Chapter 117 - 117. The White Crown

"...Hot."

Beads of sweat trickled down the boy's cheeks and dripped down his chin.

The endless sands above the boy's eyes swayed as if they were dancing.

Sand begins to rise above the horizon.

It hinted that another strong wind would blow.

The desert wind was hot and accompanied by sand and dust, which stung the skin when it brushed against it.

If the wind gets too strong, it will quickly turn into a sandstorm.

The boy's eyebrows naturally furrowed, and he ducked into the hut behind him to avoid the sandstorm.

It was relatively cool inside the hut, and it was safe from the wind.

Although the sandstorm was difficult to withstand, there was nothing that could not be endured if prepared in advance. So far it has been.

"Grandma, the wind blows again."

The boy puts the bucket full of water he was holding in his hand to one side of the hut.

"Would you be careful..."

The old man's body, shaking his hands, was incomparably weak. He seemed insufficient to endure the rough hut life.

Originally, they had a proper house, not a hut like this. A sturdy house designed to withstand sandstorms without having to go far to fetch water.

However, the old man made a fuss about opening her hut on this spot, so her parents died early, and the boy who lived with her also lived in her hut.

The boy had no major complaints about it.

Because her grandmother, who had not uttered a word in recent years, suddenly opened her mouth.

Her first words were to open the hut.

Sitting in a hunched posture, she was said to have been one of the best 'astrologers' on the continent a long time ago.

It was before the boy was even born, so he didn't have any further information, but he was grateful to be able to communicate with his grandmother, who took care of him.

"A guest is coming..."

The old man's voice was rough and hoarse, as if his throat had been hoarse.

No one had come to the hut yet, and the only thing that could be heard was the sound of a wind blowing sand outside, but the boy ran to the hut and found the tools needed for astrology in one corner of the hut.

The old man's face full of wrinkles blooms as he watches the boy.

"Cluck... I'm fine today, I'll just talk to you for a minute..."

The boy scratched his head.

Even so, the sound of a carriage outside the hut suddenly reaches the boy's ears.

A guest has arrived.

The carriage stops in front of the hut, and soon after, a person steps into the hut.

The unknown person who stepped in was wearing a high-quality robe, even if it looked pretense.

Soon, the robe on her head and the veil around her mouth are lowered, revealing her face.

With her bluish hair straight down, she looked up at the old man and put on her smile.

Soon she came up to the old man, knelt down on her knees, and sat across from him.

It was she who opened her mouth first.

"Cassandra-sama, how have you been? I came to see you after hearing the news."

"Ah, Sicily... Calm wind... You're here at last..."

At the old man's answer, the boy in the corner of the hut widens his eyes.

Delgrade is an oasis-based city in this desert, and the only one.

As far as he knew, 'Sicily' was the name of the lord who ruled Delgrad.

Lord of Delgrade, Sicily Windris.

Realizing this, the boy's head naturally went down.

"Is that your child in the wagon...?"

The old man, Cassandra, did not use honorifics to Sicily, the lord. She had been acquainted with her father since childhood in Sicily.

"Yes, my second daughter, Liqua."

Sicily answered in a calm voice, turning her head to where the carriage was outside the hut.

How did Cassandra find out that Sicilian's daughter was in the invisible carriage? The boy tilted his head in wonder.

It's just that Cassandra could read the stars in the sky and see things people couldn't see.

"A child with the right mindset that resembles you will rule Delgrad well... Crap..."

At Cassandra's praise, Sicily smiled at her, thinking of Liqua in the carriage.

"...That's too much praise. Rather than that, I'm glad I can hear your voice again, Miss Cassandra."

"Cluck... It's a dragon that he didn't take his life."

Cassandra was punished for disclosing her heavenly secrets by announcing that there would be a war with the demons early on.

Her punishment for her was silence.

Jushin took her voice away from her.

But for some reason, her voice started coming out again a few days ago.

Is it the Lord's whim?

Did she pay the penalty?

Only the Lord knows the answer to this.

"What did you 'observe' this time?"

Cassandra's mouth snapped open at Cicily's cautious question.

"Sicily, in recent years, the 'Road of the Stars' has been twisted several times... It has become even worse recently... The stars and the sky are fluctuating..."

The boy couldn't figure out what the 'star path' Cassandra was referring to was, but Sicily nodded her head lightly, and she seemed to know what it was.

Judging from Cassandra's expression, at least it wouldn't be a good thing, the boy inferred.

Soon Cassandra rocks her body back and forth, her murmur intensifying. She was trembling with anxiety.

"It's coming... 'It' is coming..."

"If that's the case... By any chance... Are you referring to 'catastrophe'?"

Cicily asked calmly.

Somehow, 'it' seemed to be a difficult word for her to get out of her mouth.

Sicily learned from her father that questions and answers are best at times like this.

That didn't mean she could avoid leaking the air, but she was able to narrow down the information a bit and organize it.

As the word 'catastrophe' came out of her mouth, the boy remembered the faces of his parents, whom he could no longer see.

A huge group of 'other species' called 'disaster' took the lives of many warriors in Delgrad. Among the dogs were the boy's parents.

Dealing with alien species pouring out of the Gate of the Other World was a daily routine for the people of Delgrad, but that day's 'disaster' was a little different.

The lord of Delgrad, Sicily, also participated in the battle to clear up the 'disaster', but even taking this into account, considerable casualties occurred.

It was like a terrible nightmare that should never happen again.

Cassandra shook her head at Cicily's question.

"It would have been better if it was a bunch of scrap metal..."

""...""

The boy and Sicily were shocked when the boy's father and the reason Cassandra's own son was lost were said to be better than 'disaster'.

Cassandra opens her mouth again before their shock is over.

