I’m the Madman of This Family

Chapter 395. If You Want to Live, You Die (5)

The Lawless City of Ruquer was like a cancerous tumor of the world. Once anyone entered that place, there was no way to catch them.

Yet, the entire world left Ruquer alone because of the existence of the Grand Duke.

He was a being who wielded influence akin to a king or a god of a nation. It wasn’t worth provoking a god just for a few criminals.

However, if such a Grand Duke were to reveal himself directly, the story would change.

Moreover, the Grand Duke had absorbed Rukan, who had absorbed Queen Lilian. If the Grand Duke had fully absorbed Lilian, it would no longer be something that could be resolved with just an “army.”

The Lord of the West, Krona, and his disciple, Daat, relayed this situation to the kings of various nations. Upon hearing the news, the kings rose from their heavy thrones without a word.

They had been waiting for this situation. Frustrated by the constraints of causality that prevented them from fully exerting their influence in the mortal world, battle was nothing more than entertainment to them.

Boom! Crash! Bang!

The Grand Duke, who had effortlessly deflected every attack, was mercilessly crushed under the giant’s stomping feet.

The giant was none other than Adeus, the king of the Adeus Kingdom. True to his reputation as the king of barbarians, he was barefoot and bare-handed, smashing, punching, and slamming the Grand Duke.

It seemed the Grand Duke was overwhelmed by such primal attacks—

Snap.

With the sound of a finger snap, the ether emanating from his body transformed into the shape of a giant. Its size was easily twice that of Adeus.

“Ahahahaha! You’re showing off some interesting tricks!”

Adeus’s voice echoed loudly across the world. He was thoroughly amused as he began to fight the ether giant.

It seemed the Grand Duke had regained his freedom, but that couldn’t be the case. Capturing the Grand Duke was akin to absorbing two gods.

Swoosh.

A slash from somewhere split the space left and right. It wasn’t an illusion. The space had genuinely been split.

Everything in the path of that slash began to divide left and right, and the Grand Duke was no exception.

However, the Grand Duke grabbed the space with both hands and pulled it back to its original position.

“Thank you for not falling in one hit.”

Following King Adeus, a second god appeared. The king of the gourmet nation, Belferio.

He appeared as a handsome youth wielding a rapier, and as his rapier swung, the space was pierced and split.

Unlike Rukan, who had relied solely on brute force, the Grand Duke was also skilled in actual combat. Thus, he countered with a spatial slash of his own—

Clang.

His spatial slash had no effect on Belferio’s strike, and his body was once again split into pieces.

Only after being struck twice did the Grand Duke realize that Belferio’s slash wasn’t merely a spatial slash.

It was a slash that split the world, an attack that ignored space, rendering all of the Grand Duke’s attacks and defenses useless.

The Grand Duke’s brow furrowed. He couldn’t immediately think of a way to counter Belferio’s world-splitting strike.

“Hohoho. Thanks to you, I got to stretch my legs after a long time. I’ll make good use of your power.”

Belferio, as if intending to finish the Grand Duke with this strike, launched a cross-shaped slash—

“I don’t recall allowing that.”

A young boy appeared out of nowhere and dispelled Belferio’s slash with a mere gesture.

Belferio sneered at the boy.

“Samael. You said the human world was a nuisance, so what brings you here?”

“This isn’t a human matter.”

The emperor of the continent’s one and only empire, Samael, had also appeared to deal with the Grand Duke.

And that wasn’t all. Though not present at the moment, the king of Baen, Baen, was also lurking nearby, waiting for an opportunity.

In other words, all the kings of this land had gathered in one place. For one purpose only—to eliminate the Grand Duke.

If they had united and attacked the Grand Duke simultaneously, it would have been an execution, not a battle.

But the kings all coveted the divine power the Grand Duke possessed. With no desire to share it with others, they fought the Grand Duke while keeping each other in check.

Keter sighed deeply as he watched the war of the gods.

“Haah…”

While feeling relieved to have survived, Keter also felt a sense of frustration.

A massive reinforcement had arrived. Moreover, the armies of various nations had arrived and were fighting the Chimeras in place of the exhausted Dawn Army.

Thanks to Keter and the Dawn Army holding out, the Grand Duke had not yet fully absorbed Rukan, and the Chimeras were also tied down.

Though Keter’s victory and the Grand Duke’s defeat seemed certain, Keter didn’t feel that way.

“It can’t end like this.”

