Evade The Hero and F Chapter 113

Chapter 113

12. Its not over til its over (11)

#13 Their story: Atia nel Karuans story.

I watched Iris and Ast battle it out.

There would be no hope for success if things went on like this.

Iris was at her limits rely evading the silver-coloured cludgel.

Simply surviving for that long against a blatantly broken weapon that inflicted pain simply by making contact with your sword would be an incredible feat in itself.

If it were any other ti I would have praised her even if she lost, but not this ti.

Its Ast.

For ten years I waited, for ten years I prepared.

Yet the man whose face I never saw once through all ten of those years was right in front of .

I could almost touch him if I just reached out my hand.

If I just reached out I was within capturing distance but why did my hand never reach that place?

Ever since I was little, I had obtained everything I wanted.

The Karuan Empire was a superpower on the continent, and even the head of that superpower, the emperor, my father, could not refuse my words.

But, for the first ti in my life, soone rejected my words.

At first it was fascinating.

All his actions were that of a petty lowlifes, but if I thought of the way he treated , there was no man as bold as he was.

He was not a genius.

But neither was he an idiot or a simple commoner.

Sotis he looked like an idiot in the way he didnt know obvious things, but at others he created new thods that not even I had managed to think of.

There was an old saying that the line between a genius and an idiot is a thin one, and watching Ast made

realise just what kind of person that idiom referred to.

So I was happy.

Because he and I could converse with each other on equal grounds, sothing that no one else had managed.

He was different to those who simply bowed their heads in front of imperial title.

Asts eyes had no traces of fear or wariness.

Instead, how would I say it. Looks of exasperated apathy and ones that questioned just what was I up to again were plentiful.

Nor did he, like the ones who knew of my fate, look at as if I was a monster or send

looks of pity.

Instead he gave

looks that said what kind of madwoman is this or lets not give her any attention.

All of a sudden it feels like I was treated quite anly but thats just , right?

As a laugh threatened to escape my lips as I recalled past mories, I clamped my mouth shut and barely managed to stop it.

Ast was always like this.

Unlike the others, he was close to , much like Reia did, who knew everything.

But the only ca close, he kept so distance from

and always maintained it.

A quaint distance that was neither too friendly, nor too distant.

Was it because of that distance?

I had always been thinking of death, and had thought I would die alone, but when death ca for , when I heard Asts voice, and unlike my normal self, I entertained a sudden small thought.

If I asked Ast to die with , would he really die with his master?

The mont I thought of that I imdiately knew the answer.

That he would never, ever do such a thing.

And so I smiled faintly as I said.

Im inside so co in.

And I thought to myself.

If its together with you, at least the path to the underworld wont be boring.

But because Ast ca into my room that day, my fate was overturned.

Ast took away the death that had co for .

The thing that all the people and resources of the empire couldnt solve, Ast went and solved it.

I was surprised at my unexpected new life, but thinking that good things were good, I began to enjoy it.

I spent the days with Ast and Reia, and that didnt change even after the Great War began.

We bullied Reia as if to outdo each other, we laughed along together at Asts acts of lunacy, and after we played together like that a few tis the neighbouring country was conquered, and so we picked out a new target and started another war.

But in the middle of all that, Ast vanished.

At first I thought that Ast was insane enough to oversleep in the middle of a war.

When he was not discovered in his chambers I wondered if he was preparing sothing weird sowhere else.

And when the letter that said he would be leaving the imperial court was discovered, I worried whether he had been kidnapped by an enemy nation, in a manner quite unlike myself.

When I found out that he was originally a spy for the organisation nad Howling, I was the most furious that I had ever been in my life.

That he had used ? No.

It was anger at the fact that between Howling, a parasite leeching off the empire, and myself, a princess of the empire, he had chosen Howling.

That I would lose to Howling of all things, there was no greater sha than this.

Bring him to , right now!

In the middle of a war, I brought together my subordinates and began to throw a tantrum.

The empires hidden darkness? Trash naturally accumulated itself when you cleaned it out, so we had simply left the trash that was easy to take care of.

I could not stand the idea that my belonging was in the middle of that trash that could be dealt with at any ti.

