Ch.6867. The Imperial Princess (11)

# 67. The Princess (11)

Finally regaining her senses, Aelin looked around in shock.

“W-what is this? Did you do this?”

“Yeah.”

Aelin just stared at me silently before slowly approaching me.

Then, in a voice so quiet only I could hear, she said:

“Thank you…”

“You can cry more if you want.”

“Shut up…”

After saying that, Aelin returned to her side.

“Only about 2,000 people remain now.”

Considering that 5,000 were alive earlier, there must have been quite a few battles happening elsewhere, not just here.

“But… more teams survived than I expected.”

Indeed, as she said, there were quite a few teams still alive.

While only 2,000 individuals remained, in terms of teams, 34 were still active.

“Still, they must have fought each other quite intensely.”

Of course, our side probably fought the most fiercely.

“I wonder how Eve and Rachel’s team is doing.”

“They’re still alive, at least.”

Moreover, their team had a good balance of warriors, mages, and archers, and above all, they had Eve and Rachel.

If they secured a good position, they had enough strength to place second even without alliances.

“Thinking about it again, you really picked a good team.”

“What do you mean?”

“Honestly speaking, with just your team’s strength alone, you’d have ranked maybe 7th or 8th at best.”

While Aelin was there, the other team members were somewhat lacking, to be honest.

And given Aelin’s relatively limited magical power, there would certainly have been limitations.

“That’s true…”

“You’re admitting it quite readily?”

“Without you and sis, I think we would’ve been eliminated already…”

She seemed to have realized her own shortcomings during this battle.

‘So that’s why she’s been looking so gloomy…’

I said to the rather depressed-looking Aelin:

“You’re here because you did well. Having a good team is also a skill.”

“What’s with you today…? Since earlier…”

Despite her words, Aelin was clearly delighted and didn’t know how to react.

Her embarrassed expression was somewhat annoying to see, but this was the situation I had chosen, so I had to deal with it.

“Just work harder.”

“I am working hard! In fact, I’m working harder than you—”

—BANG!!—

A bullet flew toward Aelin at an insane speed as she was speaking.

I instantly deflected the bullet that had come within inches of Aelin’s face, and the startled Aelin collapsed on the spot.

“Watch where you’re going.”

“W-what was that just now?”

“What do you think? You almost got shot. More importantly, are they planning to keep this up?”

From that moment on, they continued to harass us from a distance, never coming forward to face us directly.

They clearly judged that they had no chance in close combat.

“But how did you know? I didn’t even see it coming.”

“[Killing Intent Detection].”

“But it was aimed at me…”

“If it enters my range, I can detect it even if the killing intent isn’t directed at me.”

To be honest, the skill’s rank was quite low, making it dangerous, and she seemed to have noticed that fact.

“The rank doesn’t seem very high, but your reaction speed is impressive.”

“It was quite dangerous.”

“As long as you blocked it, that’s what matters.”

She had a point.

In actual combat, blocking is what counts, and conversely, even the sharpest attack is useless if blocked.

“More importantly… how do we deal with them?”

There was no real damage, but their constant harassment from a distance was extremely annoying.

And since they were opponents we’d have to face eventually, I wanted to deal with them as quickly as possible.

At that moment, she made a suggestion after pondering something.

“How about we split up here?”

“Split up?”

To be honest, splitting up here didn’t seem like a good decision.

Unless I was alone, that is.

“You mean just you splitting off to flank them from behind or the side like before?”

“You catch on quickly.”

Seeing her response, Aelin made a very anxious expression and said:

“But wouldn’t that put us in danger?”

She seemed to have been frightened by the recent sniper shot.

Of course, it was a situation worth being scared about.

After all, she had almost been eliminated by a bullet from an unknown location.

“You have the Princess, she could have blocked that shot easily too.”

“How do you know that?”

“If that weren’t the case, a strategy where I go alone would be too risky.”

Given her personality, she wouldn’t have even suggested a strategy with such high risk.

Hearing my words, Aelin looked at her with an expression that seemed to ask, “Really?”

“Albert is right.”

“If anything, the Princess would block it better than me. So where should I go?”

“I’ll leave that judgment to you. Since team members can check each other’s positions on the watch, we’ll adjust accordingly.”

