9. Kaltenheim>Count Karim had been enjoying life lately. Because he was keenly feeling just how much power a Duke wielded.
Even when his father was a Marquis, he had nothing to fear. To some extent, no matter how recklessly he acted, his opponents always backed down. Marquises aside, at least among fellow Counts, there was no one he had to watch out for. Let alone a Duke! Count Karim had been the most thrilled by the news that spread across the continent in an instant.
In the midst of this, he received interesting news from the twin of the Viscounty beneath him.
Having heard everything, Count Karim immediately sprang up from his seat and left his protective territory. Then he began running toward Locke Viscounty at an incredible speed. It was quite a distance, but if he, a Count, ran, it would not take long. ‘Keuheuheu… I must arrive before the toy leaves…….’
Every so often, nobles without protective territories were discovered. Toying with such nobles was one of Count Karim’s greatest pleasures. Tormenting the weak was amusing, but tormenting the strong was several times more exhilarating.
Until now, he had never recklessly provoked someone of Count rank. He was fairly strong himself, but if the opponent fought with a protective territory, they were no pushover. That was why he had always found it regrettable, and now a newborn noble of Count rank without a protective territory had appeared right before his eyes! This was a heaven-sent opportunity. He would surely be able to feel a pleasure he had never experienced before.
Upon arrival, the mutants said to have appeared from transformed dwarves were already gone. But whether those dwarf things were there or not was none of his concern. Because he had something else important to attend to.
“Did I not ask where they are, those newly arrived ones.”
“We do not know either. All we heard is that they are inside this tree…….”
“Is that so? It is a bit wide to search… Keuheuheu… Then if I smash this tree halfway to pieces, will they come out?”
Count Karim muttered as if threatening while looking at the fellow talking nonsense. Of course, he could not do such a thing, as there was a strict prohibition. But since the fellow did not know that, just a light shake like this would make them come out.
“I truly do not know!”
“For the master of a protective territory to not know of a noble in his domain……. Ah, right. They said your Akra resonance was weak.”
Only then did Count Karim recall what he had heard and nodded. Then it made sense. This fellow before him truly did not know. Then there was no business here.
“Then be on your way. You have a subjugation to carry out.”
“…Understood.”
Watching the fellow turn and leave, Count Karim wandered about here and there within the viscount’s protective territory. He already knew her general appearance from what he had heard, but he grumbled inwardly. ‘If they say she looks just like a noblewoman, how am I supposed to know who she is? Should I twist this bastard’s arms and legs…….’
The twin, who had simply passed on what he heard as it was and had been on the verge of having his limbs twisted, was fortunately able to escape that crisis. Because Count Karim found the noblewoman. ‘She really is…….’
She truly looked exactly like a noblewoman at a glance. One cannot judge a noble by appearance. There were those short in stature and those tall, those with cute faces and those with fierce ones.
But he had never seen a woman who looked so much like a noble. Tall stature, arrogant eyes. Even the dignity and confidence permeating every corner of her body.
Seeing an opponent who looked more capable than expected, Karim slowly walked closer, quietly gauging her momentum. Then he reached a conclusion. ‘I can win.’
Without the resonance of Akra, it was not precise, but the opponent’s strength seemed slightly above his own. But if he fought while wearing Akra, he would win. Because, as he had heard, the opponent’s Akra was still weak.
Once the conviction that he would win took hold, composure settled in. And he increased his previously slow pace, striding boldly toward the noblewoman. ‘Her name… was it Steel?’
“Hello there.”
“And who are you?”
“…….”
He thought himself rather rude, but the woman before him was no pushover either.
“Ahem… I am Count Karim. I have come to see you on business.”
“Ha… it was like that last time, and today too…….”
“Hmm?”
“No, nothing. What is it?”
Listening to the woman called Steel speak incomprehensible words, Karim slightly furrowed his brow but decided to let it slide. After all, the fiercer the beast, the greater the satisfaction in taming it.
“Huhu. Well, what else is there between a man and a woman? I merely suggest we have a pleasant time together.”
Swish!
A fierce wind whipped around Karim as he spoke. Karim exuded momentum from his entire body, delivering his words with a confident expression. Anticipating one of two reactions.
One, realizing she could not win anyway, she would obediently have a pleasant time with him.
The other, feeling insulted, she would charge at him.
Whichever it was, it would be a most enjoyable affair for him.
But the one called Steel before him showed a reaction entirely different from his expectation.
“Hmph… a pleasant time? Sure. I was bored anyway.”
And she walked toward him, step by step. Seeing that, Karim smiled delightedly. ‘So this woman is the type that enjoys it too.’
It was different from what he expected, but this was not bad either.
“Keuheuheu! Good, then where shall we go?”
“Me? Right here is not bad.”
