CH 32

“Get those pirates!”

With the shout of the soldiers, the armored people ran over to us holding spears and swords.

“Before anything, do something about the bunny! She is blocking everything!”

I made sure that the soldiers couldn’t approach us by standing at the front, wielding my rapier. There was only one staircase to get to the stage, and with Andrew using his ice magic to build walls and the pirates kicking anyone who tried to come up, no one could get up. A few tried to push in with their shield or armor, but

“Ahhhh!”

Their armor or shield was penetrated by my newly upgraded rapier.

“I know this is not my place to say this, but please try not to kill innocent soldiers.”

Andrew made a tough request even during this mess.

“You want me to think about that now?”

I was dumbfounded by this request but tried my best to dodge their vital points while stopping the soldiers.

“Arje! Are you all right?!”

When I got a chance, I looked towards Arje as I became worried about her state.

“Ahhh!”

There was no need to worry, as I heard the soldiers scream every time she used her magic.

“Yes, at least for now.”

Arje was winning, but she immediately had to dodge a shard of ice that flew towards her.

Andrew used magic like that. But Andrew wouldn’t betray us all of the sudden. That meant that there was someone else who could use similar magic.

“Andrew! What are you doing?”

A far, there were priests in the same outfit as Andrew, and except the ones battling Arje, the rest of them were walking towards us. There was the old priest who was talking to Bonnie earlier.

“Ugh, so annoying.”

Andrew looked at the priests while scratching his head.

“Andrew! Are you taking the sides of criminals now? Come down this instant!”

The old priest screamed at Andrew. He was so loud that I had to cover my ears and stop fighting for a bit.

“Weren’t you and the rest taking the side of the criminals first?”

Surprisingly, Andrew spoke right back without losing. He even spoke informally.

“What is that guy saying?”

Andrew seemed to be talking about their deal with Bonnie, and the rest of the priests realized this and flinched.

“I am grateful that you raised me, but I am planning to go on my own. That’s alright with you, old man, right?”

Andrew’s gaze became sharp. The old priest looked through them.

“I know what you are planning to do. Although you are cursed from birth, I thought that we could change your faith since you were so little. I was wrong.”

The old man sighed.

“I told you! We should have kicked him out years ago!”

The rest of the priests looked at the old priest frustrated. The old priest was probably the only one who knew Andrew’s birth story. The others wouldn’t have understood why a thug like Andrew was a priest.

“You guys know that you have no right to say that, right?”

Andrew looked at the other priests with an absurd expression.

“What did you say?”

All the priests gave him a death stare.

“Whatever. It’s no use in talking with you guys. Let’s finish this off.”

Andrew waved his arms and started to make a giant ice ball.

“We must stop him!”

The priests started to hurry, as if they knew what Andrew was up to.

“Wait, we must observe what is going on.”

The old priest told the others to calm down, but

“Are you still taking his side after seeing all of this?”

The other priests ignored the old priest and used their individual magic to attack Andrew.

“As I expected.”

Andrew looked at risk, but he was smiling. As if he knew what was coming.

“All stop! Andrew had been waiting for you guys to attack him!”

The old priest tried to stop them, but it was already too late.

“Wow.”

I couldn’t help but let out an exclamation after seeing Andrew stopping all the attacks in front of him as if he was in complete control of the ice.

“What is that?”

“How is that possible?!”

The priests freaked out. They were underestimating Andrew’s powers. No, maybe Andrew hid them on purpose.

“It’s a bit early to be impressed.”

Then Andrew flung the attacks right back towards the priests. It was as expected as the son of the Ice Queen.

“Ahhhhhh!”

The priests started to fall from their own attacks. It appeared that they avoided hurting their vital points with Andrew’s mercy, but they were too injured to continue fighting.

“Fools.”

The old priest let out an angry rant.

“What are you going to do, grandpa?”

Instead of a reply, the old priest made a giant ice shield. 

“Okay, if you wanna play that way then.”

Andrew threw the giant ball of ice that he was working on from earlier towards the old priest.

