The Crown Prince Who Raises a Side Character-Chapter 13: New Adventurer Bern (11). Punishing a Mistake

Blanca had always considered Bern to be a very dignified person.

He didn’t flirt with female adventurers.

He didn’t look down on others or act arrogantly.

He never used foul language or made crude jokes.

He didn’t let his appearance get messy or smell from poor hygiene.

Some might ask, isn’t that just basic decency? But in the world of adventurers, those who could uphold even those basic standards were few and far between.

Why else would “doesn’t speak like he’s chewing on a rag” be considered a major plus when hiring receptionists at the guild office?

He might’ve thought of himself as behaving like a proper adventurer, but to Blanca, Bern was a young man whose every move showed signs of having been raised in refinement.

“You don’t even know the difference between conversation and coercion, you dumb bastard.”

That’s why, when harsh profanity came spilling from Bern’s mouth, no one there was more shocked than Blanca.

Bern’s demeanor was extremely threatening, and his gaze revealed raw, unfiltered rage.

A stark contrast from the half-joking manner he’d shown when he himself was being provoked.

“...Dumb bastard? Are you talking to me? Can you take responsibility for those words?”

But the hostility wasn’t one-sided. Karina and her group responded in kind.

Karina usually tried to avoid confronting someone whose skills she couldn’t clearly assess, but that was simply a cautious adventurer’s instinct when faced with an uncertain risk—not because she believed she’d lose to Bern or feared him.

More than anything, if they backed down after being insulted in front of this many people, they would become the laughingstock of the adventurers.

“You’d better choose your words carefully. I’ll only let a newbie slide once.”

Say what you will about her personality, but Karina’s ability as a mage was the real deal.

As she began to draw upon her mana in earnest, the air around them turned bitterly cold—despite the warm spring weather, it felt as if they’d been thrown into a frozen prison.

Even the spectators, who had gathered out of curiosity, started to feel their bodies stiffen.

They couldn’t open their mouths to speak, and even the smallest movements of their fingers required several times more effort than usual.

Blanca’s face turned pale.

She realized that Karina hadn’t even cast a spell—this was pure mana alone causing the phenomenon.

The Adventurers’ Guild categorized adventurers into seven ranks, but in reality, the highest rank among guild members was typically Fifth Rank.

That was because the entire continent used a seven-tier ranking system to measure individuals’ abilities.

Among those, the number four carried a particularly symbolic meaning.

Some talkative eccentrics even claimed it was the line dividing humans from superhumans.

A warrior at that level could emit aura. A priest could borrow divine powers from the god they served.

And a mage—mana would take on a unique property of its own, greatly increasing the power and efficiency of their spells.

Blanca didn’t doubt Bern was strong, but to face a Fourth Rank mage—an ice-type, no less, known to be the most troublesome in combat—and several companions with Upper Third Rank skills... it was impossible for one person to take them all on.

Blanca urgently tried to stop Bern, but her body, engulfed in the cold, wouldn’t obey her.

All she could do was grasp weakly at Bern’s collar.

Bern turned his eyes toward her.

“It’s all right.”

It was a short sentence.

But it was spoken with absolute confidence.

Leaving the frozen Blanca behind, Bern stepped toward Karina.

Karina narrowed her eyes and summoned an icicle, hurling it at Bern.

Whoosh!

The attack, which should have grazed Bern’s cheek to startle him, was instead blocked outright—by Bern’s own hand.

He had caught the flying icicle mid-air.

“How...?”

Even within the intense chill, Bern’s lightning-fast reflexes startled Karina for a moment. But she quickly decided it had been a mistake on his part.

In sub-zero temperatures, grabbing ice or metal with bare hands could cause the skin to stick and tear off in an instant.

If he had deflected it with a blade or the back of his hand, maybe—but catching it with his bare palm? His hand should have fused with the ice.

Karina summoned three more icicles and fired them.

Even if he caught one with his left hand, there was no way he could stop the others.

She wasn’t trying to kill him, but the cold would cut to his bones—he’d be bedridden for days.

However, once again, Karina’s expectations were shattered.

Bern, who should not have been able to use his right hand, casually stretched it out and plucked the three icicles from the air with a flick of his wrist.

Now a total of four icicles were wedged between his fingers like darts.

Bern raised his hand toward Karina, almost as if to show off, then clenched his fist and crushed the icicles into shards.

Karina retreated to widen the distance, and in her place, two warriors stepped forward.

“You bastard, you really wanna do this? Huh?”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

“Tch... damn.”

One was the crude-looking man who had earlier joined in mocking Blanca, now eagerly responding to Karina’s signal.

The other was a bearded man who didn’t seem thrilled with the situation, but sighed and prepared himself nonetheless.

Most adventurers wore little more than cloth or ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) leather armor, and even that only protected the torso or vital areas—but these two were clad in full suits of chainmail and plate armor.

And they didn’t seem affected by the cold, suggesting they had some way to resist the chill.

They were on par with trained soldiers from a decent-sized territory. A level of confidence wasn’t unjustified.

But Bern didn’t seem to care in the slightest. He continued walking forward.

“You son of a bitch!”

