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Side Story Chapter 245

Lucifer waved his hand at them, signaling them to be at ease, and kept going.

“How have you been?” he asked when he reached his destination.

A man—who was barely more than a corpse—was lying helplessly in the center of the prison. He used to be a renowned figure: a Superhuman, Thran’s Hero. The Flame Emperor.

“Hey, Ulabis.”

Ulabis still didn’t respond. Lucifer chuckled. Ulabis’s mana hall had been destroyed by him, so Ulabis was no longer able to use his mana. Lucifer could understand Ulabis’s despair—he had felt the same when he had lost to Joshua Sanders.

“But still, it’s very rude to not answer my question,” Lucifer said with a disapproving frown. With his extremely heightened senses, Lucifer could tell that Ulabis was conscious, and the fact got on his nerves. Lucifer lightly clenched his fists and Ulabis floated into the air. After his death, Lucifer’s martial prowess had increased by several levels; enough to lift an adult male with only his energy.

“How have you been?”

“I like seeing you acting like the loser you are…but you still have to say hello when someone comes to see you.”

“…”

“I know that the people of Thran are waiting for you, so if you ignore me one more time, I’ll kill every one of them,” Lucifer coldly warned.

Ulabis’s eyelids twitched several times and he opened his lifeless eyes.

“…What do you want?”

“Hehehe. You’re still the king of Thran, huh?”

“If your goal is to humiliate me, do that all you want, but the people of Thran are innocent. As an emperor, I hope you won’t harm them.”

Ulabis deliberately called Lucifer an emperor, knowing that Lucifer was fond of the title.

“They aren’t necessarily innocent. Serving the wrong lord is a great crime.”

“…Their only possible crime is being born in a powerless country led by an incompetent ruler,” Ulabis bitterly replied.

Lucifer grinned. “You hate me and yet you’re willing to kiss the floor for those people. Do you want to save those vermin that badly?”

“That is what a king is.”

“What?”

“For my people, I’ll kiss the floor ten thousand times,” Ulabis declared with a vigor that seemed to belie his condition. “Please don’t hurt them.”

Lucifer dissipated his energy, and Ulabis instantly hit the floor.

“You became a pretty boring halfwit while I was away,” Lucifer grumbled.

“I beg of you.”

Lucifer suddenly had a very interesting idea. He smiled from ear to ear, eager to see Ulabis’s reaction to it.

“How about this?” Lucifer offered. “You can look after the poor people of Thran yourself.”

Ulabis shuffled doubtfully.

“You must not understand what I meant. I’m asking what you’d do if you received a chance to be reborn.”

Ulabis still kept his head on the floor, but Lucifer could tell that he was taken aback.

‘Yeah, this is what I wanted.’ Lucifer smiled slyly. Even though Ulabis was already his prisoner, Lucifer had gone through the trouble of destroying Ulabis’s mana hall to push him into the depths of despair for this moment. Lucifer was offering Ulabis a glimmer of hope when he had hit the rock bottom and was ready to give up on everything.

Lucifer’s trademark crimson energy filled the dungeon, but it was different from before; mixed with it were smoky strands of demonic power.

“You must want to know how I resurrected several times stronger than before,” Lucifer said.

Ulabis looked up for the first time, obviously interested.

Lucifer walked through the thick cloud of his demonic power and slowly held out his hand to Ulabis.

“You can do it too with my power of Wrath. Take my hand and I will grant you the same blessing.”

Ulabis’s lifeless eyes were glued to Lucifer’s hand.

* * *

Cain was anxiously pacing back and forth at the rendezvous point when he suddenly stiffened. All the nobles and knights waiting with him looked at him expectantly, wondering if he had noticed something. Cain had the sharpest senses of all of them.

“Sir Cain…?”

Cain’s face slowly brightened. “…His Highness is here.”

The others also brightened up.

“Ohaaaaa!”

Some of the knights let out loud cheers.

“Stop that right now. You might compromise our location.”

“We’ve already finished scouring the area. Hubalt’s cowardly emperor must have gathered all of his available troops around his palace even though we’re conquering all of the territory nearby!” one of the aides confidently shouted.

