The Knight King Who Returned with Gods : Chapter 45
Translators: Nyx and Ririi Rain
Episode 45 The Death Knights
The truth of the world revealed by the power of Fleur,
the goddess of dreams and death, was grim.
The residents of this gate, who seemed alive and
breathing, were the undead, and Great General Ricardo and the knights were Death
Knights.
Witnessing the truth, Leon was stunned.
“Ha! Now I know why I didn’t notice. I see now! To think
it was the power to fabricate the world itself!"
The gate itself was just a distorted dream.
"Guhh...!"
Great General Ricardo and his knights had shown their
true forms once the illusion of the dream was broken. The creepy aura of the
Death Knights was no longer hidden.
-Do not disturb the Queen's rest.
-Protect the Queen!
The hostility of the skeleton knights was directed at
Leon. Though he received it fully, Leon was still wondering.
"You are not corrupted men soaked in evil,
then...!"
Leon's sword turned to the Queen. He could smell the
corruption in her, as the illusion of the dream was lifted.
The dream must have originated from her.
-Kwang!
But Leon's blade was blocked by Ricardo Byrnes... the
blade of a Death Knight. He deflected Leon's blade away from the Queen.
-Eliminate hostile entity.
Muzzles were pointed at Ricardo. At that moment, another
Death Knight charged at Yappy.
"Sir, Sir Yappy?!"
Yappy was pushed back by the Death Knight's charge. Yappy
fought back, swinging a steel wire with its secondary limb.
Meanwhile, Ricardo's sword slashed at Leon with fierce
intensity. The Great General attacked as if he would never get tired.
His swing was imbued with years of experience and great
strength, a power well above A-Class. But it was nowhere enough to reach Leon.
-Kaang!
Sword clashed with sword, and the contest of strength
began. The Great General's sword thrummed with power, but Leon's sword didn't
show the slightest sign of being pushed back.
"A fine sword. A sword so well forged that it has
not lost its quality even when you become an undead.”
But he was no match for Leon. Leon was the pinnacle of
those who have walked in the knight path. Ricardo's sword was pushed further
and further back, until it finally dug into his shoulder. It was then.
"Get- lost...!"
"General!"
Two knights' blades joined in to deflect Leon's sword
with a loud, phlegmatic sound.
Leon's expression flashed with anger at their actions.
“This is a one-on-one duel! You dare to dishonor your
knighthood!"
Leon saw pride in their swords. He felt the honor of the
knights who walked the path of knighthood, and that made him even more furious.
"The sword of a knight is different from the sword
of foolhardiness!"
Leon's words were met with no hesitation from Ricardo and
his knights.
"Honor has long since been forsaken!"
"For... the Queen!"
Leon could not understand the shouts.
Wasn't she the one who had ruined and caged them?
The Queen herself had even asked him to kill the knights.
Wait, kill the knights? Why would she make such a
request?
Leon stared at the Queen lying on her bed, even as he
dealt with the knights.
For a queen who exuded an aura of outright corruption and
tempted living creatures, she was still.......
"Not a demonic being?"
As the dream was broken, the knights unveiled their true
appearance. But the Queen still possessed vibrant skin and beautiful features.
Unlike the demons of pleasure, who were ugly.
“You guys! What have you done! What have you done to the
Queen!”
"We made a -deal- with the devil, King
Lionheart."
Spero Kingdom.
They too, like Leon's world, were being invaded by
demons.
It was the current Queen Beatrice who led the Kingdom's
army against the oncoming forces of evil.
However, they were unable to overcome the demons'
onslaught, and the Archdemon of Pleasure, Androzin, reached out to her as they
teetered on the brink of destruction.
[Queen, I applaud your courage. We can make a deal.]
[A deal...?]
[Embrace the essence of corruption, and repeat the
destruction of your kingdom for a hundred years. If you can do that, I
will spare you and your people.]
Already facing destruction, the Queen of this Kingdom had
no choice but to accept it, even if it was a devil's trap.
