I Start with a Bad Hand!

“Probably, I’ll never hear such words again in my life.”

“…”

“No one would dare to say that a member of the royal family is their own.”

“…”

“Especially someone like you, who claims to practice non-possession or whatever….”

I calmly took out all the arrows from the quiver to break them. Predictably, Icarus stopped my attempt by snatching the quiver away.

“Alright, stop it.”

I heard a suppressed laugh behind me. If my conscience were a bit less developed, and my horseback riding skills a bit more advanced, I would have pushed Icarus off the horse and gone back alone.

Damn it….

At that moment, I saw Sereti’s temporary tent in the distance. It was quiet, with no sound except for the rustling of branches in the wind. Icarus scanned the surroundings and soon signaled to me.

Even while keeping my guard up with the bow in hand, I didn’t sense anyone.

“You’ve really cleaned up nicely.”

Icarus merely shrugged with a slight smile at my remark. His claim that he had cleared their camp was no lie, as Sereti’s temporary tent was eerily quiet without a single ant in sight. To leave it so empty—what confidence.

‘No, how much did our guys get looted for it to be this empty and yet no one coming for the national treasure…?’

I entered the tent. There was a bright yellow object on a small table.

“Perfume…?”

The transparent yellow perfume sparkled in the thin sunlight coming through a hole in the tent ceiling. I took a slight sniff. It was just an ordinary scent. In fact, it was so faint that one might not notice it unless paying attention. Icarus, who had come closer, tilted his head in surprise.

“But why designate perfume as a national treasure?”

“Exactly.”

‘Honestly, it’s not for us who designated a person as a national treasure to talk….’

However, the reason became clear only when we stepped outside the tent. Apparently, the students of the Thomple Empire were not the only ones willing to cross the line to win.

Neigh-! As soon as I came out holding the perfume, Icarus’s horse snorted loudly and stomped its foot fiercely.

‘What’s going on?’

Icarus, shielding me slightly behind him, approached his horse to calm it down, but once agitated, it didn’t settle easily.

“Normally a gentle creature.”

Icarus muttered, finding the behavior odd. Unlike Irene’s black horse, which often went wild, his horse was always calm and stable—why suddenly now…?

‘Could it be… this perfume?’ I wondered. Stepping backwards into the tent while holding the perfume, I called out, “Prince, try calming him now.”

Icarus seemed to understand my intention immediately. He moved as far away from the tent as possible and called his horse. The horse, which had been snorting furiously, began to calm down and approached him.

Damn it. This national treasure cannot be transported with a horse. From one end of the camp to the other, whoever carries this must do so on foot. A brief silence hung between us. After a moment of thought, I called out to him from inside the tent, “Prince, I’ll carry it on foot. You ride ahead.”

“What?” His shout echoed back.

“You’re too conspicuous. If you wander around without a horse, you’ll get caught. Besides, I’m not that skilled at horseback riding yet.”

After all, he was an important asset of Thomple. Logically, it made sense for me, who was less noticeable and less threatening, to carry the national treasure.

‘My feet are going to be a mess by tomorrow….’

Icarus thought for a moment, then whistled and signaled his horse. The horse hesitated but then trotted away from us.

What’s he doing?

“I sent the horse ahead to our camp. Now, you and I can carry it together, safely.”

What’s he talking about?

“That doesn’t seem very efficient,” I said.

“Why? I think this is a better way,” he replied.

“If you send the horse away, then instead of one person suffering, it’s two people. How is that better?”

Icarus let out a soft laugh. “Can’t we think of it as sharing the burden?”

“Sharing… isn’t exactly….”

As we started walking, we discussed the division of suffering. It was the beginning of a long journey.

***

‘Are we having a friendly match or undergoing endurance training?’

It hadn’t felt this far when we came on horseback. Despite walking for a long time, our camp seemed nowhere in sight. After walking and walking, I was almost brought to tears when I finally saw Agnes grilling mushrooms again.