Many had died. It was a sacrifice so great it brought tears to one’s eyes. But to Keter, this level of sacrifice felt far too cheap.

Then, another summoning circle appeared in the sky. It was created by the Grand Duke, summoning the Evil God and the Evil Deity from the royal capital.

The battlefield expanded exponentially. Naturally, Keter and the Dawn Army, already exhausted and with many injured, fell back, and the reinforcements took the front lines.

Keter was also about to step back and think when—

As if someone had nudged him, his gaze turned to the right. There stood the Imperial Army, more disciplined than any other nation’s reinforcements, all equipped with the latest weaponry.

But what caught Keter’s attention was their commander. Though clad in full-body armor, the commander was unmistakably a woman.

Of course, it wasn’t because she was a woman that Keter’s gaze lingered.

“For the Crown Princess to personally take to the battlefield, the Empire is finally showing its true colors.”

Someone’s muttering stuck in Keter’s ear. The commander of the Imperial Army was none other than the Crown Princess, the next in line for the throne.

But beyond her special status, there was something about her that gripped Keter’s heart. Something more fundamental.

Coincidence or fate? Though the relationship between the Crown Princess and Keter was complicated and distant, their gazes met directly.

“……”

Perhaps the Crown Princess felt the same as Keter, as she locked eyes with him intensely. But she quickly averted her gaze.

Normally, when gazes cross, one would just move on, but not Keter. Even in the midst of exhaustion and chaos, Keter sought to understand the nature of the emotions he was feeling.

Just as he was about to run to her for his sake—

Thud.

A knight reached out and blocked Keter. As if he had anticipated it.

Keter raised his fist to strike the knight who blocked him but ultimately didn’t swing.

“Long time no see.”

At the unfamiliar yet familiar voice, Keter’s eyes widened as he recognized the knight’s face. Ten years had passed, but it was a face he could never forget.

“Luke?”

It was Luke, the knight assigned to help Keter adapt to Sephira, who had left for the Empire to find his birth parents.

He had returned as an Imperial knight, standing before Keter.

A temporary barracks built in the rear for the Dawn Army.

Keter grabbed a water jar and poured it over his head.

Splash!

“Now I feel alive.”

Wiping the water from his face, Keter sat on a dirt-made chair.

Across from him, Luke, now a middle-aged man, chuckled.

“You haven’t changed a bit.”

“You’ve changed.”

Dressed in Imperial armor, with medals symbolizing his rank, Luke didn’t look out of place at all. In fact, he looked quite comfortable.

Luke shrugged his shoulders and spoke.

“Turns out, I’m actually the illegitimate child of one of the Empire’s seven great ducal houses, the Celezen family. I uncovered the secret of my birth, but… the family wouldn’t accept me. No matter how hard I tried. So, I changed course. As you can see, I’m now part of the Imperial family.”

Keter responded succinctly to Luke’s summarized life story.

“You’ve been through a lot. Well done.”

“…You’ve changed too. Complimenting me like that.”

“Why did you stop me earlier? It wasn’t just to chat, was it?”

Though they were resting, the situation wasn’t fully resolved. As Keter got straight to the point, Luke sighed and spoke.

“The Crown Princess is guarded by the Prime Four. The guards will attack you even if they know you. That’s their way.”

Luke’s words, meant to protect Keter rather than the Crown Princess, made sense to Keter.

“What’s the Crown Princess’s name?”

“You don’t know the name of the Empire’s first empress-to-be?… You haven’t changed at all in ten years.”

“I’m in a hurry. So, what’s the Crown Princess’s name?”

“Vina. Her name is Vina.”

“Vina……”

Keter muttered the name.

Luke asked why Keter suddenly showed interest in the Crown Princess, but it didn’t register. Even Keter himself didn’t understand why he felt such overwhelming interest in her.

‘It’s not a rational attraction. It’s something profound. But this isn’t the first time I’ve felt this way. Where have I felt it before?’

Keter began retracing his memories in reverse, and only after recalling his life before regression did he realize.

‘When I first met Basil. I felt something similar.’

This person feels like ‘family’ to me. A certainty that doesn’t require proof of blood or anything else, something instinctive.

Absurdly, Keter was certain that the Crown Princess, Vina, was of the same ‘bloodline’ as him.

‘Of course, I have fathers in every nation, but no. It didn’t feel like seeing a half-sibling.’

If not a half-sibling, then there’s only one possibility. A full sibling, sharing the same mother and father.

