October 10th. Twelfth Day. This national holiday commemorates the revolution that led to the establishment of the Republic of China.
It's a national holiday celebrated by most of the 53 countries on the mainland, with the exception of non-Han Chinese autonomous regions such as Uyghur and Tibet, and it's also a big day of festivities in Taiwan.
"Wow, it's crazy out there."
"I've never seen such a large parade outside of an amusement park. It's nothing compared to Disneyland."
The city streets are closed to civilian traffic and filled with colorful kites, parade floats, and flag-waving citizens.
Sixty years after their independence from the mainland was threatened, Taiwanese pride in their newfound independence is immense.
So much so that they celebrate their biggest holiday, the Twelfth Day, by inviting international celebrities.
"Don't be shy. A knight of the Lionheart King should be able to relax and enjoy a banquet of this magnitude."
Leon turned his attention to Ha-ri and the other knights, who wanted to open the limo window. Beatrice smirked at the sight.
"It's only natural for young knights to want to enjoy the festivities, isn't it, Your Majesty?"
"This king used to go to jousting tournaments and serf festivals to earn his keep, not like these brats."
"Your Majesty?"
"What?"
Ha-ri raised her hand, and Leon waved the question away.
"I think I know what a jousting tournament is, but what is a serf festival?"
"Hmm, good question. I'm planning on doing one with Lord Spinner someday."
Ha-ri felt uneasy when Leon mentioned Yappy.
"To explain this festival, we must first consider its origins. Sir Gratas, the Holy Knight, a giant slayer and author of the book How to Slay Giants with Serfs…"
In the past, the Lionheart Kingdom launched a continent-wide Night War when there was no empire yet, barbarians and demonic followers flooded the chaotic continent, along with mounted peoples from the east.
Crushing so many enemies naturally led to a surplus of serfs, whose numbers approached the total population of the Lionheart Kingdom.
This was despite taking no prisoners on the battlefield.
"So Lord Gratas had an idea: instead of just killing them, let's consume them as tribute to the gods."
Thus began the hunt for the giants, a powerful fighting race that was growing in numbers on the continent at the time.
Lord Gratas led his serfs on a charge and hunted the giants to extinction, among other feats.
The result is Leon's manual, How to Hunt Giants with Serfs.
"It was in honor of Lord Gratas' exploits that the Serf Festival spread like wildfire throughout the kingdom."
"Uh— Well, then?"
"Please tell me that's not true."
Ha-ri and Jae-hyuk deny reality but with a shaky voice, Soo-ho spoke the truth.
"Are you referring to the nationwide serf consumption festival, the—?"
"That's right."
God–no, Arianna, God.
The three of them remembered the Templar election, when they'd been given a single dagger and sent on a suicidal rampage against giants.
And they did that on a national scale?
Leon turned his gaze to Chun So-yeon, leaving the three in a daze.
"Chun So-yeon, do you have a good idea?"
He'd enlisted So-Yeon in this madness?
"Yes."
She prepared that?!
"Ho-oh, this king should have organized the regional serf festivals for you, do you already have any new ideas outside of those?"
"I think a serf war would be a good idea."
"A serf war?"
Leon sounded intrigued while the three knights stared at the leader of the Knight Order, who had just come up with a terrible idea.
Nevertheless, Chun So-yeon shyly pitched her idea.
"There's a 500-year-old tradition in Korea called the Daejanggunjeon, where you hang a serf and use it as an aerial explosion with firecrackers──"
The three of them shuddered as they listened to the details.
'What? Is Chun So-yeon crazy?'
'So-yeon is scary these days——She's a bit too eager to please——'
'It's not eagerness, it's craziness!'
Looking back, it was Chun So-yeon who was the most active and ruthless when it came to capturing giants with serfs. She wasn't the head of the Knights of the Ten Thousand Gods for nothing!
"Uh, what do you think? It's a unique way to combine local culture, and I'm going to ask the Japanese about it."
'Don't combine local culture with this! Lionheart is enough!'
'Do you have to be that broken to be a Knight Order Leader?'
If the serfs had heard them, they would have trembled, but Leon simply slapped his knee in satisfaction.
