Surviving as the Fallen Northern Grand Duke

Chapter 8: Experiment

Click. Click. Click. Click.

The hallway inside the Grand Duke’s castle.

In that desolate and chilly space, only the faint sound of footsteps echoed.

And then…

"Kh-hm."

A groan of deep distress accompanied it.

Gnaw. Gnaw.

Erina Trotsky was anxiously biting her nails as she paced back and forth along the corridor.

Even as she walked, she was careful to step only on the white marble tiles, making her actions look rather obsessive and unsightly.

"Ah, why is he calling me at this time? Seriously, why did he call me?"

Yeah, no matter how I think about it, that Northern Grand Duke is a bit strange.

And for good reason.

"His Grace, the Grand Duke, has requested to see Lady Trotsky."

"Huh? Why? Does he want to have a meal or something?"

"No? He asked to see you alone in his room."

"?!?!?!?!?! Alone? What exactly does he intend to do?"

"I wouldn’t know that."

The Northern Grand Duke, Johan Kraubitz, had sent such a bizarre message.

‘Alone... Alone…’

Meeting alone? A grown man and woman, alone together?

"Hah."

It seems that ugly Northern Grand Duke at least has functioning eyes.

‘That must be why he doesn’t want to miss out on me, Erina Trotsky, who is known for my beauty even in the Trotsky territory.’

However, even if that were the case, this was too blatant.

Rushing too much wasn’t very gentlemanly.

That was why Erina Trotsky had hidden a small dagger in her bosom.

She had no grand schemes of assassinating the Grand Duke, but as a woman living in this era, it was only logical to be able to protect herself.

And then…

"I greet Your Grace."

Upon finally entering the Grand Duke’s room…

"Oh, you’re here. Good. Stand over there at the marked spot."

Erina Trotsky immediately sensed that something was off.

"……?!?!?!?"

As expected of Erina Trotsky.

The main heroine of the novel Ensnared by the Beastly Northern Grand Duke, and one blessed with divine power.

The moment she entered this room…

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thuuuump. Thuuuuuuum. Thuuuuuuuuuum…

My excessively unstable Mana Heart began to calm down.

"Mm~ delightful."

A sigh of admiration escaped my lips before I even realized it. And for good reason—this was the most at ease I had felt in a long time.

For the past twelve years, suffering from the bizarre disease known as Mana Heart Angina, I had endured countless wretched symptoms.

For one, my Mana Heart would frequently rampage out of control, and at times, it even felt as if it had completely ‘disappeared.’

Of course, given that it barely functioned properly in the first place, it wouldn’t have been a huge issue if it vanished momentarily…

‘The real problem was the excruciating pain when it came back.’

Whenever my dormant Mana Heart reactivated, it felt like I was going to die.

Anyway,

"Lady Trotsky, stand at the positions I marked on the floor, one at a time."

I needed to figure out the mechanism behind this Mana defibrillator, its efficiency at different distances, and how it would affect me in combat.

So, I summoned this foul-mouthed noble’s daughter for an experiment.

"…What are you doing?"

The young lady, unable to grasp the purpose of the experiment, looked at me with a somewhat skeptical expression.

"Shut up and stand in position."

"…Yes."

Since I had spared her when she tried to run away, she ought to repay the favor.

Besides, she had indulged herself quite a bit over the past few days.

Butler Noich had been grumbling that the storerooms were running dry.

"Hmm. So the range is at most 30 meters?"

It seemed that this gluttonous auxiliary battery had some performance issues.

Beyond that distance, my Mana Heart wasn’t benefiting much from her presence.

"Ah, would the range increase if she removed her clothes? Maybe her garments are blocking the divine power, reducing its effectiveness?"

Swoosh.

Grip.

Seeing the dagger clutched in Erina Trotsky’s hand, I abandoned that thought.

Well, whatever.

I wouldn’t be able to keep her around in that state anyway.

Now that I had done all the experiments I could indoors, it was time to take the auxiliary battery out into the field.

"Let’s go. Head to the training grounds and stand there. I have something to confirm."

And so, on a sunny afternoon…

I made my way to the soldiers’ training grounds, where quite a few eyes would be watching.

Thud.

A hooded stranger handed a storybook to a few Axen children.

"Thank you. You may leave now."

The children happily ran off toward the marketplace. And then,

Step.

The man slowly walked towards the enormous training grounds.

‘This must be the place. Where Axen’s army trains.‘

From what I had heard, the Duchy of Axen had multiple training sites, but the Grand Duke’s private training ground and the knight order’s facilities were closed to outsiders.

Because of that, all the regular soldiers of Axen gathered at this grand training ground for practice.

‘So by observing this place, I’ll be able to see the true nature of the army trained by Johan Kraubitz.’

The knight Bichen, who had come under the emperor’s orders while concealing his identity, began surveying the grand training ground.

