Chapter 159
Right after finishing Rahav’s subjugation.
I returned to the encampment with a jaunty step.
With my chest proudly puffed out, I reported that Rahav had been subjugated.
“……Let’s go check.”
As if they thought I might have filed a false report.
I headed to where Rahav was with Richard and the knights, who could hardly believe me.
There was no need to verify it again.
The bastard was still there, chopped into three pieces.
“Do you believe me now?”
“…….”
Could they really not believe it even after seeing it with their own eyes?
Richard was rendered speechless.
He stared at Rahav, unable to tear his wide-open eyes away.
‘People really do live trapped in their prejudices.’
A slave can take down a calamity. Is there some rule that only the Hero gets to shine?
Have you never seen a slave like me before?
After a long silence, Richard slowly opened his mouth.
“……You really did it.”
“Of course. Naturally. Didn’t I repeatedly tell you I could do it?”
“…….”
Everyone was looking at me.
Ironically, those gazes held neither congratulations nor respect.
They were filled only with awe, as though they were facing something unknown.
‘This must be the sorrow of being a slave.’
If I’d been a knight—or even just a commoner adventurer—they wouldn’t have reacted like this.
But it’s all right.
I’ll soon become a free citizen just like all of you.
I’ll be counting on you all then.
***
The army that had finished subjugating Rahav began its return.
As proof of their victory in the war against a calamity, they made sure to bring back every part of Rahav’s corpse.
In a world where magical-beast by-products were used as materials for weapons or ingredients for alchemy,
there wasn’t a single part of a calamity-level corpse that could be left behind.
However, because of its enormous size, it had to be cut into small pieces to make it easier to transport.
‘My big-breasted centipede……!’
The breasts that had been bigger than its head were chopped into tiny pieces. It had become an unsightly, flat-chested centipede.
Who could possibly understand how I felt?
I swallowed my sorrow alone.
The atmosphere of the returning procession was so strange that it hardly felt like a victorious return.
They had set out after steeling themselves to fight a calamity, only for it to end without them doing anything.
‘That’s a good thing.’
Was it because this was an age obsessed with honor?
They had no idea how happy it was to win without fighting and return with their lives and limbs intact.
Just look at that.
Shabel’s stinging gaze boring into the back of my head.
Shabel had been like that for the several days it took us to return. That stare alone was enough to bore a hole through me.
I’d dealt with Shabel’s enemy, and instead of being grateful, Shabel was holding a grudge.
This was exactly why young people these days were hopeless.
Tsk, tsk.
***
The gates of the Imperial Capital came into view.
The main avenue was already packed with people.
It seemed the Imperial Palace had sent messengers ahead to publicize it on a grand scale.
Crowds who had heard the news that a calamity had been defeated had poured out like clouds.
“Waaaaaaah!”
“Long live the Knights! Long live the Empire!”
Deafening cheers rang out. Flower petals fluttered down, painting the streets in a riot of colors.
We entered the Imperial Palace amid an enormous welcome.
I followed Richard straight to the audience chamber.
Inside, the Emperor, nobles, and ministers were waiting.
“Richard, commander of the Second Knight Order. By His Majesty’s imperial decree, I have returned after subjugating Rahav, the calamity that had been throwing the continent into turmoil.”
At Richard’s report, the knights knelt on one knee in disciplined unison.
I naturally knelt beside them.
I could feel an unusual number of gazes pouring onto the crown of my bowed head.
In the silence, the Emperor’s solemn voice rang out.
“You say you subjugated the calamity Rahav.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Casualties?”
“……Not a single person was killed or injured.”
“A truly great victory. Hoo…….”
The Emperor let out the faintest of sighs.
Apparently, he had already heard the report that I had brought it down alone.
I raised my head slightly and met the Emperor’s gaze. The smile never left my lips as I looked at him.
I did well, right?
I earned my merit, right?
This counts as a great achievement, doesn’t it?
You can’t possibly wriggle out of it now, can you?
You have to give me my freedom, right?
You have to emancipate me, right?
I shot him a barrage of looks loaded with that meaning. If I threw enough hints at him, surely he’d catch at least one.
Perhaps it was too much for him to bear.
The Emperor furtively looked away.
“……You’ve done well. You must be exhausted from the battle. Withdraw for now and get some rest.”
Wait, why are you ending this?
I had accomplished the unprecedented feat of subjugating a calamity by myself, and he was telling me to leave because I’d worked hard?
Sorry, but I had been waiting my entire life for this moment.
There was no way I could summon the virtue of patience. Especially when my life and freedom were on the line.
“Your Maj……”
Just as I was about to open my mouth despite the impudence,
“Leon.”
The Emperor cut me off in a low voice.
“I know your accomplishments better than anyone. However, there are many eyes and ears here, so let us discuss the specifics later.”
Oh, he knew.
