The Insult No One Should Dare
One should always hear a person out to the end. “Hand over that fruit!” Bessen declared with absolute confidence, as casually as if he were asking a bank to return money he had deposited. Albert was dumbfounded.
“Why should I?”
“Why should you? You! Do you even know who I am? I am—”
“The second son of Count Febra’s household, Bessen. You already said that.”
“Even knowing that—!”
“Can’t you speak Korean? I asked why I should give you the fruit. Why are you suddenly shouting your family name?”
“How insolent! How dare you show such disrespect even after learning I am from a count’s house! Reveal your identity at once!”
“I don’t want to.”
“What?”
“Why should I?”
At Albert’s reply, Bessen’s expression shifted slightly.
He seems flustered.
“If I revealed my name, then you should reveal yours as a matter of courtesy! Speak at once!”
“Are you interested in me?”
“What?”
“Sorry, but I’m not into men. So scram.”
“What!?”
“I’ll admit you’re handsome. Can’t be helped—you’re not at fault. The sin is mine for being born with such good looks.”
“……”
“Whoa……”
Richel, watching from the side, shot Albert a look of utter disbelief.
“That’s so shameless. How can you say you’re handsome with a straight face?”
“I can, because it’s true.”
Albert openly displayed his strong confidence in his appearance.
“I am handsome, after all.”
“……”
It was an unbearably narcissistic thing to say, yet Richel couldn’t deny it.
‘When a truly handsome person says it, it just sounds natural.’
If anyone else had said the same thing, she would have called it terminal narcissism and told them to visit a temple. The angle of severance would have been sharp enough to cut with a protractor. But Albert was different.
‘He really is that handsome.’
A face that could commit any crime. A face so perfect it was genius. Even in beggar’s clothes, he would make those rags look fashionable. He practically radiated a halo from behind.
“Kuh! Y-you bastard! Are you mocking me right now!?”
Bessen’s face flushed all the way to his ears as he exploded in rage.
“Enough! That doesn’t matter. Just hand over the fruit.”
“No.”
“What?”
“I said no.”
“I discovered that fruit first. Therefore……”
“No.”
“You little……”
“Stop clinging. Persistent men aren’t popular.”
“……”
Bessen’s body trembled. An unprecedented emotion that began in his lower abdomen shot up his spine and struck the back of his head. Words were useless. He had tried to obtain the fruit through gentlemanly means if possible, but……
“You’re the one who threw away your chance.”
“I never asked for a chance, so don’t decide that on your own. Just because your face was born that way doesn’t mean you can say whatever you want.”
“……Kill him……”
“Huh?”
“Right now! Kill that bastard!!”
Completely overwhelmed in the verbal exchange, Bessen gave the order to his knights with a flushed face. Rozen was taken aback.
“L-Lord Bessen, you must think carefully. We don’t know what happened to that monster. What if they……”
“Shut up! I’m the one in command! All you have to do is follow my orders! Kill him!! Kill him and bring me the Bacchus!!”
A reckless command that didn’t consider the consequences. Without knowing who the opponent was or where that monstrous being had disappeared to, he was ordering them to fight blindly.
“If you don’t obey…… you know what will happen to your family, don’t you, Rozen?”
“……”
He was even threatening Rozen by holding his family hostage. Rozen gritted his teeth and lowered his head.
“I…… will obey.”
Rozen signaled the knights and mages, then stepped forward and drew his sword. As the captain of the count’s knight order, he carried a rather fine blade. The others followed suit, preparing for battle.
He’s properly enraged.
Isn’t it a bit much to go berserk just because someone touched his face?
‘It is a bit much.’
And that habitual provocation—can’t you stop it?
Why do you always feel the need to provoke everyone you meet?
Albert shrugged. He had only spoken as usual, and it had simply pressed the other man’s berserk button by coincidence—like a house cat stepping on it.
‘It’s not my fault he got angry.’
Watching him casually deflect blame with an “I did nothing wrong” attitude, the System let out a sigh. His shamelessness was probably inherited from a merchant’s bloodline; he had laid it on thick like an iron plate.
“Just hand over the Bacchus.”
Knight Captain Rozen subtly raised his presence to pressure Albert. Following his lead, the other knights and mages also intensified their auras, pressing down harder.
“We don’t want anything else. If you simply hand over the Bacchus fruit, we can resolve this peacefully……”
“Rozen! What are you doing! I already told you! Kill him!! If you kill him anyway, the fruit becomes mine! What’s the point of letting someone who insulted me live!?”
Bessen looked at Albert and twisted his lips into a vile smile.
