I got into school for nothing - 309
I got into school for nothing (309)
Lesson 60. Master of the Family - 4
Transported instantly to the training ground in front of the Prominence Great Mansion, a territory of the Prominence Family where the family head and direct lineage members resided, by Yura’s cause-and-effect-twisting Changeling, the group was surrounded by an enormous number of enemies before they could even react.
—Enemies!
—Oh my, it's the fairies! Perhaps they've come to free us.
“Kill them! The fairies have invaded! Don’t let your guard down, push them back with solid physical attacks!”
Private soldiers guarding the Prominence Family, fire spirits bound by contract, and even battle dolls whose quality was vastly inferior to Eire’s golems but whose power approached them due to being crudely packed with incredibly high-grade materials.
“Ha, the guard dogs protecting homes in an S-rank dimension really are on a different level.”
“O-our knights aren’t inferior, you know!”
“The contracts binding those spirits are unjust contracts! I’ve decided so, right now!”
“We are ready, Your Majesty!”
“Mom, I’m shooting now. Do it immediately.”
Not a single person challenged that absurd claim.
Rather, the fairies moved in perfect sync, even without a single word of instruction.
The decisive blow was the arrow Mira shot into the air.
After the arrow, laden with a spell that even a master of curses would struggle to decipher, soared high and magically tore through something covering the entire mansion, all the fairies knelt towards Yura.
At that instant, everyone felt Yura’s presence expand, engulfing the entire area.
“Spirits, cast off the shackles that bind you and come to us now!”
That single command was enough.
—Ahhh!
—Farewell, everyone! I’m casting off all the chains and restraints of this world—!
—What nonsense! The Fairy Queen over there is our new contractor!
—Burn them! Burn those idiots who abused us!
It happened mere minutes after their arrival at Prominence, leaving no time for tactical consideration.
The power that had constituted one-third of the enemy forces instantly sided with the fairies, baring their fangs and rampaging towards Prominence. It was a moment that made it immediately clear why fairies were terrifying.
Ban Yuwon, who had placed his hand on the ground and was surveying the surrounding terrain, particularly his sister’s location, muttered in disbelief as he observed this.
“Could spirit contracts be severed so arbitrarily?”
“That’s Changeling too.”
“Don’t try to blame everything on Changeling, seriously.”
Mira said, acting cutesy in a way that didn’t fit the situation, but what was even more irritating was how perfectly it suited her and how adorable she looked.
“Stop playing word games with the fairies and do what you need to do, Won!”
Knowing what Ban Yuwon wanted, his companions drew their weapons and confronted the enemies, protecting him.
As the enemy forces were from an S-rank dimension, each individual was a strong opponent, exceeding the level of four Irektos. However, those who had directly come to Prominence were also formidable, making it entirely possible to hold their ground in a test of strength.
“Done.”
At that moment, Ban Yuwon lifted his hand from the ground, his eyes sparkling.
In truth, grasping the mansion’s structure itself had finished relatively quickly, but it had taken time due to the difficulty of moving through the magic barrier spread across the entire Prominence Great Mansion.
Now, however, he had grasped the structure and even the gaps of all the barriers protecting the mansion, making it seem possible to break through with his Giwon Sword.
“I’ll be back. Just hold on a little longer.”
“W-wait a minute. Won, I’ll go with you.”
Dokgo Yeon, who had been simultaneously destroying over ten golems with a sword imbued with death, turned abruptly upon hearing Ban Yuwon’s words and shouted, but he firmly shook his head.
“It’s not a matter of numbers. It’ll be over in an instant, one way or another. Guard this place, Yeon. I’ll be back.”
“Ugh...”
Seeing Dokgo Yeon’s eyes widen as she grasped the underlying meaning of his words, Ban Yuwon wondered if he had scared her too much. He forced a wry smile but didn’t hesitate, using his Giwon Sword—
He utilized spatial movement through the gaps in the barrier concepts filling this space, arriving at his intended destination.
Inside the mansion, a grand hall that appeared to be a training or parade ground.
Two massive flames were on the verge of collision.
“—The flame that woman harbors is too weak to ascend to the position of family head!”
It was clear at a glance that the situation was urgent.
