Chapter 76
“……?!”
Adele raised her head in shock.
But was it just a misunderstanding?
Even after a long moment of tension, the world remained silent.
Did I mishear?
No… it didn’t feel like a mere illusion.
I definitely heard it…
In front of Adele, she saw her special class friends, including Madeleine and Kan. Even without exchanging a word, their faces had become familiar.
The five knights assigned to Adele’s protection were laughing at each other while holding their sheathed swords.
From seeing Chopin get hit by Fabian, it seemed some harsh joke had been made.
Their teacher, Ehin, turned back while explaining something and gestured toward Adele.
It was an unusually peaceful scene.
Yet, Adele felt a sudden chill sweep through her.
“……Danger.”
Moving her lips was instinctive.
“Danger!”
Bang!
Adele was the first to notice.
She shouted reflexively, but the bomb had already been thrown.
“Ahhhh!”
“Kyaaah!”
“……Princess!”
A cacophony of screams erupted.
The deafening noise forced Adele to cover her ears.
When she opened her eyes, the bright sky was obscured by dark smoke.
Two special class students fell dead on the spot.
“Most of the students in the special class are elite students with very high status and grades…”
Adele seemed to hear Sarina’s explanation brush past her ears.
One severely injured student clutched a severed limb, wailing.
The surreal and horrifying sight made Adele feel as if her heart had stopped.
It was an ambush.
“…Madeleine.”
“Princess!”
The piercing scream came from Michael, almost like a cry of anguish.
But ‘they’ who were waiting would not miss such an opportunity.
The one screaming in shock at the sight of a dead student became the first target—the third casualty in total.
The five knights simultaneously drew their swords and cut down the approaching shadows.
Michael wanted to rush to Adele immediately, but the smoke blocked his view.
Moreover…
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Countless stone golems appeared from nowhere, pouring down frenetically.
Their bodies were made of solid iron. These were ‘them’.
Unlike Gosschen from the black market, these were not mixed beings of humans and ‘them’.
They were beings created from the very beginning, a cruel race made only to exterminate humanity and learn nothing but killing.
“Protect the Princess immediately!”
“It’s an assassination!”
“Commander, there are too many! At least a hundred!”
The target of ‘them’ was the child of prophecy.
Michael’s orders rang out as Chopin and Fabian cut down the stone golems rushing at them.
“These bastards are too hard! The sword doesn’t cut!”
“I told you your tongue would get you killed someday!”
“Form Line 5!”
Terra gritted her teeth at Rogue’s command, and Michael shouted orders.
They were elite knights who had performed countless feats on various battlefields.
Michael’s quick judgment allowed the strategy to be shared briefly as a prearranged code.
They spread out immediately, forming a circle around Adele and the students at the center.
It was a formation established in an instant.
‘A planned ambush!’
Meanwhile, the first to grasp the situation was the Crown Prince.
He had been listening more attentively than anyone when Adele had earlier shouted to dodge.
By the time Line 5 was formed, Casmahan had already destroyed a line of rushing stone golems.
“Destroyed” might not be the exact term.
Humans mixed with them, like Gosschen, leave corpses, but stone golems leave none—they disintegrate into the air.
Despite being horrifyingly cruel, they turned to sentimental dust upon death.
“Don’t breathe!”
The Crown Prince shouted so everyone could hear.
Inhaling the dust or smoke would be harmful to humans.
Bang! Kyaah!
The wails of special class girls shredded the ears, further agitating the stone golems. Casmahan clenched his throat to stop himself from yelling but barely suppressed it.
The quick assessment revealed that the presence presumed to be Adele was still alive—thankfully.
Even if other students died, as long as Adele survived, it was enough.
‘Casualties: 4… 5.’
He counted instinctively. Feeling nausea rise, the Crown Prince covered his mouth with his sleeve.
Breathing heavily from swinging his sword, he could not afford to inhale the dust.
Because of this difficulty, stone golems were ranked S-class, even on battlefields.
‘They are determined to kill Adele.’
Ehin, skilled in fencing, also drew his sword to face the threat.
“Ahh! Please, it hurts, it hurts!”
The voice from behind came from a special class student taught by Ehin.
But unfortunately, rescue was impossible.
How ‘they’ discovered <Temple of Jackal>’s location was unknown.
“……!”
There was no time to suspect who the spy was.
Ehin’s first real battle experience exceeded all the horrific descriptions he had imagined.
The golem had one eye and stood nearly five meters tall. One arm was sharp like a sword, capable of instant death; the other like a saw, capable of cutting a human. Its tail was as sharp as a spear.
