Karlheinz was at the outskirts of the palace with his men.
There were more than a dozen of them, all gathered for one purpose: to take the royal family hostage.
The guards at the entrance blocked the way, having already been warned beforehand that this could happen.
Karl was trying to use dialogue to enter without unnecessary bloodshed, but the guards refused, arguing that he was not welcome there.
He was starting to get angry, and so he didn't hesitate any longer.
"Enough, let's finish this."
A few hours earlier, Ronandt had given him red pills.
"What is this?" Karl asked, intrigued. Ronandt responded with a kind smile.
"Our goal is the same, which is why I am helping you. When you are in danger, please take these pills with your men."
"The effect will take about fifteen minutes, so it must be before entering the palace."
Karl followed his advice, and suddenly his eyes became strange.
A web-like network covered the center of his eyes and spread across the entire eyeball.
His skin began to pale, and his limbs elongated.
The back of his armor opened like a shell, and four large wings sprouted from his back.
A halo manifested above his head, and not just for him—his subordinates were in the same state.
With a majestic and terrifying voice, Karl said,
"Step aside."
He raised his hand, and the guards at the entrance turned to ashes, or more specifically, to salt. Only their armor remained.
Karl and his men levitated through the door with their wings, and anyone who dared to stand in front of them was turned to salt.
Suddenly, they heard a crack coming from behind.
They turned around and saw one of their comrades slammed against the wall, leaving a red stain, from which his entrails and bones spilled onto the ground.
The cause of this was Rei, who was injured from the earlier explosion.
"Bastards, what the hell do you think you're doing in the palace?"
Karl stopped his subordinates, who were about to attack him.
"The current Duke of the Redblade family. Reidel Redblade."
"Why are you interrupting our sacred task?"
Karl's personality had even changed due to his angelic state.
Before, he would have ordered them to attack and yelled at him because of his great pride and ego. But now he was calm, seeking understanding while aiming to complete his mission.
"What am I doing here? It's simple, you weird onion head."
He pointed his index finger at Karl and the others.
"I'm here to protect the king and queen, who are part of my family."
"I already know that. I want to know how you managed to survive."
"Hmph. That's very simple."
Rei was about to explain how he had to embrace Kurono to create a super shield together, omitting the embrace, but he didn't really see the situation from his enemy's perspective.
"You're like an open book."
Karl said, buying time and generating a large magical shield around Rei. When he realized it, a great pillar of light descended and enveloped Rei in it.
Karl was stunned when he saw that Rei was still unharmed.
"Why are you still alive?"
"Ugh!"
Rei coughed up blood and collapsed to the ground.
"I almost died. If I hadn't still had the shield activated, I would have died."
(I survived by a miracle.)
◇
Right after surviving the explosion, the bald guy told us his plan.
Apparently, they want to exterminate the royal family, but before that, they want the power handed over to them on paper.
It seems that no matter what reasons you have, documents are always important to validate your objectives.
Bureaucracy is truly terrifying.
We decided who would save the royal family, and we used the classic method.
"Rock! Paper! Scissors!"
"Again!"
"Once more!"
We spent five minutes trying to see who would win, but every time I chose rock, he did too.
Nothing beats rock, so I didn't want to change.
But Rei was stubborn, so I decided to do something I hadn't tried.
I switched to paper.
Rei chose rock, and I chose paper.
"Damn."
"Yes!"
I ended up winning.
I feel like I could've saved us some time, but we were both stubborn.
"Let's agree again. I'll go rescue Eli and Sig, you go for the king and queen."
"...Fine."
Reluctantly, Rei flew directly to the palace, and I went to the church where the king's children were.
Flying didn't take long, but before I arrived, I saw something strange.
Some strange balloons with cannons were attacking the place.
There were some royal knights trying to enter to get the prince and his sister out.
A few of the balloons saw me and launched missiles at me. I couldn't help but think of a certain anime when I saw them.
(If this were an anime, they'd sue us for copyright!)
(They even have the characteristic inverted star rank!)
I dodged them all, and those that hit me exploded from the impact of my shield.
I found a balloon that resembled Casimiro after I entered.
It was in the way, so I threw a fireball at it, and it exploded.
After blowing it up, I found Eli and Sig running away from a fat man.
I quickly approached and entered with my usual heroic entrance.
Of course, I did a sentai pose like any hero would.
But in doing so, I hit my groin with the debris from the wall I had demolished.
It hurt more the fact that I didn't feel pain than the pain I had to endure.
"Kurono!"
"Kurono-kun."
"Sig, Eli, it's fine. Rei and I agreed to come protect you and your majesties."
I smiled to finish my pose, but instead of gratitude, their faces expressed "What is this guy doing, spreading his legs?"
It made my heart ache again.
"Hmph. Who are you?"
Said the man with the large belly.
"I think you should introduce yourself first if you want to know the names of others."
"My name is Ronandt, and I'm the equivalent of the next king of this country."
"What did you say?"
"I've researched you, you're that distant relative of the Redblade family."
"I was waiting for the duke to arrive, but if you've entered and surpassed my minions, it's because you're special."
"It doesn't matter who comes. My goal will not change."
Suddenly, a strange black liquid emerged from his skin, and it covered almost his entire face.
Multiple eyes appeared, and tentacles sprouted from his back.
"I am part of the cult of the Goddess of Death, the one who was blessed with the name of Bloodman."
"It doesn't matter who I am, my goal of having everything under my authority will remain intact."
