After leaving the Third Prince's lifeless body on the floor, Arvin slowly turned around. His gaze fell upon the only other living soul remaining in the massive room.
There, not far from Lionias's fallen body, stood a brown-skinned man frozen in place, his hands trembling slightly.
Recalling how King Pratesias had confidently intended to use this man as an additional weapon against him, Arvin did not lower his guard. He gripped the hilt of his sword a little tighter, anticipating a sudden attack from the man at any moment.
"Are you going to be my next opponent?"
However, what happened next was entirely unexpected. The man suddenly collapsed, dropping heavily to his knees on the floor. His shoulders trembled violently. He bowed his head deeply, and a second later, the sound of sobbing filled the air.
Witnessing the brown-skinned man's emotional reaction, only one conclusion crossed Arvin's mind.
"Do you feel relieved now that I've killed your master?"
Hearing the question, the man slowly raised his head. With tears streaming down his face, he looked directly at the blue-haired man who had just slain Lionias.
"Yes... I feel so relieved and happy." the man answered between sobs, barely able to form a coherent sentence. He gasped for air, overwhelmed by the surge of emotions he could no longer contain. "I am finally free from the shackles of slavery that have robbed me of my entire life, my dignity, and my future."
Arvin was stunned by the painfully honest answer. Beneath his expressionless facade, a flicker of pity slipped into his heart. He knew all too well that slavery was an incredibly cruel and inhumane act.
However, despite his sympathy for the man, Arvin knew he could not linger here. His time was severely limited. He didn't have the luxury of time to comfort a man who had just awakened from his nightmare.
With the Victoriaz Kingdom now fallen, he had to immediately mobilize toward the Flamort and Marland Kingdoms to deliver their rightful retribution.
"You are free now!" Arvin said in a flat, calm tone, though a subtle sincerity lay beneath his words. "Move forward with your life, and find your own happiness out there!"
After saying his piece, Arvin promptly turned around. He sheathed his sword and calmly began walking away, leaving the throne area and the chaotic room behind.
"Please, wait a moment!"
After barely taken a few steps, Arvin immediately halted. He let out a soft sigh before turning back around. His eyes locked onto the brown-skinned man, who was now rising from his knees.
"Why are you suddenly calling out to me?" Arvin asked, slightly baffled by the situation. "I must leave this place as quickly as possible to destroy the other two kingdoms that dared to bring suffering to my people!"
Once the man managed to stand, he wiped the remaining tears from his face with both hands, then gathered the courage to look directly into the blue eyes of his savior. An unusual resolve gleamed in his eyes.
"Would you allow me to come with you?"
Arvin truly never expected such a request to come from the man standing before him. His common sense rejected it vehemently.
Taking someone who had just been freed from the shackles of slavery straight into a battlefield was a profoundly inhumane act.
"I will not allow it!" Arvin answered firmly, rejecting the request without a second thought.
"Why?" the man countered quickly, his tone laced with a refusal to be left behind.
"Because my next destination is a blood-soaked battlefield!" Arvin replied bluntly, glaring sharply into the man's light green eyes to make him understand the reality. "I cannot possibly bring someone who has just been freed from slavery like you along with me!"
However, Arvin's reasoning did nothing to deter the brown-skinned man's intentions.
"I don't care about any of that!" the man fired back. "I have no one left in this world! My family, my home, everything is gone. The world out there is just as cruel to me! Even if I have to become your slave, the slave of my own savior, I wouldn't mind it, as long as I can follow you!"
Hearing the deep desperation in the man's words, Arvin's expression did not soften. He felt he needed to sever that hope even more harshly so the man wouldn't throw his life away.
"I still cannot take you with me!"
"Why? Tell me your reason for refusing to bring me along!"
Seeing the sheer stubbornness and persistence of the man before him, Arvin realized that turning him away on humanitarian grounds would be fruitless.
"What is your name?" Arvin suddenly asked, steering the conversation in a different direction.
The man was slightly taken aback by the sudden question, but he quickly answered.
"Kaydan!" he introduced himself briefly yet firmly.
"Very well, Kaydan. Listen to me carefully. When I was nineteen years old, I lost every single member of my family. They were all murdered by someone." Arvin said in an incredibly serious tone. "And as if that weren't enough, the Victoriaz Kingdom greedily allied with the Flamort and Marland Kingdoms to attack the rest of my territory and enslave my people."
Kaydan looked quite surprised to hear what his savior had just revealed.
"Because of that, I have decided to make an enemy of this world." Arvin continued, his voice now sounding so hollow. "For centuries, our family always maintained neutrality to preserve the balance. Yet, the reward for that neutrality was having the most precious people in my life ripped away from me."
Arvin stared straight at Kaydan. "And more importantly than all of that..."
He suddenly paused his sentence, causing the brown-skinned man to gulp, anxious to hear the rest.
A heavy silence lingered in the room for several seconds before Arvin finally resumed his sentence.
"I have already decided where, when, and by whose hands I will die."
Arvin spoke of his own fate in a remarkably calm tone, devoid of any fear, hesitation, or regret. It was as if his death, like a meticulously written script, was simply waiting for the right moment to be staged.
"Kaydan, right now, I am walking toward my death. So, there's no point in throwing away the freedom you just gained only to follow someone like me, who will soon be killed by someone else."