Where the Hero's Sword Points
Leaving the flustered royal guards behind, Hwian stepped into the mansion. Thud, thud. The heavy sound of his footsteps made several of them flinch.
Now, it should be around here somewhere…
Hwian tapped the floor with his toe. He was searching for the hidden empty space beneath.
The Adonia Kingdom was rife with corrupt nobles and royalty. With royal authority already weakened to the point of collapse, countless opportunists had crawled their way up. Chief among them was the Front family.
Thick-bodied and overflowing with greed. To put it bluntly, they were the ones who had supported bandits while freely manipulating the kingdom's security and the knight order's deployments.
At the same time, they were like golden goblins to Hwian.
After all, Princess Elisie's dirty secrets lay buried in the basement of this very mansion.
Found it.
Feeling the hollow space beneath his foot, Hwian gripped the sword strapped to his back.
Truthfully, he had planned to leave them alone a little longer. Corrupt though they were, high-ranking nobles were not to be underestimated. He had intended to wait until the mansion was empty before carefully infiltrating it. A direct assault would inevitably provoke backlash. But…
“…”
Elisie. The moment that arrogant First Princess made her move, his plans changed.
It was Elisie who had attacked Serena. She had struck the girl so hard and without restraint that even Hwian had flinched. Serena herself had said, “It seems my sister was in a bad mood,” but Prince Altair and Prince Leoser were not the type to resort to direct violence. Prince Serion was out of the question. That left only the First Princess.
Was it revenge for rejecting her proposal? Or simply taking out her anger? Either way, it made no difference to Hwian.
He was simply… furious that someone had raised a hand against that small, powerless child.
“Hup!”
Infusing his blade with mana, he swung the longsword down and cleaved through the mansion floor. Amid the unpleasant screech of metal, the hidden secret space came into view. Inside lay evidence of the illegal dealings between Elisie and the Front family—proof of how she had dispersed the knight order through bandits, threatened and manipulated trade routes, secured smuggled goods, and even orchestrated a large-scale private army involving multiple noble houses.
Documents that, in the original timeline, would only have been discovered midway through the civil war, after Elisie's death. Even for a princess, the taboos recorded within were enough to destroy her if exposed.
This was the result of a greedy princess approaching the Front family, who had been content with minor profits from banditry.
Concealment magic layered over reinforced walls… Hah. She really went all out.
Letting out a dry laugh, he brought his sword down again. The blade he had hastily acquired before leaving the palace was surprisingly decent. He had “borrowed” it from the royal guard armory, and though the management was sloppy, the sword itself was serviceable—likely because it had belonged to a noble.
As Hwian continued widening the hole in the floor—
“Ugh!”
A sudden physical impact struck him, like being hit by an air cannon.
“How dare you cause trouble in whose mansion?!”
A drunken roar followed. While still airborne, Hwian calmly adjusted his posture and landed with a creak. Looking up, he saw Sikal, now fully equipped.
Golden armor. A golden sword. In his hand was a small magic tool—the very one that had sent Hwian flying moments ago. Whether driven by vengeance or something else, he had prepared quite thoroughly.
Hwian shrugged as if annoyed by Sikal's heavy breathing.
“Back for another beating? You never learn.”
“Shut up!! This is the mansion of Duke Secandel Front, my father, a central figure of the Adonia Kingdom… How dare a mere outsider like you—”
“Shut it.”
The royal guards scrambled to take positions on either side of Sikal. They had apparently raided the mansion armory, as they were now draped in magic tools from head to toe, their expressions grim.
“Come at me.”
Before them, Hwian assumed a stance with only a single sword. No armor, no magic tools—just one dull longsword loosely gripped in his hand.
After all, the royal guards needed to be dealt with as well. While he was toppling the princess, there was no harm in crushing these corrupt men once more. For the day the Demon King revived, to leave even a few capable people in the kingdom. For himself. For his return.
…And to repay the kindness he had received.
“Go! Go!! Don't let him leave alive!”
As the guards charged, Hwian ignited mana throughout his body. His well-trained muscles swelled as he exhaled deeply.
“Let's see what you've got.”
The outcome of a group of heavily armed men against a single man with one sword required no explanation.
—Roughly ten minutes later, Hwian walked out of the mansion with a leisurely stride, surrounded by unconscious men.
***
“Find him! He can't have gone far!”
“He's nowhere in the palace! He may have already descended into the capital…!”
