Chapter 233
Chapter 233
Revisiting (1)
Kairus had warned them, and the Capital Security Corps had prepared. However, what was surprising was that their preparation was not the kind Kairus had expected.
“That crazy bastard. And that thing is supposed to be the leader of a nation?”
Apparently, the Emperor had interpreted Kairus’s warning as concern for the lives of the people in the Imperial Capital.
To some extent, it was a reasonable judgment. If he truly did not care, there would have been no reason for him to give such a warning in the first place.
“Still, waking everyone up and cramming them around the Imperial Palace?!”
After confirming the situation, Irena also stared toward the Imperial Palace with a horrified expression.
Following the orders of the Capital Security Corps, people had gathered tightly together, completely unaware of what was happening as they were herded under control around the Imperial Palace.
Even estimating conservatively, there were hundreds of thousands of people there.
Emperor Philip IV of the Empire intended to guarantee his own safety by using the lives of his subjects as collateral.
The situation was so absurd that Kairus lost the will to speak.
“So much for being the father of the Empire’s subjects.”
Could a father who used his own children as meat shields truly qualify as a father? Philip IV probably believed he had made the best possible move.
But to Kairus, he looked like nothing more than an idiot who had thrown away his qualifications as Emperor with his own hands.
“What a fucking moron.”
“…Do you already have a method in mind? Don’t tell me you’re seriously planning to just wipe them all out?”
There was no reason to do that. There was a much simpler method.
“These people are normal. They’re not like those hypnotized people who forced themselves awake while breaking their own bodies.”
At Kairus’s answer, Irena’s expression brightened. What he said was true.
With Veil of Plumed Mist and Angelene’s Answer, they could create a downdraft heavy enough to crush the entire area around the Imperial Palace.
“Ordinary Imperial citizens without any special abilities won’t be able to resist it.”
The ones Kairus and Irena needed to deal with were the bastards still standing despite enduring the downdraft.
“What about the ones hiding among the civilians disguised as ordinary people?”
“What, you don’t think you can react in time?”
“I’m confident in myself. I’m worried about you.”
“Oh, please. Did you gain a greatsword and lose your common sense instead?”
There would definitely be some bastards lying low while waiting for an opportunity before suddenly springing up to attack, but the two of them were not clumsy enough to fall for tricks like that.
“Let’s begin. You take the lead.”
“Seriously?”
Kairus intended to hand control of the downdraft over to Irena. She looked at him with surprise.
“You said you were confident. Don’t tell me you’re chickening out now?”
“Of course I’m confident.”
After saying that, Irena drew out the output of Angelene’s Answer. Unlike Veil of Plumed Mist, no particular noise spread outward.
Only the monstrous power within her body fluctuated quietly yet vividly.
“…”
Kairus occasionally checked Irena’s movements while adjusting the output of Veil of Plumed Mist and swinging his sword. Just as he had said, he only intended to support the downdraft she created.
“The Imperial Palace won’t collapse, right?”
“Would it be called the Imperial Palace otherwise?”
It was the sturdiest structure in the Empire. Originally, for the Emperor’s safety, there wasn’t even a single tree allowed to grow within several kilometers of the Imperial Palace, leaving only barren open ground.
And now they had crammed people densely into that area, making it incredibly easy to suppress innocent civilians with the downdraft.
“Uh… Ugh?!”
Under the pouring gale, the gathered people let out strange noises and dropped to their knees one after another. Then, emitting a terrifying turbine roar from the sky, Kairus slowly descended from the heavens to the ground.
“Every single one of you, slam your heads into the ground!”
Along with his shout, the force of the wind crashing down from above grew even stronger.
The people, still resisting on their knees without understanding what was happening, could no longer withstand the intensified pressure of the wind and were smashed face-first into the ground one after another.
“From this moment onward, if anyone raises their head—!”
The instant Kairus shouted in a booming voice, someone suddenly sprang upward from behind him like a released spring and swung a sword at his back.
Thud. Along with the crisp sound of something being sliced apart, a head rolled across the ground. While rummaging through the corpse’s belongings, Kairus found an Add-On that amplified voices.
—I’ll make you scream the most desperate scream in the world.
Kairus’s voice, amplified through the broadcasting Add-On, echoed throughout the area surrounding the Imperial Palace. No matter how ignorant and uneducated the Empire’s subjects might have been, they could still easily understand that the one creating the wind crushing their heads down was Kairus.
And originally, obedience was simply part of life for Imperial subjects. They obeyed the Emperor, obeyed the nobles, obeyed knights and soldiers, and obeyed the Security Corps.
Adding one more person to obey was not something that damaged their pride all that much.
“Let’s go.”
At Kairus’s words, Irena crawled out of the bag and nodded while swinging her greatsword broadly to the side.
Splatter—blood sprayed into empty air where nothing had seemed to exist. Someone who had been maintaining invisibility while waiting for an opportunity was split in half by the greatsword.
Only then did the corpse reveal itself before hitting the floor with a thud, causing the people lying nearby to scream.
Whether they screamed or not, Kairus and Irena continued advancing toward their target, the Imperial Palace.
“If you come any closer, we will return fire!”
Dozens of ballistas waited atop the Imperial Palace walls. They were probably members of the Capital Security Corps. Kairus grinned faintly and glanced around.
“There are innocent Imperial subjects here too. Are you really planning to fire?”
“…”
The commander standing atop the wall remained silent. Kairus slowly approached the Imperial Palace wall. What thoughts were going through that commander’s head right now?
The imperial command had probably already been issued. If the situation turned unfavorable, they were to ignore the gathered Imperial subjects and fire their ballistas at Kairus and Irena.
