Dochet, who I thought had been disqualified looked totally fine as he stood up and walked towards the middle of the ring. The previous boos from the girls turned into squeals of admiration, and the cheers from the men turned into boos. What a quick exchange of feelings, especially for a crowd as big as this. It seems like I made a miscalculation with the judgement of Dochet. He may be more powerful than he seems, because I gathered the chaos into my eyes again and gauged the blond haired man’s power level as of now.

It was 171…

How could someone’s power level increase in such a short span of time? Unless...they were even stronger than I thought and could conceal their power expertly and effortlessly. Then I would have to test out their battle capabilities myself, not depend on this ability. I walked up to him as the announcer started announcing the winners.

“How did you pull that off?” I asked, making sure to not let my curiosity show. It didn’t work though.

“Oho, I see you’re curious. I didn’t expect you to have that level of strength either, I won’t underestimate without reason to do so from now on,” Dochet replied while waving his hands at the girls like he was bathing in his popularity. “To be honest, I didn’t see that coming, but thanks to one of my abilities, I recovered fast enough to still make it to the end.” The light reflected off of his white teeth as he smiled at the spectators.

“What kind of skill—”

“You think I’ll just tell you that?” answered Dochet with a little more emotion. “If I didn’t have this ability and the crowd saw me get knocked out so easily… you wouldn’t want to see what would’ve happened.” This time, I could detect a murderous glint in his eyes although his expression was the definition of friendly and calm. His ability at concealing his personality is top notch, if he wasn’t an enemy then I would have asked for some tips.

I wanted to ask some more questions, but my time for talking ran out. The news was that the 5 winners were Damon, Dochet, Chyian, Prien, and Dan. Since the announcer pointed to the winners as he said their names, I got to found out everyone’s identities. Damon was obviously me, Dochet I already know, Dan was that bald muscular guy. A simple name for a straightforward person, which I found ironic. The light brown haired teen archer’s name was Chiyian and the last guy’s name who had been hiding in the shade was Prien. Their appearances suited their names was what I thought, and maybe their personalities did as well.

All of us gathered under the VIP section that was located a few feet above our heads as the nobles prepared the contracts to enter the Knight’s Order. The crowd’s cheers were still going strong, and I heard many words of congratulations coming from the sidelines.

“Congratulations on winning this tournament,” declared the Prince who spoke for the other nobles as well. “You will be receiving your contracts with the Knight’s Order now detailing your pay, the benefits and the tasks you must carry out. Welcome to the Knight’s Order newly named Knights.”

The other 4 people started bowing beside me, so I followed suit and bowed as well. I received the contract in an envelope along with a badge that signified you belonged to the Knight’s Order of the Northern Kingdom. At last, I’ve accomplished something noteworthy after my reincarnation into this new world and my plan has finally started to grow fruit.

That night, I stayed in an inn called The Knight’s den which was free of charge for knights. Since I was a knight now, I could stay in this inn for free if I showed the badge engraved with my name. Not Ryan, it was Damon because my alias had grown along with my plan! The elation from making a successful alias was awesome, especially the ending where it will be revealed that Damon who was a trusted knight. Was actually the mastermind behind a plan to dethrone the king. How thrilling!

I lay on my bed in my designated room while thinking about my plans for tomorrow. It had been only been a few since my arrival in this new world, and I’ve already experienced a lot. But I can’t afford to relax just yet. Earning the Knight’s Order’s trust is vital if I want to pull off this betrayal of the century, so I must act the part until then. Eventually, I dozed off into a relaxing sleep.

***

“Ugh,” I thought as I tried to raise myself out of bed. That’s what I tried to do at least, but I felt a familiar feeling against my arms and legs. Only this time, the addition of a blindfold and gag were wrapped around my head and the bonds were steel. Also, I couldn’t feel a mattress under my legs, only cold, smooth steel. Another kidnapping seriously? What did I deserve this one for...or maybe they found out that I escaped from that lab and recognized me during the tournament. Damn, that would’ve been a fatal error if it weren’t for my newly awakened powers. Now all I have to do is break out of here and kill everyone.

