“This is ridiculous! We don’t even know if that brat is alive or not,” grumbled one of the people present. He was a blue-haired middle-aged man with a sharp face and a thin beard wearing a Magus robe. This man was Maverick’s older brother — Victor’s uncle — and a long-standing pillar of the family council.

  Years ago, he had contested the position of patriarch alongside Maverick but ultimately lost. Despite that, he had since pledged his loyalty to his younger brother, supporting his leadership and serving as one of his closest advisors. But right now, the loyalty didn’t stop him from expressing his anger freely.

  The same elder who had snapped earlier slammed his hand against the armrest of his chair. “Ten thousand intermediate-grade mana crystals? And seventy percent of the mine’s output? That’s outright extortion! What audacity.”

  “It’s clearly more than that,” someone else muttered grimly. He was an elderly man with graying hair and a perpetually somber expression. “This is a clear attempt to force us into submission. If we agree to those terms, we’re practically bending the knee to the Merlins without a single battle fought.”

  “Patriarch, what should we do?” asked the last of the four elders present, a calm and collected man whose tone remained composed despite the tension. “Should we disturb Sir Alvin from his deep meditation? With two peak Elemental Adept Magi, even the Merlin family would hesitate to act rashly.”

  As a medium-sized Magus family with a lineage stretching back centuries and even millennia, the Asteriscus family was by no means weak. Although they were not the largest, they had deep roots and trump cards that could help them weather storms. If their incomplete meditation technique had been perfected, and without external pressure from rival houses, they might have produced Nexus Temporal Magi long ago.

  However, Maverick remained silent in his seat, his fingers steepled before his mouth and eyes narrowed in cold thought. He was a man used to playing political games, but even he hadn’t anticipated the Merlins to be so brazen… or so shameless. He could feel the blood pounding in his temples. As patriarch of the Asteriscus family, he had handled crises before — internal disputes, economic setbacks, and minor skirmishes with rival factions — but this was something else entirely.

  Victor… That reckless son of mine.

  Even if he had been born from one of Maverick’s legitimate wives, if Victor were standing before him right now, Maverick would have skinned him alive just to make a point. Not only had Victor disappeared without a trace and his fate was unknown, but now he was at the center of a diplomatic powder keg that threatened the very survival of the family.

  If you are trying to seek death, I don’t care, but don’t drag the Asteriscus family down with you! What a disappointment.

  And as for that envoy… Just thinking about the smugness in that silver-robed bastard’s voice made Maverick’s fists clench. He wanted nothing more than to dunk the man into a vat of boiling oil and trap him in an eternal torment spell just for the satisfaction of hearing him scream.

  But indulging in fantasies would accomplish nothing. There was still a crisis to resolve.

  Maverick took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. “Send word to all family members, even those from branch families. Tell them to prepare contingencies for war discreetly. If war is what the Merlins want, then let’s have war!”

  The council members nodded in turn, some grimly, others with fire igniting in their eyes. The message was clear: they would not surrender without a fight. If the Merlin family intended to annex them, they would pay for it dearly in the process. Blood would be spilled, and limbs would be lost.

  Just then, as the atmosphere brimmed with steely resolve, the doors to the hall swung open, and a servant rushed inside in a flurry of motion.

  “How dare a mere servant barge in unannounced! Do you want to lose your head?” one of the elders barked, slamming his fist on the table.

  “Sirs…!” the servant gasped, panting heavily as he tried to steady his breath. “Th-The young master has returned!”

  “Which one?” Maverick asked coolly, barely sparing him a glance. “Is that worth barging in here like a madman?”

  In the Asteriscus family, the title of “young master” was hardly exclusive. Maverick had sired many sons through his legitimate wives, and among them, there were no less than five with the same title. If one of them died, it would usually elicit little more than a raised brow from the patriarch, much less one of them just returning home from somewhere.

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  “It’s… it’s Young Master Victor…”

  The room froze as soon as the name “Victor” was uttered, and almost all the elders sprang from their seats, slamming their hands onto the table in unison.

  “What?!” they all shouted.

  One hour earlier, not far from the Asteriscus Manor.

  The cold wind rushed past Victor as he soared through the sky on a thin ripple of space magic, his robe fluttering with each shift of motion. Soon, the silhouette of the Asteriscus Manor came into view, perched atop gently sloping hills. The sprawling estate was exactly as he remembered — protective walls encircling part of the hills and winding road, tall towers of pale blue stone etched with runes and intricate magic formations, and banners bearing the Asteriscus crest — shaped like a stylized astrological sign — fluttering in the wind.

