Ch.210209. Special Forces (1)

# 209. Special Forces (1)

“What…? What did you say?”

“We’re fucked.”

The wording was a bit crude, but it was the most fitting expression for the situation.

I spoke to her, who still wore an anxious expression.

“To put it more politely, we’re doomed.”

“What… happened?”

“I’ll tell you later, when I can.”

We were already speaking in hushed voices, so others probably couldn’t hear us well, but there were still quite a few people around.

“Okay… But are you alright? You didn’t push yourself too hard again, did you?”

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘too hard,’ but I didn’t.”

“You didn’t?”

The Emperor gave me a look that seemed to say, “What nonsense is that?”

I tapped the Emperor’s arm lightly.

However, this person didn’t seem to understand what this signal meant.

Or perhaps… they just didn’t want to say it.

“What kind of nonsense are you…”

“I really didn’t push myself too hard.”

Completely contradictory statements.

She looked back and forth between us as we continued to make conflicting remarks.

“Your stories don’t match at all.”

“I did a reasonable amount, that’s all. More importantly… shouldn’t we be heading back now?”

The soldiers who had arrived here with her had been waiting without knowing what was going on.

Even if we didn’t care, we needed to send these people back quickly or at least arrange somewhere for them to stay.

“What about these people?”

“Right… we should send them back first.”

“Let’s take care of that first.”

***

In a forest about 10 kilometers away from the ravine where the Kainis Empire’s soldiers were positioned.

In that forest with impressively tall trees, a middle-aged demon was breathing heavily.

“Haa… haa…”

His physical condition was near death.

His heart was racing, and his body wouldn’t obey him.

His forehead burned like fire while his hands and feet were ice cold.

“It’s been a while…”

“Pardon? More importantly, Your Majesty… are you alright?”

His concerned companions.

He looked at them and gave a meaningful smile.

“Of course I am. Who do you think I am?”

“That’s a relief… but perhaps you should rest for a moment…”

“No…?! That’s impossible.”

Despite his wretched condition, he somehow managed to stand up.

Then he took one step at a time toward his homeland.

“What if we’re detected…? We need to move quickly.”

The enemy’s detection abilities were quite threatening.

That’s why they absolutely could not let their guard down.

As everyone continued walking with their exhausted bodies, one tactless soldier looked at Solomon and spoke.

“Can’t we… ride on this? We could arrive much faster…”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

Agareus warned with a voice full of killing intent.

He explained the current situation to that foolish soldier.

“You want to ride this mass of magical energy? Do you have any idea how much His Majesty is struggling to conceal this creature’s magical energy, and you still say such things?”

“I-I’m sorry…! I… I didn’t know…”

“It’s fine, just be careful next time.”

“..?”

For some reason, Bael forgave him lightly.

This wasn’t something to be taken so lightly.

Agareus looked at him, surprised by the unexpected reaction.

‘What kind of… change of heart…’

Normally, His Majesty would have cut off someone’s head just for opening their mouth, let alone saying something like that.

But now he was treating the soldier kindly despite such nonsense.

This change was extremely jarring.

And at the same time, extremely pleasing.

‘He’s finally becoming… more human.’

Whether that was right or not, he felt good about it.

His Majesty, who had seemed like a simple psychopath before, was becoming more human.

As his loyal subordinate, he was genuinely happy.

“Things have certainly changed…”

“Hm…? What do you…”

He didn’t know what had changed His Majesty so much.

But it was clear that this change would definitely work out for the better.

“It’s nothing, just the ramblings of an old man. Please ignore it.”

***

“So… what happened?”

“Actually, it’s not much. Your people and Solomon fought, and it seems Solomon lost.”

It was hard to believe, but given the result, I had no choice but to accept it.

Bael with a weapon was apparently that strong.

“So they’re controlling Solomon now, that’s what’s happening.”

“You call that ‘not much’…? This is serious! What are we going to do now…?”

Sure enough, she wore a grave expression, just as I expected.

I didn’t want to see that expression, but there was no helping it now.

The situation left us no choice.

