Side Story Chapter 95
The paladins were the first to break the stunned silence.
“Th-This is impossible…”
“Did he take the divine power we just used?”
“I can’t use my divine power anymore! What is going on?”
Everyone was bewildered. No one there had experienced anything like this. The only one who looked remotely calm was Joshua.
“All hail His Majesty!” Lunsworth belatedly raised his sword in salute.
Since they were surrounded by potential enemies, Lunsworth didn’t go down on his knee, but the other Avalonian knights quickly joined in and raised their swords as well.
“All hail His Majesty!”
“All hail His Majesty!”
Goosebumps rose on the Imperial Knights’ skin as they held their swords up against their chests. It didn’t matter that their current enemy was one of the Four Paladins nor that they were potentially going up against the Hubalt Empire, the strongest country on the continent. They had the Martial God, a living legend, by their sides.
“Hmm…” Although Uriel couldn’t help but be thrown off by the sudden turn of events, he quickly regained his composure. He was still the one in the right. “You finally appeared.”
“Your name is Uriel, correct? It seems you’ve been desperate to find me.”
“I wasn’t expecting rose petals on the roads, but it’s basic courtesy for the host to greet his guests, isn’t it?”
“But treating an emperor as a thug without manners is courtesy?” Joshua tilted his head.
Just like the rumors said, Joshua was quite eloquent, but Uriel couldn’t afford to allow himself to be swayed by Joshua now that the other countries were already stirred up.
Uriel decided to use his ace in the hole.
“I received a report that you’re harboring the witch, Lilith Aphrodite.”
“So?”
“Wh-What do you mean, ‘so’…?”
“It’s just a report—unless you have any evidence?”
Uriel’s gaze turned sharp. “I don’t have any, but I have many witnesses.”
“Witnesses?”
“One of these witnesses is a noble of Avalon, so you can’t keep denying it, Your Majesty.”
The spectators instantly broke into shocked murmuring.
“O-One of Avalon’s nobles is a witness…?”
“Then does that mean that one of Avalon’s own people leaked Avalon’s secrets to Hubalt?”
“Huh, that would put the Martial God in a tricky spot…”
From Uriel’s perspective, this was the killing blow, the moment that Hubalt's long preparations came to fruition. From the day Hubalt had become the most powerful nation, they had been recruiting and persuading nobles from around the continent; unsurprisingly, some of them were from Avalon.
“That’s an awfully confident way of saying that you planted a spy in my country,” Joshua commented.
“It’s Avalon’s last conscience, not a spy. A seed of evil is about to sprout, so who could sit by and watch? Nationality isn’t important in a matter like this.”
“So who’s the informant?”
“I can’t tell you, and I think you already know why,” Uriel answered.
Joshua slammed the end of his spear against the ground. “Your scheme is obvious.”
“…If you’re truly innocent, all you have to do is prove it.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“Well, you can open up your Palace and let us, the paladins of Hubalt, handle the investigation—”
“You nutcase.” A cold sneer formed on Joshua’s lips. “Why don’t you just ask me to strip down to my bare skin?”
“Judging from your fit of rage, you’re hiding something.”
Uriel’s face brightened up after he saw Joshua’s reaction, but his positivity didn’t last for long.
“Even if Lilith Aphrodite is somewhere in this Palace, what’s wrong with that?” Joshua asked.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
“I’m letting my friend stay in my home; I’m not sure why Hubalt is making a fuss about it.”
“I already told you that she’s a witch with a Demon King’s authority,” Uriel said, frustrated.
“I once had the Demon Spirit’s soul inside me.”
Uriel flinched, appalled. “Wh-What in the world are you talking about…?”
A storm of dismay swept through the arena. The Dark God and the previous Emperor of Avalon had lost their bodies to the Demon Spirit, so Joshua Sanders the Martial God had defeated them on his own and become emperor. That was the story that the public knew, and after the incident alone, Joshua had earned the title of Martial God.
However, a hidden history was about to be revealed.
“It looks like people think we earned the peace we have right now for free… but could that have been possible if I didn’t take action?”
“Don’t change the subject. Tell me what you mean when you said you had the Demon Spirit’s soul inside you!”
“A god’s soul can’t be easily destroyed. If they could be killed overnight, they wouldn’t have been a god in the first place.”
“Are you saying…?”
“Killing the Demon Spirit takes time, so I needed a vessel to contain the Demon Spirit during the process.”
Uriel’s eyes slowly widened.
