Chapter 34

While Marquis Lilith sat in his chair, lost in one thought after another, Knox’s slow voice rang out as he presided over the trial.

“The Kreutz heir selection trial will proceed in two parts. First, capture a werewolf within ten minutes. Second, prevent a pack of werewolves from crossing the designated line for five minutes.”

The qualifications of the Kreutz heir were as follows.

First, the ability to subjugate monsters regularly.

And second.

Though an ice barrier existed at the end of the world to block monsters, the heir also had to be capable of preventing monsters from entering to some degree on their own.

“Then Young Master Tex Lilith will participate in the trial first.”

At the call of his name, Tex smiled confidently and stepped into the training grounds.

“Father. I’ll be back.”

“Just do what you always do.”

“Yes!”

Soon, the opposite wall opened, and a werewolf bound in chains appeared.

The werewolf was different from an ordinary wolf starting with its size.

It was twice as long as an adult man. It had a ferocious temperament, rough claws, and even the alien purple eyes characteristic of monsters.

Hooo. Huuuh.

Perhaps because it had been locked up for hours, a strange sound flowed from the enraged monster’s lower belly.

“Then the trial will begin.”

The moment the whistle blew, the werewolf’s chains came loose, and it began charging at him with its prey fixed in its sights.

Tex’s expression worsened at its size, which was larger than expected, but—

“D-Die!”

Tex was a power holder of ice.

Even without any special training, he possessed better subjugation capabilities than an ordinary person.

Crack—

With his eyes squeezed shut and a frightened look on his face, he stomped his foot once, and sharp icicles began rising one after another around him.

The startled werewolf lost its balance and stumbled, and in that instant—

“Die, I said die!”

Unable to even bring himself to look at the monster, he turned his head away and stomped his feet again and again.

Then the randomly formed icicles split between its long snout and its four legs, blocking the werewolf’s movement.

“Capture complete.”

Along with the whistle, a lukewarm voice announced his pass.

But the terrified Tex could not open his eyes.

“Tex, my son. You won! You won!”

Only after Marquis Lilith, unable to watch any longer, burst into a shout did Tex open his eyes and brighten.

“I-It’s done? I won, right?”

Tex bounced around the training grounds with a triumphant expression.

“That was nothing, was it? Father! Look at me! Who else could become the Kreutz heir if not me?”

He must have been unable to control his emotions, because he even kicked the wall with his foot.

Tap, tap.

Tex passed the second trial without much difficulty as well.

The icicles fired in a complete mess, but in any case, he had stopped five werewolves from entering inside the red line.

The people watching were impressed.

No, to be exact, they murmured.

“As expected, a power holder is completely different from an ordinary person.”

“...To think a young master that frightened could suppress a werewolf.”

“With a power like that, even a three-year-old could take down monsters.”

Beneath the seemingly admiring conversation lay a hollow impression of the “power” itself.

“Now, the second candidate, Lady Aisha of the Kreutz family, will participate in the trial.”

“Yes!”

Regardless, the trial continued.

As the small child toddled into view, the people’s conversation turned into worried exclamations.

“They say it’s one mountain after another, and this time it’s a five-year-old.”

“If a dangerous situation arises, they will stop the match midway, won’t they?”

“Young Master Tex was still better off, but the young lady is so small that I want to protect her myself.”

Amid countless gazes.

It would not have been strange for her to shrink back, yet the child toddled in with a brave expression and took a ready stance.

At first, it seemed like she was copying the knights. But her ready stance was fairly serious.

Though all she had were hand blades as insignificant as hamster paws, the atmosphere was completely different from Tex, who had squeezed his eyes shut.

With nothing but her hands?

On top of that, what she held in her other hand was not a greatsword, but a dagger made to fit a child.

“Your Grace. You had better prepare to stop the match starting now!”

In the end, Marquis Lilith could not hold back and burst into laughter.

“Then the trial will begin.”

Piiiip.

And so, the werewolf charged at the child.

As the werewolf opened its snout in front of Aisha, who was incomparably smaller than Tex—

“I can’t watch this.”

One attendant, unable to bear seeing what would happen next, squeezed his eyes shut.

But then.

“Th-That...”

Before he closed his eyes.

“......?”

A small, insignificant shadow fell over the tops of everyone’s heads.

