The highlight of the seventh volume is the girl on the cover.
Rosetta was cornered.
It was almost the end of her first year at the academy, but her grades were terrible.
Her final grades were among the worst in the year.
When it came to the students of the first building, she was at the very bottom.
"How could it be—after all that hard work..."
She had spared no effort, even sacrificing sleep.
But she couldn't even catch up with her classmates.
As she walked down the hallway with a despondent look, students she had never seen before in the first building approached from the other side.
At the center of the group of five was Baron Berkeley—Derrick.
Rosetta turned her face away and tried to run, but her arm was grabbed.
"Where are you going, poor girl?"
Rosetta tried to free her captured hand, but Derrick's grip was stronger, despite his unhealthy thinness.
Derrick, who had undergone physical enhancement multiple times, was stronger than Rosetta, who had been working hard to train herself.
—This was the reality of this world.
"Let go of me!"
"Don't be so cold, Rosetta from the poor ducal family."
Derrick's cronies laughed heartily.
Derrick looked at Rosetta as if sizing her up.
"Your body is quite tempting, despite having received only minimal physical enhancement. As expected, you poor people who sell your bodies are excellent in that area."
When he pushed her, the terminal Rosetta was holding fell and displayed her grades.
Derrick and his cronies looked at the content and laughed.
"Don't look at it!"
She tried to retrieve the terminal, but Derrick snatched it away.
"Your grades are terrible. You're unfit to be a noble. No, you're worse than a commoner."
As Rosetta tried to snatch the terminal back from Derrick's outstretched arm, their bodies touched, and Derrick smirked.
"Ah!"
She was pushed and fell, surrounded by Derrick and his cronies.
"Rosetta, your family is supposed to receive genes from excellent nobles, right? I'll give you mine now."
Derrick unfastened his belt and looked at Rosetta as if sizing her up.
Rosetta was sweating coldly.
"What are you talking about?"
Derrick was serious.
"Be grateful. You'll inherit the excellent genes of the Berkeley family. But—don't dare to call yourself a Berkeley. I won't acknowledge your child."
Rosetta tried to escape from Derrick, who was saying such despicable things, but she was surrounded by his cronies and couldn't.
"Be grateful, you fake duchess, for receiving the excellent genes of this Lord Derrick!"
As Derrick reached out, Rosetta resisted but was easily pinned down.
"Stop! Someone, help!"
The students and teachers passing by in the hallway pretended not to see.
They didn't want to get involved with Derrick and the Berkeley family.
And they seemed to think that Rosetta wasn't worth helping.
(Why am I suffering like this! Why!)
When her mouth was covered and she couldn't scream, Rosetta blamed herself for her incompetence.
Then, one of the cronies was sent flying.
"Huh?"
Derrick looked at the flying crony and turned his head to the opposite side.
There stood Liam, walking with Kurt and Wallace.
"Who are you? I don't recognize you."
When Liam spoke, Wallace behind him looked pale.
"Liam, that's Baron Berkeley!"
Kurt was surprised.
"Isn't he the one who won the previous tournament? He's supposed to be a student in the second building, right?"
Kurt didn't seem to know much about the Berkeley family.
And it seemed the same for Liam—
"Why are you here? Never mind. Get lost, you're in the way."
Derrick, who seemed angry, shouted at Liam.
"Who do you think you're talking to! I'm Baron Berkeley!"
Then, Derrick was sent flying.
Liam had approached quickly and punched him in the face.
"Who do you think you're talking to? I'll show you the same treatment. I'm a viscount, you know."
Upon hearing this, one of the cronies who had run to Derrick's side realized something.
"Viscount? Banfield!"
Then, the crony was also sent flying.
"Don't call me by my first name, you scum!"
Seeing Liam, Kurt and Wallace shouted.
"Liam, violence is not the answer!"
"Ah! Liam, don't pick a fight with someone like that!"
The fallen Derrick and his cronies were picked up and fled.
Rosetta, in her disheveled uniform, sat on the floor.
Liam approached and extended his hand.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Rosetta pushed his hand away.
"Huh?"
Liam glared, but Rosetta glared back, tears streaming down her face.
"Don't touch me. I'm a duchess's daughter, even if I've fallen. I won't thank someone like you!"
She should have thanked him.
But the cornered Rosetta couldn't sincerely thank Liam for saving her.
She stood up unsteadily and fled.
(Why am I so foolish?)
She hated her own weakness.
She hated the people around her who didn't help her and looked down on her.
And she envied and hated Liam, who was pure and upright.
She was happy to be treated kindly, but it felt like a favor from someone more fortunate, which made her feel bad.
Rosetta was being pushed to her limits at the academy.
Watching Rosetta run away, Liam thought to himself.
—She's interesting.
I'm a viscount, but she refused to bow, saying she's the next duchess.
Wallace, looking around nervously, asked,
"Liam, do you know who she is?"
Worried, Wallace looked at Liam, who smiled.
"Yeah, I know. I like her."
Kurt's eyes widened when he saw Liam.
"Liam—your bad habits are showing again."
Hearing about bad habits, Wallace seemed concerned.
But Kurt didn't answer.
—Wallace doesn't need to know.
Wallace is basically a good person.
