The Heroines Are After My Fortune

43 – The Great Clash – 3

*Clang, clank, clong!*

An endless barrage of Caesar’s attacks.

The ease Raphael once possessed had vanished.

“Kuh…!”

The agony of searing flesh intensified with each passing battle.

Now, it wasn’t so easy to unleash devastating blows as before, and Caesar’s attacks weren’t so casually deflected either.

‘That priest’s voice, I’ve heard it somewhere…’

But the man was far too nonchalant to be him; it was simply implausible they were the same person. Still, he was clearly a rather threatening cleric.

Even now, the Saintess was periodically healing Caesar while simultaneously debuffing the Marquis, and if these stacked up, the battle was bound to go from bad to worse.

‘The most vexing one is still, this mosquito…!’

Aiden Roen, he kept flitting in and out, wielding his sword, never deviating from his goal of protecting the Saintess. He’d draw attention only when he was out of harm’s way, then disappear just as quickly. Thanks to him, the Marquis felt his own limbs becoming increasingly entangled.

But dealing with Aiden first was too great of a burden. His condition wasn’t what it was before; if he exposed a weakness, he might suffer an irreversible blow. For now, his best bet was to somehow settle things with Caesar in front of him.

Clang, claang—!

“Have some shame, Caesar! Three against one, ganging up like that. Have you no pride as a swordsman…!”

“Ganging up? You, too, face me with three, do you not?”

“What nonsense are you spewing!”

“…On your back, isn’t your father, whom you sold to a demon, and your wife riding?”

“………!”

The Marquis’s face contorted. It was a blatant mockery. The power Raphael now wielded was derived from sacrificing his family, thus, he had no right to criticize him.

“Pity you didn’t offer your daughter as well, truly a shame.”

“You dare…!!”

The Marquis’s face twisted like a fiend’s. However…

“No, no, that’s not it… yes….”

He grew blank, as if the affairs of the world no longer held him. A warning bell clanged in Caesar’s mind. The Marquis was clearly about to do something.

“Both of you, fall back—!!”

*Whoosh——!!*

“Kuh…!?”

A vast amount of sinister mana began to erupt from the Marquis’s body.

Explosive, like a powerful typhoon surging forth.

The sheer force of the energy, making it hard to even stand, pushed Aiden and Dimona back.

[Hey, Aiden! What the hell is that…!?]

“…What else could it be? A trump card he got from selling out his family.”

Marquis Raphael’s Phase 2,

Where before he felt like just an infinite mana battery, now it was different. He could explosively draw on demonic power.

That he was using this last resort, with side effects that’d require at least three months of recovery, meant that he was absolutely determined to kill us all and leave this place.

Caesar was already at a disadvantage.

The Marquis’s sword strikes had multiplied in strength, but we weren’t just standing around watching.

“God, lend me strength unshaken by the rise of evil.”

*Shooom!*

Holy energy enveloped Caesar’s sword.

Certainly not comparable to the destructive power of the demonic energy that he’d obtained by selling even his family, but still, it was a ‘Holy Enchant’ technique that offered considerable defense.

*Clang! Clang-clang——!!*

The clang of swords, each strike a thunderclap, reverberated through the air. The vibrations that followed, intense enough to make your teeth ache.

Their clash escalated to a new, dizzying height. Now, short of a sword master themselves, no one could dare intrude.

‘They’re even invisible.’

*Ching!*

They staggered back, each recoil sent out shockwaves, pulling them a few paces apart.

A brief lull settled.

Caesar addressed Raphael.

“Raphael Este.”

“…What?”

“Twenty years ago, did you ever regret framing Marie as a demon summoner?”

“Hah, and here I was wondering what you’d ask…”

A smirk, dripping with disbelief, curled the marquis’ lips.

His reply was exactly as you’d expect.

“Not once. I got rid of a rival for the family seat and became a sword master thanks to that contract. It was all gain, so why on earth would I regret it…!”

“……………….”

Caesar lowered his head for a beat.

Then, he looked up, his gaze now burning into Raphael.

“Good, if you had spewed some nonsense about regretting it, I might have wavered.”

“Hmph, you talk big for such a weakling…!”

And with that, their furious duel resumed.

Clang, kang, kaang, kang—! Neither seemed to tire, their swords clashing faster still as they lunged at each other with murderous intent. In this frenzied melee, the first to falter was an unexpected one.

“…Are you alright?”

