Tale of Discovery

Chapter 174: Next Town ; Eve of Nightmare

"You two should know the difference in power between you and us, so you better not have funny thoughts," I say as we walk back to the room that we teleported to earlier.

"Yes, yes," Jeanette says while rolling her eyes.

Soon, we reach the room. Siesta is already there waiting for us with a gentle smile on her face.

"All done?" I ask as we approach her.

"Yes," she simply replies.

"That was fast," Krul remarks.

"I used my new powers to do it," Siesta says as a red hue covers her face.

Shaking my head, I look around at everyone before realizing that someone is missing.

"Irene, where are you?" I mutter.

{I'm heading over to where Father is.}

After a few minutes of waiting, Irene enters the room with a bright smile on her lips.

Unexpectedly, both Jeanette and Sheffield freeze up upon seeing her.

"What's wrong?" I ask out of curiosity.

"Why is that monster here?" Jeanette asks in a low voice.

Before anything else could be said or done, Irene swiftly runs over and jumps into my embrace before saying in a cheerful tone,

"I will be fighting in the front, right?"

"Of course," I reply while ruffling her hair.

"Well then," I say as I open a gateway back to one of the houses in the town, "We should head back now."

Then, ignoring the stunned Sheffield and Jeanette, I walk through the gateway as the rest follow along.

---

"Good," I say upon hearing Gabriel's latest report, "Make sure to not attract too much attention to yourselves from the townspeople for now."

[Understood.]

Now, that means that two of the three locations we're attacking from is going as planned.

However, I'm not sure about what the situation is like for Tiamat and Ddraig.

As of this moment, I am unable to telepathically converse with them, which is quite inconvenient.

Well, they're both dragons with plenty of battle experience, so I'm sure they will be able to take care of themselves.

"Creator," a voice calls out to me as I hear a knock on the door, "We are prepared."

Hearing this, I raise my body from the bed and shake Krul's body to wake her up.

The petite vampire groans a little before gradually opening her eyes and looking over at me with an annoyed expression.

"Don't look at me like that," I say, "We need to get going."

Krul doesn't say anything in response and just peers into my eyes.

Seeing her like this, I let out a small sigh before leaning over and kissing her soft lips for a few seconds.

"I feel tired," she says once I've moved my head back a little, "Let me drink your blood."

"Sure," I agree without hesitation.

After all, she's my woman now, so it's fine to pamper her, even if the way to do it is unconventional.

Krul's eyes widen as she says in a teasing tone,

"I didn't think you'd agree."

Shaking my head, I say in a casual tone,

"Come on, get over with it. We don't have the whole day."

Fortunately, Krul seems to notice as she raises her body from the bed, causing the blanket covering her to fall and reveal her marvelous body.

Then, Krul doesn't waste any time by directly biting into the area around my shoulder and beginning to suck my blood out.

After a few minutes, she stops and moves back a little before saying in a satisfied tone,

"Your blood is unquestionably the best."

Hearing her 'compliment', I smile wryly before saying,

"I don't know how I should react to that statement."

Krul chuckles before saying in a playful tone,

"Just be happy."

"If you say so," I respond before swiftly pushing her down and locking my lips with hers.

---

After a few minutes of kissing, the two of us got dressed and left the room.

Surprisingly, Saturnus was waiting right outside the door.

"Saturnus? Why are you standing here?"

"I just waited for Creator. Is that wrong?"

"No, but..." I reply, "You know what, never mind."

"The men are very excited to continue fighting!" Saturnus says in an eager tone.

Aren't you the one that is the most excited?

"Then, let's not keep them waiting any longer," I say before heading to where the men are all waiting.

In a short while, I reach our destination. Sensing my arrival, a few soldiers respectfully salute before the rest take notice and follow suit.

I use Clairvoyance to locate Yvonne and Godeffroy. Once I've done that, I make use of teleportation to appear right at where they are.

The two generals are both startled by my sudden appearance to the point of taking a dozen or so seconds to recollect themselves.

"Your Highness," Godeffroy says, "We are ready to move out."

"I'm aware," I respond, "We will be heading over to the next town as soon as possible."

Godeffroy and Yvonne both nod as confirmation, while I examine the state of the soldiers.

As I expected, there are quite a few soldiers who aren't all the excited about fighting, most likely due to the recent incident in which we fought against weaponized townspeople.

I let out a sigh before slowly floating into the air and shouting while amplifying my voice,

"Soldiers, hear me out!"

Hearing my voice, most of the soldiers shift their focus to me with curiosity apparent in their eyes regarding what I have to say.

"As you all know, we recently fought against townsmen that were innocent and even killed them.

"However, we shouldn't forget what it was that made us fight against them! What was it that made us kill these people? It was this kingdom's king.

"As you have seen, he is a man that will make use of every vile method to get what he seeks. Even if it means sacrificing the lives of hundreds, or thousands, he will do it."

I stop here to give the soldiers some time to think of what I just said.

Fortunately, most of them begin to curse this kingdom's royal family in a spirited manner, indicating that they've regained their purpose for fighting.

"Now, I ask of you," I continue shouting, "Are you willing to let such a man continue living and rule over this miserable kingdom?"

The soldiers immediately respond with loud cries that show their disapproval of the notion.

Suddenly, I notice that the surrounding lights seem to be dying out.

However, after a more careful examination, I notice that this light is what appears when I make use of Paladin's Aura.

Did I subconsciously utilize it or is there something else going on?

{Some of Father's abilities are automatically activated once certain conditions are met.}

Oh, that's convenient. No wonder the soldiers got fired up so easily.

Now that I think about it, what are the conditions? Should I sound and act like a paladin?

{Paladin's Aura Self-Activation Condition: More than 2000 individuals must find themselves inferior to the user while the user is speaking.}

That condition sounds so wrong

Well, whatever. It's not like this will affect my plans negatively, anyway.

---

"What do you think are the chances of the next town being already 'weaponized'?" I ask Krul while patting Irene's head as she comfortably sits on my lap.

"Very likely," Krul responds.

"If this kingdom can produce a fine amount of the chemical that has changed the humans in such a way, then they will undoubtedly make use of it at every given opportunity," Saturnus adds.

"How horrible," Siesta says in a saddened tone.

"Now, now, Siesta," I say with a grin, "Don't forget that you will be saving them, so there is no need to be sad."

Siesta responds to my words by just nodding her head as a small smile appears on her lips.

"Jeanette," I call out to the pink-haired girl who has been staring at Siesta for quite some time now, "Aren't you staring a bit too much?"

As if just regaining her clarity, Jeanette abruptly turns her head and says,

"Sorry. It's just that she looked familiar."

Huh? Has Jeanette been to the academy in Tristain?

"She's right," Sheffield adds, "This girl does look familiar."

Sheffield as well? Strange...

"Your Highness!" a voice suddenly calls out from the front, "We have reached the town."

The atmosphere immediately tenses up as I make use of Clairvoyance to check the state of the town, only to discover that I'm unable to pass through a barrier set around it.

Looks like this battle won't be a simple one...