Chapter 482
The majestic atmosphere inside the conference room fell quiet.
The heads of the Five Divine Orders and the warriors from the neutral factions shut their mouths, and even the dim moonlight looked speechless, as it had been diffracted like the tip of a brush.
Whir!
Raon took another step forward during that shock. His sedate will became a ferocious wave of energy and revealed his conviction.
“Huh…”
“H-how is this happening…?”
Quiet groans and unsettled exclamations could be heard from the neutral factions’ side.
“…Is he Raon Zieghart?”
“I heard he’s only recently become an adult. Unbelievable.”
“How can a twenty-one-year-old unleash such wild pressure…?”
“I thought the only correct part about the rumors was his appearance, but his might is the real deal…”
“I heard he was called a genius, but it’s wrong. He’s a monster.”
The warriors who’d never seen Raon before were terrified by his oppressive pressure engulfing the space and swallowed nervously.
“I told you, didn’t I? He’s an amazing person!”
The head of House Tven, Dumptkan, laughed loudly while patting the shoulder of the warrior sitting next to him.
“He’s the true warrior who enlightened me with a single strike. You can’t underestimate him just because he is young.”
He gave a big nod, satisfied with the way Raon acted so confidently in front of the Five Divine Orders.
“He’s right.”
The holy knight captain of the holy kingdom, Biten, smiled faintly.
“Sir Raon perfectly understands the meaning of true knighthood. He’s worthy of my respect even though he’s far younger than me.”
He also started to preach about Raon’s greatness to the people around him, just like Dumptkan.
“What he said isn’t actually wrong.”
“Yes. The Five Divine Orders asked for an executive from Zieghart rather than the White Sword Dragon.”
“This conference is an official meeting. We should treat each other with respect.”
With the influence of Raon’s rigorous pressure and the shouts from a few of the heads, the other heads of the neutral factions also agreed with Raon and nodded their heads.
“Hmm……”
The Thespian Emperor’s fingertips trembled as she noticed that the atmosphere inside the conference room was becoming favorable to Raon.
‘This is no good.’
Raon had revealed the will of Zieghart with a legitimate reason, and the neutral faction was staring at him with admiration.
It was the worst possible case she’d imagined.
‘How did this happen? I’m sure it was going according to the plan in the beginning.’
The Demon Slaying Spear being late, Raon and the Demon Slaying Spear being casual towards each other, and the Demonblade picking a fight with him because of his hatred of young geniuses were all according to her predictions.
She wanted it to continue like that, but the situation had changed in the middle.
‘Raon has changed.’
From what she’s seen so far, Raon should’ve acted like a punk by cutting off his opponent’s speech without using Zieghart’s name.
However, he’d revealed his presence by giving a legitimate reason instead of stopping his opponent from talking like an idiot.
Because of the heaviness of his reason and his aloof pressure, most people inside the conference room started to agree with Raon.
‘What about the Queen of Swords…?’
The Thespian Emperor bit her lip and looked at the Queen of Swords. She remained immobile with her eyes closed, just like in the beginning.
‘Damn it.’
The Demonblade wasn’t actually the person who hated rudeness the most among them. The Queen of Swords was.
Her original plan was for the Queen of Swords to humiliate Raon and make him kneel when he tried to forcibly shut the Demonblade’s mouth.
However, Raon had a rightful pretext to stop the Demonblade from talking, and the Queen of Swords didn’t make a move. That implied that she believed that Raon was right.
“Huff…”
The Thespian Emperor turned her head to th right upon hearing an evil breathing.
Impure energy was flowing from the Demonblade’s mouth. His eyes were those of an enraged snake as he glared at Raon.
‘We will be screwed at this rate.’
Unlike the Queen of Swords, the Demonblade didn’t know when to stop. He had a similar tendency to the Five Demons, and he had an inferiority complex over his age and appearance. He could potentially start to seriously swing his sword at Raon.
Rustle!
The Demonblade stood up. The chair he’d been standing on crumpled into powder.
“What did you just say?”
* * *
* * *
“Are you deaf?”
Raon furrowed his brow while looking at the Demonblade.
“I told you to treat me with the highest respect. If you want to be respected, you first need to learn how to respect others.”
He tilted his chin and repeated what he’d said a moment ago.
“You must be insane. You are completely crazy!”
The Demonblade moved his trembling hands to his waist.
“You must be out of your senses just because you gained a small amount of fame and might!”
He grasped his hilt and gave a smile brimming with murderous intent.
Raon bit his tongue slightly.
‘I feel like my heart is about to burst.’
The pressure he was feeling from the Demonblade was on a whole different level from a moment ago. He felt like his intestines were boiling because of his serious bloodlust. He had a feeling that a moment of carelessness or interruption in his aura circulation would turn him into a pool of blood.
‘But I can’t stop now.’
