The Wastrel Prince Becomes Ruthless

Chapter 166

Chapter 166

Somewhere in the Southern Desert, where darkness still lay thick and heavy. In that darkness, with nothing to rely on but moonlight, two human figures could be seen walking across the endlessly stretching sand dunes.

Trudge—trudge—

To avoid the sand-laden winds that raged through the desert day and night, they wore robes pulled low over their heads. From the narrow gap beneath those hoods, blue eyes gleamed so sharply that they seemed to emit light within the darkness itself. Those eyes belonged to Yuwon.

The identity of the group pushing through the sparsely populated desert was none other than Yuwon and Marquis Carson. Having successfully rescued the marquis from the Imperial Army’s military camp, Yuwon walked silently through the desert, retracing the path they had taken.

After walking for around ten minutes, Yuwon soon arrived at the rendezvous point where they had previously agreed to meet the others. Hastings, who had arrived early and was waiting at the designated spot, recognized them from afar and ran over at once to greet Yuwon.

“My lord. Thank goodness. Seeing the marquis with you, it seems everything you went to handle turned out well.”

However, Yuwon’s reply carried a subtle nuance.

“Ah, yes. It worked out. Things could have gotten rougher than expected, though.”

As always, Yuwon responded with a faint smile. Yet that relaxed smile, unlike usual, carried a complex and difficult-to-read undertone. Unable to grasp its meaning, Hastings voiced his doubt.

“You say things almost turned rough?”

“Well, it all ended well. Fortunately. But I don’t think it’ll be this easy next time.”

Yuwon gave a riddle-like answer whose meaning could not be understood by anyone except the person who had experienced it firsthand.

“…?”

“We’ll talk properly once we reach somewhere safe.”

After lightly patting the shoulder of the increasingly curious Hastings, Yuwon approached Bernid.

“It seems nothing happened on your side.”

“Right. I kept watch the whole time, but the enemy camp was quiet as a dead mouse. When you insisted on going alone, I even considered stopping you, but considering your abilities, it really was better for you to go by yourself.”

Yuwon left Bernid with a strange reply as well.

“Well, not exactly. I came back alive and well, but it might have been a bit dangerous.”

“What…? Could it be…!”

Unlike Hastings, who had not noticed anything at all, Bernid’s eyes widened as if he had sensed something. At Bernid’s unexpected reaction, Yuwon let out a small chuckle.

“So you felt it. It seems Kahaad wasn’t speaking lightly when he insisted on bringing you along.”

“I felt two presences, so I thought you had used some hidden trick. Don’t tell me one of them wasn’t even your aura?”

Yuwon silently nodded and continued.

“There was something that didn’t seem human. If this had been before I went to the Great Jungle and broadened my horizons, it would’ve been an opponent I couldn’t even brush sleeves with. That’s the foundation of confidence that bastard’s relying on.”

“…Even to you, it was that level? What are the odds?”

As if he had already finished calculating, Yuwon answered immediately.

“Fifty-fifty.”

At that unbelievable answer coming from Yuwon’s mouth, Bernid—who already had his eyes wide open—stared as if his eyes might tear.

“You’re saying even you are fifty-fifty…?”

“That’s why I’m thinking we should pick up the pace a bit. There won’t be any problem using teleportation magic, right?”

“Don’t worry about me. Thanks to you handling the hardest part alone, I’ve got plenty of leeway.”

At Bernid’s reassuring response, Yuwon smiled.

“Good. Then let’s hurry a little more.”

“Hah, fine. I’ve been crawling to conserve strength, but I guess it’s about time to speed things up.”

After receiving Bernid’s confirmation, Yuwon turned his head and gave similar instructions to the rest of the group.

“Hastings, carry the marquis. We’re increasing speed starting now.”

Yuwon assigned the task to Hastings without hesitation, and Hastings accepted the unpleasant-sounding duty without a single complaint.

“Yes, my lord.”

The only one uncomfortable with the situation was Marquis Carson himself. After all, he was completely unharmed, with all four limbs intact, yet he was about to be carried on another man’s back.

“Y-Your Highness. There’s no need to go that far. I can follow on my own—huh…!”

The marquis failed to finish his sentence, covering it instead with a cry of astonished admiration. That was because Yuwon and Bernid, who had taken the lead, had already shot forward like arrows, rapidly distancing themselves from his field of vision.

‘Ah…! Just what in the world did His Highness experience while he was gone to achieve such heights…!’

There was no one who could resolve the marquis’s doubts right now. The enemy they had left behind was far too dangerous for that. As a result, Hastings and Bernid could only see their questions grow larger.

‘The mission clearly succeeded without issue. But then why did my lord suddenly become so quiet…?’

‘There were definitely two presences felt at the enemy camp back then. One must have been Gion Tindal’s… but the other one… Could there really be someone outside the Great Jungle who could radiate that kind of presence? If it were an ally, Yurion wouldn’t have insisted on increasing speed. But if it were an enemy, it’s strange that someone with that much power would just hand over the marquis so easily… What on earth happened?’

It was not a good time to ask. And so, the doubts the two men carried only spawned further questions, one after another.

“If we keep this pace for about ten more minutes, we’ll reach the safe zone… I wonder if we’ll really arrive without incident….”

Yuwon’s faint mutter was swallowed up and scattered by the desert wind.

---

After Yuwon and the marquis had departed, the marquis’s residence stood ownerless. Inside it, Colbus Seral—the man soon to become the Supreme Commander of the Grand Army—stood alone in a daze.