The destruction repeated.
The battle with the demons was a yearly occurrence.
At first, it was bearable.
Even if they were killed by the demons, they would be resurrected
the next year to face them again.
[Kihihihi… !]
But they were up against the Archdemon of Pleasure. They
humiliated and violated the people, the soldiers.
They corrupted them with endless pleasure and torture,
breaking their spirits.
Even the soldier who lasted the longest did not last
longer than three years.
[I... what have I done.......]
Realizing what she had done, Queen Beatrice sought a way
out, but the devil's traps were cunning and insidious. There were no loopholes
in the deal she had already accepted.
She grew madder and madder.
During the day, she had to watch the demons slaughter her
people, and at night, the corrupted would whisper to her,
[It’s because of you. I died because of you.]
[Be corrupt, embrace pleasure.]
The sight of her Kingdom's destruction and the essence of
corruption planted in her body constantly tortured her.
After fifty years of this, when a loyal knight was
finally unable to resist her temptations and infiltrated her bedchamber── Great
General Ricardo Byrnes made a decision.
[Commiting suicide.]
Suicide was strictly forbidden in the world of
repetition. Androzin made no accommodations for suicide, even when it was done
voluntarily with the help of others.
[Those who commit suicide to evade the contract will
become wandering ghosts of the netherworld for eternity! The moment the
hundred-year deal ends, you will become servants of corruption!]
Nevertheless, Ricardo Byrnes and the thirty-seven Knights
chose suicide.
Protect the Queen and be loyal to the Queen. This was
because they knew that the oath they swore when they became knights of the
Kingdom would not be fulfilled while they were alive.
The Queen's charms did not work on those who had died and
become Death Knights, then they sealed her away.
"Though even that seal could only put her to sleep
for half a day since the 80th year.”
"......."
Leon sighed as he listened to Ricardo's story.
What loyalty.
Their loyalty surprised even the Lionheart King.
But.......
"That is why the Queen asked me to kill you."
To prevent her knights from becoming servants of the
demons.
"The Queen knows. She knows she won't last."
“No! The Queen will endure it! 5 years! All she has to do
is endure it for 5 more years! She is able to do it!”
"How can a knight judge their liege? Your loyalty is
admirable, but ‘this’ is not loyalty!"
"Thou shalt not judge our loyalty!"
General Ricardo's sword slashed down. Even after putting all
his strength into it, Leon managed to parry it with one hand.
Leon grabbed it empty-handed. His outstretched arm,
intended to tear his head off, was blocked by a slash.
"Tch."
Leon withdrew his arm and stepped back. Two knights
behind him swung their swords sideways.
-Kkang!
Leon pulled his holy sword back to block. He then kicked
the charging General Ricardo with his foot.
"You think you can stop me...?! You think your
joined attack will be enough?!"
They knew.
They had seen the power of this monster in his battles
against demons.
Even excluding the Holy Laws, this monster had reached
superhuman status with his physical abilities alone. A knight among knights.
Knight of knights.
“Forgive my rudeness!”
One of the Death Knights swung his sword broadly. A move
made solely to emphasize strength. It was too crude for a knight to use.
Leon didn't miss the opening. The blade of his holy sword
stabbed straight for the Death Knight's bare side, but──
-Kwang!
Another Death Knight's shield blocked Leon's blade. The
next moment, a Death Knight's sword swung at Leon.
"Kk...!"
Leon barely managed to sidestep it. A strand of golden
hair was cut off.
'They
deliberately create an opening and attack me.'
A bold attack that relies on his fellow knight to defend
him. He can feel that solid trust.
"Haah!"
The battle intensified. Just when Leon believed he had
dodged a spear thrust from a blind spot, a tackle came from behind.
Even though the Death Knight didn't have room to swing
his sword, he maneuvered his entire body to push Leon away, giving his comrades
a chance to attack.