"Good, good, that's easier to understand than Lord Spinner wanting to hold a maximum overclocking contest with his modified serf netrunner, ah~ Beatrice, what did you say you had in store for us?"
"I'm ashamed to say, but I've been enjoying zombie movies lately— I've decided to have the contestants go through zombie survival armed with stellar armor──"
"Hmph—! I guess I'll have to do something about this, too. Lord Vulcanus will just throw the serfs far away like he does every year, and Lionheart's pride will be on your shoulders!"
'Please don't cheer her up with that!'
'You're all crazy!'
I found myself wishing I could get out of this crazy place, but the limo just kept going along its set path.
"By the way, Your Majesty, we are not the only invited guests."
"This is an important national holiday in this country. It's not unusual to invite guests from all over the world——."
"Maybe they're trying to restrict our behavior."
The guests are invited from all over the world to come together and enjoy a banquet. From what I hear, it's quite different from what they're used to.
"Hmph, this king won't be held back by mere hostages."
We've already confirmed that Zhao is a minion of the demons and extracted the information so the operation would proceed as planned.
"Lord Yappy and Park Yong-shin will be able to handle themselves, and the others are on standby."
"The question is how they will react in the banquet hall."
"You'll have to be careful, the Demons of Pleasure and Corruption aren't particularly combative demons——"
"They're just as dirty, I know."
Leon had been able to single-handedly defeat the Lord of Pleasure, Dothraddon, in part because the demons of their kind were weaker than the demons of Wisdom and Chaos.
But the demons of Pleasure and Decadence are more than capable of using all manner of ugly and vile tricks.
In some ways, they were the most dangerous demons of all, wearing human skin, carrying out sabotage behind closed doors, and corrupting the highest echelons of society.
"We're going to have to meet this one head-on, and you know it, and yet you've come to this island in person."
"Of course. How well does Your Majesty know the Corrupted Archduke Quai?"
"Not very well. After the fall of the Lord of Wisdom, they fled to the Demon Gate."
Akasha, the Slaughter Archduke, is a prime example. He was marching toward the Eastern Sky Kingdom instead of Lionheart, and when the Lord fell, he fled through the Demon Gate.
In addition, Archduke Glacier fled to escape Vulcanus, and the Archdukes of Lust and Wisdom died at the hands of Leon.
"So he is the only survivor of the Demon Archdukes who fought in that war."
Archduke Corruption Quay had heard the rumors, and so had Leon. They were the ones who had corrupted the Empire through the Wisdom Palace and the Cult of Pleasure.
But he was not easily seen on the battlefield, and Lionheart's knights continued their futile pursuit of the Fallen Archduke.
"He came to my world after he escaped from your world, and it took him less than fifty years to destroy ours."
Beatrice was the most powerful magician in her world, but she was powerless to do anything against Quai.
By the time she was born, most of the kingdoms had fallen.
She had been fighting demons since she was old enough to attend elementary school on Earth.
"They prey on people's weaknesses and deceive them. Countless generals, kings, and nobles have fallen at their hands. If I had more time, I would have done the same——."
"With the artifact given by the Queen—is it irresistible?"
Chen So-yeon pointed to the earring on her ear. It was an artifact made with the power of dreams that had once trapped even the Slaughter Archduke Akasha.
Beatrice had distributed artifacts that protected this spirit, in the form of bracelets, necklaces, and earrings, to all the knights of the Temple of Ten Thousand Gods.
When asked if the Fallen Archduke could be blocked in a similar fashion, Beatrice shook her head in denial.
"The artifact is a prototype that was distributed to key figures in a similar fashion, albeit at a lower power level. It worked against moderately high level demons, but even the Archdemons were highly resistant——"
It didn't work on the Fallen Archduke Quai so Beatrice spoke again, this time with caution.
"He shows his targets what they want most and extends an irresistible hand, so beware of the Corruption Pact he offers."
* * * *
The ballroom of a five-star hotel in the capital city of Taipei was filled with politicians, celebrities, and influencers from around the world.
Each person entering the ballroom was dressed in traditional attire, including hanfu and cheongsam, a colorful display of Taiwan's centrality to Chinese culture.
"It's easy to move around in, and I like the colorfulness."
"I've never worn a Chinese dress before, but, um— I might be more embarrassed than I thought."
