Succession 3
From their legs to their waists. Their bodies refused to move under the cold creeping up from the floor. The knights, just reaching for the swords at their hips, felt their arms creak.
Embarrassment and astonishment mingled on their exposed faces.
An intruder who had pierced the lord's castle guards out of nowhere. A single boy with a youthful face. And the old man trailing him was Sernos, the archbishop of the Alder Archdiocese—known to everyone present.
The magic that manifested without incantation was the same. In that instant, their bodies shuddered from the intense chill blanketing the entire banquet hall floor.
As the nobles hiding behind the knights fixed their gleaming eyes on the sudden upheaval—
Ching! More than ten swords lifted into the air at once.
"Uh...?"
"The swords...."
As they drew their blades, shattered ice shards glittered in the air. The knights who had glared at Licht with razor-sharp eyes moments ago could only stare back and forth between their swords—yanked free against their will—and the empty scabbards at their waists.
"No way...."
"He levitated the swords?"
"An application of wind magic?"
"Chilling precision. I was stunned at Cherbito, but seeing it up close..."
"Cherbito's champion? What sudden business does he have here? Doesn't look formally invited."
The nobles who had fallen back muttered their own speculations.
Licht paid them no mind.
The shattered main gate, the open entrance beyond, the knights encircling him—and the countless swords hovering above. Jeron, finally grasping the situation, bellowed at the knight commander.
"Marek!"
"Don't panic. Surround him slowly."
"B-but Archbishop Sernos...."
"He's just one man. I don't know his game, but if he won't surrender quietly..."
The path to the dais. It was as the frontmost man took a step forward.
"Dodge!"
Someone shouted.
Kwagagak! In unison, the sword that had spun once at his feet slammed down viciously.
The terrified knights finally ignited their auras.
Tududuk! Channeling aura lent them strength, cracking the frost climbing their bodies. As their legs buckled, the knights recoiled reflexively.
And they saw it.
"What...."
The swords floating moments ago were now embedded at their feet. Blades plunged into the transparently frozen floor, rimed with frost.
The swords that had plunged down together formed an ellipse centered on Licht. One per encircling knight. Like a boundary line.
"Don't move."
Licht said. The cold rising from the swords grew fiercer.
"What are you doing? Subdue him now! Isn't Archbishop Sernos captured?"
As lips twitched everywhere, Jeron shouted again.
"......"
Yet no one moved first.
The boy's commanding presence. The frozen floor centered on that single figure. The ominous golden holy sword raised above it, and Archbishop Sernos kneeling with head bowed low.
It all sowed hesitation in the knights. The situation was too abrupt; they lacked information to act rashly.
Seeing the wavering knights, Jeron gnashed his teeth.
Not content with turning the banquet hall into chaos, his family's proud knights were cowering before one intruder. And the long-uncontacted Archbishop Sernos knelt right before them.
Jeron sensed his carefully laid plans unraveling one by one.
"You idiots...."
"The unfilial wretch who killed his own father and tried to murder his brother—"
"What?"
"I said your tongue's too long, you beast worse than any animal."
Licht spat the words laced with contempt.
He'd never seen the Alder Duke in person. But Bailen's state and the tales circulating painted a clear picture of the man in life: a sage ruler who shunned luxury and extravagance, flexible in all things, of fine character. That was the people's verdict, the public sentiment.
And that sage ruler had died just days ago. Slain by a power-blinded unfilial son and his sycophants.
"What did you just say? Unfilial?"
"His father... the Alder Duke, right? The son killed him?"
"No way."
"But Archbishop Sernos...."
Doubting murmurs rippled through the hall.
"Nonsense!"
Jeron shouted after scanning the room.
"I... killed my father?"
Licht met Jeron's eyes with calm indifference.
Jeron barked a hollow laugh.
"Absurd drivel. An uninvited thug who barged in unbidden? No reason to heed a nobody of unknown origins. He's a fiend holding Archbishop Sernos hostage."
"Denying it, are you."
"Marek! What are you waiting for? Deal with him! An intruder in the lord's castle without leave—cut his head off now!"
"......"
"Marek!"
Despite Jeron's cries, Knight Commander Marek didn't budge.
"Say it yourself, Sernos."
All eyes turned to Licht and Sernos.
Licht planted the tip of the Ascension Sword on Sernos's back.
The man, shuddering violently, barely forced his mouth open.
"What I say now...."
The words stuck in his throat. His kneeling body kept pitching forward.
"By the name of Istaria, not one inch of falsehood...."
But his arms were already numb. He couldn't brace himself with limbs like corpses.
Now with his head all but touching the ground, he pressed on.
"The Alder Duke's... sudden decline was no coincidence."
"Enough."
"Eldest son Jeron Alder commissioned the assassination. The recent ambush on second son Millein returning from the Nazari Marquis house..."
"Enough!"
Still trembling, Sernos caught his ragged breath and hammered home the final nail.
"All of it... the eldest son's machinations."
"......!"
A suffocating silence spread.
A holy author of the Palenian Holy Kingdom, faithful to the goddess of light Istaria. The archbishop overseeing the entire Alder Archdiocese had spoken.
Swearing by the divine name declared not a single lie would pass his lips. The weight was on another level.
He could lie, but his public image was that of a devout Istarian above all. An archbishop wouldn't sully his oath with falsehood.
"The eldest son...."
"Commissioned the Alder Duke's assassination? How could a son...?"
