novelGreedy Elder
| ← Ch.019 | Ch.021 → |
Swordmad offered to escort Yale towards the Nacesai Academy; the 1-star period was the most dangerous time for anyone.
The main reason was the loss of the World's Protection while one's strength was still similar to before, it was very easy to be ambushed and killed.
Yale accepted his offer about this matter as that wasn't only to protect him, but also to spend more time together before Yale entered the Nacesai Academy.
Swordmad told Yale to wait for him near the entrance while he went to pick a new sword for Yale as the first one was extremely damaged.
Yale did as his master said and waited near the limit of the clan terrains while holding Wyba in his arms, as long as he was inside the clan domains he shouldn't be in any danger.
However, problems appeared for Yale, and the source was a voice that shouted angrily towards Yale.
"You kid! What are you doing here!"
That was an old man who after shouting looked at Wyba.
"Oh, what a wolf cub. Brat, you shouldn't take beasts from the clan, they are dangerous, give me back that wolf for safekeeping before you get injured."
"Wyba isn't a clan belonging, and she won't injure me."
The old man angered Yale, and he replied without fear but with courtesy.
"So that's a wolf slave. However, it's still a clan's belonging; you are from a younger generation and anything yours is also a clan's belonging. That slave wolf, even if you are the one who contracted it you have to give it to the clan."
Even if the old man started talking like he was showing concern about Yale, in truth, he was only trying to rob him. In the Roanmad clan, there weren't such rules about the younger generation's belongings.
However, even if Yale knew it and wanted to vent his anger, he still controlled himself.
"Senior I'm sorry, we have a life-bound contract, there's no way to break it."
Yale answered with the truth.
"Who would believe that! How can an unknown little kid like you form a life-bound contract? You are lying to take possession of something that righteously belongs to the clan! I'm a clan elder if I tell you to give me that wolf, you should do it immediately!"
The old man was threatening Yale and didn't believe that Yale had a life-bound contract with Wyba, even if that was the truth.
Yale was also sure that the old man didn't recognize him, with Swordmad as his master no elder dared to threaten him.
"Senior, I'm telling the truth, you could ask my master, he is..."
"Shut up! You broke the clan rules by disobeying me! I should punish you for your impertinence!"
Yale didn't know how to deal with that unreasonable elder from the clan, Yale only told the truth but the elder still wanting to rob Wyba, in other words, the elder wanted to kidnap Yale's little sister.
Yale anger was about to explode, but at that moment he only wanted to win a bit more time until Swordmad returned and then all would be solved.
However, the elder's next words let him no more time.
"Of course, your punishment is the death penalty!"
The elder attacked Yale without hesitation, with his position he didn't fear any consequence of killing an unknown kid from the clan.
He always extorted the weaker ones in the clan and resorted to trickery to reach his position, he already killed some kids in the past, and it always was because of the so-called clan's rules. Of course, he never was punished for that.
Yale didn't expect that old man to be such an impulsive moron.
Yale just used Absolute Protection to evade the deadly attack, Yale didn't fear the old man, and given the intense energy emitted by the attack, Swordmad would sense it and arrive in any moment.
The elder felt that he killed Yale, but Yale was still perfectly fine after the attack, and the old man didn't understand the situation as he looked at Yale with a weird expression.
"I didn't believe a puny clan elder dared to launch such a deadly attack towards my disciple."
The elder was shocked by the voice, but he died without being able to process the situation, if the elder dared to kill kids because of his position, then Swordmad could also easily kill elders if he was angry.
Swordmad didn't believe someone inside the clan was stupid enough to try to kill Yale.
Swordmad thought that Yale would be dead due to being late again and his anger reached the heavens.
However, Swordmad became shocked since as he saw the elder killing Yale and yet at the same time saw that Yale was without even a single scratch.
What shocked him more was that he sensed time fluctuation around Yale. There was no doubt that Yale used some skill related to time. There was no way Yale had time to develop such an ability in less than a day, and even the Nacesai Academy didn't have time-related skills so there was no way he could have obtained it and studied beforehand.
To Swordmad there was only one explication, Yale had some innate connection with the time element, and in a deadly crisis, he used a time skill instinctively.
Swordmad thoughts were only half right as it was true that Yale didn't develop Absolute Protection and he also didn't learn the technique. However, it wasn't an instinct like Swordmad thought, Yale was very conscious about using Absolute Protection, that was a Legacy Skill, and he could use it even if he didn't understand the principles behind it.
That was a strange situation. Usually one couldn't freely use a technique which one didn't understand, but Yale could use it freely once per month.
Swordmad put aside the matter of the time fluctuation and went to see if Yale had any injury, but Yale was perfectly well.
After that, a voice resounded in the clan.
"Swordmad! Why do you kill an elder!"
That voice was the Clan Chief who rushed over after sensing the attacks from the old man and Swordmad.
"He tried to kill my disciple, so obviously he should die, no matter who he was."
Swordmad didn't care about what the Clan Chief said, and the Clan Chief had an obligation to say those words even if it was to protect the reputation of the clan elders, so Swordmad didn't take the Clan Chief words seriously.
