The Bastard Swordsman Of The Imperial Guard [EN]: Chapter 169

“Tsk. This is why I liked being the Captain of the Guard.”

Rahel sighed and walked out of the waiting room.

Power is sweet, but it requires you to think about what comes next.

Sometimes, he missed being the Captain of the Guard, when he didn’t have to think about anything.

“Sir, what about Cardinal Angelo?”

“His fits wouldn’t stop, so the Saintess forcibly suppressed his consciousness with holy magic.”

“You did well. Tsk. I thought he was a good person, but he ended up revealing his true colors.”

Cardinal Angelo.

A man called the pillar of the Order.

He was more upright and worked harder for the Order than anyone else, but it seemed that Pope Chun Ma was his Berserk Button [something that triggers an extreme reaction in him].

‘What good is being upright? If you worship Pope Chun Ma, it doesn’t matter if you’re a good person.’

Rahel had always wondered how Bernardo became a Cardinal, but now he realized that there were no normal people in the Order.

“Hero, thank you for your hard work. But… is it okay to leave the Pope with his power?”

Amadeus, standing next to Marco, asked cautiously.

The Gaia Order’s Hero, Rahel, held Pope Chun Ma accountable, but he didn’t actually kill him.

He even allowed him to keep his position as Pope.

“It’s okay. Didn’t you see it too, Lord Amadeus? That man sincerely believes in Gaia. He’s just very twisted somewhere.”

“…I know that too. He is a clergyman who has dedicated his life to Gaia. But if there’s even a slight possibility of trouble, shouldn’t we eliminate it?”

Even if they maintain the Pope’s position outwardly, shouldn’t they take away all his power?

That’s what Amadeus thought.

“If we take away all the Pope’s power, who gets it?”

“Isn’t it 당연히 [dangyeonhi – Korean for ‘of course’] you, Hero?”

“Ugh, you want me to do that annoying job? If that’s the case, Lord Amadeus, you should be the Hero. And wouldn’t Lord Amadeus or Commander Marco be the first to notice if Chun Ma does anything strange?”

“Ah, the Hero trusts me. Yes. I will definitely try my best.”

“Yes, yes. And we definitely need the Pope.”

Pope Chun Ma.

Chun Ma, a clergyman respected by all clergymen, must exist as the representative of the Gaia Order.

In the end, the Gaia Order will be the one to unite humanity in the war between humans and demons.

“Rahel, I wish you would have told me about this in advance… I was so surprised because it was so sudden.”

At that moment, Cecilia, who had suppressed Cardinal Angelo with holy magic, came out of the waiting room, looking exhausted.

“I’m sorry, Saintess, but blame this man. He suddenly came and said we should kill the Pope, so I had no choice but to do this.”

“It’s all my fault. I’m sorry, Saintess.”

Amadeus bowed his head.

The Hero said it was his fault, so that must be right.

“No, it’s okay. More than that, Rahel, what will happen to His Holiness the Pope…?”

The Pope was the one who helped Cecilia every day at the thanksgiving prayer ceremony after she was appointed as the Saintess.

Cecilia must also feel betrayed that he was running the Order’s holy sites.

“It’s okay. I’ll put him in jail when the war with the demons is over. Come to think of it, what is the Pope doing? Is he in the waiting room?”

“No, he went to his private prayer room and said he wanted to hear Rahel’s teachings later.”

When Cecilia was stopping Marco’s fit, Pope Chun Ma left the waiting room with a blank expression.

“What teachings? He just shouldn’t do things like holy sites.”

In a world where even people like Bernardo become Cardinals, he can’t tell them not to do bad things at all.

Rahel wouldn’t bother stopping him as long as he didn’t do inhumane things like holy sites.

“More than that, Lord Amadeus.”

“Yes, Hero.”

“Things are mostly settled, so come this way for a moment. Commander Marco, Saintess, I’ll see you later.”

Rahel took Amadeus to a quiet reception room and entered.

Then, he used magic to completely block the sound from the surroundings.

“…What’s going on, Hero?”

“I have something important to talk about. Lord Amadeus, you said you know a lot about the Order’s holy sites.”

“Yes, I am one of the people who created the Order’s holy sites. Among the people currently in the Gaia Order, only Pope Chun Ma and I know about the holy sites.”

“Then you must know about it… About the Oni King Yaksha.”

A monster born from human malice.

The Oni King Yaksha.

The magic emitted by the Oni King was exactly the same as the Pope’s divine power.

And, artificial divine power was being created at the Order’s holy sites.

Then there is only one answer.

The Oni King was created at the holy site.

“The Oni King…”

Amadeus nodded.

“What the hell is that thing? I heard that the Oni King is a monster born from human malice, but if the Order is creating divine power at the holy site, there’s no reason to create the Oni King.”

Pope Chun Ma may be crazy, but he acted for the development of the Gaia Order.

There was no need to create a monster like the Oni King.

“…Hero, it has been over 50 years since the Order’s holy site was created. As Pope Chun Ma said, it was a plan to make the Gaia Order stronger.”

“50 years?”

Rahel narrowed his eyes at the longer than expected time.

At that point, it may have been planned by the Pope before Chun Ma.

“Yes, but it wasn’t always like this from the beginning. If I had to say it… the current holy site has been improved into a more efficient form.”

“…What do you mean?”

“In order to extract divine power from humans who have ambiguous talents and cannot become priests, you have to stimulate their survival instincts. To do that, you have to periodically inject them with magic that is finely tuned so that humans don’t die. …How many experiments must have been done to find out this fact?”

“…”

The Order didn’t intend to create the Oni King either.

However, in the experiment to create divine power using priest candidates, more victims than they expected occurred.

