The eastern guest estate was larger than the entirety of the Black Hand estate, and was left empty for the guests to use. The formation which surrounded it left the air clear and pure, and the ki which emanated from the area was greater than even the ki from the Black Hand estate.

‘Ho ho ho!’ Mika thought, smiling. ‘That’s exactly how this should be! This place is certainly the best place, and it’s to make sure we know our place! Showing off how it’s larger than even our own estate, and is kept vacant most of the time! I feel so refreshed from the villainous actions of this family!’

Amon stared at the estate, a small smile on his face. ‘To think we’d get to stay here as guests…’

“Whoa!” Ami ran around the courtyard, enjoying the length of the place with her small legs. “We’re going to stay here?”

“That’s right,” Martha said, smiling down at her daughter. “We have to put away our things first before we enjoy the space here.”

Rogue looked to his wife, taking her hand in his own. If not for him, she would have been able to enjoy life here in the main estate.

Mika smiled, staring at the way the pair looked at one another. ‘This kind of cutesy, wholesome…’ He couldn’t wait until everyone was slaughtered, so that he could finally be free of the shackles of this family. ‘Whether I take revenge or live my life doing nothing…’ He looked up to the sky, wondering what he should do.

The two families swiftly put away their suitcases, though their servants found that their servant quarters were about the same as those from within the Black Hand family. Of course, that was to be expected, since Rogue had planned for it to be that way. He had sacrificed a lot in order to appease even the servants.

The guards and servants the Black Hands had brought were further supplemented by the domestic guards and servants, those which had the taste of taking care of the eastern guest estate even when it was empty. There was an awkwardness between the two groups, who were unsure of how seniority worked.

“Mina?” Lina called, gasping.

“Lina?” Mina replied, gasping.

The pair of sisters embraced one another, having been torn apart when they were young when Rogue had left the main estate.

“How have you been?” Lina asked.

“I’ve been well, and you?”

“I’ve been well too.” Mina grabbed her sister’s hand, quickly dragging her away. “Let me introduce you to my young miss and young sir!”

‘How can there be two of them?’ Mika thought, his eyes narrowed slightly in annoyance for what was to come. ‘No, there’s no way there’s the same, they grew up in two different environments.’

“Your young miss and young sir are too cute!” Mina declared, holding onto her sister’s hands as tears formed in her eyes.

Mika wondered if the world had sent him the twin sisters as a test for him. ‘If you think I’ll destroy the world just because of a pair of annoying twins, then you’re wrong.’

“So this is your young miss and young sir,” Hin, the triplet brother of Gin and Jin, said. “Greetings to the young miss and young sir!”

‘How can it be possible that there’s another one of them too?’ Mika thought. ‘This is so unrealistic. There’s no way that there are multiple servants who were torn apart from their siblings when the Head of the family was kicked out. That’s borderline impossible.’ Mika recalled how many times he had been reborn. ‘Well, I suppose it’s not out of the realm of possibility…’

Mika waited, and waited, ignoring the fact that the servants were doting on him and his sister.

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“So you’re the ones who are staying in the eastern guest estate,” called the arrogant tone of a young master.

Mika smiled. ‘Finally.’

The young master was no more than eight years old, with the dark hair and eyes of the Black Fist family. He walked around with his hands behind his back, and a guard at his side who was easily Peak Iron.

“Who are you?” Dani asked.

“Do you country bumpkins have the qualifications to know my name?” the arrogant young master asked, reached into his robes to pull out a fan, spreading it wide to cover his lower face. “The stench of this place is too much.”

The guard at his side stifled a sigh. ‘Young master, please. Just because the Head took away your allowance for this month, it doesn’t mean you should take it out like this.’

“I don’t know about qualifications, but you’re not that much stronger than me,” Dani replied, crossing his arms. “If you’re from the main branch, shouldn’t you be much more stronger before talking like that.”

The arrogant young master looked up at his guard, realising that Dani had a point. “Since you are begging me for my name, I suppose I should tell you.”

