Risou no Himo Seikatsu Vol 4 Chapter 2

Chapter 02: The Puppet and the Puppet Master

Ten or so days had passed since Prince Francesco and Princess Bona had come to the Carpa Royal Palace.

This applied to both sides: The accommodated delegation as well as the accommodating Carpa Royal Palace.

Ten days were definitely too short to accept these essential differences in their cultures. On the contrary, these kind of differences could cause homesickness as they accumulated over time, so the real ordeal may yet to come.

Fortunately, or rather, as expected, Prince Francesco belonged to that minority.

“Prince Francesco, please take a look at this. This is the garment with the new buttons that I have mentioned to you before. Unfortunately this is just a sample and a little bit too small for you to wear, but I will have one in your size with the same cloth tailored for you, if you wish so.”

The sunlight fell through the numerous opened windows and illuminated the room, where the garments and textiles from the merchant crowded the floor.

In other words, all the assembled clothes here only varied in pattern or shape.

Prince Francesco weaved his way through the spaces between the widely spread clothes while he noted with bright eyes.

“Okay, for now I will take three sets of clothes. The first one will be that garment with the new ’round buttons with four holes’. Then the one you described as the ‘most common in the Carpa Kingdom’ earlier. And I leave the last one up to your decision. Get me a piece of clothes that will suit me.”

Having secured a generous customer in form of a direct royalty of a major power, the merchant prostrated on the spot without hiding his joy.

In contrast, the escorting knights, standing near the wall, kept an indifferent face.

As a rule, the occupation of the tailor was said to place fourth in the ranking of ‘types of occupations that were promising for assassination when being in favour’ (incidentally, far at the top stood the ‘doctor’ as the #1, followed by the ‘cook’ on #2 and the ‘hairdresser’ on #3 by far).

In order to tailor clothes, it was necessary to measure the body of the purchaser and approach him with needles to pin the cloth in place.

For that reason, a tailor working for the royal family usually required a clean background and personality on top of the tailoring skills.

However, the knights, standing in the back, showed no sign of stopping Prince Francesco, even though they were stifling a sour face.

Still, they might have given up on stopping the purchase itself, but they could never abandon their duty to protect him.

Even so, the danger couldn’t be averted altogether and the knights would held be responsible if anything were to happen.

“Yes, thank you very much. I will do my utmost.”

The prince pledged himself to something troublesome with an innocent smile, whereas the knights near the wall just watched over him while stifling all kind of reactions, such as making a sour face or sighing.

Who turned out to be the busiest person because of the visit from Prince Francesco and Princess Bona? It goes without saying that it was Zenjirou.

Previously, Zenjirou had been attending some official events in place of Aura, but it hadn’t been rare either that he got a whole day off.

After all, they were the prince and princess of the major power: Twin Kingdom of Jilbell and Sharrow. It required a rather high “status” to keep them company and as the Prince Consort, Zenjirou was the only other adult royalty of the Carpa Kingdom besides Aura.
Since Aura couldn’t abandon her duties as the Queen, it was extremely self-evident that Zenjirou was sent out to deal with the prince and princess.

“Zenjirou-sama, like I have told this morning, you now have a meeting with Prince Francesco. He is already waiting in the anteroom. Shall I bring him inside?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

Actually, he felt like stretching himself out and heaving a deep sigh, but he couldn’t act so sloppy in front of the trusted retainer of his wife, who always had one word too many to say.

But at the same time, he felt relieved over the fact that he would avoid making fatal mistakes when he followed his advice, which irritated him even more. Secretary Fabio often spoke ambiguously and tried to test him with his behaviour, but he properly held his tongue during times like this, where they couldn’t risk an embarrassment to the outside world.

Saying only that, Secretary Fabio left the room for now.

Roughly ten minutes later. Zenjirou was chatting with Prince Francesco, who sat on the couch across.

“Indeed. Your country and mine are not all that different in temperatures or food after all. Ahaha.”

However, the prince’s earlier words and reality were contradicting each other.

Needless to say, the differences in the climate also manifested itself in the flora and fauna, which in turn influenced the eating habits of the people living there.

To draw a parallel, it was as extreme as grouping the French and English cuisine together as the “same western cuisine”.

In their meetings over the past few days, Zenjirou had more or less started to comprehend the Prince’s personality and was cracking a bitter smile at heart.