He was there to deliver the mess. He was only getting started.
“Fame, might, position. You aren’t better than this great one in any aspect. You are just a punk hiding behind the name of your house. How dare you!”
“Hah. Everyone who refers to themself in the third person with a great title is a weirdo.’
Raon smiled coldly while glancing at Wrath, who was floating there blankly.
“Are we gathering here for a social meeting?”
“What?”
“You are the ones who called me. I even canceled my appointment and came all the way here because you invited an executive from Zieghart, yet I’m only hearing rubbish now. This is ridiculous.”
“You aren’t even the real representative of Zieghart!”
The Demonblade let out a triumphant smile, saying that Rimmer was their leader.
“You are right for the first time. Indeed, our division leader is Zieghart’s representative.”
“Does that mean that you admit that you were acting like a dog…?”
“But our division leader gave this tablet to me.”
He cut the Demonblade off and took another step towards the heads of the Five Divine Orders.
“I even got permission from our head of house, and that makes me the representative right now. I’m not hiding behind the name of the house. I’m bearing the name of Zieghart in this conference.”
The will in Raon’s voice burst out like a storm, and the Black Dragon Coat unraveled by itself. The light sparkling from the flame engraved on Zieghart’s emblem was even more majestic than before.
“Ugh…”
The Demonblade was unable to refute his words and bit his lip.
‘It’s working as it should. It was worth acquiring the information about him.’
As soon as they were invited to the conference, Denning Rose had told him the information about the heads of the Five Divine Orders.
The Queen of Swords had a flexible personality even though she valued etiquette, while Demonblade had an inferiority complex about his age and appearance and didn’t know when to stop.
Since they had different personalities, crushing them with irrefutable reasoning was the correct course of action instead of acting like a punk like he’d done against the Thespian Emperor.
“Sophistry!”
The Demonblade spouted the word that idiots loved to say.
It implied that his justification had convinced him. Raon figured he could return to being a punk and blatantly start a mess.
“Your face is a sophistry.”
“You insolent youngster!”
“What, you insolent old man?”
He responded to ‘insolent youngster’ with ‘insolent old man’, and everyone in the conference room dropped their jaws.
Err, hmm…
Even Wrath broke in cold sweat, his face seemed to be telling him, ‘This doesn’t sound right…’
“Arrgh!”
The Demonblade couldn’t suppress his anger anymore and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. He unsheathed his sword, and when he was about to attack, the Queen of Swords opened her eyes.
“Stop right there.”
The Queen of Swords turned her head towards the Demonblade and lifted her eyebrows. Her black eyes were shining as clearly as black pearls.
“The White Sword Dragon is right. We are the ones who invited Zieghart, and we have the duty to treat them with utmost respect. We shall treat everyone in this place with respect from now on.”
She uncrossed her arms and placed the sword leaning against the table to show that she was going to keep her word.
Raon narrowed his eyes while looking at the Queen of Swords.
‘I didn’t expect this to happen.’
He predicted that the Queen of Swords would remain silent until the end, and the Thespian Emperor would stop him instead. However, the Queen of Swords was actually stopping the Demonblade instead.
“Are you telling me to stop? Didn’t you see this great one being humiliated by that vermin?”
“What I saw was you digging your own grave.”
The Queen of Swords’ eyes curved like a crescent moon.
“You are the first to show disrespect, not the White Sword Dragon.”
“I haven’t done anything wrong!”
“Did you forget you were rude to him while calling him bad-mannered?”
“B-but he disrespected the Demon Slaying Spear, who is at the same rank as us!”
“The Demon Slaying Spear himself didn’t say anything about it.”
Everyone looked at the Demon Slaying Spear as soon as they said that.
“Me? I don’t mind it! We already came to an agreement to drop the respect between us!”
The Demon Slaying Spear waved his hand at Raon.
“You fool! How can you be smiling when a twenty-year-old disrespected you!”
“I value ability and believe that competent people are allowed to do anything. Moreover, he’s super interesting. I heard old people saying ‘insolent youngster’ many times before, but I’ve never seen anyone reply with ‘insolent old man’. I want to become his friend already.”
He leaned his back to his chair and burst into laughter while repeating ‘insolent old man’.
“I agree with him.”
A large man stood up from the center of the rectangular table.
He was wearing a black robe, and the part around his shoulder looked like it was about to tear apart because of how big he was.
“We’d like to be treated accordingly since we are invited guests. Not just for Zieghart, but for everyone in this place.”
Raon carefully observed the large man wearing a robe.
‘Is he a warrior? But why is he wearing a robe… Huh?’
When he was wondering about why he was wearing a robe, he noticed the four-colored tower emblem around his chest. It was the emblem of the Magic Tower, which was one of the Six Kings.
‘Magic Tower? Does that mean that he’s Yuria?’
