A Shallow Ploy

Third floor corridor.

Miriel had a dazed look on her face as Lisera led her out by the hand.

It made sense that she would.

“……Who was that? The person who just left.”

“Someone who came to help us.”

Lisera spoke gently.

She was Miriel’s younger sister by birth, but being a half-elf meant her physical and mental development had run ahead. Lisera said softly,

“Sister, you can breathe easy now. It’s all over. Come with me.”

“……O-okay.”

Lisera was said to see almost nothing in front of her.

Miriel held her sister’s hand and walked carefully, then said,

“I want to see what that person does.”

“Huh?”

Lisera was at a loss.

Was this what it felt like when a young child insisted on watching a film they were too young for?

It was going to be extraordinarily violent — Rigen had said as much before he’d gone in.

The kind of thing she couldn’t, in good conscience, expose her delicate, angel-like sister to.

“I want to see. Lisera.”

“What’s your reason?”

“I don’t know. Just — just……”

Miriel fumbled for the words.

When that person had tapped her on the shoulder.

When he had told her children didn’t have to hold back their tears.

A faint, half-forgotten memory had surfaced.

“……He felt like Father.”

“……”

“N-no. I know. I know Father’s gone. But……”

Miriel couldn’t find the right words for what she felt.

One thing was certain.

She could not leave this place.

“I don’t want to run away.”

“……”

“You said he came to help me. So how can I just walk away and leave him behind? Father would never have done that.”

Lisera smiled at her sister’s argument and said,

“You’re right, he wouldn’t.”

“We don’t know what might happen. And …… what if Mother gets angry? Then I need to stay so I can explain. All right?”

“Then what if I cover my eyes — would you clear the way?”

“……Yes. I’ll do that.”

Lisera nodded.

“I feel the same way.”

“Hm? About what?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

Lisera smiled quietly.

First floor. The banquet hall.

I was reading the room when Jade shook his head and bellowed.

“Attack him! Kill that bastard!”

Kedrik’s knights began edging around me, moving to encircle me from all sides.

I launched myself off the ground and drove my palm forward.

“Hm?”

The knight coming straight at me didn’t think much of it. Just a palm strike, and he was in full armor.

But——

“BWUUUGH!”

The knight screamed and lurched backward, retching.

Telekinetic Palm.

It punched straight through armor and rattled the organs inside.

The knights who had rushed to catch their crumpled comrade went pale.

“W-witchcraft!”

“Ugh!”

Four knights drew their swords in unison.

They were finally getting their heads on — but they still had a long way to go.

“If you’re actually worried, you’d better be using mana blades too.”

The moment I moved forward dusting off my hands, the knight in front swung his blade at them. He was trying to guard against the Telekinetic Palm.

Fishing for that reaction, and he bit immediately.

I ducked under the swing, grabbed his arm, and hoisted him straight up.

A gentle press of magic, and the man went sailing off his feet.

Reading grabs and throws at close range is basic combat fundamentals — these men were sorely lacking.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

“Here he comes!”

I swung the knight’s body like a bat at the men behind him.

“AAAGH!”

The other two couldn’t stab their own comrade, so they threw themselves sideways to dodge.

Swish.

That was the moment I let go.

“UGHK!”

The one I’d been swinging crashed down on top of the men who had dived clear. Three knights piled on each other, gasping and winded.

Before they could recover, I stepped onto their backs and drove the Telekinetic Palm down.

“BWUUGH!”

“AAAGH!”

Sandwiched in the stack, all three writhed as their insides turned to jelly.

I looked around at the one knight still standing.

“You’re all genuinely weak.”

“……Ugh.”

“Or am I just that strong?”

The remaining knight took a half step back.

He knew in his gut he couldn’t touch me.

Jade howled from across the room.

“Quickly! Kill him quickly! You’re fired if you can’t kill him!”

“……”

The knight kept retreating anyway.

Jade wheeled on the crowd of partygoers in a panic.

“Anyone! Anyone at all — kill that man and I’ll give you five hundred million! No — five billion! I swear it on the Kedrik name!”

The color drained from the faces of every knight and noble in the room.

Hungry, calculating stares.

I rolled my neck and smiled.

“Five billion for my head? That’s an insult. Only those with enough set aside for hospital bills should step up.”

Knights and nobles who had been watching and waiting advanced on me.

Ten of them.

I was alone against ten — but

“Only ten? That’s hardly enough!”

I pivoted and charged straight at the leftmost one.

“Congratulations — you’ve just been volunteered as team captain!”

“Ngh!”

The middle-aged man on the far left reflexively threw up a full-body mana shield. Block first, think later.

But I kept my attack loose, a light Telekinetic Fist that shoved him backward.

“Wah!”

The man slid back — and bumped into the one behind him, stopping there.

I was already on him with Mana Sprint, throwing another Telekinetic Fist.

“UGHK!”

The noble screamed as the consecutive hits landed, and the two of them crumpled together in a pile — still sliding.

But I didn’t stop. I charged forward again and threw another punch.

“Wh— whoa, whoa, whoa!”

