The Imperial Supreme Commander Has Returned - Chapter 51

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Imperial Commander Returns Chapter 51

Grand Manor of House Vistache.
Perhaps it was the family’s naturally boisterous disposition, or their distaste for unnecessary formality, but the manor thrummed with constant activity.
The Training Grounds especially, where shouts and cries—whether battle roars or screams, it was hard to tell—echoed every single day.

Yet there was always one place that remained silent.
The House Master’s Chamber.

……
……

Quite a number of people sat gathered around the table in the House Master’s Chamber.
Delram and Pas, Rubian, her brother and younger brother, and—

“I offer my respects to the House Master of House Vistache.”
“Mm.”

Delram bowed to the Count who served as House Master.
Though both were nobility, Delram held the rank of Baron and so greeted first as courtesy demanded.
Though even had his rank been higher, he would have done the same.

The House Master was currently of Top Tier standing.
Delram understood.
No matter how gifted one might be, reaching such a height required suffering and discipline that carved away at bone and sinew.
This bow was homage to that struggle.

……

Yet the House Master seemed to think otherwise.
His eyes widened with barely veiled hostility the moment they met Delram’s, despite their being strangers.
That was not all.

Whoooosh!

Without warning, an invisible Aura erupted from the House Master.
So potent it took on visible form, shimmer like heat-haze rising from summer stone.
An ordinary person would vomit blood merely standing before it; even a knight would become frozen as a bird before a serpent.

The proof lay in his children.
The Eldest Son and Rubian’s expressions had gone rigid, while the Second Son’s sweat-darkened hair clung to his forehead—he’d broken a cold sweat in mere seconds.

‘The Eldest Son is something else, though.’

He wasn’t merely enduring the Aura.
Even as he bore it, he’d subtly angled his body to shield Pas at Delram’s side.
Though the House Master had finely controlled his Aura, allowing almost none of it to touch the child.

Such a person had no interest in the House Master succession.
The House Master must have his own headaches over that.

In any case, there were but two ways to withstand an Aura of this caliber.
[Either one was oneself of Top Tier standing]
[Or one possessed boundless confidence and unshakeable integrity]

Delram was neither.
His own standing was still Low Tier—yet far to climb.
As for integrity, he had none worth mentioning.
He was the Imperial Commander who, for victory’s sake, would not hesitate at assassination, hostage-taking, or any depravity that served his ends.

Before the regression, wasn’t it the same when I faced a Rune Master?
I used the grandson and great-grandson as bait to kill the grandfather.

And now, confessing it late, I eliminated the grandson and great-grandson as well.
They could become problems down the line, after all.
Normally, only trash pulls off something like this.

“…….”

Yet Delram showed no reaction whatsoever.
It wasn’t forced composure either.
Not a single goosebump marred his skin—only an eerie calm.

Sip.

He even brought the teacup to his lips and drank.
Could someone reach the same Top Tier realm and still manage such composure? Delram wondered.

At last, the House Master withdrew the Killing Intent he’d been radiating.
His breath came slow and measured as he did.

“A man who walks the path of the Asura……!”

The Asura was a divine name passed down from the East.
The domain he presided over was conflict itself.

Moreover, the Asura paid no heed to the opponent’s strength.
He cared nothing whether numbers were few or many.
He existed only to fight, and fight again.

That was the true nature of Delram that the House Master had glimpsed.
A man treading a path stained with blood and death!

“Truly, everyone’s life is a battlefield, wouldn’t you say?”

Delram smiled wickedly and spoke.
The House Master, shaking his head, offered an apple.

“Forgive me for testing you. I simply couldn’t believe that a mere fourteen-year-old boy had elevated our house’s Mana Formula to a higher plane. Seeing you in person… you’re even younger than I imagined.”
“Then you already knew someone was backing me?”
“That’s what I assumed. Perhaps a Sword Master or an Arch Mage. Someone of their caliber might be able to supplement our Mana Formula.”
“That could be possible, given how accomplished such individuals are. But in this particular matter, I’m certain it’s impossible.”

Delram spoke with absolute conviction.
Still harboring doubts, the House Master pressed further.

