Copy Skills with Affinity! - Chapter 4

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

◈ Copy Skills with Affinity! ◈

Chapter 4: The Reverse Scale

──────

Royalty holds a somewhat special significance in the Craven Holy Empire.

Of course, being royalty in a Holy Empire counted among the continent's greatest powers was special enough on its own, but even so, they were different.

“Lester. Go stand watch.”

Just how different?

Different enough that they could send one of the empire's greatest combat forces, a paladin, on a trivial errand like this without drawing much complaint.

“...”

Guarding royalty was generally considered an exceptionally noble duty. But if the person in question was an idiot like this, that was a proposition worth reconsidering at least once.

The seventh prince, Daniel Craven.

A wastrel considered the greatest troublemaker among the Holy Empire's royalty.

‘He's been saying for ages that he wants Lionheart and all that...’

The position of Lionheart's husband was probably coveted by quite a few influential figures across the continent.

Yet Daniel had been openly displaying ugly desire toward the knight called the Empire's greatest treasure for some time now. Enough that Lester wanted to hammer the phrase "not in your wildest dreams" into his head.

And since the fiancé she had brought this time did not look trained at first glance, Daniel was clearly planning to take out his frustration on him.

“Your Highness. Even so, that is...”

Lionheart's fiancé was naturally an honored guest.

Trying to pull something on such a person could grow into a diplomatic issue between the two nations.

Of course, Daniel clearly was not the sort to care about practical matters like that.

“Whom did you swear an oath to in order to wield the divinity you possess?”

Lester's mouth shut at Daniel's sharp question.

Yes. That was the problem.

Combatants in every nation wielded different supernatural abilities, each with entirely different qualities.

Yet the source of every one of those abilities led back to one thing.

The grace granted by each nation's patron god.

All supernatural abilities came from the authority the gods of the Pantheon bestowed upon the mortal realm.

The problem was that most of those gods' power was concentrated in the Holy Empire's royal family.

Even the ability Lester now wielded was no more than something borrowed from this delinquent prince.

‘And yet he was sent all the way to the Empire.’

The fact that a valuable person responsible for the source of such abilities had been planted in a distant foreign country clearly implied many things.

It was exile in all but name. He had likely been told to go somewhere remote and come back after getting his head straight.

That meant Daniel was such an utter delinquent that even those privileges could not protect him.

“What are you doing? I told you to stand watch.”

“...”

And despite all that, Daniel still looked determined to cause trouble. Lester let out a silent scream inside.

Lester had never had the right to refuse in the first place. No matter how much of a delinquent prince Daniel was, he was still royalty.

“...I obey.”

In other words,

even a paladin, one of the Holy Empire's representative fighting forces, had to yield to that order. That was how powerful the divinity wielded by royalty was.

‘Poor man.’

Lester soon turned away, praying for the repose of Aiden's soul.

▣

Daniel strode toward Aiden. At the same time, divinity began to surge threateningly around his body.

If Karba, the God of War, had taught her people how to control the energy within their bodies, then the blessing Seer, the God of Purification, had bestowed upon his people was a flame that could burn anything.

Seeing as Daniel, the worst delinquent among the royalty, had not learned even one proper way to use such divinity, it was like putting a pearl necklace on a pig.

Still, a pearl necklace was a valuable object in its own right.

Refined divinity could serve as both shield and sword without further shaping.

Simply touching it would be enough to melt an ordinary person's body with ease.

“...”

Aiden's expression rapidly darkened.

There was one piece of common knowledge everyone knew.

When a member of the Holy Empire's royal family brought out their divinity, it was practically a declaration that they intended to actively teach the other person a lesson.

It might be an even greater threat than when Gale had drawn a sword before him.

“I just don't understand.”

Daniel crossed his arms and circled Aiden.

Every step he took carried mockery and arrogance.

“A woman like Lionheart has no reason to take such an unimpressive man as her spouse. Hmm?”

“...”

“Tell me, lowborn. Did you seduce her? Did you use that pretty face of yours to play some sort of honey trap?”

Lester rubbed their burning face. The insult revealed the level of Daniel's thinking.

The surprising part was that, despite seeming ready to immediately use divinity to commit violence, he was only running his mouth.

‘...Ah, so that's it.’

He was provoking him on purpose.

He wanted the other side to get angry and strike first, then claim self-defense. Apparently, he was not entirely unconcerned about the aftermath. Even the prince himself must fear pressure from the Holy Empire's home country.

Of course, he was the one who had started the fight, but as royalty of the Holy Empire, he possessed enough power to crush a flaw that minor.

