Chapter 313: My Father Is Everywhere (2)

The Dragon Knight who had escaped Keter went straight to the royal palace to find Rukan.

“...?!”

The garden where Rukan stayed was uncanny. From the outside, the inside was visible, but the moment the Dragon Knight stepped inside, a dense gray fog swallowed everything, and he couldn’t see even an inch ahead.

“W-what is this...?”

The Dragon Knight tried to return the way he’d come, but no matter how far he backed up, the entrance wouldn’t appear. Even when he sprinted at full speed, it felt like he was just running in circles. The only things visible were the gray fog and flowers in vivid, unnatural colors.

“Ha... Ha...”

In that place, even his sense of time began to warp. He couldn’t endure even ten minutes; those ten minutes felt like ten hours. Just as the Dragon Knight’s mind was about to snap...

“Come.”

Rukan appeared abruptly within the fog.

“Your Highness!”

The Dragon Knight whipped his head toward the voice. Instead of moving forward, he only walked backward. The voice was unmistakably Rukan’s, but what stood there was an abstract, inhuman presence. The texture and colors were like something that had just stepped out of a framed painting; it was not of this world.

Rukan, who once moved about in a wheelchair, was nowhere to be seen. Mounted atop a grotesque amalgamation of human flesh and octopus-like legs, Rukan himself was covered from head to toe in teeth and eyes.

Tap tap tap!

Finally unfreezing, the Dragon Knight darted to the opposite side, yet no matter how far he ran, he couldn’t escape the gray fog.

“Did you not come looking for me?”

The thing that had been Rukan appeared again before his eyes. The Dragon Knight was forced to look. He couldn’t even tell if it was an eye or a mouth, but the moment he saw it, his eyes burst like crushed tomatoes.

Thud.

A high-ranking Master-level warrior died on the spot.

“Oh dear. Were you tired?”

Rukan had already returned to his original form. With a genuinely sympathetic expression, he placed a hand atop the dead Dragon Knight’s head.

It looked almost like comfort, but...

Squish. Crunch.

Teeth sprouted from his palm, and he began to eat the Dragon Knight’s brain.

“I see. So that’s what happened...”

By devouring his brain, Rukan absorbed all of the Dragon Knight’s memories. Veins bulged across his body as they flooded into him.

“Keter...”

Thirty thousand troops had fallen into Keter’s trap. They were reduced to a fate no better than slavery, which was worse than complete annihilation. Rukan wanted to tear them apart—all thirty thousand who had surrendered to Keter and survived.

“So he became a Prime.”

Rukan didn’t just absorb memories; he absorbed the Dragon Knight’s emotions as well. The vivid sensation of seeing Keter up close flowed across his skin as though it were his own experience.

“Sounds delicious...”

Shh...

The corner of Rukan’s mouth twitched. He was about to rise from his wheelchair when...

Thump.

Someone pressed down on his shoulder, forcing him back into the seat.

“Hohoho... not yet, Your Highness.”

What appeared suddenly behind Rukan was none other than the Godfather.

Alkione, the Godfather of Liqueur and head of the White Lotus Society, leaned in and whispered into Rukan’s ear. “To become a perfect god like Her Majesty, you must learn patience.”

“...Right. You’re right.”

The Godfather’s words worked like a spell, restoring Rukan to normal. However, as Rukan had become human again, his fury did not fade. If anything, his hatred toward Sefira and Keter only grew stronger.

“Why is the Syndicate helping Sefira? Godfather, you said the Syndicate was on our side,” Rukan asked.

“There may have been a misunderstanding, or perhaps some circumstance. If the Syndicate had truly become our enemy, you and I wouldn’t even be able to speak this calmly.”

“Keter... he’s always been like that. I could crush him easily, yet something always gets in the way. This time too.”

“He was merely lucky.”

“Then why am I unlucky?”

“You became a god by meeting me; how could you call that misfortune? Just think of it as a light diversion. Fruit tastes terrible if you eat it before it ripens. When the fruit called Sefira is fully ripe, you may enjoy it properly then.”

“I agree that I can eat it whenever I want, but I want that fruit to ripen right in front of my eyes. As such, I’ll send fifty thousand soldiers and two Primes to conquer Sefira.”

