Chapter 20: The Dragon Slayer’s Castle (2)
20
“Just now…. what did you say?”
“I said I refuse.”
I repeated myself to Hellian, who asked again without understanding what I had just said.
“Are you saying that in your right mind, Klein?”
Hellian spoke without wiping the smile from her face.
It looked as though she was forcing down her anger with mockery.
“You should know better than I do what state Leinrant is in right now, shouldn’t you?”
“I do know it well.”
Answering her words, I picked up a piece of fruit placed before me, brought it to my mouth, and spoke.
“Half of the vassal lords have already turned their backs on the family.”
“I see you know well. And?”
The more she heard my words, the deeper Hellian’s sneer became.
“The sable fur hunting rights, which used to be a major source of funds, have gone to Plysian, and the mines are having their interests taken by the Empire.”
Hearing that, Hellian nodded and asked again.
“Then compared to that, what about this Polwyvern that I rule?”
As I brought another grape to my mouth, Hellian, unable to wait for my answer, opened her mouth.
“It possesses funds and power that can’t even be compared to the likes of Leinrant as it is now!”
“That’s true.”
Even just comparing the scale of the Duke of Polwyvern family alone, it was this much.
If even the collateral branches loyal to Hellian were added, the scale of her forces would grow even larger.
“And even so, you’re saying you’ll choose Leinrant instead of me?”
“Yes.”
When I answered like that without even a moment of hesitation, the corner of Hellian’s mouth twitched.
“Why in the world? Why reject my offer, and choose that Duke family that’s nothing but a name…!”
“The Count Cornwell family providing mines to the Empire’s Necromancers.”
I cut off Hellian’s words and asked her.
“That was on your orders, Aunt, wasn’t it?”
There was no reason for a mere count to do such a thing.
Especially not an opportunist like Count Delcan.
That was why this wasn’t a question, but a confirmation.
“It was.”
A short answer came back.
There wasn’t a shred of guilt to be felt in those words.
“And those Necromancers used northerners as test subjects.”
When I said that, Hellian paused briefly, then spoke to me again.
“They used several hundred farmers to draw in the Empire’s funds. With that, they armed several hundred knights.”
Funds.
The moment I heard that word, my insides boiled.
In the end, because of that damned money, had they sacrificed the people of the North yet again?
“That’s not all. Take a look at this ball, Klein.”
Saying that to me, Hellian drew back the curtain and showed me the ballroom.
“A lavish banquet and power you could never even imagine in your Leinrant!”
Hellian’s declaiming voice mixed with the laughter of pigs wrapped head to toe in gold.
“Do you still not understand? If you’d just throw away that paltry pride, all of this would be yours!”
The sight of Hellian shouting in rapture overlapped with old memories.
Pigs drunk on luxury and indulgence, and vermin that turned their backs on the northern plague.
Even though two hundred years had passed, they hadn’t changed at all.
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear your answer just now, Klein.”
Hellian, her entire body draped in dazzling jewels and silk, spoke to me.
“Become my person. If you do that, you can become a duke!”
I couldn’t say there hadn’t been even a shred of expectation.
Hellian Leinrant.
She too was a member of Leinrant, so hadn’t she perhaps had reasons befitting that?
Maybe our paths had merely diverged, leading us to oppose each other like this.
Holding onto that foolish hope on one side, I had come here.
‘If anything, this is better. There’s no need to expect anything more.’
After reaching that conclusion, I rose from my seat.
I didn’t want to look at that monster’s face, bloated with arrogance, any longer.
“I refuse.”
A firm answer without hesitation.
At those words, the fan Hellian was holding twisted.
“Why, exactly?”
Receiving her question calmly, now devoid of laughter, I drove the nail in as if hammering it down.
“Because I want to become the Duke of Leinrant, not the Empire’s lackey.”
After I said that, for a moment, not a single sound could be heard.
But that didn’t last long.
Crack!
