Chapter 70 – Cal’s Tribulation (3)
70
In the small meeting room, one of the hidden spaces of the imperial family, several ministers and the hero Lloyd were seated together.
The son of the Grand Duke of the North attended as a proxy, and the seated myeonmyeon were also not low-ranking people. The emperor appears. He was still middle-aged, but his hair was graying. This is because he has been continuously handling intense work.
“The Demon King is dead, but the true cancerous mass of the Empire is still alive and running wild. Only those who are loyal to the Empire have been gathered here, so please tell us your opinion without hesitation.”
“When you say cancerous mass, I know you have Carl Leben in mind.”
“The knight commander he recommended killed the royal family. Can’t you use that as an excuse and hang around?”
“The justification is weak.”
“I heard he committed thousands of murders.”
“It’s about needing a just cause to kill a hero.”
Imperial cancer mass. Carl Leben.
Lloyd listened to the story in silence with his face hardened. He couldn’t have liked comments that disparaged a colleague who had been with him for many years, but Lloyd had heard about the knife and knew it. In the first place, Lloyd would have tried to kill Carl first before the battle with the Demon King had Carl not tried to come in as his colleague.
“What is the opinion of the warrior?”
The son of the Grand Duke of the North asked Lloyd, who was silent.
In fact, it could be seen that ringing the rim like this was the groundwork for naturally asking Lloyd a question. Although Lloyd joined the meeting through the Emperor’s advice, he was also a colleague who had been with Carl Leben for many years, so he shouldn’t have believed it hastily.
They must be able to trust Lloyd with their own judgment, which is different from loyalty to the emperor.
“The knife… “
Lloyd’s lips parted. Attention is focused. Lloyd remembered the time he gave a speech in front of 100,000 troops before going to kill the demon king. He trembled more now than then.
Just as they didn’t trust Lloyd, Lloyd didn’t trust them either. He was summoned by the emperor himself, but it was possible that Carl Leben’s spy might be among them.
No, there is nothing to go as far as spies. Knowing that all the people here were gathered here right now was dangerous in itself.
Carl will burn down people’s houses here, kidnap his family, and cut off his fingers one by one and wave them in front of his eyes. At the same time, no one could resist Carl, who asked him to tell him in detail what kind of conversation he had.
It was the same with the Demon Foot Soldiers who had a strong will. The Demon Foot Soldiers vomited as they watched the lives of their comrades fighting together die like flies at a single word.
One day, when he found the mother of a demon cadre, dug out her eyes, and held them in front of the demon cadre’s eyes, quietly asking about the location of the demon king, the strong-willed demon soldier’s cadre also trembled and spewed out secrets. The secret obtained after cross-validation was indeed the correct answer.
So Lloyd doesn’t trust them. They would think they could keep a secret, but that was just the arrogance of those who hadn’t been to war.
There is an irreducible gap between the attitudes of those who have experienced and seen the war with their own eyes toward a man named Carl Leben and those of those who do not.
So Lloyd knows that this remark will reach Carl’s ears. Even so, saying this was a declaration of war against the sword and at the same time a promise to myself.
“Karl, even though he could have saved the saintess, he let him go.”
“What? Wasn’t it Carl who rescued the saintess?”
“Even in the midst of an emergency, I could see clearly. Yes. Protecting the saintess is also a natural duty as a hero. However, even though that sword was able to step out immediately, he did not move until the demons approached the saintess. My eyesight was captivated by the fight with the demon king, and Carl used his unique stealth technique to hide his body, so he could come out at any time!”
Lloyd’s low voice echoed in the hall. The people around him looked surprised, but there was no grieved face. It was just the expressions that embracing the thought ‘I can use this’. Lloyd felt a moment of collapse, but he did not reveal it.
“If you stop, that’s a good enough cause.”
“But isn’t there any way to prove it?”
“She should hear it with her own mouth, the saintess.”
“Where is the saintess?”
“Saint, Sophia is currently at Carl’s house. Her knife must have kidnapped her.”
“But wasn’t it Carl Leben who rescued the saintess from the abduction commotion? Because of that, the knight commander changed.”
“Even that must be Carl’s ruse.”
“Hmm. By the way, aren’t you Carl’s companions? Why are you participating in this?”
“… “
Hero, Lloyd is silent for a while, then answers with a gloomy face.
“Because I want the saintess to be happy.”
At those words, everyone in the hall fell silent. There was not one among them who was not in debt to the saintess.
However, the reason they wanted to kill the sword was simply because the sword was a threat to power.
*
“Can I be this happy?”
Sophia got used to walking. Now she even tried to walk a little faster and complained of her pain. She’s not a wizard, so she can’t use prosthetic arms properly, but she seems to enjoy walking. Carl walked beside her in her Sophia, holding her by her side whenever she tried to fall.
