...That lives...

Breathing lightly, all of my senses were heightened as the malaise broiled in my body like dogs getting ready to charge at the enemy.

No, rather they were like wild stallions only restrained through their collective tiredness and strong chains.

And as the dust settled right after that rather explosive entrance, the figure hidden in the smoke revealed themselves.

Covered in golden enamelled armor from head to toe, the armor was modified and themed in such a way that it resembled a red bird.

An incredibly fiery bird that may have been a phoenix if the flaming attachments had anything to say about it.

And from that phoenix themed armor, a voice leaked out of the golden red crevices.

"...Who are you"

'...Well mister dark don't have to make your voice sound so scary.'

Bringing my shield up, imagine my surprise when the princess in my arms struggled and slipped out of it right before dashing towards the figure.

"DAD!"

'What.'

"My Daughter!!!"

'???'

Grabbing Lucia by the back, the blood soaked knight embraced the princess in a hug that seemed almost back breaking before manifesting a flaming great sword in their hand.

'??????'

Staring at the blazing greatsword held in one hand and pointed directly at my cranium without a single waver in his hand, the princess gleefully spoke.

"Hey dad! What do you think about the mercenaries that I had found!? Really strong huh!?"

'...'

"..."

"Dad?"

Finally reacting, the red knight brought their great sword and let it rest against the ground.

Maybe rest wasn't the right word however as the blazing hot blade just sunk into the ground.

"Hey Sweetie, who did you say these guys are? Mercenaries?"

"Yeah! I found them when I went out to look at the corruption!"

"Why were you going to the corrupt-- No nevermind."

Letting down the princess, the red knight stood in front of me with a fiery gaze.

Taking off their helmet, a red haired man appeared before me with flames lighting the ends of his beard.

Rather bad ass if I must say.

"You say you are mercenaries correct?"

"Yes"

"Then go away, we don't need more of your kind here, we are well equipped to deal with this by ourselves if needed."

'????'

Hearing that incredibly rude and arrogant statement I was taken aback.

Although I didn't really want to involve myself with these guys state of affairs when dealing with the oncoming antlion threat, I only came here to find a purpose.

But before I could just find something to do I was turned away at the door? And not even at the door at that, it was literally when I had just arrived in the neighbourhood.

And now I was just offended.

"And why is that sir?"

Staring at the king of this place with nothing but questions on my mind, the princess interjected for me.

"But Dad! Most of them are around High B rank and mid A rank! They could help us in the taking care of the antlion nest in the desert!"

"Well I don't care, in the face of this city, as long as I'm here and she's not, those antlions can only dream of taking this city."

Hearing that I pursed my lips.

And he wasn't wrong.

If I forced a comparison, the king of the Rosetta kingdom was on the same level of the queen belonging to the Sevallian kingdom.

The fact that I had watched the Queen demonstrate the her skill by cleaving the Concierge in half with her space splitting slash already spoke volumes of how strong this king was.

So he definitely had the confidence befitting a king, and the strength to back it up as well so that statement wasn't as arrogant as it was made out to be.

But if I thought about it, if this king was so capable to protect this kingdom as long as this 'she' wasn't here.

Who was this she if this man on the level of the queen was so tentative.

I mean, if he could kill a boss, it definitely meant that there was something that lived in the desert near here.

So waving us away, the king walked back to his daughter while avidly talking to her with an animated voice that was immensely different from when he was looking at us.

It was like the difference between looking between absolute trash and treasure.

"Don't mind our father, he is just high strung that his one and only daughter is exposed to danger alot."

"And you are...?"

Glancing at the duo that came to us, the man with tired pitch black eyes bowed to us as I took that moment to note the appearance of the two newcomers.

With crimson red hair and a similar facial structure to the king, I noted that these people were most likely the kings next of kin, and the following words confirmed that.

But that just left the question...

"We are the Lucia's brother and sister, Gordon and Alice and we aren't as biased as our father, so don't mind his previous remarks."

Why did they claim to be Lucia's siblings if they looked nothing alike?

"Well I definitely wasn't hurt at all by that remark about us being useless."

'When did you get here?'

Glancing at Guillian that had appeared from between my legs, the woman seemed surprised as the fan in front of her face fluttered for a moment before stilling.

"...A gecko man of the lizard people..? Weren't they extinct...-- I'm getting off topic, but the fact of the matter is, we need your help."

"...Well..."

"Don't worry, we shall give you an adequate explanation of the situation."

'How did they know?'

Noting down that Gordon had seemingly mindreading capabilities, Gordon continued.

"Our father wasn't always the king, in fact he only became the king due to the previous one giving his crown to our father in the first place."

"In fact, before he donned the crown, our father was nothing more than the grand marshal of the kingdom and its royal guardian both in name and in power."

He pointed at the king who was still talking with Lucia, knee on the ground and dotting look on his face.

"And if you are wondering why Lucia does not look anything alike to our father, well that is because she is adopted from the previous kings next of kin."

"Since the previous king had thought that his daughter was to young at the time to inherit the crown, he had declared that until the princess were to come of age, the royal guardian would serve as the crown advisor."

"But the thing is that the king is still under the belief that he was still the great warrior underneath the previous king although he had made it abundantly clear that he had ceded the throne already."

"And well... underneath the expectations placed on him, the king has been... rather antsy in trying to prove that he could live up to the expectations of the people by protecting them."

Gordon shook his head.

"At least underneath the previous kings orders our father would periodically leave the city to cull the antlions, but now he doesn't even do that."

Alice shook her head beyond the fan.

"And following our blood related fathers anxiety, we have decided that its better to take care of things into our own hands before the princess could grow to become a Queen."

"Because I'm afraid that if we don't take action soon, this kingdom will be destroyed by the growing number of antlions."

Hearing all of those words be spoken to me at once, I fell into thought as the thought that a kingdom was about to fall into ruin was one that I wasn't comfortable with thinking about.

"And speak of the devil and he shall appear."

Turning her head to the side, bells rang out from across the city as the metal clanged against each other and rang out sonorously.

Turning to the source of the sound, what I saw was something I would recall for a long time after.

With the golden sun directly shining down on the direction we were looking at, the sun was soon blocked out by a large framed being that rose up.

With golden sand cascading off of its surface, the desert seemed to split apart to reveal the large being of the depths underneath it.

Framed by the sun, the black figure screeched sonorously causing my ears to ring loudly as my eyes focused on the figure.

Now I don't know much about antlions, but I can tell that it was not normal behaviour in the slightest.

[Desert Scourge]

It's name even called it a scourge!

'Well hot damn.'

And it didn't help in the slightest that instead of being one large antlion like I was used to, Conjunctivis excluded.

That the desert scourge was essentially a large mass of antlions clumped together in the form of an even larger antlion.

It was literally the case of quantity trumps quality with how densely clumped they were.

As a writhing mass of insects, the scuttling creatures caused a phenomenon known as loudening as their scuttling sounds resounded the city scape in its disturbing noise.

And as its large body crashed against the outer walls with bright lights dotting its body.

I noticed that the king wasn't even looking at the desert scourge on the verge of splitting apart the walls.

'Why isn't he...'

And as the question was about to leave the tips of my tongue, it was answered by the antlions.

SCREECH!

Bursting out of the ground in unison, more desert scourges seemed to have joined the fray as the sandy dunes were split apart to reveal the large bodies that blocked out the sun.

'I think I now know why these two are taking things into their own hands if the king isn't making a move to eliminate them ahead of time.'

+++

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