Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1852

“Then…”

Wiggins, seated at the center of the round table, smiled as he looked at the other Knights.

“I’ll take it there are no objections.”

No answer came back.

They say silence is agreement, but this silence certainly didn’t mean agreement.

A silent protest.

They had no power to stop Wiggins from taking the Master’s seat, but emotionally, they could never agree.

If it were the Wiggins of the past, he would have understood that meaning and tried to find a better direction.

But now?

‘It’s meaningless.’

The result wouldn’t change anyway.

The Wiggins of the past believed that even the same result could be evaluated differently depending on the process. But now, he didn’t feel the need to go through the long and arduous process of persuasion for a slightly different evaluation.

Yes, to put it simply…

‘A dictator, I am.’

Suppressing with force and forcing the other party’s decision.

In the past, it was the behavior he hated the most. But now, the fact that he was doing such a thing made him chuckle bitterly.

However, that was all.

He had no intention of abandoning the behavior of a dictator to comfort himself.

“Knight Wiggins.”

“No.”

Wiggins corrected the words in a light tone.

“Call me Master, Knight Tavares.”

Knight Tavares bit his lip slightly and looked at Wiggins.

His eyes, unable to hold clear hostility or any sign of agreement, looked utterly clouded.

“As a Knight, I do not intend to oppose Knight Wiggins taking the position of Master. However, the Round Table has its own procedures.”

“So?”

“According to the Round Table’s procedures, unless the Master dies or goes missing and the position becomes vacant, the appointment of a successor Master must be approved by the Master.”

“Continue.”

Knight Tavares swallowed hard.

“But now, the Master is neither missing nor dead. Isn’t that right?”

“That’s right.”

“But in this way, it is impossible for Knight Wiggins to take the position of successor Master. In the first place, Knight Wiggins… no, Sir Wiggins is not even a current Knight, is he?”

Wiggins nodded as if he agreed.

“Do you all agree with that?”

Silence.

In the low silence that returned, Wiggins laughed again, quietly. Had this Round Table, which was always full of opinions and boisterous, ever been this quiet in the past?

Just by the sound disappearing in the same place, the feeling was completely different. If this place in the past was a forum with its own kind of enjoyment, now this place was heavily weighed down by power and authority.

‘This is how it was from the start.’

What was he chasing?

Fairness? Democracy?

What a joke.

The Master always sits at the center of the Round Table.

If the Round Table was truly a place where equal beings had equal speaking power and discussed opinions frankly, there would be no concept of a seat of honor, and there would be no position of Master.

A shallow trick.

He too once believed this shallow trick to be the truth.

There was a time when he believed that even if it wasn’t a perfect method, it was at least the closest method to perfection.

But now, all these processes just seem like a sham.

Was it because he opened his eyes to another truth of the world?

Or was it just because he had become corrupted?

“I understand what Knight Tavares is trying to say. But it doesn’t seem to be a problem.”

“What do you mean?”

Wiggins gave a bitter smile as he looked at Knight Tavares.

“Because the person who sent me here is the Master.”

Instantly, Knight Tavares’s face hardened. After staring at Wiggins silently for a while, he spoke as if groaning.

“I’m not doubting Sir Wiggins, but I…”

“Find it hard to believe?”

Wiggins chuckled.

“It sounds a bit funny.”

Wiggins’s gaze swept over those sitting around the Round Table. The Knights couldn’t bring themselves to meet his gaze head-on and lowered their eyes.

“If what Knight Tavares says is true, then you mean you acknowledge the authority of the former Master, right?”

“The Master who joined hands with the Chang King and betrayed the General Assembly to attack it, you mean.”

“Wait a moment…”

Someone raised their hand.

“Speak, Knight Kozak.”

“That’s just Knight Tavares’s personal opinion. We have already expressed our approval for Knight Wiggins to take the position of Master.”

Wiggins smiled wryly.

“Then you mean you don’t acknowledge the authority of the former Master?”

“The attack on the General Assembly had nothing to do with our intentions. That betrayal was never discussed at this sacred Round Table, and it was something that was not agreed upon with anyone.”

“Hmm…”

“I do not recognize the former Master who betrayed the General Assembly by ignoring the agreement of the Round Table on his own and, as a result, plunged the Round Table into crisis. It’s just that the motion for dismissal was not properly presented due to the extreme result, and the other Knights will have the same opinion.”

Wiggins looked at the Knights once more.

“Is that so?”

The Knights nodded silently.

They had no desire to support Wiggins, but they also didn’t want to side with the Master and incur the wrath of the General Assembly.

“How about you, Knight Tavares?”

