Chapter 372: 196. The Beginning of the Apocalypse -1 (Part One)

Translated by A Passing Wanderer

Edited by RED

**

I continued to observe the events taking place before me.

Charlotte slammed her sword down with all of her strength. A powerful gust of wind exploded out from all around her.

The Mud Snake Hjorth screeched monstrously, as if it wanted to match the timing of the brilliantly-radiating sword of heaven coming down. It opened its maw wide and used its sturdy fangs made out of hard rocks to stop the Heavenly Sword.

BOOM!

The ground beneath the huge snake monster cracked apart, and then caved in completely.

Hjorth didn’t stop there, even spitting out a storm of sand from its maw.. It struggled mighty hard to push the glowing Heavenly Sword away using its sand-flaying breath, but too bad, the weapon continued to come down on the creature.

Hjorth’s eyes grew wider and wider, its irises quaking in fear. Not even the Mud Giant Mist Calf could defend against the sword of heaven, so this Mud Snake choosing not to evade but to defend against it head-on…

It had made the most unwise choice, then.

The gigantic blade of light chopped straight through Hjorth’s maw, all the way down to the ground.

There was a blinding flash of light, and the Mud Snake’s two halves, the entirety of its maw, throat and belly, split open wide. Hjorth’s eyes rolled over, and a storm of sand gushed out from it before its entire body crumbled down to piles of dirt.

-Ku-oooooh….!- The Mud Snake Hjorth let out one final monstrous howl as its body disintegrated completely.

Charlotte was panting heavily, but not even minding that, her trembling eyes remained locked on the Heavenly Sword gripped in her hands. The gigantic blade of light was slowly breaking down into motes of light, starting from the hilt.

All those particles of light danced and floated up high in the air, only to be carried away by the winds and fall back down over a wider area.

The refugees all fell into a confused clamour.

The falling light particles chased the darkness away and descended, landing on the injured and sick among the refugees to heal them. The particles even soothed their frayed nerves and banished their fear. One by one, the refugees began shifting their gazes over to Charlotte, and brought their hands together to pray.

To them, she must’ve looked like a heroine chosen by the gods, just like the Saintess.

“Fuu-wuu…”

I watched Charlotte reining in her heavy breathing. Her transparent hood of divinity flapped gently in the winds as she turned her head to look in my direction.

She started walking up and eventually she stopped right in front of me.

“Your Majesty…” she spoke up, only to abruptly cut herself off.

Judging from her troubled expression, I figured that she wasn’t sure of what to say here.

I recalled what Roy had told me earlier. We had been forced to stay in this location for a whole week because of me. The army probably couldn’t get the procession going again because my treatment had to take precedence over anything else in their eyes.

Considering that point, it was practically the same as me inconveniencing everyone greatly.

“Thank you, Charlotte,” I thanked her earnestly, and her eyes widened.

She bowed her head slightly, and I could spy a faint smile of happiness on her lips.

“I’m still not sure what happened here, but…”

It was at that moment that, along with a familiar voice, a man with a too-familiar face walked up to me.

There was not much I could do about my forehead creasing up all by itself just then. “…What are you doing here, father?”

“Well, see, a lot has happened so far. Before all that, though, please do me a favour, son.” White pointed at the forest some distance away.

Now that the deadly commotion had died down, people were cautiously stepping out from the depths of the forest.

“…Refugees?”

“Sorry about this, but I need to ask for the Theocratic Empire’s assistance this time. No, hang on. I shouldn’t be asking you like this, right?”

Those refugees came from Aihrance. They numbered only around two thousand at most, but still, it was quite something for them to reach this place while evading the pursuit of the giants.

White stabbed his sword into the ground, then asked courteously, befitting the official nature of his request. “As the king of Aihrance, this one humbly requests the Holy Emperor of the Theocratic Empire. Please…” He bowed his head deeply and finished his request, “…save my subjects.”

**

The next morning, I boarded a carriage.

Our procession commenced once more.

Alice was sitting opposite me, quietly dozing off. Probably too exhausted to stay up, I figured.

I opened the carriage’s door a little and took a look outside. Roy, slumbering away in his adopted mother’s arms, could be seen riding on a wagon not too far away.

It seemed that he was affected by the rebound of the Resurrection.

