SON OF THE HERO KING

But once said predator showed the slightest sign of weakness…

They would swarm at it like a bunch of loci.

Gerald wasn’t a careless man. In fact, he was very smart.

Be it in terms of power, skills, political prowess, and everything else, he was in no way inferior to the current Duke Highland and in some aspects, even surpassed them.

The only reason he had not been chosen to become Duke was that their father had judged that he wasn’t fit for this position. For the simple reason that he was too emotional.

‘Seems like father was right. I am really not fit for this kind of cold-blooded role.’

Briefly looking at the swarm of soldiers behind him composed not only of the old black knights but also of many nobles who had joined him, Gerald felt more guilt and disgust than pride.

Aside from his old friends who had loyally followed on the battlefield, all the others had been drawn in long ago by using their selfish motives.

Few people knew about the in and out of the kingdom more than him. Not even the crown’s shadow was a secret to him. After all, he was still at the service of the king when he did his crazy experiments. Everything aside, from a few months ago, he had been constantly feeding secret information about the crown’s shadow.

What’s more, he had been observing the Kingdom since he had that much information only a few people had.

He knew about nobles who held dissatisfaction with Lilith.

He knew about nobles who wished to return to the time of the Puppet King.

He knew about nobles who only saw profit and held no loyalties.

Since the moment he had been contacted by the witch, Gerald gave birth to that idea.

What if he assembled all of them? What if in one moment, and one place, all the possible traitors were assembled and united?

And this was the current result.

‘This kingdom was really full of cancerous tumors.’

Thanks to the works of Mars, and the previous king, the road of the capital and the space between each street was extremely wide.

This allowed for a fluid circulation in a time of peace, but in times like this, it could be more like a tumor.

Sighing a little, Gerald began to think about how his name would most likely go in the annals of history as one of the greatest traitors.

After all, in the great history of Lustburg, this night would without a doubt be recorded as the first-ever civil war.

‘Hahaha, I guess this isn’t so bad.’

He wasn’t particularly hung up about how people would remember him.

After all, he would already be dead. Why should he care about how the future generation would view him when you wouldn’t be there to see it anymore?

‘Well, I guess it’s time to move my old bones.’

Saying so, he looked at the horizon.

In front of him, three large banners rose in the sky, followed by countless smaller ones.

‘Highland, Milaris and Travers.’

A large smile formed on his face. He had expected his brother to stand on his way, but he had to admit that the other two were somewhat of a surprise.

‘You really became great, Sol.’

Thinking of the adorable little boy who had grown into such a fine man, his smile couldn’t help but cramp a little. His smile completely vanished when he thought about his little nephew as well.

If only it was possible for the three of them to find happiness, he wouldn’t mind sacrificing everything.

Raising his head, he could see a large silhouette fly in circles for a short while before rushing toward the center of the capital.

‘A wyvern, huh. Soon, I guess we are going to face one scary monster.’

[Brother! Explain to me what is going on!!]

A roar of rage sounded directly in his ears. Gerald didn’t need to lower his head to know that it was coming from his dear brother.

At their level, sending whispers from a few kilometers away wasn’t that hard. Even more so since they could see each other.

Gerald sighed and said, [There’s nothing for me to explain. It’s as you can see.]

[You! Shame on you! Do you know how much your actions will affect the family?! All the hard work of the previous generation might be destroyed by you!]

Gerald’s eyes closed for a short while before he opened them again,

[Talking more than this is useless. You may hate me now, you may keep on hating me forever, but so what? Get on the line, because no one hates me more than myself.’

On those words, he raised his arms before lowering it in the direction of the three Dukes, “CHARGE!!!!”

------

[Crown’s Shadow hideout]

Currently, Ketia, Edgar, Berthold, and Aria were receiving reports after reports of the situation, forcing them to dispatch different agents to act as regulators and direct the civils.

Thankfully, most of the civilians were concentrated in the center of the capital, and as such, the panic hadn’t had time to spread since the priestess and paladin were doing their best to calm everyone.

Ketia, who received another report about all the nobles who were rising in rebellion, though they swore that they were fighting for the liberation of the prince from the clutch of an evil queen, frowned a little bit before passing the list to Edgar.

“Don’t you find it weird?”

Edgar, who had a hard time calming himself was about to scream in frustration, but since he knew what kind of woman Ketia was, he took a look at the list.

Suddenly, he stood up with an expression of shock before opening his drawer and fumbling with all the documents inside until he found what he was searching for.

Finally, as he read the second document, his hand began to tremble.

“They are nearly the same.”

On the first list, Ketia gave him were the names of the group of nobles who began to follow Gerald. Meanwhile, in the second list was the name of all the nobles they marked as potentially dangerous and that should be put under surveillance.