If one died fighting a stone golem, the corpse would be horrifically mangled.
‘But the weakness is always the eye.’
Ehin leapt, dodging the sword-like hand, but his strike missed the golem’s eye, and he fell to the ground.
‘Am I going to die?’
So suddenly?
At the moment he inhaled sharply, a dagger thrown by the Crown Prince flew from afar.
It was a life-or-death moment.
Had he been a split second late, Ehin would have died instantly if the dagger missed the eye.
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
The golem’s dust entered Ehin’s mouth.
“Shut your mouth.”
Casmahan lifted Ehin up.
Then the screaming girl’s voice stopped abruptly—likely she was the easiest target amid the noise.
‘A stone golem has only one chance to throw its tail spear.’
Even with Michael’s Line 5, a gap appeared suitable for throwing the spear.
The girl lay still, either dead or silent. Casmahan finally vomited in disgust.
The human casualties were already at least six.
‘Adele…!’
Obscured by smoke and the stone golems’ interference, Casmahan lost track of Adele’s presence.
He could not distinguish her among humans but glimpsed a flash of pink hair.
Casmahan did not stab the golem’s eye, but with a rage-fueled strike, he separated the golem’s upper and lower body.
It was an insane display of talent, but nothing else mattered in his eyes.
‘If the prophesied child dies, everything is over.’
The only hope would vanish.
Casmahan was not particularly moral and had even empathized with ‘them’ secretly several times.
But now, his boiling rage was uncontrollable.
If even a hair on Adele’s head was harmed, he could not forgive himself.
“……Kyaaah!”
“Madeleine!”
The spear flew toward Madeleine, but Adele threw herself without hesitation to shield her, rolling on the ground.
Casmahan, witnessing this in the smoke, felt his eyes nearly pop out.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?!”
He slashed repeatedly at the flying spear with his sword.
Casmahan thought then and there to exterminate ‘them’.
Perhaps ‘they’ moved unemotionally because humanity’s extinction was their life goal.
But now, reasons no longer mattered.
‘I’ll kill them.’
Eradicating them would give him relief.
Meanwhile, Adele slowly regained her senses after saving Madeleine from death.
Amid the ongoing screams and chaos, her friend trembled in her arms, tears and snot flowing freely.
Adele reached out into the air.
“Auróra, súbito…!”
It was the most desperate spell she had ever memorized.
But the elemental spirit did not appear.
It had been neutralized by a suppression spell anticipating Adele’s attempt due to the smoke.
Adele had no way of knowing.
Tears welled up, but reality felt numb, and her whole body was frozen.
“It’s coming to an end!”
“Fifty remaining!”
Casmahan first grabbed Adele’s shoulder.
“You promised me you wouldn’t get hurt until protected by the Divine Beast’s barrier!”
Adele could not argue in front of the angry Casmahan.
Royalty were protected by the Divine Beast’s barrier, at least from ‘them’.
If she had been married… if she were the Crown Princess…
“If you throw your body for your friend! I…”
Breathing became difficult. Adele gasped. Her sense of time broke.
“Princess!”
After a moment, Michael also arrived.
“Are you safe? Oh, thank the gods.”
Adele was miraculously unharmed. Aside from wrinkled clothing, there were no visible injuries.
Michael felt genuine gratitude toward heaven.
Unlike the unscathed Crown Prince, Michael had sustained many injuries—too many to even specify.
Casmahan, still trembling with anger, immediately pulled Adele into a hug, making her drop her hold on Madeleine.
The Crown Prince’s body shivered.
“The golems have been annihilated!”
Finally, Fabian’s shout echoed.
“Don’t breathe.”
Casmahan pressed his lips to Adele’s ear. She closed her mouth and held her breath. Her body shook violently.
If annihilated… did that mean it was over?
“Wait! The designated portal is opening…! It’s a trap! The golems were a trap…!”
“Dodge, Princess!”
Boom!
A horrific sound exploded.
In the next moment, Adele’s vision flashed white—like lightning.
Michael reflexively shielded Adele with his body, though Kan was already holding her.
A selfless act of throwing his life into danger.
Immediately after, three people disappeared from the temple. Including Shuzer, who had reached for Adele, four in total.
“……Princess!”
“Adele……!”
But the numbers did not matter.
‘Adele has disappeared.’
That was the only thing that mattered.
Everyone shouted in shock.
Fabian’s shout rang true.
The golems had been just a distraction; the real threat was the designated portal.
The number of ‘them’ waiting where she had been transported would be incomparable to now.
Spell source: Catholic University Publishing, Latin–Korean Dictionary.
