~ Chapter 134: The might of Authority ~

[Alkelios’ point of view]

Looking back, it was probably at this moment when the fate of the nations shifted drastically and as a Human Hero, just like all the others, I left a deep mark on this event, leading it to a result I found to be most favorable for me. Then again, it could also be said that the moment my luck was triggered was when one of the contestants in the tournament decided to send those kidnappers after the girls in our group.

Truthfully speaking, if not for them, we may have not been discovered because that was the only moment when Princess Ildea took off her mask outside of the inn. The same went for the others as well, and I did check for any spy spells and magic items that could have been used to peek inside our rooms and besides a few attempts that were not even worth mentioning, I found nothing.

Someone must have recognized her back then whether that individual was just a simple passerby we did not notice or even one of the kidnappers who got away. I still believed, however, that chasing after them at my full might would have led to more destruction and attention drawn on us than letting them get away. Technically, they did not harm anyone yet, but if they did, maybe I would not have been so lenient.

Personally, I did not consider this to be a mistake, but I was still human, somewhat, and couldn’t really say what was in fact a dumb decision and what wasn’t.

Maybe someone else, in my situation, would have went after those creeps, and maybe someone would have tried to assassinate the King before he got the chance to injure the Queen like this. Maybe there would have been someone who would have solved this whole mess without participating in that stupid tournament and even make it so that he had more allies than ever before confronting him. However, I was not them...

For me, Ildea’s request was plain and simple... ‘please kill my father’. It was a request to help her take the life of her own parent. If this were back on Earth, she would have been the one sent before the judge before her father was, or maybe the foreign government would have backed her up from the shadows to help her dethrone her father and save her mother... or maybe they would have sided with him and decided to respect the authority and inner politics of this country. There were many possibilities, and I honestly did not feel like I was the right person who could make such a decision, but here I was…

In essence, what I was made to choose was the future of this country.

I was no diplomat, and I was certainly not the brightest bulb in the bunch, but at least I knew right from wrong. The King was in the wrong, but it did not still stick well with me to commit regicide.

I want to say that I could have wished for this to never be the case, but honestly, I knew that this possibility existed the moment that we met Princess Ildeanussi and heard the story of how she ended up on the streets starving to the point of trying to steal a loaf of bread... I thought as I reached into my [Black Hole] and pulled out the equipment I wore back when I fought against Kronius.

My power armor fueled by my enormous supply of Magic Energy together with the swords that were crafted with the skill of one of the top Blacksmiths in this world as well as some of the best materials the Dragon Continent had to offer made an appearance in public in front of all these humans.

“I sincerely have to apologize to everyone who believed that I have fought at my full strength so far.” I announced as I took step forward and then unsheathed my two swords.

Their roar of power sent chills down my spine, but this show was absolutely necessary from now on. I had to make the impression that I was a force they should not underestimate or try to mess around with. My gaze thus fell not on the enemy before me, but the nobles who were watching me from the tribunes.

When they saw me, they realized that I was aiming this show at them. I was sending them the message.

“If I did so, there would have been no coliseum to hold our fights in and if I really got serious, then no city to call a capital of Ten Swords anymore. Now, I wonder, do these honored guests have the same might as me?” I asked as I pointed my sword at the three Breakthrough-ers.

“Be careful, he changed!” the samurai warned them.

“Tch! Just because he took out some fancy items doesn’t mean that he’s stronger than us!” declared the man with a two-handed sword as he took on a stance and then rushed at me.

A cloud of dust and dirt was lifted behind him as he used his full strength to reach me. When the sword was swung at me, I could tell that it was powerful enough to cleave a Knight of Ten Swords in half. No, even Coshun would have fallen to its might, but for me, it was not enough.

I stepped forward, my speed increased and the world around me turned slow to the point that it felt as though time itself had stopped, yet the man was still moving, at a snail’s pace, but still moving.

So strong and fast, maybe he would have posed a true danger to the Knights of Albeyater in a few years. How unfortunate for him... I closed my eyes and then moved to the left.

