Chapter 149 - Dusk

Leo felt worried.

It was reasonable, considering the last time he left Rynold to do his thing.

He trusted Rynold to do his job rather well. The only problem that seemed to retain was how much the man was willing to sacrifice to get the job done.

Rynold's actions were consistently risky. It doesn't take a top-of-the-line education to see something as obvious as that. So, Leo felt a little doubtful whether the guy would live through whatever he was planning on doing.

Perhaps, though, now might not be the best time to figure that out.

From what Rynold had told him, Lissa should've evacuated the castle by now. As to where they went, however, was something unclear.

Which, unfortunately, Leo had to waste time in finding them. Luckily, his speed could cover a significant distance in just a few seconds. So, how hard would it be to find those people?

Truthfully, it could be quite a challenge.

Because Leo had no idea where to start, he was basically a headless chicken. As much as he'd enjoy running around the place, Leo didn't have the luxury to do anything like that.

There was an impending threat that Rynold had determined to be too big to handle. Even Leo felt the same with a simple look over the horizon.

Time was of the essence.

The sound of electricity started to run on his feet. With that, Leo pounced and left to find his sister. If he had time to hesitate, then he'd have time to look around.

Zooming through the forest just outside the castle, Leo first headed towards the hole that he had previously made. The one that the group initially used to head to the residential district.

"Hello? Anybody there?"

Leo looked around as soon as he landed inside the wall. Nothing much has changed from the last time he was here. Apart from the now-disappeared monster corpses, Leo didn't find a trace of anybody there.

'What's that?'

Out of the corner of his eye, Leo found something wedged under the rubble. It must've been a piece of loot that they hadn't noticed, not with all the panic that ensued.

The thing was shimmering ever so lightly. It pulsated a low amount of light that made it hard to see in broad daylight.

Leo reached in to grab the small object and, upon contact, a window appeared.

[Monster Egg]

That was it. As undescriptive as things go, this was pretty much the most undescriptive thing that Leo had come across.

'Oh well.'

Not thinking much of the item, Leo placed it into his inventory and left through the hole he used to come in. From there, he ran towards the courtyard.

With his speed, it took a few minutes to get there. During which, the sun continued to set from behind him. Leo essentially had a few minutes of daylight left.

'Can't believe I passed out from a rock to the head.'

While he was running, a particular thought popped into his head.

He was disappointed at how things had turned out. It was unfortunate, very much so. Leo had initially hoped to have fought against the Duke in a lashed-out fight. Or at least assist Rynold in taking care of the guy.

But, no.

It was by some extreme misfortune that Leo was knocked out. He had missed all of the action.

For a guy who wanted to dirty his own knuckles in a fight, the unfortunate occurrence really ground his gears. In the end, Leo couldn't really do anything about it but sigh.

Soon, Leo arrived at the courtyard and found what he was looking for.

"Lissa!"

Leo called out as he ran towards his little sister. The two siblings were never really that close. However, seeing each other after all that happened, their faces couldn't help but light up.

As the two reunited and exchanged greetings, Leo felt compelled to ask something.

"What the hell happened to you?"

Leo looked at his sister from head to toe. From a simple look, the young Princess was nowhere near the same as before.

Her prim and proper look was entirely gone, replaced with a much more serious expression on her face. Furthermore, her clothes didn't look pristine anymore. No, it was a bit dirtier with bits of it torn.

It was then that Leo realized, throughout all of this, his little sister had grown up. Even just by a little bit.

"I should be the one asking you that!"

Lissa didn't want to say anything, but her brother's condition looks absolutely worse.

There were bloodstains all over his shirt, even if one would call it that anymore. His so-called shirt was essentially rags by now, with all of the holes and significant tears over all of it.

If Leo wasn't standing before her right now, her brother could easily be mistaken for a dead man walking. The guy literally looked like he had walked through hell and back.

"I'm fine, really. Just some scrapes here and there. Otherwise, totally in perfect condition."

Leo, naturally, didn't mention how he had almost died at the hands of a sadistic bastard. That was all in the past, so there really wasn't a need to mention something trivial.

All that matters was he was still standing.

"Anyway, where's the Spirit? I thought it was with you."

"It's resting right now," Lissa answered, "More importantly, what's next?"

Leo hesitated. He contemplated as to what he should say next. To follow Rynold's instructions and leave him or not.

"Take this and leave," Leo handed her a teleportation stone. "Take the others with you. And, when you get there, try to find this elf called Margareth. Tell her what happened here and especially mention Rynold. She'll know what to do from there."

"W-wait. What?" Lissa received an abundant amount of information in a short amount of time. "Where is there, exactly? And, what do you mean by elf?! What are you going to do when we leave?"

"Relax, little sis. You'll get your answers as soon as you get there. I'll see you later."

