CH 275.

“Guh!”

When they had reached a distance where the Allied Forces couldn’t be seen any longer, Kim Seon-Hyeok spat out another mouthful of blood.

“Are you alright?”

He shook his head at Marek’s question as he wiped the dripping blood from his chin. 

“Do you think I look alright?”

“No, you don’t look like it.”

But, it looked like there was some effect of the Holy Kingdom’s priests pouring out their divine powers into him to the point of exhaustion. He was definitely better than how he looked before when he was unconscious and slumped over like a corpse.

However, he had exhausted himself again from arguing with the Holy Kingdom’s people and from flying through the sky when swords were thrown at them. By the time he reached his destination, he was unable to control his body.

“Indomitable Grand Duke!”

When he heard that the griffin had returned from the West, the Grand Duke of Iberia threw everything to the side and ran towards them. He was shocked when saw Kim Seon-Hyeok covered in blood. 

“What the hell is this?! And what is up with all that blood?! No, let’s hear what happened later. Let’s heal you first.”

Diego Velazquez bustled about as he ignored the blood on Seon-Hyeok’s body as he tried to help support him. 

Swish.

But, Kim Seon-Hyeok refused his help.

“What are you…”

“I’ll rest, but I have something to tell you before that.”

The Iberian Grand Duke’s complexion paled when blood leaked out of Seon-Hyeok’s mouth every time he spoke. 

“I will not listen right now! What are you all doing! Why aren’t you coming here and escorting the Indomitable Grand Duke to his chambers?!”

When Diego Velazquez put his hands under Seon-Hyeok’s armpits to drag him over, Kim Seon-Hyeok shook off his hands as he refused Velazquez’s help.

“You must listen right now.”

The Grand Duke of Iberia looked disconcerted as he looked at Seon-Hyeok’s stubborn eyes. There was a hint of concern in them. He seemed worried about what would happen if something went wrong with such an influential person from the Empire in Granado.

But when it didn’t look like Kim Seon-Hyeok would give him easily, Velazquez had no choice but to comply with his request. Diego Velazquez seemed to have decided that it would be better to listen to him first and then start treatment immediately in the time they quarreled.

“Immediately strengthen your borders.”

Kim Seon-Hyeok spoke with weight as he looked at the Grand Duke of Iberia.

“By now, the Holy Kingdom’s forces may be moving South, heading towards here.”

It had taken a full week to escape the Holy Kingdom’s encirclement and arrive at Granado. While he had moved as quickly as possible without even taking care of his injuries, and pushed Devon to fly as fast as he could, there was no way Devon was faster than the mages. 

A week was more than enough time for the Temple to have received news and taken measures.

In Kim Seon-Hyeok’s opinion, there weren’t a lot of countermeasures the Temple could take. The most probable amongst them was to cover up the incident.

“Everything was as you said, Duke Velazquez. But there was something that even you didn’t know. The Warrior didn’t disappear while fighting the Demon King, he was actually detained by the Holy Kingdom.”

Befitting a seasoned politician who had preserved Iberia’s existence despite the pressure from the Holy Kingdom, the Grand Duke of Iberia quickly shook off his confusion and put everything together in an instant.

“The Holy Sword…”

After uttering that one sentence like a sigh, the Iberian Grand Duke quickly spat North, in the direction where the Holy Kingdom was located with an angry face.

“Ptui! Those damned old bastards! If it’s those old bastards who only have thoughts of protecting their power, then that’s the least of what they would do.” 

It was a violent action with words that Kim Seon-Hyeok had never seen, or heard, from him before. But in a way, it was only natural. Iberia was a country that had chosen to become a vassal of Adenburg in order to avoid the Holy Kingdom, which had done everything they could to overpower Iberia. And when the Holy Kingdom couldn’t, they had nitpicked all faults they could find. 

Considering all that, and the fact that the Iberian Grand Duke must’ve suffered countless times because of them, his hatred wasn’t so strange.  

“The Temple’s people will most likely not want to share the divine powers and authority of the Warrior and Holy Sword. Even more so since they considered the Holy Sword as their own.”

“And they must’ve noticed that you know about it, Indomitable Grand Duke.”

Diego Velazquez immediately understood the circumstances and with a firm expression, told Kim Seon-Hyeok that Iberia’s borders were strong.

