Chapter 95

“Who goes there?!”

The knight, seemingly mistaking him for a monster, immediately shifted into a combat stance. Evan nonchalantly brushed a stray leaf off his head.

“It’s been a while. Was it after the banquet? Uncle.”

As Evan appeared with a smile, a chilling silence settled over the surroundings.

It was brief, however. Hedeis sneered at the sight of the incredibly relaxed Evan. He loathed that look. Since that banquet, he had been cast aside—like useless trash! Once the Empress abandoned him, other nobles treated him like an invisible man, and the vassals he had painstakingly won over crumbled like sandcastles under the Weiss Duchy’s counterattack.

Having already rebelled, Hedeis could no longer be a member of the Duchy. His pride wouldn’t allow him to beg for forgiveness either.

‘Why wasn’t the surname of House Weiss passed down to me, the eldest son who is equal to all other nobles? Why was Teorus considered more superior?’

Seeing Evan, who looked exactly like him, was enough to pull up Hedeis’s long-simmering rage.

But another opportunity had arrived. A proposal that felt like a final chance: assassination. The target was Evan von Weiss. And eventually, Teorus von Weiss. It was surprising that the proposal came from the Crown Prince’s knight rather than the Empress.

‘Doesn’t this imply that I am the rightful successor? I heard the Crown Prince is also in a succession struggle with Prince Fedeshar. He must have felt sorry for me because he understands my situation best.’

Hedeis had snapped up the offer. He would not miss this chance. He even had a reliable ally. He looked at the mage standing beside him. He knew neither the name nor the age of the man, but he felt confident in him.

“You’ve acted far too arrogantly. This place shall be your grave!”

With a bold declaration, Hedeis ordered the knights disguised as bandits to kill the man immediately. Evan only let out a hollow laugh. Seeing him standing alone, the knights also wore confident smiles, a stark contrast to their previous tension.

Treating him as prey… Evan offered a short retort while looking at Hedeis.

“You’re a clown.”

Hedeis’s face contorted at Evan’s cynical tone.

“What?”

“Forgive me, but I have someone waiting for me, so I must return quickly. Therefore, I’ll deal with you swiftly and then escort you to my father.”

Blue veins bulged on Hedeis’ forehead at Evan’s words about capturing him and handing him over to the Duke.

“You seem unaware that there isn’t a single knight here to protect you. Do you really think you can handle all these knights by yourself? You are my dear nephew, but today, I will make certain that you die.”

Hedeis was certain this plan would succeed. In the chaos of the carriage attack, a small number of them had safely entered the monster forest with the mage’s help. There was too little time for a rescue party to arrive. Evan scoffed at Hedeis’s assassination notice.

‘Who did he think he was killing?’

“Dear me… that is truly a pity. I feel the same way, Uncle.”

“…You’re saying you’ll kill me?”

Evan spoke with a bright smile.

“Yes.”

Everyone was dumbfounded by his calm expression. Hedeis burst into a triumphant laugh.

“Hahaha! You clearly don’t understand the situation. You aren’t the young master of the past!”

In the past, people made a fuss about him being the knight of the century, but that was an old story. Valedictorian of the swordsmanship department? That was all the power of the Duchy. And he had a reliable mage on his side.

“Even if you die here, no one will know I killed you. Or rather, will they even find your body? There are plenty of monsters who will come running at the scent of blood!”

It was the tragedy of a man who did not know Evan was both a Sword Master and a Spirit Summoner. Having laughed his fill, Hedeis signaled to the knights, saying he had nothing more to discuss.

“Kill him at once! Do not forget that we have a mage behind us!”

At Hedeis’s command, the knights moved. Their movements were fierce, believing they already held the upper hand. They were quite elite, as their swordsmanship was certainly skilled.

However, they were merely those with mediocre skills—not good enough to join the Imperial Knights or even the personal guard of a noble family. Evan saw no reason to show his true skill. He didn’t even draw his sword; he simply flicked his hand.

A Sword Master is one who has realized the flow of mana, and that mana circulates through the body. The prerequisite for this is training the body enough to withstand such a vast amount of mana. To Evan, who had mastered both swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat, their attacks were monotonous.

Without even needing to shroud himself in mana, he suppressed the knights one by one. Unlike the charging knights, the mage stood far off, watching blankly, as if his business was already finished.