Leaving aside the question whether his words were the truth or some elaborated act, Zenjirou would certainly go crazy if he were to take every single word from him at face value.

“Reminds me, Prince Francesco, you seemed rather fond of the ‘distilled liquor’ at the evening party. If you want, I can cede you a bottle.”

Zenjirou turned a bit away as the Prince was more interested than expected, and called out to Secretary Fabio, who stood at attention behind him.

“As you wish.”

“Woah, I can hardly wait! Thank you so much. I had never tasted such a strong alcohol before and now I am really hooked on it! Alcohol has always been a weakness of mine, but that was something entirely different. You drink it mixed with all kind of other things, right? I would love to try out a certain blend.”

It was somewhat considered to be bad manners to continue the chatter one-sidedly when facing a conversational partner of equal standing, but there would be no end if you started to point out every little offence to the prince.

While Zenjirou was conversing with a forced smile, Secretary Fabio returned.

“Good.”

Zenjirou reached out for the table and undid the knot of the wrapped cloth, revealing what was inside.

Prince Francesco exclaimed in awe, but this time his reaction was not exaggerated. As a matter of fact, even the knights, standing at attention behind the prince, had replaced their previous inexpressive with surprise.

It was the “whiskey bottle” that Zenjirou had brought with him from his world.

The bottle had originally been filled with the amber-coloured whiskey, but right now it contained Zenjirou’s self-made “distilled liquor”, which had a colour close to transparent. Due to that, the whiskey bottle was practically entirely transparent, making it a real eye-catch.

“Wonderful! You are giving it me like this!? You will not ask me to give back the container once I emptied it, right!?”

As Prince Francesco was plagued by worries of poverty inappropriate for his standing, Zenjirou eased his sorrow with a shake of his head.

“But I ask you to be careful. This bottle is way more fragile than one out of wood or silver. If you drop it from high up, it will break easily and if the surface is hard enough, it might even get damaged by just falling over.”

It hadn’t been his own judgement to present the prince the glass whisky bottle. Last night, he had made that decision in consultation with Aura.

Then what about a transparent glass bottle? They had decided on this present because they wanted to observe his reaction and the result exceeded their expectation, but at the same time, betrayed their anticipation.

The exaggerated joy in the facial expression of the prince was all too pure, making it impossible to distinguish whether it was directed at a mere “beautiful piece of art” or at “something valuable for making a magical tool”.

Although he did regret that at heart, he also did understand that it had been practically impossible.

The whiskey bottle would be just waste glass in Japan, but in this world it was one of his limited, irreplaceable goods, so it would definitely be a shame to give it away for nothing.

“But I would feel bad if I were to accept something so wonderful without repaying you. What do you say when I offer to make a ‘magic tool’ for you in exchange, Your Majesty Zenjirou?”

It was a windfall that the Prince brought up the topic of making a magic tool of his own accord.

“Now that sounds great. But I’ve heard that it takes quite a long time to make a magic tool. Will you manage? I believe that you have already promised to make us one magic tool while you stay here.”

The time required to make a magic tool accounted to months for something simple and years for something with a “bloodline magic” embedded into it. Consequently, the “personal gratitude” for the whiskey bottle would take place many years in the future.

“Yes, you are right. Hmm, what to do? It would be no problem if I just had one of these transparent, colourless jewels…”

“!?”

(Has he lost his mind!? Wasn’t that supposed to be top secret!?)

Apparently, Aura was more or less convinced that this rumour was true through gossip and correspondence with the Twin Kingdom, but there still was no specifying proof, of course.

Maybe this prince really was just a simple idiot? Such a convenient though crossed Zenjirou’s mind, when suddenly

the voice of a sentinel resounded from beyond the door.

“What’s the matter?”

“Yes, Princess Bona has come for a visit. May she come in?”

Why hadn’t Princess Bona been present here?

At the evening party it had become more than obvious that Princess Bona was supposed to be a “chaperone” for Prince Francesco.

“Prince Francesco?”

Prince Francesco showed a bright smile without the slightest shred of ill will, then

told him while he scratched his blonde-haired head.

You heard me? Let her in.”

Pitying the princess with the auburn hair quite a bit in thought, Zenjirou gave the soldier beyond the door an order with a loud voice.

“I apologize that I have come by without prior notice. And I offer you my deepest gratitude for accepting my whim so readily, Your Majesty Zenjirou.”

