Chapter 264: Victory is a Side Reward (1)

The moment Jordic registered Keter’s presence in his head, his body reacted instinctively and unleashed a technique—Moonlight Spear Style, Fourth Form: Full Moon.

A circular wave of spear aura filled the space ahead. However, the real attack was the concealed thrust within it—a lightning-fast strike embedded inside the empty shell of spear aura.

Despite the sudden ambush, Keter, who was always combat-ready, casually formed an arrow in his hand and threw it. The arrow hit the center of the Full Moon and detonated.

Boooom! Crrrash!

The glass windows in the hallway shattered into pieces, scattering everywhere. The floor and ceiling burst apart from the shockwave, debris raining down. Through the narrow gaps of the collapsing structure, Jordic’s spear danced. Gungnir, imbued with a guaranteed-hit effect, aimed precisely at the vital points across Keter’s body.

The Infinite Bank collector, who was inadvertently witnessing the battle, focused on their battle.

Moonlight Spearmanship is supposed to be incomplete. However, Jordic managed to fill in the missing core with his own talent.

As a six-star Grandmaster, the collector immediately recognized that Bydent’s Moonlight Spear Style was flawed.

The Moon Rabbit Tribe that had passed down the technique had deliberately removed key components before passing it down. They had no choice but to do this because if they had handed over the original technique intact, the Samael Empire would have noticed. Thus, the Moonlight Spear Style had dozens of missing pieces, making it two full tiers below its original form.

Even so, that was impressive enough for humans to call Bydent the Masters of Spearmanship, but it was nothing in the world of Transcendentals. Jordic had learned this the hard way, specifically after sparring with Gyro and witnessing Keter’s divine-level skill at the Sword of the South Tournament.

He had poured blood and sweat into his training to beat Keter, and the result was this very spear technique. This was Halo, a chained sequence following the Full Moon. The shattered fragments of the Full Moon gathered and formed a band of cutting spear aura that surged toward Keter.

Jordic felt confident. Lunar Eclipse was stronger in terms of raw destructive power, but it required a long windup. More importantly, Keter had already seen it multiple times, so there was a good chance it wouldn’t work.

However, Halo was Jordic’s own creation, and this was the first time he was showing it. Even Keter, that monstrous prodigy, seemed to give up on dodging and smiled.

He’s... smiling?

A chill ran down the back of Jordic’s neck.

Is it because he doesn’t need to dodge?

“You’ve grown, Jordic,” said Keter, as if he had read Jordic’s thoughts.

It wasn’t mockery. It was the warm praise of a teacher happy to see his student improve. Normally, Keter would intentionally take a hit just to humiliate his opponent, but not this time. To acknowledge Jordic’s growth, Keter revealed one of his own new techniques. It was Sefira Style Limitless Archery, Second Form: Soft Big Bang.

If Big Bang was a wide, sweeping strike, then Soft Big Bang was a short, snapping punch. It activated far faster than the original Big Bang, though its power was only one-tenth. But even that one-tenth was more than enough to shatter Jordic’s Halo and bring the building crashing down.

At that moment, the Infinite Bank’s collector, who had been watching, lightly flicked his hand.

Rattle rattle!

A sound like dozens of marbles rolling echoed, and the shockwave of Soft Big Bang was shredded apart and dispersed.

“Quick thinking,” Keter said, giving him a thumbs-up.

The collector sheathed a sword no one had even seen him draw.

“I merely protected the Infinite Bank’s property.”

In that split second, the Bydent knights immediately surrounded Keter.

“The enemy of our patriarch..!!”

“You will not leave here alive.”

Their lines were childish, but the killing intent was real. Just as they prepared to attack, Jordic, whom they all thought dead, rose from the rubble.

“Stop! Lower your spears... not entirely, but stand down for now!” he shouted.

Having dismissed the knights, Jordic looked at his spear, Gungnir.

They said it only had a guaranteed-hit effect, but it protected me.

Keter’s technique was both martial arts and archery. Compared to that mystical, devastating power, Jordic’s Halo felt like child’s play. And above all, Keter had clearly held back, as his technique had been aimed not at Jordic, but at destroying Halo.

The moment Jordic realized the difference in their levels, his grip loosened without him even noticing. Because of that, a situation that shouldn’t have been dangerous suddenly became life-threatening. Even if Keter had held back, failing to defend meant the residual force could still kill him. He realized his mistake too late to correct it, but at that point, Jordic had already resigned himself to his fate.

