Raising the Princess to Overcome Death Chapter 114

114. Childhood Friends – Map and Gem

- Thump thump thump.

Bante snorted roughly. The cold air of the deepening autumn turned his breath into mist.

However, Bante, Rev's horse, had changed significantly. He was no longer 'brown.'

Bante had become a completely black horse.

The black patches that had only covered his hindquarters had spread over his entire body, and his usually indifferent eyes now glinted with ferocity if you looked closely.

Rev wandered around the outskirts of Nevis to exterminate the remnants of the Dorf family. It was quite a cumbersome task, but fortunately, Barbatos' [Target Hunt] ability was helpful.

The [Target Hunt] ability was superior to {tracking}. It accurately pinpointed the location of the prey, and even without applying a debuff, it could find those hiding in corners.

It seemed that more of their families were sacrificed than the gangsters themselves. But Rev had no qualms about killing them.

He also needed divine power.

As Rev went around killing the gangsters and their families, he would charm the guards searching for the culprit of these indiscriminate murders and slip away. Then, he suddenly realized another way to imbue divine power into other creatures.

It felt like something he had known but forgotten for a while, so he first experimented on Bante.

The result was satisfactory.

Bante, who received Barbatos' divine power, became stronger. Even without being trained as a warhorse, he did not hesitate to charge at and trample humans.

What if this were applied to humans?

Curious, Rev began to think of returning to the Marquis of Guidan. After circling Nevis, starting from the stronghold of the Dorf family in the east, he turned his horse around.

‘Let's see...’

Rev took out several maps from his saddlebag. They were maps showing the locations of barbarian tribes. Since the Dorf family was involved in the slave trade, they had a fair amount of knowledge about the locations of these tribes, and these maps had fallen into Rev's hands.

‘This one looks the best.’

He crumpled and discarded all but one map. The map he had taken from the leader of the gangsters who had first kidnapped Lena was the most detailed.

- Noland Tribe: Polyandrous society. The children are raised communally by the tribe. They hold gatherings at the beginning of each month and then go out for large-scale fishing expeditions.

- Dwinner Tribe: A tribe that farms by clearing mountains. They do not have many warriors. They worship a god called 'Aylethia'. They are hostile to outsiders.

The writing was somewhat difficult to read.

The letters were crooked as if written on the palm, and many sentences lacked proper punctuation or had letters tilted severely.

As Rev was memorizing the map while heading towards Nevis, he encountered something familiar.

A large caravan with rough-looking drivers and heavily loaded wagons was approaching.

‘Ah, so those guys were departing from Nevis at this time.’

It was a large caravan of the Teovic family, a major family in Nevis that primarily dealt in illegal arms trade.

Rev had once traveled with them to cross the border.

It was during the time when he had fled from the Holy Kingdom, marked with the holy symbol by a crusader, and rode ‘Woody’ while Lena was expelled from the church.

‘But why are they heading northeast?’

To reach the Holy Kingdom, they should be heading north from here. But they were heading in the direction of the Kingdom of Bellita.

‘And what’s with the time? I met them at the border next summer.’

No matter how slow the wagons carrying weapons were, would it really take them more than half a year to get there?

He was momentarily puzzled but didn't dwell on it. Whether they were heading northeast or north, their journey would end here. They would be wiped out by the crusaders anyway, so it wouldn’t matter if they died by his hand.

“Alright, let’s hurry. The wagons are heavy, so we need to change the horses frequently.”

“Boss, why are we in such a hurry? It’s almost winter…”

“Hey, kid. Lately, the price of weapons in the Kingdom of Bellita has been skyrocketing.”

As they approached, Rev overheard the conversation between the gang leader he had met before and his henchmen. Thanks to the divine power enhancing his body, he could hear their chatter clearly.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I only heard that the price has shot up, but I haven’t heard the reason. Maybe there’s been a big territorial war.”

Ah!

Now Rev understood.

Despite Leo killing Gilbert Forte in the previous scenario, a war had broken out between the Kingdom of Bellita and the Kingdom of Astin.

He didn’t know the specifics, but it seemed likely that the prince of the Kingdom of Astin had been humiliated and returned around the same time last autumn.

If that incident had repeated, Orville would be engulfed in war, causing weapon prices to skyrocket, and the Teovic family, hearing this, would have hurriedly sent out the caravan loaded with weapons.

And in the Kingdom of Orville, rich in ores due to its many mountains, a large number of weapons were produced.

