Irritation - Part 2
The absurdity of it all. Time had passed, and the magic power I’d expended wasn’t even that much. My control was far from the worst in the organization, and given the nature of my missions, I was practically a master of covert operations. And yet…
The sun was approaching.
Bathed in golden light, shining like the sun itself, he gazed down at the ground with cold eyes. His hand swept through the air.
A pillar of light slammed down.
A colossal beam of light crashed down without mercy.
-Kuuuung!
The massive pillar of light swallowed him whole. No matter how omnipotent magic power might be, or how unique its properties, its strength inevitably weakened with distance. Yet this beam ignored such logic entirely, crushing him as if the gap were nothing.
“Cough, hack! Cough! Ha… hahaha!”
There was no room for resistance. If only I’d had my magic power—
“Cough! Cough!”
His limbs shattered. The pain that engulfed his entire body gradually dulled into numbness. The burning agony across his skin—whether his nerves had been destroyed or his brain had simply broken from the overload, he couldn’t tell.
From the edge of his fading vision, Number Nine of the Purple faction stared at the glowing monster approaching him. Even if he still had his magic, escape would have been impossible. As expected, Red Blood still couldn’t stand against the nobility. That second son of Franz—Leoric Franz, the one earning fame across the southern territories as the Sun God—was still unawakened. Against a Duke, let alone the Royal bloodline, there was simply no way.
“Heh… hehehehehe!”
Blood surged up his throat and spilled from the corners of his mouth. In his barely functional sight, only the brightly shining something remained visible.
-Clatter.
He removed the bracelet he’d been wearing. A faint sensation of magic power lingered around him. But with the drug he’d taken and these injuries, healing would be nearly impossible. Not that it mattered anymore.
“Sh… shheum……”
The sturdy box he’d kept with great care was almost completely destroyed. Or perhaps the real miracle was that the surrounding area had suffered so little damage despite such an impact?
But because of that—
“Shheum… dog… shi……”
Number Nine. One of the many factions within Red Blood. A high-ranking member of the Purple faction. A noble’s bastard child. A magic power holder.
“The… drug injected into Red Blood……”
People cursed Red Blood for conducting human experiments. But the lust for power wasn’t exclusive to them. The forced breeding decree that Tirson Muller, eldest son of the Muller family, had tried to enforce was no different from human experimentation in the end.
“The… experiment… cough! Was… successful… so… cough!”
He would inject the drug directly into a magic power holder. Using the tiny sliver of magic power that remained, he manipulated it. The spilled chemicals clattered as they slowly moved.
-Crunch!
The vial shattered above Nine’s face, and the liquid poured down.
* * *
“Never let your guard down. When you act, be thorough. Stay cold. Stay ruthless. That is what it means to be nobility, and it is the duty of those who rule this land.”
The falling liquid froze in midair.
I had known from the start. Of course I had. Controlling the battlefield was the fundamentals of combat. Fighting in a favorable location at a favorable time—that was common sense in strategy and tactics. The same principle applied even to personal battles. Creating a battlefield advantageous to yourself. Nobles were no exception. Especially those whose power was influenced by the surrounding environment.
“Cough! Cough!”
The bastard who had tried to accept the liquid coughed violently, spitting blood.
“Ha… hahaha. Incredible. Truly incredible.”
“What’s so amusing?”
I gathered the floating liquid with shards of glass, compressing them tightly with magic power. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but it was clearly something important. I tossed the sealed clump into a corner and looked down at the collapsed man.
Most of his clothes were burned away. His limbs were broken. Half his body was a mess of burns. It was a miracle he was still alive. His condition was so severe he could barely speak. I began healing him just enough to keep him from dying.
“Heh… hehehe. Cough! Isn’t it absurd…? Is this… really a human being…? Aside from having a shape and being able to talk… cough! He’s practically no different from a monster…! Haaack! Cough!”
His faintly open eyes were unfocused. He might not even realize he was looking at me. Still, I stared down at the face turned in my direction. Blue magic power subtly clung to his burned and wounded features. A noble, then. At the very least, he carried the blood of a titled aristocrat. Even Chloe in her current state might have to risk her life to defeat him. Honestly, if he had fled immediately, I might not have been able to catch him.
“So that’s why you hate Blue Blood? Why you hate nobles?”
“Heh… hehehe!”