A visit without prior notice certainly was not a nice way. Even more so when you considered that Zenjirou counted as a “public character” in the royal palace and the two of them weren’t exactly close enough to ignore these unwritten rules.

“No, it’s alright. That said, it won’t happen every time as I’ve things going on at my end to consider, too, but on occasions like today, I’ve no reason to refuse you.”

The “occasions like today” part was obviously referring to the present situation, where Prince Francesco had dared to meet Zenjirou all by himself, giving his chaperone Princess Bona the slip.

And she must have properly comprehended his hint.

Princess Bona made an expression like she had a narrow escape from death and lowered her head once more.

“!…Yes, Prince Francesco.”

The mood could need some refreshing. Sensible to that, Zenjirou spoke with a tone like he thought of it just now.

He casually suggested.

“Yes, sounds good. I was just feeling a little thirsty, too.”

the two of them replied affirmative.

The pavilion in the garden was a building without walls and only four pillars that supported a shingled roof. The trees had been planted in such a way that the wind blew over the nearby fountain into the pavilion, so it was a lot chillier there than in the royal palace.

As the pavilion stood near the fountain, there was obviously a constant splashing of water to be heard. As a result, the conversation within the pavilion couldn’t be overheard by the escorting knights or the secretary, who were all standing by outside, unless they deliberately raised their voices.

“Well then, I will take some cold tea.”

In reaction,

Secretary Fabio asked back affected.

Now Zenjirou repeated himself with a louder voice. All of that had been pre-arranged by them.

“I will take cold tea, too. They say you ought to drink something hot and sweat during the heat, but I really prefer something ice-cold when it is hot outside.”

The problem was Princess Bona. She was truly easy to read.

Put into words, her expression first changed into “doubt”, then into “comprehension”. In the next moment it already changed into “doubt” yet again and lastly, “shock” was written all over her face.

At heart, Zenjirou pitied her, but he couldn’t let that emotion influence him in his position. On the contrary, his position obliged him to broach the subject again and profit from that slip of tongue.

While these thoughts crossed his mind, the waiting maids with orders from Secretary Fabio finished placing the silver goblets with drinks and wooden plates with snacks onto the table.

Zenjirou brought his silver goblet to his mouth and wetted his throat a bit. He fixated his gaze equally on the blonde-haired prince and auburn-haired princess sitting across from him as he spoke.

Zenjirou had imagined that a point-blank approach would be best, but his words evoked a drastic change in Princess Bona.

She snorted with all her might without any chance to keep up appearance. Her whole body was caked with “horror”, not just her face. Lucky under the circumstances, she didn’t had anything in her mouth.

However, there was something far more pressing than pursuing the unladylike reaction of Princess Bona in front of a foreign royalty, namely: the bombshell announcement that had caused that very reaction.

That Princess Bona hadn’t lost her senses yet reveal itself in the fact that she still kept her voice at a normal level. But her face was “pale” in the true sense of the word and the voice that left her lips, which had turned bluish violet, had transcended a mere scream and was closer to a “death cry”.

“Hmm, now that you mention it, I might have let something like that slip out. I said it in a very low voice, but I guess His Majesty Zenjirou heard me anyway. Ahaha.”

“Oh, right. That is the way it is, Your Majesty Zenjirou, so please keep it to yourself.”

“What is the point of asking him to keep it a secret now!? It spelled doom for us the moment he heard about it!”

Let us have a more constructive-minded conversation.”

Having said that, Princess Bona was only sixteen years old yet. In Japan she would still be a high school girl. Only a handful of people ever managed to get negotiations skills like a poker face or improvisation at a practical level at this young age, even if they were of royal birth. It would definitely go too far to expect that much from the diligent princess.

Reflecting on her actions, Princess Bona now turned bright red and bowed repeatedly. On the other hand,

Your Majesty Zenjirou, I can certainly cut down the time for creating a magic tool if you were to hand over one of these jewels in your possession. What do you say?”

(Ohh… Maybe he isn’t just an idiot after all?)

Glossing over his naturally raising wariness with a smile to the best of his abilities, Zenjirou inquired as casually as possible.

“Not at all. You are giving our gemcutters a bit too be much credit.

The addressed Princess Bona heaved an heavy sigh as she finally resigned after she had quarrelled with him for some time, and started to speak.

