The Silver Palace of Asura was as imposing up close as it seemed from afar, it was larger than even the imposing Peragius Castle, and there were apparently many structures in the sprawling grounds surrounding it, including the royal family's main residences and a series of beautiful gardens.
Ariel was going to visit her sick father, and then make a reservation for one of the palace halls, my role was simply to follow her and Luke.
For three days, things were going smoothly.
Ariel was making steady progress in organizing her meeting, the nobles who had been awaiting her return offering to help.
In the course of my duties as a bodyguard, I had been introduced to what seemed like dozens of influential people, to be honest I couldn't remember any of their names.
I hadn't formally met Darius and Prince Grabel, but I had seen them from a distance, only once.
Darius was a flaccid man, with a drooping chin and an unpleasant gleam in his eyes. When he saw me, his face contorted in terror. It was as if he saw the Grim Reaper or something. Maybe it wasn't wise to read too much into that sort of thing, but... the man's reaction was so obvious that I didn't feel the need to doubt any longer. He was obviously one of Hitogami's three disciples.
Prince Grabel seemed like a fairly ordinary man, he was nothing more than a medium-looking bearded man in his thirties with fluffy golden hair.
The princess was fighting her own battles, my job was to eliminate the enemies who tried to stop her by force.
In fact, we had been attacked repeatedly, hired assassins were sent to us every day.
That said, these assassins were nothing special, we hadn't provoked our biggest prey yet.
The killers targeted Ariel exclusively, to be more precise, they were after Sylphiette, who was now acting as her body double, and they pounced on her in the street, while she was eating and while she was sleeping, not giving us a moment of peace.
Of course the real Ariel was wearing a maid outfit and a wig, and she slept soundly every night in a normal maid's bed.
"They actually send us a lot more than last time, you know? It makes a big difference having you and Rudy around, Gino," Sylphiette commented at one point.
"I've made preparations for the stage, now I think it's time to bait our trap." Ariel said
That day, the princess made a special effort to talk to a noble loyal to Prince Grabel, during this conversation, she made some vulgar jokes about how Sylphiette was on her period and how I was having stomach problems...
The noble showed some interest in Sylphiette, but she responded with a frown.
It seemed that Ariel had decided to invite an attack by spreading the word that her own bodyguards were in bad shape.
However, it didn't work.
Perhaps she had been too obvious about it, from the next day onwards, even common assassins stopped showing up.
It was the fifth day, the attacks against us had completely ceased.
In return, the enemy had begun targeting some of the more influential nobles of Ariel's faction, specifically those who were making arrangements for her stage.
These nobles had the means to defend themselves, and the attacks hadn't amounted to much.
...
Nine days had passed, and our stage was finally set.
In short, it was going to be a party, drinking, dancing, chatting, that sort of thing, these sorts of events were regularly held in the halls of the Silver Palace.
This was announced as an event that was going to be celebrated by the Second Princess Ariel in honor of Prince Grabel.
There had been several attempts to disrupt the preparations, but the princess had dealt with them all effectively.
Tomorrow would be the moment of truth.
"Sir Gino, I just gave them one last push," Ariel said, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Oh?" I muttered
"To be more specific, I've leaked some information that should make High Minister Darius very anxious" she replied
"...well, I see" I muttered.
...
Later that night, we headed to Ariel's residence, it was a dark, moonless night.
All of our preparations were now complete, it was just a matter of waiting until tomorrow, we would have to relax and rest as much as we could tonight.
Or so I thought, until I saw the man standing in the middle of the road in front of us, he had rabbit ears, so he was clearly a beastman.
The beastman wore black, non-reflective armor and had a straight sword in his hand, he stood right in the path of Ariel's carriage.
"Who goes there?!!" Luke asked, stepping forward from his spot next to the carriage.
"I am the Northern King Nucklegard! One of the three swords of the Northern God, they call me Twinblade!" He said
A second later, Nucklegard began to separate, one half of him moving slowly to the left, and the other to the right.
"Hey, Nuckle, I guess we shouldn't say our names."
"Oh, right! I guess things are a little different this time, huh? You're pretty smart, Gard!"
"Hehe, well, I've been hitting the books lately."
No, it wasn't that, Nucklegard was actually a pair of twins.
