Episode 60: The Theater Master

Siegfried twisted Ludendorf’s arm as he lay collapsed, mercilessly pressing his foot into the man’s back.

At that moment—

“That’s enough!”

A furious shout rang out. It came from the captain of the guard knights protecting the VIP seats.

“Count Kreving! Do you realize what you’re doing!? To raise a hand against the head of one of the five great noble houses…!”

The instant the knight captain took a step forward—

“You moved.”

Siegfried muttered lowly.

In the next moment, he seized Ludendorf’s left thumb and forcibly bent it back.

—Crack.

A dry snap echoed as the thumb bent grotesquely.

“Gyaaaah!”

Ludendorf’s scream reverberated through the arena.

“Wha…!?”

To the stunned knight captain, Siegfried spoke calmly.

“This is an important hostage, so I don’t plan to kill him easily… but every time someone moves, I’ll break another bone.”

“I-Impossible! C-Count Kreving… have you lost your mind…!?”

“You moved again.”

Siegfried raised his foot.

And then—as if crushing a filthy insect—he stomped down hard on Ludendorf’s leg.

“Gugyaaaah!”

The sound of the shinbone shattering and Ludendorf’s scream rang out almost simultaneously.

“You bastard! How dare you do that to Lord Ludendorf…!”

“Again.”

Siegfried applied more force to Ludendorf’s arm.

—Crack, crack.

The ulna and radius of the left arm snapped in succession.

“You bastard!”

—Crack.

“Kisaa!”

—Crack.

Each time the knight captain moved, the sound of breaking bones echoed from Ludendorf’s body, accompanied by his screams.

Finally, unable to endure any longer, Ludendorf screamed.

“D-Don’t move! N-No one move! O-Obey this man… Siegfried…!”

Hearing those words, the knight captain could no longer even twitch.

“S-Siegfried…!”

His face contorted in agony, Ludendorf glared up at Siegfried.

He was about to play his trump card to break this situation.

It was true that its activation had been delayed—but even so.

The only strategy to escape this hellish predicament remained in his hands… Ludendorf believed this and forced out his words.

“I… I know…!”

“Oh? And what might that be?”

“You… you haven’t received any special mission from His Majesty the King! Isn’t that right…!?”

This fact was Ludendorf’s final trump card.

“I-It’s been investigated…! You haven’t received any special orders from His Majesty! Which means the ‘royal authority’ you’ve been brandishing no longer holds any weight!”

“…And?”

“Wha…?”

“What does that have to do with anything, Chancellor Ludendorf?”

“Wha…!?”

“To begin with, I never said I received any special mission from the king.”

That was an undeniable truth.

Siegfried had never explicitly stated such a thing.

“Well, your son… Randolph, the student representative, seems to have misunderstood on his own. —So, what of it?”

“Y-You…! Without the king’s backing, you dare to oppose me, the head of one of the five great noble houses!?”

“Relying on backing is for second-rate villains at best. I don’t need it. The king’s authority—well, it was convenient, so I made use of it. Doesn’t it make the defeated villain look all the more pathetic by contrast?”

Siegfried shrugged, a faint smile on his lips as he continued.

“Thanks to that, I was able to enjoy my time at the military academy to the fullest. I can’t thank His Majesty enough.”

With that, Siegfried grabbed Ludendorf by the collar and forcibly hauled him up.

“—Now, enough idle chatter. Let’s get back to the match. Boring the audience would be a failure as a villain, after all.”

Siegfried approached his horse, effortlessly mounting the saddle while holding Ludendorf with one hand.

He then rode back through the stands to the grand training field.

“Now then…”

Dismounting in the training field, Siegfried advanced toward Leon and Dominik, then roughly tossed Ludendorf to the ground.

“Dominik, hold the chancellor’s body down. Leon—step on his head.”

It would be a lie to say the two felt no hesitation.

But—they had already decided to trust Siegfried.

They nodded silently and followed his orders.

Then, Siegfried’s voice boomed through the sound system, echoing across the entire arena.

“—My earlier command still stands. If anyone moves without my permission… these two will break Ludendorf’s bones. If you try to take him back by force, they’ll crush his skull.”

The arena fell into a silence so deep it was as if time itself had stopped.

Amid the stillness, Siegfried leisurely urged his horse forward.

His gaze was fixed on—the members of Granziere House guarding the flag.

“Siegfried…!”

Randolph glared at him, his eyes burning with rage.

But with his father held hostage, all he could do was watch.

The match was as good as decided.

Siegfried would seize the flag, and the dormitory battle finals would end with Sleid House’s victory.

Everyone thought so—but at that moment, Siegfried issued another command.

“Everyone, dismount and discard your equipment where you stand. Defy my orders, and Ludendorf’s life is forfeit.”

For a moment, the Granziere House members faltered.

But the first to speak was none other than Randolph.

“…Everyone, follow his instructions.”

Randolph’s response stemmed from the logic of the nobility.

Above all else, the safety of Ludendorf, head of the Steyart family—one of the five great noble houses—took precedence.

The students of Granziere House dismounted as ordered, shedding their weapons and armor.

