Chapter 2

Six more years passed since the day Jin chose Balisada.

He no longer had to face the shame of having his nanny change his diapers, but trying to act like a child was still a struggle.

I wish I could leave the Storm Castle as soon as possible.

The Storm Castle.

An estate for the Runcandels. The children were forbidden to step outside the walls of the Storm Castle before the age of ten.

This was in fear of assassination.

What kind of a lunatic would dare assassinate a Runcandel child anyway? Not even the Zeifls would dare such an insane act.

But in fact, that very thing had transpired about 200 years ago.

The Kunhgen clan, another swordmaster clan, had attacked the Runcandels, and nine young Runcandels were slaughtered as a result.

Although, of course, the entire Kunhgen clan were wiped out of existence the very next day, down to the last distant relative of every servant they’d ever had.

In any case, it was then established as tradition and rule that a Runcandel entered the castle after the ritual of choice and never left it until the age of ten.

It was a tedious existence.

The atmosphere around the castle certainly lived up to its name.

It was located atop the highest known mountain in the world, Mt. Murakhan, and just as its namesake, was subject to rain, gusts, and thunderstorms all year round.

It certainly is no place for children. No wonder my siblings are all so vicious. Hardly a surprise, considering they all spent their childhood in such a place.

There were only two other siblings left here in the Storm Castle, for the other ten were too old to stay at the estate.

So it was Jin and two of his brothers, along with five elite guardian knights for their protection, nannies, and a dozen servants who resided in this massive castle.

“Jin!”

He was irritated the moment he heard a voice calling his name.

The hostile voice calling for Jin was that of Deitona Runcandel, a boy two years older than Jin.

“Where’s that mighty Balisada of yours? Why are you all by yourself? Hahaha.”

The sarcastic voice that followed was that of Heitona Runcandel. As one might tell from their names, Deitona and Heitona were identical twins.

The Tona twins of the Runcandel Clan.

Anybody who knew these twins in Jin’s previous life said the same thing about them.

Devil incarnate.

Those sickening brats.

Jin turned around. He didn’t have a single good memory about the Tona twins either.

Jin was notoriously bullied by the twins from a young age, and it was all because he had chosen the Balisada when he was one.

If one conjures ideas of regular nine-year-olds making fun of their seven-year-old brother, they’d be sorely mistaken.

The first thing the Tona twins did upon leaving the Storm Castle a year after, was to murder a person. The twins were twisted to the core.

When Jin didn’t answer them, the Tona twins tried to pick a fight with him.

On this particular day, Jin’s nanny Gilly was away from the castle. The Tona twins had waited eagerly for this day and had no intention of leaving him alone.

“Hey, I asked you a question. Where did you put the Balisada?”

In this life, the Tona twins had started tormenting him a year ago.

They started off with light pranks that his nanny, Gilly, didn’t notice, such as locking him away while he was using the bathroom or putting an inordinate amount of salt on his soup.

Then they moved on to hanging dead birds on his door and putting venomous scorpions that they had caught on the castle grounds in his bed. Their bullying grew more severe by the day.

However, Jin persevered through it all in silence.

The twins approached Jin.

His face turned from a blank stare into a smirk.

“Well, where did I put it now? Perhaps I stuffed it up your rear.”

They came to a halt.

The Tona twins stopped and darted looks from Jin to each other. This wasn’t the reaction they expected from Jin.

Up your rear...?

They were born to become murdering maniacs, but this was excessive language for their nine-year-old minds to swallow. Their faces flared up instantly upon realizing the vulgar language he had used.

“What did you just say? Jin, have you gone mad?”

“Look around you. Your nanny’s not here, okay?”

“Ha!” Jin let out a small laugh and took a step toward the twins.

They weren’t the only ones waiting for the nanny to leave. In fact, Jin had been waiting for it more eagerly than the twins.

How he anticipated beating those devilish fiends who were barely worth the moniker of brothers.

When I was seven years old in my past life, I wouldn’t have dared to talk back to the Tona twins, not in my wildest dreams.

But things were different now.

Even if he were to be put against 19-year-old Tona twins this very moment, he was confident he could take down at least one of them.

The twins had yet to realize what was going on and glared and fumed.

“If you step down and beg for mercy right now, we’ll just break your nose and leave it at that,” one said.

“Otherwise, we’ll leave you looking like the bird we hung up on your door the other day,” the other exclaimed.

About five steps for a seven-year-old. That was the distance that lay between Jin and the Tona twins, who faced off in the halls of the Storm Castle.

“Oof!”

At that moment, Heitona let out a short shriek and fell to the floor. Startled, Deitona turned his head in haste to see Jin stepping over his twin brother’s back.

He’d closed the gap in the blink of an eye and had landed his fist into Heitona’s gut.

“Huh?”

Deitona followed suit and fell to the floor as Jin’s fist found its way to his chin. Neither of the twins had ever been hit like this before. Jin’s seven-year-old fists were as hard and cold as solid ice.

What was going on?

In that short span of time, Deitona got a glimpse of a dark energy surrounding Jin’s fist.

There was barely time to ponder what that energy was. A flurry of punches were inbound before he could even focus his eyes.

Whack!

“Oof!”