“What do we do? The same thing we’ve been doing all along—fight and win.”

“Easy for you to say…”

“It’s not all bad. If you take Solomon out of the equation, we would have won easily anyway. Now things are just more even.”

Even if it wasn’t going to be an easy victory, we still had the advantage.

And just like Bael did, we needed to fight and win.

“There’s no reason we can’t do it too.”

“They have a few weak dragons and Solomon, while we have to face Bael and others like him…”

“But we have more people.”

“They have plenty of people too…”

This kind of conversation could go on forever.

Of course, she was right, and I was just being stubborn, but anyway…

“Let’s think positively. We can definitely do this.”

“You think so…?”

“Of course, and we have some time too.”

Judging by their condition earlier, they weren’t in any state to launch a major offensive using Solomon in just a day or two.

They would need at least a two-month recovery period.

‘Quite a few people died too…’

Come to think of it, it’s strange.

For Bael to make such a decision, risking the lives of his comrades and, above all, his own life…

He must have been quite dissatisfied with the current situation.

‘Really… hard to predict.’

I thought that was just Bael’s personality and belief, but it seems it was merely confidence.

Confidence that came from a difference in power.

But now that he doesn’t have that confidence, his personality and beliefs seem to have crumbled.

“He really makes things exhausting…”

“So this incident never happened?”

“Yeah, not at all.”

They had tried before.

But those were merely persuasion attempts like recruitment offers, nothing like this bloodbath.

That’s why it was even more unpredictable.

“If there had been something like this before, I would have told you long ago…”

“That’s true.”

“But… you don’t seem to be taking this too badly?”

If anything, she seemed more composed than I was.

She didn’t appear particularly flustered and was simply trying to accept the fact as it was.

Just like the Emperor’s attitude earlier.

“I do think it’s bad—it’s definitely not good news.”

“But at least you’re not despairing?”

“Because this isn’t a situation for despair.”

“That’s what I mean by being calm.”

Others, especially those who knew what kind of being Solomon was, would have found it difficult to maintain composure in this situation.

Yet she was looking at the current situation based solely on the facts, setting aside emotions.

“I’m just reassured because Albert doesn’t seem too concerned.”

That reason might not be entirely absent, but it probably didn’t account for much.

What played a bigger role was simply her composure and capacity.

‘She says nice things.’

Still, I really liked hearing that.

***

About a week had passed since that incident.

During that week, not much had actually happened.

At most, the only difference was that I was living a bit more diligently.

But if I limit it to what happened to me personally, it’s a bit different.

‘Seriously… what is that?’

Since that incident, I started noticing strange things more often.

More accurately, I started noticing them more frequently.

I had seen them before the incident too.

This was the center of Lucerne, the imperial capital.

“There are so many damn people.”

And from those people, I could see that same dark shadow I had seen on the Empress.

And not just on one or two—it was everywhere.

‘It’s fucking creepy…’

It wasn’t just one or two; it was visible on almost everyone here.

I couldn’t understand what it was or why it appeared like that.

This was my first time experiencing something like this too.

On my way to the imperial palace, I turned into an empty alley.

Then I carefully called out to that creature.

“Hey.”

-Goo…?-

“Do you know what that is?”

-Goo…??-

“That thing, you know, that thing. The one that looks like you.”

When I said it looked like him, he reacted quite strongly.

It seemed he had some pride, thinking he was special.

-GOO!!-

“You know?”

-Gooo.-

Fortunately, it seemed he knew about it.

“What is it?”

-Goo.-

“Ah… I guess I can’t ask like this…”

Even if he knew, he couldn’t tell me.

The creature could only say “goo” after all.

“What was I expecting…”

I sent him back and continued on my way to the imperial palace, my original destination.

There, quite a few people were waiting for me, or more precisely, for the new special forces.

“You arrived right on time.”

She was wearing her military uniform since it was the announcement day for the new special forces.

Whenever I see her, I always think the same thing—it seriously suits her well.

She quickly looked over my appearance and said what I was about to say.

“As expected, that uniform suits you well.”