Chapter 79 - Chapter 76: Episode 75 - The Burden
Seon-ah felt a wave of relief, as if everything had finally been resolved.
After realizing that keeping his secrets had only caused his parents more pain, he was determined to start cherishing himself.
The pitch-black night and the dawn had passed, and the sun was rising.
For the first time, he felt that the Demon World's sun was just as bright as the one on Earth.
The expedition team would be here soon.
The expedition team was in dire straits.
Most of their combat troops had been lost along the way, leaving behind mostly non-combatants.
Now, only about two hundred combatants remained, alongside three hundred non-combatants.
They had arrived with three times as many combat troops as non-combatants, but the heavy casualties had completely unbalanced their numbers.
They had gathered a fair number of Awakened with healing abilities, but those mysterious assailants struck without giving them a moment to tend to their wounded.
They never imagined they would run into them the moment they reached the Succubus territory.
With no other choice, the Vice Expedition Leader had pulled out half of the remaining combat troops to hold them off, hoping to save at least the non-combatants.
He hoped the remaining hundred and fifty would be enough to escort the others safely back to Earth.
Given the strength of Min-ah, who had been promoted to Expedition Leader, he figured that even if the assailants breached the territory to finish off the non-combatants and the escort, Min-ah—who had infiltrated earlier—would be able to handle it.
The only thing left for him to do was to stall them as long as possible.
For the sake of those who would make it home...
The expedition team was puzzled to see the castle gate standing wide open as they tried to make their escape to Earth.
But with their pursuers closing in, they had no time to dwell on the question.
Looking inside, they only felt a sense of safety and a flicker of hope that they could finally return home.
Min-ah spotted the expedition team she had brought from atop the castle wall.
She had pushed her Sensory Enhancement to its limit to sharpen her vision, allowing her to recognize them at a glance.
The Vice Expedition Leader was nowhere to be seen.
Furthermore, nearly half of the combat troops were missing.
Something had gone wrong.
She jumped down from the wall and confronted the members who had entered first.
"I'm Min-ah, the Expedition Leader. Where is the Vice Expedition Leader and the rest of the troops?"
The members were startled to see Min-ah drop from above, but upon recognizing their leader, they caught their breath and reported.
"The assailants raided our hideout in the valley. The Vice Expedition Leader decided to hold them back, and we left for this territory as planned."
Hearing this, Min-ah knew exactly what fate awaited the Vice Expedition Leader.
She paid silent tribute in her heart to him and the combatants who had sacrificed themselves to save the others.
"The situation is urgent, so I'm taking command. We're heading to the gate immediately."
It would be impossible to protect the team if they were attacked within the demon city.
They had to open the gate and return to Earth as soon as possible.
Since the Lord had already opened the gate, she had to get the troops moving.
It wouldn't take long for those assailants to finish off the Vice Expedition Leader and the remaining combat troops.
Min-ah arrived at the gate with the combat troops.
She began sorting the non-combatants, sending them back to Earth first.
The Lord didn't have much time.
She had only left one small gate open.
There was no guarantee the assailants wouldn't arrive before the entire team could escape.
Min-ah had no choice but to plan to hold the assailants off with her combat troops while the non-combatants pushed through.
As if to confirm her fears, the assailants revealed themselves just as most of the non-combatants had escaped.
She didn't know who these harassers were, but they were no longer a match for her.
She had already cut down seven of them before they even reached the valley.
Seven out of thirty.
It might seem like a small number, but the last one had been split in two by a single strike of her sword.
After realizing she could kill them in one hit, they had stopped showing themselves.
Perhaps they were in a rush; they had abandoned their hit-and-run tactics and chosen the city center—a place with no retreat—as their final battlefield.
They looked like they were prepared to die.
The thirty Royal Knights had been organized into platoon-sized units.
The commander, a veteran, was carrying out his orders: annihilate the human invaders and capture their leader for the Council's interrogation room.
Given their numbers, he had initially opted to whittle them down.
With no real threats, a head-on assault would have been fine, but he had chosen a safer tactic to minimize losses.
However, the situation had changed.
The enemy commander was as strong as a demon with magical power.
Her strength and ability rivaled that of High Demons, and the knight sent to harass them had been decapitated before he could even trade a few blows.
Since then, he had tried to avoid her and focus on the combat troops.
But seven of his colleagues had already died at the hands of that human woman, who only seemed to be getting stronger.
He couldn't even imagine how powerful she had become.
If he let them go, he would be demoted, and his colleagues would be executed.
The situation in the Council was already precarious.
If he failed to carry out such a simple order, he would inevitably be caught in the political crossfire and branded a rebel.
If that happened, he'd be sent on a suicide mission to execute rebelling High Demons just to prove his innocence.
In the end, he would be demoted to the front lines, and his colleagues would be executed without a chance.
This was a fight he couldn't retreat from.
At that moment, something caught the Royal Knight Commander's eye.
A young boy who looked just like the leader.
He was surely family.
He must have been hidden well, as he had never been spotted during the attacks.
If he looked that much like the woman who had killed his colleagues, he couldn't have missed him.
If he was precious enough to be hidden so thoroughly, he would be the perfect hostage.
The Lord knew exactly who the attackers were.
Royal Knights.
The limbs of the Royals, who carried the Demon King's bloodline, and the sword of the Council.
They were people who must never be resisted.
If this were reported to the Council, she would be entangled with the rebels and executed.
But if she closed the gate now, she'd be killed by Min-ah's hand.
A dilemma.
The Lord eventually abandoned the open gate and fled.
It would be hard for them to identify her.
She had kept her hood up so the residents wouldn't see her helping the humans return to Earth.
If an investigation followed, there was only one way out.
She had to shift the blame to someone else.
Miel came to mind.
Her youngest daughter, currently trapped in the dungeon and destined for execution tomorrow.
It was better to die for a cause than to die for nothing.
With that thought, the Lord fled to her castle.
She had to get away before the Royal Knights could discover her.
He sent fifteen Royal Knights to trample the evacuating humans.
He ordered the remaining seven, including himself, to scatter and deal with the combat troops.
He, the most experienced and fastest of them, planned to attack the combatants and take the boy who resembled the human leader as a hostage.
It was a task only he could perform.
He lunged at the human combat soldier in front of him.
The human's body was split in two before he could even react.
Without losing momentum, he swung his sword, cutting down the next row of humans.
He moved forward, stabbing and slashing, turning the humans into bloody chunks of meat.
The leader would take longer to reach them because the fifteen knights he'd sent were engaging in guerrilla warfare.
Those fifteen would surely die.
But if they didn't complete their mission, death was the only outcome anyway.
The only way for the seven of them to survive was to take the boy hostage and drag the Expedition Leader to the Council's interrogation room.
As he thought this, most of the humans in front of him had already been cleared away.
The path to the boy was open.
He seized the opportunity and shot forward.
Perhaps fear had taken root, because even though they saw him running toward the boy, not a single human stood in his way.
Everyone is like that.
It's natural to value one's own life above another's.
Now, all that remained was to verify if the boy was truly worth the effort.
The end of the battle was approaching.
The completion of his orders was within reach.