Chapter 102
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 102
Chapter Title: Knights
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Knights.
Selected as escorts for Princess Lillian at Philia's request, but the way they were pointing their swords at us meant these guys were demon worshippers too—part of that same group.
The knights flinched under my seemingly indifferent sidelong glance.
They alternated looks between me and Philia, who lay collapsed on the floor, retching up blood mixed with chunks of flesh, before gnashing their teeth.
“Adjutant! Grant us your grace!”
‘Grace?’
I didn’t know the details, but it was clearly directed at the adjutant hovering awkwardly behind them, so I reached out toward him.
“Hmm.”
I grabbed the adjutant’s head with my left hand and stroked my lower jaw.
“I said I’d tear you apart, but I hadn’t planned on letting you die this easily. Lucky you.”
Ignoring the shrill scream from behind, I glared at the knights.
They’d lacked the ability to join the fight until now and had just been watching, so with Philia defeated, there was nothing more to see.
I’d even been thinking of letting it slide if they dropped their swords, but suddenly their veins bulged red and black, and their skin turned a dark crimson.
“I thought I took care of the adjutant before he could pull any tricks, but was I a little late?”
Or maybe he’d already set things up, and this was just the signal to activate it.
If so, even I wouldn’t have noticed.
In the end, their skeletons twisted and swelled.
The darkening wasn’t just from demonic corruption—their skin was necrotizing.
This hadn’t happened in the original story, so I watched their transformation with interest.
I could step in right away without issue, but that word “grace” nagged at me.
The armor they’d worn so perfectly fitted crumpled grotesquely, unable to withstand their bloating bodies, and shattered.
“Ugh, uwaaaaa.”
“Uuuuugh.”
‘Demonic humans?’
No, not quite. This was a step below that….
“Demon spawn, huh.”
The monsters Bielle had unleashed alongside the blood moon in the tunnels.
Hideous, mindless things demons had created to prepare for war, like Gigantes.
But compared to those, these were hardly refined.
It was more like they’d been forcibly crammed into something ill-suited, warping them into monstrosities.
A shame to waste the power dwelling inside them.
“Even calling them experiments is too generous.”
Regardless of what they were experimenting on.
“Isn’t it? Far too generous.”
I turned toward the man approaching with steady footsteps.
A skeletal frame, skin and bones.
A robe pulled low over his face.
A frail aura, as if he’d drop dead any second, yet laced with subtle menace.
The man’s eyes flashed red.
I immediately raised my hand to cover Princess Lillian’s eyes.
That didn’t feel good.
Our eyes met, and some insidious energy crept up, making me click my tongue.
“You’re pulling all sorts of tricks. If you want to talk, talk. If you want to attack, attack.”
“…I figured it wouldn’t work, but you’re really completely unaffected?”
An inverted pentagram etched into his pupil.
For a mark proving demon worship, it was in a pretty pointless spot.
Satan’s sigil in the eye, emaciated build, crimson irises, deathly gaze.
I remembered it.
His eye.
That’s what they’d surely call it among themselves.
“From the Demon Church?”
The gaunt man offered only a faint smile in response.
Neither denial nor affirmation—just a evasive gesture that made me snort.
“What a pointless waste.”
“A pointless waste… I can’t quite accept you dismissing a comrade’s devotion, but coming from you, it does seem utterly futile.”
And well it might, since what he’d planted in those knights was demonic defilement.
Not just once or twice, but deeply and meticulously infused into their marrow.
Otherwise, their bodies wouldn’t collapse and transform so rapidly.
“You were set on burying the entire palace, huh.”
Nearly fifty demon spawn.
Unpolished compared to the ones from the tunnels, but the power packed inside was leagues superior.
Yes, like fifty mini-Gigantes clustered together.
Some loss from the crude cramming, sure, but war machines that could withstand even grand magic a few times.
Damn them for following the golden rule so well: to face a master, treat it like facing a nation.
The man sneered darkly.
“It’s just buying time.”
“You!”
Philia, vomiting blood below, glared at the man with fierce hatred.
“We were supposed to become demonic humans, not this!”
Sure enough, no matter how you looked at it, this was far from demonic humans.
Demonic humans at least had a chance of regaining intelligence later, but demon spawn were just puppets obeying demonic commands.
“So you called it devotion while deceiving them.”
When put on the spot, he brushed it off with a laugh.
“It’s trivial to you, I’m sure. More importantly….”
The man’s eyes fixed on Princess Lillian.
“That’s the sacrifice for His liberation. Time to hand her over.”
“If you can take her from me.”
“We will.”
At the man’s signal, the mindless spawn bared their hostility.
The grotesquely swollen monstrosities lined up, flashing teeth and clenching fists.
“We’ll take her back.”
In an instant, pristine white feathers surged up from beneath my feet.
* * *
Back inside the ballroom.
Charlotte stared blankly at the sword the emperor held out.
She was stalling with silence when Aiden slipped in at just the right moment, but to her, this spot was still no different from a stone seat of ruin. She knew they’d pressure her into accepting the commendation.
That’s why Aiden had hurried to the ballroom.
But Charlotte couldn’t simply welcome the situation.
‘What? Throw the sword?’
He’d said that if he entered the ballroom disguised as Aiden, some group would attack Princess Lillian.
She hadn’t quite believed it at first but had eventually accepted it.
He’d mentioned needing to greet the princess disguised as someone else to lower their guard, and that there might be fighting.
Judging by his disheveled state, he’d clearly handled it well, but….
Charlotte gathered her scattered thoughts.
‘I’m going crazy.’
She really felt like she might lose it.
Charlotte glanced between the emperor and me.
She hesitated for a moment, but her judgment was swift, and she acted immediately.
