104
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 104
Miles always wakes up in the morning, washes up, and opens the newspaper first.
While reading the newspaper with warm tea, he naturally organizes what needs to be done today, tomorrow, and a week later.
[Caesar Sylvatil enters infinite duels.]
[Today alone, he has duels scheduled with 20 knights...]
[His first opponent is Vincent, the Golden Knight.]
[Who is Vincent, the Golden Knight?]
Miles let out a snicker.
"So Caesar is finally breaking down."
Even someone with the title of Devil Slayer cannot defeat Miles.
With continuous duels, Caesar's body will become more damaged day by day from exhaustion and injuries, and his soul will also lose its way.
Then, when Miles appears and extends his hand, that fellow will prostrate himself like a puppy.
Miles folded the newspaper.
'Still, I should give him one last chance.'
To be honest, Caesar has something that moves a man's heart.
A man equipped with raw charisma and aggressive drive.
Miles doesn't want such a man to completely break down and become a wreck.
He just hopes that the unpredictable Caesar will respect and listen well to Miles's words.
Miles got dressed properly and headed to Caesar's house.
***
When he got off the carriage, the house door opened.
Miles walked on Caesar's lawn and entered.
Caesar was standing in front of the house.
An axe was hanging at Caesar's waist, and he was wearing comfortable clothes.
"You came?"
"Today is the duel, isn't it?"
"That's right. I should head to the dueling grounds soon. If you don't mind, how about we travel together in the carriage?"
Miles nodded readily at Caesar's suggestion.
"Let's take my carriage."
"Alright."
Caesar spoke to Gideon, Gloria, and Harrison.
"You all take Dino's. I'll have a talk with Sir Miles and come."
Caesar and Miles sat facing each other in the carriage.
When the carriage started moving, Caesar opened his mouth.
"So what's the proposal you want to make?"
Miles felt great affinity for Caesar's directness in getting straight to the point.
Caesar is very intelligent.
He must know very well that his situation is not just disadvantageous but unreasonable.
As far as Miles knows, there is no way to overcome this situation.
Yet he's still so dignified.
Miles's heart fluttered slightly at seeing his will to maintain his pride even if he dies.
Should we call it befitting of a knight?
No, it would be more accurate to call it befitting of Caesar.
His palms became sweaty with anticipation of seeing this person kneel before him.
It won't be long now.
"Submit to House Redfield."
"No, no." Caesar said with a snicker. "Why are you going out of your way to do something good for others? That's not like you. Tell me what you really want."
Miles looked into Caesar's eyes.
He felt overwhelmed by those piercing red eyes that seemed to see through everything.
"...What do you think I want?"
"Nothing? Then never mind."
Caesar snorted as if he knew everything and looked out the window.
Caesar knows what Miles wants.
Miles is not House Redfield's dog.
The relationship between House Redfield and Miles is similar to that of good business partners.
Miles fetches what House Redfield wants and in return uses House Redfield's power.
This case is the same, because Mitchell wants Caesar, they are pressuring Caesar from all sides to make him submit and bring him before Mitchell.
But Caesar was trying to draw out the desire hidden deep in Miles's heart.
"...Sir Caesar, you seem to be taking this situation too lightly. You could really die."
"Why?"
"Currently, there are over 300 people who have challenged Sir Caesar to duels. Do you think you can handle all of them? Moreover, all those knights are strong ones ranked within the top 5,000 selected by Knight Night magazine."
"So you're saying I'll lose?"
Miles frowned.
Had he misjudged?
Caesar seemed rather excited about the prospect of facing more knights.
"You will die eventually."
"Do you know what those who challenged me to duels have in common? They're all desperate for money."
"..."
"War is a money-eating hippo. Because of this demon realm war, not only the empire but nobles from all levels spent too much money. With it still unclear whether the imperial state will provide proper compensation, the flow of capital has become completely blocked. It's reached the level where they can't even maintain their knight orders, let alone avoid disbanding them."
When peace comes, defense spending is the first thing to be cut.
Right now, the nobles don't even have feudal territories, and they only exercise influence in regions, so there's no need to maintain knight orders.
In fact, it's ironic that knight orders have been maintained until now.
"But then you and the Royder Order came along waving money bags, offering to provide funds to prevent the disbandment of knight orders if they kill me."
"From the lords' perspective, it's a very mouth-watering proposal. Not only do they get an excuse to maintain their idle knights, but it's also a perfect opportunity to handle urgent debts."
Miles got goosebumps.
Caesar was right.
Although the imperial state had given rewards, the funds were still blocked and the lords and knights were in no position to maintain knight orders, so they accepted the deal through negotiations.
