The boundary between the world of Delcross and the void.
In the depths of the darkness, where the void was so vast that all presence was crushed, a soul that boasted a most radiant presence suddenly appeared.
It was the Holy Emperor. It’s the Holy Emperor… right?
Seongjin had to doubt his eyes for a while at his unexpected appearance – Although he couldn’t be sure that he saw with his eyes because he was in a spirit state.
He was the same as the Holy Emperor that Seongjin knew. A calm face as always, a long white court robe draped casually like a cape in a comfortable outfit.
The only difference is that everything is wrapped in dazzling white light. The light was so overwhelming that the demon king’s soul died again and collapsed into Seongjin’s arms.
In addition, there is something like a golden crown floating above his head. It was an unusual crown with sharp golden thorns stretching out in a circle.
When he sees it shining brightly, he wonders if it is a halo or something.
Somehow, the Holy Emperor with a very holy aura appeared, and he was scolding Seongjin for not studying.
[You are the prince of the Holy Empire. Shouldn’t you at least have the minimum knowledge of the Main God worshiped by the empire?]
In addition, this man, for some reason, his expression was more diverse than usual. Looking at Seongjin, the expression of pity is revealed without filtering on his face.
Uh, is this really the time to nag?
[And if this happens, couldn’t you call me on your own? It shouldn’t have taken too long to find you.]
[That, I mean……]
[I told you not to cause trouble. I don’t know where you got that fearless attitude from… Tsk.]
He clicked his tongue. This man just clicked his tongue!
Normally, he had a poker face that made it impossible to know what he was thinking, but the Holy Emperor in his soul state was somehow overly honest in expressing emotions.
But anyway, Seongjin felt unfair.
[No, Father, Your Majesty the Holy Emperor. Even though I died suddenly like this, I still protected Delcross from the threat of demons! I stopped the Bantra Moss from rushing into the capital in droves!]
Right. At least, a gate incident was about to happen in Delcross.
At this point, isn’t it worth taking pride in that he behaved shamelessly as a prince?
[That… Well done.]
The momentum of the Holy Emperor has softened a little. His gaze briefly turned to the trembling red soul fragment hiding in Seongjin’s arms.
A disapproving look passed by, but he didn’t say anything about the demon king. Seongjin, feeling pricked for no reason, hugged him a little deeper as if hiding the insignificant soul.
[That said, isn’t it a problem that you left your body like this? Thanks to that, I also had to leave suddenly, which became a very awkward situation.]
As the Holy Emperor slightly frowned, Seongjin asked in a puzzled way.
[What situation? Aren’t you in the prayer room right now?]
Then he hummed. He pretends to clear his throat and averts his gaze.
This man, what are you doing right now, throwing away all your schedules?
Oh, come to think of it, isn’t it just good timing? Seongjin thought.
When I asked if he could see my soul, he said, “Do you want to die?” But didn’t I just die?
The last time he came and got caught in a storm, he was too flustered to ask, but Seongjin thought he should point it out clearly this time. It is clear that he obviously knows Seongjin’s identity, but how long is he going to treat him as his own little son?
[That, Your Majesty the Holy Emperor. Can you tell me what my soul looks like now?]
[……]
[How did you know I died suddenly? How did you find me so quickly after flying to the boundary of the void again?]
Even Seongjin, who had no concept of dimensions, could tell that the distance from Delcross to this place was unimaginably far away. There is no way that it would be possible to find the soul of Seongjin, who had flown on its own, by searching here and there blindly.
He stared blankly at Seongjin for a moment, then put on a sullen expression and kept his mouth shut.
What is it that you don’t want to say?
It was then. The fact that the demon king, who was hiding in Seongjin’s arms, conveyed the feeling of terrible fear as if his breath stopped.
They’re looking here.
[What the hell……]
In an instant, the Holy Emperor’s robe wrapped in light covered Seongjin’s head.
Looking at him with a puzzled expression, not knowing why, the Holy Emperor turned his head and stared somewhere far away with cool eyes.
Is it too much for Seongjin to feel that his face looks rather pale, even though he is a soul?
[You’ve been here too long. It drew unnecessary attention.]
As soon as he finished speaking, Seongjin felt it too. A deep gaze that scans them somewhere.
