The Bastard Swordsman Of The Imperial Guard [EN]: Chapter 70

The Empire Guard’s Incompetent Swordmaster – 70

< Hero >

The Demon King ruling Alheim, Maledrak, frowned and rose from his seat.

At the same time, wings unfolded, revealing the countless eyes covering his body.

“The progress is too slow.”

Maledrak was feeling annoyed.

The wish of the demons, the Ghost King Yaksha.

The search for her was progressing too slowly.

He clearly sensed her ghostly energy in the Empire’s capital, but he couldn’t find anything beyond that.

It was as if someone was deliberately limiting his search.

‘Besides… there’s something else that bothers me.’

His demonic energy that disappeared from the Empire had not yet returned.

Whether it was purified or absorbed, someone among the humans had stolen his demonic energy.

“To dare steal the demonic energy of the Demon King Maledrak. A mere bug trying to crawl up.”

If he were to encounter him in the upcoming wave of war…

The Demon King Maledrak would personally cut off his head.

Swoosh-

At that moment, a demon cloaked in demonic energy appeared from the void.

Maledrak spoke, looking at the lower demon who was paying his respects.

“What is the progress on the Ghost King investigation?”

“We are infiltrating the capital whenever the Empire leaves an opening. We believe there will be good results soon.”

“The Kamen Empire, huh…”

“Yes. Even today, mid-level demons have squeezed through the gaps. Unfortunately, they are not providing openings for high-level demons to enter, but if we keep trying, we will eventually have an opportunity.”

“…Squeezing through the gaps. That’s quite a strange thing.”

Maledrak suddenly felt something was off.

The Kamen Empire, which dominates the human continent.

Each human is like a bug, but when they gather as a group, they become quite troublesome.

Especially the Kamen Empire, the largest and strongest group among the human forces.

Even after the war, they had never let their guard down, even during the armistice [a temporary suspension of hostilities by agreement between the opponents; a truce].

But recently, they had been continuously allowing demons to invade.

It was clearly strange.

“If it were just once or twice, it would be understandable, but they are not the type to carelessly create openings like this.”

The strength of the Kamen Empire is real.

They unified humans and other races and even dared to point their swords at him, the Demon King.

If he didn’t want to be bitten by a crawling bug, he should at least check it out.

“I should keep an eye on them. I will watch directly.”

He had many things he wanted to confirm anyway.

If humans are left alone, they become increasingly troublesome.

If they are doing something strange, he must nip it in the bud.

Crack-

A giant eye fell from his body.

The eye disappeared into the void, buried in demonic energy.

*

The Order’s headquarters.

Carlson hummed as he headed towards the main gate of the headquarters.

“May Gaia’s blessings be with you. Sir Carlson. Where are you going so early in the morning?”

“Ah, Archbishop. I’m just going out for a bit. I have an appointment.”

“I see. Even amidst the Order’s chaos, it’s reassuring to have a knight like Sir Carlson.”

“Hahaha. Gaia-men [followers of Gaia]. You flatter me.”

Carlson offered his thanks to the Archbishop, who made the sign of the cross, and walked out of the Order’s headquarters.

Recently, his position within the Order had risen dramatically.

The Archbishops, who had previously only given him a brief nod, were now all greeting him first, and the Cardinals he occasionally encountered were praising him as the pride of the Order.

“Who am I? I am Carlson of the Silver Cross Knights.”

Of course, Carlson maintained his dignity accordingly.

It wasn’t for nothing that they said position makes the man.

Being treated well by the Order, Carlson’s street-rat instincts were slowly being suppressed.

Going to the fountain in the west of District 2 right now was also part of that.

The Inquisitors who had argued with him wanted to apologize.

He still hated nobles, but in the end, they were also followers of Gaia.

As an excellent member of the Silver Cross Knights, he had no choice but to generously understand.

‘This is why a man needs to be reliable like me. Brother Rael is too inflexible.’

As his younger brother, he was grateful that Brother Rael hated those guys with him, but Carlson didn’t want to cause problems within the Order.

The Order and the Silver Cross Knights had taken him in since he was young.

He couldn’t become an unfilial son who caused trouble in his second home.

‘I was worried that he would follow me and cause a scene with the Inquisitors… but he didn’t. As expected, my brother listens to me well.’

With that thought, Carlson arrived at the fountain in District 2.

People were strolling along the path, laughing and chatting, and some were throwing coins into the fountain.

It was a peaceful day in the Empire.

