Heir to the Kingdom of 1.4 billion people

Chapter 168 The Magician's Past, Hagoromo's Excitement in the Hall of Starfire
Red Fox Castle, back courtyard.

"Welcome back, Master Rune."

"Don't call me young master, I don't belong here," the magician said coldly.

He turned around abruptly and saw the old man in front of him, whose hair and beard were all white and who was already quite old. His cold expression softened.

"Uncle Seris, you have so many wrinkles on your face now."

Rune's tone carried a hint of sadness.

Seeing the tall figure that had accompanied him as he grew up transformed into this state, Rune felt a sense of bewilderment, as if he had lived through another world.

“After all, it has been almost twenty years since you left home temporarily,” Seris said gently, bowing respectfully to the magician.

Rune wanted to argue that this wasn't his home, but looking at the old butler's weathered face, his lips moved several times before he finally couldn't say anything.

"Lord Rune, Countess Martha longs to see you. She asked me to convey to you whether you would be willing to accept the invitation from an older sister who has waited for her younger brother for over twenty years?"

"Seriously," Seris said softly, a clear plea appearing in his increasingly cloudy eyes.

It seems that for this old man who didn't have many years left to live, hoping for the siblings to reunite was his dying wish.

"Take me there."

Rune stood there in silence for a long time, but finally, considering the beautiful memories of the other person taking care of him as he grew up, he hesitantly agreed.

Main building, reception room.

A huge crystal chandelier hangs from the tall, arched ceiling, and prisms cascade down, splitting the candlelight into countless fragments that cast flowing light and shadow on the dark red velvet curtains.

A roaring fire burned in the fireplace, the pine wood crackling in the heat, and the warm, smoky scent of resin filled the air.

Upon seeing the elderly woman with a full head of silver hair standing quietly in front of the wall, gazing at the world-famous painting "The Knight's Last Whisper," even Rune, who had long since transformed into a demon, couldn't help but feel a sense of restraint.

"You've come, Rune."

Upon hearing the door open and footsteps, Rosa snapped out of her reverie of the portrait and turned to see the handsome young man in the black top hat. A hint of joy appeared on her deeply lined face.

"sit down."

The two sat down on the sofa, and a maid brought them two cups of twilight tea.

“This is the highest quality Twilight Tea, please have a taste,” Rosa said gently.

Rune gently swirled the teacup, revealing a deep twilight purple hue to the tea, as if the last rays of twilight had been condensed into liquid.

He took a small sip, and a familiar taste surged onto his tongue.

The tea tasted exactly the same as the tea he used to drink when he was a child. How could the man who disapproved of him and imprisoned him be willing to provide him with such precious tea?

Rune was taken aback. He knew very well that even for the Martha family, who dominated the entire Southern Territory, the highest quality Twilight Tea was still a rare and precious commodity.

Thinking of this, the magician's cold expression gradually softened.

"After all these years, I never expected that you would still look exactly the same as when I left, while I have become a very old woman."

Martha looked at Rune's still youthful face and couldn't help but sigh.

Rune wanted to explain, but Martha shook her head to stop him.

"I know you have many secrets, but I don't want to pry into them."

“To me, you are just a younger brother who has been away for a long time and is now back, nothing more,” Martha said calmly.

Rune fell silent. He wanted to say something, but in the end, he said nothing.

His feelings toward his biological sister, whom he had only met a few times, were quite complicated.

On the one hand, he was grateful to and respected the other party because all the members were deformed people, and the leader was a monster circus with heterochromia. The fact that the circus could travel and perform freely throughout the Southern Territory was inseparable from Rosa's secret help.

Even the Martha family crest on his hand was secretly delivered by Rosa through her eldest nephew, Roy.

On the other hand, because of that man, he was unable to accept his own bloodline and surname, and therefore always avoided his biological sister.

"Shall we go and take a look at the former earl's tombstone?"

Seeing his taciturn demeanor, Rosa thought for a moment and then spoke.

To avoid upsetting her younger brother, she didn't even dare to mention the word "father."

