The Crown Prince Who Raises a Side Character

Episode 31: New Adventurer Bern (29) – Enfolding

“Ah…”

Blanca realized a truth: when a person has too much to say, they become incapable of saying anything at all.

She needed to ask what had happened after the spatial transposition, how he’d ended up looking so tattered and torn.

She needed to explain that the Guild Master had fallen, that the adventurers had suffered a crushing defeat and were now being hunted.

The characteristics of the Lich’s magic, the fact that it had resurrected even after being clearly defeated once – everything, she needed to tell him everything.

And yet, no words would escape Blanca’s lips.

Just as tears were about to well in her eyes, choked by a flood of emotions.

“Rise, Miss Blanca.”

As if considering her condition, softly.

But with a firmness held within that went beyond, Bern spoke.

“The fight isn’t over. You still have things you need to do, Miss Blanca.”

Therefore, rise.

Grip your sword.

The red-haired adventurer was proclaiming to her that weeping and lamenting could wait for later.

It wasn’t a word of comfort.

Rather, it bordered on a stern rebuke.

Bern offered no solace for the frustration, despair, and disillusionment she felt.

“This is *our* adventure, isn’t it?”

But if you asked whether Blanca was disheartened by that─ the answer was ‘no’.

She was no pitiable, powerless princess, and Bern was no knight from a storybook.

They were adventurers.

Comrades who had vowed to drag the delusional tale of Lich subjugation into reality.

Her partner, the one person who didn’t laugh at her goal when everyone else did, was speaking to her now like this.

Calling for them to fight together.

Saying that now was the time to realize their dream.

Blanca gripped the sword discarded on the ground once more.

The heirloom, painstakingly cared for by her mother in life, likely left behind by her father, gleamed with a keen light, as if responding to its owner’s will.

With eyes now devoid of weakness, she glared at the enemy and stood shoulder to shoulder with Bern.

“We’ll proceed as we practiced. Alright?”

“Anything else I need to keep in mind?”

“At least four Death Knights. One of them is the Guild Master. Be careful; we don’t know when they’ll strike. The fog is saturated with all kinds of negative enchantments, so it’s best to avoid contact if possible, and it also has an effect that limits the senses.”

Bern nodded, then raised his voice.

“Lenya! I won’t give any separate orders, so handle your side as you see fit!!”

“Y-yes, yes, yessir! Brother! Good luck! Please, *please* crush that blasted skeleton b*stard!!”

Lenya’s string of curses drew the Lich’s displeased gaze in his direction.

Lenya yelped and covered his mouth, cowering, but no one reprimanded him for his unsightly behavior.

Why would one complain about the ultimate aggro-drawing support, one who so expertly redirected the enemy’s attention?

The instant Richt’s focus shifted, Bern and Blanca launched themselves from the ground in unison.

Clang!

Two death knights clad in ebony armor barred their path, standing guard before Richt.

From the death knights’ blades, a viscous, oil-slick darkness surged forth as *geomgi*.

*Geomgi* that was born of a knight’s spirit that Richt’s enchantments intensified, becoming akin to something of an aura.

Blades capable of trading blows with fifth-circle warriors, and unilaterally overwhelming any foe below that level, were swung to cleave Bern and Blanca.

And Bern, he parried both dark *geomgi* at once.

*Kaang!*

It was a scene bordering on the arcane.

Bern’s blade seemed only to graze the sword of one death knight before deflecting its trajectory in an impossible direction. The altered path of Death Knight A’s sword then collided with that of Death Knight B.

Blanca seized the opening, slamming a mid-tier fire spell into the space between the death knights, their weapons now entangled.

Bern, as if it were expected, had already put distance between them.

*Kwaaang!*

Surging heat and shockwaves scattered the purple mist that had been creeping back together in a spectacular display.

Blanca charged straight for Richt, while Bern swung his blade at the death knight emerging from the smoky haze.

The death knight attempted to parry, but Bern brushed aside the blade with effortless ease, then severed the knight’s arm.

Another death knight thrust its sword at Bern’s back, but Bern, as if engaged in a dance, executed a wide pivot, using the momentum to impale the knight through the chest.

