The Archduke and the Archmage
In the Empire, among ordinary folk, there was a story that occasionally made the rounds. Who was the strongest person in the Empire? With so many powerhouses scattered across the land, it made for excellent gossip. Among the names that came up, the Archmage and the Sword Saint were mentioned most often.
The Archmage rarely ventured outside, but his magical achievements and accomplishments were widely known. As for the Sword Saint, he was a being so close to the god of the sword that it was only natural for him to be considered one of the strongest. Yet some people would say something else—that the Northern Archduke was the true strongest.
Most simply laughed it off. The Archduke’s prestige was nothing to sneeze at, but when it came purely to raw combat ability, the general consensus was that the other two ranked higher. The first mage in the Empire to reach the realm of Archmage. A legendary swordsman who had become the god of the sword and a seeker of enlightenment. Compared to those two, the Archduke naturally looked rather shabby.
But it wasn’t a story to be dismissed with mere ridicule. For the people who had guarded the barren, harsh northern lands for hundreds of years, their bloodline power had been passed down and accumulated generation after generation. That steadily built-up strength had nearly reached its critical point with the current Archduke. Naturally, the present Archduke boasted overwhelmingly superior power among all the Archdukes in history.
He might be holed up in the North, protecting it and slaughtering barbarians, but his might could never be ignored. The proof was right here. Even though he had burst into the Magic Tower’s territory with a tremendous roar, none of the mages around him could do anything about it. Quite simply, his presence and aura alone were crushing everyone in the vicinity.
No matter how much individual differences there might be, the fact that even the elite mages of the Magic Tower couldn’t lift a single finger was clear evidence of the Archduke’s overwhelming dominance.
“Come out!!! You damn bastard!”
A voice loud enough to shake the entire Magic Tower rang through the air. The Archduke’s mind was filled with only one thought: to personally crush the bastard who had stolen his daughter.
And as if answering his call—
“The guy who barged into someone else’s house uninvited sure has a loud damn voice.”
The Tower Master, Leon, was slowly walking toward him.
The moment the Archduke saw Leon’s face, which was filled with irritation, his own expression twisted like a malevolent demon.
“You bastard! How dare you take my daughter!!! Do you really think you’ll get away with it?!”
“When did I ever take her?”
“Are you really going to play dumb?! I’ve already heard the entire situation!”
“Sorry, but I’m the one who received the confession. From your oh-so-great Archduke’s daughter, no less. You know what she said? That she’d devote her entire life to supporting me. She even said she wouldn’t mind being a concubine. If anything, I’m the victim here, you know?”
He called himself the victim, but the obvious sneer hanging on Leon’s lips said otherwise. The face that mixed superiority from the fact that the daughter the Archduke cherished so much had chosen him made the Archduke’s expression distort like a wrathful evil spirit.
Soon, a roar like a massive beast burst from the Archduke’s mouth.
“You baaaaastaaaard! I’ll kill you with my own hands!!!”
With a thunderous boom that shook the ground, the Archduke kicked off the earth. As if to make the man who dared try to take his beloved daughter taste bitter defeat, an axe the size of his own body tore through the air along his massive arm.
“As expected, that hot-headed personality of his hasn’t changed at all.”
Even as the axe flew straight at him, Leon didn’t bother blocking it. There was simply no need.
CRAAAAAACK!
The axe swung with all its might stopped dead right in front of his nose. Hundreds of layers of protective barriers wrapped around Leon and shielded him.
Immediately after, at the tip of Leon’s fingers, a vast wave of mana gathered in the form of electric current, scattering blue particles.
[Bolt]
A spell born from pure will alone, without even needing an incantation, moved violently in his hand. The condensed fist of magic then shot toward the Archduke’s solar plexus.
It was too late to block. Or so Leon had judged.
But in that instant, the Archduke’s left hand blocked the outstretched hand aimed like a single point. At the same time, he concentrated all his power into that one point.
KWAAAAANG!
The Archduke’s body was sent flying from the powerful impact, but Leon’s expression wasn’t pleased at all. He knew that in that single moment, the Archduke had executed a near-perfect defense. Of course, he couldn’t have fully absorbed the shock, but Leon also understood just how absurd the action the Archduke had forced in that fleeting gap truly was.
A monster. The word fit him perfectly. It wasn’t for nothing that he was called the guardian deity of the North.
But did that mean the monster was stronger than him?
If asked, Leon could say with absolute certainty—no.
The only way to calm down that insane monster is one thing.
Just crush him from the front. For an opponent who fought with such raw ferocity, the best response was to overpower him with even greater frontal force.
Therefore, from beginning to end, Leon had no intention of dodging.
BOOM!
The Archduke, who had been slammed into the ground, rose again. His next action was another charge. This time even faster than the first, the axe swung with clear murderous intent.
“I will definitely kill you with my own hands!”
As if determined to kill the bastard who had taken his daughter no matter what, the momentum that seemed capable of shattering even the barriers hammered at Leon relentlessly. Though each strike was blocked by the barriers, the once-solid shields were gradually being peeled away.
Leon clicked his tongue at that obsession, but—
“Stop throwing a damn tantrum and behave yourself.”
He wasn’t about to just stand there and watch the attacks. With a single snap of his fingers, magic circles unfolded.
Countless magic circles surrounding the area connected with one another.
Illus
Eight gray rays of light shot out from the unified magic circle toward the Archduke. Even though he could clearly dodge them, the Archduke didn’t. He simply swung his axe as if to crush the mage before his eyes. It was a maddened action, but Leon had already accounted for this much.
“You should’ve dodged.”
