Masked Knight

Under the setting sun, Rody stood under the ruined walls of Lorsch.

The heavenly angels had already disappeared. The angels naturally could not survive for long without a complete body. After some time passed, they vanished and became golden rays of light in the sky.

Seth stood beside Rody and gritted his teeth. "You finally came back! Did you know this was supposed to be your fight? Yet, those guys actually forced me to come here."

Rody shook his head. "You are now the Duke of the Tulip Family. The army would not even have half of their fighting spirit if they cannot see the Tulip Family’s banner. Even if I was the one leading the troops, the war would end so easily."

Rody paused for a while before he suddenly asked, "How long has this war been going on?"

"It has been a month." Seth looked around at those cleaning up the corpses after the war as he softly said, "The preparations for the war took fifteen days. Most of the Lightning God’s Whip was commanded by Sieg. Meanwhile, I led this army to the Eastern Province to attack their headquarters."

Rody nodded. Separating Seth and Sieg was correct. Amongst those in the Empire, Sieg was with him the longest and knows him the most. If Sieg and Seth were together, the perceptive Sieg would surely be aware that something was not right with the ’Duke’.

There was a moment of silence. Seth subconsciously asked, "Was what you said earlier true? Dandong is God? Heaven and this world have now separated? God would no longer appear in this world again?"

Rody smiled as he replied, "I know you are very curious. If you want to go to heaven, there is still a way. There is a forbidden door at the Roland temple. You can walk through that door, but you will not be able to come out."

Seth thought for a moment and shook his head. "I won’t go. You said we need to abandon the body to go to heaven. Without a body, there must also be no fun in heaven. On top of that, even if I want to go, did you think I can?"

He suddenly laughed and said, "Besides that, Rody, when you return to the capital, you will have trouble waiting for you."

"Trouble?" Rody froze for a moment. "What other trouble is there?"

Seth restrained his laughter and said, "After you became crazy and disappeared without reason, the women in your home quickly went mad. Strange news kept coming from the east. If Sky had not forcibly detained the Black Veil Saint, nobody could have stopped her from going to the East to look for you... But after that..."

At this point, Seth paused and sighed. "You are really a flirtatious fellow. Several days later, a woman suddenly came to the empire and told us that you went to the Roland temple. When we found out that you, the demon, is no longer in the east, we finally dared to dispatch soldiers to fight against the church. That woman now lives at your residence at the imperial capital."

"It is Nedis!" Rody immediately remembered. Although his body was possessed by the Mystic Dragon, he was still aware. It was merely his body being controlled by someone else.

He was initially worried about Nedis. However, the people at the temple had already been killed by the Mystic Dragon. He believed that Nedis would not encounter any more danger. However, he did not expect Nedis to go to the imperial capital and inform the others.

"Yes. That woman seems to be called Nedis. At first, my sister was very hostile to her. However, the fatty said something to my sister and then her attitude suddenly changed." Seth then glanced at Rody with his eyes. "You are really popular with women."

Rody’s mouth tasted bitter. Even if he were to think with his feet, he believed that the women at home would no longer be so nice to him.

He looked at Seth, who was gloating at his misfortune hatefully and had the intention of striking back. He stretched out his hand towards Seth and asked him. "Seth, what do you think this is?"

A golden light moved around in circles on Rody’s palm as though it was a life force.

Rody deliberately spoke slower as he smiled and said, "This is not my fighting energy. It is also not sorcery. This is a trace of divine power. Dandong has given me some divine power. Let me tell you this. The god spirit has no body. At first, I struggled to find God’s blood. However, after finding Dandong, I learned that the God Spirit has no body. How could there be blood? That is why God’s blood must be the trace of divine power from their body of light.

When he saw Seth’s uncertain expression, Rody deliberately laughed and added, "This divine power is the god’s blood. I heard that as long as the body is well preserved, God’s blood could even revive the dead."

With a long laugh, Rody took a warhorse next to him and got on it. He then lightly said, "You have been restricted by the Black Veil Saint’s sorcery, so you are unable to escape. I will go back to the Imperial Capital first and wait for you there... When you come, I will personally send you a surprise!"

