Vol 1 Chapter 11 – The Hero Saw Through Everything【Vol 1: The Beastkin Hero Arc】

A few weeks after Allen and Asmodeus left the ancient ruins.

At the edge of the continent, in a place no one approached known as the Forbidden Zone, a group clad in pure white knight uniforms and armor touched down.

Riding upon Pegasi—a type of flying spirit beast—were knights belonging to the Holy Empire’s national army: the Emperor’s Special Task Knight Order, the Secret Guard.

Their objective was singular.

The ancient ruins in this land. They were to recover the Artifact resting in its deepest depths.

“So this is the Forbidden Zone… It’s a pretty creepy place, huh.”

Dismounting from his Pegasus and looking around, one of the knights spoke up with a frown.

“Commander. Let’s wrap this mission up quick and head home.”

In response to the knight sleepily rubbing his eyes, the striking young man with a sharp glare—addressed as Commander—glanced back and glared at his subordinates.

“…You lot seem awfully relaxed. I’ve heard from His Majesty that golems built with ancient technology are guarding these ruins. Drop your guard and you’ll die.”

“Yeah, but, with you here it’ll be a breeze, Commander. After all, you’re Allen-sama’s successor, the top candidate to finally become a World Knight, just like you always wanted.”

At those words, the commander of the Secret Guard—Helmis Glengaia—narrowed his blood-red eyes and clicked his tongue.

“It is not ‘just like I always wanted.'”

The appointment of a World Knight was decided at the World Council, where the kings of various nations gathered together, by securing a majority vote of support from the royalty.

Five years ago, at an emergency World Council held after the previous generation’s World Knight (Allen’s master) was slain by the Demon Lord.

The human race’s candidates for World Knight were Allen and Helmis.

Through the voting, Allen was elected World Knight unanimously.

Ever since then, Helmis had viewed Allen as his greatest rival.

“…Back then, I personally lobbied the kings of every nation not to vote for me. I was taken in by His Majesty the Emperor. A World Knight isn’t permitted to swing their sword for the sake of just one nation. Five years ago, I simply wanted to work exclusively for the Empire as the commander of the Secret Guard. If I had actually desired the position of World Knight, I would have won—albeit by a narrow margin. I would have. So I am absolutely not weaker than that man, nor am I any less popular. In other words, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I graciously handed the title of World Knight over to him. Keeping all of that in mind, the expression ‘just like you always wanted’ is—”

“C-Commander, we get it, we get it already!”

“We’ll focus on the mission!”

Fed up with excuses that sounded like they could go on forever, the squad members hurriedly began searching the area.

Sporting a sour look at his scattering knights, Helmis also started investigating his surroundings.

It seemed the ancient ruins were buried underground; finding them would likely be backbreaking work.

Though it was expected to take some time, a pair of knights searching near a poison swamp suddenly raised their voices in shock.

“T-This is… the entrance to the ancient ruins, isn’t it…?”

“Yeah, b-but…”

Due to the impact of debris raining down from the Evil Eye Castle that had violently exploded high up in the sky, the entire surrounding area had been utterly devastated.

Perhaps thanks to that, the stone staircase leading down to the subterranean ancient ruins was completely exposed.

However, what was most baffling was the wooden signpost set up right in front of those stairs.

“You found it already?!”

“Y-Yes, sir. But…”

“Wha— Ridiculous, this is…”

“C-Commander, please come here! Commander!!”

The knights who had been searching elsewhere gathered around as well. And everyone let out a gasp of shock.

Called over, Helmis rushed to the scene and immediately widened his eyes at the signpost before the stairs.

“What is this… ‘I have taken the dangerous treasure sleeping in these ruins. Searching is pointless.’ …What…?”

The signpost was relatively new. It had been placed here recently.

“It says… ‘Noir, the Wandering Mercenary.’ J-Just who on earth is he…?”

“The location of the ancient ruins should only be known by a select few in the Empire who are extremely close to His Majesty…”

Helmis himself had only been informed of the ancient ruins’ existence for this very mission.

Someone who had gotten ahead of Helmis’s group and recovered the Artifact.

That could only mean,

“This person named Noir… could he have realized His Majesty’s scheme?”

Helmis shuddered.

Originally, the details of Helmis’s mission were to transport the Artifact supposed to be in this land—the 【Cursed Brain of Domination: Brain Order】—to a certain location.

At that certain location, a magitek scholar who had inherited ancient research was artificially creating Brave Cores.

By transplanting those Brave Cores into humans, the Empire was producing a military force to replace the World Knights—Artificial Heroes.

It was all for the Emperor’s ambition to invade the Demon Continent and dominate the demon race.

To perfectly control those Artificial Heroes as mindless puppets, the 【Cursed Brain of Domination: Brain Order】 was absolutely necessary.

“The inside of the ruins are being guarded by golems, right? There’s a chance this claim about recovering it is just a lie. Should we investigate inside?”

Helmis gave a grave nod to the question from the knight, who had just gulped nervously.

Since the Emperor had gone out of his way to send Helmis—who housed a Brave Core himself—the golems were bound to be formidable.

Thinking this, the knights advanced into the interior of the ruins with Helmis taking the lead.

They descended the stairs and passed through a gray space made of a mysterious material.

In the wide-open space before them, all of the hundreds of golems—so many there was barely room to step—had been smashed and sliced perfectly in half.

Every single one shared the exact same severed parts and cross-sections.

Their upper and lower halves were severed with a terrifying cleanliness.

Whoever had set foot in these ruins had wiped out almost all of the golems with a single strike.

“The only person… capable of doing something like this… is Allen-sama…”

Amidst his dumbfounded subordinates, one of them muttered blankly.

(…It certainly resembles Allen’s swordplay… however…)

“There’s no way that guy is still alive. You’ve heard about the price of using the Lightning Annihilation Sword, haven’t you? Even the other World Knights had vaguely suspected that his lifespan would run out during the battle with the Demon Lord.”

As he spoke, the shadow of the man Helmis had designated as his lifelong rival flickered in his mind.

This level of divine foresight and brilliant scheming. There was no doubt that guy was involved.

“I guess this is to be expected of my rival…”

It wasn’t just martial prowess. If it was that guy, whose mind was also frighteningly sharp.

Realizing the Emperor’s scheme, he had completely predicted what would happen to the world after his death and what measures the Empire would take, and had set up countermeasures accordingly.

“Then… you’re saying Allen-sama did this? That Allen-sama is alive?”

“No, that’s incorrect. Most likely, this Noir person is Allen’s disciple. Considering that the current beast-kin World Knight, Leonhardt, was also a disciple of his, it wouldn’t be strange for him to have a second one.”

It seemed the Obsidian Knight remained stubbornly opposed to the invasion of the Demon Continent.

(…Why didn’t you understand His Majesty’s ideology? What is so wrong about slaughtering all the demons, Allen? Even with the Artificial Heroes, a small number of sacrifices is necessary in order to secure true peace!)

The signpost—left out of sheer kindness by an Allen who had only accidentally stumbled into the Forbidden Zone—ended up interfering with the Emperor’s plans and further accelerating the misunderstandings of his self-proclaimed rival.