Even for a delinquent prince, burying the other person would not be difficult if he had been attacked first.

“I wish that were true.”

“...”

“Then I'd at least introduce you to someone who could take my place.”

“...”

This man was no ordinary person.

That thought came to both Lester and Daniel at the same time when Aiden answered in a blunt tone without even blinking.

Of course, from Aiden's perspective, having been kidnapped and dragged to this place, being Lionheart's husband meant no more than that.

“...Lionheart would have a fit if she heard you. Do you know nothing of honor? I truly would have been better than a man like you.”

It was an answer so absurd that it made even Daniel talk about honor, but Aiden's eyes instead lit up with life.

“You want to take my place?!”

“...”

His reaction was so catastrophic that Daniel, who had been picking a fight, found himself speechless.

‘...What is this bastard doing?’

He truly seemed to consider marriage to Lionheart neither more nor less than a burden.

An opportunity men across the continent would first envy.

And that, undoubtedly,

was insulting in its own way.

A goal Daniel had desired desperately despite never being able to get near it, yet this man truly treated it as something he could do without.

That was likely why the words that came out through gritted teeth were filled with more resentment than expected.

“Shut your mouth, you vermin. For someone born to a lowly family, you could not be any more disrespectful to royalty!”

“But stop talking about my family. If you're royalty, you should at least uphold the bare minimum of honor.”

Oh.

Wait.

That seemed to have struck a nerve.

Daniel had that thought in confusion after hearing the chill that slipped into Aiden's voice.

It was completely different from his reaction when Lionheart was mentioned.

But Daniel's expression soon shifted into a satisfied smile.

“Honor? Did you say honor?”

If this was what made him angry, Daniel only needed to steer him in the right direction.

“You vermin, who merely inherited the foul bloodline of a lowborn father and mother. How dare you speak of nobility to royalty?”

“...”

Wow.

It was such a thoroughly vulgar string of words that even Lester briefly forgot their duty and sighed.

And after hearing that much,

every trace of expression disappeared from Aiden's face.

“What is it, lowborn? Are my words all true, leaving you unable to argue? Hmm?”

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

He seemed to be doing calculations in his head, as if organizing his thoughts.

“...This should be fine.”

He murmured that.

Then Aiden's gaze began carefully measuring the distance between Daniel and himself.

“...?”

As an experienced warrior, Lester roughly understood the meaning of those movements and their eyes widened.

It was like...

the gaze of someone unfamiliar with fighting, calculating how to hit an opponent so it would hurt the most.

Of course, nothing should happen just because a man who clearly had no training did something like that.

“...??”

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

It felt as though something terrible was about to happen, as though Lester should stop him.

“Wait, Sir...!”

But before Lester could intervene,

“Your Highness.”

Aiden said that and smiled broadly.

It was a brilliant white smile that displayed healthy teeth.

But to Lester,

it somehow looked terrifying. There was a particular relief in it, the kind found only in a person who had let go of the last thread of reason.

“I pray that you know a good dentist.”

“...Huh?”

Before Daniel could even look as though he properly understood.

Pure white ki surged up before his eyes.

Considering the sequence of events, this was exactly what Daniel had intended from the beginning.

After all, he had succeeded in provoking Aiden into attacking first.

The problem was,

‘Wait, what...!’

that he had succeeded far too well.

A fist that tore through Daniel's pure divinity like cardboard slammed violently into his left cheek.

Without a doubt.

It was a beautiful strike, sending some fifteen white teeth scattering through the air at once.

▣

There were too many questions to count.

How was this man wielding the pure white ki that was Lionheart's exclusive trademark? And if so, why did he have the body of an utterly untrained ordinary person, looking as though he had learned no fighting techniques at all?

But more important than any of that was what demanded attention now.

“...Sir.”

Lester called Aiden in a trembling voice.

Lester's head was spinning.

Daniel was right beside Lester, embedded in the wall and bleeding heavily from all over his body, but the shock of the current situation took precedence over dealing with that.

“What on earth have you done...?”

Beating someone into this condition did not end with simply "striking royalty."

At the least, it meant a diplomatic dispute. At the worst, all-out war.

The current state of the continent had not even recovered from the aftermath of the war.

And now an honored guest of the Empire had turned a member of the Holy Empire's royalty into pulp?

No matter how Lester looked at it, this was not something that could be lightly dismissed...!

“First, drop the ‘Sir.’ I'm not a knight.”

“...”

How could someone wielding pure white ki not be a knight?

Lester tried to voice that question, but Aiden spoke before Lester could.

“More importantly, call someone quickly. He's going to die like that.”

“Pardon?”