People on the way from the capital to the Smaho Forest witnessed a very strange sight.

"Huh? Is it possible for a horse to go that speed?"

"Maybe something happened to the tower or the Imperial Family? I think acceleration magic was casted."

"Well, I've seen horses enchanted with acceleration a long time ago, but... It wasn't that fast."

A well-groomed black horse was running with its rider at a formidable speed.

The speed was so fast that the human eye could not even recognize the figure of the rider on the horse.

"That looks like a huge emergency. Unless you mobilize a few archmages, you won't be able to achieve that speed."

The people who witnessed the horse running at great speed murmured with anxiety.

"Did something really happen?"

"Come to think of it, Prince Robert and his party went there a while ago. Saying that they were eradicating black magic."

The person who had a glimpse of the rider because of his excellent vision also added seriously.

"I couldn't look closely at his face, but his expression was very serious. He seemed almost half crazy."

So Ian was rushing into the Smaho Forest, worrying many people.

Annabelle confessed to him. She said she liked him too.

Then, confessing the mistakes of the past, she disappeared with the misunderstanding that 'Ian can't like me'.

She didn't even give him time to convey his feelings, saying that he should safely participate in the swordsmanship contest.

Besides, now her life might be in danger.

This was because her nemesis, Lagian, who would encounter her in the forest, would have strengthened his own abilities with illegal drugs.

At first glance, Lagian's skills at the banquet were quite good. If it was the old Annabelle, she couldn't win.

And even now, the difference between their skills wasn't that big.

Besides, she had one fatal weakness. She had never hurt anyone with her sword.

The only person she'd ever wanted to harm was Ian Wade, who had never been significantly hurt.

The problem was that he knew that Annabelle could not even get a scratch on Ian in any way.

When she actually had to cut someone with a sword, seriously injuring or killing them, she couldn't help but hesitate for a moment.

Until now, she had been able to properly knock them out with her overwhelming skills, but it was only possible when the difference in skills between them was huge.

Ian couldn't hide his anxiety and kept kicking his horse on the side.

Just in case, if Annabelle was in danger...

Ian's thoughts kept turning in the wrong direction, as he hadn't heard that Annabelle had directly instructed Aaron about the illegal drugs.

Robert couldn't be a variable, and the knights he had been dragging around weren't going to be of help much either.

"Huh? Ian?"

By the time he got to the forest at a crazy speed, it was already around noon, after a full day.

At the entrance to the Smaho forest, the knights that Robert had dragged were crowded together.

Since the entrance was in the opposite direction to the capital, the wind from the bamboo forest did not reach there.

So, unlike the people in the capital, the knights were passing time by standing at the entrance without hearing anything.

At that time, Ian, who the knights had not heard coming towards the entrance, walked alone with a terrifying face.

Seeing him leaping off his horse, the knights flocked to him.

"What is going on here?"

"I thought you were participating in a swordsmanship contest!"

"But, the forest ... Did something bad happen?"

Ian asked bluntly with a cracked voice.

"Annabelle."

"Oh, she went in with the Prince a while ago."

The knights answered cautiously, looking at each other. It was the first time they had seen Ian like this.

For a long time, he had been riding his horse at great speed, non-stop, so his eyes were slanted, and his hair was unruly.

In the capital, Ian was always neat and tidy and always maintained a calm face that did not lose his composure.

He was the kind of person who didn't show any anger when Annabelle ran wild, but only showed an annoyed expression on his face.

But now, more than ever, there was madness in his eyes, and an atmosphere as gloomy as his disheveled clothes.

"I got it."

After giving a short answer, Ian grabbed his sword and went straight to the entrance.

At those reckless footsteps, the knights stopped him with an absurd face.

"Ian! I'm sorry, but this is Smaho forest!"

"You think I don't know that?"

The knight who stopped him in the front had no choice but to doubt Ian's level of education for a moment.

If you knew that it was the Smaho forest, did you not know that you could only avoid the attacks of monsters in this place only if you were accompanied by the Imperial Family?

