Chapter 55 - Retribution (2)

The lord's castle where Damian Aslan, the eldest son of the Duchy of Aslan, resided was surrounded by exceptionally tight security.

Of course, the enormous duchy had no shortage of able-bodied men, making military manpower easy to muster at any time. But that was doubly true now, when everyone was on edge.

"What is the other side doing?"

By the other side, he meant his younger sister. Even now, each was watching for an opportunity to slit the other's throat.

When he raised the question at the regular meeting, one of the retainers who had been casting wary glances at him hurriedly presented a document.

As Damian Aslan scanned it with an icy gaze, the man who had handed it over continued his stammering report.

"A coward's response. Just like Liza."

Given Damian's usual disposition, it was a natural reaction.

An able commander, an excellent military officer—and possessed of arrogance and self-righteousness as appalling as his talents were impressive.

A tyrant with the ability to back it up, unfortunately, which made him all the more difficult to deal with.

"So, what is our plan of attack?"

The retainers immediately exchanged glances.

Leaving aside his utterly unhesitating declaration that he intended to turn this family dispute into a bloodbath, there was the matter looming right before them.

"... My lord, the Night of the Hunt is nearly upon us. Are you certain? Dividing our forces will endanger the estate itself."

"Even if the magical beasts come, they won't get as far as the inner castle."

"But the civilians in the outer ward—"

The retainer cut himself short.

The sentiment written on Damian's face was perfectly clear.

Did he have to care about that, too?

Even if the civilians were attacked, they wouldn't all die.

Frankly, their lives had no more value than that to Damian.

Whether they lived or died, he could always replenish their numbers once peace returned. They were people whose numbers simply needed topping up, like livestock being bred.

But if he failed to inherit the grand duke's title now, he would never have another chance.

"Liza's caution gives us an opening. We will destroy her power base in one stroke."

"... As you command."

"See that there are no mistakes."

Then, in the middle of Damian's exchange with his retainers, someone burst through the office door, gasping for breath.

It was a soldier covered in dust and soot, as though he had just come straight from a battlefield.

Damian frowned at the sight.

"... What happened to you? What's going on?"

"The estate is under attack!"

"..."

Everyone in the room went blank at once.

An attack? What attack?

In the heart of the duchy?

"What in the world are you talking about? An attack? Who would do such a thing?"

"W-well..."

The soldier hesitated, looking thoroughly embarrassed to have to say it himself.

"... It's two women and one man."

"..."

"They're about to enter the inner castle, my lord."

A truly dreadful silence spread through the office.

"... So."

Damian blinked blankly before finally managing to force the words out.

"You're saying that just three people are tearing through the duchy, and the inner castle is about to fall?"

"..."

Unfortunately, the soldier's silence was an emphatic yes.

▣

"Halt, halt, halt! Move and we'll attaaaaagh!"

The soldier pointing his gun at them took a fist-sized rock to the forehead and passed out on the spot.

Strolling along without a care, Noel had kicked a suitable stone up from the roadside and casually tossed it at him.

He had probably felt safe being at least a hundred meters away from an opponent armed with a sword. Apparently, though, even with nothing but a stone, the Empire's greatest knight could kill at that range.

"Shields up! Whatever happens, we cannot let them inside the inner caaaastle—!"

The squad leader shouting encouragement to his soldiers went flying along with them.

Without moving from her spot, Katya had summoned divinity, and the violent firestorm she unleashed swept them up and sent them tumbling far into the distance.

What made it even more ridiculous was that she was doing this with divinity, yet merely 'pushing them away' without a single injury rather than burning them to a crisp.

Just how much mastery over supernatural power did something like that take...?

"Alarm! Sound the alaaaaarm—!"

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

A bell rang. Desperate cries and screams echoed everywhere.

And three people were strolling blithely through the middle of it all.

Noel, Katya, and Aiden.

"Oh. The powder magazine blew up."

Katya murmured the words flatly as the flames she had created scattered in every direction.

The firestorm pushing the soldiers away had caused no casualties, but the inherent nature of her supernatural power was inevitably a terrible match for explosives.

... Given Katya's personality, there was also a very good chance she had done that entirely on purpose.

The enormous explosion left Aiden's ears ringing, its force rivaling that of the hellfire bombs he had seen a few times before.

People ran about like mad, fires rose here and there, and some were so terrified that they could do nothing but scream, unable even to get to their feet.

Pandemonium. A hellscape.

Either description would have suited the utter chaos surrounding them.

And then—

"Let's count that as twenty points. Looks like quite a few got caught in it."

"Absolutely not. Ten at the very most."

"... Did you earn that Lionhearted title by being stubborn? Even if we count that as ten, I'm still five points ahead."

"... We haven't even entered the lord's castle yet. That's where it really begins."

Their leisurely conversation drifted over a scene of desperation, screaming, and pandemonium.

They were so relaxed that an onlooker might have mistaken them for rival athletes judging each other's performance.

'Hmm.'

Well.

Wasn't this still within reasonable bounds?

Nobody had died.

"..."

... His brain really did seem to be deteriorating.

Aiden found the thought rather unsettling.

'My senior said something was strange, too...'

He was aware that his sensibilities were growing further and further removed from normal. Hadn't Meyer already pointed that out once?

He was becoming steadily less sensitive to negative sensations like pain and fear, his plans against his enemies were growing bolder, and his reason was becoming colder and more unyielding.

