The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 81

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 81. The Third Prince, Christopher Iron
Before following Orlando, though, there was one more thing Munno wanted to confirm.
“Must I wear formal attire even at the Third Prince’s Palace?”
“Pardon? Ah, if it’s uncomfortable, I can arrange other clothes——”
“No, I intend to wear armor.”
“……I beg your pardon?”
Orlando’s response came a beat slower than usual.
So Munno elaborated.
“I find armor more comfortable, you see.”
“……I see?”
Orlando’s expression suggested he still didn’t quite grasp it.
“Well, given your station, if that’s what you prefer, it’s acceptable. Besides, the young lady has instructed me to respect your wishes as much as possible.”
He nodded, though his tone remained reluctant.
‘Given my station?’
Munno didn’t grasp what that meant, but it was permission either way.
With a relieved expression, he shed the cumbersome formal wear in the spacious chamber and deployed his armor once more.
Clang.
A light tap on his chest produced a clear, resonant ring that pleased him immensely.
‘This really is more comfortable.’
For an ordinary person, it would be like walking around half-naked—hardly comfortable at all.
Yet it wasn’t embarrassing either, which made it all the better.
“……Indeed, now I see why the Black Knight earned his name. It’s magnificent.”
Orlando offered his admiration as well.
After hearing nothing but words like “violent,” “excessive,” and “strange,” it was a rare pleasure to receive praise from someone whose aesthetic sensibilities actually aligned with his own.
“Ha, you have an eye for it.”
“Armor need only suit its purpose in combat, wouldn’t you say? Those particularly distinctive gauntlets and boots especially—they look perfectly designed for lethal efficiency. Truly admirable.”
……This bastard sees everything, doesn’t he.
‘They’re functional protective gloves and safety boots, you idiot!’
Of course, they were solid metal now, but since they’d become one with his body, they actually made movement easier than before.
Like bones and muscle, in a sense. Though in reverse durability—it was more accurate to think of it as an exoskeleton——
‘Ugh……’
The thought alone made him feel oddly distant from his humanity.
“Ahem, then I ask for your guidance.”
“Of course. Please follow me.”
The distance to the Third Prince’s Palace proved greater than expected.
But the various stories Orlando shared along the way proved more interesting than anticipated, so the journey wasn’t tedious.
Though then——
“I’m glad I stayed at the lodgings to wait. You’ve already made the rounds, I see. But tell me, has anyone from Prince Leon’s side visited?”
Munno couldn’t help but tilt his head at that question.
“Prince Leon?”
“The Fourth Prince, Your Highness.”
“Ah……. Now that you mention it, no one came from that quarter.”
“As I suspected……”
“Suspected?”
“Ah, it’s simply that Prince Leon hasn’t shown much interest in the competition. Given that he’s the youngest, it’s understandable there might be limitations.”
“I see……”
“The Succession War takes place as soon as the youngest prince comes of age. Looking at the crown princes throughout history, there are scarcely any who were the youngest among their siblings. Most of them withdrew from the competition.”
“……That’s reasonable.”
From the youngest prince’s perspective, it must feel like an unfair contest.
‘Still, none of my concern.’
For now, at least.
“Ah, we’ve arrived. There, that’s it.”
The real concern was the possibility of getting caught up in that succession bloodbath.
Munno felt his expression harden as he regarded the ornately decorated Secondary Palace.
Crash.
This was an excessively lavish welcome.
Tension crept over him as he entered past the salutes of the Secondary Palace knights and soldiers.
He took a deep breath and lightly tapped his own cheek.
‘Stay sharp. The real test begins now.’
He’d expected to meet the young lady sooner or later anyway.
Once summoned to the capital, there was no avoiding certain obligations.
But he would not—could not—let himself sink into the quagmire of the Succession War.
‘Never.’
Munno steeled his resolve and followed Orlando, who was already ushering him forward, into the ornate Secondary Palace.
Despite the lavish exterior adorned with gold and jewels, the interior decoration proved surprisingly austere.
The paintings hanging in the corridors were mostly of the ink-wash sort, with abundant empty space rather than the riot of color one might expect.
When Munno tilted his head slightly at this stark contrast, Orlando seemed to read his confusion and offered an explanation at once.
