I’m Going to Destroy this Country

But then, it happened.

The Skeleton King, who was gulping down bean water like soju with a face that had already lived a full life, looked strange.

‘Hmm?’

He looked at the milk bottle as if something was wrong. Then, he tilted his head and drank the bean water again.

Gulp, gulp.

‘…Huh?’

The Skeleton King looked at the bottle as if it was a bug.

‘What’s this?’

Why does it seem like the more you eat soybean water, the more your mana fills up?

Is it because of the mood?

The Skeleton King felt weird and drank more and more, but it was clear.

‘Insane, my magic power is really building up?!’

The Skeleton King stared at the bottle as if he couldn’t believe it.

The reason was unknown.

The only thing that was clear in the current situation was…

‘I can build up magic just by drinking?!’

He can use magic!

The Skeleton King’s eyes went crazy at the thought.

And then.

“Oh my! Young master!”

“Wow!”

Gulp, gulp. Gulp, gulp.

The Skeleton King, who was sipping bean water, began to empty the bottle at a crazy speed.

Magic power began to build up little by little.

‘Good! Great! With this!’

Upgrading magic and destroying(?) this damn country of the holy clergy would be a piece of cake!

In an instant, the Skeleton King emptied a milk bottle and reached out his small hand to demand another.

“Dayaa! Ta ya ya ya ya ya (Pour it! Pour it, you scoundrels!)”

Even when he pounded the table with the bottle, the paladins were surprised.

“Oh my, even though it’s a task, we were worried that you couldn’t eat it…!”

“The other Saint candidates were forced to eat it too.”

“Yes, although they were chosen with the most beautiful appearance, honestly, it’s the lowest-grade crop in terms of taste….”

“Even though it’s for the clergy, would a nobleman who doesn’t even eat what the peasants eat, eat it just because it tastes good? I haven’t seen anyone of higher rank eat it…”

However, regardless of their words, the Skeleton King’s eyes glimmered at the juice he was drinking.

‘As expected, there’s magic power in the ingredients!’

And this time, there was a considerable amount of magic power!

And until now, he had never eaten food because he was a skeleton, so he couldn’t even guess.

Could it be possible to absorb magic power by eating food?

But he had never heard of such a thing before.

‘Could it be because of my <Mana Absorption> skill?’

The Skeleton King could absorb all magic power from any target.

In other words, this means that you can obtain magic power just by eating, unlike collecting it with a magic core or practicing.

‘Well, it seems that the amount of magic power in each food is different.’

There were some with very little, and some that could raise your magic power for a whole month.

‘Which is it? Which one is the one who owes a month’s worth?’

Well, that wasn’t important.

‘Let’s eat everything before the priest guys come!’

As the Skeleton King ate like crazy, the holy knights somehow really enjoyed it.

“Of course, this person is undoubtedly the Saint among the Saint candidates!”

“To make the ancient Saint food taste this good!”

At the paladins’ words, the Skeleton King narrowed his eyes. A Saint candidate? Come to think of it, he had been hearing about it since meeting his fake servants days.

‘There are more Saint candidates.’

Like a Saintess, a Saint would be a being who could have power comparable to an Emperor in the human camp. Knowing this, the noble families would fight each other to the death for influence.

And this tasteless trash… no, clean food would be one of the ways to distinguish the Saint. So he understood that. However, there was one question he had.

‘Why is there poison in the crop?’

It wasn’t just a simple poison.

‘This is a divine poison.’

It wasn’t a ‘divine poison,’ but a ‘poison that destroys divine power’.

It’s not an immediate effect, but if it accumulates in the body like poison, it’s deadly. And it’s a particularly lethal poison for priests who need to use divine power.

‘If the Saint doesn’t have divine power, well, that means to die.’

Of course, it didn’t harm the Skeleton King at all.

‘This poison is made from magic cores.’

Magic power and divine power are at opposite extremes. Naturally, using magic power to kill divine power was a matter of course.

And a poison made from a magic core?

If you give that to a demon, it’s like asking them to suck up the magic power.

Of course, there may still be poisonous ingredients, but that doesn’t matter. Even if it was a deadly poison, it would be a piece of cake for someone like the Skeleton King who was at the level of a Demon King and could absorb magic power by breaking down the poison into magic power.

The Skeleton King, who absorbed the poison in an instant, narrowed his eyes with great excitement.

‘Crazy, this is three months worth of magic power!’

This is the best!

He didn’t know who put it in, but it’s cost-effective! How toxic must it have been to contain three months of magic power!

He didn’t know why the poison was added to the food designated as the Pope’s task, but it’s unlikely to be used for discernment of Saints. If it was for discernment, they would have used a different poison that wouldn’t make priests retarded, and it would have had an immediate effect.

So, to put it simply, the enemy forces are trying to eliminate all the Saint candidates by using both magic and poison…

‘Oh, crazy! This time it’s five months’ worth of magic!’

The Skeleton King trembled with excitement.

Is there no poison with stronger toxicity in this power struggle?

Bring him some highly toxic poison, please.

* * *

“Did you say that the child of the Eshua family is a Saint now?”

The headquarters of the Holy See.

A man with clean eyebrows who received the news raised his eyebrows.

He was wearing a black uniform.

Only the cardinals were allowed to wear black in the Holy Empire.

The man, who seemed to not even allow dust on his uniform, frowned displeasedly and the seed who came to report trembled.

It was because the owner’s mind was uncomfortable with the name ‘Eshua’. It was a mistake to talk about the famous Eshua family in the Holy Empire without thinking about it.

The servant hurriedly apologized and continued speaking.

“Well, the Imperial Knights rescued the Saint candidate from the Eshua family from the kidnappers. They have moved to a nearby temple now.”

“I already know that.”

The servant swallowed dryly.

<Cardinal> were the descendants of the 5 Dukes who were the representatives of the pope and in charge of producing all the clergy and holy warriors on the continent. With the appearance of the <Saints>, who had never existed in history before, the 5 dukes and even various insignificant noble families were installing their own children as true saints.

This was a situation that drew the attention of the Emperor and was a crucial factor that would determine the future dominance of the Empire.

But of all things, there was another candidate from the 5 Dukes.

“What should we do?… It’s a child who even Eshua didn’t know about, so it will be easy for us to deal with it.”

“It’s alright. It will cause a headache for the imperial court if it gets involved.

“But…”
“We’ve already sent a representative. We don’t need to pay attention to a fly’s life that will soon die anyway.”

They had put poison in the crops that were being sent to each Saint candidate. Mixing in the divine poison in the middle wasn’t a difficult task. As they were still infants, even a single sip of it would cause death within half a day. So they would never even get to see their faces.

But in the meantime, the Skeleton King was already emptying 10 bottles of juice laced with poison and shouting for more potent ones.