But then, I heard that even these exceptional craftsmen rarely succeeded and took a lot of time, so they fabricated three or four at best in their lifetime. Besides, a craftsman of such a calibre would not dedicate his whole work life to the creation of these spheres alone.”

Zenjirou assented impressed.

It actually required really advanced skills to cut a perfect sphere from minerals. Not that Zenjirou would know about it.

Simply put, you let an adequate amount of fluid glass of high viscosity roll down a spiral slope like a waterslide, and by the time it arrives at the bottom, it will have cooled down and taken a spherical shape.

While Zenjirou recalled the “marble manufacture procedure” that he had seen at a glass museum during a field trip in high school at the back of his mind, he nodded his assent and carried on the dialogue.

“Well…”

“Believe it or not, but it has an enormous influence. You can finish the bestowal of a typical element magic in one day with the jewel you have presented Princess Isabelle with before. The important factors for an item to be bestowed with magic are ‘colour’ and ‘shape’.

How much more did he intend to disclose? Prince Francesco didn’t show the slightest inclination to stop his chattiness, which prompted Princess Bona, who was bad at making a poker face to begin with, to screw up her face all too obviously.

Princess Bona strengthened her resolve as she concluded such. Now that it had come to this, she ought to take up the reins of the conversation by explaining things herself and somehow turn the one-sided exchange of information into a give-and-take.

“…Yes. The more transparent and colourless it is, the quicker the magic gets bestowed upon it. But even if it is not colourless, something with a high transparency is better than one without. That is actually the reason why gems are so highly valued as a target for bestowal.

Do you happen to be interested in this, Your Majesty Zenjirou?”

Thus, Zenjirou realized what Princess Bona was implying.

Now that he had noticed her aim, there was no need to play along.

Making a quick judgement, Zenjirou smiled exaggerated and replied.

That will not happen with Queen Aura, though.”

Zenjirou hadn’t used any particular abstruse metaphors for lack of time, which fortunately brought about the result that the princess with the auburn hair correctly caught his implied meaning and brightened her smile in relief.

“Yes. I will advise her accordingly.”

The only reason he barely managed to conceal it was his slightly superior experience.

On the other hand, Prince Francesco acted completely different from his earlier chatty self. He politely refrained from interrupting their conversation and simply watched over it with an innocent grin.

After Zenjirou parted with Prince Francesco and Princess Bona at the pavilion in the garden, he once more returned to his office in the royal palace.

Only Secretary Fabio was with him in the room. The office was steaming hot in comparison with the pavilion, but even that steaming hot air felt comfortable, now that the heavy responsibility in form of the meeting with two royalty from a foreign major power had been taken off his shoulders.

Secretary Fabio darted a cursory glance at him, but he refrained from saying anything now, though.

Another detestable point about the middle-aged secretary was that he meticulous waited for the very moment he caught his breath and regained some of his stamina and willpower, to call out to him.

Maybe this man could see the recovery rate of his stamina and willpower in numbers? For a moment, Zenjirou harboured such an unrealistic doubt, but then he had to answer his question.

“Yes, you can. It actually concerned classified information from the Twin Kingdom. To be honest, I never expected Prince Francesco to carelessly reveal so much.

Of course I’ll report the details to Aura. If you should feel the need to know about it, ask her later.”

In reaction to Zenjirou’s reply, Secretary Fabio put his right hand under his thin chin and pondered for a while.

Had Zenjirou said something bad in his response? Although he did not show it on the surface, Zenjirou was a bit nervous at heart as he waited for the answer of the secretary.

“We might have been ‘deceived’ instead.”

“Deceived? What do you mean? Explain it.”

The middle-aged secretary received Zenjirou’s obvious stern look from below, and answered without so much as moving a muscle as always.

I would like to confirm one thing with you. After Prince Francesco disclosed that classified information, did he forbid you to say anything about it?”

Zenjirou answered perplexed, but honestly, whereat Secretary Fabio nodded as if to say “I knew it”.

After all, it is classified information from the Twin Kingdom of Jilbell and Sharrow. I cannot say how advantageous it would be if we were to utilize it effectively, but it would definitely bear some kind of fruit.

Truly a magnificent diplomatic achievement. It will raise the ‘fame of His Majesty Zenjirou’ for sure, yes.”

