Chapter 676: The Falling Sun (4)

However, this situation, really everything, felt terrible for those who were watching.

"Your highness-!"

The Knight Captain didn't even think about the soldiers behind him he needed to lead as he ran toward the falling crown prince.

As he ran forward…the closer he got toward the falling crown prince… He could see that the crown prince's condition was terrible.

His white armor and helmet had been made by the Roan Kingdom's greatest blacksmiths and experts.

Although it did not have many decorations on it, the armor and helmet themselves, and the Roan Kingdom's crest on it, were all magnificent works of art. That was why many people said that the armor suited the crown prince.

The Roan Kingdom.

It was a kingdom that had lasted a long time, however, it became weak at some point and was no longer considered a strong kingdom on the Western continent.

Whether it was with their knights or magic… This kingdom had nothing special going for it.

But such a kingdom had changed.

Who was responsible for it?

About ninety out of one hundred people would probably answer like this.

'The person who created the starting point for the Roan Kingdom to shine brightly in the world was former Commander Cale Henituse, but his highness is the one who controlled the internal affairs of the kingdom so that it could continue to shine brightly.'

Most importantly, both individuals were still young, so the citizens of the Roan Kingdom did not question that their kingdom would shine even brighter in the future.

But one of those two people was currently not on the battlefield because he was in a serious condition. He was unable to show himself even though everybody around the Western continent was saying that Cale Henituse is the only hero who could save them from this danger.

But it was okay.

The people of the Roan Kingdom were not too worried.

Cale's comrades and their crown prince were still here.

There were people who were headed to Puzzle City, the most dangerous location right now, without any hesitation.

However…their crown prince was falling down now as well.

A shock that was incomparable to the shock from when the Gold Dragon had fallen, surrounded Puzzle City.

"Ah..."

The Knight Captain gasped.

"…Sir Choi Han."

Choi Han, in his black armor, caught the falling Alberu Crossman.

He gently swiped Alberu out of the air while riding on the black Bone Dragon.

The Knight Captain was relieved to see that, but still felt pain in his heart after seeing Alberu slumped over weakly.

It was at that moment.

"This makes no sense!"

Boom. Boom. He heard the ground shake as someone shouted.

He turned his head to see an astonished Commander Toonka rushing over.

"My goodness..."

Behind him was Queen Litana of the Jungle along with her black panther, Ten.

The Knight Captain should have been happy to see these two individuals, leaders of their respective kingdoms, since they were here to reinforce the Roan Kingdom, however, he subconsciously bit down on his lips extremely hard after seeing the astonishment and shock on their faces.

"Quiet—!"

It was at that moment.

Someone must have used a magic amplification device as the person's stern voice echoed through all of Puzzle City.

"Do not act rashly! Soldiers, stay in position!"

The Knight Captain's gaze quickly headed toward City Hall. He could see Duke Deruth Henituse standing there.

Duke Deruth Henituse made eye contact with the Knight Captain. He nodded his head and then looked up.

"Sir Choi Han!"

The black helmeted knight nodded his head.

Oooooong– oooooong–

The sky then roared.

To be more specific, the nearby area was shaking from the beige Dragon's mana.

Only then did people remember the beige Dragon that was still fighting this Lion Dragon monster.

Paaaaat-!

They also realized that the mana that shook the sky was from a teleportation spell.

"Ho!"

The Dragon suddenly disappeared.

The Bone Dragon, Choi Han, and Alberu all disappeared as well.

"Duke-nim!"

The Knight Captain subconsciously called out to the Duke.

The Duke nodded his head, as if to tell the Knight Captain not to worry.

'I'm sure they went to a safe location.'

The Knight Captain forced himself to think as positively as possible; he then turned toward the only one remaining on the battlefield.

The monster, the Lion Dragon.

That monster stopped attacking, similar to when the Gold Dragon had fallen, now that the enemies fighting against it were gone.

'It's different from before.'

However, unlike last time, the Lion Dragon's red eyes were stuck where the crown prince had been before he disappeared.

The Knight Captain, Litana, Toonka and the others were too far to hear, but the Lion Dragon was definitely mumbling something.

"…Existence of an outlier… must… kill..."

IT soon stopped mumbling and closed its mouth before quietly observing the spot where the crown prince had disappeared.

Continuously…

Without stopping…

"Something is weird."

There was someone who found this to be very odd and was thoroughly observing the situation.

"The monster's reaction is very different from before."

Cale brushed his red hair back as he frowned. He turned around and asked.

"What do you think about this, your highness?"

Cale walked over to the person who did not respond. Cale crouched down in front of the person slumped on top of the hay and reached his hand out.

Shhh.

He removed the helmet and asked.

"Your highness. Did you not notice a weird reaction from the monster?"

Alberu Crossman's head was down.

