The People of Blue (3)
At a single word from Isaac, every breath in the main hall died away. Shuri, standing beside him, froze solid.
…I knew that little bastard would pull something like th… no, honestly, I didn't! Who could've guessed he'd open his mouth with zero backup like that?!
Indeed, the other Eshuas were all staring at Isaac as if questioning his sanity. Confusion, fear, sheer disbelief — the kind of shock and awe you'd feel watching someone drag down a person absolutely no one was supposed to touch. Of course, Isaac himself had no appreciation for any of those stares.
And right on cue, Noel's expression hardened ugly as he turned on Shuri.
"Shuri Eshua. What the hell have you been doing instead of teaching him? What exactly is your job?"
The venom in his voice drained the color from Shuri's face. It was only natural — Noel was Shuri's eldest uncle. Defiance was unthinkable to begin with, but more than that, there was the question of what kind of being this man was within House Eshua.
The one who trains the Saintesses of Eshua.
Going by Rillai's accounts alone, he sounded like a degenerate, but he hadn't been touted as a future head of the family for nothing. A face carved to perfection, and on top of it — strength, social graces, eloquence, combat, intellect, even divine arts. His abilities were effectively 9th Tier; given the Cardinal secret arts like Rillai had received, he'd have made a flawless Cardinal.
Shuri too had been raised under Noel as a child, back before Isaac started grinding him underfoot. In a word, Noel was the one who kept the household's children in line. Everyone — Shuri very much included — had every reason to fear him.
That brat of theirs is dead now.
Shuri's finished too.
Just as expected, Rillai noticed Shuri's terror and cut in. "Isaac's education was my responsibility. So…"
But Noel only sneered. "You? Educating him? The same brat who's off gallivanting around trying to hunt down that wretched Skeleton King, what in the—"
"Ooh, brat?"
"!"
At Isaac's snort, Noel looked at his nephew as if doubting his own ears. He wondered if he'd misheard — but no, Isaac was genuinely sneering right at him.
"Why are you messing with Shuri and my uncle, you brat?"
"!"
"If you can't keep your own mouth on a leash and get slapped down by your own nephew, you ought to be embarrassed about it."
Isaac, please!
The ground seemed to drop out from under Shuri. Fine, so the brat had refrained from his baby-talk in front of the other Eshuas — credit where due. But at this point, honestly, the baby talk might have been the safer option. Damn it all…
Yet Isaac simply let out a hollow little laugh. The truth was, there was a very real reason he was pushing this far with such audacity.
Why, you ask?
—The 'Survival' Prayer.
Wow. Never thought I'd see this trigger here.
The Survival Prayer had activated again — right after the Crown Prince. Though this was nothing like the reaction he usually saw. If it had been flashing and sparkling the way it had for the Crown Prince, he'd have been shamelessly schmoozing with a "Your Highness~!" ages ago.
But this was…
Isaac slowly turned cool, frigid eyes on Noel. The exact opposite of a glittering reaction. In Isaac's vision, Noel was shrouded in a thick blackish-red smoke. At a glance it was far too ominous to be mere haze, and something viscous seemed to be dripping from it, thick and foul — unpleasant just to look at.
Isaac knew exactly what that smoke was.
—≪One Who Obstructs Survival≫.
The polar opposite of the glitter of ≪One Necessary for Survival≫, that signal marking an absolute ally in the way a parent is. This was a warning of danger.
Obstructing my survival means they're an enemy. The kind that threatens my life, no less.
It didn't necessarily mean direct hostility, of course. Attempting to erase anyone or anything connected to Isaac's survival — people, possessions, relationships — counted just the same.
Guys like Rillai glow with the usual ≪One Necessary for Survival≫ sparkle, but this one's the reverse.
Well, whatever the case, this one was not someone to get close to. He was an adversary coveting the position of head of the family, so the omen appearing was only natural — though honestly, it was unexpected. Among humans, that omen rarely showed itself at all… and yet two of them had appeared within House Eshua alone?
Isaac looked at Noel, and then at the brown-haired cousin who was glaring at him with festering resentment. Isaac had no fond memories of ≪One Who Obstructs Survival≫. Those beings always took what was precious to him. And though he'd never breathed a word of it to anyone, the Pope, too, had been one of those ≪Ones Who Obstruct Survival≫.
I thought this time might be different. Turns out not.
The Pope he'd met at the Ordination had been wreathed in a violent haze of blackish-red mist. Knowing an enemy made disposal simple in theory, but there was a catch: this danger-warning reaction was tied to causality. Kill a ≪One Who Obstructs Survival≫ without any justification, and that blackish-red fog wouldn't vanish — it would simply pass to someone else, returning as a different shape of threat.
In other words, to dispose of one properly, you had to first manufacture the justification. Which was why, having just hurled curses at his uncle, Isaac smiled sweetly.
The nephew's grin was visibly souring Noel's mood.
A stray stone, rolling in without a clue of its place.
The situation grated on him past all bearing. Naturally — who was Noel Eshua? The most capable man in the household, the one who had single-handedly held the family up amid his worthless brothers. And this Isaac was being floated as heir? Wasn't this nothing more than a stray stone trying to pry out the stone that was already set?
The corner of Noel's mouth twisted. "You never received the training the Saintesses and other children did. That's why you don't know your place."
When Noel flicked his hand lightly, something astonishing happened. Along with shards of light like scattered glass, a black gauntlet materialized over his hand. Everyone flinched at the sight — and the moment Rillai and Benjamin recognized it as combat equipment used for training Saintesses, they lunged to stop him—
BOOM!
"Kgh!"
