Chapter 157
The room was big enough to accommodate dozens of people, but there were only two people in it—a handsome young man and a beautiful young woman facing each other right in the middle of the room.
Rustle.
The woman had glistening hair that spilled from her head like a waterfall. Her beautiful, enthralling hand slowly rose to stroke the man’s mysterious, deep blue hair before dropping just a bit to his sharp, pale jawline.
"Um…” The young man’s hoarse voice could be heard. The woman’s hand, however, did not stop. She continued down to his slender neck, and she seemed to be in disbelief that the young man in front of her was a man.
“...”
There was a moment of silence. She stared at the young man’s bright, luscious, cherry-red lips. Every time her hand moved, his lips would get even wetter.
‘What are you thinking?’
“A bit more…” grumbled the young woman as her fingers went down. Her hands were now on his upper body—on his well-defined muscles. The young man was wearing clothes, but his muscles were so thick they could be felt despite the clothes.
The young woman could also tell that the young man’s breathing was getting rougher by the second, but she wasn’t an exception to this. The young woman’s breathing would get shallower as the young man breathed
A bit lower… lower, and lower…
“Haat…!” Iceline snapped out of it with a strange noise. “W-w-what was I thinking?!”
Had she gotten drunk on the atmosphere and got briefly possessed by her dreamy self?
Iceline shook her head vigorously as if she was trying to cool her head. Afterward, she immediately stared outside, beyond the window.
“Ah…” Iceline exclaimed.
The night sky was decorated by a panoply of glittering stars—just like that night.
“A-Am I out of my mind? I can’t believe that I was thinking of those things…”
Iceline blamed herself. She took a moment to compose herself before returning to her usual cold demeanor and walking away.
However, Iceline had no idea. She had no idea that her immaculate porcelain cheeks were tinged redder than ever before.
***
The Masters selected as judges had dedicated accommodations. In one of them, there were three Masters wearing grim expressions, and they were Masters from non-imperial countries.
“In the first match of Group B, we knew our knight would lose. Group A’s morning match was really unexpected—even the knights from the Empire would agree it was strange.”
Another man nodded gloomily in response to Windmill’s words. He was a middle-aged man whose skin was lighter than most women’s skin. He was Aiture, the representative Master of Draia, the Ice Kingdom. The Ice Kingdom was the coldest nation of all.
“The apparent gap between the imperial Masters and us is becoming uncomfortably wide.” Aiture’s face wrinkled with worry. “Not just in quality, but in numbers as well. The empires have well over ten Masters, including the unofficial ones, while other nations have no more than three.”
At that, Hasegi, the representative master of the Kingdom of Fordran, said, “Is the problem really about the numbers? Think about it! Think about what kind of monster that Joshua Sanders brat will become in ten years.”
"Well…” Aiture and Windmill could only gulp a mouthful of their saliva in response to Hasegi’s words.
“Hmm… Perhaps we will have the youngest ever member of the Nine Stars by then…” Windmill muttered, annoyed.
Hasegi heard that and responded, “You two may have no idea, but I was here at the Reinhardt Martial Arts Competition a few years ago.”
“Are you talking about the Reinhardt Martial Arts Competition on the year Joshua Sanders first appeared?” asked Windmill with wide eyes.
Hasegi nodded and said, “It finally makes sense to me. I knew that he was holding back, even though he managed to become the champion by a landslide.”
“What do you mean? He was holding back? How does that make sense when everyone was talking about his godly talent?” asked Windmill.
Hasegi groaned. Rather than directly responding, he asked, “Didn’t you two see it? I’m talking about the weapon he used today.”
“A weapon… Hm, are you talking about that red spear?”
"Yes. The way he wielded the spear today is shockingly great the adjective ‘overwhelming’ wouldn’t be enough to describe it. However, he wasn’t using a spear when I saw him fight at the Reinhardt Martial Arts Competition years ago.”
“…!” Windmill and Aiture stared wide-eyed at Hasegi.
“Wait, what are you talking about? Are you trying to say that he managed to become that strong with the spear in just a few years?”
“No. It would be more believable to say that he was hiding his skills with the spear until now.”
“…”
Once Hasegi’s words fell, the room was enveloped in a crushing silence
How were they supposed to accept that? Joshua Sanders managed to crush his opponents while holding back at the age of ten, and at the age of fifteen, he crushed a prospective Master without breaking a sweat.
