“Do not draw that sword. You will die.”
At Lucas’s chilling warning, the ‘shadow’s’ heart sank.
‘How?’
He had clearly called it a ‘sword.’
How did he know that the shadow had been about to draw a sword?
No one had ever seen his sword. That was because it was one of the ‘Divine Armaments’ that existed not in the material world, but in another dimension. Ordinarily, most people met the end of their lives with their throats cut before they could even perceive it.
But the man before him was different.
He had noticed the existence of the Divine Armament before the sword was even drawn.
“Khahahaha!”
Whether he knew what the ‘shadow’ was thinking or not, Romero burst into loud laughter.
“This is the first time I have ever seen you flustered. So, what do you think of Lord Lucas?”
“He is a warrior of such strength that I cannot even gauge him.”
The shadow answered without hesitation.
“Then if Lord Kraus were to attempt to harm me, could you stop him?”
“…….”
The ‘shadow’ bit down on his lip.
There was the oppressive presence that naturally emanated from him, and beyond that, his strength was completely impossible to gauge.
If this man truly attacked, could he stop him?
“Even if I gave my life in its entirety, I cannot say for certain.”
That was his honest feeling.
He had even been given a Divine Armament to protect the king, but even if he wielded its power to the fullest, he could not be certain against the man before him.
Strength whose depths could not be felt.
If even someone as powerful as himself could not measure it, then just how high had this man reached?
His fingernails dug into the skin of his tightly clenched fist.
“That is enough. Do not forget that frustration. Hone yourself with it.”
“My apologies, Your Majesty.”
The ‘shadow’s’ eyes quietly fixed on Lucas.
***
‘Stop looking at me like that, you bastard. You’re scaring me.’
Thankfully, the sword had been put away, but ever since then, that bastard had been openly glaring at me. There was even blood dripping from his fist.
I felt like I was losing my mind.
Meanwhile, the king was still standing well away from all of this, laughing as though it had nothing to do with him.
“Well, threats do not work either. What am I to do now?”
Romero sounded troubled, but his expression did not look troubled in the slightest.
If anything, he wore the expression of a mischievous brat plotting something.
Romero already knew I had another intention.
He was telling me to show my cards.
‘First, I have to protect my life. So I absolutely can’t go to Igner. Second, I need to create meat shields who can protect me. Which means my answer is…….’
It was earlier than in the original story, but this choice was the only path that could keep me alive.
“My apologies, but Aerok is weak. Even if I seize the advantage at Igner, what comes afterward will become the real problem.”
“Watch your words, Lord Kraus!”
The ‘shadow’ flared up, but it was true.
Because I was the one who wrote that situation.
The Battle of Igner ended with both sides annihilating each other.
The problem was what came afterward.
Starting with Igner, the front lines kept drawing closer and closer to Aerok.
Defending became increasingly difficult, and eventually, beginning with Grasco, it became the starting point of Aerok’s destruction.
In other words, Igner was not the real problem.
“That is enough. I have felt the same myself. Lord Kraus, then do you have a way to solve the problem that comes afterward?”
……As expected.
That bastard Romero already knew perfectly well that putting out the immediate fire at Igner would not actually improve the situation.
Naturally, I had a way to solve that problem……
I did not.
Aerok was a kingdom I had created to be destroyed in the first place.
It was the fuse meant to signal the opening of the war that would spread across the continent.
Of course it was a crisis that could not be overcome.
“……I do.”
But saying, ‘Huh? No, there’s no such thing,’ would not help me here. The answer would obviously be, ‘Then get your ass to Igner^^.’
Once again, the most important thing was whether this body lived or died.
I had no idea how Lucas had survived the Battle of Igner, but I did not know what would happen if I went there. Call it avoidance if you wanted. If the protagonist died, the novel ended too. There was a far greater chance of my head reaching zero before the Favorites Count did.
So I had to get as far away from Igner as possible.
“We must cultivate high-quality troops.”
That was why I had to become a professor at Grasco earlier than scheduled.
A professor at Grasco could stay completely away from the front lines.
“Aerok is already cultivating troops of sufficient quality.”
“It is not enough. The students of Grasco may be receiving systematic education, but they are not receiving the best education.”
“And why do you think that?”
Whew. I had laid all the groundwork.
From here on, I had to choose my words carefully or I would ruin everything.
“Because the strongest person in Aerok, and the one closest to him in strength, are here in this audience chamber rather than at Grasco.”
Romero’s eyes gleamed.
“Kgh, khahaha! I see. You got me there. Yes, Grasco may be prestigious, but the level of its professors falls far short compared to the two of you. Indeed, indeed.”
“I will go and train those children.”
As my meat shields.
“You have a point. Very well. I shall appoint you as a professor at Grasco at once.”
……Yes!
I would not have to be dragged into the war, and I could personally train the guards who would protect me in the future.