Rune didn't speak, but simply nodded slightly. The movement was so subtle, yet it still brought a bright smile to Rosa's face.

"Let's go."

After the two finished their tea, they got up and walked out of the reception room together, but there was still a considerable distance between them.

The cemetery on the back hill.

Under the bright moonlight, rows of gray-white stone tablets are neatly arranged on the gray grass.

Rosa led Rune through the cemetery, finally stopping in front of a row of tombstones that were taller than the others.

“This is it. All the past heads of the Martha family will be buried here, including me,” Rosa said softly.

Then, looking at the cluster of violets in full bloom in front of the last tombstone, the old woman's eyes became unfocused.

The flowers are growing so fast!
She had only planted it a short time ago.

Leo, are you protecting this bouquet of violets from the shadows?

Rune didn't notice her distraction; his entire focus was on the inscription on the second-to-last tombstone.

"Luo Feng Martha, the eleventh patriarch of the Martha family, is a father who has failed his children."

Rune stared intently at the last line of text, his heterochromatic purple-gold eyes filled with disbelief.

The father of the child feels ashamed. Is he referring to me?
That cold-blooded, ruthless man who hated him, imprisoned him, and regarded him as a disgrace to his family, actually felt guilty about this?!
The magician was in a state of utter confusion, as memories of the past rushed towards him like a swarm of butterflies.

He was born into the noblest family in the South, yet his count father regarded him as a calamity and a disgrace.

The reason for all this is that he was born with a pair of ominous heterochromatic eyes that are purple and gold, and that his mother died in childbirth when he was just born.

So, his father, in his anger, erased all traces of him, and no one knew that Mrs. Martha, who died in childbirth, had actually left behind a son. He wasn't even given the surname Martha, nor did he begin his name with the letter Ro, unlike other members of the direct line.

He was just an infant when he was placed alone in the courtyard behind the mountain. The only people who took care of him were an old maid and a butler who would visit and look after him from time to time.

He had no right to leave the courtyard, so as a child he could only lie blankly under the big oak tree in the center of the courtyard, staring at the lush canopy and letting his mind wander.

The man would visit him about once a year, and each time he would just glare at him coldly, put down some food and toys, and then turn and leave.

Fortunately, the butler brought him a book explaining magic tricks, which he read with great enthusiasm. Thus, his childhood was spent practicing various magic tricks, which became a ray of light in the darkness.

Later, when he was eight years old, he learned that his biological sister was going to get married. Perhaps he was too lonely, or perhaps he had been staying in this small courtyard for too long, he begged the housekeeper if he could secretly take him out to attend the wedding. He just wanted to catch a glimpse of his sister.
As if by miracle, the butler agreed.

So after putting on a one-eyed eyepatch to cover his right eye, he excitedly ran to the wedding venue.

A stunningly beautiful young woman with purple hair in a wedding dress, and a tall, handsome, and strong young man—when he saw them walking hand in hand, he felt so proud and wanted to shout to everyone, "This is my sister and brother-in-law, and I am their brother!"

Unfortunately, he couldn't do that, so he could only try to attract their attention by performing magic tricks for the guests.

He succeeded. The guests burst into laughter at the cute little boy wearing an eye patch. Even his sister covered her mouth and smiled, taking his hand and bringing him candy.

My sister's hands are so warm~
That was the happiest day of his childhood, but soon during the magic performance, his blindfold accidentally fell off, revealing his right eye, which shone like molten gold.

The guests were taken aback by the sight and looked at each other in dismay, while some whispered among themselves because of his left eye, which was the same violet color as the bride's.

Upon hearing the news, Count Martha rushed over and flew into a rage. He grabbed him by the collar, threw him back into the courtyard on the back hill, and ordered him never to leave again.

But even so, he was already very satisfied.

Because those brief, beautiful memories were enough to sustain him through the emptiness that followed.

Several years have passed in the blink of an eye. During this time, he has grown into a handsome young man and has received the blessing of God, becoming a mutant professional magician.

And on that very day, the man died.

