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Side Story Chapter 105

“What did I tell you?” Bel picked at his ear with his little finger and then blew it off. “My physical skills transcend the Martial Emperor’s, and no one in the world has more combat experience than me. According to Hubalt’s priests and paladins, I’m the best human weapon ever created, who can use the powers I ‘ate’ as if they’d belonged to me from the beginning.”

Carmen gritted her teeth. To her dismay, she wasn’t able to withstand a single hit—no, she didn’t even see his punch coming. The best human weapon? Carmen had to admit that, because the pressure Bel exuded was more intense than even the damned Joshua Sanders.

“What do you mean by eating? Do you eat humans?” Carmen asked.

“Come on, what do you take me for? I was born with a strange gift. Like…” Bel reaching out his hand toward her upper body.

Carmen flinched.

“…There’s no need to be so tense. Once I touch someone’s abdomen, where their mana hall is, their energy flows into me.”

“Th-That doesn’t make any sense…!”

“Ah, of course, it’s more effective to eat them. I actually ate dragons’ hearts and flesh. Even my teeth are sturdy.” Bel curled up both ends of his mouth and pointed at his teeth.

Carmen gasped. She suddenly felt sluggish and powerless as if she were trapped in a soaked blanket and she was suffering from a serious cold.

“M-My… mana really is flowing out of me,” Carmen stammered.

“That’s how it works.”

Mana was a source of life. Carmen’s face rapidly became more wrinkled as her aging accelerated.

Carmen quickly crawled away from Bel, her hands and knees leaving trails of blood on the rough ground as she retreated.

“Are you a demon?” Carmen bit her lower lip.

“A demon?”

“I heard that one of the demons has this kind of ability. Isn’t this the authority of Absorption?”

“Hmm… I’d like to answer your question if possible, but I can’t because I don’t know either.”

“Tell me about your birth!” Carmen was certain that an individual with such abilities was a human.

“My… birth?” Belt tilted his head, obviously more confused than she was. “I’ve never thought about that until now…”

“If you’re a human, you must have a mother and a father. You must remember something about them.”

“I’m sorry, but I grew up as an orphan.”

“Then tell me the oldest memory you have!” Carmen screamed.

Bel thought back for a long minute, but he suddenly frowned and grabbed his head as if he was in pain.

“Mmm… I don’t want to think about that because it gives me a headache.”

“It must be a forbidden seal.”

“A forbidden seal…?”

“Someone cast a forbidden seal on your mind. In other words, you’re a demon who is as strong as a Demon King,” Carmen said with confidence.

“…Maybe it’s because you’re about to die, but you sure know how to spin shit,” Bel snapped, his voice taking on a belligerent edge.

Well, what human could stay calm after being called a demon?

“I recently met a demon of the highest rank who exuded suffocatingly chilling energy. It was definitely not the kind of power that a human would harbor, just like yours.”

Bel’s lips trembled because he felt numerous energies from every direction. The vicinity of the Palace was definitely not an appropriate place for a conversation since it was the paladins’ final destination.

“…You should stay with me a little longer,” Bel said.

“What—”

Bel jumped at Carmen and struck the back of her head, knocking her out before she could finish her question.

“Now, I’ll leave the rest to Michael, and… shall I continue with my entertainment a little longer?” Bel took around and then disappeared.

* * *

Foreign knights were riding their horses through the center of another country’s capital. If civilians had been nearby, they would have instantly trampled into a pulp, but not a single person could be found within Arcadia.

To the invaders, the paladins of Hubalt, it stuck out like a sore thumb.

“Sir Michael, isn’t this strange?

Michael, the blonde paladin leading the troops, frowned. Three thousand elite paladins of Hubalt were participating in this expedition. Although Michael wanted to mobilize the infantry too, they would have been too obvious. In the end, Michael’s plan worked—in fact, it seemed like a total success. Michael and his troops had successfully infiltrated the heart of the enemy as planned, and the Avalon Palace must have been turned upside down by now.

