Chapter 43: Sweet Wine
Following Alan’s instructions, Lelian fled the scene of the battle against the demon. As she guided the bewildered villagers of Green River Village to safety, she quickly activated a message rune, sending both a warning and a plea for help to the royal city.
Upon receiving the news, Queen Alfied and the royal archmage Kalonsa’s faces both darkened—by the Light Goddess, in these times, very few could make these two, standing at the pinnacle of power and magic, look so grave.
Yet the demon duke Hieronymusa was undoubtedly one of them.
(Of course, the fact that Prince Lart had been turned into a frog by the wild fae’s magic left the queen awkwardly stunned for a moment as well.)
If a demon duke suddenly appearing in the Material Plane was already enough to trouble the queen and her court mage, what came next was even worse—while the queen wore a solemn expression, silently calculating on Kalonsa’s magical chessboard the number of knight squads stationed near Green River Village—(clearly, since the village lay in a magic desert, the troops capable of countering demons were not plentiful)—the cold, heavy castle of the royal city suddenly shook violently, like an earthquake.
Of course, it could not have been an ordinary earthquake.
It was the noise caused instinctively by Prince Veles, the cursed child bound in the castle’s underground palace, scion of dragon blood, reacting to intense mental agitation.
A noise of extraordinary magnitude.
“I’m going to Green River Village.”
Veles’ expression was blank as he stared through the cold, rune-covered fence at his mother.
“…Only I can fight that kind of creature. I carry the blood of a magical dragon, and the natural enemy of demons is precisely the magical dragon. I am far better equipped to handle demons than any of your troops—let alone the fact that this time, it’s a demon duke that has infiltrated. Mother, you should know, humans have no chance against such high-level demons.”
His voice had little inflection, yet Queen Alfied could sense the intensity of his resolve—this was hardly a plea; it sounded more like Veles was issuing a notification and explanation before forcibly leaving the underground palace.
“I’ve already dispatched reinforcements to Green River Village—the Holy Light Knights are accompanied by a large number of Light Priests…”
The queen took a deep breath and tried to speak as calmly as possible to Veles.
Even as she spoke, she deliberately tilted her head away, trying not to look at the scraps of iron scattered at Veles’ feet.
Not long ago, those fragments had still been bound to his ankles, wrists, and neck—the remnants of the manacles, each link inscribed with runes in mithril and secret silver designed to suppress and siphon the dark power surging through Veles’ body like a volcano or tidal wave.
After the Blood Moon had passed, and Veles’ curse had largely subsided, those manacles should theoretically have reduced him to a soft, inert husk, incapable of movement—yet now they lay scattered on the floor, shattered, entirely useless as restraints.
Veles’ magical power had barely flared, and it had already overloaded the enchanted shackles until they melted themselves away.
“Holy Knights? Light Priests?” Veles suddenly lifted his head, his silver eyes piercing straight at the queen. “The Holy Light Knights are at least two days from Green River Village. They can’t even cross the Misty Swamp. If the Spider Queen casually sends out even one pawn stripped of its rank, those white-iron tin cans will lose over half their fighting strength. By the time they arrive, how many humans in the valley do you think will even survive?”
“Hey, Your Highness, watch your tone! I know you care deeply about the safety of the kingdom, and yes, demons are indeed dangerous. But Captain Lelian said that, with the clever help of a village mage, that demon duke has already been forcibly separated from its host body, which greatly reduces its threat. Your Highness, is it really necessary to be so agitated, so—”
So furious and frenzied.
Kalonsa didn’t finish the last sentence.
He had never seen such an expression on Prince Veles’ face before.
This noble yet dangerous prince, when refuting the queen, spoke with a tone as sharp as a poisoned dagger. His manner was so aggressive that the latent dragon authority radiating from him made even a high-level mage like the queen pale and break into cold sweat.
Kalonsa felt a profound sense of dissonance. He had invested considerable attention in Veles for various reasons, and he knew just how cold and unyielding the silent prince’s heart could be. Yet now, through Veles’ unusually forceful exterior, the archmage faintly perceived a trace of ultimate fear and panic seeping from deep within the prince’s soul.
What could Green River Village possibly hold that made the dragon-blood-cursed prince so… so concerned?
Kalonsa couldn’t help but glance at Veles once more.
Of course, Veles noticed Kalonsa’s suspicious look.
He knew that his behavior was a bit rash at this moment, but he truly could not concern himself with anything else.
Due to the distance, Veles could hardly sense the small segment of dragon vine he had left in Green River Village. The reason he left that low-intelligence creature there, besides his worries for Alan, was driven by the dragons’ inherent greed and possessiveness.
Little Green, spoiled to near delirium by Alan, was deliberately left by Veles as a sort of “mark” for Alan. Veles had never actually expected that creature to be of any real use…
However, just moments ago—even before the queen and archmage received Lelian’s warning—roars and a series of chaotic, desperate images had already streamed through Veles’ mental network into his mind.
He saw Alan with absolute clarity.
The young mage, when facing a high-level demon, displayed far more calm and reliability than Veles had ever anticipated. In fact, even if all emotional factors were stripped away and judged purely on strict criteria, Alan’s performance in Green River Village was remarkable.
At the very least, in Veles’ estimation, a creature like Little Green—with its lazy, unambitious, gluttonous nature—should never have been able to confront a powerful foe like Hieronymusa head-on. Yet under Alan’s ingenious, nearly showy horticultural magic, Little Green had been holding the demon duke at bay up until now. Long enough, in fact, for the remaining royal knights to successfully lead Green River Village’s ordinary villagers away from a settlement on the verge of becoming a demon nest.
