The Regressed Son of a Duke is an Assassin

Episode 278: A Sign of Calamity (1)

“Princess?”

Lesimus stood in front of the wide-open door, a look of desolation on his face.

What immediately caught his eye were the empty plates strewn about the table, and the windows flung wide open.

Neither Arin, who had been conversing in this room, nor Nana were anywhere to be seen.

The knights who had witnessed the scene were all plunged into panic as well.

“The princess has disappeared!”

“Quick, report this elsewhere too!”

As a knight moved swiftly to report,

“Wait.”

Lesimus stopped him.

With a face set in determination, she calmly walked towards the table.

Among the impeccably cleared dishes lay a single piece of letter, its author unknown.

Lesimus promptly unfolded the letter to check its contents.

“……”

Then, not long after, she put the letter down and, looking out the open window, sighed deeply.

“Le-Lesimus, sir! Is that the letter left by the princess?”

“Yes. It seems so.”

“What does it say…?”

The knights waited anxiously for Lesimus to read the letter aloud.

However, rather than reading it immediately, Lesimus shut her eyes tightly.

She wrestled internally over how to react to the situation, but soon, having steeled her resolve, faced the knights.

“The princess has gone to do what must be done.”

The knights blinked, thinking they had misheard.

“To do what, exactly?”

“Yes.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know.”

It might sound like an irresponsible answer, but it was the best Lesimus could give.

The letter Arin left contained only this one line, with no further information.

* * *

-Whooosh!

A once-in-a-lifetime moment.

Or, considering the course of human history, how many people had experienced the same?

Arin thought that even counting on both hands wouldn’t suffice.

A human riding a dragon through the sky.

More than marvelous or strange, she questioned whether this was truly reality, it seemed so much like fear.

“Arin unni, is the speed okay? Aren’t you scared?”

“Eh, yeah, I’m fine. Probably…”

The words following ‘I’m fine’ were lost to Nana.

“If you’re scared, let me know anytime. I’ll slow down.”

“Th-thanks, Nana.”

She just hoped that Nana wouldn’t fly any higher.

“When could you first transform?”

“What did you say? I can’t hear you, unni!”

The howling winds at high altitude made it hard to hear.

Arin clenched her eyes and shouted.

“When were you first able to transform?!”

“Three years ago! I started feeling a strange energy in my body and then I could transform!”

Nana flapped her wings more powerfully, increasing their speed of flight.

“It feels really great! I’ve always wanted to take Arin unni for a ride! Next time, I want to go out with just papa, you, and me!”

“With… with Sian?”

“Yeah! But papa seems to dislike flying. He always refuses to ride on Nana’s back.”

Arin felt like she understood the reason.

“Have papa and Arin unni become close again? Let’s go out together next time!”

“Yeah. I wish that could really happen…”

A wishful thought that seemed nice if it could come true.

Though it seemed unlikely, Arin tenderly harbored that small hope.

“……!”

The gleeful shine in Nana’s eyes suddenly sharpened.

“What’s wrong, Nana?”

“Hold on tight, Arin unni!”

Sensing danger, Nana swiftly reduced their altitude.

Caught off guard, Arin nearly had a heart-stopping moment.

They were over a vast canyon range with cliffs so deep, their bases were out of sight.

Without hesitation, Nana plunged into the midst of it.

Only when they reached the base of the cliffs did they stop flying, Nana returned to her original form.

“Nana, why are we here…?”

Bewildered, Arin asked as she got off, and then shivered with a sudden jolt.

She could feel a series of energies slowly tightening around them from the darkness.

Nana, who had sensed the energy before Arin, sharpened her tail like a blade, staring ahead.

-Thud!

In a cliff corner where no light penetrated.

The sound of heavy, yet not loud footsteps began approaching from all directions.

As the footsteps drew closer, sweat covered Arin’s palms.

“Light of Guidance!”

Remaining calm, she cast magic that lit the dark surroundings.

Despite the illumination, nothing seemed to appear at first.

-Thud!

But the mystery steps continued.

Soon, a giant shadow with the shape of wings loomed in front, and Arin quickly drew her sword.

“……”

After a moment, five bizarre figures emerged from the shadows.

All had black hair, horns on both sides of their heads, and wings on their backs.

“Demons?”

Arin believed without a doubt that they must be demons.

“This doesn’t make sense…”

However, they were not demons.

Putting aside the human Arin, a sense of puzzlement and confusion filled the eyes of those observing Nana.

“Why would such a being exist in this world?”

“Would Lord Nagel approve of this?”

“It’s not just Lord Nagel, no one should find out.”

Their astonishment soon turned into murderous intent towards Arin and Nana.

Sensing this, the murderous aura began to simmer in Nana’s eyes as well.

Amidst a situation tense enough to explode at any moment,

“……!”

Managing to control her trembling heart, Arin looked down at her feet.

“Magic circle?”

A magic circle overflowing with multicolored mana.

Arin, as well as the others watching, were baffled by the unfamiliar magic circle that had seemingly popped up without notice.

