Chapter 75
Chapter: 75
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 75
>Chapter Title: Eruption Verdict (6)
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>It had been less than two months since Prince Mores awoke from his fever.
His appearance had changed so dramatically during that time that it was like he had been reborn, and since he had secluded himself in the Pearl Palace without ever venturing out, hardly anyone knew what this infamous wastrel prince actually looked like.
On top of that, he was dressed in shabby rags, draped in an old cloak that didn't even fit him properly.
Even if he had honestly declared his identity right there, the capital guards probably wouldn't have taken him seriously.
The problem was that the prince himself showed no intention of doing so.
"I've given you a proper warning, so anything that happens next is on you. Now then, let's hear what you were doing here."
Thud.
As the prince took a step forward and spoke, one of the guards flinched at the inexplicable pressure and involuntarily stepped back.
"Didn't I tell you? We're on official duty, so get lost while I'm being nice..."
"Shut up, you—the ones doing the hitting. The one getting hit is the one who answers."
The prince shot a glance at the guard awkwardly shouting with his half-drawn sword, then turned his gaze to Karmen.
"Can you speak?"
Karmen spat out a glob of blood-mixed saliva before replying.
"...Yes."
"Good. Then tell me, Sir Karmen. What was happening here?"
"The capital guards..."
He never imagined he'd end up snitching to this Prince Mores of all people.
But rotten or not, right now, the prince was the only lifeline thrown to Karmen.
"The capital guards are dragging every rash patient in the capital straight to the Heresy Tribunal. Under the pretext of the Devil's Curse! I was simply transporting a patient whose condition had worsened urgently to a clinic, but these guys stopped me..."
At that, the prince's eyes shifted to the man Karmen was shielding.
He clearly had no idea who the transformed man was.
"Who's that? The one in critical condition?"
"......"
The prince stared at the man for a moment, then nodded to himself as if suddenly realizing something.
"Yeah. Gray Plague patient. The Loperum egg is still alive inside, so we need to extract it fast."
With that, the prince approached Karmen at a leisurely pace.
The guards, who had seemed like an insurmountable wall to him, parted ways hesitantly as the prince drew near.
It wasn't just the odd intimidation radiating from the prince; they sensed something off from the exchange between the two men.
It was an utterly surreal scene.
The prince showing up at this desperate moment.
Overwhelming the air here with his mere presence.
And so, Karmen found himself shouting something at the prince he never would have in normal times.
"Your Highness! This patient... this man was once the captain of the Imperial Guard knights. Please, keep him out of the Heresy Tribunal's hands...!"
"......"
"Please help him! Save him!"
This man doesn't deserve to fade away like this!
At the very least, you—you of all people—cannot turn a blind eye to him!
Hearing that desperate plea, the prince replied nonchalantly.
"Yeah. Hold on a sec."
A wave of relief washed over him.
Karmen let out a small sigh, then wondered at himself for it.
Meanwhile, the guards who had beaten Karmen were plunged into confusion.
An Imperial Palace knight? For real?
But a prince? Which prince? And what about the former knight captain?
What's going on here?
Prince Mores declared boldly to them.
"We're taking this patient with us. Step aside and don't interfere."
"...We can't do that. I don't know who you are, but you can't interfere with official duties like this... We're under orders from above to apprehend every rash patient, no matter who..."
One armed knight stammered a response in a trembling voice. He was being extremely cautious, convinced the boy before him was no ordinary person.
The prince nodded readily.
"Is that so? Then you'll need a damn good reason for not following orders."
In an instant, the prince's fist lashed out like lightning.
Crack!
Crunch. An ugly sound echoed as the knight's head snapped to the side, and he crumpled to the ground limply.
His eyes had rolled back white—he'd clearly suffered a concussion from the sudden impact. Above all, judging by that chilling noise, his jawbone was unlikely to be intact.
