You All Heard That, Right?
You all heard that, right? It looks like Shariel got dragged along, but you lot showed up at the perfect time. With no one else around, this is a golden opportunity to beat the shit out of you. And it's the perfect chance to physically make you forget everything you heard about me.
“Ol-Olivia. J-Just now, that was—”
Bam! I cracked all three of them across the skull. Especially Aslan—I put my full strength into it.
“Your Highness! Olivia, what is this insolent behavior!”
Must be the knight family upbringing. Railer, who was still standing after taking my hit, actually had the nerve to get angry.
But what the hell is this? He's daring to raise his voice at me? At me? Has this bastard lost his damn mind?
I kicked Railer a few times.
Crack! Thud!
“Unbelievable! Seriously. Whose fault do you think it is that things ended up like this?”
“Ah, that’s—”
“So shut your mouth.”
Bam! I drove my fist into Railer’s solar plexus and knocked him out cold. You people have no right to say a single word to me. If a person had any conscience at all, they wouldn’t act like this. You three really are nothing but a giant lump of sweet potato. So it’s about time you got turned into candied sweet potato, don’t you think?
Of course, if I look at the Pector situation, I technically achieved my original goal. I met one of the Four Heavenly Kings and defeated him. Since he said he wouldn’t come to the empire, I should have some breathing room for a while.
But that’s that and this is this. What if it had been one of the other Heavenly Kings? So yeah, I should have done this from the start. They need to learn to listen when I talk.
Next up was Shariel. Noble elf bloodline. Ella’s little sister, no less. Additional note: an elf who’s lived for more than half a century. After watching Railer get pummeled, Shariel looked like she was about to faint from shock.
But I’ve got a bone to pick with this girl too.
“Eek! W-Wait! O-Olivia? I r-really, really don’t know anything! This is my first time coming along!”
The way she was frantically waving her hands around looked downright pitiful. If that was all you saw, you might actually feel sorry for her.
“Hmm. Is that so.”
“Everyone said they were going, so what was I supposed to do? Please consider my position too. We’re the same gender, aren’t we!”
Oh, same gender, is it? She talks a good game. I nodded slowly.
Yeah. She had a point. This body is female, after all.
“Same gender, huh. Hmm, all right.”
“Then—”
“If you didn’t want trouble, you shouldn’t have followed that brainless idiot around while giggling like an idiot!”
Thud! I smacked her once. Setting my identity aside, that part pissed me off the most. And because she was Ella’s sister, it made me even angrier for no good reason. Plus, it wasn’t good that she remembered anything about me. The real question was exactly how much she’d heard.
“Ugh. Sob. S-Stop. I don’t know what it is, but I was wrong!”
“First, I’d prefer you lost your memory.”
Bam! I knocked her out with a blow to the head. I’d go easy on her.
Now, next was Aslan. By the time Railer and Shariel were both down, Aslan was completely pale with terror.
Yeah. He probably never imagined I’d actually use this much force.
“Dangerous things should be culled in advance. Or rather, taken care of.”
“O-Olivia. Thank you for saving me. I know I deserved to be hit.”
“Hmmm.”
How should I cook this one? Start by snapping his wrist? Or break his ankle so he can never leave the imperial capital again? Neither option felt quite right.
“O-Olivia. No, wait—what was the other name again? Anyway, calm down first. Please calm down.”
The fact that he was suddenly using polite speech meant he really had heard something. In that case, I couldn’t let him off easily, could I?
“You. What exactly did you hear?”
“No matter what, he’s the imperial prince, so you should—”
This bastard still didn’t get the situation. I stomped down hard between his legs. Aslan’s eyes bulged wide.
“How much did you hear? Spit it out right now.”
“No-Noah. It was Noah.”
Yeah. He’d heard everything. Good thing he was honest. That just meant I had to beat him even harder—hard enough to erase his memories.
Then the answer was obvious. I pulled out the Hourglass of Habel. Now we had twenty-four hours.
Well then, Lord Aslan. Let’s have some fun together—me and my ex-fiancé.
“Now, Lord Aslan. Let’s enjoy our time together, shall we?”
I cracked my knuckles loudly as I approached.
“Wait, Olivia. I was wrong. Violence is not good. The empire is a great nation, but it has never once oppressed its neighboring countries.”
That’s the empire’s business. Why the hell are you lecturing me? Until just recently this bastard was going on about how he was acting for the sake of the emperor’s subjects.
I grabbed Aslan’s forehead and squeezed with all my strength.
Squeeze.
“I am not Noah. I am Olivia.”
“Y-Yeah. V-Violence is not good. Olivia.”
Yeah, violence isn’t good. But what’s even worse is the kind of behavior that invites it. Just don’t do things that call for violence. It’s that simple.
“If you hadn’t been prancing around like an idiot and stirring up trouble until things reached this point, I wouldn’t have had to go through all this damn hardship.”
Bam! I started with a kick. I needed to slowly carve fear into that body of his. Leaving the house means hardship, so please just stay buried in the imperial capital like a good little prince.
From the beginning, even without Pector, this crazy bastard would have had to prepare himself to be killed by all the nobles who fell because of him.
“Cough!”
“Is what I’m saying fucking funny? Hey. Even if you talk shit about the imperial family, you’re still the deposed crown prince, you bastard. Meanwhile, I’m the Imperial Tutor personally acknowledged by the emperor himself. Yet you won’t listen to what I say?”
