Don't Hide in a Doghouse
"This King was about to eat dessert! Which bastard dares interrupt?!"
Raon tossed the flailing Wrath aside and headed out to the lobby. An old man with neatly combed gray hair stood waiting.
Tias, was it?
One of the butlers of the Heavy Martial Palace, the one assigned to Burren. Raon had seen him often back in his trainee days.
"Young Master Raon. It has been some time."
Tias clasped his hands together and bowed his head.
"It has."
Raon returned the bow. They had crossed paths countless times and exchanged silent nods, but this was the first time they had actually spoken a greeting aloud.
"What brings you all the way out here?"
Raon asked, using his back to block the gazes of Sylvia and the maids, who were peeking out from the dining room.
"I apologize for calling at such a late hour."
Tias's wrinkled eyes trembled.
"It is shameless of me, but there is no one left I can turn to except Young Master Raon."
Raon quietly watched Tias bow. He had a fairly good idea why the old man had come this far.
"It's about Burren, isn't it."
"Yes. Ever since the Selection Ceremony, Young Master Burren has locked himself in the lodge and will not come out."
When Tias lifted his head, a bitter emotion sat naked in his eyes.
"The additional registration period for new swordsmen closes in two days, and still he shows no sign of emerging."
He bit down on his parched lips, as if the situation itself were despair.
"The only person who can get Young Master Burren on his feet is you, Young Master Raon. Please, I beg you to help us!"
Without a moment's hesitation, Tias dropped to his knees at the front door.
"Why do you think I can get Burren up?"
"Young Master Burren speaks of you often. He calls you the benefactor who pulled him from the well and saved his life, and he has sworn that one day he will catch up to you and repay every one of those debts."
"......"
The benefactor who woke his spirit. The debt of a life saved. The vow to catch up. All of it was what Burren said every single day. Apparently the boy was the same on the inside as he was on the outside.
"That is why I am certain you can draw him out! I beg of you!"
Tias kept his head bowed, still on his knees.
"Please don't do this."
Raon caught Tias's trembling shoulders.
Help, huh...
In his previous life, he would never have helped, no matter what Tias said. He would have decided it was something he couldn't do. But living as Raon Zieghart had taught him a great many things.
Bonds.
Runaan, who had handed over the treasure called Cold Blood Iron without asking for anything in return. Vulcan, who had used precious Gold Charcoal and Gold Grain without stint and poured every last ounce of his strength into forging a sword. The word they had spoken — bonds — came back to him.
Come to think of it...
Before the Selection Ceremony, Burren had given him a jeweled tassel, saying his formal wear looked empty. Like the thread connecting that jewel, there was at least one thin cord of fate tying the two of them together.
"Haa..."
Raon dropped to one knee so that his eyes met Tias's.
"All right. I'll give it a try."
It might not work. But he wanted to offer at least the smallest bit of help, so he nodded.
"That's my boy!"
Sylvia came up from behind and patted his back.
"If you can help, you should."
She turned to the maids behind her with a bright smile, as if to say she had raised her son well.
"Yeah!"
"That's our young master!"
Helen and the maids clenched their fists as if to cheer him on.
"Th-thank you! Thank you so much!"
Tias bowed his head over and over.
"This human truly does love to bow. He is much to This King's liking."
Wrath planted his hands on his hips, apparently under the impression that the bows were meant for him.
"But interrupting This King's dessert time is unforgivable!"
He'd said he liked him, and now he was angry. A truly incomprehensible personality.
"Then let's go."
"Y-you're going right now?"
"If I go now and knock some sense into him, he should come out around the time the additional registration period ends."
Raon helped Tias to his feet.
"Y-yes, of course!"
Tias sprang up, offering to lead the way, and headed out of the Annex.
"I'll be back."
"Do well."
"Have a good trip, Young Master!"
Sylvia and the maids nodded with proud smiles.
"But the dessert isn't finished yet..."
Only Wrath, his belly already full, stared toward the dining room and smacked his lips.
"As expected, Eyeballs is a useless creature!"
Raon followed Tias toward the Heavy Martial Palace lodge standing at the foot of Bukmang Mountain. Being a residence of the Heavy Martial Palace, it was far larger than the Annex he lived in.
"This is where the master used to teach Young Master Burren swordsmanship. The master no longer comes, but Young Master Burren would still stop by now and then to rest."
"A place with memories of the Heavy Martial Palace Lord, then."
