Side Story Chapter 54
“…Urgh!”
Meanwhile, the Black Knights finished cutting off the last remaining enemy’s head.
“It looks like that was the last scout.”
“How is Marquess Drenius responding?” Selim asked, looking up ahead.
Shaking off blood from his sword, a cold-looking man responded, “He didn’t seem to notice that we’ve formed a detachment yet.”
There were piles of corpses and pools of blood around Selim and the Black Knights. They were currently on the border of eastern Avalon. Selim had formed a detachment of one hundred of his Black Knights and infiltrated the heart of the eastern rebel army.
“Hahahaha! What are they going to do even if they found out? Their end is already decided,” another Black Knight responded. The two-meter-tall knight had an eye-catching scar from a blade, but it was his next move that really drew attention..
“…Downbeck, I warned you to not reveal your filthy habit in front of our master.” Agagette frowned.
Downbeck crunched on something and then noisily swallowed. “Do you walk on eggshells even when you’re having your protein? Leave me alone.”
“Who says nonsense about a human eye being a source of protein?”
“You idiot, you should nag after you read some books. You don’t even know how nutritious animal eyes are,” Downbeck said sarcastically. He had a unique habit, that being to eat one eye from the people that he killed. Since Agagette was the rational one, he always found Downbeck’s habit unpleasant.
“Animal,” Agagette mumbled.
“What? Did you insult me just now?”
“Didn’t you say with your own mouth that humans are animals?”
“Okay, so you’re going to keep picking a fight with me? Shall we go at it? It’s been a while.” Downbeck smiled crookedly.
.
“Certainly.”
A staredown between Downbeck and Agagette started.
Selim suddenly flinched. “…Wait.”
His knights looked up.
“Be quiet,” Selim instructed. “I’m receiving a notification from the communication crystal ball.”
The two men finally shut up.
Communication crystal balls usually malfunctioned in wartime because enemy mages would create a large-scale mana-jamming barrier around the battlefield. However, Selim and the others were in the center of eastern Avalon, far past the border.
-…Your Highness!
The crystal ball shined, and the image of the imperial mage in charge of communication appeared.
Selim tilted his head in confusion, wondering why he was receiving communication from the Palace of all places. “What is it? I’m on the battlefield right now and someone could eavesdrop on our conversation, so I’d prefer you keep it short.”
-Hi-His Majesty is back!
“…What?” Selim blankly asked. Downbeck and Agagette stopped bickering as well and stared at the mage.
-Additionally, he stated that he’s planning to hand over the crown depending on the number of accomplishments you and His Highness Kireua make, Your Highness…
Selim’s characteristic calm shattered. He struggled to wrap his head around the situation. The Emperor of Avalon had been missing for over a decade, so the news of his return alone was surprising. But what? Handing over the crown?
“What in the world does that mean…?”
“…We, the Black Knights, are going to become the emperor’s personal knightly order?” Downbeck mumbled.
Agagette elbowed him, chastising Downbeck for failing to read the air. However, neither of them could hide the looks on their faces.
“Our master is going to become the emperor…”
The two knights were talking as if it had already been decided that Selim was going to become the new emperor—the Emperor of Avalon’s return was already long forgotten.
Most of the Black Knights were young men in their twenties. In other words, many of them hadn’t met the Emperor of Avalon; he had become practically a legend to them.
“Let’s go! I’ll chop off Marquess Drenius’s head and put our master on a flower carriage for his coronation[1]! Hahahaha!”
While Selim was still having trouble pulling himself together, Downbeck guffawed as if he was having the time of his life, his laughter reverberating around the area.
* * *
The people in western Avalon were having problems of their own since the news of the Emperor of Avalon had been authenticated. Cain had personally contacted the Palace for that.
The ensuing silence continued for a long time, testament to the sheer weight of the news.
“We need to go back to the Palace immediately,” Ranger stated as soon as he regained control of himself. “It’s not like everyone else here fully trusts the news, right? So I’ll go there myself and check with my own eyes.”
