Chapter 434

"Sir Rector, your time is over. Don't mind us."

"If it was about the training, sure. However, we should feed Raon a proper lunch since he didn't even have breakfast."

Glenn and Rector clashed once again, with Glenn trying to feed him Nadine bread and Rector wanting him to return to the annex building for lunch.

"He is still a child in his growth period."

"A child…"

Glenn furrowed his brow, displeased by the fact that Rector was calling Raon a child.

"Raon is a member of Zieghart. It's up to me to take care of him."

"I'm fully aware of that fact. However, we aren't at war, and the training isn't such an urgent matter. Eating a proper lunch seems to be the correct course of action rather than the Nadine bread."

Rector firmly closed his lips while looking at the Nadine bread in Raon's hand.

"And you made him practice all along without even feeding breakfast despite knowing that fact."

Glenn raised his chin and urged him to respond.

"Hmm, that is…"

Rector lowered his gaze because he had no excuse for that.

"Anyway, Raon wouldn't be happy about Nadine bread that tastes like rubber, so please let him have his meal at least."

"Taste doesn't matter for warriors. He likes training more than food, so he should be glad that he can save time."

Glenn took out another loaf of Nadine bread from his clothes and ate it himself.

Even though the nasty taste of rubber must've been spreading throughout his mouth, his expression didn't change in the slightest. He was truly leading by example.

"Moreover, filling the stomach isn't the only utility of Nadine bread. It also has plenty of nutrients, and that's why it's called a must-have for trainees. Sir Rector should be fully aware of that fact."

"Of course, I've eaten plenty of it in the past. But that's why I'm trying to stop it. The taste is just terrible. It's going to affect his practice."

Glenn shouted that he should start training right away after eating the Nadine bread while Rector advised that he should have a more nutritious and tasty meal.

They started arguing against each other without yielding in the slightest.

"Hmm…"

Raon wetted his lips with his tongue while watching the quarrel between Glenn and Rector.

'My mouth is so dry.'

He didn't know what to do because of the childish argument between Glenn and Rector that had started again in the middle of the day after what happened in daybreak.

"Your time is over. Stop disturbing us and leave."

"I'm going to leave if you feed him. Why are you even trying to feed him bread when the annex building should've already prepared his lunch?"

Even though they weren't wielding their swords, their reddened faces looked like they were angry from the bottom of their hearts. Raon couldn't even begin to guess when it started to go all wrong.

"Haa…"

Raon sighed while looking at the sparks flashing between Glenn and Rector's glares.

Neither of them seemed to have any intention of withdrawing, and a small amount of pressure emerged to burst out into a violent sandstorm at the center of the training ground.

'The head of house is actually right this time. Eating Nadine bread isn't a big deal for me.'

He isn't right at all! How could you eat such a terrible thing?! You are indeed his bloodline, you are both monsters with twisted tongues!

Wrath pounded Raon's shoulder like a drum, telling him to follow his acquaintance instead of his family.

"Raon!"

Glenn and Rector turned to look at Raon at the same time.

"What do you want to do? Do you want to start training right away? Or are you going to waste your time while eating lunch?"

"You didn't even eat breakfast. You need to eat a proper meal."

They barraged him with the pros and cons of a meal and training, trying to win the argument no matter what.

Meal! Meal is the obvious answer! Pineapple Girl should've filled the table with tasty food. You have to see them, at least for her sake!

Wrath screamed, pleading for him to choose a meal with widened eyes.

'I'm sorry, but that won't do.'

Ehh?

'This is the head of house's turn.'

Regardless of meals and Nadine bread, he had to take Glenn's side because he took Rector's side in the morning.

He shouldn't be making him feel bad after all, since he was about to learn martial art from him.

"I'm going to eat this."

Raon swallowed the Nadine bread he was holding at once.

Kuaaah!

Wrath screamed and collapsed like a demon king defeated by a hero upon tasting the clammy rubber taste filling his mouth.

