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Side Story Chapter 290

The people who arrived beside Arash were all of the other dukes of Swallow.

Behind her fox mask, Arash smiled. “I see that all the dukes have answered the summons.”

“Of course. It’s me who gave the order.” Anna entered the chamber last, her chin pompously held high.

The dukes gave Anna a disapproving look for a moment, but that was it.

Voltaire, still suffering from his injury, boldly shouted, “Surrender, Duke Killian.”

“Ridiculous. You never get up from your chairs, but you hauled ass just because a girl called you,” Aaron sneered.

Anna narrowed her eyes irately. “What did you say? ‘Just because a girl called’?”

“I’m especially surprised by you two, Duke Armis and Duke Lutby. I expected this from an empty-headed dunce like Duke Voltaire, but I thought you two were different.”

The Dukes Armis and Lutby had been neutral until now. Swallow hadn’t been an empire where the emperor and nobles were in power. It had been Grand Duke Lucifer’s country. The empire had existed for him and for him only. Under his reign, the empire had been quiet for decades.

During those decades, many of the highest noble families had fallen and risen despite their status. However, Voltaire had seen an opportunity after Lucifer’s first death and had used Arash to become the new power behind the crown.

“A legitimate heir to the throne has been found. What choice do we have but to follow her orders?”

“Why don’t you stop already, Duke Killian?”

Armis and Lutby, the dukes who were already past the prime of their lives, attempted to persuade Aaron. Their words were backed up by the knights from all of the ducal families pouring into the chamber, packing its wide walls with bodies. In fact, their numbers were several times greater than the ones who had just been frozen; the dukes’ vassals were here too.

“Do you really think you can get me with your army of ants?” Aaron smiled coldly as his sword was slowly covered in ice.

The knights tensed warily, but two Vaikals immediately sprang forward, reaching out for Aaron’s sword.

The clashing of boulders and metal filled the chamber. Although destroying these two Vaikals wouldn’t have been a problem for Aaron under normal circumstances, it wasn’t easy right now.

The problem was the wind blades that came flying whenever he tried to cut through the golems. It was clear where the wind blades were coming from.

“…Fuck. Anna…!” Aaron bit his lip as he was pushed back. He continued to swing his sword, sparing a moment to look at Anna, who pompously gazed back at him.

“So those are our national treasures.”

“They’re incredible!”

Armis and Lutby crowed over their first time seeing the Vaikals fight. Voltaire, on the other hand, was quietly heaving a sigh of relief. He hadn’t even recovered from his previous injuries yet—not that it would\'ve been easy to defeat Aaron even if Voltaire had already recovered. In fact, Voltaire knew without a doubt would lose to Aaron every single time. That was how absurdly strong Aaron del Killian was.

So Voltaire was utterly astonished when Aaron suddenly leaped into the air and turned to flee from the chamber.

“That prideful Duke Killian is running…!” Voltaire hissed, his body trembling with excitement.

Arash remained a lot more rational than Voltaire and quickly began shouting orders.

“Get him! Do not let him out of your grasp!”

“Yes, Fox Master!”

The knights quickly went running to block the exit.

“Get out of my way, you ants!” Aaron yelled.

It only took a single swing for Aaron to freeze all of the knights in his way, leaving the doors completely unguarded.

“Th-Th-Those idiots…!” Voltaire clicked his tongue in disapproval, despite the fact he hadn’t even thought about taking action himself.

Just when Aaron smashed the door to escape, a gale blew across the chamber. Anna was using her wind spirit to chase after him.

“Yo-Your Majesty!” Arash shouted in surprise, her eyes glued on Aaron and Anna.

“Sit tight and wait for me there! If he sees me, he won\'t want to miss the opportunity. He is going to stop!” Anna shouted over her shoulder.

“F-Follow her right now!” Arash managed to tell the knights despite her bewilderment.

The knights quickly followed Anna and Aaron. Although Anna had a point, Aaron taking her hostage would be absolutely disastrous.

