CH 76

Thud! 

With a harsh thud, the Second Prince’s head was stuck in the muddy ground. Perhaps there was a stone, blood trickled from his forehead when he raised his head. 

“I apologize… for brainwashing you… Fiosen Lavaltor…” 

Of course, his eyes were gleaming with bloodlust.

But it was not intimidating in any way. 

He already looked so pathetic that he could no longer fall lower than this.

Despite that, Ian just narrowed his brows. 

“Sir Fiosen, are you satisfied?” 

“What?” 

“I don’t think it’s enough, so he should do it properly…” 

“N-no! It’s enough, Your Highness!” 

Fiosen shook his hand in a hurry. He couldn’t believe the royal family bowed like that. To be honest, it was scary to ask for any more.

Ian sighed at his words and looked at the Second Prince. 

“He says it’s enough. You can stop now, Brother.” 

“…” 

The Second Prince stood up with eyes seething with anger. He was overcome with shame, but he couldn’t argue any further.

He clenched his teeth and exclaimed.

“I’m going back.” 

Now the three claims were over. There’s no reason for Ian to hold on to him anymore. The Second Prince didn’t want to stay here any longer, so he headed to the royal castle.

And as if he was not interested, Ian turned his back. 

There was no need to touch him anymore anyway. 

‘You’d better hurry up. The hyenas will be coming soon.’ 

It was only natural.

Because of Ian, the Second Prince lost both his wealth and his subordinates.

Nevertheless, the Second Prince once ranked first in the past. He had got nothing left, but if they wrung him dry, they would think he had got something they could pick up and gobble up, be it honor or whatever.

And in his current state, he would have no way to stop the attacks of other successors.

‘He’ll look very delicious to the other brothers.’

Now that he had cut off his hands and feet, he was bound to destroy himself soon. 

Ian smiled. 

“Now, shall we go back?” 

After the Battle of Ranking was over, he had nothing to see here anymore.

Ian turned around. The confident steps of the royal family that had no flaws.

The knights followed in his footsteps. 

Right at that moment. 

“Woaaaahhhh!!” 

A thunderous shout resounded. 

It was the moment when his name was firmly etched in the citizens’ minds. 

*** 

Truly an utter humiliation.

The apology of the naked Second Prince simply shook Kaistein. 

In less than half a day, all the people of Kaistein Kingdom were talking about it.

“Have you heard? The youngest prince defeated the Second Prince.”

“Even though he had the Guardian on his side, the Second Prince was completely crushed. Unbelievable…”

In particular, the faction of the First Princess was engulfed in great shock.

“What did he take away from him?” 

“That… He took away everything the Second Prince had with him, not just the palace, and left him naked…”

“Wasn’t our goal for him to bring you the Sword of Domination? Now that it has come to this…” 

The elimination of their competitor.

This fact sounded like a bolt out of the clear blue sky to them who were planning a scheme against the Second Prince. But the First Princess closed her eyes tightly for another reason. 

It’s a ring. 

The Ring of Promise stolen by the Second Prince was a problem.

‘It fell into the hands of the youngest?’

It was the very thing that had been reining the First Princess. It would never have happened if she hadn’t fallen for the trick of the Second Prince during her naive childhood. 

Good thing the object disappeared from the hands of the Second Prince, but the First Princess bit her nails without the nobles of her faction knowing. 

‘Don’t tell me… the youngest induced this situation for that.’

But it couldn’t have been possible. 

Not only King Eloin but also the queen didn’t know about it. It was a secret that only the Second Prince and the First Princess knew.  

Yet, she strangely felt uneasy. 

‘It will be a problem if the youngest finds out the secret of the item.’ 

It might become a serious situation. 

The youngest was the very person who even made the Second Prince apologize naked.

‘I must bring it before he can identify it.’ 

The First Princess stood up with a determined look. She was going to meet Ian and negotiate. 

And so did the Third Prince.

“Who… took what?” 

“The Second Prince is said to have lost the palace and everything in it. Not only the wealth but also the attendants were taken away, Your Highness.”

The Third Prince’s face hardened for a moment.

It was unavoidable. 

It had been more than ten years since he lost that person to the Second Prince.

But he couldn’t believe the Seventh Prince Ian took her away. It was clear that she, too, would have fallen into the hands of the youngest, along with all the attendants. 

