The Escort Knight Who Is Obsessed by the Villainess Wants to Escape - Chapter 134

When the flames first surged and engulfed him, Judas was startled.

“Urgh…?!”

Instinctively, he raised his arms to protect himself.

However, nothing happened.

The peculiar crimson flames surrounding him caused no harm.

Not even a trace of heat could be felt—it was simply a harmless light.

Judas quickly realized this and felt relieved.

The recently acquired trait, ‘Full Moon,’ granted him immunity to all flames.

‘It must be thanks to the trait… Whew, what a relief. I didn’t expect this hidden trick….’

He had anticipated an artifact.

But none within his expectations matched the scale and convenience of this one.

Artifacts enabling a non-mage to wield high-powered magic usually demanded complex methods of use.

Regardless, he was immune, so he waited within the flames.

Until Cain was fully convinced of his victory.

Even as Cain let out a sigh of relief and turned his back, Judas endured in silence.

It might have seemed cowardly, but that didn’t matter.

This wasn’t a game—it was war.

Survival and victory were the highest priorities.

Nothing else mattered.

Like a predator hiding in the thickets, Judas waited for the perfect moment.

Finally, when Cain bent to pick up his sword, Judas dashed forward and struck his back.

As he withdrew his blade, blood gushed out.

“Urgh—!”

Without giving Cain a chance to respond, Judas severed his arms.

Thud. Cain, now armless, collapsed weakly onto the ground.

The surrounding soldiers dared not intervene.

The crimson flames symbolized Barak.

Surviving those flames and even enduring the initial magical bombardment made Judas a terrifying figure.

How could anyone hope to defeat such a monster?

Fear gripped them.

All they could do was watch as their commander met his downfall.

Judas kicked Cain onto his back.

Even in his final moments, Cain’s fierce red eyes glared at him.

Coughing up blood, Cain bitterly smiled and spoke.

“This… wasn’t the kind of monster… you were….”

Judas placed his blade against Cain’s neck and asked.

“You….”

He wanted to ask if Cain knew him.

Just seeing Cain stirred feelings within him that bordered on hatred.

Yet, the words he uttered were different.

“Do you remember me?”

Do you remember who I am?

It sounded like the words of someone desperately wanting to be remembered.

Cain, coughing more blood, looked up at Judas.

He couldn’t comprehend what Judas was asking.

Judas read the confusion in his expression.

“…I see. One more question, then.”

This was purely out of his own curiosity.

“Did you ever feel remorse toward Eliza?”

He simply wanted to know.

Even for a moment, had Cain felt regret for the abuse inflicted on Eliza, the illegitimate child?

The response was as expected.

Cain laughed, almost mockingly.

“Ridiculous… This body would never feel such….”

Before Cain could finish his arrogant reply, Judas drove the blade through his neck.

With that, Cain was dead.

At that moment, Judas felt something within him dissipate—a sensation akin to liberation.

A faint sense of release.

There was no time to reflect or ponder on it.

Remnants of the enemy remained.

Judas surveyed the area.

The golden eyes that had cooled to an icy glint caused the remaining soldiers to flinch as though pierced by a spear.

“If you surrender, I’ll spare your lives….”

As he said this, someone approached on horseback from behind the defeated soldiers.

The figure was all too familiar.

A sight he had hoped not to encounter here.

For a moment, Judas stood stunned.

The mounted knight smirked and said.

“Daydreaming on the battlefield? Have you already forgotten your lessons?”

All Judas could do was stare at the knight.

The golden stem sprouting from the ground seemed to pierce the sky.

It appeared to be a flower that sprouted humans, with people impaled on every stem.

But it wasn’t a stem.

Nor was it a flower.

It was golden flames—Eliza’s magic.

“Mon… ster…”

Someone’s dying gasp scattered weakly.

Amidst the fully bloomed corpses surrounding her, Eliza looked down at Levi.

Levi’s body was half-buried in the dirt.

He looked up at Eliza with hollow eyes.

“…I didn’t know such magic existed.”

“Right? I only realized it myself this time.”

Like Cain, Levi had fortified himself with anti-magic defenses.

Being weaker in individual combat, he was even more thorough than Cain.

It was all meaningless before Eliza.

She overturned the ground, creating a tidal wave of dirt and stone.

The wave rushed toward the ranks of Levi’s army.

It began as magic, but midway, it was no longer magic due to inertia.

Thus, the anti-magic field was useless.

