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[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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Chapter 105
Chris could clearly see through Baron Bord's inner thoughts and barely suppressed a scoff.
“But the issue is the escort.”
“The escort… you say?”
“We can’t mobilize too many knights for escort, since it would be inappropriate for a diplomatic visit to the Holy Kingdom. Perhaps we should ask Sir Press.”
“Sir Press, you say?”
Baron Bord asked with a nervous voice.
Sir Press, the strongest knight of the White Kingdom, was not affiliated with Baron Bord’s faction.
He was neutral.
If Sir Press were to accompany them, there would be no room to scheme.
However—
“In the current situation, it would be difficult to ask Sir Press. He must remain to defend the White Kingdom.”
“Y-Yes, that’s true!”
“Instead, how about this?”
Chris casually threw out a bait laced with poison.
“My uncle will escort me.”
“!!”
“Isn’t my uncle a 4-star knight? If he’s with me, I’ll feel safe.”
Baron Bord gulped down his dry saliva.
Suppressing the corners of his lips that were threatening to rise, he replied.
“Of course… you can count on me.”
* * *
The delegation departed immediately.
As mentioned, it was a small group.
A few retainers who would accompany Chris to meet the Holy Pope.
A handful of escort knights, including Baron Bord, made up the entire party.
And on the road to the Holy Kingdom—
Baron Bord revealed his true colors.
Just as expected.
Shing.
Baron Bord and the knights drew their swords.
“W-What are you doing, Baron?!”
The retainers who had accompanied them cried out in shock.
“Silence. All of you will die here.”
Baron Bord’s sword gleamed ominously.
“Especially you, Roy. You won’t die easily. Just like your father.”
“!!”
At those words, the retainers opened their eyes wide.
They realized—it was Baron Bord who had cursed the Count!
“Baron Bord! Even for you, this is monstrous!!”
“The Thrones of Heaven will not forgive you!!”
Some retainers shouted with righteous fury.
“What does it matter? You’ll all die here anyway.”
“!!”
“I’ll kill you all and become the ruler of Burssen and the White Kingdom. Then no one will be able to punish me.”
The retainers swallowed hard.
Step.
Baron Bord and the knights took a step forward.
As fear overtook everyone’s faces—
Young Count Roy calmly spoke.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“…What?”
“Did you really conspire with the demon of the Dark Demonic House to curse His Excellency the Count? Who in the Dark Demonic House did you make a deal with?”
Baron Bord looked bewildered.
His nephew’s face was far too composed.
As if he had no worries at all.
‘Has he gone mad?’
He considered whether an ally might be hiding nearby—but that wasn’t the case.
Baron Bord had thoroughly searched the surroundings before launching today’s operation.
‘It’s not like he’s hiding some trump card either.’
Roy’s ability as a knight was only 2-star at most.
“You’re about to die—why do you even care?”
“I just want to satisfy my curiosity before I die. Even if I die, I want to know how my father and I were killed.”
Baron Bord let out a snort of disbelief and answered.
“Fine. I made a deal with the Count Ribery from the Dark Demonic House. I offered them a human sacrifice, and they cast the curse in return.”
“So it was true.”
Chris nodded and turned to the retainers who had come with him.
“Please remember what was just said.”
“…Sorry?”
“It was a confession of a crime.”
“!!”
In other words—
Chris had deliberately brought these retainers.
To serve as witnesses.
“You really have gone mad.”
Baron Bord exhaled sharply and stepped forward.
“I’ll cut off your arms and legs first!”
Baron Bord raised the arm holding his sword high into the air.
As if certain Roy wouldn’t be able to resist.
Like bringing down a guillotine.
Fwoosh!
A mana blade surged powerfully upward.
The level of a knight on par with a black sword wielder.
A dull brown aura engulfed the blade, and just as Baron Bord grinned cruelly in anticipation of the slaughter—
“Your movements are too slow and wide.”
Slice.
A vivid red line was drawn across Baron Bord’s neck.
Right where the carotid artery was.
Baron Bord wore a look of confusion for a split second—and that was the end.
Blood spouted like a fountain.
His body slowly collapsed.
It twitched once, then slumped completely.
He was dead.
“L-Lord Baron?!”
“W-What the?!!”
The knights who had come with him shouted in shock.
They couldn’t quite grasp what had just happened.
Only belatedly did they notice the Young Count holding a bloodstained sword.
“Oh, you’re wondering what happened? I saw an opening and slashed.
If someone shows such an opening, isn’t that basically begging to be killed?”
“!!”
“So what if he could manifest a mana blade?
He was so bloated with greed, like a fattened pig, he couldn’t even wield his sword properly.”
The Young Count—no, Chris—grinned coldly as he looked at them.
Like a predator staring down prey.
“But you guys… you don’t look all that different from him.
Think you can take me on?”
The knights hesitated.
It didn’t make sense.
Young Count Roy was only 2-star.
Meanwhile, they were all 3-star.
Three of them, at that.
Yet they were the ones feeling uneasy.
“Don’t let him scare you! That was just a fluke!”
“Kill him!”
The knights gritted their teeth.
Blood sprayed.
* * *
All the knights fell.
A complete victory.
He wasn’t even scratched.
It was unbelievable.
Right now, Chris was using Roy’s body.
