CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Blutm?d
“Who are you?!” barked a curly-haired knight with a slightly taller build than Bram—a rare thing—though it might have just been his pte armiving him the extra bulk. “Decre yourselves!”
Bram couldn’t answer. He was too busy trying not to puke.
“One mo—”
The narrowed gazes of House von Galee helped him resist the urge to vomit, but only for a while. In the end, his air siess won out, and Bram puked the remains of his breakfast on the skyship’s wooden deck.
“Oi, I just ed that this m, you Arse!” roared one of the knights.
His panions seemed equally vexed. They shouted curses at Bram, though he cared not at all.
“Call him…” Despite his rumbling stomach, the prince mao rise back to his full height. “Tell your master that—”
Bram puked a sed helping of bile onto the wooden floor, earning him more threats of bodily harm aernal damnation.
Again, he didn’t care.
Bram got up without missing a beat, and then, after wiping the bile from his mouth, he decred, “Tell your master…the Governor of Lotharin’s arrived…to see him.”
At his side, Rowan could only giggle. Clearly, she found his inability to handle flying in her arms more amusing than disgusting, something Bram was secretly thankful for. She was the only oo be amused, though. For at the mention of his title, the mood shifted siderably.
“This daft bastard’s the governor?” one of the knights asked.
At his question, skepticism spread across faces half-veiled by steel helmets.
“’t be,” replied another knight. “The Ill-Fated Prince’s hiding away in Bastille. The coward would be too afraid to step ihis forest to even lick our lord’s arse.”
“That dandy fool wouldn’t look as filthy either,” another knight chimed in.
ents about Bram’s love for luxurious baths and colorful clothes spread among the knights, causing the prio frown. Obviously, someone in his bastion’s been a little loose with their tongues. In Bram’s defe’s not like he wao appear in front of von Galen’s knights looking like he’d waded in a bloody s, but the signs of his battle with Loveless stained what remained of his gear.
“No, you’re not the prince. You wouldn’t be here if you were,” cimed one of the knights. “We’ve all seen him c whehe Baron and Vite put him in his pce.”
“We all know what the little coward’s about,” added another knight. “Every bloke and tavern wen the kingdom knows he soils his breeches whenever real nobles show up.”
Laughter.
It was the same mog ughter Bram heard whenever he passed a cluster of nobles whispering to each other while hardly hiding the fact that they were gossiping about him. Hearing it now caused the simmering rage at the edge of his sciouso rise once more. He didn’t even realize that he’d pulled Dusk out until he felt the chill of its handle against his palm.
Strangely, he felt something else too.
The back of his ha hot and seemed to grow hotter along with his rising anger.
Bloody hell…
Bram gnced down.
It might have been just a trick of the light, but he could have sworn the bck lightning scar on his hand wiggled just a little.
“What have you got there?” another knight asked, interrupting Bram’s musings. “Y to buy your life with that golden stick?”
“It’s a nice-looking stick, I’ll grant him that,” replied another knight. “Just the right size to shove up one’s—”
‘Crack!’
Rowan moved so fast that no one had time to react, and by the time the knight who’d mocked Bram looked down, her hand was already buried in his chest.
Silence.
It was a silence broken only by the roar of tearing flesh, a muffled cry, and a familiar beating. Steady at first but growing more erratic with each sed. When the knight toppled over, the heart in Rowan’s hand also stopped beating.
Screams ensued. Anger, fear, fusion—these emoti through the air but were quickly silenced by a new kind of ughter. Low, sultry giggling that made one’s skin crawl to hear a evoked a sense of pleasure in one’s ears reverberated around them, f the knights bato silence.
Fools, Bram thought. If you cked the ce to fight, then you should have run…not stand there like scarecrows waiting to be picked off…
He thought these knights were the elite of von Galen’s household, but they were nothing pared to the otherworlders in his party who stood their ground even against a nymph-turned-giantess.
‘Swoosh!’
With a swing of her hand—ohat now held a ‘Blood Fal’ between its fihe head of a sed knight was severed from its neck. It rolled on the ground, sliding toward the sabatons of the burly, curly-haired knight who’d yelled at Bram to decre his identity.
Another long mome by before he found his voice again.
“To battle, you Fools!” the curly-haired knight roared. “To battle!”
