I Am The Madman Of This Family

Even on a battlefield, night fell.

“Ugh…”

Rajis, who had been knocked unconscious after picking a fight with Keter, finally woke up. He tried to stand up right away, but his body didn’t respond the way he wanted.

As his senses returned belatedly, the first thing he felt was the cold. It was winter, so feeling chilly was only natural, but that wasn’t the case for Superhumans. Once one reached that level, one hardly felt heat or cold anymore.

Growl…

Rajis heard an odd sound from his stomach, but he just dismissed it as one of the aftereffects of being beaten up by Keter. After all, he had never experienced hunger in his life. As a child, he’d enjoyed abundant meals, and after becoming Superhuman, he could easily go a week without eating.

However, his biology was honest. As hunger set in, his sense of smell sharpened, and soon an appetizing aroma tickled his nose.

What… is this smell? It’s savory like corn, but there’s a faint sweetness too.

Rajis, who was born into a master family and had tried almost every food in the world, was confused by this unfamiliar scent and by the emptiness in his stomach.

“Hey, that guy’s awake. Go bring him over.” He heard Keter’s voice. Heavy footsteps approached, and then he was suddenly lifted into the air.

“Jordic?”

Supporting him, Jordic brought Rajis over to a warm campfire. Everyone was gathered there: Keter, Jordic, Tesla, and Zion, but one person was missing.

With his senses mostly restored, Rajis looked around.

“Where is Sir Gargan?” he asked.

Jordic pointed up at the sky. Rajis turned to look at Keter. He had clearly been gravely injured earlier, yet now he looked completely healed, as if it had happened in the blink of an eye.

“How long has it been? A week?”

“What do you mean? It’s only been about three hours.”

“That can’t be right… Those wounds… They weren’t something that could heal in just three hours.”

“What, do you think elixirs are just for show?”

“But when elixirs are used, they leave distinct traces on the skin, don’t they?”

Rajis held out his own wrist. The skin that had been healed by an elixir was flawlessly smooth—so smooth it looked like his fingers might slip if he touched it.

“Keter… are you really human?”

With an irritated expression, Keter held out a bowl. Inside it was a hearty soup, filled with generous chunks of ingredients. Rajis was being very serious right now. There was no reason he should be distracted by mere food, but…

Growl…

His biology didn’t lie. His nose eagerly inhaled the scent of the soup, and his eyes—rather than looking at Keter—were fixed on the bowl.

“…What did you do to me?”

Rajis was convinced Keter had done something to him. Otherwise, how could he be so fixated on food of all things?

In response, Keter gave a simple, concise explanation.

“I made you human again.”

“...!”

“You’re not going to eat that?” Zion said cautiously.

Rajis flinched. Zion’s eyes looked almost desperate. Looking closer, he saw that Zion was holding a bowl identical to his, except it was completely clean, as if brand new. Sensing something was off, Rajis glanced around. It wasn’t just Zion watching him. Jordic and Tesla were staring intently as well—not at him, but at the soup in his bowl.

What the hell is in this soup for them to look at it like that?

Rajis couldn’t understand why the three of them wanted the soup so badly, especially since there was a whole pot of it right in front of them.

Reading his confusion, Zion explained, “Sir Keter said no one is allowed to touch it unless he personally gives it to them.”

“Ah…”

“Since I’ve explained it to you, Sir Rajis, that soup should be given to me…”

“Wait a moment. I was the one who brought Rajis here.”

“I’m the one who gathered the firewood!”

Jordic and Tesla, having apparently abandoned all dignity, began snarling at each other over the right to the soup. Seeing this, Rajis felt even less able to give it away.

Just what is this soup?

There wasn’t even a spoon. If he wanted to eat, he’d have to put his mouth directly to the bowl and drink it, and that was a disgrace for a noble. He wasn’t a beggar, so why would he put his mouth to a bowl?

But if he didn’t, he couldn’t eat at all. In the end, Rajis brought the bowl to his lips and drank.

Slurp.

“...!”

Rajis’ eyes grew wide. Starting from his tongue, a rich, nutty flavor spread through his entire mouth. The warmth flowed down his throat, passed through his stomach, and he could feel it spreading throughout his entire body in real time.