“Why is that?”
“Because the true actor in this affair isn’t me—it’s Captain Rubian.”
“Hmm?”
“My backer could have orchestrated my approach to Captain Rubian.”
“That’s true.”
“But who among them could possibly have foreseen that a commoner, lacking any direct lineage connection to the house, would be taught our Secret Technique Formula?”
“This is maddening!”

The House Master finally let out a sigh.
The logic was simply too sound.

A leak of the Secret Technique Formula!
He’d only learned of it just recently.
Yet even this confession had not come freely from Rubian.

On the day Delram received the invitation and vanished without a trace.
Rubian insisted that they had to find him.
Even if it meant mobilizing every knight in House Vistache.

The Delram that Rubian knew was a boy of unshakeable resolve.
So there was no chance he would go back on his word.
If he said he would come after receiving the invitation, he would come.
Moreover, investigation turned up a witness—the innkeeper testified that the boy had asked for the location of the Grand Manor of House Vistache.

And so Rubian was certain.
This was a disappearance—a kidnapping by outside forces.

—Don’t speak such nonsense.

Of course the House Master rejected it outright.
A nobleman kidnapped in the Royal Capital? A knight, no less?
Preposterous.

So this had to be seen as deliberate evasion.
The boy Delram had been recruited by another house.
How many times had such a thing occurred among the nobility?
But if he deployed knights to find such a defector and word got out, how much ridicule would come pouring down on them…!

—In fact, what I taught him wasn’t a beginner’s form.

That was when Rubian dropped the bomb.

—Then you gave him a high-rank form? Without my permission?
—No. It was a Secret Technique Formula.
—What? What did you say?
—That’s why the boy is already family to us. And if it should leak out, we absolutely must find him.

The House Master staggered, caught in a violent wave of vertigo.
It was a shock that rendered even the highest tier meaningless.

The impact was all the greater because she was the daughter he would never harm, no matter what.
Had it been the thoughtless Second Son instead, he might have merely sighed and let it pass.
He would have interrogated him right up to the brink of tearing out his hair—why did you do this again?

In any case, the leakage of a Secret Technique Formula was a grave crime.
The house law was to shatter the Mana Road and seal the offender in the tower.
Rubian knew this, yet she had readily given it away.

What was even more absurd was how it had come to light.
Had she kept silent, no one would have ever known.
Yet Rubian chose to confess her crime willingly—all for the sake of that boy, driven by nothing more than worry for his safety.

This meant she would die for him without hesitation!
As House Master and as a father, it was enough to drive him to madness.

—I’m sorry. But please look at this.
—This is……
—The boy corrected the Secret Technique Formula himself.

The saving grace was that it was a corrected version of the Secret Technique Formula.
The power of the corrected form was remarkable.
It had instantly subdued the House Master, who had been like an active volcano on the verge of eruption.

If anything, the warmth had drained from the air entirely.
A perfected Secret Technique Formula—shortcomings minimized, strengths magnified to their fullest!
Everything the House Master had longed for lay right there.

“In any case, that’s why our family’s knights have been combing the Royal Capital looking for you.”
“I see. It may not be much comfort, but I only learned recently that what I’d been taught was a Secret Technique Formula.”
“How so?”
“Well, I’d never encountered a Mana Formula before. But recently I happened upon the chance to learn another one, and—”
“When I compared it to what I’d already learned, the difference was like heaven and earth. That’s when I realized what I’d been taught was a Secret Technique Formula.”
“Precisely.”
The House Master exhaled sharply.

He seemed all the more exasperated, heaving sighs in quick succession.
The hunched Rubian lowered his head.

“I’m terribly sorry.”

Seeing that, the House Master’s temper flared up again.
The leak of the Secret Technique Formula was certainly a grave transgression—one that should ignite fury to the heavens.

But what wounded him more deeply was his daughter’s reaction.
His daughter, whose speech had grown ever more taciturn in recent days—risking her very life for this boy, even now wearing such an expression?
His blood boiled in reverse!

