Chapter 308
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 308
Chapter Title: Lesson 60. Family Head - 3
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A prestigious family that had endured for thousands of years, one intertwined with the fate of an ancient top-tier constellation—the head of the Prominence family, Cruel Prominence, spat up blood at the sensation of something linked to his soul cracking and tearing apart.
“Kuhk— Wh-what is this?”
He didn’t even need to look inward to know.
The contract connecting him to the constellation had just been torn apart like a sheet of paper.
The longer a contract lasted, the more it tainted the mind and body with the constellation’s magic power, called stigmata. Even the Prominence family, well-prepared against such corruption, couldn’t fully ward it off.
Especially for the family head, who had upheld the house through long years of collaboration with the constellation—its forced dissolution alone twisted his insides and shattered his bones in agony.
Not only had his available power plummeted to less than half, but he’d suffered soul damage so severe he could never form another contract with any constellation.
“Hup—!”
Staggering, he first conjured a barrier of flames to block Ban Yu-mi’s attack, then turned his gaze. The constellation’s avatar was writhing in similar torment, so it hadn’t severed the contract with him just to feign madness in order to capture Ban Yu-mi alive.
That left only one explanation—
The contract document stored in the family’s secret vault had been destroyed.
“Urike Prominence! Have you truly resolved to burn the entire family to the ground?!”
He roared, vomiting blood.
His daughter hadn’t moved a step from her spot, but only the family head’s bloodline knew of the vault’s existence.
And only the master of the inextinguishable flames could open it...
His daughter, mad for that man, couldn’t have let those mongrels find the vault—let alone destroy the contract inside—unless she’d joined hands with them.
“Phew, Yu-mi, you okay?”
“Hah, huff, huff... I should’ve killed him just now...”
As if proving his suspicions, a woman in black tights appeared beside Ban Yu-mi.
Even though Anari had successfully completed her mission by borrowing Ban Yu-mi’s flames, Ban Yu-mi was berating herself for failing to kill the family head during his greatest opening.
But her attack hadn’t been meaningless. While his body twisted in pain from the contract’s loss, he’d forcibly drawn out power to defend against her strike, worsening his condition even further.
“Kaaaaagh!”
“Miss!”
Some of the Prominence fighters groaning behind him even met their ends at Urike’s hands.
The pain from the contract’s destruction was the same for all, but Urike had prepared for it ahead of the others and managed to recover quickly enough to move.
In the chaos, she’d beheaded at least a dozen fighters, broke through the forming encirclement, and joined Ban Yu-mi’s side.
As Level Force’s members stared at her in stunned silence, she calmly addressed Anari.
“Please tell him everything I’ve done. Tell him I was fooled too, that I’m on his side.”
“Of course. Yu-won will be proud of you.”
Anari’s response carried a hefty dose of sarcasm, but Urike pretended not to notice.
She didn’t care what someone like Anari thought of her anyway.
Having betrayed as she intended and given up on seizing Ban Yu-won for herself, she clung to one last hope.
To somehow reach his closest side and earn his attention.
For that, beheading the remnants of the prestigious house that had already betrayed her was nothing at all.
“Urike... you fool! He doesn’t care what happens to you!”
“You were the same, Father. If you truly cared for me, you should’ve told me sooner.”
Urike’s tone, having cast aside all doubts, was so eerily flat it sent chills down the spine.
It was the mindset of a madwoman no normal person could comprehend, but ironically, Cruel understood that from her perspective, it might be the best choice.
He too had committed countless mad acts in his single-minded drive to elevate Prominence to the top, so how could he ignore a family tradition that served only one’s own goals?
“I kept you alive to make you pay for what you’ve done, but that was my mistake. I should’ve gotten rid of you sooner.”
“So that’s what you thought. Thank you for confirming my judgment, Father.”
Level Force’s members listened to the father-daughter exchange with minds reeling.
The daughter stabbing her father in the back for her own greed, and the father regretting not killing her sooner—is this really a father and daughter?
What was the family bond we thought we knew...?
“Now that I think about it, with a sister desperate to harm her own little brother, this kind of family dynamic isn’t so surprising.”
“Seriously, if you weren’t helpful this time, I’d kill you myself...”
Ban Yu-mi caught her breath and stepped forward again, grinding her teeth at Anari’s whisper.
The flames that had weakened and faded reignited, blazing scarlet across her blade.
Was it his imagination? Even though he’d heard the contract linking the family and constellation was gone, somehow his authority felt strengthened.
It was because the constellation’s desperate attempts to claim and make the inextinguishable flames its own—efforts chronicled through history—had finally been thwarted, allowing the true essence of the authority to return fully. But Ban Yu-mi had no way of knowing that.
“We need to kill that avatar first.”
Urike gripped her whip, her sharp tone laced with reluctance even to speak with him.
The whip was studded with razor-sharp metal shards—and as she infused it with magic power, crimson auras laced with flame bloomed along each edge.
—Not content with betrayal, you dare oppose me now? This generation of Prominence is truly a mess. No choice but to rebuild the house with a new host for the inextinguishable flames.
“In your dreams. I won’t let you drag the family down by chasing your whims. I’ll capture you alive as you wish, so cooperate with me. Not with the authority—with me, the head of a house thousands of years strong! And all Prominence warriors, annihilate my enemies!”
As the family head bellowed at the constellation’s avatar, he commanded his retainers.
