Chapter 177

The blinding white light gradually faded away, but Joshua’s face was still hidden. His entire body was cloaked in a curtain of raging electricity that threatened to explode in all directions at any moment.

The reserved seats hummed with quiet excitement.

“…A god of lightning?” Shrek, a mercenary, mumbled.

“Oh my god…” Sonna moon Terraforce, the first princess of Terra, was equally astonished. “Is he even human?”

Test and Estra, the famous Logen twins of the Swallow Empire, had their jaws drop low enough to scrape the ground.

Everyone was in the zone. Prince Ulabis and Joshua Sanders were on a different level.

“Haha!” The sword of Hubalt burst into laughter.

“You seem pleased, Lilith, or am I mistaken?”

“Something wrong with that?”

Her fellow paladins and spectators frowned.

“He’s a foreigner, as I’ve noted before. Someone as powerful as that could be a threat to our kingdom.”

“He could be a threat—but equally, he could be an asset.”

“What on earth are you talking about?” Jermieng’s brows knight.

Lilith shrugged casually. “All I’m saying is that you won’t need to worry about Joshua for long. We have him.”

That gave Jermieng pause.

“And now, Joshua will have to accept my offer.” A smile crept onto Lilith’s lips.

“I refuse.”

Lilith’s expression darkened.

“There are no problems with marrying me, correct? No, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, yes?”

She rose from her seat, presenting Joshua with the seductive lines of her swordsmanship-honed body.

Joshua stayed silent and seated as Lilith moved behind him.

There was no one else here1. The guards had been sent outside earlier, so there was nothing to stop Joshua from leaving—obviously, Lilith didn’t think Joshua would try to hurt her.

Which is to say, there was no one to see Lilith press her body against Joshua, tickling his nose with the sweet scent of her perfume.

“Is there a better candidate for Master—Baron Joshua Sanders, the disowned and propertyless? My family is as powerful in Hubalt as the Agnuses are in Avalon. I myself lead the Moon Gate, both in name and in practice.”

Joshua felt something touching his elbow.

“Every man on the continent obsesses over having me. How many women can say that? You could have me, my family, and the Moon Gate in one fell swoop.” Lilith’s hypnotizing lips dropped one bombshell after another. “Embrace me. Embrace me now, and I’ll forget what you just said.”

Lilith’s thin garments slipped to give Joshua a drool-worthy view of her porcelain shoulder and the deadly line of her collar.

“Joshua Sanders is the only person on the continent with this privilege. No more refusals—my dignity will not allow it. If there is someone else you like… Yes, you will never leave your wife, but I will accept a concubine. Great heroes always have many women, after all.”

Acquiring the most distinguished family in Hubalt and the finest intelligence organization on the continent at the same time? Merely the idea of refusing her offer was absurd—unless you were a eunich. Even Joshua wasn’t an exception.

Except… Joshua was no ordinary opponent.

Joshua let out a little chuckle, crushing Lilith’s bravado.

Her eyebrows quivered. “What is so amusing?”

“Nothing. It’s not profitable for me, but it’s not quite a loss, either.”

“What are you on about?”

“I grew up with a great deal of bullying—but I think you’re worse than I am.”

“Wha—”

“Aren’t you being a little cheap for trying to marry the strongest person on the continent?”

The strongest on the entire continent?

“Surely you don’t think becoming a Master makes you better than the Nine Stars and Twelve Superhumans?”

Lilith was a very well-informed person. She knew just how large the difference was between the Twelve Superhumans and a “normal” Master. No matter how skilled Joshua was, he wouldn’t be able to defeat them right now.

“Anyone who grew up under Duke Agnus would know this…” Lilith stepped back and frowned.

Confidence was beneficial; arrogance was not. They were two sides of the same coin, but arrogance was worse than useless.

“You—”

“Five years,” Joshua interrupted. “In five years, the entire continent will kneel. Including the Twelve Superhumans and the Nine Stars.”

Lilith looked into his eyes and was astonished once more. The suspicious look they had until now was gone, replaced with something else entirely.

It’s absurd, but when he says it, it seems… certain.

Five years. Brief was brief, and long was long, but five years to become the strongest person on the continent wasn’t what you would call “brief.”

“Again, I’m prepared to accept if you provide reasonable terms. And one last thing—” Joshua shot Lilith a cheeky grin. “I despise easy women.”

“Fufu. Ohohohohoho.” Her laughter was peculiar, a combination of ridicule, delight, and a plethora of other emotions.

Had anyone ever spoken to her like that?

“Fine… As you say, I was too cheap.” Lilith sat down with a bright expression, despite having received what amounted to a kick in the face.

A certain phrase came to mind: hell hath no fury like a woman scorned2.

“I’ll keep my offer the same. But this time, rather than marriage…” Lilith licked her mischievously smiling lips. “Win the Master Battle and face the Lion King.”

“What…?”

“The Lion King is one of the few who understands the true nature of the Moon Gate, as you do. His inspections have greatly curtailed the scope of the organization’s operations. His status as kind allows him to do so. Naturally, if you win the Master Battle, the monarchy of Reinhardt changes and the organization’s restraints will be lifted. However…” She smiled bitterly. “Even after stepping down from the throne, I am unable to silence him. If he travels around the continent as a free knight, spouting nonsense…” Lilith shook her head glumly. “Even without being the King of Reinhardt, he is a powerful man. Defeat him, and you will be the true, undisputed lord of Reinhardt. Your rule will greatly benefit from the support of the locals. Handle the Lion King. I don’t care how you do it.” She smiled. “That is my new offer.”

Lilith beamed as the memory slipped away.

“Of course, I can’t deny that I’m happy. When I saw those bratty brothers from the Swallow Empire act like that after ignoring Joshua for so long because he’s a ‘stereotypical hero’—”

“What?!”

“What did you just say, Lilith Aphrodite?”

The Logen brothers’ ears burned bright red.

A thunderous boom interrupted them. The audience’s eyes—and the Prince’s—were drawn to the arena floor.

Joshua had transformed into a bolt of lightning and was streaking towards Ulabis.

1 TL/N: Dude, he’s literally fifteen, what are you talking about ↩️

2 ED/N: Original translation was “a girl filled with resentment will make the hottest of summer feel cold” ↩️