But right now we were at war.

No matter how much montum we had behind us, in a situation where anything could happen, there was no way I would permit the creation of internal strife, and because of that, all I could do was endure and end the war as quickly as possible.

And so as I tempered my anger, and drank tea made with Reias amateur skills.

Your Highness you really like Ast too much.

As Reia said so with a bitter smile, I dropped the teacup I was holding.

Like? ? Ast?

I ignored a shocked Reia as I deeply thought over it.

Why was I so angry.

Why did it feel so stifling just because Ast wasnt here.

Why did I so openly express my wish to see Ast.

So it is.

I, liked Ast.

It took two entire days for

to co to that conclusion.

And the answer I found at the end of those two days made

happy.

I never thought I would ever have the chance to love anyone, but thanks to Ast I had obtained yet another thing!

So I ceased all activity related to Asts search.

Ast had run away in disgust when I had simply threatened to marry him as a joke.

And how horrifying were his escape skills?

He had escaped without anyone the wiser in the middle of a warzone under maximum security.

If I were to carelessly lay my hands on him then I would only give him the opportunity to escape.

Therefore I had to set a perfect trap and create a situation where escape was impossible.

To create that scenario, I suffered a bit to end the war.

And I even lifted up my little brother so that he would beco victorious in the fight for succession.

I created all sorts of excuses to liquidate the nobles that had ties with Howling, and I secretly had my spies infiltrate Howling.

I also recruited his disciples that he had trained at Howling, and identified each and every one of the choices and decisions he could make.

And when I believed everything to be perfect, I eliminated Howling.

But I missed Ast.

Everything was for the sake of capturing Ast, but the most important Ast escaped.

How much had I regretted my choices back then.

If I had taken action personally, the results could have been different.

So despite the opposition of countless bureaucrats of the imperial court, I had taken action personally.

I road many countries of the continent, sotis I wheedled them, sotis I threatened them.

And let alone humans, I had even been searching through the kingdoms of other races for Ast as well, and how happy was I when I heard that he was actually in the capital!

He was waiting for

in the best place where I could eliminate as many outlying variables as I could, where I could stage my plan the most effectively!

It was the mont when the scenario that was so perfect I even imagined that Ast could actually be waiting for

to arrive.

Although thats broken now

How much ti had passed by.

The monts that flashed before my eyes like a revolving lantern, as if all my past mories were reliving themselves was invigorating.

I had previously said that looking forwards to the future was more efficient than looking back on the past, but only the past with Ast no, the things that might be better called mories returned to

often.

This ti for sure.

I will capture you.

I will not lose you again.

I am not an imbecile that would lose this opportunity right in front of my eyes.

For so bizarre reason, Ast was very popular with so very troubleso won, so the fact that I had even withheld information on Ast to my allies to prevent any intelligence from being leaked to them had backfired, but I could deal with that much.

Magic sealing device? All it did was interfere with the flow of magic power in a certain space to freeze it.

aning, it wasnt that mana wouldnt move, but it moved irregularly so that it was hard to use.

Just that.

If I moved my magic power to match the new flow, then I could use magic again.

It might be impossible for ordinary people, but was I an ordinary person?

I am a woman of the Karuan Empire.

Of those who inherited the blood of the Karuan Imperial Family, said to be the descendants of a union between man and dragon, I was the one that had most strongly received the legacy of the dragons.

As a descendant of dragons, those called the masters of magic, lords of magic, it was inconceivable that I would be unable to manage that!

Its over, now

And when Iris began to fall not far from where I stood.

Its over, now

I, too, could almost perfectly understand this flow.

I didnt even bother to imagine that the knights would be able to defeat Ast without mana.

Disregarding how disgusting his thods had been, Ast had defeated the Sword Heaven with his sword.

And even the Sword Heaven himself had admitted that Asts raw skill was not below his own.

So my knights role was to hold out until I could completely comprehend the flow.

Because of that, I didnt interrupt his disagreeable conversations, but only laid out orders to prevent him from becoming suspicious.

And as a result, the silver flare of sword aura blazed on the sword in my hand once again.

