Chapter 180 – I Did Pick It Up … But (2)

But that was a problem for the others.
On this night, a night where they could not fall asleep because it was the last day of the festival, the bright pillar of fire that seemed to want to burn the night away kept the people in the Duke's Estate awake.

With the master of the household and the young master both being unable to sleep, the rest of them could not sleep either.

"W, what a lun, lunatic!"

The old butler of the Duke's Estate couldn't believe it.
The knights and soldiers were covering his view, but he could still see the destroyed wyvern sculptures. These wyvern sculptures had been the Sekka family's crest for generations.

Crackle, crackle.

Such historic sculptures were being turned into dust.
All because of a single person.

"Aigoo, it just breaks apart when I put my hand on it!"

A lunatic wearing a black outfit was laughing while crunching up the pieces of a sculpture into dust.

That person was naturally Archie.

"Wow, how entertaining. It feels great stepping all over it."

Step. Step.

The pieces of the sculptures continued to break apart every time Archie stomped on them. Archie felt great while doing this.

He could see it in their eyes that he was getting on their nerves. For Archie, who had behaved himself for the past few years because of Whale King Shickler's orders, this felt as if he had been freed.

– Human, that Killer Whale looks like a total bastard! Amazing!

Cale agreed with Raon's comments. Archie looked like a total bastard. One of the Duke's knights started to shout.
He didn't seem to be the Captain, but he could be the Vice Captain.

"Who are you guys? Are you trying to call forth the wrath of the heavens and the earth?"

"Hmph."
Archie snorted at them.
He then confidently started to shout.

"We are the secret organization!"

He then started to chuckle. The knight could not take action even though he was angered. The Duke was on his way back while Guardian Knight Clopeh and the Captain were at the lake. He had already sent a messenger to inform both of them.

As the Vice Captain, he had the power of authority right now. However, he could not make a move.
This person was strong enough to destroy a large wyvern sculpture with a single punch.
Furthermore, there were no traces of mana or aura in his punches at all. That meant that it was just his physical strength. He also felt a strong aura of mana from the other masked person standing behind this one.

Of course, the other person was Rosalyn, but the Vice Captain who had no way of knowing this could only remain in place. He then peeked toward the side.

There was a man with golden hair that looked like a lion's mane. The others just knew of him as the Duke's guest, however, the Vice Captain knew of this man's true identity.

He was the Lion King's second son.
The Vice Captain looked toward the strong man in order to try to get a sense of what was going on.
He heard the Lion King's second son start to speak with disdain.

"…They must be those famous lunatics."

'Are these intruders famous?'
The Vice Captain's expression turned serious.

The Lion King's second son did not know of the Vice Captain's thoughts as he started to shout.

"Do you bastards know who you are saying that shit to?!"

Edrich, the male lion, shouted in anger toward Archie, Rosalyn, and Paseton. However, he was amused on the inside.

'I didn't expect to see those famous punks here.'

That shabby secret organization uniform.
The magic spearman and tamer had suffered in their hands.

The battle between the Whales and the mermaids. The attack on the Elf Village in the Ten Finger Mountains. These bastards had ruined both of those incidents. The organization had already reported these bastards to the, 'upline.'

These bastards who gave them more work when Arm was already busy investigating what the Empire was plotting was quite the headache.

'They are strong.'

The Lion Edrich noticed that the enemies were at least as strong as him, if not stronger, just as the magic spearman had described.
However, he could not curl up in fear.
He was the grand and majestic heir to the Lion King throne.

"Who the hell are you?! Reveal your true identities!"

The Lion that had come across these enemies with formidable strengths and asked for their true identities.
Cale raised his hand at that moment. Archie noticed Cale's gesture and responded as Cale had ordered him to do.

"Would you tell you if you were in our shoes? What a stupid brown broom head."

Edrich started to frown. Cale happily started to speak.

"Let's start moving too."

Cale's body slowly started to turn invisible. He turned around as Edrich started to speak.

"How dare you look at my beautiful golden mane and call it such trash!"
"What the? Why are you throwing such a fuss when this isn't even your house?"
"You, you-!"

Edrich could not say anything to Archie's retort, while the Vice Captain flinched and tried to calm himself.
Cale praised Archie's ability to argue as he started to speak to Choi Han.

"You see how Archie is doing it? That's how acting should be done."
"…I don't really want to learn that."
"That is true. We only need one of those type of people."

'Is it really just Archie?'
Choi Han looked toward Cale with such a gaze, but Cale was quickly moving.
The group verified that he had turned invisible before starting with the next phase of the plan.

"Enough talking. Come at me."