‘The Fifth Prince… Yurion Aphahiel….’

All his life, Colbus had believed with certainty that there was no one stronger than his master, nor anyone who ever would be. At most, he believed that only his future self might one day approach his master’s level of attainment. Yet Yuwon appeared before him and shattered that belief completely.

‘That power… And that’s not all. He was clearly accumulating mana within his body using the same method as me. Others might not notice, but my eyes can’t be deceived. Mana is stored within the Fifth Prince’s core.’

Core. This was the term Colbus and his master used for what others called the dantian. While everyone else on the continent accumulated mana in the heart and called it a mana heart, only Colbus and his master stored mana not in the heart, but in the dantian.

‘No… Now that includes the Fifth Prince as well. Three of us. How did he learn to handle a core…? Master said in his lifetime that he never took on any disciple besides me….’

Another owner of a mana core had suddenly appeared before his eyes. Colbus recalled the words of his former master, who had now returned to nothing more than a handful of dust.

‘Colbus. Remember this. The foundation of your sword is a fragment of the legacy left behind by General Geiorn in the distant past.’

Long ago, Colbus’s master had said those words without a doubt. During the era of the Continental Unification War, General Geiorn had secretly taken two disciples, and he had taught each of them the sword in a different way.

‘One is the method now widely spread throughout the world—accumulating mana in the heart. And the other is….’

The method Colbus had learned from his master: accumulating mana in the core (the dantian).

‘It is different from the mana heart known to the world. My master said that the mana core was clearly passed down through a one-person succession. Yet how did the Fifth Prince come to possess it…? And on top of that, didn’t he also hold mana in his heart? My master said that was impossible….’

Colbus’s master had taught that greedily trying to possess both the core and the heart would leave one crippled for life.

At the time he first received that teaching, Colbus had not been able to understand its meaning. Now, however, he understood it well. And yet, a man who possessed both stood right before his eyes. Colbus was left with more than one or two unanswered questions.

‘From the start, that is impossible. No—something that should have been impossible. What kind of life did the Fifth Prince live to obtain such a thing? This isn’t something I can find an answer to by thinking alone. There is no answer within the bounds of my common sense.’

In the end, there was no method more certain than asking the person himself.

‘The Fifth Prince is… an enemy I must overcome for my lord to achieve his will. Whether sooner or later, an enemy I must face someday.’

After long deliberation, as if he had finally made a decision, Colbus’s gaze changed in an instant.

Competitive spirit and curiosity. Driven by the competitive spirit carved deep into his bones as a swordsman, and by the curiosity stirred by the enigma that was the Fifth Prince, Colbus finally moved the feet that had seemed rooted to the ground.

‘…I will see this through today.’

At last, what Yuwon had worried about—or perhaps even anticipated—came to pass. The deeper the deliberation, the swifter the action.

Swoosh—

A faint shadow swept swiftly through the Imperial Army’s military camp. Deceiving the eyes of the seventy-thousand-strong army under his command, Colbus slipped out of the camp at once.

‘Yurion Aphahiel….’

Colbus Seral. The sword of the traitor Gion. At this very moment, he pursued Yuwon’s trail.

---

Yuwon and his group increased their speed, widening the distance until they could completely evade the enemies’ mana detection. However, the problem was not mana, but a person.

“My lord…! There’s someone over there…!”

Atop an ordinary sand dune they had set as their destination, an unidentified figure stood waiting for them. Yuwon recognized the identity at a glance. That figure was, of course, Colbus.

‘He came alone, at full speed….’

“Fall back, Hastings. He’s not your opponent.”

With a firm voice, Yuwon ordered Hastings back and stepped forward himself to face the uninvited intruder.

“What is this about, Colbus? Weren’t you going to let us go?”

Yuwon spoke casually to Colbus blocking the path, as if addressing a friend.

“I thought I would… but I couldn’t just let you go after all. Isn’t this what we both wanted?”

Colbus replied with a faint smile, seemingly genuinely pleased to see Yuwon. A provocation that was not quite a provocation. Yuwon answered it with a smile.

“Well, I can’t say you’re wrong. With the king of the chessboard right in front of me, there’s no need to go far… But are you confident? You should already know what happens if you lose here.”

“…Who knows. Honestly, today I’m not sure. For nearly ten years, there hasn’t been a single battle where I couldn’t be confident of victory.”

At Colbus’s answer, Yuwon let out a small laugh. Colbus’s feelings mirrored his own. A contradictory heart that wanted to avoid the fight, yet also wanted to face it. Since they had ended up facing each other anyway, Yuwon—who had secretly been expecting this outcome—had no reason to avoid it.

“I like your honesty.”

As someone who walked the path of the sword, it was a battle he wanted to test himself against no matter what, yet one he had wanted to postpone until he gained certainty, for the sake of those who trusted him. But Colbus had ultimately stopped Yuwon’s steps, and so the two now stood face to face.

“We’ve said enough already, so there’s no need to drag this out. Come. Sword of the traitor Gion. The sword of Aphahiel—no… Aphahiel himself will cut you down.”

Shrring—

As if no more words were needed, Yuwon drew the twin daggers from his bosom.

Colbus Seral, the illegitimate offspring of the sword born from the traces left by Tang Seogyeom long ago. And Tang Yuwon, the legitimate heir who mocked twisted time and space by standing here.

In the heart of the Southern Desert, two swords collided. As if it were fate itself.