“Haaah, hssht…. Does this look, alright to you…?”

Maintaining the holy enchant, patching Caesar up, laying debuffs on the Marquis. Even with her divine power reserves being second to none at the Holy See, the situation was overwhelming.

It was only because she was the Saintess, Dimona, that she could maintain this kind of influence for so long in a battle between Sword Masters. Any other cleric would have been knocked out ages ago.

‘Damn it, if Caesar doesn’t finish this soon, we’re done for…!’

Of course, she couldn’t say that out loud.

If she did, the Marquis would openly stall, trying to drain them dry.

“…………….”

Caesar glanced her way.

He, too, seemed to have realized that going for a drawn-out battle was a death sentence, after seeing the holy enchant falter for a moment. Yet, no clear opening appeared. He was being pushed back constantly, overwhelmed by Raphael’s berserk sword strikes.

“From the moment you lost your right arm to me that day, it was decided you could never be my equal…! That is a fact that will not change, no matter how many of you come at me——!!”

“Aye, the right arm I lost to you is an undeniable weakness of mine.”

“……Hmm?!”

Ching!

Caesar deflected Raphael’s blade with perfect timing.

His eyes flashed, seizing the opportunity.

“But what I gained because of it, is also my strength.”

Click—!

Caesar’s right arm prosthesis whirred as it rotated with a mechanical sound.

A final, hidden gambit thrashed within the prosthetic arm, yearning to break free.

“What…!”

Never had he imagined the prosecutor b*stard would rig even his prosthetic with such treachery. The battle’s end hinged on what emerged from that thing. Explosives were the most likely culprit.

‘Defense first, utmost priority…!’

He channeled mana, prioritizing self-preservation, but his choice was a disastrous misstep.

“Thank you, for staring so intently.”

*Beeeeeep—!*

“Kuh…!”

A torrent of blinding light slammed into the Marquis’ eyes.

Even a sword master had limits to how much they could harden their sight. In that brief instant, his vision was utterly gone.

‘Not yet, not yet! If I can sense his mana, I can pinpoint his location—!’

Rafael desperately clawed at his magic to locate Caesar.

But something felt wrong.

‘Why… why is his aura so… faint?’

The flashbang, designed specifically for fighting sword masters, was crafted to not just shatter vision but to scramble every sense. Caesar had personally endured countless trials to develop it, so the effect was guaranteed. As a result, the Marquis couldn’t accurately track Caesar’s movements.

In a clash of the mightiest, such openings proved fatal.

“Go to hell, Rafael Este.”

*Swish—!*

The Marquis’s head sailed through the air.

Caesar’s long-held bitterness finally found release.

###

“Let go, let go…! You dare, me, the Knight Commander of the Este March…!”

“Honestly, can you just shut your trap instead of squawking? Just letting you live is testing my patience quite a bit.”

“…………Khek!”

David eyed Marcel with a rather displeased look.

He’d like to roast him crisp, but Cassano’s advice—that a Knight Commander surely held crucial information to corner the March—made him forgo the kill.

*’That Sasha kid, though, fought pretty damn well.’*

While Cassano and the wyverns tanked and David dealt the damage, she’d pop out from hiding at the perfect moment and *shhk-shhk*, finish off the knights. For a Baron, David figured they possessed quite a decent pool of talent.

“Ugh, you b*stards! Release me this instant…! You think you’ll be fine when the March shows up…!”

The knight’s hoped that Rafael, having sorted out the situation, would dramatically appear and rescue them all. They were about to see the March they so wished for. Though perhaps not quite as they’d imagined.

“Well, here’s your dear March, coming right up~”

*Thud-thud-*

Something round, rolling like a bowling ball.

Rafael Este’s head.

“March, Lorddddddd——!!”

“How can this be…! The March, one of the Empire’s Ten Pillars, how could he…!?”

The Ironblood Knights were in a frenzy.

That Rafael, stronger than the entire knight order combined, had lost his life like this was a reality they couldn’t possibly grasp.

“Good work, David.”

Aiden appeared, hands clasped behind his back.

He looked worn, like a good deal had happened.

“You too, you’ve worked hard, Aiden.”

The two men clasped hands.

They’d killed or captured every last member of the Marquis’s men who’d stormed the Roen estate.

And with hardly any losses of their own, at that.

‘Finally, it’s over, is it?’

Aiden Roen let out a sigh of relief.

Now, it was time to handle what remained.