Hearing the arrogant shout from behind him, Lucian did not stop walking, nor did he even bother to furrow his brow. He simply continued forward at the same leisurely pace, as though the people behind him were nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
He merely clicked his tongue softly, already feeling a headache coming on.
'Tch, what a pain in the ass. Seriously, this trouble really is never-ending.'
Cerydra, on the other hand, had her little hand tightened around his fingers, then raised her head to look at him, her sapphire-like eyes filled with guilt and unease, clearly worried that she had once again dragged him into trouble.
"Big brother... they're... coming after me again..."
Lucian did not answer her words.
Instead, he gently pulled her farther behind him, positioning himself between her and the approaching soldiers and shielding her completely with his body.
When he glanced back, he saw a group of soldiers in gleaming armor rushing toward them, their weapons already drawn as they moved to block the road ahead, the clattering of their armor and their hurried footsteps quickly breaking the peaceful atmosphere of the street.
Even though there were only about a hundred of them, the man leading them was unmistakably different from the rest: a tall, thin nobleman with a pointed goatee and a pair of sinister, calculating eyes.
He sat atop a horse, his gaze greedily fixed on Cerydra's blue hair, the excitement on his face impossible to conceal. He looked as though he had just stumbled upon the greatest opportunity of his life.
From his attire and behavior, he was apparently a duke just like Duke Alphine.
'Blue hair! I was just wondering how I could seize the throne with a legitimate excuse, and now the opportunity's practically fallen into my lap!'
Thinking with ecstasy, he quickly came up with a plan that was simple enough.
He would support a puppet princess, use her royal blood as justification to become regent, and then gradually consolidate power by taking authority away from the other dukes. Once he had gathered enough power into his own hands, he would no longer need the puppet at all.
At that point, he would be the emperor.
'Hehehehe...'
He did not care whether this little girl was genuinely a member of the royal family. All he needed was a symbol, someone whose existence could provide him with a legitimate excuse to stir up trouble and manipulate the political situation however he pleased.
As long as he could put forward a princess with royal blood, he could make use of the resulting political turmoil to justify his actions and gradually expand his own authority.
He was certain that any duke who encountered this child would have the same idea, but unfortunately for the others, he had simply gotten lucky and found her first.
"Another duke, huh?" Lucian turned around and looked at the tall duke with an expression that showed no interest. "Let's just go through the usual process."
Hearing that, the tall duke stared at him in confusion, clearly unable to understand what Lucian was referring to.
"Young man, what do you mean by 'another'?"
It did not take long for him to find out exactly what Lucian meant.
One minute later, every soldier under the duke's command had been killed by a single young man.
Bodies were scattered across the street in all directions, reduced to mangled corpses beneath the overwhelming disparity in strength. The entire confrontation had ended so quickly that many of them had not even had time to react.
Before the duke himself could even process what had happened, the young man calmly informed him that, before entering the city, he had already encountered another duke who intended to take the princess, only for that duke to be beaten to death.
Lucian then casually swatted the domineering tall duke to death as though he were nothing more than an annoying fly—the force of the blow sent blood splattering across the walls on both sides of the street, immediately provoking terrified screams and widespread panic among the surrounding civilians.
In an instant, the peaceful street descended into chaos.
People fled in every direction, desperately trying to distance themselves from the scene while soldiers nearby scrambled to understand what had just happened.
In the next moment, the city's defense alarm bell finally sounded almost at once from every corner of the city.
*CLANG!**CLANG!**CLANG!**CLANG!*
"DUKE ASTON WAS ASSASSINATED! LOCK DOWN THE ENTIRE AREA!"
Immediately after the shout rang out, soldiers began pouring into the streets from every direction.
A duke being murdered in public was no minor incident, and the political consequences were far too significant for the other nobles to simply ignore, as it could easily upset the delicate balance of power within the empire, especially when the circumstances surrounding his death were still unknown.
Naturally, the remaining nobles immediately began thinking along the same lines. If they could capture the culprit, they could interrogate him, discover who was supposedly behind the assassination, and then use the incident as an opportunity to frame one of their political rivals.
For them, this was practically a gift from heaven, so the culprit had to be brought under their own control before anyone else could get to him.
As a result, soldiers belonging to the various dukes, marquises, and even counts began mobilizing throughout the city. Each faction was eager to secure the culprit before their rivals could seize the opportunity for themselves.
Before long, the combined forces numbered roughly three hundred thousand.
Hiding a few hundred thousand soldiers throughout the city for political struggles was perfectly reasonable.
