The Heavenly Slaughter Star Enters Its Turbulent Years
Rionne truly had no idea what Enoch was up to. She had even deliberately suppressed all her senses, just in case she unconsciously started tracking his presence.
[Why go that far?]
“Enoch’s going to be independent for real soon… so this is practice…”
[Practice?]
He seemed like the type who would do just fine without any special practice. As Undine was thinking that, she looked at Rionne’s face and finally understood. The way she was frowning hard and fidgeting restlessly made her look exactly like a puppy that desperately needed to pee.
[Ah.]
So it wasn’t about training him. It was about training you.
Practicing how to let go of Enoch. Practicing how to worry less. That kind of thing.
[I’ve lived a long time and seen some weird shit, but this really takes the cake.]
Undine let out a long sigh.
The anxiously waiting Rionne came running the instant Enoch called her. But something strange was scattered all over the ground around him.
“…Enoch?”
“I won them all.”
The brutally beaten mercenaries lay sprawled everywhere. Standing proudly among them with his chest puffed out, Enoch declared, “I beat them all.”
“Oh…”
Rionne slapped her forehead.
“How on earth did this happen?”
“Huh?”
Enoch tilted his head and explained everything that had led up to this. Someone had picked a fight, he ran into the guards, met some knights, fought Capri, and even tried out something called the I’m the Heavyweight Champion Technique.
“You used the I’m the Heavyweight Champion Technique? I don’t think I’ve taught you that yet.”
“Yeah. It just worked when I tried it.”
“Really!? See, I knew it!”
Rionne beamed and ruffled Enoch’s hair.
“It’s weirdly one of those things that just works if you do it. Whenever I say that, nobody ever understands me.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Isn’t that unfair? They could at least try it first.”
“True.”
Pleased with his perfect answer, Rionne scooped Enoch up into her arms. Maybe because he had gotten a bit bigger, the posture was starting to feel a little awkward.
“But what was the fight about?”
“Oh. It was while I was making my mercenary badge.”
What had they said again? Enoch recalled the exact words and repeated them verbatim.
‘You look like a damn gigolo. Instead of hanging around here, you’d make good money working at a brothel. Huh? If you just stretched those ears out a little, people would totally believe you’re an elf. Those damn elf bitches, just looking at them makes you want to—’
Held in Rionne’s arms, Enoch couldn’t see the way her expression hardened. Her eyes grew icy cold, radiating an aura no ordinary mortal could possibly face.
“…So what did you do?”
“One arm… and one leg?”
“I see. From now on, just kill them.”
“Is that okay?”
“Yes. That way there’s no future trouble.”
And what? They said he looked like he’d do well working at a brothel? Anyone who dared spout such filth at her Enoch deserved to die.
“Got it.”
Enoch nodded. So insulting elves meant he could kill them. He carefully filed that away in the mental notebook in his head, then suddenly thought of something else.
“Oh, right.”
It was about the mercenary badge and the clans. Just what kind of identity did a mercenary badge verify, and why did the city lord simply leave the clans alone?
At Enoch’s question, Rionne thought back for a moment. It was definitely…
“I think the Emperor just said to do it that way.”
“The Emperor?”
“Yeah.”
The territories of every nation currently existing on the continent matched the domains of the Demigods. That made sense—after all, a Demigod could literally trample an entire country underfoot if the opposing side had no Demigod of their own. The moment the various races began gathering to live under the protection of these Demigods, the concept of nations was born. The human empire was no different.
The Kaedes Empire was essentially the Emperor’s personal domain. Among humans, only one person had ever reached the Demigod realm: the Emperor himself. Naturally, the entire territory claimed by humanity was the Kaedes Empire, which was in turn divided into several kingdoms. The Emperor had simply divided the land roughly because he had no interest in ruling it directly. He had even left the selection of kings entirely up to them.
As a result, the thrones naturally fell into the hands of the strongest. After all, the king of a nation ought to be close to the strongest person in that nation.
In any case, the Emperor’s will was absolute among the human race. Honestly, it would have been strange if it wasn’t absolute, since the Emperor could easily defeat all of humanity by himself if he wanted to.
“That Emperor casually let slip a few words. Something like, ‘Don’t bother nitpicking identities too much, and don’t oppress armed groups within your territory.’”
“Why?”
“Who knows? But from what I can tell, it just seems like a twisted hobby.”
The Emperor stood at a position close to absolute power. If limited to one-on-one combat, there was probably no one on the continent who could rival him. One could guess that such a position must be lonely—and terribly boring. Perhaps he was trying to create suitable rivals to use as stepping stones for his own advancement.
“Then the mercenary badges…”
“Yeah. It used to be a lot more complicated, but after the Emperor ascended to the Demigod seat, everything got sloppy.”