“Support Captain, what should we do…?”
One of the Security Corps members aiming a ballista asked him. If he gave the order to fire here and now, the Security Corps soldiers would carry it out.
These men obeyed his orders. Just as he obeyed His Majesty the Emperor’s command.
‘But. But.’
Was this really the right thing to do? Countless thoughts stormed through the commander’s mind.
Meanwhile, Kairus continued approaching. The gate leading into the Imperial Palace was tightly sealed shut. Leaping lightly upward, Kairus landed atop the wall and stared directly at the commander.
“So you didn’t fire?”
The commander could not answer. He merely lowered his head in shame over his own actions.
“Kill me.”
At those words, Kairus lightly patted the man’s shoulder and walked past him while speaking.
“This is why, even with a fucking lunatic pretending to be Emperor, the Empire still hasn’t collapsed.”
Even if the one at the top was insane, it seemed the nation would not immediately fall apart as long as some of the people below still thought and acted like human beings. In any case, Kairus had no reason to attack people who had not attacked him.
“Keep up the hard work.”
Irena also casually greeted the man as she passed beside him.
Whether the decision made at this moment by the 1st Firepower Support Captain of the Capital Security Corps was the correct choice as a commander or not would certainly remain controversial.
However, there was absolutely no debate over the fact that if he had given the order to fire, every single one of them would have been annihilated.
“If you get investigated over this later, say that you were obeying my orders.”
After saying that, the commander gave no more orders to his subordinates.
And after crossing the Imperial Palace wall without much difficulty and entering the interior, Kairus let out a long whistle.
“Yeah, I thought the wall was a little too easy to get past.”
The Capital Security Corps confronted Kairus and Irena. Their numbers alone reached into the thousands. Some might say, “Only a few thousand?”
But every single one of them had been enhanced through procedures pushed to the absolute limit.
“Traitors Kairus and Irena. How dare you set your filthy feet inside the Imperial Palace.”
At a single glance, he was obviously a Security Captain. Not only was his attire extravagant, but beneath those clothes, countless procedures could be sensed writhing and sleeping beneath the surface.
Kairus stared at him for a moment before letting out a scoff.
“You fucking moron. Look at you running your mouth without even feeling ashamed.”
There was nothing more to say. The bastard who called himself the Captain of the Capital Security Corps had actually carried out the order to use the citizens living in the Imperial Capital as meat shields.
“I obey the imperial command.”
“Oh really?”
Swoosh—Kairus and Irena’s figures blurred. Every member of the Capital Security Corps, already prepared in advance, immediately began responding.
From behind the Security Captain’s back, two gigantic scythes resembling the forelegs of a praying mantis burst outward and smashed toward Kairus.
“Let’s see, you’re married, huh? Got a daughter too?”
After blocking the scythe strike, Kairus glanced at the pendant hanging around the Security Captain’s neck and asked the question.
“That’s… none of your business!”
The man’s chest split wide open, launching a spray of acidic fluid toward Kairus.
“Why wouldn’t it be my business?”
It never reached Kairus. In the first place, he could end this fight instantly if he wanted to. But Kairus was deliberately choosing not to.
“Promise me you’ll cut off your daughter’s limbs and tongue right now and sell her to a brothel. If you do that, I’ll withdraw from the Imperial Capital for now.”
“What… kind of insane bullshit are you saying?!”
Consumed by shock and rage, the man roared while unleashing attacks toward Kairus.
“The Emperor probably ordered you to drive me out of the Imperial Capital by any means necessary, didn’t he?”
“…”
Kairus smiled at him.
“You said you obey imperial commands. Then obey the order to protect the Imperial Capital by any means necessary, Captain Loyalty.”
Kairus had shown him the method. If the Security Captain carried it out, Kairus truly would withdraw from the Imperial Capital once, just as he had said.
But the Security Captain did not answer. And the smile vanished from Kairus’s face.
“You’re a disgusting, selfish bastard just like me. A filthy insect with mantis legs growing out of your back and acid spewing from your stomach. Don’t act all noble. It makes me sick.”
The confirmation was complete. This was not someone worth respecting. Alongside the roaring sound of compressed bursts, Kairus attacked the Security Captain while leaving behind dozens of afterimages.
“Oh? So you regenerate?”
White foam covered the Security Captain’s mutilated body. Meanwhile, his limbs repeatedly split apart and transformed, growing more grotesque with every moment.
At this point, it was almost insulting to even call them limbs anymore.
Dozens of thorn-covered tentacles equipped with blades over a meter long had replaced his arms and legs. Thick yellow fluid dripped steadily from the blades, a deadly poison capable of killing a person with mere contact.
“Well, the way you acted already wasn’t human to begin with.”
Still, to think he would truly become something inhuman.
“You will not pass this place. The Capital Security Corps will stop you.”
Dozens of tentacles swung simultaneously. The moment those terrifyingly sharp and durable blades moved freely to engulf Kairus—
A violent gale shredded every single tentacle apart. Even then, the gale still retained enough force to engulf the Security Captain, slowly grinding his body apart while he was still alive.
“I heard your wish loud and clear, Captain. There’s only one way you can stop me.”
And even then, it would only amount to making him withdraw temporarily one time.
“The offer I made earlier is still valid.”
While listening to the exchange between Kairus and the Security Captain as she fought the others, Irena shouted toward the Security Captain.
“Ah, how about this? If you agree to Kairus’s offer, I’ll spare your life.”
“…Are you serious?”
Hearing the Security Captain’s response, Kairus let out a snicker.
“Wow, you’re consistently pathetic. Guess you really do resemble your master.”
It was not a promise Kairus had made. Irena had simply spoken on her own.