Supervisor Kodan watched Steward Hanks standing at the very front of the welcoming line and had to suppress a laugh. For all his months of wielding power and swaggering about like the second most important person in the
So now, standing at the head of the welcoming party, Steward Hanks wore an inexplicable, almost sacred expression of self-sacrifice, whispering urgently to Lanskert at his side about how to greet Lorist and how to answer his questions. Perhaps in Hanks' mind, even if he had to give his life for this family rebellion — as long as Young Master Lanskert became the Norton Family's heir — it would be the greatest victory. In that regard, Hanks was indeed deeply loyal to the Norton Family. At least, that was what he believed.
The distant rumble of hooves echoed without end. Soon, Lorist appeared before the welcoming party, riding alone at the forefront. Behind him followed Krisha, Reidi, Tager, Bodfeng, the guard battalion, and the Stone Legion soldiers...
Many in the welcoming party were trembling, and Steward Hanks and Young Master Lanskert at the very front were no exception. When Lorist reined his horse to a halt before them, every single person bowed their head and bent at the waist in unison. In that moment, everyone understood — Lorist was the sky of the Norton Family. Having become a Sword Saint, he was the family's greatest glory and shield.
"Welcome home, Your Highness..."
By traditional noble etiquette, Lorist was supposed to dismount, graciously tell everyone to rise, then personally greet each of the family officials one by one. A word or two would suffice — a pat on the shoulder, a word of thanks, showing warmth and appreciation for those who had stayed behind.
But Lorist remained seated on his horse, silent. Almost every official who had come to greet him felt a sharp, piercing gaze fall upon them. The welcoming scene plunged into utter silence. An oppressive weight, heavy as a mountain, bore down on them, and those with guilty consciences or dark intentions found their heads bowing ever lower and their backs bending ever deeper, as though they desperately wished to hide in someone else's shadow...
"Your Highness!" Steward Hanks straightened his back proudly, breaking the silence.
Lorist waved his hand as though the man didn't even exist. Behind him, Reidi rode forward to the edge of the welcoming crowd, took a silver tube from his saddle, poured a scroll from it, unfurled it, and began reading names aloud: "Kruse! Ivensen! Eckfal! Moslin! Bayachus..."
With each name Reidi called, several guards rushed forward and dragged the named individual out of the crowd. A perceptive observer would have noticed that every person called was someone Steward Hanks had trusted — recently promoted men, or those originating from the Maple Forest Manor, mostly veterans of the security battalion who had played a major role in the coup to push Young Master Lanskert as family heir. Strangely, though, Reidi seemed to have entirely overlooked Steward Hanks and Eldest Young Master Lanskert, never calling their names.
"What are you doing?" Steward Hanks cried out in alarm, lunging forward to block Reidi's horse as though that could stop the reading.
Reidi squeezed his horse's flanks, shifting two steps sideways so he was facing Hanks from an angle. Then he lifted his right foot and kicked Steward Hanks square in the face. Hanks flew backward seven or eight meters, struggled to raise his head — a dark, swollen boot print branded on his face — and spat out a mouthful of blood with two teeth mixed in. Reidi, as though he had merely kicked a barking stray dog out of the road, paid him no further mind and continued reading names from the scroll in the same steady monotone.
More and more people were pulled out by the guards and made to stand to one side. After roughly forty or fifty names, Reidi finally stopped, rolled the scroll back up, and returned it to the silver tube. Only then did Lorist dismount, walk over to the remaining family officials, and put on a warm, kindly smile. He helped each of them to their feet, patted their shoulders, and said: "You've worked hard. I'm sorry for what you've been through."
Supervisor Kodan, on behalf of the thirty-odd remaining officials — moved nearly to tears — expressed their remorse to Lorist: "Your Highness, we're sorry. It was our incompetence that allowed the family to endure this upheaval..."
Lorist waved it off. "Say no more. You have nothing to be sorry for. You are the family's civil officials — there was no reason for you to stain your blood on the swords and spears of traitors. When the family descended into chaos, you remained at your posts, maintained the administrative system, and kept most of the family's territories in order and peace. That is the contribution you have made to the family, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you."
