Luna didn’t actually have to worry.

It doesn’t look like the elves here are the like the n.o.bles I met at the banquets and whatnot I attended with humanity. They didn’t really have any dancing sequence, indeed, everybody just danced randomly, however, they liked without any consideration for rhythm. They just followed their heart and allowed their movements to express the joy in their hearts.

The atmosphere was so cheerful that everybody couldn’t help but laugh, and get closer and closer to their loved one to hug them tightly. The l.u.s.t in the atmosphere was so strong virtually everyone’s ears were red. They looked like they couldn’t wait to unite their bodies.

Maybe this feeling has something to do with the scent of wine in the air. The strong scent of wine could virtually make one drunk without drinking.

Luna smiled and gently leaned onto my chest while breathing softly. Her body rose and fell according to her breathing. She gently interlocked her fingers with mine as she leaned on my chest. She always had a nice faint scent on her, but because of her perspiration from the hot temperature, my heart was racing.

We appeared to be husband and wife amidst the event, as if we weren’t acting as lovers, but actual long-time lovers.

I looked at Luna’s rosy lips. It took a lot out of me to resist kissing them because I had very strong feelings for the Luna before me right now. I really wanted to just hold her tightly like this.

I’ve got Freya to thank for providing me with sufficient warning. Otherwise, I’m genuinely worried I would elope with Luna right now. I believe that Luna would be very happy if we did.

To be frank, I feel that the elves are a very nice race at the moment.

Lucia, Vyvyan, Mera, Luna… These girls and mom are perfect, excessively perfect in fact. They’re all so cute, beautiful, understanding, aren’t tempted by money and don’t have any materialistic pursuits. They persist and show their courage for their love. They are the most perfect treasure in this world.

As for humanity… humanity…

“Nier…”

I randomly murmured a name…

Let’s see what I’ve gone through during my visits to humanity. I dealt with Castor’s criticisms of me, I dealt with threats from the Valkyrie, I dealt the church’s affair and I experienced nearly losing my life in the sewers. Humans stole my Luna’s happiness, they stole my Mera’s life, and they’re always going against me. Humanity has taken the things I cherished from me time and time again.

But I just couldn’t forget her. I couldn’t forget that white robe and that white horse. I couldn’t forget Nier, who gracefully saluted me with determination… I couldn’t forget her. I couldn’t forget her determined gaze. I couldn’t forget her determination. I couldn’t. I love the elven girls. But in her, I saw the bravery, and determination to unceasingly forge forth toward the dream I always wanted to pursue. And she was Nier, the girl who was earnest. She would go until she could no longer go.

Her solo nature was so precious. Her gaze was so courageous, yet when she cried in my arms, she was feminine. She’s my Nier, the Nier who was always by my side. She was the Nier I loved dearly. I want to see her. I don’t know why, but under the influence of the wine and my l.u.s.t, I really wanted to go and see her.

I drank with her under the moonlight twice after all. Twice. We didn’t say a word to each other. We just drank one cup after another.

Her gaze looked so beautiful under the moonlight those times. Her green eyes that looked to the moon carried within them puzzlement, as though she was pondering her life.

I want to see her.

I don’t know why I think of Lucia’s smile and the determined white cape that appears in my dreams whenever I think of my love.

“Nier… Miss Nier?”

Luna paused and then smiled helplessly while looking at me as she continued, “My beloved, do you miss Miss Nier? Or did you want to take part in this sort of event with Miss Nier?”

“No. I just thought of her. I recalled her confession to me. I recalled her… I don’t know why, but I really want to see her right now…”

I smiled helplessly and shook my head. I then said, “But I’m already engaged to Lucia, so I have no right to love another woman anymore. I love Lucia; I really do. She saved my life before. She didn’t abandon me when I was facing my greatest crisis, so how can I just abandon her now?”

Luna looked at me and her lips budged. She then laughed and said, “My dear, I think that there is an issue with your thinking. It is just as Her Majesty said. If you have a wife in both locations, that should not be considered betrayal, right? If you truly love Miss Nier, then it is a form of pain for you two to not be able to be together as well. I would think that not even Miss Lucia would be willing to see you sad like this. Plus, Miss Nier has the right to be loved!”

