I Was Reincarnated as a Mob Noble, and I Swear I'll Protect the Villainess Who Got Married Off to Me No Matter What ~To Dodge Our Total Downfall, I Went All Out Training My Trash Skill [Super Recovery] Through Crazy Hard Work, and Before I Knew It, I Could Totally Wreck the Game Protagonist Who Condemned My Wife Easily - Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Taking Down Prince Lucian, Lord of Dalham Castle

“The golem soldiers our empire prides itself on fired a full volley at you… and you’re completely unharmed? I’m genuinely impressed!”

The guy who came out to greet us after we stepped down from the carriage was a fancy-looking young noble around eighteen, dressed in flashy clothes.

Fifth Prince of the Balzark Empire, Lucian Balzark.
Just like the villain in that otome game, he had ridiculously good looks.

But deep down he was an ambitious sadist who got off on torture. Still, when it came to handling women, he definitely knew what he was doing.
Prince Lucian started spouting the cheesiest, most over-the-top compliments.

“Your beauty outshines even the stars scattered across the night sky! Ahh, if only I were a bard, I’d compose a thousand poems in praise of Lady Valeria. Yet no matter how many words I pile up, I still can’t fully capture your charm—it’s so frustrating!”

He gave an exaggerated, theatrical sigh, then fixed this devouring stare on Valeria.
The way he looked at her was exactly like someone appraising a rare piece of art.

“…Hmph.”

Valeria didn’t even try to hide how disgusted she was. She squeezed my hand back really hard.

We were completely surrounded by armed imperial soldiers.

Around twenty of Prince Lucian’s famous personal guard stood in a tight ring nearby, and up on the castle walls, golem soldiers had giant ballistae trained right on us.

The second we made one suspicious move, they’d open fire all at once. No question.

“So then, could you please disarm yourselves first? My soldiers are getting nervous, so I’d appreciate it if you’d send those filthy undead of yours away for now.”

“Filthy…?”

Hearing Gawain insulted like that made anger flash across Valeria’s face.

But she bit it back, clenched her jaw, and sent Gawain and the zombie horse back to the other dimension they rested in—the Netherworld. They vanished from the spot.

First things first: we had to make the enemy drop their guard.

I handed over the sword at my waist to one of the imperial soldiers.

“Ohh, thank you so much. It’s truly reassuring to see that Lady Valeria keeps such sensible company.”

“…Sensible, you say? What exactly do you think ‘sensible’ means, Your Highness, when you’re the imperial prince who launched an unjust invasion against our kingdom? And on top of that, you attack someone carrying a white flag as an envoy?”

Valeria pierced Prince Lucian with eyes as cold as ice.

‘Hey, you’re supposed to be playing nice to lower their guard, but your real anger’s leaking out,’ I warned her, tightening my grip on her hand.

She seemed to realize she’d slipped up.

“That was harsh. I had ordered the golems to ‘annihilate any enemy the moment they’re spotted.’ They’re loyal, but they lack flexibility… that’s their one big flaw. Please forgive the discourtesy.”

“I’ll accept your apology. Now then, may we be escorted inside the castle? After being greeted with such a generous shower of arrows, I’m feeling a little tired.”

Valeria flicked her fan open and gestured grandly toward the castle gates, all poised and commanding.

The single most important part of our plan was to take out the castle lord—Prince Lucian himself.
The fact that he’d come right out here to greet Valeria was honestly a stroke of luck.

But if we tried to kill him on the spot, his personal guard would block us, and the golem soldiers’ barrage would turn us into mincemeat.

We needed to get inside the castle walls first—somewhere the ballistae couldn’t hit—lower their guard, and then take him down.

“Of course. Though before that… may I ask what business brings you here? If you came to surrender, I believe I instructed you to bring me the head of our sworn enemy, Border Count Baldo of Greivan, as proof.”

But Prince Lucian wasn’t about to let the conversation drag on elsewhere.
Depending on our answer, he looked ready to have us restrained right there.

“Surely you didn’t come all the way to my castle just to sip tea and leave, did you?”

