him until the time comes.”

The blood of the monster seeped into the ground where I was hiding. Evan, who had already easily handled the remaining monsters, swept his hair, which tickled his forehead up, looking around at the monster carcasses lying around him. Sweat-soaked, his hair was clinging to one side, revealing half of his white forehead. But it quickly began to descend slowly.

“That could have been a disaster.”

He had just touched his cheek with a slightly perplexed look, perhaps much surprised by the attack. Then, he groaned, twisting his eyebrows as if it had been hurt a lot. I felt very sorry for that. I was afraid that he might get a scar because the wound was oozing blood. Still, he could have been hurt even more if I were to react a wee little later, so it was fortunate for it to have stopped at this level.

Evan also muttered with a look of relief.

“If I were a little later… No, even if its claws were a little longer? No. It was definitely a distance close enough to reach my face.”

He thought about it afterward. With a heavy heart and a tilted head, he sat down with a perplexed expression. However, there was no time to be so relaxed. The surrounding area was still miserable, and the number of monsters rushing in was endless. He ran back, fixing his sword again. I also followed him into the battlefield.

Evan was obviously skilled and had excellent natural sense and agility. So, while there were few people who could face him at the training camp, he was particularly weak in the real world. Yohan seemed to place him behind him, either because he knew that or because he was afraid he might get hurt. Evan’s role was not to deal with monsters up front, but to finish the monsters they had missed, or to deal with the monsters that rushed at people.

But when the number increased, he often made these mistakes. Either giving the monsters an opening or losing his balance by being relaxed, which was so unlike him. When those moments occurred, I quickly helped or stopped the attacks. No one could distinguish me from the shadow, so he just thought that he was lucky, that he was too good, or that the monster had a bad aim.

The number of monsters had greatly decreased ever since Evan started fighting with them. I signaled to Ruadhan, who was waiting behind the monsters. As his Darkness began to recede, so did the monsters. It was why people thought the monster was running away.

“The monsters, the monsters are running away!”

“Hurrah! We won!”

“Chase the ones running away till the end!”

The monsters that had fallen back were stuck. People were intoxicated with victory, cheering, and wielding their weapons.

In no time, Evan, who was full of small wounds, also flashed a smile seeing their behavior. It was a smile that quickly vanished, but it was certainly a bright, innocent, and lovely one like the day he first saw my Darkness cloud when he was young.

Author’s note:

I’m suddenly curious.

What do you want for a happy ending?

The witch to die safely, and the warrior to live happily ever after?

The witch to stay with the warrior, but be unable to die?

What is truly a happy ending would depend on what each person thinks, I guess.

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