Chapter 110
Chapter 110
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 110
Chapter Title: Conference (4)
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When people face something too shocking or difficult to comprehend, their reactions can surprisingly slow down.
That’s fortunate for Carlyle.
It reduces the need to make excuses to those around him until the situation he intended actually occurs.
While the Emperor’s body tumbled across the floor, Carlyle cautiously scanned the area near him.
He wasn’t just standing there observing—he was doing everything in his power to ‘prepare’.
He hadn’t assaulted the Emperor on a whim just now. The goal was to make contact with the Hero’s mana and trigger a reaction from whatever was inside that body.
So.
He prepared the Tear of the Star. Prepared Quilia’s Eye. Prepared the Holy Sword as well.
Let’s see. In other words.
“This is outrageous—!”
The best situation is one where he’s already moving by the time words like that come out.
As he’d explained earlier, showing is faster than telling.
Right now.
Just seeing the dark red, festering energy oozing from the Emperor’s body was enough to make Valen flinch and halt mid-sentence.
No one could look at what was happening to the Emperor’s body and call it anything but blatantly abnormal.
“⋯⋯What in the world is that⋯⋯?”
While Valen muttered dazedly.
The Emperor’s body floated lightly into the air.
As if someone were puppeteering it with strings.
Then the dark red energy that had emerged from within spread outward in an instant, like a balloon bursting.
Like ink dissolving in water, it began devouring the surroundings, turning everything nearby pitch black.
And every human who witnessed it would instinctively sense it.
That’s some ‘thing’ that spells disaster if you get too close.
“—Your Highness the Prince, Your Highness the Princess, fall back!”
Valen shouted that and immediately drew his sword.
No one else here could deal with it except him, the Guard Captain.
Except for one person.
⋯⋯The one who had ‘prepared’ in advance.
“⋯⋯? What are you—!”
Valen shouted something from behind.
But Carlyle didn’t even glance back. He was already thrusting the Holy Sword into the heart of that energy.
He unleashed the fully gathered mana through the blade’s tip.
-!
With the sound of a bomb detonating, a horrific scream tore through the Emperor’s chambers, shredding eardrums.
The black energy ripped apart in one blow, and the Emperor’s body, which had been hovering in the air, thudded back into the room.
“Call a physician.”
Carlyle wiped the cold sweat streaming down his body and spoke.
The events had unfolded so rapidly that even the sharp minds nearby stared at him in stunned silence.
“⋯⋯What?”
“We need to treat him right away. Hurry!”
“⋯⋯.”
There’s a saying about inflicting a wound and then healing it, but the man who’d just brutally pummeled someone else demanding a doctor was bizarre in itself.
Still, immediate action was undeniably necessary.
The moment the Emperor began writhing and hacking up blood, everyone in the room realized it.
“Fetch the physician! Call for help!”
Valen bolted out of the chambers, bellowing.
His gaze lingered on Carlyle for a moment beforehand, but unlike earlier, there was no rebuke or suspicion.
That energy he’d just extracted and destroyed from the Emperor’s body was unmistakably sinister and malevolent to anyone’s eyes.
‘⋯⋯Looks like it turned out all right.’
Carlyle let out a sigh of relief.
He’d wondered if such a reckless act was going too far, but he could count it as a success in damage control.
Left unchecked, it would have been the spark to blow up the entire Empire, short-term or long.
“⋯⋯Carly, what on earth⋯⋯?”
To Bellatrix’s dazed question, Carlyle replied while wiping away his sweat.
“Someone planted it in His Majesty the Emperor’s body.”
The exact same thing that had been injected into Ilia’s body.
Moreover.
It had likely been inserted into Princess Ilia ‘through’ the Emperor.
‘⋯⋯Now that I think about it.’
No matter how sidelined from power a Princess might be, Imperial family members within the palace are guarded more strictly than anyone.
Few could pull it off so discreetly that it evades all eyes and leaves no easy traces.
That’s why he’d started with the most likely suspect—and struck gold on the first try.
“So I gave him one good hit to draw it out, then crushed it. Now it’s just a matter of treating the body and mind ravaged by prolonged exposure to that thing.”
The odds were extremely high that it was the cause of the Emperor’s mysterious illness.
No different from excising a malignant tumor.
“⋯⋯Incredible.”
Theodore let out a sigh laced with admiration.