Ian let out a light sigh as he looked at the shaky pupils of the knight.

"Shut up. I have to go in right now. Aren't you the ones receiving the order of the Imperial Family anyway? You wouldn't have been given orders against me."

"But if you don't go in with the Imperial Family, the monsters will attack you... That's it, so we can't help but worry..."

"Worry? You are worried about me now?"

Ian, who lost his sense of rationality, had now lost even the minimum conversation skills...

"If you want to worry like that, it would be more meaningful to worry about monsters."

For a moment, the knights swallowed dry saliva.

They thought it would be bad to deal with such a talented person who was confident in his skills.

"Anyways, it's urgent, so get out of my way."

In the end, the knights had no choice but to stay out of his way.

First of all, his eyes were scarier than ever, and his face, full of life, was truly eerie.

Ian drew out his sword and started running to the entrance of the forest, and at the same time, the demons ran towards him with a loud cry.

~*~

The sword struck several times.

Me and Lagian were thinking the same thing after facing each other for quite some time with swords against each other.

'Oh, I'm so frustrated...'

'It doesn't mean much, but it's just annoying!'

It was that both of us were not able to move freely, needlessly protecting Robert and Carlon respectively.

In fact, it was a good strategy to target the Imperial Family that was facing each other.

Because the moment one of the Imperial Family members died, the monsters would attack the opponent.

So, we were unable to move freely as we clashed swords while defending each Imperial Family member from being attacked as much as possible.

Moreover, our status was not comparable to that of the Imperial Family, so protection had to be given priority over proper battle.

Robert and Carlon, who lacked a fine dexterity for swordsmanship, didn't notice, but we were both trying to express the annoyance with our bodies.

"Annabelle! It's dangerous!"

"...Prince, do you think what I cannot see with my eyes?"

"Ha, but I instinctively..."

Of course, the sword came and went right before my eyes, but there was no way they could keep their composure just because they were members of the Imperial Family.

"Lagian, just finish it! Now!"

The two Imperial Family members were frankly unhelpful and very concerned.

Since we couldn't trust each other, we couldn't even negotiate.

Since the attack was not fatal in order to protect someone, the battle was sluggishly eating up time.

'They must be a little bored in the capital by now.'

I was the only one who could imagine this situation.

Because I didn't tell Robert about the existence of the bamboo forest.

I didn't have to explain it in advance because my guess might be wrong.

'Now you can only hear the sound of swords clashing... The award ceremony must have started again.'

The award ceremony had already been ruined, but we still had to proceed.

'It's a bit disappointing not to be able to see Ian's last awards ceremony. If I had known that this would be the case, I would have attended the award ceremony in the meantime. It was said that it was quite fun because people flocked to it like a big festival.'

He wouldn't give a medal to Cessianne like in the original, but anyway, it was an award ceremony I'd never seen before, so I was a little curious now.

'I wonder if Aaron could handle the drug case well... Naturally, it should be well known that the Empress is related.'

I wondered if Aaron would have placed second this time.

But I didn't want to spoil Aaron's awards ceremony right now.

It was through Robert that the Empress had obtained illegal drugs, and he deliberately did not take issue with it until now.

Obviously, the drug must have entered Lagian.

As a result of hitting the sword a few times now, his skills were not much different from the banquet.

It must have been that he was concerned about the expiration date and hadn't eaten it yet.

It was then.

In the distance, from the entrance to the forest, a loud rumbling sound began to be heard.

All four of us looked at each other in surprise.

"What, what? Prince, what's this all of a sudden?"

When I asked Robert in bewilderment, he asked me instead with a bewildered look on his face.

"What? I don't know. Wouldn't Miss Annabelle know better if it had anything to do with the origins of black magic?"

From the looks of it, Carlon and Lagian didn't seem to know the reason at all.

Before long, even the ground on which we were standing began to rumble and shake.

"Hey, this is..."

Robert looked away and muttered in disbelief.

"Doesn't it look like a lot of monsters are moving?"