Isaac was sweating bullets in the audience hall.

(W-what’s wrong with this person!? You’re telling me this is my brother?)

He had seen Liam only once before when he was young.

It was almost half a century ago.

He had visited the Capital for Liam’s award ceremony and had seen him from a distance.

His grandfather and father had invited him to the ceremony since it was one of their relatives being awarded.

At that time, he had stood far away from Liam, but now, he was scared witless.

The knights lined up at his sides looked very different from the knights that he had brought with him.

Everything felt so different.

His head knight appeared rather pathetic as he tried to make up various excuses in front of Liam.

“Lord Liam, please hear me out. We had left because of our duty to protect the previous head of the family.”

Disinterested, Liam ignored the excuses that he gave.

However, he soon felt a sense of discomfort when he observed the dolls that were lined up in the audience hall.

“Hey, why am I missing a maid here?”

Noticing that one of the maids was missing, he asked Klaus about the situation.

After a moment of hesitation, Klaus replied.

“—We’ve sent it back to the manufacturer in order to have it repaired.”

“Huh? But why? Isn’t the scheduled repair time much later on?”

It was as if Liam knew the schedules for each and every one of his dolls.

He sounded displeased—or rather worried—that one of them was missing.

“—Isaac’s knights deliberately destroyed it.”

“Destroyed?—Isaac, was it you who ordered for its destruction?”

Subjected to Liam’s glare, the words just stuck in his throat when Isaac tried to speak.

He shivered, terrified.

(U-uh…ah…)

He was so terrified that he couldn’t organize his mind.

Instead, it was Klaus who made a report based on the investigation.

“Lord Liam, according to our investigation, Lord Isaac’s knights acted on their own. We have sufficient evidence to back this up, so it’s most definitely true. We’ve left them alone so that Lord Liam could deal with them when he’s bac—”

It happened immediately afterwards.

Before the head knight could come up with an excuse, Liam appeared next to Isaac and swung down his sword.

The knights beside Isaac were hacked up, but they were left alive.

As he was furious, Liam did not bother hiding his rage, resulting in Isaac fainting due to the pressure.

◇

“—Send Isaac back to the Capital. A man who faints this easily isn’t suitable as my successor.”

I put my sword back in its scabbard and stare down at Isaac’s subordinates that are still alive.

I purposely didn’t kill them in one blow.

“M-mercy—”

I step on the man who seems to be Isaac’s head knight.

“I was thinking of going along with this farce, but I’ve changed my mind. Kukuri.”

“Present.”

I hand over the human waste, that harmed my maid, to Kukuri who has emerged from the shadows.

“Do whatever you want with them.”

“Hihihi, are you sure?”

To be honest… I want to torture them myself, but I’m afraid of accidently killing them in a fit of rage.

Besides, Kukuri and his subordinates are better versed in the art of torture than I am.

“Yes. If I were to deal with them, they’ll probably die immediately.—Now, I heard there were some idiots that helped them?”

Traitors that betrayed me for Isaac.

The officials are clinging to me and begging for forgiveness, but my knights are holding them down.

“Lord Liam! Please have mercy!”

“I-it was all their doing! Please forgive us!”

I’m tired of hearing all these excuses.

“Execute all traitors and expel their families from the territory.—Take them out of my sight.”

The knights drag the officials away from the audience hall.

My heart’s boiling right now, and I can’t help it.

It’s really frustrating.

I didn’t think all this mess would happen just because I was gone. They even destroyed one of my maids!

“It’s been a while since the last clean-up. It’s time to clean the house thoroughly.”

Klaus rushes over to me and asks what I meant by clean-up.

“Clean-up, my Lord? The mansion’s always in a pristine state though?”

From how much he’s sweating, it’s clear that Klaus is asking while being fully aware of my true intentions.

“No, too much trash has built up. It’s time to clean them all up.—Track down all traitors and punish them accordingly. You know what… let’s do things thoroughly this time. Investigate and punish even those that haven’t necessarily betrayed.”

I’m fully prepared to hear words of protest, but Klaus simply nods.