Before the remaining guards could react with a gasp and assume defensive stances, the prince was already lunging at his next target: the guard standing there with his sword half-drawn.
Clang! The prince swung the walnut crusher in his left hand—still sheathed—like a club to smack the sword aside, then drove his fist straight into the man's face.
Splat! Another breaking sound rang out as the guard clutched his face and collapsed. A considerable amount of blood seeped through the gaps between his fingers.
"Gah! That guy! No, that bastard...!"
"Block him! Whoever he is, stop him!"
Shing. Clang.
The remaining guards drew their swords in unison.
But by then, the prince was charging at another target.
He reversed his grip on the walnut crusher's handle in his left hand, wielding his sheathed sword like a shield to parry the guards' blades. And in the narrowed gap that created, a fist always followed without fail.
Thud! Crack!
The sounds of aura-infused strikes were anything but ordinary.
"What the...?"
Karmen, eyes wide open, couldn't believe what he was seeing.
The prince looked far too proficient in chaotic melees against multiple foes.
He raised his sheathed sword to block a downward slash, then kicked the gut of the man coming from behind.
He deflected a bolt aimed at his shoulder outward, spinning with the momentum to smash down on the nose bridge of another charging from the side.
And they all fairly ate a fist, something breaking on each as they passed out.
Before long, all the capital guards lay sprawled on the ground, save for one armed knight.
"How... how can this...?"
The knight groaned, sword trained on the prince.
No matter how generously he looked at it, the boy's aura activation didn't seem to exceed squire level—yet he'd taken down six capital guards in a blink.
Using nothing but his fists against opponents with drawn swords.
The knight himself was a seasoned aura user well past the seventh layer, but he had no confidence he could move like that boy.
Thud. Thud. As the prince approached, the knight asked in a quavering voice.
"N-no matter who you are... you think you'll get away with this?"
"Don't worry about me. This is probably better for you lot too, right? Don't get reprimanded by your superiors for no reason—just pass out clean here and take sick leave."
"What...?"
"Considering you beat up a knight from my palace without permission, I'd say this is pretty lenient, no?"
A knight from my palace.
Before the knight could mull over the implication, the prince continued in a cold tone.
"So come here nice and easy and let me crack your skull."
"......"
For someone spouting nonsense about smashing his head, the prince's eyes were so calm they bordered on indifferent.
Killing intent devoid of emotion.
Feeling an even greater chill from it, the knight.
"Arrrgh!"
Let out a scream or shout—he couldn't tell which—and swung his sword down at the prince.
Clang!
Aura clashed against aura, a deafening boom that left his head ringing. The knight's eyes bulged as he stared at the scabbard blocking his blade.
He'd poured in his maximum aura, yet a squire's aura withstood it?
With just the scabbard?
Clang!
Sword met scabbard again. The impact felt nearly equal this time too.
"How in the world...!"
Staring incredulously at the point of contact, the knight then noticed the faint haze of outer energy gathered like heat shimmer at the scabbard's center.
Only then did he realize what the prince had done against him.
He wasn't operating aura by the textbook. He was simply scraping together every bit of aura in his body and concentrating it at the point of contact with the sword, compensating for his relatively deficient aura that way.
Clang! No time to be shocked before the third clash, and in that gap, the prince slipped in an elbow strike to the knight's side.
Clank. It didn't do much damage, blocked by the armor.
The other guards had been caught off-guard and taken to the jaw early, but a fully alert armored knight had few openings.
Yet this blow sparked new alarm in the knight. The aura gathered on the scabbard had vanished entirely, replaced by a haze now rising from the prince's right arm.
As a result, a clear dent marked the sturdy steel plate armor.
'...What? That unorthodox aura manipulation? How can he concentrate aura anywhere like that?'
His mind in turmoil, the knight swung down at the prince again.
He braced inwardly for a fourth clash, but the prince, extending his scabbard, suddenly twisted his body diagonally.
The knight's sword grazed past perilously, slicing a long gash through the fluttering cloak hem.
