Chapter 359: 188. The Job of the Bait -1 (Part Two)
Translated by A Passing Wanderer
Edited by RED
“That’s right. According to Alice, that’s how long it should take.”
It matched the time of the refugees waking up and starting their march.
“In that case, sire, in a place visible at all times...”
I lightly rapped my knuckles on her forehead. “Charlotte Heraiz, this is an order. Be on standby here.”
“...As you command, sire.” Her shoulders drooped ever so slightly.
She must’ve been feeling dejected just now. Without being near her for a long time like I had, you’d never have understood that reaction.
“...Thanks,” I told her and strolled into the nearby forest.
I summoned some skeletons to dig out a pit on the ground and poured my summoned holy water into it.
...And then, the skeletons proceeded to scrounge up some branches from nearby to mock up a silhouette of a person and dunked it in the pool of holy water.
Meanwhile, I put on a robe with a hood attached to it, quickly prepared a letter and left it near the pit where it’d be easily found.
‘Okay, so, that’s about it, then?’
Around ten hours from now... Yeah, that’s how long the Fire Giant would take to reach the refugees.
That’s why...
“...Time to do the job of the bait properly, then.”
I better buy some time for them, even if it’s only a little bit.
I summoned the Bone Wyvern.
{Sire, you must not overwork yourself.}
I recalled what Alice had told me. The family doctor might get angry at me, so I thought it’d be a good idea to not strain myself and take it easy while buying some time.
I smiled faintly and climbed aboard the Bone Wyvern.
**
“We shall get ready to depart! Everyone, wake up!”
Charlotte’s vigorous voice reverberated throughout the air.
Alice silently woke up at that loud call and carefully opened her eyes. Her drowsy vision caught the sight of an empty seat opposite her own inside the carriage.
“Lord Allen?”
He told her using his name made it more comfortable during private settings, so despite the potential discourtesy, she chose to do exactly as he wished.
She rubbed her still-drowsy eyes with the back of her hand, then lightly swept back her dishevelled hair. A gentle smile formed on her lips after confirming the blanket covering her.
‘This happened every time, didn’t it?’
Why was it, though? Their current situation was more than enough to inspire anxiety and tension, yet she found chatting to him every night so much fun to the point that she was now looking forward to it.
She pulled the blanket even deeper around herself, then opened the carriage’s door. The figures of the refugees busily moving about greeted her.
Alice slowly climbed down from the carriage and scanned her surroundings.
Allen was nowhere to be seen.
“Lady Saintess. You’ve woken up,” Charlotte greeted her with a slight bow of her head.
Alice reciprocated the greeting with her own bow. “Do you know where Al... His Majesty has gone off to?”
“His Majesty should be taking a bath with holy water at the moment.”
Alice was genuinely pleased to hear Charlotte’s reply. Not many things would be as good to hear as a patient taking his doctor’s advice to heart and doing exactly as he was told, at least to Alice.
“That’s where he is?”
“Yes, Lady Saintess. I’ve dispatched some soldiers to locate him. He has already stayed in the holy water for around one hour, so the fatigue piled up in his body should be more or less...”
“Wait, did you say one hour?”
But, she told him that around thirty minutes should be plenty sufficient enough? Staying in there for one hour straight wouldn’t improve matters, anyway.
Alice tilted her head in puzzlement, only for her complexion to pale.
‘...Could it be?’ She hurriedly jumped up on a nearby horse.
“Lady Alice?”
She ignored Charlotte’s question and scanned their surroundings once more from higher up. But as expected, Allen was still nowhere to be seen.
‘Again, he...!’
This was why the members of the Imperial Family could be so...!
Alice gripped the reins tightly.
Disappointment and a certain sense of betrayal flooded her heart. She pleaded with him so much, asking him to rely on her and everyone else, yet...
Why did he have to go and betray her faith in him like this?
Alice swept her gaze over the refugees. Most of them were visibly exhausted. There were a lot of injured and sickly among their ranks, as well.
Their march could not be stopped, however. They had to return to the empire as soon as possible and receive the proper care from qualified Priests right away.
But, Lord Allen, he...!
“...Marquise Charlotte.”
Charlotte stiffened up.
Alice directly addressed her, “Please take care of the refugees.”
Charlotte finally realised that something was very wrong at the Saintess’ grave-sounding words. “Could it be that His Majesty has...?”
“The job of the bait we talked about before? Allow me to do it.”
Alice pulled on the horse’s reins and clenched her teeth.
