Side Story Chapter 35
“Now, the last problem is the people here…” Kireua glanced down.
All the traitors were looking at Kireua with open hostility; they seemed to have already given up on their lives.
“What are you doing? They already betrayed us once, so we should kill them,” Anna said, approaching Kireua.
“No, that’s a bad solution.”
“Then are you going to spare their lives?” Anna asked, obviously discontent.
“I’m thinking.”
“Just leave it to me. I’ll wipe them out without leaving a trace,” Anna offered. A vicious wind blew around them, but Kireua shook his head again.
“I’m with the witch on this matter,” Cain interjected. “They have eyes, but they’re to stupid to use them properly. They’d just be a waste of our rations.”
The traitors started to shout their anger at Kireua.
“Kill me! It’s truly disgusting to see you pretending to be merciful.”
“I’ll curse you in hell, Kireua Sanders!”
“Do you think you two boys can rule this country? It’s obvious that you two will be busy hiding in your mothers’ skirts and another civil war will break out.”
“Combat Emperor! You’d better come to your senses too. The state of affairs on the continent is serious, so if you keep taking the side of those girls’ puppets, the other countries will take over Avalon!”
Cain’s face darkened, but surprisingly, Kireua was nonchalant.
Anna stepped back.
‘Things are taking an interesting turn.’ She smiled slyly. Although she hadn’t said anything to Kireua, the general opinion among the rebels was the same in the north too. It was the rebels’ biggest complaint and a justifiable cause for this rebellion, so Anna was sure that telling Kireua this would greatly influence his decision.
“Your Highness, I don’t know if you know this, but some rebels are talking,” Anna said.
Kireua looked askance at her.
“They say the Emperor actually didn’t go missing. He was poisoned by one of his power-obsessed queen consorts.”
The prince jerked.
“She’s trying to pull the wool over her son’s eyes and then rule the country behind, like a stereotypical puppet master. What do you think about that?” Anna asked.
Cain was the first to respond.
“Who said such nonsense?!” he shouted. A vivid murderous intent spread out from him. He knew better than anyone else that the three queen consorts weren’t that kind of person.
“Truth doesn’t matter because that is what they believe.” Anna pointed at the traitors, who sneered in Kireua’s face.
“You said it, North Witch.”
“Explain that yourself, prince. We’ll do that much.”
“Or you can just kill us. You’re a mama’s boy who runs to his mother even after becoming an adult. We’ll laugh at you from hell.”
“Waaah, Kireua is a baby. Do that for me.”
“Hahahahaha!”
Kireua took a step forward with a faint smile on his face. Nevertheless, the traitors’ laughter still echoed everywhere.
“Your Highness…?”
“I have an idea, Sir Cain,” Kireua said.
“Pardon?”
“Let’s take them to the north.” Kireua smiled crookedly.
Cain’s eyes widened.
The laughter gradually died out.
“No-North…?”
“Does he mean…”
“Lemegeton? Is he talking about the cursed land where the demons settled?”
“From what I’ve heard, the weather there is uninhabitable for humans, in contrast to the south…”
The northern region of Avalon was already notorious to the people of Avalon, but the cold, unlivable land had recently become more notorious. According to the rumors, the demons that had fled from the Demon Realm had gathered in the region after the generation of authorities began.
“It’s said that signs of His Majesty were found in the north,” Kireua said, loudly enough that everyone could hear it. “This is good. We can authenticate the truth of the rumors and answer their question about whether or not His Majesty has been poisoned.”
Cain’s lips stretched into a wide smile as he realized what Kireua was trying to do. “That’s a great idea. I will personally take charge of them until we’re done with our business in the west. They’ll need their stamina to endure the weather in the northern region.”
Kireua nodded. “That would be great, Sir Cain.”
“Leave it to me.”
The traitors had stopped laughing long ago and had gone so silent that Kireua’s party could hear them occasionally swallow nervously.
“What did he say earlier…?” A mocking smile danced on Kireua’s lips. He mimicked Coal’s manner of speech: “‘Waaah, Kireua is a baby.’ Misters, let’s go to the north together.”
Cain quietly shook his head. “…I’ve served my master for decades, but His Highness Kireua seems to be even more talented as a villain.”
* * *
A giant ice boulder sat at the edge of a cliff on a frozen, snowy mountain in the far north of Avalon.
Joshua, who was trapped inside the ice boulder, smacked his lips. ‘They left.’
Crazy demons occasionally roamed nearby, but this was his first time seeing humans here.
‘It’s my first time seeing humans in a decade… Kids these days don’t have the guts.’
