Fairy Tale: Little Red Riding Hood's Wolf Mentor

“These are two different stories.”

On the city wall of the Shadi Kingdom, which borders the Sri Kingdom, Poro looked at the shadows of the mountains and forests cast on the ground not far away. "There should be two. The first one, the name of the story, is called Princess Marlin."

//Grimm's Fairy Tales: Princess Marlene
"This story is quite different from what we have seen, but fortunately, the princess did not hide her name from us."

The Poro smiled, and the first page of the fairy tale book condensed.

On the page, there was a picture of a princess sitting in the shadows in a black tower, with crystal tears flowing in her eyes.

[Return of the Ring: Princess Marlin: Forgotten Shadow]

[Unsealing Ceremony: Help Princess Marlin escape from the forgotten tower and meet the prince she misses so much again]

[Unsealing ceremony completed, get the ring return]

[Fairy Tale Power: You will gain the ability to transform into a shadow and travel through the shadow world]

[Description: Princess Marlene wandered in the pitch-black shadows. The cries from the outside world had long since vanished within the past few days. Now, all she could hear was the sound of her own heartbeat.]

[She spent seven years in the shadow of Chaos. The tower's walls finally collapsed, but the kingdom outside had already been completely destroyed.]

Poro thought about it and activated the ring. His figure spontaneously turned into a shadow, and the world in front of him was instantly turned upside down, becoming a blurry gray and black, and fragmented.

It was just like the Shadi Shadow King Capital we had seen before.

"Not bad, now I have the same abilities as Princess Marlene."

Then, Poro condensed his body back into a physical entity, and Lake in front of him opened his eyes wide:
"Polo, you just... suddenly crawled into the shadows?!"

"Just like that Princess Marlene, right?"

Poro blinked and handed the page in his hand to Lake. "It seems that our visit to Princess Marlin's house can be much faster now."

The shadow world, located in the cracks of reality, is like a desolate space.

Throughout history, there have been almost no magicians who could use this space, so Poro had no knowledge of this before. Only after coming into contact with Princess Marlin did he begin to gradually explore this strange world.

Originally, Poro wanted to create his own magic to dabble in this.

But obviously, such "talent" is much rarer. Even Princess Marlene has not learned any magic theory, and most of what she uses is the power similar to "talent" taught by her "ancestor".

But now it seems that there is [Return of the Ring: Shadow of Oblivion].

Poro and Lake are equivalent to having this kind of strange talent.

"What about the second story? About that person..."

Lake thought for a moment and described it, "Princess Marlin's ancestor. He was like a powerful magician, a king shrouded in shadows. According to the legends of the Shadi Kingdom—he should have lived for hundreds of years."

"The second story is called Shadow."

After a moment of thought, Polu continued, "That king, in the fairy tale, was a scholar who possessed the shadow of his own will."

//Andersen's Fairy Tales: Shadows. The original text is a bit long, so I'll just give you the gist.

The second page depicts a king sitting on a throne, wearing a black tuxedo and cloak, and reflected at his feet is the shadow of a scholar with a terrified look on his face.

[Circular Return: Shadow·Shadow Will]

[Unsealing Ceremony: Meeting the King in the Shadows]

[Unsealing ceremony completed, get the ring return]

[Fairy Tale Power: Perhaps as you grow, your shadow will also gain the ability to transform into a physical form. It will also possess its own life and will. Perhaps, it will become your partner, but it is also possible that it will become your enemy.]

[Description: Shadow donned a shimmering crown. From his high throne, he gazed into the distance. The shadows of the entire kingdom were fully revealed in his eyes.]

The king never needs the opera, beauty, and illusion boasted by scholars. He only needs to see the shadow of human nature and control the shadow of human beings.

"Shadow? Is it really like what the legends of the Shadi Kingdom say?"

Lake looked at the pages in Poro's hand with some curiosity, then turned her gaze to the shadow under her feet.

She raised a hand, and Shadow raised his hand too.

"So, a shadow isn't just something formed when the sun doesn't reach it? Can it actually be alive?"

"There's a world hidden in the shadows, a world with life. It's not so hard to accept."

