Looking at Achilles Pendragon, Adam thought this.
This guy is really honest about his instincts.
It was definitely Achilles who'd introduced the Third Princess as the incompetent one of the bloodline, and now he openly wanted to fight the weakest of them.
What a transparent character.
To Adam, who liked people who were pure like children, it was actually a point in his favor.
Of course, to everyone else, he was just a cowardly bastard.
If he won against the Emperor's blood, he could restore his family's honor to some degree, but trying to fight the weakest of the Imperial Family was far too ugly for someone calling himself a knight.
"Your Highness the Third Princess, are you ready?"
The prince and princesses hung their heads at the same time.
Ether pleaded with the Emperor in a nasal, whiny voice.
"Father, Father, do I really have to take part?"
"Don't worry too much. There's a priest, so there won't be any serious injuries."
"That's so mean! I can't fight or anything!"
Adam looked up at the grand staircase.
"Hohoho! It's admirable that you've been following your old father so well lately, Ether, but the friendly match is a traditional event that's been carried on for hundreds of years. Don't forget that when a challenge comes in, accepting it is also Imperial etiquette."
"Hmm... Fine. Just this once!"
The Emperor laughed it off heartily, as if in a good mood.
The successful applicants, on the other hand, muttered small complaints.
-Just like the rumors.
-How can she act so familiar with the Emperor in front of everyone!
Adam observed his surroundings without a word.
Since the friendly match took place in the central hall, the successful applicants moved to the edges.
Some of them came over to Achilles.
"Hey, spearman, at first I thought you were a coward, but we're rooting for you."
"Knock that arrogant Third Princess down a peg."
"Achilles, with your skill, it'll be more than enough."
Adam asked one of the successful applicants who'd exchanged greetings with Achilles.
"Why does everyone know Achilles?"
"Why do we know him? Why don't you?"
"Is it strange not to know him?"
"Of course. He's the genius who became heir apparent of a sword family as a spearman!"
Adam was surprised, but only on the inside.
He'd thought Achilles was just a lackluster knight, but the opinion of Achilles was quite good, beyond just his family.
'Wouldn't his reputation have been even better if Achilles valued honor over substance?'
"Your Highness the Third Princess. I express my gratitude for the grace of accepting this friendly match."
"Ahaha. Don't be like that. I'm not planning to take it lightly either, so if you're that polite, it'll be hard for me to go all out too."
Ether slowly came down the grand staircase.
All eyes were drawn to her delicate, light-footed steps.
No matter how bad the rumors were, beauty was blameless, so heads turned on their own.
His eyes met Ether's as she lightly descended the stairs.
Whip!
"......."
He turned his head away to avoid Ether's gaze.
Adam still found it hard to accept.
Damn. What the hell is going on?
Why would Ether, who cut down an Archmage, be a scrap-grade psycho tyrant?
She's got a bit of a princess complex, but Ether's better than most of the Imperial Army.
Why did she sneak into the exam in disguise and deliberately ruin her own image?
Playing a character purely for fun?
While he was deep in thought, the two of them were already standing side by side in the central hall.
"Are you ready?"
"Go easy on me!"
Ether smiled mischievously.
People murmured about how a princess could act so undignified, but Achilles himself blushed at her smiling eyes.
"Please take this seriously."
"Nope. Nuh-uh. Go easy on meee!"
"Kuh......."
Achilles, who'd nearly fallen for the honey trap, slapped his cheeks hard and came to his senses.
"Both sides! Please return to your places!"
The Consul, who was presiding over the match, glanced at the two of them and raised a white flag.
"The Imperial friendly match begins now!"
***
"Look at that sword."
"Isn't that a greatsword?"
"How does someone that slender......."
The spectators murmured at the greatsword Ether was holding.
The two each took their place in the central hall.
With a priest on standby beside them, both showed their true intent.
10 seconds into the match, there was a brief exchange.
Achilles's spear thrust at Ether. Ether blocked the spear with the back of her blade.
Until now, Adam had looked down on Achilles.
But he changed his mind.
Despite Ether closing in, Achilles thrust precisely at Ether's center.
Every time he got an opening, he swung the spear sideways, aiming for Ether's neck.
'How is that a knight?'
Attacks fully loaded with killing intent, unbefitting a knight, kept coming.
CLANG—!
Spear and sword clashed again.
The flow was going in the commonsense direction.
The spear had the advantage.
Unlike a sword, which cuts in arcs, a spear, whose moves are mainly straight thrusts, couldn't help but have the edge.
Geometrically too, a straight line is the shortest distance, so a spear's thrust is fast enough to be hard to react to by sight.
Unless the spearman deliberately gave up distance, a sword couldn't even get close to a spear.
Around 20 seconds passed like that.
Adam changed his mind again.
"Ah!"
"Nngh!"
Adam was dumbfounded.
'Ahn! Nngh!'? Seriously?
When she didn't make a single groan even while Aicolman was choking her?
It was a performance, blatantly putting on 'I'm struggling!'
-Since when did the Third Princess get this strong?
-The Emperor's blood after all, huh.......
Those who didn't know Ether's real skill were impressed just that she was holding off Achilles to this degree.
"Kuh!"
"Your Highness, you're quite good. Not a single knight reacted to this thrust even at the exam."
"Hehe. I may not look it, but I'm the Empire's Third Princess. I wanted to save at least a little face in front of the Emperor, so I worked hard too!"
"I see... Perhaps I've misunderstood you."
Listening to that conversation made his head spin.
Save face?
In the exchange just now, Achilles's head had come off five times in total.