Although he said to, 'come at him,' Archie started to charge forward instead of waiting. He was aiming directly for Edrich.
Rosalyn and Paseton followed behind him and rushed toward the knights.

Cale seriously spoke to Choi Han and Raon while they did that.

"Follow me closely. Don't leave my side."

This was because he did not see the other Lion nor the remaining members of Arm. He needed Choi Han and Raon to be by his side in order for the kittens and him to be safe.

– I understand, human! I will always be by your side!

Raon's happy voice could be heard, but Cale ignored it as he snuck into the Duke's Estate.

* * *

Shaaaaaaaaaaaa-
The sound of the wind could be heard.

The last room on the fifth floor of the Duke's Estate.
Gronica, the other Lion who was in the room next to Clopeh's study, started to speak.

"…Is there an open window?"
"Excuse me?"

The knight asked with confusion before his expression turned serious.

Clang.
The members of Arm took out their weapons.

There were no windows that were open.

They had closed off all of the entrances to the fifth floor or placed a knight in front of it as soon as they heard that there were intruders.

There should be no reason for there to be any sort of wind blowing through the room.

Shaaaaaaaaaaaa-

But the wind blew by once more. They clenched their weapons tightly.

Then they saw it. It was fog.
A fog was slowly approaching them from the end of the corridor with the wind.
It was as if a white wave was splashing through the hallway.

"Step back."

Gronica rushed toward the fog. There was a whip in her hand.

Flick.
A golden whip that was similar in color to her golden hair was flicked toward the fog. A small voice could be heard from inside of the fog.

"Meeeeeow."

It was a Cat.
She recalled the old man who looked like a child grinding his teeth as he mumbled.
She recalled what the tamer had said.

'I will make sure to kill those Cats.'

The magic spearman had reported in a Battle Brigades meeting that Gronica had attended.

'There are two Cats. They are adept at poison.'

"Meeeeeow."

She heard the meowing once more. She immediately cut through the fog with her whip.

Clang!

However, there was someone who blocked her whip. The whip was parried by a sword and lost its direction.

A man appeared through the fog.
She could see the black pupils of the man in the black outfit. She could also see the black aura in the air.

Gronica started to speak to her subordinates.

"It is poison."

'Arm,' had some information on these people as well.
She remembered some of that information as soon as her whip was parried.

"You must be the sword master."

The black pupils underneath the mask started to smile. She did not miss that moment as she flicked her whip once more.

Clang-!

The windows in the hallway suddenly shattered. The pieces of glass flew outside the window.

"W, why is the glass…?"
"What the!"

The people outside the door became anxious after seeing the windows shatter. They quickly noticed that something must have happened on the fifth floor.
Gronica watched the poison fog spread outside the windows and slightly turned her head.

"What are you doing? Are you scared? Hey, you wyvern-fly bastards! Hey brown broom head, are you running away? Ahahahahah! Good luck running!"

She could hear an intruder's voice outside.
Brown broom head. That made her laugh before she charged toward Choi Han once again.

"Guard the door."

She gave a short order to her subordinates as she flicked her whip toward Choi Han once again.

Flick.
Bang!

It was not the sound of a sword hitting a whip. The window sills started to shake. Gronica held a short dagger as she rushed toward Choi Han, who had parried the whip.

Her dagger made it inside Choi Han's domain. (TL: I'm guessing this is like an aura domain. )The two of them made eye contact.
Gronica heard the intruder's voice for the first time at that moment.

"Too weak."

'What?'

Gronica's pupils started to shake.
She heard a familiar voice at that moment.

"Gronica!"

Her cousin Edrich appeared at entrance of the hallway. She saw the other knights as well.
Edrich, who seemed to have been punched in the face and looked ugly, urgently joined the battle.

'They're all here.'

Cale was watching all of this from the entrance of the hallway while remaining invisible.

– Human, when will we do it?

He could hear Raon's excited voice. As expected, this Dragon had not forgotten about his desire to get revenge on Arm. Cale slowly started to gather the Sound of the Wind under his feet.

"Son of a bitch! Who the hell are you? Just what the hell?!"

Edrich threw a punch toward Choi Han while sounding both angry and upset. That made Gronica attack in coordination. Top and bottom. The two of them worked together so naturally, it was as if they had planned the attack in advance.

However, their opponent was Choi Han.

Pat. Pat.
The fist and whip were both easily blocked. However, the two people did not stop. Gronica's dagger aimed for Choi Han's shoulder while Edrich's foot aimed for Choi Han's knee.

The agile and stealthy attacks were hard to see with the naked eye. A foreign voice started to speak at that moment.

"Break it."

Gronica flinched.

'…Who?'

