"Could it be because of the Sword Tomb Ceremony?"
Following that, Kabel muttered briefly to himself, and Daisy, with a look that suggested she had instantly grasped the situation, shouted firmly.
"I don't know what's going on, but no. That child is not a Linegrim."
"...Even if the young lady insists as such, there's nothing I can do. Those born with the Linegrim bloodline must all pass the Sword Tomb Ceremony after their tenth birthday."
The Seolam Daeju replied without a hint of retreat, causing Kabel to frown and shout.
"I am no longer a Linegrim. Doesn't that mean my son isn't either?!"
"No. While you may not be a Linegrim, Young Master Ruin is a Linegrim."
"Hah, you even know his name already?"
"It is because our lord is not so heartless as to abandon his own bloodline outside."
"Hah, hahaha."
At the Seolam Daeju's response, Kabel burst into incredulous laughter and shook his head.
"Yes, my father was always like that. That's why you, Freon, the Seolam Daeju, one of the Wall-Protecting Eleven Swords, came here personally."
"..."
Freon, the Seolam Daeju, showed no reaction to Kabel's sharp words.
Daisy, who had been listening quietly, spoke up again.
"Whether it's the Sword Tomb Ceremony or whatever, I have no intention of sending my son there. So please leave."
"That is not possi—."
"This is not a request."
Before Freon could finish, Daisy interrupted with a menacing aura, causing the kneeling Freon and his subordinate knights to stiffen slightly.
Then, Kabel also nodded, raising a longsword that had appeared from who knows where.
"I share my wife's sentiments, Seolam Daeju. Even if you are the shadow of the family, if you intend to take Ruin by force, you'll have to go through us first."
In an instant, a massive energy erupted from Kabel like an explosion.
Shling.
At the same time, he drew the longsword from his waist.
'Indeed, the rumor of him slaying a Giant Ogre wasn't a lie.'
Father Kabel began exuding an aura that only a master-level expert or higher could possess.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Soon, the kneeling knights stood up abruptly and drew their weapons.
And so did Freon, the Seolam Daeju.
"Young Master Kabel, are you really going to do this?"
But despite his earnest tone.
"I'm the one who doesn't want this, Seolam Daeju. You brought this upon yourselves."
Kabel simply replied in a firm tone.
And then.
"Brion, please take care of the children for a moment. Leave this place. You can escape through the back door."
Daisy said calmly to Brion.
Brion nodded quickly in response.
"Understood. Ruin, come over here quickly."
He called to Ruin while pulling Sylvia into his arms.
"I'm sorry, Uncle."
"What?"
Ruin replied suddenly, without hesitation, and walked toward his parents and the confronting Linegrim knights.
Step. Step.
"Ru, Ruin!"
Brion, startled by his unexpected action, shouted hurriedly.
"See you later, Sylvia."
"Huh? Okay."
Instead, he even gave a faint smile to the trembling Sylvia as he approached them.
"Ru...in?"
"Ruin, what are you doing right now?"
Naturally, Father Kabel and Mother Daisy looked at their son with bewildered expressions.
Ruin smiled brightly and replied.
"I'll go."
"What?"
"The Linegrim family's Sword Tomb Ceremony. I'll do it and come back."
"..."
Freon Zirka Jin, the Seolam Daeju of the Linegrim family, stared silently at the carriage where someone was riding.
The bloodline of his lord, the Northern Grand Duke who oversaw one wing of the Four Heavens, was inside.
'That child is only ten years old?'
A child with black hair and red eyes that left an impression.
He was the son of the seventh, Kabel, who had been treated as if he had been chased out of the family and left outside.
'He's completely different from Kabel. Not similar at all.'
It wasn't just about appearance.
Having lived his entire life solely to serve the northern sky, Freon had watched Kabel since his childhood.
Kabel Linegrim was free-spirited, willful, and very energetic from a young age, monopolizing the affection of many.
Of course, because he wasn't particularly bright, he alternated between foolish acts and pathetic behaviors, ultimately disappointing many.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have chosen to elope with a daughter from the Kaftalen family, with whom his own family had a terrible relationship.
'Then, is it from the mother's side?'
Freon briefly recalled figures from the Kaftalen family but soon shook his head again.
'No, that's not it.'
At least among the people he knew from there, none resembled or were similar to that child.
Soon, Freon recalled the recent encounter with the child.
The child who boldly stated his opinion in front of him, Kabel, and Daisy.