Just as Daat had feared, Rukan decided to deploy an overwhelming force without any concern for his own safety. It was a statement born of confidence—confidence that even if his rivals, Rakan or Lerkin, attempted a surprise strike, he could defeat them all.

But the fact that the Godfather stood at his side would become his undoing.

“That would be difficult, Your Highness.”

“...?”

Rukan looked at the Godfather with genuine incomprehension.

“Rakan and Lerkin’s movements are troubling. If they join hands and attack you... the absence of Primes will lead directly to defeat.”

“If they come for me, I’d welcome it.” Rukan scoffed.

“Yes. Even if you are still incomplete, there is no one in this kingdom who can match you now. But what if they don’t come?”

“...!”

“You cannot leave this garden until stabilization is complete. If, in that time, those two unite and pacify the kingdom, there will be no place left for you to step in. That is not what you want, is it?”

The Godfather could not touch Sefira or Keter because Nippur, the Observer of All Things, had come to him. Nippur had suggested that he refrain from interfering with Sefira and Keter for one year. The Godfather could have refused, but Nippur hadn’t relied on coercion alone.

—If you endure for one year, then afterward, I will help with your plan.

Nippur was a supreme god even among the gods. With his assistance, the Godfather’s plan would become even more flawless.

After waiting centuries, one year is no more than an instant.

So, the Godfather accepted Nippur’s proposal. In addition, the Godfather was bound to Rukan by a contract. In other words, the Godfather’s restraints became Rukan’s restraints as well.

“Grrr...”

Rukan growled like a beast. It was an obstinate expression of how utterly he hated the current situation. But in the end, he accepted the Godfather’s words. His goal was not this kingdom’s destruction, but its domination. He sought to surpass Lillian, his mother, and to dominate even her. Deep within him took root a twisted desire—the urge to possess his own mother.

* * *

Rukan’s second assault never came. Rakan, the second prince, had begun pacifying the eastern regions a while ago and had no leeway to concern himself with Sefira. As Lerkin, the king consort, was secretly allied with Keter, he did not so much as cast a glance toward the south. Thanks to this, Sefira was granted time to calmly deal with the aftermath.

The Seeds of Hell scattered by the royal army could be purified through the Authority of the Terra Ring, one of the Five Element Relics, and the contaminated water sources naturally cleansed themselves over time, as they had been weakly poisoned to begin with. All of this was possible because Colton, who genuinely worried about the nation’s future, had disobeyed Rukan’s orders.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly. Still, Hissop did not loosen his guard. No matter how trivial, he personally received reports on every movement within the realm.

“The crown prince has begun to move, but not toward Sefira.”

“An additional report, my lord: Crown Prince Rukan is subjugating neutral families at a frightening pace.”

Rukan had given up on Sefira due to the Godfather’s influence, but he had no intention of sparing the other families. And the Godfather, for his part, had no reason to stop him.

“I feel sorry for them, but for us, this is fortunate.”

Sefira was already so busy with its merger with the Bydent family and preparations for independence that they would have gladly borrowed even a cat’s paw for help.

Just then, as if he had been listening all along, Keter descended from the ceiling.

“Let’s help them,” Keter added.

“What?”

“We can’t do much for those far away, but let’s at least help the families that belong to the south or are close to it.”

“Keter, the reason the crown prince isn’t attacking us is that our forces are intact, and because of you. Unless it is merely for recognition, we would have to send a thousand soldiers, including you. Would the crown prince really leave Sefira alone if it were left empty? I understand your intentions, but...”

“What are my intentions?” Keter asked.

“...Compassion?”

At that, the vassals looked bewildered, as if wondering if that were really true.

Keter laughed. “I might feel bad for them, but I don’t feel like risking my life for pity. The reason we’re helping them is...”

At that moment, Anis cut in. “Because it sounds fun?”

Taragon added another guess. “To piss off the princes?”

Those answers understood Keter far better than Hissop’s did. The vassals nodded in agreement. But even those weren’t quite right.

“What are you talking about? We should absorb the families that have nowhere left to go into Sefira. We already expanded our territory by absorbing Bydent, didn’t we?”

“...?”

“...!”