She was supposed to be the Saintess. Not only did she train for a long, long time, she had also grown stronger through Allen’s influence. She even got to drink that wonder elixir of his, all in preparation for this day.
That’s why...
“I can definitely do this!”
She would definitely be a help to him this time!
Alice quickly rode towards her destination on the horse.
**
(TL: In 3rd person POV.)
The body of a giant thirty metres tall was trudging forward. The ground below rumbled and the frightened birds took flight from the nearby forests.
The Fire Giant, Surtr, glanced at the birds flying up. In that very moment, the wings of the animals caught on fire; all of them fell crashing back to the ground.
Every step the giant took turned the land into molten lava, while the forest went up in flames around it.
A whip seemingly made purely out of fire and at least around seventy metres in length was being dragged on the ground behind the giant. As for the smaller giants around it, they were all clad in the armour of hardened bedrock and wielded weapons enveloped in flames.
“Oii, over there! Hello, Mister Flame Head!”
Spirit Speech containing divinity suddenly rocked the sky.
Surtr displayed some reaction to that and glanced to its right. More specifically, at the top of a hill surrounded by a dense forest about two hundred metres away.
A man was sitting there on top of something quite large wrapped in some kind of a picnic cloth-like fabric. For some odd reason, his immediate area was encased in frost.
Surtr narrowed its eyes. Who was that now? That puny little lifeform?
The Fire Giant cocked its head this way and that, but eventually decided that there was no need to pay attention to that puny thing anymore.
An insignificant insect like that would burn to death simply by walking past it, after all.
What Surtr was aiming for was the existence responsible for killing Hrímr. That existence had to be in the distant location where it could sense the auras of all those lifeforms.
The Fire Giant’s goal was to make that existence taste bitter regret. It would gift the torment of burning down to ashes to whoever that being was, then even exterminate that fool’s soul from this world!
Surtr ignored that puny human and walked away.
“Man, that’s rude, you know? You’re actually ignoring me, even though I’m the Holy Emperor?” Allen shouted out loudly.
Surtr’s eyes were about to shift away from Allen, but then...
“Surtr!”
The Fire Giant’s steps came to a halt.
That puny human knew its name? Now feeling somewhat intrigued, Surtr turned its attention back to Allen.
“Whew, you are finally paying me your attention, aren’t you?” Allen stood back up on the ground while leaving that large thing wrapped in fabric by his side.
-What does an insignificant insect want with me, then?-
“Hey, who are you calling an insect here? I even went out of my way to prepare a gift for you, you know? You’re hurting my feelings here.”
-A gift?-
That roused Surtr’s curiosity. To think that a measly little insect could remain so defiant even in front of the Fire Giant!
Allen pointed at that large object covered in cloth. “Can you guess what this thing is? You see, I stored this thing in my item window to keep it nice and fresh, just so that I could present it to you today. And this is...”
He yanked the fabric away from the object.
“...the severed head of the Frost Giant, Hrímr.”
It was a huge piece of ice. More correctly, the head of Hrímr, its expression forever frozen in tear stains and crying out in despair.
Surtr’s heated eyeballs shuddered as it took in that sight. Molten lava began oozing out from its eyes and trickled down its cheeks.
-You dare...!-
But that lasted only for a short moment. It began expelling a breath-clogging level of heat from its entire body as its expression crumpled hideously.
-You dared to kill my little brother!-
Flames suddenly spread out all over its surroundings. Rocks encased in flames fell from its body, causing a series of explosions everywhere. Plumes of black smoke danced ominously as the entire area became a sea of molten lava.
Allen tensed up and swallowed nervously down his dry throat.
‘Oh, so they were brothers?’
Still, he got himself some useful information. Who could’ve guessed that the concept of siblings existed even among the Jötnar?
His job just became a little bit easier thanks to that little revelation, though. Now he met the requirement to provoke this bastard.
“Oh, hang on a second. You guys were brothers? Wow, sorry about that!” Allen put on a fake apologetic face, before clapping his hands as if a great idea just came to him. “Aha, how about this, then? Surtr, listen.” He began speaking in a playful tone of voice. “Let me send you away to hell, too. When that happens, the heartfelt reunion of the giant brothers will surely become a reality, right? Oh my goodness me~! Now where would you even find such an emotional and moving reunion? And so, Surtr...”
Allen raised his head up and began snickering away.
“Don’t resist, and just obediently die at my hands, okay?”
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