By Zephyria “I thought you disliked these kinds of events.”
Hugo, seated in the head seat, murmured quietly while staring ahead. His voice was so secretive that it didn’t reach the VIP seats in the front row or the knights lined up in the back. However, it was clearly heard by the owner of another head seat sitting right next to him.
Gladias, who had been straightening her back, opened her mouth while looking ahead as well.
“I’m tired of noisy places. But how can I not attend an event held in the family’s territory?”
“You are right.”
Hugo replied formally. Gladias, as if sensing that fact, twisted her lips and chuckled. It was such a subtle reaction that it wouldn’t be noticed unless someone was constantly watching.
“It’s just a nominal birthday, but I, as the godmother, must congratulate you in person. You’ll be holed up in the palace again on the day itself.”
Gladias was one of the people who knew why the Duke didn’t enjoy his birthday. So, her words emphasizing the nominal aspect were familiar but also coldly stabbing at painful spots.
“I am honored.”
Hugo replied without any change in expression this time as well. However, unlike before, his inner thoughts became a bit more complicated. If he were to interpret the godmother’s words, it sounded like she was saying that she had bothered to come all the way for lonely you, who has no one by your side. Of course, the intention of cynicism was probably greater.
The “palace” she referred to meant the Agrizendro family’s mansion. Even considering that it was originally the Grand Duke’s residence, calling the mansion a palace was a somewhat excessive expression. If he made a mistake, it could lead to a charge of treason for calling himself a king.
But Gladias often called the mansion where the Duke resided a palace. It wasn’t wrong since it was the palace used by the Logia royal family, but Hugo found the word particularly uncomfortable today.
He could vaguely guess how he, who hid his Bermuda origins under the guise of being an illegitimate child of the previous Duke, would be seen by his great-aunt and godmother, who so idolized the family and had such high pride, on his false birthday. To Hugo, whose origins were concealed under the guise of being an illegitimate child of the previous Duke, his birthday was not the day he was born into the world but the day he was secretly registered into the Agrizendro family. In other words, it was a fake birthday that meant he had abandoned his true self and was reborn as a nobleman.
And his great-aunt, who knew that fact, was always like a double-edged sword to Hugo. She was the teacher of authority and law who made today’s Agrizendro Duke possible, and at the same time, she was the target of power struggles competing for the Duke’s position.
Hugo, who had belatedly recalled the now obvious fact, erased the strange sense of anticipation he had felt earlier when Gladias climbed the stairs and reached out her hand to him.
Between the two people sitting motionless like perfectly sculpted plaster statues, a unique chill flowed that only the family’s direct descendants possessed. The two pairs of blue eyes, so similar as if they were truly blood relatives, were chillingly cold.
Just as he was getting used to the splendor and noise of the arena, it was Gladias who broke the silence between them once again.
“I told you several times to be especially careful since the Duke is tall. If you’re not just burly but obese, you’ll look foolish and dull.”
Hugo’s blue eyes reflexively shifted to the side and then down to his upper body. The buttons of the uniform he had newly tailored around this time last year were struggling. This was because he had been focusing on exercise for several months to replenish the muscles he had lost after returning from the subjugation and to relieve stress in various ways.
“I will keep that in mind.”
“Bulking up to give off a sense of intimidation is something animals do. A nobleman should reveal his authority with just a word or a glance.”
“Of course.”
Hugo deliberately averted his gaze and meaninglessly adjusted his tie and uniform buttons. Along with it, a silent sigh escaped.
It was then that an unexpected story was heard.
“There’s still time, so at least try to tidy yourself up by next month.”
Hugo’s hand, which had been adjusting his collar, slowly lowered. He blinked his eyelids slowly and looked back at his side.
“What do you mean?”
Gladias was still staring straight ahead.
“A good marriage proposal has come in, so it means the Duke should start preparing.”
’22 people?’
The limit on the number of passers in this match was 26. When he realized that there were only 4 spots left, the Sadist’s mask, which he had been trying to tear off with his hands, was instantly behind him.
‘Just an hour ago, there were 11 people?’
Even amidst the confusion in his head, Leonardo, twisting his body in the air, instantly struck the opponent with his heel. However, his boldly moving right leg only grazed the hem of the guy’s cloak, and instead, he ended up wrapping himself in the whip.
‘Is it possible for another 11 people to pass in just one hour? Did I miss something?’
He immediately tried to cut off the black line that was tightening around his ankle by creating flames. But the crisis came to him before the melting point of the whip. The Sadist dragged Leonardo, who he had caught in the air, and threw his body at all sorts of obstacles, such as the Surgery Tower, the lake, and the rocky mountains, as if throwing a Mana Orb.
Fortunately, Leonardo managed to avoid the collision by creating an explosion of air in the air to change direction. Then, he rushed at the target again in the same way, but as expected, that annoying weapon was the problem.
‘First, I have to do something about that…’
The guy’s whip easily split into two, as if attaching and detaching clay. He wrapped one around the Surgery Tower to move at an astonishingly fast speed, and wielded the other in the air to check Leonardo’s grip. He increased and decreased the length, divided it in half, and handled it freely as if it were part of his body, so even Leonardo, who was skilled in speed and aerial combat, couldn’t be confident of his superiority.
Leonardo fired two Red rays to stop the guy’s swift movements first. The spheres, drawing trajectories in the sky, approached the guy’s vicinity, but exploded alone in the empty air before hitting the target.
“…?”
As a result, the nearby Surgery Tower protrusions fell in droves, and the tower’s pillar swayed precariously for a moment. In the thick scattering debris and dust, a black lightning rod flashed for a moment. Leonardo, startled, quickly turned his head, and the sharp tip of a spear grazed past the side of his head.
The moment felt like slow motion. Leonardo recognized that the eyes inside the opponent’s silver mask, passing by with a gap of only 30cm, were staring straight at him. After making a decision in a short gap, he snatched the spear shaft that had grazed past his chin and gripped it with his hand. Then, the spear shaft, which had once again turned into a liquid-like substance, wrapped around Leonardo’s wrist.
‘He transformed the whip into a spear.’
Since he had realized early on that he had to become bait in order to attack the guy, Leonardo gave up his left wrist as it was. Then, instead of rushing at the guy this time, he grabbed the whip and flew towards the Surgery Tower at full speed.
His palms were tingling and his whole body was hot from holding someone else’s weapon again, but he didn’t care. Leonardo swung the rope connected to the guy around in the air and then powerfully threw the opponent towards the tower.
As the black whip got caught on the straight pillar, the two people hanging at the end couldn’t overcome the centripetal force as if they had become metal weights and began to be entangled in the tower. While rotating along different trajectories, they were gradually drawn towards the central pillar.
Leonardo sped up even more as the force led him, circling around the tower. Since the opponent couldn’t fly but also used the whip as a means of transportation, he would never let go of the whip unless he was prepared to die, just like himself.
He immediately tried to grab a protrusion with the whip in his other hand to escape the trap. However, the acceleration already on both of them was at its peak, and the protrusion easily broke, failing to provide support. As the black line connecting them tightened around the exterior of the Surgery Tower, Leonardo clenched a scorching fireball in his right hand and charged at his opponent flying towards him.
The silver mask seemed to anticipate Leonardo’s intentions, adjusting his posture in mid-air despite being pulled by the whip.
Seeing his target within range, Leonardo twisted his lips into a smirk.
“I’ve figured out all your patterns.”
The whip, transformed into a spear, penetrated his right hand. Leonardo willingly offered his right hand, raising his sparking left hand beside his head.