Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Relic of the Ancient Dragon (2)
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“Ray and Holkus went there too?”
“Y-Yes, that’s right.”
“Heh, how nice it is that everyone’s moving like obedient pawns on their own.”
Axion paused mid-cut on his steak at the news his subordinate brought, letting out a light chuckle.
In truth, it was Axion who had sent Ray and Holkus to the fourth training ground.
His uncle had ordered him not to touch Theo recklessly until the Awakening Ceremony began.
‘Ridiculous.’
Axion had already decided he wouldn’t follow Ed’s orders anymore.
‘Uncle’s flaw is that he always moves too quietly. Sometimes you need to sink your teeth into the enemy’s neck without mercy.’
In his view, Theo and Wellington were pests that needed to be eliminated as soon as possible.
Which meant he had to set the stage before the Awakening Ceremony truly kicked off.
A stage they could never escape from.
The perfect trap.
‘Plus, I can gauge how much Theo and Wellington have grown in the meantime.’
Axion knew that Ray and Holkus—his rivals of sorts—had gone into secluded training ahead of the Awakening Ceremony.
So he’d timed his letters to them perfectly, right around when they’d emerge.
The contents were simple, just two points.
-Wellington lost.
-A Ragnar who received the Family Head’s personal sword instruction.
He figured the two most hot-blooded of the North’s Four Pillars would react no matter what.
And he was spot on.
With that, the first stage was perfectly set.
“They’re both short-tempered. Holkus especially can’t stand waiting. Ray… she’ll be curious whether she wants to or not.”
He didn’t expect them to fight to mutual destruction this time, of course.
But it would light the spark.
Then, during the Awakening Ceremony, he’d fan the flames until everything burned to ash.
Theo, Wellington.
All the other Four Pillars too.
Clink, clink—
The knife and fork clattered loudly against the plate, filling the room.
* * *
Ray still remembered that day—the one true memory from her childhood.
-Aren’t you cold? Want to wrap this around you at least?
It was a day when the blizzard raged.
Ray had once snuck out of the palace without her nursemaid knowing.
She’d been cooped up in her room all the time due to her frail health, and it had driven her stir-crazy.
But she regretted it soon enough.
She got lost in the blizzard.
Freezing to the bone, desperately calling for her mother.
That’s when she met a boy.
Bundled up in a thick scarf, mittens, beanie, and coat, he looked like a snowman.
The boy asked if she was okay and unwound his scarf to wrap it around her neck.
At that moment, Ray stared at the boy’s face for a long while.
It wasn’t just the warmth of his body heat.
‘So pretty.’
His peach-like, milky cheeks were unbearably cute.
Nothing like her own gaunt, ugly self.
-You’ll catch a cold dressed so thin. That’d be bad. So let’s get you back home, okay?
But the boy didn’t seem to care about her appearance at all. He grabbed her hand firmly and led the way to a house he didn’t even know.
Crunch, crunch—
Their long footprints stretched across the pristine snowfield, vivid in her memory.
After that.
Ray made it back to the palace safely, fortunately.
She suffered a cold for a few days, but.
That memory became the foundation, sparking her desire to “run and play” somehow.
It was the trigger that let her overcome the curse of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians.
Then one day.
Ray learned by chance that the boy from her memory was her same-age brother.
Theo Ragnar.
The “cripple of Rose Palace,” a name she’d heard before.
‘But he’s changed…? Suddenly?’
Ray wanted to see it with her own eyes.
How the boy from her memories had transformed.
She hadn’t sought him out before due to circumstances.
But now, after ending her seclusion and claiming the [Frostwhite Divine Sword], things were different.
‘I want to see it clearly. What sword he’s wielding.’
And.
Wellington narrowed his eyes as he faced her.
‘I thought it was just her competitive spirit, but no. What is it? She doesn’t seem to have any prior connection with Young Master Theo either.’
Wellington knew Ray had spent her childhood confined to her sickbed, awkward with people.
That’s why her speech was always blunt, her emotions slow to show—like a block of ice, as people said.
Yet here she was, showing real emotional fluctuation for the first time.
Something was up.
But he couldn’t pry carelessly.
Her inner thoughts were too hard to read, and there was another interloper besides.
“What nonsense is this, Ray Ragnar! Theo Ragnar will face me first!”
Thud!
Holkus stomped the ground hard and bellowed.
The echo rang out deafeningly.
Ray furrowed her brow as if annoyed by the noise.
“Loser, step aside.”
“You can’t mean that fight from over three years ago? Every month counts at our age! Three years is more than enough to close the gap…!”
“Yeah. You’re the loser.”
Holkus’s face flushed beet red in an instant.
“You little—! Fine, let’s settle it again! Winner faces Theo Ragnar!”
“You think I’d back down?”
Ray and Holkus drew their swords, snarling at each other.
Whoooosh—
A fierce aura swirled around them like a storm.
Wellington scowled deeply at the center.
Why the hell were these two picking a fight here of all places.