"The 'it' that came from a faraway place, not from this land, was wearing a 'crown'. A pure white crown... His visit will stop the slaughter of soldiers who lost their king, but the invasion that will destroy everything begins. I don't know if it's going to happen... I don't know... There are so many... So many paths intertwined..."

It was a very vague story that was hard to understand.

When Sicily asked if he was talking about the resurrection of the demon king, Cassandra shook his head again and nailed it, saying that he was not the king of demons.

Cicily asked a few more questions after that, but Cassandra shut her mouth by saying that 'it' was already heading here.

It was hard for her to answer any more.

There was no need to make Cassandra commit another leak, so Cicily had to get on the carriage without any other income.

Liqua, who has been waiting for Sicily in her carriage, looks at her reluctantly.

In Liqua's face, Sicilian's first daughter, Lucia, was faintly visible.

Cicily was worried.

All of a sudden, it overlapped with the time when the cadets were supposed to visit the academy.

'It shouldn't be anything special...'

Sicily wanted to think that Cassandra was just talking nonsense because she was old, but she had seen with her own eyes that her father had been helped by astrology, like Cassandra's prophecy, since she was the head of the household. She couldn't just ignore it.

'King...'

At least, as far as Sicily can remember, no country wore a white crown.

A crown for the elves that is said to have been made by weaving the branches of the World Tree. At least it belonged to the white crown side.

Cassandra, however, said that she was not of a heterogeneous race, and that 'it' looked as if it were wearing a human mask, she said. There was an unknown darkness lurking within it.

Neither the king of humans nor the king of demons, what the hell is 'it' trying to do by coming to Delgrad?

It is too late to postpone the academy tour schedule now.

Her worries in Sicily grew like a mountain when she remembered Lucia's bright smile on her way to Delgrade.

***

Zeto, who was wearing a white bandage around his eyes, sat leaning against the carriage.

It was on the way from Innocence Academy to the desert.

Unlike the shabby carriage he used to ride every time, it was a luxurious carriage with comfortable cushioned chairs.

As soon as Jeto saw the wagon, he thought it would be a comfortable journey.

...Did.

On either side of Zeto, red hair that was finely braided and platinum hair that was shining in the moonlight were visible.

Yuri and Eisel slid onto Zeto's shoulders one by one and fell asleep.

In Zeto's head, Sierra's voice muttered, "Her apprentice's shoulder was her original wife's seat...".

Sierra was pushed aside by her glass and Eisel, holding her own toe's head in her own arms.

Zeto, completely unable to move his body, was counting sheep while bruising.

It was quite painful to not be able to move his body, so he was trying to fall asleep somehow.

But maybe it was because I was accustomed to going outside the academy every night, so I wasn't sleepy that much.

Jetto, who had been counting sheep all of a sudden, thought he might finally be able to fall asleep.

ㅡRumble!

That would be if the carriage that was going well hadn't suddenly stopped.

Jetto, whose lips were twitching with a slight fever, wanted to annoy Edward.

Suddenly, Edward's voice is heard from outside the carriage.

"Everyone~! It looks like we were attacked by bandits~! But there are a lot of them?!"

Edward's booming voice, full of excitement, passes the wagon containing Jetto and others, waking others inside and raising them to their feet.

"Ugh..."

Yuri hit her head on her wagon and made a painful noise.

"..."

Eisel must have been disturbed by her sleep, but she was clenching her teeth.

"...They said they met a group of bandits. Since there are so many of them, I think the cadets are asking for help too."

Finally getting his shoulders free, Jeto got up from his chair and opened the door.

The cadets, who had just woken up, didn't understand why, but soon followed Jeto.

Lucia, who was on one side of the carriage, was still not waking up, but everyone nodded in affirmation at Amon's words that she would never be of any help, although they didn't know what the situation was.

So no one woke Lucia.

When Jetone and his party got off the wagon, they saw cadets getting off the wagons as well. It was quite a messy atmosphere, but no one was nervous.

I thought there would be no problem with the instructors. The thought that the bandits would dare to touch me.

At that time, various thoughts were running through the cadets' heads.

"Kill the woman and save the man's life!!!"

From the road the carriage was heading towards, the thieves' wild shouts came from far away.

When I heard the shouts, it seemed that they were all female bandits.

Zeto, who was crossing his arms, scratched his head.

He had already noticed their approach through his senses.

This was an event he had experienced in the game.

A thieves' event that attacks the wagon train lined with academy cadets.

This was an event that only happened when Edward was an instructor. Naturally, no cadets were injured.

Except for Edward, the other instructors were hiding in the woods to keep an eye on the cadets. They will shoot out when a cadet is about to suffer a dangerous attack.

Yuri, who noticed that Edward, who was the main cause of the situation, was approaching, asked him a question.

"Instructor Edward, should we kill the bandits or arrest them?"

Edward, who was excitedly running around the forest, answers Yuri's question.

"Even Yuri cadet, won't murder come soon? You should have learned all the ways to deal with the opponent without killing them, so I think this is also part of the lesson!"

After hearing Edward's crazy answer, Yuri glanced at Eisel and wondered, "It seems like they're already killing thieves casually."

Soon after, Eisel, whose 'sweet time' with Jeto was interrupted, her face hardened, throws out a rather bloody question to Edward.

"Instructor, what if an 'misfortune' occurs in which the thief dies while dealing with a thief? For example, a wrong shot of magic... Or a wrong swing of a sword due to discomfort in the eyes... Such a 'mistake'."

"...I'm curious about this too."

Then, Jetto, who was next to Eisel, helped.

Edward's suspicious eyes narrow even more as he deliberately pondered over their question.

Soon, his mouth opened with his index finger raised.

"At that time... I can't help it! It's a life-and-death situation right now!"