Chapter 56: The King Descends from Heaven, Wrathful and Ferocious (Patreon)

Julius finally lowered his head.

He looked like a man who had lost himself, humiliated beyond measure, his eyes clouded with shadow. His body seemed to sway all at once and his back hunched. With a lost look in his eyes, he gritted his teeth and forced a faint voice out of his throat.

The other knights of the Order stared wide-eyed. They clenched their jaws and tightened their grips on their sword hilts, feeling hollow inside.

Had they really endured all those hardships and joined the Order they had dreamed of, the one that guarded the Kingdom, only to do this kind of dirty work on a day like this?

"Heh heh, good. Very good. I knew it. In the end, you're still the Kingdom's loyal dog. Then you really do deserve the title of Finest Knight."

Cavendish III threw back his head and roared with laughter. Humiliating Julius gave him an enormous sense of satisfaction and vanity.

Julius bit his tongue until it bled, and his eyes slowly turned red. If he could, how badly he wanted to point his sword at this scum who trampled on the people. But if he did, Lady Anastasia would—

Cavendish III naturally saw Julius's struggle, and he pressed even more viciously.

"Hm? Since you've already made your decision, what are you waiting for, Finest Knight? Get moving! Slaughter all those rabble!"

But Julius still stood where he was. He had given his answer, yet he could not take a single step.

For the first time, Julius learned what it felt like to be helpless, to want to cry.

"I, I, I—"

Julius struggled on. His low murmur gradually twisted into a savage growl without his noticing, and something inside him was about to snap. One second before he would have done it—

"—That's enough! Stop right there! You mangy dogs who dared to hurt Felt, get over here and die!"

Dozens in the chaotic slum were already injured, and deaths were only moments away. A furious roar, filled with boundless rage and bent on turning that rage against every enemy, rang out.

Cavendish III whipped his head around in fury. "Who dares interfere with my fun?!"

"Your Uncle Subaru Natsuki's come to kill you, you bastard!"

The instant Cavendish III turned to look, a fully armored ducal soldier came flying through the air and slammed into him. He yelped and howled. The soldier hit him squarely, his nose nearly caved in, and he crashed to the ground with blood streaming from it.

"—!"

Cavendish III's wails carried far. The guards and soldiers all froze in shock and stopped what they were doing. Some rushed to help him up and shield him, while others looked toward the spot the soldier had been thrown from.

There, the one responsible had not stopped at all. He was in the middle of a rampage.

Subaru Natsuki had received the news Otto sent. In his hands were two ice swords he had begged Emilia to make in a hurry. Like a reaper harvesting lives, he danced through the ranks of the ducal soldiers. Every swing of his blades left a soldier badly wounded on the ground, unable to rise.

"Subaru!"

"Boss Subaru!"

"Boss Subaru's back! He's back! He's back!"

He was their pillar, one nobody could replace.

Felt and Old Man Rom also held high standing, but the one who had reclaimed the entire slum was none other than Subaru Natsuki.

Without him, no one had any confidence when facing nobles. Even when Otto and Felt stepped forward, it only felt satisfying to watch. People were still afraid, convinced they had no way to survive and no hope of winning.

But Subaru was different.

The moment he appeared and rejoined the fight, wrapped in thunderous fury, even the slum residents who had been wounded and beaten to the ground lit up. Excitement surged through them, and they forced themselves to their feet through the pain.

And Subaru did not let their expectations down.

He was no so-called "god of infighting," strong only against his own side. He had once beaten down the entire slum, and now, without a shred of mercy, he could just as surely cut through every one of the ducal soldiers. It didn't matter that there were over a hundred of them, or that every one was fully armed!

"What…"

Julius was utterly stunned. When? When had such a powerhouse appeared in the Capital?

He saw Subaru's swordsmanship with perfect clarity. It was on par with his own, the same level, and undoubtedly no less masterful.

If he counted the spirits he had contracted with and used magic and magic sword techniques, he could come out ahead, that was true. But in a contest of pure swordsmanship, he and Subaru would stand at an even fifty-fifty.

Yet he had no memory of a powerhouse like this at all?

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Cavendish III wailed. He had never been hurt before, and the agony of his caved-in nose was killing him. It hurt so much he wanted to roll on the ground.

But when he saw how efficiently Subaru was killing, his face changed drastically. He dared not linger. He hurriedly shoved off the soldier pinning him down and limped behind Julius, howling in pain.

"Who are you? Who the hell are you?! You commoner! You rabble! How dare you do this to me?! Aren't you afraid to die? Aren't you afraid of the Council of Wise Men, of the Kingdom's laws?!"

"You invade my home, hurt my family, and trample on everything I've built, and in the end you never even bothered to find out who I am. Just how rotten a piece of scum are you?"

Dozens of ducal soldiers had already been badly wounded. The rest trembled so hard their legs shook, and none dared come closer. Subaru gripped his frost swords in both hands and looked at Cavendish III. The expression on his face and the look in his eyes were those of a man who wanted to kill, for the first time ever.

He regarded Felt as family. He regarded the slum as his own foundation, as his first home in this other world. He cared about everyone here.

No one could know how fiercely Subaru's blood had boiled when Otto's message reached him. Even if he multiplied his dissatisfaction with Priscilla Barielle ten thousand times, it still could not compare with the anger and killing intent he held toward Cavendish III now.

"Death, the Council of Wise Men, the law? You think that just because you're a noble, you can wipe away your crimes with those things?"

Subaru walked forward with his twin swords, one step at a time, one step at a time.

"That's all you've got, even now? Looks like scum really is just scum. I'm done treating you like a human being!"

Subaru's presence was so overwhelming that the soldiers and guards who should have been defending Cavendish III broke out in a cold sweat. For a moment, they all froze and dared not move.

Otto was dazed at first, stunned stupid. Then he finally realized that this wasn't a fantasy. It was real.

He was back.

At the moment everyone needed someone to lean on most, that man had come back!

"Subaru!"

*

[Author's Note: P.S.: "The Hawk of the Land of Light: The Group Chat Calls Me a Dove Mole"]

[Author's Note: Batman: You're saying you only hid one trump card and one secret from your friends and family, and you don't even have a contingency plan against them?]

[Author's Note: The Emperor: You're saying the aliens who waged a war of invasion against you, and you had the power to do it, and you didn't carry out a genocide?]

[Author's Note: Sasuke: You're saying countless comrades of yours died, and you haven't had a single thought of escalating your revenge?]

[Author's Note: Everyone: Then you're a damn dove mole through and through!]

[Author's Note: "?"]

[Author's Note: The current sole hawk of the Land of Light, slandered and interrogated without mercy, slowly typed a question mark in the group chat.]