“No thanks,” Dani said, before leaving to go play with Ami.

The young master blinked, before looking at Mika, whose face was stone cold, though his eyes were full of satisfaction. “You there, declare your name at once!”

The guard at the young master’s side quickly whispered into his ear, causing the young master to jerk up, glaring down at the boy. He snapped his fan shut, putting it away, before turning around as he stormed off.

‘You won’t bully me just because I’m a cripple?’ Mika thought. ‘How could you dare to…’ Mika paused, realising that the child was much nicer than he expected. ‘No! Come back here at once! You have to bully me, otherwise…’

A thought crossed Mika’s mind. ‘No, there’s no way nothing will happen, right? No! Does that mean I’ll be chained to this family even after I…’ Dread washed over the young boy.

‘No, calm down. You spent one hundred years to earn your vengeance once before, but you can’t even wait a few months to see whether they truly will or will not die?’ Mika stared up at the sky. ‘The divines have always sent me a catastrophe in all my lives, each time before I turned five. There’s no way they had a change of heart this time.’

Over the course of the next few days, Mika found that his family was indeed being bullied, but only ever so slightly by the various peoples who had come to visit, from the guards, to the other members of the Black Fist family.

‘That’s more like it,’ Mika thought, relaxing as he read a book.

“Your child even dares to pretend to read?” a faceless, nameless Black Fist family said. Mika assumed they were Rogue’s cousin, one the Head had beaten when they were young, and had embarrassed thoroughly through a family tournament. It was either that, or Rogue was married to the woman the faceless Black Fist had a crush on, something like that.

“My son understood that his greatest strength was his mind,” Amon replied, not allowing the Black Fist punk try to shame his boy.

“Well, I suppose that is all he can amounts to,” the nameless Black Fist said.

Amon clenched his fist as the rage filled him, but Rogue stepped forward. “The boy is quite intelligent, and is a great boon to our family. I wonder how well your child read when they were his age.”

“My daughter is a genius among geniuses,” the nameless Black Fist said, wincing at the words as he remembered his youth. “What use is a country bumpkin who follows a failed Black Fist?”

“Are you implying that the great Black Fist family has those who could claim the title of a failed Black Fist with their blood?” Rogue replied.

‘I forgot he was good with his words,’ the nameless Black Fist thought. “I am saying that he is nothing in comparison to my daughter, who carries the name Black Fist proudly. You are just a Black Hand.”

“If you believe your daughter to be so intelligent, then why don’t we see how well they read?” Rogue asked.

Amon’s eyes snapped to the back of Rogue’s head. ‘What are you doing, Head? You know Mika can’t actually read the book he’s holding, so why are you…’

The nameless Black Fist smirked. “Alright,” he said, calling Rogue’s bluff, feeling something tickle the back of his head, as though he had forgotten something.

Rogue placed a hand on Mika’s shoulder. “I believe in you, Mika.” Rogue recalled a few months ago when the boy had cut off the connection between them, something which no little boy could possibly do.

“Mika, I believe in you,” Ami said, hugging Mika tight. “If you win, I’ll give you cheese. If you lose, I’ll give you cheese too.”

‘How annoying,’ Mika thought, looking up at his family. His father was trying not to panic, whereas his mother was currently smiling down at him expectantly, ready to show off her son. ‘How annoying.’

Once the pair finished reading, the nameless Black Fist excused himself. He had remembered all those years ago when Rogue had beaten him.

‘Bluffing is like lying, so I don’t bluff.’

How could I forget?

Amon’s jaw dropped. “Mika, you could actually read?”

“Of course,” Martha replied. “He read so well.”

“You knew too?” Amon asked Rogue, who nodded his head. ‘So I was the only one who didn’t know?’

Ami stared up at her father, her cheeks puffed out. She had been punished many times for lying to her father, even though Mika could actually read.

“Of course he can read!” Amon declared, feeling the corner’s of his lips twitch upwards. “He’s my son!”