Even despite his parents' opposition, the child smiled softly and said:
'I want to face the roots I came from, at least.'
Roots—words that were oddly unsettling and hard to dismiss, coming from a child.
Especially if that child was a descendant born between Linegrim and Kaftalen...
Then.
'Plus, he's my grandfather, right? He surely doesn't hate me?'
At the child's following words, Freon calmed his momentarily confused mind and dismissed it as the innocent ramblings of a somewhat precocious child.
'Hah, you really don't know him at all. As if our lord would be like that.'
Recalling his lord, Northern Grand Duke Daemon Linegrim, he unconsciously let out a chuckle.
Then the child looked at him and continued.
'Why are you laughing? If he really hated me, he wouldn't have sent someone separately to call me. Oh, did he just send anyone? Are you perhaps someone insignificant in the family?'
Freon couldn't help but be flustered for the first time by the child's audacious question, delivered with untainted eyes.
'What?'
But Freon wasn't angry or offended by the child's words.
At least the name Seolam Daeju of the Linegrim Sword Duke family wasn't something that lost its weight just because an ignorant country child belittled it.
'Wait a minute.'
Thinking that far, Freon looked at the boy named Ruin with astonished eyes again.
'Could this child...'
In that moment, meeting the child's deep eyes, Freon felt as if he had encountered some unknowable dark abyss.
'Did he provoke me on purpose?'
It was an extremely impudent act, as if testing his thoughts and will.
At the same time, he suddenly thought.
'Isn't that something our lord often does?'
Recalling Northern Sword Duke Daemon, whose specialty was provoking and testing those around him, Seolam Daeju Freon turned his gaze back to the child named Ruin.
"..."
Did that mean Ruin, the youngest grandson at the very bottom of the Linegrim family, resembled the northern lord the most?
"No, it's a useless thought."
Freon quickly shook his head, shaking off the miscellaneous thoughts.
After all, the reason he was dispatched here was solely to uphold the Linegrim tradition.
'Once the Sword Tomb Ceremony is over, he's a child I won't see again.'
There was no need to pay attention to the son of Kabel, who had already been expelled from the family and lost all trust.
.
.
Boom!
With a loud sound, the massive, brilliant ink-black door closed.
This was the residence where the ruler of the north, the Linegrim Sword Duke who held one wing of the Four Heavens, stayed.
No, calling it a residence didn't do justice to its size and grandeur—it was on the scale of a castle.
'Is this the center of the north, [Banafen]?'
The mysterious high castle that only Linegrim blood relatives and those permitted by the Grand Duke could enter.
Even in the life of 1872, known as the legendary shadow, information about this place was extremely limited.
Naturally, infiltrating inside was impossible, an inviolable domain that no one had ever succeeded in breaching.
But.
'Now, just because of blood ties, I can come this deep inside.'
Step. Step.
Muttering that to himself with a faint smile, Ruin walked as slowly as possible, quickly scanning the surroundings.
Although it was a reincarnation, having fully retained the knowledge and experience of 1872, it was habitual for him to gather and process as much information as possible in a short time.
'The security at the main gate is extremely tight, and why are there so many magic formulas?'
Moreover, the ordinary guards protecting this place were of unimaginably high caliber.
'Ordinary guards are expert upper level? Truly befitting the continent's premier sword duke family.'
Through the senses of
"This is the main hall where our lord resides."
Ruin nodded at the explanation from Seolam Daeju Freon, who had been escorting and guiding him all this time.
"Then, do I go in here?"
"Yes, let me know when you're ready."
At his words, Ruin adjusted his clothes once more, tidying himself up.
Then,
"I'm ready."
"Understood."
Freon, the Seolam Daeju, maintained a polite demeanor, even using honorifics toward someone much younger.
He then whispered something to those waiting at the door, and soon the firmly closed golden door began to open.
Creak.
At the same time.
"Ruin Linegrim, eldest son of Kabel Linegrim, the seventh son of Daemon Linegrim, ruler of the north, enters."
Someone announced Ruin's introduction in a loud voice.
"Please enter."
Following Seolam Daeju Freon's guidance, Ruin slowly stepped into the wide-open main hall.
Soon after.
"Hmm? There was another child coming?"
"Ah, that one? The child that the seventh sired?"
"What? Then he's got that filthy Kaftalen blood mixed in? Hah, but he does look like one of us."
"No, look at those eyes. That's the signature red eyes of Kaftalen. Makes me want to pluck them out."
