The Heroines Are After My Fortune

8 – Shadow Monarch – 3

“I’ll hack off your limbs, keep you just alive, then torture you every single day until the day I die.”

Sasha stepped in front of Caesar, who was approaching Aiden to make him a torture doll.

“You think I’ll just stand by and watch that?”

“You’re too young to know a proper man. I can’t give you to a good-for-nothing like him.”

“You crazy old coot, are you going to interfere with your daughter’s love life forever…!?”

The father-daughter exchange ended there. Sasha launched herself from the ground.

Clang! Claaang!

KANG!!

The real clash began. Sasha brought her sword down on Caesar, who stood unmoving. A flurry of rapid attacks, like a shower of light, assaulted him.

Claggang! Caesar deflected Sasha’s rain of sword strikes. He made no attempt to attack, focusing solely on parrying his daughter’s blade.

‘Good, that’s it…!’

Even with the lingering effects of drug withdrawal, he couldn’t use his full strength against his daughter. Aiden hoped that if Sasha just kept buying time, he might be able to bring him back to his senses. But Sasha, locked in the swordplay, thought differently.

‘This can’t be his full power…!?’

She knew her father’s true strength. She even wondered if he was holding back in each clash, careful not to hurt her. And she felt that his full attention wasn’t on her. Then, it happened.

“………Hss!”

An immense surge of aura, gathered in an instant, condensed upon Caesar’s blade,

KA-GaaaNG—!!

“Ugh…!”

He cleaved Sasha’s sword in two, just like that. Showing a divine power that split steel without so much as a scratch upon his daughter, Caesar glared, eyes wide, at someone. That someone, of course, was Aiden.

*PAAHT—!*

Caesar’s blade, propelled by a gale-force leap, swung towards him.

“Dodge—!!”

Sasha screamed. Everyone who could protect Aiden was gone now. It seemed as if Aiden was about to be sliced in two, helpless, that instant…

*KA-ANG—!!!*

“……………Hmm!?”

Caesar’s eyes widened. The strike he’d unleashed to sever the loafer’s legs had been blocked.

The one who’d blocked the blow was none other than—

“…I have shown an unsightly display, Aiden-nim!”

Kassano Blanchett, his golden hair swirling as he returned.

“You were late, Kassano-kyung.”

“I apologize, I will not let Aiden-nim fall into danger again.”

Just before things kicked off with Sasha, Aiden had noticed Kassano stir. He was certain Kassano would wake up soon. Rotten as he may be, he was still an Expert High-level. Aiden hoped that when he woke, he would show a better front with Sasha. But there was also a great misfortune that they could not dismiss.

“Sasha-yang, your sword is broken, are you alright?”

“Ah, this? I’m fine.”

Sasha, with a nonchalant laugh in response to Aiden’s question, placed her hands on her waist and drew two black daggers.

“Because I fight better with daggers.”

Whoosh—!

With a shimmer of sword energy rippling over her twin daggers, Sasha launched herself from the ground, leaping towards Caesar.

As if she couldn’t lose, Casano’s sword drew an arc towards the same target, displaying a thick sword aura. A high-level clash began, impossible for the eyes of ordinary people to follow.

Clang—! Clank, clang, clank!!

Caesar’s brow furrowed.

The situation was clearly different from when he had faced Sasha casually.

‘…Tch.’

Maintaining a defensive stance, Caesar began to search for a way to subdue the two. Casano was still the target. Regardless of Sasha being his daughter, Casano’s openings were more obvious in this joint attack. Caesar tossed a word to Casano, who was unleashing an all-out offensive.

“You’ve never killed a man, have you.”

“…I am a knight who protects his master. What does that matter. Hah!”

A single word from a swordsman of a higher rank. He tried not to show it as he swung his sword, but that small ripple of unease made a big difference in such a fierce battle.

Clank—!

“It matters a lot.”

“No…!”

Caesar’s sword perfectly deflected Casano’s attack. Caesar’s sword then lunged at him, exposing a fatal opening.