Seth felt uneasy as he saw Rody rode off towards the setting sun.

Even though he felt uneasy, the mighty Duke of the Tulip Family commanded the equally mighty Lightning God’s Whip to overrun the remaining armed rebels from the church. Naturally, the current church was then classified as evil heathens by the emperor.

When the Duke of the Tulip Family led his army for the final battle against the heathens’ headquarters, even angels came down from heaven to help. Such a miracle was unprecedented.

Even when humans fought against the Kara race in the ancient times, angels did not come down to help.

For a time, the people believed that the duke was God’s envoy that came from heaven. The Duke of the Tulip Family was invincible because he was protected by God!

Of course, a certain person hiding in the imperial palace laughed himself off the chair with this kind of rumors.

A month later, the Duke of the Tulip Family withdrew his army from the east after stabilizing the area and returned to the imperial capital. The ceremony for the triumphant return of the God of War was extremely grand. Tens of thousands of civilians went to the streets outside the city hoping to have a glimpse of the graceful patron saint of the empire. A huge crowd could be seen from a mile away leading to the entrance to the imperial capital.

Seth was still wearing the gorgeous but heavy armor as he rode his black warhorse at the front of the convoy. His loyal Wolves’ Fang was on both his sides. The golden fluttering banner of the Tulip Family was behind him.

Countless flowers flew over alongside the cheers of the crowd. Countless people took off their hats and screamed their cheers. They almost deafened the ears of the Wolves Fang warriors.

Without a doubt, the ones having the hardest time were the public security soldiers of the Empire.

However, when the Duke of the Tulip Family saw the important figures waiting for him at the gate, his eyes grew wide.

Although his pale face was hidden behind the thick helmet and nobody noticed his body shook on the horse, it was a fact that the duke had an uneasy and shocked expression.

A slim and graceful woman slowly walked up. She smiled and looked around. Her powdered face was filled with joy and expectation but looked a little pale. It made her look gentler and touching.

When Seth saw this woman, he almost had the urge to turn around and escape.

His Majesty the Emperor, Abbas XI, or rather, Andy, laughed as he looked at the young woman. He desperately suppressed the urge to laugh and whispered, "Jojo, do you remember my words earlier?"

Jojo, the young woman who had just been resurrected bit her lips and said, "But Seth hates people forcing him to do things the most."

Rody, who was standing behind Andy, coughed gently. Nicole said, "Rest assured. My little brother has a weakness. In this, there will be someone helping you to make decisions."

The duke’s group then arrived at the front.

Jojo trembled with excitement, but her eyes were firm. She took a deep breath and slowly went to greet Seth.

"Jo... Jojo... Hello." Seth got down the horse while being revered by many. Jojo smiled magnificently, but her eyes were moist with the excitement. "I am back. Are you unhappy?"

"I am happy." Seth sighed. He knew how Jojo died. Although he had a heart of stone, he could not turn away the girl who was willing to die for ’him’.

For a time, Seth’s feeling of frustration against Rody for saving Jojo had turned into feelings of gratefulness.

There were joyous voices as the two embraced each other. All the people watching felt happy for the patron saint of the Empire.

It was at this time when His Majesty the Emperor coughed solemnly.

"I declare that three days from now, I will personally host the wedding for the Duke of the Tulip Family!"

Seth’s legs turned soft and he almost slipped. He looked at the Emperor with pleading eyes.

...

Three nights after.

The carnival had ended. The Duke of the Tulip Family’s mansion grounds were full of colored ribbon and cut flowers fluttering in the wind. That day was the wedding day of the Duke of the Tulip Family, the God of War of the Empire. Although numerous women in the Empire had cried secretly, the wedding was conducted in an extremely grand manner. His Majesty the Emperor personally presided over the wedding ceremony. Almost all of the Lightning God’s Whip had been mobilized to act as guards of honor for their great commander.

The only regrettable thing was that the groom’s smile seemed unnatural.

"Shh. Quiet, Fatty. You almost shoved me..."

"Shut up. It is crammed here. Do you want me to fly up?"

