Chapter 106
House Astarix’s economic power was stronger than House Enersis’s.
This was an objective fact, founded on the solid backing of the Third Prince.
“I offer my deepest thanks to all the distinguished guests who have graced this banquet with their presence.”
Until today.
Even while giving the speech announcing the start of the banquet, the Duke of Astarix, now fully alert, couldn’t tear his eyes away from one side of the banquet hall.
- Sway, sway.
Five dragon tails.
Five pairs of dragon horns.
Thus, five dragons.
Even if Princess Flare was excluded as one of them, that still left four dragons.
“I hope you enjoy the banquet to your heart’s content!”
- Ba-dum-bum~!!
It would have been fine if they had come to congratulate the Third Prince and House Astarix….
- Crackle…!
“Ghk…?!”
“What is that killing intent…!!”
Was it really all right for them to scatter killing intent so dense that the surrounding guests fled?
They had come to cause trouble.
“What do you mean, bringing swords and staffs to a banquet…!”
“Shh, shh! Isn’t that person a dragon’s disciple? Keep your mouth shut…!!”
On top of that, there were two swordsmen and four mages brought by a dragon named Carena.
“Ahem. May I ask your name?”
“Call me Alpha.”
“Then, Sir Alpha. Since this is a banquet, wouldn’t it be better to remove the sword at your waist before eating—”
“It’s fine. And you don’t need to call me ‘Sir.’ I’m of common birth.”
Although they claimed to be bodyguards rather than nobles, none of them would surrender their swords or staffs.
The problem was, judging by their bearing and the signs of training on them….
“They look like Masters….”
“They’re at least above the eighth rank. Whew, this is a grim situation.”
It was simply a show of force.
A show of force clearly intended to ruin House Astarix’s banquet!
From the duke’s and the Third Prince’s perspective, it was so infuriating they wanted to explode with rage, but….
“His Highness Prince Alonso.”
What could they do if they exploded?
The Tower Master of Lidashid alone had erased a rebellious ducal house with several Masters and Archmages at its disposal in a single day.
Even if House Astarix had many skilled people hired with money,
wouldn’t it disappear within half a day if only two of those dragons were involved?
“Young Lord Akion. Are you enjoying the banquet sufficiently?”
Akion, too, had once experienced the terror of overwhelming force through the Tower Master.
Wasn’t she the one who had pressured him to become her disciple on the spot?
Of course, she had approached him again in a humble posture first, so Akion had willingly accepted her.
“I suppose.”
Akion surveyed the banquet hall indifferently, his arm linked with the silent Flare’s.
“I heard House Astarix was wealthy, but it seems all you have is extravagance, without any substance.”
“Ha, haha.”
And he openly took a jab at him.
I don’t like this.
Ordinarily, they would have had him beheaded for insulting royalty,
but Akion was the one who had brought four pillars of the Empire—the foundation of all that power.
“His Highness Prince Alonso. I was raised as a disowned child of my family, so I have no noble etiquette in my head. I hope you will understand with a generous heart… and let us get to the point.”
For this moment, at least, Akion’s position was no different from that of a prince.
The Third Prince could only roll his eyes helplessly in front of Akion.
“Your Highness.”
- Trickle.
Akion tilted the glass of wine he had been drinking and deliberately poured it in front of the prince.
It was an incredibly rude act, but it expressed just how angry Akion himself was.
Akion’s cold eyes stared straight into the prince’s.
“I made it for Flare, so why did you take it?”
- Tap, tap.
After tapping out the last of the wine, Akion set the glass back down.
If word of this incident spread through high society, Enersis would take tremendous abuse.
“Young Lord Akion. You should show some manners—”
“Because of you, four dragons nearly drew their weapons. You idiot.”
But did he care?
Akion had even made the great decision to give the four dragons buggies for free so he could crush the prince.
“The dragons? What?”
“Flare and I stopped them, so they’re ending it with this much pressure. You should be grateful.”
It was a little old-fashioned for the Third Prince’s generation, but….
