Raden Zieghart smiled broadly upon arriving at the annex building. Soil was everywhere on the road because Sylvia and the maids in the annex building were tending the garden.
‘It’s perfect for picking a fight.’
The butler Merkin, who went before him, must’ve talked to them about the letter he never sent.
Since it wasn’t cleaned up despite a member of the direct line visiting them, there were countless ways to mess with them.
‘Until he comes out.’
He was visiting that small and dirty place in order to humiliate Raon Zieghart and make him kneel. He was going to keep provoking him until he started fighting him.
Sylvia approached him. Her eyes were calm despite knowing that he was there to cause a scene.
Raden laughed at the woman that would’ve been his aunt if she stayed in the house, provoking her.
However, her reaction was dull. Even though he spoke to her rudely, spat at her and trampled on the carefully raised flowers with his dirty shoes, she didn’t yield to his provocations.
Sylvia’s patience exceeded his expectations, and her expression was too calm—to the point that it was scary.
‘Damn it…’
Raden’s mouth became thinned. Directly attacking Sylvia could be dangerous, even for him.
‘I can’t return like this.’
As he was thinking about what to do, he noticed the maids cleaning up the soil with Sylvia. Their expressions were composed, but they couldn’t hide their trembling hands.
‘That’s it!’
He got a grasp on how he could provoke her, since the maids couldn’t control their minds as well as Sylvia.
Caw, spit!
Raden grinned and spat on Sylvia’s hand as she was cleaning up the ground. The oldest maid flipped out upon seeing that.
“That’s too much! Even if you are a member of the direct line, the main building won’t allow you to pick a fight like this in broad daylight!”
Just as he expected, she was successfully provoked and said things she shouldn’t have.
Slap!
Pushing away Sylvia as she tried to stop him, Raden walked up to the maid and slapped her cheek.
Just as she said, the department of justice wouldn’t let the matter slide, but probation was all he was going to get since he was a member of the direct line.
“You really don’t know your place. You are nothing but trash in this house.”
He giggled. It was as he was about to trample on the trembling maid that it happened.
With threatening pressure, a boy appeared from the annex building. His facial features were so serene that they could be called perfect.
‘That bastard is Raon Zieghart…’
He became even more irritated upon seeing his handsome face.
Clank.
Raon drew his sword.
‘There’s no way a brat that can’t even control his murderous intent would’ve killed the Green War Demon and fought against the Blood Raving Demon. How laughable.’
Raon stopped walking right under his nose. He only sneered despite having seen him drawing his sword, since there was no way he would swing it.
“Oh, are you going to swing that scary thing to me? Even though I’m a member of the direct line?”
His eyes looked like he was still retaining his sanity. As he was about to provoke him even more, Raon opened his mouth.
“So what?”
Even before the word reached his ears, a red light sparked in front of his eyes.
He gasped. He tried to step back in shock, but it was too late. His sword was already dashing towards his neck.
Crash!
He didn’t know what to do and closed his eyes. A powerful crashing sound could be heard from right in front of him.
When he opened his eyes, he saw his butler Merkin defending him.
However, Raon didn’t stop. Without missing the opportunity created by Merkin being unable to completely nullify the shock, he thrust his fist.
Crack!
Merkin collapsed backward upon receiving a direct hit to his temple, his body trembling.
“Y-you crazy bastard!”
“Do you realize who you have just attacked?”
“I do.”
Raon’s voice wasn’t trembling in the slightest. He was seriously intending to kill him.
“You are a robber that trespassed into my territory.”
“Bullshit! I’m the real master of this house!”
“This isn’t your house.”
He swung his sword again while spewing more lunacy.
“Fine! I was just going to play around, but I’ll rip your head off now!”
Raden thrust his sword. He was planning to deflect Raon’s sword and pierce his neck.
However, a mysterious rotation emerged from Raon’s sword and pushed back his sword instead.
“What the hell?!”
He barely managed to deflect Raon’s blow by twisting his sword while stepping back.
Whoosh!
As if Raon was expecting it, he approached him and slashed diagonally.
“Keuh!”
Raden groaned. His hand was trembling from blocking Raon’s blow. It was difficult to regain his advantage one he started losing.
“H-how dare you attack a member of the direct line! You and your mother will be punished to death!”
“I just need to behead you before that happens.”
A threatening strike grazed his shoulder while he said that.
Clank!
He barely managed to block the sword aimed at his neck.
“Keuh!”
What the hell is this guy?!
There was no opening in Raon’s swordsmanship as it stormed at him like a tidal wave. Even though the provocation had certainly worked, Raden was the one that was being disrupted.
‘Damn it!’
He wanted to gather his aura from his energy center to counterattack, but Raon wasn’t giving him the time to do that. He had no choice but to defend until the end.
‘Time, I just need time!’
If only he had the time to use his aura, he could kill a guy like that in an instant. And that was why he wasn’t giving him any time at all.
Raden gritted his teeth.
‘It can’t be helped!’
He needed to escape, even if he would be injured in the process. He forcefully gathered the aura from his energy center while blocking Raon’s sword.
Rumble!
It felt extremely painful, as if his mana circuit was being burned out, but a powerful aura surrounded his body.
“It’s over! You crazy bastard!”
Puffing up the muscles of his lower and upper body, he attacked with his aura gathered on his blade. The strike was powerful enough to cut through Raon and his sword at once.
However, Raon disappeared from his sight right before the blow hit him.
“Gasp!”
It felt like he was hallucinating. He couldn’t even begin to grasp where he was gone.
