The Hero's Nemesis
Goddamn it.
They drag me out in the middle of the night, I show up, and then they make me wait an hour. On top of that, they separate me from Kaits—the only person here I can actually talk to—and don't even give me anything to pass the time. So I just sat there staring at the wall like an idiot for a whole hour.
And as if that wasn't enough, these bastards posted a bunch of stern-faced knights around me like I was some kind of criminal. Probably figured if they left me alone I'd just doze off. I did end up nodding off anyway.
An hour later, a bunch of what looked like civil officials came in, bowing and scraping like they were terrified of pissing me off. I decided to hold off on getting angry and just followed them to the audience chamber. The atmosphere in there was anything but normal. And what the hell? Treason and terrorism charges?
So they really were treating me like a criminal. Son of a bitch.
Fuck these bastards.
Fine. Whatever. If they're gonna slap a treason label on me for whatever reason, then I'll just go ahead and commit some actual treason.
"Your Majesty!"
"Father!"
Father?
Oh, right. That prince I only saw once before. Back then he came with Asita's boyfriend—what's-his-name, Medeus or something—and it already put me in a foul mood.
"...It's fine."
The king raised a hand and stopped the officials from moving.
"? What the hell?"
The king's face looked completely fine. Like my punch never even landed. Looking closer, I noticed a mage in flashy robes and a knight in equally ornate armor standing beside him, each holding up a staff and sword respectively.
So the royal palace does have some competent people after all. Or maybe my senses are just completely shot right now.
"......"
My body was trembling even though I'd only swung my arm once. The scars Nanar left on me were worse than I'd thought.
"Look at that insolent wretch! What are the royal knights doing?!"
At the prince's shout, the stern knights all drew their swords at once.
What about me? I'd already had my sword confiscated at the entrance because "you can't bring weapons before the king" or some bullshit. I should've seen this coming.
I watched the dazzling armored figures closing in on me. The royal knights. Probably the second-strongest force in the kingdom after the Ten Great Families' private forces. Their auras definitely felt more refined and powerful than the direct knights of the Ten Families.
...This is bad.
I felt cold sweat running down my cheek. Because even though my body was wrecked right now, these guys still looked like complete pushovers to me.
Objectively speaking, they were strong. Even at full strength I wouldn't have beaten them easily. But after fighting Nanar, they just looked pathetically weak. The real problem wasn't now—it was later. If even real threats started looking like fodder, I'd get careless. I needed to get a grip. Seriously.
"Stay where you are."
The king spoke in a dignified voice. Last time he'd acted like everything was a hassle, so why was he playing the dignified ruler today? He snorted when he saw me frowning.
"How absurd."
"What is."
"What?"
Why did he look surprised? Did he think I wouldn't drop the formal speech just because I tried to smash his face in? I wasn't the one feeling absurd here.
"Listen here, you bastard. Before I kill you, let me ask one thing."
"H-How dare you speak so insolently!"
"Your Majesty, give the order and we'll make him kneel immediately."
What the hell were these idiots saying? Still, I was a civilized person, so I decided to clean up my language for the sake of conversation.
"Why the hell are you doing this to me? What exactly is this treason and terrorism nonsense, you incompetent bastard?"
Ah, shit. My real thoughts slipped out at the end.
The king opened and closed his mouth a few times before smiling.
"We know everything."
"Know what."
"This—"
"Everything that happened in the Sea God's Cave was all a scheme orchestrated by Viscount Dre!"
The king spoke with such grandeur. ...Scheme? Orchestrated? Was he seriously making a pun right now? I needed to make sure I never ended up like that.
"What scheme?"
"You claimed to have stopped an ancient beast."
"...? Ah. Well. Yeah, I guess."
An ancient beast... Right, that monster that had been sealed next to the Water Dragon. The poor thing got one-shot by Mullin and Reina.
"But according to what we've heard, you were the one who awakened that beast in the first place."
"...?"
Ah. Was that true? I did open the hidden location of the Water Dragon, so it wasn't completely wrong. But there were people like Makia and Reina who openly tried to sabotage the preliminaries. Why pin this on me?
"Furthermore, among those who came to disrupt the preliminaries were beings from another world calling themselves transcendents. One of them is apparently acting alongside you even now."
"What bullshit..."
Oh, right. To the people of Elunar, "transcendents from another world" just meant high-ranking users. Reina had been hospitalized in the same place as me. They must be talking about her.
......
Still, this was a ridiculous accusation.
"Forget the terrorism for now—what about the treason? All I've done is fight against enemies."
"Still playing innocent?"
The king pointed at me with his finger, eyes narrowing sharply. I really wanted to rip that finger off.