The sister of the newly appointed Earl Martha arrived in the courtyard with a face full of guilt. She said, "Rune, you are now free. I will tell everyone that you are my brother and that you are a member of the Martha family."

After she finished speaking, she tried to hug him, but the boy gently pushed her away.

“I was never a part of Martha,” he said calmly.

Over the past decade or so of living alone, his last shred of identification with Martha had long since vanished.

He denied his lineage; he was not Rune Martha, he was just Rune, a commoner magician, nothing more.

Moreover, he already had an ideal—he wanted to start a circus to take in people like him who were not accepted by the world, to provide them with a place to belong, a lively place like a big family, and he would call it the Monster Circus.

“Count, thank you for granting me my freedom.”

After bowing gracefully, he transformed into fluttering petals and left the courtyard that had always bound him.

After that, he went through more than 20 years of wandering and displacement. Gradually, he formed a group of lovely members and a family, and in a sense, he also became a father.
The memory stopped abruptly.

Rune then noticed that the old woman beside him was staring blankly at the violets blooming in front of the last tombstone.

The love story between Crimson Flame and Martha's only daughter is known throughout the Southern Reach, so he could naturally guess who the tombstone belonged to.

Rune held the greatest knight in history in high esteem, who had sacrificed his life to absolve the grain tax and save all the people of the Southern Territory. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he was the person Rune admired most.

He couldn't do that, but that doesn't stop him from admiring such people.

In the past, there were times when he was even proud that Crimson Fire was his brother-in-law.

With that in mind, Rune hesitated for a long time before finally using magic to conjure a thick wool cloak and gently draped it over the old woman's shoulders.

“I think if Crimson Fire were still alive, he wouldn’t want to see his wife standing before his tombstone in the dead of night, exposed to the cold night wind,” Rune said softly.

Rosa wrapped her cloak tighter around herself, feeling the warmth, and a touch of emotion appeared on her weathered face.

"My brother"

"and many more!"

She was about to speak when she was interrupted by Rune, whose body tensed up immediately upon hearing those words.

“At least for now, I don’t want to hear that word,” the magician said hesitantly.

"It's alright. I've waited for you for over twenty years, so a few more days won't make a difference." Rosa smiled slightly.

I only ask that before I go to the underworld to be with Leo, I hear you call me "sister" once.

Rosa silently added in her mind.

The two then left the cemetery together, but under the moonlight, the distance between their shadows was noticeably shorter than when they set off.

They really do look like a brother and sister.

Spark Hall.

Beneath the crystal dome, twelve prisms stand on the bronze ground, with torches burning fiercely on them.

A torchlight carrying a black-haired figure appeared in the hall, and the three people who had been waiting there showed joy on their faces when they saw this.

"Good evening, Your Highness." x3
"Good evening," Xia Mingyu said gently.

At the same time, he felt a little helpless, as he had slept from dawn until late at night and was still asleep.
"Your Highness, yesterday, did you summon Tamerlan across space to your side to slay enemies for you?"

As soon as he sat down at the bronze table, Haggex asked impatiently.

After Xia Mingyu nodded slightly in acknowledgment, this giant, who was seen by everyone in the entire slave city as a brave and fearless hero from a divine era, now showed a deep sense of disappointment on his heroic face.

He felt that the prince must have summoned Tamerlan instead of him because there was something wrong with him, such as he was too weak, looked too fierce, or couldn't speak properly.

"Ahem, Hagoromo, next time I encounter an enemy, you'll be the one to hold them off for me."

Seeing Haggex's dejected expression, Xia Mingyu roughly guessed what he was thinking, so he gently comforted him.

The next moment, Hagoromo's pupils suddenly contracted, then burst forth with an astonishing light.

His head, which had been drooping like a withered branch, suddenly rose, his burning gaze fixed on Xia Mingyu in the main seat, and he said loudly:
"My lord, I swear to the gods that when you summon me, I will crush your enemies into a bloody mist, and anyone who wants to harm you must first step over my corpse twelve times!"

(End of this chapter)