"Yes. That is why he came here, locked the door, and will not come out."
"I see."
Raon nodded and approached the door. He could sense Burren's presence inside.
"Burren."
He laced aura into his voice so it would carry inside, and called Burren's name. He called for a long time, but there was no answer from within.
"Hmm."
Raon clicked his tongue, scanned the lodge from top to bottom, then looked at Tias.
"Mind if I smash this place up a bit?"
"Pardon? Ah... yes!"
Tias seemed to grasp his meaning; he bit his lip and nodded.
"It's going to get loud, so stand back a little."
"Understood."
He bowed and retreated about ten paces.
"Huu."
Raon stood before the lodge door and let out a long breath.
"Guess it's time I played the villain for a change."
He smirked, then kicked the door in.
He hadn't held anything back. The door and wall exploded into fragments, and the entire lodge shuddered under the blow.
"Ugh!"
From the billowing gray dust, a startled Burren burst out.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
"To pull a mole out of the ground, you have to start by digging."
"A mole? You— what are you even—"
Raon didn't answer. He swung a tightly clenched fist. The lodge pillar and wall that met the back of his hand crumpled like wet clay.
"Stop it!"
Burren lunged out of the collapsing wall, screaming.
"Every time you saw me, you ran your mouth about catching up."
Raon smiled coldly and crooked a finger.
"If you want to stop me, come at me."
With that, he kicked the left wall. A massive hole punched through it as if a giant's mace had struck.
"I said stop!"
Burren charged in and threw a punch — a fist packed with raw emotion, with no martial principle and no flow in it at all.
Raon casually slapped it aside with the back of his hand, then drove a fist into Burren's gut.
"Guh!"
Burren clutched his stomach and staggered backward. His legs wobbled as if he were about to collapse.
"Go get your sword and come at me properly."
Raon snorted and kicked him. Burren didn't even think of bracing himself. He flew and smashed back into the lodge.
From the building, which looked ready to collapse at any moment, Burren walked out with a sword in his hand.
"Khhhk! You bastard!"
Burren drew his sword, running his aura at full polarity. Wind-aspected aura wrapped his entire body and unfurled a powerful wave of energy.
Raon narrowed his eyes at Burren's presence.
He's definitely grown.
The size and quality of his aura were clearly different from before. Apparently "I'll catch up to you" hadn't been empty bluster.
"You'd better be careful. I'm not the same as I used to be!"
Burren gritted his teeth and stamped the ground. In an instant he lunged in from the left and thrust his sword. Both speed and power were on a different level from before — but Raon had grown even more.
He casually blocked Burren's strike with the scabbard of the Heavenly Sky Sword.
"Hup!"
Burren bit his lip as if he'd expected that, and launched the next strike. Sword forms faster and more magnificent than the first crashed in like a raging tide.
Raon shut down every one of Burren's linked, river-like strikes with the scabbard alone, then slammed a kick into his side. Caught by the unexpected attack, Burren screamed and slammed into the ground.
"Gahhk!"
Even as he reeled from the impact, Burren glared and got back up. He steadied his breathing and leveled his sword. The fact that he could calmly settle an agitated heart even in a situation like this proved he was worthy of the Zieghart name.
"From here on, it's the real thing."
He gripped the sword with both hands and drew up his aura. A surging presence, as if it might run wild. But it wasn't just that his energy had grown stronger. A different kind of power from the aura of a moment ago began to seep from Burren.
"Frostwind Sword."
His form melted into the empty air. In a blink, as if teleporting, he closed the distance and brought his blade down.
Fast.
Fast enough that without his senses, he would have missed it. The claim that this was the real thing had not been a lie. But once it had been caught by his senses, speed meant nothing.
Raon lightly flicked his sword up to meet Burren's strike. Once again, Burren's blade failed to pierce his space.
But a strange energy surged from Burren's sword and began to shear through the aura wrapping Raon's scabbard.
"This is..."
The aura coating Burren's blade had transformed into tiny grains, spinning endlessly. That rotational force seemed to have torn through Raon's own aura.
"Even you won't be able to stop the Frostwind Sword!"
As if his confidence had returned, Burren stepped through a circling footwork and unfolded the sword art. His usual solid, magnificent sword force, now carrying the energy of a cutting wind, ground away the aura of the Cultivation of Ten Thousand Flames like a woodchip before a saw blade.
"I see."
Raon drew a cold smile and spun his sword.
"Now I get it."
