Inside the upper town, which was controlled by the 18 major families, each of them had their centers scattered around several peaks with a similar design, where small towns belonging to branch families were situated around the main peak where a whole town of the main family resided.
Inside one of those peaks belonging to the Jun family, the atmosphere was completely different from what one would expect, given that one of the branch family’s whole peak was completely destroyed as if an asteroid had hit it.
It was unknown how many casualties could have occurred, with the surrounding area still calm due to the absence of any living being who could even voice out their own words to ask for help from outside.
The whole Jun family’s expanse was covered in black clouds, even though the moonlight appeared to be not enough to disperse them, as the silence that permeated throughout the peaks was filled with fear and horror.
Inside a branch peak of the Jun family, where the whole town, once appearing well-planned and glimmering with night lanterns, was now silent, only a few individuals were hiding here and there.
“M-mom, why isn’t anyone coming to save us?” a small child, appearing no more than four years old, inquired as she clenched the clothes of her mother, who, hugging her, was hidden inside one of the rooms available in her residence.
“Don’t cry, my little fairy, I will protect you,” the woman tightly hugged her child as she remembered the events of the previous night when two individuals had arrived, one of them being none other than the honored and well-revered nine-tailed beast herself.
The moment those two individuals arrived, it became the talk of the town that their ancestor had ascended back to the Jun family. But it turned out that the woman was a devil who slaughtered everyone from the main peak, not giving them any chance to escape or ask for reinforcements.
Whoever tried to leave the Jun expanse to ask for help from other families or even contact the Phoenix Order was instantly devoured by black clouds that appeared like dark mist, including the woman’s husband, who had tried to seek help.
Fear completely scattered through all the individuals as everyone was hidden inside their houses.
Krieeek
“Heuk!?” Suddenly, the little girl’s breath caught in her throat. The moment she heard the door of her house slowly opening, her mother stretched her hand as a sword came out of her dimensional ring, and she inquired, “Wh-who are you?”
“Hm, is he your husband?”
Suddenly, with a sound of someone hitting the floor, the woman’s heart thumped as she glanced through the gap in the drawer and removed the curtain, seeing a man covered in tattoos and earrings standing while another robed one lay fallen on the floor.
“N-no! Dear! Leave him alone!” Suddenly, leaving her child, the woman dashed from the drawer, charging her internal energy towards the man who had just thrown her husband to the floor. In trying to protect him, she swung her sword.
“Stop there, or I will kill your child,” Lucas said. Seeing how, even after delivering her husband safely, the woman was still trying to attack him, he scratched his ears, frowning as he gestured for the woman to halt in the middle, warning her as he looked towards the small child inside the drawer.
‘!?!’
The woman’s feet slid on the floor as she fell to her knees, sliding to her husband’s side, her face becoming pale and her eyes trembling in horror as she realized that her actions could harm her child. She bit her lip, looking down at her husband’s body.
“Haah…..” Suddenly, the lying body exhaled, causing the woman’s eyes to widen as she looked at her husband, hugging him tightly, realizing that he was still alive. “Dear! You are fine…! Heuk…! You are fine…!”
“So, he is indeed your husband. Fine, I will leave then,” Lucas said, not wanting to see this drama. He tried to turn away, but the man clenched his leg, causing him to halt and turn towards him, inquiring, “What do you want?”
“Y-you are a monster,” the man mumbled as he remembered how, taking the excuse of the black clouds, he tried to fake his death and run away from his wife.
But on the way, he met Lucas and told him his heart-wrenching story about how he just wanted to escape from his wife, who used to beat him daily.
“I-I curse you… you will marry dozens of wives—cough!” Being a married man and having finally gotten a chance to fake his death and escape this misery, he was once again brought back into that hell, causing him to curse this bastard who thwarted his plan, giving this man a curse whose significance was only known to a married man.
Having a wife who never stops her constant chatter and all that gloomy talk is the toughest trial one can face, a strain that no one else in this world can fully grasp except its victim.
“Dear, you are alright! Where were you? How are you? Did these monsters do something to you? Have you eaten something? Have you called someone for our help… blah blah….”
—–
“I should have just killed that bastard,” Lucas thought, remembering the words of Iliantara, who had warned him not to kill anyone. He felt his ears itching even more, but he controlled his murderous aura as he moved towards the main peak, directly covering the distance from one peak to another within just a second.
“What was he blabbering about?” Iliantara inquired as Lucas landed on the destroyed main peak, moving towards the broken architecture. She had kept her eyes on what Lucas was doing and felt confused seeing how that man was trying to escape his own wife, who was so caring for him, giving Iliantra a new experience today.
She always thought that a man would want to marry several women, wanting to form a harem, since it was a common occurrence, given how much it was practiced in Ardoros or even by her own father, who married many women. But after coming to the Jade Dominion, she found that it was not a generalization.
“Who knows? I don’t even like women,” Lucas said, seated on the rock, taking a toothpick and poking at his teeth.
“Are you gay?” Iliantara inquired as she took a seat on a rock at a distance while holding her long katana sword.
“….Hey, should I just kill you?” Upon hearing Iliantara’s remarks, Lucas felt a surge of anger. Ever since his arrival in the Jade Dominion, all he had encountered were feeble opponents, and he had received no leads on the other flag bearers. They had agreed to bide their time until the trial, but at that moment, he longed for a worthy opponent, and this woman’s words was beginning to irk him.
“We both know what the outcome will be, so just tell me, why don’t you like women?” Iliantara gave him an impassive look as her tail covered the area nearby, appearing as she sat on a sofa filled with furs, her eyes looking coldly at him.
“Not like I hate them; it’s the same for males too, It’s the Rakshasa technique’s drawback; I don’t feel emotions at all—anger, love, hatred, attachments—nothing.” Lucas, seated on the rock, nonchalantly informed, as the breeze fluttered his hair, revealing the deep orange hue in his eyes, looking down while revealing a hollow expression.
SWISH
“Eh? Is this the reason why you try to mimic anger and talk too much, Lucas?”
‘?!?!’
Suddenly, a soft, womanly voice echoed through the place, causing both Iliantara and Lucas to glance in the direction where, as if space was wrapped around delicate feet, a figure slowly touched the ground, revealing a materializing form of a very familiar individual, holding a smile with her fingers near her chin as she looked towards them.
“L-lady Drishti!?!”