‘I need to get her back before anyone else approaches her.’ 

“Get ready right now. I should meet him.” 

“I’ll prepare it right away.” 

Of course, it didn’t stop there.

The news of the Battle of Ranking reached the ears of the two princes who were outside of Kaistein as well as other countries.

All interested parties began to pay close attention to Ian’s every move. 

And one of them. 

“That’s a lot of fun.” 

King Eloin’s eyes were particularly gleaming. 

He knew Ian was special from a few incidents. But this time, he thought it was definitely a bit risky.

Since he heard that there was the Guardian.  

‘Besides, even though he had it, he ended the Battle of Ranking without using it.’

The king knew Ian’s secret card. But the result was really unexpected. 

And then, someone groaned seeing King Eloin’s reaction.

“Your Majesty, do you feel so good about my defeat?”

It was the Guardian who was delivering the story.  

“I didn’t know Your Majesty would be favoring the Seventh Prince, but…” 

“It’s not even funny. It wasn’t an official duel, but I can’t believe you lost the match. Is it something you couldn’t do?”

“It’s just that my knees are cold since I’m getting old.” 

King Eloin burst out laughing. It was interesting to see the unusual appearance of the Guardian, who had been supporting him since the previous king’s time.

Did the beholder of [Annihilation] ever have a side like that?

“What a great thing. The Annihilator that made the empire tremble in the past was brought to his knees.”

Well, who really made the empire tremble? The Guardian glanced at the king, remembering Eloin of the past, but then sighed.

“That’s why I told you. Let’s stop fussing about the royal knight’s origin.” 

The Guardian was in charge of the royal knights’ discipline. He was most vehemently against Galon going to Duke Garcia. 

But Eloin’s eyes were directed elsewhere. 

“What do you think about this? You must be proud to be Sir Galon’s lord, Duke Garcia.” 

Duke Garcia looked up at King Eloin’s words. His face was cold as usual. But inside, he barely had the restraint to hold back the boiling anger. 

It was inevitable. 

‘This damn king.’ 

There was no way he didn’t know what King Eloin was saying to him.  

It was a humiliation.  

It was Garcia himself who siphoned off Galon, who was supposed to be a royal knight in the first place. 

To be teased for losing Galon to Ian again.

‘You shouldn’t have given him to me then.’

He had been thinking of lending Galon for a very short while.

But what’s this? 

Judging from how the Battle of Ranking went, Galon seemed to have sworn loyalty to Ian. Now, he couldn’t even ask for his loyal knight back.

‘I should have made him take the oath of allegiance earlier.’

The problem was that he put it off from time to time.

He had to swallow a bitter pill because he never thought Galon to pledge his allegiance to the Seventh Prince in the first place.

He also thought of using Ian and throwing him away.  

But the problem started from now. 

He hadn’t received the definite answer that Ian promised to give not long ago. This was because he said he would postpone his answer due to the sudden Battle of Ranking match. 

‘I was thinking of making him accept my help as if out of sympathy if he lost the Battle of Ranking.’ 

No, Ian would take it because of the price.

If he lost the Battle of Ranking and even had his arm cut off, he wouldn’t see that arrogance in his smug face anymore.

But he couldn’t do that anymore. 

‘He defeated the Second Prince? Who had that Guardian?’

At this point, Ian seemed to be mocking him for wanting to throw him away. Unless he was going to join hands with that vermin the Second Prince, shouldn’t he be in the position to ask Ian to take his hand? 

But the king curled up his lips and got on his nerves again. 

“You wouldn’t be able to buy a knight like that no matter how much money you have—not even with billions of gold. To give such a precious knight to the prince, the royal family is truly pleased with Garcia’s loyalty.”

“…” 

‘Both son and father are driving me nuts.’

On the other hand, King Eloin’s eyes were sparkling in a different sense. 

It was for no other reason.

The legend of the Royal Roader the Guardian secretly told him.

It was because of how it was manifested in his youngest son.

‘It’s the power that made Kaistein an empire…’

He heard that the Royal Roader Oath gave knights the power to go beyond their Oath. But no one ever had it since the First King. It was possible to power up the knights, but the Oath could not materialize without a strong will in the first place. 