Near the back door of the Duke’s mansion, several figures stealthily hid in a tree.

Rody looked at Sky and Andy who was beside him helplessly. It was hard to imagine the Emperor peeping at the new groom that night, at the back door.

"What did you drag me here to see tonight?"

Andy gave him a glance and said, "Right now, you are Seth’s relative. Don’t you understand that person? A playboy like him was forced to get married by us. He might try and run away."

Rody’s eyes lit up. "So we are waiting to catch him here?"

Sky shook his head and replied, "Of course not. We are just here to watch the excitement."

At this moment, a slender figure slipped out from a side door. He looked around for a moment to see the situation.

"He is here!" The three guys hid at a dark place behind the branches.

Just as the figure felt relieved, he heard a shout from the courtyard. "Seth!"

The figure quivered and the three guys hiding at the tree immediately chuckled. However, Sky was too huge. When he laughed, his body shook. The branches could not support him and it snapped. The three of them then crashed from the tree.

According to common sense, these three guys—one was a super magician, one was a Domain Master, one more was a demigod—would not fall to the ground. But Sky was holding on firmly to Rody in the darkness. When Rody struggled, he bumped into Andy who was trying to quickly cast a spell. In turn, Andy crashed in pain into Sky. As a result, all three of them came into contact with the ground.

As the tree was outside the fence, they were unable to see inside the house. However, they could still hear the voices from inside.

"Seth... are you trying to sneakily escape?"

"Ah? Hahaha. Jojo, you got it wrong. I simply saw that the moon tonight was beautiful and came out for a walk."

"Moongazing? Do you need to bring along a luggage to go moongazing? Seth... you hurt my feelings."

Whoosh! There was a sudden sound. Nobody knew what happened, but the three people outside could see a flash of light inside the fence followed by Seth’s horrible shriek. "Ah! Didn’t Mouse say she has lifted the sorcery restriction spell on me? Why..."

Jojo’s voice seemed a bit distressed. "Seth, are you hurt? I am sorry. I am sorry. Mouse gave me the restriction control... This is a spiritual sorcery placed on your body. Whenever I feel sad, the restriction on you will be triggered."

The voices stopped here. They did not know if the duke had already fainted.

The three guys then lay on the ground and looked at the stars.

"Andy, do you think Dandong and the others are still up there?" Rody pointed to the sky.

"Hmph. Did you think Master would be content with sacrificing himself to trap those two monsters in heaven?"

Rody was unable to utter a reply for a time.

Andy was sly, quick-witted; even treacherous and despicable. It could be imagined how ’clever’ Dandong was to be able to create such a person.

A guy that was so dangerous and had god-ranked powers too. Rather than feeling worried for Dandong, it would be better to be worried about the Kara who had been muddled by extreme anger and hatred and the indifferent and rigid Mystic Dragon.

After a moment of silence, Rody said in a dissatisfied tone, "Old guy, today at the wedding, you have suddenly announced that I am your adopted son. Why did you do that?"

Sky laughed. "The adopted son of the emperor. In the future, even Seth will need to call you ’Your Highness’. Wouldn’t that be interesting?"

Rody sounded somewhat vigilant as he replied, "Interesting... I feel like you all have some kind of conspiracy."

Andy laughed. "Ah. Initially, I did not intend to do that... However, the Empress gave birth to a girl, and I am a skeleton. I can never father a child... Think about it. Even if I could live for a few hundred years, don’t you think it would be too absurd for an emperor to live for a few hundred years? At most, I can help the empire for about twenty to thirty years. Then I would find somewhere to be free. At that point in time, who could I let to manage the empire? Who would inherit the title of Emperor? My adopted son..."

The skeleton laughed proudly and sinisterly. Rody was silent for a moment before he wailed mournfully.

The sky was beautiful, and the night was splendid. Sky was happy, and his unbridled laughter could be heard in the distance. With his gruff voice, he began to sing.

Toads in the river creating a racket.

Croak! Croak! Croak! Croak!

The old man was driven mad by the racket.

Why don’t I catch some to go with my wine?

Croak! Croak! Croak! Croak!

They all ran away!

< End of Novel>