Chapter 572

Chapter 572

Whaam!

Karoon stomped the ground violently. His irritation and rage spread with the resonance to make the main building’s garden tremble.

“Damn it!”

He violently ground his teeth, still frustrated after he stomped on the ground over and over.

“Calm down a little.”

Balder sighed and went up next to Karoon.

“I feel shitty, too, but it couldn’t be helped this time. There’s no way they wouldn’t be nice to someone who became a Grandmaster and beheaded the Master of the Wise Dragon Sword at twenty-one years old.”

He furrowed his brow, saying that he should be able to understand.

“Feeling shitty, you said?”

Karoon twisted his lips while glaring at Balder.

“You spineless fool. Wipe that smile off your face and try saying that again.”

“Err, hmm...”

Balder hurriedly touched the sides of his lips.

“Have you still not learned your lesson after you got humiliated so much by that young bastard?”

“Th-that’s not true...”

“Of course, it’s a good thing that the house became more famous and we have a rising star. However!”

Karoon bit his lip tightly and continued.

“He is Raon, the collateral. He is a monkey whose bloodline we don’t know!”

“Hmm...”

“Moreover, he is already out of our reach.”

“Out of our reach?”

“We can’t keep him in our grasp and order him around. He is an enemy that we have to compete with for the position of head of house. Have you still not realized that fact?”

He tapped on his head with his finger, telling him to think about how Glenn and Aries were caring for Raon.

“Ah, that’s why...”

Balder’s lips trembled, finally understanding the sense of crisis.

“I-it’s not too late to take action...”

“It’s already too late.”

Denier came out from behind the bushes in the garden and casually shook his hand.

“What?”

“You heard the rumor that our father personally taught Raon swordsmanship, didn’t you? That was true. Moreover, he’s been teaching him for quite a long time.”

Denier leaned his back against a pillar in the garden while letting out a faint laugh.

“I warned you. Our father has already been viewing Raon as a successor candidate.”

“Wa-wait! He is far too young for that!”

Balder shook his head, saying that it didn’t make any sense.

“It’s Raon we are talking about, not Sylvia! How could we even compete with a nephew for the head position?!”

“He might like him even more precisely because he is young. He is the youngest Grandmaster in the continent, and he has built a good amount of reputation. The popularity and awareness of our house should increase quite a lot if Raon becomes the head. I don’t think it’s a bad idea.”

Denier nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders.

“Considering the fact that he brought up the duel to death against the Axe King, I think he is probably going to take Raon into the direct line at the beginning of next year and declare him the successor right after. What do you think about it, Karoon?”

“......”

Karoon didn’t respond to Denier’s question and simply looked at him with a frown.

“Why are you glaring at me so hard? It’s not like I’m Raon.”

Denier chuckled and turned around.

“What I'm trying to tell you is that you shouldn’t touch Raon for no reason and awaken the beehive. You know that no one can stop Aries if she starts to rampage. Let’s live quietly.”

He casually shook his hand and left the garden.

‘Denier...’

Karoon furrowed his brow while looking at Denier, who disappeared into the darkness.

‘What are you thinking?’

* * *

Raon’s fingertips trembled as he saw Glenn’s serious eyes.

‘It must’ve been hard for me, he said...’

Anyone could say that, but no one did for him. Glenn’s short sentence had melted the dark lump blocking his mind.

‘So that was what I wanted to hear all along.’

Raon finally realized why he didn’t really feel happy when he was rewarded with a golden tablet and additional rewards from Glenn in lord’s manor.

He realized that he wanted mental stability rather than a materialistic reward.

‘I’ve become weaker. No, this might be human, not weak.’

In his previous life as an assassin, he pretty much lived as a marionette controlled by strings, killing whoever he was asked to kill and kidnapping whoever he was asked to kidnap.

Since he’d been living as a hunting dog on a leash, he never had any room to feel betrayal.

Even when he was killed by Derus while preparing to run away after he removed the brainwashing using Ring of Fire, he didn’t feel betrayed because he didn’t trust him to begin with. He was just furious.

However, his new life was different. He’d encountered many people, and he’d shared his affection and his mind with them.

Rector was one of them. Raon treated him like his own grandfather and learned swordsmanship and life from him. That was why his betrayal stabbed him even more deeply and painfully.

“You are rather blessed with people.”

Glenn calmly shifted his gaze. His calm voice continued as he stared at the lake.

“The children who bullied you during your childhood repented from the bottom of their hearts and became your subordinates who can support you now, and your master became a superior who can risk his life for your sake. No matter what you become, their feelings towards you aren’t going to change. It goes without saying for the people in the annex building.”

“......”

Raon gave a small nod. As he said, the Light Wind division—including Burren and Martha—had begged for forgiveness for their immature mistakes in their childhood, and Rimmer had made a training regime appropriate for each person despite being lazy.

His family in the annex building, including Sylvia and Helen, were also going to be with him for the entire life, so it wasn’t really wrong to say that he was blessed with people.

“The reason why you are struggling right now is because you are feeling betrayed for the first time at the hand of someone that you cared about and considered yourself having a good relationship with. If such a thing ends as a betrayal, it is bound to be painful.”

Glenn nodded, showing that he could understand Raon’s feelings.

“Hmm...”

Raon licked his lips while feeling like Glenn’s back, which had always felt so far away, had gotten a bit closer.

‘This is unexpected.’