Counterfeits? Of course they existed. But if you didn’t get caught, there was no problem. And since they didn’t bother checking too thoroughly, most forgeries went unnoticed. As long as you didn’t cause trouble inside the city, they basically just let it slide.
“It’s the same with the clans. Most nobles either seized their titles through force or had powerful backers to begin with.”
Surprisingly, there were cases where someone held high political rank but possessed almost no personal strength. The second-highest authority in the empire—the Imperial Chancellor—was one such example. The Chancellor had been placed there simply because the Emperor needed someone to keep the country running. Unless someone was completely insane, they wouldn’t dare touch the Chancellor.
“Anyway, what the Emperor basically said was this: Want to form an armed organization? Go ahead. Think you can steal a lord’s position? Try it. If you succeed, I’ll recognize it.”
It would give the lords headaches, but that wasn’t the Emperor’s problem. In fact, it wasn’t a bad thing—there was always the chance that some unexpected superhuman might emerge from the struggle. A decline in national power due to frequent battles? Nations weren’t maintained by soldiers in the first place. If the Emperor wiped out all humans and then declared that this place was still the empire, then it would simply be the empire.
“Ah…”
So the Emperor really was just a crazy bastard. Enoch understood completely.
[Kyung?]
Suddenly, Eri poked her head out from inside Enoch’s chest. She hadn’t come from a chest pocket—she had literally emerged from within his chest.
“Wow! Eri got so much bigger in just a few days!”
Eri, who had taken up residence near Enoch’s middle dantian—roughly around his heart—had grown rapidly by feeding on his mana.
“Yeah. But she doesn’t seem particularly useful.”
[Keung!?]
As a spirit, she had successfully escaped the bounds of physical matter and settled into his middle dantian, but that didn’t mean she had achieved true spirit fusion. Of course, while learning spirit arts he had also learned how to utilize Eri within his dantian, but…
‘Is it really necessary?’
He didn’t feel like she had any significant use. Maybe once her performance improved, but for now it felt rather ambiguous.
“Enoch, you can’t say that. She’s your lifelong companion.”
“Lifelong?”
“Of course!”
Enoch stared intently at Rionne. His gaze was far more serious than usual—so much so that even Rionne could feel it.
“What’s wrong?”
“The one I want to be with for the rest of my life is you, Rionne.”
“……!”
Rionne’s eyes widened dramatically.
“Oh my god…!”
She burst into a radiant smile and lifted Enoch high into the air.
“How can you be so adorable! How can our Enoch be this cute…!”
Rionne was as overjoyed as if her son had just passed the imperial civil service exam.
“Aww, our Enoch…! Yes! Big sis wants to live with you forever too!”
“…Yeah.”
Enoch looked a little dejected.
Once they returned home, Enoch thought long and hard.
Maybe the age difference really was the problem. In Rionne’s eyes, he probably looked like nothing more than a little kid. Well, he was a kid. He was still shorter than her, after all.
Then…
If one day he grew taller than Rionne and became far more mature than he was now… would she start seeing him differently?
After pondering for a while, Enoch clenched his fist tightly.
‘There’s only one thing I can do anyway.’
Get stronger.
Even if in the distant future he still wasn’t mature enough, if he became strong enough to leave Rionne in awe, maybe things would change. Come to think of it, there was also the rebirth through shedding mortality that high-level powerhouses sometimes experienced, which could turn him into an adult in an instant. If possible, that meant he could become an adult as soon as tomorrow.
But then—
‘No, that’s not right.’
He had to deal with the Heavenly Slaughter Star first. Rionne worried about him so much. Even if he managed to enter her heart, she might still reject him before that. In the end, it all came down to his realm. The stronger he became, the higher his realm would rise naturally, and the higher his realm rose, the stronger he would become.
“Eri.”
[Kyung?]
“Starting tomorrow, I won’t be giving you any rest time.”
[Kyak…!?]
Two years passed.
Enoch turned fifteen.
After making his resolution, Enoch had grown astonishingly stronger. But it still wasn’t enough to satisfy him.
“So annoying.”
Crunch—!
With a swing of his hand, the bear-like monster was crushed. Clicking his tongue as he shook off his hand, Enoch stomped the ground.
Boom—!
Lightning exploded outward as his figure shot violently into the sky. From high above, looking down at the vast forest, Enoch—his entire body wrapped in crackling lightning—plummeted back toward the earth.
KWAAAAAAAAANG────────!!!
The shockwave ripped trees from the ground and sent them flying in every direction. Enoch spat out a wad of saliva as he cleared away the thick cloud of dust.
A clearing had formed where the surroundings had been completely overturned. Standing motionless at its center, Enoch looked up at the sky.
“Ugh… So annoying.”
Fifteen years old.
It was the age of turbulent storms.