Side Story Chapter 68

A fire rose up from Kireua’s sword once again, but this time the fire turned black instead of scarlet.

-...Ebon flame?

The death knight that was fighting Kireua was visibly confused.

However, Kireua was even more shocked. “You can talk?”

The death knight became silent again. An undead didn’t have a personality of their own, but what would happen if they had all their abilities and rationality?

‘This is why Beelzebub was called the demon king of war in the Demon Realm,’ Kireua thought. He quickly set that aside, tightening his grip on his weapon; he needed to focus on the battle as he finally had someone who could answer his questions.

‘Magic Sword Art Level 4, Compression Sword.’

He recalled the principle, utilized his mana, and moved his sword, focusing solely on the tip.

The death knight swung his sword to keep Kireua at a distance.

The ebon flame was the hottest flame in the world. In fact, a lot of the death knight’s black armor was already melted and scorched.

‘There is no such thing as an impenetrable shield. I’ll focus all my mana on the tip of my sword and pierce his center.’

The technique was called Lightning Flash, but Kireua had reinterpreted Lightning Flash in his own way. During the process, the technique became complicated and became a Level 4 technique, but he was confident in its destructiveness.

-Do you want my help?

Kireua was too focused on the fight to answer Coal, but the creature activated its new power without waiting for his response.

The air around the sword undulated as if the space itself was being twisted.

Kireua could instinctively tell what it was.

‘…Dimensions! It’s the ability to distort dimensions by creating a rift in space!’

Another space could exist inside a space like a subspace, but mages ordinarily only used this space magic like a moving warehouse. It was inevitable. Spatial magic was very abstruse, so no one could attempt to use such spells as a method of attack. However, Coal was doing it quite easily.

Even in the vast Demon Realm, only the “Separations Demon” was able to use this ability. That begged the question…

‘The Separations Demon was certainly one of the greatest demons, but not a demon king with one of the Evil Sins’ powers.’

The rising hum in the air interrupted Kireua’s analysis. Space was stretched to its breaking point, and Kireua’s mana on the tip of his sword was about to explode.

‘...I’ll kill him before he can act!’ Kireua decided, and disappeared the instant he finished the thought.

A long horizontal line was drawn in the air, splitting the world in half.

-Wh-Where…?

“Behind you.”

The death knight's eyes widened. The space around the former Marquess Turtler was literally torn in half, dumping the once-again lifeless corpse onto the ground.

Kireua looked away from him, his eyes suddenly tinged with madness.

Anna noticed the state he was in before Beelzebub and flinched. “Your Highness, what is going on with you…?”

* * *

“What compensation do you wish for?” Archbishop Grimman was eventually forced to say.

As a matter of fact, the priests in the Hubalt Empire used the same method very often. Whenever foreigners made a mistake, the priests requested a certain amount of donations, like,

“Hermes has already forgiven your sin.”

“Thank you! Thank you, priest!”

“As a fellow believer that spreads Hermes’s will, I’m also quite happy. Shouldn’t there be more of this in the future?”

“Of course!”

“But the reality is that we lack the means to spread her will. We don’t have enough priests, and even if we want to transcend from secular affairs, eating and sleeping cost money…”

“H-hHw may I assist you?”

“If possible, please leave a ‘token of appreciation’ at the nearest temple of Hermes. Of course Hermes must be watching over you benevolently.”

“I-I see. I understand.”

Joshua was going to give these priests and paladins a taste of their own medicine.

“Why don’t we have this conversation in private as the people in charge? It’s not good to have many people listening in.”

“Mmmm…” Archbishop Grimman made his priests and paladins stand down.

“Take the other two and stand back,” Joshua commanded Cain.

“What are you going to do?”

“I indebted them to us, so I have to make sure they pay it back.”

“In my opinion, I think it’s better to let it slide at this point… Did you forget who we’re with right now?” Cain asked, frowning slightly.

“That is why I’m telling you to keep them safe and maintain a distance,” Joshua instructed. He couldn’t let things go south by letting them find out about Lilith’s presence here.

Of course, Joshua could give such an order because he was certain that both sides wouldn’t be able to harm each other. Joshua was confident of his skills, and Grimman would not think that Joshua would hurt him at the risk of war no matter how ill-tempered Joshua was.

Joshua gestured at Grimman. “Let’s go inside and talk.”

“…Okay.”