Usually, they couldn’t sell all of them, but the gangsters who loved metal would have stockpiled them recklessly.

They wouldn’t want to miss the chance to sell off their inventory at once.

Now he understood why they would reach the Holy Kingdom’s border next summer.

They had changed their destination upon learning of the war while heading to sell the weapons in the Kingdom of Bellita.

Selling weapons illegally in a war-torn kingdom was foolish.

Not only could they be confiscated or bought at a fixed price, but selling them near the front lines could fetch several times the usual price.

“What’s this? Hey, you there! Stop!”

At that moment, a gangster shouted towards Rev, who was approaching on horseback. Rev snapped out of his thoughts.

How should he kill these people?

After a brief contemplation, he waved his hand to indicate he meant no harm and turned his horse around. Moving ahead in the direction the caravan was heading, he smiled cruelly.

Let’s use [Trap Hunting].

This was a power he had acquired while exterminating the Dorf family, a power granted by Barbatos.

The weapon caravan was massive, with over thirty large wagons and more than four hundred gangsters guarding them.

It would be easy to crush them, but he didn't want to let even a single one escape. Thinking about the effort he had put into hunting down the remnants of the Dorf family made him more determined.

Rev busily moved around a secluded path that the caravan was sure to pass through. If someone had seen him, they might have thought he was a lost and frantic young man or someone who had lost his mind.

He crouched down on one side of the path, placing his hand on the ground. After a while, he ran to the other side and stroked a tree.

How long did he repeat such actions? Seeing the caravan approaching from a distance, he retreated.

“What’s with that guy?”

The gangsters noticed the young man they had seen earlier and pointed at him.

He leaned casually against a tree, his eyes gleaming as if in anticipation.

The gangsters didn't bother him. They were in a hurry and weren’t slave traders, after all.

- Neigh!!

Then, chaos erupted.

A gangster was hanging from a tree.

“Aaagh!”

“What the—?!”

To Rev, it looked like the man was hanging by his neck, but to the gangsters, it seemed as if someone was floating in the air, struggling.

“Ugh!”

The gangsters were shocked but had no time to ponder the bizarre phenomenon.

One gangster fell to the ground and writhed. Screaming, “Aah! My head! My head!” When he finally managed to get up, there were clear square bite marks on his head.

Another gangster fell, clutching his foot. It looked like his ankle was caught by a steel wire, a red line forming around it, tightening, causing his flesh to tear and purple blood to pool.

It was pandemonium.

Some were pinned by heavy rocks, others clutched their torn bellies in horror at their spilling guts, and some crawled blindly, shouting, “I can’t see!”

Despite the gruesome sight, Rev, watching from a distance, merely complained, “What is this?”

He had set traps densely and activated them when the caravan was in the center, but the effects were minimal. The only one killed instantly was the one hanging by a noose; others managed to escape and gather themselves.

Moreover, whether by luck or instinct, many gangsters had avoided the traps. Though they stumbled into them eventually, it seemed mere luck, yet Rev frowned.

He was disappointed by the traps' killing power. They were no different from ordinary traps in that regard.

Traps were generally designed to capture prey alive rather than kill them outright.

Creating high-killing-power traps was difficult and unnecessary.

Disappointed, Rev straightened from his leaning position against the tree.

What good was it if the traps were invisible and remotely controlled? If he had to finish the job himself, the usefulness of this ability was limited.

However, since some of the divine power invested in the traps could be recovered, Rev calmly approached the gangsters, considering it fortunate.

The gangsters couldn't move. They were too scared to step wrongly and end up in a gruesome situation, so they whimpered where they stood.

“Spare us!”

One gangster cried out, followed by a chorus of pleas for mercy. To them, Rev, walking towards them nonchalantly, appeared to be their savior.

Of course, they were mistaken.

Without a word, Rev began to take their lives one by one. He plunged his sword into the chest of a whimpering gangster without hesitation.

Panic ensued among the gangsters.

Some fled recklessly, only to fall into traps; others followed Rev’s path, only to have their cheeks caught like fish hooks. Even those who seemed to dodge the traps were struck down by Rev's sword.

“Spare me! Please! Please!”

They pleaded, speaking of bedridden mothers, offering their entire wealth, mentioning rabbit-like daughters, promising to quit after this last job, and pregnant wives.

Rev paid no attention.

After killing the gang leader he had bargained with at the border for the last time, silence fell. Rev stood amidst the bloodbath of 400 men and looked up at the sky.