His thick brown hair was full of sweat as it weakly fell. Cale frowned.

"Hey crown prince! Are you in pain?"

Raon pulled a cookie made by the Roan Kingdom's dessert chef out of his spatial dimension and held it in his left paw as he approached Alberu.

Of course, there was a slice of apple pie in his right paw.

It was at that moment.

"Hey."

Rasheel, the one responsible for teleporting Alberu here just a moment ago… He took off the black helmet.

Mila and the Dragon half-blood had teleported elsewhere and only Rasheel had come here with Alberu.

There was an indescribable expression on Rasheel's face.

He raised his index finger and slowly pointed to Alberu, whom he had placed on the hay not too long ago.

"This guy… seems a bit off?"

He had the same expression Cale usually had when he looked at Clopeh. Potentially because of that… As Cale's expression turned from concern to suspicion…

"Kekeke."

Cale questioned his ears after hearing what sounded like a minion villain's laugh.

He turned toward the sound of the voice. Rasheel mumbled at that moment.

"This guy's been mumbling some weird stuff to himself since earlier."

The one responsible for bringing Alberu here was a bit scared of the crown prince after hearing him mumble some hard to understand and bizarre things.

Crazy bastards were scary after all.

He was saying all sorts of odd things such as, what is AS, I am not a thieving bastard, are you EX-Grade, what is a president, what is psychomancy, what is screen share, etc.

They were all things Rasheel did not understand.

"Keke."

They heard Alberu laughing again.

Rasheel came to a conclusion.

"Hey. Cale Henituse."

"Yes sir?"

"You don't need me anymore, right? I'm going to go rest with the curly-hair."

"Ah. Yes sir. That is fine."

"Okay.

Haaaaa."

Rasheel looked toward Alberu and then shook his head.

'Is it because this human, Cale Henituse, is weak for a human? He only has crazy shits around him. Poor bastard. I should stop by often to check in on him. Tsk tsk.'

Rasheel thought that he was truly a great Dragon, who had become nicer with age, as he started to cast a teleportation spell.

At that moment…

"Hmm?"

Choi Han stopped him.

He then reached his hand out.

"Ah."

Rasheel frowned and took the scabbard off of his waist and handed it to Choi Han.

Choi Han carefully received it before slowly taking the sword out and inspecting the blade.

'Haaaaa. This crazy bastard.'

There really were numerous crazy bastards around Cale.

He held back his sigh and quickly left.

Paaaat.

Grey light filled a portion of the stable from his teleportation, but Raon, Cale, and Choi Han all paid no attention.

The two people and one Dragon were all looking at Alberu. Alberu was still mumbling with his head down.

"Ugh! I guess I really am… kind of a badass."

'What is going on?'

Cale had that thought as he slowly moved back while still crouching.

"Human! Why do you have such an expression on your face? You look like Choi Han when he is looking at Clopeh!"

Cale subconsciously looked toward Choi Han Choi Han was looking at Alberu with a somewhat sour expression on his face.

This innocent punk would have normally been concerned for the crown prince and urgently rushed over to support him. But such a good guy was hesitating while looking at Alberu right now.

Alberu, who had no idea what was going on, raised his head.

"Ha!"

He lifted his hand to brush his brown hair back.

He then said the following.

"As expected, I…"

The crown prince had such a bright smile that it resembled a rose at the center of a field of flowers.

"D-"

'Did you go crazy?'

Cale barely stopped himself from saying that.

"Dongsaeng."

Cale knew he shouldn't say that to someone who had been working his butt off until recently, but he wanted to just ignore Alberu after seeing that rose on Alberu's face growing even brighter.

"Do you know someone named Ahn Roh Man?"

'Ahn Roh Man?'

A question mark appeared inside Cale's mind.

"You don't, right?"

Cale had never heard that name before. However, he could tell something about it.

"It sounds like an Earth-styled name."

It also sounded Korean.

"Hoo hoo. Ahn Roh Man is a guy who is very smart and easy to talk to."

"Ah… I see."

Choi Han awkwardly played along.

Raon tilted his head while putting the cookie in the crown prince's hand.

Crunch. The crown prince took a bite before continuing to speak.

"He's someone from Earth 3."

Silence filled the stable.

"…Isn't that where Taerang was created?"

Cale's face stiffened up.

Earth 3. He had heard about that place already.

The Unbreakable Spear. The AI Taerang inside it…

This spear the Sun God gave to Alberu was an item from Earth 3.

Earth 3 was the place where they spent seven nights and eight days to finally defeat the Lion Dragon. Furthermore, they also used the Lion Dragon's bone to create the Unbreakable Spear, the only weapon that was capable of piercing through the Lion Dragon's scales.

"Your highness, how do you know someone from Earth 3?"

"AS."

"Excuse me?"

