Chapter 80: Comrade (1)

The knight threw a punch. Fides dodged quickly.

A faint energy emanated from the knight’s body. Fides responded in kind.

Though his level wasn’t high, he had also learned mana swordsmanship as a soldier of Briol.

“Were you a soldier in the Alliance?”

The knight kept throwing blows.

He wasn’t weak, as expected of someone trained from childhood, but to Fides, who had fought orcs, his attacks felt simple.

“Yes, son of a bitch.”

Fides lunged at him and grabbed him by the waist. The knight tried to elbow him, but Fides held on.

Compared to an orc, this knight was just a slightly bulkier guy. Still human, after all.

“Hyahh!”

Fides brought the knight down. They rolled across the ground in a struggle. The baron visibly tensed.

“Calm down… take it easy…”

To anyone watching, they seemed evenly matched. In fact, Fides ended up on top, punching the knight repeatedly.

“And you call yourself a knight? In the Alliance, you wouldn’t be better than a foot soldier, damn it!”

He landed several punches until the other two knights next to the baron rushed in and began kicking him.

“Argh!”

Fides fell to the ground, and the three knights started stomping on him.

“Three on one now? And you call yourselves knights? Haha…”

How different they were from the knights he’d risked his life alongside in the Alliance.

Even while being beaten by the three, Fides kept laughing.

“This filthy bastard…”

“You dare challenge a knight?”

The scuffle turned into a one-sided beating, and the room quieted down again. The baron, now at ease, sat back down.

“Hit him without making noise.”

As the baron chuckled watching the scene, there was suddenly a loud knock on the door.

Knock, knock, knock.

The baron raised his hand to stop the knights.

“Hold on, hold on. Stop.”

The three covered Fides’ mouth to prevent him from screaming, and one punched him in the stomach. Fides writhed in pain.

The baron called toward the door.

“What is it?”

A staff member answered from outside.

“Is Mr. Fides here?”

“Fides?”

The baron frowned.

“What does he want?”

“We have something to tell him…”

“What is it?”

“It’s confidential.”

“What?”

The baron disliked the tone, but being in the royal palace, he couldn’t mistreat a servant.

“He’s not here.”

“Excuse me?”

“He left.”

“Are you sure?”

The baron signaled with his chin, and the three knights dragged Fides to a corner and hid him.

Then the baron cracked open the door. The staff member looked at him, puzzled.

“You know how unpleasant it’s been, being in this tiny room with some random guy I don’t even know? Wasn’t there another room?”

“Sorry. With so many visitors…”

“That guy should’ve waited outside.”

“Yes, but… so, Mr. Pides…”

“I told you—he left.”

“To where?”

“How would I know? I suppose he realized his place and left after seeing he couldn’t meet the prince.”

“That can’t be…”

“What now?”

The baron scowled.

“So when can I see the prince?”

“Well…”

“Don’t bother me again about that commoner. Call me when it’s my turn. Hmph.”

He slammed the door. Behind it, Fides writhed on the floor.

The baron laughed with disdain.

“What’s wrong? Hurt? Hehehe…”

Just then, the door burst open with a loud bang.

The baron turned around in alarm.

“What the hell…?”

A boy with black hair walked in calmly.

“What are you doing? Who are you?!”

The baron, who had been yelling, suddenly lost his voice. In Briol, black hair could only mean one thing.

“Huh…?”

The young man scanned the room with a frown. When his black eyes landed on him, the baron felt his heart stop.

That gaze—it was like being seen as an inanimate object. A stain on the wall. Something not even worth noticing.

“Well, Fides. How’d you end up all beat up?”

He smiled and walked over. One of the knights tried to block him, but his companion grabbed him by the neck and pulled him aside.

“Black hair…”

The knights finally understood the situation. It was the prince himself they had come to see—Yuri Briol.

“Your Highness…”

Fides looked up at Yuri with a smile and spat blood.

“If it had been one-on-one, I would’ve won. But there were three of them, the bastards.”

“You sure you would’ve won?”

“I was beating him up at the start.”

“Really?”

Yuri looked at the three standing knights.

“Is that true?”

“Uh… well…”

Two of the knights looked at the third. The one being stared at lowered his head and answered,

“Yeah. I mean, no… what I meant was…”

“You were losing one-on-one?”

“No… if I had more time…”

“So you were losing.”

“No, if those two hadn’t stepped in…”

“Those two?”

Yuri turned to the other two. They also lowered their heads.

“Is it true what he said?”

“Yes.”

“No…”

They gave different answers. Yuri frowned. The two looked at each other, and one spoke.

“We thought the fight was getting too intense and stepped in to stop it…”

“He couldn’t handle it alone?”

“Not exactly…”

“Head.”

“Excuse me?”

“The head.”

A brief silence.

One of them, quicker than the rest, knelt and slammed his forehead to the floor. The other two immediately followed. Clearly used to physical punishment.

Yuri kicked the one farthest back.

The blow was infused with mana. All three went flying and crashed into the wall.

“Ghk…!”

The baron stepped back.

Though not a martial artist, with a single kick, he realized Yuri wasn’t just anyone.

“And you are…”

“Y-yes! Your Highness, my name is…”

Yuri looked at him, and the baron began stammering his introduction.

“I don’t care.”

“Yes, sir!”

“You came to see me?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“You know me?”