I was suffering from the after-effects of it as well, judging by the frequent bouts of anaemia that came and went without warning. According to the stern advice of my family physician, who was Alice, I should refrain from using divinity for a while.

There was the burden on my body to consider, but she also said that my soul wouldn’t be able to endure it, either.

It was then that I ended up staggering from anaemia once again.

“Your Majesty? Are you still feeling exhausted, sire?” Charlotte asked me in a worried voice.

This kid, she… was completely fine even now.

I mean, really? She participated in a forced march, fought against the Mud Snake Hjorth, and in the process, had to endure the burden of the Grim Reaper transformation, so how could she be this sprightly and full of energy?

She really possessed physical specs that were incomparably better than mine, it seemed. Without a doubt, the athletically gifted were a breed apart from us regular folks.

“…Nah, I’m alright.”

After replying to her, I scanned the refugees around us.

They were currently shuddering in fear. Even though the sudden raid of the Jötnar and the vampires had been successfully repelled, they had still been attacked by a humongous monster snake called Hjorth in the end. They must’ve been scared of the possibility of yet another attack happening soon.

However, there was no need to worry, at least for the time being.

Charlotte, riding on her Unira, scanned the path ahead. Her eyes began sparkling from what she saw. But it wasn’t just her.

Even the complexions of the refugees brightened considerably.

“Sire, we’ve arrived.”

I heard her call out to me, so I peeked my head out the window.

There it was, a massive city with stupidly tall outer walls surrounding it from all sides.

We had finally arrived.

After a lengthy journey, we had reached the border region of the Theocratic Empire, the place I called home.

“It’s the Theocratic Empire, sire.”

The gateway to the city opened up, and Paladins hurriedly lined up in rank and file. Standing before them were Cardinal Raphael and Sword King Oscal.

“Welcome back, sire.”

“We came to welcome you back to the Empire, sire.”

They bowed deeply in greeting. I could hear the raucous cheering of the Empire’s subjects coming from all around me.

Well, this was the long-awaited return of their Holy Emperor, after all. They probably felt really happy to have me back.

The refugees stepped inside the capital city of the fiefdom by the border, their expressions finally showing signs of their buoyant moods. They were genuinely happy after surviving all the ordeals to get here.

As for me, I headed directly to the fortress of the city. The moment I entered the impressive structure, I was unfortunately greeted by the throng of ambassadors dispatched from other nations waiting for my arrival.

They brought their hands together to pray in my direction, then got right down to crying out with despair-filled faces. Their nations were now under intense assault by the giants, they said.

They wanted me to accept their citizens under my protection.

They didn’t have any means to resist the marauding Jötnar on their own. Just a horde of fifty giants would be more than enough to completely erase a kingdom off the face of the planet.

What counted as a good thing was that I managed to warn them beforehand, and they had wisely strengthened their forces enough to face off against the Jötnar for a bit. They had received training befitting that purpose, so at the very least, they should’ve bought enough time for the evacuation of their citizens.

We needed to get ready, as well; we had to prepare ourselves to stop their advances and launch our own counter-offensive, in other words.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that those bastards would soon march towards the empire’s capital. Well, Seran’s [Foresight] did predict that eventuality, after all.

“We shall do everything in our power.”

That’s all I could say to the ambassadors. They persistently requested more from me, but for now, I ignored them.

The Jötnar had already designated me as their target. The Mud Snake Hjorth was the sure proof of that. All the other kingdoms were surely nothing more than some mild distractions unfortunate enough to be stuck in the giants’ paths, that’s all.

I settled down on the throne of the fortress’s audience chamber. Raphael and Oscal stood before me.

I addressed them, “The giant bastards will surely make their moves soon.”

Frants, Aihrance, and Lome had been destroyed. They would surely come to the Theocratic Empire next. Other, smaller kingdoms wouldn’t even serve as adequate distractions for them at this stage.

They had cottoned onto the fact that an individual capable of killing Surtr, Hrímr, and Hjorth existed here. I figured that they would put everything else on the back burner and relentlessly march towards the Theocratic Empire to kill the most dangerous being known to them, which was me, and would also destroy the Empire in the process, too.

But it wouldn’t just be the Jötnar, though. Surely the vampires would tag along, too.

The scale of the upcoming conflict would be in another realm altogether when compared to the war against the vampires a few years ago.

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