Thud! Crunch!
This was the first time I’d beaten someone this badly since his sister. It was completely unforgivable. I’ve held back a lot, right? This is fine, isn’t it? I don’t want to feel frustrated anymore. Anyway, the emperor won’t be able to complain about this incident. If anything, it’s an event that put the Ashtar family—who support the imperial family—in a difficult position.
“S-Stop. Isn’t this enough? I was wrong. I won’t go against your words again. Urk!”
I kicked him a few more times. Once, twice, three times. Four times. I didn’t stop. I kept pounding and pounding.
“Please, for fuck’s sake, just stay still, okay?”
“I-I underst— Cough!”
I beat him until his face was a bloody mess. Later I could just say Pector did it. This is all Pector’s fault.
If I felt like it, I’d want to train him properly, but this kind of guy probably wouldn’t improve no matter what. Mental reform? Not even worth considering. If I tried to reform someone like this, I’d start worrying about the empire’s future.
“Well, this much should be enough.”
“Haa. Yeah. L-Let’s end it here.”
Who the hell are you to decide when it ends? Looks like he still hasn’t learned his lesson.
Heal
“Huh?”
“You really think all the resentment I’ve built up until now would end with something like that?”
I’ve held back quite a lot. You need to become a half-corpse at minimum. Even the dead one told me to do it this way.
“I got hit so much!”
“If you don’t like it, you should’ve become the Imperial Tutor instead.”
Whenever he looked like he was about to turn into a bloody pulp, I healed him and started beating him again. Bam! I struck his head hard enough to knock him down.
I laid the three unconscious idiots in a neat row.
“This is the first time I’ve done something like this since his sister. You three are impressive. To make me this angry—you should be proud.”
Then I roughly massaged their brains with my hand. Should I completely destroy Aslan’s frontal lobe? No. That would just break him even more. If he became a total vegetable I wouldn’t care, but this much should be enough to wipe his memory.
It’s fine for them to see me use magic, but the problem was that Shariel’s presence meant she might realize I was Noah.
“What should I do with Pector’s sword?”
After squeezing the brains of the three little rats just enough, I touched Pector’s broken sword. It felt like my flesh was trembling, on the verge of shattering. Even broken, it still carried the aura of despair. If it weren’t for me, ordinary people would have their bodies destroyed just by touching it.
So it’s right for me to keep it, but it still feels uneasy.
“Using it with Sword Magic wouldn’t be bad.”
The pure mana blade created by Sword Magic can be imbued with any attribute. Although it’s made from human mana, it means it can be enchanted just like normal equipment.
“Let’s hold onto it for now.”
It would be best to store it in my inventory. Then the next task was to free the people of Karhem. It was annoying to do alone. I could think up excuses later—maybe it would be better to call the Ashtar soldiers.
For now, I stuffed the three pieces of baggage in a suitable corner and was about to release Karhem’s citizens when—
Whoosh!
My vision flashed, and a black-haired woman appeared. I knew this woman.
“Light Sword Natalya.”
This woman really is fast. And unlike me, it wasn’t teleportation—it was pure physical ability. High-speed movement rather than teleportation, but still.
“Hoo. I run into all the Ashtars here.”
She looked me up and down. It seemed she recognized me. Well, I had been Aslan’s fiancée.
Right now I had something I was curious about from the Light Sword. Where the hell had this woman come from? In the worst case, I might have to take her down too.
“Light Sword? Since when were you standing there?”
Light Sword. Just how much had this woman seen and heard, and from where?
“When doesn’t matter. For now, Karhem is the priority, so shouldn’t we release the residents first?”
“Ah, yes.”
I went around Karhem, freeing the people who had been locked inside the buildings.
“You’re not calling the Ashtar soldiers?”
“Ah, well… it just turned out this way.”
If I’d brought them, they would’ve been wiped out. If the Four Heavenly Kings had launched a serious all-out invasion across the empire, going one-against-a-hundred, the imperial army would have been annihilated. Sending a ducal house’s forces in that situation would have ended everything immediately.
“So you were moving alone from the beginning.”
“Yes.”
Bringing anyone else would’ve just made it the same. Since Natalya was already here, there was no reason to increase the number of casualties. From the start, Pector’s target had been me. It was better for me to handle it alone rather than dragging the Ashtar name into it.
I hadn’t expected to show this side of myself, but… that bastard had even been around my age.
“I don’t know the details, but… was that magic yours?”
“Yes, it was. Light Sword Natalya.”
She looked me up and down again. The gaze wasn’t particularly friendly.
“They certainly said your mana vessel was large from a young age, but… was it to this degree?”
Natalya pointed at the massive hole in the center of Karhem. That idiot had somehow managed to escape from here.
“No. It’s not exactly like that…”
“Interesting.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re a close friend of my disciple, Amelia.”
Huh? Was that how it was? When I returned to the Ashtar main house later, I’d have to look into the imperial princess’s relationships. For now, it was better to play along as if I knew.
“Ah, aah. Yes.”
“She said she wanted to see you sometime. Since she is the imperial princess, even a friend should observe the proper etiquette.”
“Yes.”
That was only natural. They said Imperial Princess Amelia resembled the emperor. In other words, she was a troublemaker. Honestly, in an empire where the council held real power, she was probably better than the stupid Aslan who still dreamed of centralization. But as a friend? I’m already friends with the emperor. Friends with Amelia too? What kind of messed-up relationship would that be?