“How dare they!! Their livers must have swollen with nerve!”
Lawrence’s face reddened with boiling rage as he clenched his fists tightly.
Now he began walking almost as if he were running.
At the sight of Lawrence like that, Martin grew restless.
Self-reproach washed over him as he thought he had made matters worse by running his mouth carelessly.
If Lawrence ran into the Knight Order while he was this angry…….
Just thinking about what might happen made his vision go dark.
If the Knight Order treated even the count so carelessly, they would clearly try to toy with someone like Lawrence.
Moreover, Lawrence, who was growing at a tremendous speed, was at an age where his confidence was likely piercing the sky.
If he failed to restrain his hot blood and clashed with the Knight Order, a serious situation might occur.
“Young Master. Please wait a moment. Just a moment. Please listen to me.”
Martin, whose huge body was like a mountain, was following Lawrence and persuading him almost in tears.
He wanted to stop Lawrence from meeting the Knight Order no matter what.
“Young Master. You must not. I understand your feelings well, but they will not listen to you, Young Master. So please listen to me.”
“Martin, listen carefully. I’m not going there to talk with those bastards. I’m going there to fight.”
At Lawrence’s words, Martin was so startled that his heart nearly leaped out of his body.
He was going to fight them……? For a moment, Martin thought he had heard wrong.
He had thought Lawrence was unable to hold back his anger because of what he had said and was going to say a word to the Knight Order, but now he was going there to fight.
This, at least, absolutely had to be stopped.
“Then you must not go even more! It is true that you have become stronger in a short time, Young Master, but they are knights who have trained with swords their entire lives. You will not be a match for them.”
“Well, whether something is long or short, you won’t know until you measure it.”
When Lawrence caught the Goblin Champion this time, he had raised his level by two whole levels.
The skill Martin knew was already nothing but the past.
However, it was also true that there was still a gap in skill when compared to Juan, the Knight Commander.
“Young Master, please.”
Martin was now even pleading with him in tears.
It was not that Lawrence did not know Martin’s feelings, but if things continued like this, the territory would soon collapse.
In order to resolve the danger immediately facing the territory and move forward into the future, he absolutely had to break the knights’ pride today.
BANG—!
Lawrence opened the training ground door so violently it seemed it might break and went inside.
Along with that came the sudden smell of tobacco.
The things calling themselves knights were openly smoking in the training ground.
For a moment, Lawrence’s eyes trembled in disbelief, but soon they hardened firmly.
At the sound of the door almost breaking, the knights’ gazes all turned toward the entrance at once.
“What bastard is opening the training ground door like that!”
Juan shouted angrily.
A moment later, when he confirmed that the person was Lawrence, irritation settled on Juan’s face.
‘That arrogant brat…….’
Juan wanted to pour out curses at Lawrence’s rude attitude at once, but he held back.
No matter how irritated he was, Lawrence was a noble and the lord’s son.
Just as he was trying to force down his anger, Lawrence instead glared at Juan and called his name in a loud voice.
“Hey, Juan.”
Juan’s face twisted at once.
He was already heated to the top of his head, and that arrogant brat was calling his name, the name of the Knight Commander, as carelessly as calling a neighborhood mutt.
“You insolent…….”
CREAK!
He ground his teeth and glared at Lawrence as if he would kill him.
“Whew…… No matter how much you are the lord’s son, you do not have the right to call my name, the name of the Knight Commander, in that manner. Keep your manners while I am still speaking politely.”
Juan’s words were not wrong.
Whether sincere or not, the one he had sworn loyalty to was Jason, not Lawrence.
No matter how much Lawrence was the heir of the count’s house, Juan, the Knight Commander, was not someone he could treat carelessly.
Now enraged, Juan began openly emitting killing intent.
Feeling that Juan’s momentum was far from ordinary, Martin immediately stepped in front of Lawrence and shouted.
“Commander Juan. What do you think you are doing to the Young Master?”
Those who responded to Martin’s shout were Juan’s followers.
