“Say it again.”
Franz stood where Stilikov had pushed him, his back straight and proud, his eyes unwavering as the knight looked at him, wondering where his confidence came from.
The authority of being the Emperor’s son. The knight found it amusing that Franz would rely on that single source of power to lord it over everyone in this place.
“Try that again.”
Franz leaned in close, ready to swing his fist at the knight in front of him at any moment.
“I will carry out His Highness Albrecht’s orders.”
Unlike my men, who, at the sound of his voice, would immediately bury their heads in their hands and burst into tears.
Moshi glared at the knight, who had the authority of his master at his back, and Franz glared at him as if he were going to kill him. But the knight still straightened his back and looked him in the eye.
“I see you’re a coward, just like my master.”
Albrecht. The blood rushed to Franz’s forehead as he pronounced Karl’s name.
It was a sign of the extent of his anger, but it was only the men of the Archduke of Toskur who were terrified by the sight.
Every single knight wearing the seal of the Imperial Inquisition stood tall and proud.
Franz’s anger naturally merged with the inferiority complex he had carried all his life.
The inferiority complex acted as a catalyst, rapidly escalating his anger, and in his rage, Franz stopped thinking rationally.
With a dull thud, the knight’s body jerked, his head snapped to the side, but it didn’t return easily, and Franz swung his fist again, not giving the knight a chance to catch his breath.
“Don’t you dare say that again! You lowly, insignificant…….”
The knight fell to the floor, the search permit in his hand crumpled in a heap on the floor.
Without bothering to wipe up the blood, the knight stretched out his arms. He checked the status of the permit first, rather than his own body.
“Ugh…….”
Unfortunately, Franz had no mercy for the driver. Franz’s military boots landed on the permit and the hand clutching the paper.
As his flesh was mercilessly crushed beneath the hard heel, a pained groan escaped the knight’s mouth, who hadn’t uttered a sound even when a fist was thrown in his face.
“Try that again.”
Franz twisted his leg from side to side, trampling the knight’s hand over and over again. The heels, which must have been made harder for the Archduke’s shoes, were enough to tear a man’s skin with just a few frictions.
“Even if I do this, you can’t do anything, can you?”
“……”
“Why?”
“Ugh……”
“Unlike you, I have royal blood flowing through me.”
Franz slowly bent down, placing his elbow on the knight’s leg he was stepping on. Naturally, his weight shifted more onto one foot.
“Do you understand what that means?”
“……”
“It means you shouldn’t dare oppose me.”
With a crunch, Franz increased the pressure on the knight’s leg. Eventually, either from the intense weight or the pain, a horrific sound mixed with the knight’s groans emerged.
“What’s happening?”
Someone’s voice halted Franz’s seemingly unstoppable insanity.
“I am Clovis Yustum, head of the imperial investigation unit.”
Clovis, a close aide of Duke Albrecht, had arrived.
Although Franz’s interference was anticipated, the overwhelming severity of his actions caught the knights off guard. Clovis’s arrival felt like a ray of hope amid their helplessness.
Identifying himself, Clovis walked confidently beside Franz and the knight.
“By order of His Grace Duke Albrecht, I will arrest anyone obstructing the investigation unit’s search.”
“What is this? Aren’t you the dog of that Karl guy?”
It was expected that Franz would fiercely resist.
Even if Clovis showed the authorization stamped with Duke Albrecht’s seal, Franz would likely exploit the knights’ inability to physically intervene with him to obstruct the search.
Thus, Karl directed Clovis to cover the parts the knights couldn’t.
“Do you dare say that my nephew’s dog will arrest me?”
The arrows of anger shifted from the knight on the floor to Clovis.
Clovis, glancing sideways at the knight bleeding from the face and hands, straightened his posture, raising his hand to salute Franz.
“In response to the insurrection of lawbreakers defying Duke Albrecht’s orders, we are reluctantly compelled to use force. From now on, our knights will protect His Grace Duke Toskur for his safety.”
“What?”
“What are you doing? Quickly protect His Highness the Grand Duke!”