“Show him! How dare he defy a count’s house. You fool—if you must resent someone, resent your parents! The parents who never taught you even the basics! Mwahahaha!!”
“……”
From behind, Bessen raged and issued an absurd order to the knight—to kill an innocent civilian who had done nothing wrong. Rozen wished he could ignore it, but with his family held hostage, he had no choice but to obey.
Yet……
‘I am a knight…… A knight who must protect the weak and draw his sword for the common people! Must I follow such an unjust command?’
Even with his family held hostage, he could not obey this unjust order forever. How many subordinates had he already lost because of it? He could not afford to lose any more.
‘I am a knight, and now……’
He would not listen any longer.
“Everyone, attack……”
It happened at that moment. Just as Rozen was about to defy Bessen’s order and issue a different command to his men, Albert moved. In the blink of an eye, he closed the distance, and his fist slammed into Rozen’s face.
Thud!!
“Kuh!”
“Huh? What? Were you about to say something else? I thought you were giving the attack order, so I threw the first punch.”
Wasn’t he about to say something else just now?
He said “attack,” so…… maybe the next word wasn’t “him”?
“……”
Rozen had been trying to reclaim his knightly convictions and resist Bessen’s unjust order. But Albert, who had no way of knowing that, had physically crushed that conviction with his fist.
You should have listened to the end.
As expected of a 110-year-old Korean, always so impatient…… Sigh……
“This bastard! How dare you lay a hand on Lord Rozen!”
“We won’t forgive you!!”
He seems quite popular, unlike someone else.
They’re furious!
Σ(￣□￣;)
‘Who’s “someone else,” exactly?’
……
‘Weren’t you the one who told me not to read and ignore messages? Say something.’
Ah! They’re attacking!
٩(๑•̀o•́๑)و ٩(๑•̀o•́๑)و
Be careful!
‘I’ll deal with you later.’
The knights and mages launched a furious assault.
“Attack!”
“Kill him! Avenge Lord Rozen!!”
The knights’ swords flashed as they charged toward Albert, while the mages supported from behind.
“Strength.”
“Haste.”
“Iron Sword!”
They reinforced the knights with strength enhancement, agility enhancement, and weapon reinforcement spells. The remaining mages prepared simpler spells so as not to interfere with the knights’ movements. It was a well-coordinated attack that followed standard tactics—knights in front, mages in the rear—and showed signs of extensive training.
‘Arrogant bastard.’
Bessen smiled coldly as he watched Albert.
‘I don’t know who you are, but you won’t be able to withstand the combined assault of my knights and mages.’
Bessen was confident. He had lost to the monster guarding the Bacchus because it was an existence humans couldn’t handle, but eliminating a single man like this should be simple for his knights and mages.
‘Now all I have to do is take the Bacchus and leave.’
Suddenly, Rozen’s unconscious voice flashed through his mind.
‘L-Lord Bessen, you must think carefully. We don’t know what happened to that monster. What if they……’
What had happened to the monster? It had clearly been guarding this place—how had it disappeared? Had these people killed it?
‘No, that’s impossible. How could they kill that monster? It must have simply left its post by chance.’
The fact that they had been able to enter this place without their knowledge probably meant they had used some underhanded item. They must have been trying to steal the Bacchus in secret.
‘How dare they try to steal my fruit, those thieving bastards!’
“Well, it doesn’t matter now. They’re all going to die here anyway, so I’ll just take the Bacchus and return……”
But at that moment—
Crash!
One knight flew through the air and slammed into the wall, then slumped down limply. Startled, Bessen turned his head—and witnessed a shocking scene.
“Weak! So weak! You thought you could challenge me with just that? Are you crazy? You’d have to be insane to try!”
“Aaaagh! Save me!”
“Huk! Y-you’re too strong!!”
“Where do you think you’re running? You can’t escape without my permission!”
Albert was beating the knights senseless.
“What the……”
At first, Bessen thought it was some kind of joke. Over twenty knights couldn’t defeat a single man who looked to be in his early twenties? It didn’t make sense. But looking at the state of the knights and mages, he realized the scene unfolding before him wasn’t a comedy show—it was a real documentary.
“Kuh! This bastard!”
One knight swiftly swung his sword at Albert. The trajectory wasn’t bad, and both power and speed were decent. For his age, he was strong enough to have a promising future. However……
“Too slow.”
Albert easily dodged the sword. The knight didn’t stop at one attack—he swung several times in succession—but he couldn’t even graze Albert’s collar with the tip of his blade.
“……This is impossible……”
“The impossible thing is you thinking you could hit me with that sword.”