My castle, huh.
This place used to belong to us, you know. I came here tons of times with Father.

Sorry, but we’re gonna need you invaders to get lost pretty quick.

“We’d like your empire to grant us asylum. First, allow me to introduce myself. I am—”

The moment I opened my mouth, Prince Lucian cut me off with obvious irritation.

“Who the hell are you? Some lowly attendant of Lady Valeria has no business speaking.”

“How rude! This is Zenon Greivan—my beloved husband. We have already exchanged marriage vows.”

“What did you say…!?”

Even Prince Lucian looked genuinely shocked at that.

Still… I guess I really did look like just an attendant to him. Well, I’m basically background nobility, so standing next to Valeria’s noble beauty, I probably fade into nothing anyway.

“Zenon Greivan. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Your Highness Prince Lucian.”

“Hah! So you’re that failure who drew a dud skill and earned Lord Baldo’s wrath!?”

The complete turnaround in attitude compared to how he treated Valeria caught me off guard.
Well, at least the rumors about my falling-out with Father seem to have spread nicely…

I saw Valeria bite her lip in frustration at the blatant insult.
Whoa, hold on, easy there.

“…Yes. Exactly because of that, I no longer have any place in the kingdom. My wife Valeria has also been branded a traitor. That’s why we’re asking the empire to take us in. My skill is magic-based, so I believe it could be of value to the empire.”

I collected myself, bowed my head, and continued.

“Hah, what a pathetic lowlife. Lady Valeria I could understand, but what possible benefit is there in accepting a useless dud-skill holder like you?”

“I’ll tell you secret information about the Greivan border count’s army. It’ll take a while, so could we perhaps continue this inside? I want to prove myself to my father—show him up.”

“Trash. Fine. But the only place I’m guiding you to is the morgue.”

Prince Lucian snapped his fingers. Soldiers swarmed in and tied me up with rope.

“Wait! I told you he’s my husband! I won’t allow you to lay a hand on him!”

Valeria’s voice exploded in fierce protest.

“Lady Valeria, I will gladly accept your asylum… if you become my wife. Once I possess someone of royal blood like you, the right to rule the kingdom will belong to me!”

“Huh…!?”

Both Valeria and I were stunned speechless.

This prince was an ambitious guy gunning for the imperial throne. He came here to rack up military achievements in the war.

Torturing captives wasn’t just his hobby—it was also a way to score points.
If he squeezed useful intel out of prisoners and helped the imperial army win, he could climb the ranks without ever having to risk the dangerous front lines. The emperor would remember him fondly.

The supreme commander of the imperial forces was First Imperial Princess Leticia. Since she was a woman, she was excluded from the succession struggle. So any victory the army achieved just became a stepping stone to push Prince Lucian closer to the throne.

He was the classic small-time villain who used his older sister as a shield to reap the rewards.

Still, I never expected him to straight-up propose to Valeria out of nowhere.
He really is as infuriating as he was in the original game.

…But hey, at least this means there’s basically zero chance he’ll kill Valeria.

“To think a splendid young lady like Lady Valeria ended up forced to marry trash like you—what a tragedy!”

Prince Lucian drew his sword and pointed the tip right at me.

“You there—Zenon, was it? I’ll personally cut your head off! Lady Valeria, you’ll be escorted to my bedroom. Once I’ve dealt with this man, I’ll come join you.”

“…Excuse me?”

Valeria’s voice rang out, icy cold.

“Ahh, you must be delighted! You’ll become the wife of the future emperor! You tried to assassinate the crown prince and seize the throne—you’re burning with the same ambition I am!”

Prince Lucian shouted with an ecstatic look on his face.

“But your dream was shattered, and now you’re stuck marrying a man even lower than scum! I understand your frustration perfectly! And now I’m going to set you free!”

I let out a quiet breath of relief.
Looked like things were going more or less according to the original plan: get tortured by Prince Lucian.

Given his personality, he’d definitely want some “fun” torture time before chopping my head off.
He’d also want to extract at least a decent amount of information from me to boost his achievements.

