34 days after the explosion - Duke's Room

The duke gave up, but that didn't mean he would go down without a fight. He managed to compose himself after the panic scream, and now it was time to make a plan on how to get out off this predicament

The first thing he had to do was find out how much the prince knew

"So I confess, I tried to kidnap you, happy?"(duke)

"Not really, I already knew that. I want to know why"(prince)

"Because I wanted to rule the kingdom of course"(duke) lie

And now prince was in troubles since he had no way of knowing what was the truth and what was a lie, and prince knew it. The thing is, now that he got a confession out of him, he didn't have to hold his punches. IF it was the prince mother who interrogated him, she would probably start torturing the duke right now, but prince had a better weapon at his disposal

"Sis, can you knock out Susan for a moment?"(prince)

"Why?"(Rebecca)/"Why!!!!"(Susan)

"To get her slave collar. It has a lie detection function"(prince)

Prince had the option of leaving all to his sister but considering she might refuse, or not tell him everything, it was better this way

"Wait, what!? You want to put me a slave collar!!!!????"(Duke)turned white as a sheet

"Ok"(Susan) agreed after seen the duke's reaction

Well, at least I am not the only one she enjoys bullying.....(prince)was already getting used to her S side

The duke, on the other hand, was getting whiter and whiter, and using all his brain cells to find a way out of this situation, since it was getting worse by the second. As for Susan, she gave up

It didn't even took a second for Rebecca to knock out Susan. As soon as she was out, prince took her collar off and approached the duke with the collar at hand

"Wait Wait wait!!!!!! Don't do it!!!DDOOOOON'T!!!!"(Duke) acted as if he was having a panic attack

The thing is, he had inner mana, so he was secretly glad that it was the prince who was approaching him. Of course he had it, or else he wouldn't get respect from other nobles since your status as a noble depended off your ability to use mana in any way. It was to the point that it was more important to be able to use inner mana or outer mana than to be the head of a family than be the firstborn or even male

That was one of the main reasons most nobles looked down on the prince all the time. Well, his personality, and that the rest of his family was full of monsters didn't help

And since the duke knew that the prince couldn't use mana, it was a great opportunity to kidnap him a use him as a hostage. He wasn't sure how useful would be against that monster, but it was better than nothing

The idea was simple, the duke would act like he was having a panic attack and the moment the prince got close enough him, the duke would launch a surprise attack and grab the prince by the neck. Then he would threaten the other 2 and if they tried anything, he would break the prince's neck

He was in so much deep sh-t, that doing something on that level wouldn't make his situation any worse even if he got caught. Besides, for his ambition, killing the prince may not be a bad idea, since he turns up to be more troublesome than the monster that only lazy around in some unknown place

Who is worst? a dragon sleeping on a cave or a rabid dog that chase you around?

So the moment the duke was sure there was no hope of getting out of this situation, he would kill the prince without hesitation

The duke waited for the prince to approach while acting desperate and making up his mind on what he was about to do. So he waited, and waited, and the moment the prince was close enough to be grabbed, the duke moved at the fastest speed he could muster while aiming directly for the prince's throat

The change from "defenseless" to aggressor was instant. If you include that the duke was using his inner mana to increase his speed, kinetic vision, reaction time and thought process(increase of time perception), for a 120kg fat old man, his movement was faster and deadlier than a judo black belt

It wouldn't be a surprise that the prince would be instakill with the sheer force the duke wanted to use to grab him. Sadly for the duke, it didn't work

The moment his hand was near the prince's throat, the duke suddenly blackout

He didn't know how long he was out, or why he suddenly blackout, but after waking up, it didn't take long to figure out he had failed in his attempt. His new collar also helped him realize he was completely screwed

The reason he failed was simple, the prince gave him an uppercut to the chin. As for how he did it, the prince was expecting an assault from the duke

Everyone in the palace knew of the duke infamy with women, and one of the reasons he could keep up with so many womans even in his old age was because he could use inner mana

Knowing that the duke could use inner mana, had years of experience in the courts, was one of the most important people in the kingdom and a manipulative bastard, he didn't buy the hopeless act for a second. It even had the opposite effect of increasing his wariness of the duke

Like the duke, the prince increased his reaction time, speed, and thought process, paying close attention to any sudden moment from the duke. If you take in consideration that getting up from bed and attacking the prince's throat would take less than a second since he was approaching the prince, it would take less than half a second hit the duke chin with proper timing. Besides, it would be from the duke blind point, so he wouldn't see it coming

Still, it was really close for the prince, since a small mistake, bad timing or slower reaction speed would have meant dead for him

As for the duke, he didn't know how he failed, he only knew his chin really hurt

"Did the sleeping "beauty" finally woke up from his sleep?"(prince) said in a mocking tone

"You should treat your elders with more respect brat"(duke) said while massaging his hurt chin

"Since when scumbags deserved respect? been an old piece of sh-t doesn't earn you any respect"(prince) shrugged

It should be considered a miracle the duke didn't die from a stroke after hearing those words. He was red as a tomato and you could see steam coming out of his head.Not only was he called a piece of sh-t by a 15 years old brat, he was also the disgrace of the royal family and all the nobles in the kingdom. It was only thanks to years of practice of hiding his emotions in court that he didn't explode at that moment

Still, been called THAT by HIM.....

It took a while for the duke to calm down

"Did the big fat baby finally calm down?"(prince)didn't give the duke a chance

Duke finally snapped and went for a second strike at the prince blinded by rage

The problem was that the duke forgot a tiny little thing, the slave collar. Meaning, he got an electroshock for trying to hurt his "master"

"well, I guess it works fine"(prince) smiled at his misery

Torturing the bastard that brought so much trouble to the prince helped relieve his stress

It also brought back Aria's old memories of her many attempts to hurt the prince. all ending in the same situation as the duke. She was also tempted to get her revenge now since she may not get an opportunity later. Sadly it wasn't a great time

As for Rebecca, she was sitting on a chair while reading a book, so she didn't pay attention to what was going on

Meanwhile, the duke had some mix filling at the moment. He wasn't stupid enough to try it again, but every part of his body wanted to rip the prince into a million pieces and piss on his remains(a feeling Aria got used to)

"well, let's stop joking around. It is time you spill the beans, and you have no way out duke"(prince)

And like the prince said, the duke had no more cards to play, he could only try his best and not tell everything

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As for why theduke did it, if you saw the movie "Hero" from Jet Li, you can get the idea why. By the way, I seriously recommended