“I… I… Forget it. Let’s not talk about this… Even if I think that way, I need to get everyone’s opinion on it… I do like Nier, but if I only had one choice, I won’t betray Lucia.”

“It is not a betrayal to love two women as long as you can love them both equally.” Luna smiled helplessly and then continued, “If you have that thought, could you also… consider me? … Ah… sorry… sorry… I forget my place… Your Majesty, you could not possibly…”

Luna quickly changed her choice of words and then revealed a gentle smile to say, “Sorry… Ah…”

I pulled the girl in front of me into my arms tightly.

Luna was caught got by surprise. She s.h.i.+vered as she reached her arms out and wrapped her arms around my back gently, clenching my clothes tightly like she was going to rip them.

Because of her hoa.r.s.e voice, her body was shaking gently. She hugged me tightly and sobbed. Next to my ear, she said in her shaky voice, “Don’t… don’t be like this… Your Majesty… please don’t be like this… don’t be like this… Please don’t be so gentle with me… I… I won’t be able to hold myself back… I… I will start to have hopes… I already… I’m already like this… Please don’t be so gentle with me… I… I will fall in love with you… How…”

“Fall in love with me then…”

I embraced her tightly and earnestly said, “Love me. I can’t reciprocate your feelings, and I know that we will never receive blessings from anyone, regardless of where we go. If you were the Luna of the past, and I wasn’t the prince, then we could be together. But right now… I’ve never thought that not being a prince would be better, so… so… I can’t reciprocate your feelings… But I will keep one who loves me by my side forever. Luna, I won’t have another personal servant other than you. There will only ever be one Luna by my side.”

“Your Majesty… Your Majesty… I… I… I’m so happy… I’m very happy with this… thank you… thank you…”

Luna released me and wiped her tears before looking up. She looked at me with her eyes that were still wet and sparkling. She giggled softly and then wrapped her arms around my neck. She softly said, “In that case… please allow me to enjoy this before this dream ends… My beloved…”

She went up on her tiptoes…

This wasn’t crossing the line because all of the couples around us were holding each other tightly to fill their love. We too were locked in a tight embrace as we kissed. But we knew that we would never be able to be in each other’s arms again after this time…

Editor: Areth Kyntaul

“Brother! Brother! Wake up! Hurry up and wake up!!”

I had a cup of cold water splashed on my face at night to wake up. I opened my eyes quickly.

Never pour water on a man’s head when he’s sleeping looking up. It sucks and hurts incredibly. It’s the exact same feeling as when you are sentenced to death by drowning. It really induces the same terror as suffocation.

“Wh-What’s the matt-?”

Before I could finish, Freya covered my mouth. She checked her surroundings vigilantly and in a soft voice said, “Be careful, brother, there’s someone coming, and it doesn’t look like they’re harbouring any good-will. It’s that group of merchants. Everybody is asleep like you right now. All of the elves are basically drunk. Look at this, brother.”

Freya placed a sheet of paper on my s.h.i.+rt. I borrowed the light provided by the torches to read it. It was a very simple recruitment advertis.e.m.e.nt. But it had Galle Village written on one part of it. I thought about it for a second. It looks like Galle Village is short on workers. But the time period for recruitment was…

A few days ago. In other words, when everyone gathered for the celebration a few days ago. Which means that the people here came for work. No, maybe it was because they believed that Galle Village was producing gold, and all the females came to get gold-jewellery made. As long as gold is involved, people will get obsessed it. After being an apprentice for a few years, they’ll be able to create gold-jewellery. They could then grind it into gold-powder afterwards and it would become theirs.

“Brother, maybe we have discovered the most frightening case. This is my new discovery. See this? Brother, this is a bone! This was a bone that was found in that pile of ashes. It wasn’t burnt completely! The charcoal we saw wasn’t charcoal but burnt corpses!!”

Freya’s gaze was filled with terror. The terror that was soon to befall me woke me right up. It looks like this place is much more frightening than I imagined. This is no elf-trafficking case. This is… this is… this is inviting men here and killing them and then kidnapping the women!

I looked at the elves sound asleep in all directions, even Luna was sound asleep. I couldn’t wake her up no matter how much I shook her. Freya looked at me, nodded and said, “Your guess is right. They definitely spiked the drinks. But it wasn’t as effective on you since you’re mixed-blood. That group of merchants is coming over now.”