Poro smiled. He didn't know when it started, but he began to accept the magical things in this world easily, and even felt that "yes, this is reasonable"!
After all, with magic, heaven, and hell, it makes more sense that shadows would move on their own.

"But my shadow can have life?"

Poro frowned, absorbing the information in the pages, and carefully placed the page in his hand [Circular Return: Shadow Will] on his shadow.

The pages suddenly began to darken, melting into a shadow that merged with the Poro's own shadow.

"Father, am I really mature enough to break away from you, acquire a new body, and grow as an independent life?"

At this moment, Poro suddenly heard the shadow under his feet making a sound as small as a mosquito or fly.

This voice rang out of nowhere from the bottom of Poro's heart.

He could feel that as long as he said his consent, his shadow would break away, gain life, and form a brand new individual.

"I... haven't thought about it yet."

In Poro's mind, the shadows in the fairy tale and the Shadi King at the bottom of the shadow world flashed by one after another, making him a little hesitant.

"It's okay, father. After all, I'm just a shadow. I can stay here forever."

The shadow listened without any complaints or discouragement, but spoke softly, and then returned to its quiet appearance, almost making the Poro think that what had just happened was an illusion.

"Puro, the second page, is it effective?"

Lake blinked and looked at the shadow beneath the Poro.

“It should be effective.”

Poro scratched his head and said to the shadow at his feet, "Shadow, can you move on your own?"

"Move? Like this?"

The shadow repeated it in a low voice, and the next moment, the Poro saw his own shadow raise a claw without his control.

"Cool, Poro, your shadow seems to be really alive?"

"Yeah, but it's still a little short of leaving me completely, like... my recognition."

Poro explained to Lake.

After listening to Poro's story, Lake quickly understood Poro's intention and nodded seriously:

"Indeed, children must be taught well before they can go out and play on their own."

During the chat, Poro's ears suddenly moved.

Then they stopped communicating and looked into the distance.

At the edge of the field of vision, a cloud of yellow dust rose. Behind it, a faint, flickering black speck appeared: an army. "The Sri people are coming. Fortunately, we've formed an alliance with the Shadi Kingdom. If we were any slower, they could have attacked directly from this side into the heart of the Goethe Kingdom."

"They knew we had the power to capture the Weiser Kingdom's flying ship, but they still came."

Poro narrowed his eyes, thinking of the three dead Sri priests who had turned into demons, and the missing Bluebeard, "They must have more powerful powers."

"Woo——"

A shrill howl rang out from the city's watchtower, and all the Shadi soldiers grasped their spears.

"Everyone, form up and prepare to fight the enemy!"

General Shadi, who was fully armored, waved his sword and shouted.

But at this moment, next to Lake and Poro, the figure of Princess Marlin emerged from the shadows of the battlements. She looked at the smoke and dust of the soldiers not far away and frowned:
"No, these Sri Kingdom armies, although strong, are not even as strong as those of the Weiser Kingdom—why?"

As she spoke, she used shadows in the air to outline the size of the Sri army attacking Shadi.

When they saw this, Lake and Poro were also stunned.

Because although this army is large in number, it seems that it is only a small part larger than the army of the Shadi Kingdom.

The Shadi Kingdom defended the city, waiting for the enemy to tire themselves out.

The army of the Sri Kingdom would find it difficult to even break through the Shadi Kingdom!
why?
unless……

The Poro quickly understood this and frowned.

While he was thinking, a golden light in the sky quickly fell in front of him.

"Ms. Lake, and...Mr. Poro."

"Are you, Miss Sipalo?"

Hearing the sound, Lake and Poro looked to the side and saw a golden bird landing on the city wall. With the power of the Happy Prince, she regained her golden body.

"This is the letter that His Royal Highness the Prince asked me to deliver to you."

Lake opened the envelope, and inside was a simple map and a battle report. After reading the text, everyone couldn't help but feel a chill.

"What? The Bell Kingdom's front line... has been breached by the Sri Kingdom?!"

"Sure enough, is Shadi's side just feinting?"

Lake gritted her teeth and looked into the distance. The army shrouded in loess was getting closer, and the swords under the loess were already showing their sharp edges.

