Sweetcrasy

“Ugh.”

Johan staggered, clutching his shoulder, and glared at Cedar.

“No!”

Cedar raised his sword as if carrying out an execution and at that same moment, a desperate shout came from Irene, who was far away.

And, Irene snapped her fingers.

Snap—!

With that magical activation, the positions of the two were swapped.

Slash.

The one cleaved by Cedar’s sword was not Johan, but Irene.

Even in the moment her eyes lost their light, she looked at Johan and mouthed something with her lips.

“Please…”

“Catch him!”

“Don’t let him escape!”

The imperial knights’ shouting drowned out her final words, but… it was clear what she had wished for.

Johan was briefly frozen, but soon turned and ran. Johan and the surviving remnants of Milos began sprinting toward a point in the forest, as if they had prearranged it. It was the area Cedar had surrounded earlier.

“[Open the gate!]”

At the same time, a Milos mage who had collapsed with arrows in his leg and back suddenly pressed his hand to the ground and chanted an activation incantation.

“That bastard was faking his death?!”

A nearby imperial knight, startled, immediately beheaded the mage but the spell, already triggered, remained active even after the mage’s death. The magic circle that had been activated began to glow brightly underfoot.

‘This is a long-distance teleportation circle…’

Even the ground I was hiding on revealed thick golden lines. These lines pointed toward the center like arrows. Looking along them, I could clearly see that a massive “gate” was forming at the center of the glowing array.

‘Johan mustn’t reach that.’

Even being near it gave the feeling of being sucked in. The imperial knights, not blind to the obvious, began desperately cutting down the fleeing Milos remnants and chasing Johan, who was in the lead.

“[Blink.]”

The problem was that Johan actually had a ridiculously powerful item. Just as Yulis’s arrow was about to graze the back of Johan’s head, a spell activated, and he moved forward, closer to the magic circle. A ruby necklace around his neck flashed golden and then faded.

‘That wasn’t in the original story…’

While I stood stunned, the knights quickly grasped the situation and shouted.

“It’s an artifact! Ignore the others! Catch Johan!”

However, the remaining Milos rebels didn’t give in easily. Especially some who seemed to be the royal mage of Milos, they self-detonated in an attempt to take the imperial knights down with them.

“[Rampage!]”

Pronounced with the Milos accent, “Rampage” was a spell that caused the mage’s skin to crack and explode violently like a bomb. Even the imperial knights, who had been overwhelming the enemy until now, lost four of their own.

“The encirclement is broken, you idiots! I told you not to let the mages speak! Go for the jaw that protects the tongue, or cut their vocal cords!!”

Gerard, who had lost Irene, was now screaming in fury. But no matter how capable the imperial knights were, stopping mage on a suicidal rampage was nearly impossible.

Johan stepped on the corpses of exploded mages without hesitation, pushing forward. Those who failed to catch up fired arrows, but each time, the necklace transported him to the safest and fastest path.

‘At this rate…!’

Cedar was also sprinting madly, but having fallen behind during the Irene incident and with Blink constantly activating in danger, he couldn’t close the gap. In addition, a mage blocked Cedar’s path and activated “Rampage” again.

Boom—!

Although Cedar blocked the explosion without a scratch, the distance between him and Johan had widened irreparably.

And in that moment.

Suddenly, I felt Cedar’s gaze.

‘Please.’

It felt like I could hear his voice. The moment I saw his desperate expression, I jumped out from behind the tree. My body moved on its own.

“Johan~!”

I shouted his name at the top of my lungs.

Worried he might ignore me, I was anxious but thankfully, Johan hadn’t forgotten “Louis’s” voice. He froze, and finally turned to look at me. His eyes, the same color as Louis’s, widened in shock.

And that moment was enough.

Shhhh—!

Cedar immediately threw the sword he had been holding. With tremendous force, the sword sliced through the air toward Johan. It flew faster than even the arrows Yulis had been firing.

“Guh…”

The sword stabbed deep into Johan’s torso. The force was so strong that the hilt nearly touched his back.

However, even as he was dying, Johan couldn’t take his eyes off me. He vomited dark blood, and as the ruined ruby necklace shattered and scattered like powder before he complete his spell, he…

“Your Highness!!”

“Louis…”

He tried to reach me, calling my name. Yes. The trap Cedar and I had prepared worked perfectly. Watching Johan lose consciousness and collapse, I was certain of our victory.

But then—

“As soon as we cross, seal the gate.”

A knight grabbed the collapsing Johan from behind. As she steadied him, she gave me a chilling glare.

Though her face was soaked in blood, I recognized her. I had seen her in the original story, and during my short time at the royal castle.

Johan’s strategist. A former Chief of Staff of the Kingdom, whose cold reason and brilliant tactics would one day devastate Cedar’s army…

‘Arkheim…!’

And Arkheim, without hesitation, supported Johan and hurled herself into the gate. Even Cedar had let his guard down, allowing this tremendous blunder.

“Seize them!”

The remaining imperial knights, realizing the situation, rushed forward, but Arkheim had already given the remaining mages their orders. And the loyalty of the Milos remnants to their kingdom…

“[Rampage.]”

…was strong enough to sacrifice their lives. All the mages gathered at the gate cast Rampage simultaneously, and a blinding light engulfed the area.

***

The operation to kill or capture Johan ended… having killed 90% of Milos’s remnants. But since Johan’s fate remained unknown, it was an incomplete success.

“…If I had pierced him properly, it would’ve been certain. He wouldn’t have been able to stop the bleeding…”

Cedar often muttered this to himself after returning. His tone carried regret or maybe fear. After all, protagonists tend to survive more tenaciously than cockroaches unless their heads are cut clean off.

I understood Cedar’s unease.

I, too, had lost standing because of Johan’s disappearance.

With no corpse to confirm his death, even among the imperial knights, there were those who believed Johan might still be alive and because of that, the number of violent bastards looking to take their anger out on me had increased.

‘Damn it… If I go outside without Cedar, I’ll be killed for sure.’

I was surviving day by day by sensing the dangerous atmosphere and sticking close to Cedar. The problem was that the day of Cedar’s return to the Empire was drawing near.

“The Emperor contacted you?”

“Yes.”

“Did he say anything about the operation?”

“Not really accusatory. Just… seemed a bit disappointed?”

“Then that’s a relief…”

It would be bad if the Emperor’s trust in Cedar were shaken. Still, that aside, the original story’s progression continued.

“As hyung predicted… I told him I’d stay to pursue Johan, but he just told me to return to the Empire. He said he’d stabilize the situation here by sending another governor, and it seems he has a different mission for me.”