“Just them?”

“Yes, because all the other elves who were preparing to a.s.sist are dead.”

Freya nodded. I noticed that the pearl-necklace on her chest was missing. I made a wild guess, “Freya, did you poison them?”

“Yes. The villagers of this village have all become rotten to the core. They were planning to sell the elves that came for gold. Of course, it’s not their fault, but the fault of the tax official. The tax official threatened the villagers into doing this so that his issue wouldn’t cause the capital to be disappointed.”

I clenched my teeth.

This sort of thing will incur everyone’s hate. A regional official doesn’t represent himself, but the government. I can’t believe the tax official came up with such a sinister plan for the sake of his own desires and to fatten himself up.

That group of merchants are definitely involved too. They definitely had a hand in plotting it.

“Brother, we must hide now. They should be coming over to take people away soon. I poisoned them, but the poison is only effective on elves, so all of the elves in this village who were a.s.sisting them are dead. That group of merchants will definitely do everything in their power to kidnap the female elves!”

“What about Luna then?!”

“Leave her here! Onii-sama! Don’t worry about Luna for now. She will definitely return to your side. The most important thing right now is for us to hide! We aren’t armed. Forgive me for being blunt, but you don’t have any fighting capabilities while I can’t last long in a fight due to my body. So we have to go to the stables now and see if there’s a horse available.”

Freya grabbed my arm and dragged me towards the village. She was so tense and anxious that she reverted back to her old way of addressing me. It looks like we’re in a real pinch here and have no time for some brother-sister game. Freya’s body started to give in. It looks like she ran back here as fast as she could.

I only found out what Freya had been up to during the time she went away later on. She first went and formed a friendly relations.h.i.+p with the tax official and found out that the village had to offer him gold tonight. At the same time, she found out about their shortage of people who could refine gold.

She then heard about the recruitment flyer from a husband-and-wife couple. Once she got a grasp on what was happening, she poisoned the wine in front of the village chief’s house before running to the gold mine with everything she had.

She got the dog to sneak in and bring out a bone while there weren’t many people around thanks to the celebration.

She then ran back here after all of that.

“How did they transport the people?!”

“Obviously with the horse carriage! Onii-sama, their horse carriage is used for transporting people! If my guess is right, they smuggle the gold in through those fruits. They just didn’t give us the fruits with gold. Onii-sama, we don’t have a second to lose. We just need one horse. Miss Luna will be fine!”

I looked at Luna who was sound asleep next to me. I tried to see if I could pick her up, but a person who’s sleeping is particularly heavy. Even if I wasn’t affected by the drinking and didn’t drain myself with all that dancing, intimate hugging and smooching, all of my limbs were blatantly powerless so I just didn’t have the strength. I had no way of taking Luna along at that moment.

“Onii-sama! Hurry!!!”

At the same time, at the northern army camp.

“!!”

Vyvyan suddenly opened her eyes wide. She sat up in a violent fas.h.i.+on and placed her hand on her chest, where her heart was racing while she panted. She had seen her son get hit with an arrow in her dream. He had been shot in his thigh with an arrow by a group of people dressed in black under the moonlight. After falling off his horse, he had been hung up, and his throat was pierced with another arrow. Vyvyan knew that it definitely wasn’t a dream, but one possible future.

Her ability was mind-reading, but she had another ability on top of that; clairvoyance. She could tell what a person wanted to do because she had clairvoyance. Her brother could see the past, while she could see the future. However, the one caveat she had was that she could only see one possible future.

“Fuu…”

She breathed gently and didn’t say a word. However, her blood-red eyes, which looked like they were dripping blood due to her anger, told the whole story. Nothing in this world held any meaning to Vyvyan. But she would not allow anything or anyone to threaten her son.

If they’re going to threaten him, then regardless of whom it is or what the case is, Vyvyan was dead-set on gouging their hearts out.

And this time, it was definitely not like the deer hunting festival last time. That time, Mera had hesitated for a long time, so she wasn’t such a big threat to her son. But it was precisely because of that, that she didn’t notice it. It was different this time, though. Since she could see it in her dream, it was a clear indication of the severity of the matter this time.

