Side Story 30. Anemone Smiled Brightly (6)
"Hyung! Father wants to see you!"
Doomstone grabbed Bloody’s leg, who attempted a surprise attack, and spun him around hard. But he stopped at the words of his younger brother Hermes Blade and threw Bloody away.
"Ahhhh!"
The nine-year-old Bloody quickly flew away from Doomstone's power and barely landed safely on the ground. However, he fell on the ground and threw up the meal he had in the morning because of being spun around for a long time.
"Uwack! You clean that up, Youngest."
"The bucket and mop are in the warehouse, Youngest."
Doomstone and Hermes looked at Bloody with frowns.
"Ugh! I'm definitely going to win next time!" Bloody clenched both fists in anger.
Doomstone laughed at him. "Ahahaha! You’re still a thousand years too young to beat me! If you're going to come at me, at least master old man Elder Weger’s Thousand Forked Swords first!"
"Wooh! Uaahhh! I hate you, Big Brother!"
As Bloody ran towards the warehouse in tears, Doomstone and Hermes laughed.
"Hyung, you're so mean. Elder Weger's Thousand Forked Swords is a top-tier Enlightenment technique of our martial arts that’s also one of the hardest difficulties.”
"Hmph! With Youngest’s talent, he’ll learn it. Do you think Old Man Weger is keeping Youngest around for no reason? If he decides to train, he will easily surpass Talaria with the sword."
Hermes’s eyes glistened at Doomstone's assessment and looked at the direction Bloody ran away in. "Oho! He’s that good?”
"Well, in the first place, Talaria's talent with the sword alone is limited. She seems to know this and is learning magic, but I don’t know how much miscellaneous skills like that will be helpful."
Hermes stuck his tongue out at the harsh criticism. Still, Talaria was called the strongest among young crows. Among adults, attention was paid to who would be the next chief, Doomstone or Talaria. As such, to the public, she was known as a very powerful person.
"Then is Bloody more talented than you, Hyung? Sword techniques are the same for you and noona, right?” Hermes playfully queried.
Doomstone smiled and tousled Hermes's hair. "Yeah, that’s right for 'swordsmanship'."
Hermes’ eyes opened wide at the casual admittance.
"What are you looking at me like that for? I’m not so narrow-minded that I can’t admit the truth. In addition, there are two mistakes in your question."
"What's that?"
"One is that my sword skill talent is much higher than Talaria’s. The other is that just because you use the sword better, does not necessarily mean that you are strong."
Hermes instinctively stepped back and got in a stance at Doomstone's vicious smile, full of killing intent. "Hahaha! Crazy, Hyung, you're a monster. Are you fooling everyone?” He admired in a cold sweat.
Looking at the other, Doomstone sighed, withdrawing his fighting spirit. "Not everyone. Father and Grandfather caught me. Father calling me is probably related to that. Well then, I’m off." He leisurely walked towards the village hall as if everything was annoying.
"My god, how much did he not want to be chief, for him to actually use his stone head to trick others?" Hermes stuck his tongue out in astonishment.
-o-
"Father, I'm here. You called for me?” Doomstone opened the door to the chief’s office and went inside.
Inside the office, there was the chief, Zendia, and Talaria, his younger sister.
Talaria clicked her tongue as she saw Doomstone roughly open the door. "Oppa, don't you know how to knock? It's already been a year since you became an adult. How about you become a civilized person?"
"Hahaha! Your manner of speaking is so nice, Sister. Keep that up and you might get hit."
Looking at the siblings glaring at each other, Zendia sighed. "They say only those who are close to each other fight, but calm down."
With their father's smile, the two stopped glaring at each other and looked at him.
"So what's the reason you called me, Father?" Talaria asked.
Zendia nodded. "Yeah, since Doomstone is also here, I'll tell you. Doomstone, Talaria, you two should fight each other."
At the sudden remark, the two pulled out their swords and fists at each other even before asking why.
"Uh-huh-huh-huh. You guys are so impatient." Zendia quickly intervened and blocked the sword and fist.
"I just thought it would be perfect if I could hit this stone head with Father's order." Talaria snorted and put back the sword she had pulled out.
Doomstone clicked his tongue and retorted, "You're the one who's gonna get beaten by me. Use that smart head better, tsk tsk."
He shot her a gaze, calling her foolish, and Talaria choked up momentarily.
"What?!"
"Now, now! Let's calm down. Listen to me." Zendia calmed the pair of siblings with his overwhelming aura.
"Rather than me, it is the will of the elder council that asked the two of you to fight. Even though you guys are still young, they probably mean for me to keep a successor in mind, considering my age."
The chief was the only one who had the authority to decide the successor. However, the opinions of the council of elders who discussed the village affairs and assisted the chief could not be ignored.
"Isn’t it because Father got dumped by his first love that you married late? Then why are we being told to fight this early…?”
At Zendia’s killing intent, Doomstone, who was grumbling, kept his mouth shut and avoided his gaze.
“Ahem! Anyway, honestly, it seems too early for me to decide on a successor too, but shouldn't I at least pretend?”