At the same time, Siegfried also dismounted. He strode forward, and standing before him was… Moses, one of the ‘Four Heavenly Kings.’

“Wha… what the…!?”

Moses instinctively stepped back but stopped himself. The thought that moving would harm Ludendorf flashed through his mind.

“Grit your teeth.”

The moment Siegfried spoke lowly, his fist slammed into Moses’ abdomen.

“Guoh…!”

Moses’ body crumpled forward. And then—

“Guh…! Gah! Gehaaaa!”

He collapsed to the ground, screaming as if his throat would tear.

It was a single blow to the stomach, yet the pain spread as if it were searing through his organs.

Mana Penetration Strike—a technique Siegfried had developed through relentless training.

By channeling mana into the opponent’s body with a strike, it destroyed them from within.

He had held back, ensuring Moses wouldn’t die. But in doing so… the mana lingered in Moses’ body, inflicting unrelenting agony.

It was a hellish pain, as if his abdomen were being torn apart and his organs churned repeatedly.

“Ugoh! Ogaaa…!”

Moses writhed on the ground.

The excruciating pain was so intense that he wasn’t even allowed the mercy of losing consciousness, forced to endure it endlessly.

“Now then…”

Siegfried moved toward his next target.

His next opponent was another of the ‘Four Heavenly Kings’… Prosper.

“—Don’t you have something to say?”

“S-Something!? Y-You… you think you can do this to the five great noble houses and Granziere House and get away with it…!?”

Without waiting for him to finish, Siegfried’s fist slammed into Prosper’s abdomen.

“Gyaaaaah!”

The scream echoed through the arena.

Prosper, like Moses, writhed on the ground in the throes of hellish torment.

“To think you’d say such a line at the Four Heavenly Kings’ big moment. This is the scene where you’re supposed to say, ‘Don’t get cocky—Moses is the weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings’…”

With a sardonic sigh, Siegfried moved on to his next target.

He drove his fist into each opponent’s abdomen… and with every strike, screams rang out.

Yet not a single person tried to stop him. —They couldn’t.

If they moved carelessly and Ludendorf died as a result… the responsibility would fall squarely on the one who moved.

As the one who caused the death of a head of the five great noble houses, they would face certain execution.

That fear nailed everyone’s feet to the ground.

“Hm…?”

Siegfried paused as he looked at his next opponent’s face.

Standing there was… someone he had met on the first day of enrollment.

“Ruberus, huh.”

“S-Siegfried…!”

“Perfect timing. There’s something I’ve been wanting to say to you.”

“Wha…?”

“On the first day, you said, didn’t you? ‘Beating up lowborn scum is pretty fun.’ But now, after punching nearly a hundred lowborn scum, I’ve realized… it’s not fun at all.”

“T-Then stop it…!”

“That I can’t do. My mission is to make the villain shine.”

Siegfried’s fist pierced sharply into Ruberus’ abdomen.

With a groan, Ruberus collapsed to the ground.

“—Now then.”

Before he knew it, all one hundred students of Granziere House lay collapsed on the ground.

All except one.

The only one still standing was—the commander, Randolph.

Fixing his gaze on him, Siegfried slowly advanced.

“Y-You…”

Randolph’s voice trembled.

“You… why are you doing this—!? What’s the point of this insane madness!?”

“Insane madness, you say…?”

Siegfried tilted his head.

“—How strange. Isn’t this exactly what you’ve been doing all along?”

“What…?”

“Until now, you’ve wielded the power of nobility to unilaterally torment defenseless commoner students. What I’m doing is no different. The only distinction is that instead of ‘power,’ I’m using a ‘hostage.’”

“W-What…!?”

To the bewildered Randolph, Siegfried raised his voice.

“—Rejoice, Senior Randolph!”

Spreading his arms wide, Siegfried stood like the master of a hellish stage.

“You’ve bound commoner students with the chains of hierarchy and tormented them one-sidedly… Now, that tyranny returns to haunt you. Your own deeds destroy you… Is this not the perfect end for a villain? From the moment I met you… I’ve been planning this conclusion.”

Siegfried declared in a voice that seemed to shake the heavens.

“Now, savor the climax! The star of this stage is the student representative, Randolph von Rekrem-Steyart! —This arena was prepared for you.”

“W-What…”

Randolph’s body trembled faintly, tears of fear and despair spilling from his eyes.

“What are you…!?”

“A villain. But one of a higher caliber than you.”

With those words, Siegfried’s fist sank deeply into Randolph’s abdomen.

Neither his status as the heir to one of the five great noble houses, nor his title as student representative, nor the power of the upper nobility could shield him from that blow.

“Ugeh! Ah… e…! Gahaaa!”

Vomiting bile, Randolph writhed on the ground.

The excruciating pain was unlike anything he, born and raised as an upper noble, had ever experienced.

“Agh…! Gah, ah… aaaaaaah!”

(It hurts! It hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts! Impossible! Impossible! Impossible…! For me… the heir to one of the five great noble houses…!)

Pain, confusion, humiliation, and despair—

Siegfried kicked Randolph’s face, layered with those tangled emotions, and mercilessly stomped down.

“What a splendid expression, Senior Randolph. Choosing you as the star… was truly the right decision.”