"Posturing won't help you!"
Burren stamped and slashed his sword down on a diagonal, aiming for Raon's waist with the finest technique of the Frostwind Sword he could currently perform.
Raon intercepted the strike at the precise moment once more. But it shouldn't have mattered. The Frostwind Sword shredded the defending aura.
If he retreats I have to chase immediately... hm?
He had been ready to close the gap, assuming Raon would fall back — but Raon didn't move a single step. He simply endured the Frostwind Sword as it was.
"H-how?!"
Burren's mouth fell open. The spinning strike of the Frostwind Sword failed to shear Raon's aura and simply stopped.
It's definitely spinning, though?
The sand-grain aura was rotating violently, yet Raon's aura didn't split in the slightest.
"What did you do?!"
"It's simple."
Raon smirked at the flustered Burren.
"I just pushed in new aura before yours could split mine. In the opposite direction of your rotation."
Like slashing at a river only for the water to well back in, he had fed in fresh aura before the old could be torn, and so blocked the Frostwind Sword.
"Y-you can circulate aura that fast?"
Burren's pupils shook like a sailboat struck by a crashing wave.
"E-even the Frostwind Sword doesn't work..."
"It's not that the Frostwind Sword doesn't work. You're just weak."
"Guh!"
Raon smashed Burren across the head as his lips trembled.
"If the rotation of that Frostwind Sword technique were faster and larger, it would have split my aura no matter how much I pushed in. This is a matter of your proficiency."
"Ugh!"
"And with that paltry level of achievement, you went around saying you'd beat me?"
"That's..."
Burren hung his head, his jaw trembling.
"You can't even strip my scabbard, and you talk about catching up. Sounds about right for a guy who tucked his tail and ran the moment he wasn't chosen."
"What the hell would you know?!"
"You're right. I don't know what kind of feelings you have tangled up with the Heavy Martial Palace Lord. But I do know one thing."
Raon pointed at the wrecked lodge and went on.
"If you just hole up in that doghouse, he will never look back at you."
"Kh..."
Burren couldn't argue. He bit his lip hard.
"You told me your goal in life, so I'll tell you one of mine."
"A goal?"
"My goal is to restore my mother to the position of a direct descendant."
"You're insane!"
Burren's face went deathly pale.
"That's impossible! The direct line that hates you, and the high-ranking collaterals — they won't just sit still!"
"It's close to impossible. But it isn't impossible."
Raon smiled as he met Burren's disbelieving eyes.
"Results. If I have results so overwhelming they shut every one of their mouths, it's possible. That's why I chose the Light Wind Squad, which will take on the most missions. Of course, if I hole up the way you have because it's hard, it would stay impossible even if I spent a lifetime on it."
"Ah..."
Burren hadn't imagined Raon had a goal like that. His hands trembled.
"You said you wanted to stand face-to-face with your father and be acknowledged, didn't you?"
"Y-yeah. But it's over. Father is a cold man. He won't look at me anymore..."
"There's more than one way to stand face-to-face with your father."
Raon shook his head at Burren's furrowed brow.
"What?"
"Don't make your father look back at you. You go past him and keep walking forward. You look back at the Heavy Martial Palace Lord who's following behind. Then he won't have a choice but to acknowledge you."
"Surpass my father? That's impossible!"
"This is impossible. That's impossible. Are you going to live your whole life like that?"
"Th-that's..."
"It'll be hard. It'll be so hard you'll feel like dying. But is it really impossible?"
"......"
Burren had no answer to the question thrown back at him. The living proof who had gone from the weakest to the strongest was standing right in front of him.
"Between your goal and mine, which one is harder?"
"......"
Again, Burren couldn't open his mouth. The direct descendants and high-ranking collaterals who hated Raon were countless. Naturally, Raon's goal of earning their recognition was far closer to impossible.
"A tree won't fall unless you swing the axe. Whether you stay holed up as you are, or come out right now and take up the axe — that's your choice."
Raon turned his back. He started toward the Annex, then stopped and glanced over his shoulder.
"Runaan and I forged our swords. Marta received hers. All of us are walking forward. If you're going to choose, you'd better do it fast. Later on, even if you want to walk, there won't be a path left."
Leaving Burren with his head bowed, Raon headed toward the tree-lined bank where Tias was waiting.
"I'm sorry. Rough methods were all I had."
Raon approached Tias, who had been standing far off, and gave an awkward smile.
"Thank you. I have nothing but gratitude."