"Oh! And we probably shouldn't tell them it was Lord Darius who hired us either!"
"You're probably right, when we had to fight assassins, they never told us who they worked for."
"Yeah, exactly, so make sure you keep it a secret, Nuckle!"
"Understood!"
They really weren't very good at being assassins, huh?...
Shocking myself out of my disbelief, I spurred my horse and leapt towards them.
"I'm Gino Britzs," I said.
The twin swordsmen's ears twitched at the sight of me.
"Oh? The new Sword God?!...We may be nothing more than a couple of puny Mildetts..."
"But we'll still take you on!"
I got into my combat stance and the guys got into a mirror position.
"Alone, we're only half a man."
"Together, we're a whole man!"
"We'll fight you two at a time!"
"Surely you'll agree that this is fair!"
Uh no, that's the definition of unfair, actually.
At that moment, another silhouette emerged from the darkness, this time on the street behind our carriage, it was a tall brown-haired man wearing a black leather coat and he was carrying a sword that I recognized immediately.
"Oh boy...So it wasn't enough for you to just become the Sword God, huh! Now you want a position in the nobility, you insolent boy!"
It was my father...
...
"Dad?..." I muttered in shock, my legs felt heavy, my throat was dry for some reason.
It was my father, there was no doubt, he got into a combat stance while Sylphiette and Rudeus faced him.
What is he doing here?!, why him?!...
"Okay! Here we go!!!" Nucklegard shouted, I had forgotten about him momentarily... I dodged his attack effortlessly and with a sword of light I cut Nuckle in half and Gard lost his right hand.
"yeaaagh!!!, damn it!!, bro!" Gard screamed in agony as he writhed on the ground.
My gaze is focused on my father, Rudeus and Sylphiette began to attack him quickly, my father repelled their attacks effortlessly, Luke was glued to the carriage on guard.
"fucking hell!! You'll see!!" Gard shouted.
I quickly threw a stone bullet at him that penetrated his skull, killing him instantly.
So I started running towards my father, he was already closing the distance between Rudeus and Sylphiette.
But I was able to stop his sword at the last second.
"Dad! What are you doing here?!" I screamed while looking him in the eyes.
He didn't answer me, he was still in an attack position while struggling with my sword, his gaze was cold and calculating, he had only looked at me like that once, When he wounded my chest and I became a saint of the sword, the wound wounded me again in the chest.
For him, he was no longer his son, he was an enemy that he had to kill.
"Rudeus!!, Sylphiette!!" Protect the princess!!" I shouted
They both looked shocked but nodded.
More assassins had come out in front of us but even Like could take care of them.
"I'll ask you again, Dad! What are you doing here!!" I shouted.
"What are you doing here? You haven't had enough, have you? When you told me you wanted to go out into the world I was happy. I thought you would go out and take Nina with you, that you would have a good life...But what did you do?! You came back full of pride and defeated the master by stealing his title!! You are a disgrace!!" Dad shouted.
"We've had this discussion before!! It was an accident!!" I yelled.
"Accident?! If it was an accident you should have let yourself be defeated again! That's why your mother and I left! I couldn't stand to live on the same land as a usurper!" Dad shouted
"But I will not make that same mistake again with your brother!! He is already an intermediate of the sword, you know." dad murmured.
I just stayed silent as I looked at him.
"What are you planning to do?" I muttered.
"I'll settle my debt, the master will claim his title again if I team up with him to kill that princess" Dad said.
"What?...with Gull? Are you collaborating with Gull to kill Ariel? Why?!" I screamed.
"I don't know, he came to me one day with a proposal, I couldn't say no, we're all in this, so I'll return the honor God Sword style..." dad murmured.
At this point I felt tears coming out of my eyes.
"Is there nothing that can make you change your mind? I am stronger and faster than you and you know it!! What will happen to mom and my brother? Are you going to leave them alone because of this?!!" I yelled at him.
"It wasn't in our plans for you to be here, But never mind, Master and Kall will take care of you," he muttered.
In an instant he stopped struggling against me, He immediately rushed towards Ariel's carriage, and I throw a long sword of light towards it.
"Wait!!" I screamed as I ran towards him.