“Not personally, but I’ve heard of your glorious feats in the Alliance—slaying orcs—and so I brought these gifts…”

“You don’t know me.”

“W-well, yes…”

“And you come to see someone you don’t know, while hitting my…?”

Yuri lifted Fides with his own hands. Fides leaned on him with a grin.

“You hit my friend?”

“Y-your friend?”

The baron’s face turned pale.

“He… was your friend?”

“He’s my comrade from the battlefield. You could say we’re very close friends.”

Yuri stepped closer to the noble.

“The fact that someone like you sullies the honorable spirit of Briol, built with the blood of our ancestors… disgusts me.”

The baron lowered his head and began trembling.

When he found out Fides was from the Alliance, he thought he was just some ordinary soldier, coming to beg for a meeting he’d never get. He never imagined they were actually close.

A prince and a soldier, friends? It sounded absurd.

“What’s going on?”

“What’s happening?”

“Huh? Your Highness?”

With Yuri leaving the three knights sprawled on the floor, the commotion stirred the guests in neighboring rooms, who began filing out one by one.

Among them were several high-ranking nobles.

“I-I’m terribly sorry…”

The baron muttered softly, and Yuri let out a nasal chuckle.

“My friend Fides doesn’t need me to intervene for him. You. Yeah, you. Get over here.”

The knight crouching by the wall flinched at being pointed at.

He was the one who had initially fought with Fides.

“Yes?”

“Come here.”

“Uh…”

“Now.”

The knight hurried over. Yuri placed Fides and the knight side by side and declared from between them,

“Fight again. Properly. One-on-one.”

***

“You seriously can’t win properly even with a second chance?”

“But I won, didn’t I?”

“You’ve got to win with style, or what’s the point?”

Under Yuri’s supervision, Fides and the knight began another fistfight.

It was such a pitiful match that it was hard to believe one of them was a knight.

They threw clumsy punches, exchanged a few hits, and then devolved into grappling like a street brawl.

They rolled across the floor, taking turns mounting and hitting each other.

Even though the knight was “past his prime,” he was still a professional, and slowly started to overpower Fides.

Fides was on the verge of blacking out, but at the last moment he mustered his strength, flipped the knight, and put him in a chokehold until he surrendered.

Still, Fides’ face looked much worse.

“But I won, so it’s fine.”

Yuri summoned a cleric to treat Fides and then invited him to the palace’s best reception room.

Fides’ eyes widened when he tasted the palace’s appetizers. Yuri pushed his plate toward him.

“Eat up.”

“How could you eat stuff like this and still share rations with us?”

“Feeling my fiery camaraderie now?”

“I respect it.”

“So, what did you come for?”

“Your Highness…”

Fides frowned with concern.

“Well…”

If a former soldier like Fides was seeking him out personally, it meant something serious had happened. And it likely wasn’t just his own problem.

“Do you remember the Alliance Comrades Association?”

“Of course. I founded it.”

“It’s about the compensation funds that were distributed through the Association.”

After the Alliance ended, the state granted large sums as rewards for veterans.

Additionally, Yuri created the Alliance Comrades Association to provide extra payments to families of wounded or fallen soldiers.

“There’s a problem.”

“A problem?”

“They say it’s subject to taxes.”

“Huh?”

“Since it’s considered an unidentified source of income, they say it must be taxed. But the tax is over half the total amount.”

“And who decided that?”

Yuri scoffed incredulously.

Technically, the Association operated on raised funds, but in reality, it was Yuri’s own money.

As the principal shareholder of the Irene Guild, he had donated that fortune under the Association’s name.

And now someone wanted to tax a prince’s personal donation?

“Looks like the feudal lords got together. They saw how much money was circulating and decided to justify it with taxes so they could pocket some.”

“And how long has it been since the Alliance ended…?”

“Everyone’s furious. That’s why I came as a representative.”

Yuri sighed.

Until now, Briol had been one of the least corrupt kingdoms. But perhaps due to too much peace, the lords had started to rot.

“Good.”

“Pardon?”

“I already have something to do before heading to the Empire.”

Before fighting the enemy, he had to clean house. Yuri decided to use this incident to set things straight in Briol.

“Give me the names of those behind this.”

“Your Highness…”

Fides looked at him, moved. He had come hoping Yuri would at least listen—but never imagined he’d act immediately.

On the battlefield, they were comrades, essential allies. But now, they were separated by a massive class divide.

A prince and a commoner. Yet Yuri hadn’t changed.

Fides understood again that his actions had always been sincere.

“Thank you…”

“Don’t thank me. It’s what’s right. If it weren’t for you, that bastard Okua would’ve killed us all.”

“I didn’t do that much…”

“Didn’t you run like lightning to deliver my message? Without that, would Hernando have used his magic?”

“Haha…”

“So, who are they?”

Fides pulled a paper from his coat. Listed there were the names of the lords who had confiscated the money.

Yuri glanced over it and said,

“Fides.”

“Yes.”

“What’s the easiest way to win a battle?”

“I don’t know. A simple soldier like me just follows orders.”

“Good. I’ll tell you. Capture the leader.”

“You mean…?”

“Among all these, I just have to beat the biggest one.”

Yuri pointed to one of the names on the list with a smile.

“It’ll be fun to see Sir Raymond again. That damn gambler…”

His finger clearly indicated one name:

Genard Zetheri.