Chapter 13
Duke and Hana dined alone in a private room,
while her retainers and escort knights waited outside.
Among them, the knights with several years of service nervously shook their legs.
The junior knights initially thought this was simply an expression of loyalty.
But when they realized that only the senior knights were anxious, they sensed that something was wrong as well.
In the end, a junior knight who was close with his seniors represented them and asked why.
“Senior, is there really any reason to be this anxious?”
“Don’t you think it’s stranger that a knight tasked with guarding Lady Sneria wouldn’t be anxious in this situation?”
At the senior knight’s answer, the other senior knights nodded.
But the junior knights tilted their heads, unable to understand.
“It’s my first time meeting Sir Urwick in person, but the minstrels make him sound like a good man.”
He always protected the weak, punished the wicked, and never even seemed to pursue wealth or honor.
Just as the knights here had been moved by Sneria’s character, which was on an entirely different level from that of other lords, and sworn loyalty to her, they assumed that a man named Duke was similar.
The senior knights agreed with that much.
“Yes. Duke is indeed a noble knight. But that doesn’t mean he’s safe.”
“Pardon?”
The senior knight glanced once toward the private room where their liege was presumably located, then looked over the juniors and spoke.
“You think that because your understanding of magic is still lacking. What tier are you?”
“I’ve just reached the second tier.”
The senior knight asked the other knights the same question.
“And you?”
“Second tier.”
“And you?”
“Level 19.”
“First tier, then. You’re all still young, so it’s only natural that you don’t know.”
Of course, the young man who had said he was second tier was ninety years old this year, but that was nothing compared with this senior knight.
Although entering the superhuman realm had slowed his aging, he was still quite young compared with those who had lived through higher realms.
The senior knight spoke to his juniors in an old man’s manner of speech that did not match his youthful face.
“I’m third tier. I’m still a fledgling compared with Lady Sneria, but I know how magic works.”
The first and second tiers were realms in which people did not understand magic’s principles and could only memorize formulas and wield them.
And one had to reach at least the third tier to awaken to principles and mental imagery.
Therefore, the senior knight declared,
“Duke Urwick. His magic is the very indicator of how dangerous a man he is.”
*
It was widely known that Duke Urwick, the knight, primarily used telekinesis alongside swordsmanship.
He did not particularly hide it, and minstrels worked hard to spread the news.
Telekinesis was magic even beginners could use.
Even an ordinary citizen at the zero tier could lift objects if they trained their telekinesis.
Its formula was simple as well, the most basic of basics taught upon beginning one’s study of magic.
Therefore, nobody found it particularly strange when they heard that Duke used telekinesis.
“If he’s building such legends with easy magic anyone can learn, it’s not hard to imagine, even just from hearing the stories.”
And because it was easy to imagine, people could easily empathize with him and admire him.
The senior knight used telekinesis to lift a glass of water and set it in front of the junior.
“But telekinesis isn’t that simple a magic.”
However, once one reached the third tier and understood the principles of telekinesis, it inevitably felt different.
“Have you never found it strange? Aside from Sir Urwick, have you ever seen anyone use telekinesis in actual combat?”
“Uh… The lord of Trindol…”
“That’s gravity magic, not telekinesis.”
“…Now that you mention it, no.”
“Then have you ever wondered why only Sir Urwick uses it while no one else does?”
“Because its output is weak, perhaps?”
The senior knight shook his head in dissatisfaction at the junior’s answer.
“Then Sir Urwick wouldn’t use it.”
“Then why…”
“Have you ever imagined using telekinesis on a person?”
The junior knight shook his head at his senior’s question.
“Since we’re on the subject, try using telekinesis on this finger.”
The senior knight held out his hand.
The junior knight immediately used telekinesis on the senior knight’s finger.
But with the sensation of something being repelled, his telekinesis was dispelled.
“Huh?”
“That’s the normal reaction.”
The senior knight began explaining the principles of telekinesis to the flustered junior.
“Telekinesis remains beginner-level when it’s applied to an object without mana. When it’s used on an object containing mana, it becomes intermediate magic, and when it’s applied to a living thing with a will of its own, it becomes the highest-grade magic.”
Telekinesis was magic that infused mana into one’s imagined movement and imposed it upon reality.
“Let me give you an easier analogy. Which is more difficult: throwing a fireball to start a fire, or igniting a person’s internal organs?”
“Throwing the fire, of course.”
“Why?”
“Because even if you try to set someone’s organs on fire, they’ll resist.”
The body of a superhuman was a microcosm unto itself.
