Chapter 229: The Demon King's Castle
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 229: The Demon King's Castle
“Long live His Majesty, the Emperor!”
The voices of the Platinum Knights thundered through the audience chamber. With no one stopping them, they continued their chant until the Empress… no, until Ilia, who was now the Emperor in the truest sense, raised a hand to silence them.
She smiled at the Platinum Knights. The smile of the woman known as the most beautiful on the continent was perfectly aligned with the dignity an emperor should possess.
“So you, my lords, acknowledge me as your emperor. Thank you. I was feeling uneasy, as it seems others are not so pleased.”
“What? Who would dare commit such an outrageous act!?”
Bennet’s eyes widened as he scanned the room. The nobles quickly turned their heads, afraid to meet his gaze. Only a few high-ranking nobles maintained their posture to preserve their dignity.
Duke Ekin was one of them.
He didn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow when his eyes met Bennet’s. Bennet, in turn, did not look away. As the two men stared each other down without a word, a cold silence fell over the audience chamber.
It was Bennet who broke the silence first.
“Surely that insolent person isn’t you, Duke Ekin?”
“And what if it is?”
“What else but to follow the law? You will be punished for insulting the Imperial Family.”
“The law… I like the sound of that. But according to that very law, shouldn’t this situation itself never have occurred?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying that the Empress should never have become the Emperor.”
Screeech—
The Platinum Knights drew their swords in unison.
The nobles began to murmur, and their guards, feeling threatened, also drew their weapons. But the Platinum Knights paid them no mind.
Their eyes were all fixed on Duke Ekin.
Ready to charge forward and cut down the insolent man the moment the order was given.
In the chilling atmosphere, Bennet spoke, his brow furrowed.
“You will have to properly explain that last statement.”
“Is there any need for a difficult explanation? It is an undeniable fact that the Empress does not carry the imperial bloodline.”
The nobles’ faces filled with shock. They all knew the Empress was not of the imperial bloodline. It was a fact they had all tacitly ignored.
There were a few reasons for this. Cloud had backed the Empress, and if someone with imperial blood became emperor, the nobles, whose own claims were weak, would have a harder time taking advantage of a vulnerable Imperial Family.
This was also why Ilia had been unable to act forcefully against the nobles until now.
“From the beginning, shouldn’t a relative of the late Emperor have been considered for the throne before the Empress?”
But now, Duke Ekin had brought up the truth everyone had pretended not to know.
It could no longer be ignored.
Under the banner of the imperial bloodline, members of the Imperial Family who had been in hiding would now emerge, starved for ambition.
The nobles felt a headache coming on at the thought of having to walk a tightrope between potential candidates for the throne.
While backing a new emperor was certainly a great opportunity, they honestly found it far more comfortable to leech wealth from a weak emperor than to risk their lives in a political balancing act.
“...”
Bennet slowly raised his right hand. The Platinum Knights sheathed their swords, and Ilia’s eyes trembled.
“S-Sir Bennet?”
What would happen to Ilia, whose position was already weak, if she were to be deposed from the throne she had just taken?
There was no need to rack one’s brain to figure it out.
She would be assassinated by the next candidate for the throne; that was the natural course of things.
Noticing Ilia’s panic, Ekin remarked casually, “If you are concerned for the Empress’s safety, we can simply arrange a marriage between her and the new Emperor. Wouldn’t that solve it?”
Ilia bit her lip.
It was certainly the best way for her to survive. But she was still reluctant. Her marriage to the late Emperor had also been a loveless, political arrangement.
The experience of being held by a man she did not love was by no means pleasant.
While she had grown fond of the Emperor over time, which lessened the discomfort, she had no desire to go through it again.
‘But I suppose I have no choice.’
The world was full of things she couldn’t control.
Just as she was about to resign herself to reality, as she always had in the past, a voice cut through.
“Are you finished talking? Then… Hail! Alex! Arrest Duke Ekin and his knights and lock them in the dungeons! After they have been punished for insulting the Imperial Family, they will be exiled from the capital!”