I was the one who ambushed Keter. Considering his personality, he’s going to use this opportunity to kill me.

Jordic had intended to kill Keter from the start. Doing so would give Bydent an enormous advantage in the Family War against Sefira. In truth, he believed that without Keter, Sefira was nothing.

He had failed, but that was fine. If he died here, it would give his family’s knights a justified reason to kill Keter in return, especially with three six-star knight commanders nearby.

Exchanging my life with Keter’s. Not a bad trade.

When Jordic accepted his death and closed his eyes, Gungnir flew into his hands. Then, it moved on its own, clearing the flying debris. He had already gone lax, so he couldn’t avoid being buried under the collapsing debris. But by then, he had regained enough clarity to coat himself in Aura Armor. He ended up covered in dust, but he survived.

I’m grateful... but now I’m completely lost.

Jordic wasn’t cruel enough to order an attack now, and Keter’s attitude only confused him more. Keter had been ambushed, yet remained relaxed, even casual.

Besides, how is Keter even here? He should’ve been imprisoned in the palace with Hissop...

His mind was a mess. A full minute passed in silence as Jordic stared at Keter, unsure of what to say.

Finally, tired of waiting, Keter opened up first. “Does this family not serve drinks to its guests?”

* * *

“

Gulp, gulp.

”

Jordic fidgeted with his fingers as he watched Keter drink straight from the bottle. Just from that single clash earlier, Jordic had understood one thing for certain.

I’m no match for Keter.

He had always known that, of course, but he thought that he might be able to force a draw with Gungnir, an artifact, but it wasn’t even close.

You monstrous bastard. I thought I’d gotten stronger, but you’ve grown dozens of times stronger than me.

A heat rose inside his chest.

Keter was downing a bottle of liquor worth hundreds of gold as if it were water, not even bothering to savor it. He was complaining about the lack of decent snacks while sitting comfortably in enemy territory. Jordic found himself getting angry—not at Keter, but at himself for interpreting his vassals’ worried concerns about meeting Keter alone as meddling rather than goodwill.

Suppressing that anger, he finally said, “Just what are you?”

Keter ignored Jordic’s resentment and shoveled an entire plate of tomatoes and cheese into his mouth as if it were nothing. Even so, Jordic knew Keter was listening, so he continued.

“There must be many madmen in the world, but among them, you’re both the worst and the greatest, Keter.”

“Ah, finally a decent snack. Now the drink actually tastes good.”

Setting down the empty bottle, Keter pulled out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. Jordic grimaced, as he hated the smell, but Keter didn’t care. He lit it by rubbing his fingers together.

“What’s your dream?” Keter asked.

It was the kind of question one would ask a close friend. Jordic gave up trying to understand.

“To elevate the Bydent family into a master family status.”

“And why do you have to become one?”

“Would you ask a growing child why they grow? Just as a regular noble wants to become part of the House of Representatives, and the nobles of the House of Representatives want to become part of the Senate, we simply want to grow from the Senate into a master family.

“A child grows up and becomes an adult. An adult grows old, and an old man grows into... what?”

“So it ends with sophistry.”

“Ah, did I make it too philosophical? People around me speak in riddles so often that I tried mimicking them. Still too hard, I guess.”

Gulp.

Keter took the half-smoked cigarette and swallowed it whole. Then he leaned in close.

“Bydent can’t beat Sefira.”

“...”

News of the Family War wasn’t public yet. Only the patriarchs knew, and Sefira’s acting patriarch was currently imprisoned. So for Keter to speak as if he knew it for certain was absurd.

“Wait, I think I said that vaguely. Let me rephrase: Bydent cannot defeat Sefira in the Family War. Phew, much clearer.”

“...!”

Keter stating it so definitively made Jordic lose his composure; he shot to his feet.

“I don’t know how you learned of it, but declaring a Family War doesn’t mean it begins immediately. Only after negotiations can it start.”

“Then why did you attack me?”

“...Because you suddenly appeared, and I mistook you for an assassin.”

“For a mistake, your attacks carried a lot of emotion. Anyway, did you understand what I said? Bydent cannot beat Sefira.”

“If you’re trying to provoke me, trust me, I understand it perfectly. If you came to urge me to surrender, do you think I’d accept?”

