My Students Regret It After I Retired - Chapter 96



95 – Keltazar, Dies

The road to the Emperor. A road he had traveled many times, but until now he was always blocked by the Emperor’s forces and had to turn back, but not this time.

The Emperor’s core troops, the Imperial Swords, were completely annihilated, and the massive artifacts and war weapons they had brought were gone. In proportion to the loss of manpower, the Emperor also lost war supplies.

From noble mtl dot com

Morale had plummeted, and reports of numerous deserters were coming in. They had felt it too. That beside the Emperor, nothing but ruin remained.

The remaining troops weren’t that many. They had to fend off the monsters pouring out of Redgate countless times, and in that process, so many people had died.

“Damn it…”

When Keltazar returned to the main camp. He felt it instinctively. The Imperial Palace was utterly collapsing.

“A few hundred maybe.”

The troops, once numbering in the thousands, had dwindled to less than a few hundred. There weren’t even many artifacts left, all that remained were blood-soaked swords, and the treasures in the palace’s underbelly.

The instant Keltazar returned, he rushed frantically towards the Emperor.

“Your Majesty.”

“Keltazar. Where have you been all this time?”

Emperor Vermon, sitting on his chair, looked down at Keltazar. He couldn’t bring himself to meet the Emperor’s gaze properly and lowered his head.

“I was taken hostage by the enemy, I spent a long time there before I barely managed to escape.”

“Hostage?”

Vermon stood from his seat and approached Keltazar as he spoke.

“Keltazar. What do you take me for? A hostage? What kind of hostage sides with the enemy and kills their own people? Reports have come in to the Knights. That you were seen wandering with Leo and using strange powers to kill our troops.”

“That’s…!”

Keltazar tried to shout out in protest, but meeting the Emperor’s cold gaze, he immediately shut his mouth. There was no rage in the Emperor’s eyes. They seemed to be filled with genuine disappointment.

Keltazar’s heart began to freeze over in an instant.

“Your… Your Majesty… I have lived my entire life for you. I would never betray you. Please believe me. I would never…”

*Clang!*

The Emperor didn’t listen to the rest of Keltazar’s words, and instead, placed a sword in front of him.

“Die.”

“…”

“You’ve betrayed me, so take your own life, Keltazar.”

“Your Majesty… I, right now, have the desire to take my own life as you say, to die. If it would benefit you, I would do so without question. But it cannot be now. Enemies are approaching to kill you, Your Majesty. Leos, with his grotesque powers, and his companions, are coming to murder you! Your Majesty, I too have gained a power. I will protect you with my ability.”

“So you will not die?”

“Your Majesty…”

With despairing eyes, Keltazar looked at the Emperor. But the Emperor’s eyes were as cold as ever.

“If I die, the remaining forces will not be able to hold them off.”

Emperor Vermon, as if he expected this, gestured with his hand.

Immediately, dozens of knights nearby leapt forward, swinging their swords at Keltazar. Each and every blow aimed true for the neck and vital points, attacks meant to kill, without a doubt.

“Your Majesty! Please, hear my words, Your Majesty!”

Keltazar pleaded desperately, but Emperor Vermon, as if bored, leaned back into his chair, a cynical smile playing on his lips.

“Keltazar, you betray me, yet you talk so much. If you truly follow me, then die here. I have no need for traitors.”

“Kuh…!”

Keltazar, while fending off the knights’ attacks, continued to shout at the Emperor in desperation. That he hadn’t betrayed him, that it was all to save him. That the reason he wasn’t dying now was purely to protect him from Leos. But the Emperor did not listen.

Finally, Keltazar decided to change his approach.

“Your Majesty, knowing that it is disrespectful, I will save you by my own volition.”

Keltazar, who had been only defending until now, started to attack. He summoned dozens of skeletons at once and had them charge the knights. Soon after, he himself charged in, cutting the knights’ throats one by one. And the moment he had cut all the knights’ necks,

Step, step. Keltazar walked towards the Emperor. The Emperor swallowed hard, his voice trembling.

“Wh-What… what are you doing! How dare you! How dare you betray me, Keltazar!”

Keltazar, now standing directly before the Emperor, knelt and spoke.

“Great Emperor, the sun of the Peren Empire, and my eternal liege lord. I, both in life and in death, will do all for you. Please believe me. I will protect you.”

The Emperor’s eyes, which had been full of contempt before, now began to fill with terror. Keltazar recognized it. There was no longer a place for him in the Imperial Palace.

He stepped out slowly, and spoke.

“For the glorious Emperor.”

