Grand Duke of the Heibern House

＜Episode 23＞

By order of the Archduke, all the knights, blood relatives, and servants inside Bernheneum withdrew.

Dane didn’t know why his brother had sent people away all of a sudden.

When he looked at his older brother, Ruin’s worried voice came out.

“Now you can reap the speculation.”

“… … .”

Kazen struggled to bite his lips while making a tired face.

Even while watching Ruin’s actions defeating his blood relatives, he was hopeless.

However, that monstrous son seemed to have already accurately grasped his physical condition.

“Whoa… … .”

Eventually, Kazen took out the artifacts he had hidden inside his armor one by one.

Dane opened his eyes wide after checking the artifacts that were tinged with reddish light.

They recognized at once that they were the family’s artifact, the ‘Roaring Seed’.

“father!”

Dane trembles with a distorted face and clenched fists.

Roar Seed.

The final battleground at the risk of one’s life, a means of decisive battle used only at the end.

It has a tremendous effect of temporarily amplifying the fighting spirit within the body, but it was like a poison that gnaws at life.

Indeed, the aftereffects of using the Seed of Roar seemed serious.

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From the moment the artifact was turned off, the father’s complexion turned noticeably gray.

Also, the sound of his breathing became thin, and more than anything, when he looked at his father’s eyes, which seemed to be empty, Dane burst out with enthusiasm rather than pity.

“Why the hell!”

Roaring Seeds are the last resort used by the Knights of Bern, risking their lives.

Why did he just use that dangerous artifact at a dinner party?

Ruin, who was carefully peeling off his father’s armor one by one and dismantling the seeds of the roar, indifferently opened his mouth.

“Now my father’s speculation is not even half of what it was in his heyday.”

“brother… … ?”

Ruin bites his lip as if bleeding.

“Even though they are corrupted, they are knights by birth. Will those who have not faced the full Lion King’s skills really give up their will to rebel?”

Ruin looked back at Dane with his father lying on the floor.

“Take care, Dane. Honor and hierarchy alone can never reign over knights. The source of loyalty is to eventually yield to overwhelming power.”

No matter how you try to wrap it up like honor or faith, in the end, the ideology that dominates the world of knights is the logic of power.

Ruin was not ignorant of the habits of these simple men, the logic that had ruled the family of lions for a long time.

‘father… … .’

Ruin rather cools his heart while watching his father’s darkening face.

‘Did everything originate from me?’

Looking back, it all started because of my father’s lost speculation.

If his father’s fighting spirit had been intact, if he hadn’t had to hide his true face as the Lion King through a vision from Jericho.

There should have been no such thing as this huge swordsmanship being shaken from the start.

All of these are tragedies that happened because the head of the Heibern family, the father who is the standard bearer of the kingdom, was silent in the family room.

His father’s sacrifice to save his own life drove this great family into turmoil.

“Can you forgive your aunt?”

Hearing his father’s unreasonable voice, Ruin felt something in his heart rage.

Even in the midst of this, my father… … .

“I know very well that it is very difficult for you.”

When Ruin demanded Soene’s punishment, Kazen read the burning anger on his son’s face.

At that time, Kazen was convinced.

That Ruin also knew the secret behind Yelcock Soup.

“father… … .”

“Lecea was the reason for my life. I, too, cannot stand this seething hatred even now.”

After removing all his armor, Kazen struggled to get up and opened his mouth again.

“I want to kill all of my brothers and sisters. I want to comfort Lecea’s soul with their blood. I am… … I am still resisting that temptation.”

Kazen looked at Ruin’s face in the most calm way.

“But don’t make fun of your aunt Soene. After 10 years, the family knights and blood relatives… … He is a talented person who has gained arm’s length under his command. I don’t think his skill was merely power or advantage. It’s not that simple when people are attracted to people.”

As if agreeing, Ruin also nodded.

Countless knights she had collected under her command.

No matter how meticulous the strategy was to destroy the knights’ faith, the knight’s devotion was not simply a belief.

trust.

That people yield to people is ultimately a matter of faith.

She will definitely have more than that, which is impossible just by scattering wealth and promising a position.

“Soene has already become a reason for many people’s lives. Killing him meant carrying countless other hatreds. In the end, I will be able to complete Lechea’s revenge only after I cut down all those who hate me.”

Ruin understood his father’s empty heart, his unbearable helplessness.

“… … If so, what will be left of this House of Hibern?”

The despair of not being able to protect the father as a husband, the endless anger and self-destruction cannot be cast on the family.

Because he would understand better than anyone else that that moment was the catastrophe of the family.

At that time, Dane’s voice, cold as ice, flowed out.

“father. Could it be that the one who killed my mother was my aunt?”

Dane finally witnessed the terrible truth in the conversation between his father and his older brother.