“Martin, you bastard. Are you insane? What kind of rude behavior is this toward the commander?”
“This bastard doesn’t see anything in front of him these days, does he? You’ll be so happy if you rise in the ranks by licking ass like that.”
“Let’s see how far you get in a tiny territory like this. You don’t even know shame. Tch, spit.”
Low and blatant abuse poured down on Martin.
Soon after, the knights did not stop at Martin. They lumped the count’s house together with him and spat out all kinds of insults.
Those bastards treated Martin, who was loyal to the count’s house, as if he were instead a treacherous sycophant.
They truly did not know shame.
As if pleased by the sight of the knights stepping forward in his place, a faint smile spread across Juan’s lips, which had been twisted in displeasure.
Then he looked at Lawrence and sneered.
Watch this scene carefully.
You are nothing.
So do not act up. Crawl on your own.
His gaze was saying that.
“Martin. Move.”
At Lawrence’s low, heavy voice from behind him, Martin flinched in surprise and looked back.
Lawrence’s eyes burned like a volcano, and the muscles in his jaw were pulled taut.
Intense anger, as if he would charge at them at any moment, poured from his entire body.
“Young Master. You must not. Absolutely not.”
Martin stopped Lawrence, who was radiating terrifying rage.
“I told you clearly to move.”
“Y-Young Master…….”
Martin pleaded once more, but before Lawrence’s frost-sharp momentum, he had no choice but to step aside.
As Lawrence strode forward, Juan revealed curiosity on his slightly surprised face.
Because he wondered what Lawrence, who was not even the count, could possibly do.
“Juan! I challenge you to a duel.”
Lawrence drew his sword toward Juan and aimed its tip at him.
At that moment, the atmosphere chilled as if winter had fallen over it.
Everyone wore bewildered expressions, as if they could not understand the current situation.
“Pfft!”
Starting with someone bursting into brief laughter.
“Puhahahahaha.”
“Uhehahaha.”
“Well, this is absurd.”
“Oh my.”
“Insane….”
The rest of the knights openly clutched their bellies and laughed.
They had heard that Lawrence had begun swordsmanship training, but it had only been a few months.
And was he not someone who had barely survived after nearly dying?
“Hey, Young Master. Come to your senses. If you keep this up, you might really get scolded. I will pretend I did not hear that, so return quietly.”
Juan reproached him with a stern face, pretending to scold a child.
Judging from the way the corners of his mouth twitched, he was holding back laughter.
To Juan, Lawrence was nothing.
No, from the beginning, he was close to someone who did not even need to be considered.
Then one day, Juan heard that Lawrence had risen from his sickbed.
The count’s house overflowed with joy, but Juan merely gave an indifferent reaction as before.
‘So what?’
That was all.
Even if Lawrence returned, nothing would change.
“We won’t know who gets scolded until we cross swords. Surely the bastard calling himself Knight Commander isn’t too scared to accept.”
Lawrence’s voice was endlessly biting.
In his eyes, deep hatred toward Juan flashed, and his mocking tone was openly soaked with disgust.
At Lawrence’s tremendous provocation, even the knights were briefly left speechless.
At Lawrence’s mockery, Juan was dumbfounded.
When he had first seen Lawrence, he had been no different from a skeleton.
He had been so gaunt that he looked as if he might fly away if someone went “hoo” and blew on him.
That bastard had now gained some flesh and barely looked human, but that was all.
Juan vaguely remembered hearing that Lawrence had been training with Martin recently, but in any case, it was no different from children playing around in the neighborhood.
For a nobody to look down on him and insult him this far merely because he was the count’s son.
This detestable behavior was beyond imagination.
At his surging anger, red veins bulged on his forehead.
“How dare you!! It seems you have lost all fear. You do know that killing someone during a duel is not a crime, correct? This is your final chance. If you bow your head and apologize even now, I will pretend this never happened.”
Knight Commander Juan began revealing his momentum in earnest.
