After all, young boys were always prone to getting carried away. Even without any chance of winning, they would never give up easily.
However, in Ash's eyes, it was like watching a group of childish kids fooling around. He casually took a sword from a nearby guard and slowly walked toward them.
The blade scraped across the floor, making a sharp sound that sent chills down one's spine. As he walked, he said in a relaxed, teasing tone, "Now then, who should I start with? I'm accepting volunteers."
"If you've got the guts! Then kill me! Otherwise—", Yamada tried to use a healing skill on himself, only to find it failed.
Fortunately, his body's passive recovery skill was still working. Gritting his teeth and enduring the pain, he leaned against the wall and shakily stood up again. He glared at Ash with unyielding eyes and shouted, "Don't think I... will submit! And don't underestimate the Hero!"
"Very good. Since you're so determined to throw your life away, then I'll grant your wish... though I honestly have no idea where your strange courage comes from."
Ash finally understood that this guy intended to fight him to the death and had no intention of behaving. The corners of his mouth lifted into a smile as he nodded.
After all, he had that strange Heavenly Protection. Something like a protagonist's plot armor was best dealt with directly before it became a problem.
This way, even if Kumoko later became unhappy, he had a perfectly valid reason for killing him after he got carried away, and he could even use it as a chance to lecture Kumoko in return.
After thinking about it for a moment, he decided to send him and his maid to hell with the same attack.
An invisible slash formed out of thin air once again and shot forward like lightning.
Yamada instinctively tried to dodge, but his heavily injured body made his movements unbearably slow.
Unable to avoid it, a crisp metallic snap rang out as the remaining half of the enchanted sword in his hand was cut apart once more.
Then, despite his desperate attempt to twist aside, one of his arms was severed cleanly at the shoulder.
The arm flew away as blood burst out like a fountain, splashing across the floor.
"UGGH... AGH!"
Yamada immediately let out a scream of agony. His face twisted from the pain, and with a thud, he dropped to his knees, clutching the stump as his cries echoed through the reception hall.
"Ah... AAAAAAHHHHHHH! AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
"Why dodge? I was planning to kill you in one blow. I don't enjoy tormenting idiots. Sigh... honestly, why do you keep making me do this without feeling even a little guilty?"
The boy's repeated struggles earned none of his pity. Ash watched indifferently and even sighed with emotion.
It couldn't be helped. If this guy had shown even a little sense, things would never have come to this.
Instead, he kept throwing himself into harm's way over and over, to the point that Ash felt almost obligated to respond to the "challenge."
Just as he was about to finish things with a faster attack, amid the surrounding chorus of "Stop!" voices, another, rather out-of-place voice suddenly cut in.
"W-Wait!"
"Hm?"
Ash turned his head.
The First Prince, who had remained silent until now, had one hand pressed against his chest as he struggled to catch his breath.
"L-Let me do it!"
"Huh?"
"You... you want to rule humanity, don't you? If that's the case... even if the kingdom becomes a vassal state... you'll still need someone to govern it, right? S-so... let me!"
Unlike the sons of the concubines, the First Prince, Cylis, was born to the queen. Because of his ordinary personality, his succession had never been decided, and he had instead learned that the king intended to make Yamada king to keep him from the battlefield.
Now, Cylis nervously pledged his loyalty to Ash.
A different kind of light shone in his eyes.
It was... the desire for power.
"Not bad. I really do like people who know which way the wind is blowing... ah, Ahem!"
Ash nodded without thinking, looking approving.
But before he could finish, he suddenly noticed Sophia looking at him with a strange expression. Feeling a little uncomfortable, he coughed and tried to put on the appearance of an upright gentleman before changing his words.
"Brothers turning against one another is not my wish. But since you're willing to pledge your loyalty to me, I naturally cannot disappoint your expectations. Therefore, I'll leave the execution to you."
"Feels like that's basically the same thing you were saying before," Sophia muttered quietly to herself.
Although Sophia's expression remained strange, Cylis was excited and had no attention to spare for such details.
As soon as the guard released him, he eagerly accepted the longsword handed over to him and walked toward Yamada step by step.
"You brothers... stealing Father's attention was one thing. But this throne... in the end, it belongs to me!"
Cylis muttered to himself as he walked, madness gleaming in his eyes.
"S-Cylis... Brother?"
Yamada stared at him in horror, disbelief filling his eyes as his voice trembled.
"Don't call me brother! You're Yamada, aren't you? You... fraud!"
Roaring, Cylis looked delighted at his panicked younger brother. Completely ignoring the king's desperate shouts beside him, he raised his sword high and slashed down with all his strength.
Seeing this, Yamada rolled to the side.
It wasn't a conscious decision.
His body had simply dodged on its own under overwhelming fear.
"Guaaahhh!"
