Chapter 271
I Became the Successor of the Martial God
Chapter 271.
It was burning.
The knight order that Britain had been so proud of.
The castle of the knight order, which they had guarded with pride for so long.
"Kill them all!"
"Leo is not worthy of protecting Britain! Only Alastair can lead the knight order in the right direction!"
It was being burned by traitors.
The castle, which had stood firm through countless battles against monsters, could not withstand the betrayal from within.
"These traitors… Agh!"
"Ugh!"
The knights who fought against the traitors could not hold out for long.
It was the dead of night, and it was impossible to tell friend from foe.
With enemies attacking from both inside and out, they couldn’t mount a proper defense.
"Breach the inner sanctum!"
"Leo is in there!"
The traitors mercilessly slaughtered their former comrades.
Their destination was the inner sanctum—where Leo, the Commander of the knight order, was.
"Fools, after all."
Leo stood before the throne with only a handful of trusted knights.
Surrounded by traitors, a man emerged from among them.
"Even the great commander of the knight order couldn’t have foreseen this, could he?"
"Alastair…"
A man with dazzling silver hair and clad in pitch-black armor strode forward.
It was Alastair, leading the traitors.
"Was this your doing?"
"Who else could it be? It was because I knew you better than anyone that I could plan and succeed in this rebellion."
"How arrogant."
"Just stating the facts."
Leo frowned.
In contrast, Alastair wore a relaxed smile.
"Why? Did you covet the position of knight order commander so much? Enough to burn the entire order to the ground?"
"No."
"Then why?"
"I could not tolerate you being the commander of the knight order."
Leo and Alastair had been peers in the knight order, trained together, and honed their skills as rivals.
Both were prodigies.
It wouldn’t have been strange for either to become the commander, but after fierce debate… Leo had ascended to the position.
"I wasn’t even given a chance. I simply had to accept the decision made unilaterally by the old fools of the order."
"Do not disrespect the elders."
"Ha! Elders?"
Alastair walked toward Leo, flanked by his subordinates.
Proudly, in a straight line.
"Then prove it. Prove that those old men made the right choice…!"
Leo drew his sword. Alastair kicked off the ground and charged at him.
Their figures crossed in an instant.
"……"
"……"
The two knights stood back-to-back.
Alastair was expressionless, while Leo wore a serene look.
But only for a moment.
"Ugh!"
Leo coughed up blood and collapsed.
In that fleeting moment, Alastair’s sword had cleaved through his waist.
His body quickly grew cold.
"To think such a weakling was made commander of the knight order. Just because he was the son of the former commander…"
Alastair sneered at the dying Leo and stomped on his body.
Blood splattered.
"From now on, the Hollow Knights will judge everything by strength."
The knights gathered around Alastair.
"And I will make it so."
Cheers erupted.
That day, Britain’s Hollow Knights welcomed a new Commander.
And a few hours later…
Someone approached Alastair, who sat alone on the throne, lost in thought.
A woman clad in a black robe.
"We kept our promise, knight."
"……"
Alastair looked at her with displeasure.
But only for a moment.
"Hmph, take it."
He threw her a banner.
The knight’s banner, which only the Commander of the Hollow Knights could possess.
A treasure passed down through the ages.
"Disgusting creatures. I hope I never have to see you again."
"That will likely be the case."
The woman smiled meaningfully and stepped back, her figure swallowed by the thick darkness.
Silence returned.
Alastair clicked his tongue loudly.
* * *
—Master, the plan is complete.
Someone had been watching everything unfold from high above.
In the darkness where nothing existed.
A shadowy figure received a report from a subordinate.
"How was it?"
—Alastair was foolishly arrogant, a man blinded by ambition beyond his station. Inciting rebellion was… far too easy.
The woman sneered as she recalled the scene she had just witnessed.
—The Hollow Knights will not last long. That man has no talent for leading a group.
"Then leave them be. Until they collapse on their own…"
—Yes, Master. I will soon transmit the sealed artifact obtained from Alastair.
The shadowy figure nodded, and the report ended.
He flicked his fingers.
At once, countless screens emerged from the thick darkness.
"……"
Screens displaying scenes from around the world.
The figures of Black Shadow operatives working in secret within renowned families and guilds came into view.
A satisfied smile briefly touched his lips. But it was fleeting.
"...A failure, then."
A black screen showing nothing caught the Master’s eye.
A screen displaying the Swamp lands.
Until recently, it had shown Fellia, but now there was nothing.
"Once again… by that man’s hand."
The Master looked at the screens displaying the Sword Saint family and the Magic Tower from afar.
Consecutive failures.
And the one responsible for them was—
"The Sword Saint family’s Head."
Magic condensed in the air, forming the shape of a man.
The Master stared at it.
"Yoo Baek-jun."
The Sword Saint family, the Magic Tower, the swamp lands.
Yoo Baek-jun had been in all those places, obstructing Black Shadow plans.
The Master let out a long breath.
"However, in the end…"
A massive hand clenched the floating image of Yoo Baek-jun.
Crunch!
The figure dissipated into magic and vanished without a trace.
"Merely an insignificant insect."
The Master laughed in the darkness.
* * *
With the help of many, the habitats of the lizardmen and Naga were being prepared.
The elves, with the aid of spirits and fairies, created a lake suitable for the two races to live in.
