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[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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Chapter 67
After finishing his conversation with Duke Huam, Chris stepped outside to find Marisa waiting.
“What did you talk about with my father?”
“He told me to marry you.”
“…What?”
“Don’t worry. I clearly refused. He won’t bring it up again.”
“……”
Marisa’s face turned bright red, then quickly cooled to a cold expression.
“…Follow me. I’ll take you back to your quarters.”
With a sharp turn, she briskly walked ahead.
Chris quietly stared at Marisa’s back.
‘…Stopping the catastrophe of the Venomous Demonic House wasn’t part of the plan. I was only trying to minimize the damage.’
With his current strength, it was an impossible task.
He had about one or two years left, but even considering that, it was still unreasonable.
A sigh escaped him.
‘Still, there’s time. Let’s think of a way. More than anything, I have to become stronger. So strong that I can’t even be compared to how I am now.’
Only by becoming stronger would he be able to do something.
‘For now, I’ll return to the Dark Demonic House.’
Another important event awaited him.
The protagonist is Chris.
It was the ceremony for becoming the Young Lord.
At last, the moment he would become the Young Lord had arrived.
* * *
Caw, caw.
The southern border of the Southern Demon Nation where the Dark Demonic House resided.
The border region with Gold Cross.
Crows were cawing ominously.
Beneath the crows, countless corpses were strewn about.
Judging by their equipment, they appeared to be an elite mercenary corps, but all had died in gruesome conditions.
It wasn’t just defeat in battle—they had clearly died after horrific torture.
“How boring. Aren’t there any more entertaining ones?”
“Why don’t we just go straight into the Union’s territory?”
Masked figures chattered idly among the heap of corpses.
The masks depicted ominous blood-red shadows.
At the far edge of the group, a man was staring off into the distant northern horizon.
“What are you doing, you crazy young master?”
“Ah.”
The man had his mask tilted halfway off, revealing a stunningly beautiful face.
His long silver hair fluttered as if it were moonlight itself, gleaming brilliantly.
His delicate facial features resembled a woman’s. If not for the prominent Adam’s apple, one wouldn’t take him for a man at all.
His slender frame and fragile appearance evoked a sense of maternal protectiveness, but that was only on the surface.
The blood that stained his entire body revealed just how ominous this seemingly delicate man truly was.
“Ah, I just heard an interesting rumor.”
“Rumor?”
“Yeah, they say an interesting younger sibling has appeared for me.”
“Younger sibling?”
The person Chris was speaking with tilted their head in confusion at his words.
“Ah, young master. You’re from a prestigious family, right? Was it the Dark Demonic House?”
“It’s not in the past tense. They’re still part of the family. They haven’t been exiled yet.”
“They’re still not exiled? The Dark Demonic House is insane. They haven’t cast out a madman like you yet?”
The masked figures chuckled.
Though they were all insane, the beautiful-looking man was by far the most dangerously unhinged among them.
The beautiful-looking man smiled back at them, seemingly amused, then asked again.
“Are you entertained?”
“…Huh?”
“Am I entertaining?”
The masked man’s laughter immediately stopped.
“Ah, no, I didn’t mean—”
“It’s fine. We’re comrades, after all. I can joke around. But…”
Splat!
The masked man’s head was severed from his body.
Without even attempting to avoid the blood, or perhaps even savoring the sight of it, the beautiful man smiled as the blood spurted upward like a fountain, splattering all over him.
“Looks like we’re no longer comrades.”
An awkward silence filled the air.
Though he had killed his comrade on a whim, no one dared to say a word.
After all, they were that kind of group.
A collective of the worst human scum.
No, it wasn’t even right to include them in the human category.
They were demons, lower than humans.
“This is boring, too.”
The beautiful-faced man muttered softly.
“I think I’ll head back now.”
“Back to your family?”
“Yeah, I’ve been away for a long time. I should at least show my face. I’ll also check on the younger sibling they say has appeared. What was their name… Kring… something like that.”
The man scratched his head and smiled brightly.
“Well, the name doesn’t really matter.”
If there’s no interest, there’s no concern.
If interest is piqued… they die.
So, a name was of no importance to him.
That was his way of thinking.
“I hope it’s an interesting younger sibling. I’ll give them plenty of ‘attention.’”
With that, the man—
The mad first son of the Dark Demonic House, Sherad—vanished in an instant.
The blood-red shadow mask he had discarded lay on the ground.
* * *
Chris’s appointment as the prince was officially announced.
For the first time in the long history of the Dark Demonic House, a branch family member had become the prince.
The Dark Demonic House was in an uproar.
“Did you hear? That wild Chris is now the prince.”
“We can’t call him a wild one anymore.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Look at the achievements he made during this incident.”
“He completely saw through the tricks of the Venomous Demonic House and, in the end, fought and won against a 5-star mage.”
“I can’t believe it.”
The current setting was the banquet hall celebrating Chris’s appointment as the prince.
Shocked voices were heard from all around.
In particular, many admired the achievements Chris made during this incident.
If it weren’t for Chris, the exploration team would have been wiped out.
But not everyone thought the same.
The voices acknowledging Chris were still few.
The majority of the Dark Demonic House sneered at Chris.
“Just because he succeeded in a trivial operation with nothing more than 3-star mages.”