On top of that, he came from one of the three great powers rather than from a developing nation. As such, Joshua’s existence was like a thorn in the chest of the nations who were still trying their best to overcome the three great powers.
“Wait…” Windmill spoke. He looked as if he realized something as he asked curiously, “If he wasn’t using a spear at the Reinhardt Martial Arts Competition, then what weapon was he using?”
Hasegi thought about it for a moment before saying, “He used a sword.”
“Sword?”
"Yes. A titanic sword…”
“A titanic sword… Now that I think about it, isn’t Joshua Sanders—” Windmill’s eyes widened at the realization. “Duke Agnus…!”
“Before he becomes even stronger, he has to be eliminated…!” Aiture growled.
Windmill shivered when Aiture’s terrifying voice reached his ears. “I can’t believe you… Are you trying to say that you want to assassinate someone in the middle of Reinhardt? The eyes of basically everyone influential on the continent are gathered here.”
“If it is for the nation…!” Aiture growled once more.
“That’s…” Windmill trailed off as his voice audibly quivered.
Hasegi’s eyes shone sharply as he said, “Under the right circumstances, it’s possible.”
“I-Isn’t that too dangerous? One slip up and the situation could easily devolve into war.”
At Windmill’s words, Aiture shook his head and said coolly, “High risk, high return. You won't get anything without taking any risks. Where do you think the sword of Avalon will point first?”
“…” At that, even the concerned Windmill closed his mouth.
Aiture had addressed the elephant in the room—the Avalon Empire lay in the center of the continent, which meant that it had more shared borders than any other nation on the continent. When the inevitable Continental War arrived, who would they target first?
“Of course, I’m not saying we rush into this blindly. Lord Windmill is right, it would be insane to try something like that in the middle of Reinhardt.” Aiture stared alternatingly between Hasegi and Windmill before saying, “However, we can strike once he leaves Reinhardt to go home.”
“Apparently, he came to Reinhardt on his own, unlike the other participants,” Aiture added.
“That means he has confidence in his skills. What a cheeky brat.” Hasegi clicked his tongue in displeasure and quietly got up from his seat. “We’ve been here for too long, so let’s call it a day. If the imperials saw us, they’ll get suspicious.”
“I agree.” Windmill stood up from his seat as well as if he had expected Hasegi’s words. “I'll talk to other people and see what I can find out.”
“We’ll be going then…” At that, Windmill and Hasegi walked out of the door, leaving only Aiture on his own. It was only natural because the room was his dedicated lodging.
“Joshua Sanders, a Master of Avalon…” Hasegi muttered in a low voice, and his eyes were shining brighter than ever.
***
Joshua was splayed out on his own on an enormous bed that could accommodate five people at once.
“Akshuller and the Mercenary King…”
Barbarian, the Mercenary King, was the first of the mercenaries to achieve widespread recognition when he ascended to become one of the Twelve Superhumans. The Mighty Akshuller closely followed him.
Barbarian was the weakest among the Twelve Superhumans, but there was still a huge chasm between Barbarian and Akshuller.
In addition, it seemed that there was an unknown conflict between the two.
‘There has to be something. Otherwise, Iceline wouldn’t have talked about it like that…’
Joshua muttered inwardly with a frown.
Barbarian was truly the Mercenary King.
Honestly, it could be said that it was his fate to become the Mercenary King.
Masters would often say that they never believed in the so-called Nine Stars because the concept of Nine Stars was just something the Twelve Superhumans had created.
It wasn’t really strange since every Master was prideful enough not to believe anything extraordinary unless they had seen it for themselves.
However, Joshua had long seen the harsh truth.
No Master could ever defeat any of the Superhumans or Nine Stars.
“I don’t know if someone as talented as Ulabis can grow even further, but if it’s Akshuller…”
In his past life, the Mighty Akshuller was still the Second Mercenary, second only to the Mercenary King Barbarian. Joshua had nothing to do with them back then, but the rumors about them were everywhere.
Of course, there would always be fire whenever there was smoke.
“I’ll find out soon enough,” Joshua muttered to himself and shook off the thought.
Knock, knock, knock!
All of a sudden, there was a knocking on the door.
“Come in,” responded Joshua.
A brief silence ensued. Afterward, the door creaked as it slowly opened.
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