Aster bristled at the horribly cold gaze Ermes fixed on him.
He was about to launch into a tirade on the strength of that momentum—when suddenly, his well-formed brows twisted in puzzlement.
"…? That face… that hair and eye color… could it be…"
Muttering doubtfully, he stepped closer, only to stop in front of Ermes and demand:
"Hey, you. What's your name?"
"…Ermes."
"Ermes…?! I had my suspicions, but you—you really are Ermes, the former member of the Frenbreed family!"
Oh my, thought Ermes.
That was unexpected.
Aster had been the ultimate reason for Ermes's expulsion from his birth family, but he and Ermes had never actually met before. He'd figured Aster only saw him as not even worth looking at—just so much trash swept away from a house that had fallen under his banner.
"…Heh…"
But contrary to his expectations, Aster actually remembered Ermes.
"Ha—ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
For reasons known only to himself, he burst into boisterous laughter.
"This is priceless! The Flawed Lady was picking up broken refuse! That makes sense—no wonder you're glaring at me with such hostility!"
"…"
"And that settles it beyond any doubt. Nobles!"
Without so much as looking back at Ermes, he turned to the nobles who had been watching the situation unfold and declared:
"This silver-haired man, Ermes, was born into the illustrious Frenbreed family, yet he's a broken failure who never inherited Bloodline Magic!"
"Ermes?! I've heard of him—they said he had prodigious magic power but suffered from Incompatibility…!"
"He was working as a servant? That figures. Trash without Bloodline Magic has no business being a noble."
Quite a few of the nobles seemed to remember him, and the commotion began immediately.
"There's no way Katia of all people suddenly learned to wield Bloodline Magic! Which means—"
These two
have been resorting
to some kind of
illicit means!
!"
"S—"
"Ermes, whom I had expelled from the Marquis House through my own judgment! And Katia, whose engagement I annulled! Those two harbored ugly, spiteful grudges against my fair decision, and conspired to sell their very souls to demons in order to gain power! There's no mistake!"
Once again he twisted the facts, seeking to utterly destroy the reputations of Ermes and Katia.
"Perhaps this recent monster attack was also their doing? They defeated monsters before the public eye to gain even more renown!"
"That—! That was your Highness's doing! Otherwise, why would you have been so quick to—"
"Hah! Why would someone like me need to resort to such a trick?"
Astoundingly, when it came to the monsters, he tried to flip the entire truth on its head.
Naturally, Katia—who, like Ermes, had noticed the setup—pointed this out, but Aster returned with a response that was, in its own way, impressively shameless:
"Envious of another's achievement, fabricating nonexistent claims to drag them down. A classic display of an ugly fool."
"Exactly! How dare you defy his Highness!"
"His Highness Aster is nothing like the likes of you!"
The very same nobles who had been praising Katia moments ago had now, to a person, switched sides to condemn her.
This was the contradiction that birthed this nation.
With no allies in sight, Aster delivered his final words with a smug expression:
"Now then, you all understand! Soldiers, seize them—"
"One moment, Your Highness."
At that point, a cool voice rang out from another direction.
"…Who is it?"
"Yurugen von Trackia. Head of the Duke House. I trust you remember me?"
Unfazed by Aster's irritated tone, Katia's father Yurugen answered without a hint of concern. He pointed out, with perfect composure:
"Your Highness Aster. As I mentioned before—however high your station may be, arresting people without charge is something I must ask you to refrain from."
"Hmph. Here to use the Minister of Justice's authority to bury your daughter's crimes again?"
"Think of it however you like. However, arrest without charge is forbidden—that is the law of this land. We proposed it, and His Majesty the King approved it. Even royalty would sow chaos by flippantly disregarding it."
The King.
The only person in this country whose position was unambiguously above Aster's.
That name carried at least a modicum of weight, and Aster's momentum stalled.
"The Earl Hartnet whom Your Highness had arrested earlier—I have also released him under my authority. This is by no means special treatment for my daughter alone. So please, let us—"
"…Fine, that's enough. You've killed the mood."
With an irritated wave of his hand, Aster turned his back on them.
"Today was enough to confirm that Katia's accomplishments are all smoke and mirrors. There's no rush—she'll expose herself soon enough, and all we have to do is wait until then. Patience is, after all, a mark of a king's caliber—a reflection of the gods' will."
He muttered something as he walked away, then suddenly glanced back at Yurugen.
