Chapter 75
Chapter 75
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: EP.20 – After He Fell Asleep (2)
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Late into the night, the lights in the royal capital never went out.
Soldiers swarmed the streets without pause, searching every corner, and even renowned knight orders joined the hunt without hesitation.
It was an exceedingly rare occurrence, but in a way, it was only natural.
A monster terrorist attack had struck the Royal Academy.
The incident had unfolded just today, and the nobles who had sent their children to the academy were seething with rage they could barely contain.
Moreover, this was a matter of pride.
How dare they invade the academy—nay, the royal capital itself, where the great nobles gathered?
It was an insult to the royal family's honor and to Pendragon as a whole—a direct provocation to all those who bore the blue bloodline under the Pendragon banner.
If word of this spread to neighboring kingdoms, the kingdom's reputation would plummet into the dirt. They had to uncover the culprits before that happened, no matter what.
"Search every inch—every last bit!"
"Round up anyone suspicious! Pay special attention to the mages!"
"Anyone who resists can be killed on the spot, no questions asked!"
Harsh orders rang out, and the troops tore through the most suspicious spots like madmen.
The lawless slums of the royal capital, in particular.
A den of countless criminals, a hornet's nest that was more trouble than it was worth under normal circumstances. But now, even that hornet's nest was being raided without mercy.
"R-Run for it!"
"I-I've done nothing wrong! I swear it!"
"Clear away that corpse you're hiding behind before you lie, you worthless rat!"
"Kwaaaagh!!"
A sudden purge of criminals was underway.
It felt like a somewhat positive butterfly effect.
The royal capital would likely stay in an uproar for a while, and criminals would have no choice but to keep their heads down.
-However, despite this indiscriminate search and the mobilization of division-scale forces...
"W-We found them! The sacrifices used for the summoning!"
"...Insane bastards. What the hell kind of monsters are they?"
"The trail's gone cold. How is this even possible...?"
...catching the [perpetrators] proved to be a pipe dream.
What they found instead were traces of summoning magic.
The medium.
A massive quantity of sacrifices used to summon hordes of ghouls and ancient monsters had been discovered.
But the culprits had left no traces whatsoever—not even a shred of evidence.
Why?
Simple.
"...They killed them all."
The building contained only tens of thousands of human bones, with not a single piece of evidence to be found.
The only certainty was that these vast numbers of bones were 'living sacrifices' offered up by the terrorists.
And sure enough.
"This is madness. These skeletons—they were all alive just yesterday."
"What?"
"The summoning was fueled by the pain, desires, rage, and life force of the living. This place was likely a 'human sacrifice factory' designed to generate countless grudges. To summon something like a Ghost King, they'd have needed at least three years to cultivate that much resentment here. ...I don't know who they are, but they're truly horrific."
"......"
An awkward silence fell.
As the court mage explained, this was no ordinary affair.
It meant that right in the heart of the royal capital, they'd crammed tens of thousands of people into a single building and steadily gathered energy for the summoning over three whole years.
"A lot of heads will roll for this..."
There would have been massive food supplies to sustain tens of thousands for three years, plus the manpower moved to keep their existence hidden.
And yet, no one had known?
This was outright mockery of the royal capital—a glaring display of its incompetence.
The soldiers who patrolled this district probably wouldn't get off with just dismissal. They'd be dragged to the torture chambers and straight to the guillotine.
Someone had to take responsibility for this.
Pondering how far up the chain that responsibility went sent chills down his spine, but on the other hand, it was horrifying enough to make his teeth chatter.
How utterly deranged did you have to be to pull something like this off?
This wasn't just terrorists—it could be an organization steeped in colossal madness.
Gulp...
The knight couldn't hide his fear of the bloody storm that might sweep the capital next.
"-Incompetent fools. They still have no idea."
Meanwhile, a certain high priest who had been leisurely watching it all unfold couldn't conceal his contempt.
How could they be so pathetic?
"We've shouldered their sins for them, and they don't even know that? How utterly foolish—foolish indeed."
"...Wouldn't it be more surprising if they did figure it out, Chief?"
Another priest chided his superior as if the remark was absurd.
"Especially when all that's left is bones. How could anyone tell they were criminals who deserved death? I'd love to have that kind of skill myself, haha."
