Side Story Chapter 92
Shortly after Joshua landed on the ground, he encountered a man in a shadowy spot behind the annex Palace—it was the mysterious man from the rooftop.
“Are you the Martial Emperor’s heir?” Joshua asked.
“Your Majesty! You shouldn’t go on your own like that!” Cain quickly approached Joshua.
“Hmmm? I told you to wait.”
“You gotta be kidding me…” Cain grumbled.
The two Absolutes of Avalon were standing right in front of the man, but he was very composed. It got on Joshua’s nerves.
“It’s considered polite for a guest to take off their mask in someone else’s home,” Joshua said, his eyes narrowing.
“Sure.” The man nodded. Surprisingly, the man took off his mask quite readily. A handsome man with masculine features emerged. The man smiled, baring his sturdy white teeth. “I’ve been waiting for a long time to meet you, Martial God.”
“You look younger than I thought… How old are you?”
“From what I remember, I’m no older than forty.”
“You focused on cultivating yourself so hard that you forgot your own age? Even considering that, you’ve reached quite a remarkable level in your thirties…” Joshua trailed off for a moment, but quickly grinned. “This is interesting. What should I call you?”
“The people of the Hubalt Empire call me the Battle God, but you can just call me Bel, Martial God.”
“A god of battle? Don’t you think that’s excessive? Even your teacher was just an emperor.”
“I’ve already surpassed my teacher long ago. Also, I have been raised to fight the Martial God, so shouldn’t my rank be at least the same as yours?”
Cain stepped forward angrily. “This arrogant greenhorn… I’ll teach him some manners first.”
“No, stand down.” Joshua shook his head.
“But—!”
“I should ask him why he tried to kidnap the Second Queen Consort and the Princess.”
Cain closed his mouth.
“I’m pretty sure you already heard; I would like an answer to my question first,” Joshua pressed.
“You may find this hard to believe, but that wasn’t my doing. That pathetic man was babbling about something, so I just told him to do whatever he wanted.”
“You worked together, but you make other people take the responsibility, huh?”
“It’s the truth.” The man shrugged.
“You don’t have pride or loyalty.”
“Are you loyal to a dog you raised, Martial God?”
“…In other words, even a Superhuman is no better than a household dog? ” Joshua asked.
“Of course. On the same note, we, the Hubalt Empire, have no reason to waste time on matters like that. You lost most of your power, and the Avalon Empire is ruined due to a domestic quarrel. What is there to fear about Avalon? We have no reason to take the hard route.”
Joshua showed no response, but Cain’s lip trembled. The man had seen right through Joshua’s current state, which meant one thing:
‘He’s at least at the same level as me. No, he may be even stronger,’ Cain thought.
When was the last time Cain had felt like this? His palms were damp with sweat, and a strong desire to challenge his skills and emerge victorious swelled from deep in his heart.
“I knew it,” Joshua murmured. “I can tell just from the look on your face. You’re dying to fight him, aren’t you? You must be itching to take your master’s prey.”
“N-No, I’m not.” Cain looked away.
“Yes you are. The reason why you’re still a bachelor is because you’re obsessed with fighting.”
“…You’re the last person in the world who should be saying that.”
“It’s not like you’ll get married because I introduce you to a woman,” Joshua flippantly answered.
“It depends on who I meet.”
“I highly doubt it. Even if jaw-dropping women or princesses were right in front of you, you’d say no.”
“I want to make it clear that I’ll spend the rest of my life with you if I can’t get married within the next three years,” Cain solemnly stated.
“Stop creeping me out. Do you really think the Queen Consorts would sit by and let that happen?”
“No matter what they say, I’m going to stay by your side.”
Joshua and Cain exchanged a conversation that didn’t suit the current situation at all, completely ignoring their guest. Bel stared blankly at them for a moment—he actually found it pretty impressive, so after watching them blankly for a moment,
“You two are quite close,” the Martial Emperor’s student remarked with a chuckle.
“Do we look close to you?”
“Yes.” Bel nodded. “I don’t have someone who I can pour my heart out to like that.”
Joshua’s expression subtly changed as he looked at Bel. “No one?”
“Yes, no one. From the beginning, there was only one person I could think about.”
“Who is that?”
“It’s you, Martial God.” Bel’s smile deepened. “You can’t begin to fathom how much I’ve been waiting for this day. I spent two decades trapped in pitch-black darkness ever since the Martial Emperor, my teacher, lost to you.”
“Am I supposed to be feeling guilty now?”
Bel shook his head. “It was a rewarding experience in some ways.”
“Rewarding?”
“Fighting, killing, escaping my limits… I had to fight for my life at least three times a day. I endured what felt like an eternity by focusing on overcoming you and you alone.”
Bel took a step forward, releasing an overwhelmingly strong fighting spirit.
