Episode 13
Two months had passed since then.
“Just two more times and we’re done. Just two more!”
“No, you said two more just a minute ago too. Add those up and that’s a whole set.”
“Talking during a workout drops your core pressure. Just shut up and lift.”
“I’m definitely going to kill you.”
“Seeing your mouth running, I guess you’ve still got some strength left?”
“Kuaaaaack!”
Thud!
In the end, Theo only collapsed after lifting the barbell two more times.
“I told you to do just one more.”
“If I’d lifted one more time, you would’ve told me to do one more again, wouldn’t you?”
“I probably would have.”
“Where’d you learn math like that?”
“It’s my prerogative.”
“You thug.”
“That’s rich, coming from you.”
“What?”
“If you’re that worked up, let’s spar again.”
Theo shuddered as he recalled what had happened a few days prior.
That day, Luke had been pushing him unusually hard, so he had rushed at him with a to-hell-with-it attitude.
Honestly, he had been confident at the time.
He had grown much stronger compared to two months ago.
Since the weight they lifted had become quite similar, he had thought that if things went well, he might actually be able to win.
But the result was a one-sided beating.
Had Luke grown as well?
Or had Luke actually been hiding his strength?
Whatever the reason, that day he had been beaten by Luke to the brink of death.
Luke had covered his mouth when he tried to shout surrender and kept hitting him—he had truly looked like a demon.
If Rahitz hadn’t panicked and stopped him that day, Theo might actually have died.
“Tch. If only I had trained Surging Frost a little more, I wouldn’t have suffered such humiliation.”
Theo grumbled as he stood up.
Luke nearly snorted.
‘That precious secret art of yours was something I made while practicing, punk.’
If Theo heard this, what kind of expression would he make?
He would probably look at Luke like he was an even bigger madman than before.
Anyway, that secret art was a very interesting topic for Luke as well.
Since the other side had already laid the groundwork, it would be much easier to steer the conversation.
“Come to think of it, Hyung, did you only learn one secret art?”
“What are you talking about? I learned them all—the Wind-Moon Greatsword, the Heavenly Snow Sword, White Cloud Steps, and the Snow Flower Twin Swords.”
“Ah…… really?”
“Why do you look like that?”
“What did I do?”
“You’re looking down on my secret arts right now, aren’t you?”
“More or less.”
“Kk-eung…….”
Theo couldn’t answer.
He knew that the secret arts he had learned were nowhere near the level befitting the Schnelden name.
They were incomparably weaker than the core secret arts of other prestigious families, to say nothing of the Cornelios.
“Well, it’s not really your fault. It’s the fault of the family heads who only passed down empty shells of secret arts to their eldest sons.”
“Huh, huh? Did you just insult my father?”
“He’s my father too.”
“…….”
Theo’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out.
He prided himself on having lived roughly enough to be called a delinquent, but compared to Luke, he was a nobleman.
He couldn’t even figure out how to react to such blatantly unfilial words.
But it wasn’t as if Theo had no grievances of his own.
“Do you think the secret arts being reduced to empty shells is all Father’s fault?”
“Then what happened to all those perfectly good secret arts? Anyone would think we don’t have a single commentary volume left.”
“You mean you don’t know? Our stupid ancestors sold off all the commentaries.”
Theo spat out the words, grinding his teeth.
The fact that crude speech he hadn’t used in a long time was coming out showed how much he had bottled up.
“After the Demon Dragon subjugation, those bastards fought tooth and nail over the position of the next family head.”
“They did.”
It was still an incomprehensible incident. His own children were not that stupid, and at the time, Schnelden had lost the majority of its forces in the Demon Dragon subjugation.
Where in the world were lunatics who would wage civil war with the bare minimum of troops?
“At that time, those bastards sold off everything—secret manuals and commentaries—to gather troops and war funds. They said they’d hand them over to anyone who joined their side.”
“…….”
“If it weren’t for those ancestors, I would’ve been born with a golden fork in my mouth too. Ah, this is bullshit.”
“No, those crazy bastards sold them? They should’ve at least kept the commentaries.”
Secret arts were created based on the founder’s enlightenment.
Naturally, their contents were inevitably ambiguous and complex.
Discerning the true essence within them was difficult even for first-rate knights.
Moreover, outdated expressions had accumulated over time, making the task even harder.
That was why the family had created commentaries for the secret manuals, adapting them to the modern era.
If those were missing?
The secret arts would effectively be obsolete.
A secret art without knowledge of its true essence was merely an imitation, literally.
No, it was almost embarrassing to call them imitations.
And yet they had sold such commentaries.
How could they think of such a thing unless they were determined to destroy the family?
“They probably figured that if they devoured the whole family by selling one core secret art, it didn’t matter. They could always write the commentaries again themselves.”
“Ha.”
They had lost most of their knights in the Demon Dragon subjugation, and the ones left behind to preserve the family line had sold the commentaries to wage civil war.
Then even those who had fought in the civil war died off almost entirely, so it was only natural that only the shells of the secret arts remained.
If one were asked to find the fastest way to destroy a family, this would undoubtedly be it.
‘Did someone interfere here too?’
Melbin Cornelio immediately came to Luke’s mind.
That his own children, famous for being gentle and affectionate, had committed such madness was far less plausible than Melbin having pulled strings behind the scenes.
Though the children who had been strung along weren’t without fault either.