No matter how great the difference in realms, directly invading another person’s microcosm was difficult.
The senior knight emphasized that fact and continued explaining.
“Exactly. Telekinesis is the same. Even if you try to control someone else with telekinesis, the spell will unravel if they resist even a little, as I just did. And it wastes an enormous amount of mana despite that.”
Yet Duke did that sort of thing as casually as breathing.
“The fact that he can manipulate the body of a person with a will of their own using telekinesis means his microcosm has swallowed another person’s microcosm.”
“I understand, Senior. In short, doesn’t that mean Sir Urwick’s realm is simply that high?”
“No, no. You don’t understand at all. It has nothing to do with his realm. Didn’t I say earlier? Telekinesis is the ability to impose one’s imagination upon reality. There is no magic more honest than that.”
A spell for throwing fire only required one to imagine the act of throwing fire; there was no need to imagine what happened after it caught.
But telekinesis required one to visualize everything concretely in one’s mind, from the process to the result.
“Using telekinesis to seize someone by the throat isn’t accomplished by simply wishing to strangle them. You need an image powerful enough to overwhelm that person’s microcosm.”
The senior knight used telekinesis on the junior knight’s finger.
Only after pouring in enough mana to make the senior knight break into a cold sweat did the junior knight’s finger move slightly.
“See? It isn’t a matter of realms. Normally, even moving a finger instead of strangling someone is barely possible.”
He had not even imbued the finger’s movement with killing intent.
Yet the senior knight was emphasizing that it had taken this much effort even though no killing intent was necessary.
The junior knight finally seemed to understand what he meant.
“Then Sir Duke…”
“Sir Urwick is capable of harboring killing intent toward someone he’s meeting for the first time. If anyone were to block his path, he could twist that person’s neck without hesitation.”
“!!!”
“Until I told you, you couldn’t even imagine using telekinesis on a person, could you?”
Naturally, telekinesis could only be used on objects.
This had become common sense because the average mind could not even imagine using telekinesis on a person.
If people could not imagine it, they could not conceive of it, and so they did not even try.
Moreover, one had to reach at least the third tier and awaken to magic’s principles to realize that Duke’s telekinesis was strange,
so ordinary citizens thought of him only as a sublime knight.
“There was that story before, wasn’t there? That Sir Urwick burst the heart of a fiendish black mage with telekinesis.”
“No way…”
“Even a black mage who performed human sacrifices as casually as eating would need a month to cast a spell that burst someone’s heart.”
Heartbreak
A spell that required gathering materials such as one’s grudge against the target and their hair, then spending a month concretizing the image before it could activate.
Duke was bringing that spell into reality through telekinesis.
“Who knows? Perhaps the hearts of every knight here would burst if Sir Urwick merely imagined it.”
Only then did the junior knight understand why his seniors were worried.
As the junior knight stared, pale as a sheet, at the room where his liege had entered, his senior spoke.
“Justice? It’s a wonderful word. But remember this: the great evils recorded in history were justice from a particular point of view.”
In the end, justice was also a form of madness.
At the senior knight’s final words, the escorts’ mood grew heavy.
***
Despite the knights’ worries, Yuhana emerged from the room without a scratch.
““Lady Sneria!””
“?”
The knights looked as though they were welcoming a liege who had returned from a deadly situation, and Hana found it strange.
‘Why?’
She could not understand the concern her subordinates were showing her after she had spent such a pleasant time in that room.
Duke felt the same way.
‘Why are these people wary of me?’
Although the knights seemed to be welcoming Hana at first glance, they had formed a formation that would allow them to step between her and Duke at any moment.
‘Hmm. Is it because they’re civil servants and can’t accept a vigilante?’
Although Duke cried out for justice, strictly speaking, he was an illegal vigilante.
The knights, by contrast, were civil servants of the Sneria Domain.
Seen from that perspective, Duke could understand why they were wary of him.
‘Well, I had a pleasant time with Hana, so that’s enough for me.’
Duke and Hana’s eyes met.
In front of her subordinates, she could not bring herself to show the smile she had worn inside the room,
so she greeted Duke with an impassive expression befitting her nickname, the Shadow Queen.
“I have other business in this domain as well, so I’ll be going now. I enjoyed our conversation, Sir Urwick.”
Duke replied with an awareness of his own image.
“I look forward to meeting you again someday.”
The corners of both their mouths lifted slightly.
Before long, she led her retainers and escort knights toward the noble district in the inner city.
