Chapter 276 : Chapter 276
Chapter 276
They were in the middle of a game of Janggi.
Grand Duke Pret repeatedly made cautious and seasoned moves, cornering Kerenneus.
However, Kerenneus sacrificed his dead pieces and declared the summoning of the Demon King.
"What kind of Janggi is that!"
Grand Duke Pret burst into anger without realizing it.
The effort he had put into squeezing out each and every move until now felt foolish.
However, Kerenneus was calm.
"I must have told you there was such a rule originally."
The two eyes of Cordis's Prime Minister resembled a bird of prey.
His bright yellow pupils were sharp.
"Was it not you who readily accepted a game whose rules you did not know well?"
"……."
"It is funny, Grand Duke. It is very funny to see you getting played so easily by a funny trick and then getting angry instead."
The skinny old man tapped his own forehead.
"Do you know why I dislike Westerners? It is because of that stupid and base nature."
He poured out verbal abuse without hesitation.
"It is funny how you obediently agreed when an enemy asked to play Janggi, annoying how you whine asking why I did not tell you, and your face, still dazed and venting anger, is very unsightly."
"…Your words are harsh."
"Just like that lowly bastard, Hika Hireium…."
"……."
Grand Duke Pret bit his lip.
He read a clear sign of contempt in Kerenneus's eyes.
"…Just continue playing, Prime Minister Kerenneus."
"Ah, right. Where were we?"
Kerenneus gathered the twenty dead pieces and threw them into the air.
Then, the air distorted and a bizarre shape appeared.
It was not magic.
Then how should this phenomenon be explained?
Grand Duke Pret suddenly felt fear of the unknown.
The twenty soldier pieces disappeared, and a piece of the Demon King appeared.
It had three heads.
One was rotten, one was only bone, and one was beautiful.
The three-headed Demon King, whose joined palms were creepily elegant, looked exactly like the entity from the Outside that had appeared in the skies above Schmeizen.
Though there is no way for Grand Duke Pret to know that fact.
"The Demon King piece has the power to turn the low four pieces and the high four pieces into gods."
Kerenneus moved the Demon King piece languidly.
"Now, the eight have become gods, and they can no longer die. I have won."
"…If you are satisfied with even a victory like that, take it by all means."
"Any victory usually has more value than defeat."
Kerenneus rose from his seat.
He looked at the Janggi board and the pieces, then crumpled his eyes.
Then the empty air distorted and swallowed the Janggi board and pieces.
Just like before, it did not look like magic, which was strange.
The old man, skinny like an eagle, tapped his left wrist where there was nothing and opened his mouth.
"I suppose I have given you enough time with this."
He looked down at Grand Duke Pret.
His gaze was as arrogant as the master he served.
"Are you ready with your will?"
A hooked nose, a white cloth wrapped loosely like an old noble, a bald old man resembling a bald eagle.
He exuded a strange intimidation just by standing there.
Grand Duke Pret had risen to the ranks of superhumans long ago, but strangely, he could not relax in front of Kerenneus.
"Grand Duke Pret, you must have thought I would not kill you, right? You would have felt relieved when I comfortably offered you a game of Janggi."
"……."
"Because there is too much to lose for Emperor Ferbias if I kill you. If he has any thoughts, he would not kill you."
"…I did think so."
"Correct. Wise."
Kerenneus snorted.
"There is nothing helpful for Ferbias in killing you."
Unless it causes harm.
Kerenneus calls the current Emperor's name carelessly.
Is it because he is his maternal grandson, or does he not acknowledge his authority?
Probably both.
"However, I did not come to the battlefield for the sake of my grandson. Thank you very much for coming out obediently, Grand Duke Pret. Thanks to you, it has become very easy to muddy the board."
"…Even so…."
Grand Duke Pret opened his mouth.
"…Would I not have made at least the minimum preparation?"
He gripped the sword at his waist.