“Could it be?”

Arin sensed a familiar mana pulse.

With a hint of hope, she looked around and soon spotted a familiar figure poised beneath the sphere of Guiding Light atop a cliff.

“Capture her, it’s a teleportation circle!”

Though too late in identifying the magic circle, they rushed forward,

-Whoosh!

Arin and Nana were enveloped in light from the circle and vanished.

-Thump!

In an unknown location where they had been teleported,

Arin swiftly raised her head and found herself face to face with the one who had rescued them from danger.

“Are you hurt?”

“Lunab!?”

It was Lunab who had left for the Demon Realm with Sian.

“How did you get here?”

“It was quite bold of you. Coming to the Demon Realm and deciding to face a Devil Dragon?”

“A Devil Dragon? Weren’t they just demons?”

That the threatening figures were Devil Dragons, akin to elite monsters, meant they were in an extremely dangerous situation.

Overwhelmed, Arin couldn’t hide her shock.

“Dragons, okay! They smelt just like Nana!”

Nana, now with a cheerful smile unlike before, showed her original form.

“But where is this?”

Belatedly surveying the landscape, Arin blinked and inquired.

“Where else? In the Demon Realm.”

“That I get, but the atmosphere is a bit…”

Where they were was markedly different from their original location.

If not for the red sky, it would be hard to believe it was the Demon Realm because it felt quite peculiar, yet oddly familiar.

“While transferring the senior and this child through the portal, I shifted space as well. Fleeing nearby would only lead to us being quickly tracked, so I thought it best to escape to a place with many eyes.”

Lunab explained that this was one of the Demon Realm’s residential areas called Alem.

“But why are you alone? Where is Sian?”

“Ah, that’s a bit complicated to explain…”

Lunab stroked her chin, pondering where to start.

“Now that I think of it, senior, why did you come here? Without any guards?”

“That, well, it’s also a bit complex to explain if I might…”

“Screaaam!”

At that moment, a chilling scream echoed from the distance.

* * *

My automatic response entering the space was to squint.

As if rejecting my presence, the overwhelming brightness engulfed my vision, making it hard to keep my eyes open.

The gate disappeared the moment I entered, and Mishuka, who had opened it for me, couldn’t follow through.

Probably, right now she must be clutching her head in frustration in my spatial dimension.

[Ah. Already starting to feel nauseous?]

I concur.

The repulsive energy rolled in like tides, gradually constraining me more and more.

Despite the discomfort, with nowhere else to go, I moved forward resolutely.

A few steps in, the silhouette of someone familiar came into view.

It wasn’t Eshel.

Her hair was much longer than his, but the energy emanating from her felt nearly indistinguishable from that of the demon.

At this point, deeming them identical wouldn’t be far off.

“Here we meet again, Xian Vert.”

She turned her head slowly to greet me, her welcome neither particularly welcoming nor unwelcoming.

Anael Pasinity, the demon mother and the very woman I sought in the Demon Realm.

I responded without a word, merely glancing around to take in my surroundings.

“Alone?”

“Yes. Since a bit earlier. The moment you entered this space, I dispatched everyone that was with me, including your father. …”

As she said, there were no signs of life apart from us two, and Kielam was the only other presence.

“It must be disappointing for you who wished for my son, but why don’t we take this opportunity to have a deeper conversation?”

“Why should I?”

“I’ll ask the question. Why don’t you follow Eshel?”

Despite my apparent reluctance, she insisted on questioning me.

“From the moment I bore Eshel, I granted him the power to make all beings in this land his followers, except for the gods.”

“You sure talk of power easily.”

“To you it might not seem much, but to me, and to our kind, this power has been the only means to perpetuate our existence.”

“I’m not here to listen to your side of the story?”

The more I heard, the more I tired.

I gripped Kielam tightly and quickly advanced toward her.

“Are you intending to kill me?”

No, I planned to drag her out by her hair.

“You might not realize yet, but you can’t leave here.”

Kielam’s blade paused just a fingernail’s distance from her neck.

“If I can’t leave, that means no one will come to save you either.”

“That’s right. No one can leave this space now, nor can anyone enter. Only you, me, and that demon sword will remain. This won’t change even if you kill me.”

It took me precisely three seconds to recognize her words were true.

[Hey boss. This situation doesn’t seem like we can afford to take it easy.]

Kielam too felt something wrong, emitting an uneasy laugh.

Something about this spatial dimension was strange.

As time passed, the boundaries between the spaces felt increasingly fortified.

Was she seriously planning to sacrifice herself just to keep me trapped here?

“Don’t worry too much. I’m not going to keep you here forever.”

Anael looked triumphantly into my face as she continued.

“Just stand by helplessly in this space, Xian! By the time you manage to leave this space, both the Demon Realm and the Human Realm will have been plunged into chaos and disarray!”

Only then did I realize the true nature of this spatial dimension.

This wasn’t a hideout for prey fleeing into the Human Realm.

It was a trap,

A cage to confine the predator that came hunting.

“The calamity has already begun!”

(To be continued)