“The layout of the Secondary Palace is determined by His Highness, but the interior décor is entirely the master’s prerogative. His Highness Christopher is not particularly fond of ostentatious things.”
“Ah, I see.”
“But if I may ask you something—”
“Please, go ahead.”
“Do you truly admire the Storm Knight as a woman would?”
“…Ck, ahem.”
The question struck him completely off guard. He nearly choked, though he’d eaten nothing.
‘Why is this bastard suddenly asking such a thing when he’s said nothing all this time?’
The moment Munno fixed him with an irritated glare—
“Ah. That answers my question. I apologize for the presumption.”
Orlando simply nodded as if he’d understood perfectly.
Wait, what answer?! He’d said nothing!
“I haven’t said anything at all.”
“Your expression alone seemed answer enough, did it not?”
“It’s not! Absolutely not!”
At least, not yet.
“Is that so?”
Orlando’s subtle smile as he spoke was rather grating, but Munno had no chance to clarify further.
“We’ve arrived. The Princess and Karina will be waiting.”
The great door with its modest ornaments swung open with a soft creak.
Before Munno could say another word, the doors parted.
Two women stood in the center of the spacious chamber, and his gaze fell upon them at once.
Naturally, it was Karina who captured his attention first.
‘Hmm…!’
She was dressed in armor rather than formal wear or casual clothes—and this armor was markedly different from what he’d seen at the previous audience.
That Red Armor, which clung to her entire body with elegant grace and accentuated her form beautifully, fit her from gauntlets to metal boots with such precision it might have been a masterwork tailored specifically for her.
The crimson suit complemented her face perfectly, with her golden hair bound back.
The material itself seemed far from ordinary.
‘Wow, what kind of armor looks like a dress…’
He was admiring it when he noticed she was glaring at him sharply.
‘What’s wrong?’
They’d parted on good terms when they’d met before the audience, hadn’t they?
An inexplicable unease crept over him.
A bright, cheerful voice broke through his thoughts.
“Haha! There you go, staring holes through nothing but Karina again, Munno. Sister, doesn’t the outfit look good on you?”
“Your Highness! It j-just got finished, and I only put it on to try it!”
“Oh, come on. We all know each other well enough. Sister, forget about the formality and just greet him warmly. He was dying to see you, anyway.”
“Roanna!”
“What, what? Why are you getting angry with me? Just say you’re happy to see him, and that’s that…”
“You are… truly—”
Their familiar banter shattered the awkward silence.
“Must you two still carry on like this…” Munno muttered, exasperated.
Princess Roanna’s eyes sparkled at his unguarded remark.
“It’s been so long, brother.”
Unlike Karina, Roanna wore a distinctly vibrant dress.
Because of the gown, she seemed to have shed some of her girlish charm and grown noticeably more mature in recent months.
Yet her face remained exactly as he remembered.
Noticing some deliberate hesitation from her, Munno felt a flash of discomfort—until—
‘Ah…!’
—he suddenly realized his lapse in courtesy and dropped hastily to one knee.
Thud.
“It has been too long, Your Highness. My apologies.”
At last, he offered a proper greeting.
“You’re being too formal, Munno. Between us.”
……What kind of “between us” is that supposed to be?
The pleasure I’d felt at her word choice drained away entirely, and cold sweat trickled down my spine.
“People might misunderstand, Your Highness.”
“Ah, that’s disappointing. When you wear such grim armor and speak so stiffly, it looks like you’ve come to fight.”
I had indeed come with such a grim resolve.
‘Absolutely not involved. Absolutely.’
Munno deliberately kept his gaze fixed on Roanna, completely avoiding looking at Karina.
“You said you wished to see me, so I came.”
That apparently wasn’t what Roanna wanted to hear.
“Hmm. So you’re just like your sister—not being honest.”
That pouting lip might have been cute on someone else; on her, it just looked threatening.
“Your Highness!”
“Ah, yes. Captain Karina. This is an official matter now. I understand. Don’t glare at me like that.”
Roanna chuckled at Karina’s fierce expression and tried to soothe her.
Then—
“You don’t like people dancing around things, right? I’ll be direct: I want you to join the Succession War on our side. And if you do, I’ll take full responsibility for you and Captain Karina and——”
“Your Highness!!”