Though he saw him for the first time, the current family head, whose cruel and murderous aura suggested his identity and whose face quite resembled Kraton, the vice-head of Prominence whom Ban Yuwon had just killed, was pushing his half-dead sister into a corner.
Amidst this, Ban Yuwon found Ulrike, who for some reason was aligned with the Rebel Force instead of Prominence, and was dumbfounded. Still, he decided to deal with the most urgent matter first.
“Your extra flame is here, as ordered—!”
His tone was as light as adding meat to shabu-shabu, but no one in that space was unaware of the value of the red orb that appeared in his hand.
The family head shot a laser beam containing the essence of a Constellation’s flame at a speed that even Ban Yuwon found hard to block.
Ulrike, reacting to it as sensitively as Ban Yuwon due to her Prominence lineage, threw everything she had into blocking it.
The moment Ban Yuwon safely reached his sister and handed over all the Unquenchable Flame he had meticulously gathered with a magic circle, everything ended in an instant, just as he had told Dokgo Yeon earlier.
“Did you see that?!”
Ban Yumi, who had annihilated the family head, shouted, raising a flame above her palm.
The Unquenchable Flame, the symbol of the Prominence Family, shimmered translucently like a gem and blazed, proving that she had instantly shattered several walls blocking her path and entered a higher domain.
“If you saw it, all of you kneel!”
“Haa, Yumi.”
“Ah, ahh.”
“This can’t be...”
Ban Yumi’s blunt declaration made Kang Eunyoung sigh, but it was highly effective on the other members of Prominence.
Perhaps the Authority flowing through their veins instinctively submitted to Ban Yumi’s superior Authority.
[By absorbing the concept of a vastly stronger opponent, the depth of Life (生) has reached 1,650, Wonshin (元身) 1,237, Won-gi (元氣) 1,455, and Soul (靈魂) 1,778!]
[The depth of Charm (魅力) has reached 750. The depth of Unquenchable Flame (紅焰) has reached 1,800!]
Instead of the Unquenchable Flame he’d yielded to his sister, Ban Yuwon absorbed all the concepts he’d extracted from the freshly deceased family head, flinching slightly.
This was because, although one normally couldn't fully obtain the concept of a target killed by another, the concept of the family head, killed by his sister, was absorbed by him almost entirely.
Otherwise, it would have been impossible for his Life to grow from 1,500 to 1,650 in an instant.
He momentarily cursed himself for thinking, ‘I handed her the weapon to kill, and in return, I got to farm. This is also Changeling.’
‘I won’t only be dealing with the Unquenchable Flame day in and day out, and the elements that were difficult to grow have suddenly skyrocketed, so perhaps this is actually more advantageous.’
No, even so, it probably wasn't *more* advantageous.
But for now, he was content simply watching his sister successfully rise to the position of family head, having gained the support of Prominence members, so he considered it a gift.
—Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwangg!
At that moment, a deafening explosion echoed from outside.
It was probably Shatie’s Annihilation Magic.
Ban Yuwon shivered, thinking of the pandemonium unfolding outside, and urged his sister on.
“Sister, the kids are fighting outside. Go out and put a stop to it quickly.”
“Huh, what? Ah, ahh! Alright, you can tell me all about it later! And all of you, follow me!”
Ban Yumi, who still had so much left to say to him, glared and rushed out.
The family members, startled by the sudden change in family head, hastily followed her, running out.
Ban Yuwon waved goodbye to their retreating backs, then approached Ulrike, who was sprawled on the floor, twitching, having taken the family head’s attack in his place.
She was in such a critical condition that if left for just two minutes, she’d likely transform into a fresh corpse.
“Cough... You... you’ve come...”
“Senior, you deliberately took that hit, didn’t you? Even though you thought I could survive it.”
“Still, *keu-heugh*...”
Even with a gaping hole in her abdomen, bleeding profusely from top to bottom, Ulrike managed a somehow alluring expression.
“It... reduced wasted time, right...?”
“You’re right. Looking at you now, I probably wouldn’t have gotten off lightly myself if I’d taken that.”
He had thought it might be a probing attack, fired the moment she saw Ban Yuwon, but now he saw it contained the core of a Constellation.
