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The Leinfall’s main Estate was made of enhanced stones. It consisted of several layers of thick walls and four high spires. The only entrances were a big drawbridge over a moat and two smaller gates to the side.

It was a Castle, not a Mansion. Yet, Mom still insisted that it was one.

Sadly, only Mom and I were allowed to come. Violette would’ve loved this place.

We quickly entered the Castl— Mansion and navigated through confusing corridors. Eventually, we arrived at the audience chamber where the Ceremony would be held.

There were several rows of chairs occupied by important family members that I should probably get to know, but I knew that I couldn’t be bothered to.

At the front of the room, there was a slightly raised stone platform and a really, really fucking fancy throne that most likely costed half the price of Mom’s Mansion. Of course, sitting atop that throne was the one and only jackass, Herald.

Stabbed right in the edge of the platform—near the rows of chairs, was a sword that looked like it was made of glass.

As I was staring at the sword, the asshole’s voice boomed throughout the room.

“You’re late.”

Instantly, I could feel the piercing gazes of everyone in the chamber descending on me. It made me feel nervous, but my pride as a Swordsmaster didn’t let me back down from this.

“And it took you five years to meet me. I don’t think me being thirty minutes late is anything special compared to that.”

Herald frowned. “Enough. I don’t have all day. Find a seat.”

“I will, but it’s only because my legs are tired.”

I grabbed Mom’s hand and led her to find a seat. On the way, I could hear murmurs directed at us.

-”Is that Hayan’s child?”

-”She’s as arrogant as the rumors.”

-”A Fox-kin? Haha, so Hayan was a slut! Did a Fox’s cock feel good?”

True to her words, Mom remained brave. She kept her head up high and walked calmly despite the various insults hurled at her.

Eventually, we found a seat. And…I did not expect to find the one who was sitting beside that seat.

“I-Ihwa?”

The raven-haired girl turned her head to look at me. However, she spared me but a glance before gluing her eyes toward the front again, acting as if she didn’t know me.

Sitting right beside her was a woman with purple hair and eyes. Other than that, there was nothing really special about her… Except for what she said as soon as she noticed Mom and me.

“Tch, why do I have to sit with trash?”

I ignored her and stared at Ihwa. Why was she acting like this? Weren’t we friends?

But before I could go wild with my speculation, I saw a slip of paper floating toward me. Catching it and looking at it, I saw a line of text formed by Aura.

[Sorry, I can’t speak right now. Use this to communicate.]

Well, now I got it. She didn’t want others to know that we were friends, which was…fine, I guess. I wouldn’t, either.

I took my seat and burned my Aura onto the paper.

[So…you’re my sister?]

[Mhm.]

Okay, in retrospect, it was very fucking obvious. She was a Noble that was in the Leinfall territory, and her father acted suspiciously similar to Herald.

Not to mention, Herald appeared in the Capital at the same time Ihwa said that her father came to pick her up.

[Why didn’t you tell me?]

[I only found out about it when the Judge announced your engagement with…Nowa.]

Hmmm…he indeed shouted our surname at that time. Luckily, Mom and I soon got the decision reversed. Though, Nowa was still convinced that she was going to marry me…

[Are we still friends?]

That was the most important question.

[Yes, but…just not in front of the others.]

[That’s fine enough for me.]

Since the place where we were sitting was kinda obscured, Ihwa found my hand and squeezed it as if to prove her words.

By the way, Herald was making an awful and boring speech during all this time, and coincidentally, it’d just ended.

“First, Bruce Leinfall.”

A boy sitting in front of us stood up. He was— urghh, why should I care about his appearance? Anyways, he turned around to look at Ihwa, who quickly let go of my hand.

“Watch me, loser. I’ll win Father’s love!”

‘Yeah, good luck with that.’

Herald truly loved no one. Though, if that boy, whose name was presumably Bruce, could prove himself useful, Herald would give him something close to love, but not quite.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Bruce walked up to the stone platform and placed his hand on the glass sword. Almost instantly, it was lit up with a bright green color. The color filled up a little more than half of the sword. All around him, gentle breezes were blowing.

-”W-Wind?”

-”A-And the sword is filled up more than half! He’s a genius!”

Bruce smirked and looked up at Herald.

Herald, true to his nature, only slightly nodded before calling out to the other children.

“Next, Liam Leinfall.”

Bruce looked a bit disappointed as he returned to his seat. Though, he didn’t forget to give Ihwa an annoying grin.

Seeing Ihwa slowly shaking, I squeezed her hand and burned my Aura on the paper.

[You okay?]

[Yeah…]

[Don’t worry. There’s no way you’re going to lose to that guy.]

[Thank you…]

[And who needs Herald’s approval? Certainly not me.]

[...]

[...]

The rest of the Ceremony went on in silence. I would’ve thought that Ihwa was mad at me if it wasn’t for the fact that she was holding my hand the entire time.

After what felt like hours, it was Ihwa’s turn.

“Next, Ihwa Leinfall.”

Ihwa stood up and made her way toward the sword; cold sweat running down her back. As soon as she touched the sword, it…blew up.

Molten lava erupted from the broken remains of the sword and threatened to engulf the entire chamber. If it wasn’t for Herald containing the waves of Lava and literally fucking evaporating it, everyone here would’ve been greatly injured.

