Take the New Recruit (2)
After a long ti apart, father and son reunited and embraced one another passionately.
It was a mont for family reunion—tears were inevitable.
After basking in their swelling emotions, the two paused and began to talk.
"The Crown Prince was deposed?"
Rejir was unable to hide his shock when he heard what had happened to his father recently.
The event of the Crown Prince being erased from the family register had caused an upheaval throughout the empire.
"But how? Didn't you tell that His Highness the Crown Prince was the real power of the empire?"
In truth, the real head of the Kilvus Empire was not the Emperor, but the Crown Prince.
Only a handful, including Alber, knew the Emperor was, in reality, no more than a puppet.
"Well, you see..."
The reason that the Crown Prince had been able to keep the Emperor in the palm of his hand was thanks to a contract with a demon.
Since this control was the result of the demon's power, if the demon disappeared, the mind control would naturally be undone.
It was none other than a being known as the Great Devil.
It would have been unimaginable for such a monster to be vanquished by anyone.
"The power that allowed him to manipulate His Majesty the Emperor vanished. At the sa ti, the Crown Prince's magic power disappeared without a trace."
Just like that, all the influence that had made the Crown Prince who he was up to now simply vanished.
Freed from the Great Devil's brainwashing, the Emperor apparently recalled what had happened and was seized by overwhelming rage.
"It was only the quick judgnt of the Sabers beside the Crown Prince that allowed him to escape and avoid execution."
"They actually survived?"
"They're special talents who received sothing called the 'seed of the demon'. Thanks to this, they gained powerful abilities and were known as Sabers."
Receiving the demon's seed was separate from making a contract with the Great Devil.
For this reason, unlike the Crown Prince, they didn't lose their power and were able to evacuate him quickly.
That was why the Crown Prince was exiled rather than executed.
"But those of us who were involved in the Crown Prince's affairs..."
Everyone who failed to escape was captured.
By now, most had been dragged into the 7th Legion, with Alber among them.
After infuriating the Emperor, having heroic blood ant nothing.
"I thought I was going to die. I swear, I thought I'd die! Suddenly, knights stord into the family, cuffed every last mber of the Bisted family—including —dragged us to the 7th Legion, subjected us to a month of hellish training, and then... everyone but is dead!!"
Alber alone survived and endured hell.
All of Bisted's vassals who had cooperated with him had been dragged to this fortress and perished during a month of brutal training.
"After sohow surviving and finishing the trainee course...look at the shape my limbs are in...!"
Alber wept as he showed his rotted and decayed limbs.
With this, he would be useless in battle and destined either to die or serve as a re plaything.
For in the lawless world of the 7th Legion, weakness was a cri.
"It's so unfair. I really an it...but having you by my side makes everything a little better...!"
"Father..."
The two embraced again, with emotional expressions.
Despite the desperate situation, the warmth between father and son gave them so asure of consolation.
"But father, there's sothing I'd like to ask."
With a bright smile, Rejir pulled out a piece of paper.
Alber's face, touched at first by the familiar paper, soon hardened.
"Can you explain what this ans?"
It was a letter from the Bisted household, written by Alber himself.
- Rejir, kill that wretched brat too.
Emphasizing the letter, Rejir asked again.
"This sentence, asking to kill the wretched . Anyone can see that it's your handwriting, father. What do you have to say?"
Alber's own seal was affixed. It was hard evidence he had written it.
"..."
Suddenly, Alber fell silent, lost in thought.
Why was this letter, presumably sent to Officer Kadim, in this brat's hands?
The earlier warmth was instantly replaced with an ominous chill.
"Son... I'll explain, just co closer."
Rejir leaned in to listen.
As his son's face drew near his lips, Alber imdiately wrapped an arm around Rejir's neck.
"This brat, die at once!!"
With the only limb not decayed, he squeezed Rejir's neck.
"You worthless bastard! You should have just played dumb!"
Alber knew his son's nature well.
If Rejir realized the truth, he'd never let Alber live.
So he had to strike first.
"Kehek... damn it... Father..."
"Shut up and die already!!"
The warmth in the air had evaporated long ago.
If the letter had already stung Rejir with betrayal, this was another twist of the knife.
"That's... my line. Damn you, father...!"
Rejir started forcing Alber's arm free from his neck.
He too only had one arm, but there was a decisive difference between them.
Having survived the stampede, Rejir's strength had increased.