Maybe it was Bern’s composure that pissed him off—the crude man swung his longsword.

Unlike Karina, who had at least aimed to avoid lethal spots, this guy’s intent to kill was obvious.

Bern reached out once again.

People expected a gruesome scene with blood spraying everywhere—but the sword didn’t cut Bern’s hand.

In fact, it didn’t even leave a scratch.

“Y-You bastard!!”

The crude man panicked and tried to yank his sword back, but Bern’s hand didn’t budge.

Then, with a flick upward from below, Bern ripped the longsword clean from the man’s grasp.

He held the blade like it was a handle.

The man looked utterly dumbfounded, unable to comprehend what was happening—but his companions didn’t just stand there watching.

“Ghk!”

The bearded man aimed for Bern's side with a hexagonal mace, while a thief, who had somehow managed to get behind him, swung a dagger at his back.

To make matters worse, enormous icicles, far larger than any before, were now falling from above Bern’s head.

It was certainly a coordinated attack that could be called the work of veterans.

However, it wasn’t enough to affect Bern.

Whoosh!

The first to fall was the crude man.

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His sword, not by the blade but by the handle and pommel, slammed into the man’s shoulder and dug deep into his body.

The agony as his clavicle shattered was unbearable, and the man vomited blood before fainting.

Using the recoil from his strike, Bern flipped himself upside down in the air and avoided the incoming attacks from the bearded warrior and the thief, who slashed through the air where he had been moments before.

The second was the thief.

After kicking and shattering the icicle that had been aimed at his head, Bern landed on top of the thief and grabbed the back of his head, slamming it hard into the ground.

Thud!

The eerie sound echoed as the thief’s body convulsed violently before going limp, losing all strength.

The third was the bearded warrior.

Bern dodged the second flying icicle by swiftly turning his head, then kicked the bearded warrior in the torso, sending him crashing into a nearby wall.

The warrior, though still conscious, trembled and couldn’t move his limbs, overwhelmed by the shock.

The fourth was the healer who had been standing idly in the back.

Perhaps his skills were subpar compared to the others, as he hadn’t even noticed what was happening around him while his comrades were being defeated. Now, he hurriedly prepared a healing spell.

In stark contrast to Karina, who had been casting control spells and creating ice barriers to block Bern’s path, the healer seemed to be reacting too slowly to be of any real help.

Bern kicked through the ice wall blocking his path and threw the shattered pieces at the healer.

The healer didn’t even manage to defend himself, and with a comical cry, he collapsed under the rubble, resembling a squashed frog.

Finally, Karina.

After witnessing all of her spells easily dispelled, she seemed to realize the vast gap in their abilities and was left trembling, having completely lost her will to fight. Bern approached her and spoke.

“Still think it’s just a rumor? Do you still believe we’re making up facts to claim credit we didn’t earn? Unless your head is full of cotton, you should understand. We don’t need to do that. If we want results, we earn them with our abilities.”

Though Bern’s words and gaze were directed at Karina, the spectators felt an entirely different chill compared to before.

Though the Guild had publicly acknowledged Karina’s party, there were many adventurers who doubted the achievements Bern and Blanca had earned.

To those adventurers gossiping behind their backs, Bern’s words now sounded like a direct warning.

However, the pressure they felt was nothing compared to Karina, who was facing Bern’s eyes at that very moment.

In his gaze, Karina saw something so immense that she couldn’t even muster the strength to resist.

She had once met members of a Fifth Rank party, the highest level in the Adventurers’ Guild, but none of them had ever made her feel this way with a mere glance.

Eventually, in a trembling voice, she spoke.

“I... I was wrong.”

“Wrong?”

“I... I was wrong...!”

At last, a smile returned to Bern’s cold face.

Karina, too, expressed joy upon realizing she was still alive.

Then, Bern returned to his usual calm and polite tone.

“Well then, I suppose you’ll have to be punished for your mistake.”

What?

Karina couldn’t get the words out.

Slap!

With a sharp sting on her cheek, her body spun through the air before crashing into a nearby restaurant’s food waste bin.

Bern glanced around briefly.

At first glance, it appeared as though he had thoroughly destroyed all five members of the party, but in reality, he had only been truly harsh with the warrior and the thief, while controlling his strength with the others.

By Bern’s own standards, there was neither excessive punishment nor leniency.

However, Bern knew that his judgment wasn’t always perfect.

So, he turned to Blanca and asked her.

“Is there anyone else here who deserves more punishment? If you can give me a specific number or how many times harder you’d like them punished, that would be helpful.”

“What kind of crazy talk...?”

Blanca, being the reasonable one, almost blurted out her honest thoughts, but then she remembered that this creature in front of her was, in a sense, both her benefactor and lifeline. She carefully adjusted her words.

“I... I think this is enough.”

“Is that so? As expected, my judgment was spot on. Hm-hm.”

Bern nodded contentedly.

His eyes were so clear that no one—Blanca or the others—could say a word.

[How the hell is this guy treated as the perfect Crown Prince... Ah, so it’s because he can’t release it there, so it’s spilling out here.]

The realization never reached any of them.