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Side Story Chapter 18

His first blow threw the enemy knights into the air, but the rebels knew that swinging a long weapon left a brief moment where one lay open to attack. The enemy thus took the opportunity to attack Selim. Knights as skilled as those from Avalon wouldn’t miss their chance, so the nearby enemies simultaneously thrust their swords at the Prince.

“What…!”

Selim somersaulted off of his horse and high into the air to avoid the swords pouring toward him from all directions. Then he sprang toward an enemy knight.

“Arrgghh!”

Selim’s second attack was a kick that knocked the knight right off of his horse. Selim claimed that horse for his own; he held up his hand and his spear suddenly reappeared. That spear was Longin, the divine weapon that could be summoned anytime the owner desired it—the spear of the Emperor of Avalon.

“Don’t be afraid! He’s just one man! Attack him at the same time!” Dargo shouted.

“Woaaaahhhh!”

Dargo’s knights forgot about their fear and held up their swords, lighting the valley with the radiant shine of their auras.

Among Dargo’s selected one hundred knights were thirty Class B experts, who had been on standby until now. It was time for them to step forward. The vanguard of each group had locked swords with each other. When Dargo’s expert knights circumvented them to attack Selim, the Black Knights flew into a rage.

“How dare they!”

“No one will get to His Highness!”

“Rodney! Agaggette! We’ll take the rest. Protect His Highness!”

The two men who had been holding the wings of the Black Knights’ formation threw their comrades a salute and then spurred their horses forward.

“Those arrogant—!” Dargo scowled; the situation couldn’t be any worse. If things had gone according to his plan, he and his knights should have defeated the enemy vanguard ages ago, but the actual result was the polar opposite. There were less than ten enemies, but they had held down their position and fended off Dargo’s knights with ease even with less than one-seventh of Dargo’s knights.

The horses of Dargo and his yet-uncommitted knights began to neigh frantically. The area was narrow and steep, so Dargo and his knights were at a disadvantage. On top of that, the way up to the fortress was blocked, so Dargo and his remaining knights had no choice but to watch the fight. When they tried to skirt around the flanks, two of the Black Knights suddenly showed up and stopped them.

Dargo took off his helmet and threw it away irately. The feeling of the helmet getting in his view annoyed him too much.

“I’ll take care of them myself.” Dargo held up his sword. His aura, the most brilliant on the battlefield, soared from his sword. It didn’t matter if it was the left path or the right path—if he managed to clear one path, he and his knights would be able to head straight into the fortress.

With that decided, he turned and prepared to advance, when an ominous feeling grabbed his attention.

‘Murderous intent!’ Dargo’s eyes snapped upward.

Someone was falling from the sky like a bolt of lightning.

“Ugh…!” Dargo grunted. The impact rendered Dargo’s hand so numb that he nearly lost his grip on his sword—but he had become a Master ages ago and was the ruler of the Southern Avalon Empire, the wielder of the authority of the Four Guardians!

“There you are, Dargo rane Suspen, head of the southern rebel army.”

“Selim Sanders!” Dargo yelled.

Just as expected, the person who intercepted Dargo was the First Prince, but more shocking was that even the knights blocking the flanks were quite skilled. The knights fended off three or four of Dargo’s knights each with ease. It was safe to assume that they were at least B-Class knights.

“Can you afford to pay attention to anyone else right now?” Selim sneered.

“…Hehehe. You’re truly arrogant to creep into the center of the enemies like this, Prince Selim.”

“Unlike you, I don’t really enjoy hiding like a rat,” Selim said.

“What…?”

“I’m a prince, yet I still fight in the front line. What are your knights going to think?”

Dargo felt his anger rising inside him.

“I gotta hand it to you and your mouth,” he mumbled. “You are indeed the son of the Emperor of Avalon.”

“No, my eloquence isn’t the only thing I take after,” Selim said. “Magic Spear Art, Level 1,” Selim quietly uttered. He pointed his long, pitch-black spear toward Dargo.

Dargo heard him, and he was well aware of what the Magic Spear Arts were. Even the knights that were approaching Selim flinched.

Dargo opened his mouth to roar orders, but Selim beat him to the punch.

“Stabbing is like a lightning bolt.”

Dargo wasn’t sure whether Selim had thrust his spear before or after he had finished speaking.

“Lightning Flash.”

The one thing that he could know for certain was that he had no way of determining that right now. The ray of light—hundreds of rays of light—denied him the opportunity.

Dargo fell off his horse, covered in holes.

“Multiple Strikes.”

It was the last voice Dargo heard in this world.

* * *

Meanwhile, Kireua Sander was staring blankly at the battle. There wasn\'t a single moment for Kireua to jump onto the battlefield. Dargo’s one hundred knights couldn’t break through the blockade created by the ten Black Knights.

A tournament usually ended in one of two ways: either by dismounting the other team using their lances or by fighting until one team obliterated the other. This tournament was clearly the latter case.