McCain had mentioned that the Ironclad Yuria had come, and the large man seemed to be that genius, Yuria.
Raon had thought Yuria would obviously be a woman because of the name, but he was actually a man. Moreover, he was huge enough to surpass the warriors from the Beast Union. That was the frightening part about prejudice.
‘This is the most surprising thing I’ve experienced today.’
Raon gave a small nod to Yuria to express his gratitude.
However, Yuria was staring at him with passionate eyes, as if he wanted a fight even though he’d just helped him.
Raon looked at the Demonblade instead since there was no time to think about Yuria. “Do you have anything more to say?”
“……”
The Demonblade bit his lip and slowly lowered his hand from his hilt.
“No.” He turned his head to avoid meeting Raon’s gaze. He tried to sit on his chair but suddenly stopped.
“……”
He remained in an awkward posture, unable to decide what to do. Raon looked at him to see why he was doing that, and he seemed to have nowhere to sit because he’d destroyed his chair when he stood up.
“Haa…”
Raon shook his head while looking at the Demonblade, whose face had turned red from shame, and Wrath, who was admiring him with wide eyes.
‘Seriously, everyone who refers to themself with great respect are indeed idiots.’
Their might had already reached heaven, yet they were both acting like idiots. It could be called a characteristic at that point.
Raon was returning to his seat but stopped midway and looked at the Thespian Emperor.
‘She’s frustrated.’
Her peaceful expression looked like she’d predicted that outcome, but she couldn’t hide the slight trembling of her lips. She was definitely flustered by the unexpected development.
“Lady Thespian Emperor.”
“Yes.”
The Thespian Emperor nodded calmly.
“There’s…”
“Wait a moment!”
Just as Raon was about to ask a question, the Demonblade raised his hand.
“Why are you being polite to her when you weren’t towards me?!”
“……”
Raon didn’t respond and looked down on the Demonblade as if he were watching something pathetic.
“You are so stupid.”
The Demon Slaying Spear sighed and shook his head.
“He’s being polite to her because she was polite to him to begin with, and it’s not the case for us because we weren’t. Can’t you even understand this?”
He tapped on his own temple, telling him to try thinking at least.
“You would’ve been called Sir Demonblade if you were more polite towards him in the beginning. Do you want to try it now?”
“I don’t need it!”
The Demonblade bit his lip and shook his head.
Raon looked at the Demon Slaying Spear to thank him for taking care of the annoyance and looked at the Thespian Emperor once again.
“We only have four leaders of the Five Divine Orders here. Where’s the last person?”
“The Pirate King has announced that he will be absent.”
“Isn’t this the conference of the Five Divine Orders?”
“It is. However, he refused because a pirate needs to be in the ocean…”
“So you invited us to watch the conference when you couldn’t even gather all your members. What a sloppy business.”
Raon briefly clicked his tongue while looking at the Thespian Emperor.
“I’m sorry.”
“You should stop doing whatever you would be sorry about.”
“……”
The Thespian closed his eyes to show her apology. However, veins were bulging on her temple slightly.
‘She’s angry.’
Raon could clearly see her emotions because they’d met so many times. He could ascertain that she was pretty furious.
‘Scolding her is so fun.’
Her reaction made it so entertaining.
“Wahahahaha!”
The Demon Slaying Spear slammed the table and burst into laughter.
“You are seriously insane. Do you wanna join the Demon Spear Guild? I’ll give you the vice guildmaster spot right away!”
“You are the one who is insane.”
Raon frowned at the Demon Slaying Spear before returning to his seat.
‘It’s a bit regrettable. I wanted to see the Pirate King the most.’
The Pirate King was the first person he’d heard about among the Five Divine Orders.
He was rumored to be a free man who strolled around the ocean like it was his home, and that was why he wanted to meet him. It was regrettable that he couldn’t see him.
However, there was one thing he’d learned. The alliance between the Five Divine Orders wasn’t perfect. It was a ragged relationship where they could stab each other in the back whenever they wanted.
Tap!
Raon lightly tapped his table to gather everyone’s attention before he nodded his chin.
“Since everything seems to be settled, let’s start the conference.”
He gave out the order as if he were the chairperson in charge of the conference.
“Ah…”
“Hmm…”
The heads of the Five Divine Orders and the warriors from neutral factions looked around at Raon with dropped jaws, but no one could complain.
Wh-what’s going on here?!
Wrath climbed on the table and blinked.
What even happened for you to gain the upper hand?! The King of Essence can’t comprehend this!
He grasped his head, saying he couldn’t understand the situation.
“That felt pretty good.”
Denning Rose nodded with a satisfied expression on her face. She smiled deeply while saying that it was worth giving out the information for free.
Click!
Raon looked to his right side upon hearing the sound of a camera. Encia lowered her camera while voicing out an ecstatic voice.
“Handsomeness! Overwhelming!”