Choi Hyun-seok quickly dealt with the masked figures.

Their magical power was decent, but for some reason, their combat skills were quite poor.

“Hmm, can’t tell much just from looking at their faces.”

When he removed the mask from the fallen one, it revealed a common white person’s face.

Since they didn’t say a word until their death, no additional information could be obtained.

“Hero, hero!”

At that moment, Rachel, who had been circling around, landed on his shoulder.

“Random thought, but this reminds me of that little detective.”

“Little detective?”

“Yes! There are always cases wherever you go. Like that little detective who attracts cases.”

“Stop talking nonsense and hold Bobo.”

Choi Hyun-seok threw Bobo, whom he was holding.

Rachel caught Bobo by surprise.

“Kyaaa! So heavy!”

“You need to hold Bobo tight so he doesn’t go anywhere.”

“Urgggh…!”

“Heh! Heh!”

Rachel grabbed Bobo by the scruff of the neck and kept flapping her wings.

Even though shrunk, Bobo was still several times larger than Rachel, making it difficult to fly while holding him.

Bobo seemed to enjoy floating in the air, sticking out his tongue and smiling.

“If you use flight magic and use my magical power, you’ll die.”

“Ah, I wasn’t going to!”

Rachel, who was about to use flight magic, quickly stopped.

“Miss Abelson. For now, let’s go to where your father, the King, is. He’s the most important person in the palace, so they’ll probably target him.”

“But we don’t know who’s behind this. What if father is the mastermind…?”

Abelson’s eyes wavered.

She seemed confused.

“Maybe what that fairy said is right.”

“What do you mean?”

“About attracting incidents.”

Abelson hung her head low.

“If I hadn’t come here, the palace wouldn’t have become like this…”

“Get a hold of yourself!”

Choi Hyun-seok threw a punch at Abelson’s face.

Abelson grabbed her cheek in surprise.

“Even if we attract incidents, that’s the fault of those who cause them, not ours. Besides, this doesn’t seem like an attack targeting just us.”

“What do you mean…?”

“The entire palace is involved. If they were only after us, they wouldn’t have done things this way.”

The scale was too large for it to be just about eliminating Choi Hyun-seok and Abelson.

Moreover, they wouldn’t have sent only this many people after Abelson.

“Their goal is probably to overturn the entire palace. The target would naturally be the King.”

“So…”

“Yes. We need to get to His Majesty quickly.”

“Understood.”

After Choi Hyun-seok’s shock therapy, Abelson quickly regained her composure.

They hurried toward the King’s chambers.

‘When did this…’

Choi Hyun-seok swallowed hard as he looked around.

Countless bodies were piled up everywhere, from the garden to the corridors inside the building.

They were all bodies of palace guards, attendants, and servants.

It was clearly a one-sided massacre.

‘In the end, sending out the Royal Knights was the problem.’

Even if necromancy was dangerous, they shouldn’t have hastily sent out the Royal Knights.

Whether the enemies planned for this situation or just got lucky with the timing was unclear.

What’s certain is that if the Royal Knights had been here, the defenses wouldn’t have been breached so helplessly.

Then something caught Choi Hyun-seok’s eye.

‘Demon race?’

Among the bodies strewn on the floor, there were some that weren’t human.

Upon closer inspection, they were definitely of the demon race.

‘Why are demon race members here…?’

Once he noticed, he could see demon race bodies scattered everywhere.

Why were demon race members here?

Their presence was completely unexpected in the current situation.

From the beginning, Choi Hyun-seok hadn’t even sensed any demonic energy.

Normally, he should have sensed demonic energy with this many demon race members, even in such a chaotic situation.

BOOM!

Just then, an explosion was heard from afar.

Abelson shouted in surprise.

“That’s from father’s chambers!”

Choi Hyun-seok put aside his thoughts about the demon race.

‘First, save the King.’

There was no time to be lost in thought.

First, save the King and think about the rest later.

“I’ll run at full power!”

Choi Hyun-seok held Abelson and kicked the ground.

Crack, Boom!

The ground shattered from the tremendous leg power as Choi Hyun-seok’s body shot forward.

Rachel, who was following behind, screamed.

“Eeek…! Take me with you too!”

Rachel frantically flapped her wings trying to keep up.

“Heh! Heh!”

Bobo, who was hanging on, just enjoyed flying through the sky.

***

Bang! Boom!

The building shook with explosions.

Everyone hiding in the King’s chambers trembled in fear.

“Damn it…”

Cardinal Balda, Commander of the Royal Knights, cursed.

He was bleeding from wounds all over his body.

King Valter approached with a worried expression.

“Lord Balda. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, but I’m ashamed. To let Your Majesty face such humiliation.”

“Don’t worry about it. The Capital Guard and Scolbon Knights will arrive soon. Let’s hold out until then.”

Balda nodded, but his face was full of concern.

‘We don’t have enough time…’

The palace is located in the capital Scolbon.

Naturally, besides the Royal Knights and Palace Guard, there are many soldiers and knights protecting the capital.

The problem is that it takes time for them to arrive.

It didn’t seem like they could hold out until then.

‘The magic is already starting to break. Not much time left.’

Although the King’s chambers are protected by powerful magic.

Given the enemies’ fierce attacks, it didn’t seem like they could hold out much longer.

At most, maybe another minute.

Balda gritted his teeth.

‘If only I hadn’t fallen for such a cowardly trick…!’

Cardinal Balda is among the highest tier of heroes.

There was a reason why even he was rendered so helpless.

He had been poisoned.

Before the attack.

Some Palace Guard soldiers approached Balda saying they had something to report.

“Commander. Would you look at this?”