The death knights staggered, each grievously wounded.

Bern moved to press his advantage, to deliver the final blow, but in that moment, two more blades closed in on him.

* * *

Fsshk!

Vern’s shoulder was sliced, the blood that scattered on the floor slowly turned to light and evaporated.

Enemy reinforcements: two.

Before he knew it, there were four death knights.

One was even emitting aura from its sword, and Vern clicked his tongue inwardly.

He tried to continue his offensive to avoid ceding the initiative, but at that moment, violet mist surged again, thickening the air.

And instead of charging directly at Vern, the death knights vanished into the violet fog.

Vern focused his magic into his eyes, trying to pierce through the mist, but the layered fog resolutely refused to reveal what lay within.

It was an obvious lure, plain for anyone to see, but Vern couldn’t refuse.

He knew that if he hesitated here, unwilling to plunge into the mist, those death knights would head straight for Blanca.

The moment Vern dove into the mist, three strokes of black swordsmanship, as if they had been waiting, targeted him.

Each attack aimed for the neck, abdomen, and leg.

Vern’s eyes flashed vividly.

*Swish!*

He dodged the sword aimed at his neck, blocked the one targeting his abdomen, and trampled the one aimed at his leg.

He was grazed across the chest by a fourth attack that came a beat late intentionally, but in exchange, the head of one death knight flew into the air.

On the surface, it seemed he had succeeded in reducing their numbers, but the death knight whose head had been severed simply picked up its own head in its left hand and tried to continue fighting.

Vern sighed softly.

‘This won’t be easy.’

Just being in this mist is steadily worsening his condition.

From our side, one could barely make out the enemy’s form, hear their voices, until they were within a meter or so. Yet, they could maintain whatever distance they pleased, observing us at their leisure.

The enemy consisted of three opponents, all at least Fourth Circle, further enhanced with spells, and even a fresh Fifth Circle mage amongst them. They even ignored wounds that would be fatal to a human.

Even if Vern was nominally Fourth Circle, his actual capabilities were far greater, it was still impossible to simply obliterate the enemy forces in one fell swoop.

…Of course, worrying so gravely about “not being able to finish things quickly” instead of focusing on winning or losing in this situation was, in many respects, quite extraordinary.

‘This will take some time. I hope Blanca can hold out as long as possible.’

*

“Foolish girl. Did you truly think that even without guards, someone like *you* could approach me?”

The violet mist surrounding the lich coalesced, shooting forth as a volley of arrows.

Blanca swung her sword, deflecting one arrow aimed at her face, but still, more than three pierced her flesh.

The mist that comprised the arrows, and the spell woven into that mist, ravaged Blanca’s insides through the wounds.

Numbness spread through her limbs, chills ran through her as if doused in ice water, and a violent dizziness threatened to topple her.

But Blanca gritted her teeth and refused to fall.

She braced herself with healing and enhancement magic, clinging relentlessly to the lich.

And within arm’s reach, Blanca unleashed a fireball.

*Arboreal Incineration*

A low-tier flame spell. It might work on small to medium animals or weak monsters, but it was far too insignificant to use against a powerful lich.

“Pathetic, utterly pathetic. All your efforts are in vain.”

The lich didn’t even deign to use his hands, negating her spell simply by condensing the violet mist.

But Blanca wasn’t discouraged.

‘He blocked it.’ That meant, at the very least, that it would have had an effect if it had landed.

『The Magic of Burning Wood』

『The Magic of Burning Wood』

『The Magic of Burning Wood』

She looses, looses, looses again.

Every attack is blocked, but with each one, the violet mist around the lich diminishes.

The lich, as if annoyed, tries to shake Blanca off with offensive magic, but unleashing a powerful area-of-effect spell against Blanca, who is right in front of him, would engulf even himself.

Therefore, the only spells he can use are those with comparatively little force, like the Curse Arrows from before, and those that prevent collateral damage.

Blanca deflects or dodges these attacks with her sword, yet even so, she fails to respond perfectly, and suffers wounds.