"I was planning to kill the duke in front of the princess and her brother, but he probably went to the castle, so I'll start with you and then take you there so they can see their parents die."
"We'll see about that."
◇◇◇
"Die already!"
Rei was fighting against Karl and his men.
They were all creating magical circles to launch pillars and turn him into salt.
Normally, it would be very easy for him to eliminate them, but right now, with his power split in half, it was impossible for him to win.
One of the angels approached to touch him and turn him into salt. But Rei grabbed its hand and shouted.
"Edit. Accept!"
The angel's head exploded into pieces.
The others decided to step back to avoid being attacked again.
But that was part of his plan.
"Edit multiple. Accept!"
Rei could edit the stats of up to five people at a time, but he couldn't do more than that, as it would cause his head to hurt. However, in his current situation, he couldn't afford that luxury.
A dozen men came, and he made all their heads explode.
Except for one—Karl remained unscathed because Rei's limit couldn't reach him.
"You killed all my men. I admit it, you're very dangerous."
Rei collapsed to the ground and began to bleed from his orifices. His eyes were bloodshot, and he spat out a lot of red liquid as if he were a hose.
What he had done, something his body couldn't handle, was the reason he was in this state.
"No matter what you've done so far, you won't make it out alive."
Karl's hand extended toward Rei to finish him off.
But at that moment…
◇◇◇
An hour ago, a meeting of the royal knights was taking place.
In the meeting, they were discussing the schedule for the guard change to patrol the palace halls.
This was because the commander of the knights and the second strongest were away.
Therefore, the other captains had to take responsibility.
"Alright, the guard shift that was assigned to me, Captain of the third squadron, Augus Flemingway, and Captain of the fourth, Jason Hartford, will pass to a new one."
"The eighth squadron left along with the seventh, Kent Simmons."
"By the way, due to what happened last month, the late captains of the fifth squadron, George Cunningham, and the sixth squadron, Diego Barnes, will be replaced by the new captains next month."
"Mickey Penber and Royce Skyner, step forward to be greeted."
"Finally, the one who will be in charge of protecting the palace will be Captain of the ninth squadron, Bret Elliott."
Bret was at the back, eating a hamburger when he was called. Previously, seeing him eating during work hours would have generated disdain and rejection from others.
But after the Klyde and Calvin incident, he had become an important figure in the country.
Even his peers had started to respect him and see him differently.
They thought that having the slightest opportunity to eat and sleep at work would just reduce rest hours when continuing their duties.
They had a twisted idea of what it meant to be an excellent knight, hiding their true abilities because there was no need to show them.
Bret thought the same, but he had stopped doing it.
"Strange things happen around me, so I must stop thinking about it."
"Just accept it."
"Today is a quiet day. I wish every day could be like this."
"This has been the strangest year of my life. I have so many traumatizing experiences that I could write a book if I only knew how to read."
"Heh, that was an old man joke... although no one heard it."
While patrolling quietly, he felt a slight tremor.
"Could it be a distant earthquake?"
As he went down the stairs, he saw an angel slammed against the wall.
He got scared and screamed like a little girl.
There was no one around, and he could hear the conversation between Rei and Karl.
"What are you doing here?"
"I came to save the royal family. I mean, my family."
He didn't know who the first voice belonged to, but he recognized the second.
(It's that guy, the one who brings trouble.)
"I don't know what's going on, but the good thing is he's here to fix it."
Bret immediately ran away.
"Something really terrifying is happening, the best thing I can do is run and leave it to him."
He locked himself in a room, the place was being remodeled because some parts of the palace were still suffering from Klyde's attack.
"I'm safe, nothing will happen to me."
The tremors continued and didn't stop.
"Hiii. This is really terrifying."
He hid in a corner, waiting for it to stop.
The tremors ceased.
"Good, it seems like it's over."
Bret stood up but leaned against a pillar, which had a note that read "Do not touch this pillar even as a joke."
He didn't see the note and touched it.
A crack sounded, and the pillar collapsed. Bret ran out, and everything was collapsing behind him.
Upon exiting, he encountered Karl, who was about to kill Rei.
"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh."
His eyes almost popped out of their sockets as he realized he was right next to him.
Karl, for the first time, reacted and opened his eyes.
"Bret Elliott, the person I most wanted to kill."
His hand changed its target.
"I won't let you escape."
And then... that happened.
The wall collapsed, falling right on top of Karl.
He didn't hesitate and turned it into ashes, but he didn't realize there were sharp weapons placed there by a careless knight, who happened to be Bret, due to his laziness.
He didn't even remember them.
The sharp weapons fell, hitting Karl. Rei used magic to switch places with a vase, avoiding the damage.
Karl was severely injured, Rei got up and walked toward him, taking one of the swords that had fallen to the ground.
Before decapitating him, Karl said,
"Damned Bret Elliott. Not only did you know I would come and prepared a trap, you worked with the duke to guide me precisely here."
"You are the most hateful and intelligent knight in this kingdom."
Those were his last words before being decapitated and incinerated.
A snot dripped from his nose, and he didn't understand what was happening. He only knew this:
(Something truly strange and terrifying is happening.)
(I want my mom to help me.)
Rei finally realized that Bret was there, but said nothing, just gave him a thumbs-up.
"I don't know who you are, but thanks for the help."
"Really, you don't remember me!"
And so, they somehow managed to save the royal family together.
_______________
Sentai: The Japanese equivalent of the Power Rangers.
________________
The fanservice is for Bret, because this volume is peak in his heroic misunderstandings.
https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/5379877