Anatoly Ansel Ha.s.selfosh.
He, who was born as the fourth son of the Viscount naturally has no right to the inheritance.
He didn’t have to go through the tough education of a n.o.ble as the fourth son and was raised quite freely, however, he was uneasy about his future quite early as he couldn’t succeed the House.
Without misusing his power of the old n.o.ble house, he graduated as Knight from the school with excellent results.
It’s said that pa.s.sing the 2nd Knights Order’s Third Grade enrollment test will allow you to safely join any Knights Order.
Because the 2nd Knights Order mostly involve missions of subjugating monster in the Dungeons, they impose a strict test on joining.
Those who became First Grade Knights were only a few in the old history, all of which were called heroes without exception.
Those who became the Second Grade Knights are evaluated as the Great Men and these are also especially powerful people.
Those pa.s.sing with third grade are slightly increased in numbers, but there are many people with excellent fighting power among them.
Although Anatoly had the ability to become an immediate fighting force, it doesn’t mean that he could partic.i.p.ate in the subjugation immediately after joining.
Subjugation units flourish in the 2nd Knights Order and their death tolls are naturally also the highest.
It’s the country’s pride not to send newcomers who has just joined the unit to the death grounds even if they are capable.
Above all, they are Knights.
Knights recognize a Lord and serve him/her and protect the weak, they are not demons who send reckless newcomers to the jaws of death.
To be evaluated as a Hero or a Great man, everyone without exceptions needs to train, train, and train first.
After three years of training, Anatoly who finished with above average results joined a subjugation unit.
The end result was the destruction of the unit Anatoly belonged to on their first expedition.
The monsters in the Dungeon are weak on the lower layers and become stronger as you go descend.
But, there are exceptions.
Monster overflow.
Sometimes, powerful monsters overflow from the deeper layers to the low layers.
And unluckily, Anatoly’s subjugation unit has encountered a specie of an ancient dragon on a low layer.
Even though there were over 300 people in the unit, 80% of them perished at the first moment of the encounter.
An ultra-high temperature breath of the ancient dragon species didn’t leave even a charcoal behind as even the prepared middle cla.s.s sorcery defense wall was instantly destroyed and the breath swallowed the Knights.
Although running seems cowardly, it’s not.
The ancient dragon species are usually a target necessary to be suppressed by the cooperation of the four great powers of the Lizwald continent.
It’s a tyrannical species enough to call them natural disasters as they burn down every living thing.
It also has no intelligence, it’s just a slaughter machine with only instincts to kill all.
The remaining 20% of the unit fell into a state of panic, but it was possible to open an escape route thanks to the excellent directions of the senior officer who stayed behind, but still, only twenty people were able to survive.
The senior officer who took command was not among the survivors, but the Anatoly was.
The surviving Knights immediately notified the kingdom of the historical tyrannical being, but the dispatched reconnaissance unit was reorganized into a research unit.
What the reconnaissance unit brought back was a core of the ancient dragon species.
Ancient dragon species are monsters and all monsters have a core.
And the monsters who had their core removed are destroyed without exception.
This basically means that the ancient dragon species has died.
But, how or who?
When the reconnaissance unit arrived on the spot, they said that the lower layer has already turned into h.e.l.l.
The surface of the walls of the Dungeon which can’t be scratched even with a powerful sorcery attacks were crumbled, destroyed, all walls in the maze-like first layer have disappeared.
Many huge craters were found here and there, it was enough to see at a glance that a fierce battle has occurred.
A dungeon is a monster, and the interior of the dungeon is its body.
It’s impossible to break its walls as it’s extremely st.u.r.dy and swift to repair.
Seeing such walls left in the condition that they weren’t even repairing was first for the reconnaissance unit.
Reconnaissance soldiers naturally don’t work alone, but in a group. The famous large low-grade dungeon became silent as death――It took quite a while to search for the place where the battle seems to have ended.
The dark surroundings which are usually sufficiently illuminated were one of the problems.
And, what they found was a dead ancient dragon species with its chest area forcibly torn open.
It was supposed to have six strong legs, but there were only four and all of them were completely smashed, the long tail that could break strong castle walls in one hit was torn from the root in an unrecognizable shape.
Although there was supposed to be eight eyes, all but one were scooped out, all six wings which allowed the dragon to cast 2nd grade wind sorcery were cut off leaving only one stabbed nearby in the floor in sight.
The existence which thoroughly destroyed the monster called a natural disaster left its chest area open, so the reconnaissance soldiers managed to secure the core and bring it back.
At first, it was thought that the one who defeated the ancient dragon species was the Ovent Kingdom’s Hero Annela La Christophe, but she herself has denied it.
Eventually, the person who subjugated it couldn’t be found, the low layer of the dungeon which the ancient dragon species emerged was so ruined that it couldn’t be repaired, leading it to its extinction, cancelling the investigation.
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Two years after that.
Anatoly resigned from the 2nd Knights Order, after many twists and turns, he was picked up by the potential killer of the ancient dragon species and the living legend Annela, and he was thoroughly tempered at the Christophe House’s personal servant training facility.
Anatoly was different from the most of the people who suffered from trauma and couldn’t grasp their swords again after encountering the ancient dragon species.
He was expected to make his talents blossom.
He became strong, not comparable to the time when he encountered the ancient dragon spiecies, but he himself clearly understands that he still has a long way to go.
And he clearly knew his limit too.