"Killed him with his own hands and spoke so calmly of the death."
"Hah...."
Sighs erupted everywhere.
The shocking declaration from Archbishop Sernos, sworn by the gods. The duke's death that eldest son Jeron had so casually mentioned was his own doing. He'd slain his father and feigned nonchalance like it was nothing.
"No way."
The attention once fixed on Licht now swung to Jeron.
Millein, face blank with despair, worked his mouth soundlessly.
'Brother...'
Killed their father? He'd suspected. Expected it even. But hearing it confirmed—here, from Archbishop Sernos's own lips—was another matter entirely.
'Du... what exactly do you intend.'
Millein's gaze shifted to Licht. The Ascension Sword remained undrawn. If anyone was lashing out, it was his half-brother Jeron.
"Peter—no. You can't seriously believe that nonsense?"
"......"
"Volbek, Emil, Kasian. You swore loyalty to me. And you trust this nobody over me? Without a shred of proof!"
The Alder retainers glanced about with confused eyes.
Murmuring nobles. Hesitating knights. A kneeling archbishop and one nameless boy behind him.
"Proof?"
Licht drew a bundle of papers from his bosom. All stored in his sub-space pouch.
"Letters exchanged between eldest son Jeron Alder and Archbishop Sernos, head of the Alder Archdiocese."
Chalak! The papers scattered into the air.
Letters with contents too sensitive for transmission magic—ones Jeron had sent to Sernos.
"This...?"
A few nobles and retainers who caught drifting sheets narrowed their eyes.
Not in the common tongue, but scrawled in messy ciphers. Copies, not originals.
A few seemed to recognize them, eyes widening.
"The details will come out in time. When they were written, the paper and ink used. And that distinctive handwriting."
In truth, various magics and reagents would reveal it faster. There were countless ways to uncover the truth.
"Hold on... if that's true, doesn't it implicate Archbishop Sernos too?"
One noble reading a sheet spoke up.
"Sernos colluded with the eldest son against the Alder Duke?"
"The Palenian Holy Kingdom on the Alder Duchy...?"
"By Istaria's name, I repent!"
Now fully prostrated, Sernos cried out before them all.
"I colluded with eldest son Jeron Alder to orchestrate the Alder Duke's death. First with excessive holy power under pretense of treatment, then diluted lethal poison procured from the Girga Kingdom..."
"Sernos!"
"The duke was such a sturdy warrior it wasn't a one-day affair. Over a year. Only after he collapsed did we commission second son Millein's assassination—recently, on the road back from the Nazari Marquis house."
"Absurd lies!"
"I repent. Blinded by power, I committed evils and shunned the good—all those wrongs I sincerely regret. No ties to His Holiness the Pope or the Vatican. My sole folly. I vow never to sin again, to shun all opportunity. Grant me mercy, I beg."
Sernos barely clasped his unmoving arms.
Under everyone's gaze, the sight of him prostrated on the banquet floor, hands earnestly pressed together, looked for all the world like a true penitent at prayer.
"No, no. This is..."
Jeron rasped in a trembling voice.
"Blackmail... yes, blackmail! Words forced at sword-point can't be trusted!"
He appealed to the room, glancing desperately around.
"Look at the archbishop's pallor—he's surely been tampered with. These scraps prove I killed my father? Ridiculous! This fiend terrorized Sernos into false testimony!"
The unhinged unfilial son was now screeching madness.
"Still blind to the situation, I see."
Thud. Licht advanced slowly.
With each step, the frozen floor cracked beneath him. And above his right hand, the golden holy sword gleamed.
"Block him!"
Jeron shrieked in hysteria.
A few knights freed from their bonds yanked the embedded swords free and charged Licht.
Whatever the circumstances, their duty was to handle the sudden intruder. As family knights, they couldn't simply let a fiend gunning for the heir's neck pass.
Blue auras surged along the frosted blades.
Licht slowly raised the Ascension Sword.
Puhwak! The first charging knight's arms sheared off. In an instant, both flew through the air.
"Ku aaaak!"
"I'm the second son's proxy."
The two knights charging late flinched. But they couldn't recall their thrusts.
Seok! Another nameless knight's arms parted from his body.
"Aaaak!"
"This is the rightful authority granted me."
More knights rushed in succession. Blue auras clung to their blades. All seasoned Sword Users.
Yet none withstood a single blow. A faint afterimage flashed past, and severed arms spurted amid sprays of red blood.
"...That's far enough."
As the charging knights collapsed, the commander of the 1st Knight Order, Marek, finally drew his sword.
"You'd block me?"
By now, a blood-slick path stretched behind Licht.
"The eldest son is the legitimate heir to the Alder Duchy."
"An illegitimate heir stained in blood and lies, no doubt."
"A family matter. No place for an outsider to interfere."
"It's the second son's will."
"The second son's...?"
"If you stand in my way."
Kwaak.
"You'll pay with that blood."
As he stamped down, wind coiled upward.
From the banquet hall's center to the dais.
Kaaang! In a blink, Licht had passed Marek's flank.
The Ascension Sword gripped in his right hand parried the knight commander's blade.
"Ah...."
"Jeron Alder."
A pale glow gathered in his left hand.
"Pay for your crimes."
"No!"
Seok! A blue flash grazed the heir's neck.
Knight Commander Marek's roar echoed through the hall.
Puhihak! A beat later, a blood fountain erupted.
Under the Azure Flower's blade, a wayward head tumbled free.