Rising Flames

The marquis couldn’t understand the current scene.

Why were the VIP children trembling, and who was this youth whose mana dominated this space?

“Lord Marquis!”

When the commander shouted, only one thing decorated the marquis’s mind.

He needed to flee from here.

The warning shook his head mercilessly.

“Save us!”

“We, we won’t say anything!”

The moment the VIP children knelt and begged as if they’d even grasp at Pernok’s pantlegs.

“Hurry and dodge!”

The knight commander drew his sword and awakened his mana.

Others looked ridiculously at the momentum a level 7 mage emitted.

They’d trained while getting hit by Ruin.

The level 7 mage’s mana felt far more ridiculous than an S2 Magus’s light anger.

“Did I say to organize the knight order too?”

The woman standing at the fourth seat on the left smiled while looking at Pernok at the head seat.

“Guild Mas…”

“Enri.”

When the man across, Sallio, called lowly, Enri cleared her throat and spoke.

“Ahem, Prince. What should we do with those guys?”

From now on, it was a fight where justification mattered.

Pernok had emphasized they should use the name prince rather than Guild Master.

Pernok examined the commander with his blade sharply raised and shook his head.

“Keep him alive for now. Level 7 is a useful card.”

“Then the rest?”

“Keep the soldiers and laborers who surrender alive, but behead every single one who resists fighting without leaving any.”

“Everyone heard. We’re cleaning up!”

As if they’d waited for those words, the escorts raised their mana.

The commander’s breath was blocked.

Because they were all mages level 5 or higher without exception.

“Keep the useful bastards alive. The prince needs to use them.”

“Really. You do well too, Sallio. If you can’t control your strength, even innocent bastards will all die!”

Before the commander could shout anything, Sallio and Enri deployed magic.

The frozen entrance broke and the two led the guild members who’d disguised as escorts and clashed with the knight order.

“Who are these guys!”

“It’s an ambush!”

“Strike the enemy!”

Though an alert rang through the castle, Pernok just crossed his arms and indifferently looked around.

“They ate quite a lot.”

It was full of expensive decorations.

The office and bedroom would be even more so.

Thinking it was all space created with the results from that Fighting Pit that had driven him out, irritation surged.

“Hii!”

The watching children prostrated themselves flat and trembled, lest sparks fly at them.

Only then did the marquis grasp the situation.

That Pernok was deliberately holding the children hostage to infiltrate safely here.

‘I, I need to flee.’

But his feet didn’t easily move.

The commander was the same.

The level 7 mage froze at just an indifferent gaze, merely holding his sword raised while tensing sharply.

“Nice to meet you. I’m called Pernok, Guild Master of Named.”

“Named? The S-rank guild!?”

The marquis had received no reports at all related to guilds.

The method Pernok used to hide and enter had hit the mark precisely.

The marquis couldn’t understand Pernok who had determined to even deceive inspection and attack here.

“How, how can a guild… I’m an Illumina noble! Do you think you’ll be safe even pointing a sword at a marquis of one nation!”

“I was indebted to the Fighting Pit before. You’re the ringleader of that, I heard?”

The words that countered as soon as he’d tried to threaten made the marquis turn pale.

“Wha, what are you saying…”

“The manager recorded even the bastards here in the ledger. But I didn’t keep your neck attached to have useless talk.”

Pernok grinned and looked into the marquis’s eyes.

At the feeling of his entire body being thoroughly excavated, the marquis trembled.

“I’ll just ask two things, Marquis. First, several years ago innocent people died in a village near the marquisate. Do you know the First Prince of Illumina was behind it?”

The words he couldn’t understand at first, he realized the moment he heard Vans.

“I see. You knew. Well, there’s no way a lord wouldn’t pass by an incident where an entire village became a sea of fire.”

“How, how do you know that?”

“At that time, the one who stabbed a sword in my chest was the prince you worship.”

“…!”

At that moment, one buried memory surfaced.

[Your Highness’s disgrace lives here. If you just handle the cleanup neatly, the marquis’s remaining years will be comfortable.]

The dead King of Illumina was known for debaucherous private life.

The quick-witted Falkion immediately caught the meaning of those words.

To get in the prince’s eyes, he even directly ordered the village’s cleanup.

Lest there be anyone who knew the prince’s identity, he thoroughly silenced them.

But to think he was that incident’s party involved.

“Surely, you can’t be…”

“The First Prince regarded me as a younger brother.”

“Lord Marquis!”

Did he sense the mana closing in on the marquis?

The commander finally shook off the pressure and swung his sword.

Sharp magic that would slash whatever it touched rushed at Pernok.

Clang.

“…!”

The cutting magic scattered when it hit the arm Pernok lightly swung.

‘Enhancement type?’

The only reason a metallic sound would come from a human body was that.

‘But my magic that can even slash same-level mages…’

The moment the commander’s complexion paled at one possibility, Pernok added mana to the space.

“Ma, Magus!”

As soon as the urgent cry burst out, Pernok transformed the artifact into a dagger and threw it at the commander.

When the commander hurriedly guarded with both arms, a sharp wind sound struck in from below the abdomen.

Crack!

“…!”

Before he knew it, Pernok’s fist that had closed the distance penetrated the knight commander’s armor and struck even the abdomen.

He stomped down on the back of the head of the commander who couldn’t even breathe in pain and knelt.

Bang!

