Chapter 38: A Child in an Oversized Robe
After a day, Kage finally regained his strength and was fit to move on his own. As he expected, a lot had happened. He didn’t quite know what, but the gazes of the servants and guards as they fell on him were different—they were glittering.
So Kage suspected there had been some manic twisting of all this that had benefited him greatly... more than he’d actually anticipated.
Which was a bad thing. Because Kage hated things that weren’t within his control and things born from people’s abrupt conclusions. If the abrupt conclusions were born within his control or were his plan, it would have been good.
He just hadn’t planned to gain any public nod from all this. All he wanted was to teach his brother a lesson for watching him and making him read a damn boring book for three days, and also to free Hwi-Geon.
These two were already more than enough boons.
[The Heretic Inquisitor of Eternal Truth asks you to shut up, says you feel like a child in an oversized robe. But this robe is your craft. He says you should wear it with pride.]
Kage ignored the Heretic Inquisitor completely.
Immediately after he recovered, he was summoned to the Apex Tower. So right now he was walking at a gentle pace behind the Clan Butler.
Kage examined himself as he walked behind the butler.
’I must say, Seraphine’s healing prowess is terrifying. I wonder if I should consider making her my puppet. I could benefit from free healing since I’ll be doing many dangerous things.’
Kage himself had never experienced it in his past life, but her healing was so exceptional that people referred to her as Heaven’s mercy upon the world—which earned her that popular title.
Now that he was experiencing it, there was no doubt he’d underestimated his sister’s healing ability. However, he knew someone who was an even better healer.
Seraphine’s healing mainly dealt with internal injuries and broken bones. She couldn’t heal an amputated hand. Kage knew someone who could, although the person was a thorn in his side in his past life—one of the very few useful people he’d made connections with.
Kage was once again distracted as two messengers in grey and light blue cross-collar suits passed by. They bowed as he went past, mumbling to themselves as the Butler and Kage continued on.
"The youngest might be illegitimate, but he’s proven to be more legitimate than Lord Ryuu."
"Man, I tell you... none of the young masters in their youth have dared expose themselves to such danger. I think Lord Kage is very courageous!"
Their voices quickly blurred out as they consciously lowered them, gossiping continuously.
Kage tilted his head slightly... feeling uncomfortable.
He stepped closer to the butler.
"Butler Guren, if you don’t mind me asking... what happened in the past three days?"
Guren’s robotic voice seemed to crawl thickly as he drew a breath through his mouth before speaking.
"Nothing much, young lord. The prisoner successfully escaped, and Shen Fengxi is dead. It has been deduced that there are other people working behind Shen Fengxi, and the fourteenth lord has been sent on a subjugation mission. He is not to return until he has subjugated them all... with proof."
Kage’s voice sounded somber.
"Ah... I see..."
Guren glanced back slightly.
"Do not feel sad for the lord. It was not your fault. You tried your best. Contrary to that, Lord Ryuu was rather reckless and underestimated his enemy. The Patriarch does not forgive failures."
’Of course he doesn’t. I don’t either!’
He lowered his voice even further.
"I see..."
Guren glanced at him again and sighed worriedly. He wasn’t good with kids or comforting words, and was confused about what to say to Kage that would make him understand this wasn’t his fault.
His reluctance to say anything made the silence they continued in slightly awkward. At least for him—Kage wasn’t awkward at all. In fact, he appreciated the silence immensely.
At last, they arrived at the Apex Tower and entered. Kage was greeted by the mighty sound of hammer striking steel. The first sound made his ears scream in pain, even his heart hammering fearfully in his chest, such that he almost faltered back.
Such ferocity in that hammering. It was ruthless, fierce... powerful. From the sound alone, Kage already admired the craftsmanship. It made him envious.
The second sound, though... never came. The hammer had almost struck the hot steel when it stopped midway, dispersing a gust of wind with the abrupt halt.
The Patriarch gently set down the armor and clapped black soot off his hands as he turned to face Guren and Kage.
Kage watched the man with suppressed awe. He hated his father—he still did—but as a fellow forger, he couldn’t help but secretly admire.
’Heaven-Shaking Ironstorm... ahh shit, there’s suddenly a bitter taste in my mouth. What the hell?’
[The Stone Tyrant acknowledges your father. He claims to be impressed but shakes his head and says your father could be at a great wall, finding it very difficult to break through.]
’And that’s my business how?’
Kage pulled his attention forward as his father approached down the stairs. The man, according to what he knew, was seventy-eight years old. And he was even more imposing than Lord Shen of the Red Sky, whose presence—because of his stocky nature—filled the entire room.
If Lord Shen could be considered a mountain crammed inside a room, the Patriarch of the Ironstorm clan was the sky’s weight crushing that mountain beneath it.
His chest was like an enormous drum surface, covered in soot, his muscles seeming as though they’d been hammered to perfection—forged in the fiercest of crucibles rather than carved by fragile knives.
He was imposing. Too impossible. Kage personally never liked muscled men, but a man was a man. He wouldn’t refuse the body if the heavens decided to gift it to him without needing to work for it.
But generally, he preferred lean muscles.
[The Wolf of the North calls you weak, says broad muscles like this are the signs of a strong and powerful man.]
’I guess in your time, no smart people existed.’
[The Wolf of the North glares at you.]
’Ah, I forgot—there was you, Sir Wolf, the muscles and brains.’
[The Wolf of the North nods, says you just might get a reward if you keep being a respectful youth.]
[The Heretic Inquisitor of Eternal Truth shakes his head slightly and tells the Wolf of the North that he doesn’t think you were complimenting him. He further says that the point of the insult was in the fact that the Wolf of the North wouldn’t see it as an insult.]
[The Wolf of the North is confused. Smoke seems to be coming out of his head.]
’Damn you, Her... aha, damn you, hairsplitter! I could have been rewarded there!’
The Patriarch looked down at him, not minding his dirty body. He was close up to Kage now, looking down with a cold, blank expression.