The sheer wind pressure from the descending Wyvern felt like a physical blow. Kaiser, already battered and bruised, was forced to shield his face with his arms as a maelstrom of dust and debris kicked up across the obsidian courtyard.
The beast landed with a thunderous impact that shook the foundations of the estate. It folded its massive, leathery crimson wings, letting out a low, rumbling growl that smelled intensely of sulfur and old blood.
Seraphina was already on one knee, her head bowed in absolute submission, her practice sword resting flat on the ground beside her.
Kaiser, however, remained slumped against the pillar. He tried to push himself up, but his chest screamed in agony where Seraphina had practically caved in his ribs. He managed to get to his feet, leaning heavily against the cool stone, but he refused to kneel. He was exhausted, bleeding, and running on pure adrenaline, but his newfound gamer pride wouldn't let him grovel.
From the back of the Wyvern, a figure descended. She didn't climb down; she simply stepped off the saddle, plummeting thirty feet and landing with terrifying grace, her spiked obsidian heels clicking sharply against the stone.
Isolde Warborn. The Blood Iron Duchess.
Kaiser's breath hitched. Inherited memories hadn't done her justice. She was a woman of devastating, lethal beauty. She stood nearly six feet tall, draped in form-fitting obsidian armor layered over a dress of deep, aristocratic crimson. Her hair was a waterfall of midnight black streaked with violent red, and her eyes—sharp and glowing—were the exact color of freshly spilled arterial blood.
She radiated an aura so oppressive it physically made the air heavy, tasting of copper and impending doom.
As she stepped forward, the translucent blue screen of the System materialized violently in front of Kaiser's eyes, the text flashing a vibrant, dangerous red.
[TARGET ACQUIRED: Isolde Warborn (The Blood Iron Duchess)]
[Current Affection: -40% (She views you as a political stain, a waste of rations, and actively anticipates your demise.)]
[Warning: Target possesses overwhelming S-Rank strength. Lethal force is authorized by Target at her own discretion. Proceed with extreme caution. One wrong word will result in instant death.]
Negative forty percent, Kaiser thought, wiping a smear of blood from his chin. Mommy issues just took on a whole new meaning.
Isolde walked past the kneeling Seraphina without so much as a glance. Her blood-red eyes were locked entirely on Kaiser. Each step she took seemed to echo directly in his skull.
"Seraphina," Isolde spoke. Her voice was like velvet wrapped around a serrated blade—smooth, aristocratic, but promising violence. "Why is the parasite bleeding on my courtyard? Did I not instruct the guards to keep him confined to the library where his frailty wouldn't offend my eyes?"
Seraphina kept her head bowed. "Mother, we were... sparring. He requested it."
Isolde paused, stopping mere inches from Kaiser. Up close, her aura was almost suffocating. "Sparring? With you? And he is still drawing breath? You are getting sloppy, Seraphina."
"He... he managed to land a strike on me, Mother," Seraphina admitted, her voice tight with humiliation.
Isolde's perfect, ruby-painted lips parted slightly in genuine surprise. She slowly turned her gaze back to Kaiser. Her eyes narrowed, scanning his battered, lean frame, lingering on the raven-black hair and sapphire eyes of his disguise.
Quicker than Kaiser could blink, Isolde's gauntleted hand shot out. Her armored fingers wrapped around his throat, lifting him an inch off the ground and slamming him back against the obsidian pillar.
"Ghk—!" Kaiser choked, his hands instinctively coming up to grip her wrist. It felt like trying to move a steel girder.
"A strike?" Isolde whispered, leaning in so close he could smell the faint scent of crushed roses and iron on her skin. "The boy who faints during basic mana theory classes bypassed the guard of my prodigy daughter? Explain this anomaly, parasite, before I crush your windpipe for lying."
Panic flared in Kaiser's chest, but [Otaku's Insight] forcibly calmed his mind. She respects strength and despises cowardice. Pleading will only get me killed faster.
Ignoring the screaming pain in his throat and his fractured ribs, Kaiser forced himself to relax his grip on her wrist. He looked directly into her terrifying, blood-red eyes. Slowly, agonizingly, he pulled his lips into a confident, almost arrogant smirk.
"I... got tired... of playing dead, Mother," he rasped, forcing the words out around her iron grip. "I decided... it was time to start acting like a Warborn."
Isolde's eyes widened a fraction of a millimeter. The sheer audacity of his gaze—the absolute lack of the sniveling terror she was accustomed to seeing in him—caught her completely off guard.
[Target: Isolde Warborn. Emotion detected: Deep Suspicion, Microscopic Intrigue.]
[Affection updated: -40% -> -38%.]
With a disgusted scoff, Isolde released him. Kaiser dropped to the floor, hacking and gasping for air, rubbing his bruised throat.
"Acting like a Warborn?" Isolde laughed, a chilling, melodic sound that made the hairs on the back of Kaiser's neck stand up. "You possess an F-Rank mana core, Kaiser. You have the constitution of a sickly elven peasant. Do not insult my bloodline with your delusions of grandeur."
"It's not... a delusion," Kaiser wheezed, using the pillar to drag himself back to his feet. He met her gaze once more, standing as tall as his battered body would allow. "In two months, I am taking the entrance exam for the Zenith Grand Academy. And I am going to pass."
