Chapter 280: 147. In the Name of the Holy King -3 (Part Two)
Translate by A Passing Wanderer
Edited by RED
Count Timong chuckled hollowly after hearing that.
A genius. No, wait. For this human monster, the term ‘genius’ seemed hopelessly inadequate.
‘How could a human reach such a lofty height like this one has?’
Timong was called a genius back in the ancient days when he was still alive, yet this human had surpassed him by an incalculable measure.
The pool of knowledge inherited through the generations of his ancestors? What a funny notion that was. Even if that was true, such a pool would’ve totalled no more than one thousand years at most.
What won today was the knowledge accumulated by a human, his talent, and all the effort he had put in to get to where he was.
That’s what led to Timong’s defeat.
What about him, compared to this human?
He even sold his soul and became a vampire in his pursuit of alchemy, yet in the end, he couldn’t even surpass this one measly living human!
“You... You think I’ll accept this?” Count Timong ground his teeth noisily. “No, I’ll never accept it!”
It had been fifteen hundred years. Just how hard had he been working during that infinity-like span of time to achieve his goal?
But now, a mere human dared to...?!
“You bastard!”
Count Timong mustered up the remaining scraps of his energy and opened his jaw wide. But before his sharp fangs could reach the neck of Hans’s, who was still holding onto the vampire’s collar, someone viciously grabbed Timong’s head from behind.
“You still have something left to do, Count.”
This person then easily lifted Count Timong up, before slamming the vampire’s head straight into the mouth of the Purgatory Gate, which was gradually closing up.
“Uwaaaaaaaahk!”
The vampire’s tragic scream rang out. Count Timong’s head began splitting apart into tiny particles.
However, he wasn’t getting sucked into the Warp Gate, but actually getting wiped from this world due to the error in the warp magic itself.
Soon afterwards, his head was gone for good.
Allen, still holding onto the now-headless neck of the vampire, lifted up the corpse high in the air. And as the countless subjects of the empire stared at him, he loudly declared to all who could hear, “We are the believers of Goddess Gaia!”
Now look, vampires. If you’re still out there alive, then hear these words well and commit them to memory.
“We are the hunters of the vampires.”
This is the Imperial Family. We possess a power that you can never surpass.
“And in the name of Holy King Allen Olfolse, I issue a new decree.”
And now, through this occasion I shall declare...
“We shall begin the continent-wide vampire hunt!”
I declare war against all of you, vampires!
**
Among the innumerable ocean of people was Marquis Kirum, still in his court jester get-up.
He currently had a dazed face. From the moment his clone was destroyed until to this very moment, he had witnessed everything.
“We won!”
“He killed the vampire!”
“His Majesty the Holy King, hooray-!”
“Yes, humanity will never lose!”
“We will definitely topple the vampires-!”
Holy King Allen lifted up the dead Count Timong up in the air.
It was a horrifying scene of a vampire burning away to ashes, yet the cheering of the humans continued unabated.
They were deeply stained by madness. This scene of them completely abandoning all of their fear and terror and entrusting themselves to the Holy King...
As for the Holy King himself, as the madness-filled gazes of these zealots focused on him, he gallantly stepped onto the Bone Dragon’s skull. He was using Count Timong’s burning corpse as an advertisement.
How could a Priest even think about doing something like that?! That was definitely not something you could willfully do in front of the sacred goddess statue!
That boy was displaying a personality far more cruel and vicious than all the demon kings found inside the fairy tales.
With this, it had been decided. The vampires were defeated, while humanity found their leader.
There was little doubt that among this crowd of humans, some must’ve been longing to become vampires themselves. After all, a vampire as an existence didn’t suffer from any known disease, didn’t die of old age, possessed incredible strength, and lived its life only for pleasure.
Outwardly at least, there could be no other creatures as perfect as vampires.
However, those people’s minds would’ve changed the moment they clapped their eyes on the mouth of Purgatory, and when the vampires were so mercilessly killed off.
The hatred of the vampires they felt, and the fear of being gruesomely murdered by the Holy King if you became a vampire, would’ve been engraved deep into their consciences by now.
Those humans who stood in awe of vampires and wished to become one would now turn their backs on that idea and begin exalting the Imperial Family, instead.
On the other side of fear was awe, after all.
{Hold on, Marquis Kirum. You shouldn’t step forward during this operation. However, I have another favour to ask of you.}
Kirum recalled what Count Timong had told him before setting out.
{That bastard is getting stronger even as we speak. If we fail to seal him away today, then we’ll have to resort to some other means.}
He rubbed his pulsing temples, hard.
The very last favour Timong had asked of him...
The Vampire Count was worried about ultimately failing today’s operation, and passed on his ‘duty’ over to Kirum.
{You must create an army.}
The Holy King was planning to create an army. As such, the vampires also needed an army to fight against him. A force more powerful than the army the Holy King was planning to raise!
