Wilhelm could feel the familiar sensation of drowning, the warmth urging him to fall asleep wrapped around his body, his thoughts barely formed a sentence as it became harder and harder to think and he realized he had made a mistake.

‘Ah…Damn it…That son of a bitch.’

The [Sword Fiend] was more dangerous than he had expected.

That was the last thought he had before he fell asleep.

***

Gaius stiffened after seeing Wilhelm reopen his eyes, his hair stood at all ends, and his instincts were urging him to run away.

‘Why?’

Gaius didn’t understand. However, he knew that Wilhelm had changed somehow.

Cold sweat formed on his forehead as it fell like teardrops toward the ground. Gaius gripped his sword and readied his stance.

‘Wilhelm’ looked around, he saw the sword in his hands, Gaius in front, and smiled like a fiend.

Gaius trembled and dashed toward The Fiend. He instinctively realized that if he didn’t attack now when his guard was down, he wouldn’t be able to win. Gaius strengthened his body using his mana to the limit, the mana coiled around him like the eye of a storm, as he swung his great sword with all his strength.

The greatsword fell towards Wilhelm, the air around his sword crackled, and it descended onto Wilhelm with the force of a mountain. The Fiend in response, grinned, madness visible in his eyes. The Fiend’s sword traveled gently through the air as it wrapped around Gaius’s sword, and with a flick of his wrist, deflected Gaius’s sword redirecting it with eerie ease.

Gaius felt chills run down his spine at that swordsmanship. Was this even the swordsmanship of a man? Did a sword god or a transcendent being descend onto Wilhelm? It did not make sense, how could this be a technique of a human!?

Gaius then immediately felt excruciating pain in his lungs. Within that instant, The Fiend had struck his solar plexus, despite using less mana than before, the sword traveled so fast that Gaius couldn’t see it.

‘No, is it something else?’

Gaius gritted his teeth, brought back his greatsword, and moved back. He coughed up some blood and took a stance. The Fiend in response just walked slowly toward Gaius, blood vessels popped in Gaius’s face yet he didn’t dare make the first move.

Gaius just stood still as The Fiend slowly walked and when The Fiend got into his range, Gaius twisted his body to the fullest and did a side swing with all his might.

‘Got yo-!?’

The Fiend instead of dodging, attacked Gaius’s hands and accurately struck Gaius’s nerves, making him drop the wooden sword.

“What the fu-!?”

Before he knew it, something crashed onto Gaius’s head making his head bleed, and when he came to, The Fiend was already extremely close with a grin so wide that it threatened to rip his face. Gaius stepped back in surprise and The Fiend struck him in the liver.

“Argh!”

Gaius groaned in pain and tried to punch The Fiend due to him losing his sword, however, his punches just got deflected and his heart was stabbed using the wooden sword at a speed that he couldn’t even see.

‘No, it was not speed.’ Gaius thought in a daze. Although The Fiend’s speed did increase due to his perfect techniques, it was because he was attacking in deceptive angles which made Gaius unable to see his sword techniques until it hit.

However, doing that was easier said than done. Gaius tried to kick Wilhelm but it was futile, just like before, it was easily deflected and he got hit in return. Even though The Fiend could easily beat him, it was deliberately giving Gaius a chance.

“Ha! Hahaha!”

Gaius let out a dry laugh. The damned thing is toying with him. Gaius was sure now, that the thing in front of him was not the prince but rather something else.

“You bastard!”

Enraged, Gaius surrendered to his instincts and tried to punch, kick, and even bite Wilhelm however all attacks are futile as it is easily deflected or dodged by a hair’s breath, and then counterattacked.

Every.

Single.

Time.

Gaius's arms turned limp as he breathed roughly staring at the ground. He couldn’t win, it was impossible. The techniques the ‘thing’ in front of him was using are too transcendental that Gaius couldn’t even hope to fight against.

The Fiend seemed like it had stopped fooling around. As it approached Gaius with his wooden sword, Gaius knees gave out and he kneeled in his beastification form as he thought.

‘Ahh, am I going to die here?’

As soon as he thought about that, a brilliant golden light shined and struck The Fiend knocking him backward many times.

‘!’

Gaius was surprised and looked to the source. It was Abraham surrounded by a brilliant golden light. Gaius recognized what that was.

‘Aura?’

