The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 245

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 245

The prince drove his sword into the neck of yet another orc—he’d lost count of how many—charging at him and continued to shout.

“The Black Dragon’s Eye will illuminate our path ahead! Just hold on a little longer—”

“Prince! Above you!”

The Captain of the Guard roared.

Sion looked up. Sweat and monster blood streamed down his face, his hair sticking and blurring his vision. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them to see steel-like claws of a wyvern that had approached right before his nose.

‘Ah.’

Too late—

“Sion!”

With a desperate cry, a golden barrier spread like an umbrella. The wyvern’s claws scraped against the barrier with a grinding sound.

Jurlene, who had been pointing her staff toward him with heaving shoulders, gritted her teeth. She gripped her staff properly and raised it toward the sky. A golden magic circle spread out centered on her staff. Her lips moved rapidly as she chanted a spell.

“All of you, die!”

At the end of the incantation, with a scream-like cry, lightning created by the witch struck through the void. It was a storm of thunderbolts.

Soon the wyverns fell here and there with thuds, charred black. Some of the disgustingly swarming monsters were satisfied with the prey of wyvern corpses and disappeared, dragging them away.

“Wow!”

“As expected of the Witch…!”

The situation improved, if only briefly. While people caught their breath and expressed admiration, Sion hurriedly approached Jurlene.

“Jurlene, are you okay?”

“I’m fine…”

Mid-sentence, Jurlene covered her mouth. Bright red blood gushed out through the gaps between her pale fingers.

Nosebleed and hemoptysis. It was the price for her forcing herself to cast grand magic when she had already been using much magic for hours.

Sion, who had turned pale, held her and was about to call for a priest when Jurlene grabbed his collar with her remaining hand. When he looked down, she shook her head.

“At a time like this… if even the Witch of the Black Forest collapses… that won’t do.”

“That—”

Elision, who was about to angrily say that such things weren’t important right now, bit his tongue.

It was important, the fact that the witch was still standing.

The precariously patched crisis might burst open again. The situation was still desperate. Once it started to crumble, it would be unstoppable. Everyone here could be massacred.

The Black Forest was such a place. It had been so peaceful lately that he had momentarily forgotten.

The prince bit his lips and pulled the witch to himself. He buried her small face, coughing up blood, in his chest so people couldn’t see, and supported her swaying frail body with his own to make it seem like she was standing fine.

His chest grew hot and wet. It must be the blood Jurlene was spilling. Elision wanted to wail but didn’t.

Instead, he shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Hold on! Just hold on a little longer!”

He cried out like a prayer.

“The Black Dragon will come!”

Wishing for the only miracle he could hope for at this moment.

“The Black Dragon’s Eye will illuminate this darkness!”

The prince swung his sword while holding the witch with one arm.

He prayed.

Please, I beg you.

Knight, Black Dragon’s Eye.

We are powerless and weak.

“Aaaaah!”

“Hold on!”

Knight, if you hadn’t come with the Black Dragon, we would have already been trampled by the inquisitors that day.

“Don’t get in the way, militia!”

“Damn it, what are you doing? We’re being pushed back! You kingdom bastards who act all high and mighty as knights!”

If it weren’t for the revelation you showed us, we would have sat down in despair and resentment, blaming each other.

“We should have left the patients and children behind… If we had, by now…”

“Are the inquisitors really coming to attack?”

If it weren’t for the treasure you gave us, we wouldn’t have had the courage to set out for new lands.

“If this is how it’s going to be, it would have been better to stay in the cave! Why did we leave the cave!”

“We’re going to die, we’re all going to die here…”

Even after taking difficult steps, we couldn’t go more than a few steps before being paralyzed with fear. Already bleeding, already fallen.

“Priest, priest… it hurts…”

“Damn it, seriously wounded fall back!”

Even though you are blocking greater dangers for us, we can’t properly overcome even smaller stumbling blocks.

“Please save us, God, please save us…”

“I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die in a place like this…”

We are this weak.

“Mommy!”

“No! Grab the child! Don’t let them drag him away!”

