Chapter 542

“What the hell…?”

I glared at Rotholandus with a face full of contempt and disgust, like I was staring at a pig swimming in a cesspool.

The Blessing of Invulnerability. The blessing bestowed upon me by Hersela’s ancestor was surprisingly a blessing that grew stronger the more I stripped.

How effective was it? If I wore absolutely nothing, I could laugh off an attack from Ryu-rik!

…What a crazy bastard. Getting stronger by stripping naked? What kind of messed-up blessing is that?

“What kind of blessing is that…?”

“There’s no need to be so flustered. Exposing your skin is just a way to enhance the blessing’s power, not a mandatory cost. I, too, have fought on the battlefield clad in armor.”

In my mind, Rotholandus, already branded as a perverted middle-aged man, tried to calm me down with a half-baked excuse.

Well, he’s not wrong. I’ve confirmed that even without stripping, it can block attacks just fine.

But.

“If that’s the case, why did you fight completely naked back then?”

I lit a new cigarette and sarcastically remarked. Don’t lie to me. His flailing, naked figure was so infamous it was carved into the walls of the tomb.

After hearing the explanation of the blessing, I could understand his crazy antics. Wearing armor must have had its limits.

“…Is that incident recorded?”

Rotholandus stroked his beard, looking deeply embarrassed.

Instead of answering, I pointed at the relief on the wall with my cigarette. The image of a mad exhibitionist tearing people apart while naked. The carving was so detailed, it could have been mistaken for the real thing if it were colored.

Except for the fact that he had something horse-sized between his legs.

“That…!”

Rotholandus’ face twisted in anger, shame, or maybe both. He looked like a bald man who had just lost his wig.

“Astolfo…! To think he’d pull such a prank in my tomb, that brat never grew out of his childishness!”

Apparently, it was his comrade who had immortalized his dark history.

Well, of course. Only one of the Twelve Knights would have the guts to permanently preserve their comrades’ shame.

—

“My successor, won’t you destroy that carving for your ancestor’s sake?”

After staring at his nude carving for a while, Rotholandus let out a deep sigh, like a lament. The deep wrinkles on his forehead showed how embarrassed he was to be humiliated in front of his descendant.

However, much to his dismay…

“I’m afraid I can’t do that. Destroying a historical cultural relic would land me in hot water with the priests of the Elpinel Church Order. I’d have no excuse to give them.”

I took a deep drag of my cigarette and refused his request. It was qualitatively different from smashing the Colossus.

As absurd as the carving was, it was still part of the Twelve Knights’ tomb. Whether from a historical or religious perspective, it wasn’t something to be destroyed recklessly.

Well, that’s just the excuse I’m using. The truth is, I just wanted to mess with him.

Honestly, isn’t it infuriating? He made the blessing sound perfect before I received it, only to reveal the truth after it was engraved and irreversible.

At least stripping isn’t mandatory. If nudity was a condition for activating the blessing, I would have sent him to the afterlife myself.

—

“So, what exactly was that situation? Even compared to the other carvings, it’s oddly out of place. It’s not some side effect of the blessing, is it?”

The naked chaos was so shocking that I overlooked it, but honestly, it was a peculiar relief.

The fact that he was the only one naked, and that he was attacking fellow humans instead of monsters or other races.

It was like a madman had snuck into the carvings of heroic deeds.

“That disgrace… has nothing to do with the blessing. It was a time when I lost my sanity and went berserk, so I didn’t wear any clothes.”

What are you talking about? So you’re not an exhibitionist, but you become one when you go mad? Like those people who strip and dance when they’re drunk.

“How did you end up going mad?”

“…It’s a personal matter.”

Rotholandus turned his gaze away from the relief with a quiet remark.

…So he’s not going to tell me. If something drove one of the Twelve Knights to madness, it must have been serious… Maybe Lacey would know.

“If it’s personal, then fine. So, is this all over now?”

I sheathed Durandal and shrugged.

I’ve been appointed as the successor and received the blessing as proof, so if there’s nothing left, I’m thinking of heading back.

“No. As a Knight of the Oath who served alongside the Great Emperor, I have a warning to give you.”

…A warning?

I flicked the ash off my cigarette and let out a white sigh.

A warning left by an eight-hundred-year-old hero? It reeked of something serious and ominous.

Ah. Maybe it’s related to the latter part of the story.

Originally, I would have learned this through the Holy Sword, but since Carolus was its former wielder, it’s likely that his subordinates, the Twelve Knights, also know key information about the main story.

“Haah… Go ahead.”

“It’s a long story, so if you want, you can sit down to listen.”

If that’s fine, then sure. I plopped down on the platform and listened to Rotholandus’ tale.

“Eight hundred years ago, this world was filled with transcendent enemies. In those days, we…”

Like old men reminiscing about their youth, Rotholandus began to ramble on about the past.

—

The first half of the story was something I already knew. He summarized it, but it was a retelling of the heroic tales I’d heard countless times.

In an era when other races were incomparably stronger, Carolus and the Twelve Knights fought to free humanity from the yoke of slavery.

It was like hearing the founding myth of the Empire from one of its key figures.

“It was a truly brutal war. Every time a dragon breathed fire, a city fell. When a giant swung its arm, the city walls crumbled. The Fairy Guardian and the Beastmen King slaughtered thousands of soldiers single-handedly, and the dwarves’ war machines were incomprehensibly bizarre. Kal Ros was a nation built on millions of deaths. In the face of transcendent beings, human life was that cheap.”

Well, of course. Even I can slaughter an army single-handedly, so how much worse must it have been back then? The current Empire makes it clear.

—

The reason the Empire could suppress other races and maintain centuries of peace was its overwhelming military size, which no other race could match.

A standing army of a hundred thousand. And if conscription were enforced, that number could multiply tenfold. The sheer force of numbers was humanity’s greatest strength.

In a world where the limit of strength was that of a master, there was no power greater than numerical superiority.

In other words, the moment beings capable of slaughtering thousands single-handedly appeared, the Empire would lose its greatest advantage.

The last great invasion was a prime example.

When Ryu-rik, the Beastmen King, appeared, the impregnable Northern Wall fell, and the Empire’s main forces were defeated.

It was only because I defeated Ryu-rik that we won. Otherwise, the north would have fallen in an instant.

“Every time a battle ended, His Majesty was overcome with grief. But there was no other way. The only way to save humanity from being enslaved by other races was to retrieve the six Holy Grails they had stolen.”

…Holy Grails?

That’s the first I’ve heard of this.

“That’s why we—”

“Wait, hold on. Holy Grails? What are those?”

“The golden cups of salvation. Divine artifacts that Elpinel commanded us to retrieve. Vessels to contain the power of the gods, stolen by those cursed other races.”

Rotholandus continued his explanation.

After retrieving the Holy Grails, Carolus and the Twelve Knights performed rituals as instructed by Elpinel’s revelation, and the gods responded to their prayers, manifesting their divine power through the grails.

“The celestial god Elpinel and the five gods showed us the answer to save humanity. That was the Heavenly Barrier. A great blessing that severed the connection between the heavenly and mortal realms, weakening all divine blessings.”

It was a lofty expression, but I could understand what it meant.

The existence of a barrier separating the heavenly and mortal realms was something I had already witnessed through Invidius’ descent.

…So, that’s the setting behind the level cap.