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Chapter 33

At this point, I looked back at the words I’d said.

I... am... the youngest son... of this house.

Subject, verb, object, prepositional phrase.

I couldn’t see anything wrong with my sentence.

Someone called for me.

“Luan of House Bednicker?”

It was the man standing atop the platform. I had seen him a few times in the main house.

That’s Rook.

Captain of the Iron Blood Knight Order, Rook.

Half brother of the family head.

“Here.”

Rook looked at me for a second longer before nodding.

“You have been confirmed. Please sit down.”

“...”

What was he being so polite for?

And “sit down”...?

To begin with, what was this place?

I scratched the back of my head as I recalled the events that had led to me coming to this hall.

I had arrived at the main house with Arzan’s help somehow, and even though I’d wanted to take a warm bath and fill my belly with delicious food, I hadn’t been able to.

I had met someone unexpected near the entrance to the mansion: Collector Kayan.

—Oh! Sir Kayan, it’s been a while...

—Young master, you need to hurry to the hall.

—What?

Because of Kayan’s fussing, I was practically pushed all the way to the hall... and this situation was the result.

In any case, I didn’t want to stay standing up, so I stumbled a little and sat down on an empty seat.

“With that short interruption out of the way, I will continue. Tonio of House Paris...”

Rook continued to name people from his platform.

Now that I think about it, wasn’t the Blessing Ceremony tomorrow?

I felt like I had a general idea of what was happening, but just to check, I turned to the person sitting next to me.

“What’s happening right now?”

“Don’t act friendly with me unless you want to die.”

“Wow.”

I reeled back in shock.

She was a girl of similar age to me, but she had an interesting hair color, somewhere between white and silver.

More than anything, though, her expression was the most memorable.

I hadn’t even done anything wrong, but she glared at me like I was an insect for a moment before whipping her head away.

[Hooh... She’s a holder of a peculiar origin.]

Holy—

I was caught by surprise by the Martial God’s sudden voice.

Have you awoken? You didn’t give a single reply when I tried to talk to you.

[Didn’t I tell you? I won’t wake up unless I feel a special presence near me.]

You never said that.

[Did I not?]

Martial God sounded a little playful.

[More importantly, it seems everyone here has the blood of the heroes. Am I right?]

I guess?

[This truly is a gathering of gems. This girl in front of you especially, she seems to be the descendant of a brilliant bloodline that rivals even yours. Do you perhaps know her?]

No way.

Unlike with Calzark, I was familiar with neither her looks nor her voice.

Frankly, there was no way I would’ve forgotten a face as memorable as hers.

Still, something was a little off. I didn’t think I could just discount her personality as being harsh...

Ah.

Now that I thought about it, I probably looked like a dirty beggar and smelled terrible.

Well, I still want to check out the situation, so please stay quiet.

[Even if you didn’t say that... it seems I must return to my slumber...]

The Martial God’s voice faded.

I waited for Rook to finish reading through his list of names...

Ehm...

But my eyelids felt heavy for some reason.

Maybe because I felt safe after arriving at the main house, but my body started to loosen a little.

“...Luan.”

“...”

“Luan Bednicker.”

“...”

“Get up.”

“...Shp.”

I opened my eyes a little as someone shook my shoulder.

It seemed I had fallen asleep at some point.

As I swallowed the drool that had gathered in my mouth and raised my head, I saw Rook looking down at me.

“...The schedule for today has ended. The hall needs to be cleaned, so go back for today.”

I looked around in a daze; I really was the only one present.

“O... okay...”

My words were a little slurred, and as I tried to stand, I found it wasn’t as easy as I’d expected.

It was probably because my body’s condition wasn’t the best right now.

I was still suffering the after-effects of Flaming White.

And since it had only been four days since we defeated the gem beast in the mountains, it would take three or so more days for my body to completely recover.

I need to go see Mother as well.

I wanted to go see her right away, but I probably shouldn’t show her my current state when it was my first time seeing her in a while.

I decided to go wash my body, but as I went to leave the hall, someone was standing next to the door as if he was blocking the entrance.

Since it was a new face, I tried to just walk past him, but he spoke to me.

“Luan Bednicker.”

“Who are you?”

“Hariba Garcia.”

“Garcia?”

I remembered one of the Bednicker branch families having that name.

I tilted my head a little.

“Do you have business with me?”

“...”

Hariba looked at me with a blank expression, but I narrowed my eyes.

What’s with this guy?

This should be the first time we’d met.

His fingers were fidgeting without rest, his breathing was broken, and his eyes were slightly bloodshot. These factors informed me of his true feelings beneath his cold expression.

This man harbored killing intent against me.

Hariba continued to glare at me for a moment before leaving without saying anything.

I felt like I needed to smack him on the back of his head to not feel bad about this encounter, but it would be difficult for me to chase after him in my current state.

More than anything, cleaning up was my first priority.

As I took my first step again...

“It’s been a while.”

* * * * *

* * * * *

Fuck.

Let me go wash myself.

I was getting pissed that every step I took invited a new conversation like it was a regional tradition.

