Chapter 42

“It’s not polite to force yourself onto someone when they say no. I thought you guys were civilized people, too? Wasn’t rape something that only barbarians did?”

Urich picked up his axe and sword from the ground. His joints were still creaking.

‘It feels like a year’s been taken off my life. This is why a person has to stick to things that a person can do.’

He glanced at Kylios and smiled.

“Don’t come any closer. Do you want to see him die? Huh?”

The bandits threatened as they held their knife against Pahell’s neck. They were terrified of Urich’s stature.

‘He’s no ordinary man. There’s something different about his aura.’

Urich had just lifted a grown man with a single arm. He was just that strong. The bandits held Pahell as hostage to gain the upper hand against Urich.

“Eh?”

Urich tilted his head and looked at the bandits.

“S-stop right there! I’m going to rip this kid’s throat into shr...”

Crush!

Urich threw his axe without a single bit of hesitation. The skull of the bandit who was threatening Pahell cracked.

“Kill him if you dare. Hostages don’t work on me, but if you do kill that man, you will experience three times the pain he does before I kill you.”

Urich darted forward with his sword. The bandits fled for their lives without even thinking about touching Pahell.

Crush!

Urich cut through the backs of the scurrying bandits. He beheaded every single one of them without letting them escape.

“Phew,” he exhaled with his face covered in blood. He retrieved his weapons and wiped them clean.

“Untie me first!” Pahell cried with his bottom exposed. Urich fell to the ground laughing as he saw the situation that the prince was in.

“You look like an absolute moron, the guys should’ve seen this!”

“S-stop it you son of a bitch, just untie me!” Pahell yelled in embarrassment. His face was so red that it looked like he was about to explode.

“Ughhh, it’s hard to move because of that weird bone alignment thing from earlier,” Urich jokingly said as he lazily walked up to Pahell, and then slapped his butt cheek.

Slap!

Pahell stared at Urich with enraged eyes and clenched teeth.

“Are you fucking insane? D-did you forget who I was? I am Varca Aneu Porcana—the royal heir! How dare a barbarian like you humiliate me?”

Urich picked his ear as he drew his sword and put it between the rope that was tying Pahell’s hands to the tree.

“Hah, I honestly thought you were a girl, but you do have a dick hanging around; you are a man! You should really learn how to wield a sword,” Urich mocked as he cut the rope. As soon as his hands became free, Pahell rushed to pull his pants back up. Then, he walked over to the bodies of the bandits and spat on them.

“You will not go back to the embrace of Lou, you dirty bandits!”

Pahell cursed the bandits with all his power and wanted to say some things to Urich but decided against it.

‘Damn barbarian.’

Whether he liked it or not, Urich had saved his life on multiple occasions.

‘He saved a royalty’s life several times. He more than deserves just as much reward. But...’

Urich cackled and collected his loot from the pockets of the bandits.

“They’re all broke.”

While Urich was busy collecting what he could find, Pahell soothed the startled horse.

“Hey now, Kylios, it’s alright. We’ll get going soon,” Pahell said as he untied his horse.

“Let’s go, Urich. It’ll take us at least two days to get to Valgma, and that’s if we manage to find the right route.”

Urich nodded as he rested his hand on Kylios’ back.

Purr.

This time, Kylios didn’t reject his hand. Urich lightly tapped the horse’s side with a faint smile.

“Do you think my squad is alright? The enemies know that we escaped.”

“All we can do is hope for the best. It’s not like they can catch us by destroying your squad, so they probably left them behind unless something bad happened.”

Even though Pahell’s words suggested otherwise, he was still worried. He carried on as if he was talking to himself.

“They shouldn’t be able to release their army after us since we’ve crossed the border, so whoever comes after us will come in a small group.”

Urich and Pahell walked instead of riding Kylios. They wanted to preserve the horse’s energy in case of an emergency. As they walked through the mountain path, the two men had a rare chatter.

“Urich, is everyone in your tribe insanely strong like you?”

Pahell witnessed Urich carrying Kylios with his own eyes, and it left him in awe. He had never heard nor seen a person carrying a horse with their strength alone.

“Nope, they’re all normal. I’m just a little stronger,” Urich said with pride. He was always the fastest and the strongest.

“Did you eat something weird when you were a kid? Or did you get it from your parents?”

“I don’t have parents. My tribe found me wandering the plains all by myself when I was a little kid. I don’t even know my exact age, actually. I just assumed it based on my brothers back home. If there had to be a parent, then it would be my tribe that raised me.”

“Ah,” Pahell shrugged. He felt like he shouldn’t have asked the question.

“You’re royalty. Do you have any interesting stories? You said you’ve been to the capital, right? Tell me more about that.”

Urich was very interested in the capital of Hamel. After all, it was a city that was called the center of the world.

“I’ve only been there once as a child with my father. It was almost ten years ago now, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. That was my first time seeing buildings and towers that tall. It was like they were built by giants, not us. Even though the city was so vast, they had water coming out everywhere through their aqueducts. No one had to travel far to get water from a well.”

“Aqueduct?”

“It’s where the water flows. They use it to draw water from the rivers and distribute it throughout the city. The capital of Hamel is the only place in the world with that system.”

“Aqueducts, huh? Hmm...” Urich couldn’t even picture what Pahell was talking about, so he just nodded.

“On top of that, they get rid of all their waste through their sewage system. Because the stinky waste just flows down the sewers, the city doesn’t have any odor despite its insane size. The design of the city is truly marvelous. The Capital of Hamel is going so far ahead of its time while the rest of the world is busy playing catchup. Compared to the civilization of Hamel, the rest of humanity are practically barbarians.”