It was a technique that only the top-ranked warriors could use, and the milestone of many warriors. As Gaius’s vision is fading away, Abraham said to him.

“Congratulations, brat. You have passed.”

“...Thank you, sir.”

Gaius said in a feeble voice. He could see the clash of swords between Abraham and The Fiend before he passed out.

***

‘A familiar ceiling.’

Wilhelm stood up and despite having wounds all over his body before, now there was not a single trace of it.

‘Healing magic is really convenient, huh.’

“You are awake, Your Highness,” Hendrick said.

“Ah, yes.”

“Are you okay?”

Wilhelm nodded. Physically, he was okay.

“I see, but it would be better for you to rest a bit first before discharging yourself.”

Wilhelm nodded. His mind wandered and he was not focused on the present. Seeing that, Hendrick excused himself to leave his liege alone.

Once alone, Wilhelm began to think about the things that had happened.

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‘That mysterious feeling, and heat surging through my body…What the hell was that? Was it Wilhelm’s ego? No, that doesn’t make sense. The only thing I inherited is his memories, if I also inherited his ego then it would’ve appeared much before yesterday, or perhaps he would even be the one controlling the body instead of me, Moses if he remained in this body.’

Besides, from what Moses knew, the Original Wilhelm was not that competitive, he truly was like a machine in human form. He held such a detached view and an extreme nihilist mindset that he truly didn't care about anything because he thought of them as having no meaning. Whether he became emperor or not, whether he was hurt or not, or even whether he died or not, nothing matters to him because they do not have meaning in the first place.

The Original Wilhelm had been like that since his mother’s death.

‘Then that meant there is only one candidate, the most likely one as well.’

Wilhelm deducted that it was the [Sword Fiend] and he was quite sure of it.

‘But how can the Fiend even affect me when I didn't call for it?’

Wilhelm thought deeply but eventually sighed. He had too little information, and although dangerous, he needed to test it one more time, but of course not right now. Wilhelm rang the bell and Abraham was the one who came instead of Hendrick.

“Sir Hendrick is quite busy at the moment, so I will be the one to report everything that happened in the meantime.”

‘Wouldn’t it normally be another servant to do those kinds of things?’ Wilhelm thought but he just motioned for Abraham to continue.

“First is that, like you had told me Archbishop Andrei had already come here and cured Claire.”

Before the match began, Wilhelm had invited an Archbishop to come and cure Claire. The one he invited was the best Archbishop he could invite and the one who was said to be the strongest candidate to become the next Cardinal.

‘He should be able to cure Claire no matter what disease it is. Though even if he couldn’t I was planning on asking the Saint.’

“Second is that I have taken Gaius in as my squire. I already informed him of his accommodations and his training schedule. He will receive training directly from me since he is a beastman, but he will still have sparring sessions alongside the other squires and will eat in their place as well.”

‘Because he is a beastman?’

“Are you able to use Northern Sword Style?” Wilhelm’s eyes widened.

“In the past, I was able to learn it in Eldoria Academy.”

“That’s amazing.”

“I am honored by your praise.”

“So what’s next?”

“The third and the last is that it seemed that after curing Claire the Archbishop wanted to have a talk with you.”

“With me?”

“Yes, is that okay with you? It seemed quite urgent as well according to his facial expression.”

“Well, that’s fine with me.”

“Then I shall call him.”

Abraham left, and a few minutes later the Archbishop came and bowed to Wilhelm.

“I greet the Future Sun of the Empire. My name is Andrei and I am an Archbishop in the Holy Kingdom.”

Wilhelm looked at Andrei.

‘He is younger than I thought. Is he in his late 30s? Becoming a Cardinal candidate at that age, he must’ve been quite the genius himself.’

“There is no need for formalities. I heard it's quite an urgent problem. So what is it?”

“Yes, well…”

The Archbishop’s face stiffened and there was a trace of anger on it.

‘Hm?’

“I had cured the young lady as you ordered me to.”

“Thank you for that, my butler shall give the compensation to you, and I shall support you as the next Cardinal.”

“Thank you, Your Highness. But when I cured the young lady, there was a problem.”

Archbishop Andrei raised his head and looked at Wilhelm. There was disgust and anger in his eyes but it was not aimed at Wilhelm. Wilhelm got a bad feeling.

