A certain mansion located in a secluded corner of Veritas, the magic city that served as the base of the Radeus family.
A quiet, modest three-story mansion, no different from any other noble’s villa, was showing unusually busy movements today, creating a noisy scene.
“Nerha Radeus has returned!”
That single sentence made all the servants and slaves of the mansion move five times faster!
“Damn it, wasn’t he supposed to be dead?”
“My thoughts exactly! I thought he went in quietly to commit suicide, but who knew he’d actually come back out!”
It was extremely rude content for servants’ conversation, but at least in this mansion, it wasn’t all that unusual.
“Young Master Nerha will be arriving soon! Everyone, keep your mouths shut so you don’t get caught by the guards, and mind your behavior so you don’t give them any reason to pick on you! Don’t get yourselves lined up for execution because you got on Madam’s or the young lady’s bad side!”
“Yes, Head Butler!”
Under the command of the head butler, Ged, more than ten servants of the mansion moved in perfect unison to welcome Nerha, the master of this mansion.
And then, some time later, just as reported, Nerha appeared.
‘Huh? Where did the guards go, and why is that guy alone?’
For some reason, the Radeus magi corps, who should have been guarding Nerha like an iron wall, were nowhere to be seen, and instead only a single apprentice butler was attending Nerha. But even so, with Nerha approaching right before their eyes, they couldn’t keep indulging in idle thoughts.
Ged bowed politely toward Nerha as he passed through the front gate.
“Congratulations on your safe return, Young Master Nerha.”
“...Yeah.”
A weak, drawn-out voice. No different from the usual Nerha.
Seeing Nerha like that, a question suddenly arose in Ged’s mind.
‘How did he get out?’
Ged knew very well what kind of challenge Nerha had attempted.
A challenge to lift a sealing formula equivalent to Level 5. He himself probably thought it was around Level 3, but that was only the amount of mana required to break the formula. Due to the intervention of ‘someone,’ the actual difficulty should have reached Level 5.
“I can hear the sound of you working your brain all the way over here.”
‘Ghk!’
At the chilling voice that sounded over the back of his head, Ged momentarily forgot his own duties and lifted his head. It was a mistake born of failing to maintain his composure after such a sudden strike.
And when Ged met Nerha’s eyes...
“...!!”
Just like Samir, upon seeing Nerha’s completely changed gaze, Ged froze stiff.
‘W-what kind of eyes are those?!’
People do not change easily.
Unless they survive a brush with death, or experience something just as dramatic.
Ged had lived believing that saying to be true, and even now, his opinion had not changed.
‘J-just what on earth did he go through in there?’
That chillingly cold and arrogant gaze, as if he had been turned inside out, what in the world was that?
It was an appearance utterly unimaginable from the timid and weak Nerha Radeus of before!
Toward the bewildered Ged, Nerha spoke quietly.
“I want to rest a bit. How long are you planning to make me stand here?”
“A-Ah! I-I apologize, Young Master. I made such a mistake!”
Coming back to his senses, Ged hurriedly guided Nerha inside.
‘What a mess.’
Even as he followed Ged’s guidance, Nerha carefully observed the surrounding atmosphere without letting anyone notice.
‘Those aren’t the eyes people use to look at the master of the mansion.’
The servants’ expressions and attitudes were polite, but rather than loyalty, a lukewarm gaze was subtly revealed. It wasn’t so much that they were uncomfortable with their master; it was closer to indifference.
‘No, is this actually better? For me right now, indifference might be preferable.’
Confirming the servants’ attitudes, Nerha slowly stepped into the mansion.
Thus, Nerha’s full-fledged life in this new world began.
* * *
The rumor that Nerha had successfully completed his closed-door training and returned quickly spread throughout the entire Radeus family.
Naturally, those who had judged that the probability of him dying inside was much higher were wide-eyed with shock at Nerha’s return.
“I’m sorry, but Young Master Nerha is currently not in good condition, both physically and mentally, so he cannot receive visitors.”
“Is that so? That’s unfortunate.”
Under the pretense of congratulations, envoys from other brothers or blood relatives promptly arrived at Nerha’s mansion to confirm the facts. But Nerha sent all of them back with the excuse that he wasn’t feeling well.
In fact, it wasn’t an excuse at all, since he truly wasn’t in good shape.
‘Well, as expected, none of them come in person.’
The middle-aged man facing Butler Ged beyond the window was an envoy sent by Nerha’s elder brother and the fourth son of the Radeus family, Bamel Radeus.
Ged’s excessively servile posture and the man’s indifferent expression.
Watching their appearances, Nerha thought.
‘Does my image to the outside look like “he barely escaped with his life,” I wonder?’
Judging by the similar reactions of all those who visited this mansion, even this bit of interest would soon fade away. Aside from Nerha’s biological mother, Roselia Radeus, who had visited briefly over the past few days, the gazes directed at Nerha never strayed from “momentarily surprised, but in the end, just a dropout.”
‘Hoo, it’s good to fall out of people’s interest, but this kind of life still isn’t easy to get used to.’
Nerha let out a dissatisfied sigh as he slightly loosened the uniform-like clothing worn by the direct line of the Radeus family. Having lived his entire life as a wanderer in the martial world, he was completely unaccustomed to the treatment of a noble young master.