*

As Leo’s group began to walk, the one who greeted them, even before the countless knights, was none other than Keltazar.

A short distance from the imperial palace, Keltazar stood there, drenched in blood.

“Were you betrayed or something?”

Leo asked, but Keltazar didn’t answer. He summoned skeletons and drew his sword.

“You won’t be able to lay a scratch on the Emperor.”

Leo simply said nothing, manipulating his five swords, instantly slicing through hundreds of skeletons, one by one. In less than three minutes, only a few dozen of the many skeletons remained standing.

After a few more seconds, the remaining skeletons were also cut down by Leo’s five swords, collapsing onto the ground.

“Why… why do you have to go this far? With such great power, why don’t you live as a tool of the Emperor, why do you act with a will of your own! Are you betraying the empire… the empire that bore and raised you!”

Keltazar shouted, consumed by rage. He was now abandoned even by the Emperor. But still, he came here to protect him.

However, there was nothing Keltazar could do.

Leo was a massive wall. He was like that even before learning his powers, and after learning them, after beginning to master them, no one could stop him.

Keltazar himself knew best that he couldn’t stop Leo. Still, he had come because he could not simply stand by and watch the Emperor die.

“Wait here.”

Leo told his companions, and moved forward alone. He dismissed the five swords hovering in the air, and drew a single sword, holding it in his hand.

“I’ll fight you without using my powers. Try to stop me.”

“You b*stard!”

At Leo’s seemingly mocking action, Keltazar charged forward. The skilled swordsman’s techniques began to unfold, but Leo blocked them all.

Leos, without the aid of any power, purely through his own experience and swordsmanship, parried all of Keltazar’s attacks.

“Die!”

But Keltazar, refusing to give up, kept lunging. If his sword broke, he’d charge with the broken remains. If he lost even that, he’d come at him with his bare fists.

“Keltazar, stop now. Don’t you know? The predetermined outcome won’t change. The Heavenly Assembly might be another story, but the Emperor will absolutely die.”

“kk!”

Keltazar screamed, rushing at Leos again. This time, he’d grabbed a blade off the ground and charged, blood streaming from his palm.

Leos closed his eyes for a moment, then thrust his sword into Keltazar’s abdomen as he approached.

*Thud*, and a gush of Keltazar’s blood erupted. Keltazar was in pain, yet his expression seemed strangely calm.

“Keltazar, I still resent you. You ordered Belin to frame me as a criminal, ruining my entire reputation. I was scorned even by my disciples. I lost my job, lost my freedom in prison for a long time. Even when I got out, I was branded forever. Countless people condemned and mocked me in the community.”

Leos asked Keltazar:

“Why the hell did you do it?”

“The higher-ups… ordered the Gate Management Bureau to be dismantled… and to do that… it was necessary to bring down you, who had public support… I was just choosing an… efficient… method.”

“Do you feel no guilt?”

“…”

Keltazar said nothing. He coughed and spat out blood for a while before finally speaking with difficulty.

“My own mother abandoned me on the street as a newborn baby. And the one who took me in was the father of Emperor Vermon… the former Majesty. He always told me. To watch over Emperor Vermon. Because he was a good, gentle soul. To keep him safe.”

“Good, my ass? That piece of trash.”

“Everyone calls him a tyrant now, but it wasn’t always like that. He was light. The light of the great Peren Empire.”

Leos spoke to Keltazar, who was staring into space.

“Judging by the situation, it looks like the Emperor abandoned you. Do you still want your body scattered into the sea along with his?”

Keltazar, tears streaming down his face, spoke with difficulty to Leos.

“I…I knew it was wrong. But I couldn’t stop. For him…I’ve lived my whole life running for him…I didn’t know. How to stop.”

Keltazar added, his face contorted in pain, to Leos.

“Truly…I was sorry.”

Leos raised his sword and said,

“The promise to scatter you in the same sea as the Emperor, I will keep. Maybe in death, you can become his friend, and not his dog.”

“Thank…”

Before Keltazar could finish his word, Leos cut his throat. He then whispered quietly,

“Finally killed you.”

Keltazar, the mastermind behind everything, the leader of the Shadow Brigade.

The vile villain who, through Bellin, had driven him into the abyss.

After cutting off Keltazar’s head, Leos didn’t feel particularly happy or sad.

“You were, after all, just a man.”

Seeing Keltazar, who looked as if he wouldn’t bleed if pierced, soaked the ground with blood as he died, everything just felt hollow.

Leos walked away, leaving his corpse behind.

There were still those he hadn’t killed.

“With Keltazar dead, next is Emperor Vermon.”

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