“——just kidding. But I will put all my strength behind helping you with your revenge. What do you say?”
Words that made my heart lurch for more than one reason.
“……You knew?”
My eyes narrowed instinctively, but Roanna kept smiling.
“I only found out for certain once I got here. And it turned out I learned why those people are chasing you in the process. Hmm…… Should I tell you everything right here? Would you be alright with that?”
……The ambitious eighteen-year-old girl had indeed become a truly frightening woman.
‘This young lady……’
I didn’t know what to say, and my mind fell into confusion.
“Doesn’t it seem as though you’re pushing a promising knight rather hard, Roanna?”
An unfamiliar voice cut through.
“Your Highness!”
All eyes turned in unison.
Orlando, who had vanished moments earlier, now reentered the room, escorting a handsome silver-haired man.
“We greet Your Highness the Prince.”
Thump.
I found myself bowing a second time without warning.
“I thought you said you had other business, Your Highness?”
Seeing that “frightening” Roanna cling to the man with studied affection was somehow amusing.
“What could be more important than welcoming the greatest variable in the Intelligence Competition and a future Seven Star?”
The silver-haired, gray-eyed prince smiled gently even as he used the formal register.
His gaze drifted past Roanna toward me.
There was something strangely harmonious about his tone with Roanna’s manner.
But I couldn’t tell if he was speaking to me or to Roanna.
‘Speak more clearly, please.’
Slight irritation flickered through me, but I couldn’t let it show.
By the atmosphere, it seemed he was addressing me.
“……You’re too kind, Your Highness.”
“Too kind? I’m simply stating fact. You have every right to hear such words.”
The prince walked forward with long strides and smiled as he helped Munno to his feet.
“Your body is remarkably solid and firm. Truly reassuring, brother-in-law.”
……What?
I thought I heard something strange at the end of that sentence, but I chose to ignore it.
“Thank you.”
Up close, his physical prowess looked to be around Second Circle level.
‘Isn’t he only twenty this year?’
Considering that Candler, the prince of the tier above him and supposedly famous for his martial prowess, had reached Third Circle by twenty-five——
‘Quite impressive.’
Even with the unfair advantage of the Iron Body Technique, this Third Prince Christopher’s martial talent was clearly nothing to dismiss.
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
“Now then. Is this the legendary armor? Quite…… combative-looking. Heavy too. It’s clearly a remarkable Artifact at a glance.”
How far would this lie keep spreading?
At this point, I’d decided to take it to the grave.
“Ah… Yes, I was fortunate.”
As he hedged and offered an awkward smile, the prince continued.
“But you couldn’t have achieved such feats with artifacts alone. You captured one 6-Circle Mage and drove another away, didn’t you?”
He had not officially revealed that he himself had dealt with that witch who had posed as the ducal administrator Karina.
In the first place, even if he claimed to have hunted a 6-Circle Mage alone, few would believe him, and proving it would require exposing Miya’s existence.
“That was largely thanks to Chloe and the Holy Knights of Trian.”
…And the one I let slip away, I’ve already dealt with.
Munno swallowed the truth and smiled, meeting the grey eyes that bored into him.
“Mayer said your contribution was the greatest. Excessive humility isn’t becoming either, brother-in-law.”
So that narrow-eyed Holy Knight had connections reaching even to this prince… but that was beside the point.
This prince kept attaching such strange titles.
“Your Highness, the term ‘brother-in-law’ could invite misunderstanding.”
“Hmm? Aren’t you Roanna’s lover? That’s what I heard.”
Watching the prince shrug as though it were no concern, Munno felt certainty settle over him.
‘Couples are all alike. Damn it all.’
He absolutely could not get entangled with them.
Just as he was steeling his resolve again, the prince asked directly.
“Is it perhaps that my fiancée and I are being too blatant in our desires, and it burdens you, brother-in-law?”
“I beg your pardon? Ah, of course, I’m grateful for your high regard…”
As he carefully chose his words, he felt the weight of surrounding gazes pressing down upon him.
Munno found himself deliberately averting his eyes from Karina’s particularly sharp stare.
“However, I too have circumstances of my own, and I must ask your forgiveness for not honoring the prince’s wishes.”
He drew the line cleanly, decisively.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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