The attack split the carriage in half but Ariel had already left it, Sylphiette began to attack him with Air attacks but my father repelled them effortlessly.
Rudeus and Luke were busy with the other assassins so they didn't notice what happened.
It all happened in a second.
Papa lunged at Sylphiette at lightning speed, she didn't have time to react and one of Papa's attacks hit her.
His left arm was cleanly severed in an instant.
She didn't even have time to react and my father tried to attack her again.
"Nooo!!" I screamed as I intercepted his attack and threw a long sword of light at him that split him in half.
It was like in slow motion, my father's upper half fell to the ground with a serene expression as he looked at me.
He fell to the ground with a thud as he looked at me.
I couldn't decipher his expression, he looked disappointed as he looked at me.
The next member's life left his eyes.
Timothy Britzs had died...
"aaaargh!!!" Sylphiette's cry of pain brought me back to normal.
"Sylphie!!" Rudeus shouted as he came running towards us.
I immediately took out a healing circle that Orsted gave me and placed it on Sylphiette's severed stump.
In an instant and with a yellow glow, his severed arm grew back without leaving a scar.
"Ha....haa..." She muttered still in shock
"Sylphie! Are you okay?!" Rudeus ran towards her while hugging her tightly.
"Yes...yes, I'm fine, thanks Gino" She murmured.
But I didn't answer him, my attention was on my father's body.
I didn't know how I felt, my father disowned me, he allied himself with Gull to kill me, but still...even though I tried, I just couldn't hate him, I wanted to be angry with him, He had abandoned me, but even if I wanted to, tears began to come out of my eyes.
...
Ariel was unharmed, Luke and Rudeus were able to take on all the assassins without any problems.
I gathered my father's body and burned his remains, his only possession was his blue sword Tsukikage...
I decided to take his sword and put it on my belt, I didn't feel well...
When night came I simply lay in bed and stared at the ceiling until exhaustion overcame me.
I woke up early that morning, the amnesia of waking up momentarily relieving me before the memory of what had happened that night hit me like a baseball bat. I had killed my father, I had done it, not an enemy, not just any assassin, not a wandering swordsman who came to disturb the peace of the sacred land of the sword, it was my father, the man who trained me, my family, he abandoned me at the least expected moment, yes... but even so I never hated him for that, even now, he had conspired to kill me, but even so, I felt guilty, it was the first time I felt like that, the first time I felt bad about killing, I had nightmares at the right moment of how the light came out of his eyes, maybe with the king rank healing circles I could have healed him and immobilized him to make him reconsider... I had enough time...
but I just stared at him, at that moment I had not processed what I had done, I had killed my own father...
I got up feeling my body heavy, I had to meet with Ariel and the others. I found them quickly talking in a room, all eyes turned to me when I entered.
I didn't know what time it was, but I always got up before everyone else, not after.
"Mr. Gino, I understand that one of the assassins was your father, right?..." Ariel murmured.
"Yes... it was my father, he attempted against his life and almost killed Sylphiette, but I took care of him" I murmured as I sat at the table
"I see... according to Rudeus and Sylphiette, both had a conversation before I killed him, right? Did he say something important to you?" she asked.
"Yes, he said that he is collaborating with the former Sword God Gull Farion and with a guy he called Kall, I don't know if they have any relation with Darius although there is no need to doubt it" I said
"... I see, that will be very helpful, I suppose that they already found out that I have a world power as an ally..." she murmured.
"It seems so, though there's no need to worry, in my current state I can take care of Gull Farion" I said
"That's a relief, then there's no reason to keep waiting, we have to leave" she said and so we began to get ready.
Here it would be decided if Ariel became queen or not.
...
Our stage was one of the large reception halls of the Silver Palace, used primarily for large gatherings and parties, and today there was only one long table in the room.
The room was so well decorated that one could not suspect that the event had been organized ten days in the making.
I was officially here as a member of the staff, and Rudeus and I stood near the entrance to the waiting room, studying the faces of the attendees as they arrived.
Most of the conversation in the waiting room consisted of speculating on what Princess Ariel was going to say today, and how Prince Grabel's faction might react.
The first important character arrived a little late, it was Philemon Notos Greyrat accompanied by his eldest son.
He stopped at the entrance to look at Rudeus with undisguised hostility.
