I Regressed to My Ruined Family – 18

 #I returned, and my family was ruined (18)

They say that when people are too shocked, they are speechless.

That was exactly the situation now.

Ethan tried to understand the situation.

The situation was simple.

Not only did some crazy guy suddenly approach him, but he also threw a purse full of gold coins at him.

It was more than just being ignored; it was outright humiliation in front of everyone.

“Buying something twice really brings all kinds of trouble.”

This was something he could never have imagined in his previous life.

Normally, if he had picked up a bag without knowing what was inside, his wrist would have been cut off by his subordinates.

He had a rough idea of the situation.

There was not a single reason to hold back.

Ethan’s figure became blurry.

The moment Luin blinked.

Ethan was already right in front of him.

Their eyes met for a moment.

Soon, Luin’s vision began to flash. The intense pain in his cheek was just the beginning.

“…What?”

Did he really hit me?

Ruini, the third son of Baron Caragas?

I was extremely confused.

Anger rose within me.

“You bastard…”

Ruin tried to speak but swallowed hard. Not only had he been grabbed by the collar, but his body had been lifted into the air.

“You brat! Let go of me! How dare you, the third son of Baron Karugas…”

He still hadn’t regained his senses.

He slapped the boy’s cheek repeatedly.

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Smack!

Smack!

Smack!

“Stop it!”

Ruin, who was struggling, hurriedly circulated the mana inside his body.

It was the mana breathing technique his father had taught him long ago.

Through that, he had accumulated a considerable amount of mana and achieved a certain level of mastery. He was skilled enough to defeat a second-rank knight without much trouble.

Ruin gathered all his mana and reached for the man’s throat.

He intended to break his wrist. Ethan laughed softly when he saw the boy’s mana.

“This guy stole the mana breathing technique too.”

It wasn’t the lowest-level mana breathing technique that knights in training learned, like the one the leader of the Red Scorpions used last time.

It was an advanced mana breathing technique that only knights considered elite in his family learned.

“But something seems off.”

What he had learned was definitely an advanced mana breathing technique.

But…

“It seems like he learned it very poorly.”

How can he handle mana like this?

What good is an advanced breathing technique?

The person using it can’t even begin to grasp its subtleties.

He lightly grabbed the guy’s hand.

“Let go of that!”

He struggled violently, but it wasn’t difficult to subdue him.

The quantity and quality of mana. And control ability.

There wasn’t a single area where this maniac could catch up to him.

Moreover, knights who had learned the breathing technique of the family were nothing more than prey to the direct descendants.

This was because the direct descendants learned suppression techniques that matched the breathing technique of the family in case a member of the family betrayed them. Elena and Myers didn’t know this, but Ethan was different.

“If it’s an advanced breathing technique.”

He touched a few spots while pouring mana into them, and the mana in the guy’s body disappeared as if it had been washed away.

“What the hell! Where did my mana go?”

Could his mana hole have been broken?

Ruin hurriedly checked his body. His mana hole was definitely still there.

But where was his mana?

What kind of magic was this?

He looked at Ethan in a panic.

He was the only one who could give him the answer.

Ethan smiled slightly and said,

“I sealed it.”

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“…Sealed?”

“You won’t be able to use mana without my permission.”

Advanced breathing technique.

This was a technique only granted to knights who were exceptionally skilled, talented, and loyal within the family.

If a knight who truly understood the technique had reached out, even he would not have been able to seal the mana easily.

However, sealing this madman’s mana was easier than yawning.

It meant that he didn’t know anything about how to handle mana.

“…You can’t use mana?”

“Let’s fight first.”

Punch!

Fists rained down on Ruin’s body without pause.

Each blow was so painful that it hurt his bones.

But he couldn’t even scream. He had no idea what kind of magic he was using, but he couldn’t even make a sound.

“Aaah!”

He screamed hundreds of times in his mind.

Then, he gradually lost consciousness.

* *

After the third son of the Count of Caragas fainted,

Ethan frowned.

He could see that the man’s pants were wet.

He immediately threw the man onto the floor of the training ground.

Ethan’s gaze naturally turned to the man’s servant.

