“Why are you here?” Ferguillo asked, still faint and indifferent as he watched the magenta-haired boy approach his way.
“I came especially to watch your match.”
The handsome magenta-haired boy looked at Ferguillo, all smiles. “You might be a mere defeated sacrificial pawn in the struggle for fiefdoms, but as far as blood relationships go, I still have to call you cousin, right? I came especially to see if you made any progress compared to last year.”
“Cousin? This guy is Ferguillo’s junior cousin?” Ayrin was stunned all of a sudden.
“What, the boss is from clan Baratheon?” All the members of team Iron Forest were also taken aback. They obviously didn’t know about it either.
Ferguillo watched the magenta-haired boy. The later was all smiles, yet one couldn’t help but shiver all over at the sight of him. Ferguillo stayed silent.
The magenta-haired boy smiled faintly in ridicule. “What, I spent a lot of time on the road to rush here just for your match, are you going to be so cold now?”
Ferguilo merely said in an indifferent tone, “If I recall correctly, you should have a match as well.”
“We’re not like you guys. Qualifying is simply not an issue we have to worry about. Even without me, my academy’s team is still able to qualify very easily for the national tournament.” The handsome magenta-haired boy also took back his smile, and said in a soft arrogant voice, “You though, my senior cousin, you have to do your best. If you lost even to a team like that and can’t even qualify out of St. Lauren, that’d be a true loss of face for our clan.”
“Who the hell is this guy?”
Others were still alright, but even Ayrin’s nose threatened to crook from anger. “What does he mean lose even against a team like that? What the hell did this guy come here for!”
“Rinsyi! It’s really Rinsyi from clan Baratheon!” Behind Ayrin, Moss came back to his senses and pulled on Ayrin’s clothes as if his life depended on it. He wanted to tell Ayrin not to shout out so loud.
Ayrin gloomily slapped Moss’ hand away. He turned his head around and asked Chris and Carter standing beside him, “What kind of clan is clan Baratheon now?”
“A clan that stands side by side with clan Lannister, one of the nine great clans of our kingdom of Eiche.” Chris breathed in deeply. She turned her head around toward Ayrin to explain, “They have the highest amount of feudal lords and fiefdoms in the entire kingdom, they’re also called the ‘Storm clan.’”
“Also, clan Baratheon is an existence that possesses dragon bloodlines and dragon knights!” Moss added impatiently against Ayrin’s ear, “Rinsyi is second in clan Baratheon’s line of succession, and he’s also the captain of team Golden Stag. Golden Stag Academy finished third in the great national tournament last year!”
“Third?”
Ayrin shouted, “A mere third place, he can’t even beat the champions and the vice-champions, yet he still acts so arrogant! What do you mean this kind of team, what do you mean lose face for the clan!”
“Hiss…”
Everyone around them hissed and gasped when they heard Ayrin’s words.
Even Ferguillo’s eyes carried a little peculiar meaning when he looked at Ayrin.
“You’re very gutsy.”
Rinsyi had been walking forward without paying attention to anthing else, but now he halted all of a sudden and turned around to give Ayrin a look that could make someone tremble all over from fear. “Is that what they mean when they say that the ignorant is fearless? If a team like yours is lucky enough to appear on the national tournament’s stage, you’ll realize how much of a gap there is between a team like yours and a team like mine. I can tell you that just on the depth of your bench, there’s absolutely no comparison between your team and genuinely powerful teams.”
“Also.” After a faint pause, he added with a faint smile at Ayrin, “If you’re even a little more lucky and manage to go a little further to encounter us, then you better not take to the field in the match, or else my hand might slip and I might accidentally kill you.”
His tone was very mild and gentle, as if he were very sincere and were merely warning him in good faith, but one couldn’t help but feel chills coming from the bottom of the heart.
“If we meet each other, I’ll definitely beat you!” Ayrin shouted. His fighting spirit ignited as soon as he heard the threat in Rinsyi’s words.
“You really want to die.” A strong desire to kill arose inside Rinsyi, yet his face merely exposed a slightly mocking smile. Without saying anything else, he turned around and continued walking toward the entrance of the arena.
“Now it’s becoming fun.” Stingham said, full of schadenfreude, “You’re really going to die if you meet him in a match. I heard that this guy is called a “God of Death” in the tournament field. Referees even have special arrangements for his matches, precisely out of fear he might kill his opponents. Although, even though there are very powerful elite arcane masters ready to stop him at any moment, he still heavily crippled several opponents.”
“Ferguillo, this guy is really your younger cousin?” Ayrin didn’t pay attention to Stingham’s schadenfreude. He couldn’t help but ask Ferguillo, “Why doesn’t he show you any courtesy?”
Ferguillo hesitated slightly, but he still nodded faintly and said, “You could say it’s true from the point of view of blood relationships.”
