Gulp.
Isitor tried not to show that he was afraid.
But his gaze slid downward without his realizing it.
‘What in the world is this Demon Sword?’
The Demon Sword Ikael held to his neck bristled with murderous intent simply by existing.
It looked like nothing more than a lump of scrap iron.
Yet an inexplicable killing intent poured from it.
‘What an unlucky sword. It's just like that bastard Ikael.’
SMACK—
Isitor quickly knocked Ikael's Demon Sword away.
“Hmph, showing off with only one sword!”
As though someone might grab him, Isitor quickly turned and walked away.
There was still a chill where the sword had been aimed at him.
‘What the hell is Ikael? Why has he changed so suddenly?’
He had seemed strange ever since they fought in the hallway that day, but Ikael truly seemed like a different person.
There were too many things Isitor could not understand: the carts of treasure, the Demon Sword, all of it.
‘Just you wait, bastard. I'll uncover all of it.’
Isitor secretly turned back and smiled.
He still had one card Ikael had yet to read.
It was a card that Ikael would never even imagine.
***
After forming his first Aura Circle, Ikael's rate of growth became astonishingly fast.
‘It feels as though I've got an unquenchable torch in my heart.’
If his previous aura cultivation had been like having to start by setting a torch stand alight, now that he had formed an Aura Circle, it was like pouring oil onto an already blazing torch.
And with each passing day, that torch grew larger.
After training in the Lower Training Hall, Ikael fell into aura cultivation out of habit whenever night came.
WHOOOO—
‘Hot.’
Now, a candle burned out too quickly when he used it for aura cultivation, so he kept only a low brazier fire burning.
There had been another change since he formed his first Aura Circle: it had become easier to sense another person's presence.
Thanks to that, it had become easier for Ikael to cultivate aura in secret within his room.
‘There's nothing strange about every brother practicing aura cultivation, but no one must ever discover my Desert Aura.’
Ikael's aura was still only at the first Aura Circle, so there was no danger of it being discovered immediately if someone saw it.
But since Desert Aura was the sole spark capable of standing against Dark Aura, it was best to prepare thoroughly so that no one discovered it.
‘There might be someone watching me, like there is now.’
Ikael's brow twitched.
He had been sensing a strange presence outside the door for some time.
Ikael sharpened his senses in that direction.
The brazier fire, which had been burning in time with Ikael's aura cultivation, held its breath with him.
‘I knew someone had been tailing me, but.’
After Ikael returned from Bakuba Volcano, Recrit's siblings had begun keeping him in check.
Ikael had already realized that someone had put a tail on him.
When there was no unusual sign from Ikael's room, the tail turned and left.
‘Still, I can't leave it alone.’
Ikael resolved to catch the rat before anything happened.
But matters unfolded more quickly than he expected.
***
The next day, Ikael finished his training early in the morning and returned to Ikael Palace.
But then a maid, white-faced, ran to him.
“Young Master, there is a problem! The demonic beast crow bones have disappeared.”
“What?”
The demonic beast crow bones were an important elixir.
The power of that elixir was what allowed the Aura Circle blazing like Desert Dragon Pkelon's iris to settle comfortably in Ikael's body.
The maid bowed her head, beside herself with worry.
“I am truly sorry! I have committed a sin deserving death! What should we do now?”
“Hmm.”
Ikael sank into thought.
He had stored the crow bones buried in the ashes of the fireplace.
It was to preserve the bones' fiery properties, and only Ikael and one maid knew about it.
“Do not worry. We can find them.”
Ikael had two choices.
He could rely on his intuition, or he could rely on a loyal subordinate.
Ikael summoned the knight Gopen.
Gopen was a large, bear-like knight who had always treated Ikael with utmost respect.
“The demonic beast crow bones have gone missing, Gopen. Can you think of anyone suspicious?”
“I am sorry, but I cannot. However, I will soon catch the culprit and bring them before you.”
Ikael watched Gopen for a moment, then took the hot tongs from the brazier.
He thrust Gopen's right hand into the brazier fire.
CLANG—
“Aaaaaagh!”
Gopen's gauntlet glowed red-hot.
Gopen thrashed about, but Ikael did not release him until much later.
“Do not play up the pain.”
“Urgh!”
Ikael removed Gopen's right gauntlet.
Though Gopen's face was flushed red from pain, his palm was unscathed.
“You touched the demonic beast crow bones.”
“Y-Young Master!”
The volcanic demonic beast crow bones were a powerful elixir.
Touching them barehanded temporarily granted resistance to fire.
Just like Gopen's hand, which had remained unharmed despite being thrust into the brazier fire.
‘He could not have dug through the ashes while wearing gauntlets, so he must have rummaged through them with bare hands.’
“I've known for a long time that you were tailing me. But you even stole the demonic beast bones. Who ordered you to do it?”
“I-I absolutely did not, Young Master!”
“Was it Brother Isitor?”
“Th-that…!”
Gopen looked as though he wondered how Ikael had known.
‘They tail me every day. Only a fool could fail to notice. Ah, would a fool like Isitor think it was a perfectly concealed card?’
Ikael had already been keeping a close eye on Gopen.
In his previous life, after Ikael died, Gopen had entered Isitor Palace as though he had been waiting for the chance.
Gopen was that shrewd and cunning a man.
On the surface, he pretended to serve Ikael, but his true intentions were black-hearted.
Moreover, this time he had certainly crossed the line.
FWOOOSH—
Ikael raised the longsword.
“Young Master?”
CLANG—
Ikael brought down his sword and carved off the knight's crest.
