Chapter 174: 174

I stood up from the spot .

Whether it was a Vampire or someone from the Church of Caiolium, the one daring to attack the capital shouldn’t last too long .

I mean, really . This was a den of monsters populated by the likes of the Holy Emperor, the sword king, and even the Crown Imperial Prince .

1

“Will you be heading out?”

I turned to look at Alice when she asked that . She flinched a little and got visibly flustered .

She hurriedly bowed her head and addressed me, “T-tomorrow, will you be setting off to the Church of Caiolium’s headquarters?”

“I don’t have a choice . It’s already been decided, after all . ”

Although it was annoying as heck, it’d be better to sort this mess out as soon as possible . And it might be a good idea to ask Oscal for his assistance, just in case .

“This servant begs of you, your highness . ” Alice got up, then held the ends of her dress . She worked so hard to hide her emotions while speaking to me . “Please confirm the fate of his eminence, Archbishop Raphael Astoria . ”

As I thought, she was deeply worried about him even till now .

I smiled bitterly and nodded silently .

There was no need to say anything here . Hoping in vain would end up hurting a lot worse later on, after all .

“Well, uh . Sleep tight . ”

I waved at her and exited through the library’s doorway .

The whole imperial palace was noisy right now .

Paladins kitted out in golden armour ran towards us from the end of the dark corridor with their lit lanterns . They politely saluted Charlotte first before addressing me .

“Your highness, we shall escort you . ”

“Allow us to guide you safely to your quarters . ”

I inwardly clicked my tongue at these members belonging to the Order of the Golden Cross .

Strangely enough, the number of guards around me had increased after the inquisition’s conclusion .

I naturally rejected it since it didn’t feel all that nice, but even then, the Holy Emperor insisted on deploying the bare minimum I could accept .

It wasn’t as if I couldn’t guess the reason for it, of course . Still, I fervently prayed that my guesses were wrong .

1

I groaned a little .

“Shall we get going, your highness?”

Charlotte lightly bowed her head and prepared to escort me .

It was at that very moment that I picked up a weird feeling .

“…?”

I took a closer look to our front .

Maybe the heavy downpour outside was to blame for all that darkness pervading the interior of the imperial palace .

But for some reason, I could sense a strange presence hiding within that darkness .

It seemed that I wasn’t the only one to pick up on that, as Charlotte and the Golden Cross members all stood in front of me in a protective cordon .

Her hand now rested on the sword’s hilt, while the Golden Cross Paladins unsheathed theirs .

They raised their lanterns higher and cast the light towards the end of the corridor, then began stepping forward cautiously .

“Who’s there?”

The Golden Cross Paladins called out .

Right at that moment, I saw a man with a hulking physique wearing the exact same golden armour as the Paladins step out from the end of the corridor .

He was so tall that his head nearly scraped the ceiling of this large passageway .

It was someone from the Order of the Golden Cross?

My tension left me as soon as I confirmed his appearance .

However, it was still strange . Why was he hiding his presence like that?

The hulking golden knight locked his gaze on me . His eyes seemed to gleam sharply under his helm, then he muttered something out .

“Found you . ”

Charlotte’s eyes narrowed to slit . But that lasted only for a second; her expression stiffened and her eyes shot open wide .

“Your highness, danger-!”

She shielded me and threw both of us against the library’s door .

At the same time, I used divinity to enhance my eyesight .

Everything slowed down to a crawl like a video clip being played in slow motion .

My eyes caught the sight of a formless blade flying in .

The members of the Golden Cross responded to the sudden attack by raising their swords up and injecting them with divinity .

For a brief moment there, I thought they managed to repel that formless blade, but then, their swords shattered, followed by their bodies and limbs being torn apart .

The blade continued on and barely missed my and Charlotte’s head by a hair’s breadth .

That was no ordinary sword . It was actually a wind acting like a blade, created by the rapid swing of a sword .

“…!”

BANG!

The door to the library broke open, and both my and Charlotte’s bodies crashed on the floor .

Only a blink later, the doorway and the surrounding wall was split apart smoothly without any resistance whatsoever .

Ka-boom!

A loud explosion echoed out next .

Countless books got shredded apart and torn paper bits crazily blew around in the library . The wall collapsed while the bookshelves exploded and bounced away from the wind pressure .

“What…?!”

Alice, who was still sitting inside the library, jumped up in shock and shielded her head .

In the meantime, Charlotte picked me up off the floor . “Your highness, we’re escaping . ”

“Eh?”

My gaze shifted back to behind us . I saw the golden armour almost obscured by the corridor’s pitch-black darkness .

The golden knight didn’t even hesitate to swing his sword and kill the remaining living members of the Golden Cross suffering from grievous wounds .

That man… he just murdered his own colleagues .

“Wasn’t he from the Order of the Golden Cross?!”

“No, your highness . He’s not . He is…!”

Charlotte stopped speaking and turned her head .

The hulking man lifted up his humongous sword once more .

That’s all he did .

To the eyes of an ordinary person, it must’ve looked like that’s all he did just then .

However, I could clearly see his real movements through my sight enhanced by divinity .

