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After God knew how long, the outer wall of the colosseum had cracked as if it was hit by a bolt of lightning. The colosseum was so unstable that it looked like it would crumble down any second. The inside of the colosseum was even worse. The colosseum was always noisy because of the enthusiastic shouting from the spectators packing the stands, but those spectators were nowhere to be found. The colosseum was silent and its air had turned somehow colder.
In the center of the colosseum, there was the half-destroyed, scorched grand arena. A man stood atop it, and over five hundred knights of the Hurent Knight Order trembled before him.
“Are we going to continue?” the man asked.
White sparks were still jumping around the crushed stone floor, inches away from their faces.
“…This is…” A knight gaped, mesmerized.
He wasn’t the only one; a storm of mixed emotions hit all the Hurent knights—-shock, fear, and awe. Some knights remembered seeing this lightning of death during the Masters’ Battles, here in Reinhardt where people from across the entire continent had gathered to bear witness.
A knight soon reached the logical conclusion.
“No way…?” His sword clanged to the ground.
The man was still wearing a mask, but the knight didn’t need to see the man’s face in order to know who he was. The knights never could've won against the man in the first place. Even if their beloved Martial Emperor himself had come here, the knights couldn’t be sure of the outcome of the fight.
The man’s name burned in their minds…
“The Hero King, Joshua Sanders…”
The Hurent Knights stopped moving as if they’d been turned into sculptures. The quick-witted Atoba capitalized on this and came forward.
“Kneel!” he shouted. “Anyone who surrenders will be spared!”
His mana carried his voice to everyone in the colosseum. Atoba’s goal was simple: although he was going to take the lives of the people who resisted until the end, he wasn’t going to kill the ones who had surrendered because if he killed for no reason, he wouldn’t be any different from them.
He glanced at Joshua to see if he was angry. However, the other person who had been watching everything didn’t seem to share Atoba’s idea.
“Atoba!” Kingaitu uneasily shouted.
Joshua shook his head. “Kingaitu, don’t stop him.”
“But…” Kingaitu insisted, but he became quiet when Joshua shook his head again.
Atoba gathered his determination.
“I also…” he began.
Kingaitu tilted his head in confusion.
“I also have no intention of defying your orders, Your Majesty.” Atoba looked into Joshua’s eyes.
“Then…?” Kingaitu asked with a slight frown.
“If you order me to cut off their heads, Your Majesty…” Atoba trailed off, but his eyes shone. “Upon my life, I will execute that order.”
That was when Joshua finally broke into a faint smile.
“You are indeed a wise man.”
“Yo-Your Majesty?” Kingaitu questioned, perplexed.
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Joshua glanced at Kingaitu before turning back to Atoba. The junior knight flinched.
“You’ve thought ahead,” Joshua observed. “I’m from the Avalon Empire, and that won’t change no matter what. If peace comes to the continent after we drive out the two empires, would the other kingdoms be happy?”
“What do you mean…?” Kingaitu asked.
“They would instead feel more threatened,” Joshua concluded.
Kingaitu’s eyes widened as that sank in.
“Of course,” Joshua continued, “they would be grateful to us for taking out their two current strongest enemies… ”
“Isn’t Avalon busy taking care of their own mess?” Kingaitu tried to refute. “And there’s no way you would invade their land, Your Majesty.”
“The problem is that they won’t think that way. Let me put it this way, Kingaitu: would you be able to think the same if I was your enemy?”
Joshua’s voice struck Kingaitu like thunder, silencing him. He had never imagined becoming his beloved king’s enemy, but if that really happened…
The thought made Kingaitu swallow nervously.
“Therefore, from now on, we have to show that we’re different from the other empires by action, not by words,” Joshua declared.
“Wait, did Atoba already think that far before we’d won…?” Kingaitu asked disbelievingly.
“That’s how much he trusts me.” Joshua smiled subtly.
Kingaitu turned blankly to look at Atoba. Although his ability to see the bigger picture was superb, it was impossible to maintain that evaluation of himself if he didn’t completely trust his king’s ability.
“I thought he was being unnecessarily sympathetic…” Kingaitu mumbled.
“That was why he bothered to divide the children and spectators into two groups and sent them to the west and north gates separately,” Joshua noted.
“Atoba,” he shouted.
Atoba quickly stood up straight.
“I’m listening, Your Majesty.”
“Lead the Wilhelm Knights to the Reinhardt castle right now,” Joshua ordered.
“Y-you mean…?” Atoba stuttered.
“I guess,” Joshua quietly mumbled, “you can say we’re going to take over the city without shedding blood.”
Atoba’s eyes popped wide open as he realized what Joshua meant. Even though there were still hundreds of enemies in the city, Atoba didn’t worry about that one bit since he was standing before Joshua Sanders, the man whom Atoba respected more than anyone else in the world and the true king of Reinhardt.
He proudly raised his sword to his breast in salute.
“Yes, sir!”
* * *
Although they were still far from the colosseum, the Martial Emperor and his men could already see the traces of the battles everywhere. The thick smell of smoke was the first thing that they noticed. The smoke obstructed their views. When they passed by all of that and reached the center of the colosseum…
The Martial Emperor groaned when he saw the man quietly watching the sky.
