The World Dragon's Heir
Chapter 66: Never Dies

Chapter 66: Never Dies

Dominic was aimlessly wandering the battlefield, kicking corpses and collecting the dead Mercenary group’s storage items, when he felt a presence behind him.

"Hey little man, you’re alright." Wiz greeted him, looking much better than Dominic felt.

"You came out. It’s good to see you. I’m on loot duty." He explained, still confused and disoriented from the last blow he had taken in the battle.

"I see that, but you seem a little lost and disoriented." Wiz said softly as he put a hand on Dominic’s shoulder to stop him.

Dominic looked around, and saw that he had made his way out to the early parts of the battle, where the waves of Ogres and Hobgoblins had first begun to fall.

He gave Wiz a weak smile. "Yeah, a little. I hit my head during the fight. But I’ll be alright in a bit. There are just too many Mana Cores to collect."

Wiz smiled and gestured to the bag Dominic was carrying.

"Do you have an empty storage device? I can help you, as I don’t have one of my own. I normally keep them in my pockets, but there are too many of them here for that, and everyone knows the penalty for looting a military battlefield." He suggested.

"Sure. How is Bella?" Dominic asked carefully as he checked the reservists’ Storage Devices.

It only took a moment to find one with only gear in it, and transfer that to another device.

"She’s alright. She also has medical training, so she is with the clerics at the wagons. There were some survivors among the defenders there, so they’re working hard."

Silently, the pair made their way through the thousands of corpses as the storage devices filled with mana cores.

The scale of the devastation was overwhelming. The dead monsters outnumbered the dead soldiers at least ten to one, but the number of survivors of the battle didn’t even fill the campfire area between the circled vehicles.

They finished before dark, checking bodies, ensuring there were no Hobgoblins playing dead to go raid farms in the next few nights, and no survivors among their own that the medics could try to save.

Unfortunately, with the Hobgoblin offensive having driven through the entire line of defenders, there were precious few who might have stood a chance even minutes after the battle, and none at all who were still breathing when Dominic and Wiz moved through to clear out the attackers’ bodies.

That left only one question when the finally made it back to the camp.

"What should we do with the enemy soldiers? I don’t know the protocol for that." Dominic asked.

Advisor Morgana, who had been sent into the village with the other noncombatants, shrugged her shoulders.

"That is mostly up to the Princess. Some of them are recognized as former Officers of foreign armies, but they are all dressed as Mercenaries now. If we treat them as military troops under the Archmage, this is an act of war between both nations.

But if she chooses to treat them as bandits, then it’s a private matter of a Rogue Mage and his private force. In that case, the one who killed them may keep their belongings as a bounty, by international law.

I don’t believe that she has made a decision yet, as there are political implications to suggesting that the Archmage went rogue and incited an army of Hobgoblins to attack the Cygnia Royal Family.

It would involve the right to eliminate three generations of his bloodline, and some of them are Palace Royals within the Cygnia and Dagos Kingdoms, as well as other nations.

So, it might be war either way, or public shaming and stripping of titles.

The third option is to pretend that none of us know who it was, burn the body to unidentifiable ashes, and claim what he had on him as our own."

Dominic nodded, then did a double take.

"Wait. That third option sounds like just calling him a mercenary, but it’s not, is it?"

Advisor Morgana shook her head. "No. If he was killed as a hostile Mercenary, then either you or the Princess, as your Commanding Officer, would have the right to his property.

All of his property, including the peerage and manor houses that were registered in his name. The assets registered with multiple national treasuries, and the Grimoire of spells that made him famous, would all be transferred as part of the bounty.

Which is, incidentally, a national treasure of Cygnia."

That sounded like a rather important person to have fallen to a single [Arcane Blast] and a couple of stab wounds. Something was definitely not right with this situation.

Advisor Morgana watched as Dominic’s curiosity turned to concern, then suspicion.

"I am thinking what you are thinking, your Sorcerer. I believe that he was framed. There is a good chance that this is not really him, but someone altered to look like him.

The issue is that we will need an authentic article of clothing or magitech that belonged to him for the verification of death spell to work." She continued.

Dominic nodded. Then got a great idea. "I have an idea. You can tell how old a Magitech item is by looking at the magical arrays. Does he have any on him? If they’re all new and force levelled, then we should likely start trying to find out what happened to the real Archmage. How old is he, anyhow?"

The Techno Witch laughed. "Fifty four years old. And he’s been trying to convince the King to let him marry both of the Twin Princesses since they were learning to read. Princess Alexis says that this man put on a very convincing act, and she did not immediately suspect that it was a fraud until he died to a single attack from her blacksmith."

Wiz chuckled from behind Dominic. "It’s good to see that everyone has such faith in your combat abilities."

Morgana gave a snort of amusement. "One of the Archmage’s signature spells is [Indestructible Body]. Even a Rare magical blade should not have easily penetrated his skin if he had his usual precautions active."

The young Crusader’s eyes lit up with excitement. "Do you think there might be a scroll of it on him? An unbonded spell gem?"

Morgana rolled her eyes. "You really do get easily sidetracked, big man. No, my suspicion is that this is one of his apprentices. They knew many of his spells, but that one was a lifesaving measure that was not shared with just anyone."