— A private room in an upscale residential area in northern Babel.
"Has the report on the extermination of that incompetent and Somni still not arrived?"
As if trying to dispel his mounting irritation, First Prince Gilbert Loto Amelia of the Holy Amelia Kingdom rhythmically tapped the floor with the sole of his foot as he questioned his Guardian Knight, a man with a pencil mustache who had now become his head knight.
"We have not received the report yet, but please do not worry, Your Highness. We are not like those good-for-nothing senior knights who preceded us."
Straightening his posture, the Guardian Knight answered while stroking his prized pencil mustache with his right index finger.
"Naturally! I paid an exorbitant fortune to hire you! I need you to actually be useful!"
As Gilbert spat out the words, the Guardian Knights merely offered silent, knowing smiles. In their demeanor was an overwhelming confidence—the pride of seasoned warriors who had claimed glory by wagering their lives and honor.
They were martial artists Gilbert had scouted from across the world with the promise of massive rewards. Hunters, mercenaries, and underworld cutthroats. Every single one was a powerhouse worth a thousand men.
Until now, only senior knights who had achieved distinguished military merit were appointed as Guardian Knights. However, disgusted by Somni's immaturity and Tamuri's utter worthlessness in being so easily defeated by that incompetent fool, Gilbert had shattered convention, making raw, immediate combat ability his sole criterion for recruitment.
"Yes, we shall demonstrate our worth to your heart's content."
"Anyone can talk a big game. Go out and prove it!"
"Of course, that is precisely our intention."
Still maintaining his smile, the head knight tucked his chin while twirling his pencil mustache.
"And what about the cleanup after those two pests are dealt with?"
Gilbert sank into the lavishly ornate chair in the center of the room, closed his eyes, let out a deep breath, and inquired.
"The incompetent hired Tokotsu to murder Somni. Tamuri then avenged Somni by killing the incompetent, but perished honorably in battle after striking Tokotsu down at the cost of his own life. That is the scenario we have arranged.
Useless though he was, having Your Highness's former head knight suffer a pathetic defeat would ultimately drag your name through the mud."
"That will suffice. But are you certain there won't be any complications?"
"Yes, we received word from the vice headmaster confirming that the incompetent was successfully disposed of. He reportedly verified the corpse of that pitiful little princeling, Somni, as well."
"I see..."
Gilbert let out a massive sigh of relief against the back of his chair.
With this, he had purged the insolent trash who had dared to disrespect him, a member of royalty. On top of that, he had cleaned up the useless deadweight, Somni and Tamuri. He had even used the opportunity to exterminate an incompetent apprentice knight. All while substantially reinforcing the fighting power of his Guardian Knights—a total victory.
Above all, pulling the rug out from under Rose, who had appointed that incompetent as her Royal Guard, was a massive triumph.
In the Throne Succession War, royalty and their Royal Guards shared an unbreakable bond, akin to the head and its limbs. It was not a position where one could simply replace a partner upon death. The penalty was catastrophic. At the very least, her chances of victory in the Throne Succession War had dropped practically to Zero.
"With this, Rose is out of the running as well."
Just as a smirk curled onto Gilbert's lips, a deafening blast tore through the air, shaking the entire building to its foundations.
"W-What was that?!"
Gilbert sprang to his feet with a startled shout. His earlier composure vanished, the pencil-mustached man assumed a grim expression and gestured with his chin toward a subordinate Guardian Knight with a lizard tattoo on his right cheek.
"..."
Drawing a knife from his belt, the tattooed knight lowered his stance and cautiously approached the entrance. But just as he pressed his body against the door to swing it open—
"Hm?"
Seeing countless geometric lines suddenly carve themselves across the wood, the knight with the lizard tattoo furrowed his brow. In the next instant, the door and the knight were simultaneously pulverized into fine debris.
"Battle stations! Protect the Prince!"
As the pencil-mustached man's roar echoed through the room, the Guardian Knights surged forward to shield Gilbert, drawing their weapons in unison.
Through the shattered remains of the doorway, a black-haired boy emerged.
"W-Why the hell are you here?!"
A shriek of sheer astonishment tore from Gilbert's throat. And with good reason. Standing before him was a youth of average build dressed in strange, foreign garb—looking almost like a child. It was Kai Heinemann, the very boy who was supposed to be dead.
"Kill him."
At the pencil-mustached man's quiet command, a hulking knight with a shaved, crimson head charged Kai Heinemann with terrifying speed, sweeping his greatsword in a horizontal arc aimed straight for Kai's neck.
Kai casually parried the massive blade with the wooden sword in his right hand. The very next moment, the red-headed giant's entire body disintegrated into pulverized chunks of flesh.
"I-Impossible..." the pencil-mustached man choked out.
"Foolish Prince, come along quietly. Refusal is not an option, so don't bother resisting."
Kai Heinemann issued the order with detached arrogance, treating the pencil-mustached man as though he were entirely beneath his notice.
"D-Don't screw with me! A mere low-ranking noble dares to... Kill him! Kill this bastard!"
He barked frantic orders at the surrounding Guardian Knights, but—
"..."
None of them moved an inch; they only stood there, trembling faintly.
"What is wrong with you?! This is an order from your prince!"
He raised his voice in fury, yet still, no one budged.
"It's no use. Their eyes are already those of beaten curs," Kai Heinemann muttered to himself.
