The Berkley Family
Rosetta was being chased.

The year was about to end, but her grades were terrible.

Her final grades were far behind the rest of her peers.

If only considered among the students of the first school building, they were the lowest.

“Even though I worked so hard…”

She worked to the point that she was barely getting any sleep.

But even that wasn’t enough for her to catch up.

As she was walking through the hallways with an expression filled with despair, some students you wouldn’t normally see in the first school building had approached her.

At the center of the five-person group was Baron Berkley– Derrick.

Rosetta immediately turned around and tried to escape, but he had grabbed her arm.

“Hey now, where’s a poor person like you going?”

Even though Rosetta tried to shake off the hand grabbing her, Derrick’s arm, which looked so unhealthy, was unbelievably strong.

Derrick, who had undergone physical enhancement many times, was stronger than Rosetta, who had gained her strength through hard work and training.

—That’s just how this universe was.

“L-let go of me!”

“Even though you’re just the daughter of a poor ducal house, you shouldn’t be so cold, Rosetta.”

Derrick’s entourage was laughing.

As Derrick turned to look at Rosetta, she could feel his gaze lick her all over.

“Despite the fact that you’ve only received the minimum of physical strengthening, isn’t your physique actually quite nice? As I thought, for a poor person whose only real worth is in selling their body, you’re perfect.”

After being pushed, Rosetta’s terminal was dropped and her gradebook was displayed.

Derrick saw the contents of it– and laughed.

“D-don’t look!”

She tried to get her device back, but it was already in Derrick’s grasp.

“You’re hopeless. You aren’t qualified to be an aristocrat.”

In Rosetta’s attempt to retrieve her terminal, Derrick laughed as he grabbed her.

“Kya-!”

The entourage had surrounded Rosetta after Derrick pushed her down.

“–Rosetta, isn’t your family always looking to get the genes of prestigious noblemen?”

Derrick had removed his belt, and was looking at Rosetta as he licked his lips.

Rosetta felt chills run up her spine as she broke out in a cold sweat.

“W-what are you saying?”

Derrick was serious.

“Be grateful. Your house will be able to inherit the superior genes of the Berkley family. Oh, but don’t get any ideas. The Berkley family will never recognise your child as one of our own.”

Rosetta tried to escape from Derrick, who had just spoken such a thing, but she wasn’t able to because of the underlings surrounding her.

“The infamous Duchess should be grateful for receiving the excellent genes of this Lord Derrick!”

When Derrick reached out to her, Rosetta tried to resist but was easily pressed down.

“N-no, stop! Somebody help!”

The students and teachers passing through the hallway looked away.

They didn’t want to get involved with Derrick and the Berkley family.

And there was no value in helping someone of Rosetta’s status.

(…why are you looking at me with such eyes? Why?!)

Her mouth had been covered up to muffle her screaming, so all Rosetta could do was glare at them.

That’s when one of the underlings was sent flying.

“…huh?”

After seeing one of Derrick’s henchmen blown away, Rosetta turned her head to look in the opposite direction he flew.

Standing there was Liam, who had Kurt and Wallace by his sides.

“Who are you? I’ve never seen your face here before.”

At Liam’s comment, Wallace had gone pale,

“Liam, that’s Baron Berkley!”

Kurt was surprised,

“Isn’t that the winner of the previous tournament? Wasn’t he a student of the second school building?”

Kurt didn’t seem to know much about the Berkley family.

Liam was the same,

“Then why is he here? Nevermind, it doesn’t matter. Hey, get out of my way.”

After being told that by Liam, Derrick felt the blood rush to his head and started yelling,

“Bastard, who the hell do you think you’re taking that tone with?! I’m Baron Berkley!”

Derrick was sent flying almost immediately after.

Liam had closed the distance in an instant, driving his fist into his face,

“–Who the hell do you think you’re taking that tone with? I’ll send that question back to you. I’m a Count.”

