Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Russell asked, “You are postponing the successor trial until next year?”

“Yes.”

Gerard, deciding that an explanation was necessary, continued.

“As you all know, in the world of mages, talent is regarded above all else. In the present age, as long as one’s Circle is high, even a child may receive treatment comparable to that of imperial royalty.”

Not everyone with a high Circle was old.

There were those who barely reached the 8th Circle even after training diligently until their hair turned white.

On the other hand, there were also people like Gerard, who had already surpassed the 8th Circle at a middle age.

The speed of growth differed drastically depending on talent.

Even among the Twelve Pioneers, those who had reached the pinnacle of mages, there were not many elderly figures.

“That is why, instead of following a hereditary system in which the eldest son inherits everything, our family allows only the child with the greatest talent to inherit all that belongs to the family, regardless of age. That is the reason our family was able to develop into a prestigious house. However...”

Gerard sighed in the middle of speaking.

“Unlike the purpose of the trial, which was created for fair competition, you are now turning against one another and even hiring assassination groups to kill each other. How can I proceed with the successor trial?”

“Then do you intend to abolish the trial?”

“No. I cannot discard a family tradition that has continued for so long. However, as I said earlier, I intend to postpone it until next year and supplement the flaws in the trial. If any of you have complaints or other opinions about this, speak without holding back.”

“I have none.”

“I am fine with it.”

“Me too.”

Even if they had complaints, there was no way they could say so in front of their father.

Nor did they have any justification to do so.

Perhaps pleased that their opinions were united, Gerard smiled faintly.

“Good. With everyone’s agreement, the successor trial will be postponed for one year. In the meantime, I will think carefully about how to improve the trial and inform you later.”

“Understood, Father.”

“Understood.”

The faces of the brothers who answered like that did not seem to hold any dissatisfaction, but Gerard did not know.

Only one person in particular was swallowing curses inwardly.

***

“Zeke!”

At the sound of someone calling him, Zeke turned his head.

Then, seeing the person running toward him from afar, he realized something.

‘Ah... Come to think of it, I did not tell her. Mother.’

Zeke had returned home as carefully as possible to avoid Alex noticing.

Because of that, he had not yet revealed to his mother that he was alive.

There had been no time to say it either.

‘Damn it. I will have no excuse even if she smacks me across the back.’

As he watched Dana run toward him, Zeke braced himself to offer his back, but what returned was not a stinging blow.

It was a warm embrace.

“You were alive, my son!”

“...I am sorry for worrying you, Mother.”

“It is all right, it is all right. Are you hurt anywhere?”

“No. As you can see, I am perfectly fine.”

When he waved his arms about and personally showed that he was fine, Dana finally seemed relieved and smiled.

***

“Lord Patriarch. Are you all right? Your complexion is poor.”

“I am fine, Dallant.”

Gerard waved his hand, telling his direct guard mage that he was all right, but his complexion was far from good.

He had been forced to watch his own child’s Circle collapse before his eyes.

How could he possibly feel well?

Even if that child was an unworthy son.

‘It is my fault for raising my child poorly.’

Gerard shook his head, then looked at Dallant with eyes that had suddenly sharpened.

“Have you investigated the assassination group called Black Moon?”

“Yes. It is an emerging organization that has gained recognition in the underworld. They are said to be a skilled assassination group composed of mages of at least the 6th Circle. As is typical of assassination groups, they are organized in cells here and there.”

“Then it will not be easy to catch their leader.”

“Yes. There is no information on who the leader of the assassination group is, so it will likely take time to root them out.”

“Extract as much information about them as possible, trace their locations, and annihilate them all. They must pay the price for touching us.”

“I will carry out your command.”

Dallant bowed his head, and his figure vanished like a mirage.

Just as Gerard was about to turn his attention to the work he had put aside for a while...

Knock, knock.

“Father. May I come in for a moment?”

His youngest son arrived with a knock.

“Zeke? What is it?”

“There is something I am curious about, so I came to see you.”

“Are you curious about the rules of the successor trial that will change?”

“No.”

