Chapter 84 - Nobles, Princes, the King, and the Empire (1)

CLANG!

The Silver Foxes flew into a rage and drew their swords.

"How dare you! Do you know who this person is!"

Blue-tinted blades were pointed as if to slice the man's neck. But the man didn't even blink, regardless of whether blood flowed from his skin.

He just stared at me as if he were nailed in place.

"Step back."

At my words, the Silver Foxes tried to shout something with furious faces. But I beat them to it.

"I have no intention of reprimanding you for giving them alcohol, so don't make an unnecessary fuss."

What kind of loyalty would the Silver Foxes, who were mere mercenaries to begin with, have to step up for my sake?

They were only stepping up because they felt guilty for their own wrongdoings.

"We did give them alcohol, but only enough to warm their bodies from the cold."

"It's the truth."

The Silver Foxes offered excuses with sheepish expressions and sheathed their swords.

I waved my hand dismissively. The Silver Foxes, having studied my mood, slipped away as if fleeing.

I looked back at the men. The men glared right back at me, refusing to back down.

But their anger and resentment did not last long.

Their brightly burning resentment quickly cooled, leaving only twenty-one pairs of dull, faded eyes drenched in alcohol.

Tsk.

I clicked my tongue without realizing it.

Vengeful spirits filled with malice would have been better than lethargic, defeated soldiers.

"I wasted my time for nothing."

I stared at them quietly before blurting out a single remark.

The men's eyebrows twitched like a seizure.

Did they still have their pride left when they had zero motivation?

It was truly petty, so very petty.

"I won't seek you out again, so go back."

Despite my words, they did not leave.

"Why aren't you leaving? Are you hoping for travel expenses? I'll give you plenty."

The men's faces contorted as if they had been insulted.

"Ah. If you're hoping for an apology from me, give it up. Because I have no intention of apologizing."

Seeing the men trembling all over, I waved my hand.

"Then why on earth..."

The man standing at the very front opened his mouth. It was the same man who had angrily asked how he could bear to look at my face without drinking alcohol.

"Did you call for us?"

A voice slathered in shame and alcohol.

"What on earth did you want that made you gather us here!"

Anger filled it.

"What exactly did you want to see! Just what were you thinking!"

But once again, the man's anger did not last long.

"Why on earth did you call us..."

He looked lethargic, as if he didn't even have any firewood left to burn his anger.

"Why on earth did you..."

"Is that all you have to say."

There was nothing more to hear.

"If you're done talking, leave."

I waved my hand. But they still remained nailed to the spot, unmoving. So I made a move.

"What on earth did you want that made you call for us!"

A spite-filled shout rang out from behind me.

I stopped walking and turned around.

"On the contrary, let me ask you."

I asked while glaring back at each of those eyes filled with despair, anger, or utter emptiness.

"What kind of glory did you expect to see coming all the way here?"

At my words, one of them opened his mouth. But before those parting lips could spew meaningless resentment, I spoke first.

"Were you expecting an apology? If so, I'll give it to you. That petty apology. I'm sorry. I sold you off to the empire. Because of me, you became trash rotting in a gutter. I'm truly sorry."

When I even bowed my head, the men let their jaws drop with dazed expressions.

"Or were you hoping for financial compensation? Fine. Like I said, I'll give you plenty. I'll make sure you can live the rest of your lives without worrying about money."

I hurled venomous words at them.

"You received an apology, and you're getting financial compensation. Is there anything else you want? If there is, say it right here. I'll grant it all to the best of my abilities."

"We just..."

"Just what?"

"Simply..."

"Simply what!"

I shouted out of frustration.

"If only you had hidden a knife to get your revenge! If only you came with the intent to stab the back of the trash who sold out the kingdom's future!"

If you had, I wouldn't be this disappointed.

"Because of you, we lost even the strength to do that!"

Their eyes changed.

"You are the sinner who sold out the country's future! You are the sinner who ruthlessly broke three hundred and twenty-three knights! You are!"

Murderous intent surfaced in their coldly glinting eyes.

"A piece of trash who must never become king!"

"What right do you have to reprimand us!"

"You're the one who committed the sin! Why should we be treated like sinners!"

Unlike earlier, the fire lit this time was burning properly.

"If it weren't for you, we would have stood at the very front whenever the kingdom rose up!"

Rather than dying down, the flames grew fiercer as time passed.

"Don't spout bullshit!"

I denied even that.

"If it weren't for you! Because of you! Is that seriously the only thing you know how to say!"

Murderous eyes glared at me.

But I pushed them into a corner without caring.

"Can you do nothing just because you lost a trivial Circuit! Are you not knights without mana!"

