LUCIA

Chapter 77 People to Meet

"It's the Mad Dog."

"Mad Dog Krotin."

When an eye-catching man made his entrance, the atmosphere of the pleasant banquet hall stirred with unease. Roy walked in with a very crooked expression, looking around slowly like a wild dog in search of prey. People turned ghastly pale and turned away, afraid to meet his eyes.

Roy gradually accumulated notoriety while he was the Crown Prince's escort and accompanied the Crown Prince to parties or meetings. Now, he had become famous in the social circles. Because he was at the Crown Prince's side as an escort, he was caught up in the bloody power game whether he wanted to or not. He was not accustomed to the flowery noble way of speaking so, at first he did not even know he was picking a fight. Even if he spoke cynically, most of them were people that would retreat without saying anything. So, in the early phase of escorting, it was rather quiet. And then gradually they began to ignore Roy and ridicule him. His famous name on the battlefield was useless in the social circle. Although the Duke of Taran had given him the title of Baron, he was originally a commoner.

Low-ranking, ignorant and simple-minded Knights were very ridiculous to the aristocrats who didn't treat people like human beings if they weren't nobility. And it happened that nobles in opposition to the Crown Prince got into friction with Roy and threw down their gauntlet. And Roy responded by happily beating them to pulp. Roy's stress was at its peak due to doing to job of an escort that didn't suit his aptitude. However, once he wielded his sword, his stress was completely relived. Because he had acquired a taste for it, it was now him that went after them first.

Since most of them were from forces opposing the Crown Prince, the Crown Prince just stood by and watched while the Crown Prince's faction quietly encouraged it. Roy went wild in high spirits and sometimes he had a couple of duels in a day.

At first, those who didn't know anything accepted his challenge and it wasn't until their knights were beaten half-dead that they realized that Roy was a lunatic. After defeating the Marquis' knights, he said Knights are their master's dog and this utterance turned the social circle upside down. After that, Roy was called the Mad Dog. Even if those that were harmed gnashed their teeth in anger, they had no justification because it was a legal confrontation. Furthermore, behind Roy was the Crown Prince and even further behind was the Duke of Taran. People played it extremely safe in order not to step on the Mad Dog's tail.

After the previous King passed away, Roy arrogantly bailed on his escorting mission and hid himself for a while because he was afraid of the aftermath. After roaming and playing around to his heart's content, he got bored. As time passed, the simple Roy had practically forgotten his fear at the time of being scolded by his Lord.

Today, there were a lot of people going to the coronation party so he wondered if there would be anything fun and after wandering around, he came. Because it was a formal occasion, there were no Knights that came to the party wearing armor like Roy did. They should have stopped him at the entrance but the Royal Guards did not stop the already famous Roy.

As Roy was passing, he bumped shoulders with somebody. He turned his head to apologize but suddenly, the middle-aged nobleman lost his temper.

"Are you blind or what! Where do you think this is that you're wearing armor? Ei. Tsk Tsk Tsk."

'Hoh.'

Roy's eyes narrowed. It had been a while since someone picked a fight with him so it was refreshing. The middle-aged noble man had been away from the capital for a while and it hadn't been long since he returned so he hadn't heard of the notorious Mad Dog Krotin.

"Then, what of you? Do you have no eyes? Why should I have to avoid you? If you are blind, then I will apologize."

"Wha...what!! This rude bastard-!"