Side Story Chapter 94

Side Story Chapter 94

Joshua was about to unlock the restriction on his body. It was nothing difficult—all he had to do was give up his current body.

Or he would surely have done so if Selim hadn’t stepped in front of him.

“Give us a chance,” Selim said with his broad back turned to Joshua.

“Selim?”

“I missed you, Your Majesty.”

Joshua nodded. “...Yes, you’ve gotten quite big while I was away.”

“I’ll formally pay my respects later, but... I want to thank you for returning.” Selim quietly grabbed Joshua’s hand.

Joshua flinched, but a faint smile spread on his face as a memory flashed across his mind. A boy who was shorter than his waist had followed Joshua everywhere, calling him “Daddy Majesty, Daddy Majesty”.

“We’ll take him,” Selim continued.

“We can do it!” Kireua confidently chimed in as he stepped up to join Selim.

However, Joshua shook his head. “You two aren’t enough to take him on yet.”

“Sir Cain is here too.”

Cain shot Bel a glare and stepped past Joshua as well. “Go ahead. You know I won’t let anything happen to your sons.”

“Hmm...” Joshua grunted. He actually thought the three of them would still not be enough. Bel belonged to a totally different level than any of the enemies he had encountered.

‘How in the world did Hubalt create such a monster?’ Joshua wondered.

“There is something you once told me, Your Majesty,” Selim suddenly said.

“Huh?”

“Trials make you stronger. Become someone who can improve himself by using his defeats as a foundation.” Selim pointed his spear forward. “I wish to practice your lessons from my childhood right now.”

Joshua looked around without answering Selim. Although the other two didn’t say anything, they all seemed to be on the same page. The courage to not fear their enemy, the iron will to defeat their enemy... Joshua could feel all of those emotions from them.

“...Ha. I should thank your mothers later when I get back. You may have a pathetic father, but your mothers certainly raised you two to be fine men,” Joshua murmured.

“Does that mean...?”

“Cain, I entrust you with my sons.”

Kireua’s face brightened up and Selim tightened his grip on his spear with renewed resolve.

“Don’t worry. Go ahead,” Selim told Joshua.

“Okay.” Joshua nodded.

Joshua didn’t hesitate any longer and disappeared.

“Hahaha!” Bel burst into laughter. “That was such a touching reunion between father and sons. I don’t have parents, so I’m quite jealous.”

Selim ignored Bel.

“...Are you ready, Kireua?”

Kireua nodded and created a layer of his aura on top of his sword. While Cain was drawing up his energy on Selim’s right, Kireua positioned himself on Selim’s left. The air around them undulated from Kireua and Cain’s powerful energies.

With a sharp breath, Selim infused his mana into Longin. Kireua immediately shivered; he could feel the immense power on his skin. Cain didn’t say anything either, but he was visibly surprised. The sheer radiance of Selim’s aura made the head of his spear shine with brilliant, vivid light.

“Have you overcome your limits again?” Kireua asked.

“...Probably.”

“Monster. The moment I think I’ve almost caught up with you, you’re way ahead of me. I can’t even begin to fathom your level now,” Kireua said, baffled.

“I guarantee that His Highness Selim is as good as His Majesty was when he was in his twenties,” Cain interrupted, “but...”

Cain tensed as Bel approached them.

“...The enemy we have to deal with now is just as formidable—no, stronger than His Majesty was in his twenties.”

* * *

‘It’s all going according to plan,’ Uriel thought, a grin creeping onto his lips.

The arena was still filled with the people’s confused murmuring. If Avalon was truly harboring Lilith Aphrodite, the person who possessed a Demon King authority, they had to change their side.

‘The best scenario would be for the Emperor of Avalon to not show up at all, but delaying like this is also good.’

The most elite spies, directly trained by the Hubalt Empire, had infiltrated the entire Palace. Uriel couldn’t help laughing at Avalon’s stupidity for arrogantly opening their heart to their enemies.

Most importantly, there was a high chance that the Imperial Knights of the Avalon Empire were focused on protecting the Imperial Family; Bel and Uriel’s actions were planned to make that happen.

‘I sent the Hashashin Guild to kidnap the Queen Consort or the Princess and purposely leaked the plans. They’re bound to focus their security on those two.’

However, their true goal was to reveal Lilith Aphrodite to the people right here in Avalon.