"But death was too much, you could have harmed him in punishment but killing him is a little... Killing an elder will diminish the overall power of the clan, it wasn't a wise decision. Even if he went too far, you should have resolved it without killing."
"He was the first with the intention to kill; he should have been ready to be killed. Even if the clan had to disappear, I wouldn't let any of you harm my disciple."
Swordmad words were decisive, he didn't care about the Clan Chief asking why he killed an elder, but the words after that wasn't something Swordmad would tolerate.
"Furthermore, as he tried to kill my disciple his whole clan should be exterminated. However, given that we are from the same clan I will be lenient and I will only exterminate that elder's whole branch."
The Clan Chief face changed as he understood that he only had worsened the situation, because with his position he couldn't accept such proposal but he also knew that Swordmad wasn't joking as he really exterminated whole clans before. The Clan Chief was in a very delicate position.
"That is also wrong; you already killed the culprit there is no reason to kill his whole branch."
What the Clan Chief said was reasonable, but to Swordmad it didn't seem to have any logic.
"Those members will hold a grudge because of the elder's death. They can't do anything to me, but they could try to kill Yale again, any threat should be eradicated to avoid future problems."
That was the way Swordmad always did things, and it wasn't without reason.
Being late to save Yale and the Chief Elder's last words made him remember the past.
When he was young, he was in love with a beautiful woman. She didn't have any background and was rather weak for her age, but Swordmad loved her, and he didn't care about anything else.
One day she obtained a precious treasure by luck, but a greedy fellow discovered it and tried to kill her to rob the item. Fortunately, Swordmad wasn't far away and managed to save her killing the attacker.
At that time, Swordmad didn't touch the opponent's clan as he thought that killing the culprit was enough. After all, that "precious treasure" was only precious to weak people like his beloved and the greedy fellow, Swordmad didn't believe that it would cause much more problem's.
However, that was the biggest mistake of his life.
The other party waited until Swordmad wasn't around to plot again against his beloved, the precious treasure didn't matter, they wanted revenge.
Their plan was successful, and she died after being tortured for a long time, Swordmad was almost incapable of recognizing her corpse. They knew that Swordmad was powerful, so they thought that harming his beloved was the best way to harm him.
Swordmad was indeed hurt but also angered to the extreme.
That was the first time Swordmad eradicated a whole clan, he even almost died in the process as he at that time was powerful but it wasn't enough to wipe out entire clans unscathed as he did later in his life.
He managed to avenge his beloved, but she would never return. Swordmad never forgot his beloved, and because of that he never married.
After that moment, to Swordmad being late to save someone important to him and don't killing all the potential threats were the two things that he wouldn't tolerate.
Swordmad was already late two times when Yale was in danger, that was something he felt very guilty about. Fortunately, Yale survived both times, if he had died Swordmad's pain would be even greater.
In fact, Swordmad hated to be late to save the people important to him, yet he always seemed to be late, that was like a curse for him and gave him a lot of suffering during his life.
Thus, to Swordmad exterminating only a branch and not the whole clan was already something hard to endure as would leave a lot of potential threats. If that weren't his clan, he would have completely wiped it out already.
At that moment, Swordmad thought about how to punish the clan in a way that would hurt the clan much more than wiping out a branch.
"Good, then I won't kill anyone else today."
The Clan Chief smiled, but his face darkened again as he heard Swordmad's continuation
"However, from today onwards I leave the Roanmad clan, and even if someone destroys it, I won't do anything to save it or revenge it."
That was a huge blow to the clan as Swordmad was the most powerful member and the protector of the clan. He didn't need to do anything; only his presence was enough deterrent to any enemies.
"And if the clan tries to harm my disciple in any form, the next time I will exterminate the whole clan."
The Clan Chief never thought that Swordmad would react this way, he wanted to say something else but he couldn't.
Then, Swordmad turned around and left the clan domains with Yale, who remained silent the whole time as he didn't want to influence his master's decisions.
In fact, Swordmad never cared about the clan; he only cared about his disciples who were like his family.
The others were at most people that live near him. His perception of the rest of the clan was very similar to Yale's one.
Swordmad never had any obligations to protect the clan; he only did because he wanted to do it as long as the clan didn't anger him he had no reason to stop protecting it as usually only his presence was enough.
However, at some time the Clan Chief and the older generation seemed to had forgotten that and never believed that Swordmad could leave the clan and stop protecting them for any reason even if he made a ruckus and killed some members.
That was a huge blow to the clan, Swordmad leaving was much worse than having a branch exterminated, the clan would decline after that.
"At least we still have the support from the Nacesai Academy."
However, his face changed as he thought a little more.
"The Nacesai Academy only supports us because of Ange, if she knows what had just happened..."
If Ange told the Nacesai Academy to break off any contact with the Roanmad Clan, then they will do it as she was the main reason that they had such a special support.
The Clan Chief was trembling, the dead elder and the Clan Chief's words from before created a huge calamity for the clan.
Swordmad did something that harmed the clan much more than eradicate a mere branch.
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