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***
Dungeon, the lowest level.
It had been two days since Joshua was confined here.
His limbs were bound to the wall, his eyes devoid of focus.
The gag in his mouth, fastened tightly, rendered him unable to even bite his own tongue.
'It can't end like this...….'
But what could I do?
His bound limbs were pierced with iron spikes like nannies of reserve flagbearers, and the knights he trusted turned out to be servants of his mother.
The siblings, once regarded as close as Myu and Anne, had no power to rescue him, and the elder council was no different.
He couldn't pin his hopes on the hunting dogs raised outside the clan.
They couldn't possibly break through this dungeon, and, from the start, his hunting dogs were not as blindly devoted as Taimyun's offspring.
The hunting dogs would lose their focus and collapse.
Now that he has fallen, the other flagbearers closest to the throne.
Luntia, Diphus, Mary, and Jin. There was only a slim chance if they personally petitioned, but that is absolutely impossible.
Even if his father in the Black Sea knew of this fact, there was no chance of him revoking his mother's order.
Even ending his own life was impossible.
The dungeon of Runcandel was not a place to kill prisoners.
Whether the subject was human, dragon, demon, or anything else, the goal was to isolate the prisoner in complete solitude until the end of their lives.
If a person refuses to eat, he or she is forced to eat, and suicide attempts were futile.
Not even the prophet could get him out of this place.
'I can't do anything. I can't rely on anything.'
If there was at least one thing, a sliver of hope to bet on.
'Mother.'
The cruel mother who had pushed him into this very hell, personally coming forward to offer a way back up to the surface.
That was the only means to ascend again.
Kiiing...
The sound of the entrance to the lowest level opening echoed from afar.
Joshua, fixing his blurry gaze, looked towards the closed door.
If that door opened, his mother would come in, or so he hoped.
It was quite a while after that the door of Joshua's prison cell finally opened.
"What a sight, 2nd flagbearer... Ah, no, you're not a flagbearer anymore."
An old, serpent-like voice.
It was Jorden Runcandel.
He pulled out Joshua's gag and clicked his tongue.
"How does it feel to fall?"
"Chief of Black Sword Association...!"
"Don't look at me like that. I didn't come to mock you."
Jorden then freed Joshua's limbs that were tied to the wall.
"I may not have been imprisoned, but my situation is not much different from yours."
"What are you talking about?"
"I may not have lost my limbs, but I've lost everything else. Though I haven't suffered public disgrace like you, my pride has been trampled to the ground by the acting matriarch of the clan."
Black Sword Association, clan's punishment unit composed of particularly powerful elders.
Jorden was no longer their leader.
Although he still held the position of Chief of Black Sword Association, the command had completely passed to Rosa.
Of course, all the forces of the clan were in the hands of the patriarch and the acting matriarch. Still, Jorden could no longer personally maneuver the Black Sword Association under any circumstances.
It was because of the Exile Incident.
"Both you and I. We fell at the hands of the 12th flagbearer."
"I..."
"Are you trying to say that you are here not as a result of being defeated by the 12th flagbearer, but because of the acting matriarch?"
Joshua couldn't answer.
"Stop denying it. We lost. Perfectly."
"..... What are your plans, Chief of Black Sword Association?"
"Fortunately, my head is still attached, so I have to plan for the next step. You're asking the obvious. And... aren't you in the same situation?"
"In the same situation... As far as I know, you have never experienced such a fall. Didn't you survive after being treated like a bug by my father? Did you gnaw away yourself with the futile desire to become the patriarch? Did you lose the Black Sword Association? Not a single one of these can be compared to the cold floor of this dungeon."
Snickering, Jorden let out a laugh.
"Kids like you might think so."
"Huh, you said you didn't come to mock. In the end, you came to gloat at a loser who is even lower than you."
"No, I came because I envy you."
"What?"
"Soon, the acting matriarch will come visit you."
Joshua's eyes widened.
Only now did it seem like he understood the meaning behind Jorden's words.
"If you show your mother the same degrading behavior as you are doing to me now, then it may really be the end. I came early because I was worried that such a thing might happen."
"Mother... Did Mother say she's coming to visit me?"
"Mother, Mother, Mother. You really are fundamentally a child. It's almost humiliating to have the same last name as you. I never had a mother like you. Besides, my rival was not the 12th flagbearer, but flagbearer Chiron Runcandel. Once I fell, I had to spend an eternity unable to rise back to the surface."
A bitter smile crept onto Jorden's lips.
