Rosetta was cornered.

It had been a year since she enrolled, but her grades were abysmal.

Her final grades placed her quite far back in her year.

If only considering students from the first building, she was last.

"Even though I... tried so hard."

She had worked, sacrificing sleep.

But she couldn't even catch up to those around her.

As she stumbled down the hallway with a look of despair, students she hadn't seen in the first building walked towards her.

At the center of the group of five was Baron Barkley—Derrick.

Rosetta turned her face away, trying to flee, but her arm was grabbed.

"Oh, where are you going, pauper?"

Rosetta tried to shake off the hand gripping hers, but Derrick, who appeared unhealthily thin, had a stronger grip.

Derrick, who had undergone physical enhancements multiple times, was stronger than Rosetta, who trained diligently every day.

--This is the reality of this world.

"Let go of me!"

"Don't be so cold, Rosetta-chan of the impoverished ducal family."

Derrick's entourage laughed heartily.

Derrick looked Rosetta up and down, his gaze lingering.

"Even though you only received the minimum physical enhancement, you have quite a tempting physique. As expected from a pauper who sells herself, you're excellent in that regard."

As she was shoved, the terminal Rosetta was holding fell, displaying her grade report.

Derrick and his companions looked at it intently—and laughed.

"D-Don't look!"

She tried to snatch back the terminal, but Derrick took it from her.

"You, these grades are too terrible. You're unfit to be a noble. No, you're worse than a commoner."

When Rosetta tried to snatch the terminal back from Derrick's outstretched arm, their bodies brushed, and Derrick grinned.

"Kya!"

Shoved down, Rosetta was surrounded by Derrick and his companions.

"--Rosetta, your family was supposed to receive genes from excellent nobles, right? I'll give you some now."

Derrick, unbuckling his belt, looked at Rosetta with a lecherous gaze.

Rosetta broke out in a cold sweat.

"W-What are you saying?"

Derrick was serious.

"Be grateful. You can inherit the excellent genes of us Barkleys. Ah, but--don't presumptuously claim the Barkley name. I won't acknowledge your child."

She tried to escape from Derrick, who said the most terrible things, but she was surrounded by his entourage and couldn't.

"You, a mere duchess, should be grateful to receive the excellent genes of this Derrick-sama!"

As Derrick reached out, Rosetta resisted but was easily overpowered.

"S-Stop! Someone help me!"

Students and teachers passing by in the hallway looked away.

They didn't want to get involved with Derrick—and the Barkley family.

And they seemed to think Rosetta wasn't worth saving.

(Why am I being subjected to this! Why!)

Unable to scream as her mouth was covered, Rosetta resented her own powerlessness.

Then, one of the entourage was sent flying.

"--Huh?"

Derrick looked at the entourage member who had been blown away, then turned his head to the opposite side.

There stood Liam, walking with Kurt and Wallace.

"Who are you guys? I haven't seen you before."

As Liam muttered, Wallace behind him turned pale.

"Liam, he's Baron Barkley!"

Kurt was surprised.

"Isn't he the one who won the previous tournament? He should be a student from the second building."

Kurt didn't seem to know much about the Barkley family.

And Liam seemed to be the same--.

"Why is he here? Well, whatever. You're an eyesore, so disappear."

At being told that, Derrick, perhaps angered, yelled at Liam.

"Hey, who do you think you're talking to so arrogantly! I'm Baron Barkley!"

Then, Derrick was sent flying.

Liam had closed the distance rapidly and punched him in the face.

"--Who do you think you're talking down to? I'll return that to you exactly as it is. I'm an Earl, you know."

Hearing that, one of the entourage who had rushed to Derrick's side realized something.

"An Earl? Banfield!"

Then, that entourage member was also sent flying.

"Don't call me by my name so familiarly, you trash!"

Seeing Liam like that, both Kurt and Wallace cried out.

"Liam, violence is not allowed!"

"Gyaaaa! Liam, pick your fights properly!"

Collecting the fallen Derrick and his companions, the entourage fled.

Rosetta sat on the floor, her uniform disheveled.

Liam approached and extended his hand.

"Hey, are you okay?"

That hand—Rosetta brushed it away.

"Huh?"

Liam glared at her, but Rosetta glared back, tears streaming down her face.

"--Don't touch me. I am—even if I've fallen, I am the daughter of a ducal family. I won't offer thanks to someone like you!"

She should have thanked him.

But cornered, Rosetta couldn't honestly thank Liam, of all people.

She staggered to her feet and left as if fleeing.

(—Why am I so foolish?)

She hated her own lack of strength.

She hated the surrounding people who didn't help and looked down on her.

And she envied and hated the pure and upright Liam.

She was happy to be treated kindly, but she hated that it was charity from the privileged.

Rosetta felt cornered in her life at the junior academy.

Watching Rosetta run away, Liam thought.

--She's interesting.

"I'm an Earl, but she said she wouldn't bow her head because she's the next Duke."

Wallace, looking around nervously,

"Liam, do you know who that was?"

To the anxious Wallace, Liam offered a smile.

"Ah, I know. I like her."

Kurt looked at Liam and his eyes widened.

"Liam—your bad habit is acting up again."

Wallace seemed curious upon hearing "bad habit."

But Kurt didn't answer.

--Well, Wallace doesn't need to know.

Wallace is basically a good person.

He's not a bad person like me and Kurt.

"Don't say that. It's like my hobby."

