The Bastard Swordsman Of The Imperial Guard [EN]: Chapter 177

After finishing the surveillance mission on the Ghoul King, Ra-El looked at the darkening sky and stepped outside.

‘Has it already gotten this late?’

Even though he had monitored the Ghoul King countless times, he felt a strange unease today.

“I shouldn’t have become a hero. All because of that son of a bitch, Gideon. Tch.”

With great power comes great responsibility.

It seemed like he had so much more to do now that he was in the position of a hero.

If Ra-El, the guard captain who pursued a peaceful life, saw the current Ra-El, he might run away, overwhelmed.

Ra-El sighed and walked towards the center of the Special Guard.

In the central building, two familiar women were sitting.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Yuri. I kept you waiting.”

Ra-El apologized to Yuri, who was seated, and approached her.

He was probably the only one in the world who would make the next empress wait in a place like this.

“It’s alright, Ra-El. You haven’t been here long.”

Yuri smiled gently.

“Tch. Isabel, I’m sorry too. You can sit comfortably.”

Ra-El also apologized to Isabel, who was standing behind her.

As Yuri’s maid, she had stood up as soon as Ra-El arrived.

“Hero, please don’t worry about it.”

“Hero, my ass. You can call me Ra-El like before.”

“No, Hero. As the Second Princess’s maid, I must maintain proper etiquette.”

Isabel shook her head.

As the hero of the Gaia Church who defeated the Demon King, Ra-El had become someone truly impressive.

Because of that, it was no longer possible to approach him just because he was handsome….

“I just arrived because I had too many greetings with the nobles, so you don’t have to worry about it, Ra-El. More importantly, I heard you were looking for me.”

“…Yes. I heard some information about the selection of the next emperor.”

“Oh, really?”

Yuri’s eyes widened at Ra-El’s words.

The selection of the next emperor was the most important event of the Founding Festival. Of course, she was interested.

“Bagus [a powerful information guild] directly investigated the information. To be selected as the next emperor… you must prevent a crisis in the empire.”

“A crisis in the empire…?”

Yuri tilted her head at the vague statement.

Ra-El told Yuri the story he had heard from Zenith and the Heavenly Demon.

The imperial palace had started contacting the Special Guard, and there was a high possibility that the Ghoul King would go berserk.

“The Ghoul King is going berserk… Is that true?”

“I heard the emperor said it himself. Perhaps the one who prevents the Ghoul King from going berserk may be selected as the emperor. Of course, I can’t know for sure.”

“Ah… I see.”

Yuri nodded at Ra-El’s words.

She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes as if she was thinking about something.

Seeing Yuri with an uneasy expression, Ra-El continued.

“Ms. Yuri, how many people in the empire know about the Special Guard’s secret?”

“…Almost none. I don’t think there’s anyone left in the empire who knows about it.”

“Then it must be accurate information.”

Bagus was the best information guild, but most of the information agents, except for the God of Combat, were just small-time operators.

But if they were talking about the Special Guard, it meant the information was significant.

At that moment, Yuri, who had been pondering with her arms crossed, carefully opened her mouth.

“Ra-El, if the Ghoul King’s rampage is inevitable… I don’t think I can hide it from you any longer.”

“Are you finally going to tell me something?”

Ra-El looked at Yuri’s meaningful face.

“Yes. I didn’t want to say it, but… I believe you’ll understand, Ra-El. This disgusting instinct that resides in my body.”

Swoosh-

As soon as Yuri finished speaking, her coat fell down.

Ra-El was briefly startled.

“This is…”

Ra-El saw the formulas and prayers drawn on Yuri’s body.

Everything engraved on her body belonged to the Gaia Church.

“My body is surrounded by countless blessings. It’s to control the homicidal aura inside me. They call it the Heavenly Murder Star.”

Like the prayers engraved in the Ghoul King’s prison, simply bestowing blessings was not enough, so they were engraved directly on her body.

“…When did you find out about this?”

“I found out about this constitution when I was seven years old. I realized it when I took the sword from a knight who had disrespected me and stabbed him in the chest. I thought everyone else thought that way too.”

A constitution that feels a strong homicidal aura when seeing living things and possesses uncontrollable power.

The Heavenly Murder Star.

Yuri was born with that cursed body.

“When I wasn’t even old enough to understand, prayers were engraved on my body.”

After that, Yuri could never reveal her power.

She had to periodically go to the church to be surrounded by layers of blessings, and Isabel had to awaken Yuri’s blessings whenever her homicidal aura rose.

“Does that Heavenly Murder Star… create a homicidal aura in your body? Is that why you’re in charge of monitoring the Ghoul King?”

“Yes. My body can withstand the Ghoul King’s malice.”

“But… can you meet the Ghoul King with the Heavenly Murder Star sealed?”

“Don’t worry. My body is imbued with hundreds of blessings. I don’t even have negative thoughts. Thanks to that, I get told that I’m kind a lot.”

Anyone who met Yuri would say that she was kind and good, but Yuri knew the truth.

In the first place, all her bad thoughts were sealed.

Perhaps being kind was just their delusion.

“…What does that matter, Ms. Yuri.”

Ra-El shook his head at the serious atmosphere.

What mattered was the person named Yuri.

In the first place, she wasn’t portrayed as a bad person in the original story.

Knowing that, Ra-El approached Yuri.

‘Is this the person who’s going to awaken? I can’t imagine it.’