Tias clasped his hands and bent at the waist. His wrinkled neck trembled.
"Then."
Raon offered a faint smile to the tearful Tias and headed for the Annex.
Tias bowed once more toward Raon's receding back, then looked at Burren, still on his knees.
"Ah..."
In eyes that had been drowned in despair, a small light was beginning to bloom.
Burren clenched his fist until blood welled in his palm.
You stupid bastard!
He had sworn to grow stronger, to become more mature — and in the end, he hadn't grown at all. Just as Raon had said, he had only run his mouth, pretending he was doing something.
He was so pathetic he couldn't stand himself. He was no different from the stubborn fool he'd been at the 5th Training Ground. No — he seemed even more of a coward than he had been then.
"Become a direct descendant?"
A hollow laugh escaped him. A goal that anyone in Zieghart would call impossible — and Raon had spoken it in complete seriousness. And when that guy said it, it actually sounded like he could do it.
What a monster.
He had locked himself in a room, drowning in the despair of not being chosen by his father. Meanwhile Raon was talking about rising from collateral to direct line. It was a strength of mind he couldn't imagine belonging to someone the same age.
Go past Father and look back...
He had only ever thought of making his father, who was always ahead, look back at him. The idea of overtaking his father had never even entered his dreams. That kind of thinking itself seemed to be what set Raon apart from him.
Fine. I'll do it.
Now that it had come to this, he would overtake his father and make sure he saw the man regret it. Compared to Raon rising to the direct line, catching up to his father was far easier.
Wait for me.
I'll come find you.
Halfway up Bukmang Mountain, Rimer let out a whistle.
"Holy crap!"
He watched Raon leaving the lodge and let out a hollow laugh.
"I figured he'd give some clumsy advice, not gouge the wound open and then put salve on it."
"Mm..."
Glenn nodded slowly. He, too, seemed not to have expected Raon to pull Burren out that way, and let out a low hum.
"It's strange, you know. Sometimes he's hopelessly naive, and other times he seems to know the world better than I do."
Rimer laced his fingers behind his head and grinned.
"Must be because I taught him so well. You really do have to meet a good master..."
"He was my grandson before he was your disciple."
"Come on, I'm the one who spent all that time with him."
"I am the one who looked after that child more."
"If you look after him from behind, who even knows?"
"I never did it hoping anyone would know, so it doesn't matter if they don't. I did it because I wanted to."
Glenn glared at Rimer, his brow furrowed.
"Hah..."
The Heavenly Sword Squad Leader, who had been standing quietly behind them, widened her eyes at Glenn's reaction. She seemed startled by a side of the Clan Head she had never seen before.
"Ahem!"
Sensing her gaze, Glenn cleared his throat and turned his head.
"Anyway, Burren will be getting up soon. Want to make a bet?"
"A bet?"
"Yes. On when Burren gets up. The additional registration period closes the day after tomorrow, so I'll put next month's salary on him getting up tomorrow."
Rimer wiggled his fingers and pointed at Burren, still on his knees.
"Then I'll bet on today."
"You know once you say it, that's it, right?"
"Of course."
Glenn nodded as if it were obvious.
"Heh, there's barely any of today le— wait, what?!"
Rimer, who had been covering his mouth and laughing, let out a groan.
"Th-that brat, why is he getting up already?! Hey! Lie back down a little longer!"
Burren stood up with his sword in hand and approached the lodge.
"UAAAAAAAH!"
He roared and poured every last drop of remaining aura into the building. The lodge, already half-destroyed by Raon, collapsed completely.
"Huu..."
With the look of a man who had finished what needed doing, Burren headed toward the Heavy Martial Palace. Tias quietly followed behind him.
"C-Clan Head? We haven't even confirmed the bet yet..."
"Rimer."
"Y-yes!"
"There's something you've misunderstood."
"Misunderstood?"
The smiling Rimer's eyes went pitch-black, as if he had stared into hell, at Glenn's next words.
"You already took an advance on next month's salary. What just flew away isn't next month's. It's the month after that."
"Aagh! Damn it!"
Only now grasping the situation, Rimer clutched his head.
"Idiot."
The Heavenly Sword Squad Leader clicked her tongue in disdain.
"I don't even have money to eat! The kids won't lend me any more either!"
"Then there's only one way."
"A way?"
"Complete a mission and receive a reward."
Glenn looked in turn at the receding Raon and Burren, and nodded.