Cursekiller, which Riezel had previously obtained from Leo, as well as Rohm’s Shadow Sword, were both magic swords.
In this world, any weapon classified as a magic sword was not only capable of inflicting tremendous damage upon its enemies, but also carried harmful effects for its wielder.
Cursekiller was one such example.
It could curse and kill an enemy when it wounded them, but if its owner accidentally injured themselves, they would likewise be cursed to death. Hence, it was a dangerous double-edged sword and was considered a magic sword.
Naturally, the Shadow Sword was no different.
It was a weapon capable of absorbing all of its wielder’s magical energy and converting it into destructive power.
Its danger lay in the fact that it automatically drained the wielder’s magical energy. Even a slight loss of control could result in the wielder being completely drained dry and dying from magical exhaustion.
When this weapon had been in Rohm’s possession, the boost it provided him had been tremendous. Because the he practiced lacked offensive power, the royal family had equipped him with such a weapon to compensate for that weakness.
Now that this magic sword had fallen into Euryale’s hands, Riezel suddenly realized just how terrifying that could be.
Euryale’s magical energy was already absurdly powerful. If she wielded the Shadow Sword and converted all of that magical energy into destructive power, just how frightening would her attack power become?
As that thought crossed his mind, the way Riezel looked at Euryale became uncertain.
If things were truly as he imagined, then in her hands, the Shadow Sword would likely be no less formidable than any ancient treasure. Conservatively speaking, it would probably be comparable to a World Item.
Redson seemed to have arrived at the same conclusion.
Seeing Euryale casually put away the Shadow Sword after releasing such astonishing magical energy, his gaze toward her immediately filled with wariness.
Ironically, Rohm, the original owner of the Shadow Sword, showed no reaction whatsoever upon seeing his beloved sword confiscated by Euryale. Instead, he suddenly burst forward and charged straight at Riezel, his overwhelming obsession with taking Riezel’s life startling both Lizbeth and Redson.
Riezel merely watched Rohm silently as he rushed toward him, and only when the man reached him did he calmly chant a magic spell.
Instantly, time around Rohm froze.
"————"
Still maintaining the posture of lunging toward Riezel, the half-bodied Rohm came to a complete halt in midair as his pitch-black eyes remained fixed on Riezel, with blood vessels visibly swelling within them.
"Time magic..."
Redson’s expression changed once again as he watched.
Just as Riezel, who wielded time magic, could perceive the temporal fluctuations produced by Redson’s swordsmanship, Redson could likewise detect the unique fluctuation belonging solely to time from the magic Riezel had just cast through
"You can manipulate time, too?"
Redson looked at Riezel with a shocked expression.
"I didn’t really stop time itself. I only stopped time that was already flowing..." Riezel said calmly, glancing at him. "Honestly, this doesn’t even count as manipulation."
Hearing that, Redson was left speechless.
Stopping time didn’t count as manipulation?
In that case, what was his swordsmanship?
He could only accelerate his own time!
If he could stop an enemy’s time as well, what would he ever need to fear?
What Redson did not know was that the reason Riezel said such a thing was because he had become increasingly aware of the limitations of his time magic.
Because it was magic, it could be negated by various abilities that granted resistance to magic.
By now, Riezel could no longer remember how many times his time magic had been rendered ineffective by his enemies.
At first, it had been fine, but as time passed, he found it becoming less and less useful.
Even in YGGDRASIL, once players reached Level 70, they would always prepare countermeasures against time magic to deal with magic casters, which alone proved that time magic was not omnipotent and that numerous methods existed to counter it.
Level 70 in YGGDRASIL was only equivalent to the peak of Level 5 in this world. If people could already prepare time-related countermeasures from that level onward, it meant that time magic remained highly effective against enemies at Level 5 and below, but became noticeably less reliable against opponents above Level 5.
If not for the fact that worlds such as the Akasha Continent and those outside YGGDRASIL possessed far fewer countermeasures against time magic than YGGDRASIL did, Riezel might have abandoned this magic long ago.
Unaware of Redson’s thoughts, Riezel extended a hand and placed it on Rohm’s head while the latter remained frozen in time.
