Chapter 78 — Everyone Has a Plausible Plan (6)
Chapter 78 — Everyone Has a Plausible Plan (6)
Yet the smile did not leave the emperor's face. From across the hall, Erenier stared at Roan, her face deathly pale.
"If it is a contest, what do you demand?"
"The throne."
Minoreus's hackles rose. Erenier tried to step forward, but the noblewomen around her and Grünent held her back.
The Lord of the South Black Territory, the Dark Archduke, who stood at a distance, watched the scene with his arms crossed, his eyes gleaming.
"I understand. Return his weapon. I shall wait."
Roan placed his hand on Fiora's hilt.
[Damn it all, to think I can't have any of that wonderful food and wine... Oh! Roan, were you listening? My, my. Why are you fondling my body at the banquet? Don't tell me, it's not just people now, but me too— Kyaak!]
When Roan said nothing, Fiora stopped her teasing.
[...Something has blown up, hasn't it.]
"Mm."
Roan, who had answered Fiora with a low murmur, raised his voice.
"Very well. I wager the throne. What do you wager?"
At his words, even Grünent, who was holding Erenier's arm, and Helen, who stood behind them, turned pale. Rauka was nowhere to be seen.
"What is it Your Majesty desires?"
"Well. I am the emperor. What could you possibly possess that I would need?"
[What is that, some kind of drunken lunatic?]
Hearing Fiora's assessment, Roan snickered.
"It shall suffice to make an example of you."
The banquet hall grew even chillier.
The hall, which had been in a pleasant atmosphere only moments ago, went quiet in an instant, as if frozen solid.
It was not merely his imagination.
Until just now, the hall had been sweltering.
Hundreds of people had gathered in a heated indoor space. But now, the breath everyone exhaled turned to white puffs of frost and scattered.
It was frigid.
Several nobles stared at the young ogre with startled eyes. It was the power to manifest a strength incomparable to others in a visible form.
With a power similar to Roan's 'Overwhelm,' the young man had lowered even the temperature around him. Seeing the ogre emitting a potent aura without hiding it, Roan sighed.
"Losing one who has achieved so much at such a young age is a loss to me as well. It is regrettable."
"It is not a position that can be protected by one who stagnates in one place."
"Indeed. One who overestimates himself and cannot properly judge others cannot possess the throne."
[Ahahahaha, that whelp...! He is serious!]
Fiora's hearty laughter erupted.
It was a truly joyous voice.
Instead of answering, Roan's brow twitched slightly.
An attendant handed the young man an axe.
It was his personal weapon, which he had entrusted to them upon entering the imperial palace.
A massive axe suited to the large ogre's body.
[Just how far do you intend to go, Roan? Will you sever his neck like the original Roan used to? Will you cut him off below the knees so he can live on realizing his wretched state? Cutting off his wrists so he can never hold a weapon again is good too! Gutting him so his innards spill out is also good! Ahahaha, ahh, it has been so long, so long since I've felt this excited!]
Fiora asked this in a thrilled voice Roan had never heard before. He'd never understood why Fiora was called a demon sword, but he finally felt he was beginning to grasp it.
Roan did not answer.
Fiora probably wasn't asking out of mere curiosity.
It was the young man opposite him who spoke.
"Baron of Niaf, Yanas. I will kill Your Majesty and take the throne."
The ritual for a demon to prove themselves and seize what another possessed was simple.
The challenger merely needed to declare who they were and state what they desired. Whether or not the opponent accepted it mattered little.
If the opponent lacked strength? The challenge succeeded.
If the opponent was strong? They simply died.
More than ten years had passed since anyone had even dared to challenge the emperor. At this duel, the first in years to take place within the palace, every noble held their breath.
An answer was not obligatory, but Roan kindly responded to the young man's words.
"The Emperor of Evirgio. I shall take your life along with your defeat."
Because names held power, being able to conceal one's name was the privilege of the strong. Yet Roan politely revealed his own position.
Then came a metallic ring that made the fine hairs on the nape of one's neck stand on end. Fiora revealed her form.
An edge so sharp that even a stray hair would be split by a mere brush.