“Hey….”

“Oh, what the heck! Why do you look like that again?”

Agnes and the archery club students cheered with joy upon realizing that Sereti’s national treasure was now in our hands. However, it seemed to me that their cheers were more out of relief at the prospect of soon returning home rather than because we had gained the upper hand.

But now we faced another problem. How were we going to transport this national treasure to our camp?

“The problem is what’s ahead. Up until now, we’ve been lucky to slip through, but considering there were no guards on their side, it’s likely that Sereti students are stationed near our camp, or at least along the path to it,” said Icarus, munching on a mushroom. “Even if you don’t seem too eager to participate in the game, someone is bound to find it suspicious if they see you walking to our camp.”

As Icarus continued speaking, Agnes took a bite of a golden-brown mushroom and quietly spoke up, “Then, how about this….”

***

‘Will this work?’ I wondered as I stood near the edge of the forest, trying to gauge the distance to our camp. From here, I could barely see it. Damn it.

But that wasn’t the main issue. Just before our camp, something black sprawled between the green plains and the camp, almost as if blocking the way. What is that? I squinted to get a better look.

Sereti students were riding their horses around that black expanse, maintaining a distance as if they couldn’t tread on it—or more precisely, as if their horses couldn’t approach it. However, in the distance, I could see a flurry of activity, indicating that some students had managed to engage in combat with Thomple’s defense forces.

‘How do we get in with them stationed like that?’

Nonetheless, I began to stroll casually. This plan depended on me.

“You again?”

I offered a sheepish grin and nodded at the Sereti students who were watching me. They looked puzzled to see me wandering around without a horse or a bow.

“Who is that?”

“Ah, it’s the one I mentioned. Look at his back—completely green. He must have been lying down for ages.”

They exchanged a few words and glances, looking at me with a mix of curiosity and pity, then quickly lost interest and passed by. As I leisurely walked through them and approached the black grass, I couldn’t help but hesitate.

“How is this…?”

In the middle of the forest, an ocean had been conjured. Waves, like those at the eye of a storm, roared right before my eyes. The realism of the scene finally made me understand why even the horses were reluctant to step forward.

‘The students from the maritime city created this illusion. But even so, isn’t this going too far?’

‘They’ll have to sail back home; how will they handle this? This could give them serious trauma.’

As I hesitated and took a step closer to the illusion, a violent whirlpool formed in the magically conjured deep sea, and suction cups quickly crawled up from it. What the heck? I instinctively stepped back as if something were trying to grab my foot. The tentacle retreated as soon as I withdrew my foot, but that wasn’t the end. Another whirlpool formed, sucking everything towards it.

The real issue came next. From beneath the swirling surface, a gigantic kraken slowly emerged. When I met its gaze, I couldn’t help but whisper, “…Wow.”

The overpowering presence of the sea creature’s glowing eyes enveloped me. ‘Even though I know it’s an illusion, it really makes it hard to move.’

First, there was the crazy elephant from Sereti, and now, I seriously wanted to meet the people from the Magic Tower who designed these illusions. ‘Adults having fun with kids’ games… creating something like this.’

They’re all insane. The gigantic kraken didn’t take its eyes off me before submerging again into the deep-sea whirlpool.

Then, a sharp horn blast echoed. The urgent sound repeated, indicating that the operation had begun. As the sound of hooves circling me faded, I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself.

Standing between the ruckus behind me and the now calm illusion of the deep sea, I thought, ‘If you think about it, this is just like watching a 3D movie without glasses.’

No matter how realistic it felt, it was just an illusion. Slowly, I stepped to the edge of the illusionary sea. Immediately, bubbles formed beneath my feet, and the tentacle of the gigantic kraken began to crawl up again.

I continued to walk slowly. Finally, when I reached the end, I was greeted by familiar faces—Sereti students and Thomple students—who looked at me with puzzled expressions as if to ask, ‘Why are you here?’

“I’ve come to avenge my senior.”