Hedeis’s face turned pale as more and more knights fell.

“Th-this shouldn’t be happening…!”

One must not forget: Evan was someone whose body hadn’t even been out of a sickbed for six months, let alone a year. Seeing such a person effortlessly defeat knights one after another left Hedeis in a daze.

“You brat!!”

In a final act of desperation, Hedeis pulled a gun from his coat and aimed the barrel directly at Evan.

Bang—!!

The bullet fired without hesitation flew toward Evan, but with a ting, it dropped to the ground as if blocked by an invisible wall.

“If you handle mana well, things like this are possible.”

Evan brushed off his chest as if dusting it. Clad in a thin shield of mana, he was uninjured. Hedeis trembled violently.

“G-get up! I told you to get up!! A chance this good won’t come again! This is my chance to stand at the top… Urgh!”

Evan grabbed the shouting Hedeis by the throat and lifted him up. Hedeis struggled in the agonizing grip that cut off his breath.

“Be quiet. Do you want to become monster bait?”

One must not forget that this forest was teeming with monsters. Evan, his gaze murderous, held a finger to his lips and warned him.

Just as Hedeis was about to lose consciousness from the lack of air, Evan let him go. Hedeis fell like a marionette with its strings cut, and Evan spoke as if giving him a choice.

“The others have all fallen… it’s just the two of us now.”

Would it feel like this to be left alone with a murderer? His previous confidence had vanished, and his legs shook uncontrollably.

Contrary to his gentle smile, Evan’s eyes were as cold as ice. Hedeis looked for a place to flee, but he saw no one.

‘Where on earth did the mage go?! He was supposed to help at a critical moment like this!’

But the mage had already disappeared.

Hedeis was busy trying to hide his shivering. Looking at Hedeis glancing around for an escape, Evan spoke.

“Are you looking for a place to run? Then again, Uncle, you have no talent for swordsmanship or magic, so you can’t do anything alone. Ah! It might be offensive to others if I say you have no talent. Perhaps you had talent, but you never put in the effort.”

Born as the eldest son of the Duchy, his younger days were filled with groundless confidence. He never even looked at studies or swordsmanship that others worked hard at; he was only focused on inheriting the wealth.

“You should have stayed within bounds. If you had, you might have lived.”

Evan looked down at the sword at his waist. But this was a precious sword that had led him to meet Lepina. He didn’t want to stain it with blood unnecessarily.

“It just so happens that you’ve come here of your own accord to die a sudden death in a forest where no one comes, Uncle.”

Evan picked up the gun Hedeis had dropped. With a shrill scream, Hedeis tried to run.

“D-don’t come any closer!!”

“Aren’t you the one who came looking for me? Even after I warned you.”

Feeling as though Evan might point the barrel and shoot him at any moment, Hedeis felt his life was in danger.

“D-do you really intend to kill me?! When people find out I’m gone…!”

“Didn’t you just say it yourself? This is a forest teeming with monsters. Will anything of your corpse even remain? Besides, I am the one who was ambushed. It’s clear you came here secretly to kill me… you’ll simply be marked as missing.”

Hedeis couldn’t even manage a proper response to Evan’s calm summary of the situation.

Evan thought it was a good thing he hadn’t brought Lepina. He didn’t want to show her, nor did he want her to know, that he was killing a relative with his own hands.

Evan smiled brightly and leveled the gun at him.

“Farewell, Uncle. Thank you for everything.”

He was going to die. Hedeis was certain of it. He squeezed his eyes shut.

“Evan!”

At that moment, hearing the urgent voice, Evan turned his head. Hedeis opened his eyes. The Goddess of Luck had not abandoned him!

The one who had hurriedly pushed through the bushes was panting and stumbling, yet striding toward Evan.

Evan hadn’t expected Lepina to wake up so soon.

***

‘It’s cold…’

As the sound of the crackling campfire echoed, I opened my eyes.

There should have been a warm presence beside me, so why was I cold? I felt the ground with my hand. And then I realized: Evan wasn’t by my side.

I bolted upright. As I did, something like crushed powder fell from my body.

“Huh…? Why is this…?”

What had shattered was the artifact I was holding. I had bought it because it was said to protect my body by blocking magic at least once…

‘This shattered? That means…?!’

My face went pale. I was even more terrified because the person who should have been there was gone.