The soldiers held out something wrapped in cloth.

When Balda pulled back the cloth, an intense light burst forth.

“Ugh, what is this…!”

While Balda closed his eyes in confusion.

Swoosh!

The soldiers stabbed him with something sharp.

He hurriedly surrounded himself with magical power for protection.

Thanks to that he only received shallow wounds, but the problem was that poison had been applied to the blade tips.

After that, his magical power flow became severely sluggish.

He could still fight, but using fighting techniques in this state was impossible.

“Such cowards!”

Then the attack began.

Unable to properly use his magical power against powerful enemies, Balda had no choice but to struggle.

‘If only my magical power was working properly, those nobodies would be nothing…’

The enemies in black hoods and masks were strong.

Each one possessed vast magical power comparable to the Royal Knights.

But only their physical abilities and magical power were exceptional.

Their combat skills weren’t anything special.

If Balda had been at full strength, he could have swept them away alone.

He beat his chest, blaming himself for being careless enough to get poisoned.

“Attack!”

Clang-!

“Arghhhh!”

A commotion broke out outside the door.

Along with battle cries, the sound of weapons clashing could be heard.

“…”

After a while.

Things grew quiet and someone knocked on the door.

“Father! Are you alright!?”

It was the voice of the fourth child, Reis Mariette.

“Reis!”

“Yes. We’ve cleared this area. Please open the door!”

The door opened, and Reis entered along with several knights.

First time seeing these knights.

When Balda took a defensive stance, Reis stepped in front.

“Don’t worry. These are my personal attendants.”

At Reis’s words, Balda nodded and stepped back.

King Valter ran and embraced Reiss.

“Reis. You’re alive!”

“Yes. I’m glad you’re safe too, father!”

“Do you know what happened to the others?”

“I went to look for brother Hog right after the attack, but he was already dead.”

“I see…”

King Valter’s eyes widened at the news of his son’s death.

He forcefully clenched his trembling fist.

It was clear he was trying to suppress his emotions given the urgent situation.

“This isn’t the time. They have us surrounded. We need to escape before the encirclement tightens.”

“Y-yes. Let’s hurry out.”

Just then, Balda who had been listening approached.

“It’s dangerous to leave now. The Capital Guard will arrive soon, so we should hold out.”

“The defensive magic will break before then.”

“If we leave, we’ll need to defend all sides. We don’t have enough numbers for that.”

“Hmm, yes. Lord Balda is right. Let’s try holding out here for now.”

“Sigh… If that is Father and Lord Balda’s wish, very well.”

Reis nodded.

At that moment, swords flew at both sides of Balda.

Swish- Clang!

Balda reacted instantly to deflect the swords, but couldn’t block the one coming from behind.

Stab-!

The sword that pierced his back went through his heart.

Balda stared with wide eyes at the one who stabbed him.

His gaping face was filled with disbelief.

As if he couldn’t believe it.

“Tsk. Making me do this with my own hands. Pathetic fools.”

“We apologize.”

The knights bowed their heads at Reis’s words.

He pulled out his sword and shook off the blood.

“This one was quite a monster too. Still able to move after being poisoned with magic-hardening poison. It would have been dangerous if we’d waited longer.”

Balda had even been forcefully moving his magical power to detoxify himself.

If time had passed and the poison had worn off, it would have surely caused major problems for their plan.

“R-Reis… What are you doing…”

King Valter spoke with a trembling voice.

Reis didn’t answer.

He just stared coldly at the king while holding his sword.

“Answer me! Why! Why did you do this!?”

“I should be the one asking.”

Finally, Reis Mariette spoke.

“Father. Why did you refuse Gatren’s request?”

“What…?”

“The traitor Abelson Mariette and hero Choi Hyun-seok. Everything would have been resolved if you had handed them over.”

“How do you know about that…”

In fact, before Abelson and Choi Hyun-seok arrived, the Holy Empire of Gatren had secretly made contact.

They requested handing over Abelson and Choi Hyun-seok, calling them traitors who colluded with the demon race.

King Valter had refused and kept it secret.

“How I know isn’t important. What’s important is that Father refused that offer and angered Gatren, angered the Pope.”

“…”

“The continent will be ruled by Gatren in the future. This is an undeniable fact. Those stupid demon race, the arrogant Drason Empire, and even the united kingdoms will all kneel before Gatren.”

At that moment, anger flashed in Reis Mariette’s eyes.

“When we should have eagerly become Gatren’s dogs, you refused their request. Do you have any sense?”

“Abelson is family! She’s your sister!”

“Hah, this is why our Mariette can’t escape from being a minor kingdom.”

“What…?”

“How can a country prosper when such a pathetic person who clings to mere blood ties sits on the throne!”

Reis shouted as if releasing everything that had been pent up.

King Valter trembled with rage.

“You fool! Do you think there’s a future in bringing in foreign powers? This is treason. Someone without legitimacy sitting on the throne won’t be tolerated!”

“Don’t worry. Our Mariette Kingdom was simply attacked by demon race who colluded with the traitor Abelson.”

“D-demon race…?”

“The situation will end with me, Reis Mariette, stopping the demon race’s plot and beheading the traitor.”

“…”

“So there’s no need to worry about legitimacy. I will make the kingdom prosper, so Father can rest in peace.”

“How dare you…!”

Reis, who didn’t want to hear anymore, swung his sword.

Slash-!

King Valter’s head fell to the floor.

“Phew, finally finished cleaning up.”

He shook the blood off his sword with a relieved expression.

“Father, mother, and brother are all done… Only that traitor remains.”

Everything would be over once he dealt with Abelson Mariette.

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