The Useless 8th Prince

Checkmate

BLARR!!!

Accompanied by a loud bang, the gates of Scarlet Roze Castle opened. Thousands of troops with silver armor with bloodstains in some places instantly barged in. They were all elite soldiers under Duke Raevern.

The figure of Duke Raevern also entered the castle behind the soldiers. Seeing the situation of the castle being so deserted, he felt that the situation was not right.

“Come to find the castle dwellers! I can't believe the thousands of people retreating to the castle could just disappear!”

“According to your order, Sir!” the soldiers at the same time.

The soldiers started to advance and searched the castle. After a few hours, someone reported with a somewhat pale facial expression.

“Sorry, Sir! Traces of Marcus Bathory and traitors were nowhere to be found. However ..”

“What's up??” Duke Raevern raised his eyebrows.

“Found a large laboratory under the castle.”

“Take me there.”

“Good, Sir!”

Entering the main building of the castle, Duke Raevern then headed to a spacious room filled with paintings of the heads of the Bathory Family. In the middle of the room, there was a fountain with a statue of a beautiful woman in the middle.

The statue had shifted and below it was a rung of stairs leading to the basement. Since his soldiers had checked, Duke Raevern confidently went down the steps. However after descending deep enough and arriving at such a spacious room, he was stunned.

Underground, there was a large space roughly similar in size to the national basketball stadium. There are many strange tools and also many cells. Checking the cell section, Duke Raevern gnashed his teeth furiously.

In addition to the cells that contained various kinds of Demonic Beasts, there were cells that contained demons from the young to the teenagers. They were all wearing tattered clothes, obviously from among the incapable. Because it is impossible to target people, Marcus is obviously quite ingenious to ‘recruit’ one by one children from poor areas.

“Check if there are no abnormalities on them. If safe, release them.”

After commanding his army, Duke Raevern moved elsewhere. He saw many corpses being piled up. Although some of the corpses still had somewhat normal forms, most of them had strange shapes. It was as if a doll was sewn from different parts of another doll.

“Marcus ... The fucker.” Duke Raevern became even more impatient.

Leaving that place, he then headed for another location. That place is an individual cell. Unlike the mixed holding cells, in it there are children who successfully developed. They all had blank expressions, as if they had lost all of their emotions.

Seeing the expressions on their faces, Duke Raevern recalled while fighting the Marquis Bathory's army on the battlefield. Other than having abilities above the average warrior, they were not at all afraid of death. Really keep marching and fighting like a robot programmed to fight.

As he approached one of the cells, a child got up and suddenly tried to attack him. It's like a robot attacking a stranger. It made Duke Raevern even more regretful.

Turning away, he gave orders to the soldiers below him.

“Remove them. Make sure to finish in one hit. Don't let them feel pain.”

“...”

Not answering, the soldiers simply saluted with stifled expressions.

Duke Raevern then headed to the last room which if he had not mistakenly guessed, had previously had the most strict guard.

Obviously it was a trap. If Duke Raevern was not careful, he was afraid that it would trigger a trap. From how complicated the trap was, the man guessed that the trap was triggered, not only damaging what was inside the glass tube.

Looking at that figure inside the glass tube, Duke Raevern felt somewhat complicated.

“No matter what it is .. obviously it is worth it.”

Duke Raevern thought of reporting it to Emperor Julius, but other than praise and some small gifts, he was at most considered to be contributing to the Black Sun Empire.

He then recalled the figure of a handsome young man who looked so cold. Although it looked indifferent to many things, the figure clearly had a vision ahead. Genius .. and not just any genius.

“If it is useful to Prince Luciel and in the future he is appointed emperor ... The Raevern family must have benefited a lot for supporting him.”

Thinking of the future, the corner of Duke Raevern's lips lifted. He looks so happy. For now, the man decided to keep this place a secret.

...***...

Marcus Bathory, who led about two thousand troops, appeared on a forest hill which was quite far from Scarlet Roze City. Starting from there, Marcus led the party to continue heading southwest, towards the location of the border between his territory and the Blackfield region.

The reason he was heading in that direction was because it was the only way. The other direction was impassable as it had to meet the major cities guarded by the forces of the South Duchy Nobles Alliance after they had conquered and occupied them.

In addition, Marcus intended to run in that direction because the location of the border was relatively quiet. Not only that, the border he was heading for was the border between the three regions. In addition to its territory and the territory of Ciel, there is also a neutral territory that is Shadowmist Forest.

Although it was quite dangerous, the Shadowmist Forest could be a place for them to take shelter. In addition, there were also many things that were quite valuable be it plants, Demonic Beasts, and so on. Marcus intends to make a residence there to evacuate temporarily.

If it had been some time and the Curses of Shadow had not picked them up, Marcus intended to join the neighboring kingdom. Although in the Black Sun Empire he was titled a Marquis, with his strength, he could match the average Duke of a neighboring kingdom. Of course, as long as the Bathory Family was in hiding, the kingdom would not reject the powerful people who joined them.

It's just that ..Marcus didn't know that his plan had been predicted by Ciel and Duke Raevern.

After days of continuous escape and almost reaching the border, Marcus and his army finally reached the vast prairie. Merely, after passing through half a meadow, he saw tens of thousands of soldiers marching there. His eyes instantly narrowed when he saw the black shadow flying in the sky heading towards him.

As the figure got closer, he could clearly see the figure of a handsome young man riding on a black Wyvern.

“Luciel Dawnbringer ..”

Marcus muttered softly. He did not expect the boy younger than his own son to do so many miracles. Moreover, Luciel's seemingly indifferent figure somehow gave Marcus goosebumps.

Ciel's figure suddenly blew out a strange whistle. With his cue, the entire row instantly moved both ways. The movement continued for quite a long time. However, Marcus and the exhausted party could do nothing.

Fifty thousand soldiers surrounded Marcus and his army at a considerable distance. Obviously it's a safe distance and the attack won't be launched immediately.

Ciel's figure drew closer, after being less than fifty meters away, he stopped. Deschia landed on the ground. The young man looked at the troops who could be said to look pitiful then shook his head lightly.

“You're in vain, Marcus. Yes, how to say it ..”

Ciel looked at Marcus with a cold gaze.

“Skakmat.”

>> Connect.