It rides leisurely as if a bug is crawling on the skin, and each touch is as sharp as being stabbed with a sword. The weight of that awfully pure malice made him choke.
Is this the gaze of those high-ranking demon kings and alien monarchs? It was said that the soul would be flattened with just the gaze, but the gaze of monarchs of different ranks was so heavy.
Even though he was surrounded and protected by the light of the Holy Emperor, the touch was so vivid that he was horrified, and Seongjin was gnashing his teeth to control his trembling soul without realizing it.
[It’s still one guy, but more guys will come soon. We can’t delay any longer.]
In the words of the Holy Emperor, he felt a rare feeling of nervousness.
Seongjin realized. This person, he knew that this world was targeted.
[Go now. Don’t worry too much about Marthain.]
The Holy Emperor raises the corner of his mouth, and puts his thumb and middle finger on Seongjin’s forehead as if he were about to flick it. Seongjin instinctively prepared for the shock and grabbed the demon king tightly in his arms.
[Go back. [Morres].]
Snap.
* * *
Something like water droplets dripped down his cheeks. Huh? What is this?
Besides, why does his body keep shaking like this? Shake shake.
Kuek. It hurts! It hurts so much. Stop. Sto……
“… Keugh!”
When something like a small scream leaked from Seongjin’s throat, the shaking of his body stopped for a moment.
“Your, Your Highness!”
“Your Highness!”
Cough cough. Seongjin bent over and coughed several times.
What? His heart really hurts like crazy. He thinks it hurt less than this when he was kicked by a monster in the past and his entire ribcage collapsed.
He heard someone whispering cautiously next to him.
“Sir Marthain, isn’t his ribs broken again?”
Uh, Sir Kurt? What’s that? Again? Againn?
He thinks he just heard something he can never overlook?
Seongjin, who had wrapped his chest and rolled over to ease the pain for a while, finally lifted his head and looked around. The pain was so great that even tears welled up in his eyes, blurring his vision.
The place where he lay was just outside the stone chamber where he caught the caterpillar of Bantra Moss. Inside the entrance, you can see a black mass and tentacle roots that have lost their strength and have dried up and twisted.
And there were quite a number of people surrounding Seongjin who was lying down.
Sir Marthain, Sir Kurt, and one paladin he’s never seen before.
And in the back, a group of people in shining silver armor……
Among them, the paladin standing right next to Seongjin lowered his stance and raised his hand over his chest. He was a tall man wearing short armor and wearing glasses, and although his sharp eyes made him feel sorry for him at first, he seemed to have a very bad temper.
Soon, a white light seemed to wrap around his hand, and the chest pain subsided in an instant.
“How many times has this been, Marthain? You guys don’t have a proper line. If you had done CPR twice, his ribcage would be completely crushed.”
Okay. This is all because of Sir Marthain.
Wanting to say something, Seongjin looked up at him and was at a loss for words.
Marthain had a face that had gone out of his soul. He rolled up his sleeves to press on his ribcage and held his hands together, staring blankly at Seongjin.
He had been performing CPR for so long that he was sweating and breathing heavily, as if he had just sprinted through the gymnasium.
Above all, his face is a mess of tears or sweat. What the hell is that like for a grown adult?
Uh… If it’s like this, what am I supposed to say?
I’m the one who had my rib broken, so why do I feel like I should apologize?
“Ahem, ahem……”
All eyes were drawn to the sudden sound of clearing coughs from behind.
Among the knights in silver armor lined up behind them, a man who seemed to be the leader took a step forward and opened his mouth to Seongjin’s group.
“Now that the prince has woken up safely, would it be all right if we, the Knights of Saint Marcias1, take it over from here?”
He was an elderly knight in splendid silver armor. His oddly angular forehead, sunken eyes, and thin mouth that looks a bit cunning catch his eyes.
Above all, his eyes. Those cold eyes that glanced down at Seongjin were too full of malice to say that they were directed at the prince of the Holy Imperial Family.
“The prince is the main suspect in this case. Therefore, he, like the other suspects, must go through a fair interrogation process……”
Is that something to say to the prince who died and came back to life?
As if Seongjin wasn’t the only one who had such thoughts, Marthain’s face, which had been expressionless until then, slowly began to look ugly.
“How dare you say this his face!”
Marthain growled at him with a grimly contorted face. Not only the old knight, but even Seongjin flinched at the eerie killing intent that spread in an instant.