“I like that you still have some fighting spirit left after I beat you so thoroughly. It’ll make crushing you much more fun.”

Keter leaned back on the sofa and placed another cigarette between his lips. Jordic snatched it away, gripping the spear resting beside him.

“If you’re testing my patience, this is your last chance. Get lost,” Jordic said in anger.

“You don’t have the patience to become the head of a master family. Relax a little, my friend.”

“If you have something left to say, say it quickly and leave. This is my final mercy and my warning.”

“Fine. I’ll stop playing around. Let’s talk business.”

“Business...?”

Jordic bit down on his lower lip. He was furious. From start to finish, he couldn’t understand Keter at all. He had never considered himself foolish in his entire life, yet in front of Keter, he felt like an idiot who couldn’t grasp anything.

“Here. Take it.”

Keter placed a thick stack of papers on the table. It was far too large to have fit inside his pocket. Jordic stared, entranced. Then, he read what was written on the front page, and his jaw dropped in shock.

Plan for the Bydent Family Merger.

“Wh-what?!”

He flipped through the pages in disbelief.

Under this contract, if the Bydent family loses in the Family War, its family name shall be dissolved. However, it will become a branch family under Sefira.

As a branch family, Bydent may freely cultivate spearmanship independent of the main family’s archery traditions and maintain its own succession and internal rules.

“Ha... Hahaha...”

Jordic skimmed the later sections, but nothing registered. All he could do was laugh in disbelief. It was written as if Bydent’s defeat were a foregone conclusion.

“Keter. I acknowledge your strength and the fact that Sefira’s power is far greater than we expected. But the same applies to us. We’re not complacent. We’ve prepared thoroughly to crush Sefira. Even if you sent the Infinite Bank’s collector, even if you kidnapped the vassals to stall for time, none of that changes anything.”

“You prepared a lot for this, but that’s too bad. Sefira only prepared one thing: arrows.”

“Even if you somehow defeat Bydent, do you think it ends there? No way. The Masters of Swordsmanship will mobilize. You may be able to put it off, but Sefira’s downfall is inevitable!”

“You’re right. That will happen. No matter how powerful Sefira is, if the princes’ allied faction marches in, Sefira will dry up and die. That’s why we also prepared something. Are you interested in hearing about it?”

* * *

Crash! Clatter!

The reception room door and windows burst apart as the Bydent knight commanders stormed in, spears raised for attack, only to lower them a moment later.

“Patriarch! Are you unharmed?”

“Where is Keter?!”

The two were the commanders of Bydent’s two representative knight orders: the Orders of the Black Leopard and the White Leopard. As six-star Grandmasters, they had sprinted several thousand meters back after hearing that Keter had infiltrated the estate, only to find Jordic alone, looking deeply unsettled.

“Keter left long ago,” Jordic said.

“What? Impossible. The White Leopard knights guarded the door, and the Black Leopard knights the windows. No one came out.”

“Of course not. He left using teleportation.”

“Are you saying Keter, an archer, used teleportation? A spell even high-level mages struggle with?”

“Strictly speaking, it wasn’t him. It was the little one beside him... but enough. Thank you for traveling so far, but could you leave me alone? I’m feeling quite tired.”

The two commanders exchanged troubled glances. They could both see that Jordic was clearly feeling off.

“We heard you spoke with Keter for nearly ten minutes. May we ask what was discussed?”

“He provoked me, saying Sefira would win without fail. If you want a detailed list of every insult, sit down.”

“N-no, that won’t be necessary. We’ll withdraw. And our apologies; we will reinforce defenses against teleportation immediately.”

“You should. Bydent is not some open field anyone can come and go from.”

At Jordic’s sharp words, the two knight commanders had nothing more to say and withdrew in silence.

As soon as they left, the head butler entered.

“My lord, we sent payment to the assassins and located where the vassals were taken. However, it is quite far and will take at least two or three days to retrieve them.”

“...Marvelous news.”

“And... the Infinite Bank’s collector is requesting your presence. He says each minute he is kept waiting will cost an additional one hundred gold.”

“...Hahaha...”

Jordic dragged his hand across his face from chin to forehead and bowed his head.

“Ten minutes. I’ll go in ten minutes.”

“...Understood.”

The butler couldn’t bring himself to tell Jordic that they could barely spare a single gold right now, let alone pay a thousand, as Jordic looked like a spear barely hanging on at the edge of a cliff.