The courtyard went deathly silent. Even the Wyvern seemed to stop moving. Seraphina's head snapped up, staring at Kaiser as if he had just signed his own death warrant.
Isolde stared at him for a long, agonizing moment. The air grew perceptibly colder. Shadows seemed to lengthen and crawl toward her boots. She was projecting a fraction of her killing intent. It felt like a physical weight pressing down on Kaiser's shoulders, trying to force him to his knees.
Kaiser desperately cycled the [Basic Abyssal Breathing Technique]. He drew the dark, heavy mana into his lungs, using it to reinforce his crumbling resolve. He planted his feet, grit his teeth, and refused to look away.
"The Zenith Grand Academy," Isolde repeated softly. "They do not accept political favors, Kaiser. They do not accept bribes. They only accept monsters. If you step into that arena with your current pathetic state, they will not just fail you. They will kill you."
"Then I have two months to become a monster," Kaiser replied, his voice finally steadying.
Isolde's eyes practically glowed. She took a step back, folding her arms beneath her chest.
"Very well," the Duchess declared, her voice ringing out across the courtyard. "If you wish to throw your life away, I will not stop you. You have my permission to take the exam. However..."
She smiled, and it was the most terrifying thing Kaiser had ever seen.
"If you fail the preliminary trials... If you embarrass the Warborn name in front of the Imperial Court... do not bother coming back to this estate. I will hunt you down myself, and I will feed your remains to my mount. Are we clear?"
[SYSTEM WARNING: Lethal condition accepted. Host has 60 days to pass the Zenith Grand Academy Entrance Exam or face guaranteed execution by Target [Isolde Warborn].]
Kaiser swallowed hard, but his smirk never wavered. "Crystal clear, Duchess."
Isolde scoffed, turning on her heel. "Seraphina. To my study. I require a report on the border skirmishes with the Dark Elves."
"Yes, Mother," Seraphina scrambled to her feet, sheathing her wooden sword. As she hurried after her mother, she cast one final, deeply conflicted look over her shoulder at Kaiser. He was bruised, bleeding, and leaning against a pillar, yet he looked more dangerous than he ever had in his life.
Once they were gone, and the heavy oak doors of the estate slammed shut, Kaiser finally let his knees buckle. He slid down the pillar, groaning as the adrenaline wore off and the true extent of his injuries set in.
"System," he muttered, his vision swimming slightly. "Tell me I have enough points to fix this."
[Opening System Shop...]
A new interface expanded before him, categorized neatly into sections: Attributes, Skills, Items, and Bloodlines. Most of the higher-tier options were grayed out, displaying astronomical prices.
[Current SP: 50]
Kaiser scrolled past the locked S-Rank weapons and mythical dragon summons, looking for something immediately useful. He found it under the 'Consumables' tab.
[Lesser Abyssal Healing Potion] - Cost: 20 SP.
Description: Brewed from the tears of low-level shadow demons. Rapidly mends minor fractures and internal bruising. Warning: Tastes like liquid regret.
"Purchase," Kaiser commanded.
A small, heavy glass vial materialized in the air and dropped into his lap. The liquid inside was viscous, pitch-black, and seemed to absorb the light around it.
He popped the cork and downed it in one gulp.
The description was accurate. It tasted like ash, spoiled milk, and pure bitterness. Kaiser gagged, but almost immediately, a cold, soothing sensation spread outward from his stomach. The agonizing pressure in his ribs vanished as the fractured bones rapidly knitted themselves back together. The bruises on his arms faded, leaving perfectly pale skin behind.
He let out a long sigh of relief, climbing back to his feet. He felt completely refreshed, if slightly traumatized by the taste.
He had 30 SP left. He navigated to the 'Skills' tab. He needed something offensive. He couldn't just rely on dodging and a wooden stick.
[Skill Book: Void Step (Lv. 1)] - Cost: 30 SP.
Description: A rudimentary abyssal movement technique. Allows the user to instantly traverse shadows within a 5-meter radius. Consumes heavy stamina and abyssal mana.
"Perfect," Kaiser grinned. "Purchase."
A dark grimoire dissolved into purple light and shot directly into his forehead. A sudden rush of knowledge and spatial understanding flooded his brain. He instinctively knew how to find the weak points in the fabric of space, provided there was a shadow to anchor onto.
He looked at the shadow cast by the obsidian pillar. He focused his newly condensed abyssal mana into his legs.
Void Step.
His body dissolved into black mist, completely bypassing physical space. A fraction of a second later, he reformed five meters away, perfectly balanced in the shadow of the courtyard wall.
It was utterly disorienting, and it drained nearly a quarter of his F-Rank mana reserves in a single use, but the tactical advantage was undeniable.
Kaiser looked up at the sky, his sapphire eyes gleaming with a manic, obsessive light. He had a Tsundere step-sister to conquer, a terrifying MILF step-mother who wanted to feed him to a Wyvern, and an academy full of ridiculously overpowered magical elites waiting for him.
"Two months," Kaiser whispered to the empty courtyard. "Time to grind until my fingers bleed."