Chapter 306
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 306
Chapter Title: Lesson 60. The Family Head - 1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ban Yu-mi glared at the enemy before her eyes, steeling her heart with an imaginary sword.
The reason was simple. This fox bitch was brazenly eyeing her little brother without knowing her place.
Staring at the female ninja Aneri, who smirked knowingly as if she could read her every thought, Ban Yu-mi wanted nothing more than to grind that smug face against a steel grater.
"I told you I'd handle contact with that guy myself, didn't I?"
"The big plan is right around the corner. As the leader of the mercenary band, I had plenty to coordinate with Yu-won."
Just as she said, the grand operation they'd planned years in advance—the seizure of the family—had suddenly crept right up to their doorstep.
Her brother, who always nagged at his big sister, actually cherished her deeply and was running himself ragged to help her...
And this fox bitch had exploited that gap, increasing her contact with him under the pretense of aiding Ban Yu-mi—until she got caught red-handed today!
What? Coordinate in all sorts of ways?
Coordinate?!
"I'm seriously going to kill you today and take over as leader of the mercenaries. No matter how worthless my brother is, I won't hand him over to the likes of you. I can't stand to see it...!"
"Oh? Our Yu-won is worthless? A worthless guy wouldn't go around charming so many women."
"Ch-charming...!"
Ban Yu-mi's already fierce eyes flipped completely in rage.
The sword in her heart ignited in a roar of flames, transforming into a blazing fire sword.
Sword and flame—the two qualities symbolizing Prominence fused into one, dramatically boosting her combat power.
Of course, compared to its overwhelming might, her body was still too weak to sustain it for long—that was the drawback.
"Die, Aneri Dedota!"
"Is that all you've got? How do you expect to protect Yu-won like this?"
"Raaah!"
"Ha, our lady sure is something."
Kira Esra Prominence—a collateral branch of Prominence sent to Earth as a spy, now serving Ban Yu-mi by her side—shrugged as she watched the flames her lady unleashed.
Watching those flames made her own Prominence blood boil in her veins. It was proof enough that Ban Yu-mi truly had what it took to claim the mantle of Prominence's master.
"Still, to rise above the others, she's a bit green yet—. Losing her cool to such a cheap provocation."
"Hehe, Kira. Think of it this way."
The young woman watching with delight—Kang Eun-young, who looked young enough to pass for Ban Yu-mi's older sister—gazed at her daughter locked in fierce combat with Aneri and spoke.
"It's like someone else gulping down the wine you've carefully locked away and aged for decades—no, ripened. And to top it off, you can't even properly rage because it wasn't yours to begin with. Of course Yu-mi's boiling inside. To her, he's her reverse scale."
"...Well, yeah. If our young master is wine, he'd taste amazing..."
"Kira, you're bold saying that where I can hear."
"No, but Lady Seira. Why lock him up in the first place if he wasn't yours, and then get mad when he's taken?"
"Ah... Selden."
Selden—the mercenaries' sole young buck and errand boy—chimed in with utter disbelief.
He was spot-on, but his blunt honesty made it all the more tone-deaf.
Ban Yu-mi, retreating from her clash with Aneri, shot him a venomous glare, shook off her sword in the air with a sharp flick—
"You. Come here."
"Ack—taking out your frustration on me after Aneri sis wiped the floor with you is a bit much!"
"And Mom! Ban Yu-won isn't some wine! And I never locked him up or anything!"
"Huh? Can Mom say it? For real? Let's see, back when Yu-won was in eighth grade..."
"Mom, you're next!"
Incredibly, the Dimensional Mercenary Corps Level Force was always in this state—and even more incredibly, they were thriving in it.
But with the big plan looming as Aneri had said, they'd recently held back on long expeditions. Instead, they'd activated the 'invitation' Yu-won gave them, standing ready to head to the Prominence dimension at any moment while running mock battles to sharpen their edge.
Kang Eun-young leisurely won a bout against her fuming daughter—whose power control was shot and sword tip wobbling wildly—then pointed out a laundry list of flaws before tousling her hair and heading back.
"Phew, she's still just a kid."
"You lit the fuse and now..."
Kira shot Kang Eun-young an exasperated look, then chuckled and turned back to her work.
She was digging into intel on the battlefield where the mercenaries had been until recently—the fierce clash between the dimensional pirates and the Ortima family.
"Young master's right on the money. The moment we pulled out, things got weird. Lucene Ortima's battleship is the only one rampaging, while the Ortima fleet's holding it back instead. Exodus bailed with their main force ages ago, and Crimson Spear just sent sacrificial pawns... How many of the Ten Great Families are tangled in this mess?"
"I was hoping to snag some Prominence corpses from this war while we're at it."
Kang Eun-young, seated beside Kira as she neatly tied her hair in a ponytail, watched her daughter still beating on Selden in the arena with an odd gaze.
"I wanted to see our girl take on other Prominences. Seems like the real combat as mercenaries is paying off—her powers are getting stronger by the day."
"You felt it too, sis. Where does Prominence's binding force and strength really come from? I feel it every time I see the lady."
To be clear, Kira hadn't started out loyal to Ban Yu-mi.