Knight Tavares’s face hardened at Wiggins’s words.

“W-well, of course. I also do not recognize the authority of the former Master. But the procedure is…”

“What procedure?”

Wiggins chuckled.

“Then shall we vote here now on the dismissal of the former Master? Is your opinion to waste time on that meaningless process?”

Knight Tavares couldn’t answer.

He looked around at the other Knights. But what he saw was not a gaze that agreed with him, but a cold, reproachful gaze.

‘Damn it.’

Anyone could see that he was saying the right thing.

But the Knights, who were supposed to uphold the justice of the Round Table, were succumbing to power and prestige, ignoring all procedures and processes, and moving as that outsider wanted.

What kind of Round Table was this?

“Then I understand that. But!”

Knight Tavares looked at Wiggins with a venomous gaze.

“I’ll say it again, Sir Wiggins is not a Knight. It is impossible for such a person to take the position of Master under the laws of the Round Table.”

“Listen here, Knight Tavares.”

“Yes.”

“How many days do you think it will take for me to regain my position as a Knight of England?”

Knight Tavares’s gaze turned to the side without him realizing it.

The Knight of England, who was sitting with a face that said he knew nothing, received his gaze and gave an awkward smile.

“Two days, or one? Maybe half a day?”

Snap!

Wiggins snapped his fingers.

“It won’t even take thirty minutes. In the first place, a Knight is appointed by the decision of the country, not by the Round Table.”

If Wiggins needed the position of a Knight to become Master, would England oppose it?

That would never happen. From England’s point of view, it would be something to welcome with open arms, not something to stop.

There was no way the people here wouldn’t know that fact.

Wiggins’s gaze quietly suppressed Knight Tavares’s gaze.

“Do you need tea time or something? If you really need a thirty-minute break, I’ll grant it to you.”

“It’s not that…”

“Then?”

Wiggins’s gaze became sharper and sharper.

“May I ask why you are stalling with such obvious words?”

Knight Tavares’s lips trembled.

“Knight Wiggins.”

Knight Tavares, who had been silent for a long time, looked at Knight Wiggins with firm determination.

“I once respected you.”

“You were the epitome of a Knight, a model for Knights. I was going to support you wholeheartedly when you became Master someday.”

“Hmm.”

Wiggins leaned back in his chair.

“But I can’t help but be disappointed in the way you are acting now. What do you intend to do by coercing the Round Table with force to become Master! Is this the justice you believe in?”

It was great courage.

Wiggins also acknowledged that fact. It was by no means easy to argue with reason, with his veins bulging, against Wiggins, who had become incomparably stronger than the Round Table, both in terms of individual power and the power he had behind him.

If it were the Wiggins of the past, he might have praised that courage and applauded it.

But not anymore.

“So?”

“…Yes?”

“Don’t ramble on with useless emotional arguments, just tell me the conclusion. So, what is the wrong procedure in me becoming Master?”

“In the absence of the Master, the next Master is decided by a vote of the Knights. Isn’t that right?”

“Of course, that’s right! But… but this is!”

“Tell me. What’s wrong?”

Knight Tavares’s hands trembled.

He turned his head sharply to look at the other Knights, but they were just averting his gaze.

“I prefer democratic procedures.”

Wiggins smiled.

“Except for you, no, even you have agreed that I should become Master, so isn’t this the most democratic procedure? Isn’t that right?”

Wiggins smiled wryly as he looked at Knight Tavares, who couldn’t bring himself to answer.

‘Even the Nazis came to power through a vote.’

No method can be completely good. Wiggins now knew that fact. The only difference was that now he was not a person looking for a better way, but a person using the existing way.

“If there are no further objections, I will become Master as of today.”

Wiggins slowly rose from his seat.

Then, after looking around at the Knights, Wiggins smiled.

“Any objections?”

“…No, there are none.”

“Don’t worry. I will lead the Round Table well. Of course, it will be a little different from the way you have been thinking.”

“Wiggins!”

Knight Tavares jumped up from his seat.

But what greeted him was Wiggins’s gaze, colder than ice.

“Rights can only be claimed when obligations are fulfilled, Knight Tavares.”

Wiggins spat out the words.

“You are tacit accomplices who condoned the Master’s actions. You should be grateful that the Lord was lenient and did not hold you accountable. Otherwise, the long history of the Round Table would have already ended.”

The Knights lowered their heads. Wiggins laughed quietly at the sight.

‘A gathering of people who would even risk their lives for justice…’

There is no such thing here.

From the beginning.

“Have a good night.”

Knight Wiggins.

No, Master Wiggins turned and left the Round Table.