Even after entering the anti-magic field, the wave continued forward and engulfed Levi’s army.

What followed was simple.

She incinerated the mages first, then pierced the rest with golden flames.

The result was this scene.

Golden flowers blooming through the corpses.

A land devastated and overturned by the wave.

Levi spoke in a hollow voice.

“This is absurd… This is impossible… How can one person wield such power…? Why… Why is someone like you…?”

His muttered words, laced with insult, were aimless.

Eliza remained indifferent.

In the past, such words would have piled up in her heart like fallen leaves.

Not anymore.

She no longer felt the need to point out the greater absurdity: that narrow-minded fools born of direct lineage had scorned and mistreated her.

Such matters were trivial now.

As long as Judas was by her side, everything else was secondary.

“Levi. You tried to kill Judas, didn’t you?”

“So what?”

“Then you won’t die peacefully. You’ll serve as a public offering—a message for anyone who dares lay a hand on what’s mine.”

“…What? Ha, haha, hahaha!”

Levi, who had been laughing weakly, burst into loud, uncontrollable laughter.

It was genuine amusement, so much so that he couldn’t suppress it.

Eliza looked down at him as though he were an insect.

“Eliza, ah! Eliza!”

His voice, exaggerated and dramatic, carried a tone of mock lament.

“To think you’d harbor such feelings! And for him, of all people! Do you think he feels the same about you?”

At the childish provocation, Eliza sneered.

Does Judas feel the same about her?

Are their feelings mutual?

Of course.

Eliza was certain.

Though it hadn’t been explicitly confirmed in words, it didn’t matter.

Between Judas and herself was an extraordinary bond that transcended language.

It was only natural that others couldn’t understand it.

There was no need for others to understand, and she preferred they didn’t.

The connection was something only the two of them shared.

Any intrusion from the outside was simply repugnant.

“You’ll never be with him! Do you even know who he really is? He’s—”

Thud!

A golden flame shot up like a whip, piercing the back of Levi’s head.

The fire burst from his mouth.

Perhaps as compensation for his frail body, Levi had been gifted with eloquence.

But there was no need to listen to someone like him.

Hearing him out might only lead to unnecessary distractions.

Not that her feelings for Judas would ever waver.

No matter who Judas was, it didn’t matter.

The scope of ‘no matter who’ might include…

Well, she wasn’t sure.

She had already accepted his origins as a commoner.

Now, he had risen to a status that made his background irrelevant.

The worst she could imagine was that, during their time apart, his gaze might have wandered to another woman.

If that were the case, she might forgive it—just once.

Of course, he would find out who the woman was, even if he had to set the entire continent ablaze, capture Judas, and interrogate him while bound.

As for meals and other necessities, she could take care of everything herself.

Thinking about it, it seemed quite enjoyable to act that way without any particular reason.

Eliza found herself smiling unknowingly as she continued her delusions.

Seeing herself act so childishly, she realized she truly couldn’t handle Judas rationally.

And she didn’t dislike that about herself.

She fondly smiled as she fiddled with the ring.

“My… mine…”

Although she had instructed Judas to signal if anything urgent happened, everything was silent.

Having obtained a promise with such a request, Judas must be safe for now.

Just as she was about to go meet him—

“…!”

Magic rippled through the air.

Eliza teleported backward quickly, putting distance between herself and the area.

Scarlet lava arced and fell onto the spot where she had just been standing.

The lava that hit the ground erupted, scattering in all directions.

Eliza summoned a fiery barrier to block the small fragments of lava flying toward her.

Around that time, someone teleported into the distance.

Eliza found herself laughing unknowingly as she looked at the figure.

It was a laugh distinct from the one she had when thinking of Judas—cold and sharp.

A near-maniacal delight.

He couldn’t say how long he had waited for this moment.

“Duke Barak. What took you so long?”

“…Eliza.”

Barak appeared before Eliza, his face set in a grim expression.

“I wanted to kill you first.”

Eliza made up her mind to end the war today.

***

“Losing focus on the battlefield? Have you already forgotten your lessons?”

A knight dismounted from his horse.

Judas stared blankly at him.

‘Why… are you…’

The question muttered inwardly.

But he already knew the answer.

He had always been Barak’s knight and loyal subject.

He had only come to Eliza’s training grounds under orders.

Even teaching Judas was nothing more than part of a transaction.

Even knowing this, he wanted to deny the reality.

The captain of the Bevel family knights.

“Your final lesson.”

Gawain stood in Judas’s way.