Chapter 109. The Mad Delinquent (1)
Like Herald, who had visited the County, the individual status of a Royal Knight was not particularly high.
However, Royal Knights assigned to escort members of the royal family were different.
The moment they received a royal protection assignment, they temporarily borrowed the authority of the royal they served.
Therefore, attacking such a Royal Knight was an extremely serious offense bordering on treason.
Nevertheless, there were several reasons why I had acted without hesitation.
First, Walter’s provocation had been so impressive that even the imperial soldiers could have learned something from it.
Second, I wanted to uphold my promise to Iliana.
I had promised to endure all the political pressure Marquis Segretus directed at her.
And the third and final reason—
‘They can’t hold me accountable anyway.’
I knew the royal family could never punish me.
After all, I was not Queen Marceline’s objective.
Her objective was Seraphia.
More precisely, it was Seraphia’s debut during the royal social season.
However, not just anyone could make their debut during the royal social season.
Those of low status could not even participate. Even those of high status were forbidden from entering if their conduct was considered problematic.
The royal social season was a place that had expelled even the daughter of a Duke simply because her clothing appeared shabby.
What would happen if they punished me here?
I would be charged with “treason”.
Since I was the eldest legitimate son, House White Wolf would consequently become the family of a traitor.
As a member of House White Wolf, Seraphia would also become the daughter of a traitorous family.
The daughter of a traitorous family making her debut during the royal social season?
‘That would be impossible.’
In other words, every scheme Queen Marceline had meticulously prepared and planned would come to nothing.
The king was currently bedridden with illness, and Queen Marceline was serving as regent.
There was no possibility that she would hold me accountable.
But what if, contrary to my expectations, Queen Marceline attempted to punish me?
That did not matter either.
After all, I had no intention of touching Walter himself.
I possessed the justification that Walter had insulted me. Even a royal could not arbitrarily insult a noble.
That was especially true when the target was a high-ranking noble of Countly rank or above.
In other words, even if I underwent a formal trial, I could avoid being convicted of treason.
Nor would it interfere with my inheritance of the title of Count.
Admittedly, I would have to endure several troublesome complications associated with a formal trial, but—
‘That much is nothing.’
In exchange, Queen Marceline would be forced to abandon all her schemes.
That was not all.
The plan devised by the Monarch of Darkness and even the Emperor’s greater scheme would be completely overturned.
Therefore—
◆Activating the Super-Combination Skill, Accelerated Heartbeat [E]!
‘You provoked the wrong person.’
I intended to show them precisely why the imperial soldiers had called me the [Mad Predator].
◆Activating the Transcendent Skill, Berserk [?].
◆[Sanity]—106
◆Berserk [7] will be applied at [B-] Rank.
◆The rank of Promote Metabolism [C+] has been increased to [B-].
◆The Combination Skill ‘Metabolic Overdrive [U]’ transcends its limit!!
* * *
Attacking a Royal Knight protecting a member of the royal family inside the Palace could reasonably be interpreted as assaulting the royal himself.
However, Walter did not feel anger. Instead of anger, he felt bewilderment.
This was not….how the original plan was supposed to unfold.
Adrian, the delinquent of a count’s house.
It was a name known to every noble in the Kingdom of Vatenberg.
The original plan had been to provoke Adrian until that delinquent lost his temper and attacked Walter.
Touching a member of the royal family was a crime bordering on treason. It was a grave offense regardless of the reason.
By exposing his delinquent nature before everyone, they would turn Adrian into the laughingstock of the entire kingdom.
They intended to destroy Adrian’s authority, engrave his incompetence into the public consciousness, and severely obstruct his inheritance of the title of Count.
If Walter accomplished that, Marquis Segretus had promised to reward him generously.
Walter would receive greater influence within the Palace and several lucrative concessions in the future.
Walter was the Third Prince and stood last in the line of succession.
However, if he could secure the backing of Marquis Segretus, the kingdom’s Chancellor, he could gain an advantage over his competitors.
The plan had been perfect. It had also been simple.
Adrian was a delinquent, so manipulating him should have been easy. Adrian had indeed behaved like a delinquent, just as planned.
But what happened afterward….
.....
Boooooom!!!
Had gone completely beyond Walter’s expectations.
Ellen had been struck without warning.
After being embedded in the Palace wall, he remained disoriented.
He did not know what Adrian had attacked him with or how the attack had occurred. All he knew was that his armor had been torn apart like a sheet of paper.
“Because of your dereliction of duty, your master just died once.”
Adrian steadily walked forward.
Even as he approached Ellen, who was embedded in the wall, he did not spare Walter a single glance.