When every noble had secretly hidden a few hundred thousand soldiers of their own, the numbers naturally became rather impressive. Anyone who knew nothing about the situation might have assumed that a coalition army had launched a full-scale assault on the city.
Cerydra looked around at the sudden chaos, her small face gradually paling as she watched the situation spiral further out of control.
Soldiers were rushing through the streets from every direction, weapons clashing as the various forces struggled to establish control, turning the once-orderly streets into a complete mess filled with shouting, hurried footsteps, and the metallic sounds of weapons being drawn.
"It's all my fault!"
Cerydra's voice trembled with tears as she stared at the chaos she believed she had caused.
If she had not been born with blue hair, she would not have been targeted again and again, and Lucian would never have been dragged into this situation because of her.
"Maybe... Maybe you should just leave me behind! I don't want to become a burden to you, big brother!"
Her words came out in a rush as panic overwhelmed her, her voice growing increasingly unsteady as she struggled to hold herself together. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, yet she stubbornly held them back, unwilling to let herself cry.
"Remember. You're mine."
Lucian looked down at Cerydra with a calm expression as he spoke to her in a solemn voice, then reached out and gently wiped away the tears that had begun to spill from the corners of her eyes.
"Only I, Lucian, get to decide whether you live or die."
"Everyone else?"
He paused, and his gaze slowly swept across the soldiers attempting to surround them—the indifference in his eyes made them seem like nothing more than a swarm of insignificant ants.
"They're not worthy. If they really want you to be their princess this badly, then you can rule this empire."
He tightened his grip around Cerydra's cold little hand and continued speaking in the same calm tone, as though he were discussing something completely ordinary.
Cerydra stared at him in complete confusion.
'Who?'
'Me?'
'I'm going to rule an empire? Big brother has to be kidding.'
Unfortunately for her, Lucian was completely serious.
Since Cerydra wanted to live here, but the people who currently ruled this place refused to welcome them, there was only one solution left: if they would not accept her as their guest, she would simply become the master instead.
Lucian took Cerydra by the hand and began walking toward the imperial palace.
Eventually, the farther they went, the more soldiers gathered ahead of them, until a vast formation completely filled every street. Spears stood like a dense forest, their cold metal reflecting the final rays of the setting sun as countless soldiers prepared to advance.
It was two against three hundred thousand.
"Capture that assassin alive! Someone must be behind him! Bring him back alive for interrogation!"
As the nobles began arriving one after another, a middle-aged duke shouted the order.
At this moment, each of the nobles had reached essentially the same conclusion.
No matter whose soldiers they commanded, all of them received the same order: capture Lucian alive.
A dead culprit had little value, while a living one could be interrogated, manipulated, and used for their own purposes.
Meanwhile, the civilians were terrified by the enormous military force filling the streets and hurriedly hid inside their homes, peeking through windows and cracks in their doors as they watched the chaos unfold.
"How can one person cause such a huge mess?"
"Have the nobles gone crazy? They're sending this many soldiers just to capture two people?"
"Crazy! Every street is completely blocked!"
Even though the soldiers of the various factions eventually surged forward together, they ultimately served different masters and had no reason to cooperate sincerely.
In just a few moments, their conflicting interests soon became obvious, and before long, some of them had even begun fighting among themselves, secretly stabbing at rival factions while pretending to be focused on capturing Lucian.
Just like that, they had barely begun their operation before soldiers were already dying.
Seeing the ridiculous scene before him, Lucian rubbed his brow and looked at the increasingly chaotic battlefield with an expression of growing impatience.
"I've already given you enough patience..."
He slowly raised his head and looked toward the darkening sky.
Amid the chaos, no one noticed yet that the last traces of daylight were rapidly disappearing. Above the city, thick clouds began to rotate in a manner that was clearly unnatural, continuing to gather until they formed an enormous vortex that covered a vast portion of the sky.
At its center, a dark red light slowly emerged, carrying an oppressive aura of destruction that made even those who could not understand what they were seeing instinctively feel terrified. It was as though something unimaginably horrifying was about to tear through the world's barriers and descend upon this place.
"Since the usual methods keep making you think you still have a chance..."
Lucian's indifferent voice rang out across the city, yet somehow remained perfectly clear to every person in the city.
"...I'll use a method you can understand."
He slowly raised his free right hand and spread his five fingers toward the sky before gently pressing them downward.
Such a simple movement carried an unmistakable sense of finality, as though the heavens themselves had just received an order announcing the arrival of judgment.
"Stardeath Verdict."
*WHOOSH!*
As soon as Lucian's words fell, the sky was immediately torn apart.