“Yes, sir!”
The Platinum Knights Hail and Alex moved toward Duke Ekin and his men as ordered. Wary of the two, the Duke’s knights drew their swords.
“Stop! Any closer and we will not stand idly by!”
Despite the threats from the Duke’s knights, Alex and Hail did not stop. The knights looked to their lord, and when the Duke nodded, they took their stances.
“We warned you!”
Seven elite knights charged at Alex and Hail. The two Platinum Knights only drew their swords after the Duke’s knights were already in motion.
And just like that, the seven knights of the ducal house clashed with the two members of the Platinum Knight Order.
Clang! Craang! Crunch. Crash!
Sword met sword with a metallic shriek. Metal bent, shattered like glass, and crumpled like it had been struck by a hammer.
The fight was completely one-sided. When it was over, only Alex and Hail were left standing.
The Duke’s knights were either embedded in the walls or collapsed on the floor, their armor dented and broken.
Duke Ekin glanced at his fallen knights, then glared at Bennet with murderous eyes.
“Can you handle the storm that will follow what you’ve done today?”
Bennet scoffed.
Then, his expression turned icy as he met the Duke’s gaze.
“Listen here, Duke. I just came back from Hell. Not the flowery Hell those religious fanatics preach about, but a real Hell teeming with monsters. Do you really think I’d be afraid of a pathetic threat like yours?”
“You bastard…!”
Despite the Duke’s murderous glare, Bennet simply clicked his tongue in annoyance.
“What are you waiting for? Take them away!”
Hail and Alex dragged the fallen knights and the Duke out of the audience chamber.
Just as the nobles began to relax, thinking the situation was over, Bennet turned and addressed them all.
“Hero Cloud asked me to pass on a message. He said if he sees any sign you’ve been up to no good when he gets back, don’t even think about dying peacefully.”
The silence in the audience chamber lingered.
A sword sliced through the cyclops’s thick neck. Without stopping, Cloud used the cyclops’s shoulder as a springboard and leaped toward the other monsters.
Slice— Slice—
Thud.
With the sound of cutting, chunks of flesh fell to the ground. When the slicing sounds finally ceased, Cloud sheathed his sword.
“I’m done here. How about you?”
“Done here, too.”
Frillite answered as she pulled her greatsword from a giant, jellyfish-like monster. Frowning at the creature’s bodily fluids coating her blade, she swung the greatsword to flick the filth away.
Watching the two of them converse so casually atop a mountain of corpses, Angelica wore a look of utter disgust.
“What in the world is wrong with this generation’s heroes?”
A hero might be a being that transcended humanity, but in the end, they were still human. And as humans, their limits were clear.
Just as she, the Succubus Queen, was not particularly strong in a simple physical fight, heroes also had limits to their power.
They were strong, but also weak.
They could pierce an ogre’s hide, but they would die if struck by an ogre’s club.
That was why they formed groups.
They moved with armies to control the probability of being attacked and to create environments where it was easier to strike.
No matter how many humans were sacrificed in the process, as long as the heroes were the last ones standing, it was a human victory!
That was human logic, their way of fighting.
But look at them.
How could you call someone who could single-handedly destroy a horde of monsters human?
“It is strange. A hero like that might appear once in several generations, but this generation has produced two of them…”
Hailey’s voice was tinged with resentment.
Of all times, why did heroes like them have to appear just when her organization was trying to step into the light?
Did the world hate her?
She was holding back a sigh when a voice called out.
“What are you doing? Get ready to move.”
“Ah, yes! Hailey? Let’s go.”
“...Alright.”
The journey continued.
They killed any monsters that blocked their path, and as they pressed onward, they finally arrived.
“This is the Demon King’s Castle?”
It was a tower-like castle, standing tall without a single outer wall.
Cloud and Frillite tensed up and entered the Demon King’s Castle.
“What the. Why is there nothing here?”
Contrary to their expectations, there was no demon army, not even a single rat. They were bewildered.
“Huh…? Why is no one here?”
Angelica was just as confused.