“You are the one that’s finished.”
He got goosebumps upon hearing Raon’s voice from behind him. He quickly turned around, but his fist was already touching his abdomen.
Slam!
He was bent double at the powerful shock.
“You.”
“It’s not over yet.”
Raon’s sword was rushing towards his heart.
“Uaaah!”
Terrified by the blade thrust at him like a ray of light, Raden closed his eyes and screamed.
* * *
* * *
Raon couldn’t pierce Raden’s heart. He stopped his sword right before he reached his chest.
There were two reasons.
First, Sylvia was shouting at him to stop, and the second…
Was because there were two swordsmen from the Heavenly Blade Division, under the head of house’s direct command, standing in front of Raden.
“Did you finally come out despite having done nothing when Helen was being beaten?”
The Heavenly Blade’s swordsmen didn’t react despite Raon’s threatening voice.
“Please step back.”
They lowered their posture, expressing their intention to protect Raden and hardened the wall.
“Huaaah!”
Realizing he had survived, Raden fell to the back. He pointed his finger at Raon while drooling.
“K-kill him! Kill that crazy bastard!”
“……”
“What are you doing?! That mutt attacked me, a member of the direct line!”
The Heavenly Blade swordsmen didn’t move despite Raden’s order. They were just standing still, like statues.
“Move aside.”
“Please step back.”
“Haa…”
Raon gathered his aura and steamed out between his teeth. The Heavenly Blade’s swordsmen were different from Raden’s butler. They weren’t opponents he could win against with a surprise attack.
“Raon, stop!”
“Young master…”
As he was about to use the ‘Ten Flames’ of ‘Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation’, Sylvia and Helen came up to him and grabbed his arms. The anger filling his head and heart melted away like snow in the spring upon seeing their wavering eyes.
“Y-you damn bastards! Do you realize who I am?”
Raden screamed and stood up.
“I’m the True Martial Palace Master’s son! Kill that bastard! No, I’m killing him! Get out of my way!”
“Young master Raden, please step back.”
The Heavenly Blade swordsman on the right turned around to stop Raden. They were separating Raon and Raden.
“We only listen to the head of house’s command. Please step back, both of you.”
“Keuh, you are just dogs guarding the house! I was beaten up by him!”
Raden grit his teeth and raised his sword. As he was about to attack the Heavenly Blade’s swordsman using all his aura, his butler Merkin—who had been unconscious—ran up to him and grabbed his shoulder.
“Y-young master, please stop!”
“Shut up!”
The way he was grinding his teeth and rampaging resembled a rabid dog.
“Young master, this is rather…”
Merkin whispered to Raden and he slowly stopped swinging his limbs.
“Let me go.”
Raden pushed Merkin away and met Raon’s eyes past the Heavenly Blade swordsmen.
“Raon Zieghart.”
His eyes glowed like those of a beast.
“I’m going to make you experience humiliation and pain worse than death! Just you wait.”
“Same goes for me.”
Crimson lightning sparked from Raon’s eyes.
“I’m never going to forget what you did here. You’d better fix your habit of closing your eyes when you are scared, since your head could get sent flying at any time.”
“Keuh! You damn insect! You would’ve already been six feet under if it wasn’t for that surprise attack!”
Raden burned in lunacy and tried to pounce at him, but he could only flounder his limbs around, blocked by Merkin.
“Y-young master! We have to leave now!”
“I’ll never forgive you! I’ll destroy the annex building itself!”
“Young master!”
Merkin left the annex building, forcefully dragging Raden out.
The Heavenly Blade swordsmen relaxed from their defensive posture a long time after Raden and Merkin had left, then walked up to Raon.
“This matter will be reported to the head of house. You should prepare an explanation.”
“Is that advice? I thought you didn’t care about anyone other than the direct line.”
“Raon, stop.”
Sylvia’s hand, holding his right arm, tightened. Raon clicked his tongue and sheathed his sword.
“……”
The Heavenly Blade swordsmen didn’t respond, silently leaving after bowing.
“My lady, young master. I-I’m sorry. I couldn’t hold myself back, despite my age…”
Helen knelt in front of Raon and Sylvia.
“That’s not true. You gave me so much courage just by stepping up.”
Sylvia looked like all her strength was gone, but she made Helen stand with a smile.
“It’s not Helen’s fault.”
Raon nodded. The source of the problem was still shamelessly existing, so there was no reason for her to apologize for doing nothing wrong.
“Raon.”
Sylvia hugged Raon from behind.
“You’ve become really strong. I felt really reassured when you stood in front of Mom.”
Her voice was both laughing and crying at the same time.
“Don’t worry about this matter. Mom will take care of it.”
“No, I…”
He turned around, trying to stop her, but he couldn’t speak because Sylvia was grabbing his shoulder tightly.
“It’s alright, just trust your mom.”
After saying that, Sylvia started to clean up the dirty ground, the trampled flowers and grass. Her peaceful expression was making the color return to the frightened maids’ faces.
‘She is strong.’
Sylvia should’ve been the most anxious of them all, yet she was reassuring the others instead. Her heart was sturdier than anyone there, either because she was a mother or because she was strong to begin with.
‘However.’
Raon closed his eyes while cleaning up the dirty areas with Sylvia.
‘I have to solve this problem.’
His experience and instincts were telling him the same thing. He was the one who could solve the issue, not Sylvia.
‘And…’
He had no intention of letting that bastard off the hook after he insulted Sylvia and hit Helen.
Whir.
No one noticed, but Raon’s crimson eyes were shining more intensely than ever.
