CH 326

A storm of shock had hit the capital, Arcadia. In that late afternoon, the air inside the colosseum only heated up more as time passed. It wasn’t easy for the commoners to see knights spar under usual circumstances, let alone meet one, so the spectators were wildly enthusiastic. The fervor reached a zenith at the end of that bloody fight.

“Wow!!!!”

“Lo-look!” One spectator’s eyes bulged when he noticed something.

The First Battalion Knights, who were known to be some of the best knights, had just finished fighting. The spectators had been smacking their lips disappointedly because the fight came to an end too quickly. But then they saw a young man climbing up to the combat ring alone.

“It’s the Hero King!”

All the spectators turned their heads to look at the man as he moved to the center of the colosseum. He held a snow-white spear that was taller than he was. The audience knew that he was the one who had declared that he was going to become the Emperor before thousands of people. Even before he became twenty, he had accomplished all kinds of great accomplishments that would be recorded in history. He was the blood kin of the Dark God—no, he was one of the former Twelve Superhumans. He was the Hero King, Joshua Sanders.

“Woahhhhh!!!!!” The crowd roared incomparably louder than before, shaking the sky and ground.

Joshua was already an idol and a god to the commoners. Since he was a bastard of a noble family, he had to eventually die at the hands of his brother, meaning that his life wasn’t better than theirs. That was why the spectators felt a sense of kinship toward Joshua, almost as if they had become Joshua himself.

“I want to kill him and dig him out of his grave to kill him again…” Kaizen, the Second Prince, stared down at the sight discontentedly and quietly gritted his teeth. “Brother! Are you really going to leave him be?”

“What am I going to do if I don’t?” Kiser, the First Prince, asked.

“He’s a criminal!” Kaizen growled. “How can you just let him participate in Berche’s Bloody Battle?”

“If you have ears, you must have heard Duke Tremblin saying that the competition should be fair to everyone when he dropped by just now,” Kiser quietly replied.

“That’s just one man’s opinion!” Kaizen shouted.

Kiser shrugged. “According to the rules, it’s not a problem.”

“Huh?” Kaizen blinked at his brother, realized that Kiser was paying no attention to what he was saying, and pounded his chest in frustration. “This is why even the nobles that oppose you think you are a good person, but you can’t even tell that they’re criticizing you…”

“What did you say?” Kiser turned to look at Kaizen.

“Never mind. Forget it.” Having nothing else to say, Kaizen looked away. “Sir Triar!”

“Yes, I am here, Your Highness.” A middle-aged man, whose chest plate was clearly engraved with the number two, immediately responded to Kaizen’s summon.

“Which bastard with big guts did you say that is going to go up against Joshua?” Kaizen leaned his arm against his chair.

“Joshua Sanders’s opponent is the current captain of the Auxiliary Battalion, Your Highness,” Triar said as he straightened back up.

“There are less than a hundred of them now, so Auxiliary ‘Battalion,’ my ass…” Kaizen grumbled discontentedly. “How are the rest of them doing?”

“By the rest of them, do you mean…?” Triar trailed off.

“You know those vermin—no, the knights that were in the Eleventh and Twelfth Battalion before they chose to be on my or my brother’s side?” Just imagining them made Kaizen frown. “Wasn’t Joshua Sanders their direct superior in the past? Is there any possibility of them backstabbing us now?”

“Ah…” Finally understanding what Kaizen meant, Triar nodded. “They’re already your men, Your Highness.”

“Are you sure?” Kaizen narrowed his eyes.

“Yes, I’m sure, Your Highness,” Triar repeated.

“You’d better be so sure that you’re willing to bet your life on that, Sir Triar. If they actually backstab us later, your life-long goal will become just an empty dream,” Kaizen coldly warned him. Triar tensed up a bit because he knew what Kaizen meant.

‘The next Knight-Commander…’ He unconsciously clenched his fists into tight balls. While Joker, the Captain of the First Battalion, served the First Prince, Triar, the Captain of the Second Battalion, served the Second Prince. Although Valmont dun Brown had been considered the most promising candidate for the next Knight-Commander, he had cooped himself up in a mountain to train himself.