It was an attack that would have annihilated the soul of anyone not of Prominence lineage. Ulrike, who had anticipated its nature, prepared thoroughly and took the hit, managing to limit it to a fatal wound.
If Ban Yuwon had taken that, his orb might have been destroyed, or even if not, it could have been snatched by the family head.
And at that point, the other members of the Rebel Force would have found a way, but... as Ulrike said, it had drastically reduced wasted time.
“Then... acknowledge me.”
Ulrike’s voice, as she felt death approaching, grew distinctly clearer.
“I’m on your side... so don’t hate me...”
“That’s a difficult problem. Please don’t think I’m being heartless. What you did before was, well, actually, quite unforgivable.”
“I didn’t know...”
Of course, she wouldn’t have known.
If she had, she wouldn’t have shamelessly approached him at the Academy.
Ban Yuwon placed his hand on her wound and spoke.
“Does not knowing absolve one of sin? It’d be a bit disheartening if you thought one hit could settle such an aggravating debt.”
“So cruel... Still, I like you...”
Was this how the Prominence Family’s way of loving was originally so twisted?
Ban Yuwon recalled Kiira and his sister’s appearances in his mind and instantly nodded in understanding.
It certainly seemed possible.
He extracted all the Constellation’s energy rampaging to destroy Ulrike’s body, converting it into a Stigma of depth 50, which he then absorbed. He then took a Candy of Life from his pocket and placed it in her mouth.
Ulrike’s pale complexion visibly brightened, taking it as a token of affection.
“Thank you...! I love you, even if I die now, my heart will remain by your side...”
“No, it seems you didn’t understand what I just said.”
Ban Yuwon took out the wine of life, the Blood Wine, flowing in Eden and poured it onto her wound, activating the concept of Geas (Oath) he had previously obtained from Woohyeolrin.
“I need to collect the remaining debt, from a living senior.”
He felt an invisible, circular ring form around him.
This was originally a self-contained concept that allowed one to achieve greater power by binding oneself with specific conditions, but during his study of ancient sorcery, he had realized a way to expand the target of this binding.
When he poured sorcery reaching a depth of 2,000 onto it, the ring encircling Ban Yuwon instantly expanded, binding both him and Ulrike.
“I swear, as long as Ulrike Prominence protects me and my family, I shall protect and guard her.”
Did she realize her body was rapidly recovering, and furthermore, the existence of a magical contract binding her and Ban Yuwon?
Disbelief appeared on Ulrike’s face, which had seemed content to burn everything and turn to ash.
“This...?”
“If you’ve caught on, then swear quickly, Senior.”
“I-I swear!”
[Oath (盟約) is activated.]
[The depth of Sorcery (呪術) deepens by 10, and Oath (盟約) deepens by 20!]
The ring of Oath that had furiously revolved around the two melted into the air and dispersed.
Ulrike realized her body was completely healed and examined herself in shock... then realized it wasn't just that.
“H-how? The contract with the Constellation should have been automatically terminated... but far from being ruined, my body has actually grown stronger.”
“That’s the power of the Oath.”
He desperately suppressed the urge to quip, ‘That’s Changeling too.’
He had to finish quickly and get out of there before those damn fairies made him lose his mind.
“As long as you protect me and my family, Senior, you’ll be able to wield even stronger power.”
“My heavens... You. To me like this.”
An indescribable emotion surfaced in Ulrike’s eyes as she looked at Ban Yuwon after his explanation.
The feeling was too heavy and clingy to be mere love, making Ban Yuwon think that all Prominence women were truly deranged.
“Alright, anyway, all urgent matters are concluded, so let’s finish up and head back to Union...”
However, Ban Yuwon realized immediately after that this was a gravely arrogant judgment.
Upon discovering another sun rising above Prominence.
“...What is that?”
“A-a Constellation.”
Ulrike’s face, which had been on the verge of clinging to his neck and showering him with kisses, turned pale again.
It would have been better if her wound had simply flared up, but that wasn’t it.
Having once been connected to ‘that,’ Ulrike knew.
“Not an avatar of the Follower of Ten Thousand Kalpas... but its main body.”
Even as she spoke, she sounded as if she couldn’t believe it herself.
Trembling, she clung to him and said,
“It’s impossible, but... a Constellation has descended directly! Bringing forth all its remaining power...!”
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