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Chapter: 57

Looking at the gaping hole, I was bewildered. Why did the floor suddenly collapse? The hole was enormous. It would be nearly impossible to find a person who couldn\'t fit through it. Not just Deokbong and me, but the rest of the group was also taken aback.

I inquired, "Are you alright? Don\'t say you\'re fine if you\'re not. Tell me the truth, or it\'ll cause trouble later."

Unlike the others, Deokbong wasn\'t a warrior. Maybe if he knew how to break his fall... But that was unlikely. He shouldn\'t be compared to those who had trained in the art of war.

Still, there was no hint of pain in his voice.

"Yes, yes, Your Highness. I\'m deeply grateful. I\'m truly unharmed."

If he wasn\'t injured, he was lucky.

Judging by the echo of Deokbong\'s voice, there seemed to be space below.

He mumbled, "With all due respect, something else seems more important than me."

I couldn\'t hear him clearly.

"What did you say?"

"I, I apologize."

Why did he keep apologizing? Deokbong tended to be overly deferential towards me. There was no need for that.

His courage was the size of a bean.

Someone like Chaos was too casual with me, the Wolhan Fortress soldiers were disrespectful, and Deokbong was overly fearful. I wasn\'t oblivious; I knew Deokbong was afraid of me. It was probably because of my reputation as a wild prince.

Deokbong stammered, "E-Eggs... There are eggs."

"Eggs?"

Eggs? That was unexpected. Who would expect to find eggs in a mountain cave?

"Eggs, you say?"

I held the torch lower to illuminate the area below. Apart from Deokbong\'s head, I couldn\'t see anything else.

As I brought the torch closer, Deokbong flinched.

"Yes, yes, Your Highness. Th-There are giant eggs, big enough to hold a person."

Human-sized eggs. These weren\'t ordinary animal eggs. They were definitely monster eggs.

"I need to see them myself."

The cavity Deokbong had fallen into was taller than a person. It looked to be a little over ten feet deep, and he wouldn\'t be able to climb out without help. There were no walls to scale either.

"Can you climb out?"

"Well, that is..."

Deokbong hesitated.

"There\'s nothing to step on..."

I held the torch further in and looked around. I couldn\'t see anything except Deokbong and the floor.

He said awkwardly, "I apologize."

It wasn\'t his fault. There was no need for him to apologize.

"It\'s alright."

I briefly considered how to help Deokbong.

There weren\'t many options.

"Could you climb up if I lowered a rope?"

"Yes, probably..."

"We\'ll pull you up first, then I\'ll go down."

There should be rope left from setting up the tents. I asked the others to bring a rope. One of the soldiers left the cave to fetch it.

"If you\'re going down, Your Highness, I\'ll stay here until you return."

There he goes again. Do I look weak? Is that the problem? I frowned. The others were even worse. Everyone looking into the hole turned to face me.

"It\'s dangerous, Your Highness."

"Please reconsider."

What was dangerous?

"Do I look like I\'m going to fall into a ten-foot hole and die? Do I seem that weak? Remember, the person who came here with you isn\'t a child."

They usually don\'t care, but now they\'re trying to stop me. Is their sole purpose to dissuade me whenever I try to do something? Did the Wolhan Fortress Lord perhaps instruct them to do so? I glared at the group.

While they were all warning me about the danger, not one of them volunteered to go down themselves. They just stood there, stiffly holding their heads high.

"Then I\'ll go down with you."

Chaos spoke up out of the blue, his usual nonchalant self. But his words weren\'t nonchalant at all. At least he was being more proactive than the others.

It was so unexpected for Chaos to offer help that I asked, "You will?"

"Is there a reason I shouldn\'t?"

Chaos replied without batting an eye. Coming from someone with a child\'s appearance, it sounded quite audacious.

What kind of person is he?

Perhaps Chaos would remain audacious even when he was old and hunched over. No, was it arrogance? I wondered what made him so arrogant. There must be a source for his arrogance, right? Like his skills, for instance.

I let out a small sigh and said, "You..."

I thought I should spar with Chaos someday.

"As you know, the main reason I accompanied you here was to protect Your Highness."

Chaos yawned widely. Seeing him yawn made me want to hit him.

He has the audacity to call himself a bodyguard. He hasn\'t done anything to protect me...

But as a bodyguard, it was also his duty to follow me wherever I went.