The nobles awkwardly exchanged glances. Fortunately, everyone’s attention was drawn elsewhere.

“Wooooh!”

“His Highness is back!”

“We’ve wooooonnn!”

“He must have taken the emperor’s head! That man doesn’t come home until the job is done!”

The nobles and knights had fought their way through thousands of troops, but Kireua’s return was so exciting that they forgot all of their fatigue.

One man and two women crested the horizon. It was Kireua, Anna, and Isaac, riding horses that Christian and Lilith had prepared for them.

“There he is!” one of the knights shouted.

“Hmm?” Cain noticed the unfamiliar addition to Kireua’s party and tilted his head in confusion. The closer Kireua and the others were, the darker Cain’s face got. He could not get a read on this guest’s level. Nevertheless, this wasn’t the time for him to be lost in thought, so he jumped off of his horse and saluted.

“Greetings to Your Highness!”

The knights also got off their horses one after another and energetically hailed their lord.

“Greetings to Your Highness!”

“All of you are okay!” Kireua approached them with a bright smile on his face and then jumped off his horse too.

Cain immediately began his report, wary of retaliation from Hubalt.

“We’ve confirmed that all the nearby main roads have closed down.”

“We expected that.”

From Kireua’s nonchalant reply, Cain was certain that the assassination of the emperor of Hubalt had been a success.

“Our only remaining escape route is the same path we used to come here…

“Which means that we have to go through that damned Black Demon Forest. There’s always another problem, isn’t there.” Kireua frowned as he looked to the east, where a small hill lay.

Once Kireua’s forces climbed over that hill, they would be no more than two days away from the Black Monster Forest.

Kireua gestured at Cain. “Let’s hurry, Sir Cain. We have a lot of work to do.”

“Did something happen, by any chance?”

“It’s obvious how Hubalt is going to react after losing their emperor, and… we also have to deal with the Human Realm’s impending collapse.” Kireua stroked his chin.

The knights beamed.

“Yes, my lord!”

“You heard His Highness! Get ready to leave immediately!”

“Yes, sir!”

Cain enjoyed watching the troops getting to work in high spirits for a moment. He then glanced at the mysterious woman Kireua had brought with him and sent a telepathic message to the prince.

-Your Highness, your guest…

-I’ll explain it to you later, Sir Cain.

-…Yes, Your Highness. I’ll wait.

Cain nodded. Kireua, on the other hand, was the most anxious person there. The Emperor of Avalon’s two friends had bought Kireua time at the risk of their lives, so he had to get out of Hubalt as quickly as possible and join Avalon’s main forces. He was worried about Avalon.

“Let’s get over the hill right now!” he yelled.

“Let’s move!” Cain shouted using mana.

Everyone turned their horses and headed to the hill. After some time, they arrived at the foot of the hill, but they gradually slowed down because they ran into a situation no one had expected.

“What in the world…?” Cain blankly mumbled.

The region around the hill was an uninhabited wasteland because it was close to the Black Monster Forest—so what was with this assembly of soldiers and knights?

“Hey!” a knight yelled from the opposite side.

This totally unexpected obstacle was the reserve forces that Kurz had summoned back to the capital. Since these people had originally been intended to fight in the Continental War, they numbered in the tens of thousands.

‘But why didn’t they head to the capital…?’

However, Cain had no time to contemplate further.

“…My apologies, Your Highness,” Cain said. “I should have been more careful in choosing our escape route.”

“It’s okay. You and the others must have been busy with the mission. Leave them to me.”

“Leave them— What?”

“It’s said that no matter how many infantry there are, they’re helpless in front of a single Master,” Kireua confidently answered.

“…With all due respect, Your Highness, the saying only applies when a Master uses guerilla tactics,” Cain cautioned, worried that Kireua might have gotten too excited after succeeding in his seemingly impossible mission. “Being a Master doesn’t mean that you have infinite stamina; fighting them head-on is still dangerous.”

“I have something to test, so trust me, please. I will handle them.”

Kireua sent another telepathic message to Cain while he hesitated.

-I’m getting used to using the power of Greed now.