“Then what are you going to do about the rebels here?” Kireua asked. “There is no guarantee that Marquess Turtler won’t ambush us.”
“That’s…” Ranger bit his lip, no answer at hand. “…How about only a few of us go to the Palace and then come back? Only a maximum of three people can travel using a warp spell, correct?”
“The mage that delivered the message has to return, so technically, only two of us can go.”
“Yes, so I believe it’ll be for the best for His Highness and me to go to Arcadia and come back,” Cain said.
“No, you can’t!” Ranger immediately yelled.
“Ranger, the national army will have real trouble keeping the rebellion in the west under control without you.”
“Then you should stay, Sir Cain. Did you forget what the Imperial Knights’ job is? Guarding the Imperial Family!”
“In that case, I’m His Majesty’s First Knight. I know His Majesty is back in the Palace, so do you really think it makes sense for me to be here?” Cain glared at Ranger.
“I don’t know, but no matter what you say, I can’t let you have your way on this one.”
“Then we shall resort to the old tradition of Berche’s Bloody Battle.”
“Oh?” Ranger tilted his head. “That’s a good idea.”
Cain and Ranger were ready to pull out their swords, drawing a contemptuous look from Anna.
“I know I’m an outsider, so it’s not really my place to say this,” she said, “but isn’t it better for both of you to stay?”
“Huh?”
“It’s what’s best for the national army. You led the army in successfully fending off the rebels in western Avalon, and you over there are the Combat Emperor Star, one of the Nine Stars. There are only nine of you on this continent.” Anna said, pointing at Ranger and then at Cain. “Even if only one of you leaves the camp, the army’s morale will suffer greatly.”
“That’s…”
“I’ll go with His Highness,” Anna suggested. “How does that sound?”
Although she said it confidently, she was the most anxious one in the room. If the Emperor of Avalon had actually returned, she had to worry about her survival. Kireua had guaranteed her life, but there was no telling what that lunatic emperor would do!
‘It’s said that if you can’t avoid a problem, you should take it head-on.’
Anna had resolved herself.
The imperial mage, who had been anxiously watching the conversation, interrupted. “Umm… I’m not sure if he saw this coming, but His Majesty declared that whichever prince retakes the region they’re responsible for and gets to the north first will ascend to the throne.”
“What?! The throne?”
“From what I heard, he said that it’s time for him to retire…”
Before the imperial mage could finish speaking, the rasp of Ranger and Cain’s swords emerging from their sheathes cut him off.
“Eeeek!”
The razor-sharp blades scraped against both sides of the mage’s neck.
“No, he’s not!”
“In other words, he’s going to enjoy his relaxing retirement life after putting us through hell?”
“He can’t do that. He hasn’t contacted us for over a decade. Retirement, my ass!”
“I’ll assist His Majesty until the day I’m buried. Avalon is a mess, so why would he retire already!?”
“I can’t believe this, but we’re on the same page in this matter.”
Ranger and Cain quietly bumped fists. At this point, it was safe to say everyone was crazy about the Emperor of Avalon.
Kireua and Anna blankly gaped at the scene. The same thought dominated both their minds:
“How in the world has he been treating his subordinates…?”
* * *
A rain of ice swept through the nearby area…
“Augh!”
“Mon… ster…!”
Of a total of seven masked men, not a single one was standing anymore. Every one of them was covered in holes and groaning in pain; each and every single one of them was in a critical state and was unlikely to survive.
“They’ll die on their own anyway.”
Zero pulled himself together when he heard Iceline’s voice.
Before long, all the seven masked men’s masks were taken off.
“Urgh…” Iceline quietly frowned when she saw what lay beneath. All their faces were hideously disfigured as if they had been deliberately scorched. It would be impossible to find out their identities this way.
“I knew it…” In contrast to Iceline, Zero nodded his head with certainty. He was indeed the branch manager of the Moon Gate, the best information guild on the continent.
