Chapter 548: Prayer

"What are these...?"

As the “herd of beasts” came roaring out of the shadows, First Prince Albert was clearly somewhat frightened by these monsters as vicious as magical beasts. He instinctively grabbed Lavini’s hand beside him and turned to Muen with his question.

But the moment he saw Muen’s face, his pupils shrank sharply.

Anger. For the first time, on the face of this Slav who had been unfailingly courteous to him from the very first meeting, Albert saw such terrifying anger. It was like the rumble before a volcanic eruption, the silence before a storm. He even wondered if he was imagining it, but the space around Muen seemed to dim, as if some truly horrifying darkness was about to flow out of his body.

Albert couldn’t help but shiver.

This man seemed even more frightening than he had expected.

"Beastification drugs... I see. I’ve been wondering all this time why those drugs hadn’t been used. So this is where they ended up."

The armrest of the seat beside him was crushed to powder. Reflected in Muen’s eyes were those monsters wrapped in tattered old clothes, crawling on all fours. He took a deep breath, forcing down the killing intent surging in his heart.

"So they dragged ordinary civilians into this again... those bastards..."

"Civilians?"

Albert reacted now as well and said in disbelief,

"You’re saying those people are ordinary residents from the Lower District?"

"Yeah. Civilians. Ordinary people. The poor. Those above have many contemptuous labels for them. But until tonight, they were still stubbornly living in this part of the city, full of hope for tomorrow’s bread."

Muen slowly smoothed the anger off his face, but the pitch-black fire swelling in his eyes, rotating with the Great Sun, was like a bottomless abyss.

"But now, they’ve all become these monsters."

Up until now, because he dealt with Evil Gods so often, Muen had already seen scenes countless times more cruel than this. But none of those scenes had ever made him this angry.

Because this time, the ones who started it all were not the evil divinities greedily coveting everything in this world, staring down at it like a dining table.

They were humans.

Humans who thought themselves high above, looking down on all living beings.

No—perhaps those things no longer deserved to be called humans. They were more like beasts than the ferocious creatures in front of him.

"Heh. The Inner Council, and... that Second Prince who allowed, even instigated all of this..."

Muen muttered under his breath.

The debts from before still hadn’t been repaid, and they had already committed this new sin.

In what way do you want me to deal with you so that this cruel world won’t look quite so infuriating?

"But for now, the problem is still what’s right in front of us..."

Muen casually pulled out a broken anti-magic spear that was still stuck in the carriage, and with a sudden throw, a beastified one hiding in the shadows, just about to attack again, was pierced straight through the chest and nailed to the wall beside it, struggling and howling.

"Roar..."

But this did not intimidate the other beastified monsters. The spray of blood clearly only made them more excited.

More and more beastified ones crawled out of the shadows, surrounding the place. And in that area filled with white fog, the solitary little girl was still sobbing and crying.

"The plan has changed."

Muen thought for a moment, then suddenly turned to the black-robed men beside him.

"You protect His Highness Albert and continue forward. Carry out the backup plan we decided on beforehand. Leave this place to me."

"This... but you..."

The black-robed man in the lead seemed to know something and hesitated at Muen’s order.

"Don’t worry about me. I can actually cut loose better on my own."

Muen said, "With my speed and skills, getting out at any time won’t be a problem. Besides, only I can hold off that many beastified ones and that strange little girl at the same time. Understand?"

"Th-then all right, yo... my lord, please be sure to take care of yourself."

The black-robed man bowed. In the end, he still chose to obey Muen’s order and took the reins from his hand.

"You’re not going to escort me personally now?"

In the carriage, Albert, who had been nervously looking left and right, spoke when he heard this, also sounding a bit worried.

Over the course of the journey, his trust in Muen had clearly grown. The wariness he’d had at the beginning was completely gone.

Now he was even giving this temporary companion advice from the standpoint of safety.

"We’re about to get out of this. Why jump into danger on purpose? Those monsters... those people who used to be ordinary citizens, they don’t seem that fast. The carriage should be able to shake them off, right?"

"My intuition tells me that the dangerous ones aren’t the beastified."

Muen shook his head and reassured him,

"Relax, Your Highness. I’ll be fine."

He glanced at Albert’s slightly pale face, then at Lavini, who had been extremely quiet all along at his side.

This utterly deranged move from the Second Prince and the Inner Council had still exceeded Muen’s expectations. If he couldn’t pin down these monsters and let the situation devolve into a chaotic breakout fight, then even he had no confidence that he could protect Albert—who was just an ordinary human—inside that chaos.

