“What?! Are you joking?” Angela stared at him in disbelief, furrowing her brows. “You just came back from vanishing for months, and now you’re saying you want to take over the family? Do you even hear yourself?”

  Victor didn’t reply immediately and simply shook his head. “There’s nothing more to discuss,” he said calmly, brushing past her.

  Angela turned to follow him, but his next words made her pause. “You’ll see it with your own eyes soon enough.”

  With that, he stepped into the door of his old quarters and closed it behind him with a soft click.

  Angela stood there for a few moments, staring at the door in stunned silence, murmuring something indecipherable beneath her breath.

  Inside, Victor looked around the room. Everything was exactly as he had left it — the same neat bookshelves lined with dusty tomes, a single crystal lamp perched on the desk, and a bed that hadn’t been touched in months, cold and undisturbed.

  He stepped further in, running a hand along the desk’s surface. It all felt so distant now, like a relic from another life.

  Victor let out a quiet breath and sat down. “Well then… time to make my move.”

  Reaching into his interspatial ring, he retrieved a familiar object — the Mask of Impersonation. As he placed it over his face, his features changed and morphed. Within seconds, his appearance and even mana fluctuation transformed into that of Fernando, the now-deceased Magus.

  He looked into the mirror embedded in the wall and adjusted the collar of his robe, ensuring everything was flawless.

  “The family still thinks I’m the same as before,” Victor murmured, the corner of his lips curling into a smirk. “Let’s see how long they can keep believing that.”

  In the dimly lit guest chamber provided to him, the Merlin envoy sat in quiet contemplation. A faint, rune-lined crystal floated before him, projecting an illusionary image of the Asteriscus family’s grand hall. Even now, the elders were still deep in discussion, bantering over the final words spoken by Victor.

  Before departing the hall, he had covertly deployed an invisible puppet given by the Merlin family — a surveillance construct cloaked in layered concealment enchantments, undetectable to ordinary Elemental Adept Magi. It now served as his eyes and ears within the inner sanctum of the Asteriscus family.

  “So… the lost son has somehow returned,” the envoy muttered, creasing his eyebrows. “And he claims to possess a complete high-rank meditation technique? How interesting…”

  Narrowing his eyes, he flicked his fingers and began activating a secondary array encoded within the crystal — a secure channel that would transmit an encrypted report directly to the upper ranks of the Merlin family. This was something the higher-ups would want to know about immediately.

  “Even if it’s a bluff, we can’t afford to ignore this. If it’s real—”

  A crack of space split open behind him, and from it, a flicker of light burst forth like a silent spear. The envoy stiffened, alarmed by the sudden presence of hostile magic. His instincts screamed at him to dodge, but it was already too late. All he could manage was a partial turn toward the source of the disturbance before the mysterious light enveloped his body.

  To his horror, he realized he couldn’t move an inch, frozen in place by some invisible force. What’s happening to me?!

  “You talk too much,” said an old voice.

  Standing behind him was someone he was able to recognize. “S-Sir Fernando…?” he stammered, utterly confused.

  “Ho? You can still speak. As expected of a fourth-sigil Elemental Adept Magus from the Merlin family,” the man replied with a cold smirk. “Given a bit of time, you’d likely break free from the spell… But fortunately, I have more than enough time.”

  Before the envoy could utter another word, an ethereal blade composed of Cosmo-elemental particles phased into being and pierced through his chest. His breath caught in his throat, the spell crystal slipping from his hand as blood began to stain his robe.

  The last thing he saw was a faint, shifting ripple as Fernando’s face dissolved, revealing the smirking visage of Victor beneath.

  “I should be thanking you for being here at just the right time,” Victor said coolly. “With your death, the Asteriscus family has no choice but to abandon this charade.”

  The envoy’s body gave a final shudder before collapsing to the floor, lifeless.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  Victor looked at the envoy’s corpse and couldn’t help but feel satisfied. Although it had been a sneak attack, the fact that he could kill an Elemental Adept Magus so effortlessly was a testament to how far he had come. Granted, Magi were at their most vulnerable when caught off guard at close range — unable to activate defenses or reveal their trump cards in time — but still.

  “I sure have grown a lot,” he murmured.

  While saying that, Victor casually retrieved the crystal and crushed it in his hand, the shattered fragments fading into the air like sparks.

  The Asteriscus family was far too attached to this land, clinging to the prestige of their ancestral manor and mana crystal mine. But Victor had no intention of letting them stay in this stagnant territory. If he wanted to uproot the family and lead them to the Thornwood Forest — where his academy lay — then he had to corner them, strip them of their pride and options until there was only one path left.

  To do that, the Merlin family needed to be provoked into launching a full assault, which was why Victor killed the envoy without a second thought. Even for the Merlin family, losing a fourth-sigil Elemental Adept Magus was quite a huge blow. They wouldn’t just silently accept this.

  He looked down at the body one last time before vanishing into a fold of space.