However, Walter could not say anything.
“....Urk!”
A crushing pressure seized his heart.
His breath caught, and his body completely refused to obey him. He wanted to speak, but his throat felt obstructed and no sound emerged.
Adrian’s overwhelming presence felt like an insurmountable wall.
“Deputy Commander!”
The other Royal Knights shouted.
Each of them drew swords and directed a razor-sharp pressure toward Adrian.
“How dare you behave like this inside the Palace!!”
“This is not a place where a worthless delinquent like you can run wild!!”
“I’ll tear out your throat and rid the kingdom of filth like you!!”
Their furious shouts echoed thunderously throughout the Palace hall.
However, Adrian did not waver in the slightest. He watched them with an unhurried attitude before slowly opening his mouth.
“Do the Royal Knights smear manners on their bread instead of butter and eat them all?”
At that moment, an intangible force erupted from Adrian.
Not even the faintest breeze was blowing inside the Palace. Nevertheless, Adrian’s clothes swelled and fluttered violently.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
A dark crimson aura suddenly surged across Adrian’s entire body. It completely stripped away every trace of humanity from his appearance.
His eyes were no longer merely stained with blood. They were now saturated with madness.
The oppressive force radiating from his entire body evoked the image of an existence that had transcended humanity.
Every Royal Knight stopped dead.
....That presence did not belong to a human. That was absolutely not something a mere delinquent could emit.
“A-Aaaaargh!”
Walter screamed and collapsed onto the floor. He could not even conceive of trying to escape.
At that moment, Walter shouted in a nearly tearful voice.
Ellen had only been defeated because he had let down his guard.
If Ellen fought seriously, he could instantly slaughter a worthless delinquent like Adrian.
“K-Kill that delinquent bastard immediately!!”
Walter shouted with absolute faith.
However, that faith—
Craaaaaash!
Shattered alongside the thunderous destruction of the Palace wall.
“....Ugh.”
Ellen, who had been embedded in the wall, shakily raised himself. His armor was torn, and blood flowed down his forehead.
Nevertheless, Ellen had not lost his fighting spirit.
“Ellen...! Ellen!”
* * *
“Guhak...!!”
Ellen released a disgraceful scream as he was driven into the wall once again.
Everyone was struck speechless with astonishment.
However, the person experiencing the greatest shock was Ellen himself.
‘Just now....’
He had been struck in the abdomen.
But when had it happened?
No, what had struck him?
Not for a single instant had he—
‘Failed to perceive anything...?’
Ellen could not conceal his astonishment at that absurd speed. His confusion caused his body to stiffen.
Baaaaam!
Once again, he failed to react to Adrian’s swinging fist.
Ellen’s face crumpled beneath the blow, and broken teeth and blood burst from his mouth.
The tremendous impact nearly rendered him unconscious.
However, Ellen had not obtained his position as Deputy Commander of the Royal Knights through mere luck.
His mind flashed into clarity, and his thoughts accelerated.
Adrian was not an opponent he could underestimate.
He was a formidable enemy.
Ellen erased the image of Adrian as nothing more than the delinquent of a Count’s house.
He tightened his core and regained his balance.
He firmly stabilized his waist and concentrated strength within his thighs once again.
Aura flowed throughout his body.
He concentrated that power at the tip of his sword and swung it the instant he drew the blade.
Sword of the Fierce King, Third Form - Regal Slash.
A wave of Aura erupted from the sword’s tip.
The surrounding air sank for an instant before being violently disturbed.
Adrian did not evade it.
As though he had been waiting for the attack, he sharpened his fingernails....
‘....His fingernails?’
Did he intend to block the attack with his fingernails?
Calling him stupid would be an insult to stupidity itself.
The Sword of the Fierce King was a swordsmanship style passed down through generations of Royal Knights.
It was a supreme swordsmanship refined through hundreds of years of genuine battle throughout the kingdom’s history.
Regal Slash was a technique that explosively released Aura at the exact moment the sword was drawn.
It was not an attack that could simply be blocked. One needed an Aura Blade, the symbol of a Master, merely to contend with it.
Yet Adrian intended to block it with nothing more than his “fingernails”?
Perhaps Adrian was no longer a delinquent.
However, he was clearly an inexperienced brat with no genuine combat experience and the instantaneous judgment of an imbecile.
Adrian’s fingernails slashed through the air. The sword and fingernails collided.
....Yet Ellen was the one being forced backward.
Crackle!
The concentrated Aura surrounding Ellen’s sword was torn apart.
“Impossible!!”
The cry of astonishment escaped Ellen involuntarily.
How could human fingernails possibly accomplish something like this?