In that instant, the prince stepped forward boldly and raised his left arm.
Crack! The reversed walnut crusher's pommel shot out, slamming into the tip of the knight's jaw. His head whipped back, throwing off his balance as he staggered.
Before his inner ear could recover.
The prince spun a full turn, his outer hand blade whipping into the knight's exposed neck.
Thump! Darkness exploded before his eyes, consciousness flying away.
Clang. Thud! The last knight collapsed with a racket alongside his heavy gear.
Karmen had watched the entire scene without so much as breathing properly.
It had all happened too fast for him to even think of helping.
The prince's martial prowess was downright unreal.
There had been rumors lately among the palace knights about his swordsmanship genius, but was that all? He seemed even more adept with his fists than his sword!
Misinterpreting Karmen's dazed expression somehow, the prince scratched his head awkwardly by way of excuse.
"Uh, it's fine. I didn't break any neck bones. No aura on those hits."
"......"
"...It was urgent, you know? No need to stupidly talk things out when violence solves it just fine."
"......?"
Before Karmen could sense anything odd in the words, the prince hurried to his side.
"You got beat good everywhere. Can you walk?"
"...Yes."
"Even so, a knight carrying a patient himself would be tough."
Groan.
Before Karmen could reply, the prince snatched the man from his arms and hoisted him onto his own back. No sign of disgust despite the filth and foul stench clinging to him.
Still a young boy, but thanks to his adept aura use, he didn't look strained. In that state, Prince Mores turned to Karmen.
"You're not broken anywhere, right, Sir Knight? Then walk on your own."
Without waiting for a reply, he strode off toward the main road alone.
Karmen stood frozen for a moment, staring at his back.
Handing over the captain he respected most to the man he'd resented endlessly—it didn't feel real at all.
Was that really Prince Mores?
The man who'd cast out the once-upstanding, esteemed captain was now personally carrying the beggar-like wreck?
No matter how kindly he looked at the boy leading the way, he didn't seem princely.
The dusty old cloak was just standard knight supply issue, and peeking from beneath the long-torn hem were unmistakably pajamas.
Yet it was strangely convincing now.
That person really was a prince.
'No, what am I even thinking...?'
Karmen shook his head vigorously and staggered after Prince Mores.
As they hurried toward the Imperial Palace, the prince peppered Karmen with questions about the situation so far.
"So you were headed to the palace clinic?"
"Yes. I figured once we got there, somehow..."
Karmen trailed off.
Considering how the Heresy Tribunal's guards blanketed the entire capital, he now doubted if that would have worked.
An order from someone able to mobilize on this scale might not spare even the palace clinic.
"Yeah. I think avoiding that place is smart too. But seriously, how did things get this bad? What the hell is the Holy Emperor doing...?"
Muttering something profoundly irreverent, the prince paused, then veered into a random alley.
"Where to now...?"
"Quit yapping and follow. This way's faster."
"...Pardon?"
After walking a bit, the prince glanced around, gauging something, then turned toward the opposite direction from the palace.
Having seen this happen several times already, Karmen felt too tired to even ask anymore.
Then a thought crossed his mind.
'Come to think of it...'
They'd encountered remarkably few guards so far.
Was the prince deliberately avoiding them? No way?
"Yeah. Avoiding contact as much as possible for now."
The prince nodded as if it were obvious to Karmen's unspoken question.
'...How?'
Karmen didn't know the prince's senses were sharper than a senior knight's.
Nor that a detachable short-range navigation system existed in his head.
"But if we're skipping the palace clinic, where to?"
"Hmm. Somewhere the Heresy Tribunal can't touch, I suppose?"
"But if they've taken even the palace clinic, no clinic in the capital can be trusted."
"True. But I know at least one place they absolutely can't reach."
"Pardon? Where...?"
The prince turned to Karmen with a playful smile.
"The Pearl Palace."