In a Female-Dominant World with a 5:1 Gender Ratio, I Saved a Girl as a Kid, and She Said She Wanted to Be My Bride—Who Would’ve Thought She Was a Princess… - 58

Chapter 58: The Puppet Upon the Throne, the Gold That Rends the Sky

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(Leonardo’s POV)

The next morning.

The sky over the royal capital was a piercing blue, yet inside the royal palace, an icy silence reigned, as if everything had frozen solid. I walked down the long corridor leading to the King’s audience chamber, my footsteps echoing. I brought neither my father, the Duke, nor any attendants with me. The only one at my side was Lilianna, clad in a crimson dress. The guards standing at attention along both sides of the corridor turned pale the moment they saw me, trembling as if they were about to drop their spears and naturally so. From my entire body, magic power that could not be fully concealed no matter how hard I tried was erupting as a black aura.

That’s right. Fear me. Revere me. I am the new law of this country.

Last night’s terror—the memory of my arm moving on its own—was blamed on heavy drinking and tossed into the “trash bin” deep within my mind. That had just been a malfunction. Nothing more than a trivial rite of passage until my body adapted to overwhelming power. I was now an “Administrator.” The very system of this world itself.

The massive doors opened on their own through gravity control, without me even needing to touch them.

Giiigii…

A vast throne room spread upon me. At its far end sat His Majesty the King, Lilianna’s father, guarded by several hundred members of the Royal Guard, his face set in a stern expression.

“…What is the meaning of this, son of Duke Falkenberg?”

The King’s heavy voice echoed through the hall.

“To barge into the royal palace without permission… Does House Falkenberg intend to draw its bow against the royal family?”

“Watch your words, former King.”

I snorted and strode leisurely across the red carpet. Hundreds of hostile gazes stabbed into me, but to me now, they were no different from the stares of pebbles by the roadside.

“My father has nothing to do with this. This is my personal decision. …I’ll be blunt. I want you to abdicate immediately.”

I pointed at the throne.

“This country has stagnated. The world has grown far too complex to be ruled by an ordinary man like you. …From now on, what it needs is a ‘perfect king’—me.”

A murmur rippled through the hall. The captain of the knights drew his sword, releasing killing intent.

“You bastard, have you lost your mind!? You think you can steal a country all by yourself—!? I’ll have you executed for treason!”

“Silence.”

I lightly waved my left hand, as if brushing away an insect.

ZUDOOOOON!!

An invisible “gravity hammer” slammed down upon the entire hall. The knights were all forced flat to the floor at once. Armor crumpled like candy sculptures, floor stones shattered, and screams mixed with the sounds of bones breaking.

“Gah!?”

“H-hh… I c-can’t m-move…!?”

The only ones still standing were Lilianna, myself, and the King seated upon the throne. Overwhelming. This was the power of an Administrator.

“M-magic…!? Without chanting, on this scale…!?”

The King rose with a deathly pale face and staggered backward. The corners of my mouth curled upward. It felt good. This sense of omnipotence, this feeling of domination.

“Now then, hand over the crown. …Lilianna, why don’t you give your father the final push as well?”

“Yes, Leonardo-sama.”

Lilianna stepped forward. Upon seeing his daughter’s utterly transformed appearance, and the artificial light dwelling in her eyes, the King was struck speechless.

“Lilianna… No, don’t tell me… You’re being controlled…?”

“No, Father. I have become ‘correct.’”

In a voice like rolling bells, she spun cruel words.

“Leonardo-sama is the truth of this world. Father, you should relinquish that throne. …For the sake of this country.”

It was a perfect scenario. Denied by the daughter he loved and confronted with overwhelming power, the old king would surely sink into despair. Certain of my victory, I began to walk toward the throne.

—Throb.

Again. A burning pain throbbed deep behind my left eye.

