chapter 3
1. Ed Gleard – (3)
***
Separate room.
Eisen Glade leaned back in a cozy chair.
“Ha ha ha!!”
He burst into laughter as he remembered the image of her granddaughter rushing after Ed.
Aizen, who, with his usual dignified and dignified appearance, dares to meet those two eyes even in the Glaade family, is like the blue mountain in the north.
After a while, Aizen hardened his expression and spoke meaningful words in a calm voice.
“No matter how virtuous the blood is, in the end it rots because it was stagnant, so maybe… It may need some new blood.”
Why did he bring his granddaughter with him to talk about the successor? You’d be guessing.
The Glade family, known for generations as the lineage of the legendary blue hawks, do not properly educate their children.
The reason why a free hawk is a family insignia.
No matter how much he grows up to be a rotten being like an idiot, he will not change his innate temperament into education.
ㅡGlead.
If he was the heir to that blood, he should be able to take care of himself.
It is a law that you must be able to stand tall as yourself.
Only then is he worthy of inheriting the Glead family lineage.
So, in the distant past, didn’t he kill all of his own brothers who were fighting over his successor with his own hands?
The brothers who are so rotten that they get sick just by facing each other.
Things that are nothing without the prestige of the family.
He was even more repulsive because they were of the same blood, and he could kill them without hesitation.
No matter how big and endlessly tall the tree was, rotten branches still existed.
And I thought it was time to prune another rotten branch.
In the current generation of descendants, there were no children worthy of inheriting the family.
His son, Arjen Gleard, who had taken over as head of the household early on, passed away from an incurable disease, so no more descendants were born to succeed him.
So now.
Under the name of descendants, things like rotten filth are rampaging without knowing the subject.
Even now, her granddaughter, Ashera, will be able to push her as the successor of her family if she pushes herself.
And if a son-in-law was brought in from outside, there would be no big problem with the succession.
But. Asherah, her own granddaughter, she did not want.
ㅡGrandpa, wouldn’t Ed be more suitable as the successor than me?
On a pitch-dark night, her granddaughter faced herself in the darkness and said, looking straight at herself.
Her granddaughter boldly asked herself without any hesitation, as if she had already anticipated her thoughts of making Ashera, her granddaughter, her successor.
She still couldn’t forget her granddaughter’s words as she spoke with twinkling eyes like a single star shining in the darkness.
No, how could she forget the image of her granddaughter, the true ‘enemy’ of the House of Gleard, who would inherit her noble blood.
How about entrusting the position of successor to the Glead family to someone who is merely an adopted son?
“Ed… Can you accept it?”
Eight years ago, he adopted an adopted son.
No, he had formally given himself the surname Glead before, so now he was definitely a member of the Gleades family.
Because he was given a last name, he was also legitimate as a successor.
He probably doesn’t know yet that all of that happened because of her granddaughter, Ashera.
Even if the blood flowing through his body is different, he is born anew with the fact that he was given the surname ‘Glead’.
Ed Gleaard.
He was different from the day he first met when he was dropped off at the Eastern Mage Tower.
That guy was no longer normal by his very existence.
The calmness that a 9-year-old child cannot see.
A warm heart that cares for others rather than oneself, unbefitting of one’s peers.
As if he had a charm that captivated his surroundings, there was no shortage of people by his side.
He was able to know because he had traveled the continent and roamed the vast land.
How selfish a person who grew up in a less affluent environment can become.
He knew very well that he could afford to think of others.
That’s how hard life is for those who don’t have it.
Even in the same commoner, he has seen countless times that even among them, their attitudes differ according to the wealth they have.
And it was no different even for a child.
It was a child who was more sensitive to the goodwill of others.
In addition, he lost his parents early and is hungry for love, even for strangers.
As a child in an orphanage, she was accustomed to looking out for others.
That’s why the boy named Ed caught my eye.
The child’s potential as a habit.
Ed in his own eyes The child’s talent for nothing was insignificant.
Even the latent talent of mana is not great.
However, the essence of that child, Ed, is contained within it.
It was undeniable that her essence seemed like a jewel to him.
That’s why she adopted the child unexpectedly.
In the family of Glead, Ed, he did not care even if the child did not learn the sword.
She wasn’t the kind of kid who was brought in after seeing what talent she had anyway.
It was too bad that the child’s light was fading to leave him there.
But Ed taught me because he wanted to master the sword on his own.
Even so, he himself did not expect the child to have anything to do with the sword.
ㅡYou can’t beat talent with hard work.
That’s because even those with talent put in effort.
That’s why a person without talent cannot reach a person with talent no matter how hard he tries.
My own thoughts like that…….
“Considering that he reached the position of a senior knight at the age of 17, am I wrong?”
The one who succeeds the Glaad family must be able to stand tall as himself.
So, if he is truly suitable as the successor, Ed will prove his worth as himself.
***
The sun has gone down and the darkness has fallen deep outside the Gleard family mansion.
Although small lights were embroidering the mansion, most of the mansion was still filled with deep darkness.
And there was Ed walking in the darkness.
Ed walking around the outskirts of the mansion with an indifferent look that would surprise anyone who knew Ed.
Nevertheless, none of the knights guarding the mansion seemed to have seen Ed.
“Is it true that Aizen-sama does not support any of his descendants?”
“Okay. He also has thoughts, so he’s not just watching.”