If anything, she'd joined Level Force because she was Ban's sister—and because sticking with them was her only way out.
Lately, though, facing Ban Yu-mi's powers stirred something like awe in her unbidden.
Unlike the current family head, who relied on spells, curses, and constellations to forcibly suppress them.
"It's a shame. If our Yu-mi had just a bit more time, she could've gathered all the Prominences without splitting hairs and bent them to her will with her powers alone."
"No time for that... But thanks to how capable the young master is, things are falling into place. No other group's gonna swallow a Ten Great Family this easily."
"Huh? Hold on... Yu-mi, what's glowing on you?"
Was it too optimistic?
"Glowing? Oh, this is what Ban Yu-won gave me... Huh?"
"—Danger!"
The sudden eruption of power swept over the group before they could resist.
If anything, it was the Prominence family's viciousness—outstripping even what the group imagined—and the family head's cunning in fooling not just his daughter but even Ban Yu-won, who read all concepts and emotions, that shone through.
The secret pass Ulrike had given Ban Yu-won, who passed it to Ban Yu-mi for the Prominence dimension.
It carried the authority of the constellation governing that dimension—and the follower of Myeongap, who sensed his own traces, had interfered at the cost of permanently expending part of his power, twisting the pass's function.
Thus, spatial translocation occurred.
The entire Level Force, led by Ban Yu-mi, was caught in it and forcibly summoned to S-7 dimension—to the grand estate where Prominence direct descendants resided.
Ulrike had handed over a pass straight to her room, thinking to secretly meet Ban Yu-won who'd snuck into the family—but the constellation subtly twisted the coordinates, successfully summoning the four to the sacred grounds of the grand training arena, accessible only to those with Prominence blood.
Naturally, the family head who hadn't left for the Fairy Tail dimension, along with a dozen direct descendants and hundreds of elite collateral warriors, were gathered there.
"You've arrived."
Ban Yu-mi leaped back the moment she was summoned, sensing the overwhelming pressure bearing down on her.
She could immediately make out the speaker.
A crimson mage's coat. Orbs of concentrated, blazing flames.
Three pairs orbiting his body protectively—a middle-aged man.
He resembled the man Ban Yu-won had faced off against in the Fairy Tail dimension, but with a far colder, fiercer air—the Prominence family head.
"I've waited a long time for you. Though you wouldn't know it."
He whispered with a serpentine smile.
Even at a physical distance, his voice slithered intimately into her ear, sticky and repulsive. Ban Yu-mi bit her lip.
'Damn it, Ban Yu-won, you idiot...! What the hell did you give me?!'
Resentment toward her brother flared for an instant, but imagining him blaming himself if he learned the truth already softened her heart.
It wasn't his fault.
It was hers—for dreaming too big and burdening her brother.
She should've stayed vigilant; it came from tricking the enemy, so a trap was always possible.
"Kira Esra Prominence. You've done quite the cute little thing."
The family head, scanning her up and down as if reading her thoughts with narrowed eyes, turned to Kira, who tensed and drew her sword.
"Who would've thought you'd betray the family and cling to trash collaterals tainted with lowly blood."
"You're the real collaterals. I've been loyal to the family."
She snorted defiantly, but couldn't hide her trembling legs.
As one of the few in the mercenaries, alongside Kang Eun-young, who truly knew the family head's earth-shattering power and might, the moment they faced him head-on, all hope crumbled for her.
Yet she didn't kneel—not from pragmatic calculation that it was too late for mercy, but foolish pride to stand tall before the man she loved... and loyalty to her lady, who stepped forward protectively, glaring fiercely.
"A guardian knight we thought long finished, and even the pirate scum. Ha, ridiculous. You ragtag nobodies who never set foot in the family's core dared dream big?"
As he spoke, raising one hand, several direct descendants wreathed in flames stepped forward.
Among them was Ulrike Prominence, tears of betrayal streaming down her face.
Whether from betrayal by Ban Yu-won, whom she'd planned to use, or by her father who'd deceived even her to reclaim the undying flame—she couldn't tell herself.
"No desire to chat further. Kill them all, spare only those carrying the seed. Recovering that power requires a complicated ritual."
—Recovery? I want that child.
A scorching voice that shook the entire space eased the ballooning tension.
The guardian constellation of Prominence, follower of Myeongap, who coveted the undying flame.
The next moment, it manifested as an avatar, gazing hotly at Ban Yu-mi.
—I won't accept other seeds. I need her as she is.
"But she harbors an unacceptable wish. I can't acknowledge it, so I'll extract the power alone. Moreover, unacceptable? My daughter and I can certainly handle her. Right, Ulrike?"
"Kh... Y-yes, Father."
Ulrike had once been a top contender for Prominence heir, but her fatal mistakes tied to Ban Yu-won were too many.
The family head's intent was clear.
If she couldn't bear the undying flame, she no longer qualified as heir.
'I'm dead meat, for real.'
In this situation where even breathing felt risky lest a barrage of flames reduce her to ash, Selden—who was arguably the most wronged here—rolled his eyes frantically, assessing.
'But where the hell is Aneri sis?'