New screams began. Bdes were drawn. Shields were raised. Helmet visors were pulled down. One by ohe knights of von Galen’s household charged at the intruders. However, Bram was right—they should have run instead…
“In yht with Loveless”—Like a ballerina on stage, Rowan twirled around Bram to cut down a knight who’d rushed at the prince’s back—“I saw you wield an iing sword art.”
Bram, who didn’t even have the spare health to summon Dusk’s violet-e bde, could only nod while he marveled at the skill of Rowan’s swordsmanship which he witnessed for the first time.
“The Peerless Heart Sword belongs to Ser Anthony. I was only borrowing it.”
“Don’t able… What you borrow is yours to cim.”
Like the lead dancer in a py celebrated on the grand stage of the majestic theaters of the Imperium’s capital, Rowan wove and spun her way around Bram while her fal screeched across space. Its crimson bde sliced through metal and flesh as easily as if they were soft cheese. With this dance of death, she created a perimeter of blood and bodies around the prihat brooked no trespassers.
Despite the growing number of dead, however, many more soldiers were arriving from below deck. Quickly, a hundred souls were ing for Rowan. Bram didn’t think their numbers would matter though. Not now that the rebel trickster of legend unleashed the darkrapped inside her.
“You’ve learo wield—”
Roarried a sword aimed at her bosom and then pushed it aside so her fal could bite into the k between the armor of the offending knight’s arm.
“—a sword that cut down—”
She sliced off his arm right at the shoulder and then moved to strike at the knight lying in wait behind him.
“—a single powerful foe.” The tip of Rowan’s fal pierced into the slit of the sed knight’s visor, causing him to scream in pain. “So, allow me to show you—”
Her bde sliced through this knight’s helmet on its way to csh with a spear that had been aimed at her neck.
“—a sword that’s meant—”
After a parry came a riposte that dug deep into the spearman’s chest, and the blood had yet to spurt out of him when a smiling Rowan moved on.
“—to cut down a host of foes,” she finished.
Somehow, she’d found her way back to Bram’s side looking like she’d just finished swimming in a sea of blood. Crimson stains coated her hair and gambeson, with spshes of red freg her pale face. It was a face alight with passion, which, on any other occasion, would have made men and women swoon to see.
“Blutm?d…”
Here and now, the prince was finally witnessing the trickster who’d sin all those assassins of the White Rose who’d attacked his bedroom while he slept.
“This is who you are.”
Her impish grin fshed for him.
Surprisingly, the dark visage of the ‘Blood Maiden’ before him caused no terror in Bram. Instead, he felt pride at witnessirength, though envy also sparked within his mind. How could he not feel jealous when he’d sought power all his life only to be shown what real power looked like and how she used it with such ease?
“Bastards!” roared the curly-haired knight.
Tall and swift, he pushed past the two knights who fell to Rowan’s fal and aimed his broadsword at the prince who seemed dazed and unready for a fight. Unfortunately for him, Bram was alrepared for a fight.
With his ‘Danger Seingling, the prince slid to the right a half-sed before the poiip of a broad bde could skewer him i. A half-step ter, he kicked out with force, hitting the curly-haired knight’s kh his bht where the ks in the armor were located. His boot dug into his enemy’s knee, causing it to bend at an awkward angle.
To his credit, the curly-haired knight didn’t scream. He just gritted his teeth and haphazardly lu the pri was a foolish choice, however, because Bram had beely trained by the duelists of the Delightful Troupe to take advantage of every weakness he found.
“Most people think I’m an inpetent brute, and—”
Bram deftly slid uhe curly-haired knight’s wide swing to grab his uninjured leg with both hands.
“—they’d teically be right, but—”
Caught in a ‘Single Leg Tackle’, the curly-haired knight lost the foothold to push the stubborn prince off him, leaving him open to being lifted off his feet before he could use his broadswainst Bram’s back.
“—I am a brute with style and—”
After lifting the curly-haired knight high, Bram smmed him onto the wooden deck with all the strength a he could muster.
“—css!”
‘Crack!’
Gravity’s aid ensured his attack was a heavy blow, and with the curly-haired knight decked in steel from head to toe, his crash caused the wooden pnks beh him to groan and bend.
“I’m also a brute—”
Bram mouhe curly-haired knight.
“—who’s been traio hone every iny body—”
Bram’s elbow smmed down on the curly-haired knight’s face, who, by a stroke of luck, had been the only o to wear a helmet among the knights of von Galen’s household.
“—into a on, so that I might—”
Blood spshed onto Bram’s cheek from the broken nose he’d given the curly-haired knight, but he ig because he was already smming his other elbow into the stunned man’s face.
