Chapter 127 - I Will Go Cause a Mess and Come Back (3)

Adrian Leonberk stepped forward.

The Imperial Knights blocked his path, stating that there was no need for royalty to unnecessarily interfere in the affairs of knights.

It was a demand for him to stay quiet and watch his knights die.

The Prince did not answer.

He simply kept walking.

Right then, the Paladin spoke.

"He is still a prince of a nation. He is a noble figure, so escort him without harming his body."

The Imperial Knights made their move. Without even drawing their swords, they reached out to detain the Prince.

SLASH.

A flash of light sparked. The hands of the knights, which had been reaching for the Prince, fell to the ground with a thud.

"Huh? H-Huh? Aaaaaaargh!"

The knights grabbed their severed wrists and let out long screams.

But the screams did not last long.

Because no human could scream after their head was cut off.

SPURT.

A moment late, a shower of blood erupted.

Showered in the blood, the Prince smiled brightly.

SWISH.

Waving his bloodstained sword.

It was a blatant provocation, and a mockery.

"Wow."

Watching from the sky, Dolosis Dortmund let out a gasp of admiration.

"He just goes right ahead and lops their heads off."

He thought they would exchange a few words before crossing swords. To think he would just swing his blade right off the bat.

He felt like he could fall in love with that fiery attitude.

On top of that, to have such an arrogant expression even when facing hundreds of knights.

And what about that fighting spirit?

It was certainly an impressive scene, but he couldn't overturn the tide of battle with fighting spirit alone.

The number of enemies the Prince had cut down was a mere three; there were still nearly 300 Imperial Knights surrounding the Prince and the delegation.

Among them, there were even two Paladins, who were considered the knights of knights.

A gap in military strength that was incredibly difficult to overcome under normal circumstances.

"Now, show me."

Just what are you hiding?

What kind of confidence made you choose annihilation over escape?

His heart pounded wildly.

Without realizing it, he repeatedly bounced up and down in his saddle.

"You look really unsightly right now, you know? Please, stay still."

Despite the scolding from his dear Jean Catherine, he didn't care.

His attention was entirely focused on Adrian Leonberk. He didn't even hear the nagging, which wasn't anything new anyway.

He watched the Prince with a face full of anticipation.

* * *

The Imperial Knights began to move. Instead of reacting to the Prince's provocation, they chose to tighten their encirclement and pressure the delegation. It was at that moment that the Leonberk knights charged out all at once.

The kingdom's female knight, gripping a brilliantly glowing sword, was at the vanguard.

SLASH.

A corner of the encirclement collapsed in an instant.

However, there were not many casualties.

The Imperial Knights had been wary of the kingdom's female knight from the beginning, and as soon as she revealed herself, they scattered and escaped the range of her slashes.

And so the battle began.

The kingdom's female knight went on a rampage with full intent. The advantage of the encirclement formed by the Empire vanished in a flash. They merely relied on their numerical superiority to face the kingdom's knights.

It wasn't a bad response.

If their opponents had been an ordinary knightly order, or if the Empire's Paladins had effectively tied down the kingdom's female knight.

That alone would have been enough to secure victory in the battle.

But the kingdom's knighthood was no ordinary knighthood.

They didn't form defensive squares or engage in struggles of strength like other knightly orders, nor did they fight solely with sword and shield like ordinary knights.

Fists, knees, heads. They threw whatever they could swing at random, and sometimes they even scooped and flung dirt with the tips of their swords.

The kingdom's knights seemed more like mercenaries than actual knights.

They were fiercely accustomed to chaotic brawls.

While facing a knight right in front of them, they would suddenly thrust their sword at a different knight, or switch targets before a victor was even decided.

Because of this, it was the Imperial Knights who lost their minds in the confusion.

Even while dealing with the enemy in front of them, they constantly had to remain wary of swords flying from their blind spots.

It was a situation no one had anticipated.

Because a battle between knightly orders wasn't supposed to be like this.

Failing to anticipate that was the first fatal mistake of the Empire's knights.

And their second fatal mistake was that the Paladins they trusted completely failed to tie down the kingdom's female knight.