My sword cut through the air as I rushed at him. While in this state I was moving fast, this Breakthrough-er was nothing more than a sitting duck. His eyes could still, somehow track me. He probably realized that I was faster than him, but his body simply could not move as fast as me. When he saw my sword approaching him, he flinched.

Too late... I thought as I let the blade move forward, pressing against his thick armor plate and slicing through it like cake.

Dregarya’s armor would have at least shown a bit of opposition to my cutting edge, but his might as well be non-existent. It was a thick and heavy armor that was unbefitting to be worn by someone who reached the Breakthrough-er stage, but then again, maybe on this continent, they never had anyone capable of making him a better one.

“Kuh! S-So... fast...” these were the man’s last words.

In the eyes of the audience, when the Breakthrough-er attacked me, he was already incredibly fast, but then, I must have vanished from their sight and just appeared next to him, already wiping the blood off my sword. The body of the man was sliced in half, both parts gushed out blood like fountains.

He died without even so much as touching me with his sword.

“Next?” I asked as I looked over at the samurai.

“Tch! I will show you the might of my Katana!” he declared as he took a weird stance.

“Are you planning to attack me while drawing?” I asked raising an eyebrow at him.

“Witness the might of the Iaido!” he shouted and then did just that.

He drew the sword at an extremely fast speed. He was, in fact, moving almost two times faster than the two-handed sword guy, but... it was not fast enough.

I dodged the tip of his sword by a mere centimeter. It was not much, just enough to make this attack seem like nothing more than a useless feint.

“Was that it?” I asked as I looked at him as he was staring at me dumbfounded with his sword stretched to the side.

“How?” he asked dumbfounded.

“[Fireball] I casted, but the amount of Magic Energy infused in it was by no means normal.

The man tried to cut the spell, as I had expected, but I detonated it the moment his blade touched the first layer of the spell.

BOOM! the explosion sent a powerful wave of heat towards him and his friend. While Zeberan just jumped back to take some distance, the samurai was sent flying back with a loud groan.

His clothes were on fire, but I did not leave him room to recover.

“[Pika Boo Blink], I said as I used Kronius’ dumbed down skill to move right behind the samurai and then with my two swords, I impaled him from behind.

“Ugh... coward!” he groaned as he spat out blood.

“I’m not a coward, you are just too weak.” I whispered back at him and then spread my swords apart, ripping his body to shreds.

“HOW DARE YOU!” Zeberan shouted at me through a bunch of curses.

He dashed at me with his shield forward, thinking that it would repel my swords. I smiled back at him as I allowed him to test his mettle against my Legendary weapons.

“GAH!” he spat out blood when he came to an abrupt stop, impaled in my blades that pierced with ridiculous ease through his shield.

“[Ice Spear], [Wind Scythe], [Fire Wall].” I cast three basic spells, but all of them were unavoidable by him.

His first scream then came after the spears stabbed him in the side, then wind cut his legs at the knees, leaving him hanging on my swords, and lastly the wall of fire appeared right under his feet, burning him to a crisp. His last groan of pain showed his regret for having dared to confront me.

“Maybe if you had trained seriously like I had in the Seculiar Forest for two or maybe three years, you would have stood a chance?” I told him with a smile.

“Y-You... monster...” these were Zeberan’s last words as I let his body slide off my swords.

The audience was mute.

“Are you not entertained?” I asked them with a shout while I spread out my swords covered in my opponent’s blood.

They flinched and looked with eyes filled with fear and dread. The soldiers who were up until now were confident in their numbers retreated from the ring, taking their distance out of fear for their own lives. The same was with the Knights, thus, my companions were safe for a while.

My intimidation worked... I thought, but when I looked down at the bodies of the humans I had killed, I felt my stomach turning.

Death was not something I wanted to get used to, but sometimes, it felt like the right thing to spread, while other times, it felt like it was ripping a part of my humanity and tossing it out to the wolves.

I jumped up and with the spell of a single wind spell for coordination in midair, I landed safely in the King’s tribune.

Unlike the ones of the nobles, this one was more spacious, lavishing, and all sorts of snacks had been placed on a nearby table to please his Majesty. There were two maids here, who barely wore any clothes and were trembling from fear the moment they saw me. They were slaves with shackles around their arms, legs, and even neck. The spells on them were powerful and could keep them quiet no matter what they saw here.

