Chapter 537: The Patriarch Is Coming Back

For a few seconds, neither of them said anything.

"It has been a while, my dear nephew, how have you been? You finally decided to call me." His uncle, Damian, spoke in a calm tone.

Lian went directly to the thing that had made him call.

"You said their plan failed, what plan?"

The other side of the line became silent, not long enough to be strange, but enough for him to understand that his uncle had not prepared the answer beforehand.

Damian was deciding how much to tell him.

"Your stepmothers have been getting too active lately, more than what can be called normal family competition, I heard that you faced Darian" It was clear that he probably knew about a large part of what had happened.

"The Special Area incident probably wasn’t their last attempt. If I were you, from now on I would check even the things that seem completely random twice."

"Is there a reason for that? Or is it the same old jealousy?"

For years, the competition between his father’s wives had not been considered strange.

The Vorhelm Family was large enough for every branch to have its own supporters, even a small success could change the weight of a faction.

But trying to kill someone? This was no longer normal competition, especially when it reached the point where all of them decided to work together to remove one person.

This showed that they either knew something, or something was about to happen that was a very big threat to them.

"I don’t think it’s only jealousy." Damian’s voice returned after a few seconds.

"Then?"

Lian raised his head slightly.

"These days, there is almost only one piece of news going around the entire family, the return of the Patriarch."

"My father is back?" Even so, even if that was the case, he could not understand what this had to do with anything... wait, unless...?

"No, but he will return soon."

Lian said nothing for a few moments.

His father had been out of the family’s direct reach for a long time.

Neither his absence was something new, nor was it unusual for most of the family’s daily affairs to continue without him.

But his "return" was usually not without a reason, and he had a guess about what the reason for his return would be.

His uncle continued.

"And the thing that has everyone worried is not only his return. It is the decision he is going to make after he returns."

Lian leaned back against the chair, at first, several possibilities appeared in his mind.

A war?

Resource distribution?

A change in the council?

But none of them explained why several of his stepmothers would suddenly go as far as physically removing him, and because of that, he rejected all of them.

Only one answer remained.

"He wants to choose the heir." Lian whispered quietly.

"Exactly." The other side of the line confirmed.

He looked at the ceiling.

Of course.

If the Vorhelm Patriarch was finally going to choose his official successor, all the internal balance of the family would change.

Every wife, every child, every branch, and every council member who had invested in one of the candidates for years would suddenly have something real to lose.

"And what has made them the most nervous is that your name has risen too much during the past few months."

This time, Lian laughed, it was a short laugh that came more from how pointless the situation was.

"So that’s why Darian wanted to kill me? Because my father might remember after all these years that he has another son?"

"Lian."

Damian’s tone made him become silent.

"I can’t prove exactly who gave Darian what order."

He chose his words carefully.

"I can’t even say with certainty that their final goal was definitely your death, or that they would have accepted something less."

"But?"

Lian slightly narrowed his eyes.

"But Darian entering the Special Area was not a coincidence, he was not supposed to be there, but he entered at the last moment, which means he had a goal, and that goal was you."

The young Vorhelm already knew this part, besides, something his uncle did not know was that he had heard that bastard’s words with his own ears.

Damian let out a short breath.

"I’ll stop their attempts as much as I can. But I can’t stay beside you every hour, and you are no longer the boy who stays inside the family estate all day."

His voice became more serious.

"They will do anything they can to make sure you are not chosen, the more likely you become to be chosen, the harsher their methods will become."

Lian remained silent for a few moments, he was neither afraid nor did he care, the fact that several people in his family wanted to remove him was more annoying than frightening.

But his uncle was also right, these women were worried that if he was chosen as the heir, he would definitely take revenge on them, and that was why they would do anything to make sure he was not chosen.

Even if they had to use harsher methods.

"I’ll be careful."

A few seconds of silence formed between them, his uncle was not completely relieved by this, he was also trying to protect his nephew, but it was not enough.

Besides, he had noticed that these women had been too quiet lately and had done nothing, but this only gave him a worse feeling.

His brother’s wives would definitely show their poison again somewhere.

Lian moved the phone from one hand to the other and then asked the question that had been in his mind since he saw the invitation.

"Are the Vorhelms sending a delegation to the Pendragon ceremony?"

"Of course, it’s not a small ceremony, a delegation from the family is going."

"Who is leading it?"

"Your older brother."

"So I’ll see my brother again."

It was a normal sentence, but apparently something in it made his uncle pause.

"Wait."

Lian felt that the subject was about to go in a direction he would not like.

"What?"

"You’re going too?"

"Yeah."

This time, the silence was longer.

He moved the phone slightly away from his ear and looked at the screen to make sure the call had not ended.

It was still connected.

"Uncle?"

"I’m thinking."

"Hmm? What are you thinking about? Which part of me going needs thinking about?"

"Now that I think about it..." But Damian continued after a few moments.

"What?"

"There was also something strange between you and that Pendragon girl at Diana’s birthday ceremony."

Lian did not even need to ask which girl he meant.

"What was strange? We only fought, that’s all."

His uncle really thought for a few seconds and then asked with a simplicity that made the sentence even worse.

"Are you two lovers?"

Lian coughed several times heavily at that exact moment.

"Cough cough! Where did that come from?!"

Damian sighed on the other side of the line, a sigh that sounded more like the reaction of someone who thought the other person had failed to understand the main point.

"Lian, some advice from someone older than you."

"I didn’t even—" The young Vorhelm was still trying to control his last cough.

"Falling in love with a Pendragon can make your life much more miserable than you can imagine right now."

Lian became silent.

Damian continued.

"That family does not manage its relationships like normal families do. Especially when the matter involves one of the main members of the new generation."

He paused.

Then he gave the final blow.

"And when the girl you fell in love with is the jewel of the Pendragon Family, you had better be more careful than usual."

Lian only held the phone beside his ear for a few moments and then said.

"Uncle, what do you mean? Fell in love with what? We aren’t even—"

Beep.

The call ended.

He left the sentence unfinished, lowered the phone, the screen was already off, and he stared at it for a few seconds.

"Seriously?"

He leaned back against the chair and sighed, and then the same word entered his mind again.

In love?

Seris was beautiful, that fact did not need any thought.

She was calm, very strong, but their relationship was also.....before he could finish his own thought, Seris’s face appeared.

Her calm and cold look, her normal expression that was always a little difficult to read.

Her voice when she personally invited him to the ceremony.

And then the thing he himself had admitted a few days ago in Region Three.

He missed her.

Lian stared at the ceiling for a few seconds.

"...In love?"

It still seemed too big, at least for something he did not exactly know what it was.

But rejecting it was not as easy as he had thought a few minutes ago.

That was the problem.

He put the phone on the table and stood up.

"I guess I should go outside for a while."

The air outside was cooler.

After leaving the dormitory, he walked along the main path of the Academy for a few minutes without any clear destination.

The first thing he noticed was the silence.

There were still some students around the area.

A few were standing near the entrance of a building and training, and weak music could be heard from one of the cafes.

But compared to the previous months? It was empty.

The school year had ended.

Many students had immediately entered the Ruined Realm again to use the vacation for hunting, gathering resources, and getting closer to their next evolution.

Many others had returned home.

And the former third-year students? They were no longer Academy students and had graduated.