MBMP 06

Chapter : 06

The Delfine River cuts in a sweeping curve through the very heart of the capital of the Delphiam Empire.

The lower reaches of the river, which was known as the “umbilical cord of Delphiam” because the capital’s landmarks, including the Imperial Palace and the Grand Cathedral, lined its banks, presented visitors with a scene vastly different from the glittering capital above.

Filth gushed from an old pipe.

The stench was so foul that it was difficult even to breathe.

The underground drainage channel was shrouded in darkness. A couple of dim lamps with low-hanging shades faintly illuminated the interior.

【Boring.】

【How long are we supposed to wait?】

Who knows? I’m curious myself.

A boy comfortably nestled in the shadows shrugged his shoulders.

The darkness surrounding him rippled irritably.

How impatient.

His guardian star had always lacked patience.

Before long, the presence of the person they had been waiting for entered his senses.

The boy slowly opened his mouth.

A monotonous voice rang out, cutting through the roar of the sewer water.

“How long has it been?”

In a sewer untouched by sunlight, it was difficult to tell whether it was day or night.

After a brief pause, someone answered coldly.

“Three in the afternoon. Exactly eighteen hours have passed.”

“Oh, dear. That’s a problem.”

The boy was sitting on a rocky outcropping in the underground drainage channel, one leg dangling over the edge.

Despite being surrounded by filth, not a speck of dirt had touched his gleaming blond hair.

The boy muttered with deliberate concern.

“I guess he hasn’t gotten a wink of sleep.”

“Of course he hasn’t. The Emperor of Delphiam has fainted, and the commander of the Imperial Guard has gone missing.”

His companion immediately retorted, as though she had been waiting for that remark.

“They may be too ashamed to announce it publicly with all the Transcendent Families gathered here, but by now, the Imperial Family must be sweating bullets.”

“I suppose I’m going to get quite the lecture…”

“I have heard the rumors that the current heir of Wynak does not have the temperament one would expect from a Wynak. But this is beyond anything I could have anticipated. I never imagined he would be this reckless. Frankly, I’m curious how you intend to get out of this situation.”

The person standing below the rocky outcropping was a woman with black curly hair twisted up on her head.

She pointed irritably at something.

“Should we take the fact that you reduced the commander of the Delphiam Imperial Guard to that state as a declaration of war from the Avier side?”

Her refined voice could not conceal her irritation.

The boy listened to her words with one ear and let them pass out the other, thinking of someone else.

A child he had personally brought out of the slums several years ago.

A girl with the refreshing combination of red hair and green eyes.

By now, she was probably as pale as a sheet, anxiously pacing back and forth.

No doubt she had been fretting all by herself, unable to tell anyone that their precious heir had apparently been gobbled up whole.

A faint smile curved the boy’s lips.

Kallian glanced down at the area beneath the rock where he was sitting.

A narrow passage ran between the wall and the sewer.

Lying in neat piles along it were more than twenty knights.

They were his handiwork from last night.

And if one could call any of them a masterpiece, it was undoubtedly the burly man sprawled flat on top of the pile.

He was the right-hand man of the Emperor of Delphiam—the commander of the Imperial Guard—who had secretly lured Kallian out and attempted to abduct him.

“Most likely, the head of the Hüzel Family is on her way here by now as well. Even for Wynak, dealing with two heads of Transcendent Families at once would be nearly impossible. So it would be wise for you to come out and negotiate a reasonable compromise.”

Kallian listened silently to the woman.

Then he calmly asked,

“Is this a situation where the perpetrator is threatening the victim?”

“Who is the victim?”

“The kidnapper certainly isn’t the victim, so I suppose that would make me the victim.”

The outrageous choice of words left his companion speechless.

Meanwhile, the boy lightly jumped down from the rock.

He landed on the chest of the commander of the Imperial Guard and stood there lightly.

His slender shadow stretched long beneath the human tower.

“Unfortunately, I’m not stupid enough to knowingly let myself be taken.”

“…I don’t know what sort of misunderstanding you have, but His Majesty isn’t the piece of trash the rumors make him out to be.”

“Then why did he build a harem?”

Regina Kirges, the current head of the Kirges Family, furrowed her brow as she stared into the boy’s red eyes.

Those eyes…

I had definitely heard that the heir of Wynak had an extremely gentle disposition.

Unlike the other families, who always brought their heirs along to official gatherings, Oen Wynak had conspicuously kept his son out of the public eye.

