Chapter 228 – Valhalla Kingdom (3)

At that time, Baron Paulo, who was handling business in his castle, got a sudden report from his subordinates.

“Lord! We have a problem at hand! Right now, in Paulo Square, Roman Dmitry is said to be fighting against the people of Valhalla! The problem is that no warrior can stand up to him, and they are all shouting surrender!”

“… What are you talking about?!”

Thud!

Baron Paulo jumped up from his seat at the sudden report. It was something that made no sense from start to finish.

It was absurd that Roman Dmitry, who was just an outsider, was fighting, and the Valhalla warriors were shouting defeat, unable to stand.

It was an act that Valhalla would never accept. Especially during the festival time, there were a lot of eyes from outsiders, and what would they think of Valhalla?

The subordinate explained the situation. As Roman Dmitry was said to have used violence to induce surrender, Baron Paulo couldn’t calm his anger.

“Roman Dmitry. In the end, he is causing trouble.”

His trip to Valhalla—he had heard the information from his superior. Rumors had it that Roman Dmitry had unbelievable strength and that his presence couldn’t be rivaled.

While living in Dmitry, he raised his name’s value by intervening in the war with the Barco family and later turned the world upside down with unconventional moves such as the Southern Front and the Public Ranking battles.

In addition, rumors recently circulated that he got involved with the changes in the Redford Kingdom. It was said that the presence of an awl in a pocket could not be hidden, even if one wanted to hide it, but Roman Dmitry didn’t hide it at all.

Actually, Valhalla’s leaders had no confidence that Roman Dmitry would accept the invitation. Even though dealing with Barbossa meant risking his life, Roman Dmitry still came to Valhalla.

And then, the leaders conveyed these words,

“Roman Dmitry is a scapegoat that will increase the reputation of the Valhalla Empire. Until he gets on the stage that has been laid out, show him what Valhalla is like. That it is different from the inside, unlike a well like Dmitry. If he ends up going through all the hardships and reaches the capital, he’ll be down even before the fight.”

For that reason, he didn’t even send a guide. After suffering from the people of Valhalla’s discrimination, the plan was to send someone when Roman reached the capital and then make it look like Valhalla did its part.

But now things were a mess. If Roman made his presence known like this, then the situation wouldn’t be good for them.

Baron Paulo said,

“Call the others. I will show what Valhalla is to Roman Dmitry myself.”

“I understand.”

Baron Paulo left his office with an angry face.

“Kuak!”

“… Ugh.“

The people were groaning, and there were a dozen of them already. Those who courageously agreed to deal with Roman Dmitry were humiliated to the point that they were ashamed to laugh at the previous ones.

The violence continued without them losing consciousness. The spirit of Valhalla, which everyone thought was steel, began to melt away.

Even so, the challenges continued. When surrender flowed from the mouths of his opponents, Baron Paulo appeared with his troops.

“What is this?!”

As soon as he arrived, he shouted, and the place turned quiet. Baron Paulo’s attention was drawn more to the shocked expressions around him than to the disfigured faces. He felt that the pride of Valhalla he believed in had been crushed.

He believed that the people of Valhalla would never shout surrender, but the sight in front of him was too much. Baron Paulo pressed on and asked,

“Roman Dmitry. You are an outsider and a guest in Valhalla. So why are you behaving like this? If you cannot provide me with a good reason, you will leave me with no choice but to punish you for this.”

“For a good reason. I thought Vahalla wanted this situation.”

Roman Dmitry said as he looked at the Baron with a face that said he wasn’t bothered even after fighting a dozen warriors.

“I am an invited guest to fight against Barbossa. In the process of entering Paulo, we revealed this fact, and we even asked the guards to guide us to the capital, but they didn’t take any action and were acting too hostile toward us. And once we entered, the racism continued. No other nation treats its guests like this. But someone came up to me and said that Valhalla is a world ruled by power. So I taught those who looked at me in a hostile manner, who is above and who is below.”

“… What?!”

Baron Paulo was shocked. It was more than he expected. Roman Dmitry was more aggressive than the people of Valhalla. He didn’t think that if he didn’t treat Roman appropriately, he would make a show of force in Valhalla style.

Roman’s words—he partly understood them. Actually, no matter how foreign he was, the person they invited directly had to be treated right, but Roman Dmitry was a target for revenge, so he wasn’t cared for. And in the series of circumstances, there was nothing to hold Roman Dmitry accountable for.

Even though he defeated the people of Valhalla, confrontations were a very common occurrence in Valhalla in the first place. But the problem was that Roman Dmitry was leading this, and the people of Valhalla were defeated in a humiliating manner.

‘If the situation ends as it is, it is obvious that I will be reprimanded by the leaders. Even if I have to use force, it is necessary to restrict Roman Dmitry from going wild in Valhalla.’

“Even so, this cannot be overlooked. In Valhalla, there is no way a loser should be trampled like this. Fights should pursue the meaning behind them, and courtesy towards the other party should be present. We will conduct an investigation according to the process. If it turns out that you are innocent in the process, I will guide you to the capital.”

It was a debatable answer. In the situation where Baron Paulo was forced to act, Roman smiled.

“What if I refuse?”

“… You have no right to say no. This is the land of Valhalla.”

“The land of Valhalla. Then I will handle this matter according to the laws of Valhalla. In Valhalla, I heard that when the responsibilities that both sides should take are ambiguous, the situation is settled through a duel trial. If you wish to take me in for an investigation, tie my hands and lead me there. If Baron Paulo wishes, then you can bring in all your troops to take me.”

