Inside the tent, Yale and Herken were waiting for an attack that Herken hoped wouldn’t happen.

“Herken, if someone attacks us I will kill that person immediately, we can’t afford to travel with prisoners and with the traitors as backing in the Larken Clan, I doubt those prisoners would end up punished afterward even if we managed to reach the Larken Clan with them as prisoners. I can use Soul-search or kill the attacker directly with my sword; it had a special effect, and if the one who dies due to my sword isn’t evil, that person would be able to reincarnate. You can choose the method.”

Yale doubted that those members of the younger generation knew anything because they were just pawns of the elders behind them and if he wanted to soul-search them Herken wouldn’t know. However, if Herken thought that the attackers needed to be soul-searched, Yale would do it because using the sword to kill them wasn’t important; letting Herken choose had another finality.

“Kill them directly with your sword. In case there are some traitors in the younger generation they wouldn’t know anything important, and we can know the elders easily behind them.”

Herken didn’t want to turn any member of the younger generation into a beast-like being as they did with the bandit leader, and Yale’s words about they being able to reincarnate if they weren’t evil gave him a hope that any traitor that could appear would just be a brainwashed victim.

However, even if someone was brainwashed to betray the clan, treason was still treason, and the rules of the Larken Clan were clear, death was the only punishment for them.

That reply was just as Yale expected, but asking that to Herken had been beneficial to him. Yale had just given Herken two options and in both Yale was killing them traitors; he omitted any option of Herken dealing with them personally provoking that even Herken forgot about that possibility and gave permission to Yale for killing the traitors after choosing one of the options.

Since Herken who was the group leader had given Yale permission to kill any traitor, no one would be able to blame Yale afterward; all responsibility would fall into Herken in case that those traitor elders wanted to blame someone. However, Herken was backed by Lar’s grandfather, so the others wouldn’t be able to touch him. On the other hand, Yale didn’t have such a position and didn’t want to ask favors to the Larken Clan to avoid the problems of killing a member without authorization.

“Will this illusion of yours work well? If someone notices us inside the tent, the attack won’t happen.”

Yale had used Body Illusion inside the tent; any outsider would see Lar and Wyba sleeping peacefully instead of Yale, and Herken whom were sitting with swords in their hands ready to kill anyone who appeared.

“Don’t’ worry. Someone like you will be able to see through this illusion, but the others in this camp won’t be able to do it.”

Body Illusion was strong, but it was an illusion created to cover the body of the caster, so when using it to affect all the tent the effects were a bit weaker, but it was still enough to fool some inexperienced members of the younger generation that lacked experience dealing with illusions.

They didn’t speak more after that, and in some minutes the tent’s entrance was opened by someone.

“Those two are sleeping as we guessed. One of you stay here to watch; if anyone leaves the tents, kill without hesitation. The other shall grab Wyba, but be careful and avoid harming her; we need her to threaten that fearful Sword Mage. There is no benefit in harming her right now. As for Lar, I will kill her personally.”

Herken’s face was grim as he heard the conversation while Yale just thought that they were fools.

“Don’t they know that if they open the tent’s entrance, those who are inside would be able to hear everything?”

The girl was the one who entered the tent with the leader; the other wanted to remain watching outside hoping to be able to kill someone else.

The leader neared the place where he saw Lar resting, and the girl did the same but to the place where Wyba was supposed to be.

“For the glory of the True Empire and the True Larken Clan!”

Both shouted at the same time provoking that Yale thought that they truly had some mental problems, shouting before trying to assassinate someone in secret was foolish.

However, the first one in fall from the traitor group wasn’t one of those who shouted, but the one who remained outside. Herken had given him the same treatment as the bandit leader after seeing the guy’s happy face when he heard about killing anyone who left the tents. That was the face of a maniac who loved to harm others for his own pleasure.

Yale waited until the leader stabbed the ground and the girl tried to grab something inexistent before acting.

“You are truly fools.”

At that moment the illusion disappeared, and they saw Yale moving his sword in their last moments before falling to the ground with their head detached from their bodies. Yale showed himself because he didn’t plan to assassinate them in secret; he wanted them to be perfectly conscious of who killed him.

In fact, Yale even quickly soul-searched them because since the moment they also tried to kidnap Wyba, there was no way Yale could think they were just victims forced by the marks on their souls; Lar could be a target due to her position in the Larken Clan, but kidnapping Wyba was clearly their decision. Of course, no one would be able to sense the Death Law’s ripples of his Soul-search if Yale didn’t want, so he didn’t fear Herken discovering it.

“Herken should be dealing with the other; I need to be quick.”

Yale started Bloodline manipulation and looked for the bloodline foundation of those two; that part was the one he needed to absorb to create the Sword Bloodline. One can create more blood, but the bloodline foundation couldn’t be restored, and for those who have inherited it without a compatible soul, it was also a big weak point in front of someone who could steal it.

After all, the legacy bloodlines were created by Yale’s past life to help Yale’s current life; the fact others benefitted from it was just a side effect. Yale was the only one who could use the legacy bloodlines at their full potential, and the true power would only be released when the five were together.

The only exception was Lar; she could use the Sword Bloodline at the full potential because she was its co-creator.

While absorbing the bloodline foundations of those two traitors, Yale experimented an increase in the recreation of the Sword Bloodline that he believed that would have needed a few years to accomplish without absorbing the bloodline foundations from the traitors.

They weren’t the best geniuses of their generation, but they were still members of the Larken Clan with incredible powerful bloodlines; they couldn’t compare to a random member.

“I already caught this one and let him powerless. Kill him with your sword, but I doubt that this guy isn’t considered evil.”

The guy had his face full of anger when Herken dragged him inside the tent, but then he saw the corpses of his two companions, and he started to feel fear and deep hate.

“Do you know what you did? We are members of the True Larken Clan; you killed two of us! Two members of the True Larken Clan! We are different from those rightful bastards who called themselves members of the Larken Clan; they are all fake. They need to die or turn into our slaves! You killed two of us, so you now need to kill Lar, Wyba, and Herken before killing yourself and we may forgive your family from a cruel death; they will only be slaved and treated like animals for being related with you. Don’t say that we aren’t magnanimous; they at least will live while begging for their deaths. Go! Obey me or suffer under the True Empire’s might. Long life to the True Empire.”

The guy started to laugh crazily, and Yale gave him the same ending as the other two, but he ensured more pain while soul-searching him. Those threats didn’t effect on Yale; in a dire situation, he could use Origin Link and reverse the situation although he hoped not needing to use it because that was a one-time use trump card.

“Herken, awake everyone. This is something they must know.”

Herken nodded and left the tent; he knew that such matter couldn’t be hidden from the others and it was better if they learned about it without delays.

At the moment Herken left the tent, Yale started absorbing the bloodline foundation of the last traitor.

After finishing absorbing it, Yale noticed that he had completed the foundation of the Sword Bloodline inside his body; he just needed to use that foundation to create the bloodline. That was the last step and wasn’t a difficult one.

Yale was impatient to do it because at that moment he believed that he would advance to the Apprentice Rank; he doubted that there would be any other sub-quest before the usual final one of advancing the stage.