The Return of the Iron-blood Sword Hound
chapter-114

Chapter 114: The Grand Banquet (5)

Boston Terrier raised the wine glass that had just been boiling a moment ago and drank it in one gulp. Great Dane, likewise, swallowed a large piece of sizzling meat in one bite.

“Is it because our nephew made the wine? It tastes fantastic!”

“Meat cooked with the aura of a Graduator. It’s a delicacy.”

The two Counts began to fix their intense gazes on Vikir, as if they wanted to recruit him into their knightly orders, no matter what.

Meanwhile, Vikir was thinking to himself, “It’s better to reveal only up to the level of a Mid-Tier Graduator.”

In fact, he had briefly demonstrated this level of power a few times in the past.

He had performed a similar feat when detonating the champagne tower at Club Burning Suspension and had displayed a similar level of power when he first met Madam of the Abyss.

The difference now was that he had reached the level of a Mid-Tier graduator in secret, a level that even the geniuses of BaskerVille could only aspire to reach at around the age of thirty-five.

A Mid-Tier Graduator at the age of seventeen, the youngest in history. This achievement would obliterate all official records held by Baskerville to date.

Vikir glanced briefly at the seats of the three Bro siblings at the banquet table. Highbro, Middlebro, and Lowbro sat quietly, having their meal without saying a word.

“They haven’t reported what they last witnessed in the Abyss to Hugo. I don’t know why, but whatever the reason, it’s fortunate. I was afraid I might have to reveal my abilities up to the level of Peak Graduator.”

Vikir decided that after the banquet, he needed to tightly control and supervise Highbro, Middlebro, and Lowbro to ensure their silence.

On the other hand, Boston Terrier and Great Dane couldn’t stop praising Vikir’s achievement.

“Just by touching the table and resonating with mana, you cooked the meat and boiled the wine. It’s not something that can be achieved with ordinary mana control. Haha, it’s truly amazing. When I was your age, I was at most a Sword Expert.”

“Reaching Graduator is impossible without mastery of mana control. It’s like a genius that has never appeared in Baskerville. I was at this level when I was thirty-three.”

If they were ordinary hunting dogs from Baskerville, they would have reached this level at the age of thirty-five at the earliest. Vikir had achieved it at the age of only seventeen, almost twenty years ahead of schedule.

Boston Terrier and Great Dane looked at Hugo and exclaimed, “A Mid-Tier Graduator! I only achieved what I did when I reached thirty-three! To think that our nephew has achieved this at the age of seventeen! There’s no one else like him in the world!”

They were completely enamored with him, and even Hugo was smiling contentedly at the situation, with a visible upward curl at the corners of his lips.

Then, Hugo, Boston Terrier, and Great Dane started discussing Vikir as the main topic of conversation.

However, when the attention of the adults was momentarily elsewhere, a new voice spoke to Vikir.

“Young one.”

The pronunciation was precise, and the voice was chilling.

Vikir turned his head in the direction of the voice and saw long, black hair-like curtains and red eyes that shimmered between the strands.

“Osiris Le BaskerVille.”

Osiris Le BaskerVille, the current BaskerVille’s strongest Peak Graduator and the top candidate for the family’s inheritance. He held the position of (Little Family Leader), responsible for representing the family in the absence of the family head.

He was now sitting diagonally across from Vikir.

Vikir looked straight into Osiris’s eyes, a small absolute existence, an impossibly arrogant and aloof figure, a being he couldn’t even meet eyes with before his reincarnation.

But now, Vikir possessed the skill and power to confidently meet his gaze.

Without a hint of emotion, Vikir met Osiris’s gaze.

Finally, Osiris spoke, “You’ve worked hard.”

Upon hearing those words, Vikir’s pupils dilated slightly. It was surprising enough that the he had initiated the conversation, but praise too? Considering the image he had before his reincarnation, it was an unimaginable event.

However, the amazement didn’t stop there.

“Well done. Keep striving even harder in the future,” Osiris repeatedly praised Vikir.

Still, his expression remained unchanged, his cold tone as if an ordinary person might think he was angry.

Younger Vikir, before his regression, had also thought that way.