One of the underlings who rushed over to Derrick realized the truth after hearing that comment,

“A Count? You’re Banfield!”

That’s when the rest of the henchmen were blown away.

“Don’t invoke my name so over-familiarly, you scum!”

Kurt and Wallace were screaming at Liam’s actions,

“Liam, don’t be violent!”

“GYAAAA!!! Liam, look into your opponent before you pick fights!”

The underlings picked up the fainted Derrick and quickly escaped.

Rosetta watched this all while sitting on the floor in her unsettled uniform.

Liam approached her and reached his hand out,

“Hey, are you okay?”

To that hand– Rosetta slapped it away.

“Huh?”

Liam had tried to help her, but Rosetta just glared at him,

“Stay away from me. I… even if I’m like this, I’m the daughter of a ducal house.”

She wanted to thank him.

However, Rosetta couldn’t speak honestly because it was Liam who saved her.

She quickly stood up and ran away.

(…why am I so stupid?)

She hated herself that didn’t have any power.

She hated the surroundings that didn’t help her.

And she hated the pure and virtuous Liam that she was envious of most of all.

She was glad at first, but then she realised it was the pity of a blessed person, and her feelings turned to hate.

Rosetta hated her life at the elementary school.

◇ ◇ ◇

As I watched the figure of Rosetta running away, I couldn’t help but think,

–she’s good.

I might’ve already succeeded as the head of a Count house, but she refused to bow her head to me because she was going to be a duchess.

Once she finally disappeared from my line of sight, Wallace called out to me,

“Liam, you do know who that was, right?”

I turned a smile towards the anxious Wallace,

“Oh I know. I’ve taken a liking to her.”

Kurt looked at me and opened his eyes wide,

“Liam, your bad habits are showing up again.”

Wallace looked a bit uneasy after hearing that comment about my bad habits.

But Kurt didn’t explain.

–Well, there wasn’t any real need for Wallace to know.

Wallace was basically a good person.

He wasn’t a villain like Kurt and I.

“Don’t say that. It’s more like my hobby.”

I wanted to make Rosetta, who had a lot of pride in her pedigree, to surrender to me from the bottom of my heart.

It’d be really interesting to have such an arrogant lady act subservient to me.

I liked honest and obedient girls, but sometimes a rebellious woman was good too.

Whether is was Tia or Marie, they all easily gave in to me.

I didn’t hate that attitude, but humans are greedy creatures that are always looking for stimulation.

Every once in awhile I wanted to see the surrender of a prideful individual.

–The blood of the evil lord inside of me was roaring.

This was the bad habit Kurt was talking about earlier.

Rosetta, despair at the fact that you’ve caught my eye.

I will break you.

◇ ◇ ◇

Liam entered the student dormitory while grinning.

Kurt, who watched such a sight, exhaled once Wallace was the only other person around.

“Liam hasn’t changed at all.”

Wallace looked worried,

“Hey, will Liam be alright? I don’t want my patron to disappear already. He turned the Berkley family into his enemy.”

“Family?”

Wallace became even more worried,

“You didn’t know?! They have the second name of the ‘Pirate Nobles’. They’re the scum of the Empire. In terms of scale, they could easily match a Duke’s house.”

In the Berkley family, whenever a child was born, they’d conquer a territory and make that child into a baron.

However, they were all managed by the Baron, Derrick’s father.

They kept to the lower ranks to reduce the contributions they were obligated to fulfill for the Empire.

This was the result of prioritising profits over status.

For this reason, the Berkley house was called the Berkley family, a collection of barons related to each other.

While they were basically pirates, they were an inseparable group that produced and supplied elixirs for the Empire.

“…they’re pirates? Is that so?”

“They’re dangerous, we need to apologise immediately.”

Kurt shook his head at Wallace’s comment,

“That’s impossible. Liam will never tolerate pirates.”

“But the opponent is another noble house!”

“Even then, they’re nothing but criminals to Liam the moment they dip into piracy. He annihilated the Peetak house’s fleet for the same reason.”