With a bursting sound, the fan Hellian was holding snapped in half.
“Heh, ha!”
Hellian sprang up from her seat as if dumbfounded, snorting as though trying to suppress her rage.
“You monkey bastard born between the legs of filthy barbarians.”
Cracks formed in the mask of laughter she wore.
I heard the grinding of teeth, but it wasn’t from her.
It was probably from that thing called her son who had been watching this unfold.
“I thought I’d raise you since you were worth watching, but your arrogance truly knows no bounds.”
The eyes she hid behind her laughter turned toward me.
They were the eyes of a monster, filled with hostility and killing intent.
“I’m far better than you.”
I opened my mouth while staring straight at her face, without wiping away my smile.
“An empress sow who wagged her tail at the Empire because she was afraid of that monkey bastard.”
When I brought up the assassination attempt on me that Cornwell had instigated, Hellian’s lower jaw began to tremble.
That it had been Count Cornwell’s own independent decision?
What a joke.
That coward was a man who didn’t have the guts to lay a hand on a ducal house.
“Me…. wag my tail at the Empire?!”
Hellian, anger rising to the top of her head, shouted at me.
“The Empire is the one wagging its tail at me! I’m the center of this alliance—!”
Watching Hellian raise her voice as if the reins had come loose, I smiled with satisfaction.
‘Just as expected, there’s no way there wouldn’t be distrust.’
Seeing this reaction, it was certain.
The ambiguous hierarchical relationship between the Empire and her.
That was Hellian’s reverse scale, and the weakness of this alliance.
“Who knows, though. Does the Empire really think that way too?”
“You…!”
Once you find a weakness, you provoke it and plant the seeds of unease.
So that unease can turn into doubt, into distrust, and eventually be unleashed as the dagger that will shatter the alliance.
“Wretched vermin, what did you dare spout at my mother?!”
A voice came from behind me.
‘That’s right, there was one more pig that had reached its breaking point.’
As I lifted the knife on the table, a razor-sharp blade immediately lunged toward me.
‘The sword path is far too simple.’
After already reading the sword’s trajectory with my eyes, I blocked it with the dining knife and twisted it aside.
Even if it was a sword strike imbued with mana, changing the direction of its force like this made it manageable.
It was a method Heinkel had taught me.
Kaaang-!
With a clash of metal, the distorted sword path sent the blade cleaving straight through the table where Hellian and I had been sitting.
Kukwaaang-!
An attack laden with dense mana.
As a deafening roar echoed and thick smoke poured out into the salon, screams burst forth among the nobles enjoying the ball.
“Kyah?!”
“W-What is it?! What’s going on?!”
“Guests, this way! Quickly!”
In the meantime, I leapt out of the salon and looked at the dining knife in my hand.
‘Tsk, this is useless now.’
After discarding the vertically bent knife, I waited for my opponent.
“You bastard…!”
Stepping out with a voice full of rage was a red-haired young man.
He was a noble youth who looked to be around Delain’s age.
“Prince Hector?!”
Knights who had gathered to control the situation surrounded the scene.
‘Hector Ross Polwyvern. The eldest of the three piglets, and the designated next duke.’
One of Hellian’s sons whom I had only heard of by name—Hector.
He was the current heir of the Duke of Polwyvern family.
“You insulted the mistress of Polwyvern to her face and thought you’d walk away alive, Leinrant?!”
I raised my voice toward Hector, who shouted through clenched teeth.
“The one who insulted the guest—me—and my mother first was Duchess Hellian. You should consider the order of events, shouldn’t you?”
Even as the argument continued, I scanned my surroundings.
Arin wasn’t in sight, which was a relief, but I had surrendered my sword upon entering the ballroom.
‘Asking for my sword back won’t work…. Should I test what I learned over the shoulder?’
With that thought, I undid the cloak draped over my shoulders and wrapped it around my arm.
“Hah, you think you can beat a knight like me with nothing but a scrap of cloth?”