So once we were in the torture chamber, I could just take him out with [Excessive Recovery].

Also, beheading someone actually requires a pretty skilled sword arm. With this prince’s combat power basically zero, there was almost no chance he could one-shot me. That part felt safe too.

“Valeria. Just do what he says for now and go inside the castle.”

“…What did you just say?”

Valeria snapped her fan shut with a sharp crack.
The light vanished from her eyes, leaving nothing but deep, abyssal darkness.

Uh… wait. She’s seriously pissed?

“A vulgar nobody like you dares call my Zenon lower than scum? And you think you’re going to cut off his head?”

“H-hey…!”

I panicked and tried to stop her.
But she wasn’t stopping.

“Know your place, you filthy peasant!”

An overwhelming wave of fury rolled off Valeria—so intense even Prince Lucian flinched.
Red lightning crackled and snapped around her. Multiple magic circles burned themselves into the ground.

“Whaaaat!?”

The imperial soldiers froze in shock.

From the dazzling glow of the magic circles emerged the pride of Schwarz Ritter—[Death Knight]s and the undead mage [Demi Lich].
They poured out in a raging tide. Easily close to eighty of them. Full combat strength, right from the jump.

This was the kind of summon that burned through Valeria’s life force like crazy.

“P-please stop, Lady Valeria! It was terribly rude of me to suggest we share a bed so soon…!”

Prince Lucian was freaking out, desperately apologizing.

Since this guy wanted Valeria as his wife, he clearly hesitated to kill her.

I get it now! Valeria figured he wouldn’t kill her no matter what, so she went all-in right here.

The timing wasn’t what we planned, but with every enemy’s attention locked on Schwarz Ritter, this was our perfect opening.

The moment the golem soldiers on the walls raised their giant bows to fire at the Death Knights, I moved.
I ripped the ropes apart in an instant.

“What—!?”

I closed the distance to Prince Lucian in a flash and smashed his annoying personal guards out of the way.
My right arm—amped up from taking that golem shot earlier—hit like a truck. One punch and the guards went down silent.

Best of all, they’d completely underestimated me as some worthless dud-skill loser.
I got right up in their faces without a hint of caution.

“…You idiot!”

But the very next instant, a massive bolt from a golem soldier punched straight through my back.
Bone shattered. Flesh exploded outward.

“Zenon!?”

Valeria screamed.

“The golem soldiers’ aim is flawless! Killing only you without harming me is child’s play!”

Prince Lucian crowed triumphantly.

“Now, golem soldiers! Wipe out those undead! First I’ll show Lady Valeria just how mighty my power is!”

Right as the golem soldiers leaped down from the walls to charge the Death Knights—

“Heal.”

My wound closed instantly. Completely healed.

“Huh…?”

Prince Lucian’s eyes went wide and blank. His guards looked just as confused about what just happened.

I took one huge step forward, touched him, and slammed [Excessive Recovery] straight into his body.

“A, ga, aaaaaAAAAAHHH!?”

Prince Lucian’s entire body swelled up.
Veins bulged, muscles ballooned grotesquely, cells multiplied out of control.

He couldn’t even scream a proper death cry.
His body, flooded with what was essentially deadly poison in the form of life force, collapsed from the inside. In one instant—he shattered into pieces.

First time I’d used it on a living human. Damn, this magic is terrifying.

“Sorry, but someone like you doesn’t get to have Valeria!”

“Ahh… Zenon…!”

Valeria threw herself at me in pure joy, wrapping her arms around me tight.
I held her with one arm and cast Heal on her too.

Still… she’s hugging me this hard. We don’t really need to keep up the lovey-dovey act anymore, do we?

But when she looks up at me with those glistening eyes, it’s way too easy to mistakenly think she’s actually in love with me for real.

“…Y-Your Highness…!?”

The personal guard stood there dumbfounded, their master gone.
The golem soldiers lost their controller; the light faded from their eyes and they froze in place.

“The lord of Dalham Castle, Prince Lucian, has been slain by me—Zenon Greivan!”

I snatched the prince’s sword and raised it high toward the sky.