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Chapter 69: Lightning Emperor

With his abdomen deeply cut open, Bride let go of his magic sword and staggered.

The black wings disappeared from Bride’s body, and his bloated muscles gradually returned to normal.

Bride, having returned to his human form, was breathing heavily and couldn’t move.

But even so, it must be because of his tenacity that he hasn’t collapsed yet.

「Ugh… Damn… Only the last resort is left.」

「You can’t move anymore, right? Surrender quietly and pay for all your wrongdoings thus far.」

「Not yet! Haa, haa… I haven’t lost! Hey, Grampals! ! You’re there, right!? What happened to the plan?!!」

「Grampals? Who’s that…」

「Fu, fuhahahaha! A demon! It’s over for you guys! Together with this city and this country!」

「Are you talking about the demon who made a contract with you?」

「That’s right! Hey, Grampals!! Where are you! You can hear me, right!!」

Bride shouted towards the sky.

However, there were no demon-like figures around.

Only the clear blue sky stretched out endlessly.

「Where is he?」

「W-What are you doing, Grampals!? Oi! Answer me!!……Oi, Oiiii!!!!」

「Looks like he’s not coming. I think you have been abandoned.」

「A-Abandoned? Are you saying I’m… a disposable pawn?!」

「Well, that must be the case. If not, why aren’t they coming?」

「Oi! Why aren’t you coming out!? What…was the purpose of my life so far! Damnittttt…」

Bride fell to his knees on the ground. He had an expression on his face as if he was about to break down crying. It seems that he had lost the will to fight.

「Ahahaha, I’m… just a pawn… a disposable pawn… Kuhahahaha…haha…」

Bride looked up to the sky while large beads of tears rolled down his cheeks, his shoulders shook like a broken doll as he continued to laugh.

And then, Michael’s announcement came out as if to add another blow.

『Match Over!! The winner is…【Lightning Emperor】Aun!!!　

With this, the winner of the Clan Battle Tournament and the Rank 1 in the Arto Kingdom clan ranking will be【Star Supremacy】!!!』

Starting with Michael’s announcement, cheers poured in like a muddy stream, shaking the entire arena.

Even so, Lightning Emperor, huh…

He gave me quite a grandiose nickname.

When I looked up at the guest of honor’s seat, my gaze met the eyes of the second prince Ruzark.

(As promised, I won the tournament. So work hard from here on out, okay?)

As if he understood what I was thinking, Ruzark smiled and stood up with the microphone in his hand. And that was also projected in the video.

『Ladies and Gentlemen! I am the second prince of the Arto Kingdom, Ruzark Arto!

[Star Supremacy]! You displayed a truly splendid battle in this year’s martial arts tournament!! The awarding of the winning prize and the memorial ceremony will be held at a later date!

In addition…Bride Ishlova, as well as Daytona’s clan members, are suspected of treason!

In the name of Ruzark Arto, I hereby order to capture all the clan members of Daytona!!』

With those few words, the royal knights’ elite troops rushed into the match venue.

Legenda could also be seen among them. It seems like Ruzark was well prepared.

Thus, the Clan Competition Martial Arts Tournament ended with [Star Supremacy] winning.

It was decided that the memorial ceremony would be held in 10 days. After that, I joined up with Kinu and Shinku and formally had an audience with the second prince Ruzark, explaining in detail about Bride and the kidnapping incident in Miralda.

As a result, the Daytona clan was disbanded.

All of its members, including nobles, slave traders, and adventurers who were involved in the kidnapping, were imprisoned until a formal sentence was passed.

As for Bride, he was placed in a prison that sealed off his mana and was interrogated, but he only seemed to mutter nonsense like “Abandoned pawn… a wasteful life… Fuhaha…” and continued laughing.

Therefore, Bride’s judgment was temporarily put on hold at this time.

Well, he would never be able to get out of prison again, and capital punishment is also quite possible, but the fact that he was “connected to the demons” seems to have been a first in the long history. The use of torture and truth serum to extract information regarding the dangers of demons may also be considered.

I shared information with Drake and the others via telepathy, but once everyone returned to Foret Noir, we decided to talk in detail again.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

After returning to Foret Noir, I first received a report from Kinu and the others.

It seems that they were in a battle with a demon called “Zoa”. His strength seems to have been tremendous, and Kinu said that even with Shinku by her side, he was able to handle both of them with ease.

The fact that the situation changed as soon as my name was mentioned.

The fact that the family name “Doumeki” seems to have some kind of connection with the demons.

And the fact that he told me to “become stronger”.

Among them, the most worrisome thing is that this demon’s name was different from the “Grampals” that Bride was talking about.

In the first place, names have a special meaning not only for humans, demi-humans, and beastfolks, but also for monsters. This is because it indicates the existence of the individual.

For people like me, Kinu, and Zen, who have our names written in kanji, it is possible to use either kanji or normal writing when registering as an adventurer. But our name is still the same.

However, using an alias is synonymous with denying your very existence.

It is assumed that even demons have the same sense of values. Thus it is possible that there were two demons near Alraine.

However, we decided that that matter would be put on hold until the truth was known, as we did not want to start playing with guesses.

Regardless, the fact remains that there are still more people in this world who are stronger than us. In the future, we need to put even more effort into strengthening ourselves.

Also, I don’t know much about the family name of “Doumeki”.

I might find out something if I head to Bukyo Kingdom, but because it’s an island country, it’s far from the Arto Kingdom. And Bukyo Kingdom is in a state of semi-isolation, so there’s no way to get there at the moment.

The next matter is the Nightmare captured by Drake and Nelfie.

This guy was isolated on the first floor of Foret Noir. Shinku used the [Interracial Language Understanding] skill to communicate with him.

The reason why he was running out of control was that he had just mutated into a Nightmare and couldn’t control himself of the resentment and anxiety born of not being able to prove that he was a Unicorn due to his broken horn.

Judging from the characteristics of the culprits, it is highly likely that the ones who broke the horn were the three members of the Red and Silver Moon party.

It seems that they broke the Unicorn’s horn and allowed it to escape before killing me.

Those guys caused nothing but trouble for those around them…

Nightmare signed a subordinate contract with me and has been released from isolation.

What was surprising was that this Nightmare had become emotionally attached to Drake.

Until we teleported back, Drake seemed to have calmed down the Nightmare when it awakened in isolation by continuing to soothe it.

When I met the Nightmare for the first time, he was so calm that I wondered if he really went on a rampage.

Currently, he has been given the task of protecting Foret Noir, but basically no enemies ever enter, so he runs around the plains area on the 3rd floor with the beastfolk.

By the way, Drake named him “Mare”.

After that, since I returned to Foret Noir after a long time, I spent a busy but fulfilling few days doing things like the maintenance of the dungeon and the beastfolk village.

And then I remembered something I had completely forgotten.

「Ah… the memorial ceremony is this afternoon…」