I asked her, who was wearing a faint smile:

“Aren’t you trusting me too much?”

“I’ve judged that it’s fine. Besides, I think Albert would be more effective moving alone.”

As she said, I was more accustomed to moving alone, and it suited me better.

My excellent combat ability came from my mobility, after all.

Realizing this fact, I said to her who had trusted me:

“I’ll trust you too.”

“That’s my line…”

“See you later. Don’t get eliminated by being careless.”

“You focus on yourself.”

After saying goodbye to them, I entered the forest where the trees were so dense that one couldn’t see even a step ahead.

‘This might take some time to find them.’

***

After annihilating another team, Chris spoke to Raycle with a confident expression.

“See? I told you it was possible!”

The alliance of Teams 41 and 44 was following their original plan of avoiding the monstrous Team 46 and systematically eliminating the other surviving teams.

“That’s three teams down already!”

“Could we really take second place at this rate?”

Raycle spoke in the most serious tone to Chris and Reina, who were getting ahead of themselves with excitement.

“Rachel and Eve’s team is still alive, and so is Albert’s sister’s team. Don’t get too excited.”

“As long as we don’t run into them, it’s totally possible. Won’t Albert and the Princess take care of them for us?”

Briton, who was maintaining his composure like Raycle, said:

“What if all three teams are allied?”

“T-then we’d lose… what else could we do?”

“But that’s unlikely… probably?”

Even Chris, who said those words, didn’t seem confident.

As the mood somehow became subdued in that alliance, someone approached and spoke to them.

“Well, we’re not allied with them.”

“W-wait a minute! Why are you here?”

Surprisingly, that someone was Rachel, who had just been mentioned, and beside her were the members of Team 2.

Witnessing this scene, the alliance quickly assumed battle positions.

“We’re not here to fight.”

“Don’t tell me you want to form an alliance again? How many times…”

“We just need your help. Neither of us can beat even one Albert alone, I think.”

Hearing those words, Raycle frowned and objected.

He seemed quite offended.

“If it’s just him alone, we’d definitely win.”

“No, we wouldn’t.”

Raycle was taken aback by Chris’s firm denial from his own team.

“You saw how much stronger he’s gotten recently. How are we supposed to beat that? Besides, we lost to him 3-to-1 before.”

“I wasn’t there then.”

“From what I’ve seen, it wouldn’t make a difference if you were there. If you fail to react and get hit even once, you’re out immediately.”

Raycle, having some conscience, couldn’t bring himself to claim he could react in time.

“And there’s no way you could react in time.”

“But what difference would it make if we joined forces? If we can’t hold the front line, Eve and Rachel would be out immediately, and then we’d just lose anyway?”

“We won’t know until we try.”

Compared to Chris and Reina, Rachel seemed quite confident.

With a bright expression, Rachel continued:

“If we can hold out just a little at the front, there’s a chance.”

“But would he even be moving alone in the first place?”

Hearing Raycle’s doubt, Chris spoke with a confident voice:

“Exactly! If he had been moving alone, we would have encountered him already.”

“Wait… that…”

As Eve’s anxious, trembling voice was about to finish the conversation, an eerie rustling sound pierced their ears.

—Rustle! Rustle!—

The subject of their recent conversation emerged from the bushes with a rustling sound.

He raised his sword and greeted them as they stared at him blankly.

“Hello? It’s been a while, everyone.”

Chris pointed at the sword directed at them and said:

“Wait, put that down.”

“Why?”

“We… alliance…”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

“You don’t have to be so serious about it.”

He let out a hollow laugh in disbelief and said:

“Weren’t you just planning to eliminate me until a moment ago?”

“You heard that?”

“You’re really shameless. I almost fell for it.”

Albert pointed his sword at them.

Then, with a voice full of confidence, he made them an offer:

“Want to try? I don’t mind.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Let’s do it, why not.”

Perhaps influenced by his confidence, even those who had initially been negative about the fight showed enthusiastic responses.

Albert, seeing their reaction, smiled with satisfaction.

“Shall we start right away then?”

Hearing those words, Eve aimed her gun at Albert and immediately pulled the trigger.

—BANG!!—

And that gunshot echoed across the battlefield, becoming the signal for battle.