“In the early days, we targeted various age groups, and there were many trials and errors. Of course, divine power was not the only thing created in the process. Human pain and resentment accumulated. The malice that accumulated and grew was greater than the Order thought.”

Rahel clicked his tongue at the truth of the Oni King.

It was a story behind the original that he didn’t know.

“…Lord Amadeus, do you know where the Oni King is now?”

“Yes, it is sealed in the Special Guard Unit where the Hero was. This is also information that cannot be accessed unless you are a member of the Imperial Family.”

“I still can’t understand. Why did you put the Oni King in such a dangerous place?”

“That is the Empire’s idea. They thought the Oni King was a bomb that could explode at any time, so they put it in the corner of District 5, so that they can take action without harming the nobles even if it goes berserk.”

“…Gideon’s idea, I guess.”

The Oni King is a monster whose rampage is confirmed.

But, they couldn’t hand it over to the demons either.

Therefore, it had to be sealed in a place where it didn’t matter even if it went berserk.

That was the Special Guard Unit in District 5.

Even if the Oni King went berserk, the commoners would be the first to suffer the most damage.

‘In the original… that’s what happened.’

The Oni King suddenly goes berserk and devastates Districts 4 and 5.

And before entering the upper districts, it is defeated by a subjugation force centered on the Hero Lucas and the Saintess.

“In fact, I’m also questioning the Special Guard Unit organization itself. I expect that the Oni King should have already gone berserk… How is it maintaining its sanity?”

“Because the Special Guard Unit is monitoring it. They are facing intelligent beings on a regular basis so that the Oni King does not go berserk.”

“…No. The Oni King can’t help but go berserk with that alone.”

Amadeus knows how scary that monster is.

If it was a monster that wouldn’t go berserk just by facing intelligent beings, the Order and the Empire wouldn’t have cared so much.

“Any living being has a limit to the malice that the Oni King emits. If it is a method of slowing down the rampage by having an intelligent being absorb her malice, you would need at least hundreds of humans a day.”

“What if there are other races?”

There were also Reina and Ghent in the Special Guard Unit.

They also encounter the Oni King on a regular basis.

“It’s no different even if they are other races. They have stronger resistance to magic than humans, but one or two trees cannot stop the waves. Unless there is someone who can withstand the malice of hundreds of humans, the method of facing intelligent beings cannot slow down the Oni King’s rampage.”

“The malice of hundreds of humans…”

Rahel narrowed his eyes as he listened to Amadeus’s words.

The conversation he had with Yuri when he asked her about the truth of the Special Guard Unit came to mind.

[I came here to slow down the Oni King’s rampage. I have a constitution that can stop the Oni King’s rampage.]

[Constitution?]

[…I’m sorry. I can’t tell you that.]

‘In the end, is it Yuri?’

What would it feel like to withstand the malice of hundreds of humans?

Only then did he seem to understand her expression.

*

Deep inside the Forbidden Alheim.

The Demon King reigns on the highest floor of the Demon King’s castle, which is filled with magic.

“Hmm…”

A demon sitting on an obsidian throne opened his eyes.

As Maledrakas opened his eyes and his wings spread wide, countless eyes covering his entire body were revealed.

“You’re back, Calliope.”

Maledrakas looked straight ahead.

A man appeared with the fog in a place where no one had existed.

“Yes, I helped the Demonic Cults as you said. It’s a pity they all died.”

Calliope answered with a smile.

He appeared wearing a neat suit as always.

“Didn’t you kill them?”

“Of course not. I would never disobey Demon King Maledrakas’s orders.”

“It wasn’t an order. I just judged that you were the most suitable for the job.”

“Sure, you would.”

Maledrakas closed his body’s eyes as he looked at Calliope, who was crossing his arms as if he were sulking.

Even if the demons of Alheim only saw that appearance, they would shout Calliope’s name, but to him, it looked like an old incubus was acting disgracefully.

“More than that, the other Demon Kings are still not showing up?”

Calliope grabbed one of the chairs around him and sat down.

There were two empty chairs around him.

“Lucifer is in the Kamen Empire. He said that he has a great contractor and that his body will recover once he finishes that.”

“Hmm, he caught another sucker. The other one… I’ll just leave him alone and he’ll take care of himself.”

Calliope shook his head.

Anyway, the Demon Kings each live their own way.

“How was your impression of meeting the Hero in Arconia, Calliope?”

The Gaia Order’s Hero, Rahel.

He was an existence that Maledrakas was also watching.

“The Hero and the Saintess, you mean? Hmm.”

Calliope pondered for a moment and crossed his legs.

Then, he shook his head.

“Not at all. He’s not even good-looking. It’s hard for me to digest [find appealing or interesting].”

“…Is that so.”

Sorry, but he had no intention of telling Maledrakas the truth.

He also knows that Maledrakas is interested in the Hero.

But, Maledrakas doesn’t know the most important thing.

‘The Hero is inheriting the sword of the Continent’s Greatest Swordsman.’

To think that someone who inherited the swordsmanship of the Continent’s Greatest Swordsman would be chosen by Gaia.

Calliope was going to keep this great fact to himself.

“Yes, so try to turn off your interest in useless things. There’s something more important.”

“Are you finally moving?”

“Yes, and… I found it.”

Calliope smiled bitterly.

“Found it?”

“Are you asking because you don’t know? There’s a reason why we forcibly moved the demons.”

Not just demons.

The moment she felt her presence, the Four Heavenly Kings of Alheim moved.

And since the Demon Kings moved their bodies directly, even the Empire couldn’t hide everything.

“…Did you find her?”

The eyes embedded in Maledrakas’s body opened their eyes.

Finally, the demons’ long-cherished desire has been achieved.

“Yes, I found the Oni King.”