If the previous a.s.sa.s.sination was considered the work of shabby a.s.sa.s.sins, this time, it was a trained mercenary group in pursuit.

She stood up and got dressed. She then waved her hand and vanished from the camp, leaving just a leaf that was blown past by the wind.

Lucia was lying underneath the moonlight. She curled up and continued to breathe evenly and gently. She didn’t know what took place afterwards as she was still imagining herself and her handsome husband’s appearance in her dream…

 ///////

Editor: Areth Kyntaul

“The Shadow Squad has already mobilised, but the enemy outnumbers them by far. I never thought there would be mercenaries too. It looks like they entered the village one after another. I don’t know when I attracted their attention. Perhaps they detected danger when we tested them. We did end up alerting them after all.”

I ordered the Shadow Squad to mobilise, but I didn’t ask of them the ridiculous task of holding them. The Shadow Squad are experts at infiltration and sabotage, not specialists in face-to-face combat, so I couldn’t ask them to go and fight them head-on. Every member was a well-trained expert. I would feel apologetic towards mom if I lost one so I just ordered them to perform a.s.sa.s.sinations and to avoid getting involved with the armed-mercenaries if possible.

Freya and I successfully took two horses out from the stables. I saw elf corpses lying in all directions on the ground as well. All of them had greenish faces like they were poisoned. I saw Luna’s brother in the centre. Although they helped a tyrant carry out an evil deed, seeing Luna’s last family member lying here made me feel apologetic, nevertheless.

“Wait, onii-sama.”

Freya took out a tiny blade and slit the legs of the remaining horses. It was a very shallow cut, so you virtually can’t see it. So shallow, they didn’t even kick Freya.

Freya then tossed the blade away and said, “We’re alright now. This is a commonly used trick in horse races. You won’t be able to see it, but once the horse starts running, it’ll slow down due to the pain. They won’t be able to follow us now. Onii-sama, we now need to run away as fast as possible!”

“Run away?!” I looked at Freya’s surprised reaction and exclaimed, “Aren’t we going to rescue Luna?! Why do we have to leave now?! I’m going back! I must go back and save Luna!!”

“Don’t be stupid, onii-sama! How can you save Miss Luna?! You don’t have a weapon or a companion as strong as Miss Nier! You’ll just be marching to your own death! Luna will only get sold off, she won’t be killed! But you will definitely be killed!”

“You’re right, you’re right, I know that it’s really dangerous, and I know that everything you said is right.” I mounted the horse. With my back facing Freya, I resolutely continued, “But there are some things you have to fight for even if it means certain death. Mom was right. Death isn’t scary. What’s scarier is never having truly lived before. I made a promise to Luna. I told her to love me. I told her that she would be the only one by my side, so I can’t run away now. I didn’t know Luna in the past when she was kidnapped and abused, but I’m right by her side this time. If I just watch her get taken away from the sidelines, I’ll never be able to forgive myself!”

“Onii-sama! What’s the point of you acting on your emotions?! If it was Miss Nier or Miss Lucia who got kidnapped, I would definitely follow you back there, but it’s Miss Luna who is being kidnapped! She’s just a personal maid! A used elf!! Don’t tarnish yourself for her when you are royalty!”

“Luna is my personal servant, and my only personal servant. I won’t let anyone hurt my personal servant. I’ve already lost someone I treasured before. I won’t lose another.” I turned around to look at Freya and in a serious tone exclaimed, “Freya, run if you’re scared, I won’t blame you. But I am not backing down this time. I’m not leaving until I see that my Luna is safe. I’ll do anything for that!”

Freya mounted her horse and looked at me with a complex look. She then took in a deep breath, clenched her teeth, and said, “In that case, take care, onii-sama! I won’t do something that won’t succeed. I’m not joining you on your journey to your own death. Onii-sama, you’re only so fearless because you haven’t witnessed death!”

“Wrong. I’m fearless because I’ve witnessed death.”

I turned around and heard Freya kick her horse head and leave. The sound of the horse hooves moving quickly went farther and farther away.

I don’t blame Freya. She has already done all she could. I can run into danger on my own, but I don’t ask that anyone else throws their life away for my Luna. Freya was absolutely right.