“What the hell.”

Keter cursed out loud.

The Empire’s Crown Princess is either my younger sister or older sister? That would mean she was also born from Akra.

He wasn’t even curious about who the father was. The problem was that her appearance didn’t feel like a ‘coincidence’ at all.

A rough picture formed in Keter’s mind.

‘The Grand Duke, who absorbed Queen Lilian, is running rampant, and the gods of various nations have gathered here. And Akra’s plan was to eliminate all the gods…’

All the gods here could die.

Whether it was possible or not didn’t matter. Divine beings wouldn’t proceed with things in a ‘if it works, great; if not, whatever’ manner.

“This is insane, absolutely insane.”

As Keter muttered to himself in frustration, Luke quietly watched before standing up.

“Keter. I’m already overwhelmed just protecting my life, the man I consider my father, Jacques, and Sephira, which I consider my hometown. I can’t help you.”

“Alright.”

Keter waved his hand dismissively. It wasn’t as if Luke’s help would solve anything at this scale anyway.

Swish.

Luke pulled out a note from his pocket, placed it on the table, and left with a final remark.

“This is the best I can do.”

The note was too intriguing to ignore. Keter immediately opened it, and his eyes widened.

– Beware of the Imperial Army. They’re not just here to defeat the Demon King.

The ability of ‘Misfortune Reflection.’

The status of an Imperial knight.

None of it could help Keter.

But the information Luke provided was an invaluable clue, illuminating the path for Keter, who had been lost and unsure of what to do.

Keter muttered as he watched Luke leave.

“Guess there was some merit in keeping you around and teaching you.”

If there was a next time for him and Luke, Keter vowed to share a drink together.

Keter predicted that the gods’ battle wouldn’t end quickly. The fact that the gods of various nations weren’t united was a big reason, but more than that, it was because he knew the Grand Duke well.

‘The Grand Duke rarely steps out directly. If he’s stepping out, it’s because he’s confident.’

There’s still time. Not much, but at least the outcome won’t be decided immediately.

Swoosh!

At that moment, the tent flap was roughly pulled aside. Keter knew who it was just from the sound.

“Brother-in-law! You’re alive?”

The man who barged in, calling Keter ‘brother-in-law,’ was none other than Kwonhwang Hyperion. He wasn’t alone. Daat was with him.

‘Why is this guy calling me brother-in-law?’

As far as Keter knew, there was no reason for Hyperion to call him that. He must be using the word without knowing what it meant.

But then, Maknun winked at Keter, sending a silent signal.

Wink, wink.

Keter immediately understood and spread his arms to welcome Hyperion.

“Brother-in-law, you’re alive too!”

Hyperion grinned at Keter’s warm welcome.

“Who do you think I am? I’m the Kwonhwang. Oh, by the way, Alisa is doing well. She didn’t join this battle, but I’m putting in extra effort on her behalf, so don’t feel bad.”

Alisa. The lustful female dragon Keter had met in the Syndicate. Keter had introduced her to Hyperion.

And Hyperion seemed to believe that Alisa and Keter were family. They were different species, so calling them family was either stupid or naive.

Keter barely held back his urge to laugh. Regardless, without Hyperion’s help, things would have been really dangerous.

‘He’s a bit dumb, but he’s kind.’

If he had just come to check on Keter, he could have left, but Hyperion seemed to have more to say.

“I was about to have a drink. Care to join?”

“I’ll pass on the drink…”

Hyperion trailed off, glancing at Maknun. Maknun took the hint.

“I’ll set up a barrier so no sound leaks out.”

Once Maknun left and set up a spatial barrier, Hyperion finally spoke.

“Keter. I have something serious to tell you.”

Hyperion’s tone was grave.

Keter also tensed up. Though Hyperion was like the neighborhood strong but dumb guy, he was an 8-star Irregular. Perhaps Hyperion had figured out the hidden schemes of the Grand Duke and Akra.

“Go ahead.”

“Promise me first. What we discuss here goes to the grave.”

“In this nation, I’m the one with the tightest lips.”

“Good. You’re a madman, but a trustworthy one. I’ll trust you and speak.”

Kwonhwang Hyperion, who had fearlessly fought the invincible Grand Duke, now looked at Keter with a desperate expression.

“Take Alisa back. I can’t live with her anymore.”

Even the Grand Duke wasn’t scary, but his wife was terrifying to the Kwonhwang.

---