He was moving inside the greatly slowed-down time . While leaving behind a series of afterimages, he cocked his sword before bringing that huge weapon back to where the afterimages began .

All of that happened at a truly unbelievable speed .

BOOM-!

The air exploded .

At the same time, the blade of wind formed and flew in towards where we were .

With me slung over her shoulder, Charlotte raised up her divine sword . She powerfully took a swipe with her weapon in the direction of the incoming formless blade .

KA-BOOM-!

The air exploded even louder .

Charlotte and I were struck hard by the impact force from the exploding air . Our bodies bounced away on the library’s floor and crashed into the still-remaining bookshelves . But that wasn’t enough to kill our momentum, and we slammed into the window sill before breaking through the wall altogether .

We were now falling towards the ground dozens of metres below us .

“Your highness!”

Charlotte quickly wrapped her arms around me . While doing so, we looked back to the library .

The first thing we saw was Alice shielding her head, followed by the golden knight abruptly appearing behind her .

“…Ah . ”

Charlotte made an ‘Ah, dammit!’ face just then .

I immediately summoned my musket . But by the time I tried to inject divinity into the weapon, it was too late .

It just took too long to materialise a holy bullet .

Alice flinched in surprise and turned her head . The golden knight was raising his sword up . A look of fear formed on her face .

But just before the blade of wind came down…

Her eyes sharpened abruptly .

Bang-!

Her leg slammed onto the floor below, and her fist, now laden with divinity, was cocked back .

“Huh?!”

I was flustered by that sight .

No way?

The golden knight fired yet another round of the wind blade . At the same time, Alice punched forward with her divinity-laden fist .

The two forces collided violently and exploded in mid-air, sending Alice’s body away . She vomited a mouthful of blood, but thankfully, she didn’t die .

A part of the library’s wall exploded and her figure also started falling to the ground below .

“Bloody hell!”

I quickly snapped my fingers .

Rune letters materialised on the ground of the imperial palace below, summoning a bunch of skeletons . They safely caught the falling trio of Charlotte, Alice, and me .

I quickly took a look at Alice’s condition .

“Ouch, that hurts…!”

She was moaning in pain while holding her fist with some skinned knuckles .

Eh? That’s all?

Sure, she did inject lots of divinity, but she still blocked the wind blade with only a bare fist, you know?!

Wow, even if she was a Saintess possessing a god’s fragment, wasn’t this, like, a bit too over the top?

I muttered to no one in particular, “Huh . So this is what happens when a Saintess falls head over heels with hand-to-hand combat?”

Alice jumped up in surprise at what I said and stared at me .

She spoke with a stupefied face, “But, how did you…?”

I stopped looking at her and glanced up . The golden knight was staring at us, his head peeking out from the gap of the crumbled wall .

Even if I wanted to use [Mind’s Eye] and learn more about him, that stupid helm got in the way and made it unnecessarily tough .

2

“Why is a monster like him going on a rampage inside the imperial palace?!” I cried out while feeling frustrated .

Charlotte responded to me, “That’s the former vice captain of the Order of the Golden Cross, Kasim Derian . He was the successor to Lord Oscal once upon a time . And also, a person that he wanted to sweep under the rug as well . ”

“Huh?!”

The successor of that sword king? Why was someone like that attacking me in the first place?

Charlotte must’ve read my mind because she continued on with her explanation despite the cold sweat caking her face, “He’s a criminal who disobeyed orders and slaughtered three hundred civilians . I heard that he was tried by the Church of Caiolium’s court and was executed, however…”

“So, it’s those Caiolium idiots in the end . ”

Kasim up there was gripping his sword again .

I quickly summoned some mummies . They appeared all around the library and quickly raised their scimitars .

Dozens of undead creatures rushed towards their target, but this act of resistance turned out to be a futile waste of time .

Just him raising his sword a little was enough to completely chop apart the mummies in his surroundings .

“Is that magic?” I asked .

“No, just his swordsmanship technique . ”

I tutted unhappily at Charlotte’s answer .

“It’s the intruder!”

“Protect his highness!”

I heard the voices of Paladins coming from the interior of the library . The golden knight nonchalantly turned around and took a swipe with his sword again .

The first thing that happened afterwards was the sound of the air exploding, followed almost simultaneously by the splattering of blood .

I clamped my mouth shut at that .

The urgently-put-together group of Paladins were getting slaughtered without being able to put up a proper resistance .

1

At the very least, we needed people on the level of the Golden Cross tasked with escorting the Holy Emperor .

Since the explosion noises resounded out, those folks and the old man should make a move soon . At minimum, they should get here in around three minutes .

Unfortunately…

“Seventh Imperial Prince, Allen Olfolse . ”

…The hulking dude didn’t seem too keen on waiting that long .

I winced a little and stared up at him .

“The one who made a deal with the devil . I shall…”

He leapt up from the hole in the palace’s wall . Despite the distance being dozens of metres, he landed without any issues at all .

His large figure caused the ground to rumble while several bits of debris flew up .

He extended his sword and pointed at me .

His thick but cracked voice reverberated throughout the palace .

“…Punish you as a heretic . ”

His eyes were burning fiercely under his helm .

It was burning with rage .

That was rage against those who relied on Necromancy .

Fin .