Claaang! Claang! Clang!
A man was fending off the relentless rain of punches with nothing but a single sword.
Even more astonishing was that he was doing so while holding her with one arm and he was calmly blocking each of the monster’s powerful strikes. Asteria couldn’t hide her amazement at the masked man’s skill.
An Aura Master? No… he might even be at the level of a Lord…
Even to her, who knew little about Aura, Prince Taurus’s strength seemed comparable to that of a national-level asset.
Though the two additional arms sprouting from him were grotesque, the fact that he had gained extra limbs capable of such destructive power only meant that his strength had grown even greater.
In that case, what about the masked man?
Blocking punches that could easily shatter rocks with just a single sword meant that the masked man’s strength had reached a level beyond imagination.
“Damn it! Trying to keep my balance with one arm is…”
Perhaps holding her was a critical mistake. He let out a voice filled with frustration from behind the mask.
He needed both arms to exert his full strength, but because one arm was occupied with holding her, he couldn’t fully commit to either defense or offense, making the situation understandably difficult.
“Um, excuse me… Kyaa!”
“It’s alright, please stay still! If you move, you might get hurt by the debris!”
The princess who was about to ask him to put her down so she could at least not be a burden ended up screaming as the blast of air swept past her. The masked man shielded her with his body and reassured her.
“Because of you, my plan…! I was finally about to ascend to the rank of executive, and you ruined it!!”
“What the hell are you talking about.”
Sreeek—!
“……?!”
“You’ve got four arms, so losing two shouldn’t be a problem, right? I mean, that’s the normal state anyway.”
A flash so fast it was almost invisible to the naked eye.
In an instant, the extra arms that had sprouted from Taurus’s back were severed and fell to the ground. Startled, Taurus quickly turned his gaze toward his back.
“I won’t kill you, since I need to hear your side of the story. If you surrender quietly like this—”
Crack—! Crackle!!
“…I really hate this kind of pattern…”
With grotesque sounds, the prince’s arms sprouted again.
Perhaps due to his rampaging power, his regenerative ability had also increased, and the minor wounds he had sustained during the clash were visibly healing as well.
“…Your Highness. If I cut off the prince’s arms and legs here but leave him alive, would that still be considered legal?”
“…Capturing him alive would be ideal, but even if he dies, I’ll stake my life to defend your innocence. So don’t worry. Just do it.”
“Why are you risking your life after I just saved it… Anyway, understood.”
At that moment, Taurus, having finished regenerating, began to charge toward them with his massive body, and the masked man leaped around the garden with the princess in his arms.
It looked almost like a fierce battle between a matador and a bull.
“Haaah!”
“Ubugh!?!”
Up until now, the masked man had only been dodging, but this time he jumped high and ran right over the charging Taurus’s face.
Just as he tried to slash the prince’s limbs from behind—
Crunch!
“Severed arm?”
Feeling a heavy sensation, he glanced at his sword hand, only to find that one of the severed arms was tightly gripping his wrist.
It happened that the place he landed was right where the prince’s severed arms had fallen, and the moment he touched down, one of those arms latched onto him.
“What the hell is this, some kind of lizard?!”
Thanks to his aura, his hand didn’t get crushed, but just the weight alone made it a strenuous situation.
Because of the arm clinging to him, his defense slowed down slightly.
“Ugh! I’m sorry!”
“Wha— Kyah!!”
In the end, the masked man had no choice but to throw the princess he had been protecting with one arm.
Fortunately, even in that brief moment, he had the presence of mind to hurl her toward a spot with thick bushes, allowing her to land safely without any serious injury.
“Ugh… Hey, wait a moment!”
Bang!
Fortunately, the masked man managed to raise his now-free arm and block the punch as he threw the princess, but the attack was so heavy that he couldn’t withstand the pressure and was sent flying backward.
After tumbling across the ground a few times, he barely managed to regain his balance and stand up again.
Creak—
Crack, crack.
However, the mask, which had already taken multiple heavy blows head-on, could no longer endure and finally broke apart, failing to fulfill its role.
“…Mars?”
The face hidden behind the shattered mask—
Unfortunately, it was a face she knew all too well.
***
“Goddamn it.”
My body could be wrapped in aura, giving me several times the durability of an ordinary person.
But the mask was just a simple tool. There was no way it could withstand getting hit repeatedly by those brutal fists.
If I had known this would happen, I should’ve made a mask out of mithril.
Of course, it would have been outrageously expensive, but at least it would’ve completely concealed my identity.
Because I was pressed for time, I ended up buying a cheap mask from the market, and now here I was, paying the price.
“You… you were with the princess back then?”
