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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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The Dwarf Republic.
Unlike the Human Kingdom, it was truly a land of gold with countless resources and technologies.
Naturally, it was inevitable that the demons would covet the Dwarf Republic.
Especially after being properly tricked by the Holy Kingdom, the demons couldn’t just sit back and watch the riffraff of the continent play their tricks.
So they decided to invade the Dwarf Republic.
However, it was too costly to push through with force.
With the barrier of the Holy Kingdom, demons above the True Demons couldn’t move properly within the barrier.
So instead, they decided to spread poison.
The slowly spreading poison would rot the Dwarf Republic from the inside, eventually leading to its self-destruction.
That was how they slowly but surely made the Dwarf Republic rot away.
Of course, there were those within the Dwarf Republic who sensed something suspicious.
But most could be dealt with easily.
Except for one, Viral Emerald.
At the moment they could have dealt with him, he cleverly chose to flee the country.
And then he brought the Royal Knights all the way here?
At first, they were a bit flustered.
But it didn’t matter.
Because Ambassador Viral knew nothing.
Naturally, the Royal Knights wouldn’t be able to figure out anything either.
That’s what they thought.
Until they heard the commander’s words directly.
“Demons, huh.”
That single confident statement was enough to sow confusion.
How the hell did he know?
Ambassador Viral had never mentioned it.
How did he figure out it was the demons in that one moment?
At that moment, the commander’s eyes met mine.
I had no choice but to hurriedly avert my gaze in surprise.
I didn’t know why, but the current commander of the Royal Knights had definitely figured something out.
He must be killed immediately.
I quickly came to a conclusion.
If I were to do it, it had to be today, targeting now when they were in poor condition after the long and arduous journey.
And finally, the deep night shrouded the light of the republic.
I personally headed to the commander’s bedroom.
The other members weren’t a problem.
I would directly deal with the commander, the most noteworthy individual.
Perhaps overconfident, he was in a deep sleep.
Could it be a trap to lure me in?
That thought crossed my mind for a brief moment.
But I soon shook my head and denied that possibility.
If that were the case, he would have aimed for the moment I entered the room.
But he didn’t do that.
In other words, it meant he had let his guard down now.
It was fortunate amidst the misfortune.
With the situation of the demons being particularly unfavorable now, the invasion of the Dwarf Republic must not fail.
With that mindset, I slowly approached.
I got close enough to feel the commander’s breath, but he still had his eyes closed and was sleeping.
I slowly raised my dagger.
Still, he remained unmoving.
Without hesitation, I swung down the raised dagger as it was.
In the end, you let your guard down, oh commander of the Royal Knights.
However, I felt something strange.
I couldn’t feel the sensation in my hand.
“What the…”
Blood didn’t splatter around.
The dagger had merely stabbed the innocent bed.
Some fur was tumbling in the air.
Right at that moment when I was standing there with a blank expression, stunned by the sudden situation.
“Who are you?”
A chilling blade touched my neck.
The commander, who had been sleeping, not only woke up but also got behind me in that brief moment.
The moment I realized that fact, for the first time, cold sweat ran down.
As expected of the commander of the Royal Knights.
His skills were absurd.
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Although many shocking stories were exchanged, anyway, we decided to rest for today and start the investigation the next day.
Because the members were too tired to start right away.
For the protection of our safety, it was decided that the Jewel Star would specially escort us.
I would be personally guarded by Rain Emerald.
I suppose we could trust them since they were the royal guard.
In fact, Ambassador Viral also directly expressed his trust in Rain Emerald, even if he didn’t know about others.
She was probably Ambassador Viral’s closest aide.
Anyway, we took a rest.
And at the same time, I thought I could rest at ease for today.
There was an underlying thought that they wouldn’t reveal their true colors from the first day.
Would they really do that right away?
But that actually happened.
Assumptions can really get you.
It’s not like I had noticed anything.
I was just tired, so I washed up and went straight to bed.