By the time he returned, this old feud between the brothers would probably come to an end. A variable named the Hero King had appeared, but Triar was sure that Joshua would not be able to do anything on his own since physical strength alone didn’t make one politically influential. In the end, depending on which prince got the throne…

‘The next Knight-Commander will be decided,’ Triar concluded.

With shining eyes, Triar bowed.

“I’ll check again so there won’t be any problem.”

“I’ll trust you,” Kaizen said, his eyes locked onto Joshua.

“Yes, Your Highness. And there is a matter that I have to report….”

“…Report?” Kaizen wondered, looking at Triar

Triar approached Kaizen and quietly whispered into his ear, “…We’ve received a reply from the Magic Tower regarding the authenticity of the imperial seal.”

“What?” Kaizen exclaimed in surprise but soon quieted his voice just like Triar. “They sent back a reply that fast?”

“Yes, they say they’ll send people to authenticate the seal within a week,” Triar hesitantly reported. “And… the current Tower Master himself is going to visit the Imperial Palace…”

“The To-Tower Master himself?” Kaizen’s eyes widened into twin moons.

Triar nodded. “Two of the Seven Mages—the new Ice Mage and the current Earth Mage—will also come to the Imperial Palace to assist the Tower Master.”

“Such high-ranking wizards are going to come to check one little object?” Kaizen’s jaw dropped.

“That ‘one little object’ is the imperial seal that symbolizes this empire.” Triar shrugged.

“Ah, fuck. I saw it coming, but…” Kaizen groaned. “If that’s true, then isn’t it just a matter of time before the other countries hear about this?”

“It was expected from the start,” Triar calmly replied.

“Does my brother know about this?” Kaizen asked, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully.

“The first wizard to receive the reply from the Magic Tower is on His Highness Kiser’s side,” Triar bitterly answered. The implications of that were blindingly obvious to Kaizen.

“That sly fox…” Kaizen gritted his teeth. He felt Kiser glaring at him just then, so he quickly changed the topic. “…Keep an eye on this matter, Sir Triar. We must get the real seal, no matter which seal turns out to be the real one.”

“Yes, sir.” Triar nodded.

“And—” Kaizen was about to give additional instruction, but the crowd’s thunderous shout deafened him and drowned out any possibility of further discussion.

They had been eagerly waiting for this moment, so they shouted just as loud as they had for Joshua’s entrance into the arena.

“The Hero King’s opponent is coming out!”

“Who is it? Most people won’t be able to hold up for even seconds.”

“I heard he is a high-ranking captain in the Knights Templar.”

“Huh? Would he be enough to fight the Hero King? Even the Knight-Commander, Rod, isn’t certain that he can defeat the Hero King, right?”

“Well, it doesn’t matter who the opponent is since commoners like us won’t be able to see this kind of fight more than once in our lifetimes.”

From where Joshua stood in the center of the arena, he was able to pick out the commoners' conversation through the roar coming from the spectators, but when he saw his opponent enter the arena…

“That’s…?” Joshua’s jaw dropped slightly when he saw a familiar physique and even more familiar clothes.

The man, armed to the teeth, marched to twenty footsteps away from Joshua. His silver armor, covered by a red cloak, clanged against the rest of his gear as he walked. He raised his sword vertically and looked intently at Joshua through the tightly shut visor of his helmet.

“It is my honor to meet the Superhuman that is famous around the continent,” the man said.

Joshua’s eyes slightly widened.

“You’re…”

Their surroundings were deafeningly noisy, but the man’s voice was so clear that it felt like he was speaking right next to Joshua.

“Let me formally introduce myself first.” The man slowly opened up the helmet’s visor. “I am currently leading the Eleventh and Twelfth Battalion of the Imperial Knights’ Order as the Captain of the Auxiliary Battalion… I am Cazes Marahas.”

“It is you.” Joshua nodded.

“Long time no see, Captain.” Cazes bowed very politely.

“It… really is you,” Joshua repeated.