"I feel like this is turning into a theme park… or is it just me?"
The forest where the elves lived.
The underground mines where the dwarves worked.
The lizardmen building huts near the lake.
And finally, the Naga established their home deep within the lake.
"It really is a theme park, isn’t it?"
If they charged outsiders to observe the ecosystems of these different races, it would probably sell well.
Bzzzt!
As he sat absentmindedly watching the demi-humans, his waist buzzed.
His phone? No.
"Hmm?"
It was the White Sword.
The dazzlingly white sword vibrated as if demanding his attention.
—Bzzzt!
—Yawn?
Seol-yeong, who had been sleeping on Yoo Baek-jun’s lap, woke up to the vibration.
The little one looked at the White Sword.
—Bzzz.
—Awoo?
—Bzzzt!
—Awooo?
"What are you two doing?"
The White Sword kept vibrating, and Seol-yeong tilted its head each time it saw it.
It was an amusing sight.
Yoo Baek-jun moved the White Sword far away before Seol-yeong could touch it.
If it did, it’d get shocked.
—Bwooo.
The White Sword vibrated once more, then floated into the air.
And emitted a brilliant light.
"This is…"
The White Sword gradually acknowledged its owner as they accomplished great feats.
Put simply, as the story progressed, the sword’s functions unlocked one by one.
"……"
The glowing White Sword returned to Yoo Baek-jun’s grasp.
He checked its item information.
[White Sword (S+)]
A sword once wielded by the Sword Saint.
It holds immense power but has not fully acknowledged you.
—Option: Awakening
—Skill: Divine Sword Union (False)
Two functions had been unlocked.
One was the Awakening option, and the other was the Divine Sword Union skill.
But the latter had an odd addition:
‘False.’
Meaning the skill wasn’t yet complete.
*Awakening: When wielded by someone with the appropriate bloodline, increases all of the user’s stats.
*Divine Sword Union (False): Unleashes a single sword strike that cuts through anything.
The actual Divine Sword Union was slightly different from the skill Yoo Baek-jun knew.
It fell short in performance, so to speak.
‘But this is enough for now.’
A sword strike that cuts through anything.
An attack that completely ignores the opponent’s defenses.
That would be useful in many ways.
—Bzzzt.
—Grrr…
Yoo Baek-jun reattached the vibrating sword to his waist.
It was a fine sword, but…
‘Having a will of its own is annoying.’
And it was an especially prickly one at that.
‘At this rate… Hmm, will it fully awaken before I hunt the evil dragon?’
It’s cutting it close.
Yoo Baek-jun decided he needed to pay more attention to the White Sword as he stood up.
Suddenly, Min Yi-jae appeared before him like a ghost.
"What is it?"
"...I’ve gathered intel on the situation in Britain."
Min Yi-jae sat beside him as if nothing had happened.
The situation in Britain.
Yoo Baek-jun had tasked Min Yi-jae and the intelligence division with investigating it.
"A rebellion broke out in the Hollow Knights. The Knight Commander was killed, and the vice-commander became the new Knight Commander."
"And?"
"Just as you suspected, Black Shadow was involved."
As expected.
Both the rebellion in the Hollow Knights and Black Shadow’s involvement.
He had seen it before.
"We’ll need to investigate further, but… it seems they contacted vice-commander Alastair and planted ideas in his head."
"To incite a rebellion."
"Right. They provided everything he needed—people, items, whatever it took…"
Alastair, the vice-commander of the Hollow Knights, had long harbored an inferiority complex toward Leo, the Commander.
Black Shadow exploited that.
‘That’s how they operate.’
It was Black Shadow’s preferred method.
Exploiting the weaknesses of long-standing families, guilds, or organizations to collapse them from within.
‘Like Yoo Tae-rang of the Sword Saint family and Harun of the Magic Tower.’
With the Hollow Knights, they targeted the vice-commander to dismantle the order.
Black Shadow had done this repeatedly across timelines, so it wasn’t surprising.
The only difference was—
‘Now I have a rough idea of their goal.’
Originally, he hadn’t known Black Shadow’s objective.
He’d assumed they simply wanted the world’s destruction or something along those lines.
That they were dismantling families and organizations that stood in their way.
‘But no—it’s the sealed artifacts.’
Yoo Baek-jun looked at the White Sword.
The sealed artifact held by the Hollow Knights had likely fallen into Black Shadow’s hands.
"The downside is not knowing how much time or how many opportunities we have left."
"What do you mean…?"
"Nothing, never mind."
Yoo Baek-jun stood up.
He wanted to deal with the evil dragon immediately, but he still lacked the strength.
There were events he needed to complete first.
‘The Thunder God event to strengthen the Thunder Spear, the Thanatos event…’
Yoo Baek-jun sighed.
There was no time to rest.
"Family head."
And now, there was work to be done.
An intelligence officer knelt before him.
"As you ordered, we’ve relocated Dante from the Magic Tower’s underground to Floating Island. The information uncovered by Jin Baek-cheon will also be compiled into a report."
Yoo Baek-jun nodded.
Moving Dante to the Floating Island would attract unwanted attention.
‘Black Shadow will move to either rescue or kill Dante.’
The Magic Tower’s defenses were currently weak.
Relocating him to the relatively secure Floating Island was a way to lure them out.
Yoo Baek-jun took a step forward.
"Let’s get to work."