But my sleep was restless, and when I woke up, there was a dagger right in front of me.
At first, I wasn’t very surprised.
Because I thought it was a dream.
However, that wasn’t a dream.
While I was sleeping, time stop had activated and saved my life.
“Oh shit, that startled me.”
If I had panicked and sat up, I would have been stabbed by the dagger and severely injured.
I slowly and carefully sat up, avoiding the dagger.
How long had time stop been active?
About 5 minutes had passed.
Just being able to roughly know that was already a big help for me.
I quickly drew my sword and struck at its neck.
At first, I had intended to kill it right away.
But soon, my mind changed.
My sword couldn’t penetrate deep into its neck.
Based on the feeling, it was much tougher than Comprachico.
It meant it was at least a higher-ranking demon than Comprachico.
Then it meant it was at least a blood demon.
I frowned.
Originally, demons couldn’t operate here due to the barrier.
At most, only low-level ones could be active.
But recently, blood demon-level demons had started to appear.
It was proof that the Holy Kingdom’s barrier was weakening.
That was also a problem, but for now, let’s focus on the current issue.
I released time stop.
If the time stop lasted any longer, I wouldn’t be able to endure it due to the cooldown.
As soon as I released time stop, I saw its startled expression.
“Who are you?”
Now all that was left was to buy time until the cooldown was over.
I couldn’t withstand facing a blood demon-level without using time acceleration.
But time acceleration was a sure-kill move.
I had to save it until the very end.
Honestly, it was best not to use it at all.
Anyway, to buy time for the time stop cooldown, I opened my mouth.
Then it slowly got up and turned its head. And the moment I saw its face, I was shocked.
Because it was the face of someone I knew.
With blue hair.
And a girl-like appearance with blue eyes as well.
Rain Emerald, she was the one who had attempted to assassinate me with a dagger.
Why in the world?
Wasn’t she Ambassador Viral’s closest aide?
“I aimed for when your senses were dulled from the long journey. It seems I’m the one who fell into a trap.”
“…”
“It seems you have a lot to ask me. But I can answer a few things.”
“Why did you, the closest aide of Ambassador Viral, betray him?”
Fortunately, the threat worked.
The poker face skills I had trained until now finally shone.
If I had shown a flustered appearance, my skills would have been doubted.
And right after that, I would have been attacked.
Nevertheless, the reason it wasn’t moving now was because it was wary of me.
That was why it was answering to buy time.
I knew that, but now it was rather welcomed.
I also needed to cooldown time stop.
Let’s try to buy as much time as possible now.
At my words, Rain smiled and replied,
“As expected, the people of the continent are foolish.”
“What?”
“Do I still look like Rain to you?”
“…?!”
“AKA MPP3 TK1 MPP4 TK2 DARRRRR…”
It made some bizarre noise.
As if something inhuman was speaking to me.
That kind of voice.
A chill ran down my spine.
I clenched my teeth.
I had to maintain my poker face.
Rain’s form started to melt like mud.
Eventually, it completely lost its shape.
Instead, what was there was something grotesquely shaped.
It definitely wasn’t human.
Crawling on the floor, it had very thin threads surrounding its body.
Its face wasn’t visible.
But although its eyes weren’t visible, numerous mouths were attached to its body and moving.
“PL3 UT1 DDAD EMEL MPP4 DARRRRR…”
The problem was that it was spewing out incomprehensible sounds from those numerous mouths.
From my perspective of listening to it, I felt like I would go insane at any moment.
That was how terribly dreadful the sound was.
Eventually, it moved.
It swung its tentacles.
I quickly retreated backward.
The tentacles it swung instantly smashed the floor.
Thanks to that, I fell to the floor.
My posture was broken, but I barely survived because it hastily fled.
I clicked my tongue and got up from the spot.
Whatever the case, reuniting with the others came first now.
Because I was scared.
What the hell was that?
That monster.
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