“Lerkin is only recruiting families through persuasion and not force, so we don’t need to worry about him. We just need to help the families that the princes are attacking. They’ve already been abandoned by this country. If Sefira offers to save them, they’ll have no reason to refuse. And even if they do, it’s no loss to Sefira.”

“You’re not wrong, Keter. But if we do that, the princes won’t stay quiet. As I said, if we send out troops, who will protect an empty Sefira?”

“We don’t need to protect it.”

“...What?”

“That means they won’t just sit around watching anymore.”

By “they,” Keter meant the foreign factions that had joined Sefira.

Excluding the Blood Cross Order and the mercenaries, all of these factions had abandoned Sefira with laughable excuses the moment they heard that the royal army was marching in. Then, once Keter appeared and crushed the situation in an instant, they returned as if nothing had ever happened.

Hissop did not confront them about it. He never asked why they had fled back then. Keter, however, went to them himself.

“This was a matter of life and future, so I’ll let it slide once; maybe you were testing Sefira. But there won’t be a second time. You understand, right?”

The foreign factions accepted his words. It wasn’t submission born of fear; it was genuine recognition of Sefira’s strength. Ivan’s presence, a Syndicate member staying in Sefira, also played a significant role.

—The Syndicate protects Sefira!

That rumor spread silently across the world. Since the Syndicate did not deny it, a second wave of rumors confirming it as fact spread in less than a week. Add to that the tales of Keter’s divine might, said to have pierced the heavens themselves, and it soon became common sense that Sefira was the second-strongest family after the Browning family.

Sefira was not perfect but had incredible potential, and that was why foreign powers began to take notice. Ambitious but middling powers, especially, flocked to Sefira, knowing it welcomed foreign powers on generous terms.

“I’m going to lose my mind.”

Hissop was happy but utterly exhausted. Just as Keter predicted, saving the families went smoothly. Not every family accepted Sefira’s offer, but many major families joined in droves.

When the Aegis family, known as the Shield of the East, joined, it felt as though they had gained the entire world.

“You said you would come. Why are you so late?” the Aegis head complained to Keter.

𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

“Heroes are always late,” Keter replied smoothly.

Sefira’s power grew by the day. Internally, families were being absorbed and merged; externally, foreign nobles seeking opportunity crowded their gates. The workload became far too much for Hissop alone, so, breaking long-standing tradition, he brought Myle and Anis into the administration just to breathe again.

“Let’s push through today. Tomorrow, we can rest.”

Surrounded by mountains of documents, Hissop tried to encourage them. Myle answered in a dying voice.

“You mean rest in death?” Myle answered in a dying voice.

“That’s not it. Have you forgotten what tomorrow is?”

“The concept of dates vanished from my mind long ago, Hissop.”

“Tomorrow is January 1st.”

“Ah, the New Year...”

January 1st marked the beginning of the year. It was a day when all work ceased, and the entire kingdom rested. Even during wartime, January 1st was an unspoken law across the continent. In the Lillian Kingdom, it was also the day when Queen Lillian’s blessing descended.

“I’ll pass on the blessing. I just want to sleep,” Myle muttered.

His devotion to Queen Lillian was thin, but Hissop’s next words made his eyes widen.

“Even if you skip Her Majesty’s blessing, do not forget that it is Keter’s first birthday, and his coming-of-age ceremony.”

“Ah! Then I absolutely have to attend!”

January 1st was Keter’s first birthday and coming-of-age ceremony in Sefira.

In the Sefira family, a coming-of-age involved visiting the ancestors’ graves, making a vow, and receiving their protection. That protection was usually modest, nothing more than warding off minor illnesses. However, not everyone received the same blessing.

Once every few hundred years, someone received a blessing akin to a special ability or Authority. Besil, the former head of the family, had been one such case. The blessing bestowed upon him was the Mind’s Eye, allowing him to see what could not be seen with ordinary sight.

All of Sefira’s vassals were filled with anticipation, wondering what kind of blessing would descend upon Keter. They expected it to be even better than Besil’s, and they were excited about seeing what would happen if Keter, who was already a seven-star Prime, received an extraordinary blessing.

With everyone’s expectations gathered into a single point, January 1st finally arrived. The sun rose on the day of Keter’s birthday and his coming-of-age ceremony.