The Legendary Spearman Returns

Side Story Chapter 208

Jack Steropes had lived and died decades ago, so Kireua knew nothing of him.

“Is he strong?” Kireua asked.

“Yes, he put up quite a fight against His Majesty.”

“His Majesty... had a hard time fighting him?” Kireua’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Yes—but, of course, His Majesty had only just become a teenager at the time.”

Kireua’s face twisted into a bizarre expression that mixed fear and astonishment. It wasn’t because of Jack. What Kireua was astonished by was the fact that the Emperor of Avalon had defeated one of the seven greatest mages as a teenager.

“Why are you surprised? Everyone in the world knows that your dad is a monster,” Anna mumbled.

Despite the fact that Anna had sidled right up to Kireua, the lords and their vassals heard her. They frowned. The people of Avalon greatly respected Joshua, far more than any other emperor in history had been.

Kireua read the air and hastened to change the topic.

“Then who could have turned this mage, Jack Steropes, into a lich? It doesn’t seem possible considering what the world was like at the time.”

It was only natural for Kireua to wonder. Although the continent was crawling with demons right now, black mages were killed on sight. Besides, necromancers had to act before the soul left the world. Kireua had learned that the chances of success dropped dramatically only a week after death. In other words, it was impossible to raise someone who’d died decades ago into a lich or a death knight.

“...Some people come to mind from that time period,” Cain said, catching everyone’s attention. He was a living witness to history; luckily, his memories of the past remained relatively intact.

“On that day, His Majesty bore many injuries when he arrived at... Arcadia.”

“What?! He came to Arcadia?”

“Yes, I remember it because His Majesty was a student in the Academy at the time, just like any other young noble.”

Kireua was utterly shocked. “S-So a battle between such powerful individuals took place right in front of the Palace where the Emperor of Avalon lives?”

“His Majesty said that he had no other choice because the Lightning tracked him to the Academy in pursuit of Bronto.”

Kireua swallowed. Even if they were talking about a primordial stone, even with the endless curiosity and greed of mages, what Jack had done was madness!

“This Jack Steropes... would have been captured by the Imperial Knights and been in quite a lot of trouble even if His Majesty didn’t kill him.”

“I thought the same, but it would have complicated the relationship between the Magic Tower and Avalon.”

“Did the Imperial Family know it happened but covered the incident up? It seems preposterous that our Imperial Knights failed to detect the battle’s, considering their skill and the proximity.”

After giving it a thought for a moment, Cain nodded. “Come to think of it, you may be right. Thetapirion Whitesox was the Storm at the time, and the Magic Tower sent him and the Earth to investigate. They eventually discovered that His Majesty was the one who killed Jack Steropes.”

“Hold on. The current Master of the Magic Tower was the Storm at the time? Then the emperor of Avalon at the time was...?”

“Yes, Marcus ben Britten, the lunatic and the worst tyrant in Avalon’s history.” Cain nodded.

Marcus had been the Emperor of Avalon at the time, and Jack had died near Arcadia. The state of affairs within the Palace, the benefits that the Imperial Family would gain by covering up the incident...

“Kaiser ben Britten and Evergrant con Aswald were studying undead in the Palace at the time!” Kireua shouted as the puzzle pieces came together in his head.

Those two men were definitely the culprits. Kireua’s father’s enemies had studied black magic for decades and created undead underneath the Palace. With Marcus ben Britten’s approval, they had crafted many horrible monsters. Would such people leave an ingredient as rare as a Sixth Circle mage alone? It was safe to assume that the chances of Kaiser and Evergrant not using Jack because they hadn’t been aware of his death were zero. The other Seven Mages had eventually discovered Jack’s death and the perpetrator, and Evergrant had been a lot stronger than the Seven Mages at the time and had been the first human Eighth Circle mage for a good reason.

“...I believe that it would be best if we kept this between us for now,” Cain whispered with a grim look.

Kireua agreed. If he and Cain were right and there had been a secret deal between the Magic Tower and Avalon, it was entirely possible that it would be problematic even at the present. Those parties involved were alive and well and now lead Avalon and the Magic Tower respectively.

