Manipulating Everyone.

Phante continued to swing his sword, demonstrating his mastery of the [Sword God Style].

In his mind, he was already performing way better than most of the people his age.

Of course, that was only in 'his' mind!

Ghislaine, who had witnessed Arther display the pinnacle of all three sword styles and not only that she herself was a [Sword King], thought that Phante's moves were merely average.

It was at this moment…

Ahem-!

Arther entered the training area and drew attention to himself with a cough.

"What is going on here?" He asked, looking at Ghislaine and Phante at the same time, bewildered.

"Oh! You are here, 'brother'."

Arther ignored Phante's slightly mocking tone when he said 'brother' and questioned, "Lil' bro, no time, no see. Anyway, since you are here, c'mon, let's go meet Mother. She has not seen you in a long time. I am sure she misses you a lot."

Meanwhile, back in Hilda's room.

'Ah! I forgot to tell Arther that the Head of the House has called him to learn about the commotion he caused in the royal palace.

Hilda, sometimes you are so clumsy.' She thought to herself before moving out towards the training area.

She saw Arther's back and thought, 'There you are.'

She had just been about to call his name when she heard him talking to someone. She was completely taken aback to discover that Arther was speaking to her second son, Phante.

Her heart pounded with joy, thinking that her second son had come to visit them.

Just as she was about to reveal herself and take Phante to her arms, she heard, "Who cares about that whore? She is just a slut whom father is fucking so that she bares children for the family."

Shocked!

Utterly Shocked!

Hilda was completely shaken after hearing her second son say something like that about her. Her heart ached in extreme pain, as if thousands of needles had entered her heart at once.

Tears uncontrollably rolled out of her eyes as she looked at her first son in sorrow, thinking it was all her fault that her innocent son had to face the cruelty of the world at such a young age.

She decided to step in and stop her second son's actions, but again before she could move herself.

SLAP!

A ringing, tight slap echoed throughout the entire training area, leaving every spectator stunned.

Arther had slapped Phante!

In fact, the slap was so tight that Phante could practically see stars around him right now.

On the other hand, Arther kept looking at him with sorrow and disappointment as he thought out loud, "I was thinking of giving you another chance in consideration for her. But you don't deserve it.

I will take her out of here, whether she agrees or not. She will stay away from filth such as you, even if she hates me for doing so."

Hilda was certain that Arther was referring to her, even though he did not ask for her name. She covered her lips with her hands to stop herself from crying.

However, her eyes were practically overflowing with tears.

'How can you still love me so much, my son? I am the reason the entire world is against you, and yet…'

On the other side, Phante finally regained his consciousness and seethed in anger, "You son-of-a-whore, how dare you slap the heir of this family!? You filthy, illegitimate bastard, how dare you put your hands on me?"

Hilda was infuriated to hear Phante lash out at Arther with such venomousity.

Yes, anger!

Hilda was furious with rage at the moment. For the first time in her life, she hated every inch of Phante. In fact, if looks could kill, then Phante would be dead by now.

She tightly clenched both her hands as blood started to come out of them.

She shifted her gaze to her first son, no to her only son; from now on, Arther was her only son. 

In the meantime, Arther's face had no emotion, just like a cold stone wall.

"Call me whatever you want, but one more time I hear you calling my mother whore..."

Ather cryptically looked at Phante as killing intent oozed around him and continued,

"You. Are. Dead!!"

The leaking killing intent from him gave goosebumps to not only Phante, who felt that the entire world crumbled for a moment, but to Ghislaine and Hilda as well, albeit a lesser dose of it.

'You still only care about me, son! I am not a mother who has no right to be loved so much, my son.' Hilda simply couldn't comprehend how her son loved her so much.

Ghislaine made the decision to intervene and calm Arther down when she realized that things might get out of control and that Arther might actually kill Phante.

A few minutes passed as both Arther and Phante calmed down. Hilda simply continued to look at the scene from behind without making her presence known.

It was at this time that Phante spoke: "Arther, I propose to you a sword duel!"

Arther looked to Ghislaine for an explanation, startled by this. Ghislaine gave an account of what had happened before his arrival.

Arther nodded understandingly as he listened to her explanation, but Hilda was fuming in the background.

How did this bastard challenge her son for a duel and use Ghislaine as the price at that?