“Your Highness, you absolutely must lower your head. Making enemies of dragons is no different from committing suicide!”
For a generation that had witnessed a rebellious ducal house erased from the map in a single day, alongside the Duke of Astarix… dragons were the embodiment of fear.
“Maternal Grandfather. But he was being so rude—!”
“Alonso! Sometimes you must bow your head if you want to live!!”
The Third Prince’s maternal grandfather was a man who had never once spoken in vain.
Once that man came to his senses again, he gripped the prince tightly and spoke with a deathly pale face… Could Alonso say no?
“Young Lord.”
Of course, even if the word ‘dragon’ had frightened him so badly that his breath caught in his throat,
if the Third Prince thought about it rationally again (in truth, emotionally), he couldn’t help becoming furious.
He was the Third Prince,
a man who had inherited the great dragon blood!!
He was so angry that he ground his teeth and clenched his fists until they bled, so….
“For the crime of insulting the imperial family, I’ll ki—”
Couldn’t he indulge his pride just once?
- Clamp!
Even so, the prince’s reason clamped his mouth shut.
Who knew what would happen if he said that!
Akion stared at the prince, then glanced around the banquet hall….
“One Elrocard.”
“I-I don’t know what you mean, Young Lord.”
“Did you think those people wouldn’t hear this? Watch what you say.”
Once again, he impressed upon the prince what the current hierarchy was.
“Of course, there are many ways to torment Your Highness and House Astarix besides this decidedly uncool method…. I looked into it, and the merchant guilds under Your Highness have placed bulk reservations for my workshop’s magitech devices to sell to their customers. Shall I cancel them all?”
“Ha, haha.”
“You needn’t worry about the cancellation fees. To Enersis and me, they’re pocket change. Or perhaps my biological father recently said he needed some merchant guilds…. It may cost a bit, but I could sign contracts with the merchant guilds under Your Highness and the duke for a premium.”
Only then could the prince foresee his future.
“Your Highness. Take note. Everything I mentioned is already being put into practice.”
“Y-Young Lord. Wait, send my younger sister away and let the two of us talk—”
“Your Highness. When I say ‘take note,’ I mean you should simply endure it. Be patient.”
That he and House Astarix had entered the path of ruin.
“Don’t ever raise your head again.”
“Ah. Ah….”
Above all, with even Enersis, one of the Empire’s true powers, and Akion turning their backs on him….
He realized that his succession to the throne was also as good as over.
* *
- Whiiiiing!!
- Clatter!
“Will you be all right?”
Akion and his party had caused a commotion on the first day of the banquet and left immediately.
On their way back, racing joyfully across the plains in their buggy,
Princess Flare, who was driving, asked him.
“This will definitely cause trouble for you and your family too….”
She said it while watching Akion’s reaction from the passenger seat.
The Duke of Astarix would do everything he could to bury what had happened today,
but matters this serious could never remain secret.
“I’m fine.”
By tomorrow, a rumor like this would be circulating through high society in the Empire.
‘Akion Enersis killed the Third Prince!’
The merchant faction that had supported the Third Prince unconditionally would be tempted by Enersis’s offer and switch sides,
and House Astarix would gradually be dismantled… The duke would be too busy cleaning up his own mess.
Wouldn’t this clearly create a lot of enemies?
“Enersis doesn’t care about that sh─ ahem, doesn’t care even a speck.”
Had they been few before?
Enersis was already living at odds with a massive organization called the Western Union.
And yet, thanks to Count Delford’s abilities and Akion’s magi-engineering, hadn’t they grown larger than the Western Union in just a few years?
They had nothing to fear, and they had no intention of becoming afraid in the future, either.
“If he was offended, he should have gotten on His Majesty’s side.”
On top of that, they had the full support of House Volkov, which had previously been indifferent to politics.
His renewed engagement to the future count of House Montblanche, which controlled part of high society.
Above all, the current Emperor had even proclaimed imperial territory tailored to Akion.
Despite all that, Akion had remained quiet because it was bothersome.
Getting entangled in politics was tiring.