“When a human tries to contain a god’s soul, their ego might crumble and they could lose their body right away. Since I couldn’t force anyone to sacrifice themselves, I became the vessel myself.”
The arena fell into total silence.
“Let me ask you this, now: what did Hubalt, the Holy Empire, do when the Demon Spirit was running wild in this world?” Joshua asked.
“W-Well, that’s because the Demon Spirit mainly operated in Avalon and didn’t cross the border… If we had received a request from another country, we would have certainly stepped in.”
“In other words, the Hubalt Empire couldn’t do anything since it was a foreign affair?”
“Although eradicating evil is important, we can’t cross foreign borders without permission since that could cause unnecessary conflict,” Uriel rushed to answer.
Joshua bared his teeth. “Do you think it’s different now?”
“W-Well…!”
“It looks the same to me.”
“Wai-Wait!” Uriel stammered. “We crossed the border on Avalon’s request, so the circumstances are certainly different from before!”
“Then will you leave Avalon right away if the host tells you to get out? If not, Hubalt should shut their mouths and stand down. Should your concerns come true, I’ll take care of it, just like I did before.”
Uriel ground his teeth together so hard that his gums bled, but he wasn’t going to give up yet—this was a matter of national pride.
“You’re being unreasonable!” he persisted. “It might have been different if we didn’t know, but we know that the seed of evil has taken root in this country. We, Hubalt, can’t go back!”
“You’re contradicting yourself. You said earlier that Hubalt didn’t cross the border out of respect for our sovereignty.”
“I admit we’ve been blinded by our zealous desire to eradicate evil, so I apologize for any discourtesy we’ve committed in the process, but please let us check on the witch under your attendance so everyone here can rest easy.”
Joshua arched an eyebrow at him. “Why should I do that?”
“I believe that this is the least you can do!”
“But why do you keep crossing the lines, you dipshit? Just a moment ago, you were screaming about turning my own house upside down, but you’re now going on and on about courtesy and duties. Maybe I should knock some sense into you.”
Joshua’s blatant threat instantly silenced Uriel.
“Since when has Hubalt been this arrogant in front of me? Should I have knocked you down, Hubalt, when I defeated the Martial Emperor?” Joshua narrowed his eyes at them. He gathered so much murderous energy that it visibly distorted the space around him. Dozens of Hubalt’s paladins stepped forward, and the Imperial Knights of Avalon prepared themselves to match them.
But Joshua was quicker.
“Urgh!”
Joshua swung his white spear in a single, gracefully curved line and swept away every enemy in the vicinity. Every single paladin struck by Joshua’s spear was flung away. Their armor was crushed, and they were thrown to the ground, coughing. The remaining paladins clenched their hands around their swords, beginning a tense staredown between Avalon’s knights and Hubalt’s paladins.
Joshua grinned, sending chills down Uriel’s spine.
‘What is that devilish emperor thinking now…?’ Uriel wondered.
He was right to be worried.
“Distinguished guests, don’t just watch and think about it. Does this right here look normal? He dares to demand that I open up my palace, the residence of my imperial family. When their unreasonable demands don't work, they draw their swords and release their murderous energy. What else can that be other than violence committed by Hubalt, the most powerful nation on Igrant? We, Avalon, won’t be the last victim—the next target could be any one of you.”
The guests exchanged glances with each other. They had to choose between Hubalt and Avalon. The former was officially the strongest and biggest empire on the continent, but the latter, although considerably weakened… the Martial God was back.
“The Tetra Kingdom supports the Hubalt Empire!” Duke Uraxen exclaimed, bold despite his defeat to Kireua. “Isn’t it true that everyone is concerned? Supposing the Martial God fails to slay the witch, what would happen?”
However, a burning sword against his neck cut his spiteful words short.
“Wh-What…?!” Uraxen stammered.
“Then we’re enemies now.”
“Fl-Flame Emperor?”
“We, Thran, support the Emperor of Avalon,” Ulabis declared.
He was only the first.
“We, the Draia Kingdom, support Avalon!”
“The Fulldran Kingdom will join them!”
“No matter how hard I think, Hubalt is the one being unreasonable. We, the Allied Powers of Palentine, offer our fullest support to the Martial God, hahaha!”
In the end, all countries except for the Tetra Kingdom declared themselves for Avalon.
“Do you want to continue?” Joshua asked.
Uriel bit his lower lip.
‘Bel, what in the world are you doing right now?’
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