2 Targeted

Today was the sixth day of the second month, three hundred and fifty-four years after the Ignis Dominion, on the manor house of the twenty-first Prince, Dante Reinhardt Acciai di Ignis, of the Impero Ignis.

On the Master's bedroom laid the master of the manor, Dante, asleep on the canopy bed that was decorated with red velvet and a gilded wooden frame.

The prince, a tall and handsome young man with long white hair and a pale, frail-looking naked body, laid on the bed until the big oak door of the room was opened by his Personal Attendant and doctor.

The man, Conrad Reinhardt von Blumen, donned a neat attire of black and white clothing, but he was one of the most high-ranked servants in the Manor and had an unusual occupation, he was on the same level as the likes of the Steward and the Marshal.

Conrad was tall and had the same golden hair and emerald eyes as Dante's mother, since he too was of royal descent of the Blumen, but he became Dante's Steward and lost his right to the succession of the Imperial Province of Blumen.

Three hundred and fifty-four years ago, the Impero Ignis subjugated the other four most powerful sovereign states of the Lunean continent making them vassal states and the new Imperial Provinces.

As not to make the war longer and incur heavier losses, the four states retained partial sovereignty, but had a drastic drop in status along with being forced to pay tributes to the Imperium, one of them in the form of sending princes, princesses and other noble descendants to become concubines and servants to the Impero's most powerful nobles.

Thus, Conrad is actually Dante's cousin and his mother's nephew.

Conrad closed the door gently after entering the room and walked to Dante's bedside.

"Principe Dante, it's time to wake up."He said with a mild accent.

Dante didn't wake up from Conrad's call and instead kept sleeping soundly.

Conrad didn't call him again, and instead lightly shook him saying. "Principe, please wake up." With a slightly louder voice.

…

And yet again I didn't wake up.

Conrad sighed in exhaustion, but since he was used to this routine the next thing he did was pull up his right sleeve and gave me a sounding smack on the forehead.

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" I screamed as I sat on the bed in a jump while rubbing my forehead.

Conrad fixed his sleeve and bowed lightly. "Buon Giorno Principe." He said in a solemn tone.

I had a pained expression and some tears in my eyes as I looked at Conrad. "Buon Giorno Signor Conrad." I said.

Conrad then straightened up and gave me his hand to help me out of the bed, which I took, getting up and feeling my feet on the cold wood floor.

Conrad dressed me in a simple gown, lest I had to exit the room naked.

"The bath is ready my liege, please follow me." He said as he walked towards the door and ceremoniously stood beside it, waiting for me to pass.

Nodding with a big smile, I skipped through the door and was soon followed by Conrad.

I walked through the halls of the Manor passing through all the servants getting busy with their tasks while heading towards the bath, which was in the garden.

Usually, the scene of a grown-up royal skipping through the hallways like a mischievous kid would be weird, to say the least. Even royal kids would already have an imposing demeanor.

But in this Manor, every servant was used to my antics.

Such behavior is unacceptable coming from a noble, especially from a royal that should be an example of manners and etiquette.

But it is well known that I suffer from what is called 'Purity of the Wood God', a blessing according to the continent's old religion, but actually, a disease that GM calls 'Intellectual Disability'.

A long time ago, when I was still wondering how to avoid being considered for the throne competition, GM taught me about some medical conditions and I discovered that this condition was actually called a blessing according to the religion from old times.

Nowadays, the polytheist pantheon of the continent became centered on the Fire God, which is the Patron of the Impero Ignis. So a blessing from the patron God of the Blumen Reich wouldn't be a good quality for a ruler, especially when the Imperatore, or Emperor, is always cunning, unscrupulous and rational.

The culture of the Impero rewards people like that, and the qualities that are characteristic of that disease are the exact opposite.

So, soon after I started acting as if I had that condition, I started to be completely ignored in the throne race.

Now, years have passed and most people have either forgotten me or started treating me as a joke, my plan had succeeded and I still live a peaceful and easy life with my mother in this Manor.

I've never had any children or any other family, so only my mother lived with me in the Manor along with the servants.

The servants didn't bother to bow with my passing, continuing their duties normally. They never saw me as the master of the manor, instead, they respected my Steward more, since most of the administration not only of my manor but also of my territory, was handled by him.

But I never cared and just let him do as he will, It's not like I want status or influence.

After walking for a while, I arrived at the big pool where I bathed, that was placed on the garden of the Manor where I liked to stay most of the time.

My mother was already there, and she was the one that usually washed me.

"Little Snowball. Come in, the water is warm already."She said with her warm smile. Even after eighteen years, her warm and welcoming 'intention' never changed. However, she started calling me Little Snowball because of my white hair.

"Yes, mamma! I'm coming in!"I said with a big smile, losing my gown and jumping into her arms.

Even though I am already a grown man, my mother could still shoulder my fall and take me into her arms. I learned a long time ago that my mother definitely trained in the arts of battle and had a strong body, which is good since strength is heavily favored in the Impero, only one step below wits.