The emperor with the strongest martial power.

Yuriel von Grandia.

Ra-El felt a strange sensation as he looked at her.

This Special Guard was a gathering of wounded people.

“Maybe I’m the same as the Ghoul King. That’s why I wanted to hide it from others, especially Ra-El.”

“…”

A bomb that could go off at any moment.

Yuri felt that she was no different from the Ghoul King.

“Ra-El, this is my selfish request. If the day comes when I go berserk like the Ghoul King… I hope you’ll stop me.”

Yuri looked at Ra-El and spoke cautiously.

The fact that the Ghoul King was going berserk was also causing Yuri fear.

Her Heavenly Murder Star might also go berserk.

“Well, I don’t know how strong the Heavenly Murder Star is… but don’t worry.”

Ra-El slowly nodded at Yuri’s words.

To be honest, he didn’t have a clue about the Heavenly Murder Star.

There was only one thing he could do.

“I will protect you.”

Not words of doing his best or trying, but words of certainty.

Yuri nodded at his words.

*

District 1 of the Imperial Capital.

Inside a building where high-ranking nobles lived, a man stomped his feet in anger.

“How, how could this happen!”

Lucifer, with horns on his head and magnificent wings spread out, couldn’t understand the situation he was in.

He was one of the Four Great Demon Kings, the ruler of Alfheim, and the demon of contracts, Lucifer.

But the magic power used in the contract hadn’t returned.

Lucifer had never experienced anything like this before.

“…I told you not to let your guard down, didn’t I? The hero of the Gaia Church is not an easy opponent.”

“Shut up! Calliope! Instead of that, come to the main body and help me!”

“What should I do? I still have the wounds I sustained in Arconia.”

The slave possessed by Calliope’s spirit sat expressionlessly.

Lucifer gritted his teeth as he watched, and began to manipulate his magic power.

It had been over a day since the magic power hadn’t returned, but Lucifer still hadn’t given up.

“Damn it! My magic power…! The hero of the Gaia Church! What the hell is that bastard doing with my magic power! I was already short on magic power because of the emperor of the empire…!”

“More importantly, are you going to be okay? Isn’t it time for your appointment with Mistra?”

“Mistra… I don’t know what she’ll do to me if I don’t keep my promise with that woman….”

The Demon King who revealed herself the least among the Four Great Demon Kings, Mistra.

She was the trigger that would set off the Ghoul King’s rampage in partnership with Lucifer.

“Can you make the Ghoul King go berserk with the remaining magic power? If not, we need to change the plan now.”

“No, I have to do the impossible. There’s no time. We can’t delay any longer.”

The contract with the emperor was also difficult for Lucifer.

It was a complicated task of not only forcibly reviving a human who had already reached the end of his life, but also transferring his soul.

He couldn’t extend his contract period any longer.

“…I can’t do it. I’ll take care of the emperor’s work first. I need to find a target to transfer the soul to.”

Lucifer couldn’t delay the work any longer, especially since so much magic power had been invested in the emperor and the hero had even stolen his magic power.

Lucifer’s huge wings spread out in the darkness.

*

“Ahem. Good morning.”

Eric, the only Grand Duke of the Karmen Empire, came out into the courtyard, basking in the refreshing morning sunlight.

Recently, his condition had been much better than before.

After being treated for the magic disease by the elves, he had been perfectly performing his duties as Grand Duke.

“…Hmm?”

What Eric saw when he came out into the courtyard in the morning was the training ground.

He could see the training of the Rein Knights and the Sword Masters.

“Ra-El. It’s been a while since you’ve been training.”

Eric approached the most famous swordsman in the empire.

Ra-El.

The kid from District 4 had grown up to become the pride of the empire.

He sometimes showed a bad side, but this was enough.

“Yes. I need to sharpen my combat sense.”

“Sense of combat? That’s right. As a hero, you never know when you’ll have to fight.”

Eric nodded at Ra-El’s casual words.

“Well, that’s also true. It feels like there will be a fight soon.”

Ra-El continued his swordsmanship training while talking to Eric.

In order to prepare for the Four Great Demon Kings or the Ghoul King’s rampage, he had to learn more about the Rotation [a swordsmanship technique] and the Heavenly Murder Sword.

“By the way, Ra-El. You’re planning to attend the banquet, right?”

“Banquet? What’s that?”

Ra-El sheathed the holy sword he was wielding and turned around.

In a medieval fantasy, a banquet seemed like an important event.

“It’s a banquet where all the nobles and royals of the empire gather at the Founding Festival. Didn’t you hear it from the Second Princess?”

“…I think I heard it, but I’m not sure.”

“You can’t fix the habit of ignoring things if they’re not important.”

Eric shook his head and continued.

“His Highness said that he will announce the next emperor after the Founding Festival, so there will probably be a mention of the next emperor at this banquet. You must participate.”

“…I see.”

Ra-El nodded.

His intuition was working.

He had a feeling that something big would happen there.

“Ra-El, have you visited the Allied Forces? I heard that the Sword Dragon wants you to visit him.”

“I heard that too. But I didn’t bother to visit.”

“Why?”

Ra-El drew his sword again and raised his sword aura.

The Rotation, which had become so familiar, could now be deployed in an instant.

“The Allied Forces… I’ll keep seeing them even if I don’t want to.”

Ra-El swung his sword as he answered.

The war with the demons was just around the corner.