**Chapter 54**
—
Mashal Dust tilted his head in puzzlement.
“Hm… strange. I thought I fooled you perfectly. How did you notice?”
Arthur tilted his head in turn.
“Notice what?”
“Didn’t you see my corpse, Lord Donn?”
“Oh, you mean the body caught in Yenika’s hands?”
“Yes. Then why did you still come here looking for me? No matter how I think about it, that’s the one thing I can’t understand.”
Arthur’s lips curled upward.
“When you put me under hypnosis.”
“…?”
“Someone happened to overhear your muttering at the time.”
Mashal Dust’s eyes went wide.
“…What did I say then?”
“\[To think I’d stumble on something so unexpected… this will be fun.] That’s what you said, right?”
“…You mean from that one phrase, you guessed I’d faked my death?”
Arthur raised his sword.
“Not guessed. More like a hunch. Someone who casts hypnosis and calls it ‘fun’—well, that’s not a normal person…”
Trailing off, Arthur flashed a grin.
“And people like that usually have a tendency to want to see their work through to the very end. That’s why I came here.”
“….”
“So, any more questions you want to ask? They’ll be your last words.”
Mashal Dust’s expression grew unreadable.
“Last words?”
“Yes. I told you I’d kill you, didn’t I?”
With those words, Arthur vanished.
Startled, Mashal Dust muttered under his breath.
‘Teleportation? No… what is this? Could it be a bloodline ability?’
Even as he thought it, his body turned transparent.
At the same time, Arthur’s sword passed straight through him.
“…Huh?”
With a short exclamation, Arthur drew his gun.
He aimed for the back of Mashal’s head and pulled the trigger, but just like with the meteoric iron sword, the bullet passed through.
‘Magic? No… this is… a bloodline ability.’
Arthur and Mashal reached the same conclusion as they widened the distance between them.
“An amusing ability you’ve got there.”
“The feeling is mutual.”
As Mashal spoke, the slits of his eyes slowly opened.
Watching this, Arthur smirked.
“Interesting eyes you’ve got. Crescent-shaped pupils…”
“The stranger they are, the more amusing powers they grant.”
Arthur’s grin broadened.
“Then you’ve just given me another reason to kill you.”
“…Another reason?”
“Yes. A very important one.”
Mashal pulled a wry face and fell silent.
‘…What in the world am I even talking about right now?’
Just then, Arthur lifted the meteoric iron sword.
Mashal hesitated, then raised both hands.
Arthur, puzzled, asked,
“Huh? Are you surrendering?”
“No. Not surrender. I just have no intention of fighting.”
“…?”
“I’ve already achieved my purpose. So if you, Lord Donn, pretend you never saw me and step back, I’ll give you proper compensation.”
Arthur blinked.
“Compensation?”
“Yes. Let’s say… one thousand gold. How about if I give you the bounty on my own head?”
Arthur’s eyes widened slightly.
Noticing the change, Mashal pulled out a heavy pouch of gold coins as proof he wasn’t bluffing.
“….”
Just as he said, an immense sum of gold gleamed inside the pouch. By rough count, well over a thousand gold.
“If you step aside, it’s yours. What do you say, Lord Donn?”
“….”
“Honestly, wouldn’t fighting further here be a loss for you too? Am I wrong?”
Arthur glanced at the gold, then nodded.
“Not bad.”
“Exactly. There’s no need to fight when both our goals can be—”
Arthur chuckled.
“Kill you and take the money. Isn’t that what they call killing two birds with one stone?”
Mashal Dust blinked.
“…You’re serious?”
“Of course. If I cut off your head and show it to the Arcane officials, that’s another thousand gold on top.”
“…!”
“Who in their right mind would throw away a golden opportunity like this?”
Mashal gaped in dismay.
Meanwhile, Arthur vanished again—only to reappear behind him.
Swish—!
The meteoric iron sword cut clean through Mashal’s transparent body.
But Arthur, who had anticipated it, didn’t flinch.
‘He can’t stay intangible forever.’
That meant he only needed to strike when Mashal reverted.
With that thought, Arthur summoned gnome.
The earth spirit answered his call.
KWA-KWA-KWA-BOOM!
The ground crumbled and shifted as Mashal’s eyes widened.
‘Magic? No… that’s a spirit?’
Mashal was genuinely impressed.
To command a spirit so skillfully while already wielding a bloodline ability—such talent was rare.
Meanwhile, the living earth raised itself into towering walls.
Though he could phase through them, his time was limited.
So, as Mashal only partially turned his body transparent—
Arthur seized the moment and pulled the trigger.
Bang—!
The bullet tore through the air as Arthur closed the distance.
Mashal flinched in shock.
He had strained himself forcing the transparency earlier, and his time had run out.
Desperate, Mashal raised his hands and shouted.
“W-wait! Let’s talk this out!”
Arthur gave no reply.
His sword shot forward, aiming for Mashal’s materialized wrist.
Mashal stared at the strike, mouth falling open—
Clang—!
Steel crossed steel.
Arthur’s eyes widened.
“…Huh?”
He leapt back, frowning.
