Chương 35: The Smiling Blood Demon

Of course, Alexander wasn't so dumb as not to recognize the family crest of his greatest rival. He also wasn't blind as to not have noticed it before, after all, the crest was directly facing his direction. Nonetheless, why would he admit it? Since he came looking for trouble, there was no way he would admit it.

Apart from looking for trouble, Alexander also wanted to see and know who was in the carriage.

They say when a stick is crooked, its shadow would be crooked too. Since the Arnhaunts were the adversaries of his Sutton household, Alexander took all those from the family's younger generation as his greatest rivals. As such, he knew all the members of the younger generation in the Arnhaunt family but not Asher. While he had indeed heard rumours about the recent young master of the family, he had yet to meet him face to face. Hence, when Alexander saw the carriage with the grey-coloured maple tree -which was the emblem of the direct member of the Arnhaunt family - he decided to learn more about this new 'opponent' of his.

By starting with insults while ignoring his identity, Alexander wanted to test Asher's tolerance and mindset. If the new young master easily lost his bearing, Alexander would write him off as nothing but a dandy; one who wasn't suited to b his true rival. If Asher was able to maintain his composure, then Alexander would begin to take him a bit more seriously. All in all, Alexander had prepared various tactics to use and discover the personality of this mysterious young master.

Rather than calling him an average twelve-year-old, Alexander was a mini-tactician who was destined for great achievements just from his schemes and plotting alone.

"I apologize for my previous comments." Alexander suddenly smiled nicely.

"I've already introduced myself. May I get the honour of knowing your name?"

"Young master Arnhaunt." Asher replied.

'Since you have such a thick skin, why should I not replicate in-kind.'

Normally, when young nobles address each other, unless one was of a lower rank than the other they would usually call each other by their names. So, if Alexander were to call Asher 'young master', it was tantamount to admitting that his rank and heritage was beneath Asher's. While his family's ranking was indeed behind, their strength wasn't so different.

"Haha." Alexander grimly chuckled.

"How dare you?"

One of Alexander's guards, however, couldn't take it and drew out his sword.

One might wonder why such had happened. It was simply because the rivalry between the two families was very serious. Unless it was in an emergency period or wartimes when the strength of the kingdom had to be united under the royal family, the Arnhaunts and Sutton would always be competing against each other.

A wandering poet once compared the rivalry of the two great families to that of two tigers sharing a mountain. The two tigers might argue with each other and battle to the point of severely bleeding and injury, in hopes of ruling over the area alone. However, once a third party tries to take over the mountain, the two tigers would unite and squash the new adversary.

Shiing.

Asher's guards followed suit and unsheathed their weapons under the lead of Anger. The area between them immediately got heated as a confrontation was taking place. The temperature dropped as a wave of killing intent filled the area, and even the passersby and random characters noticed that something out of the ordinary was happening.

"Haha. What is this? I leave just for a moment and you guys seem to be having fun." Ol' Fang's laugh was heard from a close distance.

As soon as they heard it, the guards on Alexander's side shivered as their grip on their swords loosened a bit. All of them had four words on their mind at that moment.

The Smiling Blood Demon.

A few years back, when the Great Dawn kingdom was embroiled in a serious war with the Kingdom of Terra, a great warrior had made his name then. It was said that before each battle, he would display a weird smile that made it seem like he was celebrating a joyous occasion. After that, he would go on a rampage in enemy lines and slaughter all who stood in his way, be they friend or foe. Once the first drop of blood lands on the ground, he wouldn't stop till a river of blood was formed, and it was said that he took joy in doing such, retaining a smile as he took away lives.

With a smile on his lips, he reaped the lives of his enemies. Till blood flowed like rivers, the demon's sword won't rest.

This was a short poem created to honour the Smiling Blood Demon, but at the same time to remind others of that horror. Even till now, it was used to scare recruits in military camps and all those who had witnessed that horror would always shiver at those lines.

It wasn't until the end of the war that it was revealed that this warrior had joined the Arnhaunt family, going so far as rejecting the royal family to do so. No one knew what privileges duke Darius had used to attract him, after all, whatever the duke could offer, the king could too, by a factor of at least three. Nonetheless, it remained a fact that the Smiling Blood Demon had joined the Arnhaunt family and even become a trusted friend of the duke, so much so that he held one of the highest authorities in the family.

It was insane, some thought, leaving a noble family's organization in the hands of a killer madman. But over time, those dissident voices realized the duke's far-sightedness as the famed demon had ended up helping the family prosper, to the point that his past was slowly being forgotten as it was replaced with his present.

Nonetheless, every top aristocratic family still retained the memory of the past, and always warned their descendants as well as those under them, to never provoke the demon to return to his past self. Because that would signal the start of a bloodbath. A certain noble family 19 years ago had done so, and now, they were no more.

As for the identity of the Smiling Blood Demon, it was none other than the man who held the new alias, Ol' Fang.

'What is he doing here?'

Even Alexander became a bit scared.

When he was younger, his elder cousins would use the poem of the Smiling Blood Demon to scare him, and it was pretty successful as it made the young Alexander quieten down back then. While he had grown up now, Alexander was still scared of this demon incarnate.

Truthfully, he never thought that he would be here. One should know that in the Arnhaunt family, Ol' Fang's commands were almost the same as Darius' words. That was the level of authority he had in the family despite not being a direct member of it. So, it was unexpected that he would be playing guard duty for Asher.

'Damn it!'

At that moment, Alexander got jealous.

In his family, there were 3 other sons apart from him and two of them were even older than he was. The battle for succession of the family head position would be difficult once their father departed or retired. With all sons being alive and of age, apart from the last one, there was no chosen successor to the family yet. So, the best guards in the family couldn't be assigned to Alexander on his way to the academy. Actually, he only had average men with him here.

However, from what he could see, Ol' Fang was assigned to guard the young teen in the carriage. Even excluding Ol' Fang, the other guard who was glaring at him intensely(Anger) was way stronger than his guards. If not for the training he had received as well as the protection of one of his bodyguards, just Anger's glare alone could send him into a panic attack.

"Hmph. Let's go." Alexander said as he turned around in a hurry.

While he believed that Ol' Fang wouldn't kill him, the same couldn't be true for his guards. Losing them would be the same as losing his personal protection and his father would surely reprimand him for it. It could even affect his chances of succeeding his father as family head. So, no matter what, Alexander had to avoid a fight.

Also, he was scared; scared that Ol' Fang might not really care about his status and kill him. Though the chances were low, they still existed, so Alexander didn't want to stay and risk it. His father had 3 other sons; who says the old man would even miss him? His older brothers might even rejoice at his death as that would mean one less competitor to the esteemed position. Surely, Alexander wouldn't want to do them such a great 'favour'.

"Oh, in a hurry so soon, young master~?" Ol' Fang stressed his last words as he still maintained his smile.

"Why not stay for a cup of tea?"

"Ah…sorry but I can't. I need to go register with the dean. Maybe another time." Alexander replied as he hurried off at a rapid pace.

Stay for a cup of tea? Only an idiot would do so. Heck, would he still have his lips after the tea? Or even his head?

After the Sutton convoy left, Ol' Fang frowned a bit before returning to his usual demeanour. Meanwhile, Asher simply laughed in his head as he felt that the young master of the Sutton family was definitely a wimp.

On another side, a masked face glanced through the concealed windows of a certain carriage as a slight mumble was heard inside the carriage.

"The Smiling Blood Demon is here? Duke Arnhaunt must really value this son of his. If it weren't for the rumours, I would have thought that he has a heavenly physique. Interesting."

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