Like patties in a hamburger, enemies stacked one by one.

The men in the back could no longer see around their own allies — they had no idea what was happening up front.

Shoving three and four bodies at once into each other was taxing even for me.

Keeping the right amount of force so they didn’t topple over was its own delicate work.

But this was a performance.

The day I showed the world exactly what kind of man I was.

“Haah!”

With the enemies lined up in a neat single file, I wrapped my fist in magic.

From the toes kicking off the floor — thighs, hips, arm — I reinforced each in sequence.

And drove my fist into all ten.

Telekinetic Burst!

KRAAKK!

“UUUAAARGH!”

The stacked enemies toppled like dominoes in a wave.

The noble who had been at the front and taken hit after hit had already gone out cold. The rest were vomiting blood, retching, making a complete mess.

“……What was that?”

“Is — is that an Awakening ability?”

“Wasn’t Librata supposed to be a weak house?”

The onlookers stared in disbelief at what looked like a feat of pure showmanship.

That was the idea.

I was dominant, and no one should be foolish enough to test that.

While everyone gawked, a man who stood easily at six foot three stepped forward.

“No ordinary young master, I’ll give you that! Come, fight me!”

“Kalex of the Tarus Order — one of the Three Knights!”

“A powerhouse who has reached the fourth rank!”

The commentary from the sidelines aside, he looked capable enough at a glance.

He fixed his battle-hungry grin on me.

“You’ll take on anyone here who tries? You’re certainly not lacking in confidence! I like that in a man!”

“You’re welcome to dislike me. I was being modest.”

“Hahaha — even better!”

Kalex lunged into a Mana Sprint, closing the distance fast.

Both hands raised on his oversized war hammer — a straight overhead swing aimed at my skull. Rushing in, daring me to flinch.

An arrogant challenge: dodge it if you’re scared.

Instead, I charged directly at him with Mana Sprint.

Even at the same rank, experience and ease with magic make all the difference in real strength.

Even at the same fourth rank — I was faster. I was stronger.

FWOOOSH!

“Ngh!”

Kalex abandoned the attack and brought his weapon down to defend.

He’d watched the Telekinetic Fist punch through people and armor both. He wasn’t taking that hit.

But instead of striking, I opened the fist I’d been throwing — and grabbed the war hammer’s long shaft. Then I planted my foot and pushed off the ground.

WHIRRRRL!

My body spiraled upward around the shaft like a dancer climbing a pole.

Telekinesis controlling my inertia and posture — the only reason the maneuver was possible at all.

Kalex wrenched himself sideways, but I was already releasing the shaft and launching a kick.

FWOOOOM!

Kalex scrambled to pull back — and dropped heavily to one knee.

“……Thought I’d slipped it, but it still caught me. You truly were being modest, Rigen Librata.”

“We done?”

“Yes. I’m not going to pretend I can match you.”

Kalex conceded cleanly.

I had put down even the fourth-rank powerhouse. I swept my gaze across the crowd.

“Well? Anyone else?”

“……”

Silence.

Knights and nobles alike flinched and drew back like a receding tide.

With the room in hand, I turned to the real target — Jade.

Jade’s face had gone blank.

“……What is this? Why are you doing this? Why is someone like you — a monster like you — coming after me?”

“Sobered up? You can use your magic — good. Now take your punishment.”

I was just beginning to gather my magic when I caught a pair of eyes above me and looked up.

The landing of the staircase.

Lisera and Miriel stood there, looking down at the first floor.

Their hands clasped tight together.

I could make a fair guess at what had passed between the two of them.

Then their father had better live up to their expectations.

“The reason you’re about to get beaten within an inch of your life? I’ll tell you. I can’t stand seeing children cry.”

“……What?”

“Not because I hate it when children cry. Because when a child is crying right in front of me and I can’t do a damn thing — I can’t stand myself.”

When a child weeps, the heart of a parent goes black with helplessness.

Even when I was emperor, I was no different.

I set my jaw.

With fury.

“What I hate even more than that — is watching a child force themselves not to cry. You put Miriel through that. And I will never forgive that.”

“……Take her.”

“……”

The words hit my ears wrong.

Jade smiled his most craven smile and said,

“……You can have her.”

“You son of a bitch——”

I launched into a Mana Sprint and drove a Telekinetic Fist into him before the sentence was even out.

Jade threw up a mana shield in a hurry, but it didn’t matter.

“AAAGH!”

He screamed as the impact sent him rocketing backward — straight into the packed crowd.

“EEEEK!”

“Don’t come over here!”

The crowd shoved him back with hands and feet in a blind panic, desperate not to be caught in whatever came next.

Jade came sailing back toward me on his own. I put a fist in his face.

CRACK!

“UGHK!”

Jade blocked with his magic, but a Telekinetic Fist pushed through a mana shield — some of it always gets through.

FWOOOOM!

“URGH!”

His nose burst. He swung a mana blade in a wild arc — I slipped the cut with a simple lean and drove a one-two straight into the opening.

THWACK-CRACK!

“AAGHK!”

I cut in with footwork, landing body shots — chest, shoulder, stomach — in clean sequence, then swept his legs with a low kick.

