"Ha!"
"Ha!"
"Clang!"
Sharp, forceful shouts rang out without pause, accompanied by the harsh clatter of wooden staffs colliding. Less than ten miles from Berely City, near the Imperial Family's summer Hunting Palace, two figures grappled and rolled across the snow-covered training ground of a manor. Dozens of bald, barefoot men stood watching nearby, bare-chested and wearing tight leather trousers, shields and short swords in hand.
A sudden shout rang out. In the struggle, Black Horse House's opponent used a spinning twist to knock the long staff from his hands, then lunged forward with a rapid thrust. The hard ironwood staff slammed into his stomach. Black Horse House cried out in pain, clutched his belly, and dropped to his knees, vomiting until even bile came up.
"Useless!" Like Black Horse House, Haolin wore nothing but a pair of leather briefs in the freezing season. He snorted, tossed aside the ironwood staff, and took a long cloak from one of the men to wrap around himself. Then he strode over to Haosi and kicked him onto his back.
"You're a descendant of the Bavier Family. You've trained your body and cultivated battle aura since childhood. At thirteen, you became a Human Knight, the lowest rank. Father taught you all kinds of tactical skills starting when you were seven, using real battles from the Continental-Island War as your lessons."
"And yet you were defeated by a rogue from a commoner family!"
Haolin's one eye twitched violently. If the man kneeling on the ground and vomiting uncontrollably weren't his younger brother, he would have killed him himself by now—just as he had personally beheaded a cousin who fled the battlefield in the army.
"You've disgraced Father. You've brought shame on the entire family," Haolin said without mercy. "The matter has blown up. Not just the military, but the civil officials have heard about this disgrace. The youngest son of the Bavier Family was defeated in a student brawl by a gang of thugs and rogues. This has had a huge impact. Someone has already spoken to His Majesty, questioning Father's ability to lead troops."
Black Horse House raised his head angrily and roared through clenched teeth, "This has nothing to do with Father!"
Haolin's expression darkened as he sneered. "But in the eyes of Father's political enemies and the whole military, it does. The youngest son of the Bavier Family, a gifted youth raised in the orthodox military tradition and a future elite of the Imperial Army, was defeated by a bunch of rogues and thugs. Do you know what that means? It means Father has failed, the Bavier Family has failed, and even the entire military has failed."
Haolin drew a deep breath and kicked Haosi several meters away. He snorted. "Remember the beating I gave you these past few days. Remember every bruise on your body. Remember this humiliation. You were defeated without even seeing your enemy's face."
Haosi ground his teeth with a sharp, grating sound. Slowly, he rubbed his abdomen, his body covered in purple and blue bruises. He nodded hard and said through clenched teeth, "Brother, I'll remember. I'll make them pay for all of this."
Haolin nodded grimly and waved a hand. "Go wash up. Father wants to see you. Remember how much pressure Father and the whole family have endured these past few days because of you, you good-for-nothing—and how much they've had to sacrifice."
Haolin exhaled deeply, narrowed his one eye, and turned to look toward Berely City.
In the small castle at the center of the manor was a study facing the training ground. It was spacious, but furnished with austere dignity. Aside from thirteen suits of armor scored with sword marks and dozens of ancient, mottled weapons hanging on the walls, there were no other decorations. A huge desk stood squarely in the middle of the study, a military map of the area around Norman Fortress spread across it.
The entire wall facing the training ground had been knocked through and replaced with a huge floor-to-ceiling window. Haosen, father of Haosi and Haolin, head of the Bavier Family, Imperial Viscount, and Imperial Major General, stood with his hands behind his back, silently watching the snow outside.
Having changed into clean clothes, Haosi—his face bruised and swollen—carefully pushed open the study door and crept up behind Haosen without making a sound.
For a full half hour, silence reigned. Sweat poured across Haosi's forehead, running down his cheeks and dripping constantly from his chin. Haosen was the head of the Bavier Family, and even his own son felt crushing pressure in his presence. Its source was the dense, almost tangible aura of slaughter and death clinging to Haosen, born from countless corpses and rivers of blood.
Haosen was not yet sixty when he joined the terrible Continental-Island War at fifteen. He had fought in bloody battles for more than a decade, raising the Bavier Family's title from baron to viscount through sheer force of arms. The last decade of the Hundred-Year Land-Island War was also known as the "Battle of the Meat Grinder." Millions of soldiers died on the Western Continent alone, while the casualties among the Five Great Linked Islands' foreign races exceeded a million.
Haosen had dyed his medals red with the blood of a million soldiers. Even thirty years after the war ended, the killing intent on him had not faded. Haosi, born in the peaceful postwar years and never having truly seen a battlefield, nearly suffocated under Haosen's murderous aura.
Just as Haosi was about to buckle under the pressure and faint, Haosen finally turned around and bared his teeth in an ugly grin. Like Greatsword Joe, owner of the Sword and Beauty Tavern, Haosen had taken two slashes to the face; his face had nearly been cut off, so it was hardly a pretty sight. His twisted lips could not fully conceal his teeth, and the two rows of broken, yellow teeth were frightening in their own right.
With a faint smile, Haosen said slowly, "Failure is nothing to fear. On the battlefield, I suffered five crushing defeats. Each time, my entire legion was wiped out. More than a hundred thousand soldiers died directly because of those five defeats."
Haosi bowed his head respectfully, not daring to make a sound.
With a sigh, Haosen curled his lip and sneered. "Failure itself isn't the problem. The question is whether the price was worth paying. Your defeat has put me, the family, and the military forces aligned with us in a difficult position. And you were defeated by a bunch of student thugs. That was not worth the price."
Haosen gripped Haosi's shoulders tightly and spoke grimly. "You don't need to understand the storms raging among the Empire's upper ranks yet. Just remember this: your defeat has cost the family too much. You must make up for it."
After a moment's thought, Haosen slowly nodded. "I'll give you one year. You must graduate from the Army Academy with the honor of ranking first overall. I'll have you join the North Sea Border Guard. You'll reclaim the glory you lost on the battlefield."
Haosen shook Haosi hard and narrowed his eyes. "As for the man who defeated you..."
"You must defeat him with your own strength, kill him, and destroy his entire family. Only then can the family's glory be restored!"