"Ten seconds?!"
Vespera didn’t hesitate.
She didn’t waste time asking how a ten-year-old knew about a rigged structural pillar.
The moment the words left my lips, her Death Aura detonated in a blinding dome of crimson force.
"EVACUATE!"
Her voice boomed, shattering the stalactites above.
Before the first echo even faded, a massive hand grabbed the collar of my tunic, snatching me into the air like a kitten.
"Got you, kid!"
It was Caelum, my second eldest brother.
He pulled me against his massive chestplate, his legs flexing before he launched himself toward the cavern exit like a cannonball.
Behind us, three distinct shadows blurred past in synchronized perfection.
My third eldest sister, The Executioner, moved so fast she left afterimages in the mist, her twin daggers already drawn.
Flanking her were my fifth and sixth brothers—the twin enforcers—their brutal heavy shields raised to deflect the falling debris.
At the rear was my fourth eldest brother, The Strategist.
He sprinted with calm, calculated precision, casting defensive blood-runes behind him to slow the crumbling ceiling.
BOOM!
The main obsidian pillar ruptured.
A shockwave of blue soul-carved mana ripped through the underground chamber, causing the entire mountain to groan as millions of tons of solid rock caved in.
Caelum burst through the cavern entrance just as the tunnel behind us was completely sealed beneath a mountain of crushed stone and rising dust.
Cough! Cough!
Caelum dropped to one knee, coughing up grey dust, but his arms remained locked around me like a steel cage.
"Everyone alive?!" he bellowed through the cloud.
"Barely," a cold, smooth voice replied.
My fourth brother, Alexis, stepped out of the dust, casually brushing ash from his pristine black robes.
His sharp, analytical red eyes locked onto the sealed tunnel behind us.
"That was high-tier Medeis soul-mana," Alexis said softly, adjusting his spectacles.
"A delayed structural collapse spell. It was placed there long before today."
"GARREN!"
Caelum roared, his aura flaring so violently the surrounding trees trembled.
"THAT SNAKE RIGGED THE CRUCIBLE!"
"Silence, Caelum."
Vespera’s voice cut through the air like a razor.
She walked out from the clearing, her battle scythe resting casually over her shoulder.
Though her expression was a mask of absolute frost, I could see her hands trembling slightly as she looked down at me in Caelum’s arms.
"We do not make noise without proof," Vespera said coldly, though her eyes burned with promise.
"If we strike now without evidence, the Sec elders will hide behind the clan laws."
"We wait."
"We watch."
She stepped forward, taking me gently from Caelum’s grip and placing my feet on the ground.
Standing beside the carriage waiting at the mountain base were two figures who had remained on guard outside during the collapse.
My personal warrior maid, Aura.
And the Prim family’s head butler, Rook.
Aura rushed forward instantly, her dark leather armor tight against her athletic frame.
Her hand rested on the hilt of her shortsword, her golden-amber eyes frantic with concern.
"Young Master!"
Aura dropped to one knee before me, her breathing ragged.
"Are you unhurt? I felt the shockwave from the ridge—"
"I’m fine, Aura," I said, offering her a calm smile beneath my silk blindfold.
Aura was my personal guard—an orphaned war prodigy taken in by the Prim family.
In my past life, when the Sec elders framed me, she was the only person in the estate who tried to fight off the guards dragging me to the dungeon, earning herself a brutal exile.
Her loyalty bordered on obsession.
Beside her, Rook—the elderly, silver-haired head butler—stood as straight as a spear.
He adjusted his white gloves, his expression impassive, though the dark, heavy aura rolling off his frail-looking body proved he was anything but an ordinary servant.
Rook was a retired executioner of the main family.
A man who had served three generations of the Prim bloodline.
"The carriage is prepared, Young Master Valerian," Rook said, bowing deeply.
"And... congratulations on surviving the Crucible."
His sharp old eyes flickered toward my chest, subtly sensing the dense heat radiating from my newly ignited bloodline.
He didn’t ask about the blindfold.
A true head butler knew when to keep his mouth shut.
’Ooh, I like the old man,’ Wren chimed quietly in my head.
’He has killed a lot of people.’
I stepped into the carriage, surrounded by my six protective siblings, my warrior maid, and my silent butler.
We were returning to the main estate.
But everything had changed.
I wasn’t the dud anymore.
I had unlocked the first stage of the Blood Weapon Art.
My dragon core was finally burning bright.
’So, kid,’ Wren purred as the carriage wheels began to roll.
’What’s the move? Are we going to flaunt this newly ignited core of yours, or are we playing it smart?’
I leaned back against the plush velvet seat, resting my chin on my small hand.
Rushing to reveal my full strength to the world right now was amateurish.
A true hound hides its fangs until its jaws are already around the prey’s throat.
I would stay hidden behind this silk cloth.
Play the fragile, blind seventh child on the surface.
Build my strength in the shadows.
I looked out the carriage window toward the distant eastern border—
toward the territory of the Medeis family.
"On the surface, I remain the weakling who barely survived the Crucible," I thought back to Wren, a dark smile spreading across my lips.
"But when night falls..."
"I hunt."
Suddenly—
The carriage ground to a violent halt.
The horses whinnied in sheer terror as a heavy, suffocating pressure slammed down onto the roof of our transport from above.
" ALERT: ENEMY PRESENCE DETECTED "
" ENTITY: MEDEIS SOUL-CARVED ASSASSIN SQUAD "
" LOCATION: SURROUNDING FOREST "
A cold, mocking voice echoed from the trees outside.
"How unfortunate."
"So the Blood Dragon’s cripple escaped the mountain."
"But you won’t survive the road home."