"Mom, Dad, sorry."

"Hmmm..."

"You shouldn't just go around and kill people Cecil... this may be a different world and you grew up in it without learning anything about the moral codes of Earth, but killing someone...or some people just because you are angry..." Anastasia worriedly said.

"..."

Seeing her son remain quiet, Anastasia continued lecturing.

"There are going to be consequences to your actions. Remember Cecil, killing is a crime. It may not be enforced in all the kingdoms and empires you've pa.s.sed by, but it does here. For now...we should go and address the family members that you ordered us to round up. There better be a good explanation for why you did such a thing."

"Don't worry, Mother. Let me handle this."

"...I'll leave it to you then, son," Kaiser said before turning around to leave with his wife. He also ushered Angelia and Ren out of the house and now, only Lucia, Serilla, and Cecil were left behind.

"...Let's go. I wanna get this all over with..." Cecil lazily said.

Serilla grasped onto Cecil's arm and asked, "Was it really necessary to kill all of those people? They were still fam—"

"I have no family members who would seek to do harm to one another. They let in invaders into the kingdom with the motive to cause harm to my family. All I saw were enemies, not family."

"..."

"I gave them a chance. Instead of taking it, they tried to do something underhanded to my family. You can do whatever you want to me, but touching my family is my bottom line."

Leaving behind those words, Cecil walked out of the house and the two girls trailed right behind him.

When he got into the grand hall, it was really noisy and bustling. Just before one of the family members could announce his presence, Cecil let loose his Weapon Intent. The pressure immediately caused everyone in the hall to quiet down.

He eyed everyone apathetically before walking towards the front of the hall. Sitting on the main seats of the hall was obviously Kaiser and Anastasia since they were still the Patriarch and Matriarch.

Cecil's siblings were sitting down near the front and Lucia and Serilla went to join them. Cecil walked up to his father and mother before giving a light bow in respect. He then turned towards the crowd of family members inside the hall and slowly retracted his Weapon Intent.

He obviously didn't direct it at the main family branch since they were his family, but everyone else in the room was able to breath normally again.

"I gathered everyone here today to address something. And that's whether or not the Silvaria family needs the branch families anymore," Cecil straightforwardly said.

This caused many of the branch family members to clamor and raise questions at his words. The Elders that were part of the family's council were seated right in the front so one of them immediately asked,

"What do you mean by that?!"

Cecil smirked at them and said, "Hmmm, it seems not everyone is here..."

"What are you talking about? Everyone is here except for those—"

"—that were injured in the earlier attack on the city, right?" Cecil finished.

"..."

"Heh, well, you have no need to panic. I'm the one who attacked them anyway."

When they heard Cecil's words the branch family members were all sent into an uproar and many began questioning him and demanding for an answer.

"Oh, shut up!" Cecil roared.

He infused mana into his voice so it blared across the hall and silenced everyone inside. After silencing everyone in the hall, Cecil turned towards Lucia and was about to say something before shaking his head and turning to Quinn instead.

"Quinn, take Yuna and Silver. Go bring back those from the hospital that are injured, including the invaders."

An Elder immediately roared out when he heard this.

"Cecil, if you do that they'll—"

Cecil raised his arm and furiously waved it down. The elder that was talking earlier was immediately flattened onto the ground.

"Did I say you can talk?"

"Urgh..."

Cecil eyed everyone else in the room and asked, "What did I tell you all earlier?"

No one answered and kept their silence.

"See? Was it that hard to just remain silent?"

Cecil waved his hand and the elder was picked off from the ground and roughly pushed back onto his chair. The elder had his head lowered and he didn't dare look up at Cecil.

"Hmph, know this. My father and this kingdom's army went out to wage war against a nation of fools who tried to attack us with no rhyme or reason. Fortunately, we were able to win and get back here safely. During that, we were also able to acquire many benefits from the war in the form of 2 new cities and a few land and sea trade routes."

Cecil smiled at everyone in the room and continued, "I know that the branch families have been uneasy and unaccepting of the current situation so we were trying to give you guys some benefits! Too bad though, because right after we got back from the war, what was it that greeted us?"

The hall was still mute and no one dared to answer. Actually, no one even knew what to answer.

"Well? Can anyone TELL ME?!" Cecil roared.

Angelia who was sitting in the front hesitantly raised her hand like a good little girl and answered, "We...were attacked?"

"Ah, thank you, Angel. How sad. Our own branch families don't even have the SPINE to answer a simple question. Yes, we were attacked today. What more, the main family was attacked."

Cecil coldly eyed the crowd and continued, "The ironic thing is that the branch families are the ones who machinated this whole thing..."

His words immediately sparked the branch family members to refute his words.

"N-No we didn't! There's just no way that we would go against the main family!"

"Yeah! What you speak is rubbis.h.!.+"

"That's false! Are you accusing the branch family for doing something we didn't?!"