“We don’t need to talk any further, right?”

His next move was surprising. He pointed his sharp-edged sword at Joshua without hesitation, but Joshua didn’t look surprised at all—in fact, Joshua looked content for some reason.

The spearman felt mixed emotions. It was the first time he’d held a spear since he had revealed himself in the Human Realm, and the first person he was going up against was perfect.

“I’m sorry,” Joshua quietly said.

“I’m not here to hear your apology,” Cazes coldly mumbled. “Hold your spear up.”

There was no need for them to talk any further as one fight was enough for them to have a sincere conversation. Exchanging words a hundred times was unnecessary. Cazes had been desperately waiting for this day to come. He’d swung his swords so many times that his hand bled and he could make a river with the sweat he shed. Now was the time to show the fruit of Cazes’s effort to the man he respected more than anyone else in the world. In his heart, he exclaimed, ‘This is how much I have been waiting for Joshua!’

“I know I’m being rude, but I’m going to test you this time to see if you’re really the Captain Joshua Sanders that I know and to check if your skills have decreased over time. Since I haven’t stayed idle in the meantime… I think I’m entitled to do this.”

A loud, resonating sound made the air shake, and at the same time, brought a faint smile to Joshua’s lips.

A blue layer of energy slowly enveloped Cazes’ sword: it was the complete form of Aura Blade, a feat dubbed “The Knights’ Dream.”

“You must have gone through a lot,” Joshua quietly noted.

Despite Joshua’s short answer, Cazes felt like he had been rewarded for all the hardships he went through—but still, he couldn’t show it.

“I’m not going to go easy on you,” Cazes firmly declared.

Joshua nodded.

“Okay.”

“I’m serious,” Cazes said, narrowing his eyes.

“I’m not counting on you going easy on me.” Joshua shrugged.

“I’m not good at controlling my power, so please be careful,” Cazes warned him.

Joshua broke into a deep smile.

“I think…”

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Cazes tilted his head in confusion.

“...I think I should be the one who says that,” Joshua finished with an unrestrained grin.

Cazes flinched.

“Or do I have to make you remember?”

“…That’s right,” Cazes quietly mumbled, and tightened his grip on the sword. “I apologize for crossing the line, so… I’ll also do my best from now on.”

After he finished speaking, Cazes sprang forward as quickly as he could, throwing the air into chaos around him. At the same time, the flame of Aura on his sword fiercely blazed and soared toward Joshua as if it was going to swallow him—or even everything in the world.

The moment he focused on his opponent and forgot about everything else, Cazes felt like everything around him stopped. He only had one chance to pour out his everything. After finally coming up close to Joshua, Cazes held his sword up high.

‘I’ll cut him!’

However… Cazes couldn’t achieve his goal in the end.

“Wind…?” Cazes mumbled dumbfoundedly when the whooshing warned him that something was wrong.

At the same time, he heard a clear clash of metal and felt the weight in his hand become suddenly lighter. When he lowered his head, he saw that his sword had been broken into two pieces. Those pieces dropped to the ground and the Aura Blade, which could cut iron like paper, also dissipated.

Cazes had put everything he had into that one attack, but one counterattack was enough to nullify it. He wasn’t sure when or how Joshua moved; however, did that fact hurt Cazes’s pride? No way! He couldn’t hold down the euphoria that was overwhelming his body, such that he could only stand there for a moment, trembling.

“…Can I ask you one thing?” he slowly ventured.

“Yes, you can.” Joshua nodded.

“Am I—no, are we still your men, Captain? Or…” Cazes couldn’t finish speaking, so he looked at the ground.

Joshua carefully picked his words.

“I’m…”

Cazes slowly raised his head.

“I’m not sure if you can believe me—no, I’m not sure if I have the right to say this.” Joshua looked straight into Cazes’s eyes “But I never forgot about you and the other knights.”

Cazes’s eyes reddened.

“Was that enough of an answer?” Joshua asked.

“Yes,” Cazes replied, quietly holding his clenched fist against his chest, “that’s enough.”