Louin opened his mouth expressionlessly.

“Dane. Why do you think I left you here?”

“I am asking first!”

“How do you think I am?”

Ruin’s gaze, which was devoid of any emotion, was directed towards Dane.

“Everything is because of me.”

“older brother!”

“My father sacrificed his speculation to save me alone. His father, who had lost his knightly skills, had no choice but to rely on artifacts to survive. At the end, the greed of immoral people bloomed.”

Ruin’s eyes are getting bloodshot.

“How do you think your father is? Do you think we can understand even a little bit of the empty heart that can’t do anything even after losing the wife who was everything in life?”

Ruin points to his father with his eyes.

“Look into your father’s eyes. Those empty eyes that have become transparent and will no longer wear out are your future eyes. This is your life, where you have to overcome countless despair and make countless terrible decisions like today. That’s what being a head of household is like.”

Soon, unimaginable things will happen to the continent.

Despair incomparable to the resentment entangled in family interests.

That was the future Dane would face, the harsh fate he had to overcome.

“What do you think my father wants from you and me?”

“I am… … !”

Dane couldn’t afford to think about that.

Just controlling the rage and hatred that surged right away, and the blood seething in his body, was beyond his strength.

“It is not to make Deache like an aunt. It is not to make WiPhone like Uncle Nizen. He wants us to have the wisdom to understand and comfort each other and live together.”

“older brother!”

“Do you think my father would have made a different choice just because you, and not me, were the son under the family curse?”

“… … .”

“I will bow my head over your father, Dane. At least in this family, you and I should worship our father.”

Looking at Ruin like that, Kazen ended up shedding hot tears.

How many sons can understand their fathers in this wide world?

It was only after the death of his father, who was also the previous head of the family, that he could vaguely understand his feelings.

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Facing a son who fully understands his heart is something that all fathers in the world would envy.

Kazen thought that even if he died right here, he would have no regrets.

But think about that for a while.

As he gazed at Ruin, who was more suited to being the grand duke of the Hibern family than anyone else, Kazen again had no choice but to lick his lips with regret and regret.

“The Archduke is making this household difficult in many ways.”

Even as he said that, Kazen was smiling.

I was no longer ashamed to show weakness in front of my sons.

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Faith in the archduke bloomed so much that I couldn’t help laughing.

“Louin. Dane.”

Kazen manages to stand up and hold her sons in her arms.

“I am really sorry for passing on the heavy burden of the family to you guys.”

Ruin deliberately got out of his father’s arms.

“It’s still too early to retire.”

Accepting Kazen.

“This guy? Didn’t you mention worship just a moment ago?”

Louin shook his head resolutely.

“Father’s days are not yet over. You have to put your blood kin in confusion together and bring the hearts of the knights back together. You must recover the devastated territory and fully restore the family’s finances that have been emptied. Moreover, it seems that you haven’t even started the nomadic issue yet. When are you going to the royal castle?”

“… … .”

Gazing at Ruin’s cold face, Kazen became discouraged.

I’ve been trying to forget about the pile of problems.

I was already dizzy from the hectic workload.

“after… … The royal castle has already been dispatched.”

Ruin narrowed his brows.

“It is to obtain permission to operate the Paneom Mine. No matter how much we are the only ducal family, do we have to express our intentions on such an important matter?”

Kazen nodded heavily.

“I know. But I had no choice.”

“A choice?”

Kazen glared at Ruin.

“Didn’t you split your chest and remove the blood flow mana stone yourself! What on earth were you thinking when you cut the entire blood vessel?”

Ruin twisted his face.

It was because he immediately guessed what his father would have done when he judged that his life was at stake.

“Did you use the Grand Duke’s seal again to invite the wise men of the Mage Tower?”

The wise men who helped their father recreate the ancient Blood Mana Stone ten years ago.

It was impossible to mobilize the wise men of the Mage Tower without the seal of the Grand Duke.

Looking at his father who was silent, Ruin felt his heart ache the most.

“how! Why does the person who taught me that it is dangerous to recklessly be in debt to the royal family keeps making such unreasonable numbers!”

Mobilizing the seal of the grand duke and requesting the sage of the kingdom is an extremely enormous debt.

Using that as an excuse, Ruin’s head was already pounding as to what and how much the king would ask for.

But he is also his father’s irrational numbers to save himself.

“How could I have known that a guy whose aorta had been cut off would come back alive and well!”

“You have to bite right now!”

“I, too, saw that you had recovered, so I hurriedly sent a dispatch to try to get the Archduke’s seal. But it was late. The news that the wise men were coming with the first prince reached the family first.”

“yes?”

Of course, Grani is the first person you meet in a past life besides blood relatives.

The first prince of the Lemadel Kingdom.

A person I really don’t want to face.

Luin’s face was strangely distorted.