“It’s impossible to infiltrate the royal palace. Even if we move unnoticed by the knights and soldiers, we can’t deceive the rune magic barrier installed inside the palace.”
“Then should we charge in head-on, prepared to be caught?”
“If we do that, we’ll give Hestein and Ragnar a chance to escape. Instead of the main gate, let’s assault the royal family’s residential area. If the information about being able to fly is true, it shouldn’t be too difficult.”
Thanks to my persuasion, Hrapun, who had transformed into an excellent traitor, pulled out the palace blueprints from a bookshelf and pointed out the flaws in our usurpation plan, reinforcing it.
“After entering the residential area, if we collapse this corridor to block it, we can delay the royal knights and the Rune Holy Warriors from joining forces. That should give us enough time to kill Hestein and Ragnar.”
It seemed that Hrapun’s position as the head of the Intelligence Department wasn’t just for show. Once he decided to betray, he was exceptionally competent, as if he had spent his entire life dreaming of the day he would rebel.
“The palace’s defensive forces consist of fifty Rune Holy Warriors, about a hundred royal knights, and five hundred guards. The royal knights are armed with weapons engraved with rune magic, and the Rune Holy Warriors, like Knut, have multiple runes engraved on their bodies.”
“What about Ragnar?”
“Unknown. It’s certain he’s stronger than Knut, but he’s never shown his full power to anyone.”
It seemed even Hrapun didn’t know the extent of Ragnar’s current power. That part would have to rely on my memory. Like Isabella, he might be weaker than I remember, but… we’ll only know after fighting him.
“However, it’s certain he possesses the Rune of Domination, so be careful not to look into his left eye by mistake. I don’t know where he got it, but even the Marquis has a rune engraving.”
“Did you know?”
“If someone who isn’t a magician can wield powerful magic, there’s only one answer.”
Even though I never showed Hrapun my wrist, he seemed to have already figured out that I possessed two runes.
“The famous fire magic must be the Rune of Fire, and the power that collapsed the barrier must be the Rune of Collapse. The Empire wouldn’t have sacrificed hundreds of thousands of lives for human sacrifice, so it must be an ancient rune that was implanted. Is there anything wrong with my guess?”
His tone was so confident that instead of denying it, I smiled and subtly showed him the rune engraving on my wrist.
“You’re right about the rune engraving… but don’t worry about the Rune of Domination. I’ve already tested it. It doesn’t work on me.”
I had heard that possessing the Rune of Domination allows one to control other rune warriors, but there was no way I would overlook such a danger. I had already tested it.
—
Before heading to Edricksa, I informed Knut that I possessed two runes and tested the effects of the Rune of Domination on myself.
Nigel and Leonor opposed it, saying it was too dangerous, but it was something I had to confirm.
Since it was a mental domination type of magic, I thought my Demon Resistance and the power of the Holy Mark could block it, so I didn’t feel much sense of crisis.
However, Nigel and Leonor weren’t convinced just by that.
They remembered when we entered the city of Arvil, where Belcus was hiding, and almost the entire group was brainwashed and turned into breeding stock.
At that time, I could resist the brainwashing to some extent, but I couldn’t completely shake it off and was gradually being influenced by the ‘common sense’ of that place.
Of course, that didn’t mean I could avoid testing it.
Frankly, if the Rune of Domination was powerful enough to break through Demon Resistance and the Holy Mark, we would have to revise our entire strategy of eliminating Ragnar.
So, I ordered the two to hold a sword to Knut’s neck and, if they saw anything suspicious, to immediately cut off his head. Only then did I manage to get their agreement.
After testing the effects of the Rune of Domination…
– It doesn’t work?
Surprisingly, the Rune of Domination that Knut possessed had no effect on me. It wasn’t that I resisted the brainwashing with Demon Resistance or the power of the Holy Mark. Literally, the brainwashing itself was completely nullified.
The moment the power of domination Knut emitted touched my body, it shattered into pieces and turned into pure mana, which was absorbed into my wrist.
Just like how the heat of fire couldn’t harm me after I obtained the Rune of Fire and was instead converted into mana.
– You absorb the power of runes…?!
Knut was utterly shocked. It was a phenomenon that couldn’t be explained by Dane’s rune magic.
As it turned out, engraving a rune doesn’t grant immunity to that attribute. Even if you engrave the Rune of Fire, you can still get burned by fire.
It meant that the runes I possessed were different from Dane’s. Though I had no idea why or how.
