"I came to punish him." Vesper's casual voice broke the silence and brought everyone back to their senses.
"HOW DARE YOU, YOU BASTARD!"
A furious voice rang out immediately after.
"Oh?" Vesper raised his brows in surprise, seeing it was not Ryder who shouted but the maid who had been massaging his shoulders.
He wondered why she was so angry when he noticed she resembled Adam a little. 'His sister?'
Suddenly, he remembered how Adam looked completely unafraid and even amused. He seemed to believe that even though he had committed the grave crime of hitting a noble, he wouldn't be punished.
Why did he believe so?
It was clearly because of her, who seemed to have gained Ryder's favor.
When he came to this realization, his lips curled up, but just for a second, because the next moment, he put on a dark expression, which resembled Ryder's current expression as he stood a few feet away glaring at him.
"What did you just call me?" He asked, looking at the enraged maid with narrowed eyes.
"How dare you kill my brother, you bastard!"
Having lost her mind to anger and grief over her brother's death, she shouted at him again before rushing toward him.
Vesper ignored her and instead glanced at Ryder, who gritted his teeth and stepped in her way.
The maid rammed into him and looked at him in confusion, not understanding why he stopped her.
Then, she noticed Vesper standing behind him, looking at her with a cold smirk, which enraged her further.
She pointed at him and shouted at Ryder with a pleading look on her face, "My lord, help me kill this bas—"
"ENOUGH!"
Ryder roared, silencing her.
Then he whispered in a voice low enough just for her to hear, "You shouldn't have called him a Bastard in front of everyone. You have only yourself to blame."
Her eyes went wide when she heard him, realizing she had committed a crime worse than her brother's. Still, she had a flicker of hope that he wouldn't let anything happen to her because she had been satisfying all his needs for the past week, but then she heard the last part, and her hope was shattered.
"W-What do you—"
Before she could complete her sentence, Ryder's hand moved, and a finger-wide hole appeared on her forehead.
As he withdrew his hand, light vanished from her eyes, and with the horrified look frozen on her face, she fell to the ground with a resonant thud that sent shivers down everyone's spine.
Gulp!
The maid and servants gulped in fear while Vesper's eyes narrowed.
'He is strong.' He thought, his heart racing, but then he calmed down, 'As long as I can cultivate for some time, I can become as strong, if not stronger than him.'
From his memories, he knew Ryder was a high-stage 1-star mage, but he had taken 12 years to reach that stage, while he was confident he could reach the same within a couple of months, if not sooner.
And the reason for his confidence was not the system, not the basic cultivation skill he got, but it was the 2-star Silver Moon Wolf healing in his beast space.
While he was no expert in this regard, it wasn't difficult for him to understand that if he, a beginner, cultivated using a 2-star beast's energy, he should blaze through the 1-star realm.
After killing her, Ryder ignored her and shifted his attention to Vesper, his face dark and his gaze incomparably cold.
"Leave!" He said through gritted teeth.
Seeing how enraged he was, Vesper knew he would definitely find some way to make his and his brother's lives worse, and this honestly worried him a little.
However…
His lips curled up as he boldly met his gaze. "Sure."
No matter what he would do, he wouldn't dare to kill them because the Ironhart family had strict rules for family members killing or crippling one another. If he dared to do it and was found out, he would undoubtedly die.
Clang!
He dropped the sword, turned around, and started walking away; however, after taking a few steps, he paused and said without turning around,
"You should control your goons, I mean servants, dear brother. Otherwise they would come over and would surely do something stupid, which would cost them their lives."
Saying this, he swaggered out of the living room, leaving Ryder clenching his fists and grinding his teeth in impotent rage.
…
Outside the mansion, Alric was anxiously waiting for his big brother to come out. Though only just over two minutes had passed, he was getting worried.
'Should I go back and see what's going on?' He thought, biting his nails. 'I shouldn't have come out.'
He was just going to step out of the living room and wait for Vesper there, as he was told. However, he felt uncomfortable under the servants and maids' gazes, and before he knew it, he had left the mansion.
After a moment, he took a deep breath, his expression becoming determined.
Just as he took a step forward, about to return to the mansion, he saw Vesper walk out with his hands folded behind his back, looking calm and at ease.
"Big Brother…!"
A relieved smile broke out on his face when he saw him, and excitedly called out before rushing over.
Vesper smiled and picked him up, fondly ruffling his hair.
"Got worried waiting, huh?" He asked,
Alric nodded his little head before saying with an apologetic expression on his face, "Sorry, Big Brother. I didn't stay inside."
Vesper chuckled, "Don't think too much about it. Now, let's go home and treat Selene."
Alric was about to ask what happened inside, but when he heard him, he pouted and whined, "It's Aunt Selene, Big Brother."
"Yeah," Vesper chuckled and started walking away.
When their mother died, Alric had just turned 3 years old, too young to understand anything. After that, Selene had taken care of them and raised Alric like he was her own. So, for him, she was a mother figure. He had even started calling her Mother, but Selene forbade him from doing that and instead, reluctantly, allowed him to call her Aunt.
Alric had also called her Aunt, but when he became aware of his feelings for her, he started calling her by her name, and each time he did that, Alric would complain, wanting him to address her with her due respect.
As the brothers returned home, the news of him entering Ryder's mansion and killing Adam spread through the Ironhart mansion like a wildfire. Almost everyone who heard this found it hard to believe.
How could that timid and cautious kid do something so drastic? Where did he get the courage from?
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A/N: I hope you are liking the story. If yes, please consider dropping a power stone or two. Thank you!