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Volume 3 Chapter 58

The Second Betrayal

[They’re coming, they’re coming!]

The unrest spread as the soldiers monitored the movement of Apristos’ army from the top of the protective wall of the royal capital.

The Apristos army had begun to move.

The soldiers all immediately had panicked expressions.

Alheim’s strongest forces had planned to attack the enemy’s main force, but that ended up in failure, and it was because they were informed that about 110,000 enemies were heading here.

The soldiers on top of the defensive wall had seen several of those supposedly strongest forces charging into the enemy’s army the moment before. That was until a huge thunderbolt struck the enemy lines, blowing away entire battalions.

It was an overwhelming force.

This could be our victory.

Many of the soldiers had thought so.

However, after the second thunderbolt struck, the enemies that should have been defeated immediately resurrected.

And their numbers increased by about ten times…

The soldiers’ morale plummeted, not knowing what it meant when they were informed by their superiors that the attack by our best forces had failed.

Then he told them.

The enemy’s full-scale attack was coming.

They needed to be prepared…

On the prairie in front of them, 10,000 flaming knights, and behind them a company of 3,000 men and a battalion of 100,000 men were forming a line and coming towards us. They were believed to be created from the enemy’s magic.

A truce was then negotiated last night, and the messenger’s head was delivered as an answer on the part of Apristos.

The enemy had no intention of stopping.

Their desire to lay waste to the country.

The soldiers started trembling.

But they could not escape. For the people were still evacuating from the gates of the royal city on the opposite side of the prairie.

They needed to buy a little time. It was easy to imagine that the women and children who were captured by the enemy forces would suffer terrible consequences as a result.

They had to buy time for their wife and children to escape at all costs. Many of the soldiers resisted the urge to flee and braced themselves for the enemy’s attack.

The enemy army has reached the middle of the prairie.

But then something unexpected occurred.

The flaming knight, who was previously walking without stop, halted.

─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─

Shortly before the flame knight stopped, the prince and his assistant were walking behind the flame knight.

On either side of the prince, the left general and the former general were standing.

A little behind the former general, Haruto was walking behind the former general.

The prince felt uplifted by the flame knight’s overwhelming strength, and was feeling overwhelmed. Normally, he should have stayed in the rear of the private army or the national army, but he had come out to the front of the line because he wanted to see Alheimers being overrun by the Flaming Knights up close and personal.

The left general was also accompanied by him.

[Hey, you need to capture the female elves properly, don’t kill them. I don’t care what happens to the men.]

The prince spoke to the former general.

[Yes, sir. I will kill any man who resists, is that alright with you?]

[I don’t mind.]

[…You’ve really shown no mercy to your country.]

The left general was a little surprised at the former general’s easy acceptance of the outrageous prince’s order.

[As long as that country is covered in fear and despair, that’s all that matters. Ah, by the way I want to kill Tina-Haribel with my own hands. So will leave her to me as well?]

[That hero? Well, I don’t mind, but why?]

[It’s more of a personal… or, well, parental desire.]

The former general’s body had been taken over by Amon.

That meant that his goals now belong to Amon.

Tina once defeated a demon king raised by an evil god along with a hero. Amon, who was a subordinate to the Evil God, was irritated by that action.

Although he hadn’t done anything to Tina directly, Amon hated her with all his heart.

[But I hear that fellow is quite skilled. No matter how strong this knight is, it will be tough to capture him. Or are you saying that you are capable of defeating Tina on your own?”

The Left General was well aware of the strength of the flame knight in front of him. However, he was not comfortable dealing with a hero who had an anecdote about bludgeoning a dragon to death with his bare hands.

[Ah, even I probably wouldn’t be able to win. But I have this guy.]

Then Amon looked at Haruto.

Then he ordered.

[Haruto, take Tina-Haribel and bring her here. Don’t kill her alright? I’ll be the one to choke the life out of him.]

[No.]

Haruto refused to obey Amon’s orders.

[What?]

Amon can’t believe his ears.

There was no way that Haruto, who was supposed to be brainwashed by the braces of servitude, would disobey the Lord’s command.

Amon orders again.

[This is my order. Bring Tina-Haribel to me.]

[No.]

[…?]

It was definitely Haruto.

[What the hell is going on? Why are you disobeying my orders!? You should have been totally brainwashed!]

He looked at Haruto’s arm and saw that the braces of servitude were still firmly attached to it.

[I wasn’t brainwashed.[

[What…? What do you mean?]

[You’re not gonna… are you an enemy of ours?]

[I’m Haruto., husband of the second princess of Alheim and the hero Tina, your enemy. So what do you think, huh?]

The moment Haruto finished saying that, a spear of fire was thrust at the throats of the prince, the former general and the left general.

Before they knew it, the flaming knights who had surrounded them had pointed their spears at the prince and the others.

[Wha, why? Why aren’t the servant’s armbands working?　No, you were attacking your people. The brainwashing should have worked!]

[There’s just something about me, that allows me to not be able to take on the effects of any kind of equipment. In other words, even if I equip a legendary weapon, I can’t become strong at all. But that means, on the contrary, if I wear a cursed equipment, I won’t be cursed.]

Saying that, Haruto removes the slave’s bracelet.

The master who originally put it on – in this case, it would have been impossible to remove it if it were not for the former general that Amon had taken over his body – Haruto removed the bracelet without any difficulty.

[That’s just absurd…]

Amon rolls his eyes.

[And was that why I attacked your people? That’s just to convince you guys that I’m one of them. Especially since I didn’t want you to get away with it.]

Haruto walks up to Amon.

[What?]

[You’re one of the evil ones, aren’t you?

[──!

Harut had sensed the presence of the evil god since he came to Alheim. And when he was approached by the former general and asked to shake his hand, he also noticed that the former general had come in contact with someone related to the evil god.

Of course, if they met like this, he would clearly recognize that someone with an aura similar to the Evil God is in the former general’s body.

However, as a matter of fact, Haruto didn’t have that much of a grudge against the Evil God.

It was because he was quite enjoying his life in this world.

But as for being killed, he always wanted to get a little bit of payback.

[Because what I’m going to do to you from now on is just to take it out on you.]

[Wha…?]

With a fist strengthened by magic power, Haruto struck Amon with his fist.

The former general’s body was wonderfully trained.

And since Amon, a higher level demon, had taken over his body, ordinary attacks should not have been effective.

But in spite of that, Amon was blown away like a weightless ragdoll.

The several flame knights who were at the end of the blowing up received Amon.

Then The flame knights struck Amon, who had already lost consciousness, back towards Haruto.

Towards the face of Amon flying at high speed, Haruto’s fist with several times the magic power of the first strike slammed into him with all his might.

There was a sound that didn’t sound like a person hitting something humanoid, as Amon was blown away to a distant mountain.

[Phew, that feels a bit better, doesn’t it?

The prince, the left general, and the soldiers around him were surprised by what had happened and froze.

In contrast, Haruto had a clean look on his face.