Free Web NovelChapter 4: Yves Noctis Laurent [2]
I walked away from the lake and onto the cobblestone path leading to the mansion.
The mansion was huge. Black in colour, made of polished black marble with dozens of windows at the front and some to the side. In front of the main entrance was a circle where a large fountain made of white marble stood with flowing water. Neatly cut shrubs circled around it and continued along the different cobblestone paths leading to the other sides of the mansion.
What a sight.
I had seen Yves’ memories, but seeing and experiencing something yourself were two different things.
This mansion was too beautiful and luxurious.
Yves owned this mansion all to himself, just like the other children of the Duke. Not even once in my whole life had I dreamt of having a whole mansion to myself.
But it was now mine. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
As I walked closer I saw some people dressed in black armour and if you looked closely, at the right chest, there was the insignia of the Laurent family — a silver sword clutched with both hands by a man with white hair.
Those were the Laurent Knights assigned to protect Yves. Despite being the son of a concubine they still cared about his safety, after all a son of a Duke is still a son of a Duke.
There were about 5 of them, and I could feel other presences spread around the mansion.
From Yves’ memories there were some things that needed to be fixed in this mansion, especially with the knights.
I walked towards them silently and stopped in front of them.
The five of them paused their conversation and looked at me for a moment before going back to it.
They completely ignored me as if I didn’t exist.
You see, Yves failing to awaken a year ago brought many disadvantages and much disrespect upon him. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
The Laurent family was a family that respected power above anything else. As long as you had power, people would respect you.
Yves had been a child who was unable to awaken despite how much effort he put in every single day, and effort without results is worthless. Since the family didn’t care much about him, the servants started to disrespect him and not take him seriously as well, calling him names like "Useless" and worse.
What would a weakling young master do when even his family didn’t care about him?
Nothing.
That’s why Yves never spoke to anyone during his stay in this mansion, and suffered all the slander and abuse that came his way.
This was the biggest disrespect a noble could receive.
If it were the old Yves, he would have just ignored them and focused on his training.
However — I was not him, therefore I was going to teach these bastards a lesson.
"Good day, lads." I greeted them, trying to muster the kindest smile possible.
One of the knights, a brown-haired man, finally looked at me and answered. "Oh, if it isn’t our useless young master. Sorry, we didn’t see you there. What can I help you with?"
"Hey, don’t call him that, he might cry. Hahaha." Another knight said.
The other knights laughed at his words.
I just stood there with a smile on my face.
I opened my lips and said, "Can you guys lend me a sword? Mine broke when I was training."
"Huh? You broke your sword and you want me to give you mine? What if you break it as well? Will you pay me? These are quite expensive, y’know." He said.
"Don’t worry, I’ll pay you handsomely." I said.
The knight looked at his friends and smiled. The smile of someone about to rip off another person.
"Here, young master. Just make sure to bring a pouch with 100 gold coins later for my services of lending you my sword." He said as he handed me the sword.
100 gold coins? This bastard was insane!
His request was so outrageous that I wanted to laugh, but I resisted the urge.
I received the sword and inspected it.
It was quite heavy, but not as heavy as I thought it would be. Moreover, this body was used to swinging a sword so it wasn’t a big deal.
As I drew the sword out of its scabbard, I said, "Stretch your hands forward. I will give you the coins now."
A bright smile formed on the man’s face as he stretched his hands forward. "Y’know what? You might not be useless after all —"
Slash.
Something heavy hit the floor with a wet thud.
"Huh?" The man frowned in confusion and looked at me holding his sword, now covered in blood and wrapped with some black energy.
Only when he looked at his arms did he register what had happened — his hands were sliced off at the wrists cleanly.
"Ahhhhh!! My hands!" The man fell to his knees in pain before his severed hands, now lying in a small pool of his own blood.
It happened so fast and so unexpectedly that the other knights didn’t notice, and only the scream of their friend brought them back to reality.
"J-John!" They all screamed with concern.
While two tried to help John, the others had their hands on the hilts of their swords.
"Why did you do this, young master?!" They said.
I just ignored them and looked at the bloodied sword in my hand.
The sword was really quite sharp. I had wrapped its blade with mana alongside darkness energy. It was something I had wanted to try and wasn’t sure whether it would work or not.
But it did. The guards had their guard down and moreover, they didn’t seem to be very experienced — they were probably newbies, as I could tell from the mana signatures they released.
We were at the same rank.
"You touched your swords in front of your young master. Do I take that as treason?" I finally spoke to them but still didn’t look at them.
"Nobody is committing treason here! You attacked one of us out of nowhere without a single reason." One of them said.
"Oh, I have plenty of reasons. You gave them to me by disrespecting me." I said with a cold voice as I now looked at them. "I’ll give you a chance: kneel, and I’ll give you a painless death."
"We will not kneel to a useless bastard like you!" They all said as the remaining four tried to unsheathe their weapons, but before they could even do that, I activated [Emotional Manipulator].
My purple eyes glowed and I chose Fear as the emotion I wanted to instil.
The moment all of them looked into my eyes, they froze in place. A horrifying fear suddenly gripped them for no reason they could understand, making their bodies tremble.
"W-what’s happening?! Why am I suddenly feeling fear towards that bastard?!" One of them said with a shaky voice.
I watched, still standing nonchalantly, as they all sweated under the weight of my gaze.
It was interesting. The ability worked really well, better than I had expected.
Earlier, I had wanted to test [Emotional Manipulator] and understand how it worked, specifically the emotion of fear, so I had chosen the knights as my test subjects. But in order for my plan to work I had to first do something that would plant real fear into their hearts, since Yves was not feared at all.
He was a bum in their eyes.
That’s why I cut the knight’s hands off — planting fear in their hearts, since they didn’t expect Yves to ever do something like that.
And it worked perfectly.
"Now kneel." I commanded.
They all knelt next to their injured friend.
God, this ability was insane.
I rested the sword on one of the knight’s trembling shoulders.
"Please... don’t kill me!" One begged, tears falling down his face.
"We’re sorry for disrespecting you! Give us a second chance?" Another said.
"Uaahh! I have a family!" John said.
I just looked down at them coldly, the smile gone from my face.
Their screams and wailing had brought everyone’s attention to the front of the mansion. Now all the servants — maids, butlers and knights — were watching with fearful expressions.
I wanted them all to watch. They needed to hear what I was going to say so they would never disrespect me again. I kept [Emotional Manipulator] active even though it was consuming a lot of my mana, since I was spreading it across a 50-metre radius.
What better way to bring your servants to heel than with fear?
"Listen up!" I said loudly and clearly, my voice enhanced with mana.
"These five knights have disrespected me, thereby committing treason. A knight is supposed to respect their lord — because what kind of knight are you if you have no respect?"
I looked at their faces, making sure the fear seeped into their hearts.
"This is not only for them but for everyone. You have been disrespecting me for far too long. I have now awakened, as you can see — so who is useless now?"
They had been murmuring earlier, but now they were all silent, their eyes on me.
"I could ask my father to behead all of you for what you have done, but since I am a merciful lord, I will give you a second chance." Then I looked down at the knights kneeling before me, relief showing on their faces despite the fear, and said with a cold smile. "But not for you five."
Their expressions changed to horror, but before they could even plead, their heads soon rolled on the ground, their blood painting the dark cobblestone.
