Jason looked at Juan with an expression mixed with coldness and satisfaction.
All this time, his insides had rotted away from their wicked behavior.
He had wanted to drive them out of the territory at once, but for the sake of the innocent people of the territory, he had endured and endured again.
Not knowing that, Juan had bowed his head with a pitiful expression, thinking Jason would become his lifeline.
“My lord. My family has nothing to do with this. So please place the punishment only on me.”
Jason’s answer to him was none other than this.
THUD—!
He mercilessly kicked Juan in the jaw.
“Aaaaaaagh!”
Along with a CRACK as his jawbone shifted out of place, a scream burst from Juan’s mouth.
Unable to endure the pain, Juan rolled across the floor.
The sight of him, having lost even his mana circuit, vomiting blood from his twisted mouth as he rolled on the floor looked utterly miserable.
At that sight, O’Neill and Juan’s gang flinched in surprise and trembled.
They had never imagined that the good-natured Jason would go this far.
“Be grateful to Lawrence. If it were up to me, I would have cut off not only your head, but the heads of your entire family.”
After glaring at Juan once, Jason turned his head.
Then he glared at the remaining knights.
Jason’s cold gaze was as frigid as a lump of ice, and the knights flinched without realizing it.
It felt as though they were being aimed at by the tip of a blade.
As if time had stopped, no one showed any movement.
An uncomfortable silence flowed.
The longer they looked at one another without speaking, the more the knights shrank back.
They held their breath at Jason’s expression, one they had never once seen before.
A few knights who still had not properly grasped reality wore expressions that seemed to say, Surely not.
Far from reflecting, they still could not discard useless hope.
In truth, when they thought of the life they would face from now on, they could not abandon hope.
On the other hand, O’Neill and a few quick-witted others looked as if they had bitten into shit.
They had already guessed what their futures would be like.
“From today onward, you are no longer knights of the Romanov family. Leave my territory at once.”
Words like a bolt from a clear sky burst from Jason’s mouth, and the knights despaired.
“M-My lord. I-I-I was wrong. Please forgive me just once, if only for the sake of old affection.”
“Please forgive me.”
“I was wrong.”
Those who had held their heads stiffly high and resisted Lawrence all knelt and begged at a single word from Jason.
But not everyone begged for forgiveness.
O’Neill and Juan’s gang chose to keep their heads held high and protect their pride.
They knew that no matter what they did, they would not be forgiven.
It was a choice made because they had long since stopped thinking of Jason as their lord.
And now that they had been expelled, their relationship with their lord had ended, and there was no reason to bow their heads anymore.
They decided to leave the territory like this.
Seeing that, Lawrence’s face twisted at once.
To think they still had not come to their senses and were showing disrespect to his father.
CLANG—!
Lawrence drew his sword.
And Martin also drew his sword, standing close beside Jason to protect him.
O’Neill and Juan’s gang’s faces went pale in an instant.
They had only protected their last shred of pride because being forgiven was already hopeless, but things were turning strangely.
This was not the reaction they had wanted.
“You shameless bastards. You still have not come to your senses. I will deliver severe punishment in Father’s stead.”
Lawrence aimed his sword and strode forward.
His rough momentum stretched out and pressured the knights.
O’Neill had to make a decision.
Whether to fight like this, or kneel and bow his head like Juan.
His gaze briefly swept over Juan, who lay sprawled on the floor like a ruined man.
‘No, in the first place, even if I bow my head, he won’t forgive me.’
Since it was clear he would not be forgiven anyway, he did not want to become as miserable as Juan.
Now that things had come to this, stubbornness surged up in him, thinking he might as well fight.
Lawrence was a strong person who had defeated Juan, but they had the advantage in numbers, so there was a sufficient chance of victory.
Having finished calculating in his head, O’Neill sent a look toward Juan’s gang.
And as if they understood, they nodded back with serious expressions.
CLANG—!
Starting with O’Neill drawing his sword.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Then Juan’s gang, who had been watching the situation, also stood beside him and drew their swords.
The air chilled in an instant.
A hair-trigger crisis hovered between Lawrence and Juan’s gang.
“How dare you bastards.”
Jason, too, could not hold back his anger and drew his sword.
This was rebellion.
Although his mana circuit had been injured, he was not such a good man that he would quietly watch something like this.
Although one of his teeth had been broken, he was still a beast of prey.
Now that things had come this far, there was no longer any reason to endure the Knight Order’s tyranny.
Jason burst out with the anger he had endured for a long time and freely revealed his true nature.
At his momentum, O’Neill and Juan’s gang felt fear.
Because, like a conditioned reflex, they recalled the sight of him tearing apart hordes of monsters.
“Damn it, this isn’t right.”
A curse slipped from O’Neill’s mouth.
He had never imagined that even Jason, whose mana circuit had been injured, would join in.
Judging from how Jason had acted until now, O’Neill had thought he would never be able to raise a sword again…… but that had been a miscalculation.
But the matter had already begun.
They were already standing at the edge of a cliff from which they could not retreat.
‘That must be a bluff. He must be forcing himself to squeeze out his energy.’
Driven into a corner, O’Neill steadied his heart.
Now that things had turned out this way, they had to fight and win no matter what.
But there was still a variable he had not considered.
“O’Neill, what do you think you are doing? No matter what, there is a final line that must be kept.”
The knights who had begged Jason for forgiveness had drawn their swords and were standing against him.
If things turned out like this, he could not maintain numerical superiority.
Since they were already pushed back in military strength from the start, they would certainly lose.
No matter what they did, they could not win.
O’Neill furrowed his brow deeply and bit his lip.
However, what he chose was not surrender, but desperate struggle.
As a knight, he could not kneel like this without doing anything.
