Chapter 9

It was fun.

Every single day was filled with joy.

It had been six months since Jin first met Murakhan. Jin was eight years old and had now transcribed over fifty secret tomes. And to add to the joy, today was the day the Tona brothers were leaving the Storm Castle.

There won’t be anyone to pester me for the next two years, Jin thought to himself as he watched out the window. The servants loaded the twins’ belongings onto a carriage.

To tell the truth, ever since he beat up the Tona twins in the hallway and left them by the bird’s grave, the Tona brothers didn’t really pester him at all. The servants had since named the incident The Bird’s Vengeance and felt rather satisfied, as Jin wasn’t the only person suffering from the twins’ behavior.

Still, the twins were quite convenient to keep around, as they ran errands for him without question.

However, Emma, their nanny, continued to be an eyesore. She blatantly observed Jin and displayed signs of wanting to grow closer with him.

Knowing that crafty woman, she might have even followed me to the dungeons secretly one of these days.

Jin made sure he refused her every approach without question, for there could only be one thing she was after.

She wanted him to look after the well-being of the Tona twins.

And the underlying intent was her hope of Jin falling behind the Tona twins someday.

Emma’s unpleasant gazes finally come to an end as of today. If she continues to act like that later on, I’ll have to go out of my way to get rid of her once and for all.

Emma never blatantly displayed ill wishes nor stabbed Jin in the back—so far.

But Jin decided to give her a farewell to remember, one that would remind to keep her fangs to herself.

“Young master, you should go and bid your brothers farewell,” his own nanny remarked.

“Yes, Gilly. I should.”

The two walked to the courtyard at the center of the Storm Castle.

Through the heavy downpour, Jin could see the guardian knights who had come to escort the Tona brothers to the main castle of the clan.

One seven-star guardian knight and five six-star guardian knights, all under the direct command of the clan, stood proudly.

And in the middle of them all were the Tona brothers, whose expressions revealed relief at their long-awaited farewell from their devilish younger brother.

“Brothers,”

“Oh, hey, Jin.”

“J-Jin.”

The Tona twins tensed up as Jin spoke to them with a smile.

“Why do you look so surprised? I came to bid you farewell.”

“Thank you...”

“Thank you, Jin!”

“I guess I’ll only see you both after two years. That’s such a shame, right?”

Neither of the twins agreed at all, but they nodded eagerly anyway.

After giving a pat to their shoulders, Jin moved his gaze to Emma.

“Farewell to you too, Emma.”

“Thank you, young master.”

“And can I borrow your ear for a second?”

Emma leaned and brought her ear close to him.

“Emma. Once you’re back at the main castle, do try to be more cautious, will you?”

Her face turned pale at the sound of those words.

His words sent shivers down her spine once she realized the fact that an eight-year-old had seen right through her actions.

She could barely form a response and all she could manage was to bow her head lightly, trying her best to keep her shoulders from trembling.

“We shall depart now. Young master Jin, we shall be looking forward to seeing you all grown up in two years’ time!”

“Of course.”

The guardian knights gave a sword salute to Jin.

Now, they would take the carriage awaiting them to the foot of Mt. Murakhan and ride to the Garden of Swords, the home of the Runcandel clan.

And in two years’ time, Jin would be there as well.

# # #

“You wicked brat, you’d better offer me an explanation I could accept.” Murakhan expressed his disgust upon taking the basket from Jin. Jin casually ignored his words and sat himself by the bookshelf. They were in the dungeons of the Storm Castle.

“Why? Why is that... There’s only a single strawberry pie in the basket? Is this your idea of respect toward the exalted Murakhan?”

The source of his anger was nothing but a strawberry pie.

“Oh, come on. Be grateful for that pie. I skipped my pie to get you one at all.”

“How do you imagine a dragon would fill himself with nothing but a single strawberry pie?!”

If one thought this dragon was over-infuriated over nothing...well, a single pie, that would be a grave mistake.

As far as Murakhan was concerned, this strawberry pie was the best food he’d eaten in a thousand years.

Also, it happened to be the only food that satiated Murakhan’s taste since his awakening, as he was locked away in the underground dungeons of the Storm Castle.

“You don’t need food since my spiritual energy feeds you anyway, right? You never had a reason to fill your stomach, to begin with.”

“You inconsiderate brat! Have you any idea how picky dragons are in terms of taste? I can’t even go outside as I please, just for your sake. And you mean to tell me all I get is a single strawberry pie?”

Murakhan hadn’t left the underground dungeons ever since he’d been brought out of his sleep.

For Jin’s sake, it was necessary to conceal his relationship with Murakhan and the dragon agreed with him.

On principle, only the flag bearers were permitted to enter the underground dungeons.

If the clan got word that Jin had been frequenting the area to transcribe the secret tomes, Ciaron was likely to hold Murakhan equally responsible for the matter, even if he was regarded as the guardian spirit of the clan, a dragon that has come out of its thousand-year slumber.

In this regard, Jin and Murakhan were practically partners in crime.

“Ha! There you go with your picky taste nonsense again. You were the one who refused every other thing, save for the strawberry pies. Have you any idea how difficult it is to get strawberries to the Storm Castle?” Jin had something to say on the matter.

The Storm Castle was located atop Mt. Murakhan, a region that rained all year round. To procure strawberries to the castle was no simple matter.

And this dark dragon who was so fond of delicacies had declared that everything else cooked in the Storm Castle was rubbish, insisting only on Gilly’s strawberry pies.

