Chapter: 17
‘I wasn’t wrong.’
The clear print was certainly from the stomp made by moving onto the second formation of the dagger skill. Yeowun did not learn any martial arts, but he was still from Wulin and he knew what the laws were like. Stealing other people’s martial arts techniques was strictly forbidden and looked down upon.
“I.. I...”
He did steal it through Nano, so he had nothing to say about it. He couldn’t even look into Jang’s probably disappointed look. Jang then knelt down and spoke with a soft voice.
“You did a good job.”
“Uh...”
“I am your guard, Prince. If it wasn’t for the oath, I would have taught you my skills already.”
“Jang...”
Yeowun’s eyes filled up with tears. Jang was more of a father figure to him than his real father. Jang took out a paper filled with writing and gave it to Yeowun.
“What’s this?”
“It’s an energy flow method for the internal energy of the dagger skill.”
“Why are you giving this to me?”
“I would love to give you a method on how to train the internal energy itself, but you will find a better one at the academy. Learn it.”
Yeowun was now shedding tears. He swore that he would never cry after his mother’s death, but he was still a young boy. Jang got up and took the empty plates before he began walking out. He then stopped to speak.
“You can cry today, but you will need to be stronger from now on.”
“...Thank you.”
Yeowun wiped the tears off his face. He now had no fear or hesitation. Even without his mother, he still had a place to return to.
In the afternoon, the street near the Demonic Cult’s castle was bustling with people. The opening ceremony was going to begin soon. Every boy, ranging from fourteen to nineteen years of age in every family and clan of the Demonic Cult was now gathering at the Demonic Academy.
The Demonic Cult had the six clans, three guardians, and hundreds of small clans and groups. The Demonic Academy was opened once every ten years to train a new elite individual. This current one had candidates that were the heirs to the Lord, so everyone labeled the academy as an Heirship competition. And this was a wonderful opportunity for many small clans to side with the future heir to the Lord.
Thousands of boys and girls all gathered to join the academy. The Great Training Ground located right past the entrance of the academy was large enough to fit all the students inside. All of them looked excited and nervous about what’s to come. It was because this was a chance to see the Lord himself who would join the opening ceremony.
“Look! It’s the Left Guardian!”
“If he’s here, the Lord will be here soon.”
“I’ll get to see his face for the first time in my life!”
There was a middle-aged man with long red hair walking out from the left side of the giant stage, scoffing at children down at the ground.
‘Fools. We only have fools this time. Or it may be the last time.’
The middle-aged man was the Left Guardian, Fire King Lee Hameng, or the closest advisor to the Lord. The Lord had three guardians with him. The Great Guardian, Left Guardian, and Right Guardian only acted on the Lord’s orders. They ranked within the top ten of fighting prowess within the Demonic Cult.
‘Hmm. Are those the heirs from the six clans?’
Hameng glanced at the boys standing in front of all children. All students who entered the academy were given a round name tag with numbers. They were given the numbers based on the order they entered, but these princes were exceptions.
‘They are quite something as kids.’
The other children were all lined up neatly, but these six princes arrogantly stood at the front as if they were telling everyone that they were on top of them all. Unlike others who had a white tag with black numbers on them, these princes had black tags with red numbers according to their rank to the succession.