Chapter 336
In a flash, silence fell upon the palace. It had only been a matter of seconds, but the masked man, Slager, had slaughtered every Imperial Knight inside the palace despite the fact that those knights were some of the best in the Empire. However, Joshua had ripped such a talented man into shreds with his single attack, eliciting all sorts of reactions from the people nearby.
“Was the Auxiliary Battalion’s captain… always this strong?” the captain of the Second Battalion wondered. He and the other Imperial Knights could feel goosebumps running over their skin. Joshua’s movements along just then were enough for him to be called the Hero King.
“I don’t know if I should be happy or sad…”
Kaizen and the other nobles had more reasons to be nervous since the situation had definitely not gotten better, considering the casualties. On the other hand, Kaiser was rendered speechless by his boiling anger.
And the masked men, whom everyone was paying attention to…
“…Retreat,” one of the masked men mumbled, indicating that he was the leader.
“…What?” Kaiser was shocked and immediately whirled to face the assassin. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s just like I said.” The masked man shrugged.
“So you’re going to make a mess out of things and then just flee on your own?” Kaiser sarcastically snapped back.
“It was Heimdall’s order,” the masked man replied.
“Wh...at…?” Kaiser dumbly asked.
“And Prince,” the masked man said, narrowing his eyes, “I think we need to correct one thing: we’re in this situation because of your misjudgment. You should take care of your own mess.”
“Wh-what are you talking about…?”
At that moment, the masked man’s eyes turned cold.
“Actually, I want to ask you—did you really think he wouldn't know?”
“Explain it in a way I’ll understand!” Kaiser shouted.
“…Yeah, it’ll be the last time… so I can do at least that much,” the masked man mumbled enigmatically, then took a step forward. “Us directly taking out the Second Prince wasn’t our original plan. You know that, don’t you? Since this whole thing was orchestrated by you.”
“That’s…” Kaiser couldn’t say anything.
“The Emperor is gone, but there are still some risks. Yet, the Second Prince doesn’t have the capacity to rule over an empire, so he was destined to be eliminated by the First Prince,” the assassin said. The fact that Kaizen was right next to him did not make him hesitate in the slightest.
“So everything is my fault now?” Kaiser scowled.
“Why not? We were able to get everything we wanted even without getting our hands dirty, but we ended up getting into problems because of you…”
“Do you think I knew things would turn out this way?” Kaiser shouted in anger.
The masked man shook his head. “You’re misunderstanding the point. I’m not trying to blame you.”
“Then…?” Kaiser asked.
The masked man curled up one end of his mouth. “I pondered why you’re overdoing yourself, but I got my answer easier than I thought. Once you save someone from being drowned, they ask you for their bag... You didn’t want to stay a puppet forever, did you?”
Kaiser’s eyes widened.
“You’re quick-witted, so you slowly tried to make yourself known as the Fourth Prince. By asking him for the imperial seal, you tried to flip the chessboard and earn the nobles’ trust by getting directly involved in eliminating the Second Prince. However, he ordered you to lay low as much as possible and support the First Prince from the shadows.”
“You’re mistaken!” Kaiser tried to refute. “I only tried to sort things out in an easier—!”
“Then why did you make those women meet in the middle of the night several years ago?” the masked man interrupted. “I’m assuming you wanted to crush anyone who would become a threat to you. Heimdall was paying great attention to Joshua Sanders at the time.”
“...”
“You’re not going to say you didn’t know, are you?”
Kaiser turned pale.
“Asiru ben Britten is the lady of the house of the Duke of Agnus and also a member of the Imperial Family, so those two women shared many of the same characteristics. They suddenly had a meeting and made a not-so-secret agreement. Wasn’t it you who planned the whole thing?” The masked man pointed at Kaiser, but his question was rhetorical.
Kaiser wasn’t slow-witted enough to be unable to tell that, so he held his tongue.
“Even if she is the lady of the Duke’s house, it would have been a piece of cake to lure her out using her maternal love. In addition to that, she was ready to sacrifice her life to exonerate her son, who had just been accused of high treason. I didn’t even have to get to Vannesa ben Britten since Joshua Sanders was always an eyesore to her… so you wouldn’t even have had to nudge her. Here is the question, then: by going through this process, what benefit have you gained, Prince?”
The masked man nodded knowingly as if the answer was easily discerned.
“You just told the two princesses the ‘secret history’ of the Imperial Family. How would those two women react after finding out about the whole truth? …It was bloody obvious because they were going to blame everything on him. Then, the next move of Joshua Sanders, a man who loves his mother very much, was also predictable.”
“You knew all that…but you condoned it?” Kaiser bemoaned.
“Of course, I was against the idea because I was disgusted by how you were challenging Heimdall, but he wasn’t. If you could prove your value on your own… it wouldn’t be that bad, he said. Heimdall loves every person of talent, but in the end, you became useless and were discarded.