Zeke had no interest in anything like succession.

He might have to return to his original world in the future, so why would he covet the family for wealth and glory?

“My interest is in training in the magical arts. I am curious about what will happen from now on.”

“Ah. There was that matter. Mmm.”

Gerard rested his chin on his hand and sank into thought for a moment before speaking with a troubled heart.

“Ordinarily, since the successor trial has been postponed, your training in the magical arts should be postponed as well. However... the Magic Tower’s invitation is separate from the trial, so I have no justification to refuse their goodwill.”

“Then does that mean I must go for training in the magical arts as planned?”

“That is right. Do you perhaps not wish to go?”

“Yes.”

At the honest answer, Gerard’s eyes widened.

“I am not ready yet. I do not want to stay there for eight years.”

“Mmm. If that is the case, I will speak with the Tower Master once more. If I use this unfortunate incident as an excuse, he may withdraw the invitation.”

Gerard smiled as though to reassure him, but Zeke was still uneasy.

It was known that the Tower Master of the Deccan Kingdom did not have a good relationship with Gerard, so it would be difficult to expect a favorable result.

‘I cannot simply rely on Father. I must find a way myself.’

With his eyes shining, Zeke said goodbye and left the office.

***

‘Ha, this is truly wretched.’

The moment Peter entered his room, his face twisted as much as it could.

It was only natural.

The successor trial he had looked forward to so eagerly had been postponed until next year.

As the leading candidate, there was nothing good about that for him.

It was no different from having a situation in which he should have passed the trial immediately and been chosen as the next family head put on hold.

‘This is all because that bastard Alex did something useless.’

If there had been no assassination attempt, his youngest brother would be rotting as a test subject at the Magic Tower by now.

And Peter would have calmly built his strength and secured his position within the family.

But because of Alex’s needless attempt at assassination, Peter’s plan had gone awry.

For Peter, who had a strong tendency toward perfectionism, this was unacceptable.

‘How can nothing go right to this extent?’

The only fortunate thing was that one piece of trash named Alex had been removed.

‘As long as I send Zeke to the Magic Tower now, everything will be resolved.’

Then the candidates would be narrowed down to Russell and himself.

Between the two of them, it was only natural that he, whose Circle achievement was higher, would become the family head.

‘Russell is too weak-hearted to suit the position of family head. Anyone who knows anything is aware of that.’

When considering all the conditions, there was no way he could lose to Russell.

To be honest, Russell was not even a competitor.

From the moment Peter was born with talent, the position of family head had already been his.

Because of that, there was nothing to worry about.

Only one question bothered him.

‘How did Zeke return from the Forest of Magical Beasts?’

When he first saw Zeke, Peter had suspected that he might be a doppelganger.

The Forest of Magical Beasts was infamous enough that there were ghost stories of doppelgangers imitating the dead.

‘But he was not. He truly returned alive.’

It was not just Zeke.

The guard knights and servants who had protected him had also returned to the family estate in good condition.

‘How did they shake off the assassins’ pursuit and escape from the Forest of Magical Beasts? There should not have been anyone skilled enough to do that.’

Raker Van, the captain, was the only one whose skills were somewhat decent, but in the end, he was still trash who could not even create an Aura Blade.

His skill was too low to endure in the Forest of Magical Beasts, which was said to be full of top-class monsters.

‘But they came back alive. As if to show me.’

It would have been better if they had simply died, yet they had returned.

Making the fact that Peter had fled first seem all the more humiliating.

‘Damn it. What a disgraceful sight I am. If they had all died, I could at least have preserved my pride...’

It felt as though trash he thought he had thrown away had followed him back home.

He was annoyed, but he calmed himself.

‘Trash can always be thrown away again.’

Zeke could not refuse the Magic Tower’s invitation.

He was someone who had to leave even tomorrow for training in the magical arts.

Peter only had to throw him away to the Magic Tower again.

‘I should tell the Tower Master. He likely does not know that Zeke returned alive.’

Just as Peter picked up the communication orb...

Knock, knock.

“Eldest Brother, are you inside?”