The image of a neighborhood uncle vanished completely. His eyes were like sharp blades, and the air around him trembled under his intense momentum.
Like the roar of a beast, it overwhelmed everything.
But when that fierce momentum reached Lawrence, it melted like snow touched by hot fire.
Lawrence faced his momentum calmly and rebuked Juan with a stern face.
“Hmph! Apologize? A shameless bastard like you, wearing the skin of a knight, should be the one apologizing. How dare a man who does not even know a knight’s honor run his mouth?”
At Lawrence’s merciless condemnation, flames sparked in Juan’s eyes.
“T-That crazy bastard. What did you just say? Do you want to die?”
At Lawrence’s insulting words, Juan’s eyes rolled with fury.
Lawrence’s words were that insulting, enough to make his whole body tremble and his blood flow backward.
He had touched honor, the virtue a knight held most precious.
This had crossed the line far beyond what could be tolerated.
Although Juan seemed to have forgotten his honor as a knight long ago, he did not think so himself.
And when one’s shame was exposed by another, those with nothing but pride were the ones who flared up the most.
Moreover, the one who had touched that shame was someone he usually considered insignificant, so it made him even angrier.
CLANG—!
In the end, Juan could not endure it and drew his sword.
“W-W-Wait.”
Martin quickly stepped in front of Lawrence.
“Young Master. I will fight in your place.”
Martin blocked Lawrence with death in mind.
Because the opponent was the Knight Commander, there was almost no chance that Martin would win.
But if he could save Lawrence, he could throw away his own life without regret.
“Come out, you bastard. The one who challenged me to a duel is that brat. Who are you to interfere!!”
Juan erupted in anger toward Martin.
His face was flushed red, and his voice trembled with rage.
But his eyes were shining coldly.
In truth, unlike how he appeared to be swept up in anger and no longer thinking of the consequences, he was carefully analyzing the current situation.
Juan was quick-witted.
He realized that if he used this situation well, it would be of great help to him, which was why he was acting this way.
‘Even Jason cannot hold me guilty over the result of a duel.’
He decided to kill Lawrence in this duel.
Under ordinary circumstances, no matter how much it was a duel, it would be something that could never happen.
As Lawrence was the son of the lord to whom he had sworn loyalty, the burden would inevitably be great.
It was true that he could not be legally condemned, but with his son dead, there was no way Jason would stay still.
However, Juan had a move he trusted.
‘Even if I kill that bastard, Jason won’t be able to do anything. The territory is on the verge of being destroyed by monsters right now, so what can he do? Rather, Jason, having lost his son, might fall into despair and let go of the territory’s affairs. If that happens, it will be even better for me.’
The count and countess’s love for their child was famous.
Even when everyone had given up on Lawrence, the count and countess had not blinked an eye.
That son had miraculously risen.
But if the son who had survived with such difficulty died so pointlessly like this….
There was a high chance they would lose the will to live they had regained and let go of everything.
When Lawrence had rushed in without knowing his place, spouting talk of duels and whatnot, Juan had felt quite displeased, but looking at it now, this was a very good situation for him.
If he used this well, the path to swallowing this territory would open.
‘Then could I not become the lord of the next generation?’
In truth, Jason’s injury to his mana circuit five years ago had all been Juan’s scheme, just as Lawrence had guessed.
Juan was a man born with great greed.
He had been born a commoner, but he wanted to become a noble.
For a commoner to become a noble was difficult, but it was not impossible.
One could have extremely strong military power, or one could buy a noble title with money.
Fortunately, he had the talent to fulfill his dream.
Juan showed rapid growth amid everyone’s expectations and became a knight without difficulty.
This was a remarkable thing.
In the entire history of this village, no one had become a knight faster than Juan.
Even after becoming a knight that way, he did well, to put it simply.
After entering the count’s house and receiving systematic training, he grew even faster.
He thought that if he continued developing like this, he would be able to become the noble he so desired without difficulty.
Then a gigantic wall appeared before him.
One he could not even dare to think of crossing.