Pahell didn’t shy away from admitting that the Porcana Kingdom was only a small vassal state of the Empire.

“Is all that stuff really that great?”

Urich stroked his chin, and his heart was beating out of his chest. He had long forgotten the pain in his body.

‘The brothers back home will never believe this. Hell, even I can’t believe it without seeing it myself.’

Urich had yet to even think about going back home. There was still so much left to do on this side of the Sky Mountains that it felt like his entire lifetime wasn’t enough time.

‘From south to north, across the city to the Edge of the World.’

The world was vast. In the past, Urich was just living in a much smaller world.

‘We have to get out of this small fence.’

Urich clutched at his chest. Occasionally, he felt a single desire sweeping through his mind.

Squirm.

That desire reached for Urich’s heart and squeezed it.

“Urich?”

Pahell looked at Urich. Urich raised his lowered head.

“My back is still killing me. Let’s go over there and get some rest. It’s about time we sleep,” Urich said tiredly as he pointed below the hill. There was a boulder that they could use as a cover as well.

“Damia would be devastated if she saw me like this.”

“You bring up your twin sister a lot.”

“Of course, she and I were born from the same womb. I love her. When I become king, I’ll never make her go through an arranged marriage.”

“Is she pretty?”

Urich said as he sat down. He took out a jerky from his waist bag and chewed on it.

“Of course, she’s pretty! She is the most beautiful girl in the whole kingdom! She is so pretty that young noblemen line up to ask for her hand in marriage.”

“Oh yeah? What color are her hair and eyes?” Urich grinned as he pulled up his pants.

“She is blonde with blue eyes! That means the royal blood is thick inside her. I only ended up with blue eyes, but Damia has both.”

“Hmm, does she have big tits?”

“Of cou... how dare you ask such a perverted question!” Pahell snapped at Urich.

“Keep talking. Are her lips red? Her skin is probably pale too, right? If a son like you looks like this, I can only imagine what the daughter would look like. Alright, I’m going with that today.”

Urich put his hand down his pants.

“W-what are you doing?”

“I’m gonna jerk one out with my hand today. It’s been too long since I’ve seen a girl, and that’s hard on a man my age. Aren’t you like me, too?”

“D-do you think I’m the same as a barbarian? Have some shame!”

Pahell stared at Urich with visible shock in his eyes.

“I’ll be back in a second, hmph!”

Urich stumbled to his feet and went behind the trees on the other side. A moment later, he returned with a satisfied and refreshed look on his face.

“That cloud over there looks exactly like a woman’s ass. You should go take care of yourself before it goes away. It’ll help you relax, too.”

Urich was in his physical prime, and his sexual drive was just as vigorous.

“How foolish of me to think I could talk to him. What an animal.”

“Sometimes animals are better than people. Isn’t that right, Kylios?” Urich said as he tapped on Kylios’ cheek. The horse had become friendly with Urich.

After getting some shuteyes, Urich and Pahell traveled for another half a day.

“I’m not sure if we’re going the right way. It would be nice if we could find a town or something so we could ask for directions,” Pahell said as he anxiously looked up at the night sky.

“No matter where we go, you have me, so don’t worry about dying,” Urich said as he lied on the ground. They opted not to start a fire, since it had the risk of revealing their location to the enemies.

“Pahell, get closer. Don’t waste your body heat.”

Urich and Pahell covered themselves under a robe beside Kylios. They gathered the warmth of the horse and two men to keep themselves warm throughout the night.

“Once I become king, I’m not going to let a single traitor live,” Pahell muttered as white steam left with his breath.

“Are you sure they’re going to help you in the Empire?” Urich asked as he counted the stars in the sky.

“Of course. The emperor is going to help the rightful heir take their rightful throne.”

“Is that right?” Urich didn’t say much more. After all, the civilized people knew a lot more about the culture of this land than he did.

“Hah, it’s cold.”

This was Pahell’s first time camping without a fire. It was colder than he had anticipated.

“Just suck it up. This way, we don’t have to worry about them finding us.”

Urich said nonchalantly, though he himself was also quite weak against the cold.

Ruff! Ruff!

A dog barked in the distance. Urich frowned.

“Hmm.”

Pahell rushed to his feet to look in the direction of the sound.

“You said they won’t be able to find us!”

“I didn’t think they’d bring a dog,” Urich said with a smile as he got up from the ground. He gazed into the darkness, and he could see a wavering torchlight.

“W-what do we do? Should we run away on the horse?”

Pahell was fully panicking. Urich put his hand on his head to calm him down.

“Don’t worry. We don’t even know if that’s the chase party. And, even if it is, there won’t be that many of them. Stay here and hide, and I’ll go take care of them.”

Urich gazed in the direction of the enemies.

‘It’s better to finish them off here than to have them on our tail. We’re still inside the forest. It’s much better to fight them here than out in the open.’

Step, step.

Urich strode into the dark forest.

‘I’m all alone again.’

Pahell drew his dagger and looked around himself. It looked like the darkness had come to life and was moving.

‘I want to be a fearless man like Urich—a man who doesn’t fear a single thing in this world.’

Pahell stared at the back of Urich. His smile never faded from his face no matter what situation he found himself in. he was undoubtedly a strong man. How many people are able to keep smiling when placed at a crossroads of life and death?

Pahell realized his own weakness. He realized how many people he had received help from in order to get through his life.

Suddenly, a thought that shouldn’t exist came into his mind.

‘Am I truly worthy of the throne?’

There was a crack in the structure of his heart.