If I had soldiers go and save Lucia or Nier, the soldiers would do so without complaint because they would be rescuing the princess, which is the most natural thing for them to do. But they would start questioning me if I asked them to go and rescue Luna, who is of lower standing than them, because they would feel that I don’t care about their lives.

Thus, my only option was to rescue her myself. Others don’t care about Luna, but I do. I only have one such servant. I had just embraced her, held her, and she was lying in my arms just a while ago. I was unaware of Luna’s existence last time, so I couldn’t save her back then. But Luna was right before me this time. If I didn’t save her this time, I would never be able to forgive myself.

I reached down to my belt. I didn’t have my gun on me. My only weapons were the potions in my belt. They were given to me by mom. These should be useful tools if I can put them to good use. The problem right now though is that I don’t know how to combine them.

Whatever, I’ll figure it out as I go.

While I was looking heroic, my legs were quaking. My instinct was telling me to run away.

This was an extremely strange scene. Wood was slowly burning away. I could hear the flames crackling. Bodies were lying on the ground without budging. There were the mercenaries running around and about too.

If I get spotted, I’ll be dead meat.

I don’t know how long it’s going to take them to wrap up.

I whistled and then I heard rustling sounds in the forest. The Shadow Squad struck out from all sides. Since I’m without Freya’s wits now, I’m left with just the Shadow Squads’ combat skills. They have to stall them, or we’re going to be in for a tough fight.

The horse for the horse carriage had already been led away. All that did was prevent the mercenaries from pursuing us.

The Shadow Squad charged toward the group of merchants while I kicked my horse and charged over there.

While I’m aware that rus.h.i.+ng in without a plan is stupid, I didn’t have any time to think. If Luna gets loaded onto the horse carriage, what am I to do? Though the horse carriage isn’t as fast as me, what am I going to do as one man against a horse carriage loaded with weapons?

Therefore, I can’t hesitate. I’ll do my thinking on my way. I trust that the Shadow Squad won’t let me down. They should be able to hold off the mercenaries even if they’re outnumbered.

“Your Majesty… Your Majesty… Your Majesty… Your Majesty… Your Majesty… Your Majesty… Your Majesty… Your Majesty…”

Nier lay on the ground in a daze. She kept her lifeless eyes open but she couldn’t budge. She opened her mouth a little and water slowly coursed down her cheeks. She didn’t even budge. If she wasn’t repeating “Your Majesty” over and over, she’d basically be the exact same thing as a dead person. Her body would sometimes have spasms and the ground would get wet again…

“Sir… she… her mind’s broken, right? … Did we overdose? … She’ll die if we keep this up, won’t she…?”

The merchant watched Nier who was in front of him. He knocked on the iron rails. Nier didn’t move an inch. She just lay there repeating “His Majesty” over and over like a machine.

“Has the letter been delivered?”

“I don’t know. The messenger hasn’t gotten back to us.”

The merchant deliberated it and then said, “Tomorrow. If His Majesty still hasn’t returned what we want to us by tomorrow, you guys can start feasting. Valkyries are a rare species to come by. I think that you guys will be really happy with her.”

“Understood, sir!”

Vyvyan checked her surroundings. Elf corpses were scattered all over the ground around her. She frowned. Her keen smell helped her notice the scent of poison in the air. The inhabitants of this village were killed with poison, and the poison was designed to specifically work on elves. It was poison from humanity, but it didn’t seem like it was prepared to poison these elves in order to steal their gold since they were all armed. It looks like they were preparing to attack someone or something, but ended up getting killed first. That means that this group were intending to harm my son, but wounded up getting poisoned before they could.

It must’ve been the handiwork of one of the girls with my son. I can’t deny the fact that those two girls have saved my son. But after taking a deep breath, Vyvyan was somewhat angry because it begs the question, if this didn’t happen this time, who was the poison intended to be used on?

But Vyvyan didn’t want to bother with that right now. Even if she had to pursue the matter, it would have to wait until afterwards. What Vyvyan needed to do right of this moment was find her son. She took in a deep breath. Like a hunting-dog, she located the direction her son went in by tracing her desire for her son and his breath. My son is currently moving at high-speed in the field.