“With such a pathetic sword lacking even the will to kill, do you think you can leave even a single scratch on me—!!”

Swoosh!

His sword came down with the intention of cleaving Casano clean, but then,

“You’re not focusing…!”

*Thwack!!*

“Kuh-Ack……?!”

Sasha, a blur from the side, slammed into Cassano, her small body a direct hit. Caesar, his sword arc aimed at the spot where his daughter now stood, halted his swing, fast.

“……Sasha, what in the blazes are you doing!”

He bellowed, nearly having cleaved her in two. But Sasha just stuck out her tongue, a childish ‘Meeeeh—’ her answer to her father’s rage.

“Thank you, Lady…!”

“Ugh, don’t call me that, you’re making me wanna puke.”

Sasha and Cassano felt it deep: they were running out of time, no more room to drag this out.

“………….”

“………….”

They traded a glance, then bolted, splitting in opposite directions.

‘……..Now!’

From the upper left, Cassano’s greatsword descended, a cleaving blow that seemed set to split the earth at Caesar’s feet.

From the lower right, so low it hugged the ground, Sasha’s dagger rose, a rising arc of glinting steel. Caesar felt it, a cold certainty: only all his power would be enough to block this.

“Haaah-UP——!!!”

A burst of aura, exploding outward, ripped from his body.

*Kaaang—————————!!!*

A single stroke.

With one furious swing, Caesar batted away both attacks.

Their carefully plotted joint strike, thwarted. Both were thrown into disarray.

“Woah, that’s seriously too much…!”

“Did the difference really get *that* big!?”

Caesar, who’d left Sasha and Cassano utterly defenseless, didn’t swing his sword at them any further, contrary to expectations. He just vanished from their sight.

And they both knew it.

“It’s dangerous…!!”

“Aiden, please, dodge it!!”

The place Caesar reappeared was behind Aiden.

“…This is the end, you.”

His sword, raised high and gleaming, descended straight for his neck. But Aiden didn’t budge an inch, even faced with mortal peril. The moment the sword grazed his neck, drawing a single drop of blood,

“You knew, didn’t you.”

Caesar halted his sword’s progress, dispersing his aura.

Aiden simply grinned at Caesar, who was now sighing.

“Yes, I knew.”

*‘Shit, knew what… I almost died.’*

From the start, his eyes, being those of a normal person, couldn’t even follow. He’d just been watching, thinking, ‘Cassano, do it’, ‘Sasha, do it’. It’s not like he didn’t have some plans prepared, but there was no way to interrupt that inhuman fight with some paltry schemes. After this was over, he decided he had to find a way to secure at least some kind of strength.

“How does it feel to be lucid again, after all this time?”

“………………….”

Caesar, who had been silent, wordlessly returned his sword to its scabbard.

“My condition doesn’t change a thing. I have no intention of leaving Sasha and this place, so go back.”

“Dad…!”

“Hmph—!!”

Caesar bellowed at his daughter, but seeing her flinch, he turned his head away, biting his lip hard. It seemed as though there was something he couldn’t tell his daughter. At this point, Aiden felt the need to pull out the final card he had prepared.

“Marie Este.”

“………!”

Caesar’s eyes trembled more violently than ever before.

“You, how do you know that name…!!”

There was no way anyone could know the truth of that incident.

Caesar had believed that, until just a moment ago.

“The reason you can’t leave this place, isn’t it because of the incident related to your wife?”

Caesar’s wife, and Sasha’s biological mother, Marie Este.

And the perpetrator of the incident, Rafael Este, the current head of the Este Marquisate.

The incident involving these three had occurred roughly twenty years ago.

#######

The Este Marquisate, as a leader of the noble alliance, had always occupied a key position in the Empire.

The rigorous and systematic education of the Este family molded their children to excel in at least one field. It was common for the Este family’s children to become knight commanders, conquer society and become queens, or become influential figures in the imperial political scene. These children, scattered across various fields, elevated the family’s status by making their mark.

