A halberd larger than his own body, large enough to cut him in half if swung at him, is what he saw in front of his eyes, filled with blood cascading down its edge, normally seeing its bloody edge this close would make him uncomfortable, but right now he couldn’t be any happier with its appearance

The halberd had cut the man’s head straight off, and its shaft interrupted the saber’s trajectory, saving his life at the most crucial moment

Turning around to his knight in shining armor he saw…. a knight with no armor, no to be more precise it was a knight with absolutely nothing on

“Master! Are you fine?! We must get you to the medical ward immediately”

Catherin approached Shun with a worried tone, she hoisted the halberd with one arm over her shoulder then bent down and hugged Shun to her body with the other, after that she hastily ran toward the wall

“Catherin…. slowdown…”

“No master we must reach the medical ward quickly”

“I know but your speed is too fast, run more steadily”

Her jogging rattled his exposed bones, while her chest jiggled up and down hitting his face, the pain and the pleasure contradicted each other and made Shun put a contorted face even as his little brother gave her a salute

“Oh alright master”

She slowed down to a bearable pace, though it didn’t help with the jiggling

“How come your naked?”

“Oh I was taking a shower after training when I felt your pain, that’s when I rushed here as fast as possible”

“Felt?..ahh I see, but didn’t you have the time to at least put a towel on… no forget it if you did I would already be dead by now, even an instant would have made the difference”

Shun sighed at the situation but at the same time he felt lucky that their soul was connected, at the same time he regretted not thinking about this sooner, maybe he wouldn’t have been in such a desperate situation back there

“By the way did anyone see you naked when you came here?”

“No I jumped from the windows, no one saw me come in”

“Jumped?? That’s the third floor!”

“Don’t worry master I didn’t get a scratch”

“…Alright, well then let’s take a detour, leave me near the window and climb up to get dressed, then come down and pick me up, we don’t want the others to suspect anything”

“Yes master”

Catherin did as she told, and Shun got to witness the mesmerizing sight of a lady climbing a wall with her bare body, and the horrifying sight of an armored lady jumping from three floors up, then he was carried to the medical ward by her, where she “dropped him” on the bed and told the doctors to heal him

Two days later Shun was in Catherin’s room where he was supposed to be “Interrogated”

“What are your orders master”

On the bed laid Shun, he was shirtless laying on his stomach, on him was sitting Catherin with only a bath towel, giving him a massage

“Well those of the castle would definitely not care about my injury in the least, but I suspect they are going to find a way to blow the whole situation up, maybe into an all-out war, I can tell by the fact that they didn’t heal me even when they could easily do that, they let me remain slightly impaired, though these open wounds are already healing thanks to my own body”

“Shall we disrupt their plan? I can get in touch with a few physicians discreetly, or procure some herbs”

“No that would not be necessary, if they want to make use of me I will demand something in return, that’s when I will make my plans to escape”

“Master, may I come with you?”

“No I’m going to need my eyes and ears in the castle, for when the time comes to cross swords with these bastards, I’m not going to let their toying go unpunished”

“As you wish my master”

Catherin leaned down and pushed her chest onto his back

“Master~ We still have some time before I’m done Interrogating you, may I interrogate your little brother~”

Shun turned his head and looked at the enticing body, his urges started to bubble up, but he forcefully pushed down the feeling, and even though he was reluctant he refused Catherin

“No, I’m in no shape or mind to do such a thing, I can’t even move now let alone practice sport”

“I will move for you master~”

“No, leave it be Catherin”

She didn’t insist anymore and just messaged his body until it was about time to call it a day

‘I can’t possibly tell her that I’m a virgin and don’t want to be half disabled on my first time right?’

He had such thoughts while he was being wheeled out of the walls

“Where are we going, this is not my room”

“His highness asked for your presence”

The guard replied with a dull tone

‘It has already begun? I thought I would have some time to heal…my plans must still move on’

The guard wheeled him all the way to the conference hall, even before they entered he could see some nobles putting on a face of sympathy as they went inside, their faces gave him a hint of what was to come

Sure enough when they went through the doors he could see his classmates standing next to their respective masters alongside a large table which was headed by the king, only Rekka and the two sisters by his side didn’t stand next to their masters, Mamoru on the other hand was nowhere to be seen

As soon as he entered the king stood up from his seat then he looked at Shun quite deeply before turning to look at the surrounding students, then back at him

“Young hero Shun, I have called you, and all the young heroes here today to discuss the horrible attempt at the assassination of your brave self, while you had been saved by our captain of the guards Catherin, your injury was life threatening, in fact you may never walk again”

‘I’ll walk on your dead body that’s what I’ll do’

Only now did Shun figure out they actually meant to impair him, and that his blood pool was what saved his legs from being crippled at the hands of these old schemers

“I, as the king of Avihal, and as the one who called for your help, swear that the aggressors shall pay for their crimes! We will strike back at the ones who harmed you, and take vengeance for your injury, we will put our all into bringing justice!”

“Yes!”