– Let’s test other runes.
After that, Knut attacked me a few times to see if I could absorb the power of other runes.
Most of the runes he possessed were for enhancing his combat abilities, so the only offensive runes he had were the Rune of Ice and the Rune of Lightning.
– Ugh…!
Unfortunately, after being hit by ice spears and lightning bolts, it was concluded that I could only absorb the power of the Rune of Domination and fire. It was cold and prickly.
Since I also possessed the Rune of Collapse, I thought I might be able to block similar collapse powers, but Knut didn’t have the Rune of Collapse, so we couldn’t test that.
—
“If you can ignore the Rune of Domination, then there’s nothing to worry about. The Empire’s Greatest Sword, who even defeated Or-han, surely won’t lose to Ragnar.”
Hrapun nodded, seemingly reassured. No matter how strong Ragnar’s hidden power was, he couldn’t possibly be stronger than the Empire’s strongest knight.
“Once we send Hestein, Ragnar, and Eirek to Bølberg’s side, all that’s left are the Rune Holy Warriors and the royal knights. If we capture Prince Haral, even if we have to break the wall, we’ll make a path for ourselves.”
“Are you coming too?”
“Of course! Without me, it would just be two traitors holding the prince hostage. How do you plan to persuade the palace knights and guards with just the three of you?”
He had a point. Even I could see that in that situation, there would be no way to persuade them without shedding blood.
“Alright. But remember this one thing. If you try any tricks… no, if I even sense you might, I’ll kill you first.”
“…I’ll keep that in mind.”
I glared at Hrapun with a murderous intent as I warned him, and he nodded with a slightly pale face, his pupils trembling.
And so, the daring palace assault operation by one Imperial and three traitors began.
—
Life is interesting because it doesn’t go as planned, or so they say.
Considering that those who spouted such nonsense met their end without even leaving a corpse, it seems life is more interesting when it goes as planned.
In other words, this current situation isn’t fun.
“To think they would attack the palace so soon. The Lord of the Borderlands is bolder than the rumors.”
In the middle of the collapsed palace, the screams of knights and soldiers, confused by the sudden attack, echoed from beyond the corridor blocked by the Rune of Collapse. Nonsense about catapult attacks and meteors falling from the sky.
I had no time to pay attention to such nonsense. As soon as I descended through the palace ceiling, collapsed the corridor, and rushed to the throne hall, what awaited me was a scene completely different from what I had expected.
“Targeting this place immediately… you must be planning to recreate what happened in Panam, right?”
The floor was stained red with overflowing blood.
Instead of the king and queen, who I expected to be shocked by the sudden attack, four corpses lay sprawled in the throne hall.
The corpses matched the descriptions given by Frigg and Hrapun. King Hestein of Dane, the queen, their eldest son Eirek, and the young princess Alvhild.
All members of the royal family except Prince Haral stared at me with vacant eyes.
In the middle of the headless, stinking corpses, Prince Haral sat trembling, covered in the blood and entrails of his family.
“…You knew, didn’t you?”
I glared at the man holding a sword to Prince Haral’s neck as I drew Durandal.
Ragnar Lokan. The Eighth Apostle of the forgotten gods’ cult, his sword drenched in the blood of his kin, smiled at me.
“I wasn’t sure. When the traitor Knut defected to the Empire, I considered the possibility that the Empire might resort to extreme measures… but I didn’t expect the Empire’s Greatest Sword to attack Edricksa just four days later.”
Ragnar lightly waved the sword at Prince Haral’s neck as he answered.
“Thanks to that, I had no choice but to kill my brother and nephews.”
Whether it was due to shock and terror, Prince Haral, half out of his mind, only let out groans and convulsed.
Though he looked utterly fragile, that very fragility was why Ludwig had decided to place him on the throne, so in a way, it was to be expected.
“One nephew is still alive, though he doesn’t look too good.”
“I kept him alive because I thought you might need him. You’ll need a royal bloodline to use as a puppet to clean up after attacking the palace, right?”
…Completely read.
I clicked my tongue and glared at Ragnar’s sword.
No matter how fast I moved, the sword at Haral’s neck would cut his throat before I could reach him.
Even if I used Reversed Heaven to approach, the carotid artery would have already been cut. That alone would be enough to kill Prince Haral.
“…What do you want?”
Ragnar grinned.
“Nothing.”
The next moment, Prince Haral’s head rolled to the floor.