‘Still, there are hardly any uncomfortable gazes, so it’s convenient to move around.’
For Nerha, who had just taken his first steps into this world, the first things he had to do besides recovery were already decided.
‘General information about this world, and information about this family.’
Combining what he saw in the mirror with the inherited memories of ‘Nerha,’ it could be said that he had a rough foundation to survive in this world. However, those memories were fragmented at best, and the missing pieces were not at a level that could be dismissed as simply having been forgotten over time.
‘Amnesia is a convenient excuse, but in a family where power struggles are in full swing, using that excuse would be the same as ruining my own position.’
In such a situation, there were two methods of gathering information available to Nerha.
One was to obtain solid knowledge of this world through history books.
The other was to read the fragmented information and currents within the family through the servants of the mansion.
“You there, I have something I’d like to ask you.”
“Y-Yes? Ah, yes...”
The servants couldn’t hide their awkwardness at Nerha suddenly starting to speak to them.
But what could they do? When someone above speaks, those below have no choice but to comply.
“Since Young Master Bastel is keeping quiet right now, wouldn’t Miss Maha be the most likely candidate...”
“Oho! I can’t help but admire your keen insight!”
“...”
“I’d like to hear your esteemed opinion again next time. I look forward to it!”
Once the conversation ended, the servants all began to disappear somewhere with pale faces.
Until now, Nerha had always been quiet, so his sudden proactive movements were likely something they couldn’t adapt to.
Well, in any case, after bustling about and gathering information for several days, Nerha came to this conclusion.
‘What a mess!’
It felt like he had said this not long ago as well, but considering the conclusion he had arrived at, he couldn’t help but keep saying it.
‘The organizational structure isn’t much different from the great clans of the Central Plains, but it’s far larger and denser. The problem is...’
This Radeus family, supposedly a supreme brain trust known as a ‘family of magicians,’ were unbelievably rough and feral brutes.
‘The law of survival of the fittest openly circulates within the family, and power or achievements are directly linked to status?’
Of course, it couldn’t be said that there was absolutely no discrimination based on bloodline, but with absolute strength, even that could be overcome.
‘In fact, over the span of more than a thousand years, the family name has changed twice. This is just...’
In the past, there had been a demonic sect force called Paecheon Fortress that was annihilated by the Demonic Cult; if those bastards had been run centered on blood relatives, wouldn’t it have looked exactly like this?
Nerha clicked his tongue as he looked over the internal power structure he had organized within the family.
‘There are eight direct descendants with succession rights, and excluding one who is too young and one dropout, the remaining six are diligently beating each other up...’
That one dropout was, of course, Nerha himself.
If the family’s eldest son had firmly secured the position of successor, there would be no problem, but peculiarly, this family was a special case where the eldest son had no interest in power, resulting in a complete mess.
‘All the better. The fact that the successor hasn’t been established means there’s opportunity.’
Rather, if the eldest son had firmly held onto the position of successor, even if Nerha were to surpass his abilities in the future, the possibility of obtaining the position of family head would become slim.
‘The promise I made to you. That I would make the name “Nerha” shine most nobly in this family. The shortest path to that method is, of course, to rise to the position of family head, the pinnacle of the clan.’
It was possible to seize the ultimate pinnacle of power without ascending to the position of family head by becoming a shadow power behind the scenes, but that was a special case. The orthodox path was, after all, the seat of the family head.
Nerha clenched his fist tightly.
‘With my martial arts, there is a chance.’
Invincible Fist God. The epithet given to the “Divine Martial Ancestor” in the Central Plains, and the alias of the one who killed the Heavenly Demon, the greatest existence of all ages.
In terms of sensation, it felt like only a few days ago, but if he could regain the strength of his prime, then even obtaining the head position of this enormous family would not be impossible. Moreover, this was a place where most things were decided by strength.
For a martial artist, there could be no better place.
‘But there is one single problem.’
And it was an extremely fatal problem. Even if this was a place where strength was truth, even if Nerha were to regain the power of his prime.
This was an entirely new world that used a power system called ‘magic.’
A cold sweat trickled down Nerha’s spine.
‘I don’t know a single damn thing about magic!’
The Radeus family was called a prestigious house of magic in this world. Naturally, magic was the standard for everything, and all things were decided by one’s achievements in magic.
Naturally, for Nerha to ascend to the position of family head, he would have to overwhelm everyone else with magic more than anyone else.
‘There is a separate profession called knights for those who use swords or fists, though.’
If he had been born into such a family, things would have been much easier!
Of course, by inheriting ‘Nerha’s’ memories, he did possess some basic, fundamental knowledge about magic. But that knowledge, like the memories themselves, was fragmented, and with it, he couldn’t even properly implement a single basic spell.
Faced with a barrier he had never even considered, Nerha let out a deep sigh.
“It seems I’ll have to learn this thing called magic.”
Opening the sealed iron door the first time had relied overwhelmingly on the experience and instincts he had honed over a lifetime, rather than on magical knowledge. In other words, if he wanted to move forward from now on, he absolutely had to learn the discipline called magic.
“I’m not exactly confident when it comes to studying...”
In the Central Plains as well, there existed spellcasters who corresponded to magicians, and the amount of scholarship those guys delved into was such that they could easily compete with full-fledged scholars.
Nerha let his shoulders slump weakly.
