CH 68

“No. That is wrong!” Vince shouted. The butler didn’t think Yonata died because of Mayer. His wife was merely unlucky. Even so, he couldn’t bring himself to reach for Mayer’s hair. The best he could do was to hastily take the scissors away from the boy and look after his injuries. Through all this, he avoided physical contact. Mayer appeared to understand Vince’s feelings as he didn’t say a thing.

Since then, Vince had carried on his wife’s will and took care of the boy… but that was all. The butler could neither replace Yonata nor was he shameless enough to try. Eventually, Mayer completely closed off his heart. From that point onward, the boy disliked coming in contact with anyone. He especially feared anyone touching his hair. Time passed until he turned thirteen. On a day like any other, a strange dimensional distortion occurred in the dukedom of Knox. It was the first dungeon, which began to spit out monsters.

The abrupt phenomenon took everyone by surprise. The Dark Knights spared no effort to defeat the monsters that escaped the dungeon. And yet, there were severe civilian casualties. The dungeon was a sign of the demon lord’s arrival unto the world, a sign of the second sacred war in a thousand years.

Grand Duke Knox believed with all his being that it was all because of Mayer. No sooner had he received a report of the dungeon opening, he had climbed the castle spire in a craze. “You accursed thing!” He howled to his son. “You summoned the demon lord! I should have killed you as soon as you were born!”

“Your Excellency the Grand Duke! You mustn’t!” Vince tried to stop the grand duke, but the other man was faster. He drew his sword and swung down toward Mayer—but at that moment, mana burst from the boy’s body. The threat to his safety and unstable mind lead to his magic powers going berserk.

“Gaargh!”

Mayer’s mana was dark, sinister, and violent. The demonic power consumed Grand Duke Knox, desiccating his body at a tremendous speed. The sight of him bereft of vitality was like death itself. The boy was appalled by what he saw happen before his very eyes. Although he had only met the grand duke a few times since birth, the man was still his father. Mayer stared in a daze, shocked at his parent’s attempted murder and the man’s death because of him.

“What? The grand duke…!” The grand duchess staggered, on the verge of fainting, at the news of the grand duke’s death. In a frenzy, she blamed everything on Mayer. “A son killing his father? What a monster! Clearly, he is behind the dungeon opening. Throw him inside of it! He opened it, so he should be the one to close it!”

“Dear Grand Duchess, I beg you to calm down. The young master is the only heir of the Knox family!”

Vince pleaded for mercy, trembling, but the grand duchess wanted none of it. Overcome by disgust and hatred for Mayer, she shrieked, “Him, the heir of Knox? That is a minion of the demon lord! Men! Cast that vile fellspawn into the dungeon!”

The vassals aware of Mayer’s secret insisted on following the grand duchess’ order. However, some rose to take the boy’s side—the loyal blade of the Knox family, the Dark Knights. They cried out that they couldn’t drive the sole heir of Knox to his death. “Your Grace, please calm down. How could the young master have killed His Excellency? He has never even held a sword properly before. He cannot possibly be the murderer!”

“Do the Dark Knights intend on supporting that vile killer? Where on earth have your loyalty and honor gone to!” The grand duchess screamed at them, incensed.

“The monsters from the dungeon gate are wandering the castle. His Excellency’s death was nothing but an unfortunate accident brought by them!”

The Dark Knights were unaware of the demonic power in their young master. They believed that the grand duchess was using her husband’s death to get rid of the illegitimate child, Mayer, for being an eyesore. Because of this, the castle of Nochtentoria was overturned in confusion.

Amidst that chaos, Mayer stood up. Vince rather hoped for the boy to cry and beg, to win some sympathy at the least… but the boy’s penetrating golden eyes weren’t like those of a young thirteen-year-old. They contained an understanding of all the fetters and sins he was bound to and charged with. “I shall obey the command of the grand duchess,” Young Mayer Knox said. His voice that had only entered puberty sounded like scraping iron.

“Young master!” Vince cried out in sorrow, but Mayer had already made up his mind. With no hesitation, he rushed straight toward the dungeon. No one believed that he would come back out alive, not even Vince, but the boy proved them all wrong. Just as the Dark Knights were about to enter the dungeon to close it, the entry gate warped. Mayer, covered in blood, escaped from it seconds later. Not long after his appearance, the entrance closed, and the closure of a dungeon was proof of a hero.