"Now it's time for you to bear that weight. When you finish your seclusion training and return to the world... I wish I could see you shed your fragile shell."
"Seclusion training? Do you believe that I can turn things around now with something like that?"
"In the end, what rules the martial arts clan is the overwhelming martial arts that everyone has no choice but to follow. I, too, have ignored that fact for too long, using your father's shadow as an excuse."
Jorden turns around.
"It is up to you to change hell into paradise. This is not a statement made as the Chief of Black Sword Association but as a companion."
Jorden left the dungeon.
And on the stairs, he encountered Rosa, who was descending into the dungeon.
"Acting matriarch."
"I suppose you didn't come down to look at the ghosts of the dungeon. Did you meet Joshua?"
"That's correct."
"You've done something unnecessary."
"If parents are cruel, someone in the family should treat them warmly, shouldn't they?"
"Have you regained confidence after losing everything? You speak so arrogantly."
"I just recalled the essence of the clan that I had forgotten."
"If many people had not forgotten from the beginning, today's Runcandel wouldn't have been so precarious."
"But the acting matriarch hasn't become dull either."
Rosa smiled, as if it was ridiculous.
"The words of the powerless are nothing more than complaints. If you want to foil my mood, let alone my sword and body. Prove it. Finish perfecting that lowly sword of yours, as I suggested. That's what I left your neck for."
During the brief time Rosa passed by Jorden and entered the lowest level,
Joshua was thinking about what Jorden had just said and what Black Knight Jane showed him before she died.
-I hope my current state becomes a lesson to you.
Jane's parting words and the visit from the Chief of Black Sword Association.
They could not change the essence of Joshua Runcandel in an instant.
It remained just points of discussion.
As Rosa entered, Joshua straightened his posture.
"You've come, acting matriarch."
Thunk!
Rosa suddenly thrust the blade of Frenzy into his right shoulder.
"Ugh...!"
Flesh tore, and blood spurted.
Then, with a light and swift swing, the sword left a gash on Joshua's left shoulder.
Fear struck again.
A fear he had never overcome, the fear of his parents.
A new fear created by the indiscriminate attacks of his mother, who seemed determined never to let him go.
"You will say you have exhausted your strength, but does that mean you can't even react to a sword like this? It was a speed that even advanced cadets could avoid."
"Acting matriarch...!"
"Well, now you don't dare to call me mother anymore. But is that all? If it were those exceptional children, your sisters and brothers, they would have avoided it."
The frenzy swung again, this time it slashed Joshua's chest.
The depth of the blade was not shallow at all.
"Guh!"
"No, did you barely manage to dodge? Luntia, Diphus, Mary, Jin wouldn't be screaming like you! They would be looking straight into my eyes and attempting to counterattack. Regardless of the reason or who was wrong, once the blade strikes!"
Squeak!
"And if it were Luna, she would have taken the frenzy and aimed it at my neck. Wouldn't that child be able to do that even after losing her strength? So, why wouldn't Chiron and I regret it so much?"
What Joshua was enduring, the stabbing and slashing of the blade, was truly nothing compared to the excruciating pain inflicted by comparisons and feelings of inferiority.
"Kraaaah! What do you expect me to do!"
Joshua's jaw was turned and his sternum was shattered as he rushed at her recklessly.
It was not a counterattack but an outburst.
"Kuk, cough."
"Why can't you do something like that? Why couldn't you, the child of prophecy, do that?"
At those words, Joshua blamed his mother for the first time in his life.
"You... raised me like this."
"I don't have memories of raising you like that."
"No, you're right. You raised me like this!"
"No, I didn't raise you like that."
"And didn't you give birth to me like this? Luna, Luntia, Diphus, Mary, Jin! Why didn't you pass on to me talents like theirs? They are all your creations...!"
"Talent? Fine, I admit about Luna. But do you really think the other kids are more talented than you and that's why I put you here? You simply didn't struggle as much as they did. Despite giving you so many chances... Ah, if I say this, now you'll say those opportunities were poison, right?"
Rosa let out a bitter laugh.
Joshua fell forward and was shaking.
He wanted to get up again, but his body, slashed and stabbed mercilessly by Frenzy, refused to respond.
"I'll admit that too. Now that I think about it, the opportunities I gave you over the past few decades seem to be poison. I didn't expect just spoon-feeding wouldn't be enough. If I had known I had to chew it for you in advance, you might not be here right now."
"What... kind of... nonsense is this?"
"Did you really think I would send only you flagbearers and the two Black Knights in Sota Desert, on that important mission... ?"