Children of the Holy Emperor

Chapter 185

The campsite, which had just fallen asleep, was instantly lit up brightly with torches.

Before they knew it, everyone had gathered in a circle around Seongjin’s group, including the Orden, the Wolf Knights, and even the minstrel Lorang.

“Has the cause been identified, Dame Ilma?”

“A scout just returned, Grand Duke. According to the report, it seems a demon has been summoned on the Milo Trading Guild’s side.”

“…A demon?”

“Yes. They saw a monster emitting black demonic energy. It looked just like a tree, but it was wriggling and snatching people and horses left and right. Most of the Milo Trading Guild has already been caught up in it.”

Orden furrowed his brows.

Although he suspected a confrontation with the dark cult, summoning a demon out of the blue?

“I don’t think it was intentional on the part of the caravan leader.”

“No matter how you think about it, there’s no reason for him to do that. If the trade journey is disrupted, the one who suffers the biggest loss is the caravan leader himself.”

“Could it be that he noticed we were investigating him? Maybe he was trying to eliminate the evidence and witnesses all at once……”

What? You thought you were secretly investigating until now?

And why would he eliminate evidence like this? It’s not even certain that we’ll get caught up in it, so why would he sacrifice his own caravan in such an ambiguous position?

Seongjin found it absurd, but unfortunately, he didn’t have the leisure to rebuke the guy. Suddenly, someone staggered out of the darkness outside the campsite and approached them.

“He-help…!”

Seongjin instantly recognized his pale face. He was a mercenary from the Milo Trading Guild’s side, whose face had become familiar over the past ten days of traveling together.

He had numerous thick, branch-like objects coiled around his body, and black demonic energy was incessantly flowing out from them.

“Please save me…!”

Before the mercenary could finish his words, he collapsed with a thud in front of the campsite. Edith reflexively tried to rush towards him, but of course, Seongjin and Sir Valerie simultaneously grabbed her.

As expected.

Hissss.

The mercenary’s body, which had been wriggling, turned black and shriveled up in an instant. It was the corrosion of the corpse by demonic energy.

Seongjin couldn’t help but recall Director Collins, who had died at the logistics relay station.

‘Is this guy also a demon contractor?’

[No, Lee Seongjin. That’s just a phenomenon that occurs from being exposed to highly concentrated demonic energy.]

The Demon King answered.

[Do you now realize how dangerous demonic energy is? For ordinary humans without sacred power, just coming into contact with demonic energy will instantly turn them into that state.]

There was a reason why Schmidt was so shocked to see Seongjin unharmed even after opening the demon’s register that emitted potent demonic energy.

‘I wonder if Dasha is okay.’

Anyway, right now, he was most worried about the well-being of Dasha, who had infiltrated the Milo Trading Guild.

Of course, he thought there was a high possibility that she, being a capable person, had escaped in time.

Seeing that there was still no particular report to Seongjin even with such a major incident, it seemed like it had happened very suddenly without any signs.

“Young master, what shall we do now?”

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Dame Ilma asked Orden.

The Wolf Knights were skilled demon beast hunters, but they were not holy knights, so naturally, they were vulnerable to demonic energy.

They had never even faced a demon species without the help of combat priests, and even the few combat priests were all currently remaining in Siegmund Territory.

Orden contemplated for a moment but made a quick decision.

“If something evil has suddenly attacked the caravan, as a subject of Delcross, we can’t just stand by and watch.”

Even if it was about the Milo Trading Guild, which was suspected of colluding with the dark cult.

Moreover, this road was the only path leading to Siegmund Territory. If rumors spread that the caravan had been wiped out by a demon species attack, the already remote territory might become completely isolated.

He hurriedly gave orders.

“We’ll split the manpower a bit. Two knights to guard His Highness, and two knights to protect the non-combat personnel will remain, and the rest will follow me along with Dame Ilma.”

At those words, all the Wolf Knights began to move in unison.

However, despite their swift movements, there was an undisguisable heavy tension on the faces of the knights facing an unfavorable battle.