Even from where I sat, I could see that Herald’s hand was slightly singed.

The asshole approached the still-scared Ihwa with a rare smile on his face and placed a hand on her shoulder.

-”W-What? The Patriarch smiled!?”

-”S-She’s going to be the next Head!”

Herald ignored all the commotion below and spoke with that creepy smile still on his face.

“Good job...my daughter.”

I cringed. Him calling anyone his “daughter”? How laughable. It seemed that I spent too much time scowling, as before I knew it, Ihwa was back in her seat, dazed.

[Did he do anything to you?]

[Oh God…]

[Unnie?]

[H-He called me his daughter…]

[...]

[N-Nova, he called me his daughter! This is the best day of my life!]

I was thoroughly confused. Why would anyone want praises from this asshole? Did he brainwash them? Did he…treat me differently from every one of his children? If so, why?

But before I could think over any of those questions, I heard my name being called.

“Finally, Nova…Leinfall.”

This was it. The moment I’d been waiting for. A—

“Father! I want to make a statement!”

That fucking Bruce brat rudely interrupted my moment with a shout.

As if proving that he was biased against me, Herald allowed Bruce to speak.

“Thank you, father.” Bruce then turned around and point his finger at Ihwa. “I challenge you to a duel! There’s no way I’m inferior to you!”

Uh oh, it was obvious that Ihwa didn’t want to duel. However, hearing the murmurs around her, she seemed to be slowly being forced into accepting it. The final nail in the coffin was that look of expectation on Herald’s face.

“I-I accept!”

.

.

.

.

Ihwa was losing. Badly.

They were both using the same style of swordsmanship—House Leinfall’s swordsmanship. However, as I’d expected, Ihwa was more of a slow and strong type, so it didn’t really suit her.

On the other hand, Bruce’s style was more akin to mine, so he could overpower Ihwa quickly in a battle of pure swordsmanship.

But he didn’t just win. No, he was dead set on humiliating Ihwa. Slaps, stomps, punches; he pulled no stops. He even made Ihwa throw away her sword and cower on the ground in fear.

By the end of it, Ihwa was left a shivering and crying mess. The problem only worsened when Herald had a clear look of disappointment on his face.

I watched as Ihwa approached me. Her body was bruised all over, and her clothes dirty. She didn’t care about pretenses anymore and hugged me tight and cried into my shoulder.

“D-Daughter? What are you doing what that tras—”

I glared at Ihwa’s “mother” to shut her up. Then, my attention was back on the crying mess in my arms.

I wanted to say, “I told you so,” and that [Scutum] would fit her best. However, that would just worsen her emotions.

‘I don’t want to do this…’

But if it meant that my friend could move on from this failure and improve herself, I was willing to do it. So, I gently pushed Ihwa away and jumped on the stone platform that doubled as an arena.

“Bruce Leinfall, I challenge you to a duel!”

Bruce obviously accepted haughtily. “You also want to get beat up? Fine by me.”

I looked at Herald. He nodded, giving his consent to the duel. No doubt he wanted to see what I could do.

Then, an old Butler walked up to the stage to be the referee. “Nova Leinfall, please equip your sword.”

I nodded and took out a spoon. Yes, I had it with me since the servants were serving food below. I then looked at Bruce.

He was still as smug as ever; his face portrayed no expression of anger.

“Even if you don’t have a weapon, I won’t go easy on you.”

-”Booo, pity her a bit, Bruce. She’s got a pretty face, maybe you can marry her later.”

-”Hey, what are you saying? As if Young Master Bruce would fuck a dirt Demi.”

I ignored the vulgar insult below and curled my index finger provocatively.

“I don’t need your pity. Come.”

“Alright then, don’t say I haven’t warned you. Servant, start the battle!”

“Very well. The duel will commence in three—”

I brought the spoon close to my left ear and began agglomerating Aura into it.

“—two!”

Stifling a yawn, I aimed at the place right below his stomach.

“One! Begin!”

Bruce immediately dashed toward me while swinging his sword wildly. No doubt he thought that he could beat me without swordsmanship.

But unluckily for him, even if he had used Leinfall’s Swordsmanship, he couldn’t win.

“DIE—”

I flashed him a grin.

“[Sagitta].”

The spoon turned into a thin streak of white light when it left my hand. It split the air in half, piercing through every layer of Aura that was protecting Bruce.

Then, it arrived at its destination—Bruce’s balls.

As Bruce clutched his crotch and fell to the ground with a whimper, every man in the room—including Herald, and even I, all winced a bit in pain.

Still, I didn’t let that stop me from kicking him off the platform.

The Butler was the first to recover from the shock. Clearing his throat, he shouted,

“Nova Leinfall is the winner!”

I turned toward the crowd and ignored the murmurs and chatters. My attention was only on Ihwa.

She was looking at me with admiration, as I’d expected. ‘You can beat him easily too if you’d listened to me.’ There was no use thinking about it now because I was here to fix exactly that.

I manifested Nira—who had now disguised herself as a fancy wooden training sword and pointed her tip toward Ihwa.

Not letting my dear friend recover from her confusion, I parted my lips and slowly pronounced each and every agonizing word that came out of it.

“Ihwa Leinfall—Duel. With. Me. Prove your worth. Prove that you're desperate to survive.”