Chapter 92
Chapter 92
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 92
Chapter Title: The Order Hoists Its Banner
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The Order had raised its flag.
*-Angel gazes down upon the continent.*
The Paladin's appearance.
It spread like lightning across the continent.
The Order, thought to have perished, had risen once more.
Many across the continent still harbored resentment toward the Destroyer who had reduced the world to this state and the Order that had deified him as a saint.
*-Angel gazes down upon you all.*
But that was ancient history now.
There were those who had forgotten that the continent's fall was due to the Order and the Destroyer.
*-Angel!*
And those who longed for that very Order.
*-Ahhh!*
For people scraping by in harsh, agonizing lives, even a handful of hope was essential.
The Order had made a successful comeback, in its own way.
Though it was little more than a name for now.
*They'll start their activities soon enough.*
The continent, steeped in a peace that felt anything but peaceful.
Finally.
*Tick, tock.*
It felt like the second hand of a clock was moving.
*[The tutorial is now over.]*
The Dragon Lord's voice echoed in his mind, it was true.
Those words he had faced and heard once again.
And the Holy Sword that appeared as if to boast...
*'That guy.'*
The white mask.
*-The Paladin has appeared but is not wielding the Holy Sword.*
Paladin Blackgreen had not announced the recovery of the Holy Sword.
For those who valued legitimacy and symbolism as much as the Empire did, their silence on the Holy Sword meant they had failed to retrieve it.
And even that...
*'White mask.'*
It was surely connected to that white mask.
Sein had witnessed the figure clutching Teyndra and swinging it around.
*'New Empire?'*
He knew little about them.
They were one of the continent's greatest powers alongside the Three Great Dark Houses, but they stayed holed up in the center, looking down without descending.
If not the New Empire, it could be some other force.
*'White mask.'*
Another saint, perhaps.
Lost in such tangled thoughts, he continued on.
"Sein Demorus, reporting back from the mission."
Sein had returned to Demorus.
The wounds he had sustained were already washed away, as if they had never been.
The divine power of saints and saintesses was not to be underestimated.
The power of the once-mightiest saint had mended everything for Sein and Cecil upon recovery.
"Good work."
He reported on the minor mission.
"......"
The family head meeting's atmosphere was poor.
Zegar's failure.
It was Demorus's failure, and the family head's as well.
"Leave us."
Thanks to that, interest in Sein had waned.
It would be so.
"Things must be chaotic."
Zegar had been placed under house arrest by the family head for his failure.
If it had only been failing to recover the Holy Sword, that might have been fortunate.
*-The 5th Force, which marched out with him, was completely wiped out.*
The force led by Zegar had been annihilated.
*-Word is, he was rescued.*
And not by returning on his own, but saved by another's hand.
It was Demorus's shame.
"Being alive is something to be grateful for, at least."
Their heads must ache.
Zegar's, and his retainers' in Demorus.
It was tantamount to stripping Zegar of his candidacy as successor, so those who had declared support for him would be floundering like ships without rudders.
The entire house was in upheaval.
But one question lingered.
*'Did the family head truly believe Zegar would succeed?'*
He glanced at Tejera's face to gauge it, but her icy visage revealed nothing to Sein.
*
*
*
Mist Castle.
One of the many castles in Demorus.
And its master was.
"Announce that Sein Demorus has arrived."
Zegar Demorus's castle.
"Lord Zegar is under house arrest, so..."
"Announce it."
Not the castle servant, but another figure emerged to greet Sein.
One of the members of the Mist organization, said to be Zegar's private force.
"Lord Zegar says he will not receive visitors."
The servant's head probably rolled.
Especially when his mood was already foul.
"I'm not here to mock you, so tell him I'm here. And that if he refuses once, I'll break my way in."
"...Understood."
Old grudge?
With Sein, who shared such a relationship, having come...
*Creaaaaak.*
The gates of Mist Castle opened.
They knew Sein wouldn't leave easily after his threat, so they had relented.
"I'll guide you."
Mist Castle felt so somber it could almost be mistaken for Sein's own Gloomy Castle.
Well, with its lord utterly ruined, it was only natural.
"Hah!"
With its lord turned into a cripple, even more so.
"I knew you'd come, you bastard."
A slurred, languid voice.
Zegar spoke from his sickbed.
"Did it piss you off that much?"
But Zegar still had some pride left; with his subordinates' support, he barely raised his body.