“Aaaaah!”

“Hanson, your arm!”

“I’m, I’m fine, the child…”

Even so, we want to live.

“They said the Black Dragon is coming! Just hold on a little longer!”

“Outer Guard! Front support! We’re collapsing!”

We don’t want to die like this. We want to live, so we’re struggling like this. We’re advancing with our lives on the line.

“Fight! Swing anything!”

“We can’t die like this!”

“I’m going to somehow survive and go to the new land, I will…”

For a slightly better future.

“Don’t fall back! Hold on!”

“Hold on with all your might! Our families and neighbors are behind us! If we can’t hold on, we’ll all die!”

“Break through!”

So please, show mercy, a miracle.

Save us.

“There, something else is coming in the sky!”

“Damn it, more wyverns?”

“No!”

“It’s the Black Dragon!”

“The Black Dragon is coming!”

“Waaaah!”

“Uwaaaah!”

“Oh God!”

“Black Dragon!”

The prince held the witch tightly and raised his face, messy with blood and sweat, to look up at the night sky.

A black silhouette blocking the stars was right above them. Near the head of the flapping dragon, a dazzling light blazed.

The Black Dragon’s eyes shine like gold.

Soon, a meteor shower fell down.

* * *

Lillieta bit her lips while cooling the heated muzzle.

‘I didn’t know there would be this many monsters. Being with Gid all the time…’

She too had become complacent. Even knowing why people don’t venture into the Black Forest, she had forgotten its dangers since she hadn’t encountered monsters thanks to the Black Dragon.

If she had been just a little later, it would have been irreversible. There were a terrifyingly large number of monsters swarming, but thanks to people fighting desperately to hold on and protect, no one died.

No civilians.

Among the combatants, one Royal Guard knight and three militia members died.

One was still alive when she arrived, but couldn’t overcome the excessive bleeding and fatal wounds.

“I survived thanks to you, Knight.”

“Thank you, Knight, Black Dragon!”

“You’ve saved us once again!”

“When the Black Dragon arrived, all the monsters fled! Dear God…”

People flocked to her with praise and gratitude. Some wept with emotion. Among them, Rita clenched her teeth invisibly.

‘I should have come faster. If I had known this would happen…’

Honestly, she thought it would be fine if she just stopped the Inquisition Unit. She thought everyone was moving safely.

No one blamed her, and everyone was only crying and thanking her, but Lillieta found it hard to bear the guilt.

“Brother, brother, huuung, uung, wake up, wake up, waaah, why…”

The face of the girl sobbing while holding the dead militiaman was familiar. Marien Riklev. The girl who had been subdued while trying to wake her before.

Rita quietly asked the village chief who was bowing repeatedly to her.

“That girl… doesn’t Marien have any other family?”

The village chief looked back at the girl crying alone while holding the militiaman’s corpse, then made a bitter expression.

“She had some… but they’re dead. Before the Witch found them, they encountered monsters first, so their parents all died and only the siblings survived…”

Rita bit her lips, then said quietly.

“Please change my errand assistant to that child.”

“Knight…”

Though she called it an errand assistant, she meant she would personally take care of Marien. The village chief understood her intention and nodded.

“I understand. I’ll do that. Thank you…”

The village chief’s wrinkled eyes became moist.

The night grew late.

After recovering the bodies of neighbors and family, the people moved away from the area littered with monster corpses and set up camp in a forest slightly apart.

The worry of the Inquisition Unit pursuing them had disappeared, and with the Black Dragon present, there was no concern about monster attacks. They decided to rest like this until morning came.

“Knight, please try this!”

“This leather was prepared by our father, please use it as a blanket!”

“Knight…”

People kept coming and going in front of the tent given to Lillieta. Knowing their circumstances well, everyone was anxious to give her something.

Rita refused gold ornaments or money but accepted food, clothing, and fur pelts. And she wrapped the large bear hide around Marien, who had collapsed from exhaustion after crying.

‘…I need to find her a guardian.’

If this were the year 1770, she could become her guardian, but since it’s 821, she cannot do so.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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