Chapter 312: Chapter 276: Regimentation (1)

“That’s the plan for now.”

“…”

“…”

Seeing me continuing to talk while having blood dripping down my head, Seras and Victoria gave me an odd look. Well, this level of injury was nothing more than a scratch to me.

Besides, rather than worrying about something like that, I had a more urgent matter to take care of.

“The other punks are nearby, but… They’ll be dealing with something else, so we have to rely on ourselves to deal with that thing.”

I said this multiple times already, but Nicholas was like a mid-boss if anything.

The real boss was the fucker who’d appear after we were done dealing with him.

That was why I stationed the other punks here—including Eleanor and Iliya—as precautions.

Well, that was that.

“…That thing?”

Seras asked with a reluctant expression while massaging her body as her wounds began to heal.

At the end of her gaze was Count Nicholas, who was swinging his body around inside the meeting hall in a terrifying manner—no, rather…

The Predator.

And Her Imperial Majesty, I guess, as she was scattering her Magic Power all over the place to fight it.

“…Is it okay to leave her alone like that…?”

Victoria asked in a slightly nervous voice.

Hearing that, I stared at her with wide eyes.

“

“No, it’s just… I thought you hate the empire… And you’d care less about what would happen to Her Imperial Majesty, since, you know, she’s the ruler of the empire and all…”

“…”

To my words, Victoria pouted silently.

“…Even I know that not everyone in the empire participated in the purge of the Cardinal Humans. Also…”

“Also?”

“…I’ve interacted with her a few times.

“What?”

“…You know, when we met that giant…um, your mother…we got to talk and do something together a few times.”

“…”

“…What?”

“No, nothing.”

This punk…

She’s a lot more affectionate than I expected…

As I thought so while throwing a small smile at her…

-!

She punched me in the face so hard that my head was tilted backward. Did this girl forget that I was still bleeding in the head…?!

“…”

Just…why?!

Why is she doing something like this all of a sudden…?!

“Get that unpleasant look away from me.”

“…”

“I’m still angry at you.”

Victoria said in a threatening voice. Hearing that, I quietly rubbed my face.

Sure, I get it that you’re angry, but crushing someone’s face like this is going too far!

I was about to complain, but then I saw her raising her fist again with a glare, so I just clenched my mouth shut.

Well, anyway.

About Her Imperial Majesty…

“It’s fine, she won’t die.”

“…What?”

“She’ll be able to buy us a few minutes even against such a monster. In the meantime, we’ll make a proper plan on how to deal with that thing.”

“…”

“…”

Hearing me casually saying those words, the two sisters turned their gazes at me at the same time, throwing me a reluctant look.

It was as if they were asking me, ‘Is it okay to treat the leader of your country so carelessly like  that?’.

“…Honestly, if her body isn’t so weak, we could just let her deal with that thing on her own.”

I wasn’t joking. She didn’t need the Devil’s ‘Authority’ to handle that thing, the Dragonkin’s ability would be enough.

The only problem here was that her body wasn’t able to handle Dragonkin Magic. If it wasn’t the case, I’d be confident in letting her solo Nicholas on her own.

Also…

Actually…

Considering the event that would follow ‘after this’, such a work was needed.

“Alright…”

I took a deep breath while turning my arm around.

Then, I cracked my neck.

Since it was possible for Seras and Victoria to ‘communicate’ with each other now, I could finally utilize the full power of the two Devil’s Fragments.

In other words, the scope of the things that I could do increased by a lot.

For now, what I need to do is…

Everything would be easier if I were to bring all the Devil’s Vessels here, but as I had said earlier, I’d need those punks to be on standby to deal with what would come next.

Also, ‘suppressing’ these monster scabs wasn’t something I had to do.

But rather, it was something that the Sword Saint—who was currently destroying the other half of the monster outside—had to do.

Which meant, what I needed to do here was to buy time.

And to accomplish that…

“I’ll do what I’m good at.”

I swept the corners of my mouth.

“Backstabbing.”

“…”

“…”

For some reason, the sisters just went silent after hearing my words, so I turned to look at them with a sour look.

“What?”

“…”

“What’s wrong with you guys?”

“Um, nothing… It’

Seras replied while scratching her head.

“I think…it would’ve been better if you were to say something cool instead of…something that would come out of a trashy person’s mouth like that…”

“…”

But, why…?

What I said was cool enough, no?

●n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

…H

Nicholas—not really Nicholas, as he was currently a lifeform was called Predator—thought as such.

Before it became like this, it was a being who possessed all kinds of different thoughts and desires, but now, this was the only desire that it had left; the most simple one among all the desires in the world.

…Eat…

I…want to eat…everything…until my hunger…stops…

In that sense…

The only thing it could think about was the fact that its ‘food’ was giving it a hard time.

“You—”

The empress, Cecilia the 11th, opened her mouth as if she was shooting fire from it, utilizing her Magic Power.