It wasn’t an especially complex taste, just the natural nuttiness of nuts melted into the soup. With nothing more than a gentle warmth and just the right amount of salt, it somehow tasted better than any lavish delicacy.

“Huh?!”

Rajis was startled. He thought he’d only taken a sip, but when he came to his senses, the bowl was empty. A wave of regret washed over him, but at the same time, vitality surged through his body. He ate regularly, of course, but never before had his condition improved so dramatically the instant he finished eating.

“Sir Keter. Just what is this food, and what did you do to it?”

“Good, right? I put in pine nuts, mashed potatoes, water, and rock salt, and simmered it slowly. It was a special dish I ate on my birthday when I was young.”

“This kind of food on your birthday… Oh!”

Because Keter was so overwhelmingly strong, Rajis and the others had forgotten something important: Keter wasn’t born into nobility but was a commoner—no, worse, a vagrant from the lawless city of Absinthe.

Rajis suddenly found himself imagining Keter growing up in that place.

“Keter. Were you strong from the beginning? Or did you become strong?”

“That’s a good question for a night like this. I used to think it was the latter, but now I think it’s both.”

Clack.

Keter ladled more soup into Rajis’ bowl, filling it to the brim. The other three looked at him with envy.

“I was stupid and weak back then, too. I got tricked, lied to, and betrayed by people I trusted. There wasn’t a day I didn’t have bruises from getting beaten. I thought my life was complete shit. Being abandoned in that godforsaken Lawless City was bad enough, but having no special talent on top of that—it was miserable.”

“...”

The four of them couldn’t believe it. The Keter they knew had defeated six Grandmasters and even brought down a Prime. It was unthinkable that such a strong man had endured such a brutal childhood.

The strong people they knew were born with superior bloodlines, drank rare elixirs like water, had great teachers, and were even blessed with extraordinary talent.

But Keter hadn’t grown up like that. He spoke of surviving in a harsh, barren environment, constantly facing death.

“At first, I lived solely for revenge—revenge against the parents who abandoned me, which was the only thing that kept me going. I ate mud cookies, drank rainwater, hid in filth to escape pursuers. If it meant surviving, I’d do anything and learn anything. No one wanted to teach skills to someone as lowly as me, so I made everyone my teacher. I learned how to use strength from ants, how to jump from frogs, and how to fight by watching dust scatter in the wind.”

Crackle.

The campfire crumbled softly. By now, the four of them weren’t even breathing. They were imagining Keter—cowardly Keter, beaten Keter, weeping Keter, Keter swearing revenge…

“Anyway, I don’t think I survived because I was exceptional. I just had more survivability than most. But survivability alone only makes you persistent—it doesn’t make you strong. So I learned weapon techniques. I started with the sword, then the sickle, axe, hammer, spear… there’s no weapon I haven’t used. And in the end, the one I chose was…”

Snap!

From his fingertips, Keter formed an Aura Arrow and spun it lazily.

“They say a sword takes ten thousand days to learn, a thousand for a spear, and one hundred for a dagger, but I think something is missing here. Why isn’t there one for archery, one that requires endless learning?”

Rajis and Tesla, members of the Masters of Swordsmanship, frowned, but they couldn’t refute him. After all, they had been defeated by the very archery they’d looked down on.

“Archery is incomplete, and because it’s incomplete, its potential is infinite. That’s one of the many reasons you can’t beat me.”

Whoosh!

The Aura Arrow flared like flame and vanished. As Keter finished speaking, the four of them felt unsettled.

Why are we listening to this story here?

The answer wasn’t hard: somehow, it just happened. Keter had spared them, and as they read the room, things had simply turned out this way.

What happens next?

The anxiety of being at the mercy of someone stronger, unsure of what the future held, was unfamiliar to them. And Keter was enjoying their confusion.

Letting the strong experience how the weak feel… that’s pretty entertaining too.

Keter found it amusing to see the direct descendants of master families—those praised as geniuses since childhood and revered as Superhumans—reduced to helplessness.

At that moment, Keter sensed a presence and turned around. There was nothing there, but that only made him smile.

Standing up, Keter said to the four of them, “I’ve got something to take care of. You guys hang out here.”