Side Story Chapter 240

To Kiruea’s surprise, Isaac answered quite readily.

“Hubalt’s core of power and the biggest fear of other countries aren’t the knights you saw back in the palace.”

“Are you saying the priests and paladins are?” Kireua asked, realizing that he hadn’t encountered a single priest or a paladin in the empire.

Isaac nodded. “Before Kurz ascended to the throne, he had slaved to recruit people from the Great Temple to his side. That was why he didn’t hesitate to depose and incarcerate highly respected high priests and the Pope.”

“Let’s say that the people who opposed him were all purged. Then why haven’t the people who’re on his side shown up yet?”

The paladins and priests numbered over ten thousand, at least officially, so, even if Kurz had successfully recruited only half of them, that was at least five thousand more people under his command—yet Kireua hadn’t seen hide nor hair of them in the palace, which was rather strange.

“Think of it like this: these people were made to swear loyalty to him, betraying their compatriots, by force. Would you trust them?”

“...I wouldn’t do such a thing in the first place, but I get what you’re trying to say,” Kireua replied.

Of course he wouldn’t be able to trust them. Kurz was probably even more suspicious—villains had a particularly strong tendency to believe that everyone else was a villain like them.

“Kurz summoned all the nearby nobles’ private soldiers to the palace because the paladins, who were originally in charge of guarding the capital, were dispatched to the surrounding areas,” Isaac told him.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“When Kurz heard that Joshua Sanders was in Hubalt, the first thing Kurz did was send the paladins away from the capital.”

Kiruea finally understood what Isaac meant.

“Kurz sent his least reliable troops to track down his most feared enemy.”

Kurz was crafty indeed. He probably thought that it didn’t matter if the paladins got wiped out in pursuit of Joshua; in a villain’s mind, if he couldn’t completely control them, they were better off dead.

“If he couldn’t trust them, he should’ve killed them already...” Kireua trailed off.

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“Even if Kurz has Bel’s support, killing ten thousand paladins and priests is a very risky move for him.”

Kireua's eyes widened in realization.

“Huh? Hold on—then aren’t the paladins in my debt right now? I killed their crazy tyrant for them.”

The end of Isaac’s mouth curled. “You’re simpler than I expected. This incident is a slight on their honor. Haven’t you heard people say, ‘I’m the only one who can badmouth my sibling[1]’?”

Kireua quietly contemplated how he would feel if someone badmouthed Selim.

‘To be honest, I wouldn’t really be all that upset...’

Isaac noticed the look on Kireua’s face and quickly revised it to, “Or think about someone badmouthing your father.”

“...Now that is annoying.”

“The long and short of it is, you gave them a reason. Maybe this will be the trigger that unites the paladins. Bel is away, and Kurz, their warden, is dead.”

Avalon would only benefit if a coup started in Hubalt, but no one could expect what effects it would have on the rest of the world. Since Hubalt had already started the Continental War, they might continue the war in the name of avenging their emperor.

“That’s one more reason to find someone to lead people of the Great Temple,” Kireua murmured.

Obviously, Kireua was thinking of Lilith; no other person would favor Avalon as much as her—but once again, Isaac didn’t agree.

“It looks like you’re thinking of Lilith Aphrodite. Even if she’s the daughter of a once-respected cardinal, she’s a witch with a Demon King’s authority. Do you think paladins will follow her lead?” Isaac scoffed.

“That’s a misunderstanding.”

“Maybe people in Avalon would agree, but Kurz used his position to make everyone in this country think Lilith Aphrodite was a witch long ago.”

Isaac was certain that Lilith wouldn’t be able to control Hubalt; it would be too difficult to change her reputation.

“As long as the paladins are your enemies, I’m sure that they’ll be your biggest obstacle.”

“...I didn’t expect you to think that highly of paladins’ skills,” Kireua muttered.

“Given the fundamental advantage their powers have over you, I believe that the paladins will be effective against you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re just as helpless before divine power as the witch,” Isaac speculated.

Kireua’s eyes narrowed dangerously

“Don’t even think about feigning innocence. You didn’t seriously think that I wouldn’t notice you have that much demonic power inside you.”

Kireua stayed silent for a moment before he shrugged. “I wasn’t planning on saying anything, but it looks like there’s one thing you don’t know.”