Even those who did not know the weapon felt Fiora's sharpness and trembled.
The people in the banquet hall were divided into two groups.
Those who clearly foresaw the conclusion and directed sighs of pity toward the foolish young man,
and those who watched the scene unfolding before them with excited interest, harboring a tiny sliver of hope.
Roan noticed Erenier, Grünent, and Helen standing together, watching him.
The emotion in their eyes was neither of the above, but rather a certainty of victory and a minor worry.
They were looks of concern that a single scratch might mar his precious cheek. Roan found himself laughing.
And that laughter provoked the young man.
"Hup!"
With a short shout, the massive ogre's body charged forward. With the smile still not gone from his face, Roan shifted his feet.
It was a difference of a paper's width.
Roan's body slipped past the axe blade that was dropping with the force to split his head. It was a smooth movement that did not suit the young man's destructive momentum.
Sighs of admiration escaped the swordsmen present.
The banquet hall floor shattered with a horrifying noise. Roan, whose expression hadn't changed even when the axe blade grazed his face, openly grimaced.
"...I cannot afford to fight for long."
He could see Liron scratching his head off in the distance. He was probably calculating how much it would cost to repair this expensive marble floor.
Roan let out a sigh.
[Quickly! Quickly! Cut him! Ahhh, quickly!]
Fiora's scream, as if she was half out of her mind, gave him a headache. Roan gave a bitter smile.
The young man, Yanas, nimbly pulled up the axe that had shattered the floor and swung it sideways.
With a crunching sound, the marble fragments that the axe blade had been embedded in scattered in all directions.
Roan raised Fiora.
The blade of Fiora, which looked like an ordinary longsword, caught the axe blade that must have weighed several times more. The axe blade slid down the long fuller of Fiora's blade and fell away.
"Hup...!?"
From that momentary clash, the young man realized he could not break this sword with strength alone.
Yanas hurriedly pulled the flat of his axe close to his body. Roan's sword tip, which had redirected the attack in an instant, was aimed at his stomach.
"Hurk!"
A thunderous noise that seemed impossible from a thin sword tip reverberated through the banquet hall. The ogre, having blocked the thrust, retreated a few steps with a groan. He stared at the emperor in shock.
It was a power unbelievable to burst from a humanoid frame. He had heard the emperor was originally strong, but not to this degree.
A fierce grin spread across the ogre's mouth.
As no one among his peers could match him, the young man in his prime, finally meeting an opponent he could cross swords with, burst into joyful laughter.
"Keuh, hehehehe!"
Hearing the laugh, Roan smiled in return.
"Are you enjoying yourself? Yanas."
"You are a worthy opponent!"
"Mm. I see. I am glad you were pleased."
The merciful emperor nodded.
Yanas, who met the emperor's eyes as he raised his head, stopped laughing and flinched, his body trembling.
Those same violet eyes as before
now glistened with a sheen of pleasure and killing intent.
"However, I can no longer bear to watch you destroy my banquet hall. The finance officer will be cross."
The ogre could not react in time.
No one's eyes could follow the emperor's movement.
The grinding sound of the Lord of the South Black Territory gnashing his teeth could be heard, and the Lord of the West Blood Territory let out an exclamation of awe.
Minoreus's eyes were wide open, his fists trembling. It was a duel where even the Knight Commander could not interfere. He consoled himself with the fact that he had at least tracked the emperor's martial prowess with his eyes.
Aside from him, no one dared even to react. They had seen only the afterimage of a black cloak.
Everyone grasped the situation only when they heard the sound of Roan returning Fiora to her scabbard.
"Heu, kugh..."
Along with a thud, there was a crashing noise as the marble shattered into pieces.
"...Ah, dear."
Roan's troubled groan.
It seemed one or two additional damages were unavoidable. Marble was weak. The axe Yanas dropped fell, and its blade embedded itself in the marble floor.
His hand was still attached to the axe handle.
Liron could be seen clutching his head.
[Haa, haaa, it has been so long... Heuuung, the taste of ogre blood... it has been so long...]
Fiora's voice was as if she was experiencing a climax.
It was spine-chilling.
