Kill The Old Ones!

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”Ooh, the tea is hot, Mama.”

”It’s scalding, Sis! What a scoop!”

The journalists are having a field day, that’s for sure.

Ren just unloaded long-standing baggage there and opened it up for everybody to see.

Based on his expression, he was not lying. That is the face of a man who just about had it with someone and decided to say ’fuck it.’

’Do you dare deny it? ’

His return question to Seraphina echoed through the, mostly, silent crowd. Even Edgar kept his mouth shut because some deep and unknown lore between ancient martial clans was being unraveled right now.

And it wasn’t looking good for Seraphina.

She was speechless. Her momentum was gone. Not even a trace of her righteous indignation remains. All she harbored was doubt about everything she had been told.

Seraphina practically begged Lucian to make way for her so that she could bring justice for her clan brothers and rectify the bad history of her clan. Yet now, everything was shaping to be some sort of lie forcefully fed to her without her knowing.

Ren confidently denied her accusations vehemently as he stressed it. But was she able to do the same?

”No, you can’t, right?” Ren sneered again. ”Yep, that’s what I thought. It’s not surprising, though. Your clan is very good at lying and deceiving people. You, miss, are just one of their many victims.”

”But I digress.”

”You want to know why I hurt your clan brothers, right? Well, it’s simple, really.”

”Your clan, for the nth time since we completely severed our connection, came knocking at the doors of our compound wearing smug and ’holier-than-thou’ faces. They were to show off and to prove that we are lesser beings compared to you.”

”Your elders boasted to my uncle, the Clan Leader, that your clan brothers were the shit, the next big thing, geniuses of the next era, and whatever bullshit they can spout.”

”They practically coerced my uncle to have my clan brothers and sisters fight yours, just so that your clan can prove a point.”

”They humiliated my clan first, and if they thoroughly won, not only will they walk out with heads held high, they will also force our clan to ’donate’ several crates of potions to your clan, you know, for the sake of the ’good old times.’”

”But I was there, and I can’t allow that to happen. Not on my watch.”

”I went up to the stage and beat all of your so-called ’prodigies’ one by one. And when they looked unconvinced, I asked all five of them to come up and fight me at the same time, like it’s going to change the outcome.”

”Spoilers. It didn’t. Your so-called prodigies are trash, worthless, and completely underserving of their title. They couldn’t even handle one serious attack from me. They all fainted before it reached the halfway point. Fucking losers.”

”Shut up!” Seraphina found her strength to refute him again. ”Don’t call them that!”

”Why not? Isn’t it true?” Ren shrugged.

”If they truly were who they say they were, then where the hell are they? Why aren’t they here? I would’ve recognized their faces if they were around.”

”...”

”See my point? Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

”Beaten and defeated, they fled with their tails between their legs. They didn’t even grace us with a proper goodbye.”

”We kept that event to ourselves because we didn’t want the attention and the heat, but it seems that we should’ve. Because look at you now.”

”It looks like they all came home and wove their own story to you, conveniently leaving out the important parts.”

”Once again, that’s not surprising. If your elders didn’t trust you, their heir, enough to tell you the truth, then don’t blame me for not liking your clan too much.”

”And just to prove a point...” Ren turned around and looked at where his uncle and the rest were sitting.

His eyes met Alex’s, and they both nodded at each other.

”My cousin, Alex, recorded the whole thing. I told him to keep it but not to upload it. I assumed that your clan would be up to their regular bullshit again, so I prepared something.”

”And would you look at that? I was right.”

”You want the truth? You’ll see it after this match. I suppose it’ll be trending right away given how many people are watching this right now.”

”Now that that’s out of the way. Are we fighting or not?”

Ren was done wasting words on Seraphina and the White Haven Clan.

He was willing to let bygones be bygones, but this girl just had to dig up the past, and Ren’s patience wore thin with that hypocritical clan’s lies and deceit.

Ren knew that this was far from enough to truly destabilize what the White Haven Clan built over the years, but he didn’t care.

The foundation of the White Haven Clan was originally stable. But after they betrayed the Banished Arms Clan, it all went to shit.

Now, it’s all lies and deceit. It’s far from stable at all. If their neighbors used cement to build their home, the White Haven Clan used cardboard and prayers for theirs.

Regardless of whether Ren did something or not, the White Haven Clan would collapse on its own.

Ren’s revelations just now are just the beginning. Others, or the White Haven Clan, will do the rest for its destruction. He need not waste his valuable time with them.

The countdown for their match finally began, and both Seraphina and Ren saw it.

Seraphina was still shaken, that much was clear. The betrayal on her face was so clear that everybody could spot it from a mile away. She was truly shaken by what she heard about her own clan. And the fact that she couldn’t even properly refute Ren’s accusations just made her feel even worse.

She was lost, and her faith in her clan was collapsing.

Seraphina was raised believing that her clan was right. She was raised in strictness and taught to value order. She believed that the clan raised her to be a hero of justice, or at least an icon of it.

The clan gave her their full support, and she’s been thankful for that ever since.

But it’s also because of their teachings that she learned that nothing was fair. There was right and wrong. Strong and weak. She and her clan were among the strong ones, and the strong stay tethered together; that’s why she only ever spoke or interacted with her peers.

Ren’s verbal beating knocked some sense into her, though.

All of a sudden, it’s like somebody pulled her by the hair up to the surface, allowing her to breathe some real air. She didn’t even know that she was deeply submerged into the sea of lies and deceit ever since.

But even though she felt like her head was swelling with the truth even now. It didn’t make her feel good. In fact, it felt so bad, and she wished it never happened.

Because if it hadn’t, then she could just continue living as she always did—believing that her clan could do nothing wrong and that they were always right for the rest of her life.

But that’s all over now.

She felt ashamed, really. And to think that she so desperately wanted to fight this ’villain’ as she always thought he was, to the point that she even sold herself to Lucian for a week to do so, made her feel infinitely worse.

Lucian was a decent man, and he had his eyes on her for a while now. However, he could also be a bit of a playboy. He goes out with multiple women on his arms on a regular basis, and he doesn’t hide that at all.

His clan elders scold him publicly but also not really behind the scenes. He never took those girls seriously anyway.

The White Haven Clan, though, tacitly approved of forming a deeper relationship with the Heaven’s Reach Clan.

Seraphina now understood this because her mind was no longer deluded by her clan’s teachings.

She now understood that her clan wasn’t stopping Lucian from flirting with her because deep down, that’s what they wanted to see. They are using her to become closer with the Heaven’s Reach Clan and to hopefully forge an alliance through marraige.

Her eyes were so clear right now that it hurt. It hurts so much that she finds it hard to breathe.

All this time, it turns out that she’s just a tool. Her authority and importance within the clan turned out to be nothing but lies and deceit.

This hateful guy, Soren Vire, was right. The White Haven Clan was built on lies and deceit. No wonder he looks down on them.

But as it is, it doesn’t change her allegiance. It’s too late for her now.

Her eyes were clear, but she doesn’t own her anymore. She’s owned by her clan.

And thus, she will fight for them, regardless of whether they’re on the right side of the story or not.

So, she could only grip her sword and do as she was always thought to do.