“Knife?”
Carl seemed to be thinking hard about something. Sofia tapped Carl’s face. Although he couldn’t grasp her hand, he could move her entire arm to place the prosthetic hand against Carl’s face. “Knife!” Sophia suddenly awoke in fear and cried out. She replied with a bewildered face as if Carl had come to his senses.
“Why, Sophia?”
“What are you thinking so hard about? With such a scary face.”
“It’s scary. Sophia, are you afraid of me?”
“That’s what it says.”
“I’m glad. I wanted to know what she would do if Sofia was afraid of me.”
“Sifter. Just talk.”
Carl casually placed her hand on Sophia’s shoulder. Sophia’s face turned red. Over the past few days, Sophia’s self-esteem has been greatly restored. It was the result of prosthetic limbs and prosthetic hands. It was a clear change for Sophia, who had to live a life dependent on others for her everything, to be able to do even the smallest things on her own.
“If you continue like this, the day will come when you will be cured someday, right?”
Sophia said with a bright smile. She knew it was difficult for her too, but she learned from someone by her side not to lose her hope no matter what.
From Carl’s point of view, the party members who tried to give up what they could do over trivial things were just annoying, but it was nice to have such a minor difference in position. Because now is the time when all the stories have come to an end and the epilogue has arrived. Sophia rubbed her face against the knife slung over her shoulder.
“Are you going to rape me today? Can I ask you to be gentle? It doesn’t hurt… No, it hurts a little… “
“You’re lewd, Sophia.”
“Knife. I’m your lover! You use such vocabulary! Reflect!”
“Uh.”
“That’s just positive… !”
Sophia’s steps stop. She sensed something in the way Carl responded casually.
“Do you look like a girl?”
“I did have the most beautiful woman in the world named Sophia. Though pervert.”
“I am not pervert!”
“Huh. Let’s make it nymphomaniac then.”
“This is blasphemy… “
Took.
Took.
The sound of a conversation breaking. Sophia closes her eyes. Among the many sounds in my ears, the loudest one was the sound of Carl’s breathing. I hear the heartbeat of the man I love first, and feel the inhalation and exhalation slowly, tickling my ears. Sophia knew.
“What are you worried about?”
“Okay.”
“Tell me.”
“No.”
“I am a saint. Are you confident in the Sacrament of Confession?”
“Oh, really. There’s nothing special other than the Emperor trying to kill me.”
“… ?”
Isn’t that serious?
Sophia looks at the knife in her grim face and she is momentarily speechless.
*
“Unless now, when the imperial power is unprecedentedly strong, there is no opportunity to clean the worms inside the capital. Ordinary soldiers are also residents, so they don’t try to take the person next door.”
Hero, Lloyd nodded at the words of the guard commander. However, not everyone agreed with the captain of the guard. The chief of the guards was a man who insisted on burning down the slums. He said that all criminals should be decapitated and hung on the walls of the city.
However, Lloyd knows that among the thieves who are strangled by the castle walls are children who have eaten fourteen. He knows the severity of the law, but he does not trust those who enforce it. Even if aristocrats commit murder, it is a daily routine to forgive them for a certain amount of money.
“Right now, the army that killed the demon king is stationed in the capital. It is now possible to wipe out Carl Leben’s forces. That’s why the hero has to take over as the leader of the knights.”
“All right.”
The hero, Lloyd, heads for Daejeon. Upon arriving at the emperor’s palace, the captain of the guard immediately closed his mouth and walked with a serious face. The gates of the imperial palace open, and the voice of the captain of the guard resonates throughout the Great Hall.
“Adversary of the Devil, Agent of Divinity, Executor of Justice, Hero of the Age, Hero Lloyd-sama is entering!”
Lloyd walks through the center of Daejeon, looking at the emperor’s face. The emperor always had an uncomfortable face. It seemed that he was dissatisfied with putting Lloyd at the top of the Knights Command. At the end of the last meeting, they agreed to appoint Lloyd as the commander of the knights, but the adjectives attached to Lloyd disturbed the emperor.
“The warrior raises his head. He is the representative of the divine, so there is no reason to bow down to Jim, the representative of humans.”
“My master is the one who influences the world with his faith and light, but Your Majesty is the one who examines the difficulties of the world with laws and institutions, so I dare not raise my head. Please forgive me for bowing my head.”
Hahah.”
… You follow my will, take care of the people, all peoples…
It was announced that Lloyd had risen to the position of Commander of the Imperial Knights by bestowing the sword directly from the emperor.
*
“Take you long Sophia.”
And an invitation arrives for Karl Leben.