“We are surrounded by the sea on three sides. The Iberian navy is incomparable to the Holy Kingdom’s crude fleets that move using rivers. Our one and only land route is guarded by fortresses and elite mercenaries that had been fortified and honed over a long period of time. So Indomitable Grand Duke, please go quickly and see to your injuries first. “

When the Iberian Grand Duke once again pushed him to go rest, saying that it wouldn’t be easy for the Holy Kingdom to send enough troops to cross the border when they had used up so many troops in the fight against the Demon King, Kim Seon-Hyeok shook his head and refused. 

“Indomitable Grand Duke, there is no need for you to worry about it. The Holy Kingdom is shameless enough that in their current situation, they would probably deny everything rather than send a large force.”

But when Kim Seon-Hyeok once again cautioned that it wouldn’t be enough, the Iberian Grand Duke thought for a moment before speaking carefully. 

“Do you have any evidence they can’t deny?”

When Kim Seon-Hyeok nodded, the Grand Duke of Iberia asked him another question.

“May I ask what that is?”

Instead of answering, he handed over the iron sword he had gotten from Marek.

“Hm?”

The Iberian Grand Duke’s mouth dropped open at the sight of the unusually white blade on the holy iron sword. 

“That…”

“You’re right. This is the Holy Sword Balmung that they’re so desperate to recover.”

Diego Velazquez’s complexion turned pale at his confirmation.

“Oh, my God.”

“As long as I have what they want, they will do anything, any scheme or any method.”

In order to obtain the Holy Sword, the leader of the Holy Kingdom had thrown away the Warrior they were so proud of like an old shoe. It was obvious that they wouldn’t hesitate to make any sacrifices in order to recover the Holy Sword.

“Send a message to the fortresses on the border to strengthen the defenses. And summon all the captains of all the mercenaries staying in the city!”

Finally realizing the seriousness of the situation, the Iberian Grand Duke shouted noisily as he issued an order for all the leaders to convene.

“Every hour is precious, so tell them to hurry!”

Messengers scattered in all directions and even after that, the Grand Duke of Iberia continued to give order after order. While the Iberian Grand Duke was making a fuss, Kim Seon-Hyeok’s condition worsened even more.

Wobble.

When Diego Velazquez saw him staggering as if he was about to collapse, Velazquez spoke irritably.

“First, you should go and recuperate, Grand Duke. I’ll come see you later.”

In the center of a mess of indescribable emotions, deep resentment seemed to head straight towards Kim Seon-Hyeok.

That was natural.

Iberia had managed to escape the pressure of the Holy Kingdom and become a vassal of the Empire, but the Grand Duke of the Empire brought the Holy Kingdom’s army straight to him. It would be rather strange if there weren’t any resentment.

“I have one more bad news.”

Kim Seon-Hyeok also felt apologetic, but that didn’t mean he could make the mistake of not conveying what he needed to.

“What more!”

At the sharp reaction, Kim Seon-Hyeok spoke heavily.

“Keep in mind that there is the possibility the Allied Forces stationed on the Western front might come this way as well.”

“They cannot move. Even if they secretly made an agreement, how could they trust the Demon King and neglect the western region’s defense that they’ve worked so hard for…”

In the beginning, the Iberian Grand Duke’s voice was full of confidence but slowly, his voice lost strength. He couldn’t finish speaking as he trailed off.

“Grand Duke, you can’t mean…”

Kim Seon-Hyeok spoke forcefully as he looked at the Iberian Grand Duke's disbelieving face.

“The demonic monsters and demons will no longer swarm the front lines as they had before.”

The clamor around them suddenly quieted. 

The Iberian Grand Duke’s attendants who had been frantically moving about, and the guards who had unintentionally overhead the full details of the extraordinary incident all completely froze and didn’t move a muscle.

“That means…”

Before the Iberian Grand Duke finished his question, Kim Seon-Hyeok answered first. 

“The Demon King no longer exists in this world.”

***

In the process of gathering the earth’s energy polluted with demonic energy, several large earth’s veins had been swept up. As a result, an uncontrollable force had been gathered. 

If Goldrake hadn’t helped, Kim Seon-Hyeok would have exploded before he even tried to use the hard-earned force against the Demon King. Even with the help of Goldrake, it hadn’t been easy to control the force.

The power of the earth’s energy gathered from all directions was unstoppable. 

But because of that, he had been able to defeat the Demon King. 

If the Demon King had maintained the form of the shapeless mist, then perhaps he might have been unharmed. However, the Demon King had coveted the demonic dragon’s strong body and in the end, abandoned his advantage and became one with it. 