Their opponents... were probably staring fixedly at that very point.

So no matter what, Albert absolutely could not be slowed down. As long as he hadn’t gotten out of danger for even a moment, there was no guaranteeing what insane move that Second Prince—who had already thrown everything aside—would make next.

Only by having Albert walk into the banquet hall in blazing radiance and announce to everyone that the First Prince had returned would those people, who knew they no longer had any chance of success, stop their madness.

"I’ll settle things here quickly and catch up with you. These are all subordinates I trust. They’ll protect you at any cost. You don’t need to worry."

"But..."

"And those beastified ones... those people who used to be ordinary citizens—someone has to deal with them. They can’t just be left like this. That’s one of my reasons for making this choice. As the Empire’s First Prince, Your Highness should be able to understand that."

After pinning another beastified one that had tried to sneak up on them, Muen suddenly cut off Albert’s attempts to persuade him and looked straight into his eyes with an expressionless face, as if he wanted to see clearly what was hidden deep in them at this moment.

"Th-then all right."

Messy long bangs fell, hiding half of Albert’s expression. He lowered his eyelids and took a deep breath.

"Since you put it that way, if I still try to stop you now, I really wouldn’t be any different from that scum. Go."

"Thanks. But you be careful too. Even if it’s just the last ten minutes of the road, this is bound to be the most dangerous stretch. Since His Highness Andrew has gone this insane, there’s no way he’d let you off in the final moment."

"I’m not that fragile."

Albert tapped his knee in faint irritation and pushed himself partway up, showing that at least he was no longer so weak he needed a cane and someone’s support like a week ago.

"Ha, now that line finally sounds a bit like a First Prince."

Muen patted Albert’s shoulder and jumped down from the carriage.

"Keep an eye on the maid next to the First Prince."

As he passed the black-robed man, Muen leaned close to his ear and spoke softly.

"Yes."

The black-robed man replied under his breath.

Soon, the carriage was racing forward again.

Amid the low sobbing and the beastified monsters watching ravenously on all sides, the black-robed men secretly trained by the Campbell family showed their excellent discipline. With a series of magic tools and spells combined, they quickly tore a gap in the beastified encirclement.

The carriage sped away. After it crossed a footbridge, three identical carriages suddenly emerged from the other side of the arch.

To the naked eye, there was almost no telling them apart. Even the number of anti-magic arrows stuck in the bodies was exactly the same. All three carriages, under the escort of black-robed men, split up at the end of the street and headed in three different directions.

"This is already the last blind. I didn’t think those bastard scum would force us this far."

Muen adjusted his top hat and watched the carriages disappear from sight, letting out a silent sigh.

From the current look of things, in this battle between card players, he had temporarily fallen behind.

But it wasn’t over yet.

A pure white blade slid into his palm. # Nоvеlight # He turned his hand and gave it a light backward stroke.

A cut opened on his wrist and blood flowed out. The faint smell of blood drifted into the night wind.

The beastified ones who had been about to give chase to the carriage all froze. Their blood-red eyes almost simultaneously turned toward Muen, their burning stares like those of a thirty-year-old virgin mage, single his whole life, seeing a naked peerless beauty.

"As expected. Because there are too many strange things mixed into my body, my blood is extremely attractive to you, huh."

Muen flicked the blood off his hand, and beastified ones who couldn’t bear the temptation charged at the blood, even fighting and tearing at each other for it.

"So then... what should I do next?"

In the middle of the block, Muen stood alone.

Opposite him were over a hundred beastified monsters, and... that strange little girl he had locked onto with his aura from the very beginning.

Beastified ones, in truth, were not much of a problem for Muen. Since they had been mutated from ordinary people, they definitely couldn’t compare to the ones his own subordinates under the Rat King had turned into when they betrayed him.

What made it hard for him to stay calm was those beastified ones raising their heads out of the darkness, revealing faces that still retained human features—faces numb and in pain.

"Heh, this inexplicably familiar scene again. Really puts me in a bad mood... Still, fortunately, I already bear enough sin that this bit doesn’t really matter."

Muen thought for a moment, then, with awkward movements, made a prayer gesture he had learned from Liya during morning prayer.

"Even though I don’t believe in the Goddess, at a time like this, I still have to pray a little."

"I’ll pray... for you."

Muen whispered with genuine sincerity,

"I hope that after you die, your souls can return to the Goddess’s embrace and leave behind the pain of this mortal world."

"Before that, I’ll be very quick, very, very quick... in granting you release."

The gentle prayer thus ended.

And the one to bring down the Goddess’s decree upon all the living beings in this place... would be cold steel!