"We spent our entire lives..."

"Shut up! Listen to me first!"

I grabbed the collar of the spitefully shouting man and yelled.

"Is everyone who isn't a knight just trash! Do those without mana not even have the strength to fight!"

The Rangers of Winter Castle laid down their lives like straw against a massive army several times their size, even without mana. If their legs were cut off, they crawled and fought; if their arms were cut off, they bit daggers in their mouths and fought. Every single Ranger who threw their body off the fortress wall at the last moment was holding an Orc in their embrace.

Just because mana did not seep into the blood and tears they shed didn't mean their value was diminished.

"Three hundred knights! How many times larger is the empire? Ten times? Or more? Yeah. If you keep fighting, you're bound to run out of strength and deplete your mana. So when that time comes, are you just going to retreat, saying you have no strength to fight because you have no mana!"

My grade naturally released itself and crushed the men down.

"That's sophistry!"

Even with trembling legs, the men held out until the end.

"Knights have their uses, and soldiers have theirs! I never said one was more valuable than the other! No, before that!"

The man argued back at me, even with a suppressed voice.

"You have no right to speak those words!"

Even if the whole world pointed fingers at them, you of all people shouldn't, the man shouted with spite.

The damn Scoundrel's original sin.

Just as they said, as long as I lived as Adrian Leonberk, I had no right to scold them for their lethargy.

"You're right. I have no right."

But even so, I kept on blabbering.

"So I'll ask you again. What on earth did you come here for? Did you come just to receive an apology after all this time?"

"We didn't want to come. We didn't want to see your face. But the men you sent didn't listen to us."

The men questioned, weren't you the one who dragged us here by force?

"Fine. I'll give you a chance for revenge."

I clapped my hands.

As if waiting, the door opened. And from beyond it, Rangers and Vincent appeared. They had sensed the commotion from earlier and had been on standby in front of the door.

"Your Highness..."

Vincent asked me with a glance if I was okay.

I nodded to him and spoke to them.

"Give them swords."

"Your Highness!"

"I won't say it twice."

At my command, the Rangers and knights unbuckled the swords from their waists and placed them on the floor.

"Leave. And don't come in until I call for you."

Vincent, who had been alternating his gaze between the men and me for a moment, bowed his head and left the room.

"Pick up the swords."

The men hesitated before picking up a sword from the floor one by one.

"The sinner who severed your Circuits and sold out the kingdom's future is right here. If left alone, this sinner might become the next king. Isn't that truly terrible."

Murderous intent pooled in the men's eyes.

"Is there any reason to hesitate."

The men clutching their swords exchanged glances before surrounding me.

One of them gritted his teeth and charged at me.

Against the crude strike thrown by a body battered and steeped in alcohol, I mercilessly slammed my fist into the man's waist.

"*Gah! *"

Struck hard in the side, the man rolled across the floor.

"I said I'd give you a chance. I never said I'd hand it to you for free."

At my words, the men readjusted their grips on their swords.

"Uwaaah!"

Shouts reminiscent of beastly roars erupted. The men charged at me all at once.

And I beat the living daylights out of all of them.

The men stood back up and charged at me over and over again. Each time, I knocked them back down just as many times.

* * *

"Urk."

A blood-soaked man struggled, using all his might to get back up. I watched him quietly before ruthlessly kicking him in the side.

"*Keugh! *"

The man who was kicked in the side curled up and let out a groan.

"*Tsk. * What a pity."

I mocked them.

"If only we had our Circuits, if only we had our mana!"

A man sprawled out flat on the floor sobbed as if deeply aggrieved.

It seemed he couldn't bear the fact that he was ridiculed and beaten to a pulp by his sworn enemy.

"Is that so?"

I asked while looking at them.

"Would you be able to get revenge if you only had mana."

They did not answer.

"Then I'll wait for you."

They merely glared at me with resentful eyes.

"Until the day you're able to infuse your swords with mana once again."

"You're truly vicious. Just how far are you planning to humiliate us."

Someone said.

I fully understood that grievance. I, too, had heard that once a Circuit was destroyed, one could never form a Circuit again.

"Is the mana in a Circuit the only mana out there."

I drew Twilight. And I infused the sword with mana. I displayed the sword light clinging to the blade in front of them.

"I, too, am not a Knight of the Ring."

Even if it was a low-grade method learned by mercenaries, it wouldn't be difficult to get revenge against me alone.

"Grit your teeth and gather it."

To gather even that kind of mana.

"If you don't want to see the trash who sold out the country become king."

At my words, a resolute light appeared in their eyes for the first time.