“Vaikals! Protect the ruler of this empire!” Arash yelled.

Fortunately, the two Vaikals sprung into action.

* * *

The ground was wracked by tremors.

As Kireua had experience dealing with undead, he knew that they fed on demonic power. Even though Kireua’s demonic power couldn’t compare to that of the Emperor of Avalon’s in terms of quantity, it would be enough to bring out sufficient undead to match the enemy’s numbers.

‘I tried not to use demonic power whenever possible, but…’

The Emperor of Avalon had said before that Kireua was currently similar to a dam filled to bursting, and Kireua instinctively knew that his demonic power was harming him more than anything else he was doing.

Kireua put aside his lingering concerns for now.

‘…Come. You people are desperate to get the Evil Sins, right? I have two of them.’

“Wh-Where did this earthquake come from all of a sudden?”

The quaking got stronger over time; it was getting to the point that even the knights from Hubalt, who had ended up in the underground vault together with Kireua, were disturbed.

-Let’s continue our conversation later.

-You…

Creshua’s face scrunched up in annoyance, but Kireua was focused on drawing out the energy of his Evil Sins. He had to bring out as many of the stronger undead as possible to minimize his people’s casualties in the upcoming battle.

-Roarrrrr!

A colossal monster, the strongest presence among the undead in the vault, shot out of the depths of the vault, letting out a roar that seemed to be answering Kireua’s desperate call.

Creshua’s head whipped around. “A bone dragon!”

The bone dragon flew higher, clawing for the sky.

Kireua still didn’t stop unleashing his demonic energy, even though the delicate blood vessels in his eyes had already popped and he was shedding tears of blood.

‘A little more…’

“A mo-monster…” one of the Hubalt knights mumbled in horror as he looked at Kireua.

Although it was partially because of the Vaikals, who had appeared to guard Kireua, Kireua’s overwhelming energy dissuaded Hubalt’s knights from even dreaming about attacking him.

-Roarrrrrrrr!

The bone dragon let out another roar from the skies above the palace.

* * *

Meanwhile, on a hill not far from Arcadia, some people were quietly trembling from excitement as they watched the bone dragon ascend. The bone dragon was so big that they could clearly see it even at a distance.

-Roarrrrrrrr!

“Nice! Kireua must have done it! I knew he would figure out what our plan is!” Iruca cheered as she threw a punch into the air.

However, the three Queen Consorts remained calm.

“I would like to express my sincerest gratitude for your cooperation. Thanks to all of you, the first stage of the plan is successful.” Charles bowed elegantly.

After giving her stunned looks for a moment, the representative of Arcadia’s citizens frantically shook his head. “Please don’t do this. It was for our own good, so of course we cooperated.”

Charles, who was also one of the Five Merchants, had always been helping out the people of Avalon even before they had to evacuate Arcadia. When the entire city had been devastated by the paladins’ attack, Charles hadn’t hesitated to use her own money to provide free, temporary shelters for the people.

Iceline was the next one to express her gratitude.

“Thank you.”

“W-We hardly deserve this, Your Majesty.”

Some of the other citizens, bewildered, quickly bowed back. Iceline, the First Queen Consort, was an esteemed mage; she had used her magic all day to restore the people’s homes as quickly as possible.

That was why all of the citizens of Arcadia had immediately followed the Queen Consorts when they had been told that they needed to evacuate; their obedience was one of their ways of expressing their respect for their rulers.

And there was another Queen Consort who was about to recover the citizens’ dear temporarily lost homes.

Icarus climbed onto the platform built at the top of the hill. Below the platform, Iruca and many knights stood with resolute looks on their faces.

“…Proud knights of Avalon,” Icarus quietly said.

“Avalon!” The knights snapped to attention.

“It’s time to begin,” Icarus solemnly continued. “I hereby commence Operation Clear Sky. Let’s go and drive Hubalt from our country. We shall take back a sky without those war criminals’ flags.”

“Yeahhhhhh!”

Knowing that today might be their last battle, their cheers shook the hill like thunder.