The maids surrounded us while we bathed, my mother scrubbed my back and even my private parts. It didn't feel awkward in the least, since I still thought of myself as her child. Even though she was beautiful, there were no wrong thoughts in my mind.

We spent a long while bathing, but when our skin started to wrinkle, we left the pool and headed to the breakfast table.

My mother went to another room to be dressed by her maids while I stayed in the garden. Conrad entered with my clothing and dressed me in my red tunic and leggings, which is the clothing I use when staying at home.

After dressing me, Conrad took me to the great hall to have breakfast.

The great tall was truly 'great' and it was big enough to fit many tables aside from the main table. Every now and then upper nobles would appear to stay while visiting the town as my mother's guests, so the rest of the tables weren't empty, there were currently three households visiting my manor while passing through the city. My Steward is also the mayor of this city, so my manor also has some people that come for bureaucratic reasons or business.

Differently, from my own servants, the guests that were sitting and those already standing up bowed when I entered, but I ignored all of them and sat on the main seat of the main table. The heads and important figures of the three visiting households had a place on my table so they sat with me when I came.

They did all of the usual butt-licking I am used to. Since, even if I am the worst prince, I am still the imperial prince of the biggest empire of the world, so my funds were nothing a normal noble could compete with; just the revenue I got from the taxes over the land and the fairs, as well as all of the miscellaneous taxes, was already enormous. My stock of food and grains was also gigantic and my Steward managed and brought in profit from it. My own lands were just smaller than a Duke's or the most successful princes.

I ignored all of the nobles and bull-shat every now and then, so they would remember they were speaking with someone that barely knew how to read and write, at least in the public's eyes. It didn't take long before they stopped their advances.

Breakfast proceeded as normal, and I was going to chug on a cup filled with milk when I noticed something.

All of my five senses were pervertedly accurate, and I could smell that, even though faintly, this milk didn't smell like normal milk.

Not showing any signs of alarm I turned to Conrad and said.

"Signor Conrad. My milk smells weird…"

My expression was incredibly controlled to look as naive and calm as possible as if I just thought my milk smelled weird and wasn't really bothered by it.

Conrad, however, frowned and took the cup from my hands. He smelled it himself and knew that It was definitely weird. Blumen Province was tasked with the herbal and agricultural research of the empire, since the inventor of Plant Breeding came from there and it became the main activity of the province ever since, so as a royal from there, Conrad knew a thing or two about herbs, agriculture, and poisons.

He called a maid and asked her to fetch some items from the storage room and she came back soon with a box filled with herbs and a mortar.

Conrad ground some of them and put them on the milk, but there was no reaction. He then ground another bunch of them and the milk started having a rose color.

When he saw that, he thought for a bit and shook his head.

"Take away the food. The Lord's milk was poisoned but I couldn't identify what poison it was. Tell the marshal to close the manor and patrol with the Lord's guards. Also, tell him to send the commander of the city's garrison an order to search the city under the name of the principe." He spouted a bunch of orders before a squad of guards came into the hall.

My mother was already close to me, her right hand was down and I knew that at any moment she could pull out the dagger strapped on her leg.

The guards came towards me, they were part of my personal guard under the control of the Manor's Marshal. They were all using riveted chain mails and mail coifs, longswords were strapped on their waists and spears on their backs.

Even still, when they came close enough, I could feel their intention…

They were here to kill me.

I have trained in battle secretly so I could battle some of them, but battling so many people at the same time, unarmoured and with no weapons was just impossible. Not even those protagonists in knight novels would be strong and skillful enough to defeat many fully-equipped soldiers.

I also can't fight, since people think I am unable to even get out of bed on my own, much less fight soldiers.

So I tugged on my mother's dress and said.

"Mamma, those people look mean." I hoped that would be able to convey what I wanted.

As expected, my mom pulled out her dagger and put me behind her. Conrad also pulled the dagger he always had on his waist. Both of them knew I have a weird ability to judge people's temperaments and intentions, so if I said they looked mean, they were obviously up to no good.

"Assassins! Protect the Lord!" Conrad yelled as he and my mother took me in their arms and ran away through the nearest door.

The guards were startled for a second before they ran in pursuit, but the chaos made their movement slower.

The nobles and servants were startled, the nobles' own guards took out their weapons and escorted their masters to an exit, while the servants ran away maddly, the maid that Conrad had ordered before went to the Marshalsea to look for the Marshal.

…

My mother and Conrad took me away, I released myself from their grasp, they tried to get a hold of me but I was able to release myself, but unlike what they thought, I ran with them on the same pace. My face still looked as if I was oblivious to what was actually happening.

"We are playing tag Mamma? It's fun!"I said, smiling at her.

Conrad looked at me and nodded.

"Yes, Principe. We are playing tag so try to catch us."He said going quicker, my mother also started running faster.

They were just a little farther than me, but their speed still wasn't adequate, so I ran faster and they had to go faster as well. I stopped increasing my speed when I noticed they were at their limit.

We ran through the manor and exited through the back, the back of the manor led to the city, it was a small square where there usually were some stalls, there are always guards guarding the back door and today was no different.

My mother and Conrad didn't try to see if they were assassins as well, instead, they pierced the guards' faces with their daggers and killed them.

