Chapter 393. Side Story 2. A Mad Dog Lives In the Imperial Palace (4)

Imperial Guards had been dispatched at once.

Two full companies, including Vice-Commander Amy Altura, rushed out the moment they received the report of a kidnapping in broad daylight. They'd already been informed that Prince Halo had gone to the capital for a short trip with Saintess Seria and Caron Leston. And then...

"Vice-Commander! An urgent report just arrived! A kidnapping occurred in the capital! The child who was with Saintess Seria has been kidnapped!"

The shocking news shook the Imperial Palace to its core.

The instant Seria used her holy power, her identity had essentially been exposed. Naturally, the palace had erupted into chaos, and forces were sent out immediately—from the Imperial Guards, the Imperial Magic Tower's combat battalions, and even regular army units. It was all to retrieve the prince.

And at their head stood...

"Caron Leston. Caron Leston. Caron Leston," Empress Leon muttered darkly.

"Your Highness, are you alright?" Amy asked.

"Dame Amy, if there is even the slightest scratch on our prince... I will declare Caron Leston a rebel on the spot and execute him myself," the Empress said coldly.

"...I will not stop you, Your Highness," Amy replied.

A pitch-black fury clouded the face of Empress Leon Leston as she sighed.

Her son had been kidnapped. Any mother would be frantic, but Leon had gone past frantic and straight into despair and rage.

And Leon wasn't just any mother. She was a knight who had reached the 8-Star realm. There was no one in the palace who could withstand the Empress' wrath.

"Caron Lestoooon!" Leon shouted.

Leon, who had never once put down her sword since returning from the Demon Realm, paced like a caged beast.

Her experiences in the Demon Realm had hardened her, and the rare elixirs her doting husband provided had expanded her mana immensely. Thanks to that, she had reached 8-Star—last among the Leston family's so-called Golden Generation, but terrifying nonetheless.

The Imperial Guards knew that terror all too well. After all, she sparred with them daily under the excuse of "warming up," making them stronger while solidifying her own reputation as an unstoppable menace.

"Detection spells report a mana surge in this area, Your Majesty," Amy said carefully. "Azure Mana."

They were in the capital's slums. Emergency reports of explosions had also come in. This had to be the place. A large number of civilians were already being evacuated.

No one had expected such chaos in the once-peaceful capital.

"That must be it," Leon said.

The Imperial Guards, upon arriving at the scene, were struck speechless.

"Please evacuate in an orderly manner. The Ducal Family of Leston will compensate for the damaged homes," Leo said.

"Is anyone injured?" Seria asked.

The head of the Ducal Family of Leston, Leo Leston, and Saintess Seria themselves were handling evacuations.

The two, who had been frantically guiding civilians, froze the moment they spotted the Imperial Guards... or more precisely, the moment they saw Leon standing among them.

"...Leon," Leo muttered in a trembling voice.

Leon unsheathed her sword with a murderous aura, then asked, "How should I slice you?"

"This is a misunderstanding! I just—Saintess Seria called me—" Leo began to explain, but was cut off.

"If you heard the report, you should have contacted me immediately. And you, Saintess Seria, how could you contact Azureocean Castle before the Imperial Palace?" Leon interrupted.

"...My deepest apologies," Seria whispered.

"We're family. You really shouldn't do this," Leon said, then let out a long breath. "Haaah..."

Still, seeing the two of them here eased her heart a little. If Leo and Seria were both present, then Halo couldn't be in immediate danger.

Leon barely suppressed her fury as she asked, "Where are Halo and Caron?"

"Well... Leon, about that—" Leo began, but couldn't finish his sentence.

Boooooom!

Another explosion roared from deep inside the half-collapsed building.

Leon sprinted inside without hesitation, and Amy and the Imperial Guards followed immediately.

The interior was unstable, half-destroyed, ready to collapse at any moment. And then they saw it—a scene so absurd it robbed them of words.

"...Halo?" Leon called.

"...Mother? What are you doing here...?" Halo asked hesitantly.

A wide room lay strewn with unconscious or possibly dead criminals. And at its center stood a seven-year-old boy holding a dark blue sword.

No one alive would fail to recognize that blade. It was Guillotine, Caron's famous demonic sword.