It looks like he’s chasing something, or maybe running from something.

One of the members of the shadow squad panted as he ran up to my horse, wiped the blood on his face and reported: “Your highness, we have tried our best. We stopped two horse-carriages, but one of them managed to get away.”

We can only say they did their best. The shadow squad is a small squad, but they nearly killed all of the mercenaries in the forest. However, those merchants were highly experienced. They didn’t turn around regardless of how chaotic things got behind them. They just loaded the girls onto the horse-carriage as fast as they could. After killing the mercenaries, the shadow squad did their best to chase the two horse carriages and kill everyone aboard.

I dismounted, jumped onto the horse carriage and opened the door on the side. Using a fire torch, I checked the faces of all those on board.

Luna was neither on the first or second horse-carriage.

There were only three horse-carriages in total, so Luna must be on the horse-carriage that got away.

I clenched my teeth. The shadow squad can’t possibly catch up to the fleeing horse-carriage on foot while all we had to go and unnecessarily slit the horses’ legs. My horse is the only horse capable left. I don’t have any fighting abilities. I can catch up to it, but what can I do?

No, the question isn’t what I can do, but what I should do.

I turned around to face their captain and held my hand out. He looked at me blankly, not understanding what I was after. I said: “Give me your sword, hurry.”

“Ah! Right away!”

He handed me the long-sword in his hand. I attached it to my belt and mounted my horse. I then said: “You guys rest here. Then go back to another village and send a letter to the capital addressed to her highness! I’m going to go and stop that horse-carriage. Oh, right, the horses in the stable have all had their legs slit. So if you want to ride the horses, take it slow.”

I didn’t give them time to respond. I kicked my horse hard and the horse stood up on two legs. I desperately whipped the horse but it wouldn’t stop neighing and resisting. I don’t want to be so violent either, but if I don’t get rough with you, then they’re going to get rough with my Luna.

I will not hand Luna over to anyone, nor will I abandon her. Yes, Luna is just my personal servant, and the things she went through meant that she was fated to never be with me, but I like her. I really like that gentle, kind and strong-willed girl. I don’t mind her past. I want to give her happiness. I want to give that girl a well-deserved future and happiness. I didn’t know her in the past, but she’s now my maid. I can’t let her go through hards.h.i.+p again. She’s so beautiful. The sea of flowers should be her reward. Her future should not be locked up in a broken-piece-of-trash horse-carriage!

The fields had been harvested so the s.p.a.ce was vacant. The dark clouds in the sky finally moved away, allowing the moonlight to s.h.i.+ne through onto the ground. I could see the reflection of the horse-carriage’s ceiling moving in the distance. It looks like they’re going as fast as they can as well. But because the horse-carriage is heavy, I can definitely catch up to them.

I touched the long-sword at my belt. You’re right. I don’t know swordsmans.h.i.+p. This thing is useless to me, but I’m still going to go. I must save Luna. I must. If I must die, it’ll be on the way I save Luna. I cannot accept having another person I cherish die before my eyes. I’ve already made up my mind resolutely and tried so hard. If I still end up letting the girl who loves me close her eyes in despair in front of me, then what would be the point of continuing to try my best? I won’t allow it to happen again. I won’t let anyone else I cherish die! I’m going to save them, not for glory, but just for my efforts and my dream!

I continued closing the gap between us. The rocking atop the horse meant that I had no way of sitting down. A merchant standing on the carriage poked his head out and stiffened up when he saw me. He then quickly picked up his bow. I saw the metal tip of an arrow flash in the air and zip past me.

But I couldn’t get the horse to evade left and right at the moment, because I would get flung off into the distance if I forced it to turn at this point in time.

*Stab!!*

I got hit in the chest with an arrow. The strong force of the shot almost shot me off my horse. I grabbed onto the reins tightly and desperately stabilised myself. The Earth Dragon armour was the perfect defence. I just felt something deal me a heavy blow. The arrow didn’t pierce my flesh.

But it still hurt like h.e.l.l.

The shooter was shocked to see me still fine. He quickly hid himself. We were now very close. I took out the “shock potion” from my belt, kicked my horse’s abdomen one last time to speed up and pulled up to the side of the horse carriage.