'This is no problem.'

He slowly chewed the Nadine bread and swallowed it as casually as if he were eating salty bread with sausage before he nodded.

"Let's start the training."

A satisfied smile appeared on Glenn's face, and Rector's brow was crumpled like paper.

"Haa…"

Raon sighed heavily while looking at the clear contrast in Glenn and Rector's reactions.

'I'm more tired mentally than physically…'

* * *

Raon licked his lips while looking at Glenn's victorious smile at making Rector leave.

'I really don't understand what's going on.'

He still couldn't understand why both Glenn and Rector were fighting each other to be his teacher, but he had no time to think about that.

'This is an opportunity that might never happen again.'

Both the Destructive King of the North and the Sword Demon were powerful enough to gain the Monarch of Wrath's recognition. It was necessary for him to learn the essence of their martial arts without wasting a second.

"Raon."

"Yes."

Raon walked up to Glenn upon hearing his call.

"Was I supposed to teach you the variable sword, soft sword, and flexible sword?"

"Indeed."

"They are simple."

He stared with a frighteningly cold glare while saying that all three principles weren't that difficult.

'They aren't simple though…'

His heart tightened because of Glenn's gaze. He felt like he was about to get buried six feet under if he learned more slowly than during Rector's lesson.

"I was originally planning to teach you a new sword technique, but I'll leave it for later. Let's start with the principles."

He extended his hand, and a training sword floated from the corner of the training ground on its own and flew into his hand.

Tap!

The training sword smoothly entered Glenn's grasp. It almost looked like a reversed display of an extremely proficient flying sword technique.

'This is truly a divine skill.'

An object located so far away was pulled into his hand so naturally through the wind. His mana control was pretty much at a god's level.

Whoosh.

Glenn simply swirled the training sword before facing Raon.

'Is he going to demonstrate something? I can't miss it.'

Raon bit his lip and activated the Ring of Fire. He made all seven rings resonate to the best of his abilities—as if he were in a fight to death against a powerful opponent.

Glenn slowly raised his training sword above his head. He seemed to have thought that Raon was ready.

"Watch carefully."

The moment he said those words, Glenn's training sword—which was piercing the sky—fell downwards.

The sword descended slowly enough for even the wooden pattern could be seen, but the blade suddenly twisted to the sides. Waves spread around from the blade like when you throw a rock into a lake, and the sword filled his eyes with countless trajectories, all full of variety.

It was different from the illusion sword that Rector had shown him. The number of swords remained the same, but the splendid yet frightening variety on the blade made it look like it had multiplied into hundreds. It must've been the extremity of the variable sword.

'Is his wrist creating the variety?'

Glenn was only controlling a small amount of aura that even a novice Expert could use. The reason he could create such a variety with that small amount of aura seemed to be because his wrist was endlessly moving.

Tap.

Glenn's wooden sword stabbed the ground, and the countless trajectories of the sword covering the sky disappeared at once as if they were wiped away by the rain.

"Ah…"

Raon unconsciously groaned, regretting the fact that he couldn't see the extremity of the variable sword in more detail.

"Did you see it?"

Glenn stared at him with a frightening glare while weakly holding the hilt. He looked like he was about to kill him if he didn't see it.

"I didn't manage to see all of them.'

Raon briefly sighed and shook his head.

"Tell me what you saw."

"I saw your wrist, my lord."

"Wrist?"

"People usually twist the wrist a lot when they use the variable sword, but my lord's wrist only moved in small angles while creating an extreme variety for the sword."

The Ring of Fire told him about the control of his body instead of aura. The aura Glenn was using wasn't anything special, but he managed to create such an impossible variety by just twisting his wrist accordingly.

'I never thought this was possible…'

He'd previously thought that body didn't matter anymore for Grandmasters and Transcenders, and the control of aura determined the martial art's level. Yet, Glenn had achieved such a drastic change by only using his body, and that was completely unexpected to him. Raon felt enlightened.