On top of that, knights usually took turns while fighting in a narrow area like Raymond Valley because their stamina wasn’t infinite. They were bound to get fatigued at some point, so the knights on standby substituted for the wounded and tired knights, but all ten Black Knights held their positions through the entire battle, forming an impenetrable line that stopped the enemy from entering the valley.

“…I have no way of helping him even if I want to,” Kireua murmured.

“Are you afraid?”

Kireua’s head snapped around to face the speaker. Although Kireua wasn’t sure when he had gotten there, a man who should have been on top of the ramparts was standing right beside him.

“Sir Cain?”

“Are you afraid of the fact that you have to compete with a monstrously strong person like him?” Cain repeated.

Kireua clenched his fists. Was he scared? He honestly wasn’t sure. Maybe he didn’t want to fight his ally, monstrous or not, or he didn’t really want the throne yet.

“…No, I’m not,” Kireua honestly answered.

“Oh?”

Yes, now that he had to answer that question, Kireua found that he indeed wasn’t scared. In fact…

“Regardless of who takes the throne, Selim is someone I want to defeat no matter what it takes,” Kireua said. His words were backed by an iron resolve.

“…You are indeed His Majesty’s son.” Cain smiled faintly. Kireua gave him a questioning look. “His Majesty also hated the idea of losing to anyone.”

Kireua \'s eyes widened as he understood. Joshua Sanders, the Martial God, never lost; that was what made him the emperor of this empire.

“Dargo rane Suspen is deaaaad!” one of the Black Knights shouted, his mana carrying his voice throughout the entire area. Kireua and Cain turned to look.

“Mmm…”

Their jaws dropped as they saw what lay at the center of the valley. Selim held up the rebel leader’s head, with only fifty of Dargo’s knights surviving to witness their defeat.

“Hup!” Selim tossed the head aside as casually as if he was handling a bit of unwanted offal. “Take care of the rest,” he said.

The Black Knights saluted and drew up their energies, readying themselves for another fight.

“All of them stand guilty of high treason. They have abandoned their country,” Selim coldly declared. “You can kill them all.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

Selim’s knights were as extraordinary as their leader. Regardless of the fact that the enemy knights had lost their will to fight, they were still part of the ten greatest knightly orders—and yet one Black Knight had gone up against four of them with ease. The more surprising part was that Selim turned his back on the battlefield while the battle was still ongoing.

“…His Highness Selim must trust his knights deeply,” Cain said.

After finishing his job, Selim walked back to the fortress gate. Kireua unwittingly held his breath as the elder prince approached.

Cain greeted Selim first: “Good work, Your Highness.”

“…Sir Cain.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Since we’ve put out the biggest fire for now, I want to ask you a question that’s been bothering me for a while,” Selim said.

Cain stopped bowing and tilted his head in confusion. “What is the question?”

“It’s about this spear.” Selim held up the spear he was holding.

Naturally, Cain was well aware of what that weapon was. He had seen the weapon for dozens of years and had handed it to Selim himself.

“You mean Longin?”

“Yes; you said that Longin was originally found in the ruin of Amon, which lies under the Agnus manor,” Selim recalled.

Cain nodded. “Yes, that is indeed what I told you.”

“Five years ago, I formed a search party of my own and have been tracking down His Majesty,” Selim said.

Cain raised one of his eyebrows slightly.

“I should have done it a long time ago rather than relying on you so much, so it’s my fault.” Selim shrugged.

“…I see I unintentionally caused you trouble, Your Highness,” Cain said apologetically. “I should have tracked down His Majesty er—”

“When you returned to the palace, my knights headed to the ruin of Amon right away, thinking they might be able to find something that you missed,” Selim continued.

Cain’s face darkened. “So did you find something?”

“No, my knights failed to locate anything that would tell us His Majesty’s whereabouts.”

“I see.”

“But they were able to find the traces of an intense battle,” Selim said, his voice becoming colder.

Kireua’s eyes widened. “Se-Selim!” he shouted. “What are you doing!”

Selim pointed his black spear at none other than Cain de Harry, Joshua Sanders’s first knight and the Combat Emperor.

“So I’ll ask you: do you have anything to do with his disappearance?”

“The hell? What are you doing right now?” Kireua protested.

“Kireua, stay out of this, ” Selim solemnly ordered. Kireua was unable to stop him. “Sir Cain, you had better answer me right here, right now.”

Selim drew up his energy, creating a storm of mana in the air around him.

“…Ha.” Cain smiled faintly. “Your Highness, that battle wasn’t enough for you, was it?”

He received a confused look.

“You know the rules. Even if you’re a member of the Imperial Family, you must earn everything using your own power, the position you are born with,” Cain said.

While Selim stared at him, wide-eyed, Cain also drew up his energy.

“That is what I’ve been teaching you ever since you were a boy.”