“But why are these people late even though they said they would apologize?”

Carlson looked around and chuckled in disbelief.

To make him wait after saying they would apologize, what kind of people are they?

‘As expected, nobles have no concept of time.’

Carlson clicked his tongue and approached the bench by the fountain.

This was also something that an excellent member of the Silver Cross Knights had to endure.

“…Hmm?”

At that moment, Carlson stopped, sensing something strange.

It was clearly an ordinary fountain, but he was sensing something that shouldn’t be felt here.

Thud. Thud.

Carlson unconsciously placed his hand on his sword.

A sinister aura was rising from the man approaching from the front.

Whoosh-!

At the same time, murky demonic energy swept through the surroundings.

“Kyaa, kyaaa!”

“Ugh! A, aaaa!”

Amidst the chaos of people fleeing in panic from their peaceful time.

Carlson bit his lip and drew his sword.

“Oh ho. A rather strong human.”

Clang-!

Carlson deflected the demon’s sharp claws with his sword.

It had already revealed a hunchbacked body with long claws.

“Kugh…!”

Carlson bit his lip even harder from the demonic energy pressing down on his entire body.

He glared at the front with the taste of blood spreading in his mouth.

‘Damn it… he’s strong. He’s at least a mid-level demon.’

As a paladin, he had faced demons a few times.

But they were just captured lower-level demons.

This was the first time he had actually seen a demon this strong.

“Hmph. It seems you’re seeing a mid-level demon for the first time. You foolish race, losing your strength in exchange for a truce.”

Clang-!

The demon’s arm swung, and its long claws rushed towards Carlson.

Carlson raised his divine power and barely deflected the claws, stepping back.

“A demon has appeared! Everyone, run away! Central Guard! Send reinforcements!”

Carlson shouted, pushing back the demonic energy with his divine power.

However, the guards seemed to be in a state of confusion as well.

‘A simultaneous attack, huh.’

Carlson sighed and raised his sword.

If multiple places were being attacked, the top priority would be where the nobles were.

There was no way reinforcements would come to a fountain where commoners were enjoying themselves.

‘I have to buy time.’

Carlson raised his divine power and faced the demon in front of him.

He slowly examined the demon’s body.

A hunchbacked back and short legs.

And long arms and claws.

It was a truly disgusting demonic race, just by looking at it.

“Sorry, but get out of the way quickly. I’m hungry, since it’s been a while since I’ve seen a human.”

“…In the name of Gaia.”

Carlson swallowed and glared at the demon.

Even if he died here, he had to buy as much time as possible.

Because that was what a knight does.

“I didn’t expect the ominous movements to be demons… As expected, Sir Rael is amazing.”

At that moment, a man walked up behind Carlson.

The red-haired man with a giant sword gave Carlson a nod and glared at the demon.

“It’s a mid-level demon. It’s difficult for me alone, can you help me?”

“…Lucas, the trainee?”

“Yes. We met during the cleanup after the Celestial Festival last time.”

“If it’s you… yeah. Maybe you can do it.”

Carlson felt confident and raised his sword.

There were two graduates.

They might be able to defeat one mid-level demon.

Twitch-

And behind them, a giant eye buried in demonic energy blinked.

*

A bar in the west of District 2.

A man who had rented the entire floor entered.

“Hehehe. This is the place, Lord Garhardt.”

“Good. The view is excellent.”

Garhardt smiled and entered.

He had rented an entire bar nearby for this operation.

It was a place with a direct view of the fountain.

“You remember the plan, right? We wait for both of them to get tired here. And then…”

“We ambush them when they’re both exhausted.”

“Yes. We’ll show them the power of the Inquisitors.”

Just in time, demons were invading the entire District 2, scattering attention everywhere.

Right now, even if they quietly killed that commoner knight, no one would notice.

“Fight each other… I hope they use up as much strength as possible. So it’s easier for us to deal with them.”

Garhardt chuckled and looked down at the window.

Carlson, who had just arrived at the fountain, was visible.

He was looking around, unaware of the future that awaited him.

“Sorry, but we’re not going. You stupid commoner. Hehe. Hey. What are you doing? Bring me a drink.”

Garhardt reached out to the nobles who weren’t responding.

However, what came back wasn’t a drink.

“Keep talking your nonsense.”

“…What?!”

Garhardt turned his head at the sudden curse.

And he immediately lost consciousness from the approaching fist.

“Rael, it’s done.”

“…That punch is really good. It’s really fast.”