Cecil didn't act high-handed this time. He instead raised his hand politely and this slowly caused the branch family members to quiet down. They didn't want to be subjected to Cecil's rough handling.

"I know that not ALL of the branch families had planned this out, but I'm sure that there are some that—ah, speak of the devil, why don't we ask the culprit who actually planned all this himself, yeah?"

A Misty Gate opened up at the front of the hall and out stepped Quinn, Yuna, and multiple Silvers who were carrying some injured patients in their arms.

"Master, where do we—"

"Just drop 'em on the floor," Cecil offhandedly said.

Quinn and Yuna flinched for a bit but all the Silvers released a relieved breath and just dropped the people they were carrying onto the ground.

"Ugh, what a ch.o.r.e...why don't we just do away with them?" Silver asked.

"We can't do that, Silv. Otherwise, these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds can't answer for their crimes," Cecil smiling said.

"Ahh, I see."

Cecil leaned over to Silver and whispered something to him before turning his attention to Quinn and Yuna.

The two immediately understood what Cecil but unlike Silver, Quinn and Yuna carefully placed the hospitalized patients down on the ground. Cecil walked over to them and activated his Ki. He began using his healing arts and roughly mended the wounds of the people on the floor.

After healing the patients who were Alternians, he quickly sent a few mana bolts at them and knocked them out. He then ordered for the family's guards to round them up and tie them together.

As for the Silvaria branch family members who were just healed, they stood up indignantly and began questioning everyone around them.

"What's the meaning of this?! Kaiser, you better have a good explanation! Also, weren't we just attacked? What happened?"

To everyone's surprise, Elder Kuran had been able to remain alive and was now kicking up a fuss inside the grand hall. Cecil sneered at the elder and said, "Oh, it's not 'we' were attacked, but 'you' were attacked."

"What?"

"Heh, I'm the one who sent that blast at you."

"What?! You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Are you trying to kill—"

Cecil extended his arm and wrapped his mana around Elder Kuran's neck and dragged him into his hand.

"Arck!"

"Quiet, fool. I didn't say you could talk!"

"Urgh....arruggghh..."

Cecil squeezed down on the elder's neck for a bit and after seeing that his point had gotten across to the elder, he released his grip and dropped the elder onto the ground.

"Now, I'm going to ask you once, and only once. Why did you let those invaders into our kingdom and have them attack the main family?"

"..."

Seeing Elder Kuran pale slightly at his words, Cecil maintained his cold, apathetic look and said, "You can remain silent if you want, but it will cost you..."

"...How do you even know that I'm the one who—"

"Are you going with that stance? You think I didn't sense the large amount of Alternians staying around your complex, Elder Kuran? Do you really think I'm stupid? Or, are you that desperate to lose your family?" Cecil snapped his fingers and from the crowd of people, Silver tossed up a few into the air and they landed in the front of the grand hall.

"When I checked earlier, I noticed that none of your immediate family members were there so don't worry, they're all still alive. As for the others...let's just say they weren't that lucky."

Cecil eyed Lucia discreetly and she immediately knew what he wanted.

'Good girl.'

He stared apathetically at Kuran and said, "Now, you can choose to tell me the truth and have your family branch spared, or—"

Cecil raised his hand and concentrated his mana into his palm. He gathered enough mana that it formed a humongous...o...b..of mana on his palm and directed it at Kuran's family.

"—I'll kill them."

"!"

Kuran widened his eyes in horror at Cecil's action. Everyone else in the family also paled and couldn't help but grow speechless at the young patriarch's actions. Even the main family members were in utterly disbelief at Cecil's actions.

This wasn't a hearing or a trial. This was basically just a public execution of a branch family member if they didn't comply with Cecil's demands. He was even threatening Kuran to say something that he did or didn't even do.

"Oh, you don't have to worry. After you confess, I'll have my wife extract your memories and display them for all to see," Cecil smiled widely.

To Kuran, Cecil was the devil right now. He could immediately tell that the young man in front of him wouldn't hesitate to eradicate his entire branch family.

If he did anything other than say what Cecil wanted him to say, then there would be no doubt that his family was all going to die in the next moment. Cecil was pus.h.i.+ng him to confess so Kuran thought that if he pleaded before reluctantly confessing then to the other family members, it would only seem as if Cecil had pushed him to say what he had said.

"Please...please spare my family! I'll, I'll confess! I'll confess! I-I'm the one who brought them. I'm the one who let them into the kingdom!"

Cecil sneered at the little display Kuran was performing, "Wonderful, but...that wasn't what I wanted."

"Huh?"

"Too bad, I did give you one chance."

"W-w-w-wait!"

Cecil fired his mana directly at Kuran's family members and soon enough, the painful death cries of Kuran's family members rang throughout the hall.