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Chapter 242 - In vain (3)

“What the hell did I just see?”

“No, that must be a lie...!”

Everyone’s reactions varied, but they all meant the same thing.

The stream of memories ended, but Henry didn’t undo the darkness in the sky. Instead, he projected another image into it; the image of himself.

“Listen up, everybody,” said Henry from the projection in the sky.

This wasn’t a memory from the past; it was Henry himself, in the present, transmitting his thoughts with the help of Viram’s ability.

“My name is Henry Morris. I am the one and only disciple of the late Archmage and I’ve been after Arthus for a long time.”

Henry didn’t want to miss this opportunity when everyone was confused and their attention was fixed on him. So, with Viram’s help, Henry projected himself as an illusion in the sky and proceeded to communicate with everybody through his thoughts.

“Your emperor has abandoned you, and your Aenia Empire no longer exists,” declared Henry.

Given that all soldiers had seen Henry’s previous memories, they all knew what he was talking about. Nonetheless, they still couldn’t believe that Arthus had escaped even though they had just seen it with their own eyes.

Technically speaking, Arthus hadn’t escaped; he had just thrown everything away and left.

“Stop lying, Archmage!” Logger shouted at Henry, his face flushed with anger.

The reason for his anger was simple: if he admitted that Arthus had fled, he would have to admit that the Pope he served, the Pope he believed to be chosen by the heavens, had been wrong.

The Henry in the projection shifted his gaze upon Logger and asked, “Why do you think I’m lying?”

“Chimeras! Are you trying to say that we, the Church of Peace, helped create Chimeras that only wizards who use black magic can create?!”

There was another reason for Logger’s anger.

The Church of Peace had long been pursuing the eradication of demons and practitioners of black magic. So, Logger couldn\'t accept the fact that the Pope, the head of the Church of Peace, had allied himself with an emperor who participated in the creation of Chimeras.

Henry looked at the Logger, who was furious, and spoke slowly in a quiet voice, “What a joke, Logger.”

“What...?”

Logger was baffled at Henry\'s attitude, but for some reason, the sight of Henry’s large, ethereal-looking face in the sky made him feel as if he were being disciplined by a god.

An indescribable feeling of helplessness overwhelmed Logger.

“Logger, I see your conscience has grown very cloudy since the last time I saw you. Can you really say before the god you worship that your current actions are honorable?” continued Henry.

“...”

Logger was lost for words.

From the moment the Pope and the Church of Peace had joined forces with Arthus, Logger had been obeying the Pope’s orders against his beliefs, against his virtues, something which had been of vital importance all his life.

Henry shook his head and insisted, “Answer me, Logger. Were your Holy Codes given by your god to be used against men in some war?”

“...N-no.”

“Then what? Did your god give you the Holy Code so you could use it to protect your conscience?”

“N-no...”

Henry tormented Logger, causing him to drop his head even lower.

Logger felt helpless in front of Henry, but in reality, it wasn’t helplessness he felt, but the weight of his own conscience, which he had been suppressing.

Looking at Logger’s flushed face, Henry decided not to continue talking directly to him.

Instead, he looked at the other commanders of the imperial army, all of whom had followed after Logger, and said, “The days of your new Aenia Empire are over. Therefore, you have lost your emperor, and at the same time, you no longer have a reason to fight each other.”

Henry stook a short breath and continued, “So, do you all still intend to continue the war?”

“...”

At Henry’s sharp rebuke, the five commanders, the Saint, the Twelve Apostles, and Masila, all looked down.

This marked the end of the war.

***

The soldiers were retreating.

At the same time, all the five commanders sheathed their swords and turned their heads in the opposite direction.

Watching this scene, a soldier from the Zipan palace shouted, “The imperial army is retreating!”

“It’s over...!”

Hearing the soldier\'s shout, everyone felt relieved.

As the tension dissipated, all the soldiers fell on their butts one after the other and started giggling in a silly manner.

“Hehehe...!”

“At least we blocked them...!”

“We survived... Thank goodness.”

It had been a short battle, but the pervading sense of fear brought upon this war had been unimaginable.

The commanders of the imperial troops didn’t issue any orders to allow them to loosen up. On the other hand, Henry summoned all the commanders of the Allied Powers to gather.

***

Inside the meeting hall of the Zipan castle, all the commanders sat at a round table.

McDowell broke into laughter and said, “I can’t believe the war ended so abruptly.”

He seemed a little disappointed, but it made sense since he had been having fun against Logger.

The same was for Hela and Von.

“I know, right? Hahaha.”

“What a shame, I could have beaten the crap out of that guy...”

It would’ve made no sense for common soldiers to say something like that, but since they were extremely skilled commanders, it made sense for them to be disappointed.

Commander Allen from the imperial forces actually thought the same as he wanted to face Valhald.