“…Your Majesty, stand back.” Cain quickly stepped in front of Joshua.
“But I recently heard shocking news about your disappearance,” Bel mused.
“The Hubalt Empire must have intentionally blocked out the news from you. I went missing long before that.”
Bel nodded. “Yes, I heard it by coincidence from one of the fighting dogs I killed.”
“A ‘fighting dog’?”
“We call the people who are put in the cage to fight me ‘fighting dogs’.”
Cain frowned. Now he realized why Bel reeked of blood. The people must have been treated like animals and slaughtered by that monster again and again. Cain couldn’t begin to fathom how many victims there would have been. Since Bel had been doing that for at least two decades, there must have been thousands of victims at least.
“Twenty-seven thousand, five hundred and thirty-six people,” Bel blurted out.
Cain jumped.
“That’s the number of people who’ve died by my hands. Aside from them, there are numerous other people who have been inflicted with injuries both big and small…”
“Fuck,” Cain spat.
“That fighting dog said that he pitied me. I was raised as a weapon to defeat one man, but that very man was gone, making my life meaningless. He died in front of my eyes, sneering.”
“…It seems that not all of the people you fought were lunatics.”
The man nodded once again. “Yes, many of them held deep grudges against me after being forced into the cage.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s a limit to how many fighting dogs they could supply internally. When it comes to raising someone who can go up against the Martial God, we can’t only sacrifice the people of the Hubalt Empire, can we? Besides, it’s essential to experience fighting various opponents.”
Cain’s eyes slowly widened into full moons. “You mean…?”
“We sometimes bought our fighting dogs or made someone into a fighting dog by force. Hubalt’s paladins put a lot of effort into this matter; they traveled the continent for two decades… Ah, of course, they all thanked me for allowing them to become stronger.”
“Are you kidding me?” Cain let his murderous energy burst out. He was furious—the things he was hearing right now could not be allowed to stand. Some of those victims were from Avalon. From the knights who had been dispatched to other countries, to the Imperial Knights who had participated in the search for Joshua, one out of three people had never returned from their expeditions.
In the end, the issue had come to the attention of the Imperial Family of Avalon, which had organized an investigation. During the process, the civil war had broken out.
“Your Majesty, please don’t stop me this time. There’s one thing I want to make sure of,” Cain said with a serious look.
Joshua’s smile had been replaced with a grim expression.
Without waiting for Joshua’s answer, Cain drew his sword. “…Let me ask you one question: were the knights of Avalon part of those fighting dogs?”
Bel smiled wickedly. “You already know the answer, so why do you have to ask?”
* * *
Kireua panted hard.
The arena had fallen dead silent long ago. Uraxen was a highly advanced magic swordsman with the Fire Dragon King’s power, but he had been brought down to his knee in front of Kireua.
“Woaaaahhhh!”
A thunderous cheer burst out, but it mostly came from the citizens of the Avalon Empire.
“He’s the Martial God’s son indeed!”
“I knew you could do it, Your Highness Kireua!”
“Hehehe. How dare he challenge His Highness Kireua when he’s from the Tetra Kingdom? I’d never even heard about that country until today. Serves you right!”
The spectators cheered and sneered at the same time. Kireua, however, didn’t have any strength left to respond.
‘His Majesty said I should control the power of Greed, not develop it… But Coal became so strong that I might get eaten if I make a mistake,’ Kireua thought.
-I’m not going to eat you, Kireua!
‘…Who knows? You might suddenly go batshit crazy and eat anyone, even your owner.’
-I probably still won’t eat Kireua.
‘Why?’
-You’re such a weakling, so I think I’d get a tummy ache. Hehehehe.
Kireua scowled and straightened up. He wasn’t a man who stayed down after an insult like that.
“Urggh…” Uraxen was still unable to stand up.
“Do you admit your defeat?”
“Yo-You greenhorn…”
“It doesn’t look like the outcome will change even if we continue fighting. Please keep your promise now.”
“Ugh…” Uraxen gritted his teeth, but his laughter slipped out. ”Hehehehe.”
Kireua stared blankly at him.
“I had fun thanks to you, but you Avalonians are too arrogant.”
“What are you talking about now?” Kireua asked.
“It’s not sudden—it’s about time.” Uraxen glanced up at the sky. Kireua tilted his head, confused. It was noon, but the sky was otherwise unremarkable.
But suddenly, the ground rumbled—it was coming from behind the Palace annex.
“That’s the signal. Begin!” Uraxen shouted.
A group of people in the corner of the arena suddenly drew their swords. They all wore the same white clothes—they were none other than the paladins of Hubalt.
“What in the world is this…?”
“I told you that you were too arrogant.”
Kireua looked downward to see Uraxen stand up with a wide grin on his face.
“This is the beginning of the conquest of Avalon.”
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