‘Johan Kraubitz, huh… He’s certainly a grand duke ruling over a large duchy like Axen… but is it really necessary for His Majesty to personally order an investigation?’

Sure, the people of Axen, located at the northernmost end of the continent, were known for their rough nature, but even so, ordering an investigation into a mere seventeen-year-old grand duke seemed excessive.

He especially wasn’t sure if it warranted sending himself, Bichen, a renowned knight of the royal palace’s guard, to observe the situation.

Furthermore…

“Haaaap!”

Looking at the soldiers currently in training, there didn’t seem to be anything particularly special.

Of course, the regular army’s morale was impressive, but he wasn’t convinced that they posed a significant threat to neighboring countries.

‘It seems His Majesty is over-worrying.’

Thus, Bichen was about to turn away and inspect other parts of the grand duchy. Just as he was about to take a step…

“Show respect to the Grand Duke!”

“?!?!”

Grand Duke Johan Kraubitz himself had arrived at the grand training ground.

‘I should observe a little longer.’

The grand duke was dressed simply, accompanied by a woman who appeared to be his fiancée.

As soon as he arrived at the training ground, he warmed up a little and then…

“Hand me a wooden sword. Any one will do.”

He didn’t wield any extravagant weapon.

He merely requested a wooden sword, the kind used by the soldiers for training.

“Twenty of you, step forward. You’ll be my sparring partners. Those who participate get free time after the match.”

At that, volunteers emerged from all directions.

Who would pass up the chance to be exempt from an entire day’s training just by sparring against the grand duke?

Soon, among the soldiers, those who looked particularly large and sturdy stepped forward.

‘What is he trying to do?’

Bichen silently observed the scene.

He had heard that the grand duke had an issue with his mana heart and was unable to use aura…

It didn’t make sense for someone with such a handicap to take on twenty elite soldiers alone.

‘Does he have a hobby of pushing himself to the limit?’

And then…

“Erina. Stand over there at an appropriate distance. Don’t move around too much. Stay there until the match is over.”

Johan muttered something incomprehensible and then began the match.

And in the next moment, Knight Bichen witnessed a scene that shattered his very understanding of ‘common sense.’

Aura.

The hallmark of a high-ranking knight.

Something only those who had reached the Expert level could produce.

The human body had its natural limits.

No matter how strong a person was, they could not gain the upper hand in battle against a group of opponents. However…

The existence of aura, first created by the earliest knights, allowed them to transcend these human limitations.

It was the only means by which a lone knight could surpass multiple opponents in both strength and the sharpness of their blade.

Thus, those who reached this level could break free from the limitations of a fragile human body.

This was common knowledge across the continent… until now.

Swoooosh! BOOOOM!

The tall man standing with a wooden sword… had just shattered that common knowledge.

‘I can’t believe it.’

That young man was only imbuing a mere fraction of mana into his sword.

An amount so small that even a child with a minor talent for mana could achieve before they learned to read.

Yet, with just that tiny bit of mana, Grand Duke Johan Kraubitz was reinforcing his wooden sword and tearing through the grand training ground as if it were his domain.

“Urgh!”

Even the soldiers who had drawn real swords under the grand duke’s orders struggled to withstand his attacks, despite their massive physiques.

No, upon closer inspection, the grand duke was actually holding back to avoid injuring them.

With the eyes of a knight who had spent years surviving on the battlefield, Bichen could clearly see it.

The sheer ‘difference in class’ that the northern grand duke was displaying.

He was strong.

No, calling him strong wasn’t enough.

His sword was both razor-sharp and devastatingly powerful.

His movements were completely devoid of waste, as if his blade existed solely to sever the threads of life.

And then…

BOOOOM!

Unbelievably explosive.

The grand duke’s sword clashed against three soldiers at once, yet with a single strike, he sent them all flying.

‘To be this strong without even using aura…’

He was already beyond the Expert level.

He merely couldn’t use aura, but in terms of sheer strength, he lacked nothing.

Which meant…

CRACK.

Knight Bichen had no choice but to add a few extra lines to the report he would submit to the imperial palace.

Whew.

With the experiment involving Erina Trotsky completed, I had nothing more to do today.

So, I casually strolled through the market district.

The bustling crowd.

Children playing all around.

It was a truly peaceful scene. However…

“I swear, I saw the entire mountain move!”

I froze in place at those words, shouted by a passerby.

The man’s voice grew even louder.

“I’m telling you, I didn’t see it wrong! I definitely saw the snow-covered mountain shift!”

Pfft.

I couldn’t hold back my laughter, letting it escape through my teeth.

And then…

Step.

I immediately turned around and began making my way back to the grand duchy.

‘It’s today.’

Yes, today.

Grand Duke Johan Kraubitz. Or rather, Kim Si-hyuk from South Korea.

The only chance I had to return to the real world was coming today.