But the Third Prince had made him take an interest… so he needed to pay the price.
“I see….”
Of course, Flare knew nothing of Akion’s inner circumstances.
She had simply kept her arm linked with his from the moment they entered the banquet hall until the very end….
“Young Lord.”
“Yes?”
“You were rather cool.”
She was simply grateful to Akion for getting angry on her behalf.
“I am pretty cool.”
“It would have been really nice if you hadn’t added that last part.”
“What can I do? That shameless older brother and I share the same blood.”
“Heehee.”
Dismissing the excitement that followed as nothing more than the suspension-bridge effect,
she focused on driving again and gripped the steering wheel tightly.
And then,
“Huh?”
She spotted a black figure standing ahead of the speeding buggy.
In one hand, it held a sword dripping black liquid,
- Whoom….
The instant Flare noticed it, the figure raised its sword high.
The ominous aura wrapped around it continued to swell in size.
“Young Lord—.”
Flare tried to reach toward Akion, but….
“Your Highness, danger—!”
Akion, who noticed it before she did, shielded her before she could reach him.
- KWAANG!!!
The buggy carrying the two of them was completely smashed apart by the black aura.
*
It thought.
It had completed the mission its master had ordered: the deaths of the princess and Akion.
- Twitch! Twitch!
Newly formed by black magic, it nodded in satisfaction,
- Slide.
and tried to slash its own throat so it could die and be resurrected before the dragons who had noticed it came to capture it.
This body was only a spare.
It had as many reserve bodies prepared with black magic as it wanted.
As it always did, with practiced familiarity… it brought its sword deep toward its neck─.
- Shrrrreeek!!
- Crack!!
“?!”
It couldn’t stab itself.
Because divine binding magic had burst out of the completely crushed buggy.
It hurriedly activated a spell to kill itself, but,
- Cough!
“?!!”
it was forcibly canceled while it vomited blood.
The divine magic restraining it had forcibly canceled the spell.
“Wow….”
Amid the wreckage of the buggy from which the divine spell had burst,
Akion held Flare tightly inside a translucent sphere… and looked down at the rosary hanging around his neck.
“The performance is solid.”
It was the very rosary the Saint had given him as a gift along with a letter of thanks!
He had unconsciously hugged Flare tightly and thought, ‘I’m dead,’
but the rosary he had completely forgotten about had saved him.
“!!… !!!….”
And the assassin’s eyes widened.
‘Why do you have that!!’
Why did an outsider like Akion possess the guardian rosary said to be given only to the Pope?
It wanted to shout that, but its mouth had been sewn shut during its modification… so it couldn’t speak.
- Crack!
“!!!”
It would never have its question answered.
The Tower Master had immediately stopped the assassin with dragon words infused with mana.
It struggled desperately to die somehow, but….
“Suffer.”
- Crrrunch!!
“!!!!!!!!”
Despite this body having clearly had its sense of pain removed,
it struggled even harder from the pain transmitted all the way to its true body through the black magic connecting them.
So this was a dragon?
After experiencing firsthand the dragon words of a dragon that had appeared only in history books, the assassin began to regret things little by little.
“…!!”
In the end, it was about to use its final method, forced shutdown.
Its true soul would be damaged, but that was better than being tormented by a dragon in reverse.
“Found you.”
“?”
“You’re near House Astarix’s ducal residence. Did they order you to do this?”
“?!!!”
But it had even been traced back.
Black magic was something few mages knew about, so how?!
“We can find out the details face-to-face… Now, try running away.”
- Crunch!
That curiosity was cut off along with the pain of its soul being ripped out.
“Akion.”
“Yes.”
The Tower Master had torn its head off just like that.
Akion, who had been trembling as he watched from beside her,
“I’ll go punish them. Return with the elders.”
- Boom!!!
the Tower Master flew high into the sky before he could even say goodbye to her for punishing them in his place.
Akion could only stare blankly after her.
“The Tower Master is really angry.”
“H-How angry?”
