Following his cleaning of the first two levels, Konrad stepped into the third and hunted down all the remaining Monstrous Beasts to do the same. There was a total of eighty-seven Monstrous Beasts left, and they all fell into his hands.
With this army, he could probably take down any viscount level house or below and make most count level houses tremble. For such ma.s.sive gains, he absolutely wouldn"t hesitate.
Of course, if he weren"t sure he could conceal his involvement in the sudden disappearance of the demonic beasts, he wouldn"t have dared.
"It"s time to leave."
Konrad reckoned upon packing up the last Monstrous Beast. He then turned heels and promptly exited the Prism World"s Forest.
At the outskirts, the expelled teams had already gathered, and all shared the same fury.
"We"ve been deceived! Obviously, the church never intended for anyone to obtain the quota! They were even content hurrying us to our doom!"
"Do they really think they can suppress the world? That the n.o.bility has grown so weak that we must tolerate this level of bullying?"
"Right! Those d.a.m.nable, depraved despots have been looking down on us for far too long. When we return to the outside world, I must ask my father to give me justice. The Holy Flame Baptism to h.e.l.l!"
Of the initial one-hundred-eight contestants, thirty had lost their lives trying to flee the forest. Something that should have been a reasonable hunting compet.i.tion had suddenly cost them lives. How could they not be infuriated?
However, although they shared the same anger, the more lucid of them made no comment.
Konrad quietly snuck into the gathering, acting as he"d always been there and listened to the rising complaints.
His eyes swept the perimeter, localizing the Kracht fillers, Koloman, and the von Jurgen. Nils had already regained consciousness and silently stood by her elder brother"s side.
Seeing her safe and sound, a wave of relief swept his chest.
"Why is it that the imperial family is here, but none of the sovereign prince houses sent representants?"
A lucid man finally asked, causing all to realize the crux of the problem. Even if the younger children of the Sovereign Princes could obtain Holy Baptisms in different ways, what about their nephews and grandchildren. No one would believe that those three houses had no interest in the quota.
That being the case, why were they not here?
"Truly, a greedy man will seek his own demise. We blindfolded ourselves."
No one dared look at the one who said those words. Earlier when they saw none of the sovereign prince houses present, they were all secretly elated and didn"t care about the reason.
After all, less compet.i.tion meant greater opportunities. Now, however, it was clear that the sovereign prince houses had gotten wind of something and purposely chose to prevent their juniors from rus.h.i.+ng toward an uncertain fate for no gains whatsoever.
Holger, in particular, burned with fury. Was his father and grandmother not currently in seclusion, how could he let himself get swindled into partic.i.p.ating in this masquerade?
Better than anyone, he knew the numbers of the previous compet.i.tions. There was never more than a few hundred beasts with at worst less than a dozen Monstrous Beasts and dozens of Superior Beasts.
But now the numbers had inflated to a clearly murderous level.
They were not just trying to deprive them of the quota. They were trying to get people killed!
And now all would look at the imperial family as a joke. For they fell for something even the sovereign princes didn"t. This was a complete loss of face!
Nils" thoughts were more straightforward. Playtime was over, and it was time to go home.
Earlier, she sought Konrad within the crowd but couldn"t find him anywhere. However, Holger had told her that he was safe and sound, and she didn"t doubt his ability to escape the forest, so she just a.s.sumed he didn"t want to be seen.
She was right. Even now, Konrad didn"t let their gaze meet. Using the crowd of seventy-eight people to cover for him.
He pulled the Kracht fillers aside to use as decoys.
"Boss, fortunately, you"re alright. This time, the Holy Flame Church truly, intolerably bullied us. I don"t know who the crook hidden behind this compet.i.tion was, but he can be sure that things won"t end nicely for him."
Konrad, however, was of another mind.
"Improbable. The only people likely to lose their lives in this scheme are those of the viscount level houses. The juniors of the margrave and duke level houses are strong enough to escape with minimal damage. Therefore, there isn"t much cause for outrage. As for those viscounts, what can they do? Cry? Wail? So what if they lost children? Can they challenge the church? Of course not."