At the heart of the dark red vortex, a meteorite of unimaginable size emerged, dragging behind it a devastating tail of flames that seemed capable of burning everything in its path to ash. It tore through the atmosphere with overwhelming force, breaking through the barrier of the Sky Titan as it descended toward the imperial capital.
An aura of absolute destruction accompanied its arrival, and the sheer pressure it released made the entire city tremble.
Clearly, this was no ordinary meteorite.
Its massive body was composed of blazing magma intertwined with golden energy of Destruction, while golden flames from beyond the cosmos rolled endlessly across its surface.
As soon as it appeared, the entire sky was dyed the blood-red color of an approaching apocalypse.
A few seconds later, the powerful wind pressure finally reached the ground before the meteorite itself, blasting through the streets with such force that people could barely keep their eyes open, much less remain standing.
Finally seeing the doomsday scene before them, soldiers staggered backward, civilians screamed in terror, and even the nobles who had spent their lives scheming for power felt a primal fear rising from the depths of their souls.
"Wh-What is that?!"
"Divine punishment! It's divine punishment!"
"It's Talanton's punishment!"
"Forgive us, O mighty Titan! Forgive us!"
All the soldiers quickly threw down their weapons and abandoned their armor, dropping to their knees as they desperately kowtowed toward the sky.
Aside from them, the nobles were no better off.
Now, their faces had turned deathly pale as they stared upward in disbelief, then looked back at Lucian, who stood calmly beneath the approaching catastrophe.
Before this world-destroying power, all their authority, schemes, and armies suddenly appeared laughably insignificant. No matter how much political power they possessed or how many soldiers they commanded, none of it could withstand something capable of annihilating the entire city in an instant.
Yet the meteorite did not actually fall.
Under Lucian's precise control, it stopped directly above the city, hovering extremely low in the sky. Its enormous shadow covered nearly half the city, while the heat radiating from its surface descended upon the streets like an invisible tide.
For ordinary people like them, the temperature alone made it difficult to breathe, and the crushing pressure left everyone in the city trembling where they stood.
If that meteorite fell, the entire imperial capital of Hyperborea would be reduced to scorched earth. Even without descending, the heat emitted by its flames was already causing everyone's bodies to sweat uncontrollably, while the moisture in the air and on their skin rapidly evaporated.
If the situation continued for more than a few minutes, everyone in the city would be in danger of becoming nothing more than dried corpses.
And through all of this, Lucian continued holding Cerydra's hand as he stood before the countless soldiers, calmly facing the apocalypse he had summoned.
Needless to say, Lucian had actually replicated Phainon's skill by using the power of an Emanator of Destruction.
As for its actual destructive power, that could be discussed later, but the oppressive presence it created now was undeniably real, making it an exceptional intimidation technique.
"From this moment onward, she, Cerydra, is the sole ruler of the Northern Empire, Hyperborea, your new sovereign."
Lucian's indifferent gaze swept across the nobles and civilians who had already lost nearly all will to resist, speaking in a voice that carried the weight of an absolute decree and echoed throughout the heavens and earth.
"Who agrees? Who objects?"
Above them, the meteorite slowly rotated, the scorching energy across its surface continuing to churn and roar, releasing an even more terrifying pressure that seemed to press down upon the entire city.
Hearing Lucian's question, the entire city fell silent, until...
"I object!"
Even under such overwhelming circumstances, there were actually still people with enough backbone to step forward and refuse to submit.
However...
*BANG!*
A fireball descended from the sky and struck the defiant man with pinpoint accuracy, instantly engulfing him in flames and reducing him to ashes.
Just like that, the sight was enough to completely shatter the last doubts in the minds of those watching that this was not an illusion, nor was it some elaborate trick designed to frighten them.
It was genuine divine punishment.
Realizing that, everyone's resolve began collapsing almost immediately.
Whether they were soldiers, nobles, or ordinary civilians who had been secretly watching from the safety of their homes, one after another, they began trembling as they lowered themselves to the ground and obediently knelt.
Before long, the countless people filling the streets lowered their heads like a tide.
"I agree..."
"Agreed!"
"A-Agree..."
Under the threat of their entire nation's destruction, no one could resist, and even fewer dared to resist.
Whether their submission was sincere or merely an act of self-preservation no longer mattered. At least for this moment, no one except Lucian and Cerydra remained standing.
Every voice of opposition was silenced beneath the world-destroying meteor hanging over their heads, leaving behind nothing but the most complete form of submission.
Lucian lowered his head and looked at the still-dazed Cerydra standing beside him.
"Now, this is how you go from being a guest to being the master."
===
[A bonus chapter for reaching 400 Power Stones]
[Support and get early access to upcoming chapters at: patreon.com/VALRRR]