It was nothing short of a miracle.
Even Veles himself could not be certain that, without his own bloodline’s natural suppression of demons, he could have managed so well… and Alan, Alan’s mastery of magic was supposed to be that of a mere entry-level, low-tier mage.
And yet this rural magician, relying on the plants he had cultivated—tomatoes, okra, potatoes, and of course dragon vine—was desperately suppressing Hieronymusa’s attacks.
But amid all that verdant green, Veles could clearly sense that this was already Alan’s limit.
Alan was draining himself.
The magic flowing into him had become as fine as wisps of thread, intermittent and fragile, like a drying well on the verge of running empty.
And yet the dark-haired mage had not stopped channeling magic.
At this rate…
If this continued…
“You will die, Mage Alan. Although I would be delighted to take your corpse, a body with magic tastes far better—I suggest you stop this futile resistance.”
Veles heard the demon’s ill-intentioned whisper through Little Green’s body.
What made him unbearably anxious was that, this time, the demon was speaking the truth.
If Alan continued to recklessly drain the magic within himself, there was a very real chance he would die from the complete exhaustion of his magical source.
“I must go, Mother.”
Veles took a deep breath. He could no longer tolerate wasting any more time and had no choice but to issue a final ultimatum with overwhelming authority.
As he spoke, he raised his arm, his fingertips igniting with a dazzling white-blue magical flame.
One by one, magical nodes for a teleportation portal flared to life under Veles’ control.
Anyone could see that he intended to break through the restrictions on spatial magic here and forcibly open a portal from the depths of the underground palace straight to Green River Village. To achieve this, Veles drew upon his tainted bloodline.
And because of this, the form he had so painstakingly regained—his human shape—was once again accompanied by enormous, grotesque dragon wings unfurling from his back.
“Veles—”
The queen called out in anguish.
“Calm yourself! Everything is far too coincidental—why Green River Village, why the Blood Moon? Those demons are likely orchestrating this just to make you appear here, to ultimately push you toward becoming a demon dragon!”
The queen, of course, knew that sending knights instead of letting Veles personally slay the demons might be a waste of manpower in terms of actually fighting them. But whether as a mother or a queen, she could not ignore the suspicious circumstances of Hieronymusa’s sudden appearance.
From ancient times, demons had always delighted in sowing chaos across the continent, and Hieronymusa, in particular, already bore a bloody grudge against the Alfied royal family.
From every perspective, the demon incident in Green River Village was a thoroughly orchestrated conspiracy.
“No matter what, I will not allow you to make such a foolish mistake. You are running headlong into a trap, my child. You can feel that something is wrong, can’t you? So why… why are you being so reckless, so mad?”
The queen gazed at Veles with heart-wrenching anguish, trying desperately to keep the young prince within the safety of the royal city.
Beside Veles, the last circle of the teleportation array remained unlit. Amid the flickering silver-blue glow of the magic, Veles’ eyes shone with a burning intensity that puzzled even the queen.
“I know, but I have a reason I must go there. Mother, if you’re worried I’ll truly become a demon dragon, then use ‘that’ forbidden spell!” Veles spoke abruptly to the queen. “All these years, you’ve been pouring magic into it, haven’t you? That forbidden spell, created to kill me.”
“You—”
“This way, even if I fall into the demon’s trap, the moment I begin to transform into a demon dragon, the forbidden spell will crush my heart. I will die before causing irreversible damage across this continent. Isn’t that perfect?”
The queen’s lips pressed together. She stared at the expressionless Veles, her body swaying slightly, relying entirely on the weight of her white crystal staff to prevent herself from falling.
Yes. For so many years, the queen had quietly, silently been infusing the forbidden spell—written specifically for Veles—with her magic. Over that long time, the spell had grown so powerful that even a magical dragon could be obliterated instantly by it.
But…
She had never truly summoned the resolve to use it.
Because she knew perfectly well that once it was activated, there would be no way to undo the tragedy that would befall Veles.
And yet, even after all these years, the queen had never prepared herself to kill her own child—even if that child became a demon dragon.
Until today.
Until this very moment.
“Do you… do you even know what you’re doing?”
The queen’s voice trembled as she questioned Veles.
To her surprise, Veles’ response was extraordinarily clear.
“I am breaking your heart,” Veles said hoarsely. “But I must do this. I… I…”
The cursed prince hesitated only for a brief instant, then in front of everyone, spoke each word with solemn honesty:
“The most important person in my life, my true love of this lifetime, my green leaf, my precious gem, my sweet wine and light of life… my beloved, the village mage Alan of Green River Village, is there, fighting against the demon.”
“So I must go save him.”
“Even if it means falling into a demon form, even if it means being destroyed by the forbidden spell, I am willing to pay the price.”
“Mother, please forgive me. I love him more than my own life.”
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Author’s Note:
—mini side scene:
Queen: What? You’re saying demons appeared in Green River Village and…
Lelian: …and Your Highness, the Second Prince of Alfied, has been turned into a frog.
Queen: A frog? (unconsciously repeats)
Lelian: Yes, a frog… But please rest assured, Your Majesty, he seems fairly healthy for now.
Lart: Ribbit—
Queen: …Let’s talk about the demons, shall we?