Rael threw Garhardt, whom he had personally knocked down, towards her.

He had already dealt with all the other nobles, and only knocked this guy out with his fist.

Because this was the guy who had cursed at Carlson earlier.

“Rael. But you know.”

Clara, who had tightly bound Garhardt, said.

“Yeah?”

“What if the demons don’t show up after we did all this?”

“We’ll have to let them go.”

These guys were idiots, but they were the children of nobles.

Nobles were treated very importantly in the Empire.

It would be a problem if they died without the demons showing up.

Of course, even if an investigation started, there was no need to worry about getting caught, but thinking about those guys causing a ruckus in the Order, it was better to just let them go.

“We can just run away like this.”

“Wouldn’t that be even worse? They’ll remember that they were almost kidnapped.”

“It’s okay. Nobles, who are all about pride, would never say they were almost kidnapped. They’ll just say they were drunk and passed out.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry. And… it doesn’t look like we need to think about that anyway.”

Rael looked down at the window.

People were running away because of the demons that had appeared at the fountain.

He confirmed that Carlson, who was fighting against them, was raising his divine power, and Lucas, whom he had called, was drawing his sword after him.

‘It would have been difficult for Carlson alone, for sure?’

Rael nodded, watching Carlson and Lucas fighting the demon.

He had done well to include Lucas as well.

Fighting together, they were able to overwhelmingly suppress the mid-level demon.

“Rael. What do we do with these guys?”

“Take care of them well and secretly dump them behind the fountain. Ah, can you make it look like the demons killed them?”

“Of course. I’m Clara, the master of disguise.”

As expected, thieves were good at all sorts of things.

Rael nodded and looked out the window.

His plan was perfect.

While Carlson and Lucas were fighting the demon, they would dump the Inquisitor’s corpse behind the fountain.

When the battle was over, they would naturally discover the Inquisitor’s corpse.

Then, they would naturally think that the demons killed them.

‘There will be casualties in other places due to the simultaneous attacks, but… this is the Kamen Empire.’

The damage to nobles and commoners was treated differently.

The death of 5 Inquisitors was considered much more important than the death of 100 commoners.

All the attention would be focused here.

“Rael. I have a question.”

“You have a lot of questions. What is it?”

“You said you could easily catch a mid-level demon. Why don’t you just go and catch them instead of letting them fight? You could say you avenged the Inquisitors too.”

“…There are circumstances.”

Rael turned his head at Clara’s remark.

In fact, the reason was simple.

Rael didn’t want to receive any more attention.

Of course, he was trying to adapt to this world, and some attention was naturally necessary for that.

That’s why he had caused an incident at the Duke’s return party.

‘But if I act up any more here, I feel like I’ll have to do everything myself.’

The protagonist of this world wasn’t Rael.

He wanted to coast along while Lucas was slicing up the demons at the front.

Even these troublesome things were all stepping stones for the future.

“Hey. Clara. The fight’s about to end. Quickly put them there without getting caught.”

The hunchbacked mid-level demon was already on the verge of death.

The Empire would soon welcome new young heroes.

“…Huh? But what’s that?”

Rael looked at the eye floating in the air.

“What?”

“That. The eye floating in the sky.”

“Eye? Where?”

“You can’t see something that big?”

Rael, who had momentarily doubted Clara’s eyesight, soon realized the energy surrounding the eye.

That was a familiar [a spirit or demon believed to attend and serve a person throughout their life] surrounded by the demon’s demonic energy.

Perhaps ordinary people couldn’t see that demonic energy.

‘…It looks really strong?’

Rael, who could feel the demonic energy, frowned at the thick demonic energy.

That wasn’t demonic energy that a mid-level demon could use.

‘A high-level demon…? No, maybe even more than that.’

Drop. Drop.

At that moment, demonic energy began to fall from the eye.

The destination was the dying mid-level demon.

Rael, who sensed the abnormal flow of demonic energy, immediately got up.

“Emergency. Let’s go to Plan B.”

“Huh?”

Plan B.

One of the plans Rael had set.

If a strong enemy suddenly appeared, the top priority was to protect the lives of Carlson and Lucas.

“Do we abandon these guys?”

Clara pointed to the unconscious Inquisitors.

After a moment of hesitation, Rael opened the window and answered.

“…Finish up quickly and catch up.”

As soon as Rael finished speaking, he threw himself out of the window.

It seemed that making someone else a hero was quite a difficult task.