{Raise an army of blood with only the cruelest, vilest beings you can find, ones who are stained to their core with desire. Create an army that worships the night, one capable of dragging the God of Death Yudai down to the depths of the netherworld, and one that will make us all gods in return!}
{But if that proves to be still inadequate, then in the north-west of the continent... There is a sealed doorway.}
{The ones sealed away by the gods... Undo their sealing. One year. I recommend that you finish all this preparation in one year. That will be...}
Marquis Kirum glared sharply at the Holy King standing tall above the Bone Dragon.
{...the only way we can win.}
“Very well, oh Holy King of the empire.” Kirum’s rage-filled eyes burned fiercely as he glared at Allen.
‘At least for today, I acknowledge our defeat.’
However, this would not be the end.
‘We shall advance even further. We shall become even stronger than ever before.’
And when that time arrived...
“We shall emerge victorious.”
Marquis Kirum silently disappeared into the crowd of people.
**
(TL: In 1st person POV.)
The whole of the Imperial Palace entered emergency mode when the vampire incident happened, but too bad for me, the Holy King coronation went ahead regardless.
I returned to the palace, and knelt in front of the Holy Emperor. He placed a crown on my head, then declared loudly that I was now the Holy King.
Countless nobles present in the audience chamber roared out loudly, and all I could do at that moment was making a stupefied face.
‘Holy cow. What have I done?’
While I was beating myself up with such thoughts in my head, night eventually came to visit again.
“You were wonderful today, Your Highness.”
While listening to Charlotte praising me, I jumped into bed.
My whole body threatened to sag like a wet sponge from all the fatigue. If it was possible, I’d love to scream loudly, too.
We managed to stop what the vampires were scheming to do, but it had resulted in me ascending to the position of the Holy King.
Heck, I was even temporarily granted Holy Emperor Kelt’s authority!
Humans are animals easily swayed by the mood; I couldn’t help but recall the words spoken by some psychologist.
‘Right, that’s the crucial thing here, the mood.’
When dealing with the vampires, I ended up getting too heated up. I exerted myself to summon the Bone Dragon and hundreds of holy undead, then maintained them out in the open for a while.
Then, there was Alice’s sacred hymn and the loud cheering of the empire’s subjects.
All these factors combined to steal away my reasoning and made me far too excited for my own good.
“I must’ve gone totally nuts. Why did I even make such a ruckus back then?!”
I recalled the mug of Count Timong.
For the sake of looking all dignified and the like, I didn’t even move a finger back then. My reason for that was fairly simple. If I hadn’t done that, then it would’ve become pretty hard to get such an explosive reaction out of the crowd.
Thanks to this incident, citizens were still cheering loudly in unbridled excitement, while partying up a storm on the streets of the capital despite the deepening night.
The poor old me just wanted to get some sleep and recover from my fatigue, so I had to cover my ears with the pillows.
“But sir, you went too far! That was far too big of a gamble, Your Highness! Even if I was a certifiable genius...” Hans complained while sagging into the nearby sofa. He then covered his eyes with the back of his hand.
“A gamble?” I retorted to what he said. “What do you mean by that, I wonder?”
Hans barely forced himself to sit up from the sofa, and addressed me in a protesting tone of voice. “How could you say that, sir? I’m talking about the Warp Gate, of course. The Warp Gate! What would you have done if I failed to close up that thing...?!”
“But, you weren’t going to fail, were you?”
Hans’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
“I knew you were fully capable of closing the gate. And that’s why I entrusted it to you in the first place.”
“B-b-but sir! Aren’t you too trusting of me?”
“It’s not that surprising for someone to believe in their retainers, now is it?”
Hans clamped his mouth shut.
I stared at him for a bit before lying on the bed spread-eagled. “Those damn vampire bastards. Now I have a lot more to do because of them.”
“But, isn’t this for the best? Your Highness, you’re the Holy King now. With this, the pathway to the throne of the Holy Emperor is yours,” said Charlotte while sounding genuinely pleased.
Hey, you. What do you mean, this is for the best? It’d already be a minor miracle if I don’t get chained to the Imperial Palace at this rate!
“Whatever. Anyways, you two get ready, too.”
Hans and Charlotte stared back at me.
I returned their stare and clarified myself, “My grandfather asked me this: what will be my first act as the Holy King?”
Charlotte cautiously replied with a question of her own, “And what was your answer, Your Highness?”
“My answer? Well, I said...” I laid back down and stared at the ceiling. “Raising ten thousand troops.”
“...?”
“Not five thousand as I said before, but now I’m thinking of raising ten thousand soldiers, instead.”
Both Charlotte and Hans raised their brows up high.
While still lying on my back, I turned my head slightly to stare at them. “And the training time will be one year.”
The Imperial Family had more than enough wherewithal to raise an army strong enough to utterly crush the vampires now.
I grinned like an idiot and addressed the pair, “I’ll be needing the help of you two.”
< 147. In the Name of the Holy King -3 (Part One and Two) > Fin.