But O’Neill was putting forward his pride as a knight in the wrong place, not where it truly needed to be upheld.
A suffocating tension hovered between the two groups, and the atmosphere grew more and more heightened.
In the midst of that, the side that seized the atmosphere was Jason’s.
A tremendous killing intent was exploding from Jason.
And it carried a will to kill every last one of them without fail.
CLATTER!
In the end, Fabio, one of the knights on O’Neill’s side, could not withstand the suffocating killing intent and dropped his sword.
He did not want to die.
“……S-Spare me.”
Fabio collapsed to the ground, knelt, and begged.
At that sight, O’Neill’s face twisted horribly.
“You useless bastard. Pick up your sword right now. We have already crossed a river we cannot return from. Do you think you can survive by doing this?”
O’Neill shouted angrily at Fabio, who was kneeling.
But Fabio did not even pretend to listen to him. He merely pressed his head to the floor and begged to be spared.
At that moment, Lawrence spoke in a low, heavy voice.
“Fabio, get over there and stay out of the way. I will spare you.”
“Thank you. Thank you.”
Fabio shed tears with an overwhelmed expression and expressed his gratitude again and again.
The ripple caused by that one sentence from Lawrence was great.
A second and third Fabio appeared, and in the end, only O’Neill was left holding a sword.
RUMBLE!
O’Neill felt as if the ground beneath his feet had collapsed.
His vision turned yellow, and the sky spun round and round.
Those dog-like bastards. After all I did for them, to think they would betray me like this…….
But starting from Fabio’s betrayal, everything had ended.
Now that things had turned out this way, he at least had to save his life.
His face burned with shame, but life was more precious than anything else.
The moment O’Neill was about to lower his sword, Lawrence intervened.
“No matter what you do, your crimes will not be forgiven, so if you want to protect even your pride, it will be less unfair for you to attack me.”
It was a quiet voice, but in O’Neill’s ears, it sounded as loud as thunder.
And the moment Lawrence finished speaking, the knights beside him moved away.
The comrades who had been aiming their swords with him only moments ago now watched him warily, as if they had seen a dangerous monster.
Before long, O’Neill was isolated alone, as if trapped inside a glass bottle.
When Lawrence strode forward, the knights between him and O’Neill stepped aside as if by agreement and opened a path.
Jason watched his son walking bravely with an expression full of emotion.
As Lawrence drew closer, O’Neill’s pupils trembled as if an earthquake had struck.
Lawrence had already defeated Juan, who was stronger than he was.
He was an opponent O’Neill could not defeat no matter what method he used.
Moreover, there was not a single person on his side here.
This was not what he had wanted…….
He had only tried to protect his pride, yet somehow, he had become a criminal who had committed a grave act of treason.
“I-I-I didn’t commit a crime that serious, did I? I only followed Juan’s words. I only worked a little more comfortably than before. Was that so wrong?”
O’Neill complained of his injustice while retreating backward to avoid the approaching Lawrence.
“That is not it. Your true crime is that you not only disregarded your lord, but insulted him. Your behavior a moment ago is something that could never come from a knight who swore loyalty. You yourself should know that best.”
“N-N-N-No. I never intended to go this far. I was just angry at your behavior. That was all.”
O’Neill’s face, as he held out his hand as if telling Lawrence not to come any closer, turned beyond white and became blue.
Lawrence’s eyes contained firm resolve.
A resolve that said he would not forgive him no matter how he pleaded.
O’Neill deeply regretted his actions.
Now that Juan had been defeated, he should have begged for forgiveness like the other knights instead of resisting.
‘Why!! Why did I cling to my pride this much? I’m not that remarkable a person.’
It felt as though he had been possessed by a ghost.
O’Neill did not realize it, but he was the one who had been most influenced by Juan.
A dog wearing the hide of a beast of prey had forgotten its own nature and run wild recklessly.
“Your loyalty to Juan is remarkable. In consideration of that loyalty, I will not kill you. Live peacefully and affectionately locked in prison with Juan until the day you die.”
“No!”
O’Neill shouted as if struggling desperately, but Lawrence’s sword had already pierced into his mana circuit.
Everything he had built until now, and his hopes, flew away.
“Confiscate all of O’Neill’s property as well, and put his family to work as slaves of the territory too.”
At Lawrence’s words, O’Neill snapped back to his senses as if ice water had been poured over him.
He had never imagined he would receive the same punishment as Juan.
He quickly begged Lawrence for forgiveness.
“I will accept all my crimes, so p-please, spare only my son.”
O’Neill wanted to save at least his son’s life.
He was a child he had obtained after ten years of effort.
He was everything to him, and for his son, he would willingly give up even his life.
“Why should I? If your son was that precious to you, you should have respected me, the lord’s son, as well.”
But his desperation was thoroughly ignored.
Lawrence spat out venomous words, and Jason, whom he had trusted, did not budge either.
In order to establish the territory’s discipline, it was necessary to make an example of them so that something like this would never happen again.
“The remaining knights’ crimes will also be questioned. Punishment will be given according to the gravity of each crime.”
At the stern words that came from Jason’s mouth next, the knights could not raise their heads.
Juan and O’Neill were dragged away by soldiers and imprisoned in the deepest underground prison.
The count’s office.
“Lawrence, how is your wound?”
Jason asked worriedly as he looked at the long sword mark on his son’s face.
The wound was not that deep, but because it was a wound on his handsome face, it upset him.
“It is bearable.”
“What do you mean, bearable? Your upper garment is soaked with blood. Apply this to the wound.”
Jason took a small glass bottle from the drawer and gave it to Lawrence.
“Father, this is…….”
Lawrence’s eyes widened slightly as he received the glass bottle Jason handed him.