“Understood.”

He’s surprisingly cool about it.

Now that I think about it, he was here to keep things under control even while I was absent.

He’s much more reliable than Tia and Marie.

—He should do.

I clap my hands and give out instructions to everyone.

“It’s clean-up time! Go back and clean up your workplace.—Make it spot-free, understood? If there’s any trash remaining, you’ll be held accountable for being lazy.”

Everyone at the scene kneels before me and heeds my order.

“As you will!”

It’s time to clean things up.

◇

Klaus was, in many ways, at his limit.

He had exhausted himself trying to maintain order during Liam’s absence.

As such, when Liam ordered for a massive clean-up, he went along with it thinking, ‘do whatever you want’.

(Well, traitors didemerge, so I guess it makes sense to tighten things up. In any case, what will happen to Chengshi? It seemed as if she had *crossed the Rubicon.)

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Rubicon

With more work piled onto him, he felt like giving up.

Liam looked at everyone in the audience hall before tilting his head.

“Huh? Where are my junior sisters? And where’s Chengshi?”

“Those three are…”

Liam’s junior sisters and Chengshi, the most bloodthirsty female knight, were in a messy situation.

◇

Rinho and Fuuka were using the training facility that Liam had set up, and they were facing Chengshi who had given up her human form.

Chengshi looked like a terrifying mechanical insect, one which sent shivers down both Rinho and Fuuka’s backs.

“She keeps challenging us regardless of how many times we cut her down. She has guts, I’ll give her that.”

“I’m getting tired of this.”

Every time they cut her down, she would revive and challenge them again.

Each time she did so, she would become stronger, and now, she was strong enough to threaten them.

They initially considered it a pastime and went along with her challenges, but they had landed themselves in hot water.

Fuuka slashed at Chengshi’s legs with her twin swords, but they turned into liquid metal and re-attached themselves to Chengshi’s body.

It didn’t matter how much they tried to cut her down, she would always recover.

“I’m sick of this! Rinho, she’s all yers now.”

Rinho was also getting sick of it.

“No, you do it. I’m tired of it.”

There was a core inside Chengshi’s body holding the liquid metal together.

However, it was constantly moving around inside her body, making it difficult to detect.

This had given Chengshi the opportunity to observe the techniques of the One-Flash, until finally, she managed to dodge Fuuka’s strike.

Shocked, Fuuka distanced herself from Chengshi.

“She actually dodged it.”

Fuuka was surprised that Chengshi had dodged one of her serious strikes.

Chengshi spoke to them.

“Thanks to you two, I’ve learned much about the One-Flash. Now, I can challenge Liam.”

Frustrated, Rinho lunged at her and slashed down, but Chengshi split her body into two and avoided the strike.

She kept splitting her body until she surrounded them from all sides.

“Tch!”

Rinho lowered her body posture and readied her sword.

Fuuka was equally wary of Chengshi.

“I’ve horsed around for long enough.”

Chengshi was fully intent on killing them where they stood.

“I’ll show Liam your dead bodies. Then, he’ll fight me seriously!”

Chengshi’s only purpose in life was to battle, so she didn’t care what the future had in store for her.

Her only desire was to defeat Liam.

It was then that the door to the training ground opened, revealing Liam’s figure.

He had a sword in his hand as he entered, and he made a disgusted face when he beheld the sight of Chengshi.

“What a sorry figure.”

“LIAAAAAAMM!!”

Chengshi rejoiced, and the mechanical insects converged into one.

She had abandoned her human body to fight the One-Flash.

She charged at Liam to finish him off.

Seeing this, Fuuka tried to warned Liam.

“Senior brother, she can—”

However, Liam had no interest in what she had to say

“There’s no need to worry. Chengshi, you’ve betrayed my expectations.”

As Chengshi tried to see through Liam’s One-Flash, she was blown away, and liquid metal splattered on the wall.

There was a spherical object in Liam’s left hand.

It was Chengshi’s core.

“You found my core that quickly?”

Chengshi was shocked, but Liam remained indifferent.