“We've received reports of an explosion at Lord Secandel's mansion! We're dispatching personnel now—…”
Meanwhile, inside the palace, First Princess Elisie sat at the center of the chaotic knights, resting her chin on her hand with a displeased expression.
Nothing's going right…
Today had been thoroughly unpleasant. The imperial envoy had demanded tribute without warning, and the bandits she had painstakingly cultivated had lasted less than two weeks against Serion. As a result, the plan she had prepared to repay the hero had gone awry.
She had originally intended to throw him into the underground prison for a few days as punishment for offending her, but Serion's unexpectedly swift return had made the timing awkward.
That girl is close to the hero… I don't understand why she associates with someone like him.
Even if she imprisoned him, Serion would simply release him upon his return. Forced to postpone her plan, Elisie had been in the worst mood all day.
Things had been fine until she had gulped down expensive tea to calm herself. Spotting a commoner's child passing by, she had called the girl into her room to “play with” her, and her mood had improved somewhat. But then came the news that the hero had run away.
Like an unleashed dog, Elisie thought with a hollow laugh.
“Haa, how annoying…”
She had been startled to hear something had happened at Secandel's mansion, but her concern hadn't lasted long. There was no way the hero could know about her dealings with the Front family. Even if he did, he would never reach the heavily secured basement. And in the one-in-a-million chance he did, she could simply bury the ledger with her authority. A few documents could easily be dismissed as fabrications.
“…How boring.”
Thus, she sat in the audience chamber late at night, waiting for reports. Fortunately, the wait was short.
“Your Highness!”
“Hm? You found him? That was faster than expected. Bring him here immediately.”
“N-no, that's not it. It's just…”
“What?”
Elisie frowned at the visibly flustered attendant. Rising from her seat with a sigh, she suddenly noticed something odd. The area outside the audience chamber was unusually noisy.
“Stop him! Stop— Gah?!”
“Drop your sword! Do you know where you are?!”
“W-wait! Let's talk! Let's—”
Realizing the source of the commotion, the princess's eyes widened in shock. Impossible, she muttered, her voice strangely detached from reality.
Outside were not the royal guards—mere rabble—but proper knights. The Golden Shield Order. The Gold-Plate Knights. Even a portion of the royal knights Serion had left behind. Not nominal units like Sikal's guards, but legitimate forces that existed to “protect the royal family.”
And those knights were being pushed back. One by one, for some reason, they were falling silent.
Before the breathless First Princess—
“Hup!”
The audience chamber doors burst open with a bang.
“Whew. That many really is a handful. Real knights really are different.”
Entering with a relaxed gait was none other than the hero. A single line of blood ran down his cheek, but aside from that, he bore no visible wounds. He walked toward the princess with steady steps.
“You… Have you completely lost your mind? If you do something like this in the palace, the consequences—”
“I know. And I don't care.”
“…Huh?”
The princess was at a loss for words at the hero's brazen attitude. Her lips twitched at his claim of not caring.
Does he not understand what he's done?
This was high treason. He had harmed the knights protecting the royal family and was now pointing a sword at royalty. An undeniable grave crime. Even as an otherworlder, he wouldn't escape punishment for this.
“Punish me if you want. Though in that case, it'll be interesting to see which of us ends up in prison first.”
“…?”
Then she saw it. Beyond the open doors, some of the knights she had thought defeated were now examining a document with grave expressions.
A ledger. The very ledger containing records of all her dealings—the one that should have been buried in the Front family's basement.
“You…!”
“As expected, real knights really are different. They're quite reasonable. Of course, from the perspective of someone who needs protection, that might not be ideal…”
Hwian smiled confidently at the enraged First Princess. You've lost, he thought as he laughed.
“Unfortunately, they seem to be knights who serve the kingdom, not you.”
And then Hwian leapt. Sword raised, he charged and drove his blade into the floor right beside the princess's neck.
“…No matter how much power you crave, how much smuggled tea you enjoy, or how many bandits you unleash, none of that concerns me. However.”
With a sharp clang, the sword embedded itself. A beat late, the princess confirmed the blade was lodged right beside her neck, and her face gradually turned pale.
“Destroying the country with your greed is unacceptable, no matter how you look at it. And taking your anger out on an innocent child is extremely unpleasant.”
“H-huh…?”
“Know your place, woman.”
Fear slowly crept over the princess, stiffening her body. Satisfied by the sight, Hwian slowly withdrew his embedded sword.
“Don't dream of coups. Revenge is the same.”
The terrified princess collapsed beneath her chair in a pitiful heap.