"We've already investigated everything. After subjugating the beast in the Sea God's Cave, you declared you'd play god and establish your own kingdom. An act that angers both heaven and earth."
"......?"
What the fuck was he talking about? Establish a kingdom...? That sounded like way too much work. Why would I do that? Poseid might've said something similar though.
"It seems you intended to call yourself a god and secretly gather forces to build your power. But you overlooked the fact that even among shameless parasites like yourself, there are those with some conscience. We heard from such a person that you planned to play god and create a new kingdom. If that's not treason, what is?"
"......"
"Do you have anything to say in your defense?"
Way too much, actually. But one thing was certain: this bastard was going all out trying to frame me. The words "god" and "beast" had actually been used, but if they investigated even a little, the truth would come out. Instead, they were twisting everything to suit their narrative. They obviously didn't actually believe I committed treason or terrorism. They were pressuring me because they wanted something... And the fact that they were doing this so openly, knowing it could backfire later, meant they had some method to keep me in check.
They'd probably prepared some kind of witness to make the frame-up more convincing too. "Among the shameless parasites, one with a sense of justice"... Who were they talking about? The Graise family?
"It seems the Graise and Harte families were in league with you as well. We respected them as the founders of this nation, yet this is truly heartbreaking."
So not the Graise family. If it had been Leor, I would've gone straight to kill him, which was a bit disappointing. Then who? The king had previously given me shit because of his agreement with Poseid, right? But Poseid wanted to do business with me. There was a very slim chance this was her scheme—using this incident to offer me help and earn my gratitude. But she wouldn't want to risk getting caught moving behind the scenes...
The king might have connections with other users besides Poseid. For example, that guy with mind-reading abilities who orchestrated this incident. But would he really use such a sloppy method? If I started suspecting everyone, there'd be no end to it. I should probably assume that some participant or judge in the preliminaries had caved under the king's pressure.
Anyway, no matter how much I thought about it, there was only one thing I could do. I smirked and spoke.
"First, one thing."
"?"
"I'm not a citizen of this country. Even if I did build some tiny kingdom somewhere like Your Majesty said, how would that be treason?"
"How dare you!"
"That insolent—!"
Why the hell were these idiots getting worked up? I needed to stay calm. Hold it in until I could explode all at once.
"You are a viscount of this nation."
"So what? I'll just throw the title away."
"Hmph. You madman."
What the fuck did you just say? I glared at him, but the king just smiled leisurely.
"If you hadn't tried to put down roots in our Entiaere Kingdom, we wouldn't have needed to stop you."
So they were determined to frame me no matter what.
"Forget your so-called witness. Request cooperation from everyone who was in the Sea God's Cave and investigate the full story. Then this ridiculous tale will fall apart, won't it?"
"All we need is your confession. Why would we do that?"
"...Haa."
Let's think calmly. What was this bastard so confident about? The same guy who'd been watching the Ten Great Families' reactions. Had the Ten Families cooperated with him? Either way, it was clear the king had been holding a massive grudge against the Ten Families. The fact that foreign forces had infiltrated the preliminaries was obviously due to their negligence in management.
But no royalty had participated in the tournament, so that wasn't much of a justification. He probably wasn't seriously trying to take down the Graise and Harte families—just wanted them to stay quiet this time. So his real target was me? Did he think I was an easy mark? I was an instructor at Pryunar Academy, for fuck's sake. Was he underestimating me just because I was a user from another world? That pissed me off.
"I don't think we need to talk anymore."
Why bother talking when I had perfectly good fists? You disgusting parasite. I'll rip out your guts until you beg for mercy. The moment my eyes burned with that thought, the entire structure of the room—the audience chamber—changed.
Magic circles covered the walls and ceiling, and an incredible pressure filled the space.
"What is this?"
"A spell designed to suppress insolent wretches like you."
The king smiled while cracking his knuckles leisurely.
"In this space, the power of outsiders is restricted, and attacks manifest according to our will. The flow of time is the same, and wounds heal quickly."
"You're going to torture me?"
The king paused at my blunt question before smiling again.
"We know you're the type who gets arrogant relying on your meager strength. But will you even be able to use your power in this space? Can you even fight to begin with?"
In short, this place was like a mental realm. Though compared to a world that made the caster practically a god, it was more like a cheap knockoff. Still, being able to activate something like this was impressive. No wonder he was so confident with thirty or so skilled knights and this space. Plus, he seemed to know I was weakened—probably from learning that Reina was hospitalized at one of the Ten Families' facilities.
I see. So he planned to subdue and force me into submission first. Through torture or whatever else.
"Ha."