“He defeated a 5-star mage? It must have been because a Venomous Demonic House member got careless. Becoming a prince is too easy.”
They downplayed Chris’s achievements.
That wasn’t all.
“He became a prince with no backing.”
“If he were from the prestigious Shupen Marquis family, it’d be one thing, but what can someone from the youngest branch, the Khazar Count family, do?”
“I wonder if he even realizes that he walked right into the lion’s den. Overreaching will get him nowhere.”
The influential members of the Dark Demonic House clicked their tongues.
Becoming the prince didn’t simply mean an increase in status.
It meant stepping into a fierce battleground of life and death.
Now, Chris had become the enemy of all the other princes.
No, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that, with the forces following those princes, the entire Dark Demonic House had become his enemy.
Indeed, despite being the center of attention at the banquet, Chris stood alone in the middle of the hall, silently sipping from his glass.
No one approached Chris.
They were afraid of being marked as part of Chris’s faction by the other princes.
“Tsk, how pitiful. He’s going to walk down a thorny path and meet his death.”
“Maybe he should just give up now and return to the Khazar Count family. That would be the smart choice.”
Could he sense his own fate?
Chris’s expression wasn’t good.
As he tilted his glass, he looked as if he was drinking something poisonous.
What Chris was thinking right now was,
“Damn, I hate ginger.”
He was cursing the ginger ale in his glass.
He had asked the servant for some alcohol, but they had brought ginger ale instead.
“Why, as the main character of the banquet, am I drinking ginger ale again? You damn stubborn mages.”
He had been feeling this way for a while now—mages who were supposed to be heartless and ruthless seemed to be oddly more honest and stubborn than even the Alliance members.
“Well then… hmm.”
Chris looked around the banquet hall.
“As expected, the atmosphere is just as I thought. Very good.”
He grinned.
An unexpected thought.
He was being ignored by everyone, yet he was happy?
“I hope the banquet goes just as I expected.”
Here’s a question.
Chris’s goal wasn’t to become a prince; it was to take control of the Dark Demonic House.
What would be important to achieve that?
First, his own strength.
Second, the forces that followed him.
“No matter how strong you are, it’s impossible to rule over everyone as a lone commander.”
That’s why princes are officially allowed to build their own forces.
Leadership, the ability to lead others, is an essential element for the head of a family.
The problem was that, as a branch family member, Chris would inevitably be weaker in terms of forces compared to the direct descendants of the family.
While the direct descendants, by just standing still, would have crowds gather around them, Chris had to build his forces in his own way.
“But I have someone who will help me.”
An unexpected thought.
“I hope ‘he’ moves as expected.”
Chris glanced sideways with the mindset of a fisherman casting bait.
In the distance.
There was a young man looking at him with a disdainful gaze.
The 3rd prince, Mysak.
The youngest son of Marquis Langham, and currently the prince with the most “noble bloodline” in the Dark Demonic House.
Marquis Langham had four children.
The 1st prince, Sherad.
The 2nd prince, Ashid.
The 1st princess, Yulian.
And the 3rd prince, Mysak.
Among them, Mysak was special.
Even more so than Ashid, who was considered the next heir.
It was because of his maternal lineage.
The first three were born from Marquis Rangham’s late wife.
Only Mysak had a different mother.
Silver Snowflower, Frecia.
Currently, the mistress of the Dark Demonic House.
What was even more important was that she was the daughter of the “Destruction Demonic House” head.
The head of the Destruction Demon House was an absolute mage who could be compared to Nordian.
Also, the power of the Destruction Demon House was so strong that it could compete with the top five houses among the 12 legendary magical houses.
With such a powerful background, no one dared to treat the 3rd prince Mysak lightly.
“Thanks to that, he’s said to have an extremely arrogant personality. He can’t stand leaving an annoying opponent alone, and must trample them down to feel satisfied.”
Mysak would definitely make a move.
At that time, Chris would turn the tables in his favor by using Mysak’s schemes against him.
‘Still staying quiet.’
Did Mysak think someone as insignificant as Chris would not be worth his attention?
Mysak was just drinking and sending a contemptuous glance in his direction.
‘Should I start provoking him slowly? That way, things will unfold as I intended.’
Chris thought about how to catch the 3rd prince Mysak’s attention. More specifically, he thought about how to get on his nerves.
But unexpectedly, some unintentional help came.
“Would you like a drink?”
“!!”
It was Jupien.
Was she trying to congratulate him on becoming a prince in her own way?
She appeared with a pout on her face.
“I don’t particularly like you, but I felt sorry seeing you all alone, so I came.”
“I’m fine, though.”
“…Aren’t you going to speak formally?”
“We’re both princes and princesses now, so why would I speak formally to you?”
Chris said shamelessly.
Jupien frowned and then extended her glass.
“Just have a drink.”
“Sure.”
But when she saw the drink in Chris’s hand, she sneered.
“Ginger ale… Now that I think about it, you’re still underage.”
Chris felt a sense of defeat.
By the way, Jupien was eighteen, barely an adult by the standards of the Magus Empire.
“You’re like a child. From now on, call me ‘sister.’”
“......”
In terms of age, she was right.
But for Jupien, who looked and acted like a child, calling her “sister” felt strange.
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[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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