As soon as Ruin entered, voices immediately rang out.
"Hah, once you leave the family, that should be the end. Isn't Kabel being too pathetic? Why send his son here? Has he no shame?"
"It's the family head's will."
"Right, Linegrim is still Linegrim."
"Tch..."
It might be expected, but Ruin could immediately sense that the gazes upon him were far from kind.
No, it was an atmosphere of outright dislike and rejection.
However.
'It's a pretty familiar scene.'
Recalling his past life as the shadow of Paterion, Ruin unconsciously let out a chuckle.
He had washed away all their filth, but what came back to him was horrific contempt and vicious exclusion.
"You don't need to pay attention to the surrounding gazes."
At that moment, the voice of Seolam Daeju Freon beside him came through.
It seemed he was a bit concerned about a child receiving criticism from those around.
'This guy is a good person after all.'
"Yes, I'm fine."
"...Then that's good. I'll take my leave now."
Freon nodded as if surprised and soon left his side, heading elsewhere.
"Everyone, please take your seats."
Soon after, someone shouted, and those who had been chattering took their places on luxurious chairs, as if each had an assigned seat.
Plop.
Sit!
Most were likely people of position in the family or the family head's blood relatives.
'Hmm, truly befitting the Linegrim family, rulers of the north.'
Astonishingly, among those seated in the chairs, not a single one had failed to reach the master realm.
And on the red carpet spread in the center of the family head's hall, about a dozen children of similar age stood.
Most wore tense expressions, standing silently without a word.
But some of them began whispering among themselves at the sudden appearance of Ruin.
"Is that him? The child of the one who abandoned the family for that woman?"
"How could he do something so stupid? I can't understand it."
"Look at him, he seems totally dim-witted."
"Hey, like father, like son, right?"
Despite their young age, they were insulting Ruin and his parents, perhaps influenced by the adults here.
"..."
Ruin listened quietly to their words for a moment, then without hesitation, approached them and muttered.
"Yeah, that's right. I'm Ruin, son of that stupid guy."
"...What?"
"Ahem, what? Why suddenly talk to us?"
"Do I know you? Don't act friendly."
They immediately shut their mouths, avoiding Ruin's gaze or turning their heads.
Seeing them like that, Ruin smiled silently and muttered to himself.
'Tsk. Adults are one thing, but for clueless kids to act like this is a problem. Looks like some proper education is in order...'
Just then.
"Is everyone here now?"
As someone's voice rang out, the atmosphere in the entire family head's hall shifted instantly.
Ruin's eyes, which had been diligently scanning the surroundings, soon fixed on one spot.
Precisely on the elderly man seated on the golden throne at the center of the family head's hall, who had just spoken.
'That person is...'
"Yes, my lord. All the children participating in this year's Sword Tomb Ceremony have been assembled."
One of those who had been seated stood up abruptly, bowed politely, and replied.
'Daemon Linegrim.'
He was the true ruler of the north, one of the heavens of the continent, the Northern Grand Duke.
And what astonished Ruin even more was.
'What the hell is this insane presence?'
Even though everyone around was a master-level powerhouse, his overwhelming presence made them seem like mere background.
'It's on a completely different level.'
Having lived the life of 1872, he had personally felt and experienced the strength of the Western Wing Duke, Loven Paterion.
But this...
'Who said the Four Heavens are equal?'
That was just baseless rumor from ignorant fools.
Ruin realized it clearly here.
'The Northern Sword Duke is far stronger than Loven Paterion!'
Of course, considering the generational difference, Loven Paterion might reach a similar level at that age.
But at least for now, the Northern Sword Duke was unquestionably superior.
With that thought, Ruin's palms began to sweat unconsciously.
'If I could inherit that one's power...'
With
Just then, the voice of Northern Sword Duke Daemon echoed in his ears.
"Are you Kabel's son?"
Caught off guard by the unexpected call, Ruin shook off his thoughts and immediately knelt.
"I greet the lord of the north. I am Ruin, eldest son of Kabel. It is an honor to meet you for the first time."
"..."
Ruin responded with the utmost etiquette, but Northern Sword Duke Daemon's reaction was lukewarm.
He merely glanced at him indifferently once, then waved his hand and muttered.
"Hmm, begin."
At his words, the middle-aged man who had remained standing without sitting bowed his head.
"Then we will proceed with the Sword Tomb Ceremony immediately."
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T/N:
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