The Useless Extra Knows It All....But Does He?

Chapter 474: Chapter 473 - Lead the Way! (2)

The atmosphere within the Drayden Manor grew noticeably quieter as Luca followed the elderly butler through the expansive corridors of the estate.

Unlike the lively sections near the reception halls, this wing of the mansion carried a solemn dignity befitting the residence of the family’s patriarch. The polished marble beneath their feet reflected the warm morning sunlight pouring through towering arched windows, while portraits of former Dukes watched silently from crimson walls adorned with banners that had witnessed centuries of the family’s history. Every few steps, fully armored knights stood motionless beside intricately carved pillars, their unwavering expressions making the entire corridor feel less like part of a home and more like the approach to a king’s throne room.

Neither Luca nor the old butler exchanged a single word.

Only the measured rhythm of their footsteps echoed softly through the otherwise silent hallway.

As they continued deeper into the manor, the number of servants gradually diminished until the corridor became completely empty. The air itself seemed heavier here, as though every stone had absorbed decades of authority and responsibility.

Eventually, they arrived before an enormous pair of dark oak doors reinforced with black steel. Ancient runic carvings stretched across the surface of the wood, depicting countless battles fought beneath the banner of House Drayden, while the family crest had been engraved proudly at the very center.

The elderly butler came to a respectful stop.

Turning slightly, he bowed toward Luca once again before speaking in his calm, practiced voice.

"His Grace is waiting inside."

Luca nodded slowly.

The butler then stepped aside.

He made no movement toward the doors.

No attempt to announce Luca’s arrival.

Instead, he simply gestured politely, silently indicating that everything beyond this point was meant for Luca alone.

For the briefest of moments, Luca remained standing before the massive entrance.

He inhaled slowly.

Then exhaled just as calmly.

Whatever awaited him beyond these doors, there was little point speculating any longer.

His crimson eyes steadied.

Without another moment of hesitation, he reached forward and placed both hands against the heavy doors.

They opened with a deep, resonant groan.

The study beyond immediately revealed itself.

It was vast.

Far larger than any ordinary office had the right to be.

Towering bookshelves stretched from floor to ceiling, each packed with countless ancient tomes whose leather bindings bore the marks of centuries of use. Massive windows overlooked the sprawling territory beyond the manor, allowing brilliant morning sunlight to flood the room, while maps of the Empire and neighboring kingdoms covered one entire wall. Display racks holding legendary weapons occupied another, each radiating the quiet dignity of relics that had once shaped history itself.

At the far end of the enormous chamber stood a single desk carved from dark crimson wood.

Behind it—

Sat the Duke.

Before Luca could properly examine anything further—

An overwhelming pressure suddenly descended upon him.

It was invisible.

Yet unimaginably heavy.

The air itself seemed to transform into solid stone as an immense weight crashed onto his shoulders from every direction.

Luca’s pupils contracted.

His breathing instinctively slowed.

For the smallest fraction of a second, surprise flashed across his face.

Pressure...?

The crushing aura attempted to force his body downward.

Attempted to overwhelm his instincts.

Attempted to measure him.

Yet almost immediately—

Luca’s mana responded.

His recently strengthened core pulsed naturally as space and time mana circulated throughout his body without conscious effort, dispersing the suffocating pressure before it could properly take hold.

He straightened once more.

His expression shifted from surprise to confusion.

What is this...?

Then—

A deep voice echoed across the enormous study.

"Good."

The single word had barely reached Luca’s ears—

When every instinct inside his body screamed.

Danger.

Without stopping to think, Luca threw himself violently to the side.

The next instant—

BOOOOM!

An earth-shaking explosion erupted where he had been standing only a heartbeat earlier.

The polished stone floor shattered apart as something unimaginably heavy struck it with enough force to leave behind a crater several meters wide.

Fragments of marble exploded in every direction.

Dust instantly filled the air.

Luca landed in a controlled roll.

He didn’t even have time to regain his footing.

The same overwhelming sense of crisis erupted again.

His body reacted before his thoughts could.

He rolled once more.

A second devastating impact crashed into the floor behind him, splintering another section of the study with terrifying force.

There was no pause.

No opportunity to breathe.

His instincts continued screaming.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Luca threw himself across the ground repeatedly, every movement guided entirely by the sharpened danger sense that had saved his life countless times before. Each time he vacated a position, another deafening impact demolished the exact place where he had been only an instant earlier.

Stone shattered.

Wood splintered.

Books cascaded from broken shelves.

The magnificent study disappeared beneath clouds of swirling dust and fragments.

Finally, seizing the briefest opening between attacks, Luca planted one hand firmly against the fractured floor while simultaneously reaching into his storage ring.

Twin flashes of steel emerged.

His sabers appeared instantly within his grasp.

With practiced precision, he drove both blades into the ground, their edges carving deep grooves through the stone as they absorbed his momentum and brought him to a complete stop.

The room had become almost impossible to see.

Dust filled every corner of the enormous chamber, reducing the world before him to shifting silhouettes and faint outlines hidden behind clouds of shattered stone.

Luca slowly rose into a guarded stance.

Both sabers remained firmly in his hands.

Every muscle in his body tensed.

His breathing steadied.

His crimson eyes scanned the dust-filled room with unwavering vigilance, searching for the unseen attacker whose presence he had yet to identify.

The shattered study remained engulfed in silence as the dust slowly began to settle.

Broken fragments of marble lay scattered across the once immaculate floor while splintered wood and torn pages drifted lazily through the air. Thin rays of sunlight pierced the lingering cloud of dust from the towering windows behind the room, creating countless golden beams that illuminated the destruction left behind in only a matter of seconds.