"What are you waiting for?! Kill him now!" Gilbert screamed again, loud enough to tear his vocal cords.
"It's impossible... We can't defeat that thing. Not a chance," the pencil-mustached man rasped, every ounce of his earlier smug confidence completely shattered.
"Don't give me that garbage! Do you have any idea how much I paid to hire you?!"
As Gilbert flew into a blind rage, Kai Heinemann scowled in annoyance. He tossed forward a cloth bag held in his left hand.
"Hmph. Fair enough. Perhaps you need a reminder of your reality first. Look inside that bag. It belongs to the fool you hired for your little scheme."
The instruction was delivered in an absolute, unyielding tone. Seething with gut-wrenching humiliation at such blatant disrespect, Gilbert roared:
"You bastard, who do you think I—"
Before he could finish, his vision spun wildly between ceiling and floor, and his face slammed violently into the hard wooden planks.
"Gwah?!"
A searing heat exploded in his nose. Before he could fully process the agony, Gilbert felt his hair seized in Kai Heinemann's tight grip.
"Go on, see for yourself. That is the miserable end of a man who left this world because of your sheer stupidity."
Kai Heinemann's eyes were terrifyingly frigid as he tossed Gilbert down in front of the cloth bag.
"S-Save be!"
Gilbert pushed his upper body off the floor, crying out to his Guardian Knights, but they merely kept their heads down, completely paralyzed.
"You really are incapable of learning, aren't you?"
Immediately following Kai Heinemann's exasperated remark, sparks burst behind Gilbert's eyes once more as his face was driven into the floor. A heartbeat later, blinding, agonizing pain tore through him.
"I will say it once more. Open that bag."
"You inso—gheh!"
His face was slammed into the wood yet again. Pushed beyond his threshold of endurance, he shrieked frantically:
"A-All righd! I'll loog, jusd sdop!"
The hand tangled in his hair finally let go. Collapsing forward onto the floor, Gilbert pulled open the mouth of the bag. The moment its contents met his eyes—
"Eeeek?!"
Screaming in horror, he hurled the bag away. Rolling across the floorboards was the severed head of an old man. A familiar face. It was the vice headmaster of Babel—the very man he had tasked with eliminating Kai Heinemann.
The wide, staring eyes and the expression frozen in unadulterated terror drained every drop of color from Gilbert's face. An overwhelming wave of nausea surged through his gut—
"Blargh!"
He violently spewed his stomach contents across the floor.
"Don't go into shock over something so trivial. After all, you've already committed atrocities dozens of times worse than this, haven't you?"
Looking down at the weeping, retching prince as if he were a vile insect, Kai Heinemann questioned him in a voice as cold as ice.
Gilbert couldn't muster a single word in response. Bitter acid rushed up his throat, and he clutched his mouth only to vomit onto the floor once more.
"Truth be told, I intended to let Belze dispose of you as well. But even for a piece of trash like you, there were a few eccentric souls who begged me to spare your life. Of course, I don't mean the King or Rose. No matter what my own family might say, I had no intention of changing my mind."
Trailing off, Kai Heinemann glanced over his shoulder.
"Take him to the designated location."
He gave the order to an androgynously beautiful woman wearing a monocle and foreign attire.
"Understood, yes. And what shall we do with these ones?"
"These guys, huh..."
"Eek..."
With nothing more than a single glance from Kai Heinemann, Gilbert's Guardian Knights abandoned their master and scrambled madly for the exit.
"Fools. Did you truly believe I would let scoundrels who shamelessly tried to murder children walk away?"
Kai Heinemann's silhouette blurred. In the next instant, the heads of the knights bolting for the door were cleanly severed, their bodies crashing to the floor like marionettes with severed strings.
Kai Heinemann reappeared before the entrance, calmly holding a wooden sword dripping with fresh crimson.
"W-We surrender!"
"Not a chance. You crossed the line. The moment you laid hands on defenseless children, your fates were sealed."
"Damn it!"
Face entirely drained of blood, the pencil-mustached man tried to stumble backward, but—
"Consider this my final mercy! I shall grant you a warrior's death. Come at me with everything you have!"
Kai Heinemann shouted, a cold smirk playing at the corner of his lips.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damnnn youuu!"
Letting out shrill cries of despair and rage, the remaining men swarmed Kai Heinemann all at once. Kai slowly raised his wooden sword into a high stance.
In an instant, sharp lines cleaved through their bodies, and they collapsed into scattered, unrecognizable heaps of flesh.
All that remained in the room was a mangled carnage of mangled remains and a sprawling pool of blood.
"Heeeeeeek!"
In the blink of an eye, the elite warriors he had scouted from across the world—believing them to be the absolute strongest—had been effortlessly reduced to minced meat. The terror was so absolute that Gilbert felt the blood in his veins turn to ice, and he shrieked at the top of his lungs.
—Terrifying.
Kai Heinemann's incomprehensible, monstrous power!
—Horrifying!
The chilling apathy in his eyes, devoid of even the slightest flicker of emotion after slaughtering them!
To Gilbert, Kai Heinemann was nothing less than a demon wearing human skin. He tried to scramble away, but his legs turned to jelly, sending him collapsing helplessly onto his rear.
"I suppose we'll leave the cleanup to Babel."
As Kai Heinemann muttered the words to no one in particular, the monocled woman seized Gilbert roughly by the back of his collar. In the next instant, Gilbert's consciousness plunged into total darkness.