It was an obvious provocation, and this made the Baron’s expression turn cold. Roman Dmitry’s remarks crossed the line, but the situation was resolved by force, which was what he wanted.

He took a step back, and he shouted like thunder,

“Soldiers! Listen! Bind Roman Dmitry right now!”

A duel trial had no rules. As the situation was different from what was expected, Baron Paulo ordered many soldiers to attack.

It was a one-on-one fight, and the soldiers rushed in. Despite their appearance of raising their weapons and revealing their killing intent, the soldiers who were lined up behind Roman Dmitry didn’t move.

“Attack!”

Puak.

The soldiers moved while stabbing their spears.

Roman Dmitry took a step and evaded all of the attacks, and like in the previous fight, he didn’t use any weapons. His sword was hanging from his waist. Seeing that, the soldiers showed their anger and swung their weapons more fiercely, but every time their attack failed, a powerful shock hit them.

Slap.

His strength was able to push the body of the soldier. With one slap, the soldier’s eyes rolled, and he fell to his knees.

From the start, Roman Dmitry wasn’t using any weapons. He intended to prove how overwhelming the difference between himself and his opponents was with just his hands and legs. But….

“Mr. Roman Dmitry. You better not take this lightly.”

Baron Paulo smiled. In Roman Dmitry’s attacks, one of the soldiers who was slapped didn’t fall.

It had the force of hitting something like steel. The face of the soldier changed, and his face contorted.

“Uhhhhh.”

The body of the soldier—he was a savage. As the change spread through his body, all the hairs on the soldier’s body stood, and he looked somewhere between a beast and a human.

“Kuak!”

The savage ran. He scratched Roman Dmitry with his sharp nails, and the other soldiers also changed their attack methods. All of them were acting like wild men.

There were a lot of changes. Someone looked like a wolf, some like a bear, and another like a deer—all of them looked like beasts.

Beast Men—they were the ethnic minority found in the southern jungles. From the time they were born, they grew up drinking animal milk and were reborn as true savages through a ritual to accept the appearance of the most friendly beast.

Even in Valhalla, they were known to have the highest combat capabilities. They only took the form of normal soldiers, but the savage troops were the elite of Valhalla.

As they attacked, the people clenched their fists. If they were beasts, they thought that they could defeat Roman Dmitry, who didn’t care about using his weapons.

Right. It was an illusion. The moment when a savage in the shape of a bear disregarded his defense and attacked…

Crush.

A fierce fist hit his face, and the eyes of the Beast Man felt lost.

There were some things people misunderstood. The King of all animals. The way to represent Baek Joong-hyuk, the Heavenly Demon, could be described as such.

Baek Joong-hyuk conquered Murim with a single sword and was recognized as the best man in the world who could represent both Murim in name and reality.

But what was the next best weapon he could use after the sword? People mentioned that he could use various weapons with perfection, but in fact, except for the sword, every other weapon felt odd, and he was more familiar with his hands and feet.

At the bottom of his life, in order to survive the fight for survival, he had to use his hands and feet, as well as everything that he could use as a weapon around him.

And the process made Baek Joong-hyuk reach his peak. In the wilder environment, Baek Joong-hyuk destroyed the Beast Men with his hands and feet.

The existence of the savages—he knew about them. The aura of mana exploded inside them, but Roman Dmitry didn’t care.

Crush!

“… Kuak!“

The beast’s face was crushed. The beast’s hard skull cracked, and he stumbled back as he fell. It only took an instant for the shock to spread. The beast in the form of a bear was famous for being durable among all Beast Men, but collapsing with one punch wasn’t what everyone expected.

“Grrrrr.”

“Kuak. All at once. Grrrr. Attack!”

As he had expected, the beasts rushed at him. Seeing them attack from both sides, Roman Dmitry kicked and smashed their faces, and a bird-faced savage with wings was slammed to the ground.

This time, their solid durability was of no use. The beasts couldn’t hold back their screams at the pain that pierced them deep into their bones.

In the one-on-one fight, Roman Dmitry was supposed to be at a disadvantage. If he didn’t use weapons, it was right for him to lose against these beasts, whose entire bodies seemed like weapons.

But what was this situation? While Baron Paulo’s mouth was wide open, the situation was quickly sorted out.

Puak.

“Kuak.”

His face jerked. Seeing the beast lowering his head, the last one in the form of a buffalo fell, and he was shocked.

Roman Dmitry approached him.

“Say you surrender. Then this will end quickly.”

Slap!

His cheek moved. The beast didn’t even think about resisting. The beast, who was born with the nature of a beast, was overwhelmed at the sight of a predator in front of him.

As he trembled under the hand of Roman Dmitry, Roman continued to slap the Beast Man.

Slap.

Slap. Slap.

In Murim, there was this martial art called the Golden Enhanced Palm. Even those with bodies like steel begged for their lives on their knees at the agony of the palm that pierced through their bodies.

It was violence that could distort even steel, and Roman Dmitry didn’t have to add further words. Without saying anything, he only focused on slapping the beast.

Slap.

Blood splashed.

Slap.

His teeth fell out.

Slap.

His beastly look was now pitiful. It was totally overwhelming. The moment he accepted the fact that Roman was at the top of the predator list, the Beast Man opened his mouth and said,

“… P-Please spare me. I was wrong.”

That was all.

Tap.

He put down his hand that defeated the beast, and Roman Dmitry looked at Baron Paulo.

“What do you plan to do now?”

At those words, Baron Paulo unknowingly took a step back.