The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

The scarecrow wandered through the forest. How many years had it been since he started roaming to protect the forest where his master was sealed?

The scarecrow didn’t know. In the forest where not a single ray of light entered, day and night were meaningless.

Perhaps it hadn’t even been a year since his master was sealed. Or maybe hundreds of years had already passed.

It didn’t matter how much time had passed. The scarecrow’s mission was to protect his master.

That’s all.

The scarecrow didn’t stop walking, blankly gazing at the blue ghostly fire burning in the lantern.

The scarecrow’s consciousness sometimes traveled to the past.

Those memories were sometimes happy times, sometimes sad times.

In the scarecrow’s dull eyes was reflected not the dark forest surrounded by black fog, but the blue sky.

Bang-! Kwang-! Kwakwakwang-!

Explosions rang out consecutively from all directions.

The blue sky he looked up at was frozen, with neither the floating clouds nor the birds flying in the sky moving at all.

The phenomenon of time seemingly stopping even in the tumultuous mana storm was a phenomenon that occurred when the space itself was peeled off and fixed.

The scarecrow realized that this memory he recalled was the past he regretted the most.

The recollection that bound the mind of the scarecrow trapped in the dark forest sometimes showed the past regardless of the scarecrow’s will.

Today was the day of the battle between the scarecrow’s master, one of the Four Witches of Disaster, who contrasted with the Four Seasons, the “Witch of the Shaking Earth,” and Arcana.

It was the memory of the day the scarecrow failed to protect his master.

“Stop that monster from going there!”

256 enemies blocked the scarecrow’s path.

In the past, he didn’t know how many blocked him, but after entering the recollection many times, he naturally found out.

A clear sword force had condensed on the sword of the man at the front.

The sword force, in which one person’s life and will were present, was proof of a transcendent.

Likewise, the spear of an old man and the two fists of a woman visible behind the man also had distinct sword forces with images.

The weapons of the 74 people following the three transcendents also had faint sword forces condensed.

Each and every one of them was a martial artist with the talent to uphold their imagination with their own will and history if time permitted.

However-

“Out of the way, bugs.”

The one standing in front of them was a farmer who would harvest their time.

The scarecrow’s past, regardless of the scarecrow’s will, exuded killing intent and infused mana into the staff longer than his height.

Then, a sharp blade made of mana rose from the staff, transforming it into a giant scythe.

As the scarecrow ran and swung the scythe, the heads of 13 people fell to the ground.

“Urgh! This monster!”

The transcendent who dodged the scarecrow’s scythe threw a punch wrapped in all his might with strong energy.

Kwang-!

The scarecrow deflected her fist with the long scythe handle and naturally made the blade of the scythe face the back of her neck.

“Lucille Hur!”

Her comrade called out her name to warn her of the danger, but the scarecrow pulled the scythe handle with too light a hand movement before she could react.

Crack!

It was too futile an end to be the death of a transcendent.

The transcendent who had charged at the front, enraged, swung his sword at the scarecrow.

The scarecrow, even under the fierce attack, turned his back to the enemy and swung the scythe at another enemy.

“Rise, scarecrows.”

At the scarecrow’s command, blue ghostly fires fell from the scythe, and the fist warrior whose head had just been cut off rose and swung his fists to protect the scarecrow’s back.

“You…! How dare you!”

When the one who had been a comrade until just now turned into a dullahan and became an enemy, the transcendent of Arcana swung his sword in rage.

However, he couldn’t reach the scarecrow through the delicate and fierce fist techniques of the dullahan.

It didn’t take long for the 256 martial artists to become dullahans by the scarecrow’s scythe.

But the brief time they bought with their lives was enough to fill the scarecrow’s remaining life with regret.

“Aaaargh-!!”

The scarecrow realized that he was too late and screamed in pain and anger.

As the mana of the scarecrow’s master disappeared, a huge forest began to form with trees growing from where the witch had been.

Even if his whole body was cut to pieces, he had to break through and go to her.

If his arms were cut off and he couldn’t hold the scythe, he had to let go of the scythe, and if his legs were cut off and he couldn’t run, he had to crawl to reach his master.

Even if he died in the end, he should have died by her side.

In the center of the forest where the witch was sealed, the scarecrow regretted.

The scarecrow, who had been blankly lost in recollection, came to his senses.

Thinking that he seemed to be falling into old memories more often these days, he walked through the quiet forest as usual.

Shadow beasts passed by the scarecrow’s side here and there, but neither the scarecrow nor the shadow beasts paid attention to each other.

Feeling gloomy, he took out his precious old ocarina to play it, but felt a sense of discomfort from somewhere.

As the scarecrow pondered the identity of the discomfort, he realized that the number of shadow beasts he encountered and their movement paths were different from usual.

There was only one case for this.

An intruder.

An intruder had entered the forest. Realizing that fact, the scarecrow expanded his senses while dripping with sticky killing intent.

He was so familiar with the structure of the forest he had wandered for a long time that he could know it with his eyes closed.

“There are intruders in two places. One of them has hidden in a hideout? I guess there were still some left.”

There were several hideouts that Arcana had prepared for the forest managers while creating the forest to seal the witch.

After the witch was sealed, the scarecrow put all his strength into killing the Arcana members who entered the forest and destroying the hideouts where they hid.

Arcana’s safe houses, living up to their name, hid their appearance and moved in accordance with the flow of mana in the forest.

As a result, even the scarecrow couldn’t easily find them.