A force comparable to that of the Shadi Kingdom—just a feint?
The Sri Kingdom did not choose to concentrate its forces to attack, but instead dispersed its forces and attacked the Bell and Shadi Kingdoms at the same time.

There is no doubt that this will result in greater casualties.

But for the Sri Kingdom, which had more military power, it was more like a complete crushing.

"The army they attacked with was dozens of times larger than the defending forces. Furthermore, there was also some powerful and unknown attacking force. Princess Bear was attacked and seriously injured deep within the army during the first battle."

Poro summarized the contents of the battle report and turned his gaze towards the army approaching the city.

"And this team in front of us is only trying to hold off the Shadi Kingdom for a while—are they confident that they can destroy the Goethe Kingdom in the short term?"

……

The Sri army, heavily armored cavalry, lined up in neat rows, and the Sri flag made of three golden lines fluttered in the air.

The military strength of the Sri Kingdom far exceeded that of all countries of the same era.

They had an almost unlimited supply of food and fodder, a kind of bread that came from nowhere, and this was one of the reasons why the soldiers of the Sri Kingdom were invincible in the war.

"That King Goethe is indeed no ordinary man."

In the tent in the center, Bluebeard Giles slowly opened the map in his hand. This map was not planned on the battlefield, but was sent from the capital of Sri in the rear.

The map outlines the Goethe Kingdom, the recovered territory of the Weser Kingdom, the Shadi Kingdom, and the Bell Kingdom.

In front of several key cities, facing the Sri Lankan Kingdom, there were lines and dots of varying density.

The number of soldiers.

"Although the sound trackers can't determine the enemy's specific tactics, they can still hear the sound of horse hooves and the clinking of metal. These Goths are much more difficult to deal with than we imagined."

Although Bluebeard Giles is a cruel and bloody guy, this cannot conceal his rich experience and talent in warfare.

"Perhaps, we can't kill that prince within a week."

Behind him, another bearded man in armor shrugged his shoulders, playing with a tinderbox in his hand.

"Marshal, what about me? Marshal, my dog ​​is very powerful."

As he spoke, he polished the tinderbox and a spark flew out.

The moment the spark flew out, the entire space suddenly darkened, and only the spark floating in the air could be seen. After the spark went out, a huge dog as big as a baby elephant appeared on the ground of the tent.

Its eyes are as big as teacups.

The dog lowered its huge head at the old soldier's feet and spat out a gold coin from its mouth, which was engraved with the emblem of the Kingdom of Bell.

The old soldier took the gold coin, looked at it carefully, put it in his mouth and bit it, and finally put it in his arms:
"Every general over there, my good fellow, could take their heads off as easily as this gold coin."

"I know, Furl."

Bluebeard Giles glanced at the old tinderbox soldier—that is, Forle—with a hint of disdain hidden in his eyes:

"Your guys are indeed powerful, and our army is also very strong. From my military perspective, those stupid little bugs have no chance of resistance at all."

As he spoke, Giles outlined a detailed attack curve on another map.

He divided the army of the Sri Kingdom into fine divisions, attacked the spearheads, surrounded the cities of the Goethe Kingdom, and slowly formed a meat grinder-like encirclement.

"But those guys asked me to take charge—of course, it wasn't just to add icing on the cake. Anyone else could win, so why did they let me come?"

As he spoke, Bluebeard grinned, revealing a cruel smile, "Because I will win faster, better, and kill more cleanly, do you understand?"

As he spoke, he paused and flipped open a battle report.

"The princess of the fallen Bell Kingdom has a bear? Very powerful? So, she's the psychological support for the remaining Bell army?"

Giles thought for a moment, then turned and looked at the tinderbox veteran, Forle, and said, "Tonight, send your boy to kill this princess."

"Princess? That's a shame. Perhaps I can capture her."

Ful was stunned for a moment, licked his lips, and revealed a sinister look, "Besides, I have a great buddy who can actually destroy this city directly..."

"No need. It will be enough to kill your smallest one. Once you have it, our army will attack."

Giles shook his head and said coldly, "Although I am not familiar with your powers, the unrivaled despair should be used with caution at the end.

Compared to those things, a soldier's life is the least valuable thing." (End of this chapter)