The clear sky felt refreshing.

And, he had gained a new ability.

Feeling satisfied with the day's harvest, Rev finally felt good about this game. He discarded the now cumbersome map from his pocket.

When Rev returned to the Marquis of Guidan, it was winter. It took a long time to go around to all of Teovic family’s numerous weapon warehouses.

“...Welcome back. I received the gifts you sent, but I worry there won’t be any guests for the feast.”

Harvey, the Marquis of Guidan, had considerably weakened in charm. He suggested a noble conversation while skeptically eyeing his ‘master’, making Rev consider slapping him but refraining.

“Oh, right. I forgot to test it on humans.”

He beckoned the marquis over with a finger.

Though he was loyal to his lord, the marquis approached with a deeply furrowed brow, clearly displeased. Rev placed a hand on the marquis' shoulder and poured divine power into him.

"What are you doing?"

However, the divine power had no effect on humans. Despite Barbatos' power flowing into him, the Marquis of Guidan showed no external changes like Bante had.

Rev considered reclaiming the divine power, but a strange sensation gripped him.

It was his sight.

Rev found himself looking down at himself. No, he was sharing the vision of the tall marquis, seeing the haggard young man with a cold expression.

The young man looked much more worn out.

His hair, which had grown out haphazardly, covered his once neat forehead, and his sunken cheeks had lost their healthy tan.

Despite all this, his eyes shone brightly, examining Rev (or the marquis) with curiosity.

‘Is that me?’

The thought that Lena would have been shocked to see him like this cleared his mind for a moment. But it was fleeting. Rev blocked the shared vision and looked at the marquis.

The Marquis of Guidan’s previously furrowed brow had smoothed out. It was as if being summoned with a mere finger was not an offense.

It seemed the more divine power he infused, the stronger the charm became.

Although it would gradually diminish, Rev had many tasks for the marquis and it would be cumbersome to cast charms frequently, so he decided to leave the divine power as it was.

“Sit.”

“Yes, but where did you acquire so many weapons? Could it be...”

“You guessed right. I raided a family involved in the arms trade.”

Rev had enchanted passersby to help him move the wagons from the bloodbath to the marquis' house.

Whenever he looted the Teovic family’s weapon warehouses, he sent their contents to the marquis, but the warehouses had been empty except for the caravan.

“I see. But is there a specific reason you are gathering these weapons?”

Rev chuckled.

“Do you feign ignorance to hide your suspicions? How audacious.”

Even under enchantment, the Marquis of Guidan was no fool. He must have been trying to hide the influx of weapons into his estate.

“I apologize. I thought you were preparing for a Rebellion.”

“So, what preparations have you made?”

“...I apologize. I doubted you.”

“So, you’ve done nothing.”

The marquis hung his head in shame, but Rev had anticipated this and didn’t press the issue.

“Prepare to secretly summon the border army under your command to Nevis. The same goes for your knights and squires. If possible, persuade your friend Marquis Drazhin to join the Rebellion.”

“I understand. But Evny won’t move. He...”

The marquis hesitated, but Rev raised his palm.

“That’s your task.”

“...Understood.”

“Good. Then, I’ll be going now... I’m tired.”

As Rev stood to leave, the marquis called out to him.

“Rev, sir.”

“What is it?”

“My daughter has returned. She wishes to speak with you, though it may be nothing important. I’d like to introduce her to you.”

“Very well, call her.”

After a short wait, a young lady with green eyes like her father entered and bowed politely to Rev.

“It is an honor to meet you. I’ve heard you are a distinguished guest of my father.”

Rev did not respond but looked at her intently.

It brought back memories.

He had seen Harie Guidan in the previous childhood friends scenario. Back then, Rev had been a servant, a tool for noble whims, and she had been the daughter of a prestigious family.

Unlike Lena, who was a maid, Rev had no interactions with Harie.

He had only seen her a few times while riding on the coachman’s seat.

She never even came near the coachman’s seat.

At that time, he had been too busy consoling a sulking Lena to pay much attention to Harie...

Up close, she was stunning.

Her pale skin needed no makeup, her lips were delicately closed, and her small, oval face with sorrowful green eyes was beautiful.

‘She’s still no match for my dear Lena... Wait, what is that?’

A dark red gemstone was nestled in her cleavage.

A pale pink gold necklace held a jewel resembling a closed flower bud, drawing Rev’s attention intensely.