Episode 151
“Prince Edward of Dulles.”
The elite assassins of the Shadow Court surrounded him from all sides. But it wasn’t to guard against Edward. Quite the opposite, in fact.
“The ‘Black Prince’ of Saxon…!”
Edward’s voice trembled as he struggled to speak. Even uttering Dale’s name seemed beyond his control, as if he were teetering on the edge of a precipice.
“Y-you promised…!”
“A promise, you say?”
“To drive out the church and return my wealth…!”
Gone was the frenzied specter that had been slaughtering the cathedral priests moments before. In its place was a desperate puppet, struggling against invisible strings.
“Your wealth, Prince Edward?”
Dale sneered coldly.
“You conspired with certain merchants in the guild district, skimming off fees to lead the ‘mana stone and artifact laundering business’ in the city. Not to mention, as the head of the adventurer faction, you controlled hunting grounds in the labyrinth, plotting day and night to seize the city.”
Edward’s lips quivered at Dale’s words. Dale watched him with a frosty smile.
“Please, do keep quiet. I’m not finished yet.”
Invisible strings were in Dale’s hands, and the figure before him was nothing more than a puppet he controlled.
There had never been any artifact rampage to begin with.
The puppet’s sword—its magical power had been infused by ‘Dale of Saxon’ from the start, and Edward of Dulles had taken the bait.
“Did you think the noble blood in your veins would shield you, even if you broke the ‘Saxon rules’?”
Dale spoke. Edward struggled to speak again, but before he could, the floor of the hall was swallowed by a lake of shadows.
“No shield in this world will protect those who break the Saxon rules.”
From the engulfing waves of shadow, the predators finally emerged.
The Shadow Lurkers.
“A-ahhh…!”
Edward’s face turned ashen as he clutched the puppet’s sword. He gasped like a fish out of water, trying desperately to speak. But the ‘Black Prince’ paid him no mind.
Edward was never given the chance to speak or raise his sword against Dale.
“You should have curbed your greed.”
Dale murmured as if it were someone else’s problem, snapping his fingers.
A chorus of shrieks erupted as the Shadow Lurkers, reborn in the darkness, unleashed their barbed tendrils. Edward’s body was torn apart, his blood scattering. The blood and entrails were swallowed by the darkness, and the shadowy lake receded back into Dale’s cloak.
As if nothing had ever happened.
With the chaos in the labyrinth city of Labyrinthos quelled, the territory officially returned to the hands of the ‘Viscount of Saxon.’
The cathedral, once a symbol of the church’s glory, had been transformed into Dale’s lordly castle.
Thus, the Viscount of Saxon, the ‘Black Prince,’ sat upon the throne in the castle’s great hall.
Beside him, emerging from the shadows, was the black knight, Lady Shadow ‘Aurelia,’ ever vigilant. Nothing had changed. Even in the absence of another knight, Charlotte, Dale remained unperturbed.
Despite those who had left, the Black Prince continued to reign.
As the ruler of the frozen lands of Saxon, the demon lord’s domain, filled with icy cold and darkness.
That dawn.
With the city’s unrest settled, a meeting was convened in the newly acquired castle to reconsider the direction of the Grand Demon Alliance.
The swift campaign proposed by Prince Mordred was ultimately dismissed by the martyr’s duel, and their return was deemed the will of the goddess. Thus, the responsibility for the retreat fell to Prince Mordred, though none dared to hold him accountable.
Moreover, Dale could not deny that the turn of events had unexpectedly worked in his favor.
‘Thanks to this, reclaiming the demon lord’s domain was expedited.’
Additionally, the wealth amassed by Edward’s faction was largely reclaimed by Dale.
Despite the significant physical toll, there were virtually no losses among the soldiers or key forces, save for the ‘Master Templar’ who volunteered as a sacrifice in the martyr’s duel.
And there were unexpected gains. It became clear that the demon hordes, seemingly engaging in indiscriminate plunder, were operating under a unified command.
Identifying their leader was not difficult. A high-ranking demon, a shadow sorcerer, no doubt.
‘A shadow sorcerer.’
For Dale, who claimed dominion over gold and shadow, and styled himself as the Shadow Lord, how should he perceive their existence?
Dale was no longer the empire’s hunting dog. Thus, distinguishing friend from foe was entirely up to him.
“As for the threat of the demon lord’s domain…”
As the representative of the Grand Demon Alliance, Dale spoke.
“We must accept that it is a greater threat than we imagined.”
“You, what are you plotting now…!”
“Shall I tell you what people will say about the church if the Grand Demon Alliance disbands now?”