“But how is it possible?”

He lowered his head in deep thought. Gerald could find those nobles. After all, he was the Duke’s brother. No matter how weak the Highland became, they still had some influence.

But there was one problem.

“How come we have absolutely no report about Gerald contacting those nobles?”

All those noble deemed as dangerous had their houses infiltrated by their most competent spies. Missing one or two wasn’t impossible. After all, they weren’t perfect.

But missing all of them?

A chill swept through Edgar, as he punched the table in anger.

“”We have a traitor.””

Ketia and Edgar exclaimed at the same time before looking at each other, a grim expression on their face.

Not only did they have a traitor in their midst, but it also had to be someone really high in the, most likely one or more of the five of them.

Aria stopped smoking and Berthold’s smile vanished.

Edgar adjusted his monocle as he entered deep in thought.

He knew that he wasn’t the traitor.

Ketia couldn't be the one since she had been outside the kingdom for two years with the princess.

He didn’t even consider the possibility of Milia being a traitor.

Meaning, the only ones who could have betrayed them, were...

Refusing to voice his thoughts, he turned to face the only one who had the least suspicion of her. “Ketia, currently we cannot afford the risk of being split up because of suspicion. That’s why, I propose that we send the order that from now on and until the end of the emergency, only your order will be listened to.”

In this situation, trying to find the traitor would not only be a waste of time but would also confuse the organization.

While speaking, his hand slowly inched toward the holster in the breast pocket of his suit.

“Sigh, I guess this is as far as it goes.”

The moment he heard those words, without any hesitation, he immediately grabbed the gun in his holster and jumped aside before shooting.

*Bang* *Bang* Bang* *Bang*

His mana gun fired four super-fast bullets inscribed with special runes that increased the piercing power and speed.

The other two weren’t any slower as they also acted.

Ketia’s form had changed from a normal human. Her body was covered in a red aura entirely, hiding all her features and making her look more like a monster cat than anything else, with 3 tails swishing behind her.

She then rushed while giving a powerful punch from his side.

Meanwhile, Aria’s sclera had become entirely black, and the three ice spears immediately formed above her, before firing at Berthold’s back.

Even though they hadn’t spoken one word, their cooperation was seamless.

But despite all this, Berthold seemed totally unfazed, a wide grin forming on his face, as the number 3 appeared in his pupils.

“You guys are seriously the best! Hehehe! This body is way better than that useless noble, so then, shall we dance!?”

Golden like lightning covering his body and disintegrated the attacks of Edgar and Aria before he used a punch to counter Ketia.

‘Tch!’

Edgar immediately understood that they were outmatched.

The most horrifying was that even though Berthold’s arm had been completely broken when he fought Aria, he didn’t seem to show any expression of pain or discomfort.

Aria, meanwhile, couldn’t help but scream in dismay, “Berthold! Why did you betray us!?”

“Aria! Stop being so stupid! This isn’t Berthold! We must fall back! Hurry!!”

Having said this, he exchanged a look with Ketia before rushing with her toward ‘Berthold’ at full speed.

Aria was a versatile mage with an innate space and ice attribute. She was the only one who could bring them away from this place.

‘We need 30 seconds. No, with her current stats, between 40 to 50 seconds.’

In such an enclosed space with such a dangerous enemy, nearly one minute was basically luxury.

That’s why he began to speak, after firing the last 2 bullets in his gun.

“Who are you and what have you done with Berthold?”

Avoiding his bullets, the man took off his hat and bowed while avoiding a wide kick of Ketia, “My name is Drei. As for what happened to your friend...Guess.”

He laughed out loud before looking at the ceiling,

“Now then, I would really like to play around with you and slowly break you, before using your body as an experiment to verify how that king developed my theories, but you guys simply aren’t worth it. Too bad Milia isn’t here..”

Saying so, his smile immediately vanished and was replaced by a killing intent so heavy that Edgar, Aria, and Ketia felt completely suffocated as if they were being crushed alive.

Even though they had suffered years of torture under those inhumane experiment.

Even though they had fought many battles.

Even though they had killed a large number of people.

Compared to the man in front of them, their killing intent was nothing more than a joke.

No, it was as if they were facing death itself.

“You guys faced death. But I came back from it. Do not waste my time anymore.”

Saying so, he dusted himself before putting back on his hat and said with an extremely gentle smile, so gentle his earlier killing intent seemed like a lie,

“Aren’t you happy? You must be one of the few people in this world who survived not because they were strong, but because they were too weak. Hahaha! Bye-bye! Pray that we never meet again.”

On those last words, he vanished.

(AN: For Ketia’s transformation, imagine basically a jinchuriki cloak from naruto.)