The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated

Chapter 410: “I’ll Give You a Good Kicking.”

Hearing Aldia’s words, Shien was quite surprised.

“I didn’t expect to have such a high evaluation in the eyes of the Royal Knights Commander.”

Shien looked at Aldia with a surprised expression.

“You deserve it.” Aldia said seriously. “Besides Princess Lucy, you’re the only young person who can take my sword unscathed. Before you and Princess Lucy appeared, the person who achieved this feat was thirty-three years old.”

This was why Aldia held Shien in such high regard.

“Originally, I thought that besides Princess Lucy, only the Valkyrie of the Empire could take my sword unscathed in their teens or twenties. The fact that you can do this proves that even if you’re not as good as those two, you’re not far behind.”

“And you’re also able to befriend Airi, one of the Six Demon Lords, and have connections with the Moon Demon, and even tame the black dragon of Atlus. I don’t think this is just luck.”

“Therefore, I’ve made a bold guess that perhaps you have true strength no less than Princess Lucy’s, even if she uses the Holy Sword and her Unique Skill.”

“Because I only felt the same threat from Her Highness.”

“Am I right?”

Aldia spoke at length, unlike his usual taciturn self.

This showed that Aldia truly valued Shien.

However, Shien wasn’t happy about this.

“Are you sure no one else besides me and Lucy can threaten you?” Shien finally said sarcastically, “Have you forgotten the power within your daughter, Commander?”

Aldia’s eyes instantly narrowed.

“…You’ve seen that?”

Aldia’s tone suddenly turned cold.

“I have.” Shien sneered. “What? Are you afraid of this getting out? Worried that others will know that your Elvenbein family has produced a ‘monster’?”

Aldia didn’t answer, just stared directly at Shien.

“It seems you’re more of a threat than I thought, actually surviving after seeing that.” Aldia said calmly. “Unfortunately, that’s a cursed power. I won’t acknowledge it.”

“So?” Shien sneered. “Because it’s a power you can’t acknowledge, you can pretend this daughter doesn’t exist?”

At this moment, Shien made up his mind.

If Aldia dared to say yes, he would attack without hesitation.

Although without unleashing the Holy Sword, Shien wasn’t entirely confident he could defeat this level ninety-eight strongest human, even if he couldn’t win, he would still make Aldia pay a heavy price. ṝΑɴốᛒЕ𝘴

Perhaps sensing Shien’s thoughts, Aldia was silent for a moment.

“I didn’t pretend she doesn’t exist.”

After a while, Aldia spoke.

“No matter what, she has the blood of my Elvenbein family flowing through her veins. She did in the past, she does now, and she always will.”

Leaving behind these puzzling words, Aldia turned around and continued to lead the way.

Shien frowned, staring at Aldia’s back, and only after his figure almost disappeared did he curl his lip.

“If there’s a chance, I’ll give you a good kicking and see if you can still maintain that poker face of yours.”

After saying that, Shien followed Aldia.

Shien didn’t notice that in a corner, a frail noble with two knight guards was watching him.

“Is that Viscount Buztout?”

Edel asked one of the knights beside him.

“Yes.” The knight glanced at Shien, then nodded and replied, “He’s the top candidate chosen by Princess Roselucia.”

“Is that so?” Edel looked at Shien again, his eyes filled with envy and jealousy. He whispered, “What a lucky guy, just a viscount.”

Edel was truly jealous.

Ever since he saw Lucy, Edel had been deeply infatuated with her.

She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life, surpassing even the holy goddesses and pure elves, making Edel, a womanizer by nature, unable to sleep at night, yearning for her.

Unfortunately, Lucy wasn’t someone a mere Duke’s son could touch. His attempts to pursue her had resulted in a painful price.

Even now, Edel still remembered that day, when he confessed his love to her in front of her bedroom, only to be ruthlessly beaten up.

As a Duke’s son, that was the only time Edel had been taught a lesson, and the only time his family, who usually acted arrogantly throughout the country, could only choose to smooth things over, even forcing him to apologize. It was a humiliating memory.

Because of that incident, Edel, who had always thought he could act recklessly and do as he pleased, was truly afraid.

Without his family’s support, without his father, the Duke, backing him, he was just a good-for-nothing who couldn’t do anything. He was naturally terrified and could only tuck his tail between his legs and run away.

But even so, Edel still couldn’t forget Lucy.

It was simply because she was too beautiful, so beautiful that even after being taught a lesson, the narrow-minded Edel couldn’t hate her.

