Chapter 525 – I’m just a regular human being! (2)

However, he did not have time to fall into despair at the fact that he had lost a war of words.

Oooooong- oooooong-

The rumbling coming from the black mages' teleportation magic circle was getting stronger.

'Is he really planning on running away?'

The White Star was going to run away like this?

Honestly speaking, it was good news for Cale.
The situation did not look good when he looked around just now.
Many of the Roan Kingdom's Knights who were with Alberu were unconscious or heavily injured.

– Human! I looked at the magic surrounding the castle walls and the mages seem to be pushing themselves too hard! It'll be difficult for them to keep it up for much longer!

The ally Mage Brigade seemed to be reaching their limits as well.

'They also have hostages.'

There were innocent people inside the large carriage cages in the enemy formation.

'No matter how large of a teleportation magic circle the black mages create, taking those hostages with them would probably be too much.'

The chances of the White Star leaving the hostages behind were high.

Furthermore, Cale's body was in terrible condition as well.
He would faint the moment he used an ancient power one more time.

'…If the White Star runs away like this…'

Then that would be the best response for his side as well.
That was why they felt that something was off.

'Why is this bastard running away?'

Something seemed very off.

'Did I miss something?'

Cale recalled the information in his mind and tried to decipher them little by little.
But he had to open his mouth as he did that.

'Pfft. I know everything about you even if you say that. You are receiving help from a god.'

The ludicrous statement the White Star just made.
He needed to respond to that.
It could not be helped.

"…The Roan Kingdom's hero was being helped by a god-"

Cale heard a knight behind him mumble in admiration.
That voice gave Cale the chills.

The title of the Roan Kingdom's hero was already scary, but for a knight to be so full of admiration that his voice was shaking because he thought Cale was being helped by a god…
This was like a scene out of a horror movie for Cale.

The White Star did not even look at the teleportation magic circle forming behind him and continued to stare at Cale with an odd gaze.
Cale started to speak toward him.

"I have not received help from any god."

'Help from a god? Forget getting help, he currently had a headache because of the countdown toward the promised date from the God of Death!'

Cale noticed that the White Star's white mask looked perfect as if it had never split in the first place.
He continued to speak to the White Star in a serious tone.

"Did you think I wouldn't realize you are saying such nonsense in order to cause chaos within my allies while buying yourself time to run away?"
"That's right. I am planning on running away."

'…What? Why is he saying it so confidently?'

Cale could not say anything as the White Star was not acting like his usual arrogant self and instead was confidently admitting to running away.

Boom- boom- boooom-!

He continued to hear the drums in the process.
Cale started to frown as he felt that the black mages' magic circle was getting stronger as the drumming became faster.
The White Star had slightly furrowed his brows underneath his mask, but it was not visible to anyone else.

'…This is quite troublesome.'

He was in a more troubled state than Cale realized.

Boom- boom-! Boom! Boom!

That drumming was a signal.
It was telling the White Star who was on the battlefield the current state of his allies on the Eastern and Western continents.

'That signal right now means that it is an urgent situation!'

The priests serving the Demonic race were sending him urgent signals that it was a state of emergency.
Furthermore, the level of that emergency was going up.

'…That means that something serious has happened!'

Drumming at this level meant that something terrible had happened inside the Endable Kingdom or that something that would have a large influence in future battles has happened.

'What could it be?'

What could Cale Henituse have done?
The White Star's mind was a mess even though he was acting calm toward Cale.

'…The chances of Cale Henituse learning about the Endable Kingdom are slim.'

The White Star noticed someone approaching him from the rear at that moment.
He saw Cale flinching, but the White Star stood still until the person walked up right behind him and started to speak.

"My liege."

The White Star peeked behind him before looking back at Cale.
One of the priests serving the Demonic race was standing behind him.

"What is going on?"
"…Something happened to Duke Fredo."

The White Star's eyes opened wide.
He then started to glare at Cale.

'I knew it! I knew that this bastard must have done something!'

Duke Fredo.

He was an oddball but an important strong individual for the Endable Kingdom once the White Star became its true king and ruled over it.
Even the White Star would be troubled if Duke Fredo used his full strength.

Furthermore, he was someone who showed quite a lot of loyalty to the White Star without the other nobles knowing about it, so he was the only one among the Endable Kingdom's nobles that the White Star could trust.
Duke Fredo had also been the one to report to the White Star when Cale Henituse had arrived at the Eastern continent's northern mountain earlier.

'I'm certain that Duke Fredo ran into Cale Henituse.'

But something had happened to the Duke and Cale Henituse had managed to return to the Roan Kingdom even if he was in terrible condition.

'Something must have happened to Duke Fredo.'

The White Star needed to confirm the current situation.
He could not lose something he already had while trying to gain something new.
The priest quickly finished his report at that moment.