"…You've gotten off with your life today, old fox. But brace yourself—I'll lay bare every last one of your misdeeds in the light of day!"
"That is terrifying. I shall pray for a day when that does not come to pass."
At the lighthearted reply, Aster clicked his tongue in annoyance and departed.
What remained were the Trackia family members, now met with stares the polar opposite of those at the start of the party.
"…Well, well."
But amid it all, it was the head of the household, Yurugen, who murmured:
"I wonder who truly 'got off with their life' today, Your Highness. Distracted by the old fox right in front of you, you failed to notice that you'd stepped on the tail of a silver tiger."
Yurugen, looking uncharacteristically uneasy, wiped away a thin trail of cold sweat and shifted his gaze sideways.
"…Wh-Erm…"
There stood Ermes—even more so than before.
Cold, composed—almost serene—and yet overwhelmingly so. A fury below freezing, contained within, emanating from every fiber of his being.
◆
"My sincerest apologies, Father…"
"No, don't worry about it. Once the atmosphere had soured that far, it was my cue to step in. That's exactly what authority is for."
The party was dissolved shortly after.
The three of them returned to the Duke House under cold stares a complete reversal from when they'd arrived. In his study, Yurugen accepted Katia's apology with magnanimity.
"What did you think of His Highness, Ermes?"
He lifted Katia's head and posed the question to the taciturn Ermes.
Ermes was silent for several seconds before finally speaking:
"…I thought it was pointless. I think I've come to understand a little of how Master feels."
Rose had hated the Royal Capital intensely. And she'd been reluctant to let Ermes go there.
Now he understood that sentiment all too well.
"Oh? Didn't you find it frightening?"
"The magic was certainly extremely powerful. But… it was still brute force reliant on raw capability. Technically, it's not all that different from Earl Eldritch the other day."
There was almost certainly no magic in his current arsenal that could defeat Aster's.
But that was only his current self.
Aster's magic, the Primal Inscription, reproduced magic—it analyzed Bloodline Magic, absorbed it, made it his own, and grew infinitely stronger with each use.
Using that, he would—
"I will surpass His Highness in magic. And I will prove that his judgment was wrong."
If magic was everything in this nation, then he would play by their rules first. He would surpass them on their own terms—and deny that prince.
"And then you'll take control of this country as you see fit?" Yurugen asked, probing.
"Absolutely not."
The instant answer came without hesitation.
After seeing that kind of spectacle, there was no way he'd ever want to become the same thing.
"I just want people to understand. …Magic is a gift from the gods—but it isn't some immutable thing beyond our reach. Anyone has potential if they're willing to put in the effort. It can be freer—and more beautiful—than anyone imagines."
"Erm…"
"Mm."
To his answer, Yurugen nodded with satisfaction.
"I've always felt that this country places far too much weight on Bloodline Magic. If there's someone who can tear that value system apart, I won't hesitate to invest. …So for the time being, that means this."
With a rustle, several documents spread across the desk in the study.
"First, we need to reclaim the reputation you lost at today's party. I'll prioritize assigning you and Katia the monster-hunting requests other families are sitting on, as well as work related to unclaimed wild Dungeons. I'd like you both to handle these for a while."
"…I see."
At today's party, Aster had called Katia's power a counterfeit. Said she'd expose herself soon enough.
Then all they had to do was perform so brilliantly that no one could consider them counterfeit. As long as they never slipped up, there would be nothing to expose.
These were the commissions that would prove it.
"If you do that, people should start questioning even His Highness's claims."
Surpassing Aster in magic didn't mean he could storm the Royal Palace tomorrow. What they wanted to change was the value system—and it was only logical to begin by dismantling it on its own terms.
"Is that all right with you too, Katia?"
"Yes, Father."
Finally, Yurugen turned to Katia, who had been listening in silence, and she nodded.
"I thought His Highness Aster went too far today as well. If he continues to behave like that, it certainly won't be good for this country. And besides…"
"Besides?"
"He went and called my… Ermes's Bloodline Magic a counterfeit. He should be made to take that back."
She puffed out her cheeks in a petulant little pout, and the words "my… Ermes's" were delivered in a very small voice.
Ermes wore an expression that suggested he wasn't entirely sure what to make of it, while Yurugen returned a vague, wry smile.
Regardless, this was how it began.
A day had been enough—more than enough—to understand just how much of an obstacle this person would be.
The battle against the second prince, Aster, had begun.