“We’ll need to verify if it’s truly accurate from here on, but⋯⋯ if it all checks out, you just saved the Empire single-handedly, Carlyle Bellfast. I couldn’t thank you enough times over.”
“⋯⋯Save the praise until it’s all over.”
Carlyle replied as he sheathed the Holy Sword once more.
“What I did was barely the beginning, in my eyes.”
He hadn’t resolved the incident just now.
He’d merely uncovered the ‘harbinger’ of the storm to come.
As he chewed on that realization, Bella tilted her head and asked.
“But Carly, why didn’t you warn us ahead that something like this would happen?”
“Would you have given me permission if I’d said I was going to do this?”
“⋯⋯.”
Forgiveness comes easier than permission, after all.
[⋯⋯No matter how I look at it, you’re starting to take after me—]
‘Shut your trap.’
The Holy Sword stifled a chuckle in lieu of a reply.
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“⋯⋯.”
“⋯⋯.”
The vast conference hall was thick with silence.
Everyone sat with shocked expressions, replaying the events that had just transpired.
Heavens. The Emperor had been ensnared by a demon’s schemes long ago, his body and mind corrupted.
“⋯⋯Everything Lord Carlyle said was correct.”
Valen groaned out the words.
“The Church priests entered His Majesty’s chambers and confirmed that what Lord Carlyle destroyed was a sort of ‘core’ infused with dark sorcery.”
“And His Majesty?”
“He’s resting. With focused treatment, he should recover his wits.”
During their exchange.
[⋯⋯I figured it had been rotting from the inside for ages.]
A groan emanated from the Holy Sword.
[I never imagined the very top was already tainted. Who could’ve pictured something like that embedded in the Emperor.]
Fair point.
Even confined within the Holy Sword, this one was a Hero. To implant something in the Emperor so stealthily that even his senses missed it long ago.
It explained how the Empire crumbled so swiftly upon invasion. The highest echelons were already under control.
“Please summon everyone I requested to the palace.”
And for thwarting that, Carlyle had earned at least the authority to make such a demand.
“Every second counts. We don’t know when or where the next incident might erupt.”
The instant he burst the energy inside the Emperor’s body, the shadows concealing themselves would’ve realized their cover was blown.
Which meant preparations for some outbreak were already in place somewhere.
To counter it, he needed the full Hero Party. No exceptions.
⋯⋯And aside from that.
The ‘owner’ of the energy Carlyle had just erased was another issue.
‘Hero.’
His gut churned.
Not from any physical wound.
It stemmed from the countless memories accumulated in his body, remembering it all too well.
The ‘core’ he’d crushed was an energy he’d encountered before in those memories.
‘It’s a noble.’
Hell’s ecosystem⋯⋯ no, the apex among all beings Carlyle had faced thus far.
A noble-class demon.
Digging deeper into this incident would inevitably lead to confronting them.
‘Let’s think this through⋯⋯’
To be frank.
If he faced those bastards now.
‘⋯⋯It’d be overwhelming, right?’
[Without a doubt.]
Considering the Hero girl’s current growth, she fell far short of the Hero at his prime.
Of course, a Hero was still a Hero—even in that state, she could handle one herself.
[They never come alone. Ever.]
The Holy Sword spat the words.
[They’re summoned in groups of at least two or three.]
The rest were the problem.
Even mustering the Hero Party’s full strength in this timeline, it was touch-and-go whether they could handle the leftovers.
‘Any way to power them all up quickly?’
Sure, as the Hero Party, they were already formidable in their own right, but Carlyle, who knew their true peaks, saw their growth as sorely stunted.
Some dramatic power-up method⋯⋯
[⋯⋯Something comes to mind.]
‘Pardon?’
[You’d think of it too, unless you’re a fool.]
‘I think I’m the fool here?’
No clue what he meant.
How to strengthen all those people at once?
[⋯⋯Just reflect on everything you’ve gained so far.]
The Holy Sword said in a voice thick with resignation.
Hm.
Gained.
What he’d gained⋯⋯
‘Ah.’
-System Log
▶ Synergy effect added to ‘Taming’ skill.
▶ Targets with sufficient ‘Taming’ progress can develop their abilities even more strongly based on their bond with you.
▶ Targets ‘Gray’ and ‘Vespa’ are affected!
⋯⋯He had indeed gained things.
Plenty of them.
[How you make use of it is up to you.]
“⋯⋯.”
[⋯⋯Ah, fuck.]
Why’d he suggest it himself only to curse himself⋯⋯?
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