Even more so, standing before the ogre whose severed wrist was gushing blood and whose face was contorted in a grimace.
The color drained from the young man's face.
It was probably not a matter of feeling, but because he was actually losing blood.
Roan walked up to him.
"Baron Yanas."
The ogre stared blankly up at the emperor.
"Yanas. Pull yourself together."
But the light did not return to his eyes.
"Troublesome."
Killing intent flashed once more in Roan's eyes.
Several people swallowed their breath.
Yet the banquet hall remained silent.
This was the land of demonkind.
The nobles gathered here were the strong among them.
Anyone who would scream at the sight of blood or a severed limb, like human noblewomen, could never have been in this banquet hall in the first place.
At some point, Aranya had approached Roan's side.
"Shall I dispose of him, Your Majesty?"
One of her eight limbs moved menacingly. Her foreleg, which normally processed countless documents, stamping seals and moving a pen, was, in truth, a lethal weapon without equal.
She clicked her spines together.
The tip of that foreleg possessed the power to pierce through a skull in a single stroke.
Only a powerhouse of that caliber could be a great noble.
But Roan shook his head.
"That will do. Helen."
And then, without warning, he summoned his bitch.
"Yes, Master."
The human in a dress, who had somehow drawn close, knelt to receive the emperor's command.
Some ladies who had never seen a human move at such close range let out gasps of wonder again.
For those who had never been to the battlefield, or had occasion to visit the capital or palace where humans worked, seeing a human move like this—a being they had only ever treated as an enemy or as meat—must have been a novelty.
Moreover, Helen possessed a mysterious charm. Enough to captivate the eyes of demon noblemen.
The emperor's beautiful dog awaited her command.
The emperor, his gaze cold, spoke.
"Heal him."
Everyone's eyes went wide.
But Helen answered without hesitation.
"Understood. Master."
Helen detached one of the hands still gripping the axe handle. It was the right one.
The ogre, who had been vacantly staring up at the emperor, grimaced in pain at the sensation of something touching his bleeding wrist and looked at Helen.
The hem of her dress became soaked in blood, but with an impassive expression, Helen pressed her palm to the severed wrist.
"Healing."
And then, every demon in this banquet hall
was rendered speechless by the light of the Goddess, which they saw for the first time in their lives.
"...What...!"
"This... This is. Aha, ahahaha...!"
Two wizards, fighting their resistance to this alien power, barely managed to open their mouths. Erenier, trying to calm the goosebumps all over her body, stared at Helen with a look of revulsion. It was the instinctive sense of wrongness demonkind felt toward divine power.
The Lord of the North White Territory, Count of the Dark Pit, let out a small laugh. As if in a good mood, his ears and tail were wagging constantly.
"So this is holy power! Good heavens, to feel something like this at court, ahah, hahaha!"
It was holy power they had only felt behind enemy lines on the battlefield. The lords newly returned from the front were struggling to suppress the rising feeling of rejection.
But even for them, the Goddess's light felt warm after the brief revulsion. Those who had fallen silent at the bizarre sensation began to murmur among themselves little by little.
By the time the voices filled the banquet hall with considerable noise, Helen withdrew her hand.
The healing was complete.
The ogre, having regained both hands, was staring dumbly at his palm that had returned to its place.
"You will need to train to grip anything heavy. Do not strain yourself for about a week."
And then Helen knelt on one knee beside the emperor. The emperor stroked Helen's head.
"Well done. Helen."
"Yes, Master."
Satisfaction appeared on her face. Several nobles realized she was the emperor's dog.
Roan, who had looked at Helen with eyes full of affection, commanded again with a cool expression.
"Drag the baron away."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
The soldiers guarding the banquet hall pulled the ogre to his feet.
"Your life was forfeit. The new life you have now regained was given by me, so I suggest you think about how to use it later."
Roan's smile was icy.
The emperor looked around him.
"Indeed. Every so often, there are always those who mistake a borrowed life for their own. It cannot be helped. People forget quickly if they do not see it with their own eyes. However."
At the end of the emperor's gaze stood the Lord of the South Black Territory.
His blood-red eyes were hidden beneath lowered eyelids.