If I blew up a tyre on the horse-carriage it would become lop-sided, but with all the dirt in the field, it should serve as sufficient cus.h.i.+oning for the impact.

“Go to h.e.l.l!!!”

Just as I was about to toss it, I looked up and got a fright. That merchant raised up a grenade that was like a mini-bomb while wearing a hideous grin. He pulled off the safety-pin and laughed aloud as he threw the grenade at me. I quickly sped up. I had no choice but to leap off my horse at high speed because there was no other path.

But I don’t want to!

Once I leave my horse and let it slow down, Luna will vanish before my eyes. My horse has already sped up twice to reach this speed. If I slow down, I’ll be forced to watch Luna leave. I’m not going to take that. I’d rather die. If it explodes at such a close range, the horse-carriage will suffer too.

“Go to h.e.l.l!!”

The grenade flew toward my head. I whipped my hand and threw the potion towards the horse-carriage’s wheel……

You want to go?! Bring it! Let’s gamble. I won’t let you take Luna away even if it costs me my life! If I survive, I’m going to slaughter the lot of you!

I’m not taking a single step back for Luna’s sake!

Editor: Areth Kyntaul

Half of one of the wheels blew up.

The impact of this sort of explosion where no light was emitted frightened my horse to the point where it dropped to its knee, causing me to get sent flying.

I’m going to sc.r.a.pe a layer of skin off if I don’t end up dead upon landing on the ground at this speed. However, I didn’t end up getting intimate with the ground. Instead, I landed nice and gently on the ground, while the grenade that got thrown suddenly vanished in mid-air.

I turned around to see mom floating in the sky as she watched the carriage down below with a menacing look. The horse carriage had lost half a tyre, and after a loud crack, it tipped to the left. Just as it was about to slam into the ground, what was like a thick cus.h.i.+on in mid-air stopped it.

I instinctively drew my long-sword from my belt as I saw the two coachmen go to stand up. I skewered them all the way through until my sword pierced into the ground like candied-haw.

Mom gracefully landed on the ground and slapped me hard before I could react, causing me to see stars. Mom then immediately pulled me into her embrace.

In her shaky voice, she softly said, “You scared mommy to death… you scared mommy to death… you stupid child… you stupid… why did you gamble your life away like this…! Mommy… what is mommy to do if something happens to you…? Didn’t you promise mommy you wouldn’t do anything dangerous…? Son… Son… don’t lie to mommy… don’t… don’t… what is mommy to do without you? …”

Mom cried loudly on my shoulders.

I hugged mom tightly.

Her legs were shaking and giving in. It looks like mom really was scared silly just now. It makes sense. After all, there’s no mother who wouldn’t lose it if she saw a grenade thrown at her son.

I promised mom I wouldn’t do anything dangerous, too.

As she cried loudly on my shoulder, I gently patted her back and softly said, “Sorry. Sorry, mom. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have made you worry like this… I was wrong… Sorry, mom…”

“Silly child! Silly child! Don’t do anything so dangerous… Didn’t mommy tell you to consider mommy? … What is mommy to do if something happens to you…? What is mommy going to depend on to live on…? Mommy told you to run when things got dangerous… and to be more considerate of mommy… think of mommy…”

Mom tightened her arms around me while patting my back with her powerless arms. She cried loudly while letting out her anxiety and fear. I believe mom was more terrified than I was at the time.

“Sorry… sorry… mom… I won’t do it again… I’ll be good… I’ll be good…”

Our bodies – down to every hair and bit of skin – are received by us from our parents, and we must not presume to injure or wound them. This is the beginning of filial piety. No matter how badly you may want to die, your mother will still be hurt and worried if you were to so much as sc.r.a.pe your skin. I must be the most un-filial son for going back on my promise to mom and getting into danger.

Mom hugged me for a long time before letting go.

I reached my hands out to wipe away mom’s tears.

Mom blinked her eyes, which were still filled with tears, before reaching her hand out to gently stroke my face. In her soft voice, she asked, “Does it hurt?”

“Huh?”

I gave her a dumbfounded look since I didn’t know what she was talking about.

“Mommy shouldn’t have hit you… It was just that… mommy was truly really scared… mommy… mommy doesn’t want to see you get hurt… so mommy overreacted… sorry, son… mommy shouldn’t have hit you.

