Missing Flame Sword

Sol calmly looked at her, lowering his hand.

His stepmother then turned her head to the side, seeing the indent left in the wall.

As soon as her eyes caught this, they expanded, and her breathing became louder and bigger.

"Y-you..." She was speechless.

"Oh, that? I was testing a spell of mine."

"You destroyed our house!" His stepmother suddenly screamed.

"Che! Who cares, it's just the butler's chamber anyway. You have the money to fix it, right?"

Sol said, brushing past her as he exited the room.

Lady Cillion's breaths began shaking with rage. She couldn't believe what was going on.

She aggressively turned around, yelling through the halls, "STOP RIGHT THERE, YOU HEATHEN!" At the top of her lungs.

Sol turned around to see her face which was as red as a tomato, with several veins poking out of her forehead and neck.

"1000 whips! That will be your punishment!" She screamed, only for Sol to scoff at her words.

"What? As if I'd let some bitch whip me. Hahaha!" He turned around as he laughed wholeheartedly, not taking his stepmother seriously whatsoever.

"10,000! It's 10,000 now!" She yelled, but Sol still continued walking away without a care in the world. "1,000,000! You'll get whipped until you die, you ungrateful, talentless bastard! I knew I should have kicked you to the streets when your whore of a mother died!"

She started to pant as she finished her angry sentence. At that moment, Sol suddenly stopped walking and turned around.

He had a serious expression on his face.

'He finally understands now right? The amount of trouble he's in? I won't let him go... not after everything he's done to this family.' She thought with utter disdain and hatred.

"Hey by the way... where are my prizes from the exit exam? I nearly forgot about those." Sol suddenly questioned, completely throwing his stepmother off.

"What?"

"My prizes, where are they?"

His stepmother paused for a moment, before saying in a low tone, "In the forge. I burned them all to bits and pieces."

"Alright, so you won't tell me then I guess." He turned back around, continuing to walk as his stepmother quickly began following behind him.

"Where the hell do you think you're going in my house!?" She continued to yap as Sol walked, but he couldn't care enough to listen to her.

Eventually, he made it to the main living quarters, where he found a few wooden boxes on the table.

"Ah... perfect." He said, walking over to them and taking a look.

Both of the boxes were rectangular and very long, but one was a bit longer than the other.

Sol assumed the shorter one to be the Cultivation Technique scroll, and the longer one to be the Flame Sword.

The Cultivation Technique box was unopened, but for some reason, the longer box containing the Flame Sword was opened, and also empty.

"Huh?" Sol thought out loud, as a sudden gust of cool wind caressed his face.

He looked to the side where the wind was coming from to notice a door wide open leading to the outside.

As his stepmother hurried to catch up with him, Sol made his way out into the training grounds of their estate.

It was a flat dirt field with many dummies scattered across the floor. There were wooden weapons on display boards on the side, and Sol noticed that his step-siblings were in the middle of the field, seemingly practicing.

Etos and Crya laughed as they trained. As Sol squinted, he noticed that Etos was carrying a metal sword with a red emblem near its hilt.

He immediately began walking toward the boy as he noticed that it was his Flame Sword that he was holding.

"Oi, whose sword do you think you're holding?" Sol abruptly said in a loud tone, catching the attention of both Etos and Crya.

"Oh? Look, it's bitchface realizing his sword got stolen. What are you, going to cry and beg to get it back? I still won't give it to you, ahaha!"

Sol continued to walk toward the boy, his brows furrowed, without saying a word.

"You got lucky somehow in the exit exams and got this prize. But... we've been taking care of a rat like you your entire life. Might as well pay us back, right? This sword should do." He laughed, as his sister added on.

"That's right... what does a weakling like you have a use for this sword anyways?"

Sol didn't stop walking, arriving only a couple of feet from Etos, who still had an arrogant smile on his face.

At that moment, Sol clenched his fist.

*Bang*

Etos got clocked in the jaw, dropping the Flame Sword on the ground as he fell on his rear.

He imagined birds and bees flying circles over his head for a few seconds as Sol grabbed his sword and placed it within a sheath on his waistbelt.

"Oh my goodness! Brother, are you alright!?" Crya said in a worried tone, kneeling next to her brother.

She turned to face Sol at that moment, "Mother... mother will punish you for this!"

Before Sol could say anything, Etos' mother stepped outside into the training grounds, "Punish you for what, my dear?" 

After a few seconds of silence, she walked close enough to see Etos on the ground.

At that moment, she gasped in shock. She loved her children more than anything else in the entire world, so, to see her beloved son on the ground infuriated her more than ever before.

Shaking with rage, her gaze slowly shifted toward Sol. At that moment, Sol's brows furrowed.

'Bloodlust? Does she intend to kill me? Fine... I'll just cut her head off before she can even attempt it.' He mused, pushing the hilt of his blade out of his sheath with his thumb.

"What's going on here?" Sol's father suddenly said from the doorway of the estate, catching everyone's attention.