Did he really think I was so impatient that I didn’t even have that much self-control?
I obediently bowed my head.
***
Thud. The audience chamber doors closed.
Leon and the knights had left.
It was immediately afterward.
“Your Majesty. I beg your pardon for saying this, but under no circumstances can slave Leon be set free just like that.”
The retainers remaining in the audience chamber spoke up as though they had been waiting for that moment.
“He is a monster who subjugated a calamity single-handedly. If we set someone with such terrifying martial prowess free, and he were to turn his blade against the Empire on the off chance, who could stop him?”
“Quite right. The more capable and dangerous a person is, the more firmly we must hold his leash.”
“We have been able to control him only because he was the Imperial Princess’s slave. If we set him free, there is no telling where he might end up.”
The retainers passionately argued their case, spittle flying.
Everyone here had heard the report that Leon had subjugated Rahav alone.
They had understood to some extent that Leon was extraordinary, but this achievement was on an entirely different level.
There had to be limits to everything.
Leon had gone far beyond those limits.
The retainers’ position was that he must never be set free.
Kaiser quietly tapped the armrest of the throne as he listened to the flood of objections.
“I made a promise to him. I said I would grant him freedom if he accomplished a feat that everyone could acknowledge. Are you asking me to break my promise?”
“Your Majesty, the safety of the Empire is at stake. We cannot release an uncontrollable monster into the wild merely because of a promise to a lowly slave.”
“It was a promise I made as the ruler of the Empire. If I break it so easily simply because the other party is a slave, that would be what truly shakes the foundation of imperial authority.”
Kaiser was not unaware of what concerned his retainers. They feared Leon might harbor resentment toward the Empire that had used him as a slave.
Yet Kaiser also knew that Leon was not the sort of person to do that.
The only thing he disliked was how close Leon had grown to his daughter, Aurora.
Other than that, there was nothing to fault him for.
If he could provide grounds everyone could accept, Kaiser intended to grant him freedom at any time.
‘I didn’t expect him to cause this kind of trouble, though.’
Kaiser himself had been the one to tell him to accomplish a great feat.
But at the very least, he had expected Leon to join forces with others and distinguish himself with an outstanding performance among them.
But then, what on earth had happened?
He had defeated a calamity all by himself.
‘Does that man not understand the meaning of moderation?’
Thanks to that, the retainers were fighting tooth and nail against Leon’s emancipation, leaving Kaiser thoroughly exhausted.
“Your Majesty. If you truly have no intention of retracting your promise, you should at least put a safeguard in place.”
An elderly retainer cautiously offered a suggestion.
“What do you mean by a safeguard?”
“Whether it be money, honor, or a woman—anything at all that could bind him to the Empire.”
“Hmm.”
Kaiser did not think Leon would do anything wicked.
But as the old retainer had said, there was no harm in building a fence that would make him willing to remain in the Empire.
The problem was that there was nothing suitable to use as that fence.
Honor? Wealth?
From what he had observed, Leon had no interest whatsoever in such worldly values.
He was the kind of man who would run away complaining that a title was too much trouble if one were offered to him.
Then the only card left was a woman, and Kaiser’s thoughts grew complicated.
‘Could it be Aurora?’
Regrettably, his daughter Aurora was the first person who came to mind.
The two of them were already close.
But no matter how much of a hero he was for defeating a calamity, as Emperor, Kaiser could not readily decide to give a precious member of the imperial bloodline to a former slave.
Then perhaps he could make Leon the son-in-law of another noble family…….
“Your Majesty, my second daughter has just reached marriageable age. Perhaps you might permit our family to take him as a son-in-law.”
“What absurdity are you spouting? Slave he may be, but he is a knight, is he not? It is only proper that he come to our military family.”
“My granddaughter is exceptionally beautiful. Your Majesty, please grant our family this opportunity!”
The retainers clamored over one another, each demanding to take Leon.
From his throne, Kaiser could see straight through their motives as he watched them.
They wanted to use Leon’s overwhelming martial power as a tool to expand their own influence.
‘How absurd.’
Watching the retainers drool like hyenas as they fought over a bowl of food, Kaiser snorted.
They were the very people who had treated bloodline and social status as dearly as their own lives and lorded it over others.
And yet they were trying to sell off their own children just to acquire a single slave.
It was nothing short of grotesque.
For that reason, making Leon the son-in-law of another family was not a viable option either.
It was obvious that a major crack would appear in the Empire’s balance of power that very day.
“Hoo…….”
Kaiser, sunk in a deep dilemma, pressed a finger to his furrowed brow.
Was that man laughing carelessly over the prospect of gaining his freedom, unaware of this situation?
Just recalling that foolish smile irritated him.
‘What a nuisance.’
A single slave was throwing the entire Empire into turmoil.
It was a ridiculous yet troublesome predicament indeed.