"…The Duke-nim was apparently injured while battling Cale Henituse and is currently unconscious."
"What?"

'Duke Fredo?! He's unconscious?!'

The White Star was truly shocked. However, the priest was not done with his report.

"Furthermore, a large number of our forces were swept by an avalanche and we need to search for missing members."

'An avalanche?'

The White Star was so shocked he could not say anything.

'I'm certain that Cale Henituse caused the avalanche.'

Cale Henituse had done many things at that scale until now.
The shocking part was that Cale Henituse had used some sort of power that had knocked his loyal Duke Fredo unconscious.

Cale started to frown.

"What's going on?"
"The way he's looking at you looks quite serious."

Cale ignored Alberu's without caring about how disrespectful it was and continued his stare down with the White Star.

The White Star's gaze was getting angrier.
Cale suspected the priest behind the White Star as the reason for this change.

'…Did that priest say something?'

However, he had no way of knowing as he could not hear what was being said.

'Ah! No!'

Cale slowly grabbed the golden top's whip inside his shirt.
One of the Wind Elementals quickly started to speak as if it understood Cale's intentions.

'Chaos, destruction! T, that crazy Vampire Duke who is aiming for your blood is supposedly unconscious!'

'…That bastard?'

'Apparently, he ended up that way while fighting against you!'

'What the hell? That bastard disappeared without any injuries.'

'The White Star said something to the priest just now! Chaos, destruction! No, he did not say chaos, destruction!'

The Wind Elemental was all over the place but quickly continued to speak.

'He's acting like a benign king and telling the priest that he is concerned about his treasured Duke Fredo's health! This bastard whose heart is smaller than a grain of rice is saying some funny stuff!'

'Hmm?'

Cale's eyes clouded over.

'His treasured Duke Fredo? That's what the White Star said? He doesn't know that bastard is trying to stab him in the back?'

Cale had to stop himself from smiling.
He realized what Duke Fredo had done.

'He's faking it.'

He was faking it and just made it look as if he was unconscious.
He didn't know why Duke Fredo had done this, but Cale was happy to play along with Duke Fredo's act.
It was at that moment.

"Cale Henituse. I can't tell what you did."

The White Star spoke in a majestic tone and Cale opened his mouth to respond.

"I just didn't have time. All I did was show our strength to the enemy who was preventing me from returning to my homeland."

The knights' eyes were full of admiration as they listened to Cale's confident but calm voice.

"…Homeland."

One of the knights repeated the word Cale used and clenched his fists.
Alberu looked at them before motioning to Choi Han with his eyes.

'Do you think my little brother knows what he is saying?'

Unfortunately, Alberu's message was not delivered to Choi Han because he was wearing his helmet. Choi Han just gently smiled and quietly whispered so that only Alberu could hear.
He seemed to be acting carefully so that he did not interrupt Cale.

"Cale-nim truly cherishes his homeland."

'No, that's not the issue.'

Alberu wanted to respond but just kept his mouth shut.
The tired Alberu had no strength to stop his precious dongsaeng who claimed to dream of a slacker life but was bulldozing his way down the path of a hero.

'…I'm sure he'll figure it out on his own.'

Alberu just stopped worrying about Cale.
Cale could hear the White Star respond to him at that moment.

"…You truly have received the will of a god. There is no other way to explain your strength."
"I told you it is not a god!"

Cale immediately retorted, but the White Star did not hear him.

Swish.

He turned away from Cale.

"We'll leave for now."

'Wait, listen to what I have to say!'

Cale wanted to speak more.

Boom! Boom boom! Boom! Boom boom!

However, Cale could see a black aura covering the entire enemy formation as the drumming reached its zenith.

– Human, it is an eerie magic circle!

It was definitely a teleportation magic circle.
But there was grey smoke flowing through the black mages' black aura.

– That grey aura is magnifying the dead mana!

Cale's eyes started to sink.
There would have been a lot of damage if they had used that power toward the Stan territory's Lord's Castle instead of for escaping.

The White Star started to walk toward the spot covered in grey smoke and black aura without any hesitation.

He slowly started to turn faint.
He was not the only one.
Everybody covered by the grey darkness started to turn faint. The teleportation had started.

Ooooooong-

There was a strong fluctuation in the air as Cale just stood there watching the White Star disappear.
The White Star turned around and started to speak before he completely disappeared.

"Let me leave you a present before I leave."

Paaaaat-!

Black aura instantly burst in all directions.

"Block!"
"Duck!"

The Roan Kingdom's knights tried to dodge the aura in shock. However, that aura dispersed in the air and disappeared before it could reach any of them.
In the spot where the White Star had been…

"…I see what he meant by, 'present.' "

Cale could see the carriage with the hostages once all enemies disappeared.
He quietly watched for a bit before turning to his side.

