It was around the time another stream of light flowed from Duke Reshaniel’s hand.
“Are you threatening His Majesty, Duke Reshaniel?”
“I don’t see why I couldn’t.”
As his hand moved again, this time aiming for the emperor’s throat, I whispered quietly. “You seem completely blinded right now. What exactly do you gain by threatening the emperor?”
At that, Duke Reshaniel gave a sinister smile. “At the very least, I’ll obtain a new prophecy regarding the lucky stone. And besides, the emperor possesses mana too, doesn’t he?”
Right. There had long been legends claiming that the emperors of the empire inherited immense mana and divine power generation after generation. Even if they couldn’t directly use it, supposedly their bodies themselves contained sealed mana and divine power. So he intended to gravely wound the emperor and then use the remaining power of his lucky stone to steal the emperor’s mana.
“How disgusting. You’ve truly sunk to the very bottom.” I quickly signaled to Coocoo with my eyes.
Immediately, Coocoo flapped its powerful wings and charged swiftly toward the emperor. The dragon’s wings cast a shadow near the emperor. Dark energy surged atop those wings. The darkness formed into a sword as large as a grown man and pierced Duke Reshaniel’s wrist.
“Uuurgh!”
In that moment, the distance between Duke Reshaniel and the emperor widened. A nearby knight wrapped an arm protectively around the emperor’s shoulders.
“Damn it…!” Nothing was going his way. Duke Reshaniel’s face twisted. “…Ha, just you wait.” The moment those words left his mouth, a brilliant flash of light swept across the ground at his feet. Using the little mana and luck he had left, he escaped.
“Coo. (We should’ve caught him!)” The dragon’s wings beat furiously, as if ready to chase him down and tear him apart right then and there.
“No, this is actually better.”
Right now, there still weren’t enough charges to properly crush him. And in this revenge, I wasn’t hoping for something pathetic like mere imprisonment or even a simple execution. There’s no way I’ll let him off with a swift death!
As the nobles, who had finally come to their senses, looked on, I added fuel to the fire. “Duke Reshaniel dared to threaten His Majesty and even abused mages. Those people there, aren’t they the missing mages from the Magic Tower?”
I saw tears streaming down the faces of the bound mages lying on the ground with their mouths gagged.
“O-Oh god.”
“That lunatic… He kidnapped the mages!”
Duke Reshaniel’s mask had finally been torn away, revealing his ugly true face to the world.
Standing proudly among them, I smiled brightly as though I were a public announcer. “Shall we first hear the testimonies of the mages presumed to have been kidnapped and imprisoned?”
With their testimonies, the nobles gathered here would soon spread all sorts of filthy rumors about Duke Reshaniel.
The perfect buildup has begun. He’d dared attempt to kill the emperor. That damned mosquito’s life was practically already over. But I intended to give him something far worse than death. And for that, there was still something I needed to do…
* * *
“I never thought Duke Reshaniel was that kind of person.”
“To think he’d imprison mages like that!”
The already unpleasant rumors surrounding Duke Reshaniel gained more flesh and detail through this new incident. Perhaps out of concern for the dignity of the imperial authority, the story that Duke Reshaniel had directly threatened the emperor didn’t spread publicly. Even so, rumors regarding Duke Reshaniel’s actions naturally spread throughout the entire empire. Even small pubs in the capital buzzed endlessly with gossip.
“I heard the Reshaniel family has already incurred His Majesty’s wrath and is suffering for it.”
“To think people admired someone like him…”
The conversation about Duke Reshaniel’s suspicious behavior briefly halted in shock.
Then one man grinned and brought up another topic. “Well now, there’s even more shocking news. My lord was actually there that day. You know Duchess Giselle Kalinos, don’t you?”
“Of course I do!”
“Well, apparently she’s not only Duchess of Kalinos and a doctor with divine power, Wot, but even the dragon lord! They say she thoroughly defeated Duke Reshaniel, this time too!”
Each of those titles alone was extraordinary, yet they all belonged to one person.
“Is that really true?”
“Of course! She didn’t say it herself, but the nobles of the capital, including my lord, clearly saw her commanding a dragon!”
Everyone’s eyes grew wide in astonishment.
The tavern owner, who had been listening closely to the regulars’ conversation, approached with drinks and clicked his tongue. “You’re all behind the times. News about Madam Giselle has been sweeping through the capital like a storm for ages now. They’ve even formed a fan club already. I heard their club symbol is a dragon.”
At that, a mercenary looked the tavern owner up and down, then scoffed. “…Hey, buddy. You’ve got a dragon emblem on the clothes you’re wearing right now!”
“Hmm, I’m a fan too. But isn’t it incredibly cool? Hiding her strength and revealing it at the ultimate critical moment…! That’s the very image of a true hero!”