Some of the knights lined up unwittingly reacted and pulled out their swords. Schwing, Schwing.
Schwing.
Sir Marthain and Sir Kurt also pull out their swords while blocking Seongjin’s way. In an instant, the air around them froze tight.
An volatile situation.
Fortunately, someone quickly intervened between Marthain and the old knight. It was the paladin who seemed to have a bad personality from earlier.
“Sir Durand.”
He raised his hand slightly toward Marthain, immediately lifted his glasses once, and opened his mouth to the old knight. Perhaps because he was so tall, he looked down at the old knight, but because of his impression, he somehow seemed to look down on his opponent.
“As you know, all religious and legal issues that arise with Prince Morres are entrusted to the leader of the Knights of Saint Aurelion in the absence of His Majesty the Holy Emperor. This also includes the Heresy Court’s right to investigate and prosecute.”
The old knight called Durand replied with a dissatisfied face.
“Regardless of the legality of the exception, Sir Katrina is currently absent. Isn’t she assisting with His Majesty’s closed prayer?”
“And in Sir Katrina’s absence, the authority is to pass to her lieutenant, Francis Argen.”
“… What?”
The old knight’s face crumpled terribly.
“Therefore, unfortunately, the demand to hand over the prince’s recruits cannot be established in the first place. It is purely my prerogative to decide now whether or not to see him as a suspect.”
Durand shouted in a fit of fuss.
“Sir Francis! You are not an Inquisitor, but a mere lieutenant, recklessly trying to infringe on the Heresy Court’s inherent authority?”
“What……”
The young paladin laughed and spit out a magical sentence that could overcome any situation.
“This is His Majesty the Holy Emperor’s command……”
“Such a cheeky bastard!”
The old knight’s eyes were burning with anger. His hand went to his waist as if he were going to draw a sword at any moment, and Francis calmly searched his chest and handed out a letter.
“He said that it could come to this and told me to deliver it to Sir Durand directly.”
Durand hesitates and accepts the letter. It was an enforcement official issued through the formal certification process of the administration. And in the official document, there was only one sentence written in a beautiful handwriting.
-Don’t be too mean and wait for me.
Durand’s hands trembled, but he couldn’t carelessly throw away the letter. It was because on one side of the letter, there was even a large jade seal stamped on it.
“This… This is impossible! I will tell this to Cardinal Benitus right now!”
“Don’t worry about that.”
Francis said plaintively, pulling up his glasses. From Seongjin’s point of view, he seemed to be on his side, but he was a talented person who looked very hateful even from his side.
“Without a single misspelling, an official document with the same contents should have already reached Cardinal Benitus by now.”
“Kuaaaghh!”
Seongjin, who turned his eyes away from the old knight who let out a roar of anger into the air, relaxed his body and closed his eyes.
Oh, who cares. Settle it yourself.
First of all, too many things happened today.
‘Hey, are you all right?’
[… Yeah.]
When he asked a question, a small response came back.
While flying back to Morres’ body, he was worried that he might have dropped him, but fortunately, the demon king’s soul seemed to have returned safely with him. Seongjin smiled a little relieved at the presence of a familiar soul that felt like before.
Rest a little for now.
When he wakes up later, he will ask him what his name is.
* * *
At the same time, in a slash-and-burn village in the corner of a mountain range on the west side of the continent.
The Holy Emperor, Nate, wakes up and was disappointed to find himself surrounded by a group of savage bandits.
‘They really left me behind……’
“Runing away, you bastard? Come on, fess up! Who the hell is behind this! Are you Asein’s spy after all?”
“Is there a snitch here? If you don’t fess it up, things won’t look good for you, you bastard!”
A bandit grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up, tapping his sharp dagger on his cheek, threatening him.
Nate let out a quiet sigh.
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T/N:
This chapter is one of my favorites since we get to see Nate’s expressive inner soul lol. Poor Marthain though, probably had years shaved off his life after seeing Morres ‘die’. Thinking about him doing CPR for so long to the point where he cracked Morres’ ribs twice…
Anyway, for the Nate enjoyers, the next arc is for you!
1Changing it back from ‘Holy Knights of X’ to ‘Knights of Saint X’ because I belatedly realized that’s a more accurate translation. Sorry for the confusion.
