1535 Return
Two years ago, two people arrived at the Kandrian Empire, passing through the transit port.
"We've arrived,' Kane told Xanarn.
Xanarn took a few steps forward as she spread her senses across the transit port town. "So…this is the Kandrian Empire, this is his home nation."
"We've still got some ways to go before we reach the town of Hajin," Kane remarked. "But this is where we split. You have the map that he gave you, so you should be fine by yourself right?"
She nodded. "Well then, goodbye and good luck. You've worked hard in the past two years since he left. Regardless of what happens, none of that was for waste."
The two of them split paths as Kane headed straight home while Xanarn headed towards the orphanage.
BADUMP
BADUMP
BADUMP
His heart beat faster the closer he got to the Arrancar Mansion, reaching its peak when he arrived at the main gate.
"…Young Master Kane?!" One of the guards gasped.
"Clear the way," Kane ordered with a steely voice.
The two guards open the gates, watching him pass through as the security office adjacent to it scrambled to send a message to the security team and the staff. Who further passed on the messages to the main family.
The news spread like wildfire.
The prodigy of the Arrancar family had returned.
A series of Martial Squires swiftly appeared before him, surrounding him.
"You little shit…" One of them growled, stepping forward to him. "You have some balls coming back after all this time. You should have stayed away forever, if you knew what's best for you."
"Best for me…?" Kane asked, smirking. "Or best for you, big brother?"
The man before him narrowed his eyes.
Kane could tell he had struck a nerve.
"Everybody knows that you could never become the heir of the Arrancar Family as long as I'm around," Kane smirked, taunting him. "My talent. My growth. My potential, they outshine yours so much that it isn't even a question of whose more suited to succeeding our father, the Devil Sage, isn't that right, big brother Kanar?"
Squire Kanar's eyes narrowed with murderous intensity. "You bastard. You're just a loser who ran away. Who ran away from the privilege of being born in the Arrancar Family. And now you've come back to find your place? Shameless!"
"You've got the wrong idea," Kane narrowed his eyes. "I've come to forever escape the Arrancar Family. I want father to sign this."
He tossed Kanar a scroll, who begrudgingly opened it widening his eyes in shock after reading. "A formal statement from our father accepting your disownment of the Arrancar Family and a statement for reparations for all the damages done to you?! Have you lost your mind?!"
He tore the scroll apart. "Father will have your head for this! Get him!"
The Martial Squires lashed out at Kane, racing to apprehend him.
THWACK THWACK THWACK!
Yet it was only after Kane effortlessly knocked them out did they later realize how outclassed they were. Kane was good at hiding his strength, that was they had failed to realize.
They had failed to realize that in the two years that he had furiously trained in the Floating Sect, he had achieved a level of power that was truly only second only to Rui and Ieyasu back when they were in the Squire Realm. Although he had yet to achieve their absurd formidability there was no other Martial Squire on the continent who was his equal now that the two of them were Seniors.
"You bastard!" Squire Kanar charged forward with a furious expression.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!
Just the slightest centimeters.
He shifted by just the slightest centimeters, and yet not a single attack so much as grazed him.
"Forty years in the Squire Realm and you're only grade-six or so?" Kane snorted with contempt. "This is what happens when you mindlessly rely on the Arrancar library to master existing techniques. You have mastered many existing techniques, yet because they are neither original nor unique from you, they are not attuned to your body. They do not have synergy with your body. You will never amount to anything more than a second-
rate Martial Squire as long as you continue down this path. What a waste of talent."
"SHUT UP!" Kanar gritted his teeth, launching an onslaught of haymakers.
Kane sighed, evading them before swiftly knocking him out and moving on. Worthless Martial Squires without more than a sliver of individuality were not what could give him what he needed.
He needed someone to push himself beyond his limit.
"Young Master Kane," A voice drew his attention.
A Senior-level presence graced the grounds. Kane braced himself, hoping that his resistance to this overwhelming power would push him to break through.
Yet something was wrong.
He didn't feel a rush or a drive for more power like Rui seemed to when he was about to fight Ieyasu.
He didn't feel like he was close.
"His Excellency wishes to speak with you," The Martial Senior calmly informed Kane.
"I have nothing to say to him," Kane growled. "I came here for my stateme-"
"His Excellency has agreed to all of your demands," The Martial Senior interrupted him. "Now then…Do not keep him waiting any longer."
Kane simply stared at him stunned, speechless. "What…?"
"It would be wise not to keep His Excellency waiting," The Martial Seniors narrowed his eyes, repeating himself.
This was not how things were supposed to go. He had come here for a fight, hoping that he would be overwhelmed by the Arrancar's Family's superior forces, awakening his Martial Heart to obtain the power needed to maintain his desire for freedom and escape from his family.
Yet his father had agreed to all his demands?
"Young Master," The Martial Senior calmly addressed him. "Please come immediately. He wishes to speak to you."
Kane narrowed his eyes, nodding slowly.
It wasn't long before he found himself in a cave deep underground. An unrefined cave with merely the bare necessities and none of the luxury or extravagance that the rest of the household had.
Even before he entered the cave, he felt his nerves tingle.
His soul screamed. This belongs to : ©.
He had experienced this many times, yet each time may as well have been the first time.
The very air he breathed was different
The very land he stepped on had changed.
It was as though heaven and earth warped in the man's presence, prostrating in awe to the magnificence of his being.
"So…" A deep masculine voice rippled through the air and land.
It reverberated through the very fabric of space itself.
"The boy who ran away has come back home, has he?"