“I managed to sense some dirty spells of the Thalion Cultists. It’s quite a high-ranked spell as well. Only people around my level would notice and be able to cure it.”

‘Shit! Why the hell are those guys appearing here.’

Wilhelm massaged his temple. It felt like a headache was about to come.

“Can you explain what that spell is?”

“It is a curse rather than a spell. The curse slowly paralyzes the body, starting from the legs until the entire body is paralyzed, and most importantly, there is also a tracking spell embedded with the curse, Your Highness.’

“A curse? Wait, does it mean that-”

“You are quick-witted, Your Highness. Yes, the young lady was never sick in the first place. The Thalion Cultists just cursed her.”

“Oh god.”

Wilhelm ran through his hair.

‘Didn’t Gaius have zero prior contact with the Thalion Cultists? If the Thalion Cultist cursed his sister, why would he join them?’

Wilhelm then realized another thing.

“Did you say there was a tracking spell as well?”

“Yes, Your Highness. It seems like the Thalion Cultists were going to use her for some kind of sinister plan. Fortunately, I was able to get rid of both the curse and tracking spell.”

Wilhelm then put his hand on his chin and started to think.

‘If Claire was a part of the sinister plan. What would it be? The only one I can think of is…Motherfucker.’

Wilhelm gritted his teeth.

The only thing that he could think of was the attack on the village Gaius resided in. The attack by the Human Supremacists might be an attack planned by the Thalion Cultists. This meant that making Gaius the Apostle of Wrath was planned a long time ago.

‘But it doesn't make sense. How did they know of Gaius’ potential? Do they have some kind of future sight too?’

No matter how much he thought of it, he didn't know. It's not expanded much in the game so it was inevitable that he was ignorant. What was certain is that…

“They are a group of motherfuckers.”

“I agree, Your Highness.”

After chatting for a while, Wilhelm saw the Archbishop off and went to the room Claire’s at. Before knocking on the door Wilhelm heard voices from the inside.

“Brother, look, look, I can run now!”

“Right, I get it but don’t run here.”

Wilhelm smiled before opening the door.

The eyes of the beastmans turned to him and Claire immediately ran towards Wilhelm before bowing with a smile.

“Thank you very much! I heard from my brother that it's because of Your Highness that the Archbishop cured me.”

“You're welcome. Can I borrow your brother for a second?”

“Sure!”

Wilhelm patted Claire’s head before sending her off with a servant to have fun. Wilhelm then looked at Gaius and when he did Gaius bowed his head.

“Thank you very much, Your Highness. It's thanks to you that Claire was able to get her legs back.”

“Not at all. It's because you have worked hard that she can cure her legs right now.”

“Thank you for saying that.”

Gaius' eyes widened before he smiled. Now that he looked closely, Gaius’s eyes were a bit puffy. Wilhelm was then reminded of something.

“Ah, right. I apologize Gaius.”

Gaius tilted his head, and Wilhelm bowed his head lightly which sent Gaius into a panic.

“Ah, Your Highness, why are you-”

“I apologize for going too far at the spar before.” Wilhelm didn’t make any excuses and instead just bowed his head lightly, as an imperial blood, even bowing and apologizing like this shouldn’t be done but this is not the noble society, and instead just a talk between Wilhelm and Gaius.

“Your Highness, please raise your head, um, honestly, it was my fault for being too weak and I am very grateful to you for giving me an opportunity to change my life. You have no fault whatsoever.”

“Hahaha, you speak well. Thank you.” Wilhelm smiled before continuing on “As I said before, I came here to talk to you.”

“Me?”

Gaius tilted his head.

“Yes, it's important.”

Wilhelm sat on the bed and Gaius grabbed the only chair in the room and sat down in front of Wilhelm.

“Gaius, you said your sister was sick right?”

“Yes, I did.”

“When did she get sick?”

“Um.”

Gaius frowned for a bit.

‘I guess it's a sensitive topic. But I need to hear it.’

“This isn’t a pleasant story but I escaped from my tribe due to some circumstances and it was a while after I escaped that my sister got sick.”

Wilhelm closed his eyes pondering whether to tell him or not but he eventually decided to do so.

“Gaius, I want you to be really calm when I say this.”

Gaius tilted his head but nodded his head, and straightened his back. He could feel that it would be a serious topic from now on.

“Your sister is not sick, but rather she was cursed.”