Chapter 3 - Arion D. Panther

<Panthera Kingdom, Medieval time>

The screams of thousands of people broke the silence of the night as the two armies charged at each other.

This was a war where human lives fell like dry leaves in autumn.

The number of troops in black was far fewer, but they were able to fight back the troops in red. In the middle of the crowd, a man with long grey hair from the black camp seemed to dominate.

He stepped into the crowd of red troops and slashed at his opponents like a frenzied threshing machine. He was Arion D. Panther, the king of Panthera, the demon slayer.

Time went on, and victims continued to fall from both sides. Corpses and body parts strewed about. The rancid smell of spilt blood wafted when the wind blew.

STAB

STAB

SLASH

Rion had just overthrown three soldiers in a row. But after the attack, he suddenly fell silent. Of course, the opportunity was immediately taken advantage of by the enemy.

An archer from the enemy's side took aim at him. However, before he could shoot an arrow, a brown-haired knight immediately slashed at the archer's body.

He was Trish the knight, the king's wild dog. Shortly after killing the archer, Trish ran swiftly, slashing and decapitating all the red soldiers who attacked his king.

After standing unmoving for about seven seconds, Arion turned and saw Trish, who was huddled with the enemy and desperately trying to protect him.

"Huh. Impressive," he said.

"YOUR MAJESTY, BE CAREFUL!" Trish screamed in panic as the leader of the red army, Duke Redragon, charged to slash at Arion, but the king calmly turned around and held back Redragon's sword.

Trish was relieved. He almost peed himself thinking his king would be beheaded by the enemy, and the story ends in chapter two.

Rion's and Redragon's swords clashed and formed an X. They stared at each other for a moment, before finally engaging in a duel. But the duel did not last long. Duke Redragon fell to his knees after being stabbed in the stomach.

Rion crouched down and supported Duke Redragon's chin, making the black-haired and red-eyed man's face turn towards him.

"What kind of death do you want?" Rion asked with an evil smirk on his face.

Instead of answering Rion's question, Duke Redragon spat in the hazel-eyed man's face. Instantly, Rion's smile disappeared. His face winced.

Rion stood up and wiped the spittle off his face, stared at the spittle for three seconds, then laughed crisply. But a moment later, the laughter disappeared and was replaced with an intimidating cold expression.

"Huh." He kicked Duke Redragon's body to the ground and then stomped on the man's neck in disgust. The moment Redragon opened his mouth gasping for air, Rion immediately plunged the sword into the duke's mouth until it pierced the ground below.

Duke Redragon died instantly with his eyes wide open.

Trish, who had just knocked out all the enemies around him, noticed what the king was doing.

Rion turned to stare coldly at the red troops, who were petrified by the tragic death of their leader. After three seconds, he lifted his leg from Duke Redragon's neck and then turned around. But suddenly, he froze. Changes seemed to occur in his eyes and a cold expression on his face.

Trish approached. "Your Majesty."

Rion blinked then looked at Trish beside him with a slightly confused expression. "Trish… You? What happened?"

He saw his army had withdrawn. The corpses were strewn about and… he looked for Duke Redragon and the army of red dragons who were still alive. He did not see it because the man he was looking for was behind him, on the ground. Dead.

"The war is over, Your Majesty. We have won."

Rion stared in disbelief and asked Duke Redragon's whereabouts.

"Behind you, Your Majesty."

"Whoaaa!" Rion's eyes widened when he saw Redragon's corpse with a sword stuck in his mouth. "Trish, who did such an evil thing? Was that you?"

He glanced at Trish suspiciously.

"N-not me, Your Highness."

"Who is it, then?"

Trish's expression became blank . From that, Rion understood who the perpetrator of this heinous murder was..

He let out a shaky breath, drew the sword from Redragon's mouth and crouched beside the poor man's corpse. "I'm sorry. Rest in peace."

He swept Duke Redragon's eyes shut, he also covered Duke Redragon's mouth, which was still gaping. After that, he stood up, pointing at some red soldiers, who still looked shocked, to bring the corpse of their leader back to Archadia.

He also requested that the Redragon soldiers bring the bodies of their slain comrades. He did not forget to tell them to pass on his message to the Archadian Emperor. If the Archadian Emperor dared to intrude on his territory one more time, he would suffer a death worse than Duke Redragon.

After Redragon's army left, Arion turned to his army, which had independently gathered their fallen comrades for burial.

"Trish, go back to the palace first with the others."

"Where are you going, Your Majesty?"

"Visiting Rose," Rion replied briefly as he walked out of the place.

"Arlo!" Trish called out to his right hand, a man with black hair and blue eyes. He asked Arlo to lead the troops back to the palace while he would escort the king to Green Castle to visit the queen's grave.