Without a proper explanation, Leo left. Lissa could barely process the instructions she received and looked down on the teleportation stone in her hand.

The first thing that popped into her head was, 'what the hell am I supposed to do with this?' Followed by a 'why doesn't anybody tell me anything?!'

Letting out a deep sigh, Lissa looked over the horizon. From where she was standing, she caught a glimpse of a peaceful sunset.

'I hope those idiots know what the hell they're doing,' the young Princess thought to herself as the sun finally set.

Meanwhile...

Rynold was worried.

He couldn't help but overthink as he was racing through the residential district. The sun had already set, and he hasn't even covered half the distance towards his destination.

'Shit. I need to get there in time.'

Currently, Rynold was making his way to the orphanage. Why he was going there was rather simple.

Those shadowy figures over the horizon were making their way towards the residential district. And, judging by the location of the buildings, the orphanage would be the first to fall.

Rynold had consciously decided to save those kids. He needed to do something about those lives that were on the line. Risks or not, Rynold had to do something.

'Damn it. I hope those guys didn't abandon those kids.'

He was moving as fast as the Miniature Floating Platform could be. In fact, he had even left X behind so that he won't get slowed down. Rynold could summon the Mech Knight from anywhere, anyway.

But still, Rynold's mind had been preoccupied with something else entirely. He wanted to save all of them, including the mercenaries.

With a determined look on his face, Rynold focused on where he needed to go and what he needed to do. He zoomed past ruined buildings and empty roads. Truthfully, it felt rather quiet despite all the chaos that happened earlier that day.

Luckily, nobody was shooting him down this time. The soldiers that he had gone against before didn't seem to be aware of his presence.

As the sun finally set, Rynold got closer and closer to his destination. Once he got there, though, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

The orphanage was secure. In fact, it even looked like a military facility.

The mercenaries had set up camp in the orphanage, staying true to what Rynold had said. People were covering every entrance and exit with their rifles and guns at the ready.

Rynold quickly spotted the mercenaries' commander waving at him from one of the windows. It was dark since the power lines have long been destroyed, but Rynold knew that the man was waving him down.

"How're the kids?"

Rynold asked as soon as he went in through the window where the commander was. He took a look at the surroundings and noticed that nobody was there. It was rather odd to have the floor all to himself.

"Fine. They're resting downstairs. I came up here, so I won't disturb them. They had a long day. What the hell happened to you? You look like shit."

The two of them were currently on the third floor, which had an overview of the entire area. The only thing in the room was a desk and a small flashlight. It was all generally for the commander to have a quiet place to himself.

"It's a long story, old man, one that we don't have time for. There's something bad coming. I have no idea what it is, but I need you to gather everyone in one place."

"Sounds serious, kid. I'll trust you on this."

Immediately, the commander reached for his radio to call for his men. But, as soon as he grabbed ahold of it, somebody suddenly radioed in.

"Commander. There's something up the road. It's about 20 klicks away from here, but it's getting closer by the second. It's moving crazy fast too."

Rynold's expression immediately went into a daze. He couldn't believe how fast they've gotten here. Whoever those things were, Rynold was sure that they couldn't fight them off.

Noticing the subtle change in Rynold's face, the commander immediately issued instructions. They clearly didn't sign up for whatever weird creatures were coming towards them.

"Go down and handle the kids. Bring them along with you and set up the extraction point with everybody there. I'll check on whatever the fuck is trying to invade here."

With that said, Rynold immediately boarded the Miniature Floating Platform and flew off. One of the mercenaries noticed this and pointed Rynold to where he needed to go.

"What the fuck is that?"

Rynold felt his mouth run dry as he saw the wave of figures running towards them. He swore that he recognized these creatures before, but he couldn't put his finger on them.

Suddenly, a blue bullet flew past him, clipping his ear. If it were any closer, Rynold would've been dead.

"I knew you wouldn't disappoint, little human! HAHA! Welcome to the end game!"

"Skeem."

Rynold would be able to recognize that voice anywhere. The ogre was standing on one of the rooftops, overlooking his rampaging army. He wore the same red suit but was now holding a Mana Rifle significantly more profound than the one that Rynold had made before.

"What the hell is your plan here? You're invading a dead kingdom. There is nobody there anymore!"

"Our plans aren't that simple, kid. I haven't properly introduced myself yet. I am Skeem. Tactician and Arms expert."

Skeem let go of the Mana Rifle in his hands, and it immediately disappeared. From there, he pulled another weapon out of thin air.

The weapon's barrel was massive compared to its handle. It somewhat resembled a weapon that Rynold had seen before. It was...

Boom!

As Rynold was trying to figure out what weapon the thing was, Skeem pulled the trigger. The weapon shot out a gigantic bolt of blue that went straight towards Rynold.

It was a rocket launcher.