Dale addressed the priest Borenius, who could not hide his anger.
“Having set out for the demon lord’s domain under the guise of the goddess’s holy will, only for the church’s representative to misinterpret the goddess’s will and lose in the martyr’s duel, they will say you turned tail and fled, abandoning the goddess’s will. Not to mention, the cathedral in the territory I offered was burned, and the tithe meant for the goddess was completely looted.”
The church’s prestige would be buried in the mud, as clear as day.
“This is a fight we cannot back down from.”
Dale declared. No longer swayed by the whims of the powerful, but leading the entire Grand Demon Alliance.
“Prince Mordred, you wouldn’t return to the imperial court empty-handed, would you?”
Dale turned his head.
“You damned…!”
Prince Mordred looked ready to draw his sword, but he did not.
He remembered Dale’s display in the martyr’s duel all too well.
The black armor of death, embodying the very end of life and history.
“Enough, Mordred.”
“S-sister!”
“Prince Dale is right.”
Princess Chiara intervened, stopping him.
“The church, the Saxon family, the imperial family, all of us… we’ve come too far to turn back.”
With a meaningful smile, she declared herself a reliable ally to Dale.
“The holy war of the Grand Demon Alliance, the Crusade, has only just begun.”
The Crusade, once the imperial army’s moniker when Dale was the ‘Hero from Another World,’ gathered to defeat the demon king Balor.
“Even if the first Crusade ended in failure, it doesn’t mean the holy war is over.”
Chiara spoke, and Lady Scarlet chimed in with amusement.
“Indeed. We cannot retreat, especially for the sake of Master Templar Brother Lusignan, who sacrificed himself to understand the goddess’s will. Isn’t that right, Brother Borenius?”
The very person who had drained Lusignan’s blood.
”…”
Borenius bit his lip at Lady Scarlet’s taunt. But they were right. The church had nowhere left to retreat. Unless this holy war ended in victory, the church’s already plummeting influence would have no place to stand.
“I will honor the will of my brothers and sisters.”
In resolution, Borenius, the 7th Circle white mage, spoke.
“I will inform His Holiness immediately, so that we may declare a ‘holy war’ in the name of the imperial family and the church.”
“Ah, the goddess wills it! Our goddess desires many things, like war and the wealth accumulated by the peasants’ sweat and blood.”
Lady Scarlet mocked again. All Borenius could do was bite his lip until it bled.
Once losses are incurred, the human psyche compels further investment to recover them.
Thus, accepting Borenius’s request, the White Tower Lord and head of the Papal States, Celestial Duke, obtained imperial consent to declare the start of the ‘holy war.’
No longer was it merely the ‘Grand Demon Alliance’ in Dale’s demon lord’s domain. It was a war desired by the goddess, and new powers began to join the fray.
Wars do not erupt overnight.
More than anything, Dale needed time to restore the labyrinth city and reorganize the development projects in the Demon Lord’s territory. He also faced the massive task of expanding accommodations and supplies to host the newly arriving Crusaders.
But the most crucial endeavor was the business he planned to conduct with the Crusaders.
War economy. The surge in demand for essential military supplies during wartime, leading to increased trade and the resulting profits from various taxes.
Thanks to Dale’s open trade policies, the Demon Lord’s territory had become an indispensable trading hub within the empire. The war economy brought on by the Crusader conflict would only cement its importance.
As Dale, the Viscount of Saxon, coolly weighed the scales of profit, his fifteenth birthday arrived.
A few months later, his younger sister, Liese, celebrated her seventh birthday.
“Brother! I’ve missed you!”
Dale had left his domain behind and made a rare visit to the Saxon duchy.
The first to rush out and greet him was his little sister, Liese, who had just turned seven.
“Liese!”
A girl with the Saxon family’s signature jet-black hair and eyes that sparkled like crystals. Seeing her, Dale couldn’t hide his delight as an older brother.
“Happy birthday.”
He kissed her lightly on the cheek, smiling warmly.
After the kiss, Liese beamed up at him.
“By the way, brother, you haven’t forgotten your promise, have you?”
“Of course, I remember.”
“Yay!”
Liese grinned like any child her age, and Dale reached out to her.
He recalled the day when young Liese, on her sixth birthday, had burst into tears, insisting she wanted to become a mage like him.
“You wanted to learn magic, right?”
“Yes, brother!”
“It won’t happen overnight.”
As he spoke, a swirl of blue magic followed his hand, and crystals of ice began to shimmer.
He thought of Sepia, his old mentor who had taught him his ‘first magic.’