Luca remained motionless.

Both of his twin sabers were held firmly before him, their polished edges reflecting the faint sunlight filtering through the haze. His breathing had already returned to a steady rhythm, yet every muscle in his body remained taut like a drawn bowstring.

His danger sense...

Had not disappeared.

It remained.

Quiet.

Patient.

Waiting.

Then—

A heavy silhouette gradually emerged from within the settling dust.

Each measured step echoed throughout the ruined study like the beating of an enormous war drum.

The figure finally became clear.

The Duke of House Drayden stood several meters away, his towering frame seeming even larger than before. His blazing crimson hair rested neatly behind his broad shoulders, while his powerful physique resembled that of an ancient bear carved from solid stone. Resting comfortably within one hand was a massive black spear whose length exceeded even the Duke’s own height, its dark metallic surface carrying countless battle scars that silently testified to the wars it had witnessed.

Despite the destruction surrounding him—

Not a single strand of his clothing had become disordered.

His expression remained perfectly calm.

His violet eyes observed Luca with quiet scrutiny.

Luca frowned slightly.

"What exactly does—"

He never finished the sentence.

The Duke disappeared.

There was no gathering of mana.

No visible preparation.

One moment he stood several meters away.

The next—

Luca’s instincts exploded with warning.

Without hesitation, he twisted his body violently.

The enormous black spear swept past him with such terrifying speed that the resulting shockwave alone carved a deep trench across the stone wall behind him.

The impact never even touched him.

Yet the compressed air tore several strands of hair from beside his face.

Luca’s pupils contracted.

Fast.

Far too fast.

Before he could regain his footing, the Duke’s spear reversed direction with impossible smoothness.

Another strike arrived.

Luca crossed both sabers instinctively.

Steel collided against the black spear.

The sound resembled a thunderclap.

An overwhelming force surged through both arms as though an entire mountain had crashed into his body. His feet left the ground involuntarily before he was launched backward across the study, skidding uncontrollably through shattered marble until both heels dug deeply into the fractured floor.

His arms trembled.

Not from fear.

From impact.

That wasn’t even a direct attack...

He had barely blocked the edge of the strike.

Yet both hands had almost gone numb.

The Duke offered no opportunity to recover.

Another step.

Another disappearance.

Luca’s eyes struggled to follow.

He relied entirely upon instinct.

Space mana surged beneath his feet as he vanished from his previous position.

The spear descended.

The floor beneath him exploded.

Chunks of stone larger than a grown man were thrown into the air as another enormous crater appeared where Luca had stood only a heartbeat earlier.

He reappeared several meters away.

The Duke was already there.

The spear thrust forward.

Not wildly.

Not brutally.

Perfectly.

Every movement contained the refinement of countless decades spent mastering a single weapon.

Luca narrowly deflected the spearhead with one saber while the second blade immediately followed in an attempt to create distance.

The Duke didn’t even acknowledge the counter.

His spear rotated once.

The shaft itself struck Luca’s crossed sabers.

Another overwhelming shock travelled through his body.

His entire stance collapsed.

Luca barely managed to regain his footing before yet another strike descended from above.

His sabers rose instinctively.

The impact drove him to one knee.

Cracks spread beneath him.

His shoulders shook beneath the monstrous force pressing downward.

This is absurd...

He wasn’t fighting.

He was surviving.

Every movement.

Every dodge.

Every block.

Each existed solely to remain alive for one more second.

There was no opening.

No rhythm to exploit.

No opportunity to counterattack.

The Duke’s spear moved with terrifying simplicity.

Every strike contained exactly the amount of force required.

Nothing more.

Nothing less.

The realization unsettled Luca even further.

He’s controlling his strength...

If the Duke truly attacked with everything—

The study itself would probably cease to exist.

The pressure intensified once more.

Luca twisted away from another sweeping strike, only to feel the spear reverse direction almost instantly.

His body reacted on instinct.

He ducked.

The enormous weapon passed only centimeters above his head.

The violent gust alone shattered another bookshelf into countless splinters.

Luca immediately attempted to create distance.

For the first time since the battle began, he launched an attack of his own.

Both sabers flashed simultaneously, tracing twin arcs aimed toward the Duke’s torso.

The attack never reached its destination.

The black spear intercepted both blades with effortless precision before rotating once.

The shaft struck Luca’s wrists.

Pain shot through both arms.

His grip loosened for the briefest instant.

The Duke moved.

A single step.

A single thrust.

Luca forced himself backward with spatial mana.

Even so—

The spearhead still grazed across his shoulder.

His academy jacket split apart instantly.

Blood scattered lightly through the air.

Luca landed several meters away, breathing noticeably heavier now.

His crimson eyes never left the man standing opposite him.

The Duke remained exactly as composed as before.

Not a single unnecessary movement.

Not a single wasted breath.

It felt less like fighting a human...

And more like standing before an immovable mountain.

Then—

For the first time since the battle began—

The Duke shifted his grip.

Only slightly.

Yet the subtle movement immediately caused every instinct inside Luca to scream louder than ever before.

His danger sense erupted into complete chaos.

Every nerve in his body warned him of overwhelming danger.

The Duke’s violet eyes met his.

Then—

Without the slightest change in expression—

The black spear moved.

Luca reacted instantly.

Space mana erupted beneath his feet.

Time mana accelerated his perception to its limit.

His body twisted with everything it possessed.

Yet—

It wasn’t enough.

A deafening impact exploded throughout the study.

And Luca’s body was sent hurtling through the air.