He’d thought that Glenn would simply scold him, but he was unexpectedly comforting him.

“Not everyone who approached you favorably can be good people. There aren’t many people like Balder, who shows everything he is thinking on the outside.”

It felt like Glenn’s voice was laughing faintly when he used Balder as an example.

“Follow me.”

He gestured with his finger and went over the lake towards the North Grave Mountain.

Even though he looked like he was simply walking, he was advancing as if he’d transcended space, making it impossible to catch up to him.

Glenn’s steps came to a halt at a wide open area at the entrance of the North Grave Mountain.

Snap.

He took a small branch from the bushes and gestured at Raon with his chin.

“Draw your sword.”

“What?”

Raon Zieghart Style — Sixth Form

Divine and Demonic Harmony Combination Technique

Red-Blue Invincible Sword

The luminance of flame and frost cutting through the sky and land engulfed Glenn.

“It’s a nice sword.”

Glenn exclaimed faintly for the first time and raised his branch.

The crimson lightning surging from the center of the branch clashed against the Red-Blue Invincible Sword’s flow.

Claaaang!

The tremendous clash between the lightning energy against the flame and frost shook the land beneath them, but the ground where Glenn was standing wasn’t shaking in the slightest.

However, a single leaf dropped to the ground while swaying left and right from the branch he was holding.

“Hah...”

Raon laughed bitterly and sank to the ground.

‘I only got a single leaf.’

He could only laugh because a single leaf was all he managed to take off with his best efforts.

It’s not only a single leaf.

‘What do you mean by that?

It means that you’ve managed to do it in your own way.

‘Hmm?’

Unexpectedly, Wrath didn’t laugh at him, murmuring something that Raon couldn’t understand exactly.

“Hmm...”

Glenn stared at the fallen leaf before he went to the bushes. He returned the branch he’d broken to the spot it was originally and rubbed his fingers, reattaching the branch as if it was never broken to begin with.

“Th-that’s...”

Raon’s lips parted before he knew it because he’d never expected that the broken branch would be reattached.

“If there are swords that can kill, there are also swords that can save. I’ve only recently been enlightened on how to do it, so don’t be so surprised.”

Glenn lightly tapped on the branch that had returned to the original and looked at Raon.

“So, are you feeling better now?”

“What? Ah, yes...”

Raon nodded blankly.

‘I’d completely forgotten about it.’

He forgot about Rector while he was sparring against Glenn, and he felt refreshed, as if his frustrated mind had returned to normal.

“You think too much. You need to empty your head from time to time.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

“I’m saying this because you manage to sort out your feelings.”

Glenn briefly clicked his tongue and looked up to the night sky.

“About Rector, I didn’t see him either as the type of person who would betray people.”

Glenn shook his head, saying that it was a bit regrettable.

“Hey...”

Raon briefly raised his hand while looking at Glenn.

“I have something I’d like to tell you.”

“What is it?”

“Actually...”

Raon told him about what Rector had done and the situation back then.

“I see.”

Glenn didn’t brush it off as nonsense and nodded peacefully instead.

“I’ve taken notice. However, it doesn’t change the fact that he is our enemy.”

“I know.”

“In that case, that’s fine.”

He nodded and turned around.

“I’m taking my leave now.”

“Th-thank you for today.”

Raon bowed at Glenn sincerely.

“I was just rewarding you for your achievements from this mission.”

Glenn left towards the main building, leaving behind a slightly coldhearted voice.

“Haa...”

As soon as Glenn couldn’t be seen anymore, Raon lay down on the ground and exhaled in a refreshed manner. The ground was harder than his room, but his mind was at ease.

“This is nice.”

* * *

Glenn didn’t immediately return to the lord’s manor. He was watching Raon while leaning his back against a tree rising midway up in the North Grave Mountain.

“It must be painful.”

Raon didn’t even understand why he was having such a hard and painful time.

He pretended to be coldhearted, but he’d grown up while sharing affection with people. That was why Rector’s betrayal must’ve affected him even more strongly and deeply.

‘Not everyone is a good person. And not everyone is evil either.’

Glenn had prepared that meeting in order to prevent Raon from distancing himself from the others. He was glad to see that Raon had somewhat vented out his emotions.

‘You should be able to overcome it.’

Glenn narrowed his eyes while looking at a fallen leaf near Raon’s feet.

‘By the way... The sword field he created is really outrageous.’

Raon’s sword field was beyond his expectations.

The power, durability, and sustainability were extremely high, and the biggest advantage was that it was still incomplete.

‘No, rather than incomplete, it should be said that it can grow.’

Raon’s sword field perfectly incorporated his mental world. That implied that his sword field was going to grow according to the growth of his upper energy center. Raon’s sword field truly had infinite potential.

In fact, Raon’s sword field had improved during the spar itself.

The proof was the fact that the branch had lost a leaf even though Glenn had been maintaining its shape with his will matching Raon’s estimated output.

‘And...’

Glenn closed his eyes.

‘That golden flame.’

The flame from Raon’s sword had a faint golden radiance in the midst of the red glow. It was the golden flame that had only appeared once even in the long history of Zieghart. The flame of the founding head was seeping into Raon’s soul.

“The path of domination isn’t the one that suits you.”

Glenn slowly raised his eyebrows.

“I’ll take all of the malice and disgrace with me. So, Raon, you...”

He smiled, gazing at Raon with his red eyes where his tender affection was showing up

“...shall walk the righteous path.”