Chapter 290: translated
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 290
The crowd gathered at the port spread out like an alligator's open mouth. Through the gaps, priests wearing white robes and knights in silver armor walked. People whispered while looking at the priests and knights.
"Is that the Holy Grail?"
"I suppose so. It looks blunter than I imagined."
"Are those the Holy Grail Knights?"
"They seem to have suffered quite a bit."
The Holy Grail Knights and White Tower priests did not look well. Their lips were pale blue, dark circles filled their eyes, and their walking posture seemed precarious.
"You must have had a hard time coming this far, Sir Roland."
Roland saw a gentleman who tipped his hat toward him. From his attire to the way he held his cane, the elderly man was a complete gentleman, without a single element out of place. However, what was particularly impressive was the beast-like gaze within his gentlemanly demeanor.
"I am Gregory Walterwood. I serve as a Homigraph council member."
Gregory Walterwood. Even Roland, who had dedicated his life to the Royder Order or the sword, had heard of this politician. Wasn't he known as a knight protecting the Arch family using a pen and tongue as his sword and armor? Now he understood why priests who had served in the Homigraph would feel uncomfortable, as if chained.
"Pleased to meet you. I am Roland, a knight serving the Goddess Royder."
"The winter sea winds must have been difficult. Are you alright?"
"Thanks to the Goddess' protection, I endured."
Gregory glanced at the priests and knights. Not only the knights but the priests' conditions were not good. Having stayed in the warm south and suddenly facing bone-chilling cold, they must have suffered from severe pneumonia and hypothermia. In their current state, if they were to travel to find the Saint, several would likely die from high fever.
"I've arranged a hotel for you to rest. Wouldn't it be better to talk after resting a bit?"
"No. We will leave immediately."
"Wouldn't it be good to rest even for a moment?"
"There's a principle for Holy Grail Knights. We resolve lodging and meals within the Royder Order and receive no assistance from other families."
Roland looked around. Nowhere could he see priests of the Royder Order. This was the land of magicians. Moreover, it was a land strongly influenced by Caesar, whom the Royder Order despised. He had no intention of staying even momentarily in this land where evil breathed.
"We will leave soon, so I'll accept your goodwill in spirit."
"Then what method will you use for transportation? Are you planning to walk?"
"I have no intention of discussing methods with you. We will go our own way."
Gregory extended his hand.
"Well, then. Although I am not a follower of the Royder Order, I hope your dedication is not in vain."
"Thank you."
Roland lightly shook hands with Gregory and passed by him. Gregory watched the priests and knights walking sideways. They were walking upright, trying to maintain the Royder Order's dignity in any way, but to Gregory, they looked pitiable. This was likely not just Gregory's perspective.
Harrison approached Gregory.
"They seem more resilient than expected. It couldn't have been easy for southerners to endure the northern winter sea, especially in a situation with so many unusual magical phenomena."
Recently, the East Sea had been abnormal. Unnatural magical phenomena disrupted navigators' compasses and made waves rough. Thus, ships heading to the demon realm had temporarily stopped for safety reasons.
"It's not resilience, but wisdom."
"What exactly does that mean?"
"Do you know what's most difficult on an arduous journey?
Winter sea winds?
Pneumonia?
Sea sickness?
They can endure such hardships because they've already prepared for them."
"Then what can they not endure?"
"Warm fireplaces, soft beds, delicious food, and crisp new clothes. If the body rests, the spirit becomes soft. Roland fears not their physical collapse, but their spiritual breakdown."
Money pouches flew toward Roland and the priests. It was true that trust in the Royder Order within the Homigraph had hit rock bottom. But both poor and rich willingly donated to support their arduous journey.
There was also a self-interested desire to find the saint and quickly make the potion. Some felt compassion for their journey. Some still believed in the Goddess Royder.
Yet, Roland and the priests did not bend to pick up the money pouches.
"This will make it difficult to fulfill Lord Caesar's request. Lord Caesar asked to keep the Holy Grail Knights detained as long as possible."
"He likely asked, knowing it was impossible from the start. Didn't he confirm with his own eyes? The Holy Grail Knights and White Tower priests are currently in no condition to properly complete their mission."
