In every age, in every nation, one question always returns—who is the strongest?
The current era had multiple candidates for this title. The captain of the Knights of the Golden Lion, Gawain the Black Knight, and Merlin the Great Sage from the Garnet Empire; the S-rank adventurers known as the Storm King and the Magic Sword Princess; the commander of the church’s templar knights; the kung fu master from the east; Faust the Devilish Scientist; the Immortal Butterfly, the oldest assassin; or one of the seven monsters referred to as Demon Lords.
This topic had sparked endless debates, but in a small country at the center of the continent—the Jade Kingdom—the question of who was strongest had only one possible answer: Kevin Halsberg, the Master Pugilist.
He was an S-rank adventurer as well as one of the heroes who had defeated the Demon Lord known as the Poison Queen. As a reward and in recognition of his strength, he was given the peerage of a count. No one in the country doubted he was the most powerful, even the pure-blooded aristocrats who didn’t like his ascension to nobility. He even had the trust of the king himself.
However, though few people were aware of this, Kevin was no longer qualified for the title of strongest in the country. Indeed, he had been defeated by none other than his own son, who had inherited the poison curse—Caim, the Poison King.
And it was no mere defeat. He had only narrowly escaped death by Caim’s toxic mana. However, the aftereffects of the poison had sapped most of his strength, and the doctor had told him up front that he would never reclaim the power he had wielded in his prime.
Kevin was now nothing more than a shadow of his former self as the Master Pugilist.
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“To think my first visit to the royal palace in years would be like this...”
A man was standing in front of the royal palace in the capital of the Jade Kingdom—Count Kevin Halsberg, the Master Pugilist. However, while before he had been a tall and muscular man, he was now thin, with atrophied muscles and a hunched back like an old man’s, and he used a cane to walk. There was nothing left of his presence as the Jade Kingdom’s strongest man, and more than half of his fiery red hair had turned white.
I don’t see anyone I know, but would they even be able to recognize me anyway? Kevin thought bitterly, grimacing. Anyone who knew how Kevin had looked in his prime would doubt their eyes if they saw him right now. Who would believe the man who looked like an invalid was the Master Pugilist himself?
“Oh well, it’s no use dwelling on it...” Kevin mumbled. Time couldn’t be turned back, and the scars from his defeat would not disappear. His shoulders drooped in resignation, and he limped to the castle gate. “I am Count Kevin Halsberg. I was summoned by His Highness the fifth prince.”
“You are...Count Halsberg?” The soldier guarding the gate looked at Kevin doubtfully. He had never seen Kevin before, but he couldn’t believe the sickly man before him was the Kevin Halsberg.
“Here’s my identification and the letter from the prince.”
The guard received Kevin’s papers, and once he read them, he immediately straightened up. “Please forgive my rudeness, sir! I shall guide you to His Highness right away!” True to his words, he led Kevin inside the palace. “This way, please. Prince Roussel is awaiting your arrival.”
“Right...” Kevin’s expression stiffened.
Kevin had come to the royal castle, limping with his cane, because he had been summoned by Roussel Jade, the fifth prince of the Jade Kingdom. As for the reason behind his summons, it was because his missing daughter—Arnette—was there.
His beloved daughter had left home a few months ago in the pursuit of her twin brother, Caim, to avenge her father who had nearly been killed. Kevin had sent everyone he could to search for his missing daughter, which had caused a severe labor shortage in the Halsberg County. That was why he had to come to the capital all by himself.
Moreover, because the soldiers who ordinarily protected his domain from monsters had all been ordered to assist in the search, several villages in the territory had suffered considerable losses. Incidentally, many of the villagers affected by this were people who had once tormented Caim, scorning him as a cursed child by throwing stones at him and selling him rotten vegetables. Perhaps it was divine retribution that they had been attacked by monsters and had their fields devastated. They’d been injured and starved—which, ironically, put them in the same position they had once forced Caim into.
To think Arnette would be in the royal palace... But why did I receive a letter from Prince Roussel himself?
The prince’s letter had informed him about Arnette’s presence in the castle, but not how she had ended up there, so he didn’t know what relationship there was between his daughter and Roussel.
“Count Halsberg is here, Your Highness,” the guard announced when they arrived at the door to a room.
“Enter,” a voice answered from inside.
The soldier opened the door, and what Kevin saw inside shocked him.
“Huh...?”
Sitting on a chair inside the room was a young man who had once been handsome. However, now his looks were ruined. A part of his face was caved in, his nose was broken, and he had lost one of his eyes. Just what had happened to the handsome young prince?
“Are you...Prince Roussel?” Kevin asked.
“Ah, this is our first meeting, Count Halsberg. I’d heard you were sick in bed, and it seems you truly are in poor health,” Roussel replied.
“W-Well...” Kevin almost continued with “aren’t you in poor health as well?” but stopped himself just in time. Silence was golden. One of the things Kevin had learned when becoming a noble was that people shouldn’t open their mouths carelessly.
“Sit. I called you here for an important discussion,” Roussel said.
“...Excuse me, then.” Kevin pulled out the chair in front of the prince and sat down. Even as simple an action as this had become a grueling effort for him.
“I’ve summoned you here because of your daughter, Arnette Halsberg.”
“Yes, I read in your letter that she was in the royal palace, but I do not know the circumstances.”
“Well, to be more precise, she isn’t really in the castle proper anymore,” Roussel answered, his disfigured face twisting slightly. Because of his injuries, however, Kevin wasn’t able to read his expression. “She is now imprisoned in the dungeon as a criminal.”
“What?!” Kevin exclaimed in shock, trying to stand up. However, his weak knees failed him, and he fell to the ground with a grunt of pain.
“Hey there, are you all right?” the prince inquired.
“Y-Yes, do not worry about me... More importantly, just what did my daughter do to be imprisoned?!”
“What did she do, you ask?” Roussel pointed at his face. He didn’t even have to say anything—the gesture was enough explanation.
“Y-You mean she was the one who did this to your royal countenance?!” Kevin immediately went pale. True, Arnette had always been naive and free-spirited, behaving recklessly as any child would, but she was a kind girl. Kevin couldn’t believe she had raised a hand against royalty. “H-How did this happen...?”
“It would take too long to explain right now, so it will have to wait, but you should understand that there is no forgiving what she did, no? Even Healing Magic could not mend this. I was told that bone fragments might pierce my brain if I wasn’t careful, so it was better not to force it. In other words, I will look like this for the rest of my life.”
Kevin was struck speechless, his lips trembling. If Arnette had truly been the one to do this, then she would never be able to escape the death penalty. He suspected that as her relative, he had been called here to die with her.