Within this lavishing room, with some of the best furniture that could be found in the Kingdom, all for his Majesty’s pleasure, besides those two maids, I saw only two other individuals here: the Akutan Ambassador and the King of Ten Swords himself. They had moved back from the window to a place where only the birds in the sky could see what they were doing or talking about.

“Nice place you have here, your Majesty...” I said as I calmly walked over to the table filled with fresh fruits and snacks.

I picked up a grape and tossed it in my mouth.

“Delicious too. I guess, only the very best for the one who rules them all, isn’t that right?” I asked as I looked back at the King.

“Y-You! Don’t you know who I am?!” he shouted at me.

“Yes, you are the King of Ten Swords.” I nodded as I picked up another grape. “You just tried to kill your own wife and even gave the order to kill your daughter. You are thus, a very bad man.” I said and then ate the grape.

“What? It is within my right as a King to do as a I deem fit with those under me! What right do you have to deny me this?” he declared in outrage.

“Me? I’m many things...” I said as I took another grape. “I missed these.” I pointed out.

Romania was a country where wine was a common drink on a traditional table alongside various other local delicacies, so in a way, almost all Romanians knew the taste of grapes and savored this strange berry as an average or common fruit. The markets would often be filled with them during the harvest, and there were plenty of recipes based on them. The only times I drank wine was during the big holidays like Christmas, Easter, or the New Years. It was a tradition that didn’t have the purpose of getting the children drunk on the wine but rather to celebrate the festivity.

“I am the King! I decide who lives and who dies! And they... they tried to take my Kingdom from me! They...” I held up my hand, stopping him mid-sentence.

“Now, here’s the weird idea, wouldn’t normally the Kingdom end up in the hand of your daughter anyway once you retired with your wife? Once the Princess got married, her husband would become the King or you could name her as the Queen and declare your grandchild as the next King, with the child’s father only being the adviser of the Queen. You know, like any other country out there? Why would she at any point in time risk your anger to try to take something that was naturally going to be hers, more so, ruin the relationship of father and daughter which could have aided her during her rule? Having you as an adviser would have been far better than as an enemy, right?” I asked as I took another grape and popped it in my mouth “This is delicious, I should take some back with me to give to my wife.” I said.

“That... That...” the King was looking at me with big eyes, which was probably his first normal reaction in a while.

I did, after all, just point at the truth that was right under his nose all this time.

“As for your wife. You said that she was an adulterous woman who went out sleeping with everyone, yet her body is so skinny and weak that let alone leading a night life like that, she can barely walk. How would she even do that? Also, you would have noticed her belly growing large by now, right, yet... I don’t think she slept with anyone since the last time you visited her in her bedroom, right?” I asked with a smile as I took another grape.

“That... That... but the lies and she lied... and she...” the King was holding his head as he was trying to make sense of things.

Maybe... I won’t have to kill him... I thought.

When I turned around to take another grape, however, I heard the King groan in pain. I quickly turned around and saw a sword sticking out of his chest.

“You too, Askarius?” the King asked with tears in his eyes as blood dripped from his mouth.

With a smile on his face, the Human Hero pulled his sword from the King’s back and wiped it off blood with the elegance of noble, yet in my eyes, he was nothing but a criminal now.

“Alkelios Yatagai, I must say that you have my solemn thanks for helping me get what is rightfully mine.” he said in a nonchalant manner.

“Yours?” I asked raising an eyebrow as tried hard to hold back my anger.

The two slaves were trembling in fear, but under the commands of the spell, they did not dare to move or say a word. They just held their eyes closed and tried to remain as still as possible, like the furniture in the room.

“Yes, mine, for you see, this dastardly King already signed the deed through which I, Askarius Leden will inherit the Kingdom from him in the case of his... unfortunate passing.” he declared with a smile.

“You really think I’m going to let that be?” I asked him.