Doomstone felt his father's subtle gaze. His instincts told him that Zendia had already chosen him as the successor in his heart. He was certain the reason his father said it was too early was that he had not yet learned how to view or process documents.
Doomstone agonized for a moment. His pride didn’t allow him to lose to Talaria on purpose. However, if he won, it seemed that Zendia would take him as a successor and directly lead him to hell called the successor class. The instincts that have never betrayed him before in his life were screaming that.
"Then when do we fight?" Doomstone asked.
Zendia looked out the window and answered, "After having lunch and digesting somewhat. Hmm... I'll tell the elders that it'll be three hours later.”
Upon hearing the answer, Doomstone nodded and was convinced.
‘Okay. Let's run away. Running away is the answer rather than living in a pile of documents.’
He thought and acted just the same as his son would in the future.
It was literally like father, like son.
-o-
Doomstone grabbed a platinum coin that he was told was the money of the Empire, a bag filled with things such as food, blankets, clothes, bows and arrows from the warehouse, and dashed out of the village without looking back.
By the time he arrived at the second campsite after running for a long time, Talaria and Hermes were grilling meat on a bonfire.
"Oh, Hyung, you're here. Do you want some?"
"You’re later than I thought. You're like a slug."
Doomstone was flustered when his two younger siblings greeted him unexpectedly.
"Why are you guys here?" Doomstone asked.
Talaria snorted. "A thought from Oppa’s head is clearly visible. You must have been trying to run away from home."
"Khmm! What do you mean run away from home?! Talaria, I'm an adult, too. Use a gentle expression like going out."
Talaria swallowed the meat she had been eating and grabbed her sword in both hands. "Don't be nervous and get ready to fight. The chief’s order is absolute, right?”
"Since when did you follow Father’s words so well?" Doomstone snorted.
Talaria sighed, finding him pathetic. "Father's words and the chief's words are different. I'm sure you know the difference."
"Well, I know that, but if you were going to do this, then we could have just done it in the village, not here. You can’t use magic here, so it’ll be disadvantageous for you?”
"Oh my, are you worrying about me? I'm so thankful, what should I do? I was being considerate of Oppa. You’re hiding it. Your skills,” she said.
Doomstone looked at Hermes.
Hermes, who suddenly received attention, shook his head enthusiastically. "It's not me. I just came to watch because I thought it would be fun. I heard it from Father. He wants to check your skills properly. Whether it's okay to hand you the chief position right away or not."
At that, Doomstone looked around in surprise. He was wary that Zendia might be hiding and monitoring.
Talaria spoke as she looked at Doomstone looking around, "Father isn't here. He is busy with work regarding Grandfather these days. Well, I also want to see Oppa’s real skills." She fired up her martial aura.
"Hmm. Does that mean there's no one to stop me if I knock you down?" Doomstone smiled and fully let loose his martial aura. Even the sound of bugs tickling the ears became dead silent when he released his martial aura.
Talaria, who received his martial aura head-on, shuddered at the pressure hitting her whole body.
How high is his level at just the age of 17?
It was in an instant that the idea of testing his skills changed to how many seconds she could last.
"You were really hiding your skills," Talaria said in admiration.
Doomstone firmly said, "That's enough talking. I haven't surpassed Father yet, so it'll be a headache if he chases after me!"
Finally, the siblings clashed. Her twin swords, which seemed to move like dozens of illusions, hit him from place to place. In response to the twin swords, he raised his martial aura in his body and directly charged.
"Enlightenment! Killing a Wild Boar!"
"Gasp!"
The swords bounced off the strong aura surrounding his whole body, and Talaria was hit on the stomach and flew away. She almost lost her consciousness at that moment but managed to pull herself together and jumped high on the trees.
"Enlightenment! Cutting the Rain!"
When hundreds and thousands of sword auras were shot at Doomstone, he lightly used some footwork and kicked towards Talaria.
"Enlightenment! Cutting the Clouds!"
The huge strong aura shot by Doomstone cut through hundreds and thousands of sword auras and hit Talaria directly. She urgently crossed the two swords and put a strong aura on them to block, but the swords were shattered by the impact of Cutting the Clouds.
"Cough! Brute... As expected... Oppa, you be the chief…!”
Talaria fainted with those last words and crashed to the ground.
Doomstone caught her and murmured with a serious face, "I don't want to. You be the chief."
He hated the thought of living buried in documents. He wanted to live more freely. He threw his fainted sister at Hermes, who was watching from afar.
"Hey, I'm leaving. Are you going to try catching me, too?"
Hermes, who caught Talaria, shook his head hard.
Seeing that, Doomstone waved his hand to say bye then ran along the road. If he had been selected as a successor and run away, hundreds of people would have rushed to stop him, but since it was before he was selected, no one stopped him.
-o-
"So you ran away from home because you didn't want to be the chief?" I asked.
Doomstone coughed dryly and corrected my words. "I didn’t run away from home, I'm left home. I'm an adult, I can decide when I leave home.”
"Haha! That's true."
The dawn began to rise outside, and the carriage driver turned off the lamp. The carriage we rode was heading out of Asterium to the border between the Asteria Duchy and the adjacent territory.
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