It wasn't exactly a favorable light towards me, but regardless, it was much better to look at.

"However! There is a condition."

"If you're going to tell us to fight for you, cut the crap!"

The men spoke in unison before I could even bring it up.

"I don't expect you to."

Why would those harboring deep-seated grudges fight for me. I didn't expect it.

"Fight not for me, but for the kingdom."

"Spouting sophistry till the end..."

"The enemy you trained so hard to stand against and fight."

I told the fiercely shouting man.

"The empire is your opponent."

The men who had been loudly pouring out curses shut their mouths at once.

"Gaining the strength for revenge, fighting the empire. If you can even make me pay for my sins."

Looking at them, I spoke.

"Isn't that truly killing three birds with one stone."

* * *

The men were carried out by the Rangers who came looking after receiving my call again.

Vincent let out a sigh as he looked around the blood-splattered room.

"Did you really have to do it this way? If you took your time to look, there would have been a better method."

Vincent, whose distrust of the kingdom had grown due to the last war, was not shaken in the slightest even after hearing about my past. He simply expressed concern over why I was forcing myself down a difficult path.

"Because of some Scoundrel bastard, they lost their Circuits and became worse off than ordinary people. Vincent, would you forgive that if it were you?"

Vincent sighed and shook his head.

"We've come too far to resolve things amicably now."

A few words, the petty reputation built up in the North—no matter what I brought up, it wouldn't be able to dispel their resentment.

Besides, it wasn't even a sin I committed. But as long as I occupy this body and live, it is karma I must bear.

A contradiction where no compromise could be found; I agonized over it, and so I made a decision.

I would bear the karma, but I would not bow my head in apology for mistakes I did not commit.

To begin with, an apology for sins I didn't even commit was nothing more than deception woven with lies and hypocrisy.

I would return everything to its rightful place.

If I had to shoulder someone's resentment and hatred in the process, I would gladly do so. The grudges and sorrow held by the knights of the Royal House were merely one of them.

There was no need for them to fight for me.

If they were the ones who dedicated unchanging loyalty to the Royal House up until the moment their Circuits were severed, they would find where they needed to stand on their own.

Even if that driving force was resentment and hatred towards me. Even if, after everything was over, the swords nurtured by those deep-seated emotions were pointed at me.

Until then, the place where those swords would land would be on our mutual enemy, the empire.

"Still, wouldn't it be too dangerous? If they truly grit their teeth, build up mana, and charge at Your Highness... Aren't you worried that prodigies carefully selected by the Royal House are sharpening their swords?"

It was exactly as Vincent said.

Through the authority of Judgment, I learned why the royal family had placed their expectations on their talents. Since all of them had an aptitude of B-grade or higher, the number of Circuits they had lost back then couldn't have been fewer than three.

Such people were accumulating mana in their hearts. Using solely their grudge against me as their driving force.

"Three hundred knights is certainly an immense military force."

The image of three hundred knights charging at me while pouring out streams of Sword Aura was clearly drawn in my mind. Their eyes filled with the sorrow of vengeful spirits.

But why was it? The fact that I was anticipating it rather than fearing it.

Seeing my expression, Vincent shook his head from side to side.

"Looking closely, Your Highness isn't normal either."

I merely chuckled and laughed.

* * *

The Silver Foxes who had left the North were returning one by one. And each time, another blade destined for my back was added.

Three hundred and six in total.

Excluding the seventeen whose whereabouts were unknown, all of the Royal House's secret knights gathered at Winter Castle.

There was not a single one among them who did not hold a grudge against me.

It didn't matter.

The path I had to walk anyway was not that of a wise and benevolent sage king, but the path of a tyrant.

Countless amounts of blood would flow until the rotting kingdom was reborn,

And just as much resentment and hatred would pile onto my shoulders.

What did it matter if another three hundred and six swords were added to the mix?

Without hesitation, I imparted to them a high-grade Mana Heart.

The very Mana Heart that the Royal Knights who closely escorted the Leonberk bloodline possessed 400 years ago.

It was truly funny how the swords that were used to protect the Leonberk bloodline in the past had now become the swords aiming for the Leonberk bloodline.

However, their enthusiasm and talent were not funny in the least.

Not long after they were taught the principles and breathing techniques, they all successfully formed Mana Hearts inside their bodies.

"Carried by their damn talent."

Even I couldn't help but feel a pointless twinge of bitterness.

And while we were steadily building our strength in the North like that, a message came from Marquis Montpellier.

『All preparations are complete.』

My heart began to pound.

『Come and claim what Your Highness rightfully deserves.』

The Capital, the place I had left as if chased out—it was time to return there once again.