“Joshua Sanders,” the assassin continued, ignoring the frozen prince, “I’m going to leave today… but you’ll see me again soon.”
Then the masked man turned away, but before he left, he warned Joshua, “I’m saying this just in case… but don’t think about tracking me down unless you want to lose the mother whom you haven’t seen for quite a long time…”
Joshua’s eyes turned cold. “What’s your name?”
“…Me?” The masked man only turned his head to look at Joshua and smiled. “I’m Porth Arietta, the fourth apostle of the great Heimdall.”
“Porth Arietta…” Joshua repeated.
“Yeah, keep my name in your mind.” The masked man chuckled.
“…Are you not going to avenge your colleague?” Joshua asked.
The masked man came to a halt.
“Avenge?” He tilted his head in confusion. “Are you talking about that idiot who got cut to pieces? Kekeke, I wouldn’t call that piece of crap my colleague. In fact, even a dog would smirk if it heard that. He got killed because he wasn’t skilled enough, so why would I blame you?”
“Let’s discuss serious matters now,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ll tell you something important…”
Joshua narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but then, the masked man spoke directly into Joshua’s head.
-…o.
The unexpected telepathic message made Joshua’s eyes widen. The masked man watched him for a moment and his smile deepened.
“Let’s retreat!” he shouted.
In a flash, the dozens-strong masked men disappeared into thin air. Their movements were so swift and furtive that no one other than Joshua detected them.
“You bastard…” After spending a very long time in silence, Kaizen finally pulled himself together and roared. “Knights of the Second Battalion, arrest that criminal!”
Kaizen pointed not at Joshua; it was none other than his brother.
“Yes, Your Highness!” The surviving Second Battalion Knights quickly surrounded Kaiser.
Their encirclement was so solid that there was no way for Kaiser to escape, yet even in a time like that, Kaiser burst into maniacal laughter.
“Kek, kekeke, kehahaha! If I knew things would end in vain…”
“What are you doing?” Kaizen shouted at the knights.
“Stop!” Kaiser growled and pulled a piece of parchment out of his inner pocket.
“That’s…” Joshua’s jaw dropped slightly when he realized what kind of magic circle was drawn on the parchment. “That’s the explosion magic circle that Evergrant created…”
“It won’t be as powerful as the original one because I failed to get Tera Essence… but I’ll be able to at least blow up this palace,” Kaiser said.
Joshua felt like a scene from his previous life was being replayed before his eyes.
“Kekeke, nobody move,” Kaiser warned.
“Argh!” Kaizen bellowed. “Make him kneel, immediately—!”
“Stop!” Joshua shouted
It seemed that caught Kaiser’s attention because he turned to Joshua next.
“Joshua Sanders… It’s a shame; I would have achieved my dream if it hadn’t been for you…”
“Your dream?” Joshua repeated.
“Do you want to know? Kekekeke.” Kaiser quietly chuckled, but his eyes were blank as if he had given up on everything. “It was so close, but it’s meaningless.”
What dream was Kaiser talking about? No, did he have a dream in the first place? Joshua was living his second life, but even he had no way of knowing what Kaiser’s dream was.
“…Don’t even think about following me. I’ll kill myself anyway after I complete my unfinished business,” Kaiser quietly muttered.
Although no one could tell if Kaiser was telling them the truth, his remark was quite shocking, so much so that the nearby people froze in shock.
Kaiser started to walk. Whenever he took a step forward, the knights that were surrounding him also took a step backward. It was obvious that the magic scroll held an extraordinary power, and on top of that, Joshua had warned them about it. It was hard for the knights to think lightly of the scroll.
“Brother Kaizen,” Kaiser said.
“You bastard, you’d better kneel right now!” Kaizen shouted.
“I’m sorry,” Kaiser said, shaking his head with a faint smile, “but I can’t grant you that request.”
Kaizen scowled. “You son of a bitch…!”
“But in return,” the younger prince quietly continued, “I’ll tell you something important before I go.”
Kaizen came to a halt.
“Something important?” he echoed.
“Yes.” Kaizen nodded. “It’s the answer to one of the questions you want to know the most.”
“…Go on.” Kaizen allowed Kaiser to continue.
Kaiser paused for a long moment before he spoke.
“…Father—”
However, before he could even finish speaking, his eyes bulged. He slowly looked down, his lips trembling, and saw a dagger piercing his heart. That was also when he met the eyes in the shadow.
“You… are…!” Kaiser tried to say something, but he coughed up blood.
Even Joshua could only gape blankly at the unexpected turn of events. Although he had already sensed the presence, Joshua hadn’t expected Kaiser to be killed immediately.
“Darkness… Emperor…!” Kaiser choked out, writhing on the blade.
The moment he finished speaking, Kaiser collapsed; his dimming eyes watched his blood quickly spreading across the ground.
1. This is a Korean idiom about human greed and ungratefulness.
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