Once Jordic was finally alone, something he had desperately wanted, his eyes fell on a single cigarette—the one he had taken from Keter.

“...”

Awkwardly placing it between his lips, he tried to light it the way Keter did—by rubbing his fingers together. No matter how many times he tried, nothing happened.

“Fuck, how did you do it?”

Cursing under his breath, Jordic prepared to spit out the cigarette, then grabbed the matchbox in front of him and lit it instead.

“Why is this so damn hard to light?”

Not knowing that cigarettes light best while drawing in air, Jordic struggled for a while before finally managing a single drag.

“Hff... haa...”

He pretended it was fine, but a sharp, tingling pain traveled from chest to throat. This sensation was not pleasure; it was pain.

“Why would you smoke a poison like this?”

Even so, he took another drag and stared up at the ceiling. His vision blurred from the smoke. His head felt foggy, as if filled with the same smoke.

What had happened to the kidnapped vassals, how he was supposed to scrape together the money owed to the Infinite Bank’s collector, how he was supposed to lead his family to victory in the upcoming Family War... none of it registered in his mind anymore.

“Keter, you fucking bastard... You... What the hell are you...”

He couldn’t shake the words Keter had spoken just before leaving. It wasn’t Sefira’s preparations—no, it was everything Keter had prepared, and those things were utterly absurd.

“First, we’ve signed an agreement with the Mercenary Association. From now on, mercenaries in the Lillian Kingdom will take Sefira’s requests first and refuse any request targeting Sefira. Also, the Order of the Sun will support us. Don’t worry, though. The Family War against Bydent will be fought purely with Sefira’s own strength.”

The Mercenary Association and the Order of the Sun were both global organizations that belonged to no single kingdom, yet rivaled them in power. It was unbelievable that Sefira was receiving the cooperation and support of both.

However, the shock didn’t end there.

“I’m sure even an idiot like you is wondering by now how Sefira could have prepared all this unless we already knew about the Family War. The information was top-secret, known only to the princes and their closest loyalists, right?”

Bydent had learned about the Family War three months ago, which seemed long, but it was barely enough time to prepare for a war. Still, it was better than nothing. And yet, Sefira seemed even more prepared than Bydent, who had been preparing for three months.

If everything Keter said is true, then...

It meant that Sefira had known about the Family War even earlier than Bydent and had been preparing ahead of them. And if this was true, it could only mean one thing.

Sefira had never been neutral in the first place.

A faction, either Crown Prince Rukan’s or Second Prince Rakan’s, was backing Sefira, and there was no need to think hard about which one. Bydent belonged to Rakan’s faction, and there was no reason for him to pit two families of his own faction against each other.

Therefore, Sefira was most likely aligned with the Rukan, and they simply concealed it to catch Bydent, as well as Rakan, off guard.

Jordic massaged his temples, but it wasn’t because the cigarette was giving him a headache.

Damn it. That means the secret pact between the crown prince and the second prince was a lie! Once Sefira devours Bydent and stabilizes with the help of the Mercenary Association and the Order of the Sun... the only one who loses is the second prince!

And if Rukan’s faction, whom they believed to be Sefira’s enemy, suddenly turned and joined forces with Sefira to strike down Rakan...

The second prince is done for.

Crunch.

Jordic bit into the half-smoked cigarette, crushing it between his teeth, his fist trembling.

He had uncovered a massive conspiracy. Keter had made a mistake—he had revealed all of this to Jordic, who was in Rakan's faction.

If I report this to Second Prince Rakan, Crown Prince Rukan’s entire scheme will collapse...

Then he heard Keter’s voice.

Do you really think Rakan will believe you?

His voice was so clear that it was as if Keter were standing beside him. Jordic panicked and looked around, but of course, Keter wasn’t there.

The hallucination continued.

Remember what I said, Jordic. This Family War means everything to you and Bydent, but to Sefira, it’s just another step along the way. My offer to make Bydent a branch family wasn’t to belittle you, but because I value you. Don’t mistake goodwill for weakness.

“Shut up... shut up! I don’t believe you! All of this is your delusion! None of it is real!”

Jordic had no idea that the cigarette he stole from Keter was a narcotic variety known to induce hallucinations. And what he also didn’t know was that the Mercenary Association and the Order of the Sun were only a small part of what Keter had prepared.