Chapter 309
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 309
Chapter Title: Lesson 60. Head of the Family - 4
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to the Changelings who twisted Yura's karma, the group arrived in an instant at the training grounds right in front of the grand mansion where the head of the Prominence family and his direct kin resided. They didn't even have a moment to react before being surrounded by an overwhelming number of enemies.
—Enemies.
—Oh my god, it's the fairies? Maybe they've come to set us free.
"Kill them! The fairies have broken through! Don't let your guard down—push with sturdy physical attacks!"
The private soldiers guarding the Prominence family, the fire spirits bound by contracts, and combat dolls made by cramming in absurdly expensive materials. Their quality fell far short of Aire's golems, but their raw power came close.
"Hah, once you hit S-rank dimensions, even the guard dogs are on another level."
"O-our knights aren't inferior, you know?"
As Mira muttered while enchanting her nocked arrow with curses, Asha—feeling an unnecessary spark of rivalry—blurted out something off-topic. At that moment, Yura spread her arms wide, drawing all eyes from the fairy folk.
"The contracts binding those spirits are unfair! I just decided that right now!"
"We're ready, Your Majesty!"
"Mom, firing now. Right away."
No one called out that ridiculous nonsense.
On the contrary, the fairies matched each other's movements perfectly without a word.
The finishing blow came from Mira's arrow, shot high into the air.
The arrow, inscribed with curses too arcane for even experts to decipher easily, soared up and ritually tore apart whatever enveloped the entire mansion. Right after, every fairy knelt toward where Yura stood.
In that instant, everyone felt Yura's presence expand, blanketing the entire area.
Come to us, spirits! Break free from the chains that bound you!
That one command was enough.
—Ahh!
—Farewell, everyone! I'm casting off all the shackles and bonds of this world—!
—What nonsense? That's our new contractor, the Fairy Queen!
—Burn them! Burn those bastards who abused us!
It had been mere minutes since arriving at Prominence, leaving no time for tactical consideration.
A third of their forces flipped sides in an instant, baring their teeth at Prominence and rampaging. It was a moment that made the terror of fairies crystal clear.
Ban Yu-won, hand on the ground scouting the terrain—especially where his older sister was—watched in disbelief and muttered.
"Spirit contracts can just be snapped like that?"
"Changelings."
"Don't chalk everything up to Changelings."
Mira spoke with a cuteness that didn't suit the situation at all, which only made it more irritating because it suited her so perfectly.
"Stop playing along with the fairies' word games and do what needs doing!"
The group, knowing what Ban Yu-won wanted, drew their weapons, fended off enemies, and protected him.
The foes were all S-rank dimension elites surpassing Irecto's level four, but the ones who'd come directly to Prominence were no pushovers either. Holding the line through sheer force was entirely feasible.
"Got it."
Ban Yu-won lifted his hand from the ground, eyes sparkling.
He'd mapped the mansion's structure quickly enough, but piercing the magic barriers spanning the entire estate had taken time.
Now, he knew every barrier's structure and gaps. He could punch through with the Origin Sword.
"I'll be right back. Hold on just a bit."
"W-wait a sec, Yu-won. Take me with you."
Dokgo Yeon, swinging her death-marked blade to shatter over ten golems at once, turned urgently at his words. But he shook his head firmly.
"It's not about numbers. It'll end in a flash either way. Guard this place, Yeon. Be back soon."
"Eugh..."
Grasping his implication, Dokgo Yeon widened her eyes. Thinking he'd scared her too much, Ban Yu-won flashed a wry smile but didn't hesitate. He wielded the Origin Sword—
Slipping through the gaps in the space-filling barrier concepts, he teleported to his target.
Inside the grand mansion, a vast hall that looked like a training or practice ground.
Two massive flames hovered on the brink of collision.
"—The flame you bear is too feeble to claim the head's seat!"
The dire situation was obvious at a glance.
A man with a face resembling Craton—the Prominence vice-head Ban Yu-won had just killed—radiated cold, murderous aura, proclaiming his status as family head. He was cornering Ban Yu-won's half-dead sister.
Amid it all, Ulrike—somehow siding with Level Force instead of Prominence—caught his eye, leaving him baffled. But first, the most urgent matter.
"Your extra flame order is here—!"
His tone was as casual as adding meat to hotpot, but no one in that space was ignorant of the crimson orb in his grasp's worth.
The family head unleashed a laser beam infused with the essence of constellation flames at a speed even Ban Yu-won struggled to block.
Ulrike, sensitive to it as Prominence blood, threw everything she had to intercept it.
The moment Ban Yu-won reached his sister and transferred all the meticulously gathered Crimson Flame from the magic circle, everything ended in a flash—just as he'd told Dokgo Yeon.
"See that?!"
Ban Yu-mi, having obliterated the family head, raised a blazing flame above her palm and shouted.
The Crimson Flame proving her Prominence lineage sparkled translucently like a jewel, evidence she'd shattered multiple barriers in one go and ascended to a higher realm.
"Kneel if you saw!"
"Hah, Yu-mi."
"Ah, aah."
"No way..."
Ban Yu-mi's blunt words drew a sigh from Kang Eun-young but worked wonders on the other Prominence members.