Herarion soon spoke up, breaking up the jolly atmosphere.

“Haha, I think that’s enough joking around... Let’s wrap up what just happened. Archmage, what you showed us through Viram’s illusion a moment ago... Is that all true?”

“Yes, it’s true. Your Majesty would also expect Arthus... to do something like that, wouldn’t you?”

Herarion was the only one who had joined forces with Henry to destroy Arthus in the first place, so there was no way that he didn’t believe what Henry had witnessed.

Nonetheless, Herarion wanted to summarize what Henry had shown in order to plan for the future.

“This war was essentially pointless, but regardless of that... When we formed this alliance, I promised each of you that I would guarantee your nations full independence, and so I shall keep my end of the bargain,” said Henry.

Everything had been recruited for a precise purpose.

The Allied Powers had been organized to fight the Aenia Empire in the first place. However, now that Arthus had disappeared and the imperial army was disassembled, there was no longer any reason to maintain this alliance.

Everyone nodded at Henry’s statement since there wasn\'t much to complain about anyway. But even so, everyone had an unsatisfied look on their face, as if they had something stuck in their teeth.

“Ah... Something’s just not right,” Hela broke the silence.

“What do you mean?”

“It\'s just that I feel like we were paid to do a job, but then only took the money and didn’t actually fulfill our part of the deal. I mean, some of our warriors did die during the battle, so technically we’ve done a part of the job, but... Anyway, that’s what it feels like.”

As if waiting for Hela to finish, Herarion chimed in and said, “Actually, I feel the same way. Besides, the war ended even before the Sore Empire and Deucekain arrived... Of course, I haven’t reached my final goal yet, but I can’t help but feel unsatisfied, Your Majesty.”

Herarion’s feelings were understandable, since after all, he had joined Henry in order to get revenge on Arthus.

Hearing them two, Henry burst into laughter. Doyle and the Taejae had yet to speak, but now that the atmosphere had changed like this, the outcome was obvious.

‘At least they’re all loyal. If this happens, they’ll all join the second battle.’

It was clear: all of them would stick by his side and participate in the upcoming hunt for Arthus.

Actually, Henry intended to gather all the wizards and hunt down the Chimera army as soon as he got things organized with the Allied Powers, because at the moment, Arthus was most likely slaughtering innocent civilians with his Chimera army.

Henry was confident in himself. Although he hadn’t fully grasped how much power Arthus had, he had still overpowered Pim and Rim, the Chimera brothers created from Black Mythril, with just mana alone.

Henry was planning to travel with the wizards anyway because he needed more power on his side. It was a matter of how quickly they could deal with the Chimera army, since they could disappear at any time to anywhere.

However, if the Allied Powers were willing to assist him, it would make things a lot easier.

Understanding what the commanders of the Allied Powers were trying to say, Henry suppressed his laughter with a gentle smile and continued, “I wasn’t wrong about you, Your Majesty... As expected of the Iron and Blood Empress. I would also like to thank Your Majesty, Herarion. As for elder Doyle...”

Doyle still hadn’t made any comments. It was the wisdom of his old age that kept him making hasty decisions.

Henry said to Doyle, “Zipan does not need to join us. It’s bad enough that I’ve ruined the plains of Herrerne, which were just about to be harvested.”

“...I won’t refuse your consideration.”

“Of course, you’re entitled to do so, but may I ask one more favor of you?”

“Go ahead.”

“Regarding the promise that I made to you before the war, would it be okay for me to fulfill that after I’ve finished dealing with Arthus?”

“...”

The promise Henry had made to Doyle was to send him to the eastern continent as soon as the war was over.

Doyle had been wanting to go to his homeland for a long time.

Henry would take Doyle to the eastern continent right then if he could and deal with Arthus later. However, he had never been to the eastern continent, so even if he wanted to use Teleportation, he didn’t know the right coordinates or anything relevant to that location.

‘We might have to take a boat.’

So, with every precious second that was passing, Henry wanted to put off the hassle as long as possible.

“Alright.”

“Thank you.”

Doyle agreed to Henry’s favor.

With that, Henry had Amaris, Shahatra, and Deucekain, which had been subdued by force, on his side.

“Now then...”

Deucekain and the soldiers of the Sore Empire would soon join them, so there was nothing to worry about.

Of course, as far as the Sore Empire was concerned, it wouldn’t take much convincing because the Taejae would quickly and gladly comply with Henry\'s request.

Thus, it was neither Deucekain nor the Sore Empire that Henry had his eyes on.

“Friends, would you accompany me somewhere?”

“Where?”

“I’m going to go to the imperial army’s barracks up ahead.”

“...Ah!”

“Hahaha, what a maniac!”

Von and McDowell quickly realized what Henry meant by that.