Huff…
……
Huff……………
He runs.
He just runs.
Leaving behind the familiar, warm sanctuary, he simply runs toward somewhere—anywhere.
[Young Master, always remember.]
Recalling Argento’s voice, he just kept running.
Where to? How? Such thoughts never even crossed his mind.
He was simply fleeing—to somewhere far away… somewhere as far from here as possible.
[You must never trust humans.]
The malice of mankind.
It wasn’t just about Calcento.
It meant all those who targeted House Kalbrandt, including Calcento himself.
Those who followed him, those who betrayed Kalbrandt in hopes of gaining scraps when Calcento took over.
It meant every single one of them.
Even at fifteen, he had already experienced the social circles of nobility as the eldest son of his family.
He was also steadily receiving the education to inherit the house.
He understood the situation.
He had been betrayed.
Not just by Calcento, but by the vassals of House Kalbrandt and even his own uncle.
Why?
“Because I am weak.”
Because he lacked talent.
Because he was weak, he had no choice but to lose his house.
He had been powerless.
That was why he had been so easily taken down.
That was why the loyal knights of his house had to fall.
As he recalled the sight of the fallen knights and soldiers, he clenched his necklace tightly.
Clutching the pendant of House Kalbrandt, Luen wiped away his blurry tears and bit down on his lower lip.
“I will have my revenge.”
The young boy swore to himself.
He would take back House Kalbrandt by destroying Calcento.
“…My lord. The remaining stragglers have almost all been dealt with.”
“What about the brat?”
“Apologies, but… we lost him.”
The knight bowed his head in shame.
Calcento clicked his tongue and shook his head in displeasure as he looked at him.
“Forget it. That little brat has no chance of surviving anyway.”
In truth, Calcento believed that Luen’s chances of survival were close to zero.
Even if he somehow managed to reach the neighboring territories, there was only a slim chance he would survive.
By then, Calcento would have already seized complete control over House Kalbrandt.
Moreover, there was no way Luen, who couldn’t even use magic, would be able to make it through the monsters lurking around the outskirts of Kalbrandt’s territory alive.
Recalling Luen’s ineptitude with both the sword and magic, Calcento curled his lips into a smirk.
Then, shifting his gaze, he looked toward Argento and the knights who were resisting until the bitter end.
“Tsk. The times have changed, yet you refuse to move with the tide.”
The era had changed.
At this point, House Kalbrandt was already under Calcento’s near-total control.
For him, who had been laying the groundwork for this moment all along, this outcome was nothing short of perfect.
‘The heavens must have been on my side, considering that brat has no talent for magic.’
Calcento Phil Kalbrandt never had any intention of handing over this golden goose—House Kalbrandt—to his older brother.
The only reason he had stepped aside back then was simple: he could never have defeated his brother.
Hamel Phil Kalbrandt’s talent was overwhelming.
Even Calcento, with all his greed, had not dared to challenge his older brother’s strength.
Yet, Calcento considered it a stroke of fortune.
Because Hamel had grown House Kalbrandt into an even more formidable force, Calcento would now claim an even stronger domain.
“Dispose of the stragglers, then form a tracking party and hunt the brat down.”
“Understood, my lord.”
To Calcento, Luen Phil Kalbrandt was nothing more than an eyesore.
As long as he remained alive, he would be a future obstacle.
It was far more convenient to eliminate him now.
The sound of people calling him “Lord” already felt quite satisfying.
Smirking, Calcento gazed out the window.
“What a pleasant feeling.”
House Kalbrandt was his.
That was how Calcento saw it.
He had never once considered himself apart from Kalbrandt.
Exhausted.
I gasped for air and looked around.
It didn’t seem like the trackers were on my heels just yet, but that didn’t mean I could relax.
There was no way I could outrun knights forever.
Reaching the forest outside Kalbrandt’s territory, I steadied my ragged breathing and leaned against a tree.
“Where do I go…?”
A wave of unease welled up inside me.
It wasn’t as if I had never left Kalbrandt’s domain before.
But this was the first time I had ever done so alone.
No knights to protect me.
No coachman to guide the way.
No mother.
No father.
I had no food, no water, no change of clothes.
Not a single coin to my name.
I had no family to shield me.
Nothing to rely on.
The only things I possessed were my knowledge of magic… and my own body.
Which meant, in other words—there was absolutely nothing I could do.
Knowledge of magic? What good was that when I had neither mana nor talent to use it?
My body? I had never wielded a sword in my life.
I lacked even the most basic knowledge of swordsmanship.
My vision blurred.
Was it because of the damned tears threatening to spill again?
Or had I simply run too hard? I didn’t know.
I just took a deep breath and silently forced back the tears welling in my eyes.
The situation was dire.
But I had no time to wallow in despair.
It was still the dead of night.
The attack had begun at dusk, when the sun had set, and the moon had risen.
I had been running for hours since then, so it was probably close to dawn by now.
After roughly estimating the time, I forced my exhausted body to rise and slowly stepped deeper into the forest.
I knew well how dangerous a forest at night could be, but I had no other choice.
Staying put would only mean getting caught by the tracking party and meeting my end.
And no matter what, I harbored no false hope that Calcento would spare me just because we were blood relatives.
If that were the case, he wouldn’t have done something as monstrous as killing my father and mother.
He had slain his own brother with his own hands—there was no doubt in my mind that Calcento was fully intent on killing me, too.
Because I would become a great threat to the Kalbrandt he had seized.
I didn’t know what was going through Calcento’s mind, but one thing was certain: since he had decided to claim House Kalbrandt for himself, he would never allow the rightful heir to live.
Which meant—I needed to grow stronger.
I needed the power to strike back at Calcento.
And at the same time, I needed to build my own force.
Power and influence—strong enough that Calcento wouldn’t be able to touch me.
But how?
I had no idea.
If I could just reach one of the neighboring territories with ties to House Kalbrandt, perhaps I could find some help.
With that thought, I steeled my resolve and ventured further into the forest.
Why, despite the danger, had I chosen to enter the monster-infested woods?
The answer was simple.
If I took the main road, someone would recognize me.
No—someone would definitely recognize me.
Not because they knew I was Luen Phil Kalbrandt, but because my appearance stood out.
No matter how you looked at it, I had the unmistakable look of a noble’s child.
It was inevitable that the tracking party heading in this direction would catch wind of my movements.
I can’t let the knights find me.
Of course, I stood no chance against the beasts of the forest either—but my mind was consumed by the thought that the knights were an even worse threat.
And so, without hesitation, I took a step into the dark woods.
“Hoo…”
The forest.
It wasn’t as if I knew nothing about nighttime forests.
I was well aware of how dangerous they were.
The beasts of the night were far more vicious than those of the day, their aggression fueled by the denser nocturnal mana.
Of course, with my feeble ability to sense mana, I couldn’t actually feel such things.
But the moment I stepped into the forest, I felt something… strange.
“What is this…?”
A chilling sensation crept up my spine, as if someone was watching me.
My body shuddered for a brief moment, and I cautiously scanned my surroundings before quickening my pace.
There was no way someone was truly watching me.
I couldn’t sense any presence, nor did I have the slightest indication that anyone was nearby.
It was just a trick of my fear-addled mind, I told myself, as I urged my legs to move faster.
The only way to escape this fear was to escape this forest.
“Hah…”
Even my breathing was unsteady as I trudged forward in silence.
All to get out of this place.
And so—I never even imagined it.
That someone really was watching me.
And that they were…
[A human! A human!]
[A human we can sense! We found one!]
…muttering about me in hushed whispers.