Castle of Blood

Everyone believed that Raimon had passed the test for sure and that they only had to wait for him to wake up, but the truth could not be more different. He had crawled like a madman to reach the center of the formation and ended up exhausting all his energy, as controlling the body of a one-year-old was not easy, even with the mind of an adult.

'Intentionally crawling here was very tiring, so what's next...?'

His hand was touching the center circle of the formation.

It was the family name and clan emblem.

For many generations, this emblem could only be attained by two people, the first and the eleventh patriarch who were the reasons why the family in the Empire had always been untouchable. To be more specific, the patriarchs who had been recognized and acknowledged by the emblem brought unprecedented glory to all members of the Flower Clan.

The number of times the emblem had been "awakened" during the ritual in the Flower history always meant that great crises and opportunities would come in the Solar Empire.

"Raimon awakened the family emblem."

Raion spoke in a solemn tone.

A few knights applauded with joy, and others struggled to hide their concerns.

This was what the superstition of the Flowers consisted of.

"The ritual is over. And bring Raimon to the Castle of Blood."

*************

Inside a place that no one could see, Raimon lived a hell of suffering inside a spiritual world full of dangers in which he fearfully faced different tests that the previous patriarchs had established.

Tests of willpower, conviction, and courage quickly took place within this world. Although these tests would never cause harm to the challengers, Raimon did not know this and so he fought each one of them with his life on the line without giving up on ending his life in the new world with his small body.

It has been 6 years since the day Raimon woke up.

He no longer had to go through the embarrassment of having his nanny change his diapers and feed him, but it was still hard for him to mimic the attitude of a child having lived 29 years in his previous life and 6 more in this world didn't help.

'I want to escape this Castle of Blood already'.

Blood Castle.

A castle separate from the main castle of the Flower Clan. All newborn children are not allowed to take a single step outside the castle until they are ten years old, to protect them from assassination attempts.

What kind of madman would try to assassinate the Flower children? Not even their worst enemies, they wouldn't dare to do it, that's what everyone would normally think'.

There was a case about 200 years ago where someone did try.

The Kaminary Clan, a clan of swordmasters with a bloodline that enhances physical powers attacked the Flower, and 5 young children of the Clan ended up being killed.

Completely risky, wasn't it?

However, the next day the entire Kaminary Clan was annihilated, including all family members and extended families of servants, thus disappearing from the history of this world in less than two weeks.

Since then, it has been a tradition and a very strict rule within the Flower household that all children remain inside the Blood Castle after their "Selection" rituals until they turn 11 years old.

"I'm so tired."

The atmosphere inside the Blood Castle was truly worthy of its name.

Located at the top of Eclipse Mountain, the highest mountain in the Solar Empire. As its name indicated, it is a place filled with a bloody atmosphere that surrounded the castle at all times, throughout the four seasons. Rain, gales, and lightning constantly affected the top of the mountain and the whole castle as a whole.

To be honest this place is not suitable for the emotional growth of a child filled with a depressing atmosphere. No wonder all the heirs ended up being so violent and brutal in the wars.

"It's because of this damn place."

There were only two other Flower children residing in the castle with Raimon. Twins were born three years after Raimon.

Shin and Masamune were the names of their two siblings, as well as five elite knights not belonging to any group protecting them, their nannies and a dozen servants were the only people occupying the Blood Castle.

"Raimon!"

As soon as he heard the voice calling out to him, Raimon's frustration and irritation increased exponentially.

The boy calling out to him in that annoying voice was Shin Flower. He was the older of the two twins with Raimon being older by two years.

"Why are you alone without your awesome sword, did you lose it or can't you pick it up? haha".

And the other brother who teased him was Matsamune Flower. The two were identical twins.

The twins had taken an hour during the Flower Clan's blood awakening ritual. Which had been very important if it hadn't been for Raimon who took an hour longer than them.

During my stay with these people, everyone in the castle agreed that they were the Devil's spawn.

"These pesky children."

Raimon turned to them.

He didn't have a single good memory of these two brothers. Someone had told them that if it weren't for me they would have been the masters of the family.

They had tried to bully him since they had learned to walk and think just because they had listened to such nonsense.

And one would be very wrong to underestimate 4-year-old brats and their bullying.

The first thing these brothers did when they learned to talk was to let loose curses at all the maidservants in Castle Blood. That's how messed up they were by nature.

Since Raimon did not react to their taunts, the twins continued to harass him, thinking he was soft by nature.

Reineza, Raimon's nanny had temporarily left Blood Castle today and the twins had been anxiously waiting for this day to come, and they had no intention of letting Raimon spend the day in peace and continue to ignore them.