"Can you repeat it yourself?"

"It's impossible for now."

Raon firmly shook his head. Even though he had the Ring of Fire, it was impossible for him to copy it in his current state. It surpassed the limit of his body.

"'For now', I see…"

Glenn simply nodded. He seemed satisfied with the answer.

"But you should still try. I'll see how much you can do."

"Understood."

Raon cheerfully drew Heavenly Drive. He raised the sword while looking at Glenn's composed eyes through the deadly blade.

'The head of house's wrist was moving in the opposite direction from the sword's trajectory.'

It was such a faint change that was difficult to notice, but Glenn was moving his wrist and the tip of the sword in opposite directions. He guessed that it was where the secret behind that variety dwelled.

'The flow of the aura should be as violent as a tidal wave.'

He opened the mental world in his head. He slashed down Heavenly Drive while imagining Glenn's flow of aura and the movement of his body.

Whoosh!

Heavenly Drive created a small wave, like the surface of tea with a leaf floating on it. Blades waning like the blue moonlight started to fill the vision.

'I need a bit more…'

Glenn had created many more variations with a smaller amount of aura. Raon couldn't possibly stop with that after witnessing his sword.

Until Heavenly Drive pointed to the ground, Raon kept moving his wrist in short yet strong twists to create as much variation as possible.

Whaam!

Wind blasted from the sword the moment Heavenly Drive was directed to the ground because he was straining it, unlike Glenn.

Glenn slowly nodded while looking at the slightly trembling tip of Heavenly Drive that had reached the ground.

"It wasn't too bad for your first time."

He casually declared, but he was actually trying his best to suppress his pounding heart.

'He is the real deal…'

He'd slightly increased the difficulty of the variable sword on purpose, and he had never expected Raon to grasp the flow. It definitely needed a lot of improvement, but genius wasn't enough to describe his talent.

'You are my grandson indeed!'

He suppressed the urge to shout it right away and bit his lip slightly.

"Hmm."

Glenn forced himself to harden his face and raised his sword.

"However, you still need a lot of improvement. It can't be helped, since it was your first time."

He said it as he swung his sword with variation once again.

"Watch closely one more time."

"Yes."

Raon nodded, his eyes burning with passion.

Whoosh.

Variation occurred in Glenn's training sword along with a breeze. The blade flowed in a way that Raon wouldn't be able to dodge no matter what he tried and created hundreds of lines connecting the sky and the ground.

He must've raised the difficulty, as it was faster than before, while also having an even deeper variation. Raon couldn't even see half of it even though he was using the Ring of Fire.

'Interesting.'

He also liked Rector's method, where he calmly taught step by step, but Glenn's method where he showed the demonstration and asked Raon to follow wasn't bad either.

Cring.

Raon smiled, his eyes a burning red, just like Heavenly Drive.

"I'm going next."

Rector watched the fifth training ground beneath him while standing on top of a boulder right next to North Grave Mountain's hill, where Glenn used to stand.

"Hmm, training like that…"

Glenn's teaching was even more difficult to understand than he'd expected. He was asking Raon to copy after him after a single demonstration, which was completely different from ordinary lessons.

'It's nothing but poison for ordinary people. However…he's following it.'

Even for Mustan, who was the most talented in the Alliance—with the exception of the Alliance head's disciple—training like that would've been a completely pointless waste of time. However, Raon understood the flow of Glenn's swordsmanship and was swinging his sword after him.

'His talent can only be described as crazy.'

He had already noticed that Raon had excellent observation skills, but he'd never thought that he would be able to repeat the flow of a martial art that he'd only seen once—even if it was lacking. It wasn't an exaggeration to call it an absolute talent.

"Haa…"

Rector sighed in frustration while stroking his beard.

'Edgar, your son is even more amazing than you.'

His son's talent was already amazing enough, but his grandson had far surpassed him. He'd heard that Raon was called the upcoming strongest in the continent, and the rumor wasn't groundless at all.