“Hehe. Bolder than I thought. Good, good. That is not bad either. Then let us do it right here.”
The more they talked, the more Count Karim felt delighted, thinking he had truly done well to come here. ‘Once will not be enough. I should take her straight to my domain.’
While lost in pleasant imagination, Count Karim suddenly felt something flying at him fiercely and tried to dodge in alarm. ‘Kueuk! Too late.’
Kwaaang!
Unable to dodge in time, Karim hurriedly raised his arms to block, only to be sent flying violently and crashing hard into the trunk of a Kikylus tree. The Kikylus withstood that tremendous shock in its entirety, standing firm without any major breakage. That was why nobles liked Kikylus trees. They were so sturdy that nobles could brawl to their hearts’ content without them breaking easily.
Staggering to his feet, Karim urgently dodged the next flying object and launched a counterattack. His filthy personality and his skill were entirely separate matters.
Buying time with his counterattack, Karim spewed curses.
“Oh? You blocked it?”
“You crazy bitch! What do you think you are doing!”
“What? You said we would have a pleasant time and that right here was fine? After saying everything was fine, why are you acting like this? Keuheuheu. We do not have much time, so let us play quickly. My younger brother will be here soon.”
“What! You insane bitch… kuak!”
No sooner had she spat out incomprehensible words than Steel charged at him, brandishing the black gauntlets on both hands. Seeing this, Karim cursed and swung the sword at his waist.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Hmm? What is going on?”
Having smashed all the entrances leading into Apental and turning back toward the trees, Sian made a puzzled expression upon seeing deafening roars and flashes of light from the Kikylus tree of Locke Viscounty where he had been.
Enhancing his eyesight to look closer, one side was Lady Steel, while the other was a man he had never seen before. The two were running between trees as if they were mortal enemies, fiercely trading blows. Though it was said to be merely aftershocks, even with such tremendous energy surging back and forth, the Kikylus tree only had some branches broken while the trunk stood intact. Recalling the Lagrang region of old, it was practically unscathed.
‘Oh dear… Lady Steel is being pushed back.’
Seeing Steel being pushed back slightly, Sian increased his speed a bit more and quickly approached where the two were fighting. Since he did not know the circumstances, Sian decided to calm the fight first and ask questions later, pushing the two apart.
Twuang!
“Ugh.”
“Kueuk.”
Pressed down by a quiet yet enormous force suddenly approaching them, Karim and Steel quickly retreated backward from where they stood.
Unlike Karim, who looked around with a bewildered expression, Steel immediately grasped the situation.
“Ugh… little brother, you arrived quickly.”
“Oh my… Lady Steel, are you alright?”
“Haha. Well, it is just this much. It will heal if you spit on it. You will spit on it for me, right?”
“…….”
Even hearing Steel’s embarrassing joke, Sian did not laugh. The wounds here and there on her body showed that the fight just now had been quite serious.
“What happened?”
“Ah… well, it is nothing much. That guy suddenly came over and said we should have a pleasant time.”
“…And?”
“Can you not see? We were having a pleasant time. Ptooey.”
Spitting out saliva mixed with blood from her mouth, Steel looked thoroughly delighted. Having met a match for the first time in a while and loosened up her body, she looked to be in an extremely good mood.
Of course, Sian’s mood was a little different.
“Lady Steel, please hand me the gauntlets.”
“Hmm? But these… they will not fit your hands, little brother?”
Steel expressed her doubts at Sian’s words. Her hands were on the larger side, but they could not compare to the hands of the large-built Sian.
“Well, it does not matter. It is not for wearing on my hands.”
“Hmm? Then why the gauntlets…….”
Steel made an expression saying she did not understand, but Sian smoothly pulled the gauntlets from Steel’s hands and held them.
“Huh? Then what do I fight with?”
Though flustered by Sian’s sudden action, Steel was nothing compared to Karim.
“What……!”
Realizing that the man before him was the owner of the force that had suddenly pushed him aside, Karim could not act rashly and carefully kept his guard up, but when that man suddenly approached holding gauntlets in both hands, his expression turned tense.
The moment he saw a black object rapidly expanding before his eyes, Karim hurriedly tried to block, but it was already too late.
Ddeog!
“Kuaak!”
Karim screamed as his face was struck squarely by the flying gauntlet. Even amid that, a different thought crossed his mind. ‘There were two gauntlets… where is the other one?’
But he did not need to think long. Because he soon found out where that gauntlet was through his left flank.
Ddeog! Ddaak! Kkadeuk!
Feeling the sensation of metal gauntlets beating him incessantly without rest, Karim felt his consciousness gradually growing hazy.
“Keueuuung…….”
Feeling pain throughout his body, Karim raised himself. ‘What happened…….’
As the pain subsided to some extent, Karim began to recall why he was lying in such a place, and soon he was able to remember the cause from within his memories.