Joshua glanced outside the ice boulder. Carmen was only able to leave a handful of two- to three-centimeter scratches.
‘The Agnus family must have weakened a lot.’
-No, it’s just that you’re strong, you monster.
‘Are you awake?’ Joshua smiled at the feeble voice in his head. They had been trapped here for over a decade, and the Demon Spirit would die completely after one more year. Maybe due to the time they’d spent together, Joshua now felt friendly to the Demon Spirit.
‘What does it feel like to be near your end, the Demon Spirit?’ Joshua asked.
-You awful bastard. No one in the Human Realm would be more malicious than you. I’ll still want to kill you again even after I stab your corpse.
‘From what I’ve heard, everything you just said is a compliment in the Demon Realm,’ Joshua replied.
-Son of a bitch!
This level of cursing was nothing now. No, if that hadn’t been for the Demon Spirit’s cursing, Joshua would have gone crazy out of boredom. Joshua’s body was literally half dead right now because all his organs had stopped working long ago.
There was only one reason why he could stay awake: the mana accumulation technique Joshua had learned was based on drawing power from outside his body. Since mana was the polar opposite of demonic power, the Demon Spirit couldn’t use it as his power source. In other words, Joshua’s mana was only used to keep Joshua alive.
-Is that funny when you look down on the world as if you’re a god?
‘Not really?’ Joshua casually answered.
-Die alone, you ass!
‘But the past few days were really interesting.’
Joshua recalled what had happened in the past three days. A group of humans had come to the top of the snow mountain with numerous troops in tow. Under usual circumstances, humans would never be able to reach this place, but they had come with the help of a high-ranking demon.
‘The demons in the north must want your power very much. They came as soon as they noticed you were dying,,’ Joshua said.
-Hmph.Them eating me? I’ll eat them instead.
Joshua quietly chuckled. ‘You sure can talk big.’
-Worry about yourself. Demons can’t approach you due to your immense divine power, but not humans. You’ve seen her eyes. She’ll never give up.
“She” had said that her name was Carmen von Agnus. During Joshua’s childhood, everyone had hated him and treated him with contempt, and Carmen had been one of them. At the time, his mother had been a mere maid, not a member of the Imperial Family, so Joshua was just a lowly bastard. Carmen had constantly brought up the topic under the assumption that Joshua had a severe inferiority complex.
“Although you have the power, you neglected your mother out of your greed. You’re trash. You can sugarcoat it all you want, but you’re just an illegitimate child the forgotten princess gave birth to after she got raped. You’re just a fucking bastard who became emperor after killing your own father.”
That was what Carmen had said to Joshua. She had swung her sword against the ice boulder until she was too tired to continue, but she had failed. She had spent the next half day cursing at Joshua.
Although Joshua wasn’t really affected by it, the Demon Spirit seemed to be having so much fun. In fact, the Demon Spirit rooted for Carmen.
-You idiot. What is the point of your power? After all those insults, you can’t do anything. If I were you, I would break out of this ice boulder and go after those vermin. Oh, yeah—they’re right there.
The ice boulder was located at the edge of the cliff on the top of the snow mountain. When Joshua looked down from the cliff, he could see the entire northern region. Black dots—Carmen. and the others—were spread all over the snowfield.
-You’re going to leave her alone? She insulted your mother! That’s now how you normally treat the people who insulted her.
‘Cut that out. I’m not going to break this ice boulder because of your provocation,’ Joshua scoffed.
-…You gutless idiot.
‘Well, I’m not planning on letting them leave unscathed.’ Joshua smiled. He could feel the Demon Spirit inside him jerk in surprise.
-Wait, you—?
A great resonance shook the snow. The Demon Spirit was gravely mistaken if he believed Joshua couldn’t do anything just because he was trapped inside the ice. The one inside this boulder was none other than the Martial God, after all.
Thunder cracked through the frigid air—it was literally a bolt out of the blue. Joshua could see the black dots coming to a halt one after another.
A great rumbling heralded the rapid arrival of a catastrophe unlike anything the Human Realm had ever seen. No one knew for how long the snow had been piling up in the north, but all of the snow slid downward in a terrible wave. Even from afar, the Demon Spirit could tell that an avalanche of apocalyptic proportions had started.
-Yo-You demon…
The Demon Spirit was struck dumb. The black dots resumed moving again, but they were now running at a pace that made their earlier movement look like a crawl.
‘It’s tiring to use my power after so long.’
Joshua closed his eyes, content. If Cain had seen the sight, he would have clicked his tongue and said that Joshua had pulled a Joshua again.
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