“Roy, nothing matters to me more than my family. I stand guard at the northern border year-round and stop the Army of the Ever-Night from setting a foot inside the empire for you and everyone in this county. But that bastard stepped on those very people using my name. I wanted to get rid of him a long time ago. Rather than blame, I must thank you for giving him a rude awakening.”
Arthur’s fingers curled into a fist, and the desire to skin Yiran alive was raging in his eyes.
Roy felt a shiver down his spine when he glanced at his brother’s eyes.
Arthur’s eyes were screaming fury and murder.
“Why didn’t you?” Roy questioned, his narrowed eyes falling on Arthur.
“Due to various reasons, I couldn’t.” Arthur sighed.
“The Ruthless general that eradicates dark mages mercilessly and destroys hordes of undead valiantly was chained from killing a man that has earned his wrath. Do you expect me to believe that?” Roy scoffed.
“Father stopped me.”
Roy was shocked to hear that from Arthur.
“W-what? But why?”
Roy questioned again. This time, Arthur didn’t answer him.
“It’s my turn to ask questions and your turn to answer them, okay? You were able to defeat him without anyone’s help, right?”
Roy nodded. “There’s no lie in that.”
“What do you think our family lacks the most?”
Roy really wanted to answer with this: ‘Decency, harmony, and humbleness.’
But he kept his thoughts to himself.
Who knows if this marauder would lose his temper after hearing his true thoughts and swat him to death?
“… I don’t know,” Roy answered after a moment.
“We lack talented youth who can participate in the Adulthood Ceremony under our family’s name. It’s to hit the empire in two months.”
Arthur took a breath before continuing, “Just like every other time, the top hundred thousand contestants would be given the awakening stone, and the top hundred will gain the right to undergo baptism on the awakening platform.”
Roy knew about it too.
The Adulthood ceremony was a shitty tradition that came into being after the founding of the Glorious Sun Empire.
The royal family that had monopolized the greatest treasures in the Far West used this event to differentiate the people worthy of awakening from the waste.
Fifteen to nineteen years old could participate in it.
They would tackle trials and compete with others to earn the right to awaken.
Usually, around a million youngsters take part in this event that’s held every year, but only a hundred thousand get to awaken.
The saddest part was that the descendants of commoners didn’t stand a chance against nobles and royals who are fed treasures and taught by the best from a very young age and act as a group in the trials of the ceremony.
So, to join such groups and not be ganged up on in the competition, the children of commoners with great martial or magical talent swear loyalty to people of status and become a part of their family before the ceremony.
Roy concluded that this ceremony existed to force talented youths of poorer backgrounds into serving people of status.
‘The royal family is not to be messed with. They are too scheming and controlling.’
The Royal Family wasn’t viewed in a good light by Roy.
“You must be interested in participating in it this year, right?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Since that’s the case… I will let you in on a secret only a few know.” Arthur said, “What most don’t know is that the family of the top hundred contestants this year would gain mystic tokens to access a Hidden Realm that opens once a hundred years.
“It would open up a year later. It’s rumored to be full of treasure. Father has been lucky enough to come across this information during his venture to the Capital years ago. Going there would be beneficial to Noah and me.”
“The awakening of Noah, I, and our sister couldn’t be delayed. But he calculated that you were to awaken this very year. You could earn that right for us, but because of your conditions, he didn’t have any expectations of you. It’s sad, but he didn’t treat you like family even then. I don’t know why he’s so biased against you. But because we wouldn’t have anyone to represent us in the ceremony this year, I went along with his wishes. We picked up war orphans from the street and purchased some others from starving families. We fed them, clothed them, and trained them for this very moment. Yiran was also trained for this purpose. You asked why our father stopped me from trashing him. Well, here’s your answer. He was among our best hope of gaining the hidden realm’s entrance tokens. And we couldn’t dissatisfy him. Or there was a chance of him going back on his words after getting them. That’s why he couldn’t be harmed or treated harshly.”
It hadn’t been two decades since this county came into being.
It was clear as day that it could not match families that have existed for hundreds of years.
This was made more evident in the face of the Adulthood ceremony.
But they were desperate to contend with them.
Thus, they took in outsiders with no background or fame and trained them.
If that were all, it would have been fine.
But they didn’t screen them and accepted both good and evil.
‘To think that even devils in human skin would be accepted into the family… The Fierce Sword Count is too desperate for the tokens.’ Roy internally shrugged.
Outwardly, he kept a composed face with no signs of cracking.
“You think too highly of him.” Roy said, “The Empire doesn’t lack talent. There are thousands of people better than Yiran. I fought with him, so I know he wouldn’t have made it in the top thousand, let alone the top hundred.”
He wasn’t met with a retort from Arthur.
“You’re right.”
Rather, Arthur agreed with him.
“I knew he wouldn’t go far in the ceremony without my help.” Arthur took out a palm-sized bottle. Inside it was a yellow liquid that was as shiny as gold under the light. “… That’s why I got this for him.”
Roy’s eyes widened to the size of saucers when he saw it.
“Th-this is… the Nectar of the Sun!”
A glance was all it took for him to recognize it.
Amusement transformed Arthur’s rather stern face. “You recognize it?”
Roy nodded in Arthur’s direction. “I read about it in a book.”
He went on to explain its effects to Arthur.
The Nectar of the Sun could be taken as an upgraded version of the Fruit of Light.
It was packed with violent energy.
This much amount can be taken by a trainee over seven days to level up no less than four times.
Roy was at the mythical level of body tempering. His Aura Gate was fully opened. He could use this to increase the size of his inner world. The greater its size, the more the amount of Aura/inner energy he would be able to store inside it.
Arthur, of course, didn’t know that. It was ridiculous to imagine that a person could go from level 5 to beyond level 10 within a month.
To him, Roy was still at the fifth stage of body tempering.
“Impressive. It looks like you’ve been doing more than just training. Yes, it’s as beneficial as you say. This was meant for Yiran. It would have pushed him to the higher levels of body tempering. He lost the right to have it because of being too arrogant and vicious. He has been judged for his crimes and sent to the gallows. Tomorrow would be his execution. I-”
Roy interrupted him before he could complete his sentence. “Yiran is going to get executed?”
Arthur tapped the armrest of the chair and looked out the window before opening his mouth.
“His past crimes were unearthed. He had done a lot of inexcusable things. So, of course, he is.”
Yiran had forced himself on many poor ladies of the nearby villages and was physical with the old and young.
This troublemaker was finally judged for his crimes after he was of no use to the count—what a merciless family.
He was to get executed tomorrow.
It was a fitting end for an abusive man drunk on power that didn’t treat humans with a status lesser than him as humans.
“Let’s not talk about that guy. I came here to give you a surprise. It would be a waste for me to take the Nectar of the Sun. And so… I would like to give it to you. You’ll feel a little ache when you use this to force open your Aura Gate. But the benefits will definitely outweigh the cons. You might even get pushed to the peak of body tempering overnight.” Arthur said to Roy, surprising him immensely.