“Can you recognize them?” Iceline asked.
“There are not many groups on the entire continent that would treat their members this cruelly.”
“Such as?”
“There are three assassin guilds; among those guilds, the guild that is most likely to be behind this is the Hashashin Guild. They’re famous for cutting their assassins’ limbs off if they fail their missions.”
Iceline raised an eyebrow. The Hashashin Guild specialized in kidnapping, assassination, and interrogation. On top of that, their leader was the Poison King, one of the current Twelve Superhumans.
“We’re done here.” Zero shook his head.
“Excuse me? Shouldn’t we get some information out of them before they die?”
“They won’t reveal any information, but it’s easy to trace back to the person who put out the hit if they’re really from the Hashashin Guild.”
“Please explain in a way I can understand,” Iceline requested.
“The Hashashin Guild’s members are all over the continent, but not many people know how to contact them. On top of that, the Poison King, the guild leader, has a long history of taking ‘reverse hit’ requests, so he had zero credibility.”
A reverse hit request was a contract to kill the person who originally put out a contract—if the target of the original request offered a higher price. Although an assassin might profit greatly in the moment, it was the worst possible course of action for an assassin in the long term. If an assassin did it, who would trust them enough to hire them for a job?
“That’s why there are only a few people who can hire the Hashashin Guild’s assassins. Only two types of people would do that: people rich enough to always offer higher prices than their targets, or people strong enough to subdue the guild assassins if the guild turns on them,” Zero explained.
Iceline tilted her head. “People aren’t idiots, so it’s unlikely they would hire these assassins unless they’re sure they won’t be killed. Is that the gist of it?”
“That is correct,” Zero said. He then turned to Joshua. “By the way, how did you do that just now? I didn’t feel a single trace of mana from you.”
“I’m the Martial God,” Joshua casually answered.
However, Zero was well aware of how impossible it was to do what Joshua had done just now. Once a fragile weapon was infused with more mana than it could handle, it was impossible to stop it from shattering—but it was nothing so gentle as the breaking of glass. The aura-infused fragments of the weapon were hurled in every direction at lethal velocity. Unsurprisingly, the effect was just as dangerous to the weapon’s wielder.
The core of the so-called weapon destruction technique was controlling the radius in which the fragments were ejected. The problem was that Joshua had just launched a very destructive attack using the weapon destruction technique without using his mana, which was the basis of the technique.
‘He would be able to do it…’
Zero came to a decision and prostrated himself to Joshua.“Your Majesty, Emperor of the Avalon Empire, please help us.”
“If you’re talking about Hubalt, I can’t. I’m not powerful enough to do so right now,” Joshua said.
“Pardon?”
“As you can see, I’m actually at my limit right now.” Joshua raised his hand, which was faintly trembling.
“Do you want me to help you walk?” Iceline offered.
Joshua shook his head. “No need. This isn’t my body, so it’s not responding well. That’s all.”
Nevertheless, Iceline pulled one of Joshua’s arms to her and massaged his palm with her slender fingers.
Zero thought he’d been refused and was about to lose his mind.
“I’ll take your request, Your Majesty!” Zero shouted.
“…Huh?”
“I’ll take your request to determine Lilith’s whereabouts, but the commission fee will be your assistance.”
Joshua’s gaze sharpened. “…Let’s hear the details first.”
“Are you accepting my proposal?”
“I’ll think about that after you explain. I saved your life, so I can ask for this much, can’t I?” Joshua said, pointing at the nearby corpses.
Zero hesitated for a moment and nodded. He didn’t have any other choice in the first place.
“My superior, Lilith Aphrodite, is currently in Avalon.”
Joshua blinked in surprise.
“If you help us, I’ll take you to her myself.”
1. This is a modern type of Korean blessing about how one will only walk on flower roads in the future. It’s similar to the English saying ‘Everything will come up roses’. 👈
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