‘Anyway, this is all in the past.’
Unless he regressed, there was no undoing Melbin’s interference itself.
But couldn’t he undo the results of that interference?
“Then we can just get them back now. If we recover even just a few commentaries, Schnelden won’t be in the state it is now.”
“Are you stupid? Those guys had to sell them so someone else could buy them. And we don’t have the money for that.”
And with good reason. The secret arts of Schnelden were all connected from beginning to end.
From the most basic Wind-Moon Greatsword to the final true essence, the Snowwind Sword.
If all of them could not be connected as one, they ultimately amounted to nothing but plausible counterfeits.
However, the secret arts of Schnelden were so powerful that even those counterfeits alone could instantly reverse the family’s standing.
Would anyone return such things just because you offered them money?
They would rather try collecting other secret manuals or commentaries.
Because if those secret arts connected even slightly, the family’s standing would leap several-fold.
“Grandfather and Father worked themselves to the bone trying to recover a few of them. We even found Surging Frost thanks to that.”
“Then what about restoring the commentaries? The original secret manuals remain, so they must be studying them.”
“They did study them.”
Theo spoke in the past tense.
Those words meant they were no longer doing so.
“They blew through what little family wealth remained while researching them.”
“Then what about now?”
“There are a few resident scholars, but they’re practically closed for business. Well, they keep at it among themselves, but what results can they achieve without research funds?”
“Hoo.”
Luke and Theo sighed simultaneously.
“But how do you not remember any of this? Are you really a member of our family?”
At Theo’s words, Luke realized he had gotten momentarily worked up.
He could maintain his composure with most things, but just hearing about the family going to ruin made it difficult to stay calm.
“Our break is over now, so let’s move to the next exercise.”
“Ah…… don’t you want to hear anything else?”
“No.”
“No, I mean, I could tell you something else.”
“Don’t try to pull any stunts. If we rest more, our workout efficiency drops.”
“I’m serious……. I’m not trying to rest…….”
Theo followed after Luke with a sullen face.
* * *
“Young Master, please be honest with me. Are you being bullied by the First Young Master during sword training?”
Torbin asked with a worried expression.
“Not at all.”
“Don’t lie. Your face looks terrible.”
“I’m telling the truth.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to ask for a change of instructor now? No matter how I think about it, training together with the First Young Master doesn’t seem right.”
“Do we even have anyone else in our house for that?”
“If a son earnestly asks, the family head’s heart might be moved.”
No matter how many times he denied it, Torbin’s expression remained full of worry and doubt.
It seemed rumors about Theo were still not favorable among the servants.
Well, considering the karma that bastard had built up until now, perceptions wouldn’t change easily.
They only exercised in the White Silver Hall as well, so there was no opportunity for others to witness it.
And it was true that his expression was dark because of Theo.
To be exact, it was because of what he had heard from Theo.
‘My children sold off all the family’s secret arts, and that’s why the house ended up like this—how could my expression be bright?’
He had expected to some degree that the family’s secret arts had been lost, but he hadn’t known they had vanished so completely.
Originally, the prestige of a martial family was determined by how deep and vast its secret arts were.
In that sense, present-day Schnelden was no different from a small-to-medium provincial family.
To raise the family back to its original position, he would first have to restore the commentaries for the secret arts the family possessed.
‘Restoring them itself isn’t a problem, though.’
For all his appearance, Luke was the greatest talent in the history of House Schnelden.
Restoring the commentaries for Schnelden’s major secret arts was as easy as drinking cold soup for him.
Not only that.
He could perhaps annotate some of the secret arts in even easier and more efficient ways.
‘The problem is how to deliver those restored commentaries to the family.’
That was precisely why Luke had been racking his brain for the past several days.
Given the current situation, delivering commentary texts to the family was not a very natural course of events.
There was the method of passing them down little by little to Theo or Rahitz, but the process was complicated and required a great deal of preliminary work.
For example, an explanation of how he knew the true essence of a secret art so precisely.
‘Still, I suppose I’ll have no choice but to pass them down to Theo?’
While Luke was thinking this, Torbin was still looking at him with worry.
“Or shall I quietly drop a hint about this situation to the head butler?”
“To Dion? What for?”
“Then it would naturally reach the family head as well.”
“Goodness, I told you there’s no need……. Wait.”
“What is it?”
“What did you just say?”
“That I would quietly hint to the head butler?”
“Yes, that’ll work!”
Luke’s eyes sparkled like lanterns.
A good idea had come to him.
“Right? Then I’ll go to the head butler right away!”
Luke stopped Torbin, who was turning to leave.
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
“Then what do you mean?”
“There’s a way.”
Torbin had no idea what he had done.
However, no trace of shadow remained on Luke’s face.
“Young Master, you are truly alright, aren’t you?”
“I had something troubling me all this time, but thanks to you, it’s all resolved.”
“Hmm…….”
Torbin wore an utterly bewildered expression.
And no wonder.
The thought that had just occurred to Luke was something only Luke himself could carry out.
‘I just need to drop a hint to the scholars myself.’
And if the scholars restored the commentaries using a hint they received from him?
It would be the most natural way to deliver the commentaries.
‘First, I should go to the research lab.’
He would only be able to decide whether to execute this plan after seeing the state of the research lab.
Hopefully, there would be at least one or two decent scholars there.
Luke prayed thus.