With her coat billowing like a cape as she headed into the inner city, she was unquestionably the Shadow Queen.
Duke watched her back, then headed in the opposite direction, toward the commercial district in the outer city.
With his cloak billowing, he was unquestionably the very image of a charismatic knight.
As Duke walked along, he saw the sunset disappearing behind the buildings and remembered something he had forgotten.
‘Ah, right. Rex.’
He had only been talking with his favorite, yet he had no idea time could pass so quickly.
Marveling at the wonder of the theory of relativity (wrong), Duke hurried toward the slave shop.
For the record, he did not run.
No matter what happened, Duke could not dash about frivolously unless he was in combat.
Thus, Duke arrived at the slave shop after walking there at a steady pace.
‘Hmm?’
It seemed Rex still had not brought A out.
‘Was his social anxiety really this bad?’
Admiring Rex in an entirely different sense, Duke stepped inside the shop.
He thought it would be fine to at least speak to an employee, even if meeting A was Rex’s responsibility.
When he opened the shop door, however, the scene before him was rather bewildering.
“Customer!”
“Agh…”
“…”
He saw a white tiger beastkin woman biting Rex’s arm with her fangs bared.
A cute, blue-eyed girl with snowy white hair streaked with black.
She was the kind of beastkin that anyone on the street would identify as a white tiger at a glance.
Watching the scene, Duke…
‘Oh. It’s that scene.’
As a fan of the original, he was moved.
This scene had appeared in the original story.
Rex had succeeded in purchasing her with the doctor’s fortune.
The problem was that Rex had used the doctor’s identity in the process, causing A to mistake him for one of the doctor’s subordinates who had come to take her back to the laboratory.
Because of that, she had been waiting for an opportunity to attack Rex.
Rex, unaware of that, had taken off her collar inside the slave shop simply because she was A, thinking it would be stifling to leave her restrained, and…
‘And then she bites his arm just like this.’
Wow, look at those fangs. That must hurt. It looks like they’ve pierced all the way to the artery.
Duke watched Rex while entertaining such thoughts.
‘Well, if you want to form a bond with a beautiful heroine, giving up an artery is an acceptable price.’
If an unknown bandit injured him, Duke would blow up the mountain where that bandit lived, but a heroine was another matter.
‘Besides, even if his arm gets cut off, it can just be reattached.’
The future empress can cut off her husband’s arm to form a bond. Is there a problem with that?
‘If it makes Rex’s love come true, that’s a bargain.’
Duke had a very different—and much more lenient—standard for acceptable injuries depending on the person.
Still, regardless of his feelings, Duke had something he needed to do.
A loyal knight could not simply overlook the sight of his liege being injured.
Trusting Rex, Duke drew the brand-new sword he had purchased only moments ago.
‘All right, time for the technique.’
Duke deliberately released killing intent and slowly approached her.
“Gasp!!!!”
“Urgh…”
Exposed to Duke’s killing intent, A bit down even harder on Rex’s arm.
Rex groaned in pain, but she had no attention to spare for him.
Her gaze was fixed entirely on the absolute death approaching her, red eyes blazing.
‘What? Why all of a sudden? Why??’
She did not know Duke.
But the beastkin instinct within her screamed violently.
That it was death, and that she should give up even on fleeing.
Just before Duke, having drawn Durandal, reached out a hand toward her…
“Stop!”
Rex stopped the knight.
At his shout, the knight halted and withdrew his killing intent.
“Lord Rex?”
“Duke. Stay where you are.”
“Lord Rex. That woman…”
“D. It’s an order. I won’t allow you to attack A.”
In this hair-trigger situation, Rex, having even overcome his social anxiety, issued the order with a straight gaze.
Duke lowered his head as though he had seen something in those eyes. (In reality, he saw nothing.)
“I apologize. I overstepped.”
Rex stopped paying attention to Duke and checked on A, who had been biting him.
When Rex mentioned D and A, she seemed to realize that something was wrong as well.
A pulled her fangs out of Rex’s arm, where they had been sunk deep.
Rex roughly staunched the blood flowing from his arm and asked her,
“Are you all right?”
“Th… th…”
“Sorry. I should have said this first. I’m R. So calm down now.”
“R? How… did you escape…?”
“The doctor is gone. D took care of him.”
Rex jerked his chin toward Duke.
D bowed toward her, conveying both an apology and an affirmation.
A looked back and forth between Rex and Duke with startled eyes.
Rex embraced A as if to reassure her and stroked her hair.
“No one is restraining you anymore. And no one will hurt you.”