The man let out a weak laugh at my words. He was drooling, clearly out of his mind. I was considering whether to just drag him away like this when he barely managed to open his mouth again.
“The power an individual possesses… cough! Without any proper procedures… without any real restraints under the name of noble duty… What are we supposed to believe in…?”
“Hmm.”
He wasn’t wrong. The Franz family was strict about such things, but the same couldn’t be said for other houses. In all honesty, if I decided to kill everyone here right now, who could stop me? The other titled nobles in the surrounding territories wouldn’t be able to put up any real resistance until they had proper justification to intervene.
“This place… the southern territories are peaceful… But… cough! All year round! Where snow… falls… cough! What about the north…? The desolate east… where they can’t even grow proper crops…!”
Cough! He vomited blood. It was dead blood. I had restored some of his internal organs. His complexion was slowly improving. But this was the limit. Proper healing would require a long period of rest.
“They… don’t even know honor… cough! Cruel… and…! Brutal… beasts, all of them! Cough! Cough!”
“Well, I can understand that much.”
After all, while the southern territories were renowned for their abundance, this country’s northern and eastern regions weren’t suited for proper farming. The west had some arable land, but not much. In places like that, it was obvious what people with great power would do. Still, that didn’t justify conducting human experiments on my land. On my people. There was no excuse for that.
“Anyway, just sleep for now. When you wake up, torture awaits.”
“Kuh… heh…! How… amusing… I’ll… endure… as long as I can… you… monster…!”
With those final words, the corners of his mouth twisted into a smile as his eyelids slowly closed. He went limp, his breathing faint and shallow.
I looked around. There were several bags that seemed to belong to him.
-My lord!
A voice calling me from far away reached my ears, along with the gradually approaching presence of people. While waiting for them, I took one last look at the city.
The light was slowly fading. The city was growing dark once more. Several destroyed buildings and injured people came into view.
“……Fuck. Seriously.”
* * *
The emergency meeting was held with only the necessary personnel. Chloe, my escort knight, closest aide, and current acting commander of the knight order. Zeke, another closest aide in charge of internal affairs. Isabel, who served as my assistant and acted as a liaison between Chloe and Zeke. And Triana Muller, the daughter of the former Muller family, now captain of the castle guards and head of the security forces. A few other vassals selected for their competence and loyalty. These were currently Muller’s key figures.
“I don’t know much, but I do know that the more urgent the situation, the calmer one must act. Here, I’ve prepared the tea that my lord prefers.”
“……I see. Thank you.”
Sebastian, the former and current head butler of Muller, moved around the quiet conference room, pouring tea for everyone. He was right. I relaxed my hardened expression and took a sip. The sweet aroma tickled my nose, and I felt my tense body slowly unwind.
“Huu. Yeah. That’s right. The incident has already happened, and we’ve finished cleaning up, so…”
-Clink.
I set the teacup on the desk and let out a sigh.
“We have to get revenge.”
My words filled the quiet conference room. The other vassals, their faces stiff as they looked at me, each took a sip as well.
“How did it go?”
“The rumor has spread that it was a terrorist attack carried out by Red Blood. And that my lord personally resolved the situation.”
I nodded at Chloe’s report. It wasn’t the best solution, but there was no way to hide the fact that I had stepped in myself. The ideal outcome would have been for the knights to handle it without any civilian casualties, but…
“What about the rat?”
“We’ve captured and detained him.”
Zeke continued while examining the report.
“However, it seems the rat didn’t possess any critical information. He was probably just bait.”
“And that guy?”
The lunatic who had tried to use himself as a human experiment in the final moment. I had ordered strict surveillance, but—
“He is currently undergoing healing. His physical condition was too poor for immediate torture, so we are monitoring him while healing him. The knights are taking shifts to guard him.”
“His body may not be normal, but he possesses Duke-level magic power. His tenacity is also strong. Treat him as a madman and maintain absolute vigilance.”
“Yes. Understood. I will make sure everyone is warned.”
Zeke nodded at my words and opened another document.
“Finally, regarding the monster… According to Miss Sasha, the creature that showed traces of humanity has also been imprisoned and is under surveillance. It has been confirmed to possess the property of nullifying magic power.”
Magic nullification, huh. I had suspected as much. The real problem was that this was an artificial power created by Red Blood. So the true nature of that ominous magic power was the ability to nullify magic?