Copy Skills with Affinity!

Chapter 4

Reverse Scale

In the Holy Crown Kingdom of Craven, the meaning of being royalty was somewhat special.

Of course, being royalty in the Holy Crown Kingdom—one of the mightiest nations on the continent was special in itself, but even so, they were still a bit different.

"Lester. Go stand watch."

How special, you ask? So much so that even if one ordered a paladin, one of the kingdom’s greatest forces, to run such a petty errand, it wouldn’t stir any particular complaints.

"……."

Guarding a member of the royal family was generally considered an extremely noble duty, but if the target was this fool, it was a proposition worth reconsidering at least once.

The Seventh Prince. Daniel Craven.

The scoundrel widely regarded as the greatest headache among the kingdom’s royals.

"He kept saying he wanted to claim the Lionhearted for himself…."

No doubt, even the influential figures across the continent who fancied themselves powerful were eyeing the seat as the Lionhearted’s groom.

Yet Daniel was such a wretch that one would want to hammer the word ‘presumptuous’ into his skull, as he had always laid bare his sordid desires for the knight known as the Empire’s greatest treasure.

And now, seeing that the fiancé she brought along was clearly no trained warrior, he was obviously intending to vent his frustrations.

"Your Highness. No matter how you feel, this is—"

If he was the Lionhearted’s fiancé, then he was naturally a distinguished guest.

Pulling any vile stunt against such a man could easily escalate into a diplomatic crisis between the two nations.

Of course, it was clear Daniel was not the sort to care about such realistic consequences.

"Whose vow was it that bestowed the divinity you wield?"

At the savage accusation Daniel hurled, Lester fell silent.

Yes. This was the problem.

All combatants in every nation wielded different supernatural powers, each with its own nature.

Yet all those powers ultimately stemmed from a single origin.

The blessings granted by each nation’s patron deity.

Every supernatural power originated from the divine authorities the gods of the Pantheon bestowed upon the lower world.

The problem was that, in the Holy Crown Kingdom, the vast majority of those divine authorities were concentrated in the hands of the royal family.

Even the supernatural power Lester himself wielded was nothing more than something he had been ‘borrowing’ from this degenerate prince.

"And still, you ended up exiled to the Empire."

The fact that such a valuable asset one responsible for the very source of those powers had been cast off to this faraway foreign land clearly implied many things.

It was, in effect, banishment. A message to go to the ends of nowhere and reflect on one’s deeds.

It meant that this Daniel was such an utter scoundrel that not even such privileges could protect him.

"What are you doing? I told you to go stand watch."

"……."

And even in this situation, when he was clearly set on causing trouble, Lester could only scream a silent, searing curse inside.

From the start, he never had the right to refuse. No matter how much of a scoundrel the prince was, he was royalty in the end.

"……As you command."

In other words.

It meant that the divinity wielded by royalty was so overwhelming that even a paladin, one of the Holy Crown Kingdom’s foremost forces, had no choice but to defer to it.

‘Pitiful, truly.’

Before long, Lester turned away, silently wishing for that man named Aiden’s soul to rest in peace.

▣

Daniel strode toward Aiden in big steps. At the same time, the divinity coursing through his body began to surge in a threatening swell.

If Karva, the goddess of war, had granted her followers the knowledge of how to wield the energy within their bodies, then Sia, the god of purification, had blessed his followers with a flame capable of burning anything to ash.

Fittingly for the greatest scoundrel of the royal family, he had not learned a single proper way to wield such divinity—truly a pearl necklace on a pig’s neck.

Still, a pearl necklace was valuable in itself.

Properly tempered divinity could serve as both shield and sword without any further refinement.

Even the slightest touch would be enough to melt an ordinary person’s body with ease.

"……."

Aiden’s expression twisted rapidly.

One of the most widely known truths:

When a royal of the Holy Crown Kingdom revealed their divinity, it was no different than openly declaring their intent to deal punishment.

It might even have been a greater act of menace than when Gale had drawn his sword in front of him.

"I can’t make sense of this."

Daniel folded his arms and started pacing slowly around Aiden.

In the way he circled, tracing an arc around him, there was nothing but mockery and arrogance dripping from every step.

"A woman like the Lionhearted—does she really have any reason to take such a worthless man for a mate? Hm?"

"……."

"Answer me, peasant. Did you wag your tail at her? Did you play the gigolo with that pretty face of yours?"

Lester wiped a burning heat from his cheeks. The level of insult made his mind reel.

If there was anything surprising, it was that rather than immediately resorting to violence with his divinity, Daniel’s mouth was the only thing running wild.

‘……Ah, so that’s it.’

He was doing this on purpose.

He was provoking him deliberately, trying to make the other side lash out first so he could claim self-defense afterward. It seemed he hadn’t completely ignored the aftermath. Even the prince would be wary of pressure from the kingdom’s court back home.

Of course, Daniel had picked the fight first, but as a royal of the Holy Crown Kingdom, he possessed enough authority to crush such a minor blemish without issue.

No matter how much of a scoundrel he was, if he were struck first, it would not be difficult to bury the other side entirely.

"It’d almost be better if that were true."

"……."

"At least then, you could’ve introduced me to someone who could take your place."

"……."

This bastard—he was no ordinary man.

At the curt reply that came back without the slightest blink, the same thought crossed Lester and Daniel’s minds at the same time.