Riezel began searching through Rohm’s memories, delving directly into his mind.
Without caring whether Rohm’s brain would suffer damage, he forcefully flipped through his memories in the most brutal manner possible.
He wanted to know why Hendrick had died and why Rohm, who had been guarding Hendrick all along, had become what he was now—someone who seemed desperate to kill him.
For that reason, Riezel limited the search to the period surrounding his arrival at the palace and began looking for the cause behind everything.
Thankfully, the process proved unexpectedly smooth, as Rohm clearly had made no preparations against memory-, spiritual-, or mental-type abilities.
As a result, Riezel easily uncovered everything that had happened that night.
Through Rohm’s perspective, Riezel soon saw Sorren.
He saw a curved dagger emanating an ominous aura.
He saw how Sorren had controlled Rohm and how he had murdered Hendrick.
More than that, he also witnessed everything that had happened after Rohm had fallen under Sorren’s control.
Immediately, Riezel’s expression darkened.
"Well? Did you find anything?"
Redson had already stopped paying attention to Riezel’s time magic, so when he saw Riezel keeping his hand on Rohm’s head as his expression suddenly turned grim, he hurriedly asked.
"..."
Riezel did not answer immediately.
Instead, he withdrew his hand and dispelled the time magic affecting Rohm.
In the next second, Rohm’s half-body crashed heavily onto the ground, his black eyes becoming vacant as his entire body remained completely motionless.
Needless to say, his mind had already been destroyed by Riezel’s brutal search.
Even if he survived, Rohm would be nothing more than a vegetable.
"Didn’t you wanna know who killed Hendrick?"
Riezel turned to Redson with a mocking smile, not even sparing Rohm a single glance.
"Now I can tell you... the one who killed King Hendrick was none other than the son he favored until the very end."
"Sorren Jinas."
When the murderer’s name entered Redson’s ears, he fell silent.
In truth, he had already begun to suspect it.
After all, only members of the Jinas royal family could wield the Sword of Authority, which controlled
Earlier, Riezel had been suppressed by the power of inside the throne room, which proved that someone had secretly used the Sword of Authority.
And that someone could only be a member of the royal family.
Originally, the Sword of Authority had belonged to Hendrick, but now he was dead, and yet the sword had ended up in someone else’s hands.
Did that person not immediately become a suspect?
Redson was not so naive.
He was no hot-blooded youngster, but an old Sword Saint approaching a century of age, perhaps the oldest Sword Saint in the world, so he had seen through far too many things.
As a result, the brutality and ruthlessness of royal power struggles were matters that this Old Sword Saint understood all too well.
Therefore...
"Prince Sorren... committed patricide and usurped the throne?"
Redson’s voice was ice-cold.
However, Riezel revealed a piece of news that shocked everyone present.
"He did way more than that. He also wants to kill everyone who ever went against him, especially me and everyone in the Duke Faction."
As he spoke, Riezel stretched out both hands.
One rested on Lizbeth’s and the others’ shoulders, while the other landed on Redson’s shoulder.
As the chantless teleportation magic activated, everyone vanished from where they stood and appeared high above the royal palace.
Riezel immediately cast flight magic on everyone, allowing them all to float in midair.
Thanks to that, they finally saw it.
They finally saw what the royal capital looked like at this very moment.
===
A massive explosion erupted.
Within the noble district of the royal capital, Yeluvia, one noble manor after another exploded violently. Towering flames and rolling black smoke rose from the estates, rapidly blackening the sky and staining the earth red.
At this moment, the entire area had already become a battlefield.
Countless knights shouted as they fought desperately within the burning manors.
Magicians stood throughout the area, continuously chanting spells and destroying everything around them.
Groups of frenzied people with blackened eyes roared hoarsely. Like beasts that had lost all reason, they slaughtered indiscriminately without regard for their own lives, treating everyone outside their group as mortal enemies.
Meanwhile, those whose eyes remained normal were either resisting or fleeing, especially the finely dressed nobles. Some were being hunted down and stood on the brink of death, while others resisted desperately, attempting to deal with the invaders one by one.
