Chapter 84
Chapter 84
At my words, a chilly silence settled over the hall.
The eyes of Darius as he looked at me sharpened, and the veins on his forehead bulged as if he might shout at me at any moment.
“…….”
In contrast, Carius stared at me without any change in expression.
He merely leaned his back against the chair, clasped his hands together, and rested his chin on them.
The first of the three to open his mouth was the Marquess of Darmstadt, who slightly furrowed his brow.
“…May I ask for a more detailed explanation?”
At his question, I nodded and explained in a calm tone the events that had occurred so far.
The Anti-Imperial Faction’s attack, my confrontation with Sword Marshal General Isaac, and our conversation.
“He suggested that he would kill both of my elder brothers and make me emperor, and proposed that we join hands.”
“Bullshit—!”
It seemed Darius’s boiling point ended there, as he sprang up like a kettle spewing steam and burst into anger.
“There’s no need whatsoever to listen to such nonsense. Let’s go, Brother. Marquess, you should stand as well. I cannot waste my time listening to useless drivel like this.”
“Do as you please. It’s not a loss for me.”
When I replied with a shrug, Darius glanced around at the other two.
Unlike his extreme attitude, the two of them seemed to be deeply lost in thought.
Seeing that neither showed any sign of standing up right away, Darius urged his brother.
“Brother.”
“…Let us hear the rest, just for a moment.”
Perhaps because he was the eldest, Carius showed a more composed demeanor.
Darius made a dissatisfied expression at that, but knowing that leaving like this would lead to nothing, he soon closed his mouth and sat back down.
“What did Your Highness answer him?”
The Marquess of Darmstadt asked me.
Seeing a sharp glint lurking in the eyes hidden within his wrinkles, I spoke with a slightly aggrieved tone, half in jest.
“Marquess, if I were siding with the Anti-Imperial Faction, I wouldn’t even have brought this up. I know the realities of the Empire better than anyone among them. No matter what schemes they try in a mere border kingdom like this, they could never dare inflict real damage on the Empire.”
“You’re right about that. Even if Sword Marshal General Isaac were to move, we also have Sword Masters. And with the knights and mages of the Kingdom of Demedrio arrayed here, what do you think they could possibly do!”
I didn’t know whether he was truly that foolish or deliberately trying to intimidate me, but seeing him only grasp one side of the matter made a sigh escape me.
“Where did you hear my words from? I clearly said that with the power of the Kingdom of Demedrio alone, they cannot harm the Empire. But is this place the Empire? Moreover, the Sword Marshal General, the core of the kingdom, stands as the head of the Anti-Imperial Faction. What is it that he could not do?”
At my words, Darius shut his mouth.
There was nothing he could refute.
It was no exaggeration to say that the Sword Marshal General was the center of the Kingdom of Demedrio, wielding immense influence.
Especially within the military, his power surpassed even that of his elder brother, the king.
“Still, from our standpoint, we cannot lightly suspect Sword Marshal General Isaac. If we were to touch someone of that standing, the repercussions would not be small.”
Carius, who had remained silent until then, spoke.
His words were reasonable.
With the Empire’s power, burying one or two foreign nobles without a sound was easily possible.
But if it were someone like Sword Marshal General Isaac, the entire kingdom might rise up, so the matter had to be handled with far greater care.
Of course, the turmoil within the Kingdom of Demedrio itself was not much of a problem.
As Werner had said earlier, if the Emperor were to mobilize the army, they could push all the way to the capital within half a day.
However, once other great powers saw the buffer zone collapse, they would not miss that opening.
Using it as a pretext, they would bite at our necks, and that would end up spreading an unintended spark.
‘Tch.’
Anything closely tied to the story required careful, deliberate action, but looking at the people in front of me only made me feel stifled.
To be honest, I wanted to go around smashing everything without thinking, like protagonists in other novels.
I wanted to start by dealing with these unsightly elder brothers of mine, then turn all the cancerous growths into mush.
“Additionally, it seems they have already finished preparing to break through the chairman’s escort forces. I tailed them in the city yesterday, but they noticed my pursuit and even launched a counterattack. Not all of them were like that, but they looked to be quite skilled.”
At my words, the Marquess’s eyes gleamed.
Among the Empire’s high-ranking nobles, it was already known that I was the Sword Saint’s successor.
For someone like me to say that the attackers’ strength was not ordinary meant he would realize that the forces hidden within the capital were no trifling matter.
‘There are two things we can infer from this.’
They were either a famous mercenary group with a known name, or a hidden elite organization from another country.
In reality, they were neither, but what mattered was that, at least on the surface, they could be seen that way.
“As an imperial prince, I’ve said everything I needed to say. I’ll leave the rest to my two elder brothers’ judgment.”
Feeling that I might not be able to tolerate Darius’s impudent attitude if I stayed any longer, I quickly stood up from my seat.
When I glanced at him, Darius also seemed to have plenty he wanted to say to me.
‘Let’s beat the stuffing out of each other tomorrow.’
It seemed we were thinking the same thing.
So I slightly lifted one corner of my mouth into a smile at his glare and left without hesitation.
I immediately ran to the lodging where Alice’s group was staying.