Rex took out a pair of shoes and put them on her.
“Sniff…”
Rex patted her as she sobbed.
“I told you. I’d come to get you, no matter what.”
“R… R…! Your arm… I’m sorry…!”
“It’s all right. This much is fine, so calm down.”
A sobbed in Rex’s arms.
The joy of reuniting with a friend whose face she had never seen, from the other side of the wall,
the joy of the miracle that this friend had defeated the doctor,
and the joy of no longer being a slave.
The white tiger girl let her tears of countless joys flow freely.
Rex comforted her until she calmed down.
‘Sniff.’
Duke, watching the scene, also quietly sniffled beneath his helmet.
As time passed, she soon leaned into Rex’s embrace, utterly exhausted.
Rex rolled up his bloodstained shirt and supported her as her legs gave out.
Then, in this moving scene, the slave trader barged in and ruined the mood.
“Tsk. Don’t ask me to lower the price. And don’t even think about returning her.”
At the slave trader’s words, which treated A like merchandise, Rex’s eyebrow twitched.
There were many reasons the slave trader’s attitude, which had been polite to Rex until moments ago, had suddenly changed.
First, from their recent conversation, he had inferred that the doctor, a regular customer, was no longer among the living.
He was not bothering to hide his displeasure at losing a VIP customer.
“Tsk. Look what you’ve done to the atmosphere in my shop.”
Another reason was that he disliked them staging a melodrama with a lowly slave inside his shop.
A slave shop was, fundamentally, a place people came to buy human beings.
Entertainment, playthings, human sacrifice, experiments, and so on.
The purposes varied, but most customers entered the shop in a cheerful mood.
But if someone staged a melodrama with a slave at the entrance, it would only stir up needless guilt and diminish their desire to buy-
-or so the slave trader thought.
“Pay up and get out. Don’t carry on like this in someone else’s shop.”
The slave trader’s one consolation was that he had managed to sell that defective stock.
As could be inferred from what she had done to Rex, A had attacked her owners and been returned repeatedly.
That made her defective inventory for this shop.
And since Rex’s attitude suggested he had no intention of returning her, the trader was trying to unload her quickly.
Rex was also disgusted by the slave trader’s attitude.
He was timid, but that did not mean he lacked feelings.
Clink.
Rex tossed gold coins in front of the slave trader and scooped A into his arms.
“Don’t live like that.”
He offered that one remark and headed for the exit.
Duke stood silently in place until Rex had left.
Until that moment, the slave trader had not thought much of the knight named Duke.
“What are you doing? Your master has left.”
Duke’s killing intent had been directed solely at A.
Therefore, the slave trader still had no reason to fear Duke.
Duke’s helmet turned toward the slave trader.
Before long, a deep voice came from beyond the helmet.
“The price of slaves has tripled without my knowledge.”
“Business has been slow lately.”
“That won’t apply to a girl like her.”
Duke knew that well, having been returned eleven times at a guild auction far larger than this slave shop.
Defective stock like A’s sold for far less than this.
But the slave trader thought Duke was bluffing.
“What would you know…”
The slave trader could not continue.
Duke had already moved as though he had heard enough.
His hand, which had been beneath his cloak, emerged into view.
As he began to clench his hand around empty air, the slave trader clutched his chest in response.
“Urgh…”
As Duke clenched his fist tighter, the slave trader’s complexion grew even paler.
Feeling a chill directly in his heart, the slave trader realized that death was approaching.
Thud.
As less blood reached his head, the slave trader collapsed onto the counter, dizzy.
Duke spoke in the language of the Magical Kingdom, deliberately affecting an imperial accent so the slave trader might understand.
“
No pongas el corazón en la balanza, Patrón.
(Do not put your heart on the scales, shopkeeper.)”
Whether he understood the language or grasped the meaning from the atmosphere,
the slave trader nodded with his face deathly pale and held out a pouch of gold coins.
It contained more gold than A’s price.
Duke stroked the slave trader’s heart once and—
“I accept your apology.”
He tossed the gold into his subspace and left the shop.
When Duke came out of the shop, Rex was helping A to her feet and draping a coat over her.
Rex noticed Duke leaving the shop and said,
“Let’s go, D.”
He was being considerate of A, who was still frightened by her unfamiliar surroundings.
Duke understood his intention as well and bowed his head.
“Yes, R.”
The three who had reunited decided to head to a restaurant first.
“I’ve found a good place.”
Thus, the group headed to a restaurant on D’s recommendation,
and ended the day watching A eat steak through her tears.