Anyone could see that this was undoubtedly a war, which explained why the area had become a battlefield that continued to expand.
Some people fled into the city districts, while others pursued them there, dragging innocent civilians into the chaos. Terrified citizens ran desperately while crying and screaming, and as they fled, stray magic spells struck the surrounding buildings, causing them to ignite one after another.
Such chaos was the current state of the royal capital, Yeluvia.
"H-How could this happen?!"
Lizbeth was completely stunned by the sight.
"Prince Sorren! How could he dare do this?!"
Redson clenched his fists tightly as rage filled his voice.
Yes.
Everything here had been caused by that prince.
After searching Rohm’s memories, Riezel had witnessed everything the prince masquerading as Hendrick had done.
"With the help of a mysterious force, he not only gained new power but also got a special holy relic capable of controlling people’s minds."
"Using that holy relic, he took control of Rohm, everyone in Shadow, and every high-ranking official and knight he came across while impersonating the king during this time, turning them into absolutely loyal death soldiers."
"By posing as the king, he could give whatever orders he wanted. Under the pretense of summoning people to the royal palace, he brought in everyone he wanted to control, one by one."
"If my subordinate hadn’t discovered his body double and realized he was pulling the strings from the shadows, he probably would’ve controlled even more people until the entire kingdom was completely under his command."
Riezel’s voice echoed slowly.
"When he realized we’d grown suspicious of him, he immediately made his move. While letting his controlled underlings go about their daily routines like normal, he set a trap inside the throne room."
"As soon as we left Lizbeth’s residence, all those knights, servants, and noble officials around us suddenly went into a frenzy and attacked us."
"And when we entered the throne room and found the king’s corpse, you just happened to arrive and ended up clashing with me."
"As for him, he stayed completely hidden in the shadows, arranging attacks on Lizbeth while also launching assaults on the members of the Duke Faction throughout the royal capital to throw everything into chaos."
Riezel laughed mockingly.
"Rohm was sent by him too, meant to ambush me from the shadows and kill me in a single strike."
"He’d planned everything ahead of time, so the moment I stepped into his trap, he immediately used to suppress me and finish me off while I was weakened."
"Too bad for him, my strength and abilities were way beyond what he expected. Euryale was also protecting Lizbeth, which he never saw coming, so neither of us fell for his schemes."
"Otherwise, once I was dead and Lizbeth had been taken out, after all the Duke Faction’s resistance was wiped out, he would’ve naturally ascended the throne and become the ruler of this kingdom."
Simply put, this had been both an act of revenge against Riezel and a scheme targeting Lizbeth. It had also been a purge of all opposition and a complete reshuffling of the kingdom’s power structure.
How could Sorren dare do such a thing?
Wasn’t the answer obvious?
"Well, that’s the infamous Mad Dog Prince we’re talking about. Other than solving problems with violence, what kinda decent plan do you think he could possibly come up with?"
As if he were mocking Sorren from afar, Riezel said each word loud and clear.
"Patricide?"
"Usurpation?"
"War?"
"Mass slaughter?"
"If it helps him achieve his goal, take the throne, and rule this kingdom, why wouldn’t he do it?"
Hendrick had always believed that no matter how insane Sorren was, he was still a prince of this kingdom and his own son.
Unfortunately, he had been wrong.
Terribly wrong.
How could that mad dog possibly care about the kingdom and its people?
How could that mad dog suddenly mature and settle down?
Even if he eventually did, that would be a matter for the future.
Right now, he was simply a mad dog capable of doing absolutely anything.
"I suggest you find the remaining members of the royal family as soon as possible, especially the crown prince and the seventh prince, who are rumored to have inheritance rights comparable to that mad dog’s."
Riezel spoke calmly to Redson.
"Otherwise, they’ll definitely get taken out as threats."
Upon hearing that, Redson’s expression changed drastically.
In the next moment, he activated without hesitation, and under the highest level of temporal acceleration, he vanished instantly.
"M-Master! What about us?"
Lizbeth hurriedly asked.
Riezel did not hesitate either.
"We’re heading back to the Frenzel residence."