I Regressed to My Ruined Family – 28

 #I returned, and my family was ruined (28)

“You… Did you bring the divine sword?”

The divine sword, Drainion.

It was a sacred treasure that had been passed down from generation to generation to the heads of the family.

The sword of the gods.

It was a name that could be considered arrogant.

The sword’s performance was so great that it could be considered the best in the Western Continent.

It was the sword of the head of the family that had been wielded countless times in his previous life.

Even if the 10 collateral branches were arrogant, could they really have brought the divine sword?

Mana like a flame rose from within Ethan’s body.

The anger that had flared up in an instant was expressed outside his body.

Seeing that, the baron quickly shook his head.

“Calm down! Grand Prince! Even though we are the council of elders acting on behalf of the lord, we are not mad enough to take the divine sword! And the divine sword… As you know, Grand Prince, the blade is completely broken!”

“…What? The divine sword is broken?”

In all his life, he had never heard such a ridiculous story.

What kind of sword was the divine sword?

When it faced the Dragon Lord.

It was a weapon so strong that even the lord’s strike only left a slight crack.

A weapon that strong was completely broken?

The baron tilted his head at Ethan’s voice, which sounded as if he had lost all his strength in an instant.

“…Didn’t you know this too, Grand Duke? Why are you acting so surprised…?”

“…If you want to die painlessly, you’ll have to tell me everything in detail.”

“I’ll… I’ll tell you! I’ll…!”

The baron’s story flowed out from the quiet underground prison.

The gist of it was simple.

After the war with the Yongin tribe.

The head of the family and many other members had died.

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When the members of the duke’s family returned to the family home as corpses, the sword had already been broken beyond repair.

All that remained was the hilt.

Ethan immediately asked,

“…Did the Dragon Lord break the sword?”

“I don’t know that much. All that is known about the war with the Dragon Clan is that the previous head of the family and many other members of the family went to fight the Dragon Lord…”

Helmut swallowed hard and continued.

“After that, all the members of the duke’s family returned as corpses.”

“What happened to the Dragon Lord?”

“I don’t know that either. After that incident, the monster known as the Dragon Lord never showed his face again. The prevailing opinion is that he must have suffered fatal injuries, but…”

First, he had to gather more information.

“Why was the non-aggression pact signed in the first place?”

“There were rumors that the Duke’s sacrifice dealt a heavy blow to the Dragon Lord. After that, the Dragon Clan waited for their chance and proposed the non-aggression pact… The Zeno Empire was the first to accept the pact, and other countries followed suit.”

“The Zennon Empire?”

“…Yes. With the most powerful empire accepting the treaty, what choice did the other kingdoms have? They had no choice but to accept it as well. The same goes for our Kingdom of Haidern.”

“…Did you never even consider attacking the dragon tribe?”

“Huh… Grand Duke. Do you think the Yongin tribe consists of only one Yonggun? As you know, those monsters are not just one or two. Even if their leader was wounded, it would be too risky to go to war… They are too powerful.”

“…”

Damn them.

After pushing the enemy leader into such a corner, shouldn’t they have at least finished him off themselves?

In the end, all the Duke gained from this incident was the honor of sacrifice.

“Let me ask you one more thing. When you fought the Yongin tribe, were the humans being pushed back so badly?”

“……Have you lost your memory?”

“Answer my question before I cut out your tongue.”

“…The Zennon Empire was split down the middle. Our kingdom, Haidern, was the first to be attacked, and we were pushed back miserably in the early stages. It was only after the Duke joined the battle that the tide turned…”

‘The Zennon Empire…’

Even though the generals and division commanders were powerful, if there had been no Dragon Lord, we could have pushed them back.

If the Dragon Lord, that monster, hadn’t been wounded, and the situation had been even, we could have acted that way.

It was impossible not to wonder why they had signed a non-aggression pact at such a favorable moment.

“I’ll have to look into that later.”

Right now, he had no time to worry about the Xenos Empire. For now, he had to devote all his energy to recapturing the duke’s mansion.

But if he managed to restore his family’s honor…

“I’ll have to be prepared.”

If the truth about his actions ever came to light, he would cut off the heads of everyone in the empire, no matter who they were.

That was the respect he owed to his ancestors who had sacrificed themselves for the continent.

“As long as it’s not the new sword…”

There was one item that he believed to be his father’s.

“Let’s go.”

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“Yes, Grand Duke.”

Silvia, who had been quietly holding her breath, followed closely behind Ethan.

* *

The entrance to the fourth floor of the underground prison was located in a corner of the third floor.

After opening the door leading to the basement,

They descended the stairs to the lower floor. A solid iron door blocked the way. A magic circle was visible in the center of the iron door.

Ethan took out the necklace he had received from the baron. When he placed the necklace in the center of the magic circle, a humming sound was heard, followed by a cheerful sound from inside the iron door.

Click!

There was no doubt that the lock had been opened.

When he pushed the iron door open, the interior was revealed. All kinds of precious metals and various items were neatly arranged. These were the things that the baron had hoarded for decades.

Among them, what caught Ethan’s eye was a small lump of liquid.

The black liquid mass looked like a small slime.

“This is it.”

The Duke’s heirloom, the Eight Rings.

He recognized it at a glance.

This was one of the items that had been passed down to the heads of the family like a sacred sword.

“This is the first ring.”

Ring.

It meant “ring.”