Leon caught the Death Knight with a right hook and
slammed him to the ground. As Leon raised his sword to deliver the decisive blow,
a sharp spear thrust toward him.
-Bang!
The sound of impact rang out like a cannon blast.
"Kh...!"
He barely managed to block the spear's blow with his
blade, but his hand was unable to fully absorb the impact and was trembling.
'Strong.'
If this was the Lionheart Kingdom, they would be able to
walk the path of honor of the Gods.
There was no doubt that each and every one of them must
have been a knight of renown.
'Rather,
their abilities must have been diminished after becoming undead.'
Knights of this caliber boast polished and refined
swordsmanship.
Becoming undead may have increased their physical
strength, but it also diminished their refine movements.
General Ricardo Byrnes looked over at Leon from his
position at the forefront of the knights.
"We are the elite knights of the Spero Kingdom.
Royal guards under the Queen. Throughout the centuries, we have grown stronger
and united!"
Solely to protect the Queen.
How can these loyal knights be called a bunch of vile
ghouls?
"Well done, knights, you have done more than your
share of knightly honor and pride. However......."
Leon slid his holy sword back into the Grail. Suddenly,
he was holding a large lance in his hand instead.
"Before you is the history of the Three Hundred
Years War of the Lionheart. Can you bear this weight?"
"What nonsense......."
"Take this weight, and I will recognize you."
Stallion.
The pure white stallion answered Leon's call. Mounting on
its back, Leon distanced himself from the Death Knights.
"Chase!"
But the Death Knights also summoned ghost horses. The
ghost horses, who shared the death of their owners and wander the netherworld,
started pursuing Stallion.
“Kuh?!”
"So fast!"
But the ghost horses failed to catch up to Stallion. This
divine mount, given to Leon by the Goddess of Light and Justice, was of a
different origin.
The ghost horses could only stare blankly as the white
horse opened the distance in an instant.
And the moment the distance was enough, the rider's head
turned the other way. Any knight can recognize it.
-A charge...!
-It's coming...!
A cavalryman's strongest hit: A charge.
"Glory to the Lionheart...!"
The horse pounded the ground while the man raised his
lance. In response, the knights charged in unison.
One against thirty-seven.
One knight versus thirty-seven knights.
At the moment of clash, the knights realized their fate.
-Boom!
The first collision sent the foremost knights flying. The
ghost horses were no exception.
Stallion's momentum did not diminish a bit in the second
clash. Two rows of Death Knights were sent flying.
"Keuhag?!"
The third row of Death Knights had only brushed up
against the divine horse, but they still failed to hold on to their own steeds.
-Aaaah!
Ricardo raised his sword immediately even after rolling
on the ground. He realized that his opponent's power to break through was
beyond common sense.
He could only cover for himself, no room for an outright
counterattack!
"No...!"
Ricardo glanced around and saw that his fellow knights
had all been taken down. That is right. In this moment of impending collapse,
Ricardo was the only one who managed to pull himself up and endure the impact.
'One
single charge... and he destroyed the Queen's Royal Knights?!!'
Even his sturdy body trembled at the shock of the fact.
Leon's holy spear pressed under Ricardo's chin.
“Wake up from your fleeting dream.”
"King Lionheart...!"
Where did this monster come from? Why did such a powerful
being appear now?
"We- I...!"
Yet the flame of resistance within him was not
extinguished. His loyalty to his queen, to repeat her time and save her in the
end, moved his body that had long since become a dead body.
“If you can’t wake up from your dream, live forever in a vain
illusion. Foolish knights.”
When the spear was about to strike.
A chill.
One that made the skin crawl.
Leon instantly recognized the approaching horde of evil
with a more sinister aura.
"Demons!"
They were already gathering their forces and marching.
Leon could have taken care of Ricardo first. But he didn't.
"Rise up, soldiers of the Lionheart! How long will
you remain foolishly asleep!"
His voice boomed through the huge cavern. It stirred the
knocked-out soldiers.
***
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