Zenjirou even forgot to caution him about calling him sarcastically by the title “His Majesty” as he breathed a sound of dismay.

The more advantage the Carpa Kingdom took of the information Zenjirou had attained today, by bringing it to light, the more it would highlight his achievement and raise his fame whether they liked it or not.

The patriarchal values were ingrained in the Carpa Kingdom. For example, an “achievement” of this level alleged it as a plausible pretext to expand Zenjirou’s sphere of influence.

Due to the issue with a lawful lineage, no one was so stupid to claim that the throne and crown should be abdicated to Zenjirou, but many put forth a “sound argument” that he ought to have an authority appropriate to his standing as the only adult male of the royal family.

“So… what’s it to be? Are you saying they still have the upper hand right now?”

“Yes. We admittedly might benefit from bringing the matter to light, but at the same time, it will cause mayhem. Hence, it is necessary to keep it in confidence. I deem it proper to remain passive.”

Zenjirou ended up complaining on the spur of the moment even though he saw the truth in Secretary Fabio’s advice.

“I wonder if Prince Francesco really considered it in all its bearings when he acted? I do admit that the situation’s too convenient for the whimsical actions of a free-spirited man to be responsible for it alone, though.”

“Everything certainly plays out too well to call it a coincidence. But even if we were to assume that Prince Francesco’s attitude had been a farce and that he is actually far more intelligent than he lets on, I still believe that it would be an overstatement to say that he caused this situation wittingly.

and replied with that.

Normally, the Prince Consort would make good use of the information as soon as he heard it and the Twin Kingdom would suffer quite a loss.

Zenjirou did voice that question, but it rather seemed like he was talking to himself without expecting an answer.

Either way, we have too little information to speculate.”
And in fact, the reply from Secretary Fabio contained nothing that could be viewed as a solution.

Around the time Zenjirou and Secretary Fabio were seriously engrossed in conversation, Prince Francesco and Princess Bona had returned to the southern building. An heated dialogue took place while they walked down the long hallway, even if they were talking past each other like always.

“Um, my bad. You looked so busy lately, so I just wanted to be nice to you, Bona. But it backfired. Okay, I will be more careful from now on.”

“Please do.”

In the meantime, they reached a certain room.

Princess Bona followed Prince Francesco through the door opened by the guards.

The interior of the room was cold to the point that just one step into it was enough to feel it.

And it was one of these magic tools that chilled down the room.

The cooling effect wasn’t as sweeping as from Zenjirou’s air conditioning, since there was no magic that manipulated water temperature, but it still managed to convey the feeling of “sitting in the shade of a tree near a riverlet”.

Their wooden/vine chairs as well as the wooden table were all made here in the Carpa Kingdom. They weren’t exactly uncomfortable, but definitely took a little getting used to.

“Phew, bless the cold. Anyway, I am really sorry, Bona. But I do not think you need to be that angry. I mean, both my father and grandfather said it would be alright to disclose it as long as it earns us the jewels.”

Princess Bona corrected the conveniently repressed memory of the prince with a serious tone.

“You are so naive, Bona. Naive in your opinion about how well my father and grandfather understand me. From the time when they allowed me to speak about the secret, they had already resigned themselves to the fact that I would blurt everything out on the first occasion.

Prince Francesco threw out his chest with an “Ehe~”, whereas Princess Bona slouched her shoulders crestfallen.

Suppressing the dull pain surfacing at the back of head, she retorted quietly, but punctilious.

When she had accepted the “chaperone” mission, she had been surprised how large the offered reward was. Back then, she had trembled with excitement, thinking she had been entrusted with an accordingly important task, but maybe the abundant reward was just a “compensation for her troubles paid in advanced”?

“Oh well, it is all water under the bridge now. More importantly, Bona, look at this. I received this from His Majesty Zenjirou. Great, right?”

The colourless and transparent whisky bottle showed itself. It was filled with a liquid whose hue was close to transparent, the self-made “distilled liquor” from Zenjirou. But the content wasn’t important right now.

As expected, her eyes lighted up and she leaned forward towards the table. The moment she had gotten up from the chair, it rattled noisily, but she didn’t even notice it, let alone bothered with it.

“…..”

Once she had pulled the bottle to in front of her and sat back into the chair, Princess Bona fixated her gaze on it intensively to the point that it seemed to be a waste to blink.