"Hmmm! Do you really think you can sneak back into the Notos Greyrat household after all these years?" he said.
"The thought never crossed my mind, actually." Rudeus muttered.
"Remember this, boy, by all rights, you shouldn't even be allowed to call yourself Greyrat." He said.
"Uhm... sure, okay." Rudeus said.
After letting out that confusing insult, Philemon studied the faces of the guests in the waiting room and then disappeared into a private room reserved for the high nobility.
After Philemon's arrival, the rest of the important guests began to appear at a steady pace, the parents of Ariel's attendants and several members of Triss's family were among them, the other heads of the four great families also appeared, the Euros clan arrived first, then Zephyros and finally Boreas.
Finally, when everyone else had already introduced themselves, High Minister Darius arrived, his only company being a single bodyguard.
As soon as he saw me, Darius looked away with a grimace of fear, but the bodyguard headed in my direction
It was Reida, she looked slightly older than the last time I saw her, but other than that, she was the same.
"God Sword...what are you doing here?" she asked as she looked me up and down.
"Princess Ariel's cause captivated me and here I am" I said in a sarcastic tone.
"...I see, Isolte is already here you know? I plan for her to be my successor when I'm gone..." she said with a wistful look.
"That sounds like a good plan" I muttered.
"Hah! Yes it is" she said, then turned around and walked away with Darius.
In any case, the most important guest, First Prince Grabel, was not going to come to the main waiting room, instead, he was expected to show up directly in the main hall once the party started.
In other words, all the players were now assembled.
...
The party had begun in earnest
The nobles entered the room in a certain order and took their seats along the huge central table. I watched all this from the periphery of the room, where I was standing alongside several other bodyguards.
Ariel had arranged for there to be almost no palace guards on duty, so most of the nobles had brought their own.
Sylphiette wasn't here, she had an important role to play in the upcoming ceremonies, and was currently waiting somewhere else.
Ariel stood behind the place of honor at the head of the table, once all the guests had settled into their seats, she stepped forward.
"Thank you all very much for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend this party," she murmured.
At first, her welcoming speech was rather conventional. She began by mentioning the king's illness, made some comments about the state of things in Asura, and talked about how she had felt watching events from afar during her studies abroad... that sort of thing.
But soon she began her attack.
"Now then, there is a specific reason why I have gathered you here today, as it happens, I have two people I would like to introduce to you," she said.
As Ariel spoke these words, a voluptuous woman in a beautiful dress walked through the doorway.
Without saying anything, she slowly crossed the hall until she stood beside Ariel.
Seeing her face, Darius's eyes widened.
Some other nobles at the table stood up, the color draining from their faces.
They were probably representatives of the Purplehorse family.
"This is Tristina, the second daughter of the Purplehouse house, by pure coincidence, I met her on my travels, in the most unlikely of places," Ariel said.
Triss performed an impeccable curtsy.
"Thank you very much for the introduction, your highness. Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Tristina Purplehouse," she said.
There was a flurry of voices around the room.
"I hadn't disappeared?!"
"I thought she was dead! 2
"That girl was alive?!...She has certainly become a beauty."
However, after a few moments, the comments began to focus on one particular question.
"But...what is she doing here?"
"When I found her and took her under my protection, Tristina was in a terribly weakened state, but she told me that she had several things to tell you all, and that is why I have brought her with me to this meeting." Ariel said.
Triss stepped forward at the right moment and approached Darius, who was sitting high up at the table.
Looking at him with the disdain of someone studying a particularly dirty pig, she began to tell her story.
She did not speak with the harsh tone of a bandit.
Her words were clean, elegant, like those of a noblewoman. She spoke of her family's betrayal and her purchase by High Minister Darius.
She spoke of how he had kept her as a pet, a dog.
And she spoke of how she had nearly lost her life after the Displacement Incident.
She told the story of how she had survived: the bandit gang that had bought her and her life as their leader's plaything.
Finally, she explained how Ariel had rescued her.
Several nobles burst into tears during the tale.
She had the feeling that Ariel had asked them to do so in advance.
But many of the others, especially Darius's allies, had clear expressions of shock and dismay on their faces.
The Purplehorse family members, in particular, were white-faced with fear and visibly sweating.
Darius himself, however, maintained a placid expression.
