An Apology

"I understand."

"Big Brother!"

"Second Brother, there's no shame in bowing your head to a Perfect."

Seeing that Delan Lierse still seemed unwilling to accept it, Gaisresen shook his head.

"Go bring Weiss here."

"Yes, Big Brother."

Delan Lierse had no choice but to comply.

"Lord Aier, please wait a moment."

Now that he knew Aier was a Perfect, even Gaisresen didn't dare remain seated in the seat of honor in Azure Dragon Hall.

What a joke.

Even Sovereigns treated Perfects as equals when speaking with them.

In front of others, even Sovereign Envoys and the children of Sovereigns could look down on them.

But before a Perfect, only a Sovereign had the right to look down on one.

And even then, that was only in terms of strength.

When it came to cultivating the Laws and Profound Mysteries, Perfects had the right to look down on most Sovereigns.

"Very good."

Seeing Gaisresen's choice, Aier felt slightly relieved.

Compared to other Perfects, Aier had been a Perfect for an incredibly short time.

Moreover, because he knew too much, he didn't have the sense of "invincibility" that other Perfects had, or their disdain for Sovereigns.

The way Gaisresen and the others behaved also gave Aier a new understanding of the status of a "Perfect."

"Big Brother, you called for me?"

Aier and the others didn't have to wait long. A little over ten minutes later, Delan Lierse arrived at Azure Dragon Hall with a handsome young man.

"Weiss, did you rob the Boy Family, who were under the Liang'an Prefecture Prefect, more than five hundred years ago?"

"What?"

Gaisresen's question startled Weiss.

As the husband of the eldest daughter of the Azure Dragon Clan, Weiss held a high status in the clan.

However, Weiss was only a Six-Star Fiend, and he had faced plenty of contempt from the Four Divine Beasts Clan.

He wasn't even qualified to get involved in the Four Divine Beasts Clan's businesses.

Gaia covered almost all his expenses.

But as a man, Weiss had wanted to make something of himself and prove that he didn't rely solely on a woman.

So, along with some clan members who weren't highly regarded, he'd used the Four Divine Beasts Clan's influence to intimidate families in small and medium-sized cities and seize their wealth.

With Weiss and the others' strength, things rarely went wrong in small and medium-sized cities.

Who could have guessed that the Boy Family, who were preparing to sell off their clan's assets, would have a powerful figure like Aier backing them?

What was more, because Aier had a Sovereign Artifact, Weiss had even considered whether he could make a move against him.

Weiss hadn't personally taken action that time.

But there was no denying that at least seventy percent of the Boy Family's assets had ended up in Weiss's hands. He couldn't deny it.

After learning that Aier had been protecting them, Weiss knew he couldn't cover this up, so he had confessed everything to his wife, Gaia.

Though Gaia couldn't understand why her husband would do such a thing, she couldn't let him get into trouble. So she had discussed it with Gaisresen.

That was why Gaisresen and the others had initially been so forceful when they learned Aier was coming to the Heavenly Sacrifice Mountain Range.

But once Aier displayed the Willpower that only Sovereigns and Perfects possessed, Gaisresen and the others knew there was no way they could protect Weiss.

Of course, that was also because Weiss was Gaia's husband, not a descendant of a Sovereign. Gaisresen felt it wasn't worth offending a Perfect for Weiss's sake.

If his younger sister had been the one behind this, then even if Aier were a Perfect, Gaisresen would never have handed her over.

"Big Brother, wasn't that matter already..."

Weiss had only just begun to speak when he noticed Gaisresen's expression changing. Startled, he quickly fell silent.

Only then did Weiss notice the expressions on the faces of the clan's patriarchs.

Could it be that even his brothers couldn't protect him?

Turning to look at the only person seated in Azure Dragon Hall, Weiss immediately recognized Aier, the powerful man he'd seen only in Battle Projections.

"I'm sorry, Lord Aier."

"This was all my fault."

Realizing that even his brothers might not be able to protect him, Weiss understood that Aier's attitude would determine his fate.

Of course, Weiss hadn't been chosen by Gaia for nothing. He had a sense of responsibility.

He also knew that if he didn't take responsibility for this and dragged Gaia into it, there was no telling how things might turn out.

"These are my apologies for disrespecting you."

He immediately severed the bond with his Space Ring and respectfully offered it to Aier.

Aier waved his hand, and the Space Ring floated over to Hector Boy.

"Hector, take a look. Are the things in this Space Ring the Boy Family's?"

"Yes, Lord Aier."

Hector Boy took the Space Ring, bound it to himself, and sent his divine sense inside.

"Lord Aier, these are indeed the Boy Family's assets..."

"Also, the contents are worth about three times as much as the Boy Family's assets."

"Three times?"

Aier raised an eyebrow and looked at Gaisresen.

"Patriarch Gaisresen, what do you have to say?"

Seeing Aier's expression, Gaisresen knew he wasn't satisfied with the apology from his brother-in-law.

It made sense. The Boy Family was just an ordinary family in a medium-sized city. How much could their assets be worth?

Perhaps this fortune was everything Weiss owned.

But who was Aier?

He was the Prefect of Liang'an Prefecture, and currently the second Perfect in Hell, after Dunnington.

That kind of compensation for asking a Perfect to step in was nothing short of an insult.

"Lord Aier, please calm your anger."

Gaisresen flipped his right hand, and a drop of blue Sovereign's Might appeared in his palm.

A powerful pressure radiated from the drop of Sovereign's Might, making the people nearby take several steps back.

"This drop of Sovereign's Might is the Four Divine Beasts Clan's apology to Patriarch Boy."

To everyone else, Sovereign's Might was an extremely precious treasure.

But the Four Divine Beasts Clan had four Sovereign ancestors. Whenever an ancestor appeared, they bestowed large quantities of Sovereign's Might.

In fact, practically every member of the Four Divine Beasts Clan could obtain at least one drop of Sovereign's Might for protection after the Ancestral Baptism.

That was the main reason the Four Divine Beasts Clan acted so brazenly outside their territory.

After all, the strength of the Four Divine Beasts Clan's members couldn't be judged by ordinary standards.

Once they used Sovereign's Might, their strength would increase at least several hundred times while its power lasted.