Chapter 24 - It fucking hurts.
When my anger reached its peak, I felt my head cool.
With a freezing gaze, I exhaled softly and stared blankly at Leonhardt, who was looking at me in a daze.
“…You crazy bastard.”
Using magic on people?
It was my mistake. Clearly, if it followed the cliché, the possibility that Sylvia was eavesdropping on my conversation should not have been ruled out.
My original plan was to find Leonhardt first, provoke him, and lead to a confrontation with himself. If it were someone else, they would not have easily fallen for it, but it was a possible plan because it was ‘him.’
However, I never imagined Sylvia, who heard his conversation with Veren, would vaguely figure out my plan and meet Leonhardt first.
I tried to recall the original story’s information and searched for places where Leonhardt might be. However, if there was one thing he overlooked, he would be ‘where Sylvia was.’
‘…If it weren’t for Ashillya, it could have been dangerous.’
I couldn’t understand what Sylvia was thinking when she met Leonhardt. Still, if it weren’t for Ashillya, she could have been in danger.
Anyway, because of that, Ashillya and Leonhardt ended up meeting…
At Ashillya’s words, a situation where he lost his mind unfolded.
I clenched my teeth and took a step forward. What happened or what someone was thinking wasn’t important.
The perfect plan of taking a few punches from Leonhardt and punching him back a few times in self-defense was no longer important.
With a sword in his right hand and a clenched fist in his left, I took another step forward.
Ashillya and Sylvia are non-combatants. Ashillya was a staff member in the advisory field, and Sylvia was a healer.
Throwing magic at such people was really nothing more than telling them to die.
“Pointing magic at people? Are you in your right mind, really?”
Respect and courtesy were now thrown away. That guy who throws lethal magic at people was now no better than a beast.
Lèse-majesté? Fuck that.
Whether you’re royalty or not, you must act like a human being to be respected.
Leonhardt, staring at me blankly, came to his senses and frowned.
“You’ve really gone crazy. No, I knew you were crazy from before… but do you think you’ll get away with it unscathed?!”
A hollow laugh escaped my mouth at the sight of Leonhardt spewing anger.
He knew that guy was stupid long ago, but he never dreamed he would be so brazen even in this situation.
“I told you.”
“…”
“Charge me, go ahead and try it. You crazy bastard.”
He wasn’t the type to enjoy cursing, but seeing Leonhardt’s behavior, he couldn’t help but curse.
“…You insect-like bastard!!”
Leonhardt spat out curses and gathered mana. Mana, which should normally be invisible, was ‘visible.’
Since I cut his magic, a strange sensation enveloped my body. Mana was visible and, therefore, could cut magic.
However, that was not important at the moment. Instantly, I concentrated strength on my feet and lowered my body swiftly.
Proving his background, black flames flickered in Leonhardt’s hand once again. But I felt it instinctively.
‘I can cut it.’
Leonhardt seemed to think it was a coincidence that I cut his magic, but I was certain.
No matter how many times I could cut it down.
Whoosh!
Leonhardt threw flames at me as I charged, but I lightly cut it with my sword and instantly reached before him.
The most basic rule when wizards fight a swordsman:
Maintain distance.
Watching the eyes of the guy who couldn’t even do that basic thing widen, I threw a punch.
Bam!
Driving the fist smashing into Leonhardt’s face all the way, I clearly captured his distorted face with both eyes.
Does it hurt?
“Instead.”
If you tried to kill someone.
“Let me hit you a bit.”
You have to pay the price thoroughly.
***
“Stop…! Felix…!”
“Haa… haa…”
At Sylvia’s touch grabbing me, I took a few steps back, gasping roughly.
Blood flowed from my hands. My fists were torn from being scraped here and there, but it was more because Leonhardt’s blood was smeared on them.
“Ugh… ugh…”
It seemed Leonhardt, who had never been hit by anyone in his life, lost his mind the moment he was hit by my fist.
Looking at the guy squirming on the floor with cold eyes, I let out a long sigh.
