The God of Jesters
Chapter 451 - 7.16.5 Two heroes meet.

Chapter 451: 7.16.5 Two heroes meet.

Lucius was a loved child on all accounts.

Being the youngest child of his mother, he was always loved by her as well as his older sister, who tried her best to keep her little brother protected, and even planned to make it so that he would eventually take over the seat of his father, Minister of Defense in Cynark Empire and also a Royal.

He was even 16th in line to sit on the throne of Cynark in case something happened, turning him into an arrogant and proud son of the heavens.

And everything was good until the arrival of his half-brother.

"Get acquainted with each other." These were the last words he had heard from his father, who grew distant with time since the arrival of his so-called Half-brother.

As for his sister, seemingly finding him a threat to her little brother’s position, she had done her best to end this brother of hers early as he was just nine years old.

But what did all of that amounted to?

"Useless." He thought his sister was useless, who couldn’t even kill a single insect-like Ludwig. It’s why he took things into his own hands and came here, following after this half-brother of his with intentions that can be as direct as possible.

With the blast, half of Lucius’ body was blown up, and he could feel each and every part of it.

"How... where am I?’ He wondered, his mind clouded by pain, before he found himself inside a hut, unable to move due to all that hunger that felt as if a giant monster was clawing at his stomach. "Who..." But before he could process what was happening, he found himself in a new place, a simple one-on-one battle between two knights.

But this was at the end of the battle and half of Lucius’ body was already cut apart. "Why..."

While Lucius enjoyed all the recorded kills I have experienced throughout my life, I on the other hand slowly left the building, hiding from my fellow Knights and then outside of the Mayor’s mansion.

"This time, the old bastard will obviously be executed."

I can’t kill the Prince, as killing him is akin to bringing a Karmic retribution on oneself. There is a reason the Royals are considered so hard to deal with. The amount of protection over their body is already abundant, and if you do succeed, the only thing that will be brought on to you is a Karmic Curse which is impossible to get rid of even for Legendary level Curse Wielders or Exorcist.

So one can imagine what would have happened if I were to kill him right then and there.

Even for me, a being that had ascended to the level of Totems would find it harder to get rid of something so dangerous.

Which is why I did the second-best thing in my opinion.

"Killing him spiritually." In the contract that Ludwig established, it was never specified the kind of death we were talking about. "His soul will exist in his body, but fractured, weaken under such extreme stimulation." In simpler words, he would turn into a fool, and in the best case scenario, he might even die if he was lucky enough.

As for recovering from this?

Broken pieces of the soul can’t come back so easily... more so if those broken pieces contain the essence of a totem-like me.

"This is done I say." With my word here done, I turned toward my foolish followers, who didn’t seem to have listened to my warnings from before, and they were already planning to make a move. "Guess, I will be busy here for a while."

Dealing with Amir can be delayed for later, I need to make sure these fools don’t die without making an impact.

*****

"Ho, a fool got taken down." Duke Wortham suddenly woke from his deep sleep, looking in the direction of Durum with a hint of a smile. "The useless will be weeded out eventually." There was no sadness on his face even after knowing what just transpired, instead, he smiled over the incident.

"Andracha, would you visit me for a moment." He asked kindly to the air, causing a fairy-like woman to materialize in front of him.

Her size was just as big as a Human Palm, and her smile was filled with flowery innocence. This was Andracha, one of the direct subordinates of Duke Wortham, his maid, as well as his childhood friend. "What is it, Prince?"

"Go and bring me Prince Lucius and inform his father that a purge will be necessary."

"As you say, Prince." The little lady bowed to Duke Wortham before disappearing from his site.

As for the Duke himself? He just looked in the direction of the War. "Letting you live for long has finally started to bear results."

"With the exception of him, that is." The Duke looked toward the cylinder where an ugly man was floating in medicinal liquid. "Bringing at a party like that messed up with so many of my plans."

"But no worries, things are still on the right track."

*****

Back in the temporary camp built to tackle the Ghoul issue, Amir just got back to take a rest after a long night of dealing with ghouls.

And it was also at this time, he noticed an odd existence that seemed to attract countless eyes towards him.

"Radiant Knights?" No, ignoring the radiant Knights, there was someone even odder than them. "And the church of Red Sun?"

That’s a kind of oddity that you don’t see always, but here he was, finding such an odd pairing for the first time in his life.

"What is going on?" Amir asked the nurse who was treating his injuries.

"Are you talking about them?" The nurse turned and looked at the night before nodding his head and explaining to Amir. "Weird isn’t it? After what happened two decades ago?... they are back to working with us."

As for what happened two decades ago, though the majority of the world doesn’t know the reason, the churches stopped supporting any of the actions led by the Cynark military. Considering the timing of it was followed soon after assassination of Ikaros Yethel and complete expulsion of the Two major churches as well as the Radiant Order, there were many conspiracies propped up with time.

None of which Amir knew about. He was not interested in the subject, to begin with, but he was aware of the fact that Churches don’t work with the Military anymore.

"This is a bit more serious than I had imagined."

A war was going on the frontline, and if the news of the Red Sun as well as Radiant Order helping the Cynark military came, there would be an outcry.

Enough about them all, Amir turned and left the scene followed by his team who had also been treated by the little scratches they earned during the battle outside. Which is much better in comparison to some other teams that were entirely annihilated.

However, while moving away, Amir did notice an oddity among the people from the Church as well as the Radiant Order. ’Who is he?’ A man covered in all dark, with a giant hat that masked him from the sunlight.

An odd clothing choice when someone is going on the battlefield.

And the more Amir looked at the man, the more he noticed some odd things. ’They surround him, treating him either as a criminal or target to be protected... and this is the same for the military and the Knights from the Order. He is the most important member of that group.’ The priest might be heading this group along with a Knight from the Radiant order, but it didn’t mean a thing that they were the most important members.

’This man..." And while Amir was assassin this odd man, the very man turned to look at him with the eye of a beast.

Causing Amir to back off out of instinct.

"..."

This was the first time.

The very first time he felt something dangerous eyeing him as food.

So he paused and instead of keeping ignoring such a threat, Amir chose to approach the fellow.

Making Hemant and the rest of his team follow him as well.

"Hmm?" And Priest Boman, who was having a light talk with the Radiant Knight next to him paused after seeing the arrival of Amir.

"I am sorry to intrude here, but I am curious about something." Amir showed his intentions before even identifying himself.

Though that was the job of his Knight Hemant, who gave a proper greeting with a bow before explaining in detail. "The one here is Prince Amir’s Blood heart, he made his debut on the battlefield not too long ago." Not much was nodded, The name was enough for now as Amir hasn’t accomplished much anyway.

"This here is Priest Boman was the Church of the Red Sun, and I am Vane Clifford of the Radiant Knights. We are here to help your people on the ghoul hunting operation. But if Prince is curious about some things, you can ask away."

"And considering you were active on the battlefield, perhaps you can share some of your insight in the way." Priest Boman spoke with a welcoming smile to Amir. Asking his men to bring in some chairs for Amir to sit on.

"..."

With the greetings over, Amir sat down on his seat and thanked them for the amicable greeting from the two.

"Considering you are giving me the right to ask anything. Then I wonder Priest Boman and Sir Vance... who is that young man hidden among you?"

"..."

"..."