Still, in order to repay Annela and Roland who picked him up, he answered to their calling.
Anatoly Ansel Ha.s.selfosh became the vice commander of the Knights of the White Crystals.
At their first meeting, his Lord, Lilianne La Christophe was young just as he heard, only a two years old child.
But, such child gave a greeting with a firm att.i.tude in front of many, fully armed Knights.
It was simple to do something stupid to scare a child without knowing. But, he saw Annela in Lilianne.
The rampage of the ancient dragon species that he sees vividly even now.
Anatoly who was able to see Annela’s battle only once during the training in the facility feared her more than the dragon.
Anatoly who trained and trained now clearly understands the difference and limit of his power.
He was afraid that time he encountered the ancient dragon species, but Annela is a monster who surpa.s.ses even that dragon by far.
He saw an illusion of such Annela in his young Lord.
Not that she resembles her by appearances, or that her voice sounds is similar, his heart was grabbed by something within Lilianne.
He was able to find it in the person he’s going to serve for the first time.
It was a refres.h.i.+ng feeling as if it was dispelling the fear carved in his soul…… he felt that he should devote his loyalty, body, heart, everything to her.
And his right eye which throbbed all the time while looking at her.
He doesn’t know yet.
That his own Magic Eye has been forcefully awakened by his young Lord’s tremendously powerful magical power.
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As the vice commander of the Knights of the White Crystals, his position is to supervise the Knights from day to day, it was Anatoly who has not seen his Lord Lilianne since the formation ceremony.
But, one day, he was let known that Lilianne wants to inspect the mansion, and immediately arranged a secure route, but before long, the mansion inspection turned into the practice inspection and he knelt before his young Lord.
He was able to feel that Lord was much stronger than she was at the formation ceremony.
The figure of Annela he visualized was certainly growing, but it definitely wasn’t a growth of a normal child.
But, the rest was overwhelming.
His Magic Eye that he became aware of little by little which allowed him to sense that something during the formation ceremony allowed him to see far more overwhelming existence than the ancient dragon species standing right in front of him.
But, it wasn’t like the fear he feels from Annela.
Those feelings were his conviction and great delight that he didn’t make a mistake in the person he chose to serve. It was enough to make him tremble even though he did his best to restrain it.
He and his subordinates shown splendid fights and fascinating cooperation they have forged every day in the mock battles.
After several bouts, Nija, one of the personal maids was to act as his opponent.
Anatoly naturally knows that this maid isn’t an ordinary person.
Anatoly was vexed that he couldn’t partic.i.p.ate in that training as the supervisor of the battles because of his position as the vice commander, but he was also happy to see the movements of the existence boasting to have top cla.s.s fighting abilities even among the Christophe House.
The battle that started was extremely short.
Even the members of the Knights of the White Crystals who forge their bodies everyday couldn’t follow Nija’s movements with their eyes.
The eyes couldn’t catch up. Thus the body naturally couldn’t catch up as well and the results were a disastrous defeat.
But only he――Only Anatoly was able to follow Nija’s movements.
Not only that. Anatoly’s Magic Eye had the potential to make Nija’s movements play in a slow motion.
The Magic Eye which has awakened in Anatoly has the effect of greatly improving the kinetic vision.
The characteristic of his acquired Magic Eye is that it doesn’t change the color of his pupil.
Even though it should exhibit far weaker effects than hereditary Magic Eyes, Anatoly got to know thanks to the results of examination that his Magic Eye falls into the fairly strong cla.s.s.
But, only he knows about that.
Normally, those with strong Magic Eyes are judged as a threat that equals an advanced level sorcery.
If you consider that those who can use advanced sorcery are only royal sorcerers, you would understand the degree of attention
Thus, taking the advantage of the characteristics of awakened Magic Eyes, Anatoly decided to conceal it as much possible to use it as his trump card.
Even if he has a Lord to serve, it’s impossible to divulge everything about his trump card in terms of information leakage.
It’s trump card because of its wonderful effect and the strong burden it has in a daily life.
Strong Magic Eyes consume a considerable amount of magical power. Since Anatoly has only the average amount of magical power, he can keep the eye activated only for about twenty minutes.
And Nija’s movements are the shortest and the fastest.
She makes no wasteful movements at all and yet they are beautiful as if she was dancing.
You can understand her shortest movements from her footwork. Her hand used as a hand sword has a precise angle and power to make people lose consciousness after one blow and since it’s integrated with her next action, there’s no loss between attacks.
Even though it would be as fast even if there was a loss.
Anatoly was able to follow Nija’s movements with his Magic Eye, but if you asked if he could match them, the answer would be no.
Currently, the power of Anatoly’s Magic Eye is extraordinary, but it’s far from invincible.
But, he got used to his Magic Eye considerably since the formation ceremony several months ago, and because he started adapting his body to that power, Anatoly’s strength considerably increased.
As the time was too short――another personal maid beside Nija is going to take on three similarly strong Knights as the last ones at the same time.
Anatoly wouldn’t have problems even if he took ten of his subordinates at once.
And his power is presently increasing.
Anatoly, who thought to have run out of growth, succeeded in acquiring new power by the unlikely fortune of having awakened a Magic Eye.
He knows.
That this power was unlocked by his Lord Lilianne.
He doesn’t know yet.
That he’s not the only one who has awakened to Magic Eyes.
It’s a long way ahead that he becomes aware of that.