“You’re hurt…!”
Sylvia looked at my hand with a tearful face and soon began to heal his hand with her power.
As the white light emitted from Sylvia’s hand touched my fist, I felt the wound quickly healing.
“The one who almost got seriously hurt…”
I let out a sigh and a hollow laugh at her worrying about my barely injured hand when she could have been in danger, not just getting hurt, if she had been hit by Leonhardt’s magic.
“What were you thinking, coming to meet Leonhardt?!”
Taking my gaze off Leonhardt, who had already fainted, I asked Sylvia sharply.
Receiving my gaze, Sylvia flinched and trembled slightly. That appearance looked cute, like an injured herbivore, but I tried hard to maintain a cold expression.
“…If it wasn’t me, Felix would have come to meet Leonhardt.”
Her appearance made me sigh, and she mumbled quietly as if she knew what she had done was wrong.
“Even so, what if you came to meet him alone, and something terrible happened?”
I pressed her with a deliberately stern voice, suppressing the urge to open Sylvia’s mind and sternly instilling that she shouldn’t do that.
Going to meet Leonhardt alone and barehanded without knowing how crazed he became…
“… I’m sorry.”
At Sylvia’s apology, I frowned. It was a dangerous thing, but it wasn’t something I should receive an apology from her for.
“There’s nothing to be sorry about. I was just worried that something might go wrong.”
The attitude of trying to solve one’s own problem wasn’t bad. It was because she didn’t know exactly how crazy the other person was.
“Hehe…”
Patting the head of Sylvia, who was looking at my reaction, I turned his gaze at the small laughter coming from beside him.
“Greetings to Your Highness.”
“Your greeting seems shorter than usual today…?”
“Your Highness.”
At the sight of Ashillya calmly starting to speak as if nothing had happened, I felt the headache that seemed to have subsided a little surging up again.
“You can speak comfortably.”
…I won’t refuse.
“Your Highness is also a problem. What if you provoke that scoundrel? It would have been dangerous if I hadn’t arrived in time.”
“…Do you still have to scold me?”
A small crack appeared on Ashillya’s serene expression. Feeling that it was somehow exhilarating, my lips twitched, I straightened my expression, and continued.
“What if, by any chance, Your Highness’s body got even a scratch? Isn’t Your Highness the one responsible for the Empire in the future?”
“Hmm… Listening to it, it sounds plausible.”
“It’s not just plausible, Your Highness.”
I unwittingly grabbed my head and muttered at the sight of Ashillya muttering calmly as if nothing had happened.
She just smiled at my appearance.
I don’t know why the future Crown Princess and male lead are insensitive to safety. While sighing and thinking like that, Ashillya spoke to me.
“By the way, it’s true that this one helped you, right?”
“… That’s correct.”
I helped Sylvia, strictly speaking, but if it weren’t for Ashillya, I wouldn’t have made it in time.
As I agreed, she nodded with a pleasant smile.
“Then, this one can also receive a reward from you.”
“…I will do anything in my power.”
“It’s not that difficult.”
At the sight of Ashillya smiling, an unknown sense of unease arose. I had a feeling it wouldn’t be a difficult task, but it wouldn’t be easy either.
Ashillya smiled and calmly continued.
“A few days later, this one’s Crown Princess enthronement ceremony is scheduled. I’d like you to be this one’s escort then.”
“…”
Escorting the Crown Princess at her ascension ceremony?
What difficulty level is this?
But it’s also awkward to refuse. It could inadvertently offend Ashillya.
Carefully choosing words in my mouth and trying to utter words of refusal, it was then.
“You should be asking a reward from me, Your Highness.”
An icy voice that I had never heard before.
Sylvia’s voice rang out.
At the same time, her cold blue eyes and Ashillya’s relaxed red eyes met in the air.
Not backing down, Ashillya smiled and spoke in a chilly voice to Sylvia, who was looking straight into her eyes.
“This one didn’t speak to you.”