It was literally a ring.

It was a ring that could place powerful restrictions on the entire body.

Ethan put his hand into the liquid.

The essence of fire throughout his body began to tremble.

It was the secret breathing technique of his family, Black Flame Breath.

The liquid began to tremble with the energy of the essence of fire created by his breath. Soon, the liquid sank into his body.

Silvia watched the scene with curiosity.

“Are you curious?”

“Yes. Can you tell me what it is?”

“It’s not really a secret. This is a Palhwan. It’s one of the items passed down in our family.”

“Palhwan?”

“It’s a ring-shaped metal made up of eight pieces.”

“If it’s metal, isn’t it dangerous to absorb it into your body?”

“This is a special item.”

According to records, Palhwan was created a very long time ago.

“Unique?”

“They say it was made by a god or something. Anyway, the only thing that’s certain is that as long as you meet the qualifications, there won’t be any side effects if you absorb it.”

There were three qualifications.

You must be a direct descendant of the duke with strong blood ties.

You must master the family’s secret breathing technique to produce the essence of fire.

Possess a certain level of fire energy within the body.

If these three conditions were met, the Palhwan could be absorbed into the body.

“That’s amazing. Does the Grand Prince meet those qualifications?”

“That’s right.”

Soon, the metal that had been writhing inside his body spread very faintly throughout his entire body.

Ethan vibrated the essence.

The mana of fire that flowed out began to be absorbed into the first ring that spread throughout his body.

The more it was absorbed, the heavier his entire body became.

It felt as if he was covered in iron rings.

Ethan smiled slightly at the heavy feeling.

“It’s been a long time.”

The first effect of the Eight Rings: increase.

It absorbs energy and increases the weight of the physical body. It was an excellent training tool.

And the second effect was…

“Liberation.”

It sent the absorbed energy back to the physical body. It was like a kind of reserve storage.

“What an excellent function.”

Before reaching the realm of transcendence, the total amount of energy that could be accumulated in the human body was determined to a certain extent for each realm.

It was impossible to accumulate energy indefinitely.

If one accumulated more energy than they could control, it could cause an explosion.

But with Palhwan?

You could store that energy in the Palhwan as a reserve and return it to your body whenever you wanted.

“Up to eight times the maximum.”

This meant that those who could use eight Palhwan could use five times more energy than a knight of the same level.

Right now, with one Hwan, he could store half that amount.

As he absorbed mana into the Hwan to its maximum capacity, he felt his body grow heavy.

Every movement felt like his muscles were screaming.

He was satisfied.

“If I can move freely even with eight Hwan implanted…”

He would be able to draw up enormous power in the process of liberation.

Not only would all physical limitations disappear, but he would also be able to draw up an incredible amount of energy.

The past heads of the family possessed great power.

One of the reasons for that was the Eight Rings.

“The rest are kept by other branches of the family, right?”

What they stole was not just the sword with only the hilt remaining, but the Eight Rings.

The usage and purpose of the Eight Rings were secrets passed down only to the next head of the family. Naturally, the collateral branches would not have known what this object was used for.

They probably just thought it was a valuable item belonging to the duke and stole it without thinking.

“Now I have one more reason to destroy them.”

Even if they couldn’t use it, it was one of the late duke’s possessions.

Even if they didn’t know the exact purpose of the Palhwan, they must have guessed that it was a valuable item. There was no way they would return it willingly, even if he asked nicely. In such a case, there was a very good solution.

Overwhelming power.

Ethan thought of his next target, the Romenton Baron’s mansion. His gaze turned to Silvia.

“Go to the baron and tell him to write down the names of all the families who took his father’s heirlooms.” “Yes, sir.”

A short time later, she handed Ethan a piece of paper.

“Here is the list.”

Ethan read the list and tilted his head.

“Is this the correct list?”

“I will check it again.”

“No, that’s not right.”

Just a day ago, Helmut was being severely tortured by Sylvia. Begging to be killed, he had no reason to lie.

“This is a real headache.”

Ethan smiled coldly as he looked at the list.

He had thought that all eight branches were scattered among the ten collateral families.

But that was not the case.

The locations of the eight pieces were scattered all over the place.

Three were in the 10 branches.

Four were in the 7 branches.

The remaining one had been sold to one of the vassals of the neighboring Lime Del Kingdom.

He immediately went to find Helmut.

“How did you find out where the eight pieces were?”

“…I obtained the information by exchanging information with other branches of the 10th generation. I swear it is the truth. I clearly heard other lords say that they had handed it over to the 7th generation of the kingdom.”

“Do you know why they handed it over to the 7th generation of the kingdom?”

“……I suppose it might have been to purchase technology rather than keep something useless…… Even I was considering whether to sell this and buy a copy of the Mana Breathing Technique manual……”

The Palhwan, a valuable heirloom from his father.

This was an item that must be recovered at all costs. However, it seemed unlikely that it could be recovered in the short term.

“First, I must eliminate all the collateral branches.”

Then, I must make contact with the Kingdom 7th House.

Of course, those arrogant bastards won’t easily return the Palhwan.

“I’ll deal with that when the time comes.”

One fortunate thing was that.

The next destination, the Romenton Southern House, was also a family that still possessed the Palhwan.

The next destination was now perfectly set. After gathering all the valuables in the fourth floor of the underground prison.

“Let’s go.”

Silvia and I escaped the prison.