“What?”

“Divine power isn’t my weakness.”

Isaac sneered. “So you’re just gonna bluff now, huh?”

“My father.”

Isaac stiffened.

“His Majesty, Emperor of Avalon, utilizes both divine and demonic power at once despite their incompatibility,” Kireua reminded Isaac.

Flawless. That was what the Martial God was.

“And a tiger doesn’t father a cat.” Kireua grinned.

And Kiruea was the Martial God’s son.

* * *

After corralling the nobles in front of the throne, Duke Jook quietly brought Duke Nemert to a small room in the corner of the council chamber.

“What in the world do you want with me now?” Nemert asked, his lip trembling.

Jook himself was a Master, so he chose to meet Nemert one-on-one without any guards accompanying him. In contrast, Nemert didn’t know a single thing about swords; he had attained his current position with a little bit of cleverness and a significant amount of wealth. He was unmatched in the amount of donations he had made to the Great Temple. In fact, the main reason why Nemert managed to acquire the title of a duke was his long-time sponsorship of Kurz.

“Duke Nemert, why don’t you become my sponsor from now on?”

“Wh-What is that supposed to mean?” Nemert stammered.

“You aren’t asking because you genuinely don’t understand what I’m talking about, are you? I’m giving you a chance right now.”

Nemert went silent. Even though he was still confused, he could tell what Jook wanted from him, more or less.

“Bel is still in Swallow, and I’m going to tell him that Joshua Sanders was here and of His Majesty’s death.”

Nemert’s jaw dropped to the floor. “Wh-What? Th-That is unacceptable. We should hide our incompetence from that monster, not tell him ourselves! He’ll kill us all!”

“I beg to differ.” Jook shook his head. “Bel’s only interest is Joshua Sanders—if anything he would be amused to hear that Joshua Sanders assassinated our emperor.”

“I-I doubt—”

“You don’t know Bell well enough yet. The only thing he knows is how to fight because he was created to be a human weapon,” Jook confidently said. “To be honest, I don’t believe we'll be able to capture Joshua Sanders even if all the knights and soldiers left in the empire go after him. Bel is the only one who stands a chance against him.”

“Wh-What are you going to do if Bel holds us accountable?”

“...Kurz was a puppet in the first place, so Bel will happily replace him with another puppet...” Jook trailed off with a grin. “But we’ll still have to make preparations to spin the situation to our advantage.”

“By preparations, you mean...?”

“The best outcome for us right now is for the Martial God and Battle God to die fighting each other.”

Nemert eyes slowly widened.

“Mutual destruction!”

“Exactly. Let’s outwit those monsters and...” Jook’s grin deepened. “...take this country—no, continent for ourselves.”

* * *

As they walked down the long tunnel, Kireua, Isaac, and Anna were silent. Isaac had stopped talking, presumably because she wasn’t talkative by nature, and Anna was too busy walking on eggshells around Isaac to speak.

When they arrived at the end of the tunnel, Anna broke the silence with a warning.

“Stop. There’s someone up ahead.”

Anna closed her eyes and focused, observing the area ahead through her elemental spirits.

“...Thirty?” she mumbled. “No, there’s at least fifty people up ahead.”

Kireua and Isaac’s expressions tensed.

“Shouldn’t you hide now? You’ll be considered a traitor at this rate.”

“I don’t have a reason to hide. I didn’t betray this country, it betrayed me,” Isaac scoffed.

Kireua gave her a thoughtful look. “This has been on my mind for a while now: why do you have such a deep grudge against this country?”

Without answering him, Isaac pointed forward. “It seems my concerns were correct.”

“Huh?”

“Can you prove that you weren’t just bluffing earlier?”

Just then, Kireua felt a faint trace of divine power from up the tunnel.

“Take care of them on your own, then I’ll tell you,” Isaac said with a crooked smile.

“...This is good.” Kireua drew his sword with a smile. “Killing the emperor was too easy; I didn’t even have a chance to warm up yet.”

“...I just hope you’re as skilled as you say you are.”

“Don’t worry.” Kireua charged straight toward the enemy. “There’s nothing I hate more than a braggart.”

1. It’s a meme in Korea which is mainly about love and hate among a family. ☜