How could fingernails meant for nothing more than scratching an itch do this?!
Were Adrian’s fingernails equivalent to an Aura Blade...?
No, that was not all.
Adrian had not torn through Regal Slash using the power of his fingernails alone.
The sword’s trajectory.
The flow of Aura.
The intention behind the attack and every accompanying movement. Adrian had calculated and countered all those elements in an instant.
His combat instincts and senses had been honed to perfection.
This was not mere physical strength. It was judgment built through countless real battles and experiences.
People said that one could see only as much as one understood.
As Deputy Commander of the Royal Knights, Ellen had also experienced countless missions and battlefields. He could confidently claim that his experience and skill were inferior to no one’s.
....And yet, he could not see it.
He could not even begin to measure Adrian’s depth.
How many battlefields did someone have to cross to reach such a realm?
How many encounters with life and death did someone have to overcome to attain that level?
“Ugh...!”
Ellen gritted his teeth.
He revised his assessment once again.
Although it was almost impossible to believe—
‘....I can’t defeat him in a direct confrontation.’
Ellen hurriedly opened the distance between them. He corrected his combat stance and exhaled deeply.
However, as though refusing to give him even the slightest opening, Adrian immediately kicked off the ground.
The Palace floor shattered.
The resulting impact shook the entire Palace as though an earthquake had struck.
The magnitude of the explosion and its deafening roar were beyond anything Ellen had imagined.
“Danger!”
Ellen reflexively raised his sword and swung, but—
Slink, slink.
Adrian’s joints moved in ways utterly impossible for a human.
His movements were abnormally flexible and fast, as though his body possessed no friction whatsoever.
‘How can anyone move like that?’
Yet Adrian performed those movements naturally.
He smoothly slipped beyond Ellen’s attack range.
Then, a sound like a rubber ball bursting rang out, and Ellen’s body jerked violently.
“Kuhak!!”
This was different.
‘I lost track of him...?’
It was not merely because of Adrian’s swift and unnatural movements. Ellen could not visually perceive Adrian at all, as though he had evaporated.
Invisible Death.
It pierced Ellen’s heart.
Boooooom!!
Their levels......
No, the leagues in which they existed were fundamentally different.
Ellen was undoubtedly considered one of the most powerful individuals in the Kingdom of Vatenberg.
However, what if the stage expanded to encompass the entire continent?
Ellen would not even rank among the middle tier. There were many geniuses like Ellen throughout the continent.
No, countless people surpassed him.
When viewed from the scale of the entire continent, Ellen was merely one genius among many.
Adrian, however, was different.
He gazed toward a place unimaginably far away while quietly nurturing his anger.
If Ellen was water trapped within a well, Adrian was the water of a river.
For now, that current might flow gently. For now, that stream might appear small. But the river would continue flowing silently onward until one day, it inevitably fulfilled its destiny of meeting the sea.
‘Th-This is...!’
Before that vast sea, Ellen could only realize how small and powerless he truly was.
* * *
The banquet hall where the royal social season would be held contained tables decorated with gold and arranged neatly in its center.
Soft candlelight and elegant fragrances filled every corner, lending the hall an air of nobility.
The Palace maids moved busily throughout the banquet hall.
Queen Marceline issued instructions to them.
“Move the candlesticks slightly farther to the left, and make certain the lighting is not too bright.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Take care that the decorations are not excessive, but do not allow them to lose their dignity. The flowers on the tables must emphasize elegance.”
Just as Queen Marceline was inspecting every detail of the banquet hall—
Ruuuumble...!!
The entire banquet hall suddenly shook as though an earthquake had struck.
A deafening crash followed.
Queen Marceline stopped issuing instructions and turned her head.
“What is happening?”
At her question, one of the maids standing near the door cautiously approached with a bewildered expression.
“There has been….a disturbance near the Palace hall.”
“A disturbance?”
“It appears there was a confrontation involving Prince Walter.”
Queen Marceline’s expression hardened.
The kingdom’s high-ranking nobles had gathered for the royal social season.
If the Palace’s order was tarnished on such a day, the consequences would directly damage the royal family’s authority.
That would inevitably cause people to question the royal family’s ability to maintain control.
She did not know what lunatic was causing a disturbance inside the Palace, but that did not matter.
She would never forgive the culprit, regardless of his identity.
Moreover, the person had dared to threaten a prince.
Since that was a direct challenge to the royal family’s authority, she had even less intention of showing mercy.
However....
“A scion of House White Wolf is mercilessly b-beating Sir Ellen, who was escorting Prince Walter...!”
The maid’s following words caused Queen Marceline’s thoughts to freeze.
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