"If they fail..."
"For us, it's absolutely not a bad situation."
Gregory knew exactly how he should act. If Roland were to die or lose the Holy Grail, the current policy of ‘Homigraph without Potions, the City of Physicians Sapientia’ would be rapidly advanced.
"What do you plan to do?"
"Politics must always remain cold-blooded. If we can bind our opponent's hands and feet and cut their lifeline, we must do so unconditionally."
"Then..."
"However, we must not directly intervene in this matter. If rumors spread that we directly interfered with the sacred task of finding the Holy Grail, it won't be good for us."
"Then we should find people to do our work instead."
Gregory liked his youngest son, who could understand ten things when taught one. But he deliberately did not express it.
"There's no need to deliberately look for anyone."
Gregory beckoned to his secretary.
"Leak information to the journalists. Say that the alchemists of Valentine's Magic Tower are beginning to recruit investors for developing medicine together."
"Yes. Understood."
Gregory stared at Roland's group with a sharp, predatory gaze.
"There are plenty of people who will dirty their hands for us."
The core of conspiracy is to initiate actions while remaining undetected. Gregory hoped Harrison would learn the subtleties of conspiracy through this incident.
***
The Holy Knights gathered by Luca's superhuman strength were all experienced in hunting devils from the martial world. They were either those who had hunted devils claiming to be part of the 'Martial Extreme' among Nifleheim's devils Or disciples directly taught by those who were baptized, including himself.
Accordingly, the Holy Knights' equipment was top-tier. Their armor and weapons all contained Terra, and they even carried devil-catching nets that were poison to both knights and devils.
While their individual skills would naturally be inferior to Caesar's, he thought that their sturdy armor and experience could potentially trip Caesar up, but…
"Charge!"
Like ants confronting an anteater, the Holy Knights collapsed helplessly. Luca carefully observed Caesar's movements.
Every action of Caesar was marked by seasoned expertise. A prime example of his expertise was that Caesar never exposed his back.
If surrounded, he would either leave the position or break through. Not exposing his back meant knowing exactly where his position was in this chaotic battlefield.
'He's experienced in messy battles.'
Luca preferred knights with wide visibility over those with good combat resistance.
Good combat resistance meant having outstanding martial power capable of restraining or causing significant damage to the opponent, but only within the range their sword could reach.
However, knights with good visibility could exert influence even beyond their sword's reach.
Caesar's movements made this clear. He disrupted the orderly movements of Holy Knights experienced in squad or platoon-level group combat, inducing chaos, And entangled the Holy Knights' progression directions, minimizing the number of knights who could counter him.
"Spread the devil-catching nets!"
Several Holy Knights spread anti-wizard devil-catching nets.
They thought that even Caesar would be unable to use aura if caught in a net woven with anti-wizard materials, and would be easily suppressed.
Caesar's eyes flashed when he saw the devil-catching nets.
The devil-catching nets contained For Honor and anti-wizard elements, and their net-like shape was effective at absorbing shock, making it impossible to cut or break them.
'I just need to avoid getting caught.'
Caesar picked up a knight and threw him toward the approaching devil-catching nets. The net ensnared the knight instead, becoming tangled.
"What in the world...!"
Each Holy Knight's armor weighed over 150kg. No one expected that Caesar, no matter how strong, could lift and throw a knight like a ball.
Untangling a net once ensnared was nearly impossible during battle.
Moreover, knights fixated on the Baptism Sword fragments would have no leisure to untangle the nets. The battlefield turned into a mess, and Luca gnashed his teeth.
"Lady Mila. It seems you'll need to step forward."
Mila drew her sword. The blue sapphire glinted in the sunlight.
"It'll be difficult to even cross swords in such chaos."
"Yo-heum, Nivia, and I will open the way. So you focus on your task."
"Understood."
Luca looked at Yo-heum.
"Yo-heum, you'll have to suffer a bit."
Yo-heum raised his massive shield in front of him.
"The vanguard has always been my role. Keep your worries in check."