"But what about the knights? Would there be any honor or pride left for knights who were told by their lords that they'd be fired if they don't kill Caesar?"
"Moreover, most of these knights are honorable men who survived near-death experiences in the demon realm war. What thoughts would knights have towards lords who order them to duel just to receive their fixed salary?"
Miles caught exactly what Caesar was aiming at.
"No way......"
The carriage stopped.
They had arrived at the dueling grounds.
Caesar opened the carriage door and stepped out.
"Watch the expressions of the knights sitting in the audience carefully, not me. Then you'll realize what a big mistake you've made."
Caesar closed the carriage door.
***
Caesar stood in the Homigraph dueling grounds.
Though not as large as the grand dueling grounds in Sapientia, it was quite spacious and to his liking.
Caesar looked around the audience seats.
While there were ordinary citizens in the audience, it was also full of knights.
They were all knights who had come to duel Caesar.
It must be rare to see so many knights gathered in one place in Homigraph.
Caesar filled his lungs with the spring air that was gradually pushing away winter.
The air is still a bit cold, perhaps due to the late winter chill.
But Caesar knew.
Spring would come if he could just endure this cold.
Then, Joseph approached.
"Sir Caesar."
"Sir Joseph. Thank you for coming."
Since this was an important duel, he chose a trustworthy person as the officiator.
There had been cases where bought officiators ruined duels.
He asked Joseph, who was at least favorable to Caesar, to be the officiator.
"...I will only officiate by fair standards."
"That's more than enough."
To be honest, Joseph was in a somewhat awkward situation.
While the Dre Order and Royder Order could be seen as competitors, they were also cooperative partners.
After all, 'potions' were the only thing that could quickly heal injured holy knights from devil hunting and help them return to the battlefield.
In this situation, for Joseph to step forward and ensure that Caesar, who was practically a merit of the Royder er Order, could have a 'fair duel'?
From the Royder Order's perspective, this couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.
Joseph stood in the center of the dueling grounds.
"Are both of you ready?"
Caesar drew his axe and looked at his opponent.
Living up to his title as the Knight of Gold, his opponent's armor glinted like gold where sunlight touched it.
'This is exactly like the game.'
The Knight of Gold was a dueling knight Caesar knew about.
Like Caesar, he was originally a wandering knight, and was known for being extremely money-hungry.
To what extent? When his former lord failed to properly pay his salary, he unilaterally broke the contract, challenged him to a duel, and cut off his head.
In other words, he was an infamous money-grubbing knight.
He's a perfect first opponent.
The fellow grinned.
His four front teeth glinted golden.
"I'm ready, but it seems the other side isn't. Are things so bad you can't even afford armor?"
Caesar smirked and tore his cloth clothes.
Caesar's body, full of scars, was revealed.
"You see, Homigraph's winter isn't very cold. Seems you're sensitive to cold, wearing that trash."
The fellow's eyebrows twitched.
"Do you know what this armor is when you speak like that?"
"Do I need to know what kind of trash it is?"
"This armor was made by the blacksmith Giggs, who forged Hero Yan's sword..."
"Why is that so important? It'll just become rags from my axe anyway."
"...You won't die peacefully."
As expected, he gets easily excited when his armor is disparaged.
This is similar to the game.
If this were the game, it would probably show 'Enraged Status'.
Joseph opened his mouth.
"Caesar Sylvatil, who received the duel challenge, state your conditions for victory."
"The opponent's death."
Those in the audience swallowed their groans at Caesar's words.
Vincent snorted as if amused.
"Seems you really want to die by my hand."
"Well, we'll see about that."
The Knight of Gold lowered his helmet.
With the helmet lowered, there were no openings.
Since it was made by Giggs, the gaps between the armpits and between the helmet and armor would be perfectly sealed.
Well, considering how much that armor costs.
In the game, just selling the damaged armor after killing this guy would fetch 10 million Del.
But unfortunately, it's destined to become trash by Caesar's hand today.
The fellow took his stance, dragging his heavy greatsword on the ground.
Caesar finished his preparation by making Thunder smaller.
Joseph spoke.
"Both of you, step back twenty paces."
Caesar and Vincent stepped back twenty paces and faced each other.
After confirming everything, Joseph held up a coin.
"Then, ready."
Ting!
Joseph's coin flew up into the sky...
And fell to the ground.
Thud!
As soon as the coin dropped, Caesar charged forward and Vincent prepared to defend.
Vincent had plenty of dueling expertise from making a living through proxy duels.
'He's charging in like a mad dog.'
The armor Vincent wore had an impressive Terra content of 3%.
Moreover, the Terra was alloyed with 'For Honor', said to be the strongest alloy in the world.