『—Recalculating the existence value of target “King.”』

『Relic of a bygone era. A waste of resources. …“Deletion” is recommended.』

That cold, merciless voice echoed inside my head. No. There was no need to kill him. If I just made him abdicate and retire, that would be enough—

“…No, I won’t kill him. He’ll live on and witness my reign—”

『Negative. Inefficient. Uncertain elements should be eliminated.』

Bikun!!

My right arm jerked upward on its own again. Completely against my will, my palm turned toward the King. There, compressed into my hand, was a jet-black plasma sphere far more vicious than the one I had aimed at Lilianna last night.

“W—what…!?”

The King’s eyes went wide, his legs giving out as he collapsed back onto the throne.

“Stop! Stop it! Don’t fire!”

Panicking, I grabbed my right arm with my left hand, trying to force it down. But my right arm did not budge in the slightest, like a pillar of steel. It siphoned off my magic power at will, causing the dark light of destruction to swell grotesquely.

I’m being taken over…! This thing is going to slaughter everyone, regardless of my will!

Cold sweat poured out, my heart feeling as if it were about to burst. Everyone in the throne room was looking up at me while crawling on the floor. That look was not “reverence for a king.” It was “fear of an uncontrollable monster.” I wrestled with my own arm, my face contorted, greasy sweat streaming down. 

This wasn’t what a king should look like. I was like a ridiculous puppet.

“Leonardo-sama? What is the matter?”

Only Lilianna was smiling eerily, beaming. She couldn’t see it. She couldn’t see this pathetic sight of me being devoured by the system.

『Execute.』

The merciless voice resounded in my mind. It was over. By my own hand, right before Lilianna’s eyes, I would turn her father into chunks of flesh. My life would end.

That was when it happened….

WOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!

A siren-like sound that tore at the ears echoed throughout the entire royal capital. A dissonant roar, as if space itself were screaming. At the same time, red noise violently flickered across my vision, and warning alert windows flooded my sight.

『—Warning. Warning. Warning.』

『Anomaly detected in the Firewall. …External hacking in progress.』

“Huh…?”

The charge gathered in my right hand suddenly dispersed like mist. The system had judged the “unknown external threat” approaching from outside as a higher-priority target than the King before me. Freedom returned to my right arm.

With unsteady legs, I ran toward the terrace connected to the throne room. I looked up at the sky. The strongest multilayer barrier I had deployed. An absolute shield that should have blocked even nuclear-strike magic, one that not even gods could pass through. At its apex, a golden crack ran through it.

Parin…Sharararara…

It wasn’t the sound of something colliding. It was as if the “correct key” had been inserted into a keyhole. Or as if doors were opening to welcome a returning king. The impregnable barrier beautifully—and effortlessly—disassembled into golden particles.

“Th-that’s impossible…! That’s my authority! The highest authority in this world, the Administrator! Who could possibly break that!?”

Amid the rain of collapsing light, a single black shadow descended soundlessly. An evolved jet-black bike. Mud-caked clothes. A battered body. Yet those eyes alone were radiant, and gleaming in a clear golden hue.

Stah.

The figure landed lightly on the palace terrace railing, with a motion that betrayed no sense of weight. With the blue sky spread behind him, his silhouette engulfed me in backlight.

“…Yo, Leonardo.”

Alto. The man who was supposed to be dead.The “bug” I should have erased along with all its data was standing there, wrapped in pressure far greater and more unfathomable than before.

“Is this where the system failure originated?”

Stepping down from Sleipnir, Alto fixed a fearless grin on me… No, on the “Administrator” nesting inside me.

“I came to do some repair updates. …I’ll knock some sense into that piece-of-junk head of yours.”

Fear. Confusion. And from deep within my body, the system itself was boiling over with intense killing intent toward “him.” Something snapped inside me. I no longer cared about control. I didn’t need reason, or the dignity of a king. If I didn’t kill him, I would break.

“UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH—AAALTOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Resolved to abandon being human, I surrendered full control of my body to “him”… The system.

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