Luca took a deep breath and shouted.
"Everyone, retreat!!!"
The Holy Knights flinched at the ear-splitting roar and all looked at Luca. Eventually, as Yo-heum charged toward Caesar, all the Holy Knights retreated.
Luca, Nivia, and finally Mila followed Yo-heum in an inverted triangle formation. Yo-heum led with his shield and attempted a body slam against Caesar.
"Charrrrrge!"
Caesar struck Yo-heum's massive shield with Lefty.
BAAAAANG!
Despite Caesar striking quite strongly, Yo-heum successfully blocked the attack. Infinite Nivia rushed in next.
Unlike a typical Holy Knight, Nivia wore very light armor. Except for a chest armor covering her chest and abdomen, she wore no defensive equipment.
Caesar swung Lefty toward Nivia. Nivia did not strike back at Caesar's attack. Instead, she dove into Caesar's attack, offering her left arm.
Scrape!
Nivia's arm was cleanly sliced off.
However, Nivia paid no attention and thrust her sword towards Caesar. Caesar narrowly dodged Nivia's attack.
Caesar looked at Nivia's severed left arm. Nivia's left arm and the blood fallen on the ground began to float in the air and then stuck to Nivia's body with a soft sound.
Infinite Nivia.
The ability Nivia received was infinite regeneration. As long as her neck was not cut off, she could recover any wound in an instant.
Following that, Luca swung a greatsword. Luca's greatsword flew at an angle and timing that Caesar could absolutely not block. Their long-practiced coordination was visible.
'But it's too obvious.'
Through psychometry, Caesar already knew in which direction Luca would attack. Caesar instead dove towards Luca and grabbed his wrist. And then he threw him. The direction was towards Yo-heum. Yo-heum was startled by Luca's body suddenly flying and floating but managed to block it sideways.
Boom!
Caesar caught Nivia's attack coming from behind.
"Oh?"
"You're getting carried away, trusting your regeneration ability too much."
Nivia's attack was rough and direct.
Anyway, she could regenerate limbs that were cut off, so she did not spare her own body.
However, because of that, her attack direction was too easily read. Caesar headbutted towards Nivia's head.
"Ugh!"
Blood splattered on Nivia's nose and eyes, and she fell over.
The most difficult part for Nivia to regenerate was her eyes. While fingers or arms could regenerate in 1 second, sensitive sensory organs like eyes or ears would take about 10 seconds.
"Aaaaaah!"
Yo-heum charged towards Caesar.
A shield was truly difficult to deal with.
Facing it head-on made it hard to land proper hits, and it easily drained one's stamina.
Especially Yo-heum's ability was 'infinite stamina'. Because he received the ability to never get tired during combat, he could persistently stick to his opponent. While Yo-heum was engaging Caesar, the fallen Luca got up, and Nivia regenerated her eyes and again charged at Caesar.
"Really persistent!"
At the moment a perfect formation was being drawn with Yo-heum draining Caesar's stamina and Luca and Nivia attacking, Mila was hiding behind Yo-heum, waiting for her moment.
Mila's ability was far from combat. Mila's ability was 'language command'. She could command and control plants, animals, and even humans.
However, her limitation was that controlling high-mental-power individuals like humans was very difficult. So Mila's main work was calling animals or monsters to help reclaim abandoned villages.
But did this mean Mila was useless in combat? Absolutely not. While completely dominating human consciousness was very difficult, she could momentarily command a 'specific action'.
Just like now. When a gap appeared in Caesar, who had barely dodged Nivia's attack, Mila immediately rushed in. Mila infused her sword with a language command.
'Drop the axe.'
Mila's attack was as surprise-oriented as Nel's, and Caesar seemed to not detect this attack. Mila's attack precisely stabbed Caesar's thigh.
'It's done!'
Caesar was about to drop the axe. But a white light burst from Caesar's body, neutralizing Mila's 'language command'.
"Huh?"
Caesar grabbed Mila's wrist.
"This finally came out."
Mila tried to shake her hand away in shock, but Caesar had no intention of letting her go easily. Caesar struck Lefty towards Mila's helmet.