It happened before she could even finish her thought.

Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-

It sounded like a sudden downpour. She looked around the area.

The fog was roaring in the hallway again. This time, it was a red fog that was slowly starting to grow in size.

"Where are you looking?"

The sudden voice made Gronica change the direction of her dagger.
Clang.
Her dagger clashed against Choi Han's hand that was covered in aura.

"Ugh!"
"Edrich!"

The masked man caught Edrich by the neck.

"Y, you dare to do that to this future king...! Let, ugh, go!"

Edrich started to flail. Gronica was about to save Edrich, who was a tool for power in her family, before she stopped suddenly.

Shaaaaaaaaaaa-

The sound did not stop.
It was coming.

Something was coming.

It was the moment she felt that and turned her head.

This was indeed the case. There was one more person.
The owner of the foreign voice.

The person who was surrounded in fog charged forward in a straight line.
A strong gust of wind was with him as well.
The fog and the poison seeped into the wind. White, red, blue, and black. Many different types of poisonous fogs roared together.

'It's going to explode.'

That was what Gronica was thinking.
She then heard the man holding Edrich's neck start to speak again.

"I'll let him go."

Edrich was thrown forward.

"Dodge!"

The wind exploded at the same time.

Baaaaaang-

The large poison fog whirlwind covered the members of Arm.
The force broke the window sills and blew them out of the hallway.
There were even cracks forming on the walls.

"Ugh!"

Edrich rammed right into the whirlwind. Although he had a decent resistance to poison, the whirlwind was strong as well.
His body fell to the ground.

Boom!

However, he seemed fine, as he quickly got back up.

"Ugh!"
"Huh, m, my sight!"

The knights and other members of Arm were shouting after being poisoned, but the Lions did not care. They immediately headed toward the room at the end of the hallway.

Click.

They heard the sound of a door opening at that moment.

"Ooo…ooo."

The knight who had been stationed in front of the door was paralyzed due to poison.

"Ah."

Gronica let out a sigh.
Choi Han was blocking her and Edrich from advancing forward.

She could see the man who opened the door behind Choi Han.
The fog disappeared, and the invisibility was lifted as the man slowly appeared, starting from his feet.

The man's eyes behind the mask were smiling toward the Lions.

Screeeech-
Cale casually entered the room as soon as the door opened.

Click.
The door closed and Choi Han's sword blocked the Lions from chasing after Cale.

"You'll have to get through me first."

Choi Han cheerfully spoke as he put his aura onto his sword. It meant that he would be fighting properly from now onward.

"Meeeeeow."
"Meeow."

They then heard the Cats meow again as the fog reappeared in the hallway.

* * *

Cale's anxiety had nothing to do with what was going on outside.

-…Human.
'This is weird.'

Raon was also anxious.

A small box was currently in Cale's hands.
It was the box that the Lions were trying to protect, the same item that they were trying to secretly pass off to the Guardian Knight household. Cale didn't know what to do after seeing what was inside of the box.

It was a crown.
But that was not the problem.

– …Human, I feel your power in it. You know, the one that makes you seem as strong as my front paw every so often! I feel the same power! Human, have they stolen something from you before? They are terrible people!

It was a white crown.
Cale started to speak.

"Raon, isn't this crown familiar?"
– …Hmm?

Raon was silent for a moment before shouting in shock. He subconsciously removed his invisibility and shouted out loud.

"The Black Swamp!"

Yes. The Dragon corpse in the Black Swamp.
This white crown had been on top of that corpse's skull.

Cale had earned the Dominating Aura, the ancient power that was great for scamming, the moment he touched that crown.

A different voice that was not the Super Rock started to speak in Cale's mind at that moment.
It was a familiar voice, but one that he had not heard for a while.
Cale recalled what that voice had said.

'Do you know what the easiest way to take away your enemy's breath is?'
'Fear is the answer.'
'Use it well!'
'Sometimes, even bluffing can save your life. Muhahahahaha.'

It was the voice of the former owner of the Dominating Aura.
That voice had spoken for the first time in a long time.

– That crown likes Dragon blood.

It then became silent.
The Super Rock was silent as well.

Cale looked toward Raon.

"What is it, human?"

Cale started to speak at that moment.

"Let's throw this away."
"What?"
"No. I can't let them continue to hold onto this."

The Black Dragon had never seen Cale frowning while looking at something that looked expensive like this crown with a large jewel.
Cale continued to speak in a stern tone toward Raon, who was tilting his head in confusion.

"Should I break it?"

This was the first time he picked up something that he didn't like.

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Yu Ryeo Han]

[Translator – Anowa]

[Proofreader – Rai_Mayank]