"Why are you holding Guillotine?" Leon asked coldly.

Halo tried to hide it behind his back, but a seven-year-old could hardly conceal a full sword.

"Well, Mother, you see..." Halo trailed off.

"One minute," Leon said sharply. "I am giving you exactly one minute to explain yourself."

"I was suddenly kidnapped, you know? And then it turned out this whole thing was a crime carried out by a massive criminal syndicate. So basically... Ah, right. It was a form of entrapment. A sting operation," Halo explained.

Leon stared at him, then asked, "Those people... Did you do this to them?"

"That is a misunderstanding," Halo insisted.

"What misunderstanding?" Leon asked coldly.

"How could a seven-year-old possibly cut down full-grown adults with a sword? Uncle Caron did—" Halo said.

"Do you think I don't know you?" Leon cut in flatly. She let out a long, exhausted sigh.

This was unmistakably Halo's handiwork. There were clean, precise cuts, delivered only where necessary. If Caron had been the one mauling them, there wouldn't have been recognizable body parts left. His violence was feral, messy, and merciless.

This work was Halo's. And Leon knew her son's strength very, very well. She thought,

Even with his bloodline... This is...

Halo's power had already surpassed anything remotely normal. Even compared to Caron, the gap defied reason. If someone claimed a dragon had polymorphed into a child for fun, Leon would have believed it.

What hurt most was the familiarity—the way Halo held the sword like a seasoned warrior rather than a child. There had never been room for innocence in him. Not even from the beginning.

"Haaaa..." Leon sighed.

Yet none of that meant she loved him less. Perhaps Halo was unlike any other child, but he was still her son. Even if he was hiding something, that truth would never change.

"The moment we return, you will be grounded," Leon declared.

"But Mother, I was kidnapped! This was purely self-defense—" Halo tried to argue.

"Shhhhh," Leon hushed him sharply.

"...Yes, Mother," Halo surrendered immediately.

Leon rubbed her forehead and sighed again. She really would need to sit down and have a long, serious talk with this child once they returned to the palace.

"Mother, I apolo—" Halo began, putting on a pitiful expression, clearly preparing to fake some remorse.

But then...

"Hey! Halo!" a familiar voice yelled. "These bastards confessed everything! Damn, this is huge. Even high-ranking big shots are tangled up in this! Let's take the chance and clean house. I get money is everything nowadays, but this is too much—"

It was Caron. He emerged from below, dragging a man by the collar. Then he locked eyes with Leon.

"...Hmm," Caron paused, clearly searching for the right words, then gave an awkward little wave. "Oh, Leon. You got here early."

"Any last words?" Leon asked.

"As his uncle, all I did was spend some quality time with my nephew," Caron said proudly. "We cannot allow Halo's gifts to rot away in the palace, right? Haha, letting him preview the experiences he will need later in life is part of my duty as his uncle. In that sense, you might say I am an excellent uncle—"

Shhhk!

A blade of sword aura shot from Leon's sword and sliced past Caron's neck. A thin line of blood trickled down his skin.

"If that had been just a little more to the left, you would've cut my artery..." Caron said weakly.

"I should have let it," Leon said. "I swung to kill you."

"Haaa, that's Leon indeed. Your instincts are still sharp. Honestly, I think you're the strongest empress in Imperial history," Caron said.

"So," Leon repeated, "your last words?"

It was no longer a question. It was an ultimatum.

Whoosh!

Leon's sword glowed fiercely with blue light.

Caron closed his eyes and murmured dramatically, "...My name is Caron Leston. The reincarnation of Rael Leston. I have accomplished all I wished to achieve, and thus I have nothing left to say. My descendants, carry on my—"

"Die," Leon said.

And without a moment of hesitation, she swung her sword straight at Caron.

***

The sudden kidnapping of the young prince sent a storm of blood and panic sweeping through the capital.

The enraged Emperor Revelio immediately declared a war on crime.

The Imperial Guards and the palace's regular forces joined the Security Bureau to form a Special Investigation Unit, and—using the information Caron Leston had extracted—they launched a sweeping investigation.

During that process, the investigators uncovered collusion between certain nobles and the criminal underworld. Profits from crime had flowed straight into the pockets of several powerful figures, and those same figures had used their influence over the Security Bureau to conceal as much wrongdoing as possible.

