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“You can’t beat me to death this time, hah! No way!” Cain stood with his hands on his hips, oozing pride.
“For once, I agree with him,” Icarus muttered.
“Same.” Akshuler, Icarus, and the remaining Wilhelm Knights agreed. Iceline didn’t say anything, but her tightly clenched fists spoke volumes.
“…If Marquis Crombell hears that I’ve been spotted in Tripia, he might think differently of me.”
Cain snorted. “If I didn’t know better, I would have thought my master was crazy.”
“There’s just one thing.”
“Are you going to ditch your servants again?”
“Don’t be stubborn. You know she needs help, right? Icarus and Cain, you can help her.”
“Doesn’t everyone know that?” Cain fumed, having already been through this. “You, Baron Joshua Sanders, are my master—not Princess Charles! My master is the most important person here, not the Five Dukes or some beautiful women, damn it!” He pointedly turned his head away from Joshua with a huff, his face red with annoyance.
“Cain…” Icarus sighed.
“Can’t we put these personal matters aside for a while?” Akshuler suggested.
The face of a blind woman lingered in Joshua’s mind as he shook his head. “We can’t put things off any longer,” he said.
“However… You know what’s going on there, right?”
Cain shivered.
“They aren’t anything like the enemies you’ve faced so far. We’re talking about people who can crush the Imperial Palace with a single move or mow down hundreds of men with just a word,” Akshuler cautioned. “These are the kinds of things that were relegated to myths for hundreds of years. No matter how strong you are… you’re still human in my eyes. It’s not safe.1”
“But if you must go…” Cain grit his teeth. “I will go with you.”
“S-Sir?” Iceline was so surprised that she couldn’t stop herself from speaking out loud. “How can you just say that? Do you have nothing to lose?”
“Can’t you people tell a dragon from a dog!?” Cain howled. “A village has already been wiped off the map! The commonfolk have been evacuated for ages because that damned lizard flies around at least once every three days, terrorizing the countryside!”
“It’s like… a warning.” Iceline’s eyes flickered thoughtfully from underneath her cloak. “Dragons never show themselves. As the guardians of middle-earth, their appearance can throw off the balance of the world. They’ve only done it twice in almost a thousand years: once when the Demon King came into this world and again when humans threatened their safety. So… most likely, this will end with a warning about infringing on their territory. That’s probably why it razed an abandoned village, so…” She eyed Joshua. “Now that I think about it, I also think Joshua has the right idea.” If anyone wanted to go to Tripia, it was Iceline. It was her family’s homeland, after all.
Not that any of their opinions changed Joshua’s thoughts.
“Well, if what you said is true then…” Joshua slowly opened his eyes. “It’s not a warning, it’s probably a threat.”
The room stilled like the silence before the storm.
From what he had seen in Count Rebrecca’s castle in both lives, it was easy to see why the dragon was acting the way it was.
“Jacken,” the Emperor called, deep within the Imperial Palace.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Now is the time.”
Jacken’s eyes widened for a moment. He let out an “Ah,” and chuckled.
“It would be a lie to say I didn’t expect it, but the discovery of that treasure has set us ahead by much further than I thought. Joshua Sanders of Reinhardt… is now one of the Twelve Superhumans!” By his standards, Emperor Marcus was practically jumping for joy as he issued his orders. “Call the nobility to gather, and bring Joshua Sanders to the Imperial Palace as soon as possible.”
“As you will, Your Majesty, but…”
“I’m sorry if it interferes with your work, but I promised Aden I’d do it. I have to reward his son, at least. From his point of view… I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.”
Jacken could never figure out what went through the minds of these people. They were always aiming blades at each other’s backs, but then they said they had some sort of promise… He couldn’t contain his curiosity anymore.
“Your Majesty, it is presumptuous, but… I’d like to ask you something.”
Marcus offered him a light nod, and Jacken lowered his head even more.
“Duke Pontier and Count Rebrecca are the coffers and brains of Duke Agnus. I’m curious about his condition, since he didn’t react much when you cut off his limbs. Especially Count Cox von Wagen—isn’t he quite special?”
Despite his best efforts, Jacken couldn’t bring himself to ask about the promise.
“Money is not the problem. Our progress is thanks to an unexpected boon. I made a deal with the life of his son as collateral.”
The Black Wind agent’s eyes widened.
“He’s not the type to care about threats, but his son’s accident was a pretty major issue.”
“No way…” Jacken’s mind raced furiously as he struggled to comprehend the implications.
The only thing that happened yesterday was the announcement about Reinhardt. The Wilhelm Knights served Reinhardt, the only neutral ground on the continent and its symbol of peace. Now the Avalon Empire—one of the three great powers keeping the delicate balance of power intact—had swallowed Reinhardt, and all the other countries knew it. Reinhardt’s official statement eased some of their worries.
“I didn’t think taking Reinhardt would be a bad idea,” the Emperor said. “But you know that Joshua Sanders wound up ruining the plan like a jerk.” He looked immensely bored. “‘The Wilhelm Knights came to this country only to keep me, the king, safe. I, Joshua Sanders, swear before all the people of the entire continent that the Wilhelm Knights have no ties to the Avalon Empire, or else I shall never set foot in the lands of Avalon again,’” Marcus recited and smiled brightly. “What an absolute thick-skulled jerk. I didn’t think those cowards would believe such nonsense, but…” His smile widened. “When word spread that he’d taken the Mercenary King’s head, things changed dramatically.”
The oath of a newly ordained Master did not carry nearly the same weight as that of a new member of the Twelve Superhumans.
“I wanted to kill him for the nerve of rejecting the name of Avalon. But… Aden, for once, showed some emotion to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“He begged me not to harm his son. And I…” The Emperor clenched his fists. “I told Aden that he would take the lead if a war broke out.”
“…The Duke really agreed?” Jaken was utterly astounded.
“Can you believe it? He gladly accepted that kind of half-assed offer.” Marcus stood up and stared at Jacken. “For Igrant! The Star of Avalon will lead the way! Duke Aden von Agnus will lead the way!”
A small figure kneeled in front of a crumbling hut in a small, remote town in Tripia, scribbling on the floor.
Joshua slowly opened his mouth. “So you were here too.”
The figure continued to act busy.
“You still act like you don’t care about people you haven’t met before. Are you going to keep doing this, Ash?”
The figure stopped but didn’t say anything. Then “Ash”… stood up2.
TL/N: DUDE YOU’RE LITERALLY SPEAKING TO THE LIGHT STEALER! ↩️
ED/N: I wish me standing up was interesting enough to be used as a cliffhanger. ↩️