He showed no signs of losing his composure, at least on the surface.
It was the face of a man who had come through tougher situations than this one.
"And that is all my story."
Triss finally wrapped things up, and as she stepped back, Ariel stepped forward.
"Now then, this is all quite surprising, Minister Darius, I certainly did not expect such shocking facts to be revealed in front of everyone like this, it is truly hard to believe... Could you really have abused your power so blatantly? Kidnapping a noble-born girl and treating her as your personal slave?" Ariel spoke.
Her tone, calm at first, began to heat up quickly as she continued, now she was spitting the words at Darius with a fury in her voice.
"Is this how a High Minister of Asura behaves? Is this the behavior of a man who administers our entire kingdom, it is a total disgrace, do you have anything to say for yourself, sir?" Ariel asked.
With a disdainful snort, Darius slowly stood up.
"Princess Ariel, you're taking your games too far today. I didn't expect you to grab a woman off the street and insist on calling her the daughter of the Purplehouse. I know my enemies delight in spreading such rumors behind my back, but this is the first time anyone has thrown such lies in my face." He said.
Laughing loudly, he turned to look around the room, silently encouraging the other nobles to agree that Triss was an impostor.
"You claim her story is false, then?" Ariel asked.
"Naturally, now I have a question for you, Princess Ariel, do you have any proof that this...Miss Tristina is really the second daughter of the Purplehouse house?
"Tristina," Ariel muttered.
At Ariel's urging, Triss reached into the bosom of her dress and pulled out something.
It was a ring, it had a beautiful purple gem in the center, with the image of a horse carved into its surface.
"Ah! An amethyst with the image of a horse, no doubt, is what the members of the Purplehouse house wear to prove their identity." Darius said rather easily, but his face hadn't lost any of its composure, if anything his smile had become sharper and more hateful.
"I see, I see, since this lovely girl is wearing that ring, it seems that she really is a Purplehouse, or so one might initially believe." He muttered.
"It turns out that, I have news of my own to share regarding Tristina Purplehouse, I'm afraid she's been identified for a while." "Little" Darius continued.
"Identified?" Ariel asked, identity conclusively tilting her head slightly.
"I'm sure you all remember, ladies and gentlemen, a certain operation we carried out in the capital about a month ago, its objective was to round up all members of certain criminal organizations that had taken root within the royal capital. In the course of that exercise, I'm afraid Miss Tristina's body was discovered." Darius said.
Ariel breathed heavily upon hearing this.
A month ago? She had prepared for this in advance...
"Of course, her signet ring had already been sold on the black market, so it was difficult for us to establish her i. However, Miss Tristina's body had a distinctive feature that only her family knew about: a crescent-shaped birthmark on her chest..." Darius muttered.
Now that was a lie. Triss didn't have any such birthmarks.
At least, not anywhere I'd seen... and she was wearing very revealing clothes.
"I believe the head of the Purplehouse house will be able to confirm all this for us, isn't that right, Lord Freitus Purplehouse?" Darius asked.
But before the man could answer...
A noble saint from the table reached out and took off a ring from his finger and changed shape...
"fuck hell with this shit!" A young voice echoed from the side of the room and a burst of light with a golden glow shot towards Darius, cutting off his head on the spot.
We were all completely shocked by this.
Not even Reida could react to this.
"Damn stupid! You had to wait until Ariel won the throne!" A familiar voice reached my ears and the windows of the place burst.
On instinct I lunged at Ariel to protect her
(clank!)
The sound of metal swords echoed throughout the place, before me was a man with blue hair and a scar on his cheek, the guy had a totally familiar shark smile.
"gull..." I muttered
(crash!, krakaboom!")
thuds were heard from outside the castle
"they're attacking us!!" Sylphiette shouted
Rudeus was totally in shock as he looked at the young man who had killed Darius, he was a black-haired boy with no armor and a beautiful golden sword..
Alek Kallman lll
"fuajajajaja!!, Hitogami was right!!, everyone is here!" a voice echoed from outside and a huge figure with golden armor and six arms burst into the place.
"you should feel honored Gino...Hitogami gathered the heavyweights just to kill you!" Gull said with a smile
oh shit...
=====
I'm cooking something, give me power stones
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