"If anyone's dying, it's you, bastard!!"
Soon, Rejir threw off Alber's arm and plunged a fist into his father's face.
As Alber fell and Rejir pounced atop him, throwing more punches, Alber swung back.
"You call yourself my father?!"
"Shut up, you son of a bitch! Today you die, and so do I!"
The sound of blows between father and son echoed through the underground training hall.
A heartwarming family scene.
****
That day, Pram was imbued with the power of the Great Devil Palmon.
Having chosen the 'evil' route as a mage, Pram beca, undoubtedly, a dark mage.
Louis, uncomfortable with that fact, knew he had to train Pram to control her dark magic.
Fortunately, the 7th Legion was crawling with criminals—so there were soldiers adept at dark magic.
Thanks to their help, Pram managed to stabilize her control over Palmon's power.
"Young master! I can control my strength now."
"That's good. Too bad every dark mage soldier who helped train you ended up dead."
"They had it coming."
Their real aim had been to extract Pram's Great Devil-powered heart and forge it into a magitech device.
If Pram couldn't control her power, it would've hindered their plans, so they'd genuinely helped her train.
As soon as the training ended, they attacked Pram—but shockingly, the tables were turned.
"They were idiots. Thinking a girl would be easy prey—looking back, it's hilarious!"
They blasted her with dark magic, but Pram made all their attacks null with Palmon's power.
Approaching them just as Palmon would, Pram touched them—and reduced them to dust.
"I guess I really was talented! Right?"
Pram chatted animatedly as she sat next to Louis, buoyed by her recent success.
"By the way, young master, doesn't seeing the Bisted Lord end up like that make you feel relieved?"
To the squad mbers, it was satisfying, if not cathartic.
To see the villain who caused their parents' death brought so low was the sweetest vengeance for any victim.
"My mom and dad... they must be smiling in heaven, right? Now that it's all over."
With one limb crippled each side, Alber couldn't survive here for long.
He was probably, at that very mont, getting beaten to a pulp by his own son in the training hall.
The main culprits who'd made the Seifert domain a hell were now falling.
The Crown Prince might still be out there, but he'd lost all power, and even he seed out of hope.
"It's over?"
Yet even so, Louis felt uneasy.
"Do you really think so?"
"We've avenged ourselves. Isn't that enough?"
Goal accomplished—this should be the ending, shouldn't it?
To Pram, who spoke in that kind of tone, Louis frowned.
"Then can you get out of here?"
"..."
Pram's face, so animated, froze.
Focused on revenge, she'd forgotten sothing crucial—that vengeance didn't end everything.
"What good is revenge if you're still a torture victim?"
"But... maybe we'll get out soon? Once people learn why we got thrown in here..."
Louis and her squad mbers hadn't actually committed any cris.
Since it was the Bisted Lord's downfall that led to their capture, Pram believed their story would soon co to light.
"Has anything changed in a month?"
"..."
Louis pressed on, and Pram fell silent again.
"And do you think we're the only wrongly-imprisoned ones here?"
It wasn't easy to tell who was innocent.
If you let one out, there'd be a case to let two out, then hundreds more.
To begin with, Louis had never seen anyone be legally released from the 7th Legion.
"So do we just beco monster food, or... die under the officers' torture spells?"
Revenge aside, neither the monster threat nor the torture spells had disappeared.
Perhaps not for Louis, but for the others, it was a clear danger.
"So, can't you see what they're all doing to avoid that fate?"
From the fortress backyard, they could see the squad mbers training their powers.
Thanks to the experience during the recent stampede, everyone had discovered their special talents.
"They're building their strength. No one's given up yet."
Simon, the most timid, practiced running and striking at vital points with a dagger.
Victor, realizing his unusual ability to eat monsters, was gnawing on monster at.
Rozen, discovering his skill in archery, was practicing with a bow and hitting targets.
"Ready?"
"Yes."
Rio, anwhile, wanted to test her own strength and challenged Silia to a spar.
Silia agreed, and Rio grabbed her wooden sword, quickly closing the distance.
Her movents were superhuman, but not a problem for Silia, who parried with her own wooden sword.
Kaang!-
The clash of wooden swords rang out with a sword echo.
As blades flew, Rio thought she'd spotted an opening and wrapped her sword with crimson aura to strike.
I got her this ti! she thought, lunging with the blood-red sword, but Silia twisted her torso and brushed aside the attack.