“At least as angry as I’ve ever seen her since I first met the Tower Master… no, Teacher Sid.”
He said this after realizing that she was truly furious.
*
The next day.
- Stomp, stomp!
The Third Prince paced around his room in the ducal residence, biting his nails.
The banquet had been ruined,
his pride as a prince and his right of succession to the throne had been crushed,
his supporters had abandoned him,
and his maternal grandfather had scolded him horribly!!
No matter how rational he was, this was a situation in which he couldn’t possibly remain rational.
- Stomp, stomp!
So impulsively, in a fit of anger, and in secret,
he sent the greatest assassin he knew through a hidden route available to him.
Even if Flare survived, Akion’s death would benefit him.
“There’s no way that bastard failed…!”
They said no mage in the Empire had ever failed to trace the assassin, but the assassination itself could still fail.
Even so, he wasn’t worried about being exposed.
They said the assassin’s reputation was the best in the industry, so even if he was killed by dragons, he wouldn’t be discovered.
And so the Third Prince continued waiting….
- Knock, knock, knock!
“Finally!”
He flung the door open, thinking the contact he had been waiting for had arrived.
“Child.”
“Aaaaaaaagh?!”
But it was the Tower Master.
And she was covered in blood.
The Third Prince fell backward in shock and spotted the trembling servant behind the Tower Master.
Had he betrayed the prince?!
“You, you! How dare you…!”
“Child. That servant said nothing.”
- Plop, roll…….
“These are the ones who talked.”
“Eek?!”
The ones who had betrayed him were the broker merchant who had taken his commission and the assassin’s true body.
And their two heads were thrown down in front of the prince.
The two heads had apparently died screaming in pain, their eyes rolled back and their mouths hanging wide open.
“Child. I have lived for two thousand years… Did you think I wouldn’t be able to uncover a scheme this crude?”
“I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry!! Please forgive me!!”
The Third Prince immediately slammed his head to the floor and begged.
If he said the wrong thing here, his head would be placed beside those others.
“Child. Stand up.”
“Yes…?”
But the Tower Master lifted him with a benevolent smile.
And then,
“I won’t kill you. You’re my grandnephew.”
- Whoosh!
- Crack!!
“Ghk?!”
She struck his solar plexus, lower abdomen, and groin with mana-infused fists.
Could a human endure pain that felt as if something had burst in three places at once?
The prince tried to faint.
- Grab!
“Aaaaaaaaaagh!!!”
But before he could lose consciousness, the Tower Master injected mana into him and forced him awake again.
“Instead, from now on, you will be unable to become a knight, a mage, or even fulfill a man’s role.”
Before the prince writhing in pain and the prince’s servant, who could only watch,
the Tower Master calmly stated the facts.
“Don’t worry. I won’t let you die.”
In truth, living in a body like that, with its mana circuits completely destroyed, was painful in itself.
He might die of shock from the pain, or grow progressively weaker and die within five years.
“The pain Akion would have suffered… you will merely share it over the next fifty-odd years.”
“Aaaaaaaaagh─!!!”
The Lidashid Tower would provide alchemical potions for the poor Third Prince.
Enough for him to live as a half-invalid until he died of old age.
“You there, servant.”
“Y-Yes!”
“In my name, escort the prince to the capital. Give him this medicine, and he won’t die.”
“Yes…!”
After entrusting the medicine and everything else to the Third Prince’s servant,
the Tower Master, still covered in blood, headed for the Duke of Astarix’s office.
“Heh heh….”
Even so, the Tower Master couldn’t hold back her smile.
“What should I ask Akion for…?”
Most of what had happened would have to remain secret,
but at the very least, she could brag to Akion, saying, ‘I worked hard!’
And perhaps she could use that as an excuse to ask him for something.
“Humh hum, hum hum hum.”
“Eek, hic!”
“P-Please spare me…!”
Wondering whether she should go on a date in a buggy,
the Tower Master hurried along with a hum.
The Tower Master hummed as she hurried along. The Tower Master hurried along with a hum.
She hurried along, humming to herself.