It cannot be helped. In the first place, she isn’t a proper warrior, and even though she received training from Bern, the period was by no means long.

However, she can avoid mortal wounds.

If she can avoid mortal wounds, she can endure the rest with spells.

…It was, at first glance, an exchange ratio bordering on the absurd.

No matter how much Blanca spews fire and wields her sword, she cannot inflict any harm on the lich, but the spells the lich uses as though they were bothersome, steadily inflict damage on Blanca.

Healing magic is not omnipotent, and wounds and poisons were continuously accumulating in Blanca’s body.

However, Blanca did not care.

‘I can fight.’

In her childhood, she could only cry and do nothing.

But now, even if disadvantaged, she was fighting properly.

‘With the spells I learned from Mother.’

Against the one who stole the most precious thing from her, she stands her ground, unyielding.

‘With the tactics Bern taught me.’

That fact, the existence of a comrade who believed in her, was granting Blanca endless strength.

“Annoying gnats, buzzing about!”

Likely finding Blanca’s persistent attacks unbearably irritating, the Lich summoned the undead he’d been using against the other adventurers.

He couldn’t pull back the Death Knights engaged with Bern, but he still had reserves of power besides them.

Skeletal soldiers and monstrous things alike, answering their master’s call, crept up behind Blanca.

『A Magic to Burn Stone』

KWAH-aaaNG!

Blanca didn’t even bother to turn her head; the fireball she unleashed turned them to ash in an instant.

The Lich, momentarily speechless, read her unspoken words in the eerie glow of Blanca’s eyes.

-Call up as many as you like. I’ll burn them all.

“You wench! How dare you, how dare you! A half-wit who is neither swordsman nor mage!”

The Lich felt like he was about to explode.

This situation, this girl clinging to him, should never have happened in the first place.

His dungeon was overflowing with undead and traps, he had disciples planted in the human world as a contingency, and he possessed powerful Death Knights crafted from corpses obtained amidst the chaos of the Virka Kingdom.

But the adventurers had conquered the undead and traps, his disciples had been hunted down, and the Death Knights were struggling, unable to subdue a single red-haired adventurer.

No, more than that, they were actually being defeated.

He needed to help the Death Knights and suppress that redhead as soon as possible, but this half-wit kept getting in the way, driving him absolutely mad.

When he held an overwhelming advantage, the Lich could maintain a veneer of dignity and authority, but as a tangible threat loomed closer, his shallow nature was laid bare.

In the end, the Lich resolved to unleash his hidden trump cards.

He’d intended to use those sacrifices to ascend to the 6th Circle, but now he’d have to use them to escape this predicament.

“Foolish humans, know that your arrogance has brought death upon your kin!”

With a grandiose declaration, the lich initiated the spell, meant to transmute the souls of the sacrifices into his own power.

Predictably, nothing happened.

“…?! Why, why won’t it work! No, could it be!”

Only then did the lich realize that the space Bern had been teleported to was ‘beyond the gate’ that connected to the space where he’d kept the sacrifices.

Of course, the dungeon’s structure was fiendishly complex, befitting the lich’s tastes, and even if one survived the traps, finding one’s way would take an age without knowing its intricate details. But Bern had a courteous, even solicitous, guide.

The sacrifices, who should have been confined within cages and upon the magic circle, had been spirited away by Bern, causing the lich’s prepared incantation to misfire.

The realization that the ritual he’d painstakingly prepared had utterly failed finally snapped the tenuous thread of reason the lich had been clinging to.

“You filthy wretches!”

The violet mist that had blanketed the surrounding area converged instantly, focused on a single point.

Blanca felt a chilling premonition, sensing the immense surge of power gathering right before her eyes.

She realized that the lich, who had been cautiously holding back, finally intended to unleash a proper attack spell.

Blanca tried desperately to stop him, but the lich completed his spell, ignoring the flames licking at his form and the sword embedded in his chest.

Above her, a massive black orb began to descend.

The moment Blanca resigned herself to death.

*Thump.*

Someone embraced her.

─*KWA-aaaNG!!*