"How is it?"
Bandages wrapped his entire form.
*Riiip!*
Zegar tore them away with one hand.
"Go ahead, mock me all you want! A loser doesn't need courtesy!"
Zegar's state was dire.
His body was covered in burns that hung loose, and his face and one hand were so melted they were unrecognizable.
This was Demorus.
One of the Three Great Dark Houses on the continent.
No archbishops or cardinals since it wasn't the Order, but they had plenty of high divine power priests they used like slaves in the shadows.
Even without them, superior potions made from rare ingredients unavailable elsewhere littered the place.
And elixirs, those precious treasures, were to be found in Demorus.
"Nice look."
Even those couldn't heal him.
*-Teyndra.*
The flames of the Holy Sword Teyndra.
No, its true power.
*-Divine Flame.*
Only that could have done this.
"Go on, laugh your fill."
Zegar said with self-mockery.
But it wasn't just Zegar.
*Grip.*
His supporting subordinates glared at Sein, fists trembling.
"You've raised your dogs well enough."
"Is that praise or mockery?"
"Still, you shouldn't just glare wildly."
At that moment.
*Urk.*
Zegar endured the pain of vomiting blood and mustered his energy.
"They're my men. Don't touch them carelessly."
Did he have this side to him?
No, Sein knew.
That's why quite a few in Demorus followed Zegar.
Snake-like features, seeming dim but caring well for his own people.
"I'll probably be discarded and killed anyway."
The fate of a failure in Demorus.
Even born and raised in the main house by blood, the price for bringing shame was that.
Moreover, in that body, he couldn't even properly hold a sword.
*Shwaaa.*
But smoke billowed out.
Zegar had used his blessing.
"Even if I kill you here, nothing changes for me."
"Hah, you think you can?"
"......"
A wounded beast baring its teeth.
That was Zegar to a tee.
"Get out."
Sein said to Zegar's subordinates.
But they didn't budge.
"If I kill your master, it's the death penalty for me. I said get out."
Sein repeated, but they stayed put.
"Hoo."
He wanted to flip the place over in anger, but that wasn't why he had come.
"Zegar. Too bad. I wanted to properly admire the scratch I carved on your face."
"You bastard!"
The wound from their first meeting.
"I put effort into making it an X, so it's a real shame."
"How dare you...!"
Zegar finally lost his temper at Sein's continued insults.
But Zegar was a successor candidate among many main house bloodlines.
He had skill and brains.
"Get out."
Zegar said to his subordinates.
"But..."
"I'm fine, so I said get out!"
*
*
*
Alone with Zegar.
In the past, it would have been a fight to the death, death penalty be damned.
The winner would obviously have been Sein, himself.
But now, the mood between them was entirely different.
"......"
"To think trash like Zegar could make such a serious face."
"......?"
"Oh, sorry, I mixed up my inner thoughts."
Zegar scowled.
"Your face is fierce enough already, so don't. Makes me want to puke."
"...Cut the nonsense. What do you want?"
Zegar regained his composure and said.
"What?"
"What you said earlier."
Sein had definitely said it.
"The wound I gave you is on the right. Why did you call it an X?"
It must have seemed odd.
As Zegar said, the wound Sein inflicted was on the right.
The left...
"You already guess, don't you?"
It happened that day, when Zegar suffered humiliation.
Now melted by burns, no trace remained, but Zegar surely remembered.
"That was..."
"Yeah, me, you son of a bitch."
"......!"
Zegar's pupils dilated at Sein's words.
Countless questions would flood his mind.
How Sein was there.
Why Sein was with the Paladin.
Why Sein was called a saint.
"......"
How he had used a saint's power.
"......"
No matter how he pondered, no answers.
Sein was a being that defied this world's common sense.
*-Cheat.*
Cheat incarnate.
Without grasping that concept, he could never understand.
"A traitor, then."
That would be Zegar's best guess.
"You're crazy. Even twisted, the same blood flows in us."
"The Order's people might have..."
Found some way.
"You think that makes sense? Did you hit your head too? Think the family head wouldn't know?"
"......"
Zegar fell silent for a long time.
Finally, he spoke.
"Why tell me this?"
This was Sein's secret.
Revealing it meant expecting something in return.
A secret he couldn't have known if unspoken.
"Zegar."
Sein called to him.
"Will you become my dog?"