Ha-ri spins around to look at the red silk cheongsam.
Ha-ri, Beatrice, and Leon are not the only ones who have changed into traditional Chinese clothing.
This was partly because the dress code for the banquet was traditional Han Chinese clothing, and partly because Taiwan has a similar tendency to dress its heads of state in hanbok for photos, as is customary in Korea.
"Though you have come to hunt demons, this is a show of state. You are the knights of the Lionheart, and you will behave accordingly."
It was time for Leon to call the worshippers of the Temple of Ten Thousand Gods to attention while in the distance, President Zhao sought him out with his entourage.
"Your Majesty, are you here?"
President Zhao looked a little shaken. He should have been in good shape for a national holiday.
"President Zhao. You don't look well, do you?"
"Oh, yeah— I haven't gotten much sleep lately."
Leon patted President Zhao on the shoulder with a smiling face.
Of course, the reason he was shaken was because of the nightmares he'd been having the past few days.
He had vomited up information through a medium planted by Beatrice, the High Priestess of Dreams and Death.
He was never able to find out if there was some sort of embargo on the identity of the Fallen Archduke Quay, but the information he knew of as president allowed him to place "martyrs" at key points.
He would not know that until the end since Beatrice's visions manipulated even his memory.
"It's a beautiful day, by the way."
"Yeah? Oh, it is, isn't it? This nice weather it's a good sign."
"Yeah, it's definitely a good sign."
For some reason, Zhao found that smile frightening.
"By the way, where is Lord Vulcanus-"
At that moment, a group of men burst through the doors of the banquet hall.
"What, what, you people!"
"Guards, what are the guards──!"
They entered the ballroom in a flash and took over the hotel. How did they take over the ballroom so quickly, which was supposed to be a huge place with tons of VIPs?
There wasn't even a shot fired. Among the guards were hunters from a large Taiwanese hunter guild that had been hired for the occasion!
From the center of the ruffians a man hooded and cloaked stepped forward.
"Greetings, gentlemen. On this rare day, you'll have to excuse me."
The man's demeanor was polite, like a gentleman, but who knows. Anyone who can be polite in a dramatic situation is probably a nutcase.
"You–! You know where you are!"
Just then, a group of men confronted the intruders. They were not from the Taiwanese military or police.
"Guild Leader Lan Fang!"
Lan Fang, one of Taiwan's top S-class hunters, and his guild, hired by the Taiwanese administration to guard the banquet, were not to be intimidated by a few terrorists!
"I don't know where these bastards came from, but they made a mistake!"
Guild Leader Lan Fang raised his greatsword and leapt at the first man who appeared to be the leader.
He realized that in order to prevent the guests from being injured, he had to take out the leader quickly.
"Die!"
Lan Fang's greatsword was imbued with domineering magic. It slammed into the man's body and──
-Bang!
A crashing sound like iron being struck was heard and at the same time, the robe was torn open, revealing a hidden figure.
"——!"
It was an item called 'heavy armor', which is quite alien to Hunters who value technology and speed.
Unless it was a drop item of exceptional performance, it was shunned for being heavy and blunt, but——.
'He simply blocked my blow?'
What was even more surprising was how hard it was, even after blocking an S-class Hunter's blow, it was not damaged in the slightest.
"Hoo hoo, I have the honor of testing the prototype of an item that will be dedicated to the Great Lord. The sword of an unbeliever will not be able to wound this armor."
The man flashed a large mace and Lan Fang, who hadn't expected the terrorist leader to possess Legendary armor, was dumbfounded and took the blow of the mace.
"Huh~ Good thing you're strong."
The man who had subdued the Guild Leader with a single blow shouted at the hesitant guild members.
"You'd better not move a finger, although I did give you a thumping once to set an example——"
Behind the man, the men stepped forward in unison, each turning their robes over to reveal their fearsome tools.
"Po, bombs!"
"Madmen!"
The terrorists were all wearing bomb vests.
-Bam! Banquet hall overrun. Moved on to the next phase.
And at the same time.
-Aaaah! Terrorists!
-What, what! Why are there terrorists here?
-Cosplay?
All over Taiwan over a thousand terrorists have appeared in major cities.
""Because the gods willed it!""
Fanatics.