‘Axion maybe…?’
A culprit who’d orchestrate this kind of “prank” flashed in his mind.
But reining in those two came first, so he swung his sword fiercely.
Ziiing—
[Narsio Secret Art – Abyss Sword]
A ferocious sword wind erupted with the resonant hum, slicing between Ray and Holkus.
Shraaaash!
“……!”
“……!”
Ray’s eyes gleamed instinctively as she leaped back.
Holkus too.
“If you two wanna brawl, do it at home. This is Theo Ragnar’s turf. I won’t tolerate a ruckus without the host.”
A murderous intent poured from Wellington.
Oh!
Holkus let out a light exclamation as he eyed him.
“Well, you really are Well, huh?”
“What kinda nonsense is that? You saying I’m a fake?”
“Maybe.”
“What?”
“At least, the Well I knew wasn’t like this.”
One corner of Holkus’s mouth curled up slyly.
“He was so polite and upright, it was boring… But now you’re sharp as a blade. People don’t change that suddenly. What is it? What’d you learn in the meantime?”
Wellington recalled something in that instant.
Moments training with Theo.
Moments learning the sword from Evelyn.
Moments clashing blades with his followers.
The past few months had been a major turning point in his life, truly.
Days utterly unlike those in his family.
They’d changed his mindset, subtly or not.
Of course, he had no reason to tell Holkus any of that.
“Cut the crap. Get lost.”
“Hmm! If Theo Ragnar’s the one who changed you like this, I wanna see his face even more. What to do?”
Wellington figured words wouldn’t cut it anymore and moved to unleash his sword resonance.
That instant.
Fwoooosh!
“What’s that…?”
“……This is?”
An intense pressure suddenly crushed the fourth training ground.
Holkus’s head snapped up in shock, Ray’s eyes narrowed as she turned her gaze elsewhere.
Wellington’s eyes followed involuntarily.
Step, step—
Theo was walking toward them.
With slow, leisurely steps.
But unlike his gait, Theo’s aura was anything but relaxed.
As if he’d just come from some brutal battlefield.
His disheveled bangs revealed crimson eyes sharp as a beast’s,
Torn clothes exposed wounds that made flesh crawl.
And that overwhelming pressure.
Murderously intense, like the dragon fear from legends.
“Guh…!”
“H-He hasn’t even opened his mana circuits yet…!”
“W-What…?”
Even the North’s Four Pillars were startled; the ordinary folk were beside themselves.
Jenkins’s gang was pale, some foaming at the mouth and collapsing.
The problem was.
The closer Theo got, the sharper his killing intent and presence became.
“Puhahaha! My hunch was right. Knew it’d be fun. You’re mine—!”
Boom!
Holkus laughed maniacally, then kicked off the ground ferociously, charging straight at Theo.
Wellington cursed inwardly.
Distracted by Theo’s entrance, he’d forgotten to watch the guy.
‘As far as I know, Young Master Theo just finished seclusion…!’
Even if enlightenment had deepened his aura, exhaustion would hinder his full strength.
With only five days until the Awakening Ceremony, any injury would be disastrous.
He rushed to intercept Holkus—
But then, Wellington saw it.
Theo suddenly aimed the ornate sword in his hand their way.
Flaaash—
He swung it viciously toward Holkus.
The pressure dominating the training ground seemed to converge in an instant, like a sword itself.
‘Flash…!’
A pure white something blazed.
That was all Wellington registered.
And then.
Spluuurt—
“W-What… did you…?”
Holkus stood frozen in place, drenched in blood, screaming in horror.
From right shoulder to left waist—a diagonal gash wept thick blood.
His claymore lay broken in half on the ground.
‘When…?’
Wellington’s pupils shook, Ray’s eyes widened.
“Aaaugh!”
Holkus roared in refusal of the reality, trying to move again.
But.
“Shut up.”
Theo, now right in his face, smashed the sword’s hilt into his temple.
Crack!
Holkus toppled backward without a word.
Thud—
His massive frame hit the ground, shaking the training ground.
‘I didn’t see Young Master Theo move even once. Not even when he closed in on Holkus.’
Light steps, like a casual stroll.
Wellington, his followers, Jenkins’s gang—all plunged into shock.
“‘Black Bear’ lost…?”
“One of the North’s Four Pillars…!”
“What the hell happened?”
Theo and Wellington had sparred months ago, sure.
But a spar was just a spar.
No one saw it as a “real” fight.
Rumors exaggerated, or if true, Wellington must’ve handicapped himself for Theo.
But this was different.
Anyone could see Holkus had charged at full power.
Yet he crumpled before reaching him, critically wounded.
In one strike.
He’d felled the North’s prodigy in a single blow.
The impact was massive, naturally.
Theo turned to Ray, as if asking if she wanted to continue.
Ready to swing at her too if needed.
His crimson eyes blazed fiercely.
Ray glanced silently between her sword and Theo’s.
“…….”
Then quietly sheathed hers.
Click!