Hilda couldn't help but frown upon hearing that as she pondered, 'And Ghislaine, why the hell do you even accept something like that?'

Nevertheless, she looked at Arther's response to the challenge.

Arther looked back at Phante, who smirked at him and declared, "You take a good look at her, Arther, cz soon I will have her and fuck her right in front of you."

"Stop the nonsense and come at me, bro-ther." Arther said as he tapped the ground with his foot and made a sword out of earth that rose to his hands.

Seeing the use of magic like this shocked everyone, including Phante, but he soon got over it and aimed his sword at Arther.

"Ready… 3… 2…"

.

"1…"

.

"START!"

As soon as Ghislaine announced the beginning of the duel, Phante, in overconfidence, ran towards Arther openly without any planning.

He had even more than normal gaps in his advance. Looking at his movement, Arther frowned and decided to simply end it in a single move, as it was really getting irritating now.

'I like fucking not fighting bitch! You have fulfilled your purpose of making her emotionally unstable. Just one more push, and she is mine, so goodbye extra!'

As Phante reached near the hitting distance, he swung his sword swiftly using the [Sword God Style]. Arther simply held his sword in his back grip like a dagger diagonally and…

Clang!

Blocked the advancing sword!!

Subsequently, he flung his sword for a moment, completely breaking Phante's momentum as he held the sword with a front grip again.

He had used a variation of [Water God Style] combined with [North God Style] to deflect Phante's attack.

At the same time, as Arther flung his sword and deflected Phante's attack, his opponent's hands sidetracked from the attacking position and left his neck open.

Seeing his opportunity, Arther quickly swung the sword and put it right in front of Phante's neck, ending the duel.

It was Arther's victory!

And he achieved it in one move!

Phante was left completely flabbergasted to see himself losing like this as he muttered in a daze, "N-No, h-how i-is this possible? I-I can't lose. How? HOW??"

He couldn't cope with his loss and howled like a crazed beast, but Ghislaine was having none of his whining right now.

So, she came near him and…

SLAP!

Directly slapped him to break him out of his reverie.

She sternly looked at him and stated, "You have lost. Learn to accept it."

"Dammit!" Phante cursed upon hearing her.

"Now tell me why you are here." Ignoring his cursing, Ghislaine asked.

Remembering why he was here in the first place, he looked at Arther and said with effort, "Head of the House is calling for you to discuss the incident in the royal palace."

"I see. Let's go then." Arther replied in nonchalance.

Phante got up and guided Arther to his grandfather, while the entire way he continued to look at Arther maliciously as he thought, 'Bastard, I-I will never ever lose to you again. And I will fucking kill you one day.'

Not knowing that he was simply calling for his own death right now.

After Arther and Phante left, Ghislaine looked in the direction where Hilda was hiding as she spoke, "You should come out now; we need to talk…"

-----

In the main mansion.

Arther gave his 'supposed' father and grandfather a detailed explanation of everything that transpired in the royal palace.

Naturally, he kept his agreement with the prince a secret, but he did tell them that he was able to persuade him that their family would back him.

They were prepared to enslave Arther without informing the other noble families, that is, if he agreed to their agreements.

"Good. Very good. You have done extremely well in promoting the interests of the family. If you continue to act like this, then rest assured that your mother will soon get proper recognition from the family." Sauros Grayrat, aka his 'supposed' grandfather, laughed.

"Rest assured, my lord. The job will be done." Arther said while he mused, 'I'm not the old idiot old dog whom you can manipulate.

Everything is set now. I will first cuck your son, and soon I will destroy your ambitions, including your family.'

"You can leave now." Phillip Grayrat, aka his 'father', who was listening to him till now, said.

"Yes, my lord."

With that, Arther took his leave.

-----

'She should have been completely manipulated by now.'

Arther mused as he arrived in front of his mother's house.

"Mother, I am entering!" He announced as he opened the door.

As he entered the room, he was greeted with the sight of his mother…

Half-naked!

…..

Author's Note:

>> How did you guys like the developments I have made in the story so far? I wanted to show some real manipulation, and I think I did a pretty good job. Tell me your thoughts about it.

>> Check out my other work. I am sure you will definitely like it very much.

Title- LONE: The Journey Beyond

Link- https://www.webnovel.com/book/lone-the-journey-beyond_23576460306682905

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