Myre, Keeryl, and Ken Lionhart placed themselves around Klaus, trying to block any escape route he could take advantage of. The long-haired collateral at the front approached him. Klaus knew his name already: Myre Lionhart, the guy that Klaus took down with just a single punch earlier this morning.
"Since now we've got your attention, Mr 'elixir', why don't you follow us," Myre said with a grin on his mouth, emphasizing the word elixir.
The two children who were next to Myre stuck themselves to Klaus's sides and his back when Myre pointed with his chin.
"Or maybe you are scared now? Aren't you, Mr 'Elixir'?"
"Just lead the way," Klaus replied with a calm tone, as if he wasn't scared of them even though he was outnumbered and they were equipped with training swords on their waist.
"Tssp." The calm expression on Klaus's face was making Myre even more angry than he was already.
"Ken, let's go," Myre said with a grin on his mouth, and Ken, who was a head taller than all of them, started to lead the way. They walked for about fifteen minutes and reached what looked like an abandoned corridor that led to an abandoned canteen. The Lionhart youth training ground was very huge; there were many abandoned places inside it. Since the three collaterals had been living there for three years now, they knew all the discreet places where they could teach trainees that disrespected them some manners. Today wasn't the first time that they ganged up on someone.
Myre pushed Klaus with all his might against a nearby wall.
"You elixir-boosted punk."
"Your father got abandoned by the direct line, but you dare to boast as if you are from the direct line because you got some elixirs?"
The Lionhart hierarchy was structured as follows: the direct line were children of the current patriarch and his children, direct family members like their wives or husbands, and their kids. The collaterals line included all the people that bore the name Lionhart that weren't directly scion by the current patriarch; even the patriarch's brothers and sisters were considered to be part of the collateral line. Finally, the vassal families were noble families from the Rikxia Empire, which was an empire ruled by the Lionhart family. Roman Lionhart was, in fact, the emperor of the Rikxia kingdom. He hated to be referred to as emperor, so all the lords of Rikxia just referred to him as lord, clan leader, or patriarch.
But even among collaterals, there is still a hierarchy; the closer blood bond you had with the current patriarch, the higher you were treated among the collaterals. In Ludovic's case, not only did the current patriarch disown him for his title of direct line member, but the fact that he had broken his core made him the bottom of the bottom of the collateral line, and Klaus, his son, was also considered as such.
"You wouldn't even have been able to have this kind of stamina if it weren't for the elixirs or the Body Transformation Pill your 'Broken father' gave you."
"You wimp!"
The collaterals' expressions became fierce, like savage beasts who presented themselves with their prey.
'Jealous much, huh?'
The childish and shabby reason seemed to prove that they were still kids.
'And they don't seem to think that they might lose, not at all.'
Klaus sneered.
'I guess that's normal.'
The collaterals' kids thought that Klaus had just good stamina and nothing more to show for himself. They saw how frail he looked a month ago. For them, Klaus didn't know any sword technique, unlike them who learned many sword techniques thanks to their family support. Since they were always in good health, they had enough time to perfect the techniques that they learned.
"Don't worry, we will make it unnoticeable," Myre said while taking a small healing potion out of his pocket.
"It's not the first time we've done this, after all."
"Just like what the instructor said, we are going to just have a chat between fellow trainees."
The collaterals drew their training swords with grins on their faces.
"I wanted to go easy on you since you are just kids, but I've changed my mind," Klaus said, a sinister smile on his mouth.
{Just don't kill them} Greed said, already pitying the three children.