The roar shook the meeting hall, and Pernok looked beyond.

Though even soldiers had joined forces with the knight order to fight, rather Named’s elites were overwhelming them.

Pernok turned his gaze to the meeting hall.

The marquis was sitting collapsed in that spot.

“When I escaped from the Fighting Pit, the knight order looked like a tall mountain, but now it’s quite shabby.”

Pernok, who kicked the still-awake commander unconscious, walked before the marquis.

Meeting eyes up close, the marquis was so terrified he ended up pissing himself.

“Do you recognize me now?”

He didn’t even know what it meant. He just nodded his head endlessly.

“That you knew my identity yet permitted the village to become a sea of fire—I should understand that as having been involved in my death, right?”

“I, I don’t know! After the prince visited, I just went to the village! That’s all!”

“And you didn’t investigate afterward. This means you disregarded my death inheriting the king’s blood and threw away the responsibility you should rightfully have as a noble. In this case, how does Illumina handle it by national law?”

Pernok glanced at the children.

The children shouted in unison like people possessed by something.

“Ro, royal contempt for standing by at a royal’s death is handled severely by national law, beheading all involved.”

“So it says, Marquis.”

The marquis threw away his sword and knelt before Pernok.

‘Where did the knight order go? Why are there no soldiers? What, why am I the only one here? Are all those guys in cahoots with this bastard? What’s going on!’

Even amid confusion, wanting to live, he tried to grasp even Pernok’s pantlegs.

“I, I swear. On that day, I…”

Pernok retrieved the artifact, transformed it into a longsword, and cut off the marquis’s wrist as is.

“Kyaaaah!”

Compared to the pain the half-living suffered, it was merely a very modest injury.

“How bothersome. I want to kill you right away, but this body’s owner is too curious, so I can’t help it.”

The head consumed by pain didn’t understand those words.

But he understood the following words.

“I’ll ask one more last thing. Were there survivors in that village?”

The marquis trembled while raising his severed wrist.

“That’s unfortunate.”

It was mourning for the half-living’s last hope who’d lent his body in the Netherworld.

“Save…!”

Pernok beheaded the marquis.

The moment the bloated body collapsed, the stench of blood filled the meeting hall.

Not expecting Pernok would kill the marquis in one stroke, all the children were shocked.

Pernok stood on the table as if even the blood trying to touch his feet was disgusting and shouted.

“I’m royalty, and this bastard is a great traitor who tried to kill me. You all watched clearly, right?”

If they wanted to live, they had to follow.

The children competed to kneel.

“Yes! We saw it all right!”

“That pig pointed his blade at the prince!”

“We’ll testify! Everything!”

Pernok met their ugly emotions with a smile.

“I don’t want to make even the children bear the sins their fathers committed. Of course, you also have the sin of knowing and turning away.”

“We’ll, we’ll gladly accept the price! Please just spare our lives!”

“If you disappoint even a little, then, it’d be good to prepare yourself.”

All the children bowed their heads to Pernok.

“From today, I rule this castle. You bastards, do your best from your respective positions so the castle runs safely.”

The children only trembled and couldn’t say anything.

During the day today, Pernok had stormed in and using the ledgers as leverage, exposed the past families’ disgraces.

The escorts stepped forward, but naturally it was insufficient.

Though they’d anticipated the worst situation, they hadn’t known there’d be more beyond that.

That Pernok’s identity was the former king’s bastard!

With Marquis Falkion’s testimony granting even legitimacy to Pernok, there was no hole for them to escape through.

When Pernok left the meeting hall where stillness swirled, outside the situation was also organized.

“Casualties.”

“None.”

When Sallio confidently shouted as representative, Pernok nodded.

“The marquis is dead. Thoroughly manage the retainers here, and if they show even a bit of insolent movement, handle it immediately.”

“Yes!”

“The knight order?”

“We killed half. The rest surrendered.”

“Use them appropriately together with the knight commander, then discard them.”

“Understood.”

Pernok looked around at the remaining personnel and spoke.

“Now this castle is ours. But the royal palace will view our methods as radical and dispatch a truth investigation team.”

Marquis Falkion was the First Prince’s faction.

When news of this place was transmitted, they’d immediately dispatch troops.

“Fortunately, this place is a location very easy to receive the mountain range’s support. You don’t need to fear. Since justification already points toward me, even if tens of thousands of troops come, they can’t do anything to us.”

They would never permit a situation where the faction’s power weakened.

But he had no intention of comfortably playing political games to suit the stage they wanted.

Using all the power he had, he’d gnaw away at Illumina’s territories.

When he began gnawing away at the faction’s power, if a situation arrived where they couldn’t touch him because of justification, what choice would they make?

Would each use the kingdoms they trusted behind them to pressure Pernok?

Or would they stand by watching Pernok and other royals fight?

He’d thrown in firewood.

They would kindle flames and Pernok would roast meat on top of it.

“So don’t be afraid and just keep doing our work.”

They say Illumina only has three royal candidates.

There’s no room for other royals to squeeze in, they say not even that opportunity is given.

Many royals gave up and entered under the three royal candidates.

Thus this nation says there’s no longer room for factions to enter or territories.

What a joke.

“Before the investigation team is dispatched, we take all the territories written in this ledger into our hands.”

If there’s nothing left to inherit on this land.

“It’s a conquest.”

Just pry it open yourself and take it.