Lorist's words moved the officials before him beyond measure, but they turned the faces of the forty-odd people standing under guard deathly pale. This was Lorist personally defining the nature of the family's internal strife — and the word he had used was "traitors." This was nothing less than a declaration that it had been a rebellion within the Norton Family.
Steward Hanks' face flushed crimson. Nothing could have enraged him more than Lorist declaring them traitors to the Norton Family. With the dark, swollen boot print still vivid on his face, he charged up to Lorist once more and began shouting in agitation.
"Well, well. Look who it is." Lorist finally deigned to look at Steward Hanks directly. "I must say, I'm quite puzzled, Baron Hanks. Why are you here? I distinctly recall ordering you to return to your own fiefdom and spend some proper time reflecting on the damage and disgrace you've caused our family. Out of consideration for your past service, I mercifully pardoned your offenses and merely told you to go back to your fief. So perhaps you can tell me — who gave you permission to appear here, shouting at me, the head of the Norton Family?"
"Uh..." Steward Hanks suddenly realized he was trapped. All the carefully rehearsed words, every justification and argument he had prepared, crumbled into nothing before Lorist's questions. Lorist had addressed him by his noble title — Baron — rather than by his position within the family faction, making it abundantly clear that he had been expelled from the family's inner circle. Hanks could no longer find any reason to justify his presence here.
If Hanks claimed to be a loyal vassal of the family, then he should have obeyed the current head's orders and stayed in his barony to reflect on his mistakes. Without Lorist's permission, he had absolutely no business being here.
"I — I came to support Young Master Lanskert as the family's heir! It is the duty of every vassal loyal to the family..." Hanks finally managed to squeeze out a half-decent excuse.
"The family heir?" Lorist turned to the other side, where Lanskert stood shivering and playing ostrich. At the sight of that bloated physique, a flicker of disgust crossed Lorist's eyes.
"I recall never having appointed any family heir." Lorist's voice was quiet, but everyone present heard it with perfect clarity. "Lanskert, my dear son, how time flies — you're already over seventeen. Since you were young, I have been consumed with family affairs and neglected your upbringing. But I never imagined you would be so eager to become the family heir. Is that truly what you want?"
Though Lanskert had rarely seen his father and feared Lorist to the depths of his soul — ever since the day Lorist had left him at Markkok's home under Madam Malek's strict discipline, and later when Lanskert had committed offenses at the Nico Academy and Lorist had unhesitatingly ordered Reidi to strip him naked in public, hang him up, and give him a brutal thirty lashes before throwing him, bloodied and covered in wounds, back to the Maple Forest Manor — those lessons were seared into his memory. Even now, despite Lorist's mild tone, Lanskert felt cold all over and could not stop trembling...
Under the contemptuous weight of Lorist's gaze, Lanskert recalled his mother's instructions and Steward Hanks' encouraging words — *No matter what, you are His Highness's eldest son; His Highness won't do anything to you* — and that gave him the courage to speak: "M-Mother and — and Uncle Hanks — they said — said I was the Norton Family's natural heir. Everything of the Norton Family belongs to me. N-No one can — can compare to me..."
"The Norton Family's natural heir?" Lorist let out an incredulous laugh, then extended one hand. Tager walked over and placed a scroll in it.
"I was wounded and lost contact with the family territories, and you stepped forward to declare yourself the family's heir. I don't blame you for that at all, my dear son. A man may have ambitions — that is right and proper. But to act on the manipulation of others, to do whatever you please and fancy yourself in the right — that only proves you are a brainless fool."
Lorist unfurled the scroll. "You've been in Fierce Bear City for seven months now, haven't you? Let's see what you've done in those seven months..."
"My, you've been busy. In seven months, you assaulted twenty-one maidservants in the lord's manor, killed four servants — one of them the cook, simply because the roast venison he prepared didn't suit your taste. When he talked back a couple of times, you drew your sword and killed him, then threw his head into the fire. Your dear Uncle Hanks even issued a gag order on your behalf and had all the bodies buried in the garden...
"Let's see — you also sent a letter to
"Hmm. Since you couldn't command your cousin Krisha's First Imperial Guard Corps, you sent the personal guard unit that Uncle Hanks assembled for you to capture Madam Malek and her family — planning to repay her for her strict discipline, were you? Fortunately, Madam Malek's family received advance warning and left the estate in time. Your guards then burned the estate the family had bestowed upon Knight Malek just to vent their anger...