“…Joshua Sanders.” The Martial Emperor’s expectations had turned out to be true. There were no more than three men on this continent that were capable of pressuring him just by standing there.
“What is this…?” The Martial Emperor’s aide stood behind him and stared blankly at the colosseum. The other knights’ reactions were really no different from the aide's. The aide quietly took a look around the silent colosseum. Five hundred knights were incapable of moving a muscle, and the arena hosts were lying everywhere. The inside of the colosseum was in ruins. The man in front of them must be responsible for everything.
It looked like Joshua was never going to speak again, but he slowly opened his mouth.
“...So is it two now?” he said.
“What?”
“Aside from the Darkness Emperor and my father, I’ll have taken out two of the main culprits of the Continental War if I eliminate you today, the Martial Emperor, Zactor.”
“…Hmmm.” The Martial Emperor nodded. He didn’t seem surprised. “You also knew about the Dark God, huh?” Then you must know this, too.”
The Martial Emperor drew up his power.
“Joshua Sanders,” he continued, “you’ll never be able to beat me. We don’t need to talk any further, do we?”
The sky shuddered. The Martial Emperor was going to give his best from the start because he was a very careful person and never let his guard down, regardless of who his opponent was. He awakened his aura like an overlord that was about to crush his enemies; when the Martial Emperor put his mind to the fight, no one was able to beat him.
The Martial Emperor sprang forth, smashing the air out of his way with a boom like someone had used explosion magic. Joshua grabbed a spear of lightning, similar to the lightning from before, as he watched the Martial Emperor approach.
‘…Bronto,’ Joshua called in his thoughts.
The primordial stone reacted, and his spear shone more brilliantly.
The fight began with the Martial Emperor punching Joshua’s spear of lightning like a cannonball. The Emperor’s aura exploded as his fist clashed with the tip of Joshua's spear and the electricity spread everywhere.
The Martial Emperor had to hold back a groan when the rebound hit him.
Joshua thrust his spear straight ahead. One bolt of lightning soon split into a hundred rays of light, his single weapon forcing a hundred people onto the defensive—it was the Magic Spear Arts Level 8: Lightning Spear, One Strike, One Hundred Punishments[1].
“Fuck…!” The Martial Emperor cursed and shielded himself with crossed arms.
Countless bolts of lightning struck the Martial Emperor so quickly that he couldn’t even follow their movement, much less fight back. As he rapidly retreated, the Martial Emperor finally realized that although he could have crushed any targets in his proximity once he’d awakened his power, it was different now. The moment he allowed Joshua to approach, the Martial Emperor was going to be the one who got crushed, not Joshua.
“The spear is made from mana, but… how can you be that fast with a long-ranged weapon?” the Martial Emperor asked. It was a question that anyone would ask. Even if Joshua swung light daggers, he would be slower than the Martial Emperor, who was fighting with bare fists. Their fight defied common sense in martial arts.
“The Martial Emperor, you’re the worst in some ways,” Joshua bluntly replied.
The Martial Emperor flinched. “What…?”
“In contrast to Lucifer, you were born noble.”
“…So?”
“I have no intention of criticizing you for siding with the Emperor to gain power, but backstabbing the pope that raised you… Only trash would do that, not a knight. On top of that, you left this crazy arena to improve the soldiers’ morale?” Joshua narrowed his eyes.
“You’re being ridiculous.” The Martial Emperor shrugged and shook his head. “Only the strongest prevail in this world, so why is it wrong for the strong to exploit the weak?”
“…That is why you cannot truly be strong.”
“Greenhorn, don’t act cocky in front of me.” After repeatedly opening and closing his fists for a moment, the Martial Emperor smiled. “I think I’m at least in a better state than you. Weren’t you abandoned by your own country?”
“Do you really think so?” Joshua asked.
The Martial Emperor tilted his head in confusion.
“You still can’t see it. Can you really not see the state of your subordinates?”
Joshua looked behind the Martial Emperor. The Martial Emperor followed his gaze and flinched. The five hundred knights that hadn’t moved a muscle until then flinched as they met his gaze.
“Those cowards…” The Martial Emperor growled, “I can’t believe they’re called knights.”
“They have already seen their lord betray before,” Joshua reminded him.
The Martial Emperor narrowed his eyes at Joshua.
“Perhaps they fear that they’ll also be betrayed someday. Do you think you could risk your life for that kind of lord?” Joshua asked.
The Martial Emperor’s eyes lit up with murderous intent.
“I have to admit, you’re a smooth talker,” he sneered.
“You wouldn’t know this, but my subordinates headed to the now-empty Reinhardt castle,” Joshua told him.
“…What?!” the Martial Emperor gasped.
“Our colleagues are still held as prisoners in that place, but they were as good as dead if you were still in the castle. Still, they ran to the castle without hesitation when I ordered them to. That’s called ‘trust’.” Joshua pointed his spear at the Martial Emperor. “There’s no future for a leader who’s lost his people’s trust.”
1. It’s named after the four-character Korean idiom. ☜