“He should still feel threatened by you, that’s why he came here.” Lee, the teacher in charge of team Iron Forest, patted Ferguillo’s shoulder. “No matter what, this is something to be proud of.”
“To be looked down by someone from high above, this isn’t anything to be proud of no matter how powerful the opponent is. The one thing worthy of pride would be to knock him out.”
Ferguillo still shook his head however, and faintly said a few words, then directly walked forward toward the entrance of the tunnel reserved for the tournament contestants. Wilde and the other members of team Iron Forest immediately followed behind him.
Lee blinked faintly. Then he exposed a little smile and waved his hand at Carter. “Since things turned out this way, then we’ll see each other soon again in the match.”
Seeing the Iron Forest people walk first inside the venue, Ayrin couldn’t help but look at Carter and ask, “Teacher Carter, what on earth is there between Ferguillo and this Rinsyi? Also, just how strong is this Rinsyi?”
“Chris and Moss told you already just now. Clan Baratheon is one of the nine great clans of our kingdom of Eiche.” Carter’s eyes still rested on Rinsyi’s back. “It isn’t a matter of the territories they control, it’s purely determined by the clan’s battle prowess. These nine great clans, apart from all possessing the inheritance of special bloodlines and special arcane skills, the most important thing is that they all possess genuine dragon knights.”
“The so-called dragon knights are battlemasters with a contract with genuine dragons and who fight alongside them. You already saw these dragon bones inside the Dragon-Battling Arena, so you can imagine how formidable these genuine dragons are, how formidable the arcane masters who can obtain the dragons’ approval are.”
“Genuine dragons?” Ayrin was a little startled. “These nine great clans are all existences possessing genuine dragons?”
“Indeed.” Carter nodded and said in all seriousness, “In our kingdom of Eiche, dragon knights only exist within these nine great clans. Dragon knights are peak existences on a battlefield even in the entire continent of Doraster. Apart from genuine dragons, these clans will also have inherited some dragon items, dragon eggs, or perhaps holy items that accumulated dragon auras and dragon blood. That’s why, for a great part of the many arcane masters following these nine great clans, their reason is because after joining the clan, they have the possibility of obtaining dragon blood, and even become one of the strongest arcane masters of the kingdom, a dragon knight.”
“Clan Baratheon possesses the storm dragons’ bloodline’s inheritance. Their eyes are the same as storm dragons, a dusky yellow like the Cygnus constellation.”
“Teacher Carter, this Rinsyi seems to have yellow eyes, but why are Ferguillo’s eyes of a different color since he has the same bloodline?” Ayrin couldn’t help but interrupt with a question.
“Don’t be in a hurry, wait for me to finish.” Carter led the team slowly toward the entrance to the tunnel reserved for the contestants, saying at the same time, “Unlike the other great clans, clan Baratheon has special family rules. To preserve the purity of their bloodline, to guarantee the vitality and battle strength of their later generations, their clan has a strict inner competitive and filtering mechanism. They only allow internal marriage inside the clan.”
“Internal marriage in the clan?”
“Yes, just like some ancient clans already fallen to dust. They can maintain the purity of their bloodline, and prevent other miscellaneous bloodlines from mixing in. But clan Baratheon is after all a clan with a large population possessing seven fiefdoms, so various issues concerning heredity will crop up.” Carter looked at an astonished Ayrin and nodded. “Some bloodline mutations might be judged not powerful enough, and will be banished from clan Baratheon’s territories and cut off from any further resource from clan Baratheon. Many banished branches become hostile to the lord who banished them, while the Baratheon’s main line will also always feel some vigilance, feel some threat from these banished people, thus creating enough pressure for clan Baratheon to keep thriving without degenerating. They’ve always believed that without a strong enough threat, a clan can’t stay mighty and will slowly rot. So Ferguillo should be one of those banished from the clan.”
“But didn’t many ancient pure-blooded clans and some small-scale kingdoms see their population dwindle more and more, precisely because they refused to intermarry with other clans after the War of the Dragons, then ultimately disappear?” Ayrin asked confusedly.
“For these clans, they would rather die than fall from power.” Carter glanced at him and said, “Also, powerful people always believe that they will find a solution when the crisis approaches. Perhaps they will only change when they really can’t handle it anymore.”
Carter let out a slow breath, then looked at Ayrin and added, “Rinsyi’s dusky yellow eyes are nicknamed storm eyes. The storm arcane skills they use are more than twice stronger than ordinary arcane masters using the same arcane skills. Also, people in clan Baratheon struggle with people of their own clan almost from the moment they’re born, hence almost every one of them is extremely paranoid, they’re all existences no one wants to provoke. So, if you really met him in a tournament field, it wouldn’t be just mere words, he would definitely fight you with the determination to kill you.”
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