MTM 139

The man known as the commander was a tall, handsome man with piercing brown eyes and red hair tied back. However, rather than the tidiness typical of a holy knight, he exuded a wild, intimidating aura reminiscent of a Viking warrior wielding an axe.

“Hmm…”

He eyed Zed, whom the holy knight had pointed out, then spoke with a sly smile.

“Oh, it seems you’ve really gone all out this time. You’ve picked out a pretty convincing candidate.”

“C-Commander! That’s not it! This person just…!”

“What do you mean, ‘that’s not it’? Didn’t you report that Prince Ares Carseon had appeared? Well, his eyes and hair color do bear a resemblance.”

The holy knight who had witnessed Zed’s holy power tried to interject in a flustered manner at the commander’s sarcasm, but he, like the others, did not believe in Zed’s true identity. His eyes were filled with the conviction that the missing Prince Ares could not possibly have appeared out of nowhere.

“C-Commander, that’s not what I meant…”

The nervous holy knights looked back at Zed, afraid the commander might make the same mistake they had. Their eyes pleaded for him to display that overwhelming holy power they had just witnessed once more. But the commander’s attention had already shifted away from Zed.

“Wait a moment, that one is….”

The commander looked at Harto, who was clutching the hem of Zed’s clothes. As their eyes met, Harto hid himself completely behind Zed’s back. But the commander’s eyes were already sparkling with curiosity.

“Ooh! A monster capable of taking human form? Now that’s a rare find!”

He instantly saw through Harto’s true nature.

Whoosh!

No sooner had he finished speaking than the commander moved.

“Zed! Get out of the way!”

Leon tried to cast a defensive spell, but the tall commander was surprisingly fast, so fast it was hard to keep up with him.

“Ugh!”

The commander was just about to reach out his rough hand toward the terrified Harto, but a surge of holy power rippling through Zed’s body sent him flying.

Boom!

The shockwave shook the ground, accompanied by a deafening sound.

“Commander!!”

The holy knights, pushed back by the blast, screamed. Yet, beyond the thick cloud of dust billowing into the air, the commander was nowhere to be seen.

“I’m here.”

Upon hearing the voice from above, everyone hurriedly looked up. The commander who had been hovering in midair using his holy power, landed on the ground like a butterfly. He had jumped out of the way at the last possible moment to dodge Zed’s decisive attack.

‘When did he evade it without a sound?’

Zed was inwardly flustered. He hadn’t even sensed the commander’s movements, let alone his use of holy power. It was proof that the man before him possessed combat prowess far more overwhelming than he had anticipated.

Meanwhile, the commander smiled as he admired the swath of holy power Zed had unleashed.

“Well, it seems you’re definitely not an imposter…”

The commander twirled a bracelet on his fingertip as he softly muttered, making it jingle. Harto’s eyes widened as he watched the bracelet.

“Ah! My bracelet…!”

He hurriedly checked his wrist. He had no idea when it had been taken, but the bracelet he’d been wearing had vanished without a trace. In that brief moment when Zed was focused on the enemy in front of him, his hands had moved with an unreal speed, allowing him to steal the item right off Harto’s wrist.

“Harto, get behind me.”

“Uh, uh-huh….”

Zed hurriedly hid the flustered Harto behind his back. He radiated hostility from every pore.

“Please return it.”

“Hmm…. A spirit stone. It’s an item that doesn’t suit a monster, you know.”

The commander paid no heed to Zed’s demand; he stared alternately at the bracelet and Harto. Not long after, his eyes began to sparkle with a strange light. It was a disturbing gaze, as if he were peeling away Harto’s layers one by one to dissect his very essence.

“…Holy sight.”

Zed murmured. It was an ability that concentrated holy power into the eyes to see through an opponent’s magical energy flow and even the very essence of their soul. The commander’s gaze had already penetrated beyond Harto’s physical form, burrowing toward something hidden deep within his chest.

“It seems that monster is sustaining its power with ‘that’.”

His eyes were aimed precisely at Harto’s heart. He had sensed a part of the Demon King lurking there.

“Th-that…?”

As Harto looked confused, having no idea what was going on, Zed bit his lip and unsheathed his sword. Clang! A cold metallic sound rang out as he yanked it from its sheath.

“If you have no intention of returning the item… I’ll take this as a challenge to a duel.”

As Zed shouted, the commander finally turned his head slowly to look at him. His brown eyes, now free of the strange glow, fixed on Zed, who was radiating a murderous aura along with his holy power.

“Zed…?”

“A duel?”

Harto couldn’t hide his shock. Leon was just as taken aback. Although the commander’s attitude had been extremely rude, declaring a duel was uncharacteristic of Zed.

Besides, their objective was to enter Carseon Castle safely. If such a commotion broke out right at the entrance, it was obvious that their plan would fall apart before they even had a chance to execute it.

“Zed, it’s really fine. I’m confident I can use my power even without the spirit stone now…”

“It’s not just the spirit stone inside the bracelet.”

“Ah…”

At Zed’s firm reply, Harto recalled the events of that morning. The gem Zed had personally fashioned from the remnants of the snowman they’d built. Embedded within it were fragments of the moments they had shared and their precious memories. To Zed, that was a realm just as non-negotiable as protecting Harto.

“A duel?”

At Zed’s declaration, the commander snorted and flung the bracelet off his finger. Fortunately, Leon caught it.

“Not a single soul has challenged me to a duel since I took command of Carseon, so this is tempting. I’m dying to vent this boiling fighting spirit…”

“You’re about to waste precious holy power on something meaningless again, Gerard.”

“And here comes a grumpy old man to say so.”

At the sound of a voice coming from somewhere, Commander Gerard shrugged as if he had already anticipated the interruption and stepped back. Beyond the space he had vacated, an old man leaning on a long staff, his white beard hanging down to his chest, slowly came into view.

He was wearing a blue priest’s robe embroidered with sacred patterns in gold thread. The silver star-shaped pendant hanging from his neck glowed in the sunlight, and through the deep wrinkles on his face, a pair of vivid blue eyes, whose age was impossible to gauge, were fixed solely on Zed.

With every step the old man took, an aura that defied description radiated. It was less an aura of intimidation and more akin to an unassailable, sacred majesty.

“H-His Eminence…!”

The holy knights’ faces turned deathly pale upon recognizing the old man. For the Archpriest, the highest authority of the temple, to step outside the castle in person was tantamount to a national emergency.

“You are….”

As the Archpriest and his entourage approached, Zed slowly relaxed his grip on his sword.

“O Lost Heart of Carseon. We, your humble servants who serve only the divine, pay homage to the glorious return of the noble Prince Ares.”

The Archpriest standing before Zed bowed and knelt respectfully. The holy knights also lowered themselves to the ground in unison. Even Gerard, who had maintained a defiant attitude until then, let out a short sigh and knelt.