Meanwhile, Lilith couldn’t sit still when things had turned out this way. She was on the third floor of the Palace annex, hiding behind the curtains, but her ears were wide open. Naturally, she had heard everything that Uriel had said.

“...That annoying son of a bitch is so obvious...” Lilith murmured.

Uriel was just using her as an excuse, so even if she came forward, there was a high chance that the situation wouldn’t be resolved. Hubalt’s current goal was to divide the other countries and acquire justification to start the Second Continental War. However, she couldn’t stay here forever—that would put Avalon in more trouble.

“I should meet Bel myself. At least he would prefer to fight head to head instead of resorting to a cheap trick like this...”

The Hubalt Empire had trained Bel as a counter for the great Martial God, and even Lilith had to admit that he was incredibly strong. However, Bel also had a certain flaw: he respected the strong and hated scheming. When someone weaker than him gave him commands, he never listened and tried to solve everything by fighting. He was a great knight, but he was a constant source of trouble for his superiors.

Lilith was about to lift the curtain, but someone suddenly grabbed her wrist.

She jolted, shocked. She was so lost in her thoughts that she hadn’t even noticed that someone was approaching her.

“Yo-Your Majesty Iceline?” Lilith stammered.

“No.” Iceline shook her head. “You can’t.”

Iceline didn’t elaborate, but Lilith had no trouble understanding her.

LIlith’s face darkened. “But Avalon’s problems will only grow over time.”

“He’ll take care of it.”n/)o-(v-.E(-l-(b))I()n

Lilith’s lip trembled.

“That was the promise.” Iceline looked straight into Lilith’s silver eyes and nodded reassuringly.

Even now, Uriel continued to spew provocation.

“How long are we supposed to wait for him? The Emperor of Avalon is truly rude—or is he not confident enough to come forward because he’s feeling guilty?”

“How dare you!” Lunsworth roared.

“Don’t just repeat ‘how dare you’. Bring your emperor here or open up the inner Palace to us.”

“...What do you mean, ‘open up the inner Palace’?”

Uriel shrugged. “Unless you’re hiding Lilith Aphrodite, the demoness, I’m sure you have no reason not to.”

Lunsworth’s clenched fists shook with humiliation. This was the Palace, not someone else’s house, but an outsider was forcing them to throw its gates wide open.

“Why don’t you cut that out,” Ulabis interrupted, drawing confused looks. “Even from a third party’s perspective, your words just now were clearly disrespectful, Uriel the paladin.”

“...Flame Emperor?” Uriel murmured in surprise.

“Wait a little longer. As the Martial God’s friend, I won’t tolerate any more discourtesy.”

Ulabis’s burning mana arose in a circle around him.

The Hubalt paladins immediately gathered their divine powers in response.

“...Are you suggesting we start a war right here?” Uriel asked in a sullen voice.

“It looks like that’s what you want to do.”

“Let’s get the facts straight. It wasn’t that big of a deal at the beginning, but Avalon is making this into a serious problem.”

Ulabis tilted his head. “From what I understand, the princes went to bring back His Majesty to explain this ‘not that big of a deal’ matter.”

“It’s not like these distinguished guests have all the time in the world. We can’t wait here forever without doing anything.”

“It has been less than ten minutes. You’re quite impatient for a man of the cloth.”

Ulabis’s nitpicking drew an irritated frown from Uriel, but for some reason it gave way to a sudden smile.

“Marital God!” Uriel shouted. “If you’re back, the least you could do is show yourself! I know you’re the host, but you’re taking things too far. Look at what’s happening!”

His voice thundered over the Palace, carried by his mana. He stood in the palace of a foreign empire—he was blatantly rude, but no one was able to stop him. After all, in this world, might made right.

But suddenly, someone landed in the center of the arena with a mighty boom.

One of the paladins gasped as he recognized who it was.

“H-How...?” Uriel’s eyes widened, his words catching in his throat from surprise.

‘This is too fast!” Uriel thought. Did Bel lose in less than an hour? Impossible.

And that wasn’t even the end of it.

The divine power that hung over the area vanished into the palm of the party crasher.

“I highly advise you to not use demonic or divine powers in front of me,” Joshua said, slamming a white spear made from the nearby paladins’ divine power into the ground. He gave Uriel a pointed look. “It sounds like you have a lot to say to me.”

“Mar-Martial God...!” Uriel stammered.

“Go on. I’m taking things too far—and?”