“Oh, I’m quite certain. You will go out there, declare to have killed the King and then I will follow up and proclaim myself the new ruler. It is quite ingenious, isn’t it?” he asked as he looked straight into my eyes.

When he said this, I felt a terrible pressure on my head and my heart stirred with anger. The hidden scales on my body were riled up, and I could feel my energies turning. I let out a groan as I held my head, the pain was growing stronger and stronger.

“Oh, you can resist quite well, don’t you? But do not worry, in no time at all, you will become my puppet just like this useless sack of flesh here.” Askarius said as he kicked the dead King in the side.

Each time he spoke, I felt the pressure increasing, and I stumbled back.

“No matter how powerful you are, how strong your abilities are, in the end, your mind is the one that’s the most vulnerable. Hence why I, the Human Hero Askarius Leden, am the most powerful of the earthlings who came to this depraved and primitive world!” he laughed at the end.

“Earlier, you mentioned that you have a wife, didn’t you? I would love to meet her! Maybe she is just my type! Once you are under my control, you will be a far more powerful weapon than those three morons were. After all, would three Awakened Human Heroes really march on their own here to help me with a Kingdom that did not even have one Awakened? Let us be serious now, the punitive force sent originally as a helping force by the Akutan Empire should have been enough, but for some reason, they were destroyed.” he declared.

The more he spoke the more his words seemed to dig deeper into my mind and tried to take hold of it. I felt as though I could not cling to any sane thoughts. There was no reason for me to fight for Ten Swords, it made sense to let the humans be as they desired and being among fellow Human Heroes did not sound so bad... My thoughts, they were starting to lean into the direction he desired.

However, he made one slip... he mentioned my wife.

When I thought back at Seryanna and then the image of this man trying to claim hold of her, I felt myself riling up again despite all the pain that I was feeling.

“Just give up, give in to my words and become my puppet. You know it’s the right thing to do!” Askarius spoke with words that sounded like sweet honey.

“M-my wife...” I managed to speak as I was digging up inside myself to find the strength that I needed.

“Your wife? Don’t worry, I’ll take care of her, you want that too, right? To have me... embrace her, every night?” he laughed.

He made the same foolish mistake again, and I could once again feel that energy riling up inside me. That was the dragon part of me, the one who claimed hold over his dragoness, the one that would never let a bastard like this live!

“HOW DARE YOU?!” I shouted at the top of my lungs as I released the roar of a Golden-scale dragon.

My wings spread out and my transformation was done. A wave of pressure from me was released throughout the entire capital, and I could not even tell how many heard that dominating roar of mine, yet it was enough to break me out of his mind controlling spell. Whatever he did was useless against the gold scale of Authority!

“H-How is this possible?!” Askarius asked in fear as he looked at me.

I was enraged, and so, I had little control over myself. I rushed in and grabbed him by the head, then, with all my might, I ripped him apart. In my anger, I did not just stop there and released the cleansing flames of my fire breath, charring his remains and making sure his foul existence was completely erased.

Maybe because I lacked the proper control in this state, but my flames reached farther than they should have. The body of the King was also doused in them and then two maids were met with an unfortunate end as well. I couldn’t even remember if they screamed or not. Once I came back to my senses, I could only see their charred remains as they hugged each other in their final moments.

I clicked my tongue, annoyed that I was forced to accidentally kill them and then stepped hard on the charred remains of Askarius.

“I hope you rot in Hell, you selfish bastard!” I growled.

Still, this was not good. The roar from earlier was quite powerful. When I took a peek outside, I saw that the audience was barely getting back on their feet. A lot of them had vomited, and my companions weren’t doing any better. Risha and Drumora were spilling out a rainbow of puke, and Kalderan pretended to be tough for only a moment before he joined them.

“I have to apologize to them later, but... I guess it’s time to make an excuse for... this.” I said as I looked back at the King’s remains.

Letting out a sigh, I wondered if this was going to turn out alright.

“I wish... I wish for my words to reach those they need to reach and that I will be guided to say the right things to bring this whole mess to an end and reestablish peace in this Kingdom.” I said before I took a deep breath and stepped outside with the dignity and might a Duke of the Albeyater Kingdom was supposed to show.