"Prime Minister Kerenneus, I know what an outstanding strategist you are. That you are not a fool who would really come alone."
"Hmm."
"I may have entered the old castle alone, but I had two hundred elites of the Western Alliance wait outside. They will come running in a very short moment."
"Could you not die in that short moment?"
"I am Pret. No matter how old I am, I can endure for a moment. Even if the opponent is Deballo Debius!"
"Your confidence is excessive."
Kerenneus looked displeased.
"You are too old to discuss Deballo. Not that I think you were that outstanding when you were young, either."
"…You speak very sharply."
"Still, I am thankful you brought two hundred. I was wondering if your life alone might be slightly insufficient to muddy the board."
It will be a bit confusing if I kill all two hundred.
Kerenneus touched his chin.
He lifted his eyes and looked at Grand Duke Pret.
And then gestured arrogantly with his chin.
"Tell those two hundred to come in for now."
Grand Duke Pret was the one who felt Kerenneus's confidence was excessive.
No matter if he is a henchman of Great Emperor Continua, in the end, he is just a politician and administrator.
He is different from Deballo the general or Hermai the mage.
Even if an individual's martial power is outstanding, there is a limit.
"……."
But there was no reason for Grand Duke Pret not to call the troops.
When he sent a signal with the small communication device he brought, men swarmed in from outside the old castle.
Since there were two hundred men, there were over two hundred blades.
The sight of them gathered holding flashing spears and swords was intimidating.
Kerenneus Cansella Caseptus is bare-bodied in front of two hundred men.
He has only wrapped a single white cloth loosely without weapon or armor, yet how is his attitude so arrogant?
His left arm, slightly raised as if supporting something, was incomparably aristocratic.
"…I will give you time to call soldiers too, Prime Minister Kerenneus."
"Oh."
Kerenneus let out an exclamation.
The bald old man looked deeply into the Grand Duke with his yellow pupils.
"I truly came alone, friends of the West."
Alone? Alone, he says?
Murmurs leaked out from among the two hundred armed men.
They are not ordinary armed men.
Each and every one of them is a skilled person renowned in the West.
Surrounded by such two hundred men, alone and unarmed, Kerenneus was unbelievably unwavering.
It is absurd even with a little thought.
Kerenneus is the Prime Minister of Cordis, a member of the Eight Sages, the master of the Caseptus family, and the top of the imperial bureaucrats.
Normally, he is a high person who must be protected even at the sacrifice of thousands of lives, yet to walk into the enemy camp alone.
It was a situation where common sense did not work.
Because of that, Grand Duke Pret felt ominous.
"It is just that you do not know who… no, what I am."
Kerenneus Cansella Caseptus grinned.
His hooked nose curved.
It curved and curved, then stuck to his mouth.
Then it quickly became a bright yellow beak.
"The Great Emperor said."
The old man, who originally resembled a bald eagle, began to transform into something non-human.
"That I do not have to hide anymore."
Kerenneus Cansella Caseptus's Ars,
'The Last Minister'.
***
"I will reveal my old name."
Kerenneus said.
"I was once Caseptus."
"…Is that not the case now?"
Grand Duke Pret answered with difficulty.
The transforming Kerenneus was steadily gnawing at his mind just by being looked at.
That was so powerful that one would not even have the energy to talk back unless one was at the level of Grand Duke Pret.
"The current Caseptus is the name of the family, and I am speaking of the time when it was my name."
"……Was Caseptus not the founder of your family?"
"Yes, that Caseptus from a thousand years ago. The first Prime Minister who was with the Founding Emperor Cordisias in the establishment of the Empire as his henchman…."
He transforms further.
No, he reveals his original form.
"I am him."
His pupils become sharp.
The hooked nose attaches to the mouth and becomes a bright yellow beak.
The sharply curved beak flashes like steel.
The neck is long below the hairless head.
The skinny body was still skinny.
However, his bulk became huge.
How huge does it become?