Of course, from Aiden’s perspective having been kidnapped and dragged here this position as her fiancé truly held no meaning beyond exactly that.

"……The Lionhearted will be scandalized when she hears this. Do you know nothing of honor, you wretch? Truly, I would’ve been better than this sorry excuse for a man."

It was an answer that could make even Daniel, of all people, start prattling on about honor, but instead, Aiden’s eyes suddenly gleamed with energy.

"Do you want to take my place?!"

"……."

The reaction was so ruinous that Daniel, who had been picking a fight, was struck completely speechless.

‘……What the hell is this bastard?’

It was as though marrying the Lionhearted really was nothing more or less than a burdensome chore to him.

An opportunity that any man on the continent would have longed for, if only to envy it.

"-"

And without question.

That, in its own way, was infuriating.

The goal he had desperately desired but could not even approach this man treated it as something he truly didn’t need.

Grinding his teeth, Daniel spat out a sentence that ended up far more choked with rage than he’d intended.

"Shut your filthy mouth, you worm. True to your lowborn origins, you couldn’t possibly be more insolent to royalty!"

"But let’s leave my family out of this. If you’re royalty, you should at least uphold a shred of honor."

Oh.

Oh, no.

This time it felt like the provocation had actually struck home.

Hearing Aiden’s voice, which had gone suddenly cold, Daniel realized it with a start.

His reaction was completely different from when his relationship with the Lionhearted had been mocked.

But soon, Daniel’s expression twisted into a triumphant smirk.

"Honor? You dare say ‘honor’?"

If he could make him angry like this, all he had to do was push the matter to its conclusion.

"A worm who inherited nothing but the reek of his lowborn father and mother. Who do you think you are to speak of nobility to royalty?"

"……."

Wow.

Even Lester, forgetting his duty for a moment, sighed at such an utterly vulgar string of insults.

And then, once he’d heard that much.

Every trace of expression vanished cleanly from Aiden’s face.

"What’s the matter, peasant? Can’t come up with a retort because I’m right? Hm?"

This time, instead of replying, Aiden silently looked Daniel up and down.

It was clear he was calculating something in his head. As if he was arranging his thoughts.

"……This should be fine."

He murmured that, almost to himself.

And then, immediately Aiden’s gaze began to measure the distance between himself and Daniel with careful precision.

"……?"

And Lester an experienced warrior understood the meaning of that motion well enough that his eyes went wide.

This was well.

It was the look of a man unaccustomed to fighting, calculating how he might strike so as to hurt his opponent the most.

Of course, just because some untrained fellow tried something like that, it wasn’t as though anything was likely to happen.

"……??"

Something was strange. Very strange.

It felt as if something terrible was about to happen, and that he had to stop it.

"Wait, Sir—!"

But before he could wedge himself into the moment—

"Your Highness."

Aiden spoke, smiling broadly.

It was a brilliant smile, every perfect tooth on display.

Yet, to Lester’s eyes, somehow—

It looked like a terrifying expression, the peculiar clarity of someone who had just let go of their last thread of reason.

"I sincerely hope you know a good dentist."

"……Huh?"

Before Daniel could so much as form an expression of understanding—

A pure white surge of qi erupted right before his eyes.

In retrospect, this was exactly the outcome Daniel himself had originally intended.

At any rate, he had succeeded in provoking the other side enough to draw the first blow.

The problem was—

‘Wait, hold on—what…!’

That it had, truly, succeeded—

Far, far too well.

The fist that tore through Daniel’s pristine, concentrated divinity like wet cardboard slammed violently into the left side of his jaw.

-!

Without question.

It was such a beautiful strike that a dozen gleaming white teeth burst into the air all at once.

▣

There were too many things that demanded questioning.

How was this man wielding the pure white qi that was the Lionhearted’s exclusive domain? Why, despite that, did he look like an ordinary person with no training in martial arts whatsoever?

But more than any of that, the most pressing issue right now was—

"……Sir."

Lester called to Aiden in a trembling voice.

His head was spinning.

Daniel lay slumped against the wall, gushing blood from every part of his body, but even cleaning up that disaster came second to the sheer shock of what had just happened.

"Do you understand what you’ve done…?"

When you beat someone to this state, it didn’t end with simply ‘you struck a royal.’

At a minimum, this was grounds for a diplomatic incident. At worst—a full-scale war.

The continent was still reeling from the last war’s aftermath.

And now, the Empire’s honored guest had turned a royal prince of the Holy Crown Kingdom into pulp?

No matter how you looked at it, this wasn’t something that could be brushed aside.

"First of all, drop the ‘Sir.’ I’m no knight."

"……."

How could a man who wielded that white qi claim not to be a knight?

Lester’s mouth gaped to form that question, but before he could voice it, Aiden’s words came faster.

"More importantly, go get someone. He’ll die if you just leave him."

"Excuse me?"

"Somebody has to clean this up, don’t they?"

"……."

For someone speaking about what he’d just done, his voice was remarkably calm.

No rather than calm, it was chilling.

He said ‘clean up,’ but it almost sounded like he was asking for help to smash the man’s head in more thoroughly.

"This is a very big mess. Don’t you think we should make sure everything’s settled properly?"

Watching those gleaming eyes, Lester realized at least one thing beyond any doubt.

This man.

When he was angry, he became an entirely different person.