Chapter 565: You Tell Me This Is a Humanoid Race?

"I sincerely apologize, as one more representative has not yet arrived, so..."

Facing Otto’s blunt tone, Gilknifer paid it little mind.

After all, for the strong, privileges are abundant; the other is the highest-rank Seraph, not unworthy of being called a divine messenger.

In terms of strength, he himself was but an ant before this one.

In terms of status, the other was no less than an emperor like himself.

"What kind of figure is this, worthy of making Lord Otto wait here?"

"Imperial Emperor, don’t forget—this time, in resisting the evil creatures of the Magic Kingdom, our Holy Nation is the main force."

The one who spoke was the Eleventh Seat of the Black Scripture, "Infinite Mana," a girl wearing a black magic hat, her long blue hair tied into two thick braids.

Due to her past arrogance, "Infinite Mana" had once been beaten senseless by "Absolute Death," so she both feared and hated her.

Precisely because of this, after Otto defeated "Absolute Death," she instantly became his diehard fan.

Even Nigen often felt she was more of a sycophant than he was.

"Since everyone has come here to the Empire for this meeting, it means we are all allies."

And since we are allies, I won’t hide it from you: the final representative is from the Holy En Humanoid Nation.

"Though representing the Humanoid Nation, he himself is human—and is Prince Shengzai of the Kingdom."

In political maneuvering, he had lost to the Kingdom’s Third Prince and accepted it gracefully, but that didn’t stop Gilknifer from subtly undermining Otto.

Didn’t the other make their Empire a vassal state of the Kingdom? Was it too much to stir up some hatred toward him among the strong?

"A mere Kingdom prince—even if their king came himself, he has no right to make Lord Otto wait."

"And as for that inferior, savage humanoid race, what kind of..."

"Shut up!"

Before "Infinite Mana" finished speaking, Otto, who had just looked lazy, suddenly turned serious and ordered her to be silent.

"Imperial Emperor, you just said the final human we’re waiting for is Prince Shengzai of the Kingdom, correct?"

Faced with the unusually altered demeanor of the highest-rank Seraph, Gilknifer was momentarily stunned, but eventually nodded hesitantly.

"If so, then let’s wait a little longer. Honestly, I think the scenery here is quite nice, so I’m not in a hurry..."

Watching Otto’s drastic change in attitude, Gilknifer was utterly bewildered.

Wait, just moments ago, this highest-rank Seraph didn’t treat him, the Imperial Emperor, like this!

Was the Emperor of the Empire really less valuable than the Prince of the Kingdom?

Clearly, that wasn’t the reason—any fool could see this highest-rank Seraph knew the Kingdom’s Third Prince!

[Lord Otto, your reaction is far too obvious—everyone will know you’re connected to Prince Shengzai.]

Seeing the astonished expressions around him, Nigen couldn’t help but whisper a mental reminder to Otto.

[Stop nagging. Why didn’t you tell me Prince Shengzai was coming to this meeting?]

[Prince Shengzai never told me either! I took this mission only to build ties with the Empire and the Holy Kingdom, to help me secure the Papacy later.]

As host, Gilknifer needed to greet guests outside to show respect to other nations.

The Holy Kingdom, having once received aid from Shengzai, offered to accompany the Emperor in waiting outside.

As for the Holy Nation, since the highest-rank Seraph Otto and their leader Nigen hadn’t entered, how could anyone else dare take precedence?

This led to the moment when Shengzai arrived with the Ten Humanoid Champions as envoys, only to find the welcoming party not the Empire, but the leaders of three nations.

"Prince Shengzai, who are these people behind you?"

Though Shengzai had already met the Imperial Emperor and the Holy Princess, he had never met the Holy Nation’s people before.

Thus, as host, Emperor Gilknifer naturally stepped in to introduce everyone, ensuring smooth proceedings for the upcoming meeting.

But when it came to introducing the ten diverse men and women behind Shengzai, Gilknifer hesitated.

He didn’t recognize any of them—and he could sense their aura, equal to that of the Holy Nation’s Black Scripture.

Remember, members of the Holy Nation’s Black Scripture were all at least Hero-level Qiangzhe !

Such powerful individuals were exceedingly rare—even the Kingdom and Empire, excluding Steel-rank adventurers, had only a handful.

The Kingdom had only General Gajeff and the genius swordsman Brian; the Empire had only the traitor Fuluda.

Yet now, these ten men and women—tall, short, fat, thin—behind Shengzai were all at that level, even stronger!

"Oh, them? They’re the chieftains of several major tribes of the Humanoid Nation I mentioned earlier."

"Hmm, back in their region, they were even called the 'Ten Humanoid Champions.'"

Upon hearing Shengzai’s words, everyone present except the Holy Kingdom’s party stared in shock.

Because the humanoids standing behind Shengzai were nothing like the humanoids they had ever seen or known!

Humanoids were called "humanoids" not because they looked human, but because they possessed some intelligence while retaining beast-like habits.

Yet these "humanoids" behind Shengzai retained only a few non-human traits—horns, ears, tails—and otherwise were nearly indistinguishable from humans.

Previously, Gilknifer had held little expectation for Shengzai’s claim of a 300,000-strong humanoid army.

Though Shengzai claimed humanoid combat strength surpassed ordinary human soldiers, Gilknifer had accepted that.

But humanoid armies had one fatal flaw: their wild nature made them hard to control—could they truly obey commanders in battle?

With their limited minds, wouldn’t they even fail to distinguish friend from foe once fighting started?

Yet now, seeing the "Ten Humanoid Champions," Gilknifer’s thoughts changed entirely.

These humanoids weren’t just slightly changed, as Shengzai had implied—they were practically two different species!

Seeing one part reveals the whole—if the tribal chieftains were like this, what of the 300,000 humanoid soldiers?

The Humanoid Nation’s strength far exceeded his initial expectations!

(End of Chapter)