I Became the Tyrant's Beloved Omega

That was when it happened. In the quiet mountains, a great voice echoed and a tremendous war cry rang out. Aiden sprang up, grabbed the longsword he had left by his bedside, and rushed out of the barracks.

“What is going on?”

“The enemy forces are attacking.”

The captain of the royal guard came running and shouted in an urgent voice.

“Our, our army!”

“Only the royal guard remains.”

In that instant, Aiden understood. That the enemy was on all sides.

“How many are in our royal guard in total?”

“About three hundred.”

More than five thousand soldiers had taken part in this war. Such a large force could not have gone far. Also, if the enemy meant to launch a surprise attack in the dead of night, mobilizing too many soldiers would make failure likely. So Aiden, predicting that the enemy’s visible numbers were nearly all of them, calmly gave the order to the captain of the royal guard.

“Our royal guard will stand with their backs to the cliff. When I lure the enemy to the cliff, you must surround them and annihilate every soldier.”

“B-but!”

“I have gone to war in place of His Majesty the Emperor. Do you mean to disobey my order?”

The captain of the royal guard was startled for a moment, but soon knelt on one knee before Aiden and swore loyalty. Then he began moving the knights. Aiden, who had been watching, mounted his horse and shouted loudly.

“I am the Crown Prince of the Liber Empire!”

At Aiden’s great voice, the surroundings fell silent for an instant. Aiden did not miss that opening, and drove his horse, racing toward the cliff.

It was while Aiden was desperately driving his horse. A rope with a round weight attached flew in low and wrapped around the ankle of the horse Aiden was riding, and as the horse fell, Aiden was thrown from the great warhorse.

“Ugh…”

From the tremendous shock of falling from a horse running at full speed, Aiden’s vision flickered dizzily for an instant. But in the extreme situation of the enemies closing in, Aiden lifted his head with all his might, fighting not to lose consciousness, and looked ahead.

But that was when it happened. The figure of Noah standing at the edge of the cliff flickered before Aiden’s eyes. Emotion welled up, and Aiden desperately raised his body and reached out his hand to go to Noah.

But in that moment, an arrow flew in from somewhere and buried itself deep in Aiden’s thigh, and Aiden collapsed to the ground with a great pain. Aiden drew the sword at his waist and drove it upside down into the ground. He gripped the hilt stuck in the earth, wrung out his remaining strength, and barely rose to his feet. Then he pulled the arrow from his thigh with all his strength.

“Ugh!”

Letting out a groan at the sharp, tearing pain, Aiden looked again at the edge of the cliff where Noah had stood.

“Huh, he’s gone.”

But the figure of Noah at the edge of the cliff had vanished. At the same time, he saw the enemy forces charging from afar, shouting their war cry.

‘I’ll come find you for sure.’

Aiden felt Noah’s gentle voice seeming to echo faintly in his ear. He resented Noah so much, the Noah who had coaxed him, who had thrown a tantrum about not going to the imperial palace, and smiled brightly.

‘This place was a swamp. Noah sent me to a place like that…’

Contrary to the deep resentment he felt toward Noah, Aiden wanted to see Noah’s bright smile just once before he died. If only Noah would smile for him, Aiden felt he could do anything. Aiden pulled the sword from the ground and limped toward the cliff.

“The Crown Prince of Liber is over there!”

His tears had dried and his chest was parched and brittle. He was so utterly powerless. Aiden found himself so ridiculous, unable to do anything in this situation with the enemy right before his eyes, sword raised and chasing him, that he let out a short laugh.

Even in this moment with death right before him, he began to grow madly angry at himself for longing for Noah. Unable to hold back the fury boiling up from somewhere very deep below his dantian, Aiden let out a great shout.

“Aaaah!”

But that was the moment. Along with the fury surging up like erupting magma, a great flame began to explode from Aiden’s body.

“Uwaaah!”

The enemy soldiers swinging their swords at Aiden right in front of him were instantly engulfed in the exploding flames, burning and flung far away. Aiden, losing his reason and running wild, charged blindly forward, swinging his sword at the enemy forces surging in like a tide, and at the same time began burning every one of them to death in the great flames.

It was the moment Aiden, the Emperor of Fire, awakened his power.