That greed and stupidity was the difference between victory and defeat. 

The earth’s energy gathered from all directions became a giant club and completely crushed the demonic dragon’s body and even buried its remains deep into the ground.

And so, the Demon King had been destroyed. However, the Fragments of Chaos that had been the Demon King’s source hadn’t disappeared.

Kim Seon-Hyeok discovered that out of the hellscape with the completely overturned ground filled with lava, a cloud of smoke rose and slipped out of the battle. With his destroyed body, he followed it.

He had a foreboding that if he did not root out evil in this very location, then the same thing would happen again.

However, his physical condition wasn’t good enough for him to continue chasing after the Fragment of Chaos. As a consequence of gathering and using the unmanageable power, his thoroughly injured body worsened over time and it seemed like if he left Goldrake, who had been corrupted by the demonic energy, as he was, then he would turn into a demonic dragon.

In the end, Kim Seon-Hyeok didn’t have a choice but to be satisfied with the annihilation of the Demon King and leave the West.

In the midst of returning, he met the Warrior's companion, Maram, and heard the whole story.

The Warrior hadn’t been defeated by the Demon King. Rather, it had been the Demon King who had been defeated. 

The Demon King had run away from the Warrior, and instead of pushing himself and pursuing the Demon King, the Warrior had decided to wait for the next time. 

But there was no next time. 

The Holy Sword was snatched by allies who had been waiting for him. Having lost his Holy Sword, the Warrior was no different than an ordinary advanced class foreigner.

In the end, the Warrior was captured by the secret weapon of the Holy Kingdom, the Heretical Judges.

This had been the moment that Maram stole the Holy Sword and ran away. 

When Kim Seon-Hyeok heard the entire story, he had been furious, but at the time, his physical condition had gotten so bad that he couldn’t even use his hand.

Once he met up with Marek, who had been searching the vicinity for him, Kim Seon-Hyeok handed over the Holy Sword to him and asked him to watch his back. After that, Seon-Hyeok completely lost consciousness. 

After that, Goldrake had run rampant and Kim Seon-Hyeok remained unconscious until he met the Allied Forces. 

He who seemed like he would never wake up again woke up. And he swore his revenge against the Holy Kingdom. 

“That’s what happened up until now.”

“Huh.”

At Kim Seon-Hyeok’s words, the Iberian Grand Duke sighed with a complicated expression. 

Seon-Hyeok’s journey was too heroic for the Iberian Grand Duke to hold him accountable for the dangers brought to Iberia. With just the fact that Kim Seon-Hyeok had destroyed the Demon King, Diego Velazquez couldn’t blame him for anything else. 

“The Grand Duke was the first one to announce the fall of the West, and you are also the one to clean it up.”

The Iberian Grand Duke was quiet for a long time before he finally opened his mouth. He wasn’t nervous or furious anymore. He was just full of admiration.

“The West hasn’t been completely cleared out yet.”

While the Demon King had disappeared, the danger still remained. It was unknown when the disappeared Fragment of Chaos would find a new vessel and raise it to be an Apostle of Chaos again.

“Well, that’s for the rest of us to handle. You’ve already done more than enough, wouldn’t you agree, Grand Duke?”

“Perhaps that’s the case with the West. But the Iberian problem still remains. I may look like this right now, but I will do everything I can to prevent the Holy Kingdom’s army from invading Iberia.”

The Iberian Grand Duke looked slightly awkward. He knew that he point out Kim Seon-Hyeok’s body condition and refuse his offer because he knew that it would be impossible for Iberia to defend the country with just their forces.

“For now, why don’t you do as I say？”

Kim Seon-Hyeok spoke as he looked at the Iberian Grand Duke.

“Write down the full story briefly and spread it so that everyone knows.”

“Even if you hadn’t said so, I was afraid the Holy Kingdom may manipulate the situation to preempt it, so I have already ordered that to be done.”

Kim Seon-Hyeok nodded at Diego Velazquez’s swiftness. Then added one more thing.

“And send messages in all directions letting them know that I am here.”

This time, even the Iberian Grand Duke couldn’t understand what he meant.

“Is there a need to do that? There would be nothing to gain by provoking the Holy Kingdom.”

When the Grand Duke of Iberia disagreed, saying that it would only provoke the Holy Kingdom to know that the Indomitable Grand Duke was in Iberia, Kim Seon-Hyeok spoke forcefully.

“Once they know I’m here, my brothers will come find me.”