Cale flinched at the word that was so familiar yet unfamiliar to him. Alberu didn't care as he continued to speak.

"Taerang was damaged from the Lion Dragon's attack just now. It contacted me to AS once the damage level reached 90 percent."

"Then is Ahn Roh Man the AS representative...?"

"Yes. He is the AS representative and the former owner."

"Ho."

Cale let out a gasp.

"Wait, you can connect to AS? Isn't Earth 3 in a completely different world from here?"

"I'm not so sure."

Alberu's reaction sounded odd.

"…What do you mean by that?"

Cale's eyes clouded over and Alberu's smile now resembled one hundred roses instead of just one.

"Dongsaeng, listen carefully."

Choi Han's face stiffened up after hearing what Alberu said next as well.

"There is no Kim Rok Soo or Choi Jung Soo in Earth 3."

Cale's eyes opened wide.

'I'm not there? Then why is it Earth?'

Alberu added another comment.

"In fact, there is no Korea."

Choi Han quickly chimed in.

"That's not possible. Didn't you mention that Taerang brought up Seoul in the past, your highness?"

That was right.

Taerang had said the following while explaining about the Lion Dragon.

'Seven nights and eight days. We were finally able to kill the Lion Dragon after seven long nights and eight days. Thousands of people died and an area ten times the size of Seoul became desolate, unable to be restored ever again.'

Alberu remembered that as well.

"Yes. There is a nation with Seoul as its capital there. However, the name of that nation is different."

"What is its name?"

Cale asked and Alberu responded.

"Roan."

He continued to speak.

"There is a nation called Roan that has Seoul as its capital and Ahn Roh Man is the president of that country. He's currently serving his third term."

What was Alberu talking about?

Cale subconsciously felt his head heating up.

Choi Han started mumbling.

"It… it sounds as if that place is a mix of the 'Earth' we know and this world."

"Yes. If the place Kim Rok Soo and you lived in is White, this place is Black. Ahn Roh Man's world can be considered Grey."

Cale started to think.

Something was very odd.

If all of the worlds were placed in a line, it felt as if Ahn Roh Man's world was located in between Kim Rok Soo's world and Cale's world.

It was as if all of these planets called 'Earths' in parallel dimensions had moved in different directions to create different 'worlds.'

"Cale, There is something I realized after going to Earth last time."

Alberu had a question after learning about the existence of Earth.

He was almost whispering now.

"This place that you and I are in right now… What is the name of this planet?"

There were Earths 1, 2, and 3. What was the name of this planet?

"Our planet does not have a name. We just call it this world."

"…Maybe."

"Yes. This may be one of the many Earths as well."

Cale and Alberu made eye contact.

"Isn't it a complicated story?"

Alberu smiled.

"Let me tell you one more thing then. If this 'Earth' issue is something that we need to deal with in the future, the story I am about to tell you is something that hits quite close."

"What is it?"

"This is what Ahn Roh Man told me."

Alberu Crossman had learned why Ahn Roh Man called him a thieving bastard.

"Apparently, a person has to go through quite a lot of security levels to take Taerang."

There were ten underground floors and ten gates with the first nine gates having extremely skilled guards, each of them thoroughly checking every visitor's identity.

"Furthermore, they need to put a barcode card with a code that only Ahn Roh Man knows into the recognizer to get past the gate."

Each coded gate was different, so they would need ten different cards.

Ahn Roh Man was the only one who could create those codes.

"But someone managed to steal it without Ahn Roh Man's knowledge. They were able to get past all nine guards and ten gates. That was why Ahn Roh Man took a while to find out that it was stolen."

"The IDs the guards checked were fake?"

"Of course they were fake."

Cale thought he knew who the thief might be.

"Was it the Sun God who stole it?"

"No. I don't think it was the Sun God."

"…It wasn't?"

Alberu sternly shook his head.

"The guard's told Ahn Roh Man the name that was on the Ids they confirmed."

"What was the name? Wouldn't it have been fake anyway?"

"The name is weird."

'The name is weird?'

Confusion was visible on Cale face. His face turned blank from shock at what Alberu said next.

"Choi Jung Gun."

"Excuse me?"

"The name was Choi Jung Gun."

Alberu was saying that the thief who stole Taerang was named 'Choi Jung Gun.'

Cale knew that person.

Furthermore, he knew that person's other name as well.

Nelan Barrow, the author of 'The Birth of a Hero.'

The first Dragon Slayer.

He was also someone from the Choi family who came to this world before Choi Han.

The person who was with the Super Rock in the past and survived the final battle during ancient times.

Someone Cale presumed was a single-lifer.

And once a single-lifer dies…

"…The Divine race, Demonic race, or..."

He was someone with a soul that allowed him to become a member of the Divine race, Demonic race, or even a god.

***

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]