Meanwhile, Orden approached Seongjin and bowed his head.

“Your Highness, please allow us to receive the assistance of the holy knights from the demon subjugation unit.”

Instead of leaving two Wolf Knights behind, he was asking to borrow Sir Valerie and Sir Sharon, who were holy knights.

“Hmm……”

Seongjin pondered for a moment.

It was only two knights, but if you added the resident knights that Seongjin originally had, the dispersed force was not negligible.

Above all, along with the commander, Dame Ilma, the strongest person in the group was none other than Sir Masain. He would surely try not to leave Seongjin’s side even for a moment.

“Why don’t we all go together?”

Huh?

As the eyes around him widened, Seongjin nonchalantly continued.

“If something happens to you guys, I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to escape safely either, right? In that case, let’s not bother splitting the personnel from the beginning.”

“But Your Highness……”

“And I don’t know if you’re aware, but Sir Masain and I possess sacred relics. Right now, when priests or holy knights are lacking, I think the two of us are also quite an important force.”

It was a fact he had learned relatively recently, but objects that a saint had carried for a long time gained the status of sacred relics.

It didn’t mean that their physical strength increased remarkably or that they suddenly emitted sacred power.

It’s just that weapons of high rank could sometimes cut things that ordinary weapons couldn’t.

Sir Masain’s sword, Mithra, was a good example.

After being worn by the 7th Holy Emperor, who excelled in martial arts, it was bestowed upon the commander of the holy knights on two occasions and was later officially recognized as a sacred relic.

According to the passed-down legend, it was one of the legendary weapons created by melting down the spear of the chief god who sealed the primordial demon dragon.

And the Nutcracker. This sword was undoubtedly the strongest sacred relic.

Even though it looked a bit shabby, it was an object that the living proxy of a god had carried around for half his life.

Above all, there was another crucial reason that Seongjin had to follow them, which he couldn’t say out loud.

‘If the demon continues to emit such demonic energy, I might be the only one who can approach it.’

Whether it was because he was already dead or because he was an evil spirit, Seongjin seemed to have something akin to immunity to demonic energy.

In that case, it would be the way to minimize unnecessary damage by having himself take the lead from the beginning.

“But more than anything, Your Highness’s safety is the most important issue.”

Orden said that while glancing behind Seongjin.

But strangely enough, Masain, who seemed most likely to object first, was standing behind Seongjin with his mouth tightly shut, gripping Mithra.

The one who actually dissuaded Seongjin was an unexpected person.

“Your Highness, wait a moment……”

Sharon spoke to Seongjin with a somewhat flustered expression.

“It’s fine if it’s just for a short while, so could you please wait in a safe place for a bit?”

And she approached Seongjin and whispered softly in his ear.

“Ugh, it seems a [gap] has opened up in the Imperial Palace at a time like this. I can’t contact him right away, so please wait at least until His Majesty returns.”

Unfortunately, she couldn’t easily summon the Holy Emperor like before. The reason he left without saying much, as if he was busy, was probably because of that.

Seongjin sighed.

“Lady Sharon. I appreciate your concern, but we have to solve the problem in front of us ourselves. How long are you going to rely on Father for every single thing?”

What do they think of that person anyway? How much does he have to take care of every little thing?

The Holy Emperor is just a human who is busy and diligently lives every day, not a god who truly transcends time.

“……”

At Seongjin’s words, Sharon closed her mouth with a surprised face.

“Don’t worry about my safety. I won’t do anything that would make Father worry. It’s just that we don’t have the leisure to disperse our forces. I have no intention of recklessly doing something dangerous just for the sake of it.”

And Seongjin raised his head and spoke to the people gathered around him.

“If we can’t leave the demon alone anyway, let’s clash with the best force we can muster. If it still doesn’t work out, then we can all retreat together and request support. I won’t prioritize my own safety alone, but I also won’t force you to do something beyond your abilities. We just need to do what we can.”

The faces of the group, which had been stiff since the mercenary died from demonic energy corrosion, showed a faint light of relief.