  Victor slowed his flight, letting himself hover above a nearby snowy cliff that overlooked the entire manor grounds. From this height, he could see everything: the winding pathway that traced the cliffs’ edge up toward the main estate, the expansive orchards where servants bustled about their tasks, and the clusters of wooden houses nestled along the slope — dwellings for the household staff and laborers. It resembled a self-sufficient town more than a single estate.

  And at the very center, looming over it all, stood the manor itself — the heart of the Asteriscus family.

  Victor’s eyes softened slightly at the sight.

  “It really hasn’t changed,” he murmured.

  The last time he had seen this view, he had still been a low-level acolyte, merely one of the members of the Asteriscus Magus family, and was even called a wayward son who preferred solitude and research over politics and family duties. But now, he returned not only as a full-fledged Magus but a peak Elemental Adept Magus — one who had crushed Elemental Adept beings with ease, cultivated to heights beyond anyone in the family, and held cards that would terrify them if revealed.

  Yet despite all that strength, seeing the familiar stone walls and quiet scenery stirred something more profound than power — a subtle sense of longing. Nostalgia, perhaps. Despite all that had happened, despite being overlooked for years, this land was still where he had been born in this life. It was still… home, just like Earth.

  The people down there… they had no idea he had returned. No one expected his arrival.

  He couldn’t help but chuckle. “I wonder what kind of expressions they’ll make when they see me now.”

  Flicking his wrist, Victor cast a quick cloaking spell, concealing his presence. Then, with practiced grace, he descended toward the manor. It was time for him to make his return and make the others bow before him.

  Huh, thinking back, isn’t this like the plot of some young master returning home to face-slap all those who wronged him? Victor snorted inwardly at the thought. Truthfully, although he hadn’t favored and didn’t enjoy the prestige or attention showered upon the heirs of powerful Magus families, his life hadn’t been difficult. In fact, his treatment had been fairly decent.

  Still, there was a certain satisfaction in returning with overwhelming power, and he couldn’t help but think that this might be what the main characters from those novels felt.

  As he was just a step away from the entrance, Victor slowed his pace and extended his mana sense to probe the mana fluctuations inside the manor. Victor was cautious by nature, even now. Although he had reached the peak of Elemental Adept, he wasn’t one to walk blindly into unknown territory and wanted to make sure that there was no anomaly before making his move.

  Then, he found something. “Wait... why is there a fourth-sigil Elemental Adept Magus in the guest wing?” Victor frowned in suspicion.

  Without hesitation, he activated his spell. “{Eyes of Space-Time}.”

  Reality shifted around him as invisible lines appeared, weaving a vision of the recent past. Within moments, he reconstructed a clear picture of what had occurred inside the manor over the last several days. Figures walked, spoke, and argued. A man clad in a silver Merlin robe entered through the gate. Servants led him to the guest hall. The elders convened.

  Victor’s eyes narrowed. It didn’t take a genius to piece together the context — an envoy of the Merlin family had arrived. Considering Graviel’s death, the timing was too perfect to be coincidental, and the envoy had likely come to pressure the Asteriscus family.

  “How interesting… So they came knocking this soon,” Victor murmured under his breath.

  It wasn’t hard to guess what was going on behind the scenes. Most likely, the Merlin family had already been planning to stir up trouble with the Asteriscus family long before Victor had uncovered the Magus inheritance in the Thornwood Forest. Or maybe, they had even seeded the expedition with manipulated information to begin with. Though that theory was unlikely — if the Merlins had orchestrated everything from the start, they would’ve targeted the academy more directly by now.

  Whatever the case, this changed how he should play his cards. Rather than revealing his full strength as a peak Elemental Adept Magus upfront, it would be far more advantageous to return as his former, weaker self. Just as the saying went — “The best way to take the tiger’s throat… is to play the pig.”

  A faint smile tugged at Victor’s lips. “Let’s see how that envoy reacts to my return.”

  Suppressing his mana, Victor activated a subtle dampening spell that completely masked his mana fluctuation. No longer did he radiate the pressure of a peak Elemental Adept Magus; instead, his signature matched that of a third-stage Initiate Attunement acolyte, precisely the level he had been before leaving for the Thornwood Forest.

  Then, with a flick of his hand, he dispelled his cloaking spell. A shimmer passed over him, and in the next instant, Victor’s figure reappeared at the edge of the manor’s stone path.

  “You! Who are you?! How did you— Wait…” one of the guards at the gate shouted, stepping forward with alarm before freezing mid-step in disbelief.

  Another guard squinted. “Are you… the young master, Victor Asteriscus?”

  Victor stepped calmly onto the stone path leading to the manor gates. “That’s right,” he replied smoothly. “Inform the patriarch and the elders… Tell them that I’ve come home.”

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