After that, Edel even fell into a strange state for a while, finding no other woman appealing. Only Lia, his fiancée, Lucy’s older sister, could make his heart flutter.

After all, although not as beautiful as Lucy, who was known as the most beautiful woman in the human world, Lia was also a stunning princess, no less beautiful than the goddesses of the Divine Race or the elves of the Elven Race.

Therefore, Edel shamelessly returned to continue pursuing Lia, but because of his disgusting behavior, Lia completely loathed him.

Lia didn’t know that after returning to the Lucica territory, Edel had committed far fewer misdeeds compared to before.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t do it anymore, but after seeing Lucy, Edel discovered that he was only attracted to exceptionally beautiful women.

And apart from exceptionally beautiful women, Edel was only interested in one type of woman.

That was, women who resembled Lucy.

Whether it was their temperament, figure, or even just their eyes, nose, mouth, or ears, as long as there was even a slight resemblance to Lucy, Edel couldn’t control himself.

Because of this, Edel had even forced himself on a forty-year-old woman who looked terrible but happened to be dressed similarly to Lucy.

In other words, Edel had developed a strange fetish.

This showed how infatuated Edel was with Lucy.

And the reason why he had been violent towards his wives and concubines, causing their deaths, was because they didn’t look like Lucy and weren’t exceptionally beautiful, making Edel feel angry and repulsed, eventually leading him to kill them.

From Edel’s perspective, it was easy to imagine how jealous and resentful he was of Shien, who had the greatest chance of becoming Lucy’s husband.

“Is there any way to break his limbs and prevent him from participating in the competition?”

Edel said these vicious words to the knights beside him.

But the two knights shook their heads without hesitation.

“No, we can’t do that.”

“That’s someone who can single-handedly subjugate the [Assassination Branch], and he even has a dragon. Not to mention us, even the three major knight orders of the Lucica territory combined probably wouldn’t be able to do anything to him.”

The two knights readily admitted their cowardice.

“Useless!”

Edel was furious.

Actually, he also knew that he was asking for the impossible.

Because of becoming the top candidate, Shien instantly entered the sights of various countries and powerful figures in the human world, and his past deeds had been thoroughly investigated.

Therefore, many people already knew that Shien himself was quite powerful, had a dragon above level ninety by his side, and seemed to have connections with a Demon Lord. He wasn’t someone to be trifled with.

If it weren’t for this, Shien would now be facing assassination attempts, murder plots, and frame-ups, not challenges.

It was precisely because many people were wary of the power behind Shien that those influential figures didn’t dare to act rashly and could only prove themselves through open challenges, competing with Shien fairly.

Although Edel was a scum, he wasn’t a fool and didn’t dare to provoke Shien, who had a Demon Lord backing him.

Otherwise, not even the Lucica family, the Kingdom, the human race, or even the Divine Race could protect him.

“Forget it, I’ll continue to focus on Liadella.”

Edel muttered to himself, unwilling to give up.

“Although she’s not as good as Princess Lucy, she’s still attractive to me, much better than those ugly women.”

Edel didn’t dare to target Lucy anymore.

The lesson from the past had traumatized him, and since he had no confidence in winning Lucy’s heart, Edel could only settle for the next best thing and force Lia to submit.

…

Meanwhile, led by Aldia, Shien arrived at the King’s bedroom and met Ancil.

“Your Majesty.”

Looking at Ancil, who was sitting in the room, painting the lake outside the window, Shien curled his lip and performed a noble’s salute.

“You’re here?” Ancil put down his brush, looked at Shien, and smiled as if satisfied. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m just casually painting. Lucy also likes to paint.”

Ancil’s words reminded Shien of the first time he met Lucy, when she was indeed painting.

Shien still remembered that beautiful scene.

“Come, sit down.”

Ancil gestured to Shien.

“Thank you.”

Shien sat down before Ancil without hesitation.

Aldia returned to Ancil’s side, guarding him like a loyal knight.

Ancil continued to look at Shien, seemingly more and more satisfied, and smiled.

“As expected of the top candidate in Lucy’s heart, Viscount Buztout, you seem to have become much stronger than before.”

Ancil seemed to have noticed Shien’s growth.

But Shien only felt strange.

This father-in-law praised him as soon as they met. Was he really that nice?

He wouldn’t suddenly pull out a check and throw it in his face, testing his sincerity towards Lucy, would he?

Hmmmmmmmmmm…