“Grrrgh!”
“Consider the improved Mana Formula.”
“Arrrgh!”
“Consider just how gifted I am.”
“Raaaargh!”
“Consider that you may soon become a Sword Master.”
“Raa—khrmm.”

The House Master, on the verge of losing himself entirely, finally fell silent.
It was the words “Sword Master” that did it.
Was it not the goal and dream of every soul who ever drew a blade?

If anyone else had said such a thing, he’d have hurled curses and told them to speak no nonsense.
But this improved Mana Formula that Delram had created—
With this alone, it might truly be within reach.

Delram now posed a question to the calmed House Master.

“So then… would it be acceptable for me to stay here for some time?”
“Of course it would. Though your surname differs, you have learned the Secret Technique Formula of House Vistache—you have every right to dwell within our walls.”
“Thank you. In exchange, if I may say so, I will tend to the affairs of House Vistache as though they were my own. And I swear to you—I will never pass on anything of House Vistache to my descendants.”
“Then?”
“As I mentioned, I have obtained another Mana Formula by chance. I intend to refine it and pass it on to my own family.”
“Good. I’m relieved you’re a man of reason.”
“And there is one more thing I must ask of you…”
“Speak freely.”

The House Master nodded.
Though the order of things had become somewhat muddled, the outcome was clear—House Vistache had gained an enormous advantage.
Delram’s revised Secret Technique Formula was nothing short of extraordinary.

It was only right to repay such value in kind.
He’d been wondering what to offer when the boy spoke first—fortune had turned in his favor.

“Please raise this boy to become a skilled knight.”
“Leave it to me. Our methods of training are the finest in the realm.”
“One more thing… would it be possible to ask you for a sparring match?”
“A sparring match?”

The House Master’s eyes flared with sudden light.
It wasn’t only the House Master—the Eldest Son reacted the same way.
True to a family obsessed with the blade, they seized upon the mere word.

“I came to understand it on the battlefield. Real combat is the fastest and most reliable way to sharpen one’s skill.”
“That’s right. You’ve grasped it well!”
“But it’s not easy to find such opportunities, is it? So I thought I might request sparring matches. With you as my opponent, I could exert myself without fear of causing you injury.”
“A sensible thing to say.”
“So I humbly ask—if not constantly, then whenever you find time, if you could spar with me and offer guidance, it would prove invaluable.”
“Hmm.”

The House Master’s gaze grew distant, as if seeing something anew.
House Vistache was one of the Five Great Noble Houses of the realm.
Though they possessed only singular devotion to the blade and lacked political influence, that was relative—meaning weaker than the other four houses, but only in comparison.
They crushed most other nobility without effort.
Naturally, they could grant many requests, so why mere sparring?

‘I cannot tell if this one desires much or little.’

Yet he found himself pleased nonetheless.
The House Master had wielded a blade his entire life.
Watching this boy before him—who sought advancement in mastery over power or wealth, and possessed the talent to achieve it—he felt his favor growing with each passing moment.

But he quickly shook his head and dispelled the reverie.
Give my daughter to someone like this?
Not a chance!

“I’ve heard from my daughter about your skill, and I understand she asked you to appraise her swordsmanship… How well have you learned our House’s techniques?”
“I’ve mastered approximately sixty-five percent thus far.”
“Remarkable!”

The House Master struck his knee sharply.
The number itself, taken at face value, was ambiguous.
High if you looked at it one way, low if you looked at it another.

But what mattered was the number itself.
Sixty-five percent now meant he already understood what one hundred percent was.
It meant he had grasped the very essence of the swordsmanship perfectly.
And on top of that, perfect self-awareness!

The House Master grew fonder of Delram by the moment.
At this rate, wouldn’t he make an acceptable son-in-law…?

“I’ll give you the Separate Building. Shall we spar once a day?”
“I am grateful for your generosity.”

The House Master rose from his seat and extended his hand.
The two clasped wrists and shook, a grip firm with mutual respect.

‘One more Sword Master who might trample demons could be born from this.’
‘Perhaps my troublesome daughter will finally marry at last.’

Yet even as he thought this, another notion crossed his mind.

‘What luck!’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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