They both took the guards longswords and spears, wielding the spears into their hands.

My mother looked at me to see how I was, she was worried since that was the first time I saw people dying. She didn't let me pass judgment nor watch executions so this was the first time I saw an actual murder.

But my face didn't change and I just looked at their corpses as if there wasn't any problem, but my steps got cautious and I made a shushing gesture to them.

"Shh! They are sleeping."I said with a serious face.

My mother sighed and returned the shushing gesture, she was happy I didn't know what was happening.

We exited the manor and appeared on the small square on the back, we would be safe in the fair since there are patrols there...

But there weren't any stalls, there were no people at all…

Except the patrols.

They surrounded us, there weren't as many people here as there were in the hall, only five soldiers.

They had their lances in hand as they charged at us, obviously aiming at me.

I knew that we were outnumbered, but it was still manageable. If push comes to shove I'll join the fight.

And it was as I thought this, that my mother was able to instantly pierce the head of a soldier and defend against another one's attack with the handle of the spear. Conrad wasn't that good at fighting, but comparing a noble to a normal soldier is stupid since nobles receive teachings on how to swing a sword from a young age. Soldiers were just peasants with sturdy bodies, they have little to no skill in their swordsmanship.

Conrad and my mother fought and they had the upper hand. It wouldn't take long before they killed the patrols.

But It was then that I felt a weird sensation, a great sense of danger overwhelmed me.

By instinct, I ducked, and a bolt flew over my head. Someone had tried to down me with a crossbow.

Thankfully crossbows take a while to reload, so the crossbowman can't fire again anytime soon…

But I was wrong.

As soon as I avoided the shot, he took out a throwing knife and threw it at me.

It came too fast and I was still ducking, I could avoid it but that knife was surely poisoned, I could see the shining glint on the knife's edge. I couldn't avoid It completely, my body couldn't keep up with my mind, so I could only divert it to my arm instead of my shoulder.

When I moved to take the blow, I was ready to jump to the sword of the soldier that was killed by my mother and enter the battle.

But when I looked at the direction where mother and Conrade were fighting, I saw that my mother was already in front of me. She threw herself in front of me to block the knife.

I was out of reactions at that moment out of worry and instantly lost my cool, I couldn't take her out of the way so she wouldn't be hit by the knife.

You can't stop the arrow after it leaves the bow, she was already in front of me when the knife arrived.

She used her chest to block it, the knife lodged itself in her chest, it didn't land the hit perfectly because of the movement and the knife didn't stick, but a huge wound appeared on her chest.

My mind went blank and my body moved on its own. I was unrestrained and could care less about my act.

I took Mother's longsword on my right hand and the throwing knife on my left hand.

I looked at the place where the crossbow shot came from and noticed that the crossbowman had repositioned after throwing the knife, It would be difficult to hit him now that he was far and moving…

If I was a normal person that is.

I was able to clearly see the movement of the crossbowman and determine his movement's direction and rhythm. So when I threw the knife, it the hit landed on his legs.

He was moving and he definitely wouldn't be affected seriously from his leg wound, but that would give him some pain and make him slower as well.

As soon as I threw the knife I was already charging at the soldiers.

Conrad was having a little of a hard time when my mother left the fight, but he was able to last these few seconds.

I was fast to reach him since we were close already. My speed was a little faster than when we were running through the manor, I was moving at the near peak of human ability. Weren't it for my lack of physical training, I would be able to move a little faster.

When I swung the sword I didn't slash, instead, I pierced. It is difficult to balance a sword for it to pierce accurately, but my sword moved like a dagger, piercing one of the soldiers beneath his armpit.

When I removed the sword, the soldier fell, dead.

I didn't stop. My motions changed and it looked as if I were a wolf, another longsword in my left hand, as I pierced with both at another soldier's neck.

He was able to defend my attack, but Conrad took the opportunity to pierce his head with the spear.

I still moved as fast as before, I reversed my grip on the sword and lodged it on the back of the next soldier and took the other sword and swung it with two hands at the last soldier.

Even though his head was protected by a mail coif, I was able to go through the place where it connects with his shoulders and swing my sword from below it, ignoring the coif defense, without losing the sword's momentum.

The soldier was beheaded and only the crossbowman was left.

The place he positioned himself to was near, and he had already charged the bolt. I immediately took the soldier's spear and threw it.

The bolt and the spear flew, and both of their targets hit.

The spear pierced the crossbowman's head, killing him, while the bolt also hit a head…

However, it was the beheaded soldier's head I had held in my hand that the bolt hit, and with that, all of the ambushers were dead.

I could hear two distinct marching sounds after the fight, one coming from the hall and another coming from beyond the square.

I was ready to keep fighting when I noticed that from beyond the square there was the sound of orders being shouted.

I recognized the voice of the one who shouted the orders, It was the Marshal.

The Marshal was definitely loyal, I made sure of it when I manipulated the result of who would be appointed to this position. If he is coming here, he is coming to help.

But now, I had more pressing matters to attend…

My mother was laying on the floor… In a pool of her own blood.