"And four times in seven months, you left the lord's manor. Each time you roamed the city, you abducted three women, killed two women's families, and drove your carriage recklessly through the busiest streets, killing three people and injuring over a dozen more. You also ordered everyone who operated shops or businesses in the city to present you with rare and exotic treasures as tribute, or you would shut them down...
"And your excuse? 'Because if I did the same thing, my grandfather — your father — would have me hanged on the spot as an apology to the ancestors of the Norton Family.'
"Your mother's coddling and indulgence from childhood have turned you into a beast wearing human skin. You have no mercy and no humanity. As your father, I have decided to correct the mistake I made. First, I will strip you of the right to bear the name Norton. You are unworthy of this great and glorious surname — it is your actions that have brought shame upon it. And I will follow my father's — your grandfather's — example. I will publicly expose all of your crimes, and then I will hang you from the gallows. Anyone who stains the Norton Family's honor will face the punishment they deserve..."
Lorist pronounced his eldest son's crimes and coming sentence in a calm, measured voice. Lanskert, his bloated body pale as a sheet, stumbled backward in horror. He had never dreamed that every one of his actions had been under Lorist's watch. He looked desperately from face to face among the family officials, suspecting each and every one of them of being the informer.
"Father — Father, forgive me..." Lanskert tripped over something and collapsed to the ground. A moment later, the stench of urine spread — he had lost control of his bladder.
"Your Highness! You can't do this! This is His Majesty's decree — His Majesty appointed Lanskert as the Norton Family's heir! You have no authority to punish him!" Steward Hanks rushed in front of Lanskert, pulled a decree from inside his robes — the
"His Majesty's decree?" Lorist chuckled softly. "Are you joking, or did I hear you wrong? Baron Hanks, since when does His Majesty have the authority to directly intervene in my Norton Family's internal affairs? Especially with the family head — myself — still present, His Majesty can simply designate who my heir is? Could it be that His Majesty wishes to sever ties with the entire noble class of the Kingdom and spark another civil war?"
"That — that was because Your Highness was gravely wounded in your duel with the Storm Sword Saint and lost contact with the family. As a precaution, we petitioned His Majesty to appoint Lanskert as heir to oversee the family territories in Your Highness's absence..." Hanks argued desperately.
"As a precaution? So Baron Hanks has been wishing for my early death all along." The words cut deep, but they were the truth. Having ascended to Sword Saint, Lorist could expect to live at least two or three hundred years — like the Flying Fire Sword Saint of the Qigeda Kingdom, who had reportedly lived to over two hundred and sixty. Setting all else aside, even if Lanskert were Lorist's son, if he could never become a Sword Saint, he would age faster and die sooner than Lorist regardless.
"So Baron Hanks saw fit to have the security battalion's soldiers lead those Sword Saints who were trying to assassinate me in searching for my whereabouts, wouldn't you? You were willing to expose the family's most closely guarded production and training bases, allow the most critical blueprints and documents vital to our family's future to fall into enemy hands, and nearly two thousand of the family's most loyal soldiers gave their lives to protect those secrets..." Lorist's voice was now thick with barely contained fury.
"I — I was simply doing my best to protect the family territories' security and stability, helping Young Master Lanskert oversee the family's internal governance. I was loyal to the—" Hanks stammered, still trying to justify himself.
"Loyal? Heh. Are you even qualified to use that word?" Lorist sneered. "What right did you have to oversee the family's administration and territorial affairs? I don't recall ever appointing you to any position. You confined the family's
"Take these traitors away. I will publicly declare their crimes and punish them accordingly!" Lorist's voice was ice cold as he gave the order. The guards dragged Steward Hanks, Lanskert, and all those who had been named off the field.
Krisha approached. "I'm sorry, Lorist. I didn't know about what Lanskert had been doing. If I had, I would have stopped him. But are you truly going to punish him? He is your eldest son..."
Lorist's face was dark, and he was silent for a long while before he finally spoke: "Even a prince is subject to the same law as the common people!"
...