“Please keep this between us.” Kireua bowed at the nobles.

The nobles hastily bowed back, bewildered.

“Y-Your Highness, all you have to do is order us.”

This part of history could not be leaked to the public while the war was ongoing. Avalon needed all the manpower it could get, so nothing good would come of exposing this uncomfortable history between the Magic Tower and Avalon.

‘From what I’ve seen, I don’t think the Master of the Magic Tower will turn a blind eye to these crimes, though...’

It was better for Avalon that Theta and his people stayed in power in the Magic Tower, but many mages were after Theta’s position. Avalon would suffer if Theta decided to take responsibility and step down from his position.

Despite deciding his course of action, Kireua’s anxiety didn’t disappear. The more witnesses there were, the harder it was to keep a secret, and there were over a thousand sets of eyes and ears on them.

‘There’s no time to hesitate, so I’ll have to tackle it head-on.’

Kireua strode toward the forest. The only choice he was left with was to verify the truth—besides, he had to pass through this forest to reach Hubalt anyway.

“Let’s get going. This is the Black Monster Forest, so instruct your people to stay on alert,” Kireua commanded the lords.

“Yes, Your Highness!”

* * *

After a considerable climb up the snowy mountain, Bel finally laid eyes on its peak.

As he got higher, the number of monsters he encountered increased exponentially. A plethora of monsters surrounded Bel, fangs bared, drawing a chuckle from him.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had a relaxing hike like this, but I’m getting tired of you guys now.”

The monsters all charged him at once.

Over a hundred monsters—small, medium, large, their size didn’t matter—lost their heads and collapsed into the snow drifts. Bel’s fists moved so fast that it sounded like he’d only struck once; each punch burst a monster’s head like a watermelon.

“That certainly wasn’t satisfying.” Bel looked at his fist and then at the sky. It felt extremely lonely being so powerful. Because he had been raised to counter the Martial God, Bel’s life had nothing in it except beating his opponents to death. By now, almost no one could withstand even a single punch, leaving him feeling empty. He was born to fight and yet he had no one to fight.

“Oh?” Bel exclaimed. At the peak of the mountain, he looked back and saw an endless, straight line of footsteps. Not even monsters had disturbed him for the last hour. If even monsters were running away in fear of him, then humans with intelligence weren’t going to be any different.

“...Except for one person.” Bel smiled from ear to ear upon finding the enormous ice boulder the demon named Meric had told him about.

A divinely handsome man was sound asleep inside the boulder.

Bel made noise on purpose as he approached the ice boulder, notifying the man of his arrival.

“Joshua Sanders,” Bel cheerfully called—but he got no answer back.

Bel stood right in front of the ice boulder and tapped on it, but the almighty Martial God still didn’t wake up. Unfortunately, it seemed Bel’s enthusiasm for their reunion was not reciprocated.

“...Then I’ll have to wake you up by force,” Bel declared, his smile stretching.

He’d heard how sturdy the ice boulder was, of course, and of its secrets. Many of the most powerful demons and hundreds of weaker demons had been trying to break the boulder for a long time, but to no avail. It seemed ridiculous to Bel for wicked demons to value loyalty or to seek revenge, so Bel had asked Meric why the demons were hellbent on breaking the ice boulder open. Meric had given him a very simple answer.

“So you’re sleeping with the Demon Spirit, huh?” Bel murmured.

The Demon Spirit was the Demon Realm’s god and the root of all evil. Since Bel was human, one would expect that he would be uneasy about the Demon Spirit’s presence, but that was the farthest thing from what he was feeling right now.

“That’s none of my business, hehehe. No, actually, I can use it to threaten the Martial God into waking up.”

The air thrummed with power as Bel enveloped his fist in mana. He was preparing to use his full power for the first time since setting foot on the mountain. Bel had never put everything he had into a fight except for when he had battled the dragon lord. But if his opponent was the Martial God in his real body...

“...He’s more than qualified to take my punch.”

Bel pulled his arm backward.

Thunder rattled the sky.