It was all going according to Joshua’s plan.

After bringing Grimman into the enormous and practically deserted mansion, Joshua grinned. “Shall we start negotiating?”

“A negotiation…?”

“How much will you give me?”

“A-Are you asking for money?” Grimman asked in disbelief.

“Come on, you priests are the best at extorting money from the weak.”

“W-We receive holy offerings to serve them to Hermes. How can you talk about them with such disrespect—”

“Didn’t you say there is no more god in heaven? Who are you offering them to?” Joshua tilted his head.

“W-We—”

“Or, since you and the god coexist, in this land, do I need to call priests ‘sire’, too? Oh, my, I’m sorry, o great archbishop, he who walks with god.” Joshua lowered his body as if he was going to prostrate himself.

Grimman grabbed Joshua’s arm, bewildered. “W-Why are you doing this?”

“What do you mean ‘why’? It looked like you wanted me to do this, so I’m doing it.”

“T-Ten gold! I’ll give you ten gold!” Grimman stammered, yielding.

However, that didn’t work on Joshua at all. He picked his ear with his pinky and blew on it. “It must be mosquito season right now.”

“With ten gold, you can buy a potion to fully recover your fatigued mind and body.”

“Your calculations are a bit weird.”

“Pardon?”

“This isn’t just about one person’s trauma. You held my citizens hostage, and there are tens of millions of them.”

“W-Wait, that’s—”

“Why? Are you going to say that’s not what you did? You treated me as a phony and a demon. You must have desperately wished for that to be true since it would’ve been excellent justification. Tell me. You already imagined having Avalon at your feet, didn’t you?”

“You misunderstand!”

“What are you talking about? You must have been thrilled.[1] If you think I’m wrong, shall we tell other countries what happened today and get their opinions?”

Grimman’s hands trembled weakly. If he were talking to any other person, he might have yelled “Do what you want!” because most people would be less credible than a priest from the Hubalt Empire. The other party would end up treated like lunatics, but Joshua Sanders, the great Martial God, was an entirely different story.

“…One hundred gold,” Grimman said through gritted teeth.

“I won’t even be able to buy my children candies with that.”

“Three hundred gold. This is all that is within my power to offer you.”

“There are only ten archbishops in the Empire, and you’re one of them. But you don’t have the power to at least buy 31 bottles of low-class potions?” Joshua shook his head. “You gotta be kidding me.”

“One thousand! I’ll give you one thousand gold!”

Joshua didn’t even answer anymore.

“How much do you want?!” Grimman shouted, almost shrieking.

“Well, if it’s hard to get money, I can take something else. Let’s be honest—I’m not comfortable with emptying a priest’s pocket.”

‘What in the world is this guy trying to say…?’ Grimman thought, obviously suspicious of Joshua.

Joshua smiled mischievously at him. “Come to think of it, isn’t it basic courtesy to apologize before making compensation?”

“I apologized earlier.”

“No—although it’s awkward for me to say this, you disrespected an emperor. The apology should come from someone at a similar rank as me to make it proper.”

Grimman's eyes widened. Joshua meant…

“You want the emperor of Hubalt himself to come and apologize?”

Joshua shrugged. “No way. Everyone knows that he’s just a symbolic figure nowadays.”

“Hi-His Holiness is currently away.”

Obviously, Joshua was already aware of that. The pope had retired due to old age, and his successor was supposed to be decided soon. Lilith’s authority had manifested in the internecine period.

In other words, Cardinal Erman, Lilith’s father, should have been the new pope, but the position of pope in the Hubalt Empire was vacant right now. And another faction had taken power in Hubalt. Joshua knew very well who the newbloods were.

“Come on.” Joshua raised an eyebrow. “Unlike someone, I’m not rude enough to make the elderly pope come and go.”

“Th-Thank you for your understanding.”

“It’s nothing. Instead of him, I want the working-level guys to come and apologize. As a matter of fact, priests serve a god, so they shouldn’t interfere in political affairs or diplomatic affairs, should they?”

“Pardon…?” Grimman blankly asked back, unable to understand Joshua.

Joshua’s smile deepened. “ I’m talking about those children they call the ‘Four Paladins’ or something. They’re pretty popular around the continent nowadays.”

1. The raw was 오해는 무슨. 오예시겠지. It’s a Korean wordplay. 오해(misunderstanding) sounds the same as oh yeah(오예). ☜