Even with half his sanity gone, he seemed to retain some memory of me.
“Still, it’s nice you remember. I thought someone like me would’ve been completely wiped from the prince’s mind.”
“Weren’t you… just some powerless low-ranking noble?!”
Since I had posed as the princess’s fake lover, he must have had someone investigate me. But he wouldn’t have found anything noteworthy.
Very few people had ever seen the true extent of my power.
He must have been completely thrown off, seeing someone he had dismissed as worthless now displaying overwhelming strength that surpassed his own.
“You’re not wrong, but that’s a bit harsh. Makes a low-ranking noble like me sad, you know.”
“I’m… I’m an Aura Master. After receiving ‘his’ power, there’s barely anyone who can stand against me… What the hell are you?!”
“What do you think I am?”
Thud!
“Urgh!!”
“I’m someone stronger than you.”
He had tried with all his strength to kick the man away, to send him flying far from the princess, but perhaps due to the difference in weight, he only managed to push him back a few dozen meters at best.
Just how heavy were that bastard’s muscles?
“Hey, let me ask you one thing.”
“What—”
“You keep saying you received power from someone. Who exactly gave you that strength?”
“Hah! You fool! You think I would dare reveal the identity of him?”
“Yeah, I wasn’t expecting much. Then, next question. What were you planning to do after marrying our princess? Were you going to share that power with her?”
At my question, Taurus twisted his lips into a thoroughly vile smile.
“With that useless bit*h? Don’t make me laugh! I was planning to drag her back to my homeland and sell her off as breeding stock for experiments!”
“…….”
“Since she’s of imperial blood, she’s probably been well-nourished, so she should have no trouble bearing children. A girl abandoned by even her own father… at least this way, she’d finally be of some use—”
“That’s enough. You can stop right there.”
Splat—!
“Hrk! Guhk!”
“Shouldn’t have even asked. No way someone using that kind of power could be sane.”
A red mass fell to the ground.
They said a clever tongue could kill a man; the old saying wasn’t wrong.
“Guuhh… you bastard… you’ll regr—”
“If you’d just stayed still, I might have gone easy on you.”
At the same time, I unleashed the aura I had been keeping suppressed inside.
Unable to withstand the weight of my aura, Taurus collapsed to his knees.
He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood and struggled to endure it, but the aura of a Lord was never something so light.
“Don’t… make me… laugh!!!”
For a moment, Taurus fully unleashed the black energy and shook off the aura he had been suppressing. He glared at me with eyes full of rage, as if he intended to kill me.
“Now I see. It was you… you were the one who killed Merpo…”
“Merpo? Ah, you mean that guy who was working on making chimeras? Yeah. I killed him. Were you planning to get revenge for him?”
“Huhuh… no, actually, I wanted to thank you. Thanks to you killing him, I was able to rise to the position of an executive.”
Clack.
“So… as a token of my gratitude, I’ll make sure you die without suffering!!!”
Taurus wrapped the bursting black energy around both hands, took his stance and, with a deafening roar, unleashed his ultimate martial technique.
“Ultimate Technique! Meteor Rush!!”
Dozens of fists rained down from all directions, filling the sky.
The huge fists formed from aura became solid one by one, pouring down to crush me.
But.
“Noctus Style, Fifth Form.”
With a light thrust, my sword tip touched one of the incoming fists.
Baaang.
In that instant, the fist scattered into numerous petal-like shapes, floating away like a dandelion releasing its seeds.
At the same time—
Puff-bang. Puff-bang.
The countless invincible fists blocking my path all turned into flowers, dissipating like petals announcing the end of a beautiful spring day.
[Hundred Blossoms in Full Bloom]
Ssshhh—
Watching his aura slowly turn into petals and vanish, the prince wore a vacant, hollow expression.
“This… what is this? You’re telling me you forcibly tore apart my aura…?”
“Hey.”
“?! When did you—?!”
“You brought this on yourself, so don’t take it personally.”
A wild dance.
Slash!
A single slicing sound.
However, even that alone was enough for the prince to instantly lose all his limbs.
“Graaaagh!!”
To prevent his body from regenerating again, I wrapped my aura around his wounds this time, blocking any possibility of recovery.
The Saintess’s divine power would have been more effective, but for now, this was the best I could do.
The prince writhed in agony as his regeneration was cut off, but since he was the one who had tried to turn the princess into a mere breeding experiment, I felt no sympathy for him.
And so, the princess’s wedding ended up being clumsily concluded by stopping the prince’s rampage.
“……”
“……”
“……”
“…Damn it.”
Of course, that also meant my true identity ended up being exposed to everyone.
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