“Keueu… those crazy bastards…….”
The man who had beaten him black and blue was undoubtedly the accessory said to have come along beside that noblewoman. He had thought him some pet-like creature of the one called Steel because he spoke so politely and did not seem to have much momentum, but that had been a huge mistake.
Recalling the sight of him beating him furiously like a madman gave him goosebumps once more.
As he began circulating the energy within his body to normalize himself, Akra aided him. While recovering his body in that manner, someone entered from outside.
“Have you awakened?”
“Mm, Viscount Locke. Damn it… how long was I out?”
“…….”
“Why do you not answer?”
“It has been about a week.”
“…What?”
He had known his body was a mess, but he had not thought it was to that extent, so Karim made an absurd expression.
“Damn it. Where did those bastards go?”
“They… departed for Kokul Viscounty. They said they would pass through there and head to Levadan County. It has been about three days.”
“Kueueuk…….”
“If you are perhaps… thinking of revenge, I do not think you should.”
“What? What do you mean?”
Count Karim, who could not let himself be beaten without doing something and had been wracking his brains even while in pain, burst into anger at Viscount Locke’s voice.
Seeing that appearance, Viscount Locke told him exactly what he had seen while tracking the Gran clan’s traces.
“You said they were all smashed to pieces? All those Alphas? And their subordinates too?”
“Yes…….”
Count Locke, having grasped the scale of the army through the corpses of those fellows, couldn’t help but feel his hair stand on end. Hundreds of Alphas, and red dwarves several dozen times that number. At this level, their protectorate would simply be swept away. The red dwarves had grown so powerful that high-ranking nobles would need to band together to stop them.
“…
So you’re telling me the guy who beat me to a pulp did all that alone?”
“He didn’t seem particularly intent on hiding it either. If he could do that by himself… it means he’s at least a Marquis…….”
“…
Damn it.”
This meant the plan had to be completely revised. Someone that mighty was beyond his own strength.
There were surely those who would ask, “Why not ask your father for help?” But that was something only someone who didn’t know his father would say. Others might not know, but he, who had watched his father for a long time, knew. Duke Kaltenheim was never the type to fuss over his children. The reason he had allowed him to run wild during his days as a Marquis was to use him as bait to pressure the nobles who took the bait—not out of any affection for him. Besides, now that he was a Duke who no longer needed power, there was no reason to fish like that.
Since he could suppress a Marquisate with his body alone, and since he had hit a wall, the Akra supplied by commoners was no longer of any help. So why would he bother acting as the head of a Marquisate? He wouldn’t know, having never become a Duke himself, but at least history spoke. All Dukes to date had left the Marquisate that raised them. Without a single exception.
In fact, the Kaltenheim Marquisate that his father had owned was said to have fierce competition among the nobles who had been under him now. This meant his father had shown his intention to leave the protectorate. The Akra would be divided evenly, but they were competing to take even a little more until a new Marquis was born.
Count Karim fretted, then thought he should report to his father first. The next judgment would be his father’s to make.
Count Karim rose and flew to his own estate. The twins connected to the Kaltenheim Marquisate were nowhere nearby except in his own estate.
After returning to his County, Count Karim spoke with someone through the twins. Holding the twins’ hands, Count Karim wore an uncharacteristically nervous expression.
Count Karim spoke cowering. His father, Kaltenheim, was terrifying no matter when he faced him. Even the voice transmitted through the twins. It had been somewhat better when he was a Marquis, but after becoming a Duke, the overwhelming pressure crushing him had increased greatly.
“No! I merely thought I should report that such an incident had occurred here…….”
-rad is visiting. It will be a beneficial experience for you as well, so return.>“…
Understood.”☆ ☆ ☆‘Hmm, what sort of fellows are they…….’After finishing the conversation and releasing the twins’ hands, Kaltenheim fell into thought with an expressionless face. He had listened, but there didn’t seem to be any particularly useful information. Except that they seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
Kaltenheim, whose thoughts were growing complicated, set them aside for the moment and recalled a report that had come to him.
“Well, Apental doesn’t mean much… but if it’s completely destroyed, that’s not bad either. By the way… Duke Con-
-rad…….”
He had received word that Duke Con-rad would visit as soon as he heard that he himself had recently become a Duke. He must have business with him, which was expected.
“Hehe. I’ve been waiting.”
Kaltenheim smiled pleasantly, imagining his meeting with Con-rad, who would soon arrive.☆ ☆ ☆“When I came here, I thought the people were barbaric. Completely devoid of class.”
“…….”
“But seeing you, little brother, already adapted so splendidly makes me proud. Oh my. Huhuhuhu.”
“…….”
‘Oh my, to think the day would come when I’d hear such words from Sir Steel.’Sian couldn’t believe the reality that he was currently being teased.