“Uhm, Bona? Just to be clear, His Majesty Zenjirou gave that to me, not to you.”

“Prince Francesco!”

“Would you consider relinquishing this to me?”

Normally she was modest to a fault and hiding her own desires, but her attitude seemingly changed completely for anything related to jewellery.

“Th- Then I will settle for this part on the edge.”

“If it is of no use to you, I will gladly take the rest as well!”

Should this be called a negotiation or just slapstick?
Either way, the usual roles for Prince Francesco and Princess Bona were reverted on a rare occasion and their skirmish lasted until the sanity of the princess recovered.

At night of the same day.

“I see… Prince Francesco really gave us a troublesome ‘slip of tongue‘. I cannot say if I should be happy or annoyed.”

“But never minding how it came to be, you can call it a success that you managed to ascertain the effect of the marbles. You did well.”

“Hmm.”

“It definitely is troublesome. To be honest, it would have been a hard blow, if not necessarily fatal, if my husband had been anyone other than you.”

Zenjirou inadvertently smiled broadly in reaction to her words.

In accordance with the universal values of this world, her words had by no means been a praise, but that was hardly any concern for Zenjirou.

Aura returned the smile of her beaming husband while she leaned forward and continued to talk with both her arms resting on the table.

For example, we could hand one marble over to them and see if they can make a magic tool. And even while I really query whether it had been a pre-arranged ruse by Prince Francesco and Princess Bona, I cannot rule out its possibility.

Once she had finished her speech without a breather, she took the red Kiriko glass filled with ice water in hand.

Both practitioners could end up being one and the same person in case of simple elemental magic, but to embed the “Space-Time Magic”, Aura’s cooperation was absolutely necessary as she was currently the only practitioner of it.

“Well, it’s a good thing that you’re able to spend much less time on the creation of the magic tool, but wouldn’t it be a problem in itself when the work is done all too fast?

Although he did acknowledge the virtue of her suggestion, Zenjirou had qualms about doing it. Aura put the red glass she had drunk from back onto the table and answered.

“Are you sure? I mean, we’re talking about Prince Francesco here.”

“Mh… Well, I admit that I am a little bit worried.”

“…Okay, quite a bit. But we ought to take a few chances here to get to the bottom of it.”

Zenjirou realized that Aura had already decided on a general course of action, so he shifted the topic to something else for now.

Aura seemingly had intended to discuss this question with Zenjirou as well. She leaned forward some more in such a way that her deep cleavage poked out of her thin nightgown, and began to talk.

The monopoly on the ‘Bloodline Magic’ lets the royal family stay in power after all. Embedding it into magic tools means to abandon its advantage, if not necessarily completely.

Resting her chin in her hands on the table, his wife vented a sigh. Meanwhile, Zenjirou was over the moon with her revealed cleavage as he contributed ideas.

What else could be useful… Maybe ‘Great Barrier’ or ‘Effect Extension’?”

Aura answered like that and nodded satisfied after that.

“Oho. Anything else? …Ah, what about the ‘Summoning’ spell that brought me here? It’s not really a hidden magic, is it?”

“That is too far-fetched. There is no point in embedding a magic that can only be used once or twice in thirty years with an appropriate constellation.”

“Not a chance. Magic that manipulates time cannot be applied to something with magical power. You would only be able to summon something non-organic when you combine Summoning and Time Reversal.

Frankly speaking, it is not worth it.”

Zenjirou stared at the ceiling a bit regretful.

The idea was to align a fingertip-sized airspace to a time with an appropriate constellation by means of “Time Reversal” or “Time Acceleration”, and then link it to Earth with the “World Bridge” spell.

(Too much of a good thing.)

“Oh, we might as well embed ‘Future Compensation’ then. The spell allows you to use your magical power of the future in advance, right? But you said there’s no such thing as ‘Past Compensation’, which would you allow to utilize the unspent magical power of the past.

“Oh, I see. That certainly sounds viable. We would have to consult Prince Francesco for details, though…”

Intermission 2: The Battle of the Dragonback Archery Knights

Around the time when Zenjirou was in the hot seat to entertain the prince and princess from the Twin Kingdom in the Royal Palace, the Dragonback Archery Knights led by General Puyol were fighting off the “Pack Dragons” that attacked them from both sides of the road in a distant region.

“Shoot!”
The knights drew their bows on the backs of their R

Chapter end