I contemplated my options I had, but breaking out and mindlessly killing the kidnappers was not one of the viable ones. That would be clear evidence that I was a criminal, and I didn’t want that extra work. How about I wait this one out for now? Who knows, it could possibly lead to a quicker dethroning or elimination of the upper echelon. If these guys were planning on torturing me or experimenting on me again, they won’t be able to complain when I slaughter them. A sinister smile appeared on my face, but I didn’t bother to hide it. It was blocked by my gag anyways.

Although I was going along with being kidnapped, I didn’t want to lose total control over the situation either. Controlling the chaos in the air once again, I focused it on my eyes and I was able to see everything clearly even though I had a blindfold on. No, this was even more clear than my normal vision—the power of chaos is really useful eh?

|Demon Synchronization| (1.1%)

I didn’t pay attention to my rising demon synchronization and instead, looked around trying to familiarize myself with the surroundings. The Knight’s Inn was located pretty close to the wealthy area of the kingdom, the ground was more decorated and even the shops were more expensive looking. I turned to look at who was guarding me to the destination. I found out that this was clearly the work of the Prince, it couldn’t be anyone else. Not only were we heading in the direction of the towering castle, but why hire strong guards (I used chaos power to gauge their power level) to escort someone of lower status like me. Unless they deliberately did it because they knew even a little bit of my full strength. The only one that had taken notice of me during the tournament was the Prince, what with all his obvious actions and that.

So, I guess the dethroning of the royal family is going to be easier than I thought. Don't blame me, you targeted me first. First, the Princess captures me for not paying taxes that I wasn’t even supposed to in the first place. And then drops me off at an underground dungeon to be experimented painfully on for who knows how long. Oh yeah, speaking of that…I’ll need to destroy those scientists that experimented on me. Jane I think was her name? I’ll make sure she suffers especially. Second, the Prince sends people with a power level of over 100 to come fetch me for who knows why. I had plenty of reasons to go after the royal family, not only the king. The moment the Prince decides to put me in a cell or punish me in any way, I’ll escape when he’s not looking and I’ll start slaughtering the royal family. Once I’m done with that… I’ll go back to the Prince who wouldn’t know anything about the murder of his family. I’ll make sure to give him a taste of his own medicine.

If this kidnapping was for a good reason...would I change my plans? Nah, who would kidnap someone for a good reason? Maybe I just didn’t want to forgive these people, but I was dead set on eliminating them. The moving carriage I was in, continued moving forward until it finally reached the castle gate. One of the knights tasked with guarding me went up to the meet the castle guards, it seemed like he was a well known fellow. Because the guards instantly bowed down and rushed back to open the gate. We moved through the courtyard filled with blooming flowers and dazzling, smoothed stone water fountains. The bushes and grass were perfectly trimmed and stone statues littered the courtyard. I could see the sky above because it was an open area, and it was pretty amazing. There were actually millions of stars that were strewn across the sky, unlike back on Earth. Back there, I rarely saw real stars because of the pollution clouding the skys, so this was a nice, new sight to see.

I would’ve liked to had been given some time to admire the place, but I was quickly directed towards the cell area. My prediction was correct, seems like they about to lock me up and ask me some stuff. Ugh, this process is really annoying, can we just get to the main confrontation already? I patiently waited to be dragged out and strapped down and tied up, but that didn’t happen. Instead of being put in a cell, all my bonds were removed and I was shoved out of the metal cage I was in. I really had been treated like an animal, but that could be questioned later. As my blindfold was removed, a certain person wearing a gold lined robe, decorated with gems came into view. The Prince who had a content expression was standing right in front of me, with his guards on standby.

“Welcome to the Royal Castle Damon. I have an offer to propose to you.”