“The public sentiment in the north is not good these days.”
“Really, Lady Ashera would have liked everyone, but even Lady Ashera gave up her position as successor….”
Ed passed in front of them, each talking like a joke, but they didn’t move.
It was as if they couldn’t see Ed.
I step inside the mansion, thinking about where my eldest son, Gora, is located.
To say that the Gleaard family’s five-story mansion is a simple mansion is not enough.
On each floor, there were dozens of rooms for servants and other members of the Glaad family to stay, and the vast spaces that existed here and there had a size reminiscent of a banquet hall.
And as direct descendants of the Gleard family, the place where they stayed was especially spacious.
It was not difficult to find where the eldest son Gora was staying.
Ed himself had only been there on one hand, but he certainly remembered it.
Sabaksabak.
Ed moved as if he was walking silently down the snow-covered street outside the mansion.
A thin layer of mana running through Ed’s body. It made it impossible for him to even discover himself unless he had risen to a height far above himself.
This was a special use of mana that only Ed could do.
Because he didn’t have more mana than other knights, Ed constantly studied the precise and detailed mana utilization in using his mana.
And at the end, one of the things like your own skill that can be used is this now.
To hide oneself by covering oneself with a thin film.
The Mana Curtain.
The moment I entered the third floor of the mansion, I paid more attention to maintaining the mana veil.
Half of the third floor belonged to the space of Gore Glade, a space that could not be easily entered except for Aizen and him.
“… ….”
“… ….”
That’s why I could clearly feel the momentum of some of the knights standing guard everywhere.
It seemed that the level of wary knights had risen even more because it was a time when the heir faction was in full swing, which was divided into three factions.
If they were to fight head-on, the level of each knight was not to be taken lightly, to the extent that even Ed himself could predict victory even if he was against one person.
I pass them by and approach a gorgeous door at first glance.
No matter how vigilant a knight may be. There was no knight guarding the front of the bedroom.
With mana-covered hands, he gently pushed the door open, covering the space even if it was small, completely blocking out any noise that might happen.
And the moment I entered the room. Ed’s eyes widened and sank at the same time.
The first thing that caught her eye was the sight of a naked woman covered in blood all over her body lying unconscious. As if she had suffered all sorts of abuse, her body was full of scars that were hard to see.
And inside the splendid space, I saw Gora, the eldest son, sleeping peacefully in a huge bedroom.
‘Kill Gorea.’
The meaning of Lady Asherah.
And before that, kill your heart.
In order not to be swept away by personal emotions, the mindset I had to protect myself when facing the enemy. This time it was to calm down to kill someone.
It killed his heart, Ed thought so.
He knew more than anyone else that he, as a human being, would remain calm about killing someone else, and that he would not be that kind of person to do it without a mindset.
This isn’t the first time Ed has killed someone.
Attempted murder under the guise of Dalian.
How many times did she get attacked even while she was sleeping because she didn’t like them until she was given the last name Gleadra?
In the midst of a struggle with them to keep from dying, Ed had no choice but to kill the man in the end.
It was impossible for Ed to do such a clever job of subduing without killing. And he knew how soft-hearted that was.
So, in the past eight years, Ed has already killed a double-digit number of people.
And each time Ed had to kill his heart more than anything else. Ed’s character, who is usually warm and caring and famous for caring for others, did not disappear even as he grew up.
Ed was not accustomed to killing people yet.
During the eight years he was adopted and raised by a knight’s family, it was hard to say that Ed had a smooth time, to put it mildly.
To be taught by Aizen.
For that alone, he had to receive indescribable jealousy and envy from the descendants of the Gleard family and other family members.
That’s why he didn’t even know that something like resentment and resentment toward them that he had swallowed up so far was nestled in Ed’s heart.
Feeling less repulsive than before about killing people, Ed slowly approaches Gora.
And the moment he reached for his own sword.
The sword was drawn with the speed of light.
It was a single blow.
As soon as Ed pulled out the sword, the sword was placed precisely in Gora’s heart.
I completely block Gora’s mouth as he opens his eyes wide at the momentary pain and at the same time meets his eyes.
Resentment, anger, hatred.
I slowly draw the sword out of my heart while making eye contact with all sorts of other emotions.
“… ….”
Goa’s eyes, which had been thoroughly controlled by Ed, no sound or struggle, gradually lost their power.
Ed, facing his dying eyes to the end, takes out a cloth and arranges the messy traces. While anticipating the huge confusion that would come the next day, he shouldn’t have left any trace that the culprit was himself.
After erasing all traces, he recalls who he really is.
‘Glead’s sword.’
Before it exists as itself, it exists as the sword of the Glaad family.
That was the will of Aizen, who took care of himself, and the will of Lady Ashera, who took care of him in the past.
After that, a huge chaos will come across the entire northern part of the Glade family.
Before the confusion, he himself had to make up his mind.
Then, he suddenly saw a woman who had been abused and left naked in his field of vision.
Traces of severe abuse that exist everywhere.
Even her face, which would have been beautiful by nature, had several cuts and torn scars, and the naked body covered in blood beneath it was full of various scars.
And I could tell just by looking at them that even the traces of abuse did not happen overnight.
“Is Lady Ashera right?…”
As he brought a cloth unstained with Gorea’s blood and covered it over the woman, Ed hardened his heart.