“GAK!”

Jade buckled to his knees. I brought my knee straight up into his face.

CRACK! CRACK!

Landing clean, one after another.

“GUUAAGH!”

Face a bloody ruin, he thrashed his arms around wildly.

I had already seen that coming and stepped back — putting him at perfect distance.

CRACK!

I kicked his head like a football.

“UGHK!”

Teeth flew. Blood poured from his mouth.

Swollen eyes. Shattered nose.

Jade’s face was unrecognizable as he begged with what little breath he had left.

“P-please — save me……”

“Not killing you. Not yet.”

KRAAKK!

I drove an uppercut clean into his jaw.

FWOOOOM.

Jade’s body arced off the floor and came crashing down onto the banquet tables behind him.

CRASH!

The sound of splintering plates and collapsing furniture rang across the hall.

“EEEEK!”

The people nearby screamed and scrambled away.

Jade lay there foaming at the mouth, out cold.

I dusted off my hands and walked over.

I stood at his head.

Everyone had scattered — except for one man who remained alone, where all the others had been.

I turned to him.

“Right then. Time for the main event.”

“And what would that be?”

Jade’s younger brother, Luke, was smiling pleasantly.

“You rather went back on your word, didn’t you? My brother’s still breathing …… and you made sure to announce it in front of everyone, no less.”

“That’s why I didn’t use a dark elf notary.”

A contract sealed with a dark elf notary was binding in a way that defied ordinary circumstances.

But a contract without one was a different matter.

In the first place——

“A contract for hired killing doesn’t have legal standing.”

Creating that contract had been a test. A way to read Luke’s reaction.

I fixed my eyes on him.

“Why would Jade bother throwing a party? Even an idiot knows quiet is better when you’re playing blackmail.”

Blackmail only had power when no one else knew.

In other words, if Jade had actually gotten his hands on the healing medicine’s secret, he should have moved quietly and carefully.

“Someone beside him was the one egging him on. ‘Marry the celestial princess? You’ll need to throw parties often and invite her around. Do that, and I’ll spread the word through high society for you — big brother.'”

“……”

“Jade has a poor reputation even among the nobility, but you’re quite the socialite, aren’t you? Jade was dead drunk and sleeping upstairs the whole time — you ran tonight’s entire operation on your own.”

“Are you saying you suspect me?”

“I never trusted you to begin with.”

I scoffed.

“You’re out of your mind if you thought I’d trust a man who opens a negotiation by proposing patricide and murder by proxy.”

“I rather thought someone like you — the scorned youngest of Librata — might be willing.”

“Fools always assume everyone thinks like they do.”

The terrorists — the Empire Liberation Army — had laid their scheme in careful sequence.

Step one: Marquis Crocell manufactures chaos in the north.

Step two: imperial forces deploy to suppress it, and the railway train carrying them is destroyed — chaos compounds.

Step three?

“If the terrorists’ goal is a coup or a new regime, they need a face to put in front of it. That was you — Luke Kedrik.”

“I’m not sure what you’re——”

“But the first two steps got wrecked. So the third had to be improvised.”

I had dismantled Marquis Crocell’s conspiracy.

And the train bombing had been rerouted into an assassination attempt on Orca.

“The original plan was probably for you to deal with Jade yourself, then appear as the hero who rescued the princess from danger. But the plan changed — so instead, you were going to pin everything on Jade and quietly slip away. The same man who passed the explosives to the terrorists.”

A murmur ran through the crowd.

They were only now realizing that this was no longer a duel that had crashed a party — this was a terrorist being brought to heel.

Luke gave a light shrug.

“A compelling theory. But do you have evidence?”

“The one who first brought up the Imperial Railway bombing was you. Two possibilities: first, you made it up entirely. Second, you did it yourself and were planning to pin it on Jade.”

“……”

“Either way, once I take you into an interrogation room, we’ll have our answer. A bit of pressure in the right places and the truth tends to come out.”

Luke’s expression hardened.

“Oh, and don’t bother with warrants. Emergency Provision Article Eight — anyone who poses a threat to the empire’s existence may be detained on the spot.”

“……”

“Well then. Are you going to take your beating quietly, or do you want to struggle and take a worse one?”

“I had heard that Rigen Librata was a thoughtless wastrel with nothing between his ears …… apparently that was true, after all.”

Shing!

Luke drew his blade, and mana rose from his body.

Green. Fourth rank.

For someone so young — more than enough to be called a prodigy.

But Luke hadn’t received a Magic Inheritance. How was he at fourth rank?

Luke smiled with perfect confidence.

“You’d still try to do this by force?”

“Hey — did you miss what just happened to that fourth-rank knight over there?”

I said it flatly.

“Then again — you’ve just watched your carefully laid plans crumble to nothing. I suppose a last desperate stand is all you’ve got left.”

“……”

“That one land? Or are you the type who can’t take a hit to his pride?”

I drew my sword as well.

“Listen up, fool. I came here from the very beginning with one goal in mind — to leave not a trace of this house standing.”

Round two.