The order: seize and kill all enemies except Ban Yu-mi.
Even his own daughter Urike was no exception.
Yet while half charged forward without hesitation, the other half faltered, unwilling to move.
They were the ones who had seen the flames rising from Ban Yu-mi’s blade right after the contract snapped.
“The flames Prominence lost...”
“It was a brutal incident. Even those who walked the path of the sword were members of Prominence.”
They had upheld the Prominence name alongside the family head, but their loyalty was to the collective, not the bloodline.
The constellation had sustained Prominence, but the reason it went astray was Ban Yu-mi’s authority.
It was only natural some hesitated now that they’d realized what truly mattered.
Ban Yu-won had meant to persuade exactly such people through his sister, and witnessing the family head’s daughter betray him right before their eyes only fueled their doubt.
Just twenty years ago, that brutal event where they’d nearly exterminated a branch to eliminate a rival and seize power for filthy reasons.
Even those who’d followed the head back then—believing unity under a strong ruler outweighed a few casualties for the family’s strength—were reconsidering after seeing the head and his bloodline’s disappointing display.
Above all, the contract’s destruction was the biggest factor.
Under the constellation’s dominion, they had no choice but to follow its greatest beneficiary, the head. But now that the constellation’s authority was lost, there was no need.
“Tch, you bastards...!”
Cruel Prominence ground his teeth, sensing the unrest among his family members.
If he could just quickly eliminate the enemies and subdue Ban Yu-mi, he could quell their wavering.
But with him and the avatar pinned down containing Ban Yu-mi and Urike, Level Force’s members were desperately buying time by unleashing all their reserved power. It was impossible.
Especially that embarrassing woman in skimpy clothes, presumed to have destroyed the contract herself—she was the most irritating.
While the others scrambled to hold them off, she used nimble movements and concealment arts to hide her magic power completely, methodically slitting retainers’ throats one by one.
“Yu-mi, can you see them?”
Not just the head had read Prominence’s unrest.
Kang Eun-young—once a collateral Prominence knight, now the adoptive mother of Prominence’s next head—spoke calmly amid the fierce battle, her voice steady as Saira Kült.
“There are those hesitating whether to make you the next family head. This is the time to prove yourself.”
“Mom...”
“You can do it, right?”
Instead of answering, Ban Yu-mi poured more power into her sword.
The crimson blaze along the blade began absorbing all nearby flames.
—Yes, that one! I must make it mine, no matter what!
“I sever your limbs. Sacrifice a part of yourself, follower of the myriad calamities!”
—I must preserve it, no matter what!
The shrieking constellation split its body into three, each sucked into the orbs of flame the head wielded, empowering them.
Artifacts created by permanently sacrificing the constellation’s own power.
The head merged them into one, concentrating all his strength within.
“Hear me, Prominence! Today, I will claim that authority and perfect our house!”
“I’m the next family head! I’ll smash that petty goateed bastard who only looks out for his bloodline, and I’ll be the big boss of Prominence! I’m better than that damn old fogey, so follow me, you scum!”
Kang Eun-young pressed her forehead at her daughter’s bombastic speech, heart swelling with pride.
Should’ve trained her in rhetoric too.
Fortunately, Prominence members were fixated not on her words, but on her sword—now devouring every flame around her, growing stronger.
Even the fighters attacking her group had lost their momentum.
As the frantic battle reached a temporary lull, the head shouted.
“That’s why you’re too weak!”
The singularity of constellation flame shot forth.
It pulverized Urike’s flung whip in an instant, pierced Anari’s illusion, clashed with Ban Yu-mi’s thrust sword—shattering it—and finally pierced her shoulder.
“Kugh—!”
“A fledgling who can’t even wield the authority properly.”
Having shattered Ban Yu-mi’s authority even at the cost of the constellation’s sacrifice, the head smirked triumphantly and stepped forward.
The evolved orbs clashed fiercely in midair, preparing the second shot.
“Yu-mi!”
“I’m fine, I’m okay...”
Ban Yu-mi gripped the sword with her left hand instead of her pierced, weakening right arm and gritted her teeth. But even after gathering all the surrounding flames, she hadn’t stopped the enemy—her voice lacked some confidence.
“You can win.”
“You cannot win. The flame you bear is too feeble to ascend to family head!”
“Your extra flames order has arrived—!”
With that shout, Ban Yu-won appeared in midair.
The head fired flames to kill him first and foremost, but fortunately, Urike threw herself in the way this time, blocking it.
Ban Yu-won thought, watching her sacrifice for him out of nowhere, She probably didn’t need to; I could’ve blocked it myself, but hurried to his sister, pressing a glowing red bead to her mangled shoulder.
“Soar—high—Vermilion—Bird—!”
“I really wanna smack you—love you, you bastard!”
The 3,000-depth crimson flame’s effect was certain.
Whoosh—flames erupted at Ban Yu-mi’s feet, swiftly enveloping her body and vanishing. Fully restored, she reappeared draped in a dress of flame—what those familiar with the authority would call “Authority Armament”—gripping her sword right-handed once more.
“And you’re dead, you fucker.”
The head glanced expressionlessly at his daughter sprawled on the ground, then unleashed divine flame forged by destroying all his orbs as payment.
It coiled around Ban Yu-mi’s extended sword, amplifying her power.
“Ah.”
The head groaned briefly.
The next moment, everything about him burned away, leaving only ash.