"They will have to shut up. Right now, those people are outraged, but when the time comes to fire complaints at the church, it would be great if ten people stood up."
The Kracht fillers were brought back to earth. Even if the church tormented them, what could they do?
Time quickly pa.s.sed, and by the end of the third day, blue light descended from above to carry the contestants out of the Prism World.
They returned to the room where the Blue Prism was located with Bishop Alto and his colleague standing at the prism"s left and right to wait for them.
As soon as they arrived, Bishop Alto"s voice echoed.
"We will first check what remains of the beasts within the first and second level, and if you pa.s.sed, we shall make the count to select who goes on to the next step."
Many of the weaker houses had initially chosen to swallow their anger. However, when they heard those words, they felt like they were getting purposely hara.s.sed.
Especially, those who lost relatives from the demonic beasts" counterattacks couldn"t contain themselves.
"Load of horses.h.i.+t! What is there to check?! How could we possibly slay so many demonic beasts with our manpower? It is already good that we weren"t cleanly slaughtered. You"re actually talking about making counts? Are you making fun of us?!"
The one who spoke was a low-level Grand Knight from a viscount"s house. He"d lost his two companions and relatives in the escape and barely came out with his life.
How could he contain his fury? His words echoed with the hearts of all the n.o.bles, and many were ready to speak up. However, Bishop Alto"s voice rose.
"Dissatisfied? Alright."
His semi-holy force erupted and pinned the protester onto the ground.
"I"ve already told you that within the Holy Flame Church, regardless of background, you had to behave. Failure to do so results in only one thing.
Death!"
The low-level Grand Knight didn"t even have time to squeal before getting squashed into meat paste under Bishop Alto"s semi-holy force. Immediately, all were terrified.
They didn"t even have the right to complain. Complaining meant death.
What was overbearing?
This was overbearing.
However, not all were willing to swallow their fury.
"Hehe, did you think yourself impressive? f.u.c.king dotard!"
Absentminded eyes turned to the source of those words who turned out to be the fifth prince, Holger.
Subconsciously, except for a scant few, all took several steps away from him.
Bishop Alto turned a scorching gaze toward Holger, who met his eyes with greater, unconstrained rage.
"Fifth prince, do you think yourself exempt to the rules? Do you think I don"t dare kill you?"
Hearing Bishop Alto"s chilling words, Holger burst into laughter. As for the remaining von Jurgen, they all sneered.
"Kill me? Just you? I stand here. Kill me if you dare."
Holger spread his arms as if to welcome Bishop Alto"s blow. But the blow never came. Instead, Bishop Alto trembled with veins beating on his temple.
"Right. You don"t dare. Allow me to remind you why.
I am the son of the Holy Flame Emperor, Olrich von Jurgen, the grandson of the Dowager, High Exarch Amalia Kva.s.s. The great nephew of High Exarch Adalbert von Jurgen. To say nothing of them. Even my elder brother, the crown prince, can squash you with one finger.
Therefore, how dare you kill me? You don"t have the galls. You can only spout nonsense and bully the weak while fearing the mighty, like all other second-rate tras.h.!.+"
Those words ruthlessly hammered Bishop Alto"s dignity. His cheeks burned, his face reddened, and he staggered.
However, Holger wasn"t satisfied.
"What thing are you? A low-level bishop. Nothing more. You"re more than a thousand years old, yet, are still at the first step of the Semi-Holy Priest Rank. In this lifetime, you can never cross the second sublimation to reach the second step.
Exhausted potential, meager status, no background. So what if you"re a Semi-Saint, I can insult you, spit on your face, and you can do nothing. Because for my house, people like you can be killed at will!"
"So kneel! Kneel at my feet and grovel for your worthless life! Do a good job, and I might show leniency. Otherwise, when I report this matter, not only will I have you killed, I will drag your entire family to h.e.l.l with you! f.u.c.king son of a b.i.t.c.h! How dare you harm imperial princes?!"
All the contestants were astonished. However, what none of them knew was that Holger, the new p.a.w.n, was merely following Konrad"s directives.