A miserable scream burst from his mouth.
The roll dragged the bloody stump of his severed arm hard across the floor. The wound, already unbearably painful, felt as though it had been thrown into blazing fire.
At the same time, although Cylis's sword failed to completely cut through his ankle, it still carved a deep wound into it, sending excruciating pain straight into his bones.
The double agony became unbearable.
Tears poured uncontrollably from his eyes as pain and fear made his body shake violently.
"Stop dodging! Just die already!"
There wasn't the slightest sympathy on Cylis's face. Instead, he smiled with satisfaction as he stepped on Yamada's leg and yanked the sword free. Amid Yamada's screams, he swung again, intending to finish off the reincarnator.
BANG!
With a sudden loud crash, a massive shield flew in like a cannonball, cutting through the air before slamming directly into Cylis and sending him flying.
The shield and its target crashed to the ground together with a dull thud.
The reception hall fell silent once more.
"Oh my, an unexpected guest."
Sophia curiously looked toward the direction the shield had come from.
The newcomer was Gulie's clone, Hyrince.
Ash frowned.
Besides not understanding what this guy was trying to do, he couldn't help suspecting this was the effect of the Heavenly Protection... again and again preventing attacks that should have killed Yamada cleanly, turning them into injuries or accidental kills instead.
Though it was also true that he himself hadn't been taking things seriously, something was obviously interfering behind the scenes.
After throwing the shield, Hyrince hurried over to retrieve it.
Then, under everyone's astonished gaze, he unhesitatingly stood in front of Yamada, blocking Ash's view.
"Brother Hyrince?"
The fear, despair, and tears in Yamada's eyes instantly gave way to joy, his voice choking with emotion.
"It's alright. I'll protect you properly, Shun."
Without turning around, Hyrince panted as he watched Cylis and the surrounding enemies warily, shield in one hand and sword in the other, ready to fight at any moment.
"Hyrince... you bastard! You actually attacked me?"
Cylis climbed to his feet in a miserable state. Spitting blood from his mouth, he glared viciously at Hyrince.
His gaze was like that of a venomous snake that wanted nothing more than to devour him whole.
"I won't let you hurt Yamada! This kind of brothers killing each other is utter stupidity!"
The blond Hyrince was like an enraged lion. Unlike his usual attitude toward Yamada, he roared loud enough to shake the hall, trying to pierce through the prince's heart, clouded by desire and hatred, and awaken him from the edge of madness.
But Cylis only became even angrier.
There wasn't the slightest sign of him coming to his senses.
Watching from the side, even Ash was dumbfounded.
"No, seriously, Hyrince, have you lost your mind? Did you forget which side you're on?"
"I swore I would protect Julius... Now I'm only fulfilling the duty I failed to carry out by protecting this child instead!"
Hyrince's expression was firm, his eyes clear and unwavering.
The more determined he looked, the more Ash felt a headache coming on.
"What's with you acting like some righteous hero? Are you addicted to it or something? Weren't we originally the same kind of people?"
"I'm nothing like you! I'm the Hero's companion!"
"What kind of justice ally line is that? Doesn't it make you sick? Honestly, it's making me feel nauseous."
"You're the one who should be ashamed! Not only do you feel no shame for your evil deeds, you even take pride in them?"
Hyrince rebuked him with all his strength. His voice had grown hoarse with emotion, yet his sense of justice only seemed to grow stronger.
"Come to think of it, you're right. You almost dragged me off track. I was supposed to be the righteous side. How did you somehow make me end up playing the villain?"
Ash rubbed his forehead with a depressed sigh, finally clearing his muddled thoughts.
Even he couldn't understand it.
He was obviously holding the script of saving the world and eliminating the troublesome Hero as the righteous side.
So how had he somehow ended up playing the villain?
Then again, maybe this was normal.
After all, he wasn't one of those corrupt people who ruled the world.
He was one of the few who had risen up in resistance.
So before succeeding, of course he could only be labeled the villain.
After all, worldly justice and public opinion were controlled by those in power.
Although acting without restraint really did feel good, and it really was easy for people to misunderstand, there shouldn't be anything wrong with him being on the side of justice.
He just wasn't particularly picky about the methods he used.
Besides, who said people fighting for justice had to use just methods?
Wouldn't that just leave the good guys suffering?
That was how Ash saw it.
Having sorted out his thoughts, he stopped dwelling on the cheerful young man's words. With a dark expression, he said,
"Hyrince... this is your own decision, isn't it? Your original body shouldn't be allowing this."
"He doesn't oppose it."
"Sorry, I forgot. He's the type who gets hung up on things and takes forever to make a decision."
Ash really didn't know how to judge Gulie's personality, so he decided not to think about what the original Gulie was thinking.