"Your Majesty!"

Rion, who had just mounted his black horse, was slightly surprised by Trish, who came riding a random brown horse he snatched from who knows where.

"Trish, didn't I tell you to go to the palace with the others?"

"I've told Arlo to lead the troops, Your Majesty. I'll escort you."

"Even if your title is the king's wild dog, I hope you don't really think of yourself as a dog."

"I already considered I am one myself," Trish said with a big smile that made his cheeks puff up.

***

The red clouds from the east slowly dispelled the darkness, a sign that a new day had arrived.

Rion and Trish, who rode their horses all night, decided to rest by the river in the forest.

"Trish, I'm going to wash up."

"Very well, Your Majesty."

After tying his horse to a tree, Rion started to take off his clothes one by one, but...

As he unbuttoned the top of his shirt, Rion secretly glanced at Trish. Was it just his feelings or Trish was following his every move?

Without looking at Trish, Rion took off his helmet, and it turned out that Trish was doing the same thing.

Rion then took off his belt, and Trish took his off too.

He took off his shoes, Trish took off his shoes too.

He dipped his feet in the water, Trish also dipped his feet in the water.

Enough!

"Trish, you're starting to scare me!" Finally, Rion spoke up.

"Huh?" Trish turned and looked confused.

"You're not in love with me, are you?" Rion asked bluntly.

"W-what?"

"You're like a protective, obsessed lover."

"Yo-Your Majesty, what do you mean? I'm still normal."

Rion snorted.

"I want to take a bath in peace. You'd better take a bath too." Rion turned and left to look for some secluded place, Trish looked like he wanted to follow again, planning to take a bath together but his steps halted when Rion gave him a murderous glare. "Find another place!"

SCARY!

Trish was scared.

"O-okay, I-I'll take a bath over there, but please be careful, Your Majesty." Trish bowed respectfully and left.

Trish was the leader of the Panthera knights. He replaced Knight Lucas, who was executed on the day before Queen Rose. Knight Lucas was the greatest knight Panthera had ever had, but unfortunately, he did not live long.

Knight Lucas fell in love with Queen Rose. However, he realized that Rose belonged to the king, and Queen Rose loved the king very much.

Knight Lucas, who couldn't get rid of his love for the queen, chose to hide his feelings and continued to love the queen in silence. However, because his love was so great, it became so hard for him to hide it.

One day Rose was injured, Lucas panicked, and in that panic state, he threatened to kill all the doctors if they failed to save Rose. He forgot that King Arion was also in that room.

From then on, Rion's attitude towards Lucas turned cold. Their relationship was strained even though, before, they were very close. Lucas was even dubbed the shadow of the king because he was always seen with the king, and he was never absent from fighting with the king.

Helen – Rion's stepmother who wanted Aiden, her son, to ascend the throne - took advantage of the situation. She made a conspiracy to bring down Lucas and Rose, the two great walls that had always hindered her plans to bring down Rion. And she succeeded.

Lucas' death was one of Rion's biggest regrets.

In the past, Rion, Trish, and Lucas were called the triumvirate. Unlike Lucas and Rion, who were of the nobles' blood, Trish was just a child of a commoner. Fate brought them together.

The reason Trish was being so protective over Rion was Lucas. The night before the execution, Trish went to Lucas, and Lucas asked Trish to promise him to always protect and never leave the king no matter what. Because after his and Rose's death, the king would have no one but Trish.

***

After walking for a while, Rion found a secluded place suitable for bathing. He stood near a large boulder and stared blankly at the calmly flowing river.

The sound of water splashing against the rocks gave a certain serenity to the forest, which was probably hundreds of years old until he subconsciously began to daydream.

"The river is very beautiful, right?"

"Whaaa!"

The soft voice of the woman he missed so much startled him. He turned his head and, to his surprise, he saw a woman in a red dress standing next to him with a man with dark blue hair.

"Ro-Rose? Lucas? I—" Arion's words halted as the two figures disappeared, and he realized that it was just his imagination.

He closed his eyes for a moment then looked up at the cloudy blue sky above him. 'I sentenced you in six days, and you sentenced me for life. That's very fair."

He smiled wryly at the thought of Rose and Lucas in the clouds.

SWOOSH!

"Huh?" Rion was a little surprised when he felt 'something' stuck in his shoulder. His brows winced. "Needle?"

He arched an eyebrow after pulling out the small object. He looked at it closely. A gust of wind made his hair flutter as the leaves around him.

The sound of birds chirping and rustling leaves made the brown-haired woman, who was lying by the river, fluttered her lashes.