"You frivolous fool! With true faith, you could discern that much!"
"Doubt it..."
The two priests carried on their casual conversation, perched on the building's rooftop, observing the people below.
As if, no matter how many troops were out there, they were utterly untouchable.
"Well, they'll find out soon enough anyway. When they notice the mass disappearance of prisoners from the jails. ...If they don't even catch that, maybe we've overestimated the kingdom."
"They're not that incompetent. If they were, it would've collapsed long ago."
"Hm, really?"
The subordinate priest seemed unconvinced at first glance.
His face was full of doubt.
The high priest, who would normally have barked at him, merely glanced at his subordinate's face and fell silent.
After a moment of quiet.
"Chief. In the end, we failed today."
"Mm."
"We'll probably face some serious reprimand."
"Likely."
"But if we keep advancing step by step like this, we'll eventually reach 'salvation,' right?"
"Of course."
"Good. Then that's all that matters, heh heh!"
The subordinate knew his chief was a man who never spoke empty words.
So his promises would surely come true.
Thus.
"That's fine, then. I'll trust only you, Chief."
The priest conveyed his resolve with a refreshing smile, and in the next instant.
Crackle-!
Space warped.
The 'miracle' laid by the subordinate priest had been shattered from the outside.
And intruders who had broken through the miracle now surrounded them.
Thud thud thud!
Dozens of shadows appeared, employing stealthy movement techniques.
Whoosh!
The aura they exuded created heat hazes, and the overlapping hazes formed iron bars.
Materialized aura.
Proof that every one of the fifty-plus individuals was a champion of their domain.
Even in a major noble's knight order, they could serve as captains or vice-captains—and there were fifty of them here. Enough to wipe out a frontier barony in half a day.
Who in the kingdom could cultivate such a force?
Yet the kingdom had two factions capable of producing elites on this scale.
And the leader of one such faction had now revealed himself.
"─For 19 years, I've hunted you down."
The figure who emerged was a handsome young man.
Young.
But only in appearance—his true age surpassed sixty long ago. A swordsman who inherited noble draconic blood, his youth and vigor undimmed by time, never once setting aside his blade in sixty years of life.
At the same time, he was one who rejected the dragon's lineage and inherited the guardian of the sacred lake.
"─Duke Blake."
The high priest murmured his name softly.
Blake Vivian de Galahad.
Head of the Galahad family, the most exceptional 'successor' among all past Dukes of Galahad.
The leader responsible for one pillar of the kingdom's three great powers had personally appeared here.
"You didn't show your face when your adopted daughter was in danger, but now you slink out."
"He couldn't have been anything but incompetent. No wonder he lost his woman so pathetically."
Yet the two priests merely sneered at the duke's arrival.
Nay, they mocked him openly.
In a situation where death could come at any moment, their utter lack of fear was suspicious.
Hummm!
The shadows' auras sharpened further.
Daring to insult their master—and worse, the late madam—stoked the loyal shadows' fury to a boil.
But in response.
"Yes, I suppose I am incompetent."
The duke showed no emotional shift.
If anything, he was excessively cold.
"I'm the fool who couldn't protect his own woman, the merciless father forced by fate to suspect and test even his daughter. A mere 'vengeful ghost' obsessed with revenge, teetering on the edge of madness...!"
Crunch!
...His expression was icy, but the aura he emitted was anything but.
It was a terrifying killing intent that could incinerate everything around him, scorching and melting even the building itself.
"I'll uncover the truth, even if it costs me everything."
Crack, crunch!
"......"
"...Kkh."
As if their earlier provocations had been a lie, they fell silent.
Nay, they couldn't speak.
The duke's infernal pressure crushed them, tearing flesh and shattering bones.
A sight achieved through aura alone. Only then did the two priests truly grasp it.
Their opponent was...
"...They say he's the greatest successor to the demonic sword in history. Not a lie, it seems."
The strongest Galahad ever.
Hummm!
The haze around the duke surpassed the combined aura of the fifty-plus elites—and it continued to surge.
And at some point, a sword was in the duke's hand.
A plain longsword, unadorned save for the blue glow it emitted.
Yet this blade was precisely.
"I have many questions for you."
The sword said to grant the power to destroy nations.
The sword of the lake emitted a ferocious demonic energy.