I felt like retorting, but I couldn\'t think of anything to say. At a loss for words, I chose to stay silent.

Chaps spoke as if what he was about to do was something trivial.

"I\'ll go down first."

He jumped down into the hole without hesitation. Perhaps due to his small size, it was a light and effortless movement. I wasn\'t as light as him, so I couldn\'t jump down as gracefully. Just then, a soldier brought the tent rope.

I used the rope to descend.

Thud.

Holding the torch, I landed on the floor. It was slightly damp, with a sticky and muddy feel. It seemed like water used to flow here. That\'s probably why the ground was weak and collapsed under Deokbong\'s footsteps. Turning around, the torchlight revealed what Deokbong had mentioned.

"...Eggs."

They were so large that they looked more like round boulders than eggs. But their color and texture were definitely not those of ordinary rocks. It was hard to mistake them for anything other than eggs.

"They must be monster eggs."

Chaos scoffed.

"That\'s obvious."

He said it in a way that sounded like he was picking a fight. I wasn\'t imagining it. I had no idea why he had a grudge against me. Ignoring Chaos, I spoke to Deokbong.

"Are these common?"

I approached an egg and tapped its shell with the back of my hand. Tap, tap. The shell was much thicker than a chicken egg\'s, which was to be expected.

"I\'ve seen eggs before, but... never ones this big. And I\'ve never seen so many gathered in one place."

He had never seen such a sight. Deokbong had spent considerable time exploring the mountains beyond the border, and yet these eggs had remained hidden until now, only to be discovered by me.

And it happened just when I was dispatched here at the Wolhan Fortress Lord\'s request.

This was surely connected to the monster horde that had appeared near Wolhan Fortress.

"This is not good."

The rest of the group above started murmuring. One of them asked, "Your Highness, have you checked? Please come back up now."

"I have."

"Are there really eggs?"

"Yes, and a lot of them. We can\'t just leave them here. Wait a moment."

"We can take care of that..."

"The Fortress Lord will be pleased if we get rid of these."

Mentioning the Fortress Lord silenced the murmurs.

"It\'ll be good for you too. If these hatch and grow into adult monsters, they\'ll come down to attack you. It\'s better to nip evil in the bud."

What should we do? The eggs were as big as me when I crouched down. If a newborn was that size, a fully grown adult would be at least twice as big. There were at least dozens of them. We would need hundreds of soldiers to deal with them.

We couldn\'t let them hatch peacefully. If we could eliminate them here and now, how much manpower could we save in the future? At least dozens of lives would be spared.

Should we smash each egg one by one? Or...

I suddenly noticed the torch in my hand.

"Let\'s set them on fire."

It was a simple solution.

"They\'ll die if they\'re cooked. We can\'t let them hatch."

Chaos objected.

"Do you have to use fire, which is dangerous? There\'s no space to escape the flames here. I\'ll break them instead."

I didn\'t expect him to consider danger. He seemed so reckless.

"I want to be thorough."

"I believe dealing with them directly would be more effective."

"When would we ever finish smashing them one by one?"

"It won\'t take long. Please leave it to me."

"I don\'t really want to touch them. Are you sure you\'ll do it?"

"Yes. Is there a reason I shouldn\'t?"

Whether we burned them or smashed them didn\'t matter much. But this Chaos fellow seemed to contradict me at every turn. What deep-seated grudge did he have against me to constantly pick fights?

"Your Highness, please come back up."

"Take care, Your Highness."

The group continued to call from above. Their nagging was annoying. I replied in an irritated tone.

"I said I\'m coming up. Can\'t you wait for a moment? I\'ll be up soon enough."

Why were they so impatient? They acted as if I wouldn\'t come up on my own. I had to raise my voice just to get them to stop.

I let out a hollow laugh.

"Alright, Chaos, you can smash them. If you\'re so eager to destroy them, I won\'t stop you."

Chaos replied cheekily.

"I\'m honored."

He swung his short arms and as he walked towards the eggs. I handed the torch to Deokbong and gestured for him to stay by Chaos\'s side. As for me, being down here wouldn\'t obstruct my view, thanks to the light from the others above.

Suddenly, I felt the ground rumble from somewhere. It was a single vibration, but it sounded like multiple echoes overlapping.

A sense of foreboding washed over me.

I looked up and asked the others, "Didn\'t you hear something just now?"

No one answered.

But I was certain. Something bad was about to happen.

My ominous premonitions were never wrong.