Mom rubbed my face roughly. It didn’t actually hurt when she hit me. It was more like a wake-up call type of slap.

I smiled and shook my head gently. I replied, “No. Don’t worry, mom. It was my fault, to begin with. I caused you to worry so much.”

“Yes, it was your fault, son. So I want you to kiss mommy!” Mom stared at me angrily and then smiled as she closed her eyes.

The kissing practice of elves is really strange. They don’t do forehead-kisses or cheek-kisses. I sighed. I don’t think I can make mom upset again now. And so, I clasped her face gently and gently kissed her on her lips.

Mom moaned, and then wrapped her arms around my neck gently, cancelling out my “peck-and-run” plan. Now I had to kiss mom until she was satisfied.

Mom wasn’t giving me a simple kiss. She was sucking on my lips and tongue with everything she had like she does on full-moon nights.

After a looong kiss, Mom finally let go of me, wiped her mouth, and then looked at me with her still somewhat red eyes with a smile to say, “Eung… Hnng… Mmm… I’ll… I’ll forgive you this time, son.”

I s.h.i.+vered from head-to-toe. Mom is little too dangerous in her current state. But I still have something very important to do. I need to carry Luna out.

I walked up to the horse-carriage that had been flipped onto its side and pulled the door open.

The elves inside had all woken up. They all cried when they saw a fire-torch.

Just as I was about to shout over their voices, I heard a shaky but strong voice inside shout, “Don’t be scared, everyone! His Highness will definitely come to our rescue! He definitely will! He is in this village! He will come to rescue us no matter what happens! I believe in him! He is…”

“Luna!”

When I shouted, her voice trembled and then she couldn’t stop herself from crying. Luna cried loudly from inside and shouted, “Your Majesty… Your Majesty!”

“It’s okay now. It’s okay now. Come on out, everyone. Be careful.”

The elves inside crawled out one by one. They looked at me, bowed, and thanked me as they continued to cry.

Mom stood elegantly to one side as she watched them and said with a smile, “It’s alright. Don’t worry. We have already punished the people responsible. Please, everyone, carefully return to the village. We will take care of the things that come after.”

“Your Highness!!!”

The elves rushed over to mom, grabbed her and cried loudly.

Mom patted them on their backs with a smile as she comforted them.

I crouched down to the side and reached my hand out to pull Luna up.

Luna wiped her tears and then looked at me. As she continued sobbing, she exclaimed, “Your Majesty… you didn’t abandon me… you didn’t abandon me… Thank you… Thank you!”

“I will never abandon you. I will never abandon you no matter what happens…” I reached my arms out and pulled Luna into my embrace.

Luna shook fiercely in my arms and cried out loud. However, her cries were more relaxed and cheerful than ever.

I know very well how blissful it is to have a chest to cry on after having a brush with death and surviving.

I felt a chill run up my spine. I turned my head around to see mom looking at Luna with a vengeful gaze and the chilling feeling spread throughout my entire body. I quickly pushed Luna away. Luna wiped her tears as she continued sobbing gently. She even tried to glue herself to me… Please, don’t come over here! If you come any closer, you’re going to die for real! You really will die!

“Brother! Brother!”

Just as I was about to head back, I heard another voice call out to me from another direction.

Freya was coming over to me at a fast speed on her horse. She stopped in front of me and then exclaimed, “You actually caught the horse-carriage!”

I looked at her and replied, “Yeah.”

She looked at me and softly said, “Don’t blame me, onii-sama. Running into danger, knowing it is dangerous is stupidity.”

“I never did. I don’t want to you be in danger either.” I stroked her head, smiled and asked, “So, is something the matter?”

“I was originally planning to return to humanity to get them to seal all routes where elves could enter and forbid horse-carriages from entering any of the towns nearby.”

I noticed that her horse was foaming at the mouth. It looks like she too has been riding for a long while. Freya still helped me once she got to safety. She just didn’t want to die for nothing.

She took in a deep breath and then handed me a letter and said, “But on the way there, I met a messenger who asked me for your whereabouts. He had this letter with him. It is a letter from the church addressed to you…”

“The church?!”

I was dumbfounded. I then took the letter…