Ordinary weapons couldn't even scratch it.
Unable to penetrate this sturdy armor, Caesar would eventually wither away slowly in despair.
Vincent prepared to counterattack immediately.
Crack!
Caesar threw Thunder midway.
Vincent reflexively blocked Thunder.
Clang!
Vincent's whole body tingled from the heavy impact.
'What strength...'
Just throwing the axe made his palm sting.
Simultaneously, the sharp wind flowing from Thunder slashed at Vincent's body.
The wind couldn't even scratch Vincent's armor.
However, it was enough to subtly disturb Vincent's balance.
'Damn it.'
Caesar's left axe flew in off-beat.
Counterattacking was impossible with his balance disrupted.
Instead, Vincent decided to block the axe with his shoulder plate.
But the sharp single wind wrapped around the axe carved into the shoulder plate.
"What...!"
Like gold coins falling, pieces of Vincent's armor flew high into the sky and fell glinting in the sunlight.
"Money falls when I hit you. Your armor is really interesting."
"You bastaaaaard!"
An alarm rang loudly in Vincent's mind.
Vincent swung his greatsword at Caesar.
But there was no way he would take such an obvious and slow attack.
Caesar nimbly dodged and grabbed Thunder that had bounced away earlier, striking the back of his knee.
Thud!
With a heavy impact, he fell to his knees.
Simultaneously, blue current from Thunder penetrated inside his armor.
"Aaaaarghhhh!"
Vincent felt like electric eels had filled his armor.
How?
This made no sense.
Though he had heard rumors that Caesar's axe generated electricity somehow,
That's why he gave up on lightweight magic and applied insulation magic to his armor...
"Aaaaarghh!"
He struggled to survive.
Caesar dodged the greatsword that flew reflexively and struck down with Thunder again.
"Gyaaaaaah!"
The sight of him being electrocuted in his armor was quite impressive.
"I really really commend you for adding insulation magic to your armor and sword."
When Caesar first threw Thunder, seeing that he wasn't electrocuted, he thought the guy had prepared quite well in his own way.
If this were a game, it would probably show ‘Electric Immunity’ and only take half damage.
But this isn't a game.
Caesar lightly dodged his greatsword and struck with Thunder again.
"Gyaaaaaaaaah!"
Like chopping a giant old tree, Caesar drove the axe inside his armor.
The electricity emanating from Thunder penetrated his armor and electrocuted his body.
"But what good is insulation magic if I tear the armor and send electricity inside?"
"Cesaaaaar!"
Vincent swung his greatsword in desperation.
But Caesar wasn't amateur enough to be hit by such a blind attack.
Caesar dodged his attack and drove Thunder into his armor again.
"Aaaaarghh!"
Despite his whole body being electrocuted, Vincent swung his greatsword.
Well, that makes it more fun for me.
Caesar returned Thunder to its original size and struck down randomly.
The more he struck, pieces of his gold-plated armor flew high and fell off.
He tried to resist but it was futile.
He was a typical classic-type knight.
He couldn't keep up with Caesar's hybrid-type speed.
"My armooor!"
Tears of blood flowed through the gaps in his helmet.
Well, it's understandable to be angry when armor worth almost all your fortune turns to rags.
Then, he pressed a switch on the greatsword's handle.
The greatsword glowed red and a red flash flew towards Caesar.
"Oops, dangerous."
Caesar didn't even try to strike the greatsword and just dropped flat to dodge.
Whiiiiing!
The red flash from the greatsword swept across the dueling ground.
"Do-dodge!"
"Aaaaargh!"
Chaos broke out as the red flash from the greatsword reached the spectator seats.
"How...!"
Caesar struck up at his wrist with the axe.
"Aaaaarghhhh!"
He tried his best not to drop the greatsword, but with his muscles completely electrocuted, he couldn't control his body properly.
Caesar struck down at his forearm again with lefty.
Clang!
His greatsword fell to the ground.
His desperate eyes glinted through the helmet gap.
Normally the duel would end here, but unfortunately, it's not over.
As mentioned before, the victory condition is a duel to the death.
Caesar kicked his chest to pull out the axe stuck in his armor.
"Su-surren... Ack!"
Before he could surrender, Caesar kicked his helmet.
The helmet flew high and revealed his head soaked in sweat and blood.
Thud Thud!
His appearance was completely ruined.
His flowing blonde hair stood up in spikes and smelled burnt, blood tears flowing from his eyes.
"Spare..."
Thwack!
Caesar's merciless axe penetrated his skull and mangled his brain.
Caesar carelessly pushed his body away with his foot and pulled out the axe.
Then looking around at the terrified spectators, he opened his mouth.
"Next."