He's not a bad person like Liam and Kurt.
"Don't say that. It's just my taste."
I want to make Rosetta, who relies only on her family name, submit completely.
It would be amusing to see that haughty lady submit to me.
I like obedient and submissive people, but sometimes a rebellious woman is good too.
Tia and Marie, for example, affirm everything about me.
I like that, but humans are greedy creatures.
Sometimes I want to make a rebellious person submit.
—The blood of a corrupt lord is stirring.
That's what Kurt calls my bad habits.
Rosetta—curse your chosen misfortune.
I'll trample on everything you have.
Liam entered his room in the student dormitory with a smile.
Watching him, Kurt sighed when he was alone with Wallace.
"Really, Liam never changes."
Wallace was worried.
"Hey, is Liam okay? I don't want to lose my patron suddenly. And the other party is the Berkeley family."
"Family?"
Wallace became even more anxious.
"Don't you know!? They're called pirate nobles. They're a troublesome bunch even in the empire. They're on par with a ducal family in terms of scale."
The Berkeley family grants land to their children when they are born and makes them barons.
But the actual management is done by Derrick's father, the baron.
Their low rank is to reduce their contribution to the empire.
It's a result of choosing practicality over advancement.
Therefore, the Berkeley family is called the Berkeley Family, an organization of related baronial families.
While they engage in piracy, they are indispensable to the empire because they provide valuable elixirs.
"Pirates? That's why, huh."
"They're dangerous. We need to apologize immediately."
Kurt shook his head at the anxious Wallace.
"That's impossible. Liam doesn't show mercy to pirates."
"But they're nobles!"
"Even so, they're considered thieves by Liam once they engage in piracy. Liam once wiped out the fleet of the Petrack family for piracy."
Wallace was shocked.
"Petrack family—now I remember, you said you trained at the Reissel viscount's house. You were involved in that?"
Petrack's Peter was supposed to enter the academy but had to delay due to an explosion in his crotch that required treatment.
"But the Berkeley family is different. Liam can't beat them. They have more than just their own forces. They command pirates too!"
Kurt gave up after hearing this.
"Then it's even more impossible. Liam will never forgive pirates."
Wallace collapsed on the spot and put his hands on the floor.
"My independence—my future is over. It's all over."
Wallace was afraid of the Berkeley family's revenge.
In the second building's student dormitory.
Derrick had a bandage on his face.
"I'll kill Liam."
Angry about being hit, he decided to kill him immediately, and no one around him objected.
Then, Derrick declared that he wouldn't kill him for free.
"Destroy his territory completely. Take everything and torture him slowly before killing him."
If the guide had been there, he would have been overjoyed.
But he wasn't there.
"Hey, have you gathered information on him?"
"Yes! Here's what I have so far."
He hurriedly gathered the information and projected it in the air.
However, it was clear that there was a significant force at the main base, and Derrick knew it wouldn't be easy to defeat them.
"There's a frontier planet."
He focused on the frontier planet currently under development.
"There are only about a thousand defense forces there."
Derrick smiled, missing his front teeth.
"Deploy my fleet. Contact your families too. Gather the pirates. And we'll use 'it.' We'll attack his main base and take everything. We'll drain everything from that rich planet."
Derrick had no power within the family, but he could still gather a fleet of about three thousand ships.
With additional forces, it could reach six thousand.
He thought a frontier planet would be easy to turn into a wasteland.
"Hehehe, Liam—I'll make you regret angering me."
Derrick's evil hand reached out to the Banfield family's territory.
At the Banfield family's frontier planet.
The defense forces' base was in an uproar.
"Commander! A fleet of about six thousand ships is heading this way!"
"What!?"
The commander in charge of the defense forces was shocked at the enemy fleet displayed on the large monitor.
"Six thousand ships?"
"Yes, sir. No mistake."
The defense forces had been reinforced to 1,200 ships.
They were outnumbered, but—
"Who are these fools? To challenge the Banfield family, they must be pirates who drifted here from somewhere else."
The pirates feared Liam, and a pirate-like fleet was attacking his territory.
They probably thought they could destroy a frontier planet.
But the commander wasn't panicked.
"Evacuate the non-combatants immediately. The defense base will join the battle as a carrier. Report to headquarters urgently."
The massive carrier, called a fortress-class, which Liam decided to purchase after seeing Nia's sports bra, was serving as a temporary base for the defense forces.
Its performance was extremely high.
As the name suggests, it was a carrier that was virtually impregnable, like a fortress.
The operators hurriedly issued orders.
The commander looked at the enemy fleet in disbelief.
"There are still pirates who dare to challenge us—with just six thousand ships?"
The Banfield family's fleet, with the fortress-class as the main force, held out until reinforcements arrived and then ambushed the enemy.
The pirates begged for their lives, but were ignored and wiped out.
However, the defense forces had already cornered the enemy, and when their allies arrived, the enemy began to retreat.
The poorly timed retreat left the enemy with nowhere to run.
"What were they trying to achieve?"
The defense forces' commander scratched his head.
The fleet Derrick gathered couldn't turn the Banfield family's frontier planet into a wasteland.
Bryan (´・ω・｀) "Master Liam and his friends are not communicating well. This Bryan is worried."