“Darn it,” the dragon grumbled. “One can’t even have strawberry pies on a whim in this era.”

“That era is fast drawing to a close, so perhaps you could gobble that pie up now, so we can finally get started on the training?”

“And it’s also an era when bratty children dictate their terms to the great dark dragon.”

“Yum,” Murakhan conceded eventually. It wasn’t as though his anger could grow strawberries out of nowhere, so he never really had a choice.

“It’s delicious. Damn it, it’s so damn delicious. Did you say it was made by your nanny? Promise me you’ll formally introduce her to the great Murakhan someday.”

“Okay. I told you I would many times over,” Jin replied, shaking his head in disdain.

The last six months had been more than ample time to shatter every last fantasy Jin held about dragons.

The dragons he’d imagined as a sorcerer were wise, majestic beings of mystery and might.

But the dragon he met was a whimsical whiner as capricious as a cat, and scratched his thighs at every given occasion.

Scratch, scratch.

Murakhan gobbled up the pie in an instant and went back to scratching his thighs.

The only thing I was right about them, is probably that they are strong.

Since the second day of their encounter, Jin had learned to control his spiritual powers and the fundamentals of various martial arts from him.

Although they never sparred, learning from him was enough to show Jin how powerful Murakhan was.

However, most of Murakhan’s strength was still sealed up.

This was due to the fact that Jin’s spiritual power was still too weak. For Murakhan, spiritual energy was like sunlight to a plant, or water to a fish.

Therefore, Jin was practically the sunlight to Murakhan’s existence.

But it had to be said that this particular sun needed to grow. For Murakhan to regain his powers, Jin needed to grow faster.

“Finish your transcription in thirty minutes and come to the hallway.”

“Okay.”

After finishing his transcription, Jin stood and faced Murakhan in the hallway.

“What did you transcribe today?”

“The sword techniques of the Attila clan.”

“Oh! Attilas. Their swordsmanship is pretty impressive. I recall biting their patriarch to death about fifteen hundred years ago. So, do you understand what you wrote down?”

“About a third of it. I can’t seem to comprehend more than that.”

“Don’t be discouraged. Understanding a third of that is a tremendous feat at your age.”

Understanding a third of the contents of the hidden texts by a renowned clan such as the Attilas at eight years of age was obviously no small matter.

But Jin had a thirst for achievement. In the Runcandel clan, anything astonishing was only average. And especially as it was his second try at life, he wanted to achieve that much more.

Because if he didn’t do as much, it would be impossible to grow past the twelve other insanely gifted prodigies born to the Runcandels before him.

“How much would my forefather have understood of these texts at my age?”

“Bwahaha. Of course, of course. You mentioned picking Temar’s sword in the ritual of the choice. Is that why you keep comparing yourself to him?”

“No, it’s because I’ve been told countless times that he was the strongest ever. That’s why I want to stack myself up against him.”

“Strongest ever, eh? Sure, Temar was indeed very strong. Even your father, the divine knight, would come short of Temar.”

This was something vastly beyond Jin’s imagination.

He met Solderet three years prior to his death in his past life, and had been amassing strength at an unprecedented pace, thanks to Solderet’s powers.

But to hope of becoming a divine knight was unfathomable. Even if he were to become the spellsword of the era as Solderet predicted, it was questionable that he would ever become stronger than his father.

“Hm. That’s it. Right. I think I should establish it for good.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The difference between you and Temar.”

Jin nodded and focused on his every word.

“Temar wouldn’t have understood a single line of text in this tome when he was eight years old.”

Murakhan paused for a moment and continued.

“But one’s grasp on the principles of swordsmanship does not speak for their talent. From what I’ve seen of you so far, you’re pretty impressive. In fact, talent like yours only comes around once in several centuries or so. But it comes nowhere close to Temar.”

“Hm, that’s slightly discouraging to hear.”

“I’m sure that divine knight of a father that you have holds far more talent than you do.”

“Then does the difference in our talents mean I will never overcome the shadow of my father?”

To overcome his father.

That was the biggest objective Jin took upon himself since the rebirth. If he could grow past Ciaron, then it was certain that he wouldn’t be able to grow beyond his clan’s grasp.

The futile end he met in his past life.

Three nine-star knights attacking the Kingdom of Arkhin. Jin unconsciously guessed that it could’ve been his father who had sent those knights.

Although he didn’t want to believe it either.

“If we’re talking about swordsmanship, that is.”

“Just the swordsmanship?” Jin asked.

“Yes, you brat. The sword isn’t the only thing in the world. You have both spiritual energy and magical powers too.”

“That’s true.”

“Once you raise your magical and spiritual potential to their peak, it’s not completely impossible that you could overshadow Temar, not to mention your father. So, don’t be in such a rush.”

“I’m not in a rush. I was merely curious about my limits.”

“Ha! You have the spiritual powers of Solderet and still hold notions of a word like limits? Is this because you’re still a kid? You don’t seem to know anything at all. The name gods themselves give to Solderet is unlimited.”

“Unlimited?”

“Yes, unlimited. You already have unlimited potential in you, a greater potential than anyone else in the world. So, hurry up and grow up, I can’t have you experience anything if we can’t leave this stuffy place.”

“Since we’re on the subject of growing, what are we training for today?”

“Releasing your spiritual energy. You’ll be covering plenty of martial arts fundamentals later anyway, so while you’re at the Storm Castle, you’ll only be training your spiritual powers.”