With Clovis’s command, the knights clad in golden armor who had followed him surrounded Franz in an instant.
The message was clear: it was to ensure the safety of His Highness the Grand Duke Toskur from the possible harm inflicted by suppressing those who violated imperial law, as directed by Duke Albrecht, the head of the Imperial Investigation Unit.
While they called it protection, it was essentially a message that they would forcibly remove Franz if he interfered with the duties of the imperial investigation team.
Naturally, Franz had no intention of complying with Clovis and the knights.
“What are you doing? Let go of me!”
“Ensuring the safety of His Highness the Grand Duke is also a duty that the knights of the Imperial Investigation Unit must fulfill. Grand Duke Toskur, please forgive us for this rudeness.”
“If you know it’s rude, back off! What do you think you’re touching? Are you all out of your minds? Do you think I’ll let this go?”
No matter how much Franz struggled and shouted, Clovis remained unfazed.
At Franz’s outbursts, the knights supporting the Grand Duke Toskur raised their weapons simultaneously, prompting Clovis to quickly deploy his investigation team to subdue them.
“Look at this! With His Highness the Grand Duke present, these hooligans dared to threaten us with their weapons,” Clovis exclaimed, turning Franz’s own knights into the very ruffians threatening him.
“Let go of me! You scoundrels, let me go!”
Even a massive, muscular man like Franz could not overpower the knights surrounding him. As they dragged him outside, he continued to shout.
His cries echoed for a while even after he was outside, but they held no power.
The moment Franz was out, the investigation knights resumed their halted search. Losing their strong backing, the merchants and the knights of Grand Duke Toskur immediately lost all resolve.
After that, the search proceeded smoothly. The investigation unit gathered all necessary information and materials without hesitation.
Meanwhile, Franz, pushed out by the knights, found himself requiring an unwanted escort to his residence.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes, Captain.”
Clovis reached out to a knight lying on the ground.
The knight, whose arm hadn’t been trampled by Franz, grasped Clovis’s hand to rise, but his face was a mess. Observing his condition, Clovis sighed in disappointment.
“I expected this would happen. You were just unlucky.”
“I’m fine, Captain.”
“Fine, you say? Why don’t you look in a mirror when you get back to your quarters and see if your face is really ‘fine’ or not?”
Clovis tossed out a line, half-joking and half-pitying, as he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to the knight.
“Your not-so-great face is only going to get worse. I’ll talk to them so you can at least get some kind of honor.”
The knight chuckled softly, wiping the blood from his mouth with the handkerchief.
“Ooh, you shouldn’t be laughing like that. Your lips are all cracked.”
Just a slight movement of the lips caused a sharp pain from the split skin. The knight quickly stifled his laughter and cautiously wiped away the blood.
***
How could a mere knight pull me back like this? Frustrated, Franz couldn’t contain his anger and roared endlessly within his quarters after being forced to return.
The knights who had pushed Franz into his room, under the pretense of ensuring the safety of His Grace the Archduke, did not leave but instead stayed to guard the Toskur Archduke’s castle.
“It’s not about ensuring safety; it’s about making sure I can’t get out,” Franz muttered, a madness evident in his demeanor far greater than the anger he had shown before.
This is going to be a serious problem. As Stilikov assessed the rapidly changing situation and the unrest in Franz, his mind grew increasingly tangled.
Archduke Albrecht had never been so overt in exerting power over Franz. Perhaps it wasn’t that he couldn’t do so, but rather that there hadn’t been a reason to go that far until now.
In other words, now there was a reason to do so. This was truly a bad sign.
Franz was undoubtedly aware that he would seek retribution and probably realized that tensions with the Toskur Archduke’s side could escalate to a breaking point.
The fact that he had decided to move the knights, disregarding all those considerations or willingly accepting the consequences, meant that he was determined to completely and publicly sever ties with Franz.
Where will the next throne head? Regardless of the direction, it was clear that the throne had drawn closer to both the Toskur Archduke and the Albrecht Archduke.