“Get lost, Gopen. If you show your face before me again, I will kill you.”
“Y-Young Master Ikael…”
THUNK—
When Gopen hesitated, Ikael held his sword to his neck.
The cold blade pressed against his neck with a chilling touch.
“What are you hesitating for? Shall I cut you down now?”
“Urgh…!”
Gopen was furious, but he did not dare defy Ikael.
Not long ago, Gopen would never have backed down.
Why would he fear Ikael, who had been nothing more than a sickly boy lying in bed?
‘But now, it's different.’
The Ikael of today would truly cut Gopen's throat.
Gopen was certain of it.
“I-I am sorry.”
Gopen lowered his burning-red face and bowed, then hurried away.
The maid was the one who apologized instead.
“Young Master Ikael, I am sorry. I should have guarded them better…”
“No.”
Now that he knew Isitor was responsible, all he had to do was retrieve the crow bones.
That was no problem.
But Ikael's expression was dark for reasons that had nothing to do with the elixir itself.
‘A knight with less loyalty than even a single maid.’
It was absurd, but most of the knights in Ikael Palace Knight Order were slack and undisciplined.
‘They wouldn't have entered Ikael Palace willingly in the first place.’
Ikael Palace was called Recrit's grave.
If they failed all three of their chances at the junior knight examination, they had to leave Bronze Castle or enter Ikael Palace.
They had entered Ikael Palace reluctantly, desperate to hold on to even the title of a Recrit knight, so there was no reason for them to be loyal.
In Recrit, where the weak were treated as trash, no knight would devote his loyalty to a sickly Young Master.
No one knew that better than Ikael, who had been a knight in his previous life.
‘My Knight Order.’
Now, he had to create a true Ikael Palace Knight Order.
***
In his room, Isitor held the crow bones and sank into thought.
“Damn it, how am I supposed to eat this?”
He had ordered someone to steal the demonic beast crow bones, but they were far too hard.
He turned them over and over and even tried biting them, but it was useless.
If anything, it felt as though his teeth would break.
“Young Master Isitor, there is a problem!”
“What is it?!”
At a time when he was already frustrated, a knight rushed in, and Isitor grew even more irritated.
“W-well. Young Master Ikael is going to see the family head. It seems he is going because of the demonic beast crow bones.”
“What?”
Isitor leapt to his feet.
‘Is that petty bastard really going to tell Father…?’
It wouldn't be of much use even if he did.
In Recrit, fights between siblings were tacitly permitted, and it was a principle that the siblings handled their own affairs.
But this was no time to weigh the matter back and forth.
Ikael's recent behavior had been strange.
There was no guarantee that the bastard wouldn't use another bizarre trick to sway Kairon's heart.
“This could turn into a disaster.”
Isitor hurriedly ran out.
He barely caught up with Ikael on the central staircase.
In Ikael's hand was the knight's crest carved from Gopen's chest.
Seeing evidence that someone had been dismissed, Isitor grew tense.
‘So it's true that this is about the demonic beast crow bones.’
Panting, Isitor followed Ikael up the stairs.
“Hey, why are you going to Father's study?”
“You should know that better than I do.”
Startled, Isitor became flustered.
“If you have something to say, say it directly to me. Do you think Father's idle enough to listen to every little thing about you?”
“Well, Father will decide that.”
‘He's really going to tell on me.’
Gooseflesh rose on Isitor's skin.
He knew his father Kairon's temperament well.
Compete, but win by fighting.
Strategy was also part of a fight, but a mere theft was a different matter.
Kairon would certainly despise him if he learned that Isitor had cowardly stolen the elixir in secret.
To have it regarded as a fight between siblings, Isitor should have instead forced Ikael to hand over the elixir himself.
“Hey, stop there, Ikael. Hey!!”
Isitor tried with all his might to stop Ikael.
But Ikael did not so much as acknowledge him and went into Kairon's study.
CLACK—
“H-he really went in…!”
Isitor did not dare cross the threshold of his father Kairon's study and only stood there blankly.
The door to Kairon's study stood immovably before Isitor, like a sheer cliff.
Inside the study, Ikael dropped to one knee.
THUD—
“I have a request of you, Father.”
Kairon set aside the sword he had been tending and looked at Ikael.
Rather than reprimanding the child who had barged in without warning, he only gave him a steady, searching look.
It was Ikael, after all.
“A request?”
“Yes. Did you not say that you would grant me one request in return for happily accepting the treasures from the volcano?”
“I did.”
Neither Ikael nor Kairon had expected that request to be used so quickly.
Whatever the case, a promise was a promise.
Kairon nodded once, telling Ikael to speak.
“Please allow me to personally oversee this knight examination.”
“What?”
It was an unexpected request.
Until now, Recrit's siblings had watched the knight examinations and selected capable knights to take with them.
But Ikael was not asking to take a few knights. He was saying that he would personally oversee the knight examination.
That was an entirely different matter.
Zen, Kairon's attendant knight, was primarily responsible for the knight examinations.
Recrit's stronghold was Bronze Castle, and the knights were what made up Bronze Castle.
Carelessly admitting knights was like laying a single faulty brick.
That was why Kairon entrusted the knight examinations to someone dependable.
But Ikael wanted to select the knights himself.
It was a request Kairon could grant, but one that carried heavy responsibility.
“It is not a difficult request. But what do you gain by doing so?”
Kairon looked puzzled.
CLINK—
Ikael held out the knight's crest he had taken from Gopen.
“So that I can sleep in peace. There is a rat wandering around my room.”
A smile flickered at the corner of Kairon's mouth.
With that one sentence, Kairon confirmed something.