As a result, Kallian Wynak had never once appeared at a continental summit.

Naturally, rumors had run rampant.

He isn’t really his biological son.

Or perhaps he is his biological son, but he’s only half-fledged because he hasn’t received the blessing of a star.

Apparently, he has absolutely no talent with the sword.

At the previous summit, when Regina had casually asked about his heir, Oen’s response, delivered with an expression as though he had bitten into something rotten, had only fueled the rumors.

“The kid’s pretty damn deficient. He’s still got a long way to go before he can be called human.”

Oen had said that while tapping his temple.

Then he had irritably changed the subject.

So Regina had assumed the boy was either a weak and tearful child unsuited to the Wynak name, or perhaps simply someone whose physical development was a little slower than that of his peers.

But…

What in the world is that?

Regina swallowed a groan inwardly.

Oen. What kind of monster are you raising?!

After hearing that the Emperor of Delphiam had disappeared sometime last night, Regina Kirges and Luise Hüzel had immediately taken action.

Regina had discovered the distinctive crescent-shaped traces of Wynak mana at the mouth of the lower river and had immediately descended into the sewer.

But by the time she arrived, everything was already over.

Ten knights who had guarded the Emperor at close range last night, along with twenty knights who had been lying in wait nearby.

Every last one of them had been struck in a vital spot and left sprawled on the ground.

There was not even a single ordinary stab wound on their fallen bodies.

Naturally, there was no blood either.

In other words, he had beaten thirty elite soldiers with a sword and all.

Judging by the fact that they still haven’t regained consciousness after all these hours, he must have infused his attacks with sword energy as well.

Of course, for the future head of the Wynak Family, who was said to have reached the realm of the sword, accomplishing something like this would not have been particularly difficult.

Even Regina herself, or her heir, Alfien, could probably handle thirty grown men without much trouble.

The Transcendent Families did not withdraw from the continent’s various wars for no reason.

The phrase “one against a hundred” was hardly an exaggeration.

So, if all the fallen knights had been ordinary men, that would have been understandable…

Kallian gestured toward the knights beneath his feet.

“Five belong to Kirges, and three belong to Hüzel.”

“……”

“The two Transcendent Families conspired with the Emperor of Delphiam to recruit the heir of Wynak. To drag him into a harem. Why?”

If he really is a homosexual, that would be a little frightening, though.

Kallian chuckled nonsensically.

Apparently, they had underestimated this boy far too much.

Regina had no choice but to speak.

“We had absolutely no intention of threatening you. If you had cooperated willingly, nothing would have happened…”

“Why is the heir the target instead of the head of the family? Ah, could it be because Father isn’t handsome?”

“……”

“Come on, that’s handsome enough. I guess the Emperor of Delphiam has rather high standards.”

Regina realized that the boy was not listening to her at all.

Kallian slowly lowered himself into a sitting position.

Without the slightest concern, he pressed his spotless shoe against the area around the commander’s heart.

“If that isn’t the reason…”

He tilted his head, and the gleam in his red eyes shifted.

The finely sculpted lips that had held nothing more than a faint smile gradually parted into an expression of delight.

“What are you hiding in that harem guarded by three hundred concubines…”

“Little Wynak.”

“Something so delicious that not even Kirges or Hüzel can touch it, forcing you to kidnap Wynak instead?”

His expression and tone conveyed an almost manic delight.

The boy slowly stroked his chin with his bandaged left hand.

Whatever had been hidden beneath his angelic appearance was beginning to bare its fangs.

Kallian grinned.

“Did you perhaps hide some delicious Holy Relic there?”

Regina’s expression instantly hardened.

It had only flashed across his face for a moment, but that child had definitely just licked his lips.

A chill ran down her spine at the madness that had briefly surfaced in the boy.

He knows!

The legacies left behind by the stars—the Holy Relics.

Among them was an artifact secretly kept within the Delphiam Imperial Palace, one imbued with the power of Wynak’s guardian star, “The Judge of Darkness and Chaos.”

As one of the Transcendents ranked among the five strongest on the continent, Regina had never before experienced such a sense of danger.

That boy… Little Wynak…

He had merely needed confirmation.

That was why he had subdued the commander of the Imperial Guard who had come to persuade him and left him in a state where he could be considered missing.

Then he had waited for one of Delphiam’s Transcendents to come after him.

All while deliberately scattering his presence everywhere.

He had come to confirm with the head of the family herself whether what he suspected was hidden within the Delphiam Imperial Palace was truly there.