The kingdom's female knight mercilessly tore through the ranks of the Imperial Knights.

To the Imperial Knights, who were already reeling from the utterly unpredictable Leonberk knights, the kingdom's female knight was a walking disaster.

"Where are the Paladins?!"

One of the Imperial Knights searched for a Paladin.

"The Paladin is right here."

Something rolled up to the knight's feet.

ROLL. THUD.

A severed head, still inside its helmet.

It was the head of the Paladin, dead with his eyes still wide open in shock, unable to even close them.

* * *

"Just once."

Dolosis Dortmund emphasized this repeatedly.

That the Paladin's head falling by Adrian's hands was truly the result of just a single strike.

The kingdom's figures were speechless.

Some were so shocked that they stammered as if they had lost their minds.

It was a rather comical sight, but Dolosis did not laugh.

Because he was exactly like them.

When he saw the Paladin turn into a headless corpse in just a single exchange, even he couldn't help but be horrified.

No matter how much the Paladin had been looking down on his opponent, he too never expected the fight to end so quickly.

It was the same for all the Azure Sky Knights, who looked down upon the Empire's Paladins.

No one opened their mouths.

After a long while, Jean Catherine remarked on the Prince's surprise attack, stating that it was closer to a fluke where he poured all his strength into a single blow to overcome conflicting mana, and that it would never work a second time.

It was a reasonable assumption.

The Imperial Knights who had initially stepped forward to detain the Prince had fallen for the exact same tactic, and they believed that was simply the Prince's method.

It did not take them very long to realize that this was a mistaken assumption.

* * *

"I intended to spare your life in consideration of your status! Now, you should not expect any mercy from me!"

Belatedly stepping forward to handle the situation, the Empire's Paladin fully unleashed his Aura Blade from the very start.

The unpleasant wave unique to the mana of the Ring was strong enough to reach the Wyvern Riders high up in the sky.

"It'll be difficult for him this time. The Royal House of Leonberk has already forgotten its legacy."

At his dear Jean Catherine's words, Dolosis nodded his head.

The knightly family that was highly renowned as the clan of the Dragon Slayer no longer existed in this world. All that remained was a ruined royal house that had forgotten its legacy.

He had no idea what that young prince was thinking by accumulating mana in his heart, but even so, he had merely learned an empty shell with all the essence completely missing.

Mana of the heart that had lost its essence was powerless in front of the Ring.

The Prince would likely be defeated soon as well. Just like how the Sword Masters of the past were miserably defeated by the Knights of the Ring.

That was certainly what he thought.

Right up until the Prince slightly parted his lips.

WHOOSH.

A gust of wind whipped up out of nowhere.

The plains were still lush and green.

It was still the sweltering heat of a summer that hadn't yet passed.

Yet out of nowhere, a biting winter gale blew.

And at the center of it was the prince of the Leonberk family.

Dolosis let out a groan. Goosebumps erupted all over his body.

He knew exactly what this sudden, bizarre phenomenon was.

The reproduction of a feat,

The manifestation of a legacy.

It was the manifestation of a Poem of Martial Deeds.

Without realizing it, Dolosis cried out.

"Were they deceiving the world all along?!"

The Royal House of Leonberk, which was known to have abandoned its legacy and embraced the Ring.

"They hadn't forgotten it!"

And yet the eldest son who inherited that bloodline openly wielded the power of the Poem of Martial Deeds.

To think there was an inherited legacy other than that of the Azure Sky, he was immensely excited.

But his excitement soon subsided, as he knew all too well the fact that a legacy alone could not overturn a disadvantage in compatibility.

Legacies had become stale old tales, and faith had grown fleeting.

Because people did not believe, even the power of astonishing feats had faded.

The verses had been passed down, but the power contained within them would not be whole.

If there were at least a relic to prove the feat, they could borrow the karma and desires held within a single verse of the story.

But the Prince possessed nothing that could be presumed to be a relic.

Whether the Royal House of Leonberk had completely lost its relics or whether they simply hadn't been passed down to the eldest son, he could not tell.

