“Master Gal watches over the academy,” Duke Leo said, his voice still low. “The empire's rule is that wizards handle wizard business, and mortals handle mortal business.”
“Father, there's no need to call him Master Gal anymore. If he shows any disrespect to our family, you can just squeeze him to death.”
“What?!”
Duke Leo was clearly stunned by his son's words.
After all, for the past few decades, who in the entire Thorn Empire didn't know of Master Gal's prestigious reputation?
Who didn't know how powerful Master Gal was?
And now?
Ethan!
What in the world are you saying???
“Ethan,” the Duke whispered, his voice incredibly low. “Master Gal has guarded the Imperial City for decades. Even His Majesty must bow to him first upon meeting. And you just said... squeeze him to death?”
Ethan looked at his father's face, which was struggling to maintain its composure, and suddenly understood.
Right, he couldn't expect a single sentence to erase the deep-seated awe his father had held for decades.
So, he simply said in a soft voice, “Father, when have I ever boasted? Rest assured. I've seen far too many people at Gal's level. If he meets me now, he'll only be fit to stand.”
The Duke's brow furrowed. He instinctively wanted to argue, but he swallowed his words. His son had always been strong-willed since childhood, but this tone was simply too arrogant.
Even if he had learned some supernatural means during his ten years of study, how could he compare to Master Gal?
Gal had been guarding the Imperial City longer than Ethan had been alive.
How old was Ethan?
Twenty-six.
A twenty-six-year-old youth dared to say he would make Gal stand?
“Ethan,” the Duke said, carefully choosing his words. “I don't know what you've learned during your ten years away. But Master Gal hasn't been in the Imperial City for just a year or two. His methods...”
“Father, what do you think I've been doing for the past ten years?”
The Duke's words caught in his throat.
Ethan took half a step forward, the moonlight illuminating his sharp, chiseled face. “People of Gal's level... I've killed eighty, if not a hundred, of them out there.”
In reality, of course, it was far more than that.
But could Ethan say that?
Was he supposed to tell his father, “Hey, I've killed nearly ten thousand of those things”?
That would be too terrifying.
He wasn't some psychopathic mass murderer.
He was just an honest, low-profile wizard.
The number he gave was just right.
The moment those words left his mouth, the Duke completely froze.
Eighty, if not a hundred.
At Gal's level.
That was an existence who could wipe out hundreds of people with a wave of his hand.
Yet his son stood before him now, calmly stating that he had killed eighty or a hundred of them.
The Duke remained silent for a long time.
He turned his head to look at the twitching non-human on the floor, then back at the calm, indifferent expression on his eldest son's face.
“Keep the disturbance to a minimum,” the Duke said, his voice regaining its usual composure. “Isabella doesn't know too much yet.”
Ethan nodded.
“Don't worry, there won't be any major trouble.”
Just as he spoke, the sound of high heels echoed from the corridor outside the room.
The footsteps were fast and urgent, thudding loudly against the stone floor.
Ethan's expression froze.
The Duke's expression froze as well.
Father and son exchanged a glance, both seeing a trace of panic in each other's eyes.
The door was pushed open.
The Duchess stood outside, the hem of her deep purple court gown still swaying slightly.
Her eyes were slightly red, and her lips were pressed into a tight line.
Moonlight filtered in from behind her, casting a silver edge over the loose strands of hair at her temples and illuminating the suppressed anger in her eyes.
Ethan's hand instinctively shrank back half an inch.
The severed arm he had just torn from the non-human was still on the floor, the blood not yet dry. He quietly shifted his heel, trying to block the spreading pool of blood.
The Duke reacted even faster. Shifting his shoulder, he blocked half of the non-human with his body and squeezed out an extremely forced smile.
“Isabella, why aren't you asleep yet at this hour...”
“Shut up.”
The Duke shut his mouth.
The Duchess took a step forward. Her gaze swept past her husband's shoulder, landing on the slightly twitching non-human on the floor, the severed arm, and the pool of grayish-white blood. Her chest heaved violently.
“Ha.” Her voice wasn't loud, yet it made both men in the room feel a sudden chill down their spines. “The second son of House Leo has been replaced, and you two still think it's not a big deal?”
The Duke took half a step back. His back bumped into Ethan's chest, and the father and son huddled by the bed like recruits caught misbehaving, neither daring to speak first.
“Even if Colin is only a bastard,” the Duchess's voice began to tremble, tears glistening in her eyes under the moonlight, “he is still a child of House Leo. His life and death are unknown, yet you two are here discussing how to 'keep the disturbance to a minimum'?”
Ethan opened his mouth.
He recalled that he hadn't been this nervous even when facing a Third-Tier lifeform in Amons World, but standing before his mother now, he felt cold sweat drenching his back.
He stole a glance at his father.
The Duke's legs were shaking like leaves in the wind.
Well, he clearly couldn't count on his father; he had to find a way out himself.
Ethan reached out and grabbed.
The fake Colin's body was seized by an invisible force, lifting his feet off the ground and suspending him in midair.
“Father, Mother, I'll be right back.”
Before his voice even faded, Ethan's figure leaped out of the window.
The Duchess rushed forward two steps, but her fingers caught only empty air.
She leaned over the windowsill, only to see Ethan's silhouette tracing an arc through the moonlight, landing steadily on a platform woven from tree branches.
“Ethan! Be careful!”
His mother's voice chased after him, partially torn apart by the night wind.
“Don't worry, Mother.”
Without looking back, Ethan gripped the scruff of the fake Colin's neck with his right hand and kicked off forcefully.
The night wind rushed into the fake Colin's mouth, cutting his scream in half.
He could only watch as the ducal estate shrank rapidly beneath them. The brightly lit pillars, the neatly trimmed purple-leaf irises, and the stone paths covered in dark red carpets all shrank to the size of a fingernail in the blink of an eye.
Platforms woven from branches materialized and dissolved beneath Ethan's feet. With every step he took, dense vines would sprout out of thin air, supporting his soles and extending toward his next landing point.
He swept over the towers of the ducal estate, brushed past the bell tower of the Imperial City's inner city, and stepped over the chimneys of rows of residential houses.
Suspended in midair, the fake Colin had his eyelids blown back by the wind. He tried to speak, but the moment he opened his mouth, it was filled with wind, leaving him able to produce only muffled, incoherent whimpers.
Ethan stepped onto the outer city wall of the Imperial City.
A few night guards felt something rush over their heads. Looking up, they only saw a blurry shadow already a hundred meters away.
When they tried to look closer, there was nothing left.
The guards exchanged glances and silently agreed that absolutely nothing had happened.
Yes, nothing at all.
Rate on N.U.