Seeing the tavern owner’s deeply moved expression, the mercenary added, “When you think about it, she really did save countless lives. She truly is an amazing person. I almost feel guilty for having thought badly of her until now…”
The mood inside the tavern grew a little more solemn.
“This is all because that trash Duke Reshaniel was pulling dirty tricks behind the scenes anyway!”
The conversation once again shifted into criticism of Duke Reshaniel. And it continued regardless of whether or not the mysterious man in the black robe sitting at the corner of the pub quietly slipped away. It was none other than Duke Reshaniel whose eyes gleamed coldly, dark circles shadowing his gaze.
After listening to everything being said, Duke Reshaniel thought to himself. Because of Giselle, everything he had built was crumbling to pieces. Even the superiority complex he still possessed had been shattered by more than half. In a world where a perfect being like himself existed, was there any reason to let such trash continue living?
“This world must be recreated once more.” A world that existed only for himself and loved only himself.
Clutching the half-broken lucky stone in his hand, Duke Reshaniel ground his teeth. He could no longer acquire mages either. The Magic Tower now protected them all, and every one of them had turned hostile toward the Reshaniel family.
For now, he couldn’t even risk facing Giselle. If her lucky stone stole all his divine power, he would become nothing more than a useless ordinary man.
Feeling as though invisible shackles had suddenly been locked onto him, he let out a furious sigh. In that case, he needed a situation that would utterly destroy Giselle and drive her to the brink of death. Glaring at the shadow remaining beside him, he whispered. “Prepare the altar one last time.”
“Pardon?”
The method for bringing countless monsters sealed within the demon realm into this world was to offer a human soul as a sacrifice. The stronger the human placed upon the altar, the more monsters could emerge into this world.
“Now, it seems I must ascend the altar myself and sweep this world away with monsters.”
Duke Reshaniel wagered everything on this final gamble. He had no other choice.
* * *
It was several hours later, inside a frontline barracks in the northern Kalinos territory. Even as monsters continued to appear in large numbers, morale among the soldiers was surprisingly high.
“We’ll be able to finish off the monsters soon, right?”
“Of course. Did you see Duke Kalinos’s swordsmanship?”
Smiles bloomed on their faces as they snatched a quick meal inside the barracks. Just then, a low-ranking soldier who acted like the group’s jester grinned.
“Right! Maybe things will finally calm down. Then we might even get to go home!”
At that, everyone paused mid-bite and let their spoons clatter to the floor.
“Huh? Why are you all like that?”
A senior soldier, glaring at the one who’d spoken, let out a deep sigh and scolded him. “Hey, rookie. Don’t you know anything?”
“Huh?”
“When people say stuff like that, a huge monster outbreak always happens!”
And as soon as he finished speaking, the barracks door burst open and a soldier, covered head to toe in blood, shouted at the top of his lungs. “This is bad! Mo-Monster outbreak!”
…They had definitely thought everything was finally improving. But the situation was taking a strange turn.
Duke Kalinos raised his sword, eyes fixed on the vast plain where monsters were pouring out in droves.
“Your Grace, you must retreat! That many monsters are too dangerous! Massive groups are appearing simultaneously everywhere! You should head back and assess the situation first…”
“First, have all the civilians been evacuated?”
“Y-Yes!”
Duke Kalinos watched the monsters rampaging in the distance, weighing the situation. If they retreated now, it was obvious this northern plain would become uninhabitable. Any land ravaged by monsters turned into a land of calamity, where no life could ever take root again.
Mounted on his horse, he raised his sword and murmured, “How could we possibly run away?”
This was the land his older brother had given his life to protect. It was not as though he himself held the same level of attachment to the territory. Even so, it was a land where he would one day live together with his wife.
“Let’s go.”
At his quiet command from the front, the cavalry let out a roar and charged forward. “Waaaaaah—!”
Perhaps it was thanks to the soldiers charging forward with shouts as if to seize victory that the monsters’ momentum seemed to gradually weaken. However…
“There are too many of them, Your Grace!”
Everywhere except where Duke Kalinos stood, they were at a disadvantage. Several soldiers, breathing raggedly, were thrown from their horses and slammed onto the ground. Countless lower-ranked soldiers fell groaning, while iron weapons clattered to the ground one by one.
When one of his adjutants coughed up blood violently, Duke Kalinos clenched his fist. The allied losses were too severe, and he was just about to order a tactical retreat. But just then, Bang! With a flash like a small firework, someone appeared in the distance, wielding divine power.
“What do you mean by retreat?! Exterminate every last one of them!”
The monsters couldn’t even approach the pure white divine power surrounding that figure.
Duke Kalinos looked toward that figure. Even hearing her voice, just seeing her silhouette from afar was enough to know. It was Giselle.
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