A torrent of holy power crashed down. Panicking, Shuri shouted in haste. "We apologize! He's not someone you should be fighting!"
"What? Apologize?"
"Lord Noel is the master of Eshua's training, so… kgh!"
At last the vicious holy power slammed into Isaac. It was a pressure strong enough to force even a young Saintess born with a divine body, or hardened holy knights, to their knees—
CLANG!
"!"
Isaac batted the incoming holy power aside. His eyes had gone glacial, as if to say what is this garbage you're shoving in my face?
"Shoving something truly disgusting at me, aren't you."
He had seen at a glance exactly what kind of equipment that was — and exactly how it had been used.
"You trained the people of Eshua? That's not a hobby I'd call admirable."
The words were barely out before Isaac wrenched up a surge of overwhelming holy power.
CRACK!
The force shook the main hall to its foundations, and everyone flinched — but Isaac, eyes blazing, still had his killing intent fixed on Noel.
"A nobody who's never earned it, talking about who trains whom."
Then the radiant wind engulfed Noel's body in an instant—
CRACK-CRACK!
"!"
Both of Noel's arms snapped like kindling. And that wasn't the end of it. Isaac flung the man with his broken arms hurtling far across the hall.
CRASH!
"Uncle!"
"Isaac!"
What on earth did he just do to his own uncle?!
The other Eshuas could only stare at Isaac, wondering what in the world they'd just witnessed. Granted, no one had bothered to intervene — but honestly, they had never once seen Noel go flying like that. No, he wasn't supposed to be the kind of man who could go flying like that! Every child of Eshua had passed through Noel's hands and endured that merciless training regimen, and so the shock ran that much deeper.
In truth, the way several of them looked at Isaac began to change. The ones called Saintesses especially.
For his part, the airborne Noel was scowling. The God of Penal Law? That deity was already powerful by nature, but as the god of enemies, it was devastatingly effective in one-on-one combat. And it was by no means an easy god to handle — yet he was wielding it to this degree?
Isaac, meanwhile, just smiled. "Since my uncle's all bark has finally laid him up with an illness, this nephew will take his leave."
With that, Isaac gave a small bow and turned away — and Noel laughed, ugly with loathing. Maybe I should just kill him right here. They said the boy held the Supreme God's power; he'd wondered how he might put such power to use. But in the end, the brat was nothing but a roadblock. Madness crept into Noel's eyes, turning them glacial.
And the instant Rillai sensed that murderous shift, he drew his sword.
Not a chance.
But at that moment, Noel muttered something — and Rillai, inexplicably, clutched at his chest in agony.
Kgh!
It was as if the man had targeted Rillai's weak point. He didn't let it show, but he glared daggers at Noel all the same. Noel paid him no mind, and this time muttered something while looking at Isaac. At the same instant, Isaac felt his own body change.
!
The Skeleton King's curse that lay upon Isaac's body had stirred. A wry laugh slipped from Isaac's lips.
Ha. So this guy dabbles in cursed arts.
Not that the Fake Skeleton King's curse gave him any sensation whatsoever.
Tried to provoke the curse and make me suffer, did he?
Presumably Noel himself wasn't under the Skeleton King's curse — the man had probably tormented his brothers with gleeful abandon. Isaac weighed his options for a moment… then snickered, for reasons of his own.
Shall we play for a bit?
The moment Isaac's eyes flickered with a chilling gleam, blood burst from Noel's mouth.
"Kgh!"
It was nothing other than Curse Reversal. From Shuri's reactions and the equipment Noel wielded, Isaac had pieced together a rough picture of what this man had been doing all these years.
Let's see you feel a little of that pain yourself.
Having tasted the power of that curse magic firsthand, Noel's eyes went wide. Him? He just cast magic? As one of House Eshua's pillars of strength, Noel felt the wrongness in a heartbeat. Or rather — the truth was that Isaac simply hadn't bothered to hide it.
At once, the look in Noel's eyes changed. I only need to verify it. The very moment Noel began summoning the power of his contracted god, Rillai realized his mistake. No — he's going after Isaac—!
But then—
BOOM!
"!"
Someone sword in hand came down on Noel without mercy, as though crushing him to protect Isaac. A silver-haired man who looked strikingly like Melissa. Rillai's face lit up at the sight.
"Third Uncle!"
At that cry, Isaac's face contorted into an ugh, like he'd bitten into something foul. What? THAT'S the third one?
That's literally a male version of Melissa!
They looked alike to an absurd degree — one glance was enough to trace the bloodline. And so, reluctant as he was, there was no denying why the man resembled Melissa: the sheer scale of the holy power he radiated was on another plane entirely. So much so it was hard to believe he was an Eshua man. No — forget that. He was simply Saintess-tier.
Oh, right — the third uncle was supposedly the once-in-a-generation genius among Eshua's seven sons, wasn't he? Yes! That's it! Wasn't he the one so formidable that even Rillai called himself a mere bug before him? Better yet, the third uncle was his own grand-uncle. Getting close to him was a guaranteed win.
And come to think of it, he had just saved Isaac — so did the man actually care for his kin after all? If so, maybe he could be exploited instead? Perfect. First I thank him, then I get cozy. Then I drain him dry!
Just as the corner of the Eshua family nemesis's mouth curled into a grin—
"…Skeleton King."
Huh?
"You little bastard…. Are you the Skeleton King."
Huh??
"I smell the Skeleton King."
Huh??!!
"Exterminate."
With a voice like murder, the third uncle swept his holy sword up high. The blade arced for Isaac's neck, and he screamed.
YOU INSANE BASTARDS OF HOUSE ESHUA!