Nevertheless, Michael felt leery because he couldn’t find a single one of Avalon’s soldiers stationed in Arcadia when they should be stopping this army of three thousand paladins. Even the citizens couldn’t be seen on the streets, so it was only natural for the paladins to assume that Avalon had been aware of the troop’s ambush ahead of time and ordered their citizens to evacuate.

“Why don’t we stop for a moment and investigate…” one of the paladins suggested to Michael, in spite of the strong wind blowing against them.

“Who are we? We are the paladins of the Hubalt Empire, the most powerful nation on the continent. Even if this is a trap, are you afraid?”

“N-No, sir!” the paladin hastily answered.

“Then are we so weak that we have to turn a blind eye to our comrades who must have been ensnared by this trap?”

“No, sir!”

“Who are we?” Michael asked.

“We are the White Wolf Order, the First Paladin Order of the great Holy Empire!”

“Yes, wolves live in packs and never turn their backs on their family in times of crisis.”

“For Hubalt!” the paladins shouted.

“Let’s go now. We’re going to arrive soon. According to the report, there must be battles taking place all over the Palace’s garden—”

Michael frowned. The communication crystal ball in his pocket was buzzing. He couldn’t just ignore it because the crystal ball was for receiving emergency reports during battles. He infused his mana into it, and the image of a paladin appeared on the crystal ball.

“…What is it?” Michael asked. He recalled that this paladin was from the Second Paladin Order, which Gabriel had led to infiltrate the Palace of Avalon.

-W-We have a big problem, Sir Michael!

“…A problem?”

-We need to go back home right now! The Heaven’s Mind devised—Augh!

Michael immediately stopped his horse.

“…Stop.”

“Everyone, halt!” Michael’s aide immediately shouted.

“All of you will remain on standby here for a moment,” Michael thundered. “Rockefell, contact our border guards right now.”

“Pardon? The border guards… are you talking about the ones stationed near our border with Avalon?”

“Yeah—I have no time to explain.” Michael vaulted off of his horse. He took off toward the Palace, leaving a bright streak trailing behind him. It was hard to believe that a human could move that quickly.

Rockefell watched his superior disappear and then pulled out a crystal ball of his own. “Border guards! Answer, border guards! This is the White Wolf Order, Sir Michael’s First Paladin Order!”

The crystal ball flickered for a moment but showed no other reaction. Rockefell quickly realized that something was up. The Hubalt Border Guards should have always answered communications immediately because they were on the front lines with their enemies.

“What… in the world is happening right now?” Rockefell murmured.

Since he had no means to investigate the matter any further, Rockefell just blankly stared at where his superior had disappeared.

* * *

“Mmm…” Michael grunted quietly as he ran.

Despite his concerns, battles were still taking place all around the arena—but it was obvious that the paladins of Hubalt were losing. The battle was mainly the Avalon Empire versus the Hubalt Empire and the Thran Kingdom versus the Tetra Kingdom. The levels of the knights were similar overall, but one man was turning the tide of the battle: Ulabis, the Flame Emperor, one of the great Stars of Igrant.

Ulabis created a giant pillar of fire which immediately soared into the sky.

“…Taking care of matters inside is the priority now,” Michael muttered.

He redoubled his speed, shooting toward the Palace like greased lightning. Although he could feel someone watching him, he wasn’t worried. Even in the vast Hubalt Empire, Michael was peerless in terms of speed.

“…There’s the council chamber of the Avalon Empire.”

The inside was quieter than he had thought. Battles were still ongoing in the garden, but the inside of the building was too quiet. It made Michael uneasy.

Michael came to a halt in front of the council chamber’s giant doors. Even this far in, he couldn’t hear a single sound. Only faint groans coming through the door indicated that people were inside the chamber.

He pushed the door open without hesitation and immediately froze, his eyes wide like moons.

“What is this…?”

“So you’re here.”

Just as Michael expected, many people were inside the chamber. The man sitting on the throne was particularly eye-catching with his many vassals and knights lined up on either side of him. They stood with their bodies squared but their heads turned to Michael as if they were greeting guests of the Palace.

“Welcome to my home, last of the Four Paladins.” The man on the throne grinned.

There was no doubt that he was Joshua Sanders, the Martial God, emperor of Avalon.