It wasn’t just the 2-star level that was a problem.
Linking meant using another person’s body, and that naturally brought a subtle awkwardness compared to one’s own.
Even trying to move just 1 cm could result in slight misalignment.
It was fine for daily life.
But in life-or-death combat, that slight dissonance could be fatal.
Yet Chris had calculated all those irregularities with his genius, and fought the knights accordingly.
Using only 2-star power, he brought down three 3-star knights.
And he didn’t even kill them.
He made them all hear Baron Bord confess his crimes with their own ears.
Considering how much harder it is to subdue than to kill—even if Chris’s original rank as a Holy Radiant Knight was 5-star, what he did was still nothing short of absurd.
‘Well, it was simple enough.’
He was about to brush the dirt off his pants when a sudden, heavy pressure filled the air.
Startled, he turned his head—and saw a new figure had appeared.
The strongest warrior in the Burssen Kingdoms.
It was Sir Press.
Sir Press walked up to him and knelt.
“…I greet the Young Count.”
This was Chris’s first time seeing Sir Press in person.
A 6-star knight.
The overwhelming presence of someone worthy of the “Master Knights” class could be felt, but Chris responded calmly, without showing much emotion.
“How did you get here? Weren’t you supposed to be guarding the castle?”
“…Baron Bord’s behavior seemed suspicious, so I followed in haste. I thought I might be too late, but….”
Sir Press trailed off.
“…You’ve performed a miracle, Young Count. How in the world did this…?”
Sir Press looked as though he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
And understandably so.
Chris simply shrugged and answered nonchalantly.
“Who knows. I’m not really sure myself.”
“…You’re not sure?”
“Yeah, maybe I became a genius for a moment or something.”
“……??”
Sir Press looked completely lost.
It didn’t matter.
Chris had decided it was time to end the operation.
“But Sir Press, I’m tired from pushing myself. Mind if I sleep a little?”
“Young Count?!”
Young Count Roy collapsed softly to the ground.
The link had been severed!
Sir Press hurried to catch him and sighed in relief. He was unharmed.
‘Still… earlier…’
Sir Press replayed the battle in his mind and swallowed hard.
That overwhelming display—defeating opponents stronger than himself with only minimal force.
It was nothing like the Young Count Roy he knew.
‘Did he really become a genius for a moment…?’
It was a question with no answer.
* * *
And the next day.
Young Count Roy let out a long sigh.
He looked completely different from the figure who had exuded such overwhelming pressure just a short while ago.
His original consciousness had returned.
‘What… just happened.’
Roy’s expression twisted with pain.
Even though Chris had been controlling his body, Roy hadn’t lost his memory.
He had shared the sensations and witnessed everything that occurred.
‘How could something like this…’
Roy recalled everything Chris had done while using his body, and his face turned pale.
Just a few days.
With only a few strategies, Baron Bord had been driven into a corner and eliminated.
‘I didn’t even dare to oppose him.’
Having watched it all unfold from within the same body, Roy could fully grasp just how incredible Chris’s feats had been.
It was enough to send chills down his spine.
‘Is he even human? Maybe he really is a devil.’
He was shaking his head when—
“Yo.”
“!!”
Startled, he whipped his head around. Sitting casually on the window ledge was a face he couldn’t forget even in his dreams—Christian.
“W-Why are you here?”
“I just walked in. You really ought to tighten your castle security. Anyway, how’s the work I left behind? Satisfied?”
Roy clamped his mouth shut.
‘Satisfied?’
That word wasn’t nearly enough to describe it.
An ending far better than he could’ve ever imagined.
Baron Bord was executed. Roy had become the true Young Count. Even his father, the Count of Burssen, was recovering.
It felt like he was living in a dream.
Christian had become the benefactor of both Roy and the Burssen Hundred Kingdoms.
“Judging by your face, you look pretty satisfied. Then it’s time to pay your debt.”
“Debt?”
“Of course. You didn’t think I did all this for free, did you?”
Roy remembered their first encounter and tensed up.
Chris chuckled.
“No need to be so scared. It’s nothing major. First, take this.”
“What is it?”
“Proof that Baron Bord was colluding with Count Ribery of the Dark Demonic House. I picked it up on the way.”
“!!”
After severing the link, Chris had inspected Baron Bord’s estate.
Once a master thief himself, Chris easily discovered the hidden vault and found the incriminating documents inside.
“Send these documents to the Dark Demonic House under the name of the Burssen Kingdom. That way, your rival, Count Ribery, will fall.”
Roy had spent the night researching Christian.
He found out Chris was a sacred figure of the Dark Demonic House.
And that he had hostile relations with both Ashid, the leading candidate, and Count Ribery.
“Yeah, that’s right. But there’s one thing you should be careful of. Don’t send the letter just yet.”
“Huh?”
“And redirect the Burssen troops that retreated—send them back to Count Khazar’s territory. Make it look like you’re preparing for a real war.”
Roy tilted his head in confusion, then his eyes widened.
“You mean—”
He was being asked to pretend as if things weren’t resolved yet.
Roy felt a chill run down his spine.
‘He wants to lull Count Ribery into a false sense of security. This bastard… he’s planning something again.’
Recalling everything Chris had done so far, Roy found himself feeling sorry for whoever Chris’s next target might be.
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[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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