Irritation

“—Tch! Damn it, this pisses me off, pisses me off!”

Ashid returned to his room and began smashing everything that caught his eye.

He shredded the furniture with blades of wind, burned paintings drawn in incomprehensible artistic styles, and punched holes into the walls.

Yet no matter how much he took his anger out on objects, Ashid’s mood did not improve.

“Huuuuuuuuuh…”

After wrecking the entire room and slicing the bed sheets to ribbons, Ashid finally managed to calm down a little.

When he looked behind him, he heard a small shriek.

There stood a maid around his age.

He had never seen her face before. She was probably a new recruit.

She had likely come to check what was happening because of the loud noise.

Apparently she was a girl who did not know the rule of House Conrad: that no one was to approach when Ashid was in the middle of one of his tantrums.

Come to think of it… Ashid recalled that one of the maids he had been planning to take for himself had recently left the mansion.

That maid named Aira who had followed Woody.

No matter how Ashid tried to lure her, she always dodged him cleverly, and in the end he had never been able to force himself on her.

He looked at the maid trembling while staring at him.

For a moment he considered abusing her to satisfy his sadistic urges… but stopped.

Now was not the time to be distracted by women.

Ashid rushed toward the maid and slapped her hard across the cheek.

“Get out! What do you think you’re doing opening the door without my permission?!”

“Y-Yes! I am terribly sorry! Excuse me!”

The room had been fully visible because Ashid himself had destroyed the door, but the maid did not utter a single word of protest and ran away while holding her swollen red cheek.

Once he was alone again, Ashid collapsed heavily into a chair.

He stretched his arms behind his head and leaned back, placing his feet on the desk.

When the soles of his boots struck the desk, a sharp clacking sound echoed.

Clicking his tongue, he sucked on a piece of candy from his pocket.

Sugar alone never betrayed him, no matter the situation.

When he vented his anger on objects and ate something sweet, Ashid could always regain his composure.

“My father is so weak… even as his son, I’m utterly disgusted.”

To cower before nothing more than a single sheet of paper was an attitude far too feeble for the head of House Conrad, a man called the Staff of the Kingdom.

If he was worried about friction with others, that had already begun the moment he attempted to annex the southern region.

Reoccupying land that had originally belonged to the Duchy of Conrad should not have caused such a major problem.

Was that truly the figure of the father known as the Staff of the Kingdom?!

After recalling those hawk-like eyes from earlier, Ashid shook his head and forced the thought away.

What could a man like that possibly do?

The Conrad family creed was power first and power second.

Thinking that he once wanted recognition from a man like that made him feel foolish.

“And it’s not just Father— even the king… why the hell are they scared of that useless trash who can only plant trees?!”

The biggest reason Ashid was so furious, of course, was Woody, the former heir.

Ashid hated Woody with a passion.

He wore that harmless face like some kind of pacifist, yet still took Aira with him without hesitation— that hypocrisy disgusted him.

Just because he happened to be born first to the legal wife, he was doted on, expected to have a great future, and received all their parents’ love.

Ashid hated everything about that luck, resented it, and found it unbearable.

He had often wished his father would give even one-tenth of that love to Ashid and his mother.

But that wish had never once been granted.

Being forbidden to live in the main mansion and forced to stay in the annex and detached palace, living under that so-called philanthropist’s self-satisfied hypocrisy— all of it had come to an end the day he received the aptitude of Great Magus.

Or so he had thought…

“Why the hell do I still have to remember that annoying face even after becoming the heir…?”

Just recalling that hypocrite’s constant carefree smile irritated him.

Even so, the calm part of his mind continued thinking things through.

“Still, I doubt that hypocrite managed to persuade the king so easily… no, wait! If Count Tristan, his guardian, was also involved… tch!”

Next to surface in his thoughts was the image of the fiancée he had searched everywhere for but could never find.

Ashid loved Nadja.

The moment he first saw her outside the mansion, he had fallen in love at first sight.

He’d make her my woman no matter what.

At first it had seemed like a wish that could only exist in fantasy.

But the day he underwent the Rite of Blessing, that dream began to feel real.

Things progressed smoothly— he obtained Great Magus and even became the heir of the Conrad ducal family.

So of course he believed Nadja would naturally fall into his hands.

“And yet that piece of trash stole Nadja from me too! I’ll never forgive him…”

On the day Nadja disappeared, he had suspected it might be the case.

But he never thought she would follow Woody.

Anyone could see the difference with the slightest comparison.

The aptitude of Tree Planting that could only plant trees, versus the powerful aptitude of Great Magus befitting the heir of House Conrad.

Which one would lead to a happier future was obvious.

And yet Nadja chose Woody instead of Ashid.

That choice wounded Ashid’s pride more than anything else and made his heart rage.

“I’ll kill him! I’ll kill Woody myself and take everything from him! Then I’ll obtain everything— Father’s love, the women Woody stole, the respect of everyone… everything, everything!”

With bloodshot eyes and foam flying from his mouth, Ashid slammed his fist onto the desk.

Thus Ashid defied his father and resolved to launch an attack on Wenti on his own.

From here on, it was a race against time.

Before Father noticed, he had to gather soldiers somehow…

Running calculations in his head, Ashid immediately began selecting his loyal subordinates and entered a war council to prepare his plan—.