Perhaps their bloodline's authority instinctively submitted to the superior one in Ban Yu-mi.
Ban Yu-won flinched as he absorbed concepts freshly harvested from the still-warm family head, in place of the Crimson Flame he'd yielded to his sister.
Normally, concepts from kills by others weren't obtained intact, but his sister's kill transferred almost perfectly.
Otherwise, jumping Life from 1,500 to 1,650 in one go would've been impossible.
For a moment, he cursed himself for thinking, 'I gave her the killing weapon and got the farming rights in return—another Changeling move.'
'I'm not stuck handling Crimson Flame forever, and this hard-to-grow element skyrocketed. Might even be a net gain.'
No, probably not, but still.
For now, seeing his sister successfully claim the headship with the family's support was satisfying enough. He'd call it a gift.
—KABOOM!
A massive explosion rocked from outside.
Probably Shati's annihilation magic power.
Imagining the chaos outside, Ban Yu-won fidgeted and urged his sister.
"Sis, the kids are fighting out there. Hurry and go suppress it."
"Uh, yeah? Ah, right! Got it— we'll talk when you get back! You all, follow me!"
Ban Yu-mi, emphasizing there was more to discuss, glared and dashed out.
The family members, flustered by the head change before their eyes, scrambled after her.
Ban Yu-won waved at their backs, then approached Ulrike. She'd taken the family head's attack in his stead and now writhed on the floor.
Left alone for two minutes, she'd turn into a fresh corpse.
"Kuhk... You... came..."
"Sunbae, you took that hit on purpose, didn't you? Thinking even I'd survive it."
"Still... kuh..."
Bleeding profusely from a gaping abdominal hole, Ulrike somehow managed a seductive expression.
"Saved... time, right...?"
"Fair point. Seeing you now, even I'd struggle to tank that."
He'd thought it a probing shot since it came right as he appeared, but no—it packed a constellation core.
Anyone without Prominence blood would've had their soul shattered. Ulrike, forewarned by her traits, braced and took it as a mere mortal wound.
Had Ban Yu-won taken it, the orb might've shattered—or been stolen by the head.
Level Force members might've handled it then, but as Ulrike said, it minimized time waste.
"Then... acknowledge me."
Feeling death closing in, Ulrike's voice sharpened.
"I'm on your side... Don't hate me..."
"That's the tricky part. Don't take it as cold—your past actions were... pretty unforgivable."
"I didn't... know..."
Of course not.
She wouldn't have brazenly approached him at the academy if she had.
Ban Yu-won placed a hand on her wound.
"Ignorance doesn't erase guilt. Writing it off with one hit feels a bit cheap."
"So mean... But I like it..."
Was this how the Prominence family loved—twisted?
Recalling Kira and his sister's faces, Ban Yu-won nodded in sudden understanding.
Entirely plausible.
He extracted the rampaging constellation energy wrecking her body, forged it into a Star Mark of depth 50, absorbed it, then pulled a candy from his pocket and slipped it into her mouth.
Thinking it a token of affection, Ulrike's pallor brightened noticeably.
"Thank you...! I love you. Even in death, my heart stays by your..."
"No, you must've misheard me."
Ban Yu-won poured Eden's elixir of life, Blood Dew, on her wound, activating the Geas—or Oath—concept from his prior encounter with Woo Hyul-rin.
"I said I'd collect the remaining debt from a living sunbae."
He felt an invisible ring form around him.
Originally a self-binding concept for greater power under conditions, he'd learned in ancient sorcery studies to expand the binding target.
Infusing it with depth-2,000 sorcery, the ring surged, binding him and Ulrike.
"I swear: as long as Ulrike Prominence protects me and my family, I will protect and safeguard her."
Her body rapidly healing, and sensing the magical contract linking her and Ban Yu-won—
Ulrike's face, once content to burn to ash, twisted in shock.
"This is...?"
"Figured it out? Swear quickly, sunbae."
"I-I swear!"
Oath activated.
Sorcery depth +10. Oath depth +20.
The Oath ring spun fiercely around them before dissolving into the air.
Ulrike realized her body was fully healed, gasped in horror as she checked herself... and that wasn't all.
"H-how? My contract with the constellation should've auto-terminated... My body's not broken—it's grown stronger."
"That's the power of the Oath."
He desperately held back the "Changeling" joke threatening to escape.
He had to wrap this up and bolt before those damn fairies messed with his head.
"As long as you protect me and my family, sunbae, you'll wield even greater power."
"My god... You. Even someone like me."
At his explanation, Ulrike's eyes filled with an indescribable emotion gazing at him—heavy, sticky, beyond mere love.
Ban Yu-won thought, yep, Prominence women are all a bit off.
"Anyway, urgent stuff's done. Time to wrap up and head to Union..."
But he realized that was arrogant judgment moments later.
Spotting another sun rising over Prominence skies.
"...What the hell is that?"
"A c-constellation."
Ulrike's face, moments from smothering him in kisses, paled again.
Better if it were reopened wounds—but no.
Once linked to 'it,' she knew.
"Not an avatar of the Eternal Devotees... The main body."
Even she could scarcely believe her own words.
Clinging to him, trembling, she said,
"Impossible, but... The constellation has descended itself! Bringing all remaining power...!"