‘This voice?’

The voice of someone he had not expected sounded from in front of the door.

It was Zeke.

“What is it?”

“May I come in for a moment? There is something I wish to ask.”

“Come in.”

Ordinarily, Peter would not even have looked at him, but this time, he allowed Zeke’s visit.

Because he had something he was curious about as well.

“Brother Peter. I am truly glad to see you again. I was worried because you suddenly disappeared, but I did not expect you to be here already.”

“Worried? You were?”

Peter bristled at the remark that wounded his pride, but he did not question it further.

After all, he knew very well who had used Invisibility and fled first.

“That is enough greetings. Tell me how you survived in the Forest of Magical Beasts.”

“So you saw us enter the Forest of Magical Beasts.”

“I did. To think you fled there, of all places. At the time, I thought you were unlucky, but seeing you now, it seems I judged wrongly. You returned alive so boldly.”

“Yes, I was truly fortunate. I even managed to record a conversation like this.”

“A conversation?”

Just as Peter asked back, Zeke took out the butterfly-shaped brooch from his chest and activated it.

-You said you wanted me to bring Zeke because you needed a test subject for Mana Backlash Research...

-...If I had intended to kill you, I would not have told you to bring me a test subject. What about the test subject?

-Zeke will not come out alive.

-That is unfortunate. I wanted to examine him personally under the pretext of training him in the magical arts, since he was said to have no Mana Affinity.

“……!”

Shock appeared on Peter’s face.

What he had just heard was clearly the conversation between himself and the Tower Master.

“I happened to record this by luck, you see. Listening to it, the voice sounds exactly like yours, Brother. Is it truly you?”

“H-How did you...?”

“In the current situation, does it matter how I recorded it?”

As Zeke said, the how was not important.

What mattered was what he intended to do with it now.

Peter, who had been shocked, calmed his excitement.

Then he glared at Zeke with eyes as cold as those of a hawk.

“Surely you do not think the owner of that voice is me, do you?”

“Of course I think it is you. This is the result of eavesdropping on your communication orb, Brother.”

“You eavesdropped on my communication orb?”

“We rode in the mana-powered vehicle together, did we not? I set it up then.”

“Ha...”

To think he had been doing something so insolent without Peter even realizing it.

For a moment, Peter almost exploded in anger, but the one holding the blade was none other than Zeke.

“Why did you do it, Brother? Did you hate seeing me so much that you sold me off to the Magic Tower?”

“I do not know what you are talking about.”

“No. That is not what you should say. If you say that, you are no different from Brother Alex.”

“…….”

“You should have apologized to me just now, Brother. Well, I had no intention of accepting it anyway.”

The sight of Zeke smiling leisurely, as though he held everything in his hands, paralyzed Peter’s reason.

He ended up admitting the truth.

“Haha, I have been completely defeated. I was struck perfectly from behind.”

“Do not pretend to be the victim. I was the one who was struck from behind first.”

“Pretend to be the... What? No, never mind. Since it has come to this, there is nothing left to hide.”

Peter, having thrown off his mask, spoke with sharp eyes.

“What do you want? Do you intend to threaten me into withdrawing from the succession?”

“Succession? I have no interest in that.”

“Then why did you come to my room and play that recording?”

“To receive your apology, Brother.”

“Kup, khuhuhuhu.”

Unable to suppress a laugh, Peter soon hardened his expression and glared at him.

“I thought you were someone who knew how to use his head to some degree, but now I see you are a fool. If you had taken this to Father first instead of me, the situation would have been better for you.”

“If you do not apologize, I will go to him.”

“Who said I would let you leave?”

Peter’s eyes held killing intent that Zeke had never seen before.

From his entire body, the magical energy of the 5th Circle boiled up.

“You will die here.”

“What are you going to do after killing me? Father is still in the house.”

“I just received tragic news. It seems an assassin hired by Alex sneaked into the house and killed my youngest brother. How very sorrowful.”

It was a chilling threat, but Zeke did not even blink.

“So do not worry about that. I will mourn your death myself.”

“Then try it, if you can.”