23 - Chapter 23
The Baby Dragon Saves the Duke's Family, Episode 23
A cute cry sounded like an answer.
Was it a hallucination?
Dylan, startled, was about to turn around, forgetting the battle, when the lion roared in pain and flew far away.
The noisy battlefield became quiet in an instant.
All eyes turned to one place.
The creature with the sad, short legs—no, Ashil, was panting.
"Piya, piya, piya."
"Wow, you really came all this way."
Next to him, Selena was shuddering as she jumped off her horse.
Ashil had sensed the commotion outside and was about to run out, but Selena, thinking it would take forever for those short legs to get there, had taken a horse from the stable and brought him along.
Ashil glared at the enemies.
'Why are you so far away!'
You should be closer to the castle!
After glaring for a while, Ashil looked up at Dylan. More precisely, he looked at Dylan's sword.
Dylan nodded unconsciously and lowered his sword slightly.
Why would he lower his sword in the middle of a fierce battle? The knights nearby were bewildered by his seemingly retreating stance.
"What are you—"
"What are you doing?"
"Ashil-nim doesn't like weak humans interfering."
"……?"
"……??"
As the knights paused, confused by the incomprehensible answer, a sharp-clawed eagle swooped down.
Damn it! Dylan's startled comrade hurriedly raised his sword.
"Piya!"
Thwack!
The fiercely flying eagle was sent flying in the opposite direction.
Dylan's comrade, unknowingly used as a footstool by Ashil, was bewildered.
What just went past?
"Piya!!!"
Ashil, roaring loudly, threw a front paw punch.
The tiger Saint Creature, charging powerfully, disappeared backward in an instant as if it had wings.
"Piiya!"
This time, he kicked backward.
The leopard, baring sharp fangs as if to bite his neck, cried out in pain and fell into the center of Biante's Family Deities.
"……T-This is an illusion. An illusion caused by battle fatigue."
A Family Deity nearby muttered with a pale face.
However, he dropped his sword in a panic as he watched the wolf Saint Creature, like the leopard, fly away with a loud noise.
A monster.
Only a monster could send Saint Creatures flying like that.
"Piyat! Piiyat!"
"Aaaaaah!"
"Save me!"
"It's a monster!"
The Family Deities, having lost their will to fight, hurriedly turned their horses around and began to retreat from the battlefield.
"Where do you think you're going! Do you think you'll survive by doing that!"
Biante, cornered, screamed, but it was no use. They fled without looking back.
The knights of Edenber, emboldened, chased after them.
"Catch them!"
"Don't let a single one escape!"
"Aaaaaah!"
"P-Please spare me! I was just doing what Biante told me to do!"
The tide of the battle was reversed in an instant. Edenber was now in the lead.
The Family Deities, who had lost their fighting spirit, were captured one by one.
With the capture of Biante, who had struggled to the very end, the civil war was completely over.
"Waaaaaah!"
"Long live the Munrepe Duke's Family!"
"Long live Ashil-nim!"
The knights cheered. Edenber, standing at the center, looked at Ashil beside him.
The one who had fought so well was gone, and he was frozen stiff, startled by the cheers.
He gently lifted Ashil as if handling something precious and met his gaze.
"Thank you."
As he whispered, Ashil, who had been staring at him, gently placed his front paw on his cheek.
It was warm. The warmth that spread from his cheek made his heart flutter.
Edenber smiled brightly for the first time in a long time, feeling as if something precious that could not be exchanged for anything filled his heart.
Biante was classified as the ringleader of the rebels and imprisoned in a solitary cell in the underground dungeon, where not a single ray of light entered.
His body was battered, but his eyes were still sharp.
He gnashed his teeth as he glared at the cobwebs stretching across the ceiling.
"That damn lizard dared to—!"
The Bear Holy Beast incident, the poisoning of his father, and even the last civil war were all ruined by that lizard.
He should have been wary of the lizard, not his father.
He should have put poison in the grape juice, not the alcohol!
"If I ever get out of here, I'll definitely kill him."
He clenched his fist, determined to cut off that bastard's head no matter what, when someone entered the underground dungeon.
"You show no sign of remorse."
It was Elkai.
He was still leaning on a cane because the poison had not completely worn off.
He muttered with a hollow expression.
"Was I expecting too much?"
"It's all because of Father!"
Biante, in a fit of anger, grabbed the bars of the cell.
"If Father hadn't favored Edenber so much!"
"What have I done to favor Edenber?"
"If the family was ruined because of what the Duke did, the next head of the family should naturally return to me! Why does that kid, whose blood hasn't even dried yet, get the position of the next head of the family!"
"……That's why I didn't give it to you."
"What did I do!"
"The head of the family must be able to sacrifice himself for the family. But is what you're doing now for Munrepe, or for yourself?"
"If I had become the head of the family, I wouldn't have done this!"
He spoke as if he was frustrated to death for not even getting a chance.
Elkai closed his eyes tightly.
"Do you remember sending you and Edenber to the snowfield just before deciding on the next head of the family?"
"Yes, I remember. You said that whoever survived for a month in the barren wilderness would become the next Munrepe Duke. I also clearly remember that Edenber couldn't walk on his own and was carried on someone else's back!"
"Do you know why that child was carried on someone else's back?"
"It must have been because he couldn't manage his stamina. What else could it be but favoritism to make such a guy the Duke?"
"I sent a knight disguised as a stranded territory resident to test you two."
Biante's face turned pale for a moment.
He finally realized why Elkai had favored Edenber.
"You coldly rejected him because it was troublesome. You even made sure he was buried in the snow and died so that it wouldn't reach my ears."
"T-That's……."
"On the other hand, Edenber gave his share to others to the point of being foolish. How could I put you in the position of head of the family when you turned your back on the territory residents to save your own life?"
"……If I had known he was a territory resident, I wouldn't have abandoned him so coldly."
Biante hesitated and hurriedly made excuses.
"I thought he was a resident of the other territory because it was near the other territory—"
"Are residents of other territories not people! That's why you can't become the head of the family!"
Elkai roared at his refusal to admit his mistake until the end.
He stared at his hopeless son for a long time and then threw a heavy pouch.
Biante's face hardened as he opened it absentmindedly.
It was a dagger with a blue, sharpened blade.
"You've come too far to overlook it as a momentary mistake."
"……."
"I won't take you with my own hands, considering our past relationship."
Elkai turned his back after speaking bluntly.
The portrait of Munrepe's Divine Beast, the fox, hung to give a sense of alertness to the criminals, came into his eyes.
'I forgot to take that down.'
He sighed quietly and left the underground dungeon.
Tap, thud, tap, thud. The sound of his cane and footsteps was heavy, as if he was carrying a lead weight.
Left alone, Biante stared blankly at the dagger. Then, suddenly, he burst into laughter like a madman.
"Hahaha- Hahahahaha!"
It was so absurd. He couldn't become the head of the family just because of such a trivial reason.
If he had known, he would have gotten rid of his father a long time ago.
Why had he been holding back and suppressing himself until now?
At that moment, he heard footsteps coming this way.
It was probably a guard coming to check on his condition.
"I can do it from now on."
He firmly grasped the sharp sword and made up his mind.
He would kill the guard, steal the key, and then get rid of his father.
He would cut off the breath of Edenber and the black lizard, seize power, and become the new Munrepe Duke.
How easy and simple it was!
Tap, tap, tap.
The person presumed to be the guard gradually approached.
Biante stood close to the bars, ready to stab as soon as he arrived.
However, the person who appeared in front of him was not a guard.
"……B-Brother?"