Rosetta, whose only support was her family's status, I want to utterly break her spirit.

It would be so amusing if that arrogant young lady obeyed me.

I like obedient and submissive people, but sometimes a woman full of defiance is good too.

Whether it's Tia or Marie, they affirm everything about me.

I like that, but humans are greedy creatures.

Sometimes, I want to break rebellious people.

--The blood of a corrupt lord is stirring.

That's what Kurt called my bad habit.

Rosetta—curse the misfortune of being chosen by me.

I will trample all over you.

Liam entered his room in the student dormitory with a smile.

Kurt, watching him, sighed as he found himself alone with Wallace.

"Honestly, Liam hasn't changed."

Wallace was flustered.

"Hey, is Liam okay? I don't want my patron to suddenly disappear. And besides, it's the Barkley family."

"Family?"

Wallace grew even more flustered.

"Y-You don't know!? They're the ones called Pirate Nobles. They're troublesome even in the Empire. Their scale reaches that of a Duke!"

When a child is born into the Barkley family, a territory is granted, and they are made independent barons.

However, the one who actually manages it is the Baron, Derrick's father.

The low titles are to reduce contributions to the Empire.

It was the result of prioritizing practical benefits over promotion.

For that reason, the Barkley family was called an organization of barons who were relatives—the Barkley Family.

While engaging in piracy, they have become an indispensable existence for the Empire by supplying precious elixirs.

"--Pirates? I see, that's why."

"They are dangerous. We need to apologize immediately."

To the flustered Wallace, Kurt shook his head.

"That's impossible. Liam shows no mercy to pirates."

"They're nobles!"

"Even so, once they engage in piracy, they are criminals in Liam's eyes. Liam once annihilated the fleet of the Pietak family, who were pirates."

Wallace's mouth fell open in surprise.

"The Pietak family—ah, come to think of it, you said you were training at Viscount Reizel's estate. Could it be that you were involved?"

Peter Pietak, who had his groin explode, had his enrollment at the junior academy postponed for recovery.

"But Barkley is different. Even Liam can't win against them. They don't just have their own forces. They also command pirates!"

Kurt gave up upon hearing that.

"In that case, it's even more impossible. Liam will never forgive pirates."

Wallace collapsed to the ground, putting his hands on the floor.

"My independence—it's over. It's all finished."

Wallace trembled in fear of revenge from the Barkley family.

Student dormitory in the second building.

Derrick had a bandage-like object on his face.

"--I will kill Liam."

Angered by being punched, he immediately decided to kill him, and no one around him objected.

And Derrick declared he wouldn't kill him without making him pay.

"Destroy his territory completely. Take everything and torture him slowly before killing him."

If the guide were here, he would have rejoiced.

But he wasn't here.

"Hey, have you investigated that guy's information?"

"Y-Yes! Uhm, this is all I have for now."

He hurriedly projected the gathered information into the air.

Derrick knew that his home base had considerable forces, so it wouldn't be easy to defeat them.

"--There's a frontier planet."

He set his sights on a frontier planet currently under development.

"There are only about a thousand defense ships here."

Derrick smiled.

His front teeth were missing.

"Deploy my fleet. Contact your families too. Gather the pirates as well. And we'll use 'that' too. I'll set it up at his base and squeeze everything out of him. I'll squeeze everything from the prosperous star."

Derrick didn't have much power within the family.

However, the number of ships he could gather was still around three thousand.

If he gathered everything else, it would be double, six thousand.

He thought a frontier planet could easily be turned into a scorched wasteland.

"Hehehe, Liam—you'll regret making me angry."

Derrick's evil hand reached out towards the Banfield family's territory.

Banfield family's frontier planet.

There was a commotion at the base of the defense force there.

"Commander! A fleet of approximately six thousand ships is heading this way!"

"What!?"

The commander in charge of the defense force was surprised to see the enemy fleet displayed on the giant monitor.

"Six thousand ships?"

"Y-Yes. No mistake."

The defense force had been reinforced to twelve hundred ships.

They were outnumbered, but--.

"Who's the idiot? Picking a fight with the Banfield family, are they some pirates from elsewhere?"

A pirate-like fleet attacked Liam's territory, a place feared by pirates.

They probably thought they could destroy a frontier planet, but the commander wasn't panicking.

Because,

"--Expedite the evacuation of non-combatants. The defense base will now participate in the interception as an aircraft carrier. Report to headquarters immediately."

The incredibly large aircraft carrier, called a fortress-class, which Liam decided to purchase after seeing Nia's sports bra, was serving as the temporary base for the defense force.

Its performance was extremely high.

As expected of something called a fortress-class, it was an aircraft carrier like an impregnable fortress.

Operators issued instructions in a hurry.

The commander looked at the enemy fleet with disbelief.

"Are there still pirates who dare to challenge us—only six thousand ships?"

The Banfield family's fleet, led by the fortress-class, endured until reinforcements arrived from headquarters and then flanked the enemy.

The pirates begged for their lives, but they were ignored and annihilated.

However, the defense force alone was already cornering the enemy, and as allies arrived, the enemy began to flee.

It was as if the poorly timed enemy, retreating, had nowhere to escape.

"What were they trying to do?"

The commander of the defense force tilted his head.

Derrick's gathered fleet couldn't turn the Banfield family's frontier planet into a scorched wasteland.

Brian: (´・ω・｀) "Liam-sama and his friends are not communicating well. This Brian is worried."