“Khek!”

The old priest managed to dodge Andrew’s attack with his shield formed mid-air, but the impact was still so strong that he had to kneel one of his legs. Andrew’s magic was strong enough to overpower the old priest who dedicated his entire life to magic.

“End it if you wish.”

The old priest sounded hopeless, but Andrew just smirked.

“What do you mean, old man? Why would I kill you? I just don’t want you to get in my way.”

As soon as Andrew stopped his sentence, I could see a swarm of supporting soldiers coming from a distance. They were mostly archers.

They probably finally realized that magic and swords were no use against us.

“What do we do now, Aris?”

Arje hopped onto the podium as soon as she saw the archers and she defeated the priests who were fighting her.

“ARIS! What now?”

Mary, too, screamed after noticing the archers. The pirates could fight longer, but without their weapons, it was miraculous that they had lasted this long.

Well, then, we had Andrew.

“Andrew, you can still use magic, right?”

Andrew just smiled as if he was questioning if that was even a question.

“Of course. Who do you think I am?”

It was a very cocky reply, but magic was such a useful thing. It would have been nice if I had access to it in my previous life.

“Let’s go towards the castle walls.”

People headed to the castle from my orders.

“What now?”

From my reply, Mary’s expression became crooked.

“Are you insane? You want us to jump from here?”

Others reacted the same.

“Aris, what do you mean jump from here? There is no absorbance of the shock just because you dive into the water!”

Arje argued as well. It was expected.

“Just trust me and jump. No, trust Andrew over there.”

People then looked over at Andrew, who just shrugged.

“I guess I will try it.”

We weren’t sure if it was going to work, but all nodded. It was the only way after getting here.

“Captain! If we die after taking her words…”

Some of the crew revolted, but

“Then go back to the execution stage. Those soldiers will be very kind and escort you to your death.”

From my reply, the pirates realized that there was no other choice, so the rest except Andrew and I started to jump into the sea.

“Andrew, now.”

Then, the sea water that Andrew’s magic touched started to turn into a giant block of ice.

“Krrrrooom!”

Then on top of the ice ground, there was a pillar that formed. The pillar was in a curved shape, and this helped the falling people to not be impacted from the fall.

“Mmm.”

From using so much power, Andrew was wobbling and almost fell.

As I supported Andrew, he just smirked.

“I guess it’s from using too much magic. I can’t see in front of me.”

Andrew struggled to laugh. From looking at this, I felt glad that I didn’t jump along with the rest. Andrew would have been caught after using all his power, and my plan would have been ruined. 

“The thing you made is melting.”

When I checked below the castle walls, the ice ground started to melt with Andrew using up his power, and I could see the pirates getting to the land. By the time we go down, the entire ground would have melted.

“I didn’t do it on purpose, so don’t blame me too much.”

Andrew was still trying to joke in this situation. He seemed like he was going to faint any moment.

“They are escaping! Archers! Get in position!”

After checking that we were escaping to the sea, the archers rushed to charge their bows. There was no time left.

“Andrew, hold your breath.”

The sea looked freezing, but there seemed to be a better chance of surviving in the water than getting hit by arrows. So, Andrew and I fell into the sea.

Shoooong!

The moment we jumped, I could hear the arrows flying. If we had hesitated any longer, we would have been pierced.

Splash!

The first thing I thought as soon as we fell in was that it was freezing. My whole body felt stiff, even though I had to get to the surface. Was it because we fell up from so high? Or was it because it was so cold?

While my consciousness was barely floating, I had to still bring Andrew to above surface. I poked my head out of the water.

“Cough!”

My ears were numb from all the water, and it felt even colder than inside the water. From seeing Andrew coughing and spitting out water, I could tell that he hadn’t died.

“It’s the ship.”

As I tried to take Andrew to the ground, I could see a ship approaching us. I expected Mary and Arje to be getting us, so I was waiting for familiar faces as we waited. 

“Heh?”

But the familiar faces that came to get us were not the ones I was expecting.