“What’s going on here? …Why are there two Mashals?”
—
—
Two men with the exact same face stood before him.
“…Are you twins, by any chance?”
At his question, the newly arrived Mashal Dust turned his head.
‘Are you alright?’
The words, mouthed silently, made the original Mashal nod.
“Phew… sorry. My stubbornness caused all this mess.”
‘It’s fine.’
“No, it isn’t… we’ll need to sort this out first.”
With that, the original Mashal’s eyes snapped wide open.
“…!”
Arthur immediately sensed the artifact magic of the white beard dissolve.
“…What?”
And then, the face beneath was revealed.
The original Mashal smirked.
“Arthur Bayern?”
“….”
“Who would have thought the scion of the family called the Pillar of the Empire would be a mercenary in Arcane…?”
Arthur stiffened.
“You’ve seen me before?”
“I have. A very long time ago.”
With a change in tone, the original Mashal smiled.
Arthur scratched his head uneasily.
‘Those eyes… just by looking, they unraveled magic?’
Worse, he had recognized Arthur’s true face without error.
Arthur had no intention of revealing his identity like this, so his expression hardened.
‘Now I have no choice. I must kill him.’
He had intended to anyway, but now the reason was stronger than ever.
‘The hypnosis is the main danger. But that won’t work anymore.’
He recalled hearing once that no magician could put the same target under hypnosis twice. Some kind of backlash from the mind itself—it was said the human psyche was just that mysterious.
‘So all I need to watch out for now is his bloodline ability.’
Arthur prepared to move when suddenly—
One of the two Mashals’ faces began to melt.
Arthur froze.
The face reformed into someone entirely different.
“…This is an entirely unforeseen situation, wouldn’t you say, Arthur Bayern?”
Arthur’s jaw slackened.
“You’re….”
“Oh-ho, you recognize me?”
“Aren’t you His Highness, Prince of the Empire?”
At that, the blond man laughed heartily.
“Correct! I am the Seventh Prince of the Empire, Leon Madrid!”
—
—
At Leon’s unhesitating revelation of his identity, Arthur fell silent.
‘Mashal Dust… he was Leon Madrid?’
Across the continent, countless nations existed.
But only the Empire bestowed the title of Prince.
And the Emperor had seven children. Leon Madrid was the youngest of them all.
‘Quite the peculiar figure… the idlest of idlers. If I was once called the Mute Young Lord, he was branded the Mad Prince.’
And in the future, he alone survived.
When Khan Madrid ascended as Crown Prince, he carried out a bloody purge. The bedridden First Prince was the first to be killed.
Then, one after another, the Emperor’s children were decapitated.
The only one left alive was the Seventh Prince—Leon Madrid.
‘And people would whisper… since he spent every day drowning in drink and women, unlike the others, he wasn’t even worth fearing or keeping in check.’
Arthur had thought so too.
For even the thorough Khan Madrid spared only Leon, proof enough that he wasn’t worth killing.
‘But now… Leon Madrid is tied up with Mashal Dust?’
An utterly unforeseen turn of events.
While Arthur hesitated, Leon smirked.
“Hm… since you know who I am, I’ll speak plainly. Show proper respect, Arthur Bayern!”
“….”
“To raise a sword against a member of the Imperial Family is to plot rebellion. Drop your weapon at once!”
Arthur stayed silent.
Leon barked again.
“What are you waiting for! It’s rebellion, I say! Raising your sword at me! Do you want your entire family purged?”
Arthur flinched and lowered his blade without realizing.
Leon’s eyes gleamed.
“Yes… good. Now, kneel.”
“….”
“Then we can talk this out. From where I stand… the misunderstanding between us can be resolved peacefully.”
Leon was grinning when—
Mashal Dust suddenly jumped forward in alarm.
At the same instant, a sharp gunshot rang out.
Bang—!
Leon Madrid blinked.
He looked down at his torn clothes.
Had it struck a little truer, his shoulder would have been blown off.
Pale-faced, Leon shouted hoarsely,
“…Are you insane, Arthur Bayern!!!”
“….”
“To dare fire a gun at a Prince of the Empire! Have you lost your mind?!”
Arthur sighed.
“With all due respect, Seventh Prince. I don’t want to do this either.”
“Then don’t!”
“But I’ve already made up my mind.”
“…?”
“Before I came here, I resolved: whoever put me under hypnosis—I would kill them. No matter what. So I can’t help it.”
Arthur’s eyes gleamed.
“Once I set my mind on something, I follow through. Which means I’ll have to kill you, Your Highness. Don’t resent me too much.”
Leon gaped in shock.
“…Over something so petty, you would kill a Prince of the Empire?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve truly gone mad. Can you handle the consequences? If this goes wrong, it won’t just be you—your entire family will be ruined!”
Arthur laughed.
“Consequences? Why would I need to worry about that?”
“…What?”
“If I leave no trace, then there’ll be nothing to handle.”
Arthur raised the meteoric iron sword again, whispering,
“So don’t worry. This part, I’m a professional. I won’t leave a single trace behind.”
Leon Madrid let out a hollow laugh.
“…What a lunatic.”
—
