Chapter 3: I Guess That’s Just What Happened
Keter’s preparation to fight the queen was smoother than he expected, thanks to Dork, his subordinate.
“I know you said you’re not fighting the queen for Sefira’s sake, but let’s make it seem like you’re seeking revenge for the Sefira family. It makes sense, and it will help you gain allies.”
Keter began refining new techniques to kill the queen. The skills he had learned and mastered in Liqueur were all in their raw form; while excellent for killing people, they were unsuitable for fighting a divine being like Queen Lillian.
Keter chose archery as his technique to battle the queen. This was because Besil, the head of Sefira and his father, left a legacy: Zodiac Archery, a collection of Sefira’s secret archery skills. Though he had never learned archery before, it didn’t take him long to. He was already a master at throwing, and his talent for combat was unrivaled.
Keter didn’t train; he learned the skills through battle. The entire country was his enemy, so there were plenty of opponents to fight. Every soldier was going around as fast as they could, searching for him to kill him.
He fought his pursuers as they came, sometimes going to them before they found him. There was never a day that went by that he didn’t fight, never a day that didn’t end in bloodshed. Proving that people didn’t call him the Clear-Eyed Madman of Liqueur for nothing, Keter enjoyed risking his life in these battles.
Keter usually worked alone, but Queen Lillian could not catch him for some reason. It was strange that an entire kingdom couldn’t do anything about one, single person. This was because Keter had a just cause: to avenge Sefira. The Sefira family was exterminated overnight for treason, a charge that was never substantiated.
There were obviously nobles who were disgruntled, but there was also covert help from other factions that disliked the queen. Thanks to this, Keter was able to stay alive, eventually reaching a point where he could kill a Swordmaster with a single strike and even fight against dozens of them at once.
But he hadn’t gotten any closer to his goal of killing the queen. He had started out boldly, but Keter realized that he was just a frog in the well. The stronger he became, the more he truly realized that Prime, the strongest state a human could reach, was not the end but only the beginning.
The first time Keter felt a limit was when he encountered one of the Four Lords. The Four Lords were the queen’s trusted henchmen and the pillars of this country. To kill the queen, he had to kill these Four Lords first.
Keter sought out and challenged one of them: The Lord of the East, Deyal the Slasher of Skies. True to his nickname, Deyal wielded a swordsmanship that could cut the sky. After fighting him, Keter couldn’t help but scoff in disbelief.