In the end, everything had happened because of greed—pure, blinding greed for money. No matter how hard one tried to regulate things, corruption always sprouted during rapid economic growth.

"We need to rip out this entire mindset that money is everything," Caron said.

"You're one to talk," Leo replied. "Is there anyone else in the ducal family who stuffs their back pocket as much as you?"

"Leo, hey—" Caron protested. "I only take what I've earned. My money is honest."

"Sure. Be proud of yourself," Leo muttered.

"Both of you, shut your mouths before I sew them shut myself," Leon snapped. "Arms up. Properly."

"Yes, Leon," the two men said in unison.

They were in the main building of the Imperial Palace.

Leon clenched her fists as she glared at the two idiots blabbering before her.

Caron, the so-called uncle, should have been the one taking the sword away from Halo, yet he'd just let it get taken from him. In Leon's opinion, Caron had to have done that on purpose. There was no way Caron would let a mere child take his sword. He had to have allowed it to happen.

"Halo, do you know what you did wrong?" Leon asked.

Beside his two uncles, Halo also stood with his arms raised.

At the question, Halo's face twisted into a pitiful look, then he answered, "I was kidnapped... I couldn't just sit there and do nothing."

"You knew the kidnappers were approaching you and you let them kidnap you. Didn't you? Do you think I don't know you?" Leon pointed out sharply.

"Hmm..." Halo responded.

"What do you mean, 'Hmm...?' Put your arms up straight," Leon snapped.

"Yes, Mother..." Halo murmured.

Leon wondered if it was inevitable for everyone with Leston blood to end up like this. She could only sigh and sigh again.

As the three culprits stood there quietly enduring their punishment...

"His Majesty the Emperor is—" the chamberlain began, but wasn't able to finish the announcement.

"Halo! Are you hurt?" Emperor Revelio called as he hurried toward his son.

"No, Father," Halo answered.

"Thank the heavens... Truly, thank the heavens," Revelio said, pulling Halo into a tight embrace.

"I just passed a bill to drag every last one of the criminals who kidnapped you—and everyone above them—straight to the gallows," he continued. "This is all my failure. I should have taken better care of the people..."

"Well, it's late... but fixing it now is better than never," Halo said brightly. "Father, you're amazing."

"When I heard you were kidnapped, it felt as if the whole world had collapsed," Revelio said, his voice trembling.

It was an emotional reunion between father and son. But the moment didn't last.

"Your Majesty," Leon said firmly, "Halo is still being punished. Please step aside."

"O-Oh, I see," Revelio murmured, then backed off.

"Good," Leon said.

Faced with Leon's murderous stare, the Emperor could only shrink back obediently.

While Leon's disciplining continued, Sir Mason, the Emperor's personal guardian knight, entered the hall carrying a newspaper.

"Your Majesty. You should take a look at this," he said as he handed Revelio the newspaper. He added, "This is a special edition."

Revelio snatched the paper from him, scanning the bold headline.

"[Exclusive Report] Prince Halo's Heroic Exploit: Criminal Syndicate Destroyed! The seven-year-old prince's overwhelming power—what kind of monster dwells in the royal family?"

"Girl rescued by the prince: "I didn't know he was a prince... but he swung his sword and saved all of us!"

"Rumors inside the palace—were they all true?"

"These insane bastards..." Revelio muttered.

"Information on the prince leaked through magical telecommunication," Sir Mason explained. "It seems we have failed to control the scene."

A seven-year-old prince annihilating an entire criminal syndicate... For ordinary citizens, there could be no headline more sensational.

Revelio lowered the newspaper, then slowly turned to look at Halo. He asked quietly, "...Is this true?"

Unlike Leon, he still didn't fully understand what Halo was capable of.

Halo averted his eyes.

Leon let out a long, exhausted sigh, then said, "Your Majesty, if I'm being honest... The article actually downplayed what happened."

At those words, Revelio lunged straight at Caron, grabbing him by the collar, then shouted, "You! You turned my son into a monster!"

"He was born a monster—why are you blaming me...?" Caron protested.

"You bastaaaaard!"

The Emperor's mournful scream echoed through the hall. And in that moment, the power of Prince Halo was revealed to the entire world.