The fact that they had to face a powerful demon species remained unchanged, but there was something reassuring about the prince’s words.

“The non-combat personnel will stay here. As Grand Duke initially instructed, find a safe place with two knights. The rest will head to the Milo Trading Guild with me like this.”

After giving a glance to the people listening to his words, Seongjin tersely said.

“Let’s go.”

As Seongjin gripped the Nutcracker and took a step, the group, including Sir Masain and Commander Bruno, quietly followed behind him.

Also, without realizing it, the Wolf Knights, led by Orden, had naturally fallen in line behind the prince.

“Not a hint of doubt could be found in his eyes. When he raised his sword and led to the rightful place, who would dare to defy him?”

Lorang, who remained in the campsite watching the scene, unconsciously muttered and plucked the strings of his lyre with a ding.

***

Screeeeeech!

A massive tree was wriggling in the middle of the caravan’s campsite.

At first glance, it looked like a bare oak tree in the middle of winter.

But in the blink of an eye, the trunk thickened, the split branches wriggled like snakes, and it devoured everything alive around it.

What looked like cracked tree bark from a distance was actually intertwined and twisted tree stems wriggling together.

Through those twisting stems, an ominous black demonic energy rose thickly. Those touched by this vicious demonic energy instantly withered, and now they were swaying, strung together on branches like skewered meat.

‘Are we too late?’

Far from it, on a hill overlooking the demon tree, Giacomo Milo clicked his tongue upon seeing the enormous tree that already filled the campsite and stretched towards the sky.

It was an extremely painful thing to clearly witness the horses and numerous supply wagons he had built up over a long period being futilely destroyed.

‘If it was going to be like this, I should have borrowed his power from the beginning……’

He regretted it, but it was already too late.

Immediately after the Repentance Tree began to sprout.

Giacomo was the only one who managed to escape in time from the demon tree that quickly engulfed its surroundings by borrowing Sallos’ power.

And that was all he could do.

[It’s too late, Giacomo.]

Sallos lamented in his mind.

[If you don’t stop it before it sprouts, there’s no way. That cursed tree not only attracts human life but also the demonic energy of demons as nutrients.]

In other words, it wasn’t impossible to deal with the demon tree, but even Sallos couldn’t avoid some loss of power. And he had no loyalty to endure such a loss for the sake of a mere contracted human.

‘Then what about that demon tree, Sallos?’

If it continues to grow like this, wouldn’t that one tree alone be capable of devouring the continent?

[It will stop at a suitable point. Once it exceeds a certain size, the amount of the Repentance Tree’s stems absorbing each other also increases, so it can’t spread with the same momentum as in the beginning. However, it will still grow to the size of a city or so.]

In other words, it was inevitable that this entire area would be completely destroyed.

[Perhaps the Holy Emperor will appear before then.]

In any case, it was now out of Giacomo’s hands.

As he was giving up like that, he saw a group of armed troops carrying torches approaching from over there. It was the Wolf Knights and the prince’s entourage.

‘Are they planning to confront it even after clearly seeing that terrifying sight?’

He knew the Wolf Knights were strong, but that was when they were dealing with regular armies or demon beasts from the demon realm.

‘How are they going to deal with a demon tree that emits demonic energy like that when they’re not even holy knights?’

As Giacomo was comfortably observing them, he was momentarily startled.

It felt as if Prince Morres had briefly looked straight up at him.

‘……!’

Was it his imagination?

Since the prince had turned his gaze back towards the demon tree, Giacomo tilted his head in doubt.

[Oh?]

At that moment, Sallos spoke as if he found it interesting.

[This is unexpected. Perhaps they have a chance of winning.]

‘A chance?’

[They possess sacred relics!]

At that moment, as if sensing the presence of living beings, the demon tree quickly extended a thick branch towards the prince’s group.

And the next moment.

Swish!

A faint golden Aura power soared up from the prince’s group.

Boom!

It cut off all the extended branches and caused a strong explosion on one side of the demon tree’s trunk.