Wallace’s jaw dropped in surprise,

“The Peetak house… come to think of it, you did tell me that you both trained at the former Viscount Razel’s house for a while. D-don’t tell me, you were involved with the incident that happened there?!”

Peter of the Peetak house’s manhood had exploded, so his enrollment into elementary school was postponed for his recuperation.

“B-but the Berkley family is no good! Liam can’t win against them. It’s not just their personal strength, they also have the pirates on their side!”

Kurt shook his head even after hearing that,

“Even so, it’s impossible to change his mind. Liam is merciless against pirates.”

Wallace collapsed to the floor and buried his face in his hands,

“My independence is already over. It’s over…”

Wallace was frightened by the Berkley house’s inevitable retaliation.

◇ ◇ ◇

The student dormitory of the second school building.

Derrick had bandages applied to his face.

“…I’ll kill that Liam.”

While he was still angry from being punched, nobody in his surroundings refuted his declaration to kill.

But Derrick went on to say death wasn’t enough.

“Destroy all of his territory. I will take away everything he loves before I torture and eventually kill him.”

If the guide was listening, he’d be ecstatic.

But he wasn’t there.

“Hey, what did you find out about him?”

“Yes! Well, this is all we have for now.”

The information gathered was quickly projected into the air.

With that, Derrick learned that Liam’s capital held a considerable military that wouldn’t be defeated so easily.

“–but there’s pioneer planets.”

He noticed that there were pioneer planets that were still under development.

“There’s only about a thousand military ships stationed there too.”

Derrick smiled.

He didn’t have any front teeth.

“Send out my personal fleet. Contact my parent’s house as well. Gather the pirates. We’ll be using ‘that’. Advance on his home and take everything. Let’s squeeze out all that we can from him.”

Derrick had practically no power within his family.

However, he still had a fleet of three thousand ships under his control.

If he collected other forces, the amount would double to six thousand.

He thought it’d be easy to burn everything if it was just a pioneer planet.

“Hahaha, Liam… I’ll make you regret having angered me.”

Derrick had decided to lay his hands on the Banfield house’s territory.

◇ ◇ ◇

A pioneer planet of the Banfield house.

There was a commotion going on at the defense base stationed there.

“Commander! There’s a fleet of six thousand ships approaching!”

“What?!”

The commander assigned to the defensive base was surprised to see the enemy fleet projected on the large monitor.

“There’s really six thousand ships?”

“Yes, there’s no mistake.”

The number of defense units they had stationed there had only recently increased to a thousand two-hundred.

They were losing in numbers but…

“…are they fools? There were still pirates out there willing to pick fights with the Banfield house?”

A pirate-like fleet was invading Liam’s territory, which was greatly feared by pirates.

They had come to attack the pioneer planet, but the commander wasn’t scared at all.

Because–

“–Hurry up with the evacuation of the non-combatants. The defensive base will participate in the interception as an aircraft carrier.”

The extraordinarily large aircraft carrier of the fortress-class, which Liam had decided to purchase after seeing Nias’ sportswear, was a temporary base for the defense team.

It’s performance was astronomically high.

Fitting of its name of the fortress-class, it was an aircraft carrier built like an impregnable fortress.

Operators were giving out instructions in a hurry.

The commander looked at the enemy fleet in disbelief.

“Why the hell would a pirate fleet pick a fight with us with only six thousand ships?”

The Banfield house’s fleet, with the fortress-class as its flagship, utterly decimated the enemy until reinforcements had arrived from their capital.

The pirates were begging for their lives, but their pleas were ignored and they were slaughtered.

While the defensive team was hunting down the enemy alone, the enemy had tried to run away, but then their allies arrived.

The enemy that had chosen the wrong time to withdraw had nowhere to escape.

“Just what were they trying to accomplish?”

The commander of the defensive unit tilted his head.

The fleet that Derrick had gathered couldn’t burn down the Banfield house’s pioneer planet.