If a disturbance broke out on the final day of the Academic Festival, they would inevitably be dragged into it in some way.
Not going there at all would have been the best judgment, but with me going, there was no way they wouldn’t follow.
That was why I decided to at least give them a heads-up so they could make minimal preparations.
“Terrorism?”
“The Anti-Imperial Faction…….”
Leysias and Werner, who already knew, listened with relatively calm expressions, but Petra and the others, who hadn’t heard the rest of the story, looked shocked.
From their perspective, they had only come to cheer for their friends competing in the Academic Festival, so being told that a terrorist incident was about to occur was bound to be startling.
“I’ve already gone and told the higher-ups. I told them everything I know, so they’ll handle the rest. I’m telling you this just so you can be careful too, so make sure you don’t get caught up in anything strange on the day.”
“…Right. If it’s terrorism on a national scale, it could be dangerous if we act rashly. Everyone, let’s be careful.”
Petra nodded as she spoke to us.
Though it was called terrorism, we had roughly grasped the date, the targets, and the forces involved, so as long as we prepared well, it would be fine.
Since I had told the two princes and the marquess about it, they would deal with it appropriately.
After all, the primary targets were the two princes.
No matter how much Sword Marshal General Isaac might move, if Sword Masters came out on the Empire’s side, the story would change.
Of course, I hadn’t made the foolish mistake of trusting Isaac’s words completely.
When a situation goes awry, humans cornered like that tend to look for easier targets.
There was no telling when the direction of the blade might turn toward me.
To put it bluntly, they might attack me as a substitute.
‘If it comes to that, I’ll overturn everything.’
I had taken out my own insurance as well.
The best outcome would have been for the Empire to thwart the terrorism, but because of something called absolute plausibility, there was no way to know how events would unfold.
And so, the day of the Sagittarius Tournament final dawned.
The only ones from Bayern Academy to reach the final were me, Leysias, and Darius—just the three of us.
All the other students who had been considered favorites for victory were eliminated midway through defeat or injury.
It might have been one of the poorest results in the past decade, but since they had swept awards at the preceding presentations and debates, it probably balanced out to some extent.
On top of that, the fact that both Leysias and I were first-years played a role.
If framed as a generational shift, it would make for a splendid comeback.
“Waaaaaaah—!”
As the final of the biggest event of the Academic Festival, more than ten thousand people filled a hall twice as large as before.
It was already noisy enough just standing there, but every time the announcer spoke, the crowd erupted in thunderous cheers, making my ears ring.
Simply holding a final match in front of such a crowd would feel dull, so a lavish opening performance unfolded.
As I was watching it in admiration, I felt someone’s presence drawing closer.
“I hope you won’t surrender so feebly like last time.”
Darius spoke to me with a thin smile on his lips.
By “last time,” he was probably referring to the match between the princes on the founding anniversary.
‘Has that much time already passed.’
It felt like just yesterday that I had arrived in this world and been scrambling about, yet here I was, with Sword Masterhood right before my eyes.
By the calendar, a little over half a year had passed.
Without a doubt, Darius had made progress to the point where it could be called remarkable compared to back then.
But what about me?
‘It’s laughable.’
With what chick-level skill did he think to challenge me? When I gave him a light smile at his provocation, Darius laughed loudly as well and turned his body.
Soon, the opening ceremony ended, and the final match began.
“Remarkably, in this year’s Sagittarius Tournament, all the finalists in the swordsmanship division are students from Bayern Academy. And what’s more, two of them are said to be in a senior-junior relationship. Will it be the promising junior, or the seasoned senior? This is truly an exciting match!”
At the announcer’s words, the crowd erupted in cheers.
In truth, we weren’t close enough to be called seniors and juniors, but standing on the stage, I tilted my head and spoke toward Darius.
“I look forward to it, Senior.”
Darius seemed intoxicated by the gazes fixed on him.
Deliberately striking a flashy pose, he sharply drew his sword toward me.
“Don’t get cocky, Junior.”
At that sight, the crowd cheered even louder.
The deafening roar dominated the hall, and at the announcer’s declaration, we entered the match in earnest.
‘Now then, how should I handle this.’
Given how much I’d suffered, wouldn’t it be a shame to end it in one blow?
“Come at me.”
Perhaps out of a sense of pride as the senior, he crooked his sword at me, telling me to make the first move.
I readily nodded and kicked off the ground with force.
‘At first, half a step below.’
Darius’s realm lay somewhere between lower and middle Sword Expert.
I attacked him at exactly half a step below that level.
“…Indeed, the Sword Saint truly is incredible. To think he could pull trash like you up to this level in one go!”
Darius blocked all the sword light hanging in the air and shrugged in apparent admiration, but he didn’t seem particularly shaken.
“……?”
That made me feel a slight sense of unease.
When I had audience with the Emperor in the Imperial Palace, he would have received my momentum head-on.
Unless he was a fool, he should have known that this was not all I had.
‘There’s no way he really failed to notice that…….’
In that instant, a cold chill ran down my spine.
At the same time, a strange curve formed at the corner of Darius’s mouth as he looked at me.
“Did you think everything in the world would roll around only in the palm of your hand?”