“I’m sorry! Your Majesty, that’s… I-I’ll have this guy explain later!”
Before the emperor could react, I snatched the sword flying through the air.
Ching.
The cold, chilling grip of metal wrapped around my hand.
I barely glanced at the engraved patterns on the surface before tossing the scabbard to the floor.
Ignoring the dull clatter as it rolled, I took a deep breath and stepped forward.
The pristine blade, now bared to the world from its sheath.
It reflected the chandelier’s brilliant light in iridescent hues, yet the sword’s inherent sharpness hadn’t dulled in the slightest.
A rapier embodying refined elegance.
Even the hilt was simply designed, without excess metal.
A light weapon led to swift speed.
A sound judgment.
I steadied my breath and slowly awakened my senses.
Synchronizing the rapier with my mana.
This was the ceremonial sword Aiden would receive upon his official commendation—the rapier he’d never even held once in the original story.
A weapon crafted by the empire solely for Aiden.
Pushing aside the blessings seeping into my body, I infused it with aura.
I’d already fought a brutal battle on the way here, so time wasn’t on my side.
The two red eyeballs tucked in my inner pocket twitched as if alive.
‘I’ll end it in one strike.’
Even my mouth, unruptured during the tunnels, had burst open.
It hadn’t shown outwardly, but letting that man’s strike through while guarding Princess Lillian had been a mistake.
My condition wasn’t great.
But the bastard must have burned power maintaining that barrier too.
My eyes darted around urgently.
So, which one here was the demon?
Eyes filled with haughty emotions fixed on me.
Fear, shock, confusion, bewilderment, surprise.
Countless gazes, too many to tally, each taking in the scene from their own perspective.
“There you are.”
The one uniquely radiating hostility.
A man in a checkered vest over a white shirt, neatly combed black hair, and yellow vertical slit pupils.
He’d used a half-mask to make those yellow eyes and slits look like part of it, but the essence didn’t change.
A cursed black cat moving silently like a ghost, fixating on people.
He was skilled at concealing his presence, but his innate power was so faint it was easy to overlook anyway.
‘And he’d honed barrier magic to the extreme, making him even harder to detect.’
If his power had been greater, I might’ve noticed somehow, but his presence was so dim that I’d glossed over it.
Like a massive land beast ignoring a mere ant, even a master easily dismissed non-threats.
“But not me.”
“You bastard, how…!”
My eyes met the demon’s.
The rapier in my hand trembled faintly, as if responding to my emotions.
“Princess Lillian.”
“Y-Yes?!”
“Consider this my celebration for your freedom.”
Without turning, I unleashed strands of aura.
But unlike before, they weren’t feathers—instead, like petals caught in a warm breeze.
Saruruk.
“Oh my.”
The noblewomen gasped at the sudden intrusion, then covered their mouths at the sight unfolding before them.
Soft, pale white petals spread out gently.
Not invading or disrupting, but embracing and blending harmoniously, scattering molded grains.
Too supple for feathers, they bent and fluttered, flaunting their flexibility.
Aiden’s aura embodied purity, innocence, and pristineness.
If there was any shared context….
Lillian—derived from lily, the flower.
I didn’t know what meaning the emperor had attached to purity and innocence in naming his princess, but if it fit, I could borrow it.
‘This works too.’
Lilies bloomed.
Innocent and vibrant, retaining their innate white.
They obscured the view and swept low across the ballroom floor.
“Waaah….”
As they drew everyone’s eyes and entranced them, I swiftly locked onto the target: the demon.
‘People panicking would be a hassle.’
So I mesmerized them.
While they stood rooted, admiring the beauty, I raced forward at blinding speed to confront the demon.
A celebration of the princess’s freedom.
A modest expression that the tunnel incident and palace affairs were now settled.
But since this mouth always spat ill-tempered barbs, showing it through action was better.
The demon realized things had gone wrong and hurriedly swelled his demonic energy.
I ignored Oshua coldly chanting a spell with chilling eyes.
‘Too late to notice, huh.’
When I’d arrived, Oshua had already half-sensed the demon’s presence.
Just lacked certainty.
I steadied my breath.
In this situation, I was faster.
In that instant, after diverting attention with the flashy diversion.
Arm extended but still, propelling forward with only legs and core muscles—not a thrust, but a driving push to a single point.
Speed evoking a beam of light.
While all eyes were elsewhere, in that fleeting moment.
I pierced the demon’s head.
Aura remnants followed in a torrent.
“You… bastard.”
“Thanks to you, I had a rough time. Die already, you worthless scum.”
Who’d have thought they’d send an “Eye” too.
‘That man.’
The apostles of the Demon Church: eye, mouth, ear, arm, leg, torso, and finally the horn symbolizing authority.
One of them had come in person.
If the defilement planted in the knights turned them into demon spawn, the defilement rooted in an apostle created a full demonic human.
The first real challenge since possessing Aiden.
“You screwed me over, so count it a huge win and just croak. I’m sick of looking at you.”
The demon twisted amid the aura shroud before going limp.
The petal barrier vanished, revealing me with the rapier and the fallen demon to their eyes.
A silent commotion spread.
The awe from the beauty was gone, amplifying the chaos.
“Hey, rice-flavor. What the hell was that?”
Oshua glared at me sullenly.
Demanding an explanation about the demon, so I slowly gathered my words.
‘So….’
Starting with the princess’s closest aides, then how demon worshippers were involved….
“Shut it, preservative. Still acting like a young miss without a thought for your age. Aren’t you embarrassed for yourself?”
Oshua’s face stiffened.
For a split second, I wondered why, then replayed my words.
Ah… damn it.
‘This damn mouth always causing trouble….’