Elder Respect? Elder Assault
Respect for the elderly? Assault on the elderly.
Albert’s course of action was simple. He called himself a sheepdog. A sheepdog’s duty was to protect the frail, tender lambs inside the fence. Inside that fence, the ones most precious to him were Elena and the nanny. One of those precious people—Elena—had been threatened.
‘Can’t let that slide.’
“Come with me.”
Albert dragged Grandel toward the training grounds. In the other world he would have acted without a care for his surroundings, but this place was different.
‘If the reception room gets smashed, Elena will hate it.’
Grandel struggled desperately to escape Albert’s grip.
‘What kind of strength……’
The hand holding him was so powerful that even when Grandel used mana, he couldn’t break free.
“Gaster.”
“Why do you call me?”
At Albert’s summons, Gaster appeared. He materialized naturally from empty space, as though he had been nearby all along. He wore a yellow suit. Albert, ignoring Gaster’s preferences after the taxi incident, had dressed him exclusively in yellow.
‘That’s Hide magic? I, of all people, failed to detect the mana signature!?’
Grandel could not believe his eyes. He was a 6th-Circle mage. Naturally, he possessed exceptional mana detection, and if magic were cast right beside him he could even identify its type. Yet he had failed to notice magic used right next to him.
‘Mid-teens? At such a young age…… how could he……’
“Cast reinforcement magic over the entire training ground.”
“Reinforcement magic? Over the whole training ground? How bothersome…… but I suppose I must.”
Faced with Albert’s sharp gaze—or rather, his neatly clenched fist—Gaster quickly tucked his tail between his legs. He already knew from experience that getting hit by that fist would hurt even through dragon scales and down to the dragon bone. He had no desire to experience it twice.
‘How annoying. Does he think reinforcement magic is easy?’
Bothersome though it was, what choice did he have? Gaster layered reinforcement magic across the entire training ground so that it would not break under ordinary impacts. Still, the way that fellow Albert was holding kept drawing his attention. The disbelieving stare was strangely irritating.
His crimson eyes shifted into reptilian slits.
“Not averting your eyes? A mere human whelp dares to look at me like that? Shall I gouge those eyes out for you?”
“……”
“Tsk.”
Gaster clicked his tongue irritably.
“It’s done.”
“Fast. I like that.”
Albert hurled Grandel like a trash bag into a dumpster. Grandel tumbled across the training-ground floor several times before rising. His eyes burned with fury at the crude treatment.
Albert crooked a finger.
“Come at me. I’ll show you with your own body what happens when you threaten my little sister.”
“Have you no respect for your elders!?”
“I choose whom I respect. And at my age, I ought to be the one receiving respect.”
“What?”
Grandel furrowed his brow, unable to comprehend Albert’s words.
Adding the ages from both worlds, Albert had long surpassed a hundred. On the surface Grandel looked older, yet in truth Grandel should have been calling Albert “grandfather.”
Of course, Grandel had no way of knowing that. His face remained filled with confusion. The confusion soon hardened into anger once he found an answer.
“Are you mocking me?”
Since he did not know the circumstances, Grandel assumed Albert was ridiculing him. It was a natural conclusion, and Albert had no intention of correcting him. He was going to beat the man anyway; no need to set his thinking straight.
“Come at me.”
“You insolent wretch! I shall teach you proper manners!!”
Mana erupted from Grandel’s body like an explosion. His six circles spun madly, pumping out mana at a furious rate.
‘I was careless earlier, but not this time!!’
Grandel convinced himself that his earlier defeat in the reception room had been due to carelessness. He could not easily accept that he had been bested by a youth who looked barely past twenty. No—he refused to accept it. If he did, everything he was would be denied. The pride of being the disciple of Archmage Hades would not allow it.
“Inferno!!”
A mage prepares. The moment he entered the training ground he had already begun casting. He would not suffer the humiliation of being caught off guard again.
“Rune Player! Wind Blade!!”