Embarrassed by her missed strike, Rio took a blow to the head.
"Ow ow..."
"Can you keep going?"
"Yes."
The pain barely slowed her down. Rio stood straight, readying her stance again.
Seeing that, Silia too took her stance, accepting the blow.
As blades clashed again, Silia smiled.
In Rio's eyes—a burning wish to achieve sothing.
Is it the survival instinct to live in the demon realm?
Yet Silia sensed sothing different—no desperation, but a yearning to be acknowledged by soone.
Either way, it wasn't bad for Silia.
'It's been a long ti since I had expectations for a child.'
Once, she'd felt sothing like this for her little brother.
Now, standing before her, the girl was only 12, yet showed skill on par with an officer.
A dream that should never wither.
In the past, Silia had seen such a tree rot and decay.
She'd poured out tears to nourish it, but it had never revived.
If the tree before her t the sa fate—what then?
'Never again.'
With bitter mories, Silia felt sothing new watching Rio.
"If you manage to get a hit on , I'll grant you any wish you want."
"...!"
At her words, Rio's eyes lit up.
"Anything?"
"Sure, anything."
Tempted, Rio absentmindedly unleashed her Blood Sword Technique.
Her crimson aura thickened, turning blade to blood.
The enhanced slash was strong, but Silia, though knocked back, wasn't overtaken.
"Then... please, teach how to make a family."
"What?"
Silia's mind went blank at the bizarre request—and in that opening, Rio called her blood sword aura again and swung.
In a split-second lapse, a match is decided.
But Silia, reflexively, knocked aside Rio's wooden sword.
It spun in the air a few tis before stabbing into the ground.
Silia had the upper hand, but looked confused.
"Just now, what did you an by that?"
"I an it literally. I want to know how families are born."
"..."
For Silia, an adult, only one answer ca to mind.
One that children should never experience—the act that only happens in bed.
"Can you ask for sothing else?"
"You said anything."
"..."
Thoroughly caught off-guard, Silia frowned.
She glanced at Louis who watched from afar, but Louis just whistled, pretending not to hear.
That bastard is definitely enjoying this, isn't he?
A guy who could hear even a pebble drop dozens of ters away—there was no way he'd missed it.
He was just deliberately ignoring her.
"Why are you curious about that?"
Setting aside her irritation at Louis, Silia asked.
Rio, now looking glum, answered:
"My village burned. I lost everything. So I want to make a family again."
Silia, too, had lost her family.
The pain of never being able to see them again lingered even now.
In that sense, Louis and the squad mbers were similar.
"Is it impossible?"
It's not impossible.
There are ways to have a family besides what happens on the bed.
"It's not that. Even if you're not related by blood, if you think of each other as family, you're truly family."
But finding such people in the 7th Legion was like searching for a needle in a desert.
Where would she find soone like that?
"Then, can I call you big sis?"
"What?"
Silia was taken aback, but soon relented.
"That, at least, is fine."
That was far more wholeso than being asked to explain other ways families were made.
"Then, I'll start calling you that now."
"What are you talking about? You haven't landed a hit yet..."
But just as she spoke, Silia felt sothing odd on her cheek.
At so point, there was a knife-like cut.
Touching the bleeding scratch, Rio, glowing with excitent, said:
"So it counts now, big sis?"
"..."
Hearing this, Louis appeared like a specter and asked:
"Then can I start calling you elder sister, too?"
"You're the exception."
The right was reserved for Rio, who had actually landed a hit.
Louis, in jest, flicked Silia on the forehead.
"Ow!"
"So now I can, right?"
aning that he'd just scored a hit, so he qualified.
Annoyed, Silia took a swing at Louis with her wooden sword.
It was several tis faster than when fighting Rio, but Louis dodged easily.
"You've improved since the last ti we went out."
"Shut up! Let's die together, you brat!"
Silia's wild swings weren't threatening at all.
Even Pram, watching from afar, thought the sa.
Despite being stuck in the hopeless 7th Legion, everyone was focused on training or building a family.
Watching them, Pram fell into deep thought.
"They all seem to have gotten used to this place."
Just then, Kelian approached, making both Silia and Louis stop.
For the commander himself to appear—it had to be serious.
"What brings you here?"
Why was he at the squad's training grounds?
To Silia's question, Kelian let out a dry laugh.
"Congratulations. His Majesty the Emperor wants to et you all personally."
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