‘Who will win if Galon and those guys fight?’ 

The pride of the empire that had been threatening Kaistein. He was looking forward to a fight with them. 

And in the meantime, Ian. 

“This is Sapphire Palace, Your Highness.” 

He had arrived at the palace of the Second Prince. 

***

The first thing Ian did when he arrived at Sapphire Palace was to open the warehouse. 

“Move all of these to the Crystal Palace.” 

“Al, all of them?” 

“Yes.” 

From the artworks decorating the palace to the gold coins. 

It was to empty every single thing the Second Prince had collected so far. It’s practically no different than plundering. The Sapphire Palace quickly became empty in no time. 

Ian immediately gave the next order. 

“The attendants will stand by as they are, and only the people I point out will change their assignments to the Crystal Palace.”

Ian chose ordinary servants who had nothing to do with the Second Prince.

The remaining Second Prince’ troops he had used were all planned to be exploited or cleaned up. The secret troops, in particular, who were hiding as attendants, were of separate use.

“Can you find them?” 

Seeing Ian’s gaze, Fiosen’s eyes flashed as if telling him to leave it to him. 

“Of course. You can tell right away by looking at their hands.” 

It wasn’t difficult to find them. In the past, it would have been impossible because of the Second Prince. As long as the palace was in Ian’s hands, all would go smoothly.

The troops were quickly separated by the knights. 

The number alone was 100. 

Nathan soon asked. 

“Your Highness, what are you going to do with them?” 

“I will send them to Duke Lavaltor.” 

“!” 

Lavaltor duchy had always lacked hands to take on the barbarians in the north.  With only a hundred people, Duke Lavaltor might have thought they would pee on their frozen feet. However, they were the troops chosen and selected by the Second Prince.

‘They are enough to deal with the barbarians of the north.’

They had intelligence as well as assassination skills. Of course, he wanted to send them to Helgaia, his own territory.

‘There is no one to watch over them. But the Lavaltor duchy is different.’

It was the place where the best knights of the royal family stayed.  

No matter how much the Second Prince’s troops struggled to escape, they would have no choice but to fight as they were told.

Ian’s explanation brightened Fiosen’s face, and he shouted. 

“I’m sure my father will appreciate it.” 

Rather, he would welcome them with open arms. Fiosen expressed his deep gratitude to Ian for helping the duchy as well as getting his revenge.

Perhaps because the prince might become his brother-in-law, his favorability on Ian was at its peak.

And the great aristocrats were people who took care of their families more than the royals.

Even more so Lavaltor. 

They were the first people in the peerage to overthrow the royal family if the king became incompetent and the country fell into crisis. Fiosen must have been thoroughly educated.  

However, after briefly watching Fiosen’s fond gaze toward Ian, Nathan asked with an uncharacteristically cautious expression. 

“You have to get ready to leave for the mission. You can’t let your guard down just because he’s in second place.” 

The Second Prince, who was ranked first, was relegated to second place due to the previous incident. 

But Ian was eighth in the line of succession to the throne, under one princess and four princes. In other words, he usurped the Second Prince’s rank and jumped from the bottom to the top at once.

‘Well, I’m not going to be satisfied with it and let my guard down.’

“The Battle of Ranking is still just beginning. You never know when your position will change, and as your ranking is high, some hyenas might come flocking with their eyes on Your Highness’ position anytime.”

“Now that we’ve just finished the Battle of Ranking match, we won’t have to worry about attacks for a while.” 

Once the Battle of Ranking was over, a little respite period was given for recovering power. 

And even if he won the Battle of Ranking, if he failed in the competition, it would be all for naught.  

He could be deprived of his successor position altogether.

“The support and benefits that one can get if they are in second place will be different.” 

So, the first thing to do was to complete the mission.

Of course, now there was a more important thing on the list. 

“Just be ready to leave for now. We still have work to do.” 

“What? What are you going to do?” 

“That’s…” 

It was right at that moment. 

“Your Highness, I found it.” 

Galon came back from his task. The task given to him was to search for the woman the Second Prince was hiding. 

The Achilles’ heel of the most threatening opponent, the Third Prince.

Ian hurried to move with a glint in his eyes. 

“Guide me.” 

It was time to change the game of the kingdom.