It didn't feel like his emotions were dying or he was losing his mind. How should he put it?

His mind was changing from that of an 'ordinary person' to that of 'someone accustomed to danger' far too quickly.

It hadn't been long at all since he became involved with Noel, yet he already felt quite different from the unassuming civilian he had been before.

Only one possible cause came to mind.

'... I'll have to ask the priestess when I meet her later.'

It was very likely the influence of that Outer God supposedly attached to him.

Nothing else in his circumstances could account for his personality changing this quickly.

At least it was helpful for now.

After all, no one in their right mind would attack an estate with just three people.

"... By the way, Dame Noel."

"Yes?"

"For someone who initially asked what possessed me to do this, aren't you putting quite a lot of effort into it yourself?"

"..."

Surprisingly, Noel, who had clearly been horrified at first, now seemed to be enjoying herself quite a bit.

Not that Aiden was entirely at a loss as to why.

"The troop deployments are far too thin," Noel said, narrowing her eyes.

"I can only take this to mean he never intended to protect his people in the first place."

That was true.

Frankly, the troop deployments all reflected an utter lack of concern about an attack by magical beasts.

"I believe I can thoroughly enjoy teaching someone like that a lesson."

"..."

... Well.

It struck him all over again: even someone this exemplary could become this merciless toward people who shirked their responsibilities.

"But what have you been doing all this time, Aiden?"

Perhaps that was why Noel had enough attention to spare to check on him, even as she created this screaming pandemonium.

A cluster of light was circling his body, clearly visible even amid the pure-white energy bursting from her and the streams of divinity pouring from Katya.

"I wanted to try an experiment."

"An... experiment?"

Noel tilted her head, but for Aiden, this was a matter of utmost seriousness.

'It feels like my growth has stalled lately.'

With Meyer beating him to a pulp in his dreams every night, his fighting proficiency was improving faster than he had expected. But separately from that, it was true that the skills he could wield with that proficiency hadn't grown much lately.

He did have the mysterious Lord Protector's Remnant skill, but it felt as though he wouldn't be able to inspect that until after Chapter 2.

With that in mind, one exceptional advantage Aiden possessed was the ability to copy skills simply by earning someone's affection. But his other strength was, of course—

-Skill Info

■ Omnipotence [ Stage 1 ]

Combine two or more supernatural powers to produce a more powerful effect.

▶ Combinations Discovered

〓 Guardian’s Flame (Heart of Pure White ↔ The First Vow)

Combining supernatural powers involved rather more conditions than he had expected.

—This.

A special supernatural power that other people couldn't even wield. An ability unique to Aiden that even the exacting Meyer acknowledged.

That was why he was trying to combine his other powers, but...

'... This isn't going as well as I'd hoped.'

He had somehow managed to mix divinity and energy by trying whatever came to mind, but unlike those two, dharmic power showed no inclination to combine with anything else.

Whether he pushed energy or divinity into the cluster of light, it simply wouldn't budge...

"Are you stuck on something?"

This time, it was Katya who tilted her head and asked him the question.

Far away, someone who had been trying to snipe her was rolling on the ground screaming, their upper body scorched by divinity that had sprung up beside them in an instant.

Even more remarkable was how she had controlled it to singe only their clothes, rather than seriously injure them.

Noel frequently displayed something close to divine mastery in manipulating supernatural power, but this woman occasionally demonstrated finesse far beyond even that.

Even the Combat Styles she had learned were geared toward controlling divinity more precisely rather than fighting with weapons.

In that case, someone so well versed in manipulating supernatural power might be able to help.

"... No, it's something I've done before, but now that I've changed the conditions a little, it isn't working."

"Really? How did you do it before?"

"Pardon?"

"What were the circumstances when it worked before? How did you succeed then? Couldn't you try recreating them?"

... Huh.

Aiden blinked at Katya.

It was an obvious approach when he thought about it, but he hadn't considered it from that angle.

'Back then, I definitely...'

It had been an emergency, with a fight looming before him. He had botched the process of communicating with a god to strengthen his supernatural power, contaminating it instead.

And if he wanted to recreate those circumstances, the power he needed to contaminate now was...

-Skill Info

◆ Dharmic Power: Savior’s Vow

※ Unique – Only this character possesses this skill!

First Prohibition: Save the World.

Second Prohibition: Protect the Empire’s Subjects – Protect the Powerless.

He narrowed his eyes at the window floating before him.

He couldn't possibly contaminate the first prohibition right now, even if he wanted to. At least, nothing happening here was large enough to threaten the world.

That meant he needed to focus on the second prohibition.

Of course, he had absolutely no intention of actually beating up the powerless to contaminate it. He couldn't make a mockery of the wishes the Lord Protector had entrusted to him before departing by doing something like that.

Which meant he needed a slightly different way to contaminate it...

"..."

Protect the Powerless.

Protect the Powerless, huh...

"Hmm..."

Stroking his chin, Aiden looked toward the inner castle, where Aslan's son Damian would be.

Let's think.

A way to make progressing through Chapter 2 easier, right here and now.

To beat the hell out of a good-for-nothing who had no intention of properly protecting the people under his care.

To raise Grand Duke Aslan's affection as a bonus.

And to contaminate the prohibition placed on his dharmic power...

'... The bastard in there is perfect, isn't he?'

There was a way.

Definitely.