"What would you like to do, your highness?"
"I'm not sure."

Alberu could not respond to Cale's question immediately and just sighed with futility and relief.

"Shouldn't we first head to our citizens who were probably extremely afraid?"
"Looking like that?"
"Little brother, I think both of us look terrible right now."
"…At least I'm not covered in blood. And you know that is not what I am talking about, your highness."

Alberu could see Cale looking directly at his dark brown eyes underneath the helmet.

Smile.

Alberu started to smile.

"Of course."

He reached his hand into the air.

Shaaaaaaaaaaaa-

A necklace appeared out of nowhere.
Alberu put the necklace back around his neck that was covered in blood.

Click.

The necklace clamped closed and the aura around Alberu completely disappeared.
The bracelet underneath his armor activated at the same time.

Shhhhh.

Alberu pulled his helmet off.

"Better now?"

Blonde hair and blue eyes. Alberu who returned to his usual appearance smiled. A large back appeared in front of him.

"Please get on my back."
"My goodness."

Alberu sighed while looking at Choi Han's back.

"How did you know that I didn't even have the strength to walk?"
"The instructor knows their disciple's condition the best."

Alberu continued to smile and got on Choi Han's wide back as if he found Choi Han's joke to be funny.

"Isn't it disrespectful for a disciple to get on their instructor's back?"
"Something like this is nothing."

Choi Han got up with Alberu on his back as Cale walked forward and started to speak.

"I will head to the citizens first."

Cale took the lead with Choi Han and Alberu on his back behind him as the Knight Captain and the knights quickly walked behind the crown prince as if to protect him.

The wyverns had already flown off.
There were no obstacles in their way.
The Tigers and Lock followed behind the Knights Brigade as well.

Step- step-

Cale felt more awkward the closer he got to the cages with the residents from the areas around the Stan territory.

'This is bad.'

He was able to hear what the caged citizens were saying through the golden top's whip.

'They are crying with joy that they are alive! Chaos, destruction, happiness!'
'They all seem to have gotten scared after seeing the black mages. They seem happy that they were able to be saved.'

Cale felt emotional after hearing that the hostages were crying in relief.
However, that only lasted for a moment.

'Chaos, destruction! Cale, they are saying that the hero defeated the evil bastard! They are saying that he got scared and ran away! They are saying that you truly are the Silver Shield Hero!'
'They are saying the Roan Kingdom's future is bright with you and the crown prince here!'
'They are saying if his highness the crown prince is the Roan Kingdom's sun, then you are the moon that brightens the night! Chaos, destruction, the appearance of the great hero! Kahahahaha!'

'Damn it.'

'Ah! There seems to be someone with good hearing here! He seems to have heard everything the White Star said! He is saying that you are someone who has received the will of a god. He's telling stories about you to the other hostages and saying that heroes truly are different!'

'Motherf*cker.'

Cale headed toward the carriage with the citizens with a stiff expression.

The citizens inside the carriage converted cages were looking at him while suppressing their emotions.

'…The esteemed hero is doing his best to look confident.'
'He's coming to save us first even though his body is in so much pain!'

The citizens were getting even more emotional while looking at Cale and the crown prince.

Cale's face was so pale that it wouldn't be weird if he fell over at any moment.
The citizens could feel that Cale was trying to calm them down by looking confident even though he was tired.
Furthermore, the crown prince who was coming on the youngest sword master's back had come to the battlefield and shed so much blood to save them.
Yet he was still gently smiling at them as if to tell them to relax.

The Knights following behind Cale and the crown prince had similar thoughts.

'Young master Cale truly puts other first before his own health.'
'…Your highness. You care about the citizens so much.'

Cale was slowly experiencing this atmosphere through the Wind Elemental's comments and the people's gazes.

'Isn't it obvious that I would release the hostages first since my body is fine?'

He was just going to the hostages first because it was the right thing to do and he didn't want to have to get back up to see them later.
However, the atmosphere was serious.

Cale debated whether he should leave everything to Alberu and run away.

It was at that moment.

"Young master-nim!"

Cale could see someone grabbing the cage bars while waiving toward him.
His eyes opened wide as he started to speak.

"Miss Cage?"

Cage, the crazy priestess in The Birth of a Hero but now just an excommunicated priestess, was smiling while imprisoned inside the cage.

"Hello, young master-nim! It's been so long!"

Cale was shocked after seeing how happy she seemed to be to see him.

'Why is she so happy?'

Cage seemed oddly excited.
But that was just the beginning.

"Young master-nim!"
"Your highness!"
"Commander-nim! Sword master-nim!"
"Your highness!"

The hostages all came up to the bars and greeted them with tears and smiles.
Those greeting soon turned into cheering and Cale, Alberu, and Choi Han became surrounded by those cheers.

***

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]