All the guards and some of the nobles shouted with the king, but rather than being happy he put on a remorseful face

“Sadly, we have not the greatest power as we are surrounded by enemies, if we take any troops from the field we might give our enemies a chance to plunder and burn our cities”

Then he turned to the students, his eyes ignited as if he found hope

“You-“

“Now hold it one moment”

The king’s words were sharply interrupted by a sudden voice, once everyone got passed the shock that someone actually interrupted the king they all turned to the speaker with blazing eyes, but when they saw that it was Shun they didn’t know what expression to make

“As the victim I would first like to say a few words”

The king calmed down his irritation and motioned for Shun to speak, after all if he didn’t even let the victim speak how could he continue his act? Who knows maybe Shun might even fan the flames of vengeance of these students

Thinking so the king chuckled in his heart but Shun’s words poured cold water over his ambitions

“To begin with these wounds weren’t meant to kill they were only slightly harmful as the infiltrators, not assassins mind you, had only aimed to capture me alive”

Shun’s words surprised the students as they never thought he would stand up for them, even subtly

“Secondly, the only reason the wounds almost deteriorated into what they are right now is because your doctors intentionally didn’t treat them and actually tried to disable me by keeping them in a broken state”

“Watch what you’re saying Shun! This is no way to speak to your host!”

The one who interjected was Jack with his usual brutish voice

“Shut it pig I’m not speaking to you, my words are for my friends who have brains”

Shun replied with a cold tone while he sent a spine inducing glare toward Jack, after going through horrendous pain and edging on deaths door his personality had changed, so did his presence, so that one glare froze Jack in shock, enough to miss the opportunity to retort

With his gaze back at the king Shun continued

“Third, those infiltrators were from the Ezicht kingdom, their intention was to abduct me so I could join them which I naturally refused, gaining a gash on my legs”

He scanned the room for any Jack wannabes and then looked at the guard behind him

“Fourth of all, I managed to overhear your guards mention that the infiltrators were let in by an insider, just before I got injured in the forest”

“What evidence do you have to support such claims?”

The one who spoke was the minister of defense, which Shun know of as he had Catherin coach him on all their names and how they looked like

“Well that’s where the fifth point comes in, the infiltrators themselves confirmed it when they were bragging about how one of Avihal’s ministers was bribed by Ezicht, now who do you think has the best chance of letting such lousy infiltrators into the castles surroundings, minister of defense?”

His words struck at the heart of the matter without leaving any loopholes, it was logical, fear inducing, and most importantly no one can testify against it as all the witnesses was him, him, and lastly him. With zero grounds to talk back on they could not retort one point at all

Any of the students with a discerning eye could tell his wounds hadn’t hit any dangerous point but they still hadn’t healed with all the kingdoms wealth of medical knowledge, as for the insider information, it made sense, and denying meant they had something to hide, plus they were inclined to believe in their own classmate as it had only been a week since they had been here

‘Now for bonus damage’

“And last but not least, how did the infiltrators know that I was the weakest link? Because of an insider. But WHY did they go for me? Because that is the only way to instigate a wa-“

“Enough! Young hero I see that you are tired and need rest, I will ask the guard to send you back”

Shun felt the hand of the guard on his shoulder squeezing it painfully but he just smiled

“Oh? Trying to silence me? Next thing I know I’m dead due to “sever injury”, also have your guard remove his grip on my shoulder or I’ll rip his arm off”

The students sent a glare at the guard who flinched, but didn’t remove his hands, this irritated them even more as one of them beat the king to talking and told the guard to take his hands off or they would take action

At this Shun smiled within, his plans at railing them up against each other was working greatly

‘Hehe, now they must be thinking, what’s if that was me? What if I’m useless like him? Would I also be thrown as a bait as well?’

Indeed, that was what went through the student’s mind, and since they were originally together their sense of unity started bubbling up, with it the mob effect started to take over, turning them angry with each passing second

The tension in the room started to rise exceptionally, everyone was glaring at each other with turbid eyes, none the wiser on who is with who

“Young hero Shun”

Suddenly the kings voice burst the rising bubble, this caused all the eyes to be directed at him, not with as much friendliness as before

“I promise you that I will seek who had planned this scheme from within our ranks, I will not rest until every nook and cranny has been searched for the traitors, furthermore I would like to personally apologies to you for your injury, if it is us who caused it then I apologies from the deepest part of my heart”

With that the king actually bowed to Shun, astonishing both the students and the nobles, the students more so as they thought the king was genuine with his plea

‘Heheh, well played sir, well played, but I’ve went through many games that had similar settings, the king sets the trap by “lowering” himself, then the character on the other side incriminates himself by acting all reluctant about accepting the apology, thus leading to the others doubting him, sadly you stand before a master schemer’

“That would set my heart at ease, please bring those ministers to justice”

He said those words with the sincerest smile he could muster, surprising the king and the onlookers yet again

“I shall also ask the best physicians to heal your leg, I shall not rest until the kingdoms vault is emptied fixing it”

All eyes went back to staring at the king when he spoke, but after finishing they looked at Shun again, this time with a gaze that practically says “you owe him one”

‘Ahh using wealth? Trap card! I use self-heal!’

Shun stood up from the wheel chair silently, his actions made the onlooker’s eyes bulge out as if they had seen a ghost in broad day light

“No need to empty them, thankfully I have a great body thus no matter what your doctors tried I was still able to keep my legs intact, a few herbs would be enough to fully heal, if that is possible”

The onlookers didn’t even know where to look at anymore, they just kept staring between the king and Shun, their eyes darted back and forth as if saying “go on, go on, just say I am your father and end this will you?”

But sadly, or rather thankfully, none of them said that, instead they just silently nodded toward each other before Shun turned around and left on his own

‘Act one, finished’

An evil smile graced his face as he left the hall, like a hero who won his first battle in war