Albert thrust his fist toward the knight. The knight frantically tried to dodge, but Albert’s hand followed as if it already knew exactly how the knight would move. The knight instinctively realized—
‘I can never avoid this attack.’
No matter what he did, that fist would definitely follow him. Locked on. An absolute, unavoidable strike. It was enough to feel not just deep fear, but despair.
Thud.
The moment Albert’s fist touched the knight’s armor, he stomped the ground hard and rotated his shoulder, arm, and wrist.
Penetrating Strike
“Kuh!”
The blow pierced through the thick plate armor and transferred the impact directly to the body inside. The knight couldn’t believe it. An attack that ignored the armor that had always protected him from enemy strikes and damaged the flesh within—what kind of nonsense was this?
“Jax!”
“Damn it! Jax!”
“We won’t forgive you!”
The other knights charged at Albert like enraged boars, swinging their swords. They thought they had found an opening, but that opening had been created by Albert himself—luring them in.
“Hup.”
Albert took a short breath and spun his body around one leg as an axis—a spinning roundhouse kick from taekwondo. He didn’t have a skill for it, but back in that world, Korean taekwondo had been world-renowned. There had even been hunters who specialized in taekwondo, strong enough to kill ogres with a single kick.
“Huk!”
“Ugh……”
His kick was flashy, but the result was quiet and still. The knights collapsed. Albert’s foot hadn’t aimed for their faces but precisely for their chins, inducing concussions. The accuracy of targeting only the knights’ chins in that situation was nothing short of divine technique—the ultimate skill that no one could imitate.
“M-mages! Use magic!”
The mages, though flustered, began casting spells to attack Albert.
“F-Fireball!”
“Ice Arrow!”
“Fire Lance!”
Numerous spells bloomed across the sky like embroidery and rained down on Albert like comets. But they were slow. No matter how powerful magic was, if it didn’t hit, it was useless. Meaningless.
Albert kicked off the ground and instantly dove between the mages. His fists flashed like lightning.
“Huk!”
“Shield!”
The mages had protected themselves with shields just in case, but it was pointless. The moment Albert’s hand touched them, the shields opened like subway screen doors—automatically. Or rather, they shattered.
“My throat!”
“My solar plexus!”
The mages were also perfectly subdued without any meaningful resistance.
You actually controlled your strength properly for once.
Normally you would have just killed them.
‘Hey, if someone heard you, they’d think I’m a murderer who enjoys killing people.’
Aren’t you?
You do kill mercilessly sometimes.
‘That’s only when they cross the line. These guys didn’t.’
They attacked first.
You never let the first punch slide……
‘I didn’t do it because I wanted to. It’s obvious they were forced into it by an incompetent commander.’
Just looking at them, the angles were sharp. When forced to carry out unjust orders under an incompetent superior, that sense of injustice was something he understood all too well. Albert had experienced it multiple times in that other world.
Empathy?
‘Something like that. More than empathy, I just feel sorry for them.’
Albert turned his gaze. There was Bessen—mouth agape, staring at him with a horrified expression. It was quite impressive.
Albert’s eyes grew cold.
“You crossed the line.”
Insulting someone’s parents was crossing the line, you bastard. As a 110-year-old Korean, there were other insults he could tolerate, but Albert was especially sensitive to attacks on parents. What kind of people were Koreans? A race full of filial sons and daughters who could endure anything except insults to their parents. And this guy had insulted his parents right in front of him.
‘You’re dead.’
That day, Bessen learned it the hard way.
“What did this bastard just say? Family education? Are you crazy? You must be insane to think you can touch my parents.”
“Do you know what happened to China when someone insulted my parents? You don’t know where China is? I’ll have to tell you!”
“Kids these days have no manners. Back in my day, when an elder spoke, you just said ‘Yes!’ and that was the end of it. But this guy…… What? You’re older than me? Show me your ID, you little shit!”
Never, ever touch someone else’s parents.
* * *
“Ugh…… What on earth happened……? I was definitely…… Huk!”
Rozen, who had been knocked unconscious by a single blow, got up while clutching his still-throbbing head. Then he saw his subordinates collapsed after being struck by someone. And in one corner, Bessen was literally beaten to a pulp.
“L-Lord Bessen! W-what on earth happened!? Who……”
Fortunately, he still seemed conscious. Clinging to the thin thread of awareness, Bessen spoke with great difficulty, squeezing out his remaining strength.
“A Main…… That guy…… was a Main……”
That was right. Albert had once again impersonated a Main. A perfect case of identity theft! If the Mains ever found out, it wouldn’t be strange for them to sue Albert for identity fraud. The Mains were carefully building their infamy in places unknown to them. Zero operations, two successes.