When the people, wondering what it was, looked up—

“...Aisha?!”

“Young lady!”

The young lady, who had leaped up without even a foothold, cut through the air.

The so-called frog combat technique.

It was the technique Aisha normally used when clinging to Calypse like a cicada, but today, something was different.

Because the child, who had been looking down at the wolf with blue eyes—

Thud—

threw the dagger she was holding and struck the werewolf’s left thigh.

Grrrr—

The werewolf, brought down by a single dagger, toppled over with a whine.

The werewolf seemed to want to get up again, but only thrashed as if all strength had drained from its lower body.

Aisha checked the werewolf with a satisfied face and landed lightly.

“.......”

They had thought the hand that popped out from beneath her sleeve looked like a hamster’s.

The people rubbed their eyes in disbelief and only then realized it.

That hand was no hamster.

Though small, on closer look, it was sharp like a well-honed baby crab claw.

Response ability. Skill. Even courage.

Other than the fact that she was powerless, it was a perfect situation.

Watching that, Knox gave a faint laugh and whispered into Calypse’s ear.

“As expected, Your Grace has an accurate eye for people.”

“Indeed.”

The duke did not show it, but his mouth ended up in a zigzag shape as he tried to force down the corners of his lips that were about to rise.

“She strutted around calling herself a golden seed, but it turns out she was a diamond.”

“I agree.”

While the two Kreutz men were sharing that heartwarming conversation—

“Isn’t that cheating?!”

Tex, whose face had been bright red for a while now, shot up from his seat.

“It’s obviously smaller than the werewolf I faced! And that— that!”

Tex.

He could hear Marquis Lilith trying to stop him midway, but Tex did not hesitate to point.

“You’re saying it fell like that from one dagger? The werewolf sent against her was a weak individual, wasn’t it?!”

Inside the brutal training grounds.

Everyone was looking back and forth between Tex and Aisha with rabbit-wide eyes.

The child who had captured a werewolf with a single dagger turned her head with an unfazed expression.

“Wh-What!”

Tex, who met Aisha’s eyes, flinched for no reason.

The small young lady blinked her blue eyes and asked,

“You don’t know anything about werewolves, do you?”

“...They’re things we’re going to eliminate anyway, so can’t we just smash them?!”

“Werewolves are special-type monsters that transform into humanoid form on full-moon nights.”

Pop—

Her movement as she pulled the dagger from the coarse fur was no ordinary thing.

Of course, because she was weaker than an ordinary person, she had to pull it out with a little grunt, like uprooting a radish.

Aisha covered the bleeding area with both hands and continued explaining.

“When werewolves transform into humanoid form, they put a lot of strain on their weight-bearing structure, so the muscles around their hind legs are rough and tough.”

The attendants, whose eyes had widened like rabbits at the child’s explanation, gradually grew serious.

Except Tex, that is.

“So what the hell does that matter!”

“That means it’s their weakness. If you drive just one dagger into the hind-leg area, the werewolf can’t use its strength, so there’s no need to fire icicles a hundred times.”

At those words, the surroundings grew noisy.

“Is she really five? To understand a monster’s traits and move accordingly at that age...”

“No, even the hand technique she used with that blade just now wasn’t an amateur’s movement.”

Aisha, who was listening to their whispers, flinched.

Ah. Was that too much? But at times like this, I just have to pretend I’m a genius.

Aisha proudly stuck out her belly and planted her hands on her waist.

“You have to be at least this good to be adopted into Kreutz! Hahaha!”

“.......”

At the child’s words, the attendants looked toward Calypse as if asking whether that was really true.

Calypse felt awkward for no reason, but he did not show it and turned his head away.

“If that explanation is sufficient, then Lady Aisha of the Kreutz family has passed the first trial.”

Knox, who had been leaning against the wall waiting for the conversation to end, announced her pass with a faint smile.

“...Damn it.”

Tex’s face was flushed red with resentment.

“She certainly is clever.”

“Monster subjugation also costs money and time. If one goes in knowing information ahead of time like the young lady, there would be no injured people, and matters would be handled quickly.”

But because the attendants kept murmuring words he could not understand, he could not even get properly angry.

If this keeps going, that little brat will win.

Fear suddenly came rushing in.