The hot springs training camp had ended, because the selection for the Royal Knights was about to begin.
During that period, everyone, especially Asta and the others, witnessed the terrifying training Charles underwent with Mereoleona. Every day, Charles would at least break a few bones, but in exchange, his strength had grown once again. He had especially learned a great deal from Mereoleona about mana zone techniques.
Most importantly, Charles also discovered that Fal could help ease the burden of maintaining the mana zone. Thanks to this, by the later stages of training, Charles was able to maintain the technique for much longer.
It wasn't just Charles—everyone else had also grown stronger through the training, and they were full of confidence for the upcoming selection.
As for the incident during the hot springs where Yami forced everyone to sneak a peek at the women's bath... let's just pretend that never happened.
The Royal Knights' selection began, but Asta couldn't find Charles at the arena, and from that point on, Charles completely disappeared.
Even after the Royal Knights' selection was over, Asta never saw Charles again.
When Asta asked Yami about it, Yami only replied, "Does that brat look like someone who needs others worrying about him? And do you really have time to be worried about him? You should be worrying about yourself!"
Yami didn't know why Charles had missed the selection either, but he believed Charles must have had his own reasons—because Charles had told him he'd never forget that he was a member of the Black Bulls.
Yami's warning for Asta to worry about himself was because Asta had been successfully selected for the Royal Knights and was now awaiting orders to move out against the Eye of the Midnight Sun.
Though they had already taken down two of the Third Eye—Vetto and Fana—the Eye of the Midnight Sun was still a force to be reckoned with.
The reason the Clover Kingdom was now so confident was undoubtedly because the newly formed Royal Knights were extremely powerful.
Without Charles participating, the selection proceeded just like it had in the original timeline.
The selected members of the Royal Knights were all elite members of various squads. Notably, three captains-level figures were also joining the Royal Knights and would be moving together:
Crimson Lion interim captain Mereoleona Vermillion, Silver Eagles captain Nozel Silva, and Aqua Deer captain Rill Boismortier.
Of course, the strongest of them, Mereoleona, was appointed as the Royal Knights' commander and would lead the mission.
But the actual operation had yet to begin! It wasn't until a full month later that Mereoleona stormed into the Black Bulls' base and took Asta, Noelle, and Luck, all of whom had been selected, away with her.
From her, they learned the upcoming operation plan.
The reason for the delay was because the original floating dungeon base in the Gerbit Rocky Zone that had been identified as the Eye of the Midnight Sun's base... had vanished.
Everyone assumed that the king's loud declaration during the Star Festival about attacking the enemy base had spooked them into relocating early. The king's reputation took another dive because of this—a surprising silver lining.
During that time, the Magic Knights had been busy investigating where the enemy had moved their base, and they finally received a troubling report.
The Eye of the Midnight Sun had relocated into the largest danger zone in the world.
On this continent, there were only four countries, named after the suits of playing cards.
Among them, the Clover, Diamond, and Heart kingdoms bordered one another, while the Spade Kingdom was separated from the other three by a massive danger zone that cut across the continent.
In terms of area, this danger zone was as large as any one of the kingdoms. The Eye of the Midnight Sun had gone into this zone and continued to move within it, making a direct strike far more troublesome.
Julius had no choice but to change tactics—dispatching large numbers of Magic Knights to cordon off and gradually locate the dungeon's path.
Even Gausch, who hadn't been part of the Royal Knights' selection, was sent out to assist in this operation.
Only recently had the dungeon's position finally been fully pinpointed. That was why Mereoleona gathered the selected members, ready to storm the floating dungeon.
...
Diamond Kingdom border.
Wearing a cloak, Charles had just lifted someone into the air by the neck. In front of him, a grimoire with the Diamond Kingdom crest on its cover slowly crumbled into pieces.
When a mage dies, their grimoire crumbles—this was a fact.
Only after watching it disintegrate completely did Charles toss the man's body aside.
Lying at his feet were two other bodies, both bearing embedded magical devices—clear signs they were artificial mages from the Diamond Kingdom.
"You're still playing around when the plan's already about to start?"
A spatial portal opened, and Rhya walked out, complaining as he saw the scene.
Still uneasy, Charles cast four or five Fire Dragon's Radiance spells on the body, incinerating it to ash before he was satisfied.
"That guy was a real menace. I just couldn't rest easy without taking him out."
Rhya, whose malevolent heart had not been fully erased, showed no sympathy toward some random human. He simply said, "If you're done, let's go. We still have a lot of work to do."
Charles nodded and stepped through the portal with him.
The man Charles had just eliminated wasn't some nobody—he was Morris, the former top scholar and wielder of political power in the Diamond Kingdom.
Mars, who had once fought Charles, had gone to the Witch's Forest and recovered a childhood friend he thought lost.
For the sake of the girl he'd regained, Mars resolved to reform the Diamond Kingdom's brutal systems. He presented a "longevity potion" (actually a sleeping drug from the Witch Queen) to the king and used it to seize power.
Having taken over, Mars immediately began implementing reforms and expelled Morris, who had led inhumane magical experiments.
But Charles knew what would happen next—Morris would flee to the Spade Kingdom and become an apostle of the devils.
Later, Morris would extract the Wisdom of the Heart Kingdom Queen—knowledge passed down through the ages—and use it to drastically accelerate the Tree of Qliphoth ritual, shortening it from seven days to mere hours.
Even after the Dark Triad was defeated, Morris would continue the ritual alone, ultimately opening the gate to the underworld.
For some reason, Charles had a gut feeling he was getting close to leaving this world.
His understanding of World Magic was still shallow. He wasn't sure whether, after the final battle against the devil, he could return. So he wanted to resolve some lingering threats beforehand.
From the moment he parted ways with Asta, Charles had been tracking this greatest potential threat. Only just now had he finally caught and dealt with Morris.
As a magic scholar, Morris was brilliant—but his combat ability as a mage was poor.
Without a devil's magic boosting him, his modification magic was unimpressive. The two artificial warriors at his side, both former Diamond Kingdom Eight Shining Generals, were the only tough ones—but they were nothing more than mindless tools.
And to Charles now, tools were no threat.
He'd realized that his rate of growth in this world had slowed.
He had learned all there was to learn and collected everything he could. To keep growing stronger here, he'd need to accumulate strength over time.
But Charles didn't want to rely on time. He didn't have much left to surpass Acnologia.
So Charles had made his decision: once he defeated the devil of Word Magic, he would leave for the next world.
And for this final battle, he hoped—truly—that the devil would be worthy of being his ultimate opponent.
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