It looked like she was barely parrying Achilles's thrusts, but in truth she could have killed him the instant she parried.
Ether played incompetent for a while.
By the time the exchange had gone on for 30 seconds, Achilles had died 9 times.
Spectator opinion began to waver.
"She's holding out surprisingly well, huh?"
"It'll end soon. You can't last long only defending like that."
Just as they said.
But the situation was the reverse.
The one who tired first was Achilles.
Ether gradually began to close the distance.
Achilles's anxiety reached all the way here.
He'd talked down to his opponent, so nothing would be more embarrassing than tiring first himself.
The moment he lost, Achilles's name would be scratched.
Not merely a scratch on his name; if things went wrong, his family could be finished.
His efforts to save his family would become the final dagger that finished it off.
The moment he grew impatient.
Achilles made his all-or-nothing move.
"Raaaaah!"
He took one step forward and thrust at the center of her chest.
Achilles smiled at his trick move.
But the spear missed.
Because Ether had lightly deflected the spear with her steel gauntlet.
Slipping, Achilles lost his stance.
Ether's thick greatsword aimed for Achilles's neck.
Everything was going as expected.
Ether raised her sword high.
Then her greatsword was about to plunge straight down onto Achilles's neck.
From here on, it went beyond expectation.
KA-BOOM—!
A blue explosion burst from Ether's sword.
"Hm?"
Ether's blade shattered.
The broken blade flew all the way to the ceiling.
It struck the Palace chandelier, and shards of glass fell.
The broken blade spun in midair, rose high, and then stuck into the red carpet in the middle of the hall.
Fragments of the broken chandelier poured down on Ether and the fallen Achilles.
The cause was an explosive sphere Adam had thrown.
These days, he tended to keep self-defense bombs carved with magic circles on hand at all times.
"You there, what do you think you're doing?"
The Consul, who'd been presiding over the match, approached Adam.
The successful applicants covered their mouths.
The Emperor and his blood kin also waited for an answer with grave faces.
"I'm sorry."
"The reason?"
"Because my fellow recruit looked like he was going to die."
Achilles looked up at Adam, panting.
"If you can't even stand to see blood spilled in a friendly match, how can you protect the Imperial Family!"
"I'm sorry."
"Adam......."
Achilles looked up at Adam.
Adam avoided his gaze.
In truth, he hadn't broken the sword for Achilles's sake.
Someone he'd known for less than a month wasn't worth getting on the Emperor's bad side for.
"Is that all?"
"I didn't want to see Lady Ether commit murder."
"The reason?"
"...I don't know."
He hadn't wanted Ether to cut off someone's head.
Ether had already killed the cabin swordsman, but back then she'd had the justification of trying to save him.
But killing Achilles was a different matter.
She was probably trying to kill someone for some selfish reason, like improving her image, or the way she was deliberately keeping up her tyrant image.
But to kill a person for such a paltry reason, wouldn't that make her a true tyrant?
"Adam Sanchez, raise your head."
The Emperor called Adam personally.
His eyes were as sharp as a wild beast's.
"Then did you think this friendly match was wrong from the start?"
"No, Your Majesty. Only, I did wonder whether putting each other's lives on the line within a group might make people take life lightly, and whether that influence might undermine the unity of the whole group."
The Consul beside him barked.
"That's not your place!"
"No, I agree with Adam's opinion as well."
"Pardon?"
"I have no intention of creating a band of murderers who don't hesitate to cut off even their comrades' heads. Surely you don't want to run an organization that way?"
"O-of course not, Your Majesty!"
"As it should be. Otherwise, the head falling here would have been yours."
"......."
After a few words from the Emperor, the Consul kept his mouth firmly shut from then on.
The Emperor turned his head to find the source of this incident.
The Emperor scolded Ether.
His logic was that actually cutting off an opponent's head in a friendly match went too far.
It was completely obvious logic, but Ether whined, 'Father, you're so mean...'
The successful applicants and the Consul alike were impressed.
A true tyrant on a whole other level.
Still, thanks to that, the atmosphere in the central hall relaxed.
"Adam, I thank you for your love for my people."
"How do you know my name......."
"However, disrupting a friendly match with rash behavior is also a crime. Therefore, I sentence you to solitary confinement until your department assignment."
"I express my deepest gratitude for the Emperor's grace."
Adam bowed his head to the Emperor on the grand staircase.
The friendly match ended in a victory for the Emperor's blood.
In truth, that alone made this friendly match a success.
The Imperial Family's honor had been protected.
One of the few successful applicants, who'd nearly died because of the Tyrant Princess, had been saved by a hair.
From the Empire's standpoint, it was actually a gain.
A fellow recruit passing by whispered to him that solitary was also a light measure, closer to a formality.
As the Imperial blood kin were leaving, the Emperor called Adam aside.
"Did you learn magic from the other Sanchez?"
The Emperor, it seemed, did know Aicolman after all.
"No, Your Majesty. To begin with, I'm not a mage."
"Then what are you?"
At that question, Adam answered lightly.
"An Arcanist."
At that answer, the Emperor nodded twice.
"Then an Arcanist of explosions......."
With that answer as the last word, Adam was dragged away by the guards.
On the way out the door.
He heard the Third Princess and the Emperor talking behind him.
"Ether."
"Yes, Father! I did well, didn't I?"
"Yes, your skill has improved a lot, but since when is your swordsmanship that—"
"I worked really hard!"
"I don't think that's a level you reach just by working hard—"
"I worked hard!"
The guards didn't even put handcuffs on him.
If anything, it was a relief.
He'd wanted to sort out his thoughts anyway.