He tossed Chengshi’s core to the men behind him.

“Hey, create a new body for her. If she’s only at this level despite being a machine, she’s better off with her original body.”

Having lost the core, the liquid metal stopped regenerating.

Chengshi seemed frustrated.

“Are you pretending to be merciful? Just kill me! If you don’t, I’ll keep aiming for your life!”

“It would be a pity if I were to lose a playmate. But then again, at your level, you’re not even fit to be my playmate. Since that’s the case, I’ll have you play with my junior disciples from now on.”

Inside the spherical core, Chengshi let out a scream when she was told that she wasn’t fit to be his enemy.

“Are you trying to break your promise!? I’ll be the one to kill you!”

Liam laughed.

“Nice joke.—You can’t even finish off my juniors, yet you wish to defeat me? Just play with Rinho and Fuuka in the future. Oh, and I’ll let you play with Ellen as well in about 30 years.”

Liam turned his attention away from Chengshi and started to lecture Rinho and Fuuka.

“Care to explain why you two are struggling against someone like her? Are you trying to smear dirt on the School of One-Flash? Huh?”

Facing Liam’s wrath, Rinho and Fuuka shrunk in fear.

“W-we’re reflecting on it, b-but it wasn’t like this before… ”

“—W-we kept sparing her because we thought she was a good practice partner, a-and hey, we’ve won so many times…i-it’s just that we were pushed back a little today.”

Liam stared coldly at the two as they desperately came up with excuses.

“It looks like you guys need to be trained again.”

The two were disheartened by Liam’s words.

◇

Rinho and Fuuka haven’t grown as much as I predicted.

As someone that belongs to the same school of swordsmanship, it’s embarrassing to see them struggling against Chengshi.

That’s why I’ve decided to have them undergo vigorous training with me from today onwards.

Seeing the two collapse from exhaustion, I start meditating and unifying my spirit.

My two juniors are wearing tank tops and leggings, and they’ve fainted after sparring with me for a while.

I told Ellen to participate in the beginning as well, but since she’s not yet fully trained, I had her withdraw in the middle.

Right now, I’m doing meditation training by myself.

“Master has entrusted the girls to me, but with only this much to show, I’d too be embarrassed to stand before him. There’s also the fact that I struggled against a no-name.”

The no-name in question was the so-called Demon Lord.

It’s shameful that I had to use my favorite sword to defeat that guy.

I should’ve been able to kill it even with a spare sword.

I feel frustrated by my incompetence.

“How can I strike down an enemy that can’t be slashed?”

There are enemies that can’t be harmed through physical or magical means.

That just means I must train myself to be able to cut them.

But how?

I’m pretty sure I can do something about it if I continue to train rigorously, but that will take too much time.

I tell myself to concentrate and not lose focus.

I’m meditating to figure out a method to cut something that can’t be cut.

Compromise isn’t an option when it comes to swordsmanship.

An evil lord should stand above the rest and stare down at them arrogantly.

I must be serious and come up with a countermeasure.

◇

After Liam released them from their training, Rinho and Fuuka had to use their wooden swords as crutches in order to walk.

They hadn’t experienced this type of training ever since their days with Yasushi.

Rinho looked like she was about to cry.

“Senior brother’s a devil.”

The same went for Fuuka.

Their bodies were screaming in pain and trembling uncontrollably.

“We should have killed her when we had the chance. Senior brother mentioned that we’ll be training for a while, so we’re stuck doing this for the foreseeable future.”

They were both licensed members of the School of One-Flash, but Liam’s training regime was enough to make them tear up.

They wouldn’t be able to escape from this hellish training until Liam decided to return to the Capital.

As they lagged behind Chengshi, Liam had forced them to participate in more training.

The two girls sat down on a nearby bench.

“I hope senior brother quickly returns to the Capital.”

“Same. Isn’t he still training to be an aristocrat? Why’s he even back?”

The answer to that question; to deal with the upstarts that wanted to take advantage of Liam’s absence.

The Banfield Family’s territory was going through an upheaval as traitors were being mercilessly cracked down upon.