“…Hee! Please spare my life! Your Highness!”

“Your name.”

“My name is Shuron. That man is the third prince, Ruin…”

“Why are you here?”

“The baron told me to deliver an invitation and some financial aid.”

Ethan held out his hand.

Shuron, who had been looking back and forth between the unconscious Ruin and Ethan, hurriedly said,

“Your Highness!”

“Why?”

“That’s it! The amount that the Third Prince gave me earlier was only one-tenth of the original amount!”

He didn’t know what kind of trouble he would get into if he said that the financial aid was only 10 gold coins rolling around on the floor.

No matter how he looked at it, it had to be at least 100 gold coins to be acceptable.

“One-tenth?”

“Yes. The truth is…”

He began to spill everything he knew.

“So that bastard tried to pocket 90 gold coins out of 100?”

“Yes! That’s right!”

He looked like a piece of trash, and he was just as expected.

It was a good thing he was beaten to the point of fainting.

“Bring it here.”

“Yes!”

Shuron rummaged through Ruin’s pockets and handed him a piece of paper along with 100 gold coins.

Ethan read the contents and chuckled.

In a nutshell, it said that they should get along well from now on.

He tore up the paper.

“Um… Your Highness?”

“What is it?”

“Are you planning to decline the invitation?”

“No, that’s not it.”

He had to go to the baron’s headquarters to deal with him anyway.

Since he was going there, it would be better to take the carriage with the invitation in hand.

“Wait here.”

“Yes!”

Ethan entered the hunting lodge.

Myers and Hans.

The two had already left for the Count of Pernes’ residence.

Only Elena and her attendants remained in the hunting lodge.

He approached Elena.

“Sister.”

“Yes?”

“Are you practicing what I taught you?”

“Yes. Mana is gathering faster than I expected.”

Recently, he had been teaching Elena simple self-defense techniques along with the Black Flame Breath. This was so that she could at least protect herself if she ever found herself alone.

Perhaps because she had received a blessing from the Lord of Fire, she was making good progress in her lessons.

“At her current level, she should be able to defeat a 1-star knight without any trouble.”

Compared to the past, when she couldn’t even defeat a thug, let alone a 1st-class knight, it was a huge improvement.

“Keep training hard.”

“Are you going somewhere?”

“I’m going to visit the viscount.”

“Huh? Why all of a sudden?”

“It’s tax season. I’m going to check if there are any problems.”

“Really? Okay, have a safe trip, Ethan.”

“Oh, and soon, you’ll have a bodyguard.”

“Huh? A bodyguard?”

“I got some help from someone I know.”

Elena’s face fell.

“A bodyguard…?”

“You are the eldest daughter of Duke Ardan. You have to get used to things like this.”

“Ugh. Thank you, Ethan.”

“It will take about a week at most before I return.”

“I understand.”

After telling Elena, Ethan gathered his belongings.

All he took with him was a pair of swords.

“I sent a letter to Jayron.”

He was the eldest son of the Viscount of Besos. The Viscount’s family was one of the merchant families responsible for the import and export of the Kingdom of Haidern.

Although their family fortune had declined since they had provided support fifteen years ago.

“The Viscount of Besos must have enough power to enter the royal palace.”

He had already given him one of the products he knew about and heard that it was selling well.

He had offered a helping hand once, so now it was time to receive his reward.

The first thing he asked Jayron was to submit a petition to the king.

One crystal ball engraved with the scene of him stealing the family’s secret recipe, and another engraved with the fact that he had blatantly violated the vassal contract.

He made copies of each crystal ball and delivered them along with a letter.

If Jayron used his family’s power to submit a petition to the royal palace?

“Pass.”

If he couldn’t?

“Fail.”

It would be better to get a passing grade. No matter how much he remembered from the past, he couldn’t take an incompetent person as a colleague. He added one more simple request.

He asked Elena to assign a knight from the marquis’s household to him.

The fourth son, Myers.

It wasn’t in the best interest of the collateral branches who were pushing him to mess with Elena.

It was already well known that the youngest followed his sister well.

Still, you never know what might happen in this world.