'I'm a bit jealous.'

Something started burning in his heart as he watched Glenn demonstrating for Raon with the expectation that he would be able to follow, and then Raon following while understanding his thoughts.

"Huhu."

A lonely laugh came from Rector as he stood with his hands clasped behind his back.

'I won't be the one to blame Mustan anymore.'

He'd advised his disciple to walk his own path instead of getting jealous of Raon, but he couldn't help getting jealous as he watched Glenn and Raon. It was difficult to suppress that emotion even with the ability that he'd been nurturing his entire life.

'It's still okay. I just need to be with him from now on.'

If he couldn't be with him in the past, he just needed to do so in the future. He was planning to devote all of his remaining time to his daughter-in-law and grandson if he managed to leave the Alliance.

Rector rolled his lips into a smile while looking at Glenn, who was pretending to be blunt while teaching Raon.

"I won't lose to you."

Glenn, my daughter-in-law's father.

* * *

The next day was the same. Raon took Rector's calm lesson from daybreak until lunch and ate Nadine bread before taking Glenn's wild lesson from lunch until the evening.

He almost felt dizzy by the evening because he was completely exhausted both physically and mentally from getting worked to the bones by the two monstrous swordsmen. He felt like he had managed to learn his limits.

'Moreover… I can't tell if I'm really getting stronger.'

He couldn't feel his growth at all because both Glenn and Rector kept telling him that he still had a long way to go.

'I'm going to die at this rate…'

He was under extreme pressure because both Glenn and Rector were going all out, as they didn't want to lose to each other. Simply being under their pressure was already exhausting enough.

He thought he would never experience hell worse than his life as an assassin, but the two past days he'd spent weren't any better than it.

Crack!

Wrath ground his teeth, his deadly glare directed at Glenn because he'd fed him Nadine bread two days straight. Raon managed to find another rabid dog outside of the Mad Dog squad.

Tsk.

Glenn briefly clicked his tongue while looking at the sun that was setting after it finished its work for the day.

"Today's lesson is over."

"Thank you."

Raon bowed at Glenn and sighed in his mind.

'Today is finally over.'

The time period being fixed for the competition was one of the reasons why he immediately ended the lesson, but it was mostly because Rector was watching from above the hill.

Glenn and Rector kept watching the lesson from afar even when it wasn't their time instead of doing their own thing. It was normally an unspoken rule that they shouldn't watch the other people's training, but they didn't seem to care about that at all.

"Raon."

Rector and Yua entered the training ground while Raon was shaking the dust off of his exhausted body.

"Young master!"

Yua ran up to him, her twin tails and hands fluttering into the air.

"I told you we were going to hold a promotion party today! Why are you still here?!"

She wrinkled her nose, asking why he was still training when the preparation was already over.

"My bad."

Raon chuckled and shook his hand.

"The food is getting cold. We even made the pineapple pizza that you like so much!"

"Ah, actually I…"

"Ah?"

Yua pouted, but her eyes became round as she noticed that Glenn was standing behind Raon.

"Hello!"

She lowered her head at Glenn with a bright smile on her face even though the entire house feared him.

"Hmm, yes."

Even Glenn couldn't ignore her and nodded because of how bright her greeting was.

'Hmm…'

Raon looked at Glenn while returning Heavenly Drive to his scabbard.

'The atmosphere around him is different from usual.'

He was usually a cold-hearted, iron wall of a man, but he suddenly looked as lonely as the autumn wind. It was similar to the feeling he had a few days ago.

'Shall I ask him to come with us? No, he is obviously going to decline.'

He thought about inviting him to the party but simply lowered his hand.

There was no way Glenn would want to join a party like that. He figured it was better to not mention it at all since the other people would also be uneasy about it.

"My lord, thank you for today one agai—"

Raon was about to say goodbye to Glenn before returning to the annex building.

"My lord, would you like to join us?"

Yua smiled cheerfully while grabbing Glenn's finger.

"We are having a party today!"