Officials and military officers were being executed on a daily basis, and their families were being banished from the territory.

Rinho took out her terminal and checked the news.

“Eh?”

“W-what’s wrong?”

Seeing Rinho curiously reading the news, Fuuka asked with her body still in pain.

It appeared that the Banfield Family wasn’t the only place going through an uproar.

◇

—At the Capital—

“They were annihilated?”

Inside the palace, Calvin was listening to the reports from his subordinates.

His eyes shot open when he heard the contents of the report.

The aristocrat that was giving the report also looked as if he couldn’t believe what he was reading.

“Indeed. All the agents that we’ve sent to the Banfield’s territory have disappeared. Also, many of the aristocrats that rushed over were killed. The exact number isn’t clear, but not many have survived.”

When Calvin learned that Liam had disappeared through summoning magic, he had manipulated some thoughtless people into wreaking havoc inside Liam’s territory.

Calvin had leaked the information to them on purpose and watched on as they celebrated excitedly.

Of course, he had also reminded them not to touch the people in his faction.

“He’s really gone and done it. How bold of him to do this at such a critical juncture.”

“Your Highness?”

Calvin held himself back from sighing and explained what was going on to the clueless man that was giving the report.

“Since the Cleo faction grew so quickly, he decided to sieve through the faction members. If he had failed, the Banfield Family’s territory would have been in deep trouble. However, he was able to get rid of the fools that bit on to the bait and expelled them from the Cleo Faction. As we had predicted, it was a trap.”

“I-is that so? Then we basically—”

“Yes, we walked straight into his trap. The good thing is that our forces didn’t directly participate in this affair, so we were able to conserve our strength. Only the fools and Liam-kun suffered from this, so it’s not a bad result.”

What Calvin just said was a lie.

If he had given his all and attacked, he could have left a big scar on Liam’s territory.

(I was being too paranoid and lost the chance.)

In addition, they had lost all their agents, meaning they wouldn’t be able to gather information as easily in the future.

(But it could have been worse.)

At least the damage that they received was minimal.

Calvin proceeded to ask about the fools that invaded Liam’s territory.

“What happened to the fools that attacked Liam-kun’s territory? Were they all really killed? Couldn’t he have captured them to use as bargaining chips?”

Capturing for the purpose of ransom, between aristocrats, this was considered the smart way to resolve things.

“—They were all labeled as space pirates and mercilessly killed.”

However, Liam was different from the others.

“Everyone? That’s rather extreme of him. A lot of people will resent him for this.”

Although Liam was the victim in this case, people would resent him for his extreme measures.

The families that had their leaders and officials executed would surely have a bone to pick with Liam.

This wasn’t a bad thing for Calvin since they would no doubt pull Liam down.

“We can make use of them. Support those families from now on and—”

“Your Highness, there is something else that’s important that I wish to report.”

The person that spoke up had a bitter look on his face.

“What is it?”

“It’s like this. The households of the aristocrats that Liam killed declared that they would join our faction. They desire Liam’s downfall.”

“W-what!?”

“The aristocrats that hate Liam have formed a group, but they didn’t have a clear-cut leader, so they’ve declared that they’ll join our faction.”

“What selfish behavior.”

Calvin boiled with anger upon being told of their selfish behavior.

These aristocratic households had sent people to act as pirates, but since they were beaten back, they decided to switch their allegiance to Calvin for revenge.

Even if such people decided to join his faction, they would only get in his way.

As a result, a large number of undesirable people left Liam’s faction and declared that they would join the Calvin Faction.

(Either Liam-kun is being blessed by the Goddess of Luck, or I’m being cursed by the God of Misfortune.—What a tricky opponent he is.)

As things had already progressed to this point, Calvin decided to do something that could at least minimize his worry about the future.

“Make a list of the names of aristocrats that declared that they would join us. We can’t afford to have them pull us down.”

He had the person that gave the report withdraw.

Then he braced himself knowing that he would be busy organizing his faction again.

Thus, Calvin’s hands and feet were bound at this critical point in time.