It wouldn’t hurt to prepare for the worst. I couldn’t hire some clumsy mercenary, so I made a separate request to Jayron.

“You said you’d have it ready in three days, right?”

That was enough to put my mind at ease.

He went outside and got into a carriage.

The carriage set off for the viscount’s residence.

The viscount’s residence was located in the small town of Poert.

It was the most developed place in the viscount’s domain and also the home of his enemies.

Thanks to the carriage, they arrived in Poert in a day.

As we passed through the city gates, he saw countless serfs bustling about. It was a city so large that it was embarrassing to compare it to a village. Even after entering the outer city, they drove for quite some time.

Only then did the inner city come into view.

It was a much larger place than he had imagined.

“How magnificent.”

Compared to the hunting lodge where his sister and family had lived, it was like a palace.

In both his past life and present life.

The Duke sacrificed everything his family had twice to stop the Yongin tribe.

But the result…

“It was to enrich the side branches who played no role whatsoever.”

He felt dirty.

In his previous life, there were countless such people. They grew rich by sucking the blood of others.

He would have been grateful if they had at least shown gratitude for that.

However, from what Ethan had seen, most of them were the exact opposite.

“It’s still the same now.”

The Duke’s family had maintained low tax rates for the people of the domain for a long time.

But what about now?

Less than seven years after the tenth collateral branch ascended to the throne, taxes in the duke’s domain had risen to nearly the maximum rate specified in the contract.

When he first heard about it, he was so outraged that he felt like he was about to explode.

After all, the duke’s family would end up being blamed for their actions.

Their tyranny did not stop there. Starting with the family’s secret documents that are currently spreading throughout the world, they even drove the direct descendants who should have received benefits to hunting lodges with poor conditions.

The 10 collateral branches.

They have crossed the line of mercy.

So now, I intend to mete out punishment. I will start with the southern branch of the family, who is about to arrive.

The carriage entered the inner castle.

“We’re here!”

I got out of the carriage at the coachman’s words.

I immediately felt a sharp gaze on me.

“Was it Ruin?”

His face looked exactly like that guy’s.

Soon, the guy who had been glaring at us approached Ethan.

“Where’s the third one? Did he go to the gambling house on the way here?”

“Who are you to talk to me like that?”

“Answer my question.”

Not only did they look alike, but they even had the same arrogant attitude.

“Did the baron tell you to do that?”

“What?”

Dexter, the second son of the baron, narrowed his eyes. The reason that guy was acting so cocky was probably because of Helmut’s polite invitation letter.

It made him feel bad.

What was so scary about that guy that he sent his third son to deliver an invitation letter?

The baron’s behavior was too timid.

It was only a matter of time before he would have to deal with someone who relied solely on the family’s reputation.

Dexter had no intention of acting like Helmut.

He whispered quietly, as if warning him.

“You seem to be feeling cocky because you received an invitation from my father, but you’d better watch your behavior. Don’t you know where you are right now?”

This was the Caragas family mansion, one of the ten branches of the main family.

Even if that guy acts like a thunderbolt outside, here, he could be taken out without anyone noticing.

“I’ll let you get away with acting like you’re all that because of your family, but that’s as far as it goes. So just shut up and get out of here. Unless you want your flabby limbs to be completely torn apart.”

“You have no respect for your direct family.”

Dexter couldn’t hold back his scorn and said with a sneer.

“I never imagined that there would still be an idiot who still talks about direct family. It’s really surprising. But then again, you’ve been in a coma for ten years, so it’s understandable.”

Soon after, he whispered quietly.

“Face reality. You have nothing left now. Is there still a shred of the shallow fame you gained by sacrificing yourself like a fool?”

The idiotic citizens still trembled at the mention of Ardan’s name. For the collateral relatives, the importance of the direct line ended there.

“You’re nothing but a fancy signboard. That’s all you’re good for. So just live quietly. Don’t act like you don’t know what’s going on…”

Dexter couldn’t finish his sentence.

The moment the Grand Prince moved his arm, he felt tremendous pain in his cheek and flew into the air.

Thud!

“Guh!”

As he let out a scream, his teeth began to fall out of his mouth.