If there was anything he did know, it was only the fact that the achievements of a great knight, the history of an entire family, would crumble away fleetingly right here today.

Yet another legacy was about to disappear at the hands of a sword that hadn't even reached the Extraordinary Grade.

"Get ready."

The Azure Sky Knights lowered their helmet visors in preparation for an assault dive.

"We dive on three."

They intended to rush in right after the initial clash.

"One."

He saw the Prince gathering the raging winter gale onto the blade of his sword.

"Two."

The Paladin charged toward that very Prince.

CRASH!

A deafening roar erupted from the full-power sword strikes of both sides.

"Three!"

The Wyverns lowered their stances and plummeted downwards.

Dolosis joined them as well.

He lowered his posture as if lying flat, tucked his seven-meter-long deformed lance under his arm, and gathered mana at its tip.

He fully intended to skewer the Paladin just like this.

He glared into the dust cloud, searching for his target.

And he was able to find him soon enough.

Huh?

His eyes flew wide open.

The Imperial Knight who had unleashed his Aura Blade with all his might had been reduced to a battered pulp in a split second.

His entire body was covered in slashes and stab wounds.

And standing before him was the Prince of Leonberk, whom he had assumed would already be sent flying.

"You have the same four Rings, yet your caliber is far below the one I knew."

At those harsh words dripping with contempt, the Paladin trembled uncontrollably.

But seeing him falter and fail to charge back in, the match was practically already decided.

Dolosis furrowed his brow sharply.

His plan had been to take care of the Paladin on behalf of the young prince, who would have been blown away by the overwhelming power.

It had definitely been that way.

STAB.

"Gaaagh!"

Somehow, it ended up looking like he had effortlessly snagged the finishing blow on the Paladin that the young prince had already half-killed.

"Son of a bitch!"

As he flew off into the distance with the Paladin skewered on his lance, he heard the young prince cursing at him from behind.

'That was mine, that was my opponent, that was my feat, where does this damn bastard get off stealing it?'

It was a string of curses he had never heard before in his life.

But he was not displeased in the slightest.

On a smaller scale, it was because he had interfered in someone else's duel, and on a larger scale, it was because he was utterly horrified by the completeness of the legacy the Prince had inherited.

To flawlessly invoke a verse of a poem without a relic.

And not just some trivial, worthless poem either, but at the very least a Heroic Poem.

That meant the young prince had already reached the Heroic Grade.

In a world where no matter what one did, they could not surpass the Extraordinary Grade.

It was an impossibility.

But it was also undeniable reality.

Dolosis Dortmund circled back and landed in front of the Prince.

"Gaaah!"

"What kind of monster... Aargh!"

Behind him, the Imperial Knights who were trampled by Wyverns and skewered by lances were screaming,

"Hah. You know what you just did to me, right?"

While in front of him, the Prince—who hadn't yet managed to rein in the momentum he had raised against the Paladin—was grinding his teeth.

Dolosis's Wyvern let out a low cry.

GROWL.

It was a sound more akin to a suppressed groan than a threat.

To think he would see a Wyvern—which wouldn't bat an eye even in front of an ogre or a Troll—whimpering in fear before a mere human.

It was absurd.

An era where only tarnished legacies existed, and a world where even those were rare.

A truly unbelievable bastard had appeared.

"Who in the world are you really?"

Even to his question, the Prince did not answer.

He merely demanded compensation for his stolen victory.

* * *

"And that is how I ended up coming here as a messenger."

Looking at the dumbfounded faces of the kingdom's figures, Dolosis smiled brightly.

The kingdom's figures were speechless for a long while.

It seemed they were simply astounded by the Prince's military achievements spilling from his mouth.

Then, after a long moment, the one-eyed knight spoke up.

"So, where is His Highness the Prince, and what is he doing right now?"

"I was just about to tell you exactly that."

Saying that, Dolosis looked around the room.

"Right now, Adrian is..."

He paused for a moment to wet his lips before speaking again.

"He's raiding their empty bases."

Along with the Azure Sky Knights, the Prince was currently going around the home territories of the knighthoods that had pursued the delegation, raising absolute hell.