However, looking at it again after aging, that wasn’t it.

Osiris’s expression and voice were clearly as cold as ice, but within them, there was a very small and faint warmth.

Not expressed in his face or gestures, not even knowing how to express it to himself, it was truly an awkward warmth.

‘…Looking at him like this now, he doesn’t seem entirely frightening.’

Vikir bowed slightly and thought silently to himself.

Why did that person look so scary before his regression? Because he was the head of the family? Because of his arrogant and dignified expression and voice? Because of the vast difference in status and power? Or simply because he was more than ten years older than himself?

But now, Osiris is much younger than the age Vikir actually reached.

And then, Vikir began to see the somewhat awkward and unskilled aspects that Osiris had.

Subtle signs of being bad at cutting with a knife, picking out disliked ingredients and eating them sneakily, getting tipsy easily, cringing just from the smell, constantly unfolding and flattening crumpled napkins with his hands to calm himself…

‘Surprisingly, he has a human side.’

When you let go of the prejudice that he’s an unattainable upper-class person, you can finally see his true self.

Osiris Le BaskerVille.

He wasn’t the perfect superhuman as the world knew him, and as Vikir remembered before his regression, with no blood or tears.

Right at that moment.

“Hey. Big brother is praising his little brother. This is amazing.”

From Vikir’s side, a new voice was heard once again.

When he turned his head, a handsome man with exceptionally fair and pale skin was winking at Vikir.

A dark-haired, charming man with impressive dark circles under his eyes.

He was none other than Hugo’s youngest son, “Seth Le Baskerville.”

He approached Vikir with a friendly smile and spoke softly.

“I’ve never seen Osiris Hyung praising someone before. And to see him smiling so happily like that.”

…Was that a smile?

Vikir glanced back at Osiris for a moment.

Osiris was still cutting his steak with an expressionless face.

It still looked like a face that someone might mistake for anger.

‘So that’s why everyone was afraid of Osiris before his regression.’

But that was a smiling expression, even though it surprised Vikir again.

“…”

When Vikir didn’t respond, Seth chuckled.

“You’re poker-faced like Osiris Hyung too? Well, that’s how everyone in our family is. All so poker-faced. A shame.”

Unlike Osiris, Seth had a much more expressive face, different from anyone else in the family.

Vikir looked at Seth with a bit of reluctance, who was smiling with a hint of disappointment.

Seth Baskerville that Vikir remembered was a good person.

Lacking talent in swordsmanship and not being particularly brave, but always caring meticulously for anyone in the family. He even used to comfort the recently arrived maid with discomfort, being a gentle person.

Among the immediate family members, Seth was the only one who would offer chrysanthemums at the graves of the dead hunting dogs.

His tears shed for all the younger siblings who were dying for his father and older brother, who had no blood or tears, were still vivid in Vikir’s memory.

And the pitiful moments when he would go alone to the flower garden and shed tears on the day he was ignored and belittled as a weakling by his father and older brother were still fresh.

And even after his regression, it was still the same.

Hugo and Osiris almost ignored Seth.

In the Baskerville family, which valued strength, it was somewhat natural for Seth, who was weak, to be treated this way.

So, Vikir had always sympathized with and admired Seth before his regression.

That’s why, without gaining anything in return, he had worked for him and done his bidding.

It was because he was so grateful for Seth’s kindness to him and the other hunting dogs, even while enduring such mistreatment for being weak.

…But now things were different.

Vikir recalled the information Cindiwendi had provided yesterday.

[Seth Le BaskerVille]

Class: Underdog City’s Magistrate – Member of the Lower House

Title: Shadow Viscount (影爵)

Rank: Mid-Tier Graduator

Others: The second heir to the Baskerville family.

Mild and warm personality. Weak constitution. No talent in swordsmanship. Hated by Hugo. Well-liked and popular among all the younger members of the family. Vacant in the position of Underdog’s Magistrate for a long time. Went out for a while for a grand banquet during closed-door training…

The information Vikir already knew was listed in detail.

But in the end, there was a line of information that was new even to Vikir.

‘Seth Le BaskerVille’ is speculated to be not human.