The moment Leon finished speaking, the rays that reached the Archduke instantly transformed into steel chains and acted as powerful restraints. The magic Leon had created, Illus, might look like an attack spell on the surface, but it was the opposite. It was actually a sealing spell that bound the opponent’s physical abilities and mana.
No matter how strong the Archduke was, he wouldn’t be able to escape easily. That was supposed to be an undeniable fact.
But Leon had overlooked one thing.
To a daughter-obsessed father, a daughter was sometimes a being that could make him surpass even his own limits.
And right now, in the Archduke’s eyes, Leon was perceived as a wicked piece of trash trying to steal his daughter away.
Therefore, even though all his abilities had been sealed, the Archduke performed the miracle of breaking free using nothing but pure willpower. Leon had just confirmed that there were no limits to a father who had a daughter.
“I’m not an idiot. You think I’d just stand by and watch?”
Suddenly, Leon’s kick shot out and slammed hard into the Archduke’s head. Thanks to body reinforcement magic, his physical abilities had become much lighter. A short breath, followed by a barrage of strikes. Fists flew without pause, hammering the Archduke.
BOOM!
The bizarre sight of a mage overpowering an Archduke in close-quarters combat. Anyone who saw it would be shocked, but there was no reason a mage couldn’t engage in melee. In fact, a mage needed to be capable in close combat. If they became completely helpless the moment an opponent closed in, they’d be utterly useless.
Mana flowed into the endlessly flying fists. When the electric current-wrapped strikes shook the very ground—
Leon stopped his assault and looked at the Archduke before him. The once-mighty Archduke’s body was now covered in blood.
“You damn… bastard…”
He reached out a hand, but the accumulated damage finally knocked him unconscious.
Looking at the fainted Archduke, Leon patted his own shoulder.
“Man, what a nasty temper.”
Completely forgetting that he had been the one to provoke him, Leon clicked his tongue, then hoisted the collapsed Archduke onto his back and headed inside the Magic Tower. Setting aside the minor details, he needed to treat him first.
After calling the resident healer inside the Magic Tower to treat the Archduke, it only took a single hour for the man to open his eyes. Considering how thoroughly Leon had beaten him to a pulp to stop his resistance, it was an absurd recovery speed. What a monster of a man.
Just as Leon was thinking that—
“You bastard! Come out and fight me again! I’ll definitely beat you to a pulp this time!”
The Archduke, who had somehow fully regained consciousness, shouted at him with spit flying everywhere.
Rather than replying, Leon ignored him. Because there was someone in this room who could handle the Archduke far better than he could.
“Father.”
A voice as cold as the bitter chill of midwinter. The Archduke’s head turned stiffly toward it. The moment he saw his daughter, his face froze solid.
“P-Pirna.”
“How did you find out and come here, Father?”
“W-well, you see… I just wanted to check if some scoundrel was trying to take my precious daughter away.”
“I see. So that’s why you openly invaded someone’s territory and started a fight? It’s a good thing Sir Leon subdued you immediately. I’m truly curious what kind of damage would have occurred if Father had gone on a rampage. Don’t you agree?”
“P-Pirna…”
The Archduke was completely overwhelmed by Pirna’s icy demeanor. It was obvious he had no idea what to do. He really was a daughter-obsessed fool.
His overprotectiveness is definitely a problem.
From the moment Pirna had been shouting at the Magic Tower’s main gate, Leon had suspected the Archduke would come charging in quickly. But seeing it in person was even more astonishing. Traveling from the North to here should have taken nearly a month, yet he had somehow arrived in just a few days. He must have known for a while and set out immediately.
“Father, do you hate the idea of me getting married? Or do you want me to live alone for the rest of my life?”
“T-that’s not it…”
“If that’s not it, then why did you come all the way here and cause such a scene?”
“I-I’m sorry…”
The Archduke subtly averted his gaze. Being such an extreme daughter-obsessed father, he simply couldn’t win against his own daughter.
“Father. I’ll ask you just one thing. Do you truly wish for me to live alone?”
“Of course not.”
“Are you going to deny even your daughter’s feelings?”
“…That’s not it either.”
“I see. I understand your intentions clearly, Father.”
Finally nodding, Pirna declared in a resolute voice.
“Then I will marry Sir Leon.”
“What?”
Without paying any attention to the Archduke’s reaction, Pirna naturally linked her arm with Leon’s. Seeing the Archduke’s horribly twisted face, Leon felt the urge to mess with him a bit more, but the moment didn’t last long.
He gently pushed Pirna’s forehead away and spoke to both of them.
“First of all, let me say it again. I have no thoughts of marriage or dating right now. Honestly… it’s not that the idea doesn’t appeal to me at all. But no matter how much I think about it, I’m just not that interested.”
After this incident, he realized something. He really loved magic. Right now, all he could think about was researching magic from start to finish.
A look of relief flashed across the Archduke’s face, while Pirna’s expression darkened noticeably.
“Well, maybe it’ll be different later on.”
In that single instant, both their expressions changed completely. Their transparent reactions made a small chuckle slip from Leon’s lips.
“For now, I have no thoughts on the matter, so you should all go back. While you’re at it, take this chance to have a proper father-daughter talk after so long. And Pirna, even though that Archduke caused a mess, he did it because he was thinking of you. Don’t hate him too much. It’s annoying, sure, but he came running because he was worried about you. It’d be wrong to only say harsh things to him.”
It might not be something an orphan without parents should say, but—
“You’re incredibly blessed, so treat your father well. Instead of worrying about me. If the time comes, I’ll seriously consider it. Got it?”
“…Yes.”
Pirna bowed her head slightly. Leon patted her head a few times.
“Then I’ll go do some research. Leave on your own when things calm down.”
Waving lightly, Leon left the area.
Ah, I need to hurry back to the lab and start making that new spell.