I ran through the settings of <The Academy’s Genius Scoundrel> in my head and picked out information that might help my meat shields.
‘Yeah, with that much, there’s room for me to intervene.’
Just as hope was swelling inside me,
“However, take this fellow to Grasco with you. You will have to make him stronger.”
……Ah, for fuck’s s@!#$%!
***
The audience chamber after Lucas had left.
The ‘shadow’ could neither understand nor wish to understand the order the king had given him.
“You look full of questions.”
Romero spoke.
“My apologies, Your Majesty.”
“If your place becomes vacant, what will become of the ‘shadow,’ and who will guard me…… Is that it?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Though the veil concealed him, his presence was deeply ingrained throughout this kingdom.
It was impossible for him to abandon that position now.
More than anything, the ‘shadow’ had been born for the very purpose of protecting Romero.
He had never once imagined operating somewhere other than at Romero’s side.
“That is for me to handle.”
“But…….”
It was too dangerous.
Had his liege not spent his entire life under threat of death?
In this royal palace that was like a battlefield, if he did not protect Romero, then who would?
The very meaning of his existence was being shaken.
Romero looked at the confused ‘shadow’ and spoke.
“I will ask you this. What is your highest priority?”
“To protect Your Majesty…… sir.”
“Did you say you could protect me from that man?”
“……No, Your Majesty.”
“That is precisely why I am sending you to his side. Go and learn. Become strong enough to protect me from that man someday, or even from someone stronger than him. This is my command.”
The ‘shadow’ dropped to one knee.
“This subject, Dejan, obeys Your Majesty’s command.”
***
[Favorites Change Notification
[2->6]
[LIFE TIME : 2 months->6 months]
[A new notification has arrived.]
[9134 donated 100 Gold.]
“Ha, fuck…….”
Something troublesome had latched onto me, but the reality that I could not even be completely annoyed about it was irritating in itself.
‘At least the good news is that I’ve got half a year now, and I got some Gold.’
But LIFE TIME only represented an ‘inevitable death.’ It did not include natural death.
If I was not careful, I could still die before that time ran out.
And now I had to live while carrying that kind of danger around with me.
‘I can’t keep fooling that bastard forever. I need to find a way. A way…….’
Good eyes alone were not enough.
I had to show him something every now and then.
Besides, there had been something far from ordinary about the way that bastard looked at me.
Not in a good way.
In a very, very fucking bad way.
If he ever found out that I had been fooling both him and the king this entire time, he would definitely draw that sword and CHOP— take my head clean off.
‘Why the hell did I give Lucas something like the Curse of the Bow…….’
Given Lucas’s racial traits, the combination of these eyes and a long-range weapon such as a bow was simply perfect.
The fact that even a small number of his people had managed to survive until now was also due to that.
But because I wanted to drive Lucas out of his people, I had created the ridiculous restriction known as the Curse of the Bow.
I might be able to use a sword, but there was no way I could use one well……
‘Wait.’
Something flashed through my mind.
‘There’s a possibility.’
It was only a hypothesis that had suddenly occurred to me, but there was a good enough chance it would work.
“Speed up.”
“Yes, sir.”
I urged the driver on, and the carriage (magic-powered carriage) picked up speed.
“We have arriv-”
The instant we arrived, I hurriedly threw open the door and ran straight to the training ground inside the mansion, leaving the servants who had come out to greet me behind.
‘If I’m right…….’
I picked up a suitable iron sword.
It had a solid weight to it, but it was not difficult to lift.
Holding the iron sword, I approached one of the wooden training dummies set up to one side.
Then I gripped the hilt and drew the sword with all my strength toward the dummy’s head-
SWOOSH—CRASH—!
With a deafening blast like a bomb exploding, the wooden dummy’s head burst apart.
“Huff, huff.”
My prediction had been right.
An archer was not an agility character, but a strength character.
Even though Lucas had been afflicted with the Curse of the Bow, the innate strength of his people had not gone anywhere.
The strike lacked sharpness, but its destructive force alone was enough to make my entire body tremble.
“Is this enough?”
Surely this was more than enough to get past his eyes once in a while.
***
“Oho, so he noticed again.”
“My apologies, Your Majesty.”
Romero had placed a hidden guard on Lucas even on his way back to the mansion.
Of course, this time the purpose had not been protection, but surveillance.
Yet Lucas had noticed the hidden guard’s presence. Then, as if trying to put an end to the surveillance as quickly as possible, he ordered the carriage to speed up before heading straight for the training ground and blowing apart the head of a wooden dummy as though making a show of force.
The shockwave had supposedly been powerful enough to make the ground ring.
“‘Is this enough?’…….”
On top of that, Lucas had seen straight through the reason Dejan was being sent with him.
He had produced an answer satisfying enough to address both of Romero’s concerns at once.
“Yes, Lord Kraus. That is enough.”
A smile spread across Romero’s lips.