  True enough, it didn’t take long for the entire Asteriscus Manor to discover that the envoy was dead. Despite Victor’s meticulous concealment, a faint trace of residual mana had escaped in the aftermath, just enough for the keen senses of the official Magi in the estate to detect something amiss. When the dead body of the envoy was discovered in his chamber, panic and confusion rippled through the estate like a struck bell.

  Within the hour, the grand hall was once again filled with tension. The elders were summoned immediately, and so was Victor, under the pretense of discussing the high-rank meditation technique he had vowed to possess. Even Angela was summoned to the hall.

  He entered with an unhurried gait and positioned himself quietly to the side, as all attention was drawn to the figure at the center of the room — the envoy’s corpse, which lay on the ground like trash.

  Maverick Asteriscus stood at the head of the chamber, seeming to mask a hidden fury on his stern face. “An envoy of the Merlin family was murdered within our estate…” he said. “This means only one thing — war.”

  Gasps rippled through the chamber. Murmurs turned into curses and then into silence. Several elders began pacing back and forth restlessly, while others stood frozen in shock. Even Gardacle, who had earlier lashed out at Victor, looked unsettled and frowned.

  Although they had steeled themselves for confrontation, the initial plan was to delay it for as long as possible. Ideally, the Merlin family would retreat on their own or reconsider their aggressive stance. But now that the envoy had been killed within their manor, that fragile window of diplomacy had been slammed shut. War was no longer a possibility — it was an inevitability. Worst of all, other Magus factions would likely hesitate to support them in this situation, wary of antagonizing the far more powerful Merlin family. If it came to open conflict, the Asteriscus family might be forced to face the storm alone.

  “There are no signs of forced entry… The assassin must be a powerful figure, likely at the peak of Elemental Adept rank and an expert in one of the rare elements, and was already inside the manor before the attack,” one of the family’s senior Magi reported grimly. “That means it was someone from within… and the timing is far too convenient to be a coincidence.”

  Maverick’s gaze flicked toward Victor, narrowing slightly, but he said nothing. After all, how could a third-stage Initiate Attunement acolyte kill a fourth-sigil Elemental Adept Magus?

  “With this incident, we can no longer buy time. The Merlin family will act without hesitation now,” muttered another elder. The man’s graying hair and perpetually somber demeanor made his words seem all the more hopeless.

  Victor chose not to speak. Instead, he let the hall steep in panic and desperation. This was what he wanted — the perfect storm. If the Merlin family marched on them now, the Asteriscus family would have no choice but to fight to the death. But if he were to offer a chance for them to relocate, they would take it without another thought.

  Exactly as planned.

  “What should we do now, Patriarch?” asked the elder who had remained the calmest throughout the entire exchange.

  Before Maverick could answer, Gardacle offered a suggestion. “I have a solution. How about we offer the high-rank meditation technique to a larger Magus force that is at odds with the Merlin family? For example, the Amethyst Ring Tower. That way, we can use it to secure their protection. With their help, we could push back against any aggression. Patriarch, I’m willing to be the envoy and take the risk of bringing the meditation technique to them.”

  A few murmurs rippled through the room; some agreed with the suggestion while others were entirely against it. But it wasn’t an entirely unreasonable idea.

  But Victor, standing quietly at the side, couldn’t help but scoff inwardly. That would only mean exchanging one collar for another. By handing over the meditation technique, they’d be giving away their greatest bargaining chip — and in return, they’d only earn temporary reprieve. In truth, it would be jumping from the wolf’s den into a tiger’s jaws.

  Clearly, Maverick — the most ambitious man in the family — was against giving the meditation technique to outsiders. But what choice did he have? Even though he was the patriarch and held nearly absolute authority, he couldn’t completely dismiss the opinions of the other elders without risking internal strife.

  “Pathetic.”

  The word rang out clearly across the hall.

  The elders turned their heads in shock, startled that such a word had escaped Victor’s mouth. Even Angela, who was standing not far from him, looked at him with wide eyes.

  “What was that? How dare you mock the council with your tongue!” Gardacle snapped, rising from his seat in fury.

  But Victor was unbothered, his gaze sweeping over the room with quiet disdain. “You heard me. You’re all pathetic.”

  “Victor, stop it! Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Angela warned sharply, sensing the rising tension.

  “Victor!” Maverick’s voice cracked like thunder. “Even if you’ve uncovered a complete high-rank meditation technique, that doesn’t give you the right to overstep your status!”

  Yet, the smile on Victor’s lips only grew wider. “Me, overstep my status?”

  He walked into the center of the hall, his boots echoing against the polished stone floor along the way. Then, without hesitation, he turned toward Maverick, raising a finger and pointing directly at him.

  “I, Victor Asteriscus, challenge Maverick Asteriscus for the patriarch position of the Asteriscus family!”

  Amazon and

  goodreads!

  If you are looking for more to read, consider checking out my new series or join my server