As much as the size of his huge soul, as much as the thousand years he has lived.
The old castle began to collapse.
Because Kerenneus, who revealed his true form, was larger than the old castle.
Neither the old stone walls nor the ceiling could bear to contain him.
He had the head of an eagle.
He has no wings. It is a human body, only extremely huge.
However, instead of clothes, he wore dense white feathers.
Each feather was engraved with a different emblem.
Feathers are power.
Symbols of things Kerenneus possesses.
For instance, the Caseptus family, for instance, imperial bureaucrats, and there are many names that have disappeared.
The names of things he possessed while living for a thousand years were dense, totaling nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine.
He could have had ten thousand.
However, he did not possess the last one as a meaning of awe toward the Emperor.
Therefore, 9,900 and 99.
"Oh, how small you are, friends of the West. Truly, I am deeply impressed by how disgustingly small you are. I may specially call you this."
He clothed himself in the power of nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine.
He had the head of a bald eagle.
He was human but became a God.
"Hotus Eight Gods, 'The Last Minister'."
***
It was a very long time ago.
A story more than a thousand years old.
Eight humans ended the Ancient Times.
They killed, drove out, or bound the thirteen Ancient Gods.
They called the Demon King from the outside and became Man-Gods themselves.
And they called themselves the Hotus Eight Gods.
It is even before the Millennium Empire Cordis was established.
Kerenneus said he was one of those Hotus Eight Gods.
Surprisingly, it was true.
Kerenneus, the Last Minister, looked down at the two hundred Western men.
Thinking about it, he had only looked down from the beginning.
As if looking at insects, as if he had finished preparations to crush and kill them immediately if they annoyed him even a little.
They were simply afraid before the dignity of an old god.
Whether their reputation was high or they had skills, few maintained their sanity before the true form of 'The Last Minister'.
The men holding swords all trembled in bone-chilling fear.
"…Oh…."
Grand Duke Pret could not be completely exceptional either.
He began to lament while looking up at the Man-God with an eagle head.
Grief seized his heart.
"…Hotus, Hotus Eight Gods, you say…. They were not vain things…."
"A foolish misunderstanding."
There was a voice from a high place.
"There are Ancient Gods and Ancient Weapons, so would only the Hotus Eight Gods be beings in stories?"
"……If you, if you are the Last Minister……."
Grand Duke Pret felt goosebumps.
The names of the Hotus Eight Gods that anyone knows.
Names of the low four.
Last Prisoner.
Last Dancer.
Last Slave.
Last Clown.
Names of the high four.
Last Mage.
Last Minister.
Last General.
Last Emperor.
"…The Empire, surely the Empire…. Then the Hotus era has not ended yet…."
If Kerenneus is that Last Minister…
If he is Caseptus himself, the henchman of the Founding Emperor who built the Cordis Empire…
If the dragon, eagle, lion, and the imperial crown above them symbolizing the Empire are not simple symbols…….
He suddenly recalled fifty-three years ago.
How unhumanly fearful and strong was the young Deballo Debius?
He was powerful enough not to be understood at all even now.
But now it was understood.
It was understood too easily.
The three henchmen of Great Emperor Continua.
Deballo, Kerenneus, Hermai.
General, Minister, and Mage.
A fact too obvious.
It fitted so well that it was questionable why no one had noticed.
"…They too, Deballo Debius or Great Emperor Continua, were not human either……."
"Attach an honorific to the Great Emperor. I pass over one irreverence, but there is no next time."
"……Then, from 400 years ago, no, from a thousand years ago, no… from even before, from Hotus and the Ancient Times, the continent, we humans have always……."
What should this heart be called?
Astonishment is insufficient.
Terror is also inadequate.
Is this grief?
Would it be reasonable to call it a deep disappointment in the truth of the world he has trusted?
It was only clear that it hurt.
Because it was a truth too huge to bear to accept, the pain was just severe deep in his soul.
"……In your grasp……."