Pegasus’ Little One Wants to Be Carefree!
Chapter 72…………………………………………………
“Ugh, ugh… aaah!”
Pinhal’s scream, a mixture of terror and despair, tore from his hoarse throat like the final death rattle.
Shreek.
The upper jaw of the monster, opened wide to swallow him, was cut away.
“?”
In Pinhal’s wide, bewildered eyes, he saw Faivy holding a sharp spear.
“Right in the center! Right in front of its head, sister!”
Faivy, who had cut through the monster’s jaws in one swift motion to save Pinhal, followed Lin’s instructions exactly.
Crash!
The tip of Faivy’s spear hit the monster’s core and shattered it with a loud sound.
“Hah… hahhh…!”
Pinhal sank to the ground, still trembling, and lifted his head.
With eyes still not free of fear, he looked up at the sister of Pain, the one he had always looked down on—the “defective” he had belittled.
He noticed her eye color, which he had never seen from afar.
The distinct yellow eyes of the Pegasus clan.
“Good job, sister!”
“Yeah…!”
Her expressionless eyes glanced past Pinhal and then brightened in response to the sounds coming from behind.
“Now that was a one-shot kill.”
“N-no. I sliced it twice.”
“Same difference! That was awesome earlier too. Truly the Pegasus of protection!”
“Thanks…”
A faint, almost weary laugh escaped her lips, but Faivy’s face clearly radiated joy.
Watching her run happily toward Lin, Pinhal slumped to the ground, staring blankly as if in a daze.
In front of the stage declaring the start of the hunting festival,
Theodore was watching the forest where the Pegasus children had entered.
‘Lin… must be doing well.’
He trusted she would, but he couldn’t stop worrying about his young, frail nephew.
Theodore sank his deep-colored eyes further as he fixed his gaze on the forest, where the monster hunt was in full swing.
“By now, they must be finishing up the hunt.”
“Likely so.”
“Shall we start preparing the closing ritual?”
Once the children return, the closing ceremony would commemorate the festival’s purpose, announce the winner, and conclude the hunt.
Counting the hunted monsters, announcing the victor, and performing the final ritual together made up the closing ceremony.
When the final ritual involved the acting clan head, Theodore, directly, he nodded at Miaque, his aide, who asked about the final preparations.
While Theodore and his aides prepared the ritual,
Feonal and the council elders exchanged meaningful glances.
Ahem.
Feonal cleared his throat as a signal, confirming that the sorcerer’s servant he had secretly recruited was acting according to plan.
A sly smile curled under Feonal’s white beard.
“Everyone, take your positions! The ritual will begin shortly.”
At the administrator’s command, the Pegasus clan moved to their respective spots.
The hunting festival was approaching its climax.
Predicting a smooth end, Pegasus clan members gathered in small groups, chatting.
“This year, the children all did well, didn’t they?”
“Yes. Usually a few would drop out, but no one fired a signal this time.”
“I get confused about the ritual sequence after so long… Was the first step offering the sealing orb?”
A Pegasus beastman ran his fingers over his chin, trying to remember, and his companions nodded, explaining the ritual’s general flow.
In front of the clan’s ancestor, the descendants offer a sealing orb as the most symbolic way to show they uphold the protective banner.
Afterward, the number of monsters hunted by each individual was tallied from the monster cores given before the hunt, the winner was announced, and the clan head—this year, the acting clan head—awarded the protective emblem, concluding the ritual by sealing all the cores the winner collected.
“The ritual will start as soon as the children return.”
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen a sealing orb.”
The sorcerer’s servant carefully carried out the orb under strict supervision.
The sorcerer muttered a few magical incantations to check it.
The Pegasus clan had seen this familiar scene many times.
The beastmen settled into their spots, showing slight boredom at the routine but remaining calm.
“Uh…?”
Then, someone with sharp eyes let out a foreboding gasp.
The transparent sealing orb, which had contained the most powerful monster from previous hunts, began to emit faint smoke.
“!”
The first to react was Theodore, on the stage to conduct the ritual.
Drawing his greatsword, he shouted,
“Everyone, back off!”
All eyes focused on the orb he pointed to.
“Th-the sealing orb… it’s cracked!”
Everyone’s skin crawled at the sorcerer’s panicked words.
Crack… crack…
In an instant, the orb split into pieces.
“The monster is escaping!”
The creature, stuffed inside the orb, writhed and crawled out with black smoke.
“Ah!”
“That’s it, Thornhorn!”
The monster, unusually named for the havoc it caused, had a crown of spiked horns.
The Thornhorn had once wiped out a village, growing monstrous in size and strength, challenging even the Pegasus Knights.
“AAAAH!”
“Run!”
Startled, the Pegasus clan fled from the stage.
Shreek.
Theodore cleaved the first monster with his greatsword and shouted,
“Knights! Protect the people and check the other sealing orbs!”
The sword’s anti-monster rune glowed, and the knights promptly ran to the stage from their ritual positions.
Leaving the surrounding chaos to the knights, Theodore stood before the fully revealed Thornhorn.
Rrrrkk!
Starved and ferocious, the monster emitted an unidentifiable cry.
It hadn’t recognized nearby prey yet, only expressing instinctive hostility.
‘We have to cut it down before it detects other prey.’
In a crowded area, the monster’s mental corruption attack could cause serious damage.
Theodore swung his massive sword at a speed unimaginable for such a huge creature.
Kwaaak. Kruk kak.
Each swing reduced the Thornhorn to mangled chunks amid overlapping shrieks.
After dismantling it to reveal the monster core, Theodore wiped the black mud-like remains from his face and gave clear instructions.
“Sorcerer! Prepare a new sealing orb.”
“Yes, yes! Acting Head!”
Feonal clicked his tongue silently at the sorcerer rushing to obey.
‘So he can respond that quickly…’
Feonal, who had hoped the acting head might be caught off guard or even harmed by the escaped monster, was disappointed.
He could only let out a small sigh at the wasted opportunity.
Still, the plan wasn’t ruined.
He glanced at the servant carrying the new sealing orb box and swallowed his excited grin.
Heh heh heh. Let’s see how far you get with just a sealing orb.
The sorcerer, holding the orb high and chanting the incantations, looked flustered.
Breathlessly repeating the incantations several times, the sorcerer shouted, face pale as clay,
“A-Acting Head! The sealing orb isn’t working!”
“!