“Even before this, I’ve never liked you at all—!”

As she said so, she scattered her colorful Magic Power in all directions.

Contained in that Magic Power was the high-handedness, overbearingness, and dignity of a supreme being who’d make anyone standing before her bow their heads repeatedly.

“You always found fault with me! Kept nagging me about how I should be more dignified as the empress! Always bothered me with how I dress, even more than my personal maids—! You were an annoying guy who always picked fights with me in any ways you can—! The way you picked on every word I said in the most annoying ways of talking on court meetings made me want to punch you in the face every! Single! Time! Seriously, you were the most infuriating person in the Upper Nobles Association, the most infuriating one among the infuriating ones—!!!”

…Although the words that came out of her mouth sounded extremely petty, they didn’t make her Magic Power any less terrifying.

Any normal person who had even the slightest desire to stay alive would unknowingly take a step back when they were facing such a thing.

However…

“-…”

The thing that was facing her…

Was a hideous being that had forgotten even that fundamental desire that made up a lifeform.

“—!!!”

As if ignoring the Law of Conservation of Mass, it shot out tentacles of flesh of its whole body again.

Unlike before though, its tentacles were significantly more squishy.

Of course, all of those tentacles either broke apart, burned, or crushed the moment they touched the empress’ Magic Power.

However…

“It’s still splitting itself—?!”

The empress’ eyes narrowed.

Just like how even after the Sword Saint previously cut it in half, the parts that he had cut split to form new lifeforms and moved…

Each piece of the being that was scattered around after she crushed, destroyed, and broke them pieces started to move with its own will.

Not only that, their movements were significantly more complicated than before.

They moved in such a delicate and organized way, sticking to each other, as if they were communicating with each other.

It was as if the more she cut the Predator into two, the more intense its attack was.

“Keuk…!”

A groan came out of the empress’ mouth. That groan sounded as if she had chewed something and spit it out.

In the first place, she hadn’t trained any skills related to battle, and she also wasn’t someone who regularly trained her own skills.

She was just someone who was gifted with an overwhelming Magic Power. All this time, she could get by brute forcing her way and swinging her Magic Power around.

With that in mind, there was no way that she’d have a plan B, plan C and so on when brute forcing things failed to work.

“E-Euk…!”

She squeezed out more of her Magic Power and swung it in all directions.

Black blood flowed all over her body, as if bursting out of her blood vessels. In the first place, her body was so horribly weak that it was difficult for her to just swing such a potent Magic Power as much as she wanted.

She had to make a sacrifice if she wanted to use that power.

Even so, she couldn’t do much more than unleashing her attacks in a very simple pattern. That left her attacks to be easily broken by her opponent, who was almost immortal and would only get stronger every time it ‘died’.

In that kind of situation, it didn’t take long before she was forced to be on the defensive.

“Huff…! Huff…!”

The Predator—which number had increased tens of times compared to before—surrounded the empress who was gasping for breath.

If it was let be, she’d definitely end up being eaten by it.

“—!”

The Predator’s low cry echoed in all direction.

It was filled with a beast’s excitement before a feast.

But…

Amidst its cry…

“Look at you, you look great right now, Count Nicholas.”

Out of nowhere, someone…

“Compared to you in the past, you look way less twisted.”

Said such words.

At the next moment, purple haze quickly soared behind the Predator.

●

Sullivan took a deep breath, barely able to come back to her senses.

When she looked around, the sight of the Imperial Palace that had turned into a mess welcomed her.

“Dowd—!”

It didn’t take long for her to guess that Dowd had sent her outside.

She quickly stood up to look around.

Seeing how everyone was screaming and running away from the palace, it was clear that something was happening inside the Imperial Palace.

Something horrible, to be exact.

“Dowd, why—!”

At that moment, a certain memory was being played in her mind.

A memory about a Dowd, who was suffering mortal wounds, begging her to kill him inside the collapsing Imperial Palace.

She clenched her teeth until it bled.

Again, this time—!

Can’t I do anything but to just see him die—?!

“You seem in a bit of a hurry, Chancellor.”

Hearing that voice, Sullivan stopped moving.

Because…

“Do you have something urgent to do, by any chance?”

The owner of the voice was someone she had never imagined would be here.

As that person walked towards her with clear footsteps, she sent a glare at her.

In the situation where everyone around them moved in a hurried manner, the way this person walked in a relaxed manner felt extremely foreign and out of place.

However…

This person’s existence had always been like that. Their existence had always felt foreign, as if they were floating alone on their own in this world.

“How did you get here…?”

Sullivan called out the person’s name quietly.

“…Pr

“It’s been a while, isn’t it? I came here because I thought that we could cooperate with each other this time. After all, the thing that I have to do is also related to that man.”

The prophet was wearing her usual mask, so she couldn’t confirm it, but…

“Also, the matter is quite urgent, you see.”

She was completely sure that the prophet was smiling under that mask.