Most likely, the original Gulie was still struggling over whether he should stop his clone, but couldn't completely let go of the feelings the clone had developed toward Julius and the others, so he simply let him act as he wished.
Rubbing his aching temple, Ash's expression turned cold.
"Step aside. You should know yourself that you can't stop me. Keep insisting, and you'll only become one more pointless sacrifice."
"The one who should step aside is you! What good will more killing do you? Watching them slaughter each other... can you really bear—"
"I can bear it just fine. Stop talking. For Gulie's clone's sake, leave now and I'll spare your life. If you still don't know when to quit, then die here together with him."
Irritation filled Ash's voice.
He had completely run out of patience.
"I swore that I would—"
"Good. Then go die."
Too lazy to waste any more words, Ash interrupted him once again.
Without waiting for a reply, he casually threw the sword that had gone unused earlier.
In that instant, the blade became a streak of orange light.
Like a spear, it flew perfectly straight without making the slightest sound, yet in the blink of an eye it pierced straight through Hyrince's shield.
Only half a beat later, a thunderous explosion erupted.
The blast from the projectile tearing through the air swept past Yamada's ears from behind Hyrince like a tidal wave, instantly knocking him off balance and sending him crashing to the floor once more.
The wall behind them suffered even worse.
It was pierced clean through, and the destructive force didn't stop there.
It continued straight through the walls behind it and even the castle itself, sending clouds of dust billowing into the air.
———
The tremendous speed placed enormous stress on the sword itself.
Combined with the limitations of its material, before it had even flown a hundred meters, it rapidly began to break apart, melt, and finally vaporize under extreme thermal stress, aerodynamic pressure, and air friction.
The thrown sword left behind only the afterimage of its light before vanishing into thin air like a brilliant yet cruel firework.
The entire reception hall, meanwhile, looked as though it had been swept by a storm.
Everything inside was blown through the air.
Hyrince, who had sworn never to retreat, was completely unable to resist that terrifying force.
His body was blown apart at the waist.
Flesh and blood rained everywhere in an instant.
The scene was unbearable to look at.
Everyone was stunned by the bloody horror before them.
Their eyes widened in terror, and some even collapsed to the ground, unable to accept what they had just witnessed.
Ash simply watched it all without expression, as though it were nothing worth mentioning.
He looked coldly at the First Prince, "Hurry up and continue."
"Y-Yes..."
Cylis nodded blankly.
With a wave of his hand, the crowd was dragged away by the soldiers under his control together with Sophia.
"W-Wait... wait! Fei! Sensei! Father?"
Still lying on the ground, unable to stand, Yamada's horrified gaze darted back and forth between his elder brother and the family and friends being dragged away.
"L-Let me go! Stop! Stop right now!"
Oka struggled with all her strength, but her small body was powerless before Sophia's overwhelming strength.
She could only be dragged away.
The king and everyone else fared no better.
The soldiers forcibly restrained them and dragged them away from the reception hall, filled with blood and death, where another execution was about to unfold.
Even Ash didn't stay.
Without looking back, he walked toward the exit and only left behind one cold sentence.
"If you want to beg now, it's already too late. Just like I said before... I gave you a chance. You simply didn't cherish it."
"I-I... N-No! No! Brother Cylis! I wasn't! I never wanted to fight you for the throne!"
As Cylis approached, Yamada turned deathly pale.
Dragging his heavily injured body, he desperately crawled across the floor, trying to escape the nightmare before him, leaving behind a long trail of blood.
But...
It earned none of Cylis's mercy.
"This is all your fault! And Father's! The throne... was mine!"
Quickly stepping forward, cruelty and resolve filled Cylis's eyes as he drove his sword through Yamada's abdomen, pinning him to the floor.
"Ah... Ughhhh!"
Another miserable scream echoed through the deathly silent reception hall.
Blood poured from Yamada's abdomen, staining the floor around him red.
Soon after, the screams became continuous.
The reincarnator, loved by the Goddess and blessed with the protagonist's halo, met his end beneath a rain of blades at the hands of his own elder brother, in despair and agony.
The light gradually faded from his eyes, as though the flame of his life had been mercilessly extinguished.
When his head finally fell limp, only endless sorrow and unwillingness remained in those eyes.
The new generation Hero, who possessed nothing but fearless courage and kindness, yet lacked strategy and strength, thus ended his young life tragically in his own family's reception hall.
Those few who knew part of the truth also failed to escape their fate.
All of them were driven like livestock by the soldiers under Ash's control into the audience chamber.
With an unconcerned expression, Ash naturally sat upon the throne that symbolized supreme authority.
Resting his cheek on one hand, he lazily looked down at the bound people below.
[T/N: This translator sighs, yet again, as he watches the MC become the villain he always excuses he never was.]
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