Side Story Chapter 289

Aaron del Killian strode through the palace. The Imperial Knights saluted at him, visibly surprised, but he didn’t even give them a glance.

“Hmmm...”

However, Aaron’s sharp senses felt something similar to a cold drop of water falling on his nape; two knights were quickly scanning him as they walked away from him.

“...Good.” Aaron smiled crookedly as he continued to walk forward. He luxuriated in the tension in the palace. Lucifer, the Crimson Sky, had been an eyesore, but he was gone. The Flame Emperor, Aaron’s longtime rival, had also perished. Today, the future of Swallow would be determined, and it was going to be Aaron’s world.

When Aaron arrived before the council chamber’s tightly shut doors, the head butler announced his arrival.

“Presenting Duke Killian!”

With a creaking sound, the door opened, and Aaron strode into the chamber without missing a beat.

The chamber fell silent after the doors closed behind Aaron, but Aaron could sense numerous hidden eyes on him.

No one was sitting on the throne.

“...Fox Master.”

The soft tap of footsteps broke the suffocating silence. Arash, with her fox mask, emerged from behind the throne.

“I was told that this is a strategy meeting. Have the other dukes not arrived yet?” Aaron asked.

“Yes; you’re the first one to arrive.”

Aaron’s smile widened. “I would say I’m the first and last one to arrive.”

Arash chuckled. “I expected you to come even if you knew everything.”

The Imperial Knights poured into the chamber from hidden cubbyholes. There were hundreds of them, at least.

“That’s a lot of people to take down one person.”

“After all, you are Duke Aaron del Killian.”

“But I’m disappointed, Fox Master. I thought you were smarter than this.”

“What do you mean?” Arash asked.

“Instead of eliminating me, you’re just going to give me all the justification I need.”

“Do you actually believe you can escape?”

Instead of answering Arash, Aaron unleashed his energy.

The Imperial Knights froze up for a moment but quickly surrounded Aaron. Nevertheless, the storm of Aaron’s energy only got stronger.

“As you pointed out, I am Duke Aaron del Killian,” he said with a shrug.

“Attack him!”

The Imperial Knights rushed him from all directions like a deluge of steel, letting out battle cries to shake off their fear. Despite the rain of attacks, Aaron remained perfectly calm as drew his sword.

Aaron vanished in the blink of an eye, and no one managed to follow his speed. They finally found him near the throne, a few steps away from Arash.

He grinned, his eyes gleaming with savage glee. “This is why I walked into your trap.”

He had entered the council chamber alone, confident that he could not fail. Taking out the brilliant girl in front of him was the last stage of his great plan to seize Swallow.

“I don’t have time for your last words, so die now.”

“S-Stop him!”

The Imperial Knights quickly turned to attack, but Aaron was faster. The edge of his sword was already diving for Arash’s throat.

His hand went numb. He frowned; a golem showed up out of nowhere and blocked his sword with its arm. Despite the fact that the sword was covered with aura, Aaron only managed to leave a scratch on the golem.

“...I guess you had a good reason behind your confidence,” he muttered.

“Aaron del Killian has attempted treason! Kill himmm!”

“Hah.” Aaron glanced at Arash before quickly turning back to the knights. “It changes nothing though. Watch me from there.”

Aaron leaped nimbly into the air, leaving the knights no choice but to watch him. However, the knights remained composed this time; there weren't a lot of places to flee in the air, so it was relatively simple to drive Aaron into a corner as long as they managed to deduce where he would land.

“Wait for the moment he touches the ground!”

“It’s cute that you think that’ll work,” Aaron sneered.

The air around his sword got colder. No one alive in Swallow was capable of blocking the technique Aaron was going to use. In addition, it was most effective in a fight where Aaron contended with multiple enemies at once.

Ice slowly covered Aaron’s sword as the cold air spread in every direction. His sword was the first to be covered in a bone-chilling storm before the storm erupted across the chamber. The cold was beyond cold; it would make these people scream such that even those in the heavens would be able to hear them.

The Killian Family’s Secret Technique Number Three: Glacial Hell.

The aura Aaron unleashed quickly turned into ice, its coldness sweeping the knights around him.

One of the knights gasped and fell on his bottom, narrowly managing to escape from the range of Aaron’s technique. Winter arrived in the blink of an eye, freezing the knights’ comrades.

Aaron landed on the floor and casually stretched his wrist as he slowly turned to look at Arash.

“It’s been a while since I’ve shown you some of my skills. How was it?”

It only took a single attack to wipe out over a hundred knights at once. Arash must be shocked, although Aaron couldn’t see her expression due to her mask.

“Is this all you can do?” Aaron asked. “How disappointing. I could have overthrown the empire on my own...”

Aaron was living proof that one Superhuman could decide the outcome of a war.

“...You got stronger,” Arash finally said.

“You know nothing about martial arts. Can you tell?”

“And you’re confident.”

“It sounds like you have more cards up your sleeves. Unless you seriously believe that those stone heads will be enough to stop me?” Aaron taunted with a thin smile. He leveled his sword at the throne.

“Then how about this?”

Aaron cocked his head. Then he heard footsteps.

After a moment, Aaron’s lip trembled, the first chink in his confidence he’d shown.

“You...”

The last people he had expected walked into the room, one after the other.

* * *

‘Creshua!’

Kireua cheered.

The black-eyed boy was a black dragon hatchling, not a human. Even then, Kireua felt something strange about the boy that made him reluctant to approach Creshua.

‘...Why do I only sense His Majesty’s presence from Creshua?’

Kireua wondered. He would have noticed immediately if his father was borrowing someone else’s body, but this was like the emperor was dormant inside Creshua’s body.

Creshua turned to look at Kireua, scowling.

-Are you the one who opened the door?

-Did I upset you?

-Upset me? Yes, I guess it’s a similar emotion. You opened the door because you thought I’d take care of those people for you, didn’t you?

-Not really, but I have a question—

-You’re annoying me. Why do I have to answer all of your questions?

Kireua stopped sending messages. He didn’t understand why Creshua was so hostile; it was like he was talking to an entirely different person. Above all, the mysterious energy that he could sense from Creshua bothered him too much.

-Take care of those vermin around you first if you want to talk to me. I was planning to teach them a lesson anyway for crawling around above my place, getting on my nerves.

Creshua’s last remark came as a relief to Kireua. Although he didn’t know why Creshua had returned to the vault, Kireua knew how special it was to Creshua. Creshua would never let trespassers taint his memories of his time with his parent.

-I’ll get one fact straight before I leave. I didn’t know you were here. I just came here to get what’s mine.

While Kireua could detect tens of thousands of enemies around the palace, he could also sense numerous other presences.

Creshua’s expression subtly changed.

-Yours, huh? How many of those undead do you seriously think you will be able to bring with you? Hundreds? Thousands?

-We’ll find out soon enough.

Kireua let the stinging murderous energy that was pouring onto him roll off of his skin as he took a sharp breath before activating both of his two Evil Sins—Wrath and Greed—at once.

-You’re crazy...!

Creshua’s dismay Kireua didn’t stop him from luring out the undead using his Evil Sins as bait.

The entire vault shook as if an earthquake was taking place under their feet. As Hubalt’s knights screamed in panic, Kireua quietly said, “Heed my call.”