“Sir Steel, don’t you feel that I am your savior? I flew in magnificently, like a prince, and rescued you.”
“And beat me up like a ruffian. Hehehehe.”
“…….”
“Little brother, you know I’m joking, right? By the way… is Apental completely taken care of?”
At those words, Sian spoke with an uncomfortable expression.
“It has been resolved. Since I destroyed it entirely, we won’t be able to enter there anymore. It’s just that I devoured those fellows… I hadn’t expected lingering thoughts to remain in the corpses.”
“Well, it couldn’t be helped. They kept chasing you to kill you, after all.”
“That is true, but…….”
“By the way… five years. Then you were there for over a thousand years? Then I can’t even call you little brother anymore.”
They said that when he had fallen into Apental before, even a brief visit had caused over a week to pass. If five years had passed here, at least a thousand years would have passed there.
But at those words, Sian shook his head.
“That was probably when I fell into the eighth floor. It seems the gap decreases each time you climb a floor. When I actually calculated it… I think I had been trapped for about 100 years. The first floor, where the exit is, probably had almost no difference from reality.”
“Hmm… then you’re still the little brother. Hehe.”
While chatting, Steel brought up the topic of Akra.
“This thing called Akra is really convenient. To think a protectorate appears just by following the resonance.”
“Can you not go there directly?”
“They say the distance between protectorates is too far for that.”
Even the Circulus tree, through which the Akra of countless commoners and powerful energy flowed, found it difficult to exert influence beyond a certain distance. In fact, the Akra inside Steel’s body was by no means causing a massive resonance. A faint, very faint resonance. They found their way based on that resonance and a rough direction. Toward where the resonance grew slightly. Without the senses of a superhuman of incomparable sharpness, one would not be able to feel the increase or decrease in resonance. Therefore, this was a method only nobles could use. Commoners used guides. However, guides were also limited to about one city.
“Hmm… They say Marquises and Dukes can skip a protectorate and go direct… but I don’t think I can yet. Seeing that, I’m definitely below a Marquis.”
“Well, didn’t you say the one who beat me up was a Count? Sir Steel, you must correspond to a Count here.”
While talking about this and that, Steel opened his mouth upon seeing a huge tree in the distance.
“I can see it now. It really is far…….”
The Circulus tree visible in the distance must be the Viscounty of Kokul. Perhaps because the Viscounty of Locke had been quite large, the Circulus tree of the place called the Viscounty of Kokul was somewhat smaller than that of the Viscounty of Locke.
After arriving, Steel and Sian found Viscount Kokul, the master of this place. It was said that two Barons and Viscount Kokul supplied Akra together here.
“Greetings. I am Kokul, who protects and governs this place.”
Viscount Kokul had already received word from Viscount Locke through the twins, so he received the two without stinting on hospitality. Of course, he had no intention of stinting even without word. Because the Akra now filling Steel’s body was emitting a powerful resonance, pressing down on Kokul.
Steel snorted upon seeing the nervous Kokul.
“See? That’s why I feel like I’ve become a bad guy.”
“If you didn’t have Akra, Sir Steel, you would truly be a bad person. You’d rack up charges of assault and murder several times a day. As if it would end at intimidation.”
“…….”
Viscount Kokul, listening to their conversation, looked at the man with cold sweat trickling down. According to Viscount Locke, this man was more powerful than even the Count beside him. Yet not a single trace of Akra could be felt from within his body. Such a man was even more dangerous. Because there was a high chance of provoking him by mistake.
The nervous Viscount Kokul spoke to change the subject.
“By the way… about the County of Levadan… did you say you were going there to find information about Duke Con-
-rad?”
“Yes. I heard he had stopped by there recently, so I thought there might be some clue.”
“Hmm… is information about Duke Con-
-rad your goal?”
“It’s not that. I have some business with him.”
At that, Viscount Kokul wore a puzzled expression, then clapped his palm.
“Ah… could it be that you did not stop by the Baron’s protectorate on your way here?”
“No. I simply came straight here…….”
“Then you may not have heard. It seems you will not need to go all the way to the County of Levadan.”
Seeing Viscount Kokul speak with a smile, Sian asked with a curious expression.
“Why is that?”
“Word has already spread to the nobles through the communication network of the twins. Duke Con-
-rad is heading to Duke Kaltenheim’s base, the Duchy, to meet him. It seems you can go directly there.”
“Huh? Is that something worth informing all the nobles about?”
Even if meeting him was understandable, Sian wore a curious expression because he couldn’t understand how word was spread even to Baron-class nobles.
“When would an opportunity like this come again? It’s because it’s an opportunity that cannot be missed.”
Viscount Kokul, wearing the expression of a child on the verge of unwrapping a gift, looked at the curious Sian and began to speak.