I let out a dry laugh. My body might be weak, but my understanding of techniques had skyrocketed. What I meant was, while the spell creating this space was sophisticated and powerful... I could break it whenever I wanted.
But interpreting my laugh as something else, the king clasped his hands together leisurely.
"However, we are magnanimous."
"......"
"If you swear an oath, we'll reduce your punishment."
Reduce, not remove? How ridiculous.
"An oath forced on someone loses its effect the moment it's coerced."
"Of course, we'll add various other restrictions. Things like a collar that explodes if you refuse, or spells that destroy your body's structure... There are many methods."
"......"
"Beasts like you need a leash. Why? Do you have complaints? Then defeat our knights and overcome us."
"Ha..."
"You can't, can you?"
Hahahahahahahaha. A seemingly hearty laugh that mocked me echoed through the room.
"A wretch like you claiming to be a god and a hero... How utterly laughable. We cannot hide our dismay that so many ignorant citizens praise someone like you. But there are at least a few citizens who see you for what you truly are. We will stop you in advance and—"
I walked forward. The king stopped speaking and raised his eyes.
"...What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm going to fight."
"What? Have you gone mad?"
"Yeah. I have, you bastard."
At my curse, the knights raised their swords. Looking closely, except for a few, most of them had expressions that said "What the hell is going on?" or were just standing there awkwardly. Actually, that had been the case the whole time. Except for a few knights, most didn't understand the situation and had only drawn their swords to protect the king. What did that mean? Even the royal knights hadn't expected the king to pull this kind of bullshit. More precisely, a few knew the king's intentions and were actively participating. The rest looked confused.
A dry laugh escaped me. Plus, now that I looked, the actively participating knights were even shooting glances at their colleagues. Even the knights under their command weren't unified in opinion.
Queen Aniris probably didn't know about this. If she had, she wouldn't have stayed silent. Good. I didn't want to kill her husband in front of her and hear her resentment.
When I didn't stop walking, the king's eyes burned with rage.
"This is the height of ignorance. You receive the kingdom's grace yet show no gratitude!!"
"What are you even saying? So why the hell are you doing this?"
What the fuck did I ever do to you, you bastard? But instead of answering, the king pointed at me with his finger. Swords and spears floated around him.
"Fine. If you insist on tasting pain, then pain is what beasts like you need for training."
Listen here. My body might hurt, but that doesn't mean I can't use Runar. And it's not like I don't have a sword either. I first raised my hand and created a Severing Sword with my blade hand.
"You truly wish to drink the cup of punishment! So be it!"
Bang bang bang! Spears shot toward me from all directions with missile-like force. I slowly lowered my hand, decomposing and destroying the mana that formed the spell.
Uuuung...
A surprisingly quiet sound rang out as the spears and magic circles disappeared. Shock filled the king's eyes.
"What?!"
"Your Majesty! Fall back!"
"Don't worry. We're here."
The knights who were extremely proactive in this matter... about four of them. Okay. I could kill those bastards. But first, let's see if they can block this like last time.
Space Sword, fist version.
As expected of the elite of the elite, they noticed the Space Sword they'd never seen before and took defensive stances. Though I hadn't aimed it at them.
Thud!
"Kehak!"
"Huh?"
A confused sound escaped my mouth. I'd aimed for the king, but a knight went flying with blood foaming at his mouth. It didn't feel like he'd thrown himself to take the hit either. ...Don't tell me he took damage in the king's place? Was there a spell like that?
"Y-You!! Are you committing treason right now?!"
The king shot up from his throne. What a ridiculous bastard. He'd just accused me of treason, and now he was surprised? I gladly smiled and flipped him off.
"Yeah."
"W-What...!"
"You're dead today."
As I strode toward him, the king's face grew increasingly pale.
"W-What are you all doing?! Stop him immediately...!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
"Surround him!"
The knights surrounded me. I was wondering whether to cut down the ones who still looked uncertain when—
"Please stop, Your Majesty!"
At the powerful female voice, the knights' faces lit up. Displeasure crossed the king's face, and I swung my fist.
Heaven-Splitting Fist. Crushing Fist. Rending Fist.
All of them were incredibly destructive strikes. I targeted the legs, necks, and collarbones of the knights who tried to stop me first, and they screamed as they collapsed.
"What...!"
Just as the king let out a startled gasp, Uuung. My fist tore through space and struck him square in the solar plexus.
BOOM!
"Kheheek...!"
The king was sent flying from his throne and rolled across the floor. So there really were only four of them. I smiled in satisfaction at the result matching what I'd sensed. Soon the king started vomiting.
"Uwek! Uweeeek...!"
Smiling with satisfaction, I cracked my knuckles.
"This is just the beginning, you bastard."