Ignoring Hector’s sneer, I took my stance.
Lowering my body, I pulled the arm holding the cloak back.
It was a technique Randel had used when he offered me his wrist.
“I’ll end you right here!”
With that, Hector’s body shot forward.
‘Trajectory is frontal. Sword path is a thrust. The sword is a bastard sword. Distance is mid-range.’
After finishing my assessment, I threw the cloak wrapped around my arm, covering his vision.
“Hah, with something like this—!”
Hector thrust straight through the black cloak obscuring his sight, then lifted the blade upward into a slash.
The mana-laden blade split my cloak in half like paper.
“With this, you’re—!”
“It’s over. Of course, not for me.”
In the brief moment when his vision was blocked and then cleared.
My body had already slipped into his inner range.
Crack!
I drove my foot up into his jaw.
The shock traveling along his jawbone would rattle his brain in an instant.
“Guh?!”
The moment I sensed the strength leaving the hand holding his sword, I struck his wrist.
The sword that had been in Hector’s hand was now in my grasp.
Shing-!
“Kh……!”
The blade held in a reverse grip was aimed at Hector’s throat.
With just a little force, I could sever his Adam’s apple.
“That’s far enough, Prince Klein.”
However, my sword could go no further.
“Sanchez!”
“…….”
Hector, having narrowly escaped death, called out his name.
A jet-black giant of a man was aiming a massive greatsword—easily two meters long—at my neck.
Shrrrk-!
The knights surrounding Hector and me drew their swords belatedly.
“…….”
I was aiming at Hector’s throat, while the knight called Sanchez aimed at mine—a deadlock.
Even Hellian, watching with furious eyes, couldn’t continue speaking for a moment.
“Both sides, sheathe your swords.”
What broke the hair-trigger tension, as if a clash could erupt at any moment, was a clear, beautiful voice.
When I turned my gaze, a woman with a familiar face was walking toward us.
‘The woman who was smiling on the balcony.’
Golden hair tied up high, blue eyes.
Despite being around my age, she was a swordswoman who radiated anything but ordinary mana.
“M-My lady. But Prince Hector’s safety—!”
“Wasn’t it enough that you ruined a ball attended by honored guests, and now you even dare to point blades at an invited guest?!”
As she spoke, the knights following behind her grasped their sword hilts.
Their attitude was less like facing members of the same family, and more like confronting enemies.
Looking at the knights aiming their swords at us, I could roughly guess the reason.
Those following Hellian and Hector were from the central continent, while the others were from the west.
‘In other words, this conflict has escalated into a factional struggle between the traditional Polwyvern line and the Empire-aligned faction.’
Seeing the situation unravel so smoothly, I almost found myself humming.
The disgust I’d felt while watching the pigs enjoy the ball seemed to ease.
‘As expected, the bigger the mess, the more important figures come crawling out. Then now….’
Suppressing the smile that threatened to leak out, I put on a deliberately serious expression.
My evaluation of one faction was done; now it was time to check the other.
‘Let’s see how you respond to this.’
With that thought, I let out a sigh and lowered the sword that had been aimed at Hector.
‘Now then. What will you do?’
I lowered my sword first, but I had no intention of letting myself be swept along passively.
The Death Knight’s mark engraved on my hand could, by itself, serve as a summoning gate.
It was an action made possible because I was confident that, in the worst-case scenario, I could call out Rudel and escape.
“N-Now! Right now, cut that bastard’s throat—!”
“Brother—!”
Hector’s shout, trying not to miss the opportunity, was cut off midway.
“To try to oppress a guest—one who isn’t even armed—how much more do you intend to disgrace the family?!”
“Ugh…!”
As Hector flinched at those words, the woman stretched out her hand toward the gathered crowd and shouted.
“I, the First Princess of Polwyvern and Commander of the Azure Sacred Spear Knights, Laia Ren Polwyvern, hereby command you. Cease all combat at once!”
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