They could hardly scream, as though their throats had been blocked off. Only their eyes could respond to the pain. With tears gushing down their cheeks, Deitona’s head was filled with the notion that something wasn’t right.

There wasn’t anybody on this side of the hallway.

They’d chosen this spot precisely for the purpose of bullying Jin, but little did they imagine it could work to their disadvantage.

“I took the effort of burying the poor little bird your pathetic selves have trampled to death,” Jin said.

Wham, thud, crack.

Jin continued in a plain tone as he took turns mounting each one of them and swinging punches onto their bodies.

They’re still kids. Perhaps I’m overdoing this.

The thought did briefly occur in his mind, but it dissipated soon enough as he recalled memories of the 9-year-old Tona twins forcing him to eat horse dung in his past life.

If Jin held himself back today, it was likely that such things would happen again.

After he had beaten them to a pulp, the twins lay on the floor, their bodies twitching. Jin stood up and looked down at them with cold eyes.

“You two would do well to stay out of my sight as much as possible. If you wish to keep your lives, that is.”

“Young master!”

The guardian knight of the clan had sensed something was going on and ran through the hallway.

He was a knight of the highest order, which implied he would’ve barely batted an eye on children’s quarrels, even if they were Runcandels.

However, his eyes opened wide at the sight of Jin standing still over the Tona brothers, now laying on the floor.

Don’t tell me the young master Jin beat the two 9-year-old twins into submission.

It wasn’t possible. The physical difference of a seven-year-old to a nine-year-old was immense enough. And the Tona twins had started their Runcandel hand-to-hand combat training.

On the other hand, Jin was not trained in anything, let alone hand-to-hand combat, to the knowledge of the guardian knight, at least.

“Uuf.”

“Young master Jin, what’s...”

The knight asked as Deitona managed to let out a moan.

“They just started fighting each other.”

“What?”

“I told you, they fought against each other.”

The guardian knight could tell right away that Jin was lying, but couldn’t object. Jin, grinning as he spoke, seemed to have planned how everything would work out.

The guardian knight’s duty was limited to the protection of the children from external forces. They had no say in the matters that occurred within the walls of the Storm Castle.

Not that I wasn’t aware of it, but even the children are fierce in the Runcandel clan. I must inform the Patriarch of it.

The guardian knight bowed courteously. Although he was a seven-year-old boy, Jin was still a pure-blood Runcandel.

“Yes, my lord. I shall then escort the young brothers Tona to the physician.”

“No. There’s a place they are to be at.”

“A place where they’re supposed to be? Where is that?”

“The grave.”

“The grave?”

“Help me carry my brothers,” Jin asked with a shift of tone. The guardian knight had no choice but to oblige and carry the Tona twins on his shoulders.

“Let’s go then.”

The guardian knight started walking after the young master awkwardly. Jin strolled over to a small lump of mud in the rear grounds of the Storm Castle.

This was where he’d buried the bird the twins had killed the other day.

The rain that had poured down like a waterfall had yet to wash the lump of mud away.

“Put them down here.”

“But young master Jin, the storm...”

The wild storm seemed intent on swallowing the knight, Jin, and his brothers whole.

Jin didn’t respond and only looked back at the knight with an intent gaze.

He was implying that it was an order. The knight soon understood Jin’s behavior. This was something members of the Runcandel family did when giving out a just order.

Of course, he’d never imagined a seven-year-old could give off such a majestic aura.

The guardian knights had no power to refuse orders, even if the order in question would bring harm to other Runcandel children—especially since the Tona twins were currently unable to give orders.

In that case, the knights were to follow the commanding Runcandel.

What would follow was a matter for the Patriarch and the elders to decide on, not the knight. Even if the Tona twins were to die of hypothermia, the clan would not hold the knight responsible.

Family feuds were common among the Runcandels.

“I shall take your order, young master.”

The knight set the twins down before the mound. The brothers twitched every now and then, but were incapacitated from expressing any alternate opinions.

After two hours, Gilly found the twins on her way back into the castle, and the boys were rescued.

They suffered from terrible pneumonia for days and never again looked Jin in the eye until the day they left the Storm Castle.

# # #

East of the Continent. The Unguarded Regions. Also known as the Dark Sea.

Ciaron Runcandel sat still amidst this cursed land infested with monsters, meditating for days.

He did nothing other than to sit still, but even the large monsters the size of houses dared not approach him.

And then there was a man who struggled his way toward Ciaron, covered in the blood of creatures he slaughtered along the path.

“Greetings, Lord Patriarch, this is Kahn.”

It was the knight who had left the Tona twins in the storm on Jin’s orders 10 days ago.

“What brings you here?” Ciaron asked, slowly opening his eyes.

“I have come to report to you about the feud between the young masters in the Storm Castle.”

“I doubt you would interrupt my meditation over mere children’s quarrels. Go on. Speak.”

As Kahn described the fight that had occurred between Jin and the twins, Ciaron formed a smile.

“So, have the Tona twins perished?”

“They suffered from pneumonia, but their lives are intact.”

“Then they must’ve learned much from the experience. I see. You may return.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Kahn had fought his way through monsters for three days to make this brief report but did not show the slightest gesture of resentment and merely made his way back.

It’s about time I saw my youngest son for myself.

A month later, Ciaron came to visit the Storm Castle.