“—be able to pete with sorcerers—”
As a final move, Bram’s hands grabbed onto both sides of the curly-haired knight’s head, so he could raise it to meet the prince’s head as it bashed against him.
“—in close bat!”
A sound akin ting gong resounded, and when the headbutting was dohe curly-haired knight fell back, his eyes rolling into the back of his head while he frothed at the mouth. Surely, he wasn’t dead, but he’d be of no further use itle.
One might wonder how the prince who no longer possessed the sweet boon of ‘Giant Strengthening’ to empower his body could wield such terrible force against an armored knight. However, only Bram rivy to his status s which he was looking at now with a satisfied, blood-smeared grin.
Right after he’d woken up from surviving his battle against Loveless, Bram had noticed a few notifications he didn’t have time to focus ht then and there. It wasn’t until the lull betweetle and the hat he finally had a ce to view the system’s messages.
ALERT! The users [Christopher Chase], [Hajime Hideo Miyamoto], and [Bridget Fowling] have all reached level five! They are now eligible for a job promotio! Encing the pyers’ job promotions may help to increase the system’s knowledge base.Bram had thought that it was only natural his panions would rise two levels. Loveless had been a difficult dungeon boss. Of course, he couldn’t help feeling a little envious that they’d been allowed to advaheir jobs while he remained a level one administrator. Fortunately, there were more messages to peruse that turned his frown upside down.
GRATULATIONS! You survive a harrowing enter against a powerful foe, increasing your stitution and Willpower by [+1].GRATULATIONS! You used your wits to outmaneuver a powerful foe, increasing your Wisdom and Intelligence by [+1].GRATULATIONS! You used your natural talents to best a powerful foe, increasing your Strength aerity by [+1].Bram may not have leveled up, but none of his panions earned a whopping six-point increase in their attributes. Hajime earwo points in Intelligence, Bridget received a point ierity and Strength, while Chris got two points in stitution and one more in Strength. These boons were earhrough effort, repetition, and life-ah enters, teag them that one’s attributes weren’t strictly ected to the rise of one’s level.
Here in the present, Bram’s increased status was revealing itself now, though those six points hadn’t been the main reason he dominated his duel with the curly-haired knight. That honor beloo anrowth of his.
STRENGTH:45Before he’d stepped out of the Red Ruin, Bram had ied all the points he’d earned from abs the Midnight Shard’s dark energy into his Strength stat. He now had half the strength he possessed the first time he’d bee a blood champion. It wasn’t mupared to the kind of sorcery that summoned a giant fming rock down from the heavens, but this boost in strength gave him an advantage against a foe who’d uimated him.
The prince from the floor feeling proud of his aplishment iing the most threatening of the enemy knights only to turn around and be reminded of what real power looked like. More bodies were lying on the ground nearby, and it was obvious from a ghat they’d each beeed with a single swing of a bde.
“Blutm?d…”
A blood-smeared hand came up to caress Bram’s cheek, drawing his gaze to the ‘Blood Maiden’ appearing at his side.
“You need not be envious,” she whispered. “Ours is a partnership of give-and-take… So, take from me what you when you .”
With those words of reassurance, Rowan aimed her ‘Blood Fal’ forward, and all who wits shaking tip were forced to pause their march.
WARNING! A [Spray of Blood] is filling the air, causing [Minor Paralysis] to affect all targets within its unseen cloud.ALERT! You’ve been designated as an ally by [Rowan Wolfe]. You will not be affected by [Spray of Blood].The shaking of her fal grew more violent just as a sliver of magic seeped into it. The magic trailed down its bde, causing crimson sparks to pop out of its edges.
ALERT! An opportunity has arrived for you to copy a new ability!No one could move to stop her for all were caught in Rowan’s trap and were forced to be spectators to their ing demise.
“Life is stubborn… It finds a way to bloom even in the harshest of ditions.”
A blood-red aura spread out of the tip of the fal’s bde.
“The Sword of Life is no different…” Rowan swung her fal upward, and the blood pooling on the deck’s floor rose too. “Blossoming into flowers—”
The rebel trickster of legend fshed her stunned foes with a blood-smeared grin.
“—that dye the world i red!”
The rising lines of blood formed into hundreds of red blobs that expanded outward, blossoming into flowers whose scarlet petals flew into the sky, engulfing the sery in a storm of crimson.
GD_Cruz