I looked to see who was calling out to me this time, and thankfully, it was someone I knew.

“Hector?”

“What?”

“...Elder brother,” I added belatedly, and Hector let out a dry laugh.

Of course, he wasn’t laughing because he found it funny.

“I never expected to see you here again.”

Was it really that odd that someone of the Bednicker bloodline was at the Bednicker main house?

I couldn’t tell for sure what he meant just from looking at his expression.

However, because he missed me after not seeing me for so long, because he wanted to deepen our relationship as brothers... those probably weren’t the reasons for his reaction.

Even though the same blood flowed through us both, we were only half-brothers.

The person who had spearheaded treating me like trash after I was deemed talentless was Hector himself.

“I’m sick of it,” said Hector.

Maybe I should’ve expected this.

Hector’s lips curled as he continued to glare at me.

“I am sick of your shamelessness.”

“...”

“Just what face do you have to return to the main house? Was it not enough to taint the honor of the house after the First Blessing Ceremony?”

I could see the veins in Hector’s eyes.

It seemed as if he was going to tear me apart right here and now, and I could make an easy guess as to why he was so angry.

Although all children of the Lord of Blood and Iron wished to be recognized by their father, Hector’s case was a lot more severe.

If it meant he might hear the words “well done” from the family head, Hector wouldn’t hesitate to turn dozens or even hundreds of people into corpses.

“The family head personally called for me,” I said.

“I heard that as well. I still find it difficult to believe.” Hector let out a sigh. “It’s definitely because the Council of Elders... because those old and weak fools said something stupid.”

“...”

“Father is a busy man. He cannot perfectly understand every small detail of this house.”

From his expression and tone of voice, I could tell that he held immense respect for the Lord of Blood and Iron.

However, in the next moment, his expression changed as if that had been just a mask.

“You’re the problem. To crawl all the way back here just because Father called for you... Do you ever think? This is different from the First Blessing Ceremony. At that time, neither the imperial house nor those damned Goodsprings were in attendance... but the fourth imperial prince and the daughter of Goodspring are both here now.”

“...”

“If you had any shame left in you, you wouldn’t have come.”

I looked at Hector.

“So what?”

“What?”

“I’m here now. What are you saying I should do?”

I wasn’t in the best mood because I was still dirty, but I was even more pissed because of his random insults.

“If I had not come here as Father told me to, you would’ve told me off for not obeying Father. So stupid.”

Hector’s face hardened into a frightening scowl, and he raised his hand toward me.

I could easily see his movements... but it would probably be difficult for me to dodge it right now.

As I had stated before, the after-effects of Flaming White hadn’t completely disappeared yet.

Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.

But still, getting hit once here and going to the bath was better than just standing around.

...But before his fist reached me, someone stepped between us and caught his attack.

Hector furrowed his brow.

“Who are you?”

It was Arzan.

She had been stationed outside the hall and seemed to have come in at the right time.

“My apologies. It seemed to have exceeded a siblings’ conflict.”

“Are you his butler?”

“...”

“Let go.”

Arzan did as Hector said.

Slap!

Hector slapped Arzan’s cheek, and her monocle was sent flying.

Drip.

Did something tear in her mouth?

It wasn’t surprising since she was smacked with the back of his hand.

Arzan could’ve dodged it, but she seemed to have chosen to get hit to pay for stopping the attack headed for me.

“...”

It was weird. Why did seeing her get smacked feel worse than if I had been smacked?

“I don’t know what the Council of Elders are thinking. Isn’t the purpose of collection to get rid of trash like this?”

“...”

“You should pray for at least a single blessing tomorrow. If it is again declared that you have not even received one blessing, I will not stand still.”

Hector had a look on his face that pissed me off as he turned around.

Right then, I walked up and smacked him in the back of the head.

Smack!

“...?!”

Hector couldn’t even understand what had happened to him.

With his skill, he should’ve been able to notice that I had approached him from behind.

However, what had surpassed his expectations was that I would smack him on the back of the head.

“You bas—”

Hector regained his balance and turned to me.

As he did, his fist, filled with anger, swung straight at me.

No matter how fast an attack was, it was easy to dodge if you knew the timing.

Especially for a direct punch like this.

I dodged his punch without a problem and smacked him on the cheek.

Slap—!

“...”

Hector’s eyes lost focus for a moment.

It wasn’t from the pain; he looked like a scholar who had seen something unbelievable. He was losing his mind.

I quickly removed my hand from his face and swung the back of my hand at his other cheek.

Smack!

After having been smacked on the cheeks twice now, Hector finally came to his senses.

This time, he didn’t even say anything, he just punched. But it was a much sharper punch than before, as if he had regained his composure in that short time.

Vwoong—

As I again dodged that attack by the skin of my teeth, he ground his teeth.

“You...”

In his anger, he actually reached for his sword on his hip.

Is he really going to draw it here?

I had my Sword of Seven Sins on me, but in its current state, it was no better than a butter knife.

While I was considering how I should respond to him...

“Stop right there—!”

A lion’s roar cut between us.