In choosing the head of the Este family, there were two inviolable rules that had never been broken for hundreds of years.

1. It must be the strongest in the family.

2. It must be male.

While they allowed their children to explore various paths, these rules were always observed. Then, one day, it happened.

“Huu, huu… …”

“The, the victor is… Lady Marie Este!”

Lying sprawled on the ground, Rafael Este clutched at his own red hair as if unable to believe what had just transpired. He had been utterly defeated by his younger sister in their sword duel. Marie, returned from her long training abroad, had – if only for a moment – pulled out an Aura Blade. Barely into her early twenties, Marie was a genius destined to become a Sword Master within the next year or two.

Rafael, the leading candidate to succeed as head of the house, had always lived by the maxim that the head of the Este family must be the strongest of them all, but after realizing there was a sky above his sky, he was forced to rethink his beliefs.

He’d become the head of the house anyway.

Marie was a woman, after all.

His pride did sting a little, but he decided to ignore it, viewing the whole thing as something akin to a natural disaster.

Then one day…

Marie suddenly and out of the blue declared she would marry some random nobody. Marriages between high nobles were mostly political matches, save for a few extreme exceptions, so her bombshell caused a massive uproar in the family. The elders of the family were, of course, opposed, but Marie had overwhelming grounds to suppress the objections of her retainers.

“…The truth is, I’m pregnant.”

That announcement caused the already noisy family to explode again. The lady of the marquis’s house, pregnant out of wedlock. Her mother even fainted upon hearing the news. By all rights, she should have been cast out and stripped of the Este name for having disgraced the family. Rafael was secretly hoping for her exile, but things didn’t turn out as he wanted.

“Are you not ashamed to throw away such talent? Who does that serve, throwing her out of the family?”

“Indeed. Lady Marie has the ability to ascend to the Seven Greats of the Empire. This small error should be overlooked, and our future should be the focus.”

Many regretted her extraordinary talent being wasted. But there were also those who thought it was too early to make a rash decision. Having gathered all the opinions, it was finally decided to ‘let’s decide after seeing the groom-to-be’. The Este family was one of the most prestigious in the Empire after all. Even with the most generous hearts, they still believed the man ‘had to have the family rank’ to match. So, when they first met Marie’s intended, those present could not hide their disappointment.

“Not from a distinguished family, but a second son of a mere barony in the frontier…”

“Not a single knight has been produced from his family lineage; there’s nothing to see here.”

He looked like nothing more than an average, simple young man in his early twenties, with brown hair and a plain face. He was supposedly a swordsman, but no one expected any great skills from a youth from such a humble family.

“Rafael, go easy on him.”

“Heh heh, gladly.”

Rafael, believing he could easily take down a hick like him, walked to the training grounds, ready to spar with the youth. He wanted to unleash all the inferiority he had been feeling towards his younger sister upon this young man, her husband-to-be.

“I’ve got nothing against you. Just think of it as bad luck.”

The duel barely begun when Raphael, sword already drawn, approached the youth. He, in turn, responded softly.

“I hold no ill will either.”

*Whooom-*–!!

Aura erupted from the youth’s blade.

It didn’t take long for the tide of opinion to turn, overwhelmed by the sight.

“oooh, this can’t be…!!”

“Am I seeing things right…!”

The youth, aura blade rippling, advanced on Raphael, who was backpedaling. He murmured quietly.

“Forgive me.”

*Claaang*—!!

‘This is, some damn…’

His sword shattered clean through, and Raphael went flying out of the training yard.

Whether the next head-of-family candidate rolled on the ground or not, no one paid him any mind. Instead, the retainers, thrilled, declared their union a blessing upon the Este House.

“Well done, Caesar…!”

“Is that so…?”

Marie, calling her husband by his pet name, was pure in her joy. All the retainers watched them with warm eyes.

A next-generation sword master couple, an unprecedented, unique pair was born in the history of the Empire.

At this time, no one knew.

That their union, thought to be a blessing, would become the trigger for a massive incident that would shake this marquisate to its core.