Blazing

With such conflicted feelings, Cole spent the hardest three years of his life.

When news of Big Brother spread through the streets, not only Cole, but the entire Luqi Merchant Guild rejoiced.

It was also from that time onward that Cole understood that, if there was anything in this world that Big Brother still cared about, it was probably only their parents.

As long as their parents were alive, even if there was no affection between him and Big Brother, Big Brother would still look after him for their parents' sake.

It was precisely because of this that, after arriving in Locke City, Cole had always treated their parents with great respect.

He knew that if he treated their parents even slightly poorly, Big Brother would never show him a pleasant face.

After their parents passed away, Cole returned to the mindset he had possessed decades earlier.

There was no helping it. Before, Cole knew that as long as their parents were around, he was Big Brother's true younger brother.

But now, the bond connecting the two brothers had been severed. Cole no longer knew how much weight he still held in Big Brother's heart.

"Don't blame me, Big Brother. I don't want this either..."

"But I'm afraid..."

Slowly rising from his chair in the meeting room, Cole clasped his hands behind his back and slowly walked from the shadows of the room toward the sunlight by the door.

No one wanted to live forever beneath someone else's shadow.

Anything paid to escape that shadow was worth it!

Within Locke Territory, everything appeared unchanged on the surface.

Yet, at some unknown point, some strange traveling merchants had appeared throughout Locke Territory.

Their carts carried little merchandise. Whenever they arrived at a village, the first thing they did was not sell their goods or purchase local specialties from the villagers, but walk around the village holding a white bead.

Since these people did not behave excessively toward the villagers, and the prices they offered for local specialties were somewhat higher than those of other traveling merchants, no one paid them much attention.

They crossed mountains and passed lakes...

Their footprints were left in every inhabited place within Locke Territory.

Ge'ermu City was the fief of Viscount Gask.

Although Ge'ermu City was much smaller than Locke Territory, its level of luxury was not inferior to Locke City's in the slightest.

After all, the one currently governing Locke City was Cole, the younger brother of Grand Duke Locke.

Although Cole was Lord Locke's younger brother, because Lord Locke had not granted him a title, strictly speaking, Cole was still a commoner.

However, for Lord Locke's sake, no one looked down on Cole for being a commoner.

Without a proper title, one could not act with proper authority.

As he was not the master of Locke Territory, even though Cole managed its affairs, he did not dare live too extravagantly there, fearing that Locke would come to dislike him for it.

Gask had no such concerns.

As a viscount personally invested by Lord Locke, so long as he paid enough taxes to Locke Territory each year, he was king within his own lands.

Hadn't he spent most of his life running himself ragged precisely so he could enjoy himself now?

Yet as time passed, Gask grew increasingly afraid of death.

That was also why, when the people from the Temple of Light came to him, he did not refuse. Instead, he dragged the other four brothers allied with him into the matter as well.

He believed that, faced with such temptation, the other four brothers would make the same choice he had.

In truth, things unfolded exactly as he expected.

Faced with the temptation of entering the Saint Domain, no elderly Ninth-level Warrior could resist.

Not only that, in order to prevent Grand Duke Locke from hunting them down should the matter be exposed, the five brothers decided to drag Grand Duke Locke's younger brother, Cole, into it as well.

Although doing so would delay the time when the five brothers could enter the Saint Domain, at the very least, it would provide some guarantee of everyone's safety.

They wanted to enter the Saint Domain so they could have more time to enjoy life, not so they could meet death sooner!

Walking out of the bedroom, Gask left the door open, and beneath the white bed curtains, two fair, alluring bodies could vaguely be seen lying there.

After Gask left, the perceptive maidservants stepped forward and shut the door, lest the people inside reveal even a hint of springtime splendor.

Gask left the bedroom and wandered around the estate with his hands behind his back.

When he reached a courtyard, Gask stopped and watched the youths inside diligently training for a long while.

"Youth really is wonderful..."

A Ninth-level Warrior could live up to five hundred years.

Gask was already nearly four hundred years old.

As he aged, Gask could feel that his current condition would last for at most another ten or twenty years.

When that time came, his condition would inevitably decline, and his strength would fall drastically as well.

More importantly, the feeling of sensing one's life slipping away day by day was enough to drive someone mad.

At that moment, the viscount's steward came before Gask and softly whispered something into his ear.

"Really?"

At the butler's words, a flicker of delight appeared in Gask's eyes.

Without waiting for the butler, Gask strode toward the study in the viscount's residence.

"Lord Gask."

Of the two standing before the desk in the study, the older one immediately dropped to his knees and bowed upon seeing Gask.

"Greetings, Lord Gask."

The little girl behind the middle-aged man saw his movements and copied him, kneeling and kowtowing to Gask.

Yet Gask said nothing in response to their salute. Instead, he hurried over to the middle-aged man.

"Quick, let me see it."

"Yes, Lord Gask."

The middle-aged man took a white pearl from his robes. A faint white glow emanated from its surface.

Gask reached out and took the white pearl in his hand, feeling its warmth.

Holding the pearl, Gask slowly walked toward the little girl.

As Gask drew closer, the white light emitted by the pearl in his hand grew increasingly dazzling.

At the same time, its temperature gradually rose.

"It's real!"

Thrilled, Gask slowly backed away.

The farther he moved from the girl, the dimmer the pearl's glow became and the lower its temperature fell.

Once Gask had stepped out of the study, the pearl in his hand was no different from an ordinary white pearl.

It no longer glowed, and its temperature had returned to icy cold.

After testing it back and forth several times, Gask's gaze upon the girl grew ever more fervent.

Never before had Gask felt that the Saint Domain was so close within his grasp.

For a moment, Gask was already imagining what life would be like after he became a Saint Domain expert.