Hm?

As he looked for

who said the exact sa words that he had, his eyes bulged as they focused on the sword aura glowing on my blade.

The fact that his openly shocked expression was quite cute was my little secret.

Holy shit?

As always he said sothing that you wouldnt believe he was saying to royalty, words that hed have no rights to plead against were he to be executed for it, but it simply made

smile.

This is the end.

The will of my sword turned my steps into a dance.

And the martial art that arose from it was one of the imperial familys secret styles.

A style that was said to have been created through imitation of an enraged blue dragon that lived in the ocean.

The Dragon Kings Sword, Chapter of Blue.(1)

Countless Currents ()(2)

I watched silver waves gradually fill, then flood the small cave.

In the middle of this unfamiliar flow of mana, avoiding the knights and only aiming for Asts lower body is difficult.

But overcoming all these, my sword aura finally began to reach Asts legs.

Were you really going to cut !

He deflected the first wave of sword aura with that silver weapon of his, but like its na, Countless Currents was an attack that created countless waves of sword aura crashing down on you.

As I saw Ast scream at my attack, I didnt even think to wipe the sweat off my forehead as I shouted happily back to Ast.

Its alright, Ast! I wont dislike you just because youre missing so legs!

My love for Ast wouldnt disappear with just a paltry disability like that.

No, on the contrary, it is very good because then there wouldnt be any pests attracted to him, and Ast could not run away.

Thats not love but obsession! Ast half-scread as he jumped into the air.

It doesnt matter even if it is obsession.

I gripped the hilt of my sword as I controlled the movents of the sword aura.

Manipulating sword aura that had already left my control was a very difficult task.

Moreover, doing so in a space under lockdown by a magic-sealing device made the task all but impossible, but right now I could surpass that impossibility.

Hoo.

With a short breath, the wave of sword aura leaped upwards.

And as he looked down at the sight, Ast bit his lips and,

Do or die!(3)

What are you doing!

He adjusted his center of gravity mid-air, and placed his body in the path of the wave of sword aura.

If you want my corpse, then take it!

Thats a fake.

Could the man who prioritised his own well-being over anything else really risk his life like that?

Ast would never do such a thing.

But

Did a way to evade my attack in that position mid-air exist?

It is impossible without magic.

But let alone using magic himself, he had a bizarre constitution where even spells casted onto him by other people simply vanished, so there was no way any such thod existed for him.

Damn it all!

In the end, the one with the most to lose was .

I wanted a live Ast, not his dead corpse.

Haaaaaaaah!

If I were a second late, then Ast could be diced into chunks of at.

With all the strength I could muster, I forcibly bent the direction of the magic off-course.

Boom!

Haah. Haa. Haah.

I managed to end it with my sword aura just skimming beside Ast and breaking the wall behind him.

Ast, now it really is over

An opening!

Even now!

Whose fault was it that I worked hard enough to drench my entire body with sweat, and he attacked in that mont!

But.

Now it really was over.

Asts attack was to throw his only weapon, the tal bat.

I couldnt guarantee what would happen to

if I got hit by that, but I was not exhausted enough to be unable to dodge that.

And inversely, the mont I dodged, I won.

Without the wooden bat or the tal bat, there was no way for Ast to defeat a swordsmaster.

Having perfectly evaded the tal bat thrown at , I smiled victoriously and looked up at Ast.

Now its truly over

Hes smiling?

But before I could even finish.

The mont I saw Asts quaint smile and realised that sothing had gone horribly wrong.

Ultimate move, Aru Punch

As I heard a voice co from behind , the world whited out.

As always, feel free to leave any suggestions and corrections in the comnts.

(1) Original was ,

, and as I do not read wuxia (KR or CN) I have little knowledge of what

translates to in this usage.

(2) I hate wuxia attack nas. The literal translation of this would be smth like (A) Thousand Leagues(2.5) (of) Torrential Currents

(2.5) Referring to the unit of distance, literal translation would be li, sa unit of distance as the Chinese one, which TIL has been standardised in the modern day to 500m

(3) I was so tempted to localise it to leroy instead