He unleashed 4th-Circle spells in rapid succession. Flames born from magic circles on the floor swallowed Albert in an instant. Two more circles near Grandel spat out lances of fire and countless blades of wind.
All three spells struck true. Most monsters would have died, yet Grandel refused to grow complacent.
‘I know you’re strong. With that ridiculous amount of mana, this much won’t be enough.’
“Paur!!!”
Grandel cast a 5th-Circle summoning spell and called forth the fire giant Paur. It resembled a burning ogre.
“Attack!!”
At Grandel’s command, Paur swung a massive fist at Albert. The blow, powerful enough to crush anything it touched, tore through the air toward its target.
‘I will not be careless again.’
Grandel prepared his next spell. He had summoned Paur to buy time for a 6th-Circle spell. As a 6th-Circle mage he could cast anything below that rank without chanting, though the power would be slightly reduced. That did not matter. It was only to buy time. The real attack was the 6th-Circle spell.
‘I will show you the power of a 6th-Circle mage! I will break that arrogance of yours!’
Still clutching the staff he had refused to drop even while being dragged, Grandel thrust it toward Albert. An enormous quantity of mana gathered at the tip, spun rapidly, then compressed. A tiny spark bloomed and became a sphere. The moment casting finished, he shouted the activation word.
“Explosion!”
A blast far beyond a mere explosion struck the exact spot where Albert stood. Paur vanished in the aftermath.
“Huff…… huff……”
Grandel barely kept himself upright using the staff as a crutch. Among 6th-Circle spells, Explosion possessed incomparable range and power. However—
‘The mana consumption is extreme as well.’
The tremendous mana cost that accompanied its might meant a single use left him unable to cast again that day. Yet its power made it perfect as a finishing move.
‘How about that. This should……’
“No matter how strong you are, you couldn’t have survived that. You should have learned to respect your elders.”
He would not die. Grandel had deliberately reduced the spell’s power. The man would be badly injured, but that was his own fault; Grandel felt no obligation to take responsibility beyond that. Now he would understand what happened when one opposed the Mage Guild. If the lord witnessed this, he would bitterly regret his choice.
‘Then, regarding world-class magic……’
That was when it happened. The smoke from the Explosion split cleanly in half, as though cut by something. From within came a voice that should never have been heard.
“Whoa, look at that smoke. What kind of magic produces this much exhaust? Wait, is this even exhaust? No wonder global warming is a problem when spells like this exist. Ah, does that not apply here?”
Grandel’s eyes widened as though he had seen something he should not have. A chill ran down his spine. Gooseflesh rose at the icy grip that seized his heart. His pupils trembled violently, denying the reality before him.
“H-how……”
He barely managed to move his lips. 4th-Circle, 5th-Circle, and even 6th-Circle magic had all struck. Even if the power had been adjusted to avoid death, serious injury should have been unavoidable. Yet Albert stood there without a single scratch. His clothes were not even singed, as though nothing had happened at all.
“My turn now?”
Albert moved. A single gust of wind howled past, and Grandel found himself already caught in Albert’s grasp. He had not even been able to react. Only after being seized did he realize Albert had moved—like time itself had skipped.
‘A monstrous bastard……’
Gaster muttered inwardly at the sight. Even he, a dragon, had missed Albert’s movement just now. He had known the man was a monster, but to be imperceptible even to a dragon……
‘He lives in a different flow of time. Perhaps our one second and his one second are vastly different.’
Even if they both possessed the same one second, the number of actions possible within it was usually fixed. Albert was different. For him, one second possessed a different quality. Or, more precisely, a different depth.
‘I already saw it when he killed the demon race, but there truly is no end to his strength.’
“Even if I became a star dragon, could I win……?”
He could not even imagine it. No—imagining this human losing to anyone was difficult. It was an insolent, forbidden thought, yet—
‘Could Lord…… defeat this monster……’
Boom!
An explosion erupted. Grandel, still held by Albert, had cast magic to escape his grip. Fortunately, he still had mana left. By reducing the power, he had preserved a reserve.
