Little Tyrant Doesn’t Want to Meet with a Bad End
chapter-594-2

Humans of the Sia Continent had a diverse range of hair colors due to their varied bloodlines and mana mutation arising from transcendence. Even so, it was still rare to spot a person with silver hair in the Theocracy.

In the communication room, Roel quietly stared at the strand of silver hair sitting on his hand. Putting together what he had gathered, while he was unable to verify it, he was quite certain that the silver hair belonged to Alicia.

Alicia was the only one who could have gotten into this place over the past year and made an attempt to contact the Ascart Fiefdom. It could be a biased conclusion too, since he was praying hard that this silver hair belonged to Alicia, for it was his only clue on her right now.

Investigation into Alicia’s disappearance had been inconclusive thus far. If she had really been here, it would at least mean that she was safe up to this point, though it didn’t change the fact that her whereabouts were still currently unknown.

Roel looked at the hair strand in his hand without saying a word. Wilhelmina activated the communication magic tool and sent out an emergency transmission to all powers, including the Austine Empire.

Humankind was united as one against the Six Calamities, so there was no need to withhold information from anyone. Besides, the fact that the Ascart House hadn’t received the transmission Alicia sent out from here signified two possibilities.

One: they were in an isolated space that disallowed the transmission of mana to the real world.

Two: Shrouding Fog was located too far away from the Ascart Fiefdom for the transmission to be reliably received. To circumvent this issue, Wilhelmina spread the web out wide in hopes that at least one party was close enough to receive their transmission.

“The emergency call channels are out of range, so I sent a long-distance transmission instead. That has a much longer range, though I can’t say for sure whether anyone will receive it.”

“…Mm,” Roel replied with a nod before staring at the silver hair strand once more.

Seconds ticked by in the silent room.

Wilhelmina looked at Roel in a dilemma. She understood how he felt, but she couldn’t find the right words to console him. Communication simply wasn’t her forte, since she had devoted all her time to honing her sword instead of socializing.

What should I say in such a situation? Should I give him a hug?

Before Wilhelmina could make up her mind, Roel suddenly spoke up. “Mina, do you think that the disappeared personnel are still alive?”

“Ah? Well…” Wilhelmina was taken aback. She averted her eyes and pondered for a moment before answering, “I think there’s a chance they might still be alive…”

“I think so too.”

“But Roel, from the looks of it, I don’t think that Miss Alicia will be among them, so…” Wilhelmina spoke with a concerned expression.

Roel was momentarily surprised before he replied with a helpless smile, “I know that, Mina. You seem to be misunderstanding my intention. I am indeed worried about Alicia, but there’s nothing I can do without any other clues. Besides… she might be in a better situation than we expected.”

“Better situation?”

“I don’t think Shrouding Fog would hurt Alicia. She was allowed to freely explore this space, after all. Rather than blindly worrying about her, I should focus on what’s ahead of me and do what I must… For instance, I should ensure that I escape from here together with the buffoon who charged into the deviants’ encirclement for my sake.”

“!”

Looking at Roel’s earnest expression, her cheeks slowly reddened. She tried to justify her own actions by saying, “I-I properly considered things through before…”

“All right, all right. I know.”

“You… Forget it! What’s your current goal if you aren’t planning on looking for Miss Alicia?”

“…If the missing personnel of Tark Stronghold are still alive, I want to save them,” Roel replied.

Wilhelmina wasn’t surprised to hear his answer.

“Silver Devourer is linked to Shrouding Fog’s space, but there’s a chance Shrouding Fog may seal off this place once it notices our existence here…” Roel explained with narrowed eyes.

Wilhelmina’s expression turned grim.

It was only a matter of time before Shrouding Fog noticed Roel and Wilhelmina’s presence here. Once it did, it would prohibit them from entering this space again, or at least transport them elsewhere, far away from Tark Stronghold.

“I see. This might be our only chance to access Tark Stronghold.”

“Indeed. That’s why I want to resolve this issue right now. Aside from that, we are also in dire need of help.”

“…Indeed.” Wilhelmina nodded with a heavy heart as she recalled the hordes of enemies awaiting them in the desert.

The deviants had gathered a far greater force than she had expected in Hawe Desert, be it the Deviant Sovereign, the three Race Sovereigns, or the thousands of deviant elites. On the bright side, they could expect reinforcements from the united army, led by Roel’s old friends.

Over the past year, Nora and Charlotte had gradually grasped authority over their respective countries. Other Rose of Dawn members had also joined the military and were showing their sharp edges through the intense fights.

Roel’s right-hand man in the Saint Freya Academy, Geralt, Selina of the Saint Beast Bloodline, Juliana of the Blood Clan, Kurt of the Giant Bloodline, Brittany the Valkyrie, and the others from the golden generation had already reached Origin Level 3. They were the brightest stars in the united army, rising to take on commander roles within a matter of months.

In particular, Stuart had made several huge contributions to the united army through his ability and had been promoted to the frontline chief of intelligence. Teresa had reversed the tides with her Hextongue so many times that she was now one of the most respected figures in Knight Kingdom Pendor, second only to King Friedrich and Wilhelmina.

As young as Rose of Dawn was as an organization, it had swiftly expanded in this tumultuous era to become one of the powerhouses capable of dictating the tides of the world.

Without a doubt, Rose of Dawn would mobilize everything it had to rescue Roel, not to mention that Brolne, under Principal Antonio’s lead, would be lending a helping hand. These added up to a tremendous force that hardly any individual human country would stand a chance against.

But this was still hardly enough at all, for their opponent was the entire deviant race.

“Mina, how does the united army compare to the deviants at the moment?”

“…It should be a tie if we pit our full strength against each other, but I doubt our people will be able to mobilize the Austine Empire. We’ll be at a disadvantage.”

“A disadvantage, huh? What about in terms of highest-tier fighting prowess?”

“Holy Eminence John, Principal Antonio, and my father should be participating in the battle, but the deviants have three Race Sovereigns too, and there’s that monster on top of that…” Mina’s voice sounded grim.

Roel nodded in agreement.

It was already taking the entire united army to fend off the deviants; it was a pipe dream to think that Rose of Dawn would be able to mobilize a sufficiently large force to deal with the deviants. Even at this point, the final outcome could already be predicted.

Nora and the others would likely struggle to breach the enemy’s encirclement to reinforce them, whereas Roel and Wilhelmina would be facing ten times more enemies than they previously had. Their chances of escape were abysmally low.

Their only shot at survival was to rescue the elites of Tark Stronghold and attempt to breach the encirclement from the inside too.

“It looks like there’s no backing out.”

“Indeed.”

At this point, it was already clear to Roel that their survival depended on whether they were able to save Tark Stronghold’s soldiers, but that was easier said than done. He pondered hard about the situation, and some clues slowly surfaced in his mind.

“Based on what we have observed, it should be safe to say that Tark Stronghold’s personnel disappeared the very night Shrouding Fog devoured the fortress.”

“That does appear to be the case considering the state of the equipment and food.”

“…Tark Stronghold was brought here after being devoured by Shrouding Fog, and Shrouding Fog wiped away the existence of the military personnel from this space. That makes things quite simple, actually,” Roel said as he looked at his own palm.

“Let’s try getting devoured a second time.”