The number of Arcana members he had killed after entering the forest was already approaching four digits, and he had destroyed six safe houses.

Nevertheless, Arcana consistently entered the forest and hid in the safe houses.

There was nothing he could do about them hiding. The scarecrow decided to deal with the intruders who walked around the forest boldly without even hiding first.

The scarecrow, moving with calm footsteps that contrasted with his sticky killing intent, discovered a peculiarity about the intruders.

Somehow, the intruders were moving while avoiding the shadow beasts.

It was curious how they knew, but it wasn’t important to the scarecrow.

The important thing was to eliminate the intruders.

To kill the enemies.

The scarecrow infused mana into the staff with the lantern attached, transforming the staff into a giant scythe.

Then, he charged towards the intruders and swung the giant scythe.

Just as the blade was about to pierce the neck of the frail-looking boy at the very front-

“Dorothy!”

The scarecrow had no choice but to stop the scythe upon sensing the familiar mana from the boy and hearing the name he missed.

******

Whew, I almost died.

The scythe of the scarecrow, the familiar of Dorothy Flemburr Gale, the “Witch of the Shaking Earth,” one of the Four Witches of Disaster, stopped just before piercing my neck.

If I had shouted a little later, I really would have died.

Fortunately, although the spirits’ senses were slightly noisy due to the negative-dimensional mana, they hadn’t lost their functions.

It wasn’t that there was no way to survive even if I was stabbed by this scythe, but I was glad because it would have been a huge headache if I was stabbed.

Precia and Gilbert were startled by the scarecrow’s sudden attack and drew their swords, but the scarecrow stared at me without even giving them a glance.

He seemed to know well that there were very few people who could exert their full power in this forest.

“Who are you?”

To the scarecrow’s question, I raised my hand to signal to the two who had drawn their swords that it was okay and answered.

“I’m a guest. I’ve come to meet your master, Dorothy Flemburr Gale.”

At my answer, the scarecrow narrowed his brows as if displeased.

“Are you mocking me, or do you not know?”

To that question, I smiled. As expected of a brainless scarecrow, he lacked thinking.

“Neither. I’m not mocking you, nor do I not know that Dorothy is sealed. I’ve just come to meet your master, as I said.”

“You say that even though you know she’s sealed?”

There was anger in the scarecrow’s voice.

“It’s not something I can’t say. If I can’t meet her because she’s sealed, then I just need to break the seal and meet her, right?”

“…You have a way to break the seal?”

“Of course. There’s no seal in this world that can’t be broken, only people who can’t break them. Ah, of course, I’m someone who can break it.”

At my confident voice, the ghostly fire flickering in the scarecrow’s two eyes wavered.

“Now that I’m an honored guest, why don’t you put away that scythe?”

At my words, the scarecrow looked around at me and my party members, then removed the scythe from my neck.

However, Precia pulled my arm to hide me behind her and glared fiercely at the scarecrow as if she would cut him down at any moment.

“It’s okay. No matter how empty-headed he is, he should at least know that if I die, Dorothy’s seal can’t be broken.”

If it weren’t for the environment of the forest, Precia would have been able to detect the scarecrow’s presence and deal with him.

However, since the environmental advantage was overwhelmingly in his favor, fighting should be avoided.

Of course, I had also prepared countermeasures in case we had to fight.

“How can I be sure your words are true?”

To the scarecrow’s question, I shrugged my shoulders.

“I don’t mind presenting evidence if you ask, but I don’t think you’d understand complex magic formulas.”

The scarecrow turned those he cut with his scythe into undead and controlled them, but the source of that ability was not the scarecrow himself, but his master, the witch.

The brainless scarecrow didn’t have the knowledge to recognize complex magic.

“Hmm… Then what would be good? Ah! Instead of evidence, I’ll tell you the location of Arcana’s safe houses in this forest. Then you’ll at least know that I’m not on the same side as your master’s enemies, right?”

At my suggestion, the scarecrow fell silent for a moment. As if organizing his thoughts, he looked straight at me and asked slowly.

“Your mana is definitely similar to Dorothy’s. To be precise….”

“The Witch of the Withering Drought.”

“…Yes, it’s like the mana of the Witch of the Withering Drought. How did this happen?”

It was understandable to be curious.

It wasn’t just because I knew Dorothy’s name that the scarecrow stopped his attack.

The power that became the source of my mana started with the mana circuits of Aquila, the former Witch of the Withering Drought, so the wavelength of my mana would be similar to the Four Disasters.

At the scarecrow’s words, Jade looked at me in surprise. It was a natural reaction, as the Four Disasters sometimes joined forces while opposing the Four Seasons.

For example, Aquila, when she was a witch, had once stolen a Grimoire from the Winter Wood Sage of that time and hidden it in the royal library.

“For a witch to properly wield the power of disaster, unlike a sage, the body must be female, right?”

That was true. For me, it was just mana, but for a witch’s mana to interact and wield the power of disaster, the body had to be female.

So even if I inherited a witch’s mana, I couldn’t become a witch.

“It’s not that I’ve become a candidate to be a witch. I just happened to have a connection, that’s all.”

If a sage raises a disciple through one-on-one succession, a witch has multiple disciples and makes them compete.

In that process, it was common for the disciples to kill each other.

“That’s not what’s important right now. First, let’s destroy Arcana’s safe houses and then continue talking.”

I smiled cheerfully.

First, we need to give them a taste of their own medicine.