“I am Lord Hades’ disciple! I cannot lose to the likes of you!!”
He forced out his remaining mana and cast spells. Because so little mana remained, most were only 2nd- or 3rd-Circle. Countless spells rained down on Albert.
Albert became a gust of wind once more. The spells flying at him looked flawless, yet Albert saw paths between them. The wind blew. And—
Smack!
A crisp sound rang out as the wind carried it. Grandel’s head whipped to the side. His eyes widened. The stinging pain and shock on his cheek were so great that his lip split and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
He had been slapped.
“……You bastard……”
Grandel’s rage intensified. The humiliation of being slapped by someone far younger than himself burned across his face, turning it red and purple. Sparks flew from his eyes.
“I won’t forgive you!”
Smack!
Before he could even register it, his head snapped the other way.
“If you slap the left cheek, you must slap the right as well. The words of the ancients.”
“……”
“I may not be able to respect the elderly, but I can certainly assault them.”
Albert wore a wicked grin.
“You dared threaten my little sister? You must be insane with a death wish.”
“Fire……!”
“Too slow.”
Grandel’s head turned again. The next instant it swung back the other way. Albert did not stop; he kept slapping. Grandel could not gather his thoughts. Whenever he tried to cast, another slap arrived.
“Kugh!”
No matter how he twisted to dodge, the slaps struck with the inevitability of fate, mercilessly battering Grandel. Overwhelming violence. Even great magic was powerless before overwhelming physical violence.
“How does it feel?”
Albert grabbed Grandel by the collar.
“Being forcibly crushed by someone stronger? That’s exactly what you did to my sister, isn’t it?”
“……”
Grandel’s body went limp. Anyone else might have criticized the brutality, but Grandel had been the one to start the fight. He had invoked the Mage Guild’s name to pressure them. He had flaunted his power with threats and intimidation. Everything was of his own making.
Crash!
Grandel’s body slammed into the floor. The training-ground floor that had withstood 6th-Circle magic now shattered effortlessly beneath Albert’s absurd strength.
“Did you skimp on the reinforcement magic? You should have cast it properly.”
“What? That’s not fair!”
Gaster protested indignantly.
“With that kind of monstrous strength, no reinforcement magic would have held!”
“Looks like I’ll have to pay for repairs. Well, it doesn’t matter. I can just bill the Mage Guild.”
Albert released his grip. He had never intended to kill Grandel, so the man’s body still twitched. He was alive.
“That way he won’t have any excuses next time.”
Albert had met plenty of this type in the other world. People drunk on their own talent or authority rarely accepted defeat easily. They would offer every excuse and justification, clinging pathetically while denying their loss.
‘I was careless, I wasn’t ready, a surprise attack is cowardly……’
“Exactly.”
Thomas had been one of the hunters in the other world, a genius who took pride in his talent. Having grown rapidly thanks to his extraordinary gifts, Thomas kept challenging Albert. Because he refused to acknowledge defeat even after losing, Albert had suffered greatly. It had been maddening. Only after Albert angrily shattered every bone in the man’s body and severed one arm had Thomas finally accepted his loss.
“He’s the same kind. The age gap is a bit different, though.”
“The way to make this kind of human submit is simple. They must feel an overwhelming despair—the realization that even after pouring out everything they have, they still cannot win. Only then will they accept defeat.”
And above all—
“When they realize that everything they poured out still didn’t work, the look on their face isn’t so bad to watch.”
“My part is done.”
Albert’s role ended here. His task had been to show Grandel. To imprint upon him the true strength of House Legrian and the fact that it could not be ignored. What came next was—
“Elena, it’s your turn.”
“I know.